Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Severance S2 & Molly-Mae documentary recaps, Kendrick Lamar saves TikTok + David Dobrik's return

Transcript

MINI SCROLL: Severance S2 & Molly-Mae documentary recaps, Kendrick Lamar saves TikTok + David Dobrik's return · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
• 0:04
  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
• 0:07
  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
• 0:11
  through Thursday. I'm your host, Lauren Meisner,
• 0:14
  the founder of the youth digital media brand Centennial World.
• 0:19
  Welcome back to Mini Scroll, everyone.
• 0:21
  OK, so today was a bit of a light Newsday because obviously
• 0:26
  the TikTok ban, Trump's inauguration, like those two
• 0:30
  things are just absolutely consuming the news right now.
• 0:34
  So I thought I would give a bit of a content recap.
• 0:38
  I haven't done this. I don't even know if I did it at
• 0:41
  all last year, but Jordy and I used to do a content recap
• 0:44
  sometimes every single week of like the things we were watching
• 0:47
  and loving. And I am so in the weeds of good
• 0:52
  content right now. So I wanted to talk about two
• 0:55
  things that I watched over the weekend.
• 0:57
  I do have two other stories at the end.
• 0:59
  So if you guys don't care about what I'm watching in my opinions
• 1:01
  on it, then that's fine. Skip ahead.
• 1:03
  There are always time stamps in the description.
• 1:06
  But yes, so Severance is the first thing I want to talk about
• 1:10
  and Molly May's documentary as well.
• 1:12
  This is your disclaimer. Spoilers ahead for Severance
• 1:16
  episode one season 2. This is literally my favorite
• 1:19
  show of all time. I have been waiting for it to
• 1:22
  come back. This and Yellow Jackets waiting
• 1:25
  for these shows to come back. Episode 1 of season 2.
• 1:28
  Severance did not disappoint. So I wanted to share some of my
• 1:32
  theories. OK right.
• 1:34
  So the episode stars Mark basically comes to after
• 1:38
  swapping places with his Audi. He was screaming she's alive,
• 1:42
  referring to Gemma who's his wife in the outside world.
• 1:45
  Slash like Miss Casey, he is told that it's been 5 months
• 1:49
  since the innies basically got out and like infiltrated the
• 1:53
  Audi world. And he also was told that the
• 1:56
  innies are now heroes. So I don't think either of these
• 2:00
  things are true. I think it's very obvious that
• 2:02
  the innies are probably not heroes on the outside world
• 2:05
  because the photo that Mark is shown as evidence of that is so
• 2:09
  clearly Photoshopped. And it also seems to be
• 2:13
  photoshopped from like an iconic photo.
• 2:15
  Like the the photo itself looks photoshopped, first of all, but
• 2:18
  then it's photoshopped onto what seems to be this iconic photo of
• 2:21
  U.S. President Eisenhower in Brazil
• 2:23
  from 1960. So I'm going to say that that
• 2:27
  photo in general that like, newspaper is completely fake.
• 2:30
  I also don't think it's five months after because first of
• 2:33
  all, Miss Wong, who I'm going to talk about in a minute, says
• 2:36
  it's her first day on the job. And Milchuk has so clearly just
• 2:39
  taken over from Miss Kobell. There's kind of evidence all
• 2:42
  over the office office that she is not fully like gone yet and
• 2:46
  he has not fully had the like changing of the guards.
• 2:48
  The biggest one being that he looks at his computer and it
• 2:50
  just says Miss Kobell on it. Still, I did see some people
• 2:54
  think that they possibly were transferred to Lumen somewhere
• 2:57
  else, like the innies were taken to a different Lumen in like a
• 3:02
  different country or something to kind of punish them for what
• 3:05
  they did. By now.
• 3:06
  I, I would love to hear what you guys think Lumen is doing.
• 3:10
  So I think it's very clear that they are doing something related
• 3:14
  to water. The theme of water is all over
• 3:17
  the show and Lumens like logo or whatever is basically a big
• 3:20
  water drop. I'm going to say water is
• 3:22
  involved and it seems like consciousness is probably
• 3:26
  involved. I'm assuming this all has
• 3:29
  something to do with bringing Kier Egan back or like doing
• 3:33
  something so that the Egan's can basically like live forever.
• 3:36
  I know one of the main theories is that MDR could be
• 3:39
  categorizing, like the work that they do at MDR is like
• 3:42
  categorizing information from consciousness into the four
• 3:46
  tempers that Kyra Egan discovered, which is whoa,
• 3:48
  frolic, dread, and malice. And if you look at the buckets
• 3:51
  that MDR filters, its data, like you know the numbers and they
• 3:55
  dance and they're like, you just have to look at the scary ones.
• 3:57
  When you see the scary ones, you filter them into a bucket.
• 4:00
  So those buckets have letters on them and they align with Whoa,
• 4:05
  frolic, dread, and malice. So it's almost like being
• 4:07
  severed is maybe the only way that someone can identify the
• 4:11
  correct information because when you're severed, you're
• 4:13
  essentially a blank slate, right?
• 4:15
  It's maybe that having too much consciousness impacts your
• 4:19
  ability to filter out the data that like, quote, UN quote, like
• 4:22
  looks scary. And I know there's lots of
• 4:24
  theories about like cloning and stuff.
• 4:26
  I actually don't think cloning is involved.
• 4:28
  Maybe it's involved in the greater picture, but I don't
• 4:30
  think that they are like solely trying to clone people.
• 4:33
  OK, so back to this episode, the other points.
• 4:36
  I definitely think that Dylan is being manipulated by Melchek.
• 4:40
  I think either they're not actually building this family
• 4:43
  and friends room and he's being told they are for obviously
• 4:47
  manipulation tactics, or they actually are and they will bring
• 4:51
  in his quote UN quote wife and it, you know, will not actually
• 4:54
  be his wife. I think Miss Huang is maybe the
• 4:57
  same vibe as Miss Casey, which is like both of them are
• 5:01
  possibly deceased in the Audi world, but Lumen has created
• 5:05
  them on the inside. I again, I don't think that this
• 5:08
  necessarily has to do with cloning, but maybe it, I don't
• 5:10
  know. I mean, it's also possible that
• 5:12
  Miss Casey's body and Miss Huang's body are actually their
• 5:15
  body. It's like Gemma's body, but Miss
• 5:17
  Casey is not Gemma because it's not her consciousness.
• 5:20
  I saw people say that Miss Huang is a clone of Gemma's young self
• 5:25
  or that she is an older person that has been uploaded into a
• 5:29
  younger body. OK.
• 5:31
  And of course, the final one is that Heli is actually Helena.
• 5:36
  Helena. Is it Helena in the.
• 5:38
  I don't know. I can't remember how they say
• 5:39
  her name. Helena.
• 5:41
  No, it's Helena. Helena Egan.
• 5:42
  Yeah, I know this theory has been around since the trailer,
• 5:44
  but I actually did not know that theory.
• 5:48
  And my brother and I were watching it.
• 5:49
  He didn't know it either. And we both were like, I don't
• 5:52
  think that's Heli. And then we were looking it up
• 5:54
  and everyone's like, yeah, we've been thinking this sense of
• 5:56
  trailer. And I was like, Oh my God.
• 5:57
  OK, so I think that they I don't think they made it like super
• 6:00
  obvious, but I think there are some indicators.
• 6:04
  Obviously she lied about her outside experience.
• 6:06
  And I just think like, Heli wouldn't lie about that.
• 6:09
  I think she would just be so honest, regardless of the fact
• 6:13
  finding out she's an Egan, you know, like she would be like,
• 6:16
  holy shit, this is crazy. This is what I found out.
• 6:19
  And like, how can we use this now?
• 6:21
  She notes seeing a gardener at night, which Irving clocks, is
• 6:24
  weird. First of all, a gardener that
• 6:28
  gives rich vibes, you know, that gives somebody who thinks that
• 6:31
  there is just gardeners around all the time at night is even
• 6:35
  weirder. So, yeah, Irving's like, that's
• 6:36
  weird. She seems to fish for
• 6:38
  information from her colleagues a lot and there are several
• 6:41
  moments where it seems like she just like, isn't quite herself.
• 6:44
  I know the one that people are saying is the most telling is
• 6:47
  when she has to like look for the computer switch.
• 6:51
  It's like all the Indies do is sit at their computers all day.
• 6:55
  They don't even leave that room. That's literally their whole
• 6:58
  existence. They are on that computer all
• 7:01
  day. They turn that computer on every
• 7:02
  single day. It is literally all they do is
• 7:04
  sit in that room on that computer.
• 7:06
  So like, yeah, you would know where that button was to turn on
• 7:09
  your computer. I also just think, like Helena,
• 7:12
  like, why would she ever let Helly go back inside after what
• 7:16
  she did? She would never trust her again.
• 7:19
  And then I saw this on a thread online and I didn't
• 7:22
  independently verify this, but apparently in season 1 episode
• 7:25
  9, Cobell told Heli at the gala when she finds out what's
• 7:29
  happening that if she went through with the plan to expose
• 7:33
  Lumen on stage, she'd be long gone but her friends would
• 7:36
  suffer. And so people are like, that was
• 7:39
  foreshadowing. Heli is long gone and Helena is
• 7:42
  there to make the friends suffer.
• 7:43
  Oh also I wanted to read this comment on YouTube that I saw
• 7:47
  somebody was trying to explain like what MDR is doing so they
• 7:50
  said they're actually sorting fragments of consciousness.
• 7:54
  The emotional trauma makes them better at recognizing slash
• 7:57
  sorting pieces of consciousness from people they deeply loved
• 8:00
  and lost. This explains why they need
• 8:03
  humans to do this seemingly arbitrary task.
• 8:05
  Machines can't replicate the emotional recognition.
• 8:09
  OK, and for Molly May's documentary, I also watched the
• 8:12
  first 3 episodes. It's not done yet.
• 8:13
  There's only three episodes out, but I really enjoyed it.
• 8:17
  I don't know, I really like Molly May.
• 8:19
  Everybody likes Molly May. I was going to say, I know
• 8:20
  that's not unique. That's why she is like so
• 8:23
  beloved. Like she is like Britain's
• 8:25
  sweetheart, it seems. I don't know what it is about
• 8:27
  her, but I do just really like her.
• 8:30
  I like that they're addressing things really quickly.
• 8:32
  Like I think next episode they address the fact that there was
• 8:35
  rumors that she and Tommy kissed on New Year's Eve and New Year's
• 8:40
  Eve was like 3 weeks ago. So I think like truly in the
• 8:43
  scheme of like reality TV, how instant this is, is really
• 8:48
  awesome. And I think it's really unique.
• 8:50
  I think in general, it's funny whenever we see these
• 8:54
  documentaries about famous people because I find they're
• 8:56
  all kind of the same. Like whether it's a a mainstream
• 9:00
  celebrity and influencer, like whatever it is, the documentary,
• 9:04
  like the through line or like the theme is always the same.
• 9:07
  Like be careful what you wish for Being famous is not all that
• 9:11
  it's chalked up to be. It really is the same story over
• 9:14
  and over again. It's like all of these famous
• 9:16
  people in these, like, ginormous houses or like are surrounded by
• 9:21
  teams of people and the famous person, the talent, the
• 9:25
  influencer has anxiety, depression, social phobia.
• 9:30
  They hate being famous. And I think it's like twofold.
• 9:34
  I think partly we see that because that is probably what
• 9:37
  being massively famous actually turns you into.
• 9:39
  Like I imagine the emotional and mental health toll of being
• 9:43
  famous would be almost unbearable sometimes.
• 9:47
  So I think it's partly the product of that.
• 9:50
  And then I also think that it is partly kind of the style of
• 9:55
  documentary where it's like the purpose of these documentaries
• 9:58
  is to humanize them and to make us empathize with them and to
• 10:02
  like, hear their quote UN quote side of the story.
• 10:05
  OK, let's get into the stories for today.
• 10:07
  I mean, those were kind of stories, but, you know, there
• 10:10
  were slim pickings for like news.
• 10:11
  So the first story that I have for you guys is that Kendrick
• 10:16
  Lamar has saved TikTok. This is like a new kind of like
• 10:21
  low key trend online. My brother actually came to me
• 10:25
  last night and he was asking why everyone online, like on his
• 10:29
  side of the Internet, on Reddit, whatever he frequents, was
• 10:31
  saying that Kendrick Lamar saved TikTok.
• 10:34
  He was like, what did he do? Why is everyone saying that?
• 10:37
  And I was like, what? So anyways, obviously I looked
• 10:40
  into it. It is a joke, of course.
• 10:42
  And as many trends that we see online, it is kind of hard to
• 10:45
  trace like where this started or where it came from.
• 10:48
  But essentially after TikTok was reinstated in the US, user
• 10:52
  started thanking Kendrick Lamar for saving the app.
• 10:55
  There's a bunch of posts replacing Donald Trump's name
• 10:58
  with Kendrick Lamar on Reddit. People are like, we can't let
• 11:01
  Trump get credit for this. Obviously it's kind of like an
• 11:04
  in joke online, but I think the way that users are responding to
• 11:09
  this is even funnier. So someone will post like, oh,
• 11:13
  thank you, Kendrick, you saved TikTok, whatever.
• 11:16
  They're like how? Because he saved it, it's so
• 11:20
  good. It's so funny.
• 11:21
  That's one of my favorite things about TikTok is it takes these
• 11:23
  chronically online in jokes that previously were just kind of
• 11:28
  like secluded to smaller communities or like closed
• 11:32
  communities, like niches, You know, whether it be like Stan
• 11:36
  Twitter or like a discord channel or a Youtubers, I don't
• 11:41
  know, fanbase, whatever it is. And it kind of brings it more to
• 11:45
  the mainstream and it allows more people to participate in
• 11:49
  something like this. And yeah, it's just like, funny.
• 11:52
  Like, this is literally like one of the best parts about the
• 11:55
  Internet. So if you see people thinking
• 11:57
  Kendrick Lamar, at least today, that's why, because he saved
• 12:02
  TikTok. OK, The last story that I wanted
• 12:05
  to talk about again, like I said, I'm sorry, it was Slim
• 12:08
  Pickens. I forgot to talk about how David
• 12:12
  David Dobrik returned back to YouTube after a three-year
• 12:18
  hiatus following his cancellation and Jeff Wittex
• 12:21
  accident. So this happened over the break
• 12:23
  while I was off, but David returned with a video
• 12:26
  documenting his physical transformation from what he says
• 12:30
  is his body after he like quote, UN quote, let himself go to
• 12:33
  being now really fit. The video also features him
• 12:36
  taking a trip around the world with friends, a cameo for Mr.
• 12:40
  Beast and David's surprising his employees at Dobrik's Pizza with
• 12:45
  new Teslas, a very David Dobrik vlog.
• 12:48
  The video was really well received.
• 12:50
  This is like why I wanted to talk about it.
• 12:52
  Like he came back, which I think was kind of surprising to
• 12:54
  people. He's obviously not been offline,
• 12:56
  right? We've talked about how he has
• 12:58
  primarily been posting on Snapchat.
• 13:00
  He did his podcast and then he kind of stopped that and then
• 13:03
  Snapchat was like his main platform.
• 13:05
  But what's interesting is he returned and he returned at a
• 13:08
  time when like there was just chaos, chaos, culturally chaos
• 13:13
  in the US. So much stuff going on online
• 13:16
  that him returning almost got like swept under the rug.
• 13:20
  I don't need to go into like why David was run off YouTube.
• 13:24
  You know, I've talked about this a million times and I'm sure all
• 13:26
  of you guys listening know the whole story, but I would say
• 13:29
  that this was a pretty strong return, all things considered.
• 13:34
  So Tricia Paytas and Tana Mojo discussed his return on a new
• 13:37
  episode of their podcast, Not Loveline, and they called him
• 13:41
  out for gallivanting across the world and releasing his vlog
• 13:44
  before paying Jeff back for his surgeries and obviously all the
• 13:48
  damage that was caused in the excavator accident.
• 13:51
  But yeah, like I would say the most kind of negative quote UN
• 13:55
  quote feedback that I have seen overwhelmingly was just people
• 13:59
  joking that like he doesn't have the face that matches a body
• 14:02
  that hot basically. And that's like a nice
• 14:05
  compliment. And Tana said in this clip too
• 14:08
  on Loveline, but she was like, this just proves that like no
• 14:10
  one is truly canceled. I mean, rich for Tana to say, I
• 14:15
  think David is incredibly nostalgic for so many people.
• 14:20
  And I also think his cancellation, there was so much
• 14:23
  that happened around it and like we were reporting on it when it
• 14:27
  happened. And even for me, like there were
• 14:29
  so many, I mean, and this just happens with online
• 14:32
  cancellations, but like there's one big allegation that kind of
• 14:35
  opens a can of worms, right? And that can of worms, so many
• 14:39
  worms pop out and it's like overwhelming that you almost
• 14:42
  like forget what happened and like why?
• 14:46
  Because there are so many allegations swirling around.
• 14:49
  And so the two main things obviously are the insider
• 14:52
  article and then Jeff's excavator accident.
• 14:55
  And so I think because David faced backlash for so long,
• 15:00
  because it started with the article and then obviously
• 15:02
  Jeff's excavator accident. And now there's been so much
• 15:05
  around that accident, so many allegations that Jeff has made,
• 15:08
  There's this lawsuit, like all these things, it's almost too
• 15:11
  much that it feels overwhelming for people to like pinpoint like
• 15:14
  why he was quote UN quote cancelled.
• 15:17
  And therefore, I feel like sometimes that's what makes it
• 15:19
  easier for people to just, like, for these creators or
• 15:23
  celebrities or whatever to come out unscathed.
• 15:27
  I'm sure there's a psychological term for this.
• 15:29
  I'm sure that this is like a real thing in psychology.
• 15:32
  But like, yeah, when there's too much information, it becomes
• 15:35
  overwhelming. There's too much information,
• 15:37
  and it like, drowns itself out almost.
• 15:39
  So anyways, I guess Dave is back to vlogging.
• 15:42
  So it kind of feels like we've been transported back in time.
• 15:46
  Anyways, guys, that's it for me to scroll today.
• 15:48
  I'm sorry that today was kind of random.
• 15:49
  Please rate, review and subscribe if you like this
• 15:52
  episode. If you like this podcast, please
• 15:54
  rate US on Spotify. Trying to get to 1000 star
• 15:56
  ratings on Spotify. I love you guys and I will talk
• 16:00
  to you on Thursday. OK, bye.