Last week I came across a Tiktok from The White Lotus premier where Parker Posey was asked if there were any lines from the season she felt would be meme’d. This instantly put a bad taste in my mouth- that a show brimming with characters full of depth and snarky narratives about the rich would be condensed into a single phrase to go viral on social media. Sure I’m guilty of playing into this culture (I did send a screenshot of Leslie Bibb’s character on the show sitting on a chair with “If I send you this it means I’m ready to talk shit”) but overall I’ve had a very irky feeling about the memeification of content. It feels we’ve entered an age were we don’t set up a punchline anymore but rather we set up a meme. You can even hear it in the way some people will inflect a certain line on a show or even feel it in the writing- there’s a cadence, a timing that is created best to suit a carousel on Instagram. And then the meme takes on a swift lifespan from funny to fun to overdone and exhausted. I love a good meme, but I’m not loving how it now informs good content to be this thing where we wink to camera. How when watching a show I pinpoint the moment I’m gonna see endless takes on social media for the coming week and how our content feels more written for a moment rather than for the long haul. Also meme culture has aided in spoiler culture and sometimes you just can’t get to seeing the latest episode of The Traitors cause you worked a late night catering a dinner to a bunch of women in Beverly Hills and your feet hurt and you just want to shower and get in bed!! So maybe my meme disdain is more of a cry to let some shows breathe a little before posting that roundtable spoiler moment!
Anyway hope you enjoy that this week’s free little newsletter is more a long winded thought than a rec. Next week look out for part two of my phone call with my birth mom for paid subscribers- and if you do have something this week you fell in love with I truly would love to hear about it!