The Skibidi Toilet Hollywood gold rush

+ Olympics main characters, Ballerina Farm claps back, a new a right-wing miracle cure

While big budget movies vie for the top spot at the box office this summer, billions of people are clamoring to watch a YouTube show about toilets with human heads that is fast becoming one of the most valuable franchises in Hollywood.

Alexey Gerasimov, the creator behind “Skibidi Toilet,” is working with leading independent Hollywood entertainment studio, Invisible Narratives, to expand the YouTube Shorts series into myriad product lines and a potential television and movie franchise similar to the Marvel universe or Transformers.

“Skibidi Toilet” is the first narrative series to be told entirely through short-form video and has already amassed over 65 billion views on YouTube last year alone, becoming among the most viewed content on the platform. It tells the story of toilets with human heads engaged in a war with people who have CCTV cameras, speakers and televisions for heads amid a dark and dystopian landscape. They battle each other across an expanding industrial world, with Skibidi Toilets acting on behest of their leader, G-Man, to destroy humanity and transform more people into Skibidi Toilets.

If Skibidi Toilet continues its current growth trajectory, executives say it could provide a new business model for Hollywood, which is struggling to compete with social media platforms for attention and facing the threat of automation through new technologies like artificial intelligence. Unlike many in Hollywood, some entertainment executives say they see hope in the internet.

“I don’t think that there’s ever been anything that we’ve been involved with that mirrors the growth of this,” said Adam Goodman, CEO and founder of Invisible Narratives.

I spoke to Adam this week on Power User about how Skibidi became one of the most valuable franchises in Hollywood and what it means for the future of entertainment.

MORE: How Skibidi Toilet became one of the most valuable franchises in Hollywood - Washington Post

What I’m reading:

Democratic convention will host hundreds of online influencers

Welcoming stars of TikTok, YouTube and other platforms to the party’s convention in Chicago could add to a recent surge in online support for Kamala Harris. - by me :)

PS: I’m going to the DNC! I’ll be covering it live on my TikTok, IG, YouTube, and of course writing about it all for The Washington Post. Will you be there? Invite me to things!!

Can a church exist exclusively on the internet?

A fantastic feature on the booming industry of livestream churches and the virtual-preaching economy in internet-obsessed Kenya, and what its success means as attendance at real-world religious services falls globally. The preachers say they're lighting a fire among the faithful, but is it just a cash grab? - Rest of World

Racked by Pain and Enraptured by a Right-Wing Miracle Cure

With Patriot Party News, Michael Chesebro found a sense of community, and a place where conspiracy theories could become real in the form of the “medbed.” - NY Times

Emily White was dragged for predicting the future of music streaming 12 years ago. Where is she now?

Emily White, an NPR intern who became the internet’s main character in 2012 after an essay she wrote about music ownership went viral, couldn't talk for years—until now. - LA Times

Zoos’ New Dilemma: Gorillas and Screen Time

Great apes have become absolutely obsessed with watching videos of themselves on the phones of visitors. Across North America, zoos are grappling with primates craving screen time. - WSJ

Retailers Locked Up Their Products—and Broke Shopping in America

How is locking up all the toothbrushes and deodorant behind plexiglass actually working out for drugstores? Amanda Mull investigates. - Bloomberg

Elon Musk Says He Would Recognize a Harris Election Victory

After recent posts alleging voter fraud from the Democratic party, Damon Beres asked Elon Musk about whether he would accept the election results in November. Surprisingly, he answered. - The Atlantic

The Ballerina Farm Controversy, Explained

Mormon trad wife influencer Ballerina Farm has responded to the viral story about her, in a TikTok claiming the viral article about her felt "predetermined" and that she's not oppressed like people think but she loves her life. She also wants more kids. People magazine has a good breakdown. - People

AI-written obituaries are compounding people’s grief

AI-generated obits are now filling the web, marking a new chapter in the quest to monetize grief. Many of these sites churning out AI-generated content, exploiting the dead, are based in Asia and appear to be run solely to generate ad revenue. - Fast Company

While ‘Pod Save America’ Tries to Unite Democrats, Its Staff Rebels

A deep dive on Crooked Media, where a third of staff have left the company since January 2023 their flagship show, Pod Save America, has cycled through three senior producers in three years. - Bloomberg

How Sonny Angels and Smiskis Took Over TikTok

Designed as stress relievers, the cutesy Japanese figurines are a viral hit in videos and home displays. - Bloomberg

How long can you keep posting your wedding photos?

Delia Cai says that you’re allowed to count your wedding as two distinct online “events.” - Fast Company

How Would You Feel About Living Forever as a Chatbot?

A deathbot creates a synthetic version of you and lets others interact with it after you’re gone. These tools present a new kind of dilemma: How can you plan for something like digital immortality? - The Atlantic

Meet the Swifties Campaigning for Kamala Harris

Taylor Swift enthusiasts’ experience operating stan accounts has provided them with the skills to organize—and the vice president’s campaign is getting in on the action. - WIRED

Kamala Harris Has the KHive. Now Meet the D-Unit, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s Insatiable Fan Base.

The second gentleman is attracting hoards of young fans on social media to the point that Harris’ campaign has started selling Dough merch. - Vanity Fair

My Rousing Night at “White Dudes for Harris”

Luke Winkie wrote about what went down on the White Dudes For Harris Zoom call and learning to embrace your inner cringe. - Slate

Bald Ann Dowd on making Twitter weird again

Bald Ann Dowd is the good kind of Twitter main character, whose dril-adjacent takes and commentary on every major cultural event. - Embedded

PGA Tour partners with YouTube personalities for Creator Classic

The PGA Tour will host its first ever competition featuring popular golf creators. The 9 hole event dubbed the “Creator Classic” will take place in Atlanta on August 28. - Golfweek

The problem with TikTok boyfriends

Jett, Lucky and Braxton are hailed as the reason women should "never settle" but they’re being sold a fairytale. - Highly Flammable

What does it mean that hundreds of thousands of players are clicking on a banana

One of the biggest video games in the world right now is called “Banana.” It consists of a clickable picture of a banana, a count of how many times you click it, and a bunch of in-game rewards, like skins for the banana you can sell for real money. - Sherwood

Are AI ‘friends’ the answer to humanity’s loneliness epidemic?

Tech founder Avi Schiffmann tells Dazed about Friend, a new virtual companion with emotions and ‘free will’ (and why he fell out with his own AI ‘friend’ over plans to mass-produce it). - Dazed

Date Like Goblins' Thinks Playing Games Can Fix Dating Apps

Niche dating apps hope to disrupt the dominance of giants like Tinder and Hinge. The latest encourages people to date in “goblin mode.” - WIRED

Trolls used her face to make fake porn. There was nothing she could do.

At 21, Sabrina Javellana became one of the youngest elected officials in Florida history. She was a rising star in local politics — until deepfakes derailed her life. - NY Times

Hawk Tuah Girl’s Viral Journey Reflects a Changing Internet Landscape

Lon Harris writes that today, a brief clip that gains true mainstream traction (like “Hawk Tuah”) is immediately filtered through myriad of discrete, niche communities, and ends up meaning something different to everyone. - Passionfruit

Teen Girls Are Spending Big. She Tells Them What to Buy.

A profile of Demetra Dias, a teenager TikTok star famous for her try on clothing hauls. - WSJ

Warner Music Taps Rival CEO’s Son to Lead Its Atlantic Unit

Warner Music Group just put a 30-year-old in charge of its largest record group. His father is the most powerful label boss in the world. - Bloomberg

The best way to watch the Olympics is on TikTok

There's been a 17x increase in the amount of Paris Olympics content on TikTok compared to the Tokyo games. - The Verge

Instagram permanently deletes some people’s photos

Some Instagram posters got a shocking notification from the app: Certain photos have been permanently deleted from the app’s Stories archives, unable to be recovered. - CNN

No, Mark Zuckerberg isn't having a 'PR moment'

Zuckerberg’s recent PR blitz is neither out of character nor a sign of a freshly rehabbed image. In fact, Meta and Zuckerberg are staring down one of the biggest crises they’ve ever faced. - Engadget

Making the Case for "BlueAnon"

Really excellent, extremely detailed analysis by extremism researcher Liv Agar on Biden supporting liberals falling down the conspiracy rabbit hole. - Liv Agar

The Art Of Hard-Launching A Friend Breakup

When a friend of someone you follow suddenly disappears from their grid, followers demand an explanation. - Bustle

Haliey Welch trademarks “Hawk Tuah Sauce” & plans to release line of condiments

According to new trademark filings filed by Haliey's company, she’s starting a slew of new business ventures including a condiment line and sports betting service called "Bet on That Thang." - TMZ

An influencer is running for Senate. Is she just the first of many?

Caroline Gleich’s Utah Senate campaign is a sign of the blurring lines between digital creators and politicians. - Vox

A Michael Bay ‘Skibidi Toilet’ Movie Makes Perfect Sense

Yes, the news is absurd, but the viral meme series already has some ‘Bayhem’ in its storytelling Allegra Frank argues. - Complex

Creator central

More MrBeast backlash

Things continue to not go well for MrBeast. On Wednesday he acknowledged that he used “inappropriate language” in his early online days, as more controversies bubble up around him. Fwiw I reported on his use of slurs back in 2018 and was harassed so aggressively by his fandom and other “journalists” that PewDiePie made a video about me (since deleted).

That said, on LGBTQ issues specifically, Jimmy went from using homophobic slurs to publicly backing his trans friend and colleague. He does deserve credit for that growth, but I would love to live in a world where bigotry, even when someone is young, isn't tolerated.

Can Logan Paul please stfu?

Logan Paul called a cisgender woman “a man” and “the purest form of evil” because the Olympic athlete doesn’t conform to an extremely rigid set of patriarchal standards about what a woman should be.

YouTube star PewDiePie launches a newsletter

Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie, one of the biggest YouTubers in the world, launched a newsletter on the platform Beehiiv with his wife, Marzia to document their “journey as a family." - The Kjellberg via The Information

Other fun stuff

Why not let an AI roast you to shreds?

How many pork xiao long bao you can buy with $10 at Din Tai Fung locations around the world.

Not really “fun” but JD Vance is on TikTok now and launched his account through a collab with the Nelk Boys.

The main characters of the Paris Olympics.

I’m obsessed with the way the internet and technology is reshaping our language, and this article on the rise of the term “double-click” as the latest cringeworthy corporate buzzword is so good.

Jojo Siwa’s unique style of dance needs to be studied.

Happy 1 year anniversary to the cop slide!

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