Pop Culture Mondays/4.11.22
The “WE DON’T TALK ABOUT…ELON” Edition
Hello my darling pop culture junkies and HAPPY Monday…we are back at it AGAIN. Where are the weeks going? Many of you are coming back from Spring Break and many of you are just starting it. I never understood the different school schedules and it just feels like March and April are one long Spring Break so once we get past Easter and Passover, in MY mind, is when we are done with Spring Break and then counting the days until Memorial Day.
ANWAY…sometimes PCM is about what the kids are doing and trying to give you an understanding of that → still a lot of that. But sometimes it’s about what us crazy adults are doing and trying to make sense of that too. ENTER STAGE LEFT…ELON. So that’s just a little brief on why he is our Baby Yoda inspo this week. He was also very much the topic of LAST WEEK’S Pop Culture Mondays on Thursday podcast (PCMOT) which if you want to listen to is HERE and it’s really fun and quick so great for when you are working out or taking a walk or driving in the car…give it a listen and lmk what you think! Always Tweet me at www.twitter.com/brooke
XOXO….
WINTER IS COMING:
Last week was ALL about Elon becoming the largest shareholder of Twitter. Shock and awe permeated the minds of the tech world and media and what this would mean. There were a million takes — as there always are. What will Elon do with Twitter? Will he close it down? Will he let Trump back on? Will he make them have an edit button? So, when we all woke up (including the CEO of Twitter I believe) to the news that Elon was the biggest shareholder now of Twitter, people who care about such things were like, WHAT NOW??
He reportedly spent $2.8 billion (dollars not Dogecoin) for a 9% stake in Twitter. Just what every CEO loves to wake up to. AGAIN, I am not a business writer so I am not going to sit here and talk about the ways Twitter is vulnerable to corporate raiders aka activist investors. BUT HERE WE ARE. So we are all waiting to see what happens next and then the CEO of Twitter re-tweets Elon’s edit question Tweet:
And guess what. This is the world now. Things are “transparent” and in real-time and rich dudes take to Twitter to fight, boast, makeup, attack, mock…all that, and more. FUN. And the tweets continued around product-related matters such as:
And it went on — though most of the tweets have since been deleted. It was then announced the following day that Elon was appointed to the Twitter Board of Directors. The CEO announced this….via Twitter naturally:
Now, I have worked with a lot of companies on announcing Board members. There is a process and there is a lot of legal work to be done before it is official. So one would have to imagine either they did all of this in supersonic time like made a million lawyers go into OVER drive and work to turn this around in 24 hours before officially announcing it and UPDATING THEIR WEBSITE TO SHOW ELON AS A BOARD MEMBER…
OR…..
None of that happened and they just um…announced it?
I have ALL the feels for the Twitter Comms team today tbh. Because last night, everything changed and the CEO, again on Twitter, announced that Elon was NOT joining the board. JUST KIDDING was the subtext:
LET me put my comms hat on here for JUST ONE second. He says they announced Elon would be appointed to the Board…contingent on a “background check and formal acceptance.” BUT no…that’s not what they announced as per the tweet just above that announced Elon’s appointment. There were NO caveats.ZERO mentioned.
He was listed ON THE WEBSITE. And frankly, the strategy around trying to throw people off by using the “background check” line sort of MAYBE implying that this was the reason he was no longer joining the Board is nuts to me and frankly, if I were Elon…a declaration of war.
Elon tweeted in a now-deleted tweet but maybe the most perfect Elon response ever:
AND man are people spinning out. AGAIN, WHAT DOES THIS ALL MEAN??
Back to when Elon WAS apparently joining the Board or according to Twitter’s website, JOINED the Board, there was a lot of concern from people. Was he going to buy the company outright? And then delete it? Was he going to bring Trump back? Was he going to live Tweet Board meetings? He didn’t do a lot to dissuade this…
Everyone was JUST getting their heads wrapped around what this all means when the announcement that he was in fact NOT joining the Board was made at 8:13 PM PT Sunday night. And again, as of 11 PM PT last night Elon was still on their website as a Board member (that has since been updated but an indication that this all happened VERY quickly and Comms/Web team had NO advance notice or any thoughts to change it for over 3 hours..)
There were some good Tweets which is really why you are all here so here are a few I have compiled:
Look, again I am not a business writer but it seems likely that Elon wouldn't join the Board after all because they would limit how much stock he COULD buy as well as what he could say publicly about the company but I think he is now in hostile takeover territory if he cares to be. SO that’s fun.
And back to all the rich tech dudes and Twitter…we have Peter Thiel along with Marc Andreessen and Elon all part of “I SUPPORT THE CURRENT THING” meme.
SOME say this is a right-wing position which I guess is the case as it is really against ESG which is the term used for the categories many investors are deeming as essential now to focus on: ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL, GOVERNANCE.
And the point of I SUPPORT THE CURRENT THING thing IS that they (Andreessen, Thiel, Musk) believe companies and investors are being led to make bad choices that have nothing to do with business because of the “Woke mobs…” vs maybe it’s just good for humanity. BUT what do I know? The meme is focused on people on social media who change their profile pictures to include symbols or filters that show support for a particular movement or ideology, FOR EXAMPLE. But that has taken a life of its own with Marc’s interpretation.
AND basically, they all are backing each other up here and you begin to see the once believed to be fringe right-wing Peter Thiel is actually more mainstream with his thinking, or at least he is not an island of ONE in the tech world. So…I need to move on to silly TikToks because this is giving me anxiety.
For more on the CURRENT THING stuff, THIS is a good look at it from today.
MOVING ON SHALL WE:
I decided to make this the 2nd deep dive post because we need to switch it up for a minute. And because the rich people on social media is a THING now (see what I did there?), it is time to showcase how the very hurt and insulted and deprived Chanel lovers of Russia have decided to create their OWN protest on the socials. Which falls into the “CURRENT THING” ideology tbh but I digress. So, many of you know that Chanel closed its stores in Russia, as did many brands. BUT, according to a Russian influencer, she was AGHAST to learn while shopping for a handbag in Dubai she was told once the shopkeeper learned she was Russian that she could not buy the bag unless she signed a contract agreeing not to show her wearing it in Russia. Well, hell hath no fury than an influencer SCORNED and all their collective brain cells thought the best way to HURT Chanel was to cut up the bags that are worth tens of thousands of dollars.
Oh yeah, that REALLY hurts Chanel. They already got the money you ding dongs. If you really wanted to hurt Chanel, you should have made sure those bags lived in places that would have been OFF BRAND for Chanel. I remember the story that Louis Vuitton GIFTED Jersey Shore’s Snooki with a GUCCI bag so she would be photographed all over her dirty Jersey hot spots with her Gucci bag IN TOW.
PETTY AF. Also, genius. Now, my little Russian Ladies…should you really want to hurt Chanel that is how it is done. But slicing up bags really is disgusting and shows your ignorance and greed. And I loved some of these TikToks:
And of course, this guy is NOT wrong:
And…
SO those are two of the BIG stories this week….we are all so fucked. 🤷🏼♀️
AND JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (AND SOME DESPICABLE ONES TOO…)
OK…we need a palate cleanser so let’s GO try to find some fun things….
- THE CAPITOL HILL FOX. Ok, fun for a minute while it lasted but the beloved little lady and her babies were sadly euthanized due to having rabies (the fox must have had a face-to-face encounter with Ted Cruz am I right???) BUT in case you missed the fox that gripped the nation:
😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔
Not gonna lie…I shed a tear here. And finally…
RIP Fox family. The metaphors are endless…
- Footage of a young Prince was unearthed from 1970 when he was interviewed as a kid about his teachers.
- Paula Patton took to Instagram to show her followers how she makes fried chicken which is her mom’s recipe. I would show you the Insta but Insta and Medium DO NOT PLAY NICELY with one another. Annoying AF. But don't you worry, we have TikTok and frankly, it was THIS TikTok user who brought the video mass attention and the world lost its collective shit:
Look, it doesn't look great for Paula, I am not going to lie. The seasoning of the chicken once it was IN the oil really did my head in. Social media exploded:
I could post a million more…all of them funnier than the next. TBH I am thinking of following the recipe JUST to see how they turn out. Oh never mind, many creators did that for me, and voila (not terrible it turns out!)
- Staying on food and social media for a moment, may I highly suggest following Stanley Tucci on any platform he is on. 2 years ago I wrote about his Negroni making controversy during the lockdown. But he is forgiven and all I want now in life goals is to be invited over for lunch:
- I am sure you are all familiar with Jojo Siwa? She started to become famous due to being on the show “Dance Moms” and then she became a massive brand in her own right with her own YouTube channel. She then became a huge brand for Nickelodeon. But I mean this music video from 2017 has over 900 MILLION views:
This is not my first time writing about her as she came out as queer last year and that ruffled a lot of conservative mom’s feathers but HOW amazing for kids to have a role model. She has been trying to move away from her bubble gum and high ponytail and bows image for a while and then this happened:
And she has really started living her life in a more authentic to herself kind of way. But then she addressed her fans who had been asking her why she was not attending the NICKELODEON’S “KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS” for which she was NOMINATED and she posted this video about how she wasn’t invited.
A network that made MILLIONS off of her was now doing this?? Pretty awful no matter how you look at it and SURELY seems homophobic no? Nickelodeon has YET to respond. 😳
- And to follow this with an incredible initiative launched this weekend by my friend Ina Fried, called #LETTERS4TRANSKIDS as a way to support trans kids who are especially vulnerable to bullying and mistreatment from kids AND adults.
Let’s all write a letter and share with our socials and Ina. ❤️❤️❤️
- And speaking of kids…I love this child with my whole heart and soul. his mom shares these heartwarming conversations with truly one of the kindest souls ever.
- There is a filter on TikTok that's trending that shows two men you get to choose between to marry and then you move your head to the right or left to make your choice and then another option pops up to choose from. And a trend from THAT trend has arisen showcasing people being unable to decide between the perfect choices and it’s to sad music and it just amuses me to NO end:
- This creator documents her being accosted by dudes all the time and how she handles it:
- OK guys…I am sorry, but…I AM SORRY I TRULY AM:
- And lastly, this video of a patient thinking the doctor was making a heart sign with her has gone viral and this is my fave TikTok on it. There is so much more to cover but maybe I will throw it in the POD (please subscribe!)
THAT IS IT my darlings.
I am still recovering from being the oldest person in a stadium of 60,00 screaming and I mean SCREAMING BTS fans at their show in LAs Vegas this weekend. Seriously, my ears are still bringing but also, I am a part of the BTS ARMY now so there’s that. Anway, be kind to yourself this week. AND to others.
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