Pop Culture Mondays/9.20.21
The “RED CARPET” Edition
Happy Monday my darling pop culture junkies! I must admit I have been panicking since mid-day yesterday about writing this week’s newsletter because I have 42 items in my notes app this week to discuss. FORTY TWO. Normally I have about 10–15 and I choose from those but this week we have red carpet galores that launched a million memes, we have True Crime TikTok, we have SO many TikTok trends I cannot keep them straight, we have Larry David and frankly I think we should ALWAYS have some Larry David. And we have a Royal Faux Pas (AGAIN) so like how do I even START this thing?? So, I did what any self-respecting procrastinator does and I binge watched two seasons of a show that was new to me and I am guessing new to a LOT of you and I love it so much and it is SO pop culture-y it is FLAWLESS for PCM fans. The show is called “THE OTHER TWO” and it’s about the older two siblings of a teen boy who becomes an overnight TikTok star and guys….YOU ARE WELCOME (also the main character “Brooke” MIGHT be a little too like me)
So, there is no time to waste and I have no more coffee than I can drink after staring at a blank screen for hours panicking over how to tackle this. ANYWAY….we are Trump-free OBVIOUSLY (we want to have FUN here not go into a dark hole of depression) and welcome to my new subscribers…grab your headphones!
XO…
LET’S CONDENSE EVERY EVENT INTO ONE WEEK:
OK, so Fashion Week and the VMAs WERE last week and we went there BUT this week was bookended by the Met Gala and the Emmys…both of which caught me off guard as to its taking place so I just rode the wave. One friend said to me, “Like wait wasn’t it just the Emmys?” Man does Hollywood LOVE to have events and awards for themselves and WHATEVER to the pandemic, they are OVER it so we are clearly just ignoring the whole situation and moving on. I mean COVID is SOOOOO passé you know? At least it felt that was this past week as we all tuned into see what our fabe celebs were wearing and it was the week when EVERYONE became a fashion critic. I do not need to be another one here and whatever one person’s trash is another person’s glory so it really is all subjective. BUT there are some things I will highlight because they were MUCH discussed and launched a billion memes.
Let’s just start with the Met Gala which if you were someone who read any of the news on it you would think the only people attending were young social media stars and musicians and some you had never heard of I am guessing. There were some amazing people there in amazing clothes that were not given ANY media attention but there was a lack of true true Hollywood and pop royalty on the carpet this year. Where was Zendaya? Nicole Kidman? George Clooney, Gaga, BEYONCE for the love of all things?? But we got the Kardashians (the sisters who were invited at least) and AOC who whatever your opinion is on her dress and everything that went down matters not…what matters is that the kids hated it (Gen Z that is) and that was a misstep and most couldn’t read the dress tbh and then it turns out the designer has evaded taxes so yeah that’s fun. But let’s move to the memes and TikToks hand picked by me and the Interwebs (they all kill me btw):
And this is one thousand percent me:
OK OK…there are a million more but you get the idea. I mean I could sit here for hours but this gives you a good taste of what everyone was talking about. So let’s move on to last night’s Emmy’s which was probably a super spreader event but who I am to judge! It was a show celebrating all things BRITISH and a LOT of EmmysSo White in terms of who won. LET ME BE CLEAR…I loved all the shows BUT “I MAY DESTROY YOU” deserved every single award sorry.
Seth Rogan said what we were ALL thinking:
This is referencing Seth Rogan’s take on wtf was happening:
AND this take was genius:
Then for obscure inside baseball fun if you watch John Oliver then you know:
And then maybe the greatest faux pas of the evening…the 3 PLUS minutes which felt like a million years speech by “Queen’s Gambit” creator Scott Frank …which I am NOT going to show because that dude got his time and then some. But reactions were amaze:
The beginning started on pretty shaky ground I am not going to lie:
And bringing the Emmys and Met Gala together thanks to Cedric the Entertainer giving Nikki Minaj shade (She opted out of MEtGala due to not getting vaxxed because her “cousin’s friend” apparently had a reaction..)
And thankfully SHE WON THE EMMY because GURL, she was incredible:
And don’t AT me but I have to stop here or else we will be here til Friday as there were so many amazing tweets and memes throughout the night I cannot handle it. But here’s a fun note tow rap this up on….If you are a fan of “Ted Lasso” you are a fan of Roy Kent, one of the greatest TV show characters at the moment. And it turns out the actor Brett Goldstein was actually a writer on the show…and he likes MUPPETS and TikTok loves him:
LET’S DISCUSS:
Look, I don’t talk a LOT about the Royals here because it all sort of bores me tbh. We hate them. We love them. Every single show is about Diana now. We cannot get enough. But we rip them apart. I CANNOT KEEP IT STRAIGHT. But look, Lady Diana died around the same time my parents did and I have a lot of empathy for her kids as having to deal with that in front of the world seems impossible to me and changes your brain for sure and I am all for Harry’s approach at transparency and finding safety and a home so that’s my two cents.
HOWEVER. Somethings transcend all of this and land in a pop culture zeitgeist that I was BORN to discuss. And that is this Time Magazine cover from last week which just feels…..OFF. And I posted this to my Insta Story and it was BY a million miles the most commented on story I have ever posted. I received over 300 comments. TO A STORY. For me, that’s 1000 percent more than normal so it definitely had an impact. I got a lot of comments:
- Their necks seems shortened
- He has way less hair than this in real life
- They don’t look real
- They don’t look like they posed together
- They are changing the classic power set up of woman behind man and this makes us uncomfortable
BUT omg there were some funny takes on it so rather than tell, I will show as I am WANT to do:
This was my absolute fave:
BUT LOOK…at the end of the day, they are a beautiful couple and trying to do good and I wish them the very best but MAYBE have their people ease up on the retouching moving forward.
THERE ARE SO MANY:
GUYS THIS IS A LOT. There are so many trends this week I am just going to put as MANY as I can in here since you probably will hear your kids or young team members talking/doing ONE of them at the very least.
- Let’s talk TRUE CRIME TIKTOK. And yes it’s an obsession for many whether on TikTok or podcasting or TV show watching. We are here for it. I fall asleep to serial killer shows (with my burglar alarm on and Mace by my bed but I digress…) so it’s like…a thing. And this past week we have all been consumed by the mystery and now tragedy of Gaby Petito. And TikTokkers took it VERY seriously. There are a million of them so I will just choose/curate a few:
Then you had alleged witnesses take to TikTok:
I mean there are millions and millions of views on these videos and the story played out in real time on socials. It is very sad.
2. Ok, moving on to something a bit more fun. GRACE KELLY Challenge on TikTok. This one I love because it’s based on the amazing song “Grace Kelly” by Mika who is amazing (hi Charlotte Freud, his number one fan. Love you.) and this was so fun even I got in on it (don’t AT me). It is people lip synching (or sometimes singing) the song and adding a story of some kind to it like these:
Watch this one in entirety:
And then the duets of this one are fun:
But now we get into storytelling:
And then oops I did one:
3. OK now this is a terrible one called the DEVIOUS LICK CHALLENGE which I have already heard from some MOMS who have had to deal with this with their kids. TikTok has removed the sound and videos around it so here’s a YouTube video and it is stupid and you will watch like 4 seconds of it but it shows what the kids are doing…vandalizing/stealing things from their school bathroom and showing off on TikTok. Or they WERE at any rate. Soap dispensers, toilet seat covers, mirrors, etc. It’s an F for trends:
There are so many more but let’s just do ONE more which is the most uplifting one and that is the YOU’RE ENOUGH trend. No explanation necessary:
And then to me the funniest one of these I have seen as inevitably it goes to humor:
AND JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (AND SOME DESPICABLE ONES TOO…)
OMG are you STILL here? If you have made it this far, we are ALMOST done here. Thank you for coming to my 8 hour newsletter. I need a nap.
- LARRY DAVID. All things Larry David. But he really had a few NYC moments recently. Let’s begin by Larry David at a fashion show being more Larry David than we thought possible:
And then this scene launched a million memes and LET ME TELL YOU if I was there to witness this I would have just stopped and stared and then maybe pulled up a chair and joined them before being hauled away by the cops but I digress:
ESPRESSO MARTINIS I DIE:
- OK, I cannot do anymore so I will end on this amazing note. This TikTokker, Emily, started a series of TikToks saying she recently graduated graphic design school and she was taking it upon herself to redo logos she found hideous and then showcased her take…which were all terrible and that was the joke. Some people at first thought she was serious, because she is so dead pan her delivery is flawless:
In this video she tackles a few brands including TIKTOK itself.
But then the craziest thing happened and a brilliant move BY TikTok…they changed their logo to the terrible one she designed. IT IS EVERYTHING:
THAT IS IT my darlings. I have been sitting here for 6 hours and I AM TIRED AND HUNGRY AND CRANKY AND I GOTS TO GO. Thank you for riding this one out. Be safe. Be kind.
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