Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Savoury Girl AI sponsorship scandal, Bebe Rexha "lonely" in Khia Asylum + Lowkenuinely
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- 0:00This episode of Mini Scroll is brought to you by The Commons,
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- 0:53Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
- 0:57culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
- 1:00media, the creator economy and the digital space.
- 1:03Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
- 1:07I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
- 1:10media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
- 1:14everyone. OK, didn't say this last
- 1:16Tuesday, but the Commons obviously they sponsored last
- 1:18Tuesday as well. So they're actually sponsoring
- 1:20us this whole year. So every Tuesday you guys are
- 1:22getting an ad from the Commons. And I can't explain how
- 1:26meaningful these longer term partnerships have been to us
- 1:29these past couple of years. So thank you guys so much for
- 1:32all the love on the initial Commons ad read last week
- 1:35because honestly, it was so amazing to be able to launch it
- 1:38and share that feedback with them.
- 1:40And yeah, it's really exciting for us.
- 1:41All right, before I get into the stories for today, I wanted to
- 1:45give you guys a reminder because our newsletter is back this week
- 1:48and we have close friends, which is our newsletter where we
- 1:51basically cover a piece of content like a TikTok, an
- 1:54article. We get your opinion on it.
- 1:56We share that in the newsletter, we share our opinions on it.
- 1:59It's kind of like a chronically online book club, but with
- 2:02various pieces of content. So I will link the TikTok that
- 2:05we are going to be covering bring in the close friends
- 2:08newsletter this week. I will link it in the
- 2:10description, but I will also play it at the end of this
- 2:13episode. So if you guys want to stick
- 2:15around, listen to that, watch that video and then share your
- 2:18opinions in the comments. Then your opinion may appear in
- 2:21our newsletter. All right, the first story that
- 2:23I have for you guys, I am going to cover this Savory Girl
- 2:28backlash saga that has been going on for the past couple of
- 2:32weeks. I don't know if you guys have
- 2:34seen this. It only started coming up for me
- 2:36a couple of days ago and I was doing a bit of research into it
- 2:40and I noticed it did technically start around Christmas, but it's
- 2:43really picked up over these past like 5:00-ish days.
- 2:47So let's get into it. Over the past several weeks, a
- 2:49creator named Holly who goes by Savory Girl on TikTok has been
- 2:53under fire from her fandom. The backlash started from one
- 2:57specific instance and it has since snowballed with users
- 3:01digging up things from her past, which has led to a larger scale
- 3:05scandal essentially. So Holly is primarily a food
- 3:07influencer. She built a following of over
- 3:101.2 million people trying all types of savory foods and her
- 3:14tagline is that she's the opposite of a picky eater.
- 3:17I don't follow Holly, but I was familiar with her content
- 3:20because I don't know if you guys remember, but there was like a
- 3:22period of time last year where every creator was getting scent
- 3:26these like the mukbang foodie craters for getting scent, those
- 3:30like candied smoked salmon, fish, and they were all eating
- 3:34them on camera, like peeling them off the skin.
- 3:36Oh my God, it looked so good. I was obsessed with those
- 3:40videos. I still desperately want to try
- 3:42it. So those videos of her eating
- 3:44that would come up for me because I was very much like on
- 3:46that algorithm. But that's really all I knew
- 3:48about her before this. So on December 24th, Holly
- 3:51posted a paid partnership with Claude AI, which is essentially
- 3:55like a competitor of Chachi, BT and Gemini.
- 3:57The video is still up. It's her making Beef Wellington,
- 4:00and in it she asks Claude for advice on the recipe.
- 4:03Savory girls, let's make a beef Wellington.
- 4:06Oh, God, it's not supposed to look like that.
- 4:08Hey Claude, I'm working on my mushrooms and it's looking more
- 4:11like mushroom soup than a duck cell.
- 4:14Oh no. That's too wet for duck cells,
- 4:16but totally fixable. OK, so this video sparked
- 4:18intense backlash from her fandom, who criticized Holly for
- 4:22promoting generative AI for essentially all the main reasons
- 4:25that people don't like AI, like the environment, how it steals
- 4:28from artists, all that kind of stuff.
- 4:30And she ended up turning the comments off on this
- 4:32sponsorship, presumably because of the backlash.
- 4:35So as the Internet does, when somebody, usually a woman
- 4:38specifically, gets mass criticism, they dig into her
- 4:42history. And users found a couple things
- 4:44that she used to have an Australian accent, even though
- 4:47now, as you would have heard, she has very much an American
- 4:51accent. So people discovered that Holly
- 4:54was seemingly on an Australian reality show called Heartbreak
- 4:58Island. And on that she had this Aussie
- 5:00accent. And then post show she did
- 5:02interviews and podcasts and stuff and she had this same
- 5:06Aussie accent. I'm Holly, I'm 20 years old and
- 5:09I'm a stylist for a record label.
- 5:11Since I moved to Lai have been big on the dating scene.
- 5:15I'd say dating is definitely a hobby.
- 5:17I've got like a little 6. Man rotation and it doesn't
- 5:19really like, I mean, as somebody who lives in Australia but is
- 5:22obviously not from here, I'm going to say it doesn't really
- 5:24sound fully Australian. You can definitely hear twangs
- 5:28of American and just like other things coming through.
- 5:31So you could think, OK, she's like faking this accent.
- 5:34And that is obviously a possibility.
- 5:36I have seen stuff from users though, saying that they went to
- 5:39school with her or they knew her as a kid or whatever, and that
- 5:41she moved internationally a lot because of her family's career.
- 5:44And she did apparently live in Australia for a number of years
- 5:48throughout her teenage years. Does that mean she should have
- 5:50an Australian accent? I mean, probably not.
- 5:54I moved here in my early 20s. I obviously don't have an
- 5:56Australian accent. I feel like by your teens, you
- 5:59know, your accent is established, however, you know,
- 6:03can you fault somebody who's in their teens trying to probably
- 6:07fit in more at school? You know, high school is really
- 6:10tough and changing their accent so they do fit in a bit more.
- 6:14Also, no. So that's not the most egregious
- 6:17thing that people are kind of upset about.
- 6:19Obviously it's like a funny thing and people are bringing it
- 6:22up a lot and people are obviously still trying to
- 6:24weaponize it against her because that's just how the Internet is.
- 6:27However, the thing that has come out from her past that people
- 6:30are the most shook by, she was in a vlog about a year ago with
- 6:34a creator named Danny Mullen. Now I didn't know anything about
- 6:37this man, but after going through his channel, his content
- 6:42is like political conservative rage bait.
- 6:45So here are some of his most recent titles.
- 6:47Acting black on Black Friday. Terrorizing the Kamala Harris HQ
- 6:52brackets. Liberal meltdown rating.
- 6:54The most liberal city in America, Hollywood, you get the
- 6:58gist, that kind of shit. So the video that Holly is in, I
- 7:01think she's in a couple, but the main one that people are
- 7:03clipping is called Exposing a Pimp.
- 7:05Border Patrol agent must Watch. And it's from about a year ago.
- 7:09So in the video, Danny and Holly, they go to the US Mexico
- 7:12border and they film a bunch of Mexican migrants who have just
- 7:16crossed the border for content. And obviously these people are
- 7:19not consenting to be in this. They're waiting in line to get
- 7:23their papers processed. And the point of the video, it
- 7:26seems, is to expose how incompetent Border Patrol is and
- 7:31therefore why it's, quote, UN quote, so easy for people to
- 7:34just come into the US from Mexico.
- 7:37It's a fucking crazy video. OK?
- 7:38I'm not gonna play clips because I am fearful that this is the
- 7:41kind of creator who would, like, strike our channel down with
- 7:44copyright. But just know it's a freaking
- 7:46crazy video. And in this video, Holly goes
- 7:49with him. And there's parts where Holly
- 7:51jokes about having sex with immigrants.
- 7:54In immigrants as they get into the country to welcome.
- 7:58Them at one point, Danny asks one of the men who are like
- 8:01lined up in this immigration line.
- 8:03And I can't stress enough before I keep going, like, I would be
- 8:06shocked if these people consented to being filmed for
- 8:09this. OK, So he goes up to this man
- 8:12who's in the line and he says to the man that she has in Holly
- 8:16just wants 15 minutes with him in a tent.
- 8:18So making like a sexual advance to this man.
- 8:22And he seems terrified when Danny, so it's like on Google
- 8:25Translate or something. And so Danny like, plays it for
- 8:28him on his phone and the man like jumps back.
- 8:29He's like, no, no, no, like, what the hell?
- 8:31There's even more vulgar sexual stuff that they say to these
- 8:35people under the guise of like a joke for content.
- 8:38It's so disgusting. It's so exploitative and it's
- 8:41treating these people like subhuman essentially.
- 8:43And then in the video, she also kisses a Border Patrol agent.
- 8:47So all of this has really culminated in a lot of criticism
- 8:51towards Holly and she hasn't posted since December 26th.
- 8:56I'm going to be interested to see if she comes back and makes
- 8:57a statement about any of this, about her accent.
- 9:00I mean, again, I think that's kind of harmless, but this video
- 9:03and being associated with this creator Danny, that is something
- 9:07I feel you just cannot come back from.
- 9:09All right, the next story that I have for you guys is Bebe Rexha
- 9:12has tweeted about wanting to be let out of the Key Asylum.
- 9:15OK, this is really funny. I think it's really funny.
- 9:17But it's also become a really relevant topic right now in pop
- 9:21culture, So I thought it was worth covering.
- 9:23So artist Bebe Rexha is sending voice notes to the Internet from
- 9:27the Key Asylum. She tweeted a meme a couple of
- 9:29days ago that shows the Grim Reaper walking past a hallway of
- 9:34doors. A bunch of the doors are open
- 9:35and in the open indoors, she put Tanashi Tate McRae, Sabrina
- 9:39Carpenter, Charli XCX and Zara Larsson.
- 9:42And then the last door is shut and it's a photo of her Bebe
- 9:45Rexha. And she put the caption, guys,
- 9:47please help me. It's lonely in here with a cry
- 9:50face. And then she posted this voice
- 9:52memo. OK, let me play it.
- 9:53Hi. Babes, it's Bebe.
- 9:55Here. Reporting from the Kia asylum
- 9:59like it's hard to hear you guys like sorry they just make us run
- 10:06on the treadmill everyday with heels on.
- 10:09I'm barely like eating I'm doing vocal lessons all day and I
- 10:14still suck I'm still a fat bitch.
- 10:16I can't lose weight and I just need your help.
- 10:20I don't know what to do like I heard Sabrina got out Zara,
- 10:25Charlie they left they never look back and my that ass flop
- 10:31ass is still in here. So if you know what the Key
- 10:34Asylum is, this is pretty funny. The Key Asylum is a stand
- 10:37Twitter reference to an artists flop era.
- 10:41It's located in a flop tropica where artists who are basically
- 10:45in like a lull in their career go to ride it out.
- 10:49But not everyone breaks free. It's named after the rapper Key
- 10:52who had the 2002 hit My Neck, My Back.
- 10:56And when she failed to produce another banger, some people
- 10:58labeled her as a one hit wonder. And then Stan Twitter took this
- 11:02and ran with it. And now it's called the Key
- 11:03Asylum. So getting out of the Key Asylum
- 11:05has become a big topic of conversation in pop culture
- 11:08lately. As BB pointed out, a lot of long
- 11:11standing artists have recently broken free and become some of
- 11:14the biggest pop stars that we've seen in recent years.
- 11:17And something that a lot of these pop stars have in common,
- 11:21which also Bebe Rexha has, is that they were actually very
- 11:24successful by every measure. Like they've had hits for years.
- 11:27They're very commercially successful.
- 11:29People know their songs, but people don't necessarily know
- 11:33them as the artist behind these hits and or they don't have
- 11:37like, you know, a pair of social or like emotional connection to
- 11:40them as an artist as much. I think the next one to come out
- 11:43of the key asylum could be Madison Beer.
- 11:46She has new album coming out Friday and I feel like her team
- 11:48is doing a lot to really promote it.
- 11:50We will see. But yes, there's been a lot of
- 11:52mixed reaction to BB Rex supposed to be about this.
- 11:55A lot of people think it's hilarious.
- 11:56I think it's hilarious, Whereas others say there's this like
- 11:58unspoken rule where if an artist is stuck in the key asylum, they
- 12:03are not supposed to acknowledge that they are stuck in the key
- 12:05asylum. All right.
- 12:06And the last story that I have for you guys today is I need to
- 12:10talk about the latest slang to take over our chronically online
- 12:14vernacular, and that is Lo Kenyuanly.
- 12:17So Lo Kenyuanly is a portmanteau that combines Loki and genuinely
- 12:22It's the latest brain rot word to pop off online.
- 12:25It originated back in November from a TikTok user at Cam 22
- 12:29when they shared a clip of Ashton Hall.
- 12:31Like, you know that manosphere be the biggest alpha male that
- 12:36you can be that creator who made all those like get ready with me
- 12:39vlogs and went viral last year. It's a clip of Ashton Hall
- 12:41throwing his video game controller, which already was a
- 12:44meme. OK so they shared a clip of this
- 12:46meme and then put a text overlay reading when the pastor at the
- 12:50altar low key asks your wife if she wants to be your lawfully
- 12:54wedded wife and instead of saying I do, she genuinely says
- 12:57genuinely and you low genuinely tweak out.
- 12:59So this really took off from here.
- 13:01People started using low genuinely all over and there's
- 13:04already been an offshoot flag. People are now also saying low
- 13:08Kirk genuinely to convey the same meaning.
- 13:11So this is a TikTok explaining all of this from Etymology Nerd.
- 13:15The difference between low Kenyanly and low curcenuinely is
- 13:17really interesting because theoretically both words have
- 13:19the same meaning. Both describe the low key
- 13:20feeling of being in an ontological, but one of them
- 13:23just happens to have Kirk in it. And that's pretty unusual
- 13:25because most of the time each part of a word contributes
- 13:27something important to the meaning.
- 13:28The adjective unbelievable only is what it is because of the
- 13:30unbelievant ofble. But there is a rare exception to
- 13:33this pattern called an intensifier, which doesn't
- 13:35affect the definition of a word, but does change your feelings
- 13:37about what's going on. So if I say unfucking
- 13:39believable, the fucking doesn't change anything except add an
- 13:41emotion of anger. And I think Kirk might be the
- 13:43first ever intensifier added purely for irony.
- 13:45When you say Loker Kenya Lee, you're really just saying low
- 13:48Kenya Lee, but with a humorous emphasis, which is kind of
- 13:50unique compared to the other types of intensifiers.
- 13:52The this example I can think of is ass, and that's a sweet ass
- 13:54car which kind of adds humor, but it's still mostly for
- 13:56magnitude like the other intensifiers.
- 13:58Meanwhile, Kirk and Loker genuinely, implicitly creates an
- 14:00affective state of humorous political subversion, making it
- 14:03one of the most emotionally expressive intensifiers I've
- 14:05ever encountered. Look, am I going to start using
- 14:07Lokenuinely? I hope not.
- 14:10I feel too old to use it, but I think it's important that we all
- 14:13understand how language is evolving online and what it
- 14:17means. And you know, like this is going
- 14:19to be the language that Gen. Alpha is using in the next
- 14:22couple of years. So it's important that we stay
- 14:24up to date with it, which is why I want to share this new word
- 14:26she's popping off. All right, guys, Well, that's it
- 14:28for mini school today. Thank you so much for listening.
- 14:30I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
- 14:32and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
- 14:35It helps us so much. It helps us grow.
- 14:37Annabelle will talk to you guys tomorrow and then I will talk to
- 14:40you guys on Thursday. Bye.
- 14:42I'm no stranger to that genre of post that teaches you how to be
- 14:45disgustingly well read or well educated after following a
- 14:48specific routine or reading a certain number of books.
- 14:51In the past, I too bought into the belief that we could emerge
- 14:54as more chic, cosmopolitan versions of ourselves with just
- 14:57a few steps. But now I'm a bit nervous to see
- 14:59this aesthetization of intelligence.
- 15:02Walk with me here. Say that you follow that one
- 15:04content creators recommendation and actually crafted the
- 15:06personal curriculum for yourself.
- 15:08How far along are you? Are the sub stack articles
- 15:10you're reading actually of substance, or is it about the
- 15:13ification of something that already reinforces what you
- 15:16know? Are you going down rabbit holes
- 15:18yourself, finding any cultural artifacts that you personally
- 15:21enjoy, or are you reliant on the recommendations that the
- 15:24algorithm hands to you? I'm scared that being well read
- 15:27is now seen as an aspiration rather than a series of
- 15:29sustainable actions. That there's no follow through,
- 15:33no deeper reflection that's going on, that it's simply
- 15:35presented as a passing trend. I'm not telling everyone to put
- 15:38their books down and regress the full on anti intellectualism
- 15:41because God knows I hated that too.
- 15:43In fact, I actually think it's promising that people are
- 15:45interested in curiosity as a concept.
- 15:47But that's the thing, it's a habit that we cultivate over
- 15:50time. It's a product of consistent
- 15:53hard work, intellectual rigor, and an openness to the world.
- 15:56It's manifested through the ideas you produce and the
- 15:59questions that you continue to ponder on.
- 16:01It's not something that your For You page can feed you.
- 16:04So I hope this 2026 we go past performance that we develop a
- 16:08genuine appetite for learning rather than leaving videos to
- 16:11rot in our bookmarks. Because when we learn to apply
- 16:13curiosity in our daily lives, curiosity turns into discovery,
- 16:17and discovery is what turns into thought.