Barstool and the Personal Brand Snark Resurgence
Well, another week is over. And that means another Stupefy. This one's about Barstool, personal brands and snark, plus more below that, as always. Try to pretend it's the weekend! Any plans?
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Barstool and the Personal Brand Snark Resurgence
I went to high school and college with Barstool Big Cat.
We were best friends from freshman through sophomore or junior year of high school. We were obsessed with the Grateful Dead, smoked weed, watched Monty Python and laughed constantly. Then we didn’t speak to each other more than once or twice ever again, which was my fault. Then he became a media superstar.
Because of my own guilt and shame over that falling out, I've had a mental block against engaging with all Barstool Sports content. I've avoided it, even as Big Cat became more and more of a celebrity.
Then I listened to the two most recent episodes of Barstool’s "Call Her Daddy" podcast, each dedicated to its recent drama. I felt I had to understand what was going on after reading so much about it.
When I heard Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports who’s also known as Stool Presidente, call an HBO executive a “fucking dork,” I froze.
And then when I heard Alexandra Cooper, the remaining half of the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, telling people like Scooter Braun to “suck my fucking dick,” I also froze.
This was irreverence! It was the mocking of people who are supposed to be taken very seriously and always lauded in the media.
I only hear stuff like this anymore, from one independent personality speaking from the point of view of their own personal brand on a podcast or on social media. I never read stuff like this anymore, from a blog or major media brand who’s put the weight of their institution behind the words.
I realized that personal brands are media’s only hope at reviving something desperately need right now: snark.
Post-Gawker
Snark went underground when Gawker died. In his durable essay “On Smarm,” in Gawker, Tom Scocca described a clash between smarm and snark, the former used to wield power and the latter as a necessary counterbalance to it.
Gawker used to regularly mock the dishonest and cynical in power. When Gawker was shut down by one of those powerful cynics, the tone fell out of fashion among most media brands. You could mock Trump and anyone in his inner circle or his family, but that was about it. Snark was off limits for a while.
Since 2016, when Gawker shut down, the closest thing to pick up where it left off has been podcasts like "Chapo Trap House" and "Red Scare." These two shows have been such a refreshing joy to listen to because they make fun of powerful people who deserve to be made of but who have been off limits for half a decade.
Those podcasters get away with it because they are only representing themselves. They are personal brands, with no one to answer to but themselves. And as they mock the powerful those personal brands grow.
Portnoy and Cooper, in mocking powerful media figures, were speaking only as themselves. Barstool is powered by personal brands. And personal brands can do what established brands can’t.
The Times and newsletters
Taylor Lorenz, who wrote about the Call Her Daddy drama, drew the conclusion that the incident shows the dangers of letting a media personality become an influencer in their own right. It reads like a warning to major media companies: Don’t let your star employees promote their personal brands.
It’s this tension, between personal brand and major media brand, and the boom in individual voices that is being born out of that tension, that could finally bring snark out of hibernation.
"Chapo"
In the latest episode of "Chapo Trap House," host Will Menaker describes Donald Trump’s appeal. “He’s a prick. He’s an asshole. He’s a cruel, cowardly piece of shit,” he says. “And I think everybody in this country is in one way or another. And that’s why they like Donald Trump, because he’s one of them.”
That this description came in the middle of mocking an article in The Atlantic that went viral this week only underscores his point. Sycophantism is getting old and people want snark, which partly explains Trump's appeal. But it also explains some of the appeal of the media produced by individuals with Patreons or Substacks.
“He doesn’t kiss ass,” Chapo co-host Amber A’Lee Frost continued. “And people fucking respect that. And also, I’ll be honest, it’s some of Biden’s appeal to older voters, too.”
Biden’s most recent moment of not kissing ass? In conversation with the personal brand Charlemagne tha God.
I’m not a Stoolie. I never will be. I was never the target audience for it, anyway. But I get some of its popularity now. Maybe one day soon I'll be ready to follow Big Cat on Twitter.
The shorter stuff
This item's lede is deranged! (Page Six)
Cursed sentence: "Krasinski told Rainn Wilson on 'Hey There, Human,' the daily Instagram Live series that Wilson hosts for SoulPancake." (CNN)
I was wrong. Last week was not the week of cults. This week was. (NYT)
The words "Apple original film" just don't look right. But you have to care because it's Scorsese, DiCaprio and De Niro. (Deadline)
No one needs another negative review of Quibi, or as Phillips-Horst calls it "the thirsty network." But this one is incisive and very funny. (Art In America)
🌀
ESPN is airing Peloton rides. Shouldn't Peloton be airing ESPN instead? And getting paid for it? Who's doing who the favor here? (ESPN)
I bet we'll see more cancelled Netflix shows get picked up by cable. First one is "Tuca and Bertie." (The Verge)
"Space Force," Steve Carrell's first workplace comedy since "The Office," got brutal reviews. (The Daily Beast)
There has now been an innovative Zoom pitch video that is the talk of Hollywood. There's no trend the lockdown cannot create. (THR)
🌀
This might be missing your office a little too much. (WSJ)
Not a good headline for Paul Feig. (Variety)
Could see this story of one apartment in Bushwick during quarantine becoming a limited series on a streaming service. Plus, I'd like to know what happened to Shannon. (NYer)
Bob Greenblatt confirms that the "Snyder Cut" doesn't exist. (VF)
VW's ad agency is trying to blame a racist ad on "deliberate sabotage." Nice try. A little misdirection. The truth is they probably didn't even bother to watch the ad before it went live. No one cares about paid Instagram Stories in ad agencies. (FT)
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