Pop Culture Mondays/7.10.23
The “THREADS” Edition
Well, HAPPY Monday, my darling pop culture junkies. What a time to be alive. We have Elon, aka SPACE KAREN, challenging Zuck, aka Mark Zuckerberg, to a dick-measuring contest, so yeah, we are doing JUST great, you guys. Just great.
More on this whole thing in a minute. But I just want to check in and see if you are ok? Are we ok? Because I am not sure that we are ok tbh. I am sure our family members who fought wars for our freedom would love to know where we are now and are thrilled with the turn of events. The wealthiest people in the world are not doing anything to actually save the world. Instead, they are fighting over an APP and talking about measuring their dicks. (OK, ONE billionaire, but others are having a go, I assure you, and again more on that in a minute.)
I am coming to you from hot and sticky NY, and I love this city. I really do. My dog is terrified to walk at night in LA because there are coyotes, and he doesn’t trust me, to be honest, because there was that ONE time when I threw him in the garbage bin when we encountered a coyote at night, but it was only that one time! Last night, as we were walking around Chelsea, he encountered a rat the size of a coyote basically, and he was like, “HEY FREND.” We are NYC people; what can I say? But according to my Insta, MANY of you are enjoying summer hols worldwide, from London to Italy to a safari. GOOD for you, my darlings, but please take me with you next time! I think we all need to run away for a bit at the moment. Not just from the billionaires behaving badly but for so many people behaving…well, badly.
Of all the crazy stories that came out this week, and LORD, were there a lot, nothing baffled me more (which is saying A LOT) than this little number in the New York Times about former NYC Mayor (aka the WORST MAYOR EVER) Bill DeBlasio and his wife, Chirlane McCray were separating.
They sat for 3 hours with the journalist. I mean, yes, I do communications for a living, but anyone who knows media in ANY capacity knows nothing good would come from sitting for 3 hours with a journalist. I HAVE to believe that another less respectable news outlet had evidence of their “lifestyle” and was going to run with it, and this was a strategic way to kill it, maybe? I mean things we learned include:
- DeBlasio dyes his hair
- He realized maybe marrying a woman who was very much out as a lesbian might pose some issues
- He was needy
- He is not an apps guy, but MAYBE she is?
- He made a mistake running for President (Thanks, Captain Obvious)
- They are separated but living together
I mean, the entire thing is inexplicable, including the NYTimes feeling it necessary to call out their son’s afro during his dad’s mayoral election. And it had the Internet a buzzing all with shock and awe about the lack of judgment AGAIN by this couple.
So with that, let’s get to it. I need to get out in hot and sticky NYC and be with my people. Grab some headphones and some snacks, and enjoy!
THREADS IS HERE:
We watched history happen, kids. Some people got to see electricity for the first time. Or people got to see a man walk on the moon. Or they were there to see the first antibiotics which saved billions of lives. But guess what we get, you guys? We get an app from Meta (formerly Facebook) which launched on Wednesday and has now surpassed 100 million users to make it the fastest-growing app….IN HISTORY. I mean, even when it hit ten million, it had that honor:
OF COURSE, it is not apples to apples….Threads had the built-in user base of Instagram and the virality that came with it, but it was a lot of fun to watch tbh as Twitter has sunken into a cesspool of hate. This seemed to be a very loud response to what Twitter has become, and the people at Meta understood the assignment. There have been other Twitter competitors that have launched, but they lacked the power of the network and so only a niche group would join and the idea of building up yet another social following IS exhausting to us all. So voila, enter Threads. Built-in network. And the Meta folks clearly did an amazing job making sure brands and celebs were part of the action early on. And the brands have been having fun.
SO many examples, but let’s look at Netflix and how they are using Threads. First of all, this is their bio:
Cute. And like many brands and basically everyone on Threads at the moment, they talk or allude to Threads vs Twitter. But then we have brands just being cute and appealing to the Swifties (hat tip to Deborah)…
You get the idea. From many Kardashians to Tom Brady to every brand that had a following on Twitter…they all appeared on Threads. And NPR, which left Twitter months ago, roared back on Threads.
But ok, not just for BOOMERS or Generation Jones, which I literally had no idea about, did you? Like many of you are considered Generation Jones aka Keeping up with the Joneses, and like whoever was doing the branding for THAT generation really needs to step it up.
I mean….NO idea.
ANYWAY, let’s get back to it. Of course the Threads vs Twitter launched a million funny memes.
I could go on. And on. AND…on. But one thing is clear, everyone except Nazis and crazy right-wing zealots and antisemites and all the angry, hateful people out there (still a lot of those!) decided they had had enough with Elon and the destruction of Twitter. People DO want a public square, and while it's early days at Threads and feels like when people started using Facebook for the first time with status updates, it is a sign people wanted change. And it is now on Instagram/Meta to keep people there. They have work to do to improve the app, but so far, it is fun to watch.
OK, now for a little crazy.
Let’s go ALL the way back to Wednesday when Threads launched. Mark Zuckerberg who goes by “finkd” on Twitter, Tweeted for the first time SINCE 2012. That was a long hiatus. And what did he tweet?
And leave it to Mr. Beast to ask what we were all thinking:
Because it is funny af, with zero context given, we all knew what he was referring to. I mean, it could be Threads and Twitter. It could be Elon and Zuck. Whatever it was, it was perfect.
But Zuck is not shying away from the absurdity of Elon. Take this little exchange between Zuck and Wendys:
And Zuck has been really engaged in the app but with a much different tone than Elon and his elves have…just very positive and conversational, and it’s nice to see.
And we ALL remember the cage match, and we were baffled why Zuck would engage in that convo with Elon, and as I had pointed out, Elon is seemingly impetuous about everything and doesn’t seem to think through the things that come out of his mouth. He doesn't have a group of advisors who he runs things by. Whereas, that’s the complete opposite of Zuck, who thinks through everything almost too much but certainly isn’t impetuous and wouldn’t engage in something like that unless there was a strategy behind it.
And there was.
To Zuck, the cage match was the launch of Threads. The Twitter/Threads fight.
So, here we are rooting for the guy we have historically NOT rooted for and blamed for many of society’s issues and for one other thing….using our data. BUT all is forgiven for now…because the enemy of our enemy is OUR FREND and we now, at THIS moment, see Zuck as the good guy and Elon as the dark Marvel villain. And we are all wondering what is happening with Elon and his very very VERY small circle over at Twitter. His lawyers have threatened to sue Mark and Meta. He is suggesting he and Zuck should have a dick-measuring contest. So yeah, things are going about how one would expect.
There is one thing…many of the billionaire boys are banding together, it seems!
Yes. This is real life.
I wonder what the over/under on Linda, the new CEO of Twitter, is with regards to her staying? Three months? Fired or quits? Send me your predictions.
But for now, the creators are loving all of it.
And this is perfect…
Oh and YEAH I forgot to mention the fact that the crazy right-wing ultra-conservative conspiracy theory-loving CRAZY people are trying to say the Threads logo is the mark of the DEVIL…yeah that’s right…they claim it is a 666. We are broken.
And then everyone started saying once again The Simpsons were ahead of things and that the logo was, in fact Homer’s ear:
BUT alas….this is a doctored photo that went around. Too good to be true! Here is Homer’s REAL ear:
2023 guys. What a time.
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT:
Let’s look at some highlights (and lowlights) of some OTHER pop culture-y things that have gone down this week.
Let’s start with the Jonah Hill drama.
I assume you have seen something about Jonah Hill going around, but maybe you have not paid much attention. Well, I am HERE for you because, LORD, it is a lot of drama. As someone who has dated a couple of high-profile people, it really is a risk for them to date and behave badly because, in this day and age, we have the power to light you up. Now with me, it never really occurred to me but then again…wait for the BOOK. 😘 But, with Jonah’s ex, we have a woman in her 20s who is battling her own mental health struggles as she has been public about bi-polar and was likely triggered by the news that Jonah welcomed a baby with his new girlfriend, who he started dating very soon after he and she broke up. SO, the ex is Sarah Brady, who is a semi-pro surfer and a law student, and I really do remember thinking when I saw pics of them together how cool he was dating a normal girl with her own life and career, and they can be cool surfer people together who like sand and wear wetsuits and have campfires while drinking iced matcha. LOVED that for them.
But all was not as it seems. And Sarah decided this weekend to blow it all up on her Instagram (Stories and Grid) and disclosed private texts between her and Jonah when they were together that showed Jonah as a controlling, gas-lighting narcissist who told her what to post, what to wear, who to hang with and it was pretty upsetting. As someone who had a relationship like this once, it is pretty incredible to be in it because you get stuck. You get so manipulated by the love bombing that when they take that away from you, it’s like you will do anything to get it back. Even follow their stupid, mind-boggling rules.
Anyway, I am not going to post everything because there are a LOT but to give you an idea:
Woo boy. Lots to unpack here. Jonah Hill has seemingly been problematic for a while. His belief that BOUNDARIES means RULES is funny but also not surprising. His documentary with his therapist was VERY troubling to me and I found it super unethical and inappropriate…
So we can start there.
Again, his reputation was known, and we were given hints by many like this:
Anyway, this has opened up a HUGE conversation, and of course, there are two sides and I don't necessarily agree with her tactics, but HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED. But the memes have been funny, taking the list of rules Jonah apparently sent her NOT to do and flipping it:
Again, 2023 guys!
And let’s move on to my last summary because I am skipping over things like the Real Housewives drama and the Rick Rubin white party because WHO cares. Also, the Keke Palmer/Darius Jackson drama we have seen play out and GOOD FOR KEKE!!
Here are some trends RIGHT NOW:
Not coconuts…those are always on trend. No, it’s her nails. ALL the kids are talking about THIS color which is silly…called Blueberry Milk blue and IT IS THE COLOR OF THE SEASON. Aka pastel blue but ok, I like the DRAMA.
And ATTENEZIONE PICKPOCKETS!! You may have heard someone in your life say this or play this sound, but it has gone viral on the TikTok where someone alerts tourists to pickpockets, and the pickpockets turn away or run.
And the way the trend has turned is great:
And lastly, I hate this one but the aging filter on TikTok is getting everyone amped up. Look, the reality is I will have SO much Botox when I am old that you will never see the real face, so I ignore, BUT it is spinning a lot of people out. This shows creators what they will look like when they are OLD aka my age:
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
OMG, this one took forever, and I need to get on with my DAY. Next week, I will be coming to you from LONDON. Stay safe and have fun, my darlings.
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Xx,
Brooke
