Ep. 103: Too Online. John Mayer and Andy Cohen, The Brazilian Swifties Movement, Skibidi Toilet, Suburban Mine

[00:00] Hey boys, another anecdote to add to your probably already amazing pool. So I started listening to boys club at the gym during my lifting sessions and I did this at a convenience initially. It was a time thing, but now I make sure that I listened to it at that time because I noticed a really interesting phenomenon. I was performing well, so that's great. But in addition to that, and perhaps more interestingly, I was realizing I was getting my best creative ideas during my rest sets while [00:30] podcast. So I think that we can conclude, and this is science, that the [00:35] Boys club is making me not only more creative and smart, but also healthier and hotter? Question mark? [00:44] I think so. Anyway, thank you so much for everything you do. I absolutely love the pod. It's one of the few that I listen to without fail. And I hope you continue forever. [00:54] Thanks, boys. Bye. [00:57] Welcome to Two Online by Boys Club. Hot internet news served fresh. I'm Natasha Hoskins. I'm Dina Burke. And this is Boys Club. Boys Club. [01:07] Wait, is it just boys club? It's just boys club. [01:10] The Boys Club podcast? No. No. [01:12] Just boys. Hi. Hi. [01:15] Okay. Something you didn't tell me about the sunless tanners that you recommended is [01:21] is that you don't use them every day because they like build. I'm looking so bronzed because I've been putting it on my face every day. I am sorry. I did not share that application tip. Yeah. Every other day.

[01:35] you look very glowy and beautiful thank you thank you i went to bed last night i was like [01:41] I smell like sunless tanner. And I was like, that seems like not quite proportional to how much I'm using it, but yeah, [01:50] Those little drops are powerful. They are powerful. For anyone who's wondering what we're talking about, there's sunless tanner drops in. [01:58] that [01:59] I've been using and that now Natasha is using and that we dropped in the discord. I also saw [02:05] Someone in the Discord, I think it was Mish in the Discord, was saying that she applies it like strategically as like a... [02:11] Contour. [02:12] Yeah, I've seen the girlies on TikTok do that. That's next level. Next level. Brilliant. It's brilliant. For those who also don't understand why you would do this, it's like the best thing you can do for anti-aging. [02:24] is to not be in the sun. [02:26] To be pale as can be. But... [02:29] to be pale. [02:31] You don't look your best. Everybody looks better with a little bit of sun. So what we do is we put a ton of sunscreen on so that our faces stay really, really pale. But then we put sunless tanner on in the morning so that we appear to be tan. It's the cycle of life. What a complex web we weave as women. Okay. This is Two Online where Dina and I share internet stories with each other. It's been a little while since we've done this, but I'm very much looking forward to it because it's a good time. It's... [03:00] fun only fun only truly it's it's learning in a [03:04] broad sense of the word. And basically we just...

[03:09] shoot the shit and talk about what's happening on the internet viral moments complex weird stories internet native discovery microcosms of the world wide web and keeping it light and entertaining i think there's a lot of other places where you could get more serious news oriented internet stories this is not going to be the place for that this is more of like the fun approach to the internet [03:33] I have explained it to people as an auditory for you page. Oh, nice. [03:40] Thank you. [04:10] trading involves risk of loss. Cryptocurrency services are provided to U.S. and U.S. territory customers by Payward Ventures, Inc. PBI, DBA, Kraken. [04:20] Okay. So format is Dina has two. I have two. We swap back and forth. So I'll go first. Okay. I'll go first. I want to say that I have up front. I have two stories. One story that is quite mainstream. Mm hmm. [04:34] Arguably, I could see you getting mad at me that it's too mainstream. [04:38] And the second is...

[04:42] The furthest thing from my stream, the weird, a weird corner of the internet, but a very large corner of the internet. Okay. That was sent to me. That was sourced. Oh, you got one sent to you. [04:51] um well i was co-working with my friend lj and i was like i really needed to online story and her husband is like big into fish and like this isn't giving anything away but it's just on a very different corner of the internet he's actually a meme creator he has like a niche meme account that has like a really intense following anyway she was like oh john's got something and then that's where we landed okay but my first story [05:15] I'm going to get into the story, but I want you to... [05:19] experience what I experienced okay and how I first discovered it are we starting with a weird one are we starting with the mainstream one [05:25] Mainstream. Okay. But the discovery of it is... [05:29] internet native for me. [05:30] We're doing a screen share. I know what this is about. Publicly come out as a couple. It's clear to everyone. And no one's going to judge them. I've seen it. And John Mayer. We're buying a dream home together. We've even posted on his social media account. A picture of his elderly mother steaming John Mayer's shirt. During his stay at his luxury home. Okay. So here's the video. You guys just heard it. But for some explanation. [06:00] There's this pretty woman who is... [06:03] green screen [06:05] real TikTok style talking to the camera. And she's basically like, when are these people going to come out as a couple? And then pulls her little face down. And it's a picture of John Mayer and Andy Cohen. So what's happening is the internet...

[06:21] In its beauty, there's a big conspiracy theory that these two men are together, romantically together. Yeah. And there is a ton of people online who... [06:33] have opinions about it and who feel strongly about it and who have been collecting evidence over the years of these two being together. So what I love about one, this first video is there's like this almost 60 minutes or like America's most wanted music under it. That gives it this super ominous feeling of like something intense, intense, intense, [06:58] potentially bad is happening and you're waiting for this moment and then for it to be two of the most unserious people in the world being in a couple together is incredible so if you are somehow don't know this andy cohen is new york personality best friends to sarah jessica parker producer of the real housewives host of watch what happens live [07:21] An icon, a legend. And also like a queer icon. [07:24] A queer icon, big time. He's very much out and very much, very much part of his identity. He's very out. He couldn't be more out. Yeah. And then John Mayer, early 2000s, heartthrob, musician, problematic figure, and my personal kryptonite. He's also, what I think makes it so funny is John Mayer has in the past been like flagrantly heterosexual. Exactly.

[07:54] more heterosexual in his describing of his, of his honestly, extremely problematic fetishes. [08:02] extremely problematic fetishes. I think maybe he's less of a polarizing figure today than he was 10 years ago. 10 years ago, he was like, nobody would touch him with a 10 foot pole. He's back in the scene a little bit more, but they've had this very public friendship for many years. Over the course of, I would say the last six to nine months, there has been more and more [08:32] points in this story is one Andy Cohen gets a Hollywood film. [08:37] walk of fame, [08:39] Bokov. [08:40] Star. Hollywood Walk of Fame star. I don't know what they're called. Star. And John Mayer presents it to him. And John Mayer's there and like there with a picture of him and his kids, like very much family, closest people to you are there. That's one moment. Another moment is... [08:57] Andy Cohen on Stern talking about how much he loves John Mayer, how close they are. And then Stern was like, basically that gun to your head has anything sexual ever happened? You're telling me that nothing has ever happened. And he's like, no, nothing's ever happened. Nothing's ever happened. And that's really the internet is really looking into that examining looking for tells on that. So then I did some digging yesterday. So those are two big inflection points where the

[09:27] of Andy Cohen's mother, like steaming a shirt for him. People are really obsessed with that. Very domestic. I think they're buying a house together. Like there's all these things where people are like, what's going on? So I went to the subreddit on John Mayer, which has 60,000 members. Okay. So people talk about it and there's... [09:45] quite a bit going on there in relation to John Mayer generally, but one is Thanksgiving last year, Andy Cohen's mother and John Mayer together, a really cute picture of the two of them. Oh, that's sweet. There's a lot of people questioning their own sexuality on the John Mayer subreddit. Like a lot of am I gay? Like a lot of people being like, if I felt this, am I gay? Around John Mayer? Yeah, yeah. That's like a safe place to explore that question for people. [10:15] have decided to start to ask those questions on the john way or subreddit and then lots of like bromance bromance bromance with different pictures of them together again there's this whole story this this like investigation that's happening of fans of both john mayer and of andy cohen here are some takes one is he's a mooch john mayer is a mooch and he is [10:40] mochin off of [10:42] Andy Cohen, he's in his house, he's eating meals with him, he's taking advantage of him, he's using it as a bit, and he's done that in every other relationship that he's ever had. Like, they have this whole, there's this Reddit thread that I went through of when he was dating Jessica Simpson, that he, like, moved into our house for several years, and people are like, he's just, like,

[11:03] a moochie guy. And that's what he's doing with Andy Cohen. That's one. The second is they're not gay. They're not in a gay relationship. They are platonic soulmates. And you should respect that. You should respect that. I totally agree. I think platonic soulmates is incredible, a beautiful thing in the world. And we should talk about that more. And so, so that's personally, these last two are what I subscribe to. They're not romantic and you can love someone deeply and share a life with someone. And it's not about sex. And that's what I think is happening here. [11:33] lastly book tour buzz it's a great way to get press for andy cohen came out with a book called the daddy diaries and a lot of this noise was happening on his book tour so i think it's the combination of the last two their best friends john mayer doesn't give a fuck he's willing to do whatever andy needs to promote his book andy knows it's great headlines it gets him in the news people talk about it andy is a master marketer and pr persona so that's what i think [12:03] Really great stuff. Really great stuff. Yeah. We need a platonic relationship awareness week. Exactly. [12:12] The other people that I think are platonic soulmates. [12:14] The two main characters in the bear. Ayo, Ayo, [12:17] And Jeremy. Nice. They don't need to be in love. They can just be best friends. It's hard for people in our culture who've been raised on... [12:27] romantic fairy tales to understand a platonic soulmate situation but i agree with you it it should it needs to get more air time it needs to get more air time honestly it's the patriarchy that we can't just have friendships i totally agree i totally agree so that's my story john mayor and eddie cohen conspiracy the headline here is the internet believes john mayor and eddie cohen are a couple beautiful beautiful beautiful thing okay your turn okay i'll start

[12:57] story. Don't worry, not a Taylor Swift story. Oh, thank God. This is not a Taylor Swift story at all. This is a Stan story. This is about the passion of fandom, in particular in Brazil. Taylor Swift fans badger priest to project her image onto Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro. That's the headline. Some context this week, Taylor Swift is headed to Brazil to do three tour dates in Rio and Sao Paulo. To understand this story, the [13:24] you have to understand a few things. [13:26] You have to know the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio Cristo. [13:30] Are you familiar with the guy? I am. And I do have to say, I did see her content projected onto Christ the Redeemer. And I thought sacrilegious. [13:41] That's sacrilegious. Okay. Well, there's a whole, there's a whole, we'll get there. Okay. There's a lot of, well, for the record, there's a lot of projections that go up on Cristo. Oh, there is? Okay. I wasn't familiar with that. It's not just her. It's definitely a property, a media property at this point. [13:56] It's like the sphere. It's $400,000 to promote yourself on it. So yeah, Christ the Redeemer statue. It is on the top of a peak, a mountain peak in the city of Rio. [14:11] Christ the Redeemer. [14:12] Christ the Redeemer, the statue, is... [14:15] basically run by this priest. It's kind of a church that's associated with the statue. And there's this priest, Padre Omar, Father Omar, he is the rector of that church. And basically, in that position, he wields the power over Christ the Redeemer. And we'll get to him in a minute. But that's very much a part of the story. Do you know the meme come to Brazil? I do not. Okay, basically, Brazilian fans are known to be super, super passionate. And come to Brazil was

[14:45] under like all these celebrity Instagram posts, come to Brazil, come to Brazil, come to Brazil. And it's basically just like Brazilian fans requesting them to come and do a tour date there. Okay. Okay. Okay. And it has happened so often and so frequently that it's its own thing now, like come to Brazil. You can say come to Brazil and that kind of like lands as a joke, just passionate fandom. Like I love you. Okay. And so this story is many ways come to Brazil, come to life. I've spent a lot of time in Brazil. So my mom's family's from there. She's a house [15:15] and I've been going since I've been five. [15:17] One thing that has always been consistent for me and my experience at Brazil is that they love live music. [15:22] They love live music. So you'll go to like a bar or a restaurant and maybe there's a TV in the corner and on the TV will be a DVD DVD. [15:32] performance of someone performing [15:35] live. I'm going to read a show. For some reason, that is always on the TVs whenever I go to Brazil. I don't know why, but they love it. Okay. So we have Padre Omar, Father Omar. He's the man in charge. He has 69,000 followers on Instagram. He's a big deal. I think he's a famous figure, but he was not at all prepared for the Swifty infusion that took over his Instagram page. [16:05] have Taylor Swift [16:06] stuff projected onto Christ the Redeemer. And that was like catnip. And basically the Brazilian Swifties took that and were like, this is what we want. We want her and her, she's going to be going to be able to do this.

[16:19] gift. Now that we've seen it, we can't unsee it and we need to make it happen. And so they basically flooded this poor man's Instagram with requests. [16:28] petitioning him and asking him to make this happen. And part of what's so funny about this is that they ID'd the decision maker really quickly and well, and then they all like, are just organized in a way that's just incredible. It's incredible to see. And the comments themselves are really funny. They're like, please, father, I'm fasting in prayer that you'll make this happen. Dearest father, the missionary of peace, Taylor Swift [16:58] And some of them are sort of just like leaning into the bit. Like I saw a couple of tweets on Twitter that were like, it's giving Fleabag. You know, when she says, there's that iconic line where she's like, father, please. And he's like, I know you just whatever. So then he made a really grave mistake, which is that he started deleting some of the comments. And he like wasn't responding. That's not that father. And so father, wrong. Wrong. That was the worst thing he could do. The Swifties took arms. What is going on here? [17:28] they're like he's against us now he's against us and now it's war [17:31] And so basically, then they started going in to poor guy, he didn't know who he follows. And they found out that he follows Ariana Grande. And so then this whole thing. Oh, no, I was like, is he just an Ariana Grande fan? And so that's why he's not doing it. And so then the whole fan rivalry kicked off there where it was like the Ariana Grande fans got involved in the Taylor Swift fans got involved. And it was just this guy like I know he didn't know what he was doing.

[18:01] that's what no way no how and that was the narrative around it anyway it starts getting enough grassroots support and like it gets to a point where he has to do something about it this man was cyber bullied into putting taylor swift on christ the redeemer so he basically very wisely there's this catholic church has a celebration called the day of the poor he he merged the two together it was basically like if you guys can raise enough money for this charitable thing [18:31] Basically, the fans raised all this money, like they were collecting water and panettone for [18:36] poor people and amazing that's incredible and so it actually ended up being a really wow heartwarming like wholesome story and last night it was projected welcome to brazil on oh my gosh wow it's really full circle it did go full circle love the story thank you yeah you're welcome really good shout out to padre amar should we go to my next story let's do it [19:06] the headline. [19:07] This is a story about a Russian creator, a remix version of Timbaland's Give It Up featuring Nelly Furtada, a toilet, and an SFM animation made by the fastest growing YouTuber. What's SFM? Okay, so we're going to get directly into it. Okay. Are you familiar with DaFuckBomb? No. Okay. So DaFuckBomb is a YouTube channel. [19:31] And it is, again, apparently the fastest growing YouTube channel right now, according to youtube.fandom.com backslash wiki backslash defuckbomb. So I don't know. Sources might disagree. And we're going to get into his lore and his history. Okay. But I'm going to play you the first episode.

[19:53] Short episode of a series called Skibbity. [19:58] Skip-a-dee-dee. [20:00] Skibbity D? Skibbity. Skibbity Toilet Series. Okay. This currently has 120 million views. It was posted nine months ago and we're just going to give it a listen because a lot does come through in the listen. Okay. Wow. Okay. It's a lot. It's a lot. So it's a lot. And so [20:30] what you're seeing, what you're not able to see on a podcast is, so SFM animation is apparently a type of 3D computer graphics software. It's like a tool. And the visual that comes to mind for me the most is video games, maybe five, 10 years ago, the type of animation that you would see where it's not good [20:54] It's not a good animation. It's not lifelike. But it has a very distinct aesthetic that everything's sort of one tone. It's very much Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto vibes. And so this YouTube creator, which is called The Fuck Bomb, is creating all of these videos. And... [21:12] What's interesting about this person is it's this Russian guy butchering the name of Alekheski Garamazov. I don't know. He's a Russian dude. And he's better known as Defuckbomb. And he has been a YouTuber for a long time.

[21:27] He started YouTubing in 2017 and he has been producing videos for six or seven years on YouTube. Okay. I think what's most interesting about this guy is that it's not a story of what's [21:42] viral content right off the bat overnight success exactly like he had 20 000 subscribers then he had 30 000 subscribers and then 10 million views and like slowly working his way up to where he is today which a few months ago as of september he had 30 million subscribers and his videos have definitely over a billion views all collectively like he has really built this over time but there was a massive [22:12] Like, Scooby-Dee, Scooby-Dee, Scooby-Dee. [22:18] So that was like a successful series. So basically what this guy does is he has different stories, different series that he creates content around. So Big Smoke and G-D-A-S-A-S-F-M's is one. Male 07 and Multiverse of Beatbox is another. And then Scooby-Dee, Doop-Dop-Dop, Yes, Yes. And then Scooby-Doop Toilet. [22:42] So he has these different content verticals that he's producing content. They're all using this software and they're all very much. [22:52] ingrained in sort of like gamer culture. They all have like a very low key, violent energy around them where it's like very fast moving. It's very aggressive and unpleasant to watch, in my opinion. He creates stories and characters

[23:08] that are very bizarre... [23:10] You cannot follow them. They're not logical or there's not a character arc. There's not something that makes sense. The video that you showed me didn't seem to have much of a story in it. [23:21] Right, but that's episode one of that series. Okay. And there's 130 episodes of that series. Wow. So if we just skip to the last episode here, it's not going to make more sense, but... [23:35] you will get a sense of the absurdity of these videos. Very video gamey. So this one's a minute. Okay, violent. Violent. Violent. There's like a head... [23:47] like a just decapitated head. So the decapitated head is throughout the whole series. And that head is the first video we watched. It's in the toilet. It's coming out of the toilet. It's singing the Nellie Furtada Timbaland song. It's going back into the toilet. And then like you follow that head throughout this series. And this one, the head is in like a wasteland with like a robot with all these screens and the robot is like attacking it. In some ways, there's a storyline, but mostly there's not a storyline. So what are people getting out of this? [24:17] I don't understand what people are getting out of this [24:20] I have spent some time on this YouTube channel. I have watched some of the various series. I have read about this person recently. [24:28] Alexi [24:29] as much as one would want to read about a specific YouTube creator. And if you read the comments, it's a lot of like, oh, I'm here after episode 67, or I'm here after episode 67, part three, or 69, part two. And like, there's this sense of, oh, I'm tracking...

[24:47] and in this world and have gotten sort of pilled into this scuba-dee-toilet series. And so have you. And we're all doing this together. And then there's other people who are like, this guy needs a Netflix series. And I think that there's an absurdity to it. And a very gamer internet person who's like, this is so funny. And the absurdity of it is the story. Okay. Okay. [25:15] not the storyline. And I think it's also sort of about the sound. The music gets remixed and layered and there's like other weird meme sort of TikTok type [25:28] sound that gets buried into it and... [25:32] with copyrighted songs. And so that's another part of it subversive and it's fucking a format. And you compare that to like other YouTube type videos of a day in the life or an Ember Chamberlain or something like that. And it's such a reaction to those types of videos. I have to guess that that's part of what people like about it. So I don't fully understand it. If somebody does like these YouTube videos, please reach out. I'd love to understand. Didn't they say that that was like [26:02] That's like really speaking to a new generation of. That's terrifying. I know. That this is what's speaking to people. [26:08] It's literally like an anti-mutated head coming out of a toilet. That's what's going on. And people are into it. Hundreds of millions of views. It's absolutely absurd.

[26:19] Wow. [26:20] Do you feel like you learned something? I do. I don't know that I like what I learned, but I kind of learned something. When you're first getting started with crypto, it can be scary. Am I doing this right? Is this just like my bank or trading app? How is it new and different? Well, that's why we love Kraken. They have a 24-7, 365 customer support team that's there to hold your hand all along the way. This isn't a 9-to-5 Monday to Friday bank. This is crypto. It's all the time. Anyone's welcome. Open door policy. Come one, come all. [26:50] Okay, what's next? [27:12] also known as tunnel barbie [27:14] Is it jogging? Anything for you or not? Nothing. Okay, so there's this woman. She started August in 2022. She cut a hole in her basement room. She's an engineer. [27:25] Her username is... [27:27] engineer everything on TikTok. Where are we in the world? Do we know? America, I think. America. I think America. I think she's a little unclear on her exact location, at least in the videos that I've seen. And I think that that's wise, given the work that she's doing does not seem like it's up to code. Okay, so she started last year. She basically has a series of videos of her doing the following.

[27:52] cutting a hole in her basement room, [27:54] and excavating solid rock, fabricating an elevator to haul material out thousands of pounds at a time. She's full on very professional equipment and very professional approach to this work, soldering mask, heavy duty tools. It's her doing that work. And it's a TikTok sort of filming her like cutting the hole with the and it's below her house. So she has a basement and she starts by, yeah, digging a hole from her basement out into the ground. [28:24] of her home. I will say she's doing it very expertly and very carefully. The videos are basically showing like thousands of cinder blocks lining what's like a 30 foot underground entrance tunnel. She had to excavate all that rock and there's this really long tunnel that she's going down and it's all this cinder block that's [28:42] That's on either side of it. There's videos where it's, you know, trials and tribulations. She hits groundwater. She hits groundwater. [28:48] So she has to build a pump to keep it all dry. And then she has to also set up a blower and like a whole air duct system because presumably she's so far underground that like, [28:58] I don't know, the air starts to get poor. And so she has like to set up a whole build a whole air duct thing. Then you get into sort of the main room that she's built out. And it's this room that she has enforced with rebar and she's pumping concrete into like reinforce this little room that is at the end of the tunnel. Then there's all these videos of her upgrading the electricity down there. And so [29:21] It's 22 feet underground. You're in a mine. She has built a mine. Why? And it's unclear. That's part of the charm of it is the why, at least in the videos that I've saw, were never quite answered. At one point, she does say this is an airstrike resistant mine. But it's kind of like a throwaway line that she never really comes back to.

[29:51] everything. [29:51] in this construction project. So part of why I think this is such a compelling series is the woman who's doing it. Her name is Kala. She's a very unassuming brunette woman. Okay. Totally just like a very regular... [30:07] woman. She has a very deadpan delivery. She's [30:10] delivering sort of a voiceover to her b-roll footage that she's filming okay that's really deadpan like it's she's like now i'm excavating the thousand pounds and like it shows like this huge like dump truck like it's it is her her delivery doesn't match the sort of drama of what you're seeing on screen do you know where all of the materials are going like [30:32] one it's getting it out but then where is it going i do not know i do not know what she doesn't show that above ground it's mostly you're just in tight shots she doesn't really give okay shots of like that give a exterior view so it's hard to really place her and where she is but you're right she's taking out a lot of material and she's putting in a lot of material so there presumably has to be some um [30:54] And I think that part of the appeal is that the videos are kind of ASMR-ish. She's kind of telling this home story. And you know the Amelie soundtrack? It's like piano. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like that's playing in the background. And all of this has like very questionable legal status and permitting. Questionable. It's not questionable. It's not questionable. You're right. It's illegal. So it's totally blown up. She's having a whole moment. Wow. Wow.

[31:24] relates to one of the stories that you've talked about recently, which is like, [31:26] a very niche, very skilled passion. Yes. Like your art, the art guy that you were showing that was like doing the hot dog water. It's totally the same thing. She's an expert in construction and engineering. And part of its appeal and charm is like watching her do her excellent work. [31:43] But it's very much pointless in that it's an underground tunnel to nowhere. And she's just expressing herself through mine. Like that's it. That's all it is. And you like, kind of just love it for that. [31:58] Wow, that is so weird. That is so crazy. I know. She shows her face? She shows her face. Yeah, she shows her face. I would be so nervous to like... That it would collapse on you. That's what I would be nervous about. Well, one, that you would die. Totally. Of course. But two, like, you're gonna get in trouble. I think that's part of why she doesn't show where she is. I know, but like... [32:21] You go viral on the internet. I know. Your neighbor knows who you are. It's over. I know. It feels like maybe it's only about time. The only thing I think is maybe she like lives in rural Arizona. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Anyway. Wow. Great. I love it. [32:35] Well, this was too online. I hope you guys enjoyed these crazy internet stories. And we'll see you next week.