Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Casey Neistat protects David Dobrik, BFFs Podcast Zach Bryan diss track, Kardashians x Wicked explained + Netflix update

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MINI SCROLL: Casey Neistat protects David Dobrik, BFFs Podcast Zach Bryan diss track, Kardashians x Wicked explained + Netflix update · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
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  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
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  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
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  I hope you guys are having a good day.
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  I know a lot of our listeners are in the US and I know it's a
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  very stressful day for you guys and my thoughts are with you,
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  but I am here today to give you guys a distraction.
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  Hopefully, you know, 15 minutes of reprieve from the anxiety of
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  everything going on with the election.
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  So let's just get right in to the stories.
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  Oh also, I am feeling much better today.
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  I made a comment on YouTube about how like yesterday I felt
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  like I was very low energy. I just wasn't feeling very well
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  yesterday. But I'm feeling much better
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  today and I so appreciate all the comments and well wishes and
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  everything is fine. I literally was just having one
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  of those days. I was super sleep deprived.
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  I was just a little bit like sluggish and just feeling down.
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  You know when you just have one of those days.
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  But I am back. I am energetic and I am back to
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  be the light for some of you guys in possibly a very
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  stressful day. OK, the first story that I have
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  for you guys is that Casey Neistat is addressing his David
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  Dobrik documentary once again, and this time he's kind of
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  changing his tune. So in 20/22, it was announced
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  that YouTube Casey Neistat had been putting together a
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  documentary about David Dobrik and it was debuting at South by
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  Southwest. Casey followed David around to
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  kind of like figure out how David became one of the biggest
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  Youtubers and like what that rise to fame was like his
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  process, all of that. However, during filming with
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  David, the Vlog squad and obviously David was the leader
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  of the Vlog squad were quote UN quote cancelled when that
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  insider article came out detailing an alleged sexual
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  assault by David's friend and Vlog squad member Dom and some
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  other members were allegedly present for it as well.
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  And then I think this was actually before the article came
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  out, but the kind of backlash or like the blowback from Jeff
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  Whittick's excavator accident kind of started to happen after
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  the Insider article came out. So Jeff was seriously injured by
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  David while they were recording a vlog for David's channel.
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  So Casey apparently included all of this in the documentary.
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  And that apparently ruined Casey and David's relationship.
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  So two years on from when it premiered at South by Southwest,
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  Casey still will not release the documentary.
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  He's been asked a few times on different podcasts where it is
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  and at first he was saying the holdup was because he was
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  looking for a bigger distributor.
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  Now however, in a new interview with John Ushay posted a couple
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  of days ago. Also, sorry if I said that
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  wrong. I know he's like such a famous
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  digital creator interviewer and I should know how to say his
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  last name. Forgive me if I did not say it
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  correctly. But in this interview, Casey has
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  admitted that he is hesitant to release the documentary because
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  he wants to protect David. So he also revealed that he
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  spoke to the woman who accused Dom, David's friend of sexual
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  assault in 2022, and he feels responsibility to her to share
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  her story. But he is basically still
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  choosing to protect David. He said he feels conflicted
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  about that, but he's he kind of made it seem like it was this
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  like not a subconscious desire to protect David, but he was
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  kind of, I think implying that it's not a necessarily full on
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  decision of his. He just has been like hesitant
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  to release it. And he thinks it's probably
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  because he's still trying to protect David.
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  Somewhere deep down South, Casey and David are not on speaking
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  terms. And this revelation has made a
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  lot of people kind of side eye Casey even more.
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  An interesting perspective though.
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  I saw a comment saying that Casey is not protecting David.
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  He is protecting himself because because he's scared of David.
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  And I think that's probably valid.
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  I think he's probably scared of David's fan base because even
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  though David is, you know, nowhere near as relevant as he
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  was before all of this happened, he still has a massive fan base.
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  He still, you know, has rabid fans that I would argue probably
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  feel even more protective over him now than they once did after
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  all of this stuff happened. And I'm sure he's also scared of
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  legal ramifications from David. So I don't know.
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  So like I just kind of, you know, accepted that we were not
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  going to ever see this documentary and I don't really
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  know if I care to see it. I mean, obviously if it comes
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  out, I will watch it so I can talk about it for you guys.
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  But aside from that, like I don't have any interest.
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  To me, David Dobrik is like so irrelevant now.
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  And I just think everything that happened with the Vlog Squad was
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  like so icky. I'm not interested in consuming
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  the perspective of the perpetrators in these situations
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  in both like Jeff's accident in Dom sexual assault, Like I'm not
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  interested in hearing that side of things.
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  I'm interested in hearing the victim side.
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  And I think it is pretty messed up that Casey won't release it
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  or like do a re edit or something if he is worried that
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  he's being like too harsh on David or whatever.
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  If he's worried about like legal ramifications, but like, at
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  least do what you said you were going to do with, I think they
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  called her Hannah in the article.
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  I don't think that's her real name.
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  But you know, with Hannah, where you said you were going to help
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  her tell her story and she presumably sat down for him and
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  spoke to him. And that would be very
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  challenging to do if something like this happened to you.
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  And then she got this kind of media storm around her with the
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  Insider article. Again, I know she was anonymous,
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  but it would have been incredibly difficult to tell the
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  journalist that story and then watch everything unfold off the
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  back of that story. Watch all the criticism against
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  her. Watch how all of these people
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  this like House of Cards kind of crumbled after that story broke.
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  And that would be difficult to watch, even though you would
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  also maybe feel a little bit vindicated.
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  You know, there would be a lot of, I'm sure, guilt and shame
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  associated with that. So to ask her to sit down and
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  tell her, like, reiterate that story, relive that experience,
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  relive I'm sure what it was like to speak with Insider and watch
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  that fall out. Like I think it is his duty to
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  her to bring that to life. All right, The next story that I
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  have for you guys is like, it's like 1/2 story.
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  Dave Portnoy and Josh Richards are releasing a diss track on
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  Zach Bryan called The Smallest Man.
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  So this is not out yet. It will come out tonight.
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  But yeah, they have like, made a music video.
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  It looks like. It's like a full diss track.
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  Brianna reposted the teaser to her stories with like the eyes
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  emoji. And yeah, this is obviously just
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  Dave capitalizing on when he called Zach the smallest man.
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  Is it the smallest man whoever lived or the smallest man alive?
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  That Taylor Swift song, I actually listened to that song
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  every once in a while. I should know it.
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  But anyways, he called him that on Twitter, which was a nod to
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  Zach Bryan getting in trouble and being an idiot and tweeting
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  out that he prefers Kanye over Taylor recently.
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  So yeah, Dave has been on like an anti Zach Bryan rampage a
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  little bit since he broke up with Brianna, and this is I
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  guess the next iteration of that.
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  Anyways, this feels on brand for everyone involved and I am not
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  anticipating anything great from the song from the diss track,
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  but I will definitely listen. Okay, the next story is that
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  Ariana Grande and Cynthia Arevo have addressed that Kardashian
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  private screening of Wicked. So this is actually from one of
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  my industry friends, Laura Macia.
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  She's the entertainment editor at Pedestrian here in Australia.
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  And she interviewed the Wicked cast on Monday when they were
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  here for the Australian premiere.
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  And she asked Ari and Cynthia to clarify, like, what went down
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  with that controversial Kardashian screening.
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  So in case you weren't across it, the Kardashians posted
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  photos a couple of weeks ago with Ari and Cynthia at one of
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  their homes because they basically came to give them this
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  like private pre screening. The house was decorated like to
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  the nines with wicked vibes. It was like a wicked themed
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  festival or something. It was so wild.
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  And in one of Kim's videos on social media, she said, I just
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  came home and look what Cynthia and Ariana set up for us.
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  So this prompted a lot of backlash.
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  A lot of people thought that this was part of like the wicked
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  marketing plan to do this screening and have the
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  Kardashians post about it like an undisclosed ad, basically,
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  which honestly, it could have been.
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  It could have been. And people were also saying that
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  the Kardashian kids have endless special experiences and it would
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  have been way more impactful from APR perspective if they did
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  these lavish private screenings with the cast, you know, at like
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  a Children's Hospital or something like that, which
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  actually completely agree. I think, of course, the reach of
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  the Kardashians, if they did work with them, I don't know,
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  it's possible. I don't really know.
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  I'll get into like what they said about it.
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  I don't necessarily think that, like Universal paid the
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  Kardashians to post about it, but I think regardless, it's
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  still, you know, reach and audience and PR for them.
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  And I think it would have been much better PR for Universal for
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  Wicked if, yeah, they had done something that was like really
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  meaningful like that. Also, like, this is an aside,
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  but there were also a lot of questions about like what went
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  down at the screening because Ari and Kim obviously have this
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  history, both having been involved pretty seriously with
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  Pete Davidson. So that would have been
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  interesting to be a little fly on the wall.
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  I'm assuming they just like completely ignored it.
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  I'm sure they've met a million times.
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  But anyways, yes. So Laura asked them about this
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  in their interview and they clarified that they did not set
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  up the decor for the Kardashians quote.
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  We'd set up a couple of other screenings for super fans and
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  for our families. So when they said they wanted to
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  see it, Universal was kind enough to set it up for us,
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  Ariana explained. Ariana said we walked in and
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  there were so many decorations. We were like, Oh my goodness,
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  Kim, this is too much. Thank you so much.
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  This is so nice of you. And she was like, thank you
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  guys. I thought you guys did this.
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  It turns out it was Universal Studios, which was so beautiful.
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  It felt like our wedding day. So that was interesting because
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  it gave us like a little bit of insight into what happened here.
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  So yes, it doesn't necessarily sound like it was a paid
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  opportunity, like it was a paid collaboration between the
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  Kardashians and Universal to promote Wicked.
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  I mean, and of course, like if the Kardashians contact
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  Universal and they're like, hey, can we have a private pre
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  screening? Like are you going to say no if
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  you're doing these anyways? Like probably not.
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  Like there's such a powerful influential family.
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  But I still think the PR around it was kind of messy.
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  That's just my opinion. All right.
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  And the last story that I have for you guys, it's a little bit
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  of tech news. Netflix is removing most of its
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  interactive titles from December 1st.
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  So from December, Netflix is removing interactive titles like
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  Black Mirror, Bandersnatch, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
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  Kimmy versus the Reverend. This news comes after the
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  service announced it would no longer be investing in creating
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  this format of content. Journalist Jay Peters for The
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  Verge argues that this is another example of Netflix
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  struggling to find its footing in the gaming category.
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  Quote The D listings are yet another example of Netflix
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  struggling to find its footing in gaming.
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  While Netflix has a robust slate of mobile titles that are
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  increasingly based on its own reality TV shows, the company
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  recently shut down its AAA game studio before it released a
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  game. And Netflix's gaming streaming
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  beta is still in testing despite expanding to the US more than a
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  year ago. That's really interesting
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  insight. I actually didn't even know that
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  Netflix was trying to get into gaming.
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  I mean, we used to say this all the time, Jordy and I on this
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  podcast. But like, can the platforms just
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  like stick to their niche? Can they just stick to what
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  they're doing? Like, do you really need like
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  the entire market share because you just like are so desperate
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  for more money? Like that's what it appears, at
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  least as consumers, that is how it appears.
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  And I get it. There is a ceiling and Netflix
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  is probably pretty close to reaching that ceiling.
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  So they're trying to expand and figure out new ways.
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  But like at some point it's just like, this is corporate greed.
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  Like, let's chill out. But I also think from a business
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  perspective, it's interesting. Like I like hearing things like
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  this because obviously as a business owner myself, I like
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  reading about things that very successful companies have tried
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  and failed at because it just it makes me feel better.
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  It's like solidarity. I'm like, oh, me and Netflix one
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  in the same. No, but it's it's interesting
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  from yeah, like like a corporate industry behind the scenes
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  perspective to see it is normal to test things, to try things
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  and they just don't go the way that you planned.
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  I mean, we have lots of examples of that in recent years and
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  social media and stuff like that.
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  When you think about IGTV, first one that comes to mind, What the
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  fuck happened to IGTVI? Fear YouTube Shorts might head
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  down that path. I don't, no.
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  Is anyone scrolling through shorts?
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  I don't think so. Interesting insight here.
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  I remember when Black Mirror Bander Snatch came out, it was
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  like a big deal. So I guess they had a hard time
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  recreating, you know, kind of the flurry, the frenzy around
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  that again. Anyways, guys, that's it for
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  today. Thank you so much for listening
• 13:38
  to mini scroll. Please rate, review and
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  subscribe. Please rate US on Spotify.
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  We're trying to get our Spotify reviews up.
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  I love you guys and I will talk to you tomorrow.
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  Bye.