[Pilot] Ep. 77: Too Online. Menu Gate, Tabi Swiper, Larry Stylinson, Dragon Pizza, New ASMR, Diplo Flees Burning Man

[00:00] like they do on The Daily, where they're like, today is Monday, September 4th, and I'm Michael Bovara. Like something that's like really newsworthy, you know, like we're hitting a topical, timely thing right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And we're serious journalists. We're serious journalists. Welcome to Two Online by Boys Club. Hot internet news served fresh. [00:27] We are piloting [00:29] a new format for the show for the Tuesday podcast. [00:35] Sometimes the Tuesday will become what we're calling 2Online. Here's where 2Online came from. We spend so much time on the internet. [00:48] Between... [00:48] work [00:49] And play all the apps were on the internet all the time. Our friends come to us and say, what's happening on the internet right now? [00:57] because we're so deeply online. Or they'll see stuff on [01:02] Twitter or boys club or discord. And they'll say like, Hey, I saw this thing. What is this? What's going on with this? This happened to me this past weekend. Someone was like, Hey, you put up this meme. What is this about? And I was like, Oh, sit down. Oh, [01:16] Let's fucking go. And then I told her everything that's going on on the internet for this particular thing. So the format of this show is to bring that to life. [01:25] in a way where you don't have to spend as much time online, but you can know everything that's going on. [01:29] On the deep internet, on the deep web. Yeah.

[01:33] One more note I want to make. [01:35] about boys club. [01:36] Boys Club is, yes, it's about crypto. It's about emerging technology. It's about all these things. [01:41] But... [01:42] I would say the truest expression of Boys Club is people who are... [01:46] really into internet culture. And so this is a show to talk about internet culture in a broader way than just crypto, which we're obsessed with, but that's a little bit of context as well. Nice segue. Okay. So the format of the show is [02:00] Natasha and I have both prepared [02:02] Individually, we've both prepared three stories... [02:04] The other one has no context for what stories we've chosen. So it's going to be a surprise. That's part of the fun. And we're going to explain each story to the other person. You may be familiar with all three stories that I've chosen. Right. You probably know most of these. But we are on different internets. We have niches. We do have niches. A little bit. But we're on... [02:25] broadly speaking, a very similar internet. So I'm excited if we do continue to keep doing the show to get into weirder and odder corners of the internet. You know what would be fun? Is bringing on people for them to tell their internet stories. Yes. What's happening on their corner of the internet. Yes. Yes. Totally. Okay. So we're going to get into the stories next, but first a word from our partners who make this podcast possible. Hey, Natasha, if someone wants to get into crypto

[02:55] where should they go? Oh, Dina, I'm so glad you asked. The place to be is Kraken. It's more than a crypto platform. Kraken is your bridge to the new world of finance, a simple, gorgeous place to trade with a redesigned trading interface that's so easy to use. From degen to day trader, first timer to full timer, make your trades in just a few clicks. Go to kraken.com backslash boys club, sign up in just a few minutes, and you can even get started with as little as $10. [03:25] have you heard of menu gate i have not i've not okay great so there's this guy he went viral a couple years ago this the story is a couple years old but there's a new fresh take that has brought it back into the for you page of tiktok basically so he lives in this big apartment complex in atlanta and you know the menus that like a chinese restaurant or some takeout delivery restaurant will leave in the they'll leave like in apartment complexes and [03:54] Someone was coming in from... [03:56] one of those restaurants and sticking the menus in wedging them in the door. Okay. And he was walking around and he realized that, [04:03] the menus were all still in the doors. [04:06] And they hadn't changed. So he was like, no one is coming in and out of these doors in the whole apartment complex. Okay. And he then realized he was the only person that lived in this. [04:17] building but they had said that it was full so the apartment complex people saying that this is a fully lived in apartment complex and then he's all of a sudden like wait there's no one here

[04:29] These menus aren't changing. Picking up those menus. No one's picking up these menus. There's no one coming in and out of the building. Okay. [04:35] He starts to become an investigative reporter and he goes into the parking garage of the building. It's full of cars, but they have. And he's taking his TikTok followers along for the ride. Yeah. Okay. So the cars are there, but they all have dust on them. There's trash that comes in and he's like, where's this trash coming from? I'm literally the only person here. And so it starts to feel like this conspiracy. Yeah. [04:57] One of the videos is about how he goes around to like surrounding restaurants and cafes. And there's always one dude having a very similar conversation on the phone by himself in all these. Oh my gosh. He's like, I'm living in a simulation. Yes. So anyway, now we're four years later, he's still there. And there had apparently been a murder in the building in the parking garage. And so there was new news because he was, he was talking about the murder and he's [05:25] There was like an ambulance, but there's no people there. And like all the cars had been moved, but it was just like this really airy video where... [05:32] There was no one in it had there been a murder or had there not been a murder. [05:36] TBD, it's just this kind of big weird conspiracy [05:39] theory that revolves around this seemingly empty apartment complex in Atlanta. [05:43] That's it? That's it. [05:46] We don't figure it out. No, we don't figure it out. [05:48] menu gate it's a developing story so even if it is fake i'm like great storytelling great entertainment okay let me share my screen so you can see what's going on here okay so it's a guy that's going through an apartment hallway he's showing the doors with oh he's showing individual doors individual doors with the menus stuck in there no one on my floor has come here out of

[06:18] Oh my gosh. [06:19] So that's that. That's Menugate. Wow. Menugate. Now you know. Okay, you go next. Okay. I really wanted to call this section Mr. Steal Your Tabbies. [06:28] For those who are not familiar, an incredible internet story happened this week. Dina and I had decided that we were going to do this podcast a week ago, and then... [06:40] The internet gods... [06:42] Blessed us. [06:43] with this viral story. So here's how it goes. I'm going to try to keep it short on what happened. So we can talk about the internet's response. Here's how the story goes. [06:53] For me, Saturday morning... [06:55] I wake up. I see this story. There's about 60,000 people who have watched this TikTok from this girl online. [07:01] Next Lexus US is her TikTok name. And she starts this TikTok by saying, ladies of NYC, be fucking aware. This man is out here on Tinder and Hinge and he will steal from you. And she has a picture of this guy on Hinge. And so you're immediately grabbed. And so I start watching it and I'm like, this is an incredible story. And it's about a two and a half minute TikTok, basically where she tells this crazy story of her matching with this guy on Tinder. They... [07:28] And, uh, hooking up, he stays over for the night, they hook up in the morning. And then in the morning, he's like, Oh, I want to show you the Spotify playlist. So he takes her phone. And then he's like, Oh, I can't find it and gives her phone back. So there's like some weird stuff that happens. And he's a real fashion boy. And they talked a lot about fashion. And she has a few pairs of Margiela. [07:46] tabbies. There's the Mary Jane tabbies and the booties. And the tabbies are the very famous hooved split toe shoe that every fashion girl has. Yeah.

[07:56] And so they talked a lot about this shoe. Then he leaves. [08:00] And it's mid-afternoon, and as she's retelling the story, she's like, I see on my... [08:06] shoe rack and she like shows the shoe rack in the back that my mary jane tabbies are gone and she's like i search high and low all over my apartment i cannot find them and then she's like okay i'm not gonna jump to conclusions and say that this guy stole them but like it's weird we talked a lot about them they're gone he just left whatever [08:22] So I'm just going to message him on Tinder. He's deleted the interaction on Tinder. She goes to call him because they had called. He has deleted all of their call logs when he pretended to show her the Spotify playlist. So now she's like... [08:34] 100% this guy stole my Mary Janes. [08:36] I'm going to tell the story on TikTok. So she tells it. [08:39] And basically this story explodes on the internet. Everybody is talking about it. Everybody is like, beware. Mr. Steal Your Tabby is Tabby Stealer. [08:50] And everybody's taking it and the story is developing in real time on the internet. And since I had seen it like quite early, I'm like on it like an investigative reporter. I am like every single moment, what is happening? There's this woman who has responded and she's DMing this, the original woman who owned the Mary Janes on TikTok. And she's like, this is my best friend's boyfriend. He gifted her the tabbies. Are these them? And it's like a photo of the tabbies.

[09:20] have to tell my friend so it's developing online like in real time and then the girl's updating people where she's like you guys found him you guys are the best i'm dming him on instagram so then they're like dming on instagram long story short she gets her tabbies back from this guy he did in fact steal him justice is served justice and like her tiktok where she's like has the tabbies up the mary jane tabbies and she's like i got them back and then has you know [09:50] is this woman who says we ride at dawn this idea that like every woman in new york city is behind this woman incredible right now the videos are over a million views all of them all of her updates the original there's endless memes she's been featured in the cut vogue article isaac likes she's totally having this moment deservedly so because she's experienced this heroic moment and [10:20] thickened it was really funny so here are some of the takes on the internet one is he could snatch my tabbies because he's like pretty hot so that's one take the other take is this is a tweet that says film profile pic stevie lacy build nose ring 510 hangs out in soho shares spotify playlist knows what tabbies are dot to dot the red flags were right there which is another one and then

[10:50] sex in the city where carrie bradshaw gets mugged and she has no valuables on her except she's wearing manolos and he steals her manolos from her and so there's a lot of that being that meme format happening um where it's tabbies instead of manolos so incredible internet story just love to see a community come together aligned on a shared goal which was to get this woman's tabbies back [11:20] felt like real justice. I felt like I had done something. I was like, I've accomplished something this Labor Day weekend. [11:27] so that's my first internet story nice okay my second story so i don't know how much you are aware of the harry styles and louis tomilson ship relationship uh yes phenomena fanfic yeah larry is the the pairing the sort of relationship name i suppose you'd call it and the and the concept is that people are shipping them like that they have an affair that they have a that [11:57] Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are in love and together. [12:01] And the sort of premise of most of the Larry content that I see is that they're not allowed to be together. It's a forbidden romance, but they're secretly still in love and management is kind of the enemy in this storyline. And they... [12:20] And most of the videos are either edits of like the two of them. Okay. Like a photo of Harry Styles kind of looking wistfully off camera and then an edit with Louis Tomlinson looking wistfully. And who knows if they were looking at each other. It could have been two different, completely different scenes. It probably was, but a lot of that, that type of edit or...

[12:43] what's called Larry proofs. [12:45] which is evidence. [12:47] of them okay in a relationship and so what's we she said that with no air quotes a literal evidence proof is it's [12:57] A whole genre of content. Can I just make a small note here? I won't dox this person, but someone from the boys club team... [13:04] in high school wrote fan fiction. Like... [13:08] on live journal i suppose or tumblr she said she's a tumblr gal uh larry yeah she shipped these two incredible honestly incredible and also as i was doing my research for this there's a euphoria scene where there's harry styles and louis hannelson fan fiction fantasy that's played out on the screen i didn't i hadn't remembered that anyway what makes it current is that [13:30] myself. [13:32] and a bunch of other people on the internet, [13:34] just started getting a bunch of Larry proof content into our feeds inexplicably in 2023. [13:41] And so I all of a sudden started getting a ton of like Larry stuff. And I was like, what is going on here? [13:48] this content is literally 10 years old. [13:50] And then I go on Twitter and I'm like, [13:53] I wonder if anyone else is having the same experience. And there's a bunch of people on Twitter who are being like, what's going on? Why is Larry proof surfacing in 2023? So anyway, that's just kind of a vague open mystery. I will say that there's been a couple of recent happenings in the Larry. [14:10] proof universe, which is that Louis Thomason is on tour. And apparently he did a couple things on stage that the Larry...

[14:19] fans are saying is truthers that the Larry truthers are saying is evidence. So I think maybe that might be why it's what's an example of what one of the things that I'm going to link you here with a document, a Google sheet that says Larry's great big doc of everything. [14:36] And it's literally a Google sheet that has multiple tabs. What's the tab names? 2023 significant events, 2022 significant events, timeline, glossary of people, doors and tweets, clothing, clothing. [14:53] Oh, there's images. It's multimedia. It's many, many, many, many fields with screenshots and... [15:01] Oh my God, this is so intense. And entries that say like Lou and H had coordinating outfits and then it's the date and the outfits and then on... Oh my gosh, many, many, many tabs. There's evidence and then there's notes. Okay, I'm just going to read a line here of evidence. This is in the leaks tab, column 10. [15:19] Row D... [15:21] Column 10 says 2022-0420. So April 20th, 2022. Event. Harry's solo song. Notes. Complicated freak. What does it say? [15:32] Complicated Freak is just the name of the song. [15:35] They're like, here's hard-hitting evidence of what is happening here. [15:40] I take it easy on the Larrys. First of all, I feel a real kinship to these young women primarily. [15:49] I, you think it's women.

[15:51] I think it's women. Yeah. I mean, all the videos that I saw were young women. The content creators around this. [15:58] Do they have a hypothesis of why this content is being resurfaced to you? As the managers are the villain in the story, is there... [16:07] someone who is... [16:10] in control of the algorithms in their mind to surface that content to you? Or do you have a, do you have a hypothesis on that? I mean, I think that they would say it's because there's new evidence from Louie's tour that's happening now where he's changing lyrics and... [16:25] there's also like a lot of people speculating that Harry comes and visits him on tour. And so there's all these screenshots of videos where it's like, that's Harry's thumb. Like it, like, it's like a photo of like a group of people. And there's like one hand off to the side and people are like, that's definitely his thumb. And then they show us a photo of the screenshot and then like Harry's. So there's just that level of kind of speculation around. And is Louis openly bisexual or no? Neither one of them have commented on their sexuality, my understanding. I will say [16:55] I [16:56] I think... [16:57] I'm less interested in whether or not they're, [17:01] they are or they were in a relationship what i'm mostly moved by is the ingenuity [17:07] and creativity of these creators who are putting these edits together and who are finding the evidence for [17:15] what they want to see. And I think it's just the wonderful, mysterious nature of human creativity, and that we have these tools now to be able to make these edits.

[17:26] you can literally create any narrative that you want to see based on these screenshots and clips of these people talking. So honestly, and just the passion that they have for [17:36] Larry Stylinson is what they call the relationship. It's just incredible. So anyway, that's that. That's my second story. Okay. Amazing. Incredible. Kraken is a crypto OG. They have more than 10 million clients around the world that trust them with their crypto needs. They're one of the largest crypto platforms out there with some of the highest security standards in the industry. So you can rest easy that your funds and your privacy are safe for the keeping. And if you need [18:06] is available 24-7 every day of the year. This is a true story. I've actually hit them up a few times with very dumb questions about our account, and they were so nice and so patient. It just takes a few minutes to get started today at kraken.com backslash boys club. [18:21] My next story is called Dragon Pizza. [18:24] Are you familiar with the Dragon Peaks story? I'm not, no. [18:26] Okay. I did not think you would be because this part of the internet doesn't get fed to you in the same way that it gets fed to me. So we're in barstool sports land. Okay. Dave Portnoy land. Okay. [18:39] This is not my corner of the internet, but I respect you being my Dave Portnoy Barstool Sports correspondent. I find them all deeply problematic. So I'm not a fan, but it is entertaining and it gets fed to me and it has... No shame. No shame. I feel I must... No disclaimers needed. It's fine. ...protect myself. So he does these videos. If you've not seen them, I'm sure you've come across them at some point in your internet history. They are...

[19:07] Pizza reviews. [19:09] Have you seen these? No. [19:10] Oh, you've never seen a Barstool Pizza review. [19:13] No. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Okay. So... [19:18] Basically, these videos are like [19:21] Seven, eight minutes. It's Dave Portno going into pizza shops all over the United States. [19:28] and the world, [19:29] And he eats the pizza outside of the shop and gives it a review. And now there's this whole like ecosystem around this. There's an app called One Bite where people review pizza shops. It's him and a cameraman always. And before he takes a bite of the pizza, he always says, One Bite, everybody knows the rules. And then he takes a bite of the tip of the pizza and he takes a bite of the crust of the pizza. And he's talking the whole time and he's giving his review on this pizza and these different shops around the world. [19:59] Northeast. Sometimes he's a Florida man. So he'll be in Fort Lauderdale or Pompano Beach. And shout out to my people. And he'll also review down there. So this specific one sort of had a [20:20] a perfect [20:22] encapsulation of this subculture. [20:25] So what happens is, [20:27] Dave goes into the pizza place. This place is called Dragon Pizza. Comes out. He's like, I gotta say... [20:34] It looked better in the case. It looked better in the case. And he's kind of hedging. And he's never openly, to my knowledge and the videos I've seen, he never openly shits on the pizza place. He'll give really detailed reviews.

[20:45] But he'll never go below like a six. I've never seen him go like below a six. So he's like pretty measured. [20:51] in how he will review these slices so he starts out the video and he takes a slice of the pizza and he's like yeah i was looking better in the case where is he in the world oh very important very important he's in massachusetts okay and he is from the greater boston area somewhere in the greater boston area they are that's where he's from and that is the vibe of this street corner but it's sort of a quaint almost town little street corner with like little shops very upstate feeling like when i first thought i was like maybe this is upstate and he's like i will say i was at [21:21] exchange for a little bit too long and you're like spams buffalo exchange you're like what why are we talking about buffalo exchange it's like sort of weird and all of these things are a little building into like oh i'm in like this very specific type of thing that's happening so he's like one bite every nose to the rules he takes a bite he's really talking about how there's a lot of parmesan and if you don't really like parmesan this isn't going to be your pie and he's talking about that and then there's people like walking behind them and in front of them and at first everybody's really timid and he's like keep going go it's fine and they're like walking by then he's like yeah

[21:51] about it he's like lots of parmesan lots of parmesan and then this guy interrupts this dude interrupts and he's like [21:57] Hey, man. Hey, man. He's like, Hey, man, like, what's up? And he's like, I'm Dom of the Year. I'm Dom of the Year. And he's self-promoting. And he's like, I'm Dom of the Year. I'm Dom of the Year. Dom of the Year? Dom of the Year. And Dave's like, what's what's Dom of the Year about? And he's like, oh, you know, just Dom of the Year. And he's like, OK. And then this starts to happen. It's starting to get weird. Oh, the video is going off course. It's not staying as it should be. But presumably this is an edited video. It's not live, right? [22:21] It's not a live video, but it's not edited. I don't think they take it into an editing bay. I think they record it and they put it up. Okay. [22:28] is the feeling at least that they give you. Okay. Then the stop that you guys have and then he's trying to still give his review and he's like, okay, I don't know, like 6.4. I'm going to give a 6.4. That's pretty low. And he's sort of hedging. He's like, I don't know. I know that's not a great score, but I don't like Parmesan. [22:41] So then the owner of the pizza store comes out. [22:44] And he's like, hey, I know who you are, and I don't respect what you do for small businesses. You ruin small businesses. The owner comes out. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh, this is going to go down. And Dave's like, what the fuck are you talking about, man? And he's like, fuck you, fuck you. And they start just back and forth. And he's like, I've raised $50 million for small businesses. We also like, because he reviews things negatively. Yeah, because he stands outside his businesses. He says where they are and the name of the business, and he reviews them. And...

[23:13] This guy's pissed because he, I guess, was getting a vibe that Dave didn't like the pizza. Okay. And then he was like, your shirt's three sizes too small. Like, they're just going after each other. And it's like, oh, my gosh. And then people from the street start to get involved. And all these people come. And then there's this girl who's like a perfect Boston girl. She's like in scrubs. She's super cute. She's blonde. She's like, oh, my gosh, I'm a huge fan. And he's like, hey. And he's like, you want a slice? And then she's there and she's involved. And then there's like two other women who walk by and they're like, why are you being an asshole? We love dragon pizza. [23:43] pizza and then there's more people who's like i'm a huge fan can i take a picture and then one guy keeps going down with the year like into the video [23:51] and it's just totally unraveled and then he's like taking pictures with people and then there's one guy who's like a bigger heavier set guy like with his kid in a stroller is walking by and he's like really excited to see dave and he's like i love you i love you man and he's trying to pull out his airpod he it throws and it like goes into the street and dave's like oh man okay and it's like everything's is complete chaos and then there's videos that come out after of other

[24:21] Totally into him. And you can just tell. And then the guy comes back out and they start fighting again. It just completely unravels. And then he starts walking away. Another fan comes out and she's like, I'm a huge fan. I know of a guy personally who you saved his business in upstate New York or something. And he's like, thanks so much. You know that guy. He's a liberal. He's a liberal. And then it ends. So all this happens. It's a crazy, just a perfect show. [24:44] encapsulation of the subculture and Boston and bro culture and just, oh my gosh. And then the internet takes it, it goes viral. It explodes as one of their videos. And then Dragon Pizza gets railed on social. They get a ton of negative reviews. Their Yelp score goes to zero. It gets destroyed, which is horrible. So then you're like so sad. Then it turns around and there's all these pictures of it being absolutely packed out and Dragon Pizza doesn't have a seat. And like it's [25:14] blowing up the owner goes on like tucker carlson like he gets into like this whole thing and it's just like a whole thing anyway so that's dragon pizza one bite everybody knows the rules wow down with the year oh my gosh thank you so much for your service i feel like honestly that was real utility because there was no way one i would have watched the video in the first place and two had the patience to [25:38] unpack it in the way that you just did for me. So I really appreciate that. Thank you. You're very welcome. Okay. What's your final story? Okay. My final story is it's not really a story in that it's a contained thing with a start

[25:51] an end and climax in the middle. It's just that there's a new ASMR that's dropped. [25:57] Okay, tell me. Have you seen the bottles rolling down the stairs? Oh, of course. So for people who haven't... [26:06] been on the internet lately, there's a new ASMR [26:10] style, which is taking glass bottles filled with different things, rolling them down the stairs, filming them as they shatter. [26:18] and the shatter being [26:20] One, visually satisfying. And two... [26:23] audibly satisfying as well to listen to the glass shatter it's so fun to watch it's so fun i can't just sit there watching and they're rolling and it's rolling down the stairs and you're watching it just the evolution of this asmr has gotten to a place where it's totally absurd now but where it started was this first like kind of wholesome video where they're rolling like vodka bottles down the stairs like soy sauce bottles and then there's a jar of pickled onions that goes down the stairs the pickled onions was like clearly a fan favorite so the next video [26:53] start rolling glass bottles downstairs. I have little marbles in them. [26:57] that are all different colors. And isn't it fun to watch the marbles, like the glass shatter, and then the marbles scatter all over the stairs. Like, isn't that fun? Yes, it is. One note about this is very important that they clean in between each thing. They clean in between each shot. Yeah. Yes. It's a, there's an important production note. So you're getting a fresh stare each time you're getting a new shatter of the glass. So they moved on to things that have a better visual, like the little marbles. And then they started doing

[27:27] that would smash but like that's actually not that satisfying because as soon as it smashes it's just it's like water and the color doesn't so they started doing these big jugs with did you see any of the big plastic jugs they like tried one that was like a big plastic jug and that didn't really go over that well because it's plastic so you're not watching it like shatter and say it doesn't break have the same satisfying thing clearly this person or these people had gone like crazy viral and they had this one format that worked really well and they're trying to [27:57] person who had the glass bottles and was wrapping each bottle in a different [28:03] Flag. [28:04] of a different country from around the world and doing like a battle royale of like country versus [28:13] like just how to make it more competitive so competitive not problematic at all like just so clickbaity it's like has like the israeli flag and like all i know it's like really really weird um and so that started happening now the last one that i saw which is why i chose this story [28:33] is they're hanging the bottles and then they are... [28:36] taking a also hanging a hammer and swinging. Oh my gosh. I haven't seen the hammer and like pulling back the hammer and letting it go. And then the hammer is swinging and hitting the glass bottles or not hitting glass bottles. And you're kind of watching to see, will it hit it? Won't it hit it? And when it does, it's so very sad. So sad. So there's two notes that I have for this. One is that my favorite, and this is so funny.

[29:02] 2023 is there's this British girl who's so cute and a comedian and she, [29:08] It's a reaction video of her watching it. And that's actually my only experience of watching these, is watching it with her commentary on it. And it is so funny. And she'll like call which one she's gonna, which is gonna break first. And then there's one where it's going and it's a glass bottle going down the stairs. And she's like, "Oh, it's gonna break really fast." [29:26] And it breaks really fast. And then there's another glass bottle inside there. And she goes, a baby. It's incredible. And she's like, it's so funny. So I love her so much. She's so great. My second note about this is that there's all of this crazy data. I don't have it offhand about how much these TikTok stars make. And I don't know exactly how much this specific ASMR creator makes. But there's another one who just films all. [29:53] himself sleeping and goes live and he's making like $35,000 a month. These people are making crazy money for doing the dumbest shit. And this is a great example. I, part of me really deeply respects it. So, [30:07] It's a public good. Bring us home. Okay. My last story. And to close us out, man, this has been, for me, a showing of my interest in problematic men. I go, the tabby stealer, Dave Portnall, and we're ending with Diplo. Okay. [30:23] The Holy Trinity. Yeah, let's hear it. The Holy Trinity. Okay, so as everybody knows, Burning Man had a bad year. [30:30] Or whatever. Or a good year. A good year. I actually saw someone from the Voice Club community. She sent out an incredible tweet. Okay. Well, while you're finding it, what I find...

[30:39] so hilarious is this festival that's designed for self-reliance and like a bartering system has now, because of the rain, [30:47] been absolutely forced into actually living like the cosplaying that they were doing every other year it's pretty funny yeah so just for context for folks it rained at burning man and it's in the desert and so the desert's not set up for a torrential downpour and so it got really muddy and they had to shut down the roads in and out so people were stuck there this person is quote tweeting someone the original tweet says honestly pray for the people at burning man many are poorly [31:17] lead many souls to Christ, some of them quite influential. [31:21] And someone in our community tweets, we've run out of spicy margaritas and I'm down to half a crate of high noon. Please pray for us. So I think they're fine. But I do think it's been it's really taken over the internet. The story, I think mostly because it's like, it's such an easy target. It's the easiest target. It's so easy to shit on Burning Man. And [31:40] How [31:42] prevalent this has become in meme land. CNN is like Burning Man memed this year. It's hit widespread adaption in terms of it being the story to tell. So we're not going to tell that story. We're not going to tell that story. [31:56] That's news. CNN reporting live from Burning Man. My personal subculture story that happened specifically around this is Diplo and Chris Rock. [32:08] escaping Burning Man so that Diplo could get to his private plane, get to the Four Seasons and get to a show in DC on time, which is,

[32:18] I love. [32:20] I love it. I'm obsessed with that as a story that's happening, that I, as a consumer, can sit on my phone and watch live the play-by-play of how these... [32:31] massive celebrities have escaped this state of emergency, quote unquote, to get to their show on time. So the story goes Diplo posts this real [32:42] It's him in the back of a pickup truck in the desert with the goggles, the Burning Man style goggles on. He's got sand on his face in cross style paint. And he's giving a peace sign vibes. And the writing on top of it, the caption is, Chris Rock and I walked six miles through the muddy desert to hitchhike to the airport. So essentially they walk six miles, which doesn't sound like a lot, but you're in this like mud that's basically quicksand. It's like really hard to move, basically. [33:12] They get to the road and it's another two hour drive to the airport. And they find some fans of Chris Rock and Diplo and they pay them to drive them to this private airport to take a private plane. And he's like posting it. He's not ashamed or hiding it. Here's my plane. I got it. Like, can't wait to get drunk on the plane. Totally owning it. Owning it. [33:42] his fans make sure he gets one take [33:45] that's one take on the internet and then he posts another story after show he's posting his show and like you know the beats dropping and he's like back there he's still got his sand on his face all night and the story sort of ends with him in in his tub in a bathtub because there was a story on the internet that started to circulate that he was lying that he like made up this story oh wow okay in the video of him with chris rock it's very clearly chris rock and chris rock is like

[34:15] out of Burning Man. And there's a circulating story that they were making it up. And he was like, I don't know why people think I'm making it up. I'm here. And he like shows his super luxe bathroom. He's like, I'm here. I'm at the Four Seasons in DC. I don't know what people, this is what happened. And it's really funny. So I find it really hilarious. Some of the takes on [34:35] Twitter are incredible. Obviously, some people are really upset. They're like, the rich escape Burning Man and like, leave everybody. Like, how can you do that? One said the fact that Diplo and Chris Rock were smart enough to think of walking out of Burning Man, but no one else was shows why they get paid the big bucks. Yeah, that's actually part of the story that I don't understand. I didn't know that that was possible. So two things, depending on where your camp is within Burning Man, [35:05] too far some people are not in shape enough like you have to be in really good shape because it's yeah okay yeah and then lastly which is the most damning evidence against diplo and chris rock would be that like you come with a camp and so you have to leave with your stuff oh they left so if you're walking out you're leaving stuff but someone like diplo's someone set up his camp for him right and he showed up for a service and that service he's paying for a service dude [35:31] turnkey to set up and tear down of his camp exactly okay exactly some other really great takes generally that are being memed from the burning man reign is my personal favorite was people being like me at burning man this year and it's the balance yaga summer 2023 fashion show honestly when i saw that video go viral i was upset because we have that video in our meme folder

[35:56] And it was sitting right there for us to use. Perfect. It's a perfect show notes. It's an incredible, incredible tweet. What's the Chris Rock in this? What did he end up doing? That's part of what is so funny and entertaining about this. One of the other takes, like this was not on my bingo card. One, them being friends. Two, them going to Burning Man together. Three, them escaping Burning Man together. It's such a crazy thing to happen. I think they're just friends. I think they went to Burning Man together. And Diplo was like, I got you. Let's go. And then they left. And then they took that... [36:25] car together. I wonder if he got his cold brew. I think he did. I imagine that the private plane service could facilitate an iced coffee. Wow. So one other meme that I'd love to end on from Northwest MCM Wholesale is this picture. It's like two levels of pictures. The top level is [36:55] that and says on the playa at burning man we're all the same we're all equal we are all valid and there's like a clapping emoji rainbow emoji a unicorn emoji and then the second layer of photos unless it rains then fuck you we're out of here and it's a picture of diplo it's a private plane and it's someone like trudging through the mud [37:15] Really funny. Really good. [37:18] Those are our internet stories. There it is. Let us know what you think about this new format. We're trying it out. Maybe we do less stories. Maybe we do more stories. I don't know.

[37:28] Open to co-creation. Two online by Boys Club. Let us know what you think. [37:35] Dina, where are we going to be in September? We are going to be at Permissionless in Austin, Texas. Permissionless too. It's happening. And we're curating the culture track for the conference. So if you're into the stuff we talk about here, you should come and have a good time with us. So email your boss. Tell them that you need to go and buy your ticket now. They will never be as cheap as they are today. And we also have a promo code in our Discord for Boy Scout members. Come hang in Austin. [38:03] Friends. [38:05] This is where we make an ask. We're in our call to action era. It's CTA times. Rate and review this podcast. Subscribe to our newsletter. And if you're feeling extra generous, [38:18] Send it to one friend. [38:20] Thank you for listening. We love you. Bye.