Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Viral "husband packs my lunch" trend, Stanzi Potenza "clanker" skit backlash + Rhode's relevancy

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MINI SCROLL: Viral "husband packs my lunch" trend, Stanzi Potenza "clanker" skit backlash + Rhode's relevancy · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone. Welcome to Mini Scroll, the
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  daily Internet culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories
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  from social media, the creator economy and the digital space.
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  Every Monday through Thursday and sometimes Fridays.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand Centennial World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
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  everyone. All right, I have no updates for
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  you guys, but as always, Please remember to rate, review and
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  All right, the first story that I have for you guys is there is
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  this new trend going around of women asking their husbands or
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  their boyfriends or fiance's basically male partners to pack
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  their lunch for work or drop it off for them at work.
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  And then these women film themselves unboxing the lunches
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  that their partners have brought them.
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  So this trend started after creator Caitlyn Teaches shared
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  an unboxing video of a lunch that her husband packed for her.
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  So she called him. She said she forgot her lunch at
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  work, which was at school because she teaches and she
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  asked her husband to bring her one.
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  Her lunch was filled with basically just like random half
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  bags of snacks, like half full bags of chips with like the full
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  claw clip attached, 2 day old Chipotle, random bags of snacks
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  like I said, and also a bag of dog food with a note that read
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  because you're my dog DAWG. So her video got over 30 million
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  views in a matter of days, sparked a ton of backlash, and
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  of course sparked this trend as well.
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  And the backlash was mostly around how men treat the women
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  that they are in like long term relationships with and kind of
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  their learned helplessness in these scenarios.
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  In a follow up video, Caitlyn addressed the controversy.
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  Here's what she said #1. The dog he spelled it.
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  Yes. His handwriting is horrible.
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  Yeah, it is. You're right.
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  Y'all are so pressed that he called me a dog.
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  He did not call me a DOG. Dog.
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  DOG, like a dog that has a leash.
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  Did not call me that DAWG. Dog as in homie.
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  American slang for homie. It's what we call each other.
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  It's a joke. It was a joke.
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  He was trying to make me laugh, which it worked.
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  Tim and my sister came up with this idea together.
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  My sister thought it was funny too.
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  Moving on. 2nd the Chipotle. Y'all are all really upset that
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  it was 2 day old Chipotle. Well guess what?
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  Teach your brain deceived me. It was actually a day old.
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  It was from the night before, so not even a day old.
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  I said 2. As a teacher, one day feels like
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  7. OK so regardless if Caitlin
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  forgives her husband or thought it was a joke, obviously she's
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  not going to like do anything about this.
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  She's defending him. OK, but in general this scenario
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  does show a lack of respect that this man has for his wife.
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  He wasn't thoughtful. He didn't put in any effort to
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  make her lunch. He threw in a bunch of like half
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  eaten snacks and some dog food and dropped it off to her.
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  And if he didn't have time, if he was like on his way to work
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  or whatever and he was time for two, then he could have either
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  told her to like like Ubereats something he could have picked
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  her up something really fast. Like there were a lot of other
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  options here, I feel than just throwing a bunch of like
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  mindless bags, like snacks into a bag and dropping it off to
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  her. I also think though, more
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  damning is actually the unboxing, the fact that Caitlyn
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  got her lunch and thought, this is going to be interesting.
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  Let me film it for TikTok because if my husband was
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  dropping me off lunch, like it wouldn't even cross my mind to
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  pull out my phone and start recording it because nothing
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  would be weird about that lunch. Like he would probably pack me a
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  more thoughtful lunch than I would pack myself.
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  So it's very telling that Caitlyn and all of these women,
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  their first reaction is like, let's see what my husband packed
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  me because it tells you the expectations that they have of
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  their husband and how low they are, unfortunately.
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  And I think in the case of Caitlyn, like if he had packed
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  her a thoughtful, hearty, like, normal lunch, like a sandwich
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  and some of her favorite snacks and some fruit or whatever, and
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  like, put it in the bottom and then maybe put like, I don't
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  know, a freezer block or something on top and then put
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  the dog food as a joke. So when she opened it, it was
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  like dog food. And then obviously, as she kept
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  going, she found a nice normal lunch.
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  Then, OK, that could have been funny.
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  Like when she's trying to play off the whole like, dog food
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  thing. But it's like, no, in the
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  context of what he brought you, that is what makes it so bad.
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  It's not like the joke that he was trying to make here.
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  And we see this so much. There's another instance that's
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  going somewhat viral on TikTok right now where there's a woman
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  running marathon and her boyfriend was supposed to like
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  meet her at some, I don't know, I've never run a marathon, OK,
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  and I've actually never seen anybody run a marathon, but he
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  was supposed to meet her at some point on the course, you know,
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  and like hand her snacks, OK, And I guess this was pre planned
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  and he actually like didn't have the snacks for her.
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  What the? Fuck.
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  I don't. To the young girls that listen
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  to this podcast, you do not need to marry men that treat you like
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  this. This is actually not them like
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  pulling jokes. This is not funny.
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  They hide behind like, oh, you just can't take a joke.
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  No, like stop weaponizing humor. That's not what this is.
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  This is you showing such a lack of respect.
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  It is you basically telling the person in your life that you're
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  supposed to love the most, that you don't care about them, that
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  you don't respect them. That is the message that they're
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  trying to send to like they are trying to like bring you down a
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  peg and make you feel confused and insecure and a little bit
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  upset. And then they kind of turned
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  around and be like, oh, it's just a joke.
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  That's what's happening here. It's not okay.
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  Don't fucking marry men like this.
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  I can tell you is somebody who is in her like early to mid 30s.
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  All of my we all dated like shitty guys, OK, of course, like
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  in our 20s. But like all of my friends have
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  found respectful, supportive, decent, progressive men.
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  All of my friends are married to very like normal nice guys that
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  would never treat them like this.
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  There are lots of them out there.
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  OK. The next story that I have for
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  you guys is comedian and TikTok creator Stanzi Potenza is facing
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  criticism after a recent video that she posted was meant to
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  make fun of AI, but it ended up basically being thinly veiled
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  racism. And it has sparked an entire
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  conversation around how we are currently talking about or I
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  guess, quote UN quote, joking about AI and the future of
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  robotics. OK, so this sketch was centered
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  around the term clanker, which is a word that has become kind
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  of like a catch all quote UN quote slur for robots and AI.
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  And if you are on TikTok, I am sure of the past couple of
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  months you have, I've seen people using that word and like
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  making skits about that word and talking about that word in
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  relation to AI Caitlin. Are you still dating that dirty
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  clanker? I'm not supposed to use it, but
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  I can't speak my mind anymore. That's a robot.
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  Yes, grandpa, I'm still dating RX4317 because I'm AI sexual.
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  You're what? AI sexual?
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  I'm only attracted to robots. So the phrase went viral in
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  July, although I've heard it's from Star Trek.
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  Star Trek, Star Wars? I don't know, I grew up watching
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  a lot of Star Trek. My dad loved Star Trek, but I
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  know it's from one of the stars. OK, but it went viral in this
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  context in July. But from the beginning, there
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  has always been a little bit of discussion kind of bubbling up
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  to the surface about the fact that that term seems to parallel
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  real world slurs and discriminatory terms.
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  So Stanzi's skit went up on August 20th and it didn't get a
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  lot of traction. First on TikTok, but now it's
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  it's been posted on X and that's how it's really blown up.
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  So it was a comedy sketch with the caption POV.
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  You're a clanker in 2050. In the video, she plays a
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  Southern American waitress who refuses service to two robot
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  customers. Hi folks, what can I get started
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  for you today? Oh well, well, well.
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  Look what the Roomba dragged in. Didn't you see the sun outside?
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  We don't serve clankers here. Can't you read?
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  What are you 2 called? Nuts and bolts?
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  We only serve human food. Hair wire backs.
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  We don't have none of your oil or microchips or whatever it is
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  you rust buckets eat. The character escalates when she
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  threatens the robots with a bat, eventually boasting about
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  kicking the quote. Walking USB is out of the
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  restaurant. OK, so first of all, obviously
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  this is supposed to parody. And when I say parody, I mean
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  that very lightly, but this is obviously supposed to quote UN
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  quote parody, kind of like 1950s era Southern US.
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  It already gives that you're trying to recreate the same
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  culture around 1950s, you know, segregation in America, user
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  Lira Menial wrote. Quote the internal white
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  disposition to say slurs, make slurs, even in jest in relation
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  to the word clanker, which I completely agree with.
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  OK, so like I said, there was already discussion around the
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  term clanker and how it felt kind of loaded, at least in the
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  way that people seemed so eager to use it online in these skits
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  where they're basically cosplaying as bigots.
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  And then with this one video, with this one skid, it kind of
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  seemed to solidify that these skits are meant to echo
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  segregation era racism. And look, these are valid
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  conversations to have. Like, I am sure a lot of us have
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  thought about the advancement of AI and what that means for our
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  future and how that may further divide us, like between, I don't
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  know, people that accept AI and robots and those who reject it.
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  Like I think it's normal to look at how quickly technology and AI
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  has advanced in the last couple of years and be afraid of that,
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  what that means for our future, especially with all of the
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  ethical, environmental, all of those implications around AI.
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  Like it's normal to look at that, question it, be concerned
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  about it and express those concerns and that uncertainty
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  through humor and art and comedy.
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  Like that is a normal human experience.
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  People have been doing that for years.
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  But in the case of Stanzi's skit and so many of the other skits,
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  they do feel very motivated by an eagerness to be a bigot and
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  to useless without the consequences though, because
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  we're just really just talking about technology and robots.
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  I'm interested to hear what you guys think about this because
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  there's a lot of people, like I said, who believe that the
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  framework in which these skits exist.
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  Like they are trying to mimic a very specific era of time, a
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  very specific time in history that was really horrible for
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  anybody who is not white or like a white man specifically.
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  And then there's other people who are like clankers are not
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  real, like robots, like being discriminatory against, like
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  robots and AI, like it's not human beings.
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  And I'm interested to hear what you guys think.
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  All right, the last story that I have for you guys is I wanted to
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  talk about a bit of discourse that's happening with Haley
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  Bieber online right now. So she had a really big weekend.
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  She was celebrating elf cosmetics acquisition of her
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  beauty brand Road, and that has led to some discourse online
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  about the future of the brand and its relevancy.
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  So Haley was in New York this weekend to represent her brand
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  and it's $1 billion elf acquisition.
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  She did a talk at the New York Stock Exchange and then she
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  headed to Sephora Times Square to officially launch Rd. into
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  Sephora. And all of this hype has led to
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  people theorizing online that this is the peak of road and
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  it's actually only going to be downhill from here.
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  And the main arguments are because, first of all, it will
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  become much more accessible. So it will no longer feel like
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  kind of a cool girl exclusive brand.
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  You know, that was a huge part of the hype is like if you could
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  get your hands on the next Rd. drop before it sold out, then
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  you were cool, especially because it didn't sell in major
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  retailers, right? So like here in Australia, like
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  you can't get Rd. I don't know if you could get
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  Rd. in Canada either. I think you can now with
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  Sephora. Anyways, it was like a really
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  big deal to have the new road products.
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  People have noted that the most recent drops haven't necessarily
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  sold out. I haven't kept track of that,
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  but that's what some people are saying online.
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  Obviously elf had, I mean, I know it's elf parent company
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  that bought Rd., but like elf Cosmetics itself had did a
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  little bit of controversy recently around the mat rife
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  stuff. People didn't really love how
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  they responded to that either to the backlash.
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  And there's a lot of comparisons as well with Kylie Cosmetics and
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  how after Cody bought a stake in Kylie Cosmetics, everything just
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  went downhill because the product changes, the quality can
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  change because it goes from manufacturing like smaller, more
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  exclusive batches to mass production, especially getting
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  into a store like Sephora. And so often times things have
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  to change in the manufacturing side of things to make that
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  happen. So yeah, a lot of people think
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  we are currently living in the peak of road and it is all going
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  to be essentially downhill in terms of relevancy and possibly
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  profitability from here. I could also see from a
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  parasocial perspective, it no longer feels like you are
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  supporting Haley. It feels like you are supporting
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  like a big conglomerate, which I think would impact some of her
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  fan base as well. Anyways guys, that's it for Mini
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  Scroll today. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please remember to rate, review
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  and subscribe Spotify, star rate US, all that good stuff and I
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  will talk to you tomorrow. Bye.