Pop Culture Mondays/6.10.24

The “LOOKIN’ FOR A MAN IN FINANCE” Edition

Brooke Hammerling
Pop Culture Mondays
7 min readJun 10, 2024

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Welcome to my brain…

Happy Monday, my darling pop culture junkies. I hope you had a magical weekend and are ready to face the week…or maybe you are like me and watched the ENTIRE docuseries, “Hitler & the Nazis: Evil on Trial,” on Netflix and did not ignore the NOT so subtle comparisons the filmmaker was making to the moment of time we are in and therefore have had sleepless nights filled with stress dreams? The whole “MAKE GERMANY GREAT AGAIN” narrative may have seeped into your psyche. Or was that just me? If you haven’t watched well, then here is a little peek:

So on that note…And I PROMISE I did more than watch TV this weekend, I swear…But a very, very good counter to this dark (but also essential docuseries) was the brilliant teen series out of the UK, “Geek Girl.” Also, on Netflix, and it is very good but light and just…delightful. And the lead actor has autism, which is an interesting little tidbit you might be blown away by. Check it out here:

Loved it.

So, I have given you a bit of insight into my schizophrenic weekend, so now let’s get into some pop culture.

If you also wouldn't mind checking out the 99th episode of my podcast, I would be thrilled. I am still playing around with it, and I think we will soon make this video with some multimedia effects so it will get even better:

Keep those headphones on and grab some candy…

LOOKIN’ FOR A MAN IN FINANCE:

When I first wrote about this song as it was taking off, I knew it had legs…but I had no idea it had THIS many legs. Before we look at those various legs, let’s start with the OG piece of this.

The creator is a 26-year-old named Megan Boni and she originally posted the video to TikTok on April 30th.

According to The Daily Beast:

…Boni told The Daily Beast that while she is thrilled that she made the “song of the summer,” she is also confused — because the video was a joke that nobody seemed to get.

“It was 100 percent a parody. Everything I do on TikTok is satire,” Boni said. “If anyone knows me, they know I am not a party girl. I sit on my couch, I am the laziest girl ever.”

The video went viral. Obvs.

Then this woman, who does not get enough credit tbh, came along and added a mix to it, making it the actual song of the summer:

And then from there…well, it went crazy. Here are some of my faves:

Even famous DJ, David Guetta, got in on the action:

And then there were dances:

Then the ones who FOUND HIM:

THEN…the spin-offs. Which are hilarious:

And then things got really weird. Mainstream media started trying to find ways to write about it:

AND like, can you even imagine the PR person who pitched this story to CNBC and CNBC was like, YES, WE WANT THIS ANGLE?? But yet…here we are:

Just to give you SOME inkling in case you don’t want to read it:

GUYS…..I AM SCREAMING. If you want to read the whole thing, you can check it out HERE…but you will be screaming too!

EVEN NETFLIX has gotten in on the trend. This was one of the theme options this weekend:

What a time to be alive. So now you know all you need to know, but I suspect we will be hearing and seeing more of this trend in different iterations for a little while longer.

AND…a bonus…the actual POP song of the summer is by the rising superstar Sabrina Carpenter. If you have kids that listen to pop music, this is the song you will be hearing a LOT of:

AND in case there was any question that Sabrina was the stand-out hitmaker of the summer, her next single came out with a wild video starring her boyfriend, actor Barry Keoghan in a video where the song is basically her telling him, “If you embarrass me and fuck this up, I will destroy you.”

This girl IS MOST DEF in the driver’s seat. Love to see it.

AND LASTLY, on this topic…my fave TikTok this week has to DO with Sabrina…

A LITTLE THIS, A LITTLE THAT:

Just a few other things that made it top of mind this week.

HOT RODENT MAN SUMMER:

If you are not looking for a man in finance, you might be looking for a hot RODENT man instead. Or you might know someone who is. (PS, I might be. This is most absolutely my vibe….)

This seems to have kicked off from THIS story in Dazed about the stars of that movie that really impacted me, “Challengers” starring our girl Zendaya.

The two male leads are apparently RODENT men. And the term may have been inspired by creators’ videos like this:

And this creator goes after the Daily Mail in particular, but tbh, this trend story went everywhere.

I mean, it is in the NYTimes, which is absurd.

NOPE:

You know what you do when:

  • You are about to go on trial for manslaughter after shooting a woman on set who died, leaving behind a husband and son?
  • You have never addressed your lies about being Spanish. Instead, you grew up in the suburbs of Boston and know very much how to say “cucumber.”
  • Hate having your privacy invaded and lash out at pretty much anyone who you feel infringes on your privacy in New York.

I mean I could go on. But you know what you do??

You announce your own reality show, showing the “UPS AND DOWNS” of your family life.

Questionable at best. Tacky and in poor taste at its worst.

ABOVE GROUND POOLS ARE COOL NOW:

You heard it here first, kids. If you have one of these, rest assured, you are THE COOL KID now, and everyone with in-ground pools…well, they are SO out of touch. TRUE STORY. Maybe because the design of these modern pools has evolved SO much, or maybe because they are more accessible to more people…they are the THING at the moment.

I mean, these aren’t your Crazy Uncle in Panhandle of Florida pools. Let’s take a look at hot and talented photographer and designer and BFF of Martha Stewart Douglas Friedman, who has his own version at his Marfa ranch:

Though the vinyl ones can be cool, too!

But I am here for this trend and calling my landscape team asap:

TIKTOK IS INVESTED:

This is TikTok creators Tyler Bergantino and Gabbyygonz. They are both exceptionally tall humans. And they both do interview-style TikToks. And then magic happened, and they somehow come together, and we get this…

The community is INVESTED.

And then we were IN it and along for the ride:

EVERYTHING IS CONTENT.

We are invested. FULLY.

SO stay tuned…

THAT IS IT, my darlings…

That’s it! An early one today as I have THINGS to do.

This week is my 100th PODCAST episode. I have no plans for it to make it any different than the others. I am a BAD planner sometimes. But do check it out. SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW! 🫶🏻

We are switching off of Medium SOON….so expect an update there. NOT SUBSTACK, so do NOT worry.

And remember, if you aren’t already a subscriber and you want this in your inbox, please send an email to:

subscribe@popculturemondays.com

Xx,

Brooke

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