Pop Culture Mondays/6.24.24
The “CRAZIEST WEEK IN POP CULTURE” Edition
Happy Monday, my darling pop culture junkies. I hope you are LOADED up on all the caffeine, sugar, protein…whatever it is you need to get through this week’s PCM because I am telling you right now, this one will leave your head SPINNING. I have had anxiety ALL week as I added line item after line item to my NOTES app where I track all the things I might talk about each week. It started with Justin Timberlake. OBVIOUSLY. That happened on Tuesday, so after I published last week’s newsletter but right before I recorded my podcast so I was able to talk about it HERE:
But then the JT news kept going. I have never seen a response to something like this like we got across the socials. We will unpack it, but I assumed that would take up most of my time this week.
BUT…I was wrong. While JT, the response to JT, and all the different memes and side stories were big, we have a BUNCH MORE to discuss that keeps unfolding. So if any of these things are new to you or not new but confusing, then THIS edition is for you. Just so we can have a little index going, this is what we have this week and in NO particular order:
- Hawk Tuah Girl (stay with me guys)
- Gummy Bear Babysitter
- Everything Chappell Roan (If you are asking “who?” then this is the right newsletter for you)
- Kendrick Lamar show
- Katy Perry is AI now
- SOCK WARS
- Taylor Swift in London brings A LOT
See why I have anxiety? So rather than any more of this small talk, let’s just jump right in.
WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SAY?
When the news broke last Tuesday that Justin Timberlake had been arrested for DUI early Tuesday AM in Sag Harbor, NY, I knew it was going to dominate the day. BUT OMG, I have never seen anything like what has unfolded. I mean, first, the pure fascination and confusion as to why he would even be driving. Why didn't he have a driver? An Uber? A sober friend with him? For those of us familiar with Sag Harbor and with friends there, we were all furiously texting everyone for tea. I mean, The American Hotel is a CLASSIC and old-school place right in the town of Sag Harbor. They DO, in fact, make a mean (and quite large) martini. Never in a bajillion years would I attempt to drive after a night out there, not even after a glass of wine. Everyone knows the cops are everywhere in the Hamps and especially in town. It was wild to me.
But then a strange thing happened. It didn’t die out. Not by a long shot. The story just got bigger and bigger.
We had the perp walk, which seemed like a still from a movie, tbh. Like clearly, someone on the inside had a deal with a paparazzi because THIS PHOTO is bananas to have:
I have spent a LOT of time analyzing this photo. It just feels so gross, in all honesty. The memes began:
And then we had the headshot…I mean mugshot.
But really, it is like a headshot in some ways. The socials were quick to point out that the lighting on it was fantastic. But then people like Lydia Polgreen started to comment on how terrible releasing mugshots of anyone is, and it got me thinking a lot about it. And she is right, I think. Even people I don’t like, such as former Presidents. I don’t think releasing mugshots is the right thing.
But I digress.
Then, we started hearing about the details of what happened when JT got pulled over.
He apparently said he had only had one martini. (It’s never just one martini, my darling…never ever.) Then, he failed a field sobriety test. And the memes started:
But then we heard that ALLEGEDLY this was the convo with the young cop who apparently didn’t recognize him or his name:
This is going to ruin the tour.
What tour?
The world tour.
And LORD ALMIGHTY, did we see the launch of a meme. Here are a few examples:
For you Bridgerton fans (like me!);
And others…
A nod to Hacks:
There are a million billion more. I could just make the entire newsletter dedicated to this meme, but we must move on. When I say this news went everywhere, I mean EVERYWHERE.
I was at my doctor’s office, and they asked me what I was doing for the 4th. I said I was going to the Hamptons, and without missing a beat, the doctor said, “Be careful; don’t get arrested!” Then, at dinner at a restaurant in LA, I ordered a dirty martini, and the waiter said, “Ok, one Dirty Timberlake…” Those are just a couple of examples but I am guessing many of you experienced this as well. It was everywhere.
It was also everywhere that he was found with a ton of drugs in his system from coke to molly to POPPERS. POPPERS. But my spidey sense went off because A. No chance they would know that hours after the arrest, and B. Sounded too crazy.
And it was BULLSHIT. Because of a meme account that looks and feels like a famous account on pop culture called POP CRAVE:
BUT instead, the parody account is called POO CRAVE:
And this parody account posted this:
And everyone believed it. I got so many texts from people just simply saying, “POPPERS???”
Poo Crave was taken down from Twitter/X briefly, but it eventually came back after removing the post. But the damage was done:
It seems to stem from the Internet’s dislike of Justin Timberlake. The New York Times had an entire OPINION piece on it, which I have gifted below, but the summary basically is, in a post-Me Too world, there is exhaustion over the men never held accountable. We had JT not suffer ANY consequences from the Super Bowl fiasco a million years ago with Janet Jackson, where he ripped her shirt and partially exposed a breast (SHOCKING!!). A now understood pre-planned event they both orchestrated with their teams, but he clearly threw her under the bus, and she suffered greatly. NOT JT. And then he made us all believe Britney Spears had cheated on him and broken his heart, only for the world to be told last year by Britney in her memoir that, IN FACT, he dumped her via text and had gotten her pregnant and initiated she got an abortion.
This basically sums it all up:
And here is that NYT Opinions piece (A GIFTED article):
Opinion | The Tiresome Mr. Timberlake
What are we to do with this privileged pop star?
www.nytimes.com
And speaking of the New York Times….they also wrote this crazy piece:
To zoom in…
THE SHADE.
Then we have the cop.
The young rookie cop became a media sensation overnight, but if I were to put my cynical communications hat on…I think some of the negative press that’s coming out around the cop are stories placed by JT’s CRISIS PR TEAM.
Like this lovely little placed story:
Like this quote from the story:
In just three months on the force, Arkinson has earned a reputation among Sag Harbor’s wealthy residents, earning nicknames like “the Sag Harbor Nazi” and “little red-headed dips–t” for his strict enforcement of traffic laws.
I guarantee you guys that this is a direct result of a crisis PR firm.
That means his team, with his approval, MORE than likely hired a crisis firm, which played ugly and decided to take this approach.
I am not saying this is a fact…but I am saying it is likely what happened.
But people have not taken JT’s silence on this well:
There are other avenues we could go down. It's like a video from a gig in Vegas a few weeks ago, which seems to show JT a little blitzed out of his mind. I mean, ok, sure. Many reported it to be from a concert last week after his arrest, but it was from before his arrest. Look, I saw a show on this tour, and it was great. He was great. I don’t like his music that much…def not his newer stuff…but the guy is an incredible performer.
I just think about his family, and I hope everyone is ok and they get through this because having this amount of attention on you is NOT healthy.
WHAT IS HAWK TUAH, AND WHO IS THIS GIRL?
I got you. If you haven’t heard a thing about this, I bet you a million bucks that after reading this, you will now see this pop up in your socials. But let me first start this with the video:
GET IT?
Hawk.
Tuah.
CLASSY I know. But slightly endearing. But this poor girl is now on the side of social media fame that not many ever get to experience, and this will follow her for a long, long time. Job interviews. Dates. Meeting a partner’s parents. The whole thing. But here is a look at some of the reactions, and you can imagine…most are not in good taste!
The Internet has gone crazy trying to find out who this girl is, and they apparently have, and she has deleted her socials. I am not going to post about who she is believed to be, but I agree with this creator:
HOPEFULLY, this answers all of your questions!
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT:
We are powering through this, so I am going to make this the lightning round. We have much more to look at, so let’s dig in!
GUMMY BEAR DAD:
A guy named Brandon posted THIS on Twitter/X:
OK, Brandon.
Internet…do your thing:
It just went on and on. But you get the idea.
YOUR ARTIST’S FAVORITE ARTIST:
Even though I write a pop culture newsletter, I am not ahead of any curve. I end up going down rabbit holes in my spare time due to my utter refusal not to know or understand what might be referenced at ALL times. And therefore, I just absorb a lot of useless info (if only I could apply this to investing, sigh). But I was woefully behind on this one. Though admittedly, Chappell has seemingly come out of nowhere, even though she has been here the whole time. First, let me show you a little of her work.
And to get her vibe, to me, this shows everything:
So, a little bit about Chappell…from sources like Wikipedia and other profiles I have read:
She is 26 and from a teeny tiny town in Missouri. Her real name is Kayleigh Rose Amstut. While she has seemingly just come onto the scene, she has been performing, writing, and singing basically since she could talk. In 2017, she uploaded an original song to YouTube and got a lot of attention. This is the video that then was made (she has evolved her style since this, obviously).
She grew up very in a conservative Christian home, and she apparently went to church 3 times a week. This may be why she has adopted her look, which she says is most definitely inspired by Drag Queens and is an overall very campy look. IT IS ALWAYS THE CHURCHY ONES! ANYWAY, my understanding is she got a record deal but lost that record deal and was working odd jobs in LA to get by and then had to move home but then got back to LA and made an album with a famous producer and then opened for Olivia Rodrigo on tour which obviously escalated her and then she left the tour early to perform at this year’s Coachella and then BOOM….icon was born.
And this is where icon status was made…on Fallon:
And sure enough…GOOGLE understood the assignment as this is INDEED what comes up when you Google her:
Welcome to the cool kids world.
SOCK WARS:
This is also not new, but I have avoided writing about it until today, and I am afraid I have done you a disservice. I think it is because this is too real for me. Also, I seem to cosplay as a millennial cosplaying as Gen Z when I am really Gen X, and I need to really unpack that. But alas, for my therapist and not this newsletter.
I felt angst because I have dozens of pairs of those little footy socks—the ones you cannot tell when you’re wearing any socks at all—and dozens of ankle socks. I have SLOWLY been building my collection of crew socks and incorporating them into my wardrobe. AND whilst having lunch at San Vicente Bungalows the other day, I was complimented by a VERY Gen Z person on my outfit, which, IN fact, had me wearing a skirt with socks that went up my calf and sneakers. My mother would have been horrified by this look. I was so pleased however with myself I vowed to wear that outfit a million times more.
Let me show you what I am talking about:
I have to admit this is a trend I absolutely am ok with, as I really hate my ankles. They are not my best feature.
As I said, I am behind…the New York Times in their desire to write more culture stories already had this:
KENDRICK LAMAR SHOW:
I heard about this special one-night-only Juneteenth show in LA a couple of days before it was happening. A friend who was going told me they were alerted to be there and in their seats by 4 PM, and I thought that was wild, but it was being streamed, and it was meant to bring a lot of people into the experience. And man, oh man…it sure did. The concert was called The Pop Out: Ken & Friends, and if this was the final death knell in the Kendrick/Drake beef, it would be a hell of a way to do it. I mean, he had already won it; this just seemed like icing on the cake to rub it in.
This was a tribute to WEST COAST with a ton of artists, including YG, Tyler, The Creator, Roddy Ricch, Jay Rock, Ab-Soul, Ty Dolla $ign, Dom Kennedy, Russell Westbrook, ScHoolboy Q, Steve Lacy, Mustard, Tommy the Clown, and… Dr. Dre. He also brought alleged rival gang members and athletes on stage and celebrated “unity.” He also performed his Drake diss track“Not Like Us” FIVE TIMES.
Yes, that’s correct. FIVE TIMES.
You can check out about 30 minutes of the concert here:
At about 11 mins in, people start joining the stage and all seemingly hating on Drake. IT IS WILD, my darling readers. WILD. Imagine being like we are Bloods and Crips, and we hate each other, but we hate DRAKE more, so let’s come together? I MEAN….
WILD.
Truthfully, I could watch this 20 times or more….Dre introduces him by saying, “I see dead people”… wild.
I just cannot imagine what this was like to experience in person. All I can say is WILD.
KATY PERRY/AI…WHO IS TO SAY?:
I love some old-school pop, Katy Perry. I Kissed a Girl? ICONIC. The vibes people get now from Katy is a bit different. She plays a lot of rich people’s weddings and the TikTok gen feels she gives off MEAN GIRL VIBES. But what does she care? She has been teasing a new single and a new body on her socials….
GUYS. This clip of the song is so cringe it is unreal. Here are some reactions:
I mean the comments on these videos are amazing:
But god, I love so many of these videos:
So maybe Katy and her team get the hint so she drops a few more seconds of the song with this TikTok notice the Orlando Bloom t-shirt behind her (her partner):
Some reactions are positive:
Others were not…
Let’s see what happens when the whole song drops.
TAYLOR & TRAV TAKE LONDON:
I LOVED seeing Taylor in Paris. I loved every second of it. HOWEVER. And I say this very seriously…I have incredible FOMO of everyone who experienced any of the London shows. ESPECIALLY the last night when Travis, her football boyfriend, came out ON STAGE as a part of the act after partying it up the other two nights in the VIP area with the likes of Tom Cruise, Paul and Stella McCartney, Ashton Kutcher, Hugh Grant, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Andrew Scott and some Bridgerton peeps and on and on….
The crowd went BANANAS. And it was clearly planned for a while as his outfit was flawless down to the Louboutin shoes.
The memes were officially unhinged:
This one had me dying because you know you imagined this convo…you know you did:
The level of influence this woman has on the culture is CRAZY. She even has Tom Cruise acting sort of HUMAN like with the PUBLIC???
I mean, LOOK AT THE JOY Sir Paul McCartney has!
And the pride our sweet big bro Jason Kelce has in showing his wife all his bracelets:
And she got to sing “FUCK THE PATRIACHY” in front of not just one…but TWO FUTURE KINGS and then take selfies with them. THAT LEVEL OF POWER, I mean my lord:
Not everyone was digging on Taylor however. An unusual misstep for Dave Grohl, a rock god who was clearly having a bad day…with this little ill-advised rant:
Ummmmm OKAY. It is never a good look to do tbh. But especially from an older dude to a woman like COME ON. Also, sir, you are incorrect. Also, look at the empty seats behind you, Dave.
Taylor responded in a fantastic way…
There are a MILLION more memes from these shows, But I shall leave it here. And to say, I am SO envious of everyone who got to see this performance with Taylor and the incredible Gracie Abrams:
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
Wow…I need to go back to bed after this one. And yes, I have skipped over some things, but there is only so much one can write and read.
Have an amazing week. I am in NYC and plan to eat my way thru the city all week.
We are switching off of Medium SOON….so expect an update there. NOT SUBSTACK, so do NOT worry. IT IS COMING…
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
