12 The Skibidi Cinematic Universe: Why Michael Bay Is Cashing In on Toilet Heads
Explicit content warning
07/31/24 • 98 min
The surreal machinima "Skibidi Toilet" has been viewed 65 BILLION times across platforms, attracting the attention of Hollywood explosion enthusiast Michael Bay. The mega producer (Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean) has licensed the bizarre web series to make a feature length film or TV series.
The Gen Alpha meme generator is more than just a flash in the pan - it has real narrative structure, and the Skibidiverse has been rapidly expanding over the last year. Even if your kids have never seen a Skibidi video, they are definitely talking about it on the playground. I break down whether toilet heads make any cultural or financial sense in a theater near you.
Meanwhile, two extraordinary online child safety bills are making their way to the U.S. Senate with bi-partisan support. If passed, they would dramatically reduce the data collected on kids, and cut off the algorithmic content that is so damaging to their mental health. What would social media actually look like if we could make it safe for minors? And could these regulations help adults, too?
Plus: Would you quit your job to be an influencer? 50% of adults would if they could. Many of those are already trying.
And YouTube's biggest stars are pissed that AI is learning from the captions on their videos. Where is the philosophical line between fair use and theft when it comes to large language models? And how will we protect creators who may soon be out-matched by "synthetic" video content?
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The surreal machinima "Skibidi Toilet" has been viewed 65 BILLION times across platforms, attracting the attention of Hollywood explosion enthusiast Michael Bay. The mega producer (Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean) has licensed the bizarre web series to make a feature length film or TV series.
The Gen Alpha meme generator is more than just a flash in the pan - it has real narrative structure, and the Skibidiverse has been rapidly expanding over the last year. Even if your kids have never seen a Skibidi video, they are definitely talking about it on the playground. I break down whether toilet heads make any cultural or financial sense in a theater near you.
Meanwhile, two extraordinary online child safety bills are making their way to the U.S. Senate with bi-partisan support. If passed, they would dramatically reduce the data collected on kids, and cut off the algorithmic content that is so damaging to their mental health. What would social media actually look like if we could make it safe for minors? And could these regulations help adults, too?
Plus: Would you quit your job to be an influencer? 50% of adults would if they could. Many of those are already trying.
And YouTube's biggest stars are pissed that AI is learning from the captions on their videos. Where is the philosophical line between fair use and theft when it comes to large language models? And how will we protect creators who may soon be out-matched by "synthetic" video content?
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
Listen & subscribe wherever you get podcasts:
🍎 https://apple.co/44FeACS
🟢 https://spoti.fi/3UGQjrN
⏯ https://amzn.to/3wCdueF
Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/influencepod
Call the show and leave a message: (347)-871-6548
Email me with guest & trivia suggestions! [email protected] (NOICE)
Follow me:
🐤https://twitter.com/Matt_Silverman
📸 https://www.instagram.com/matt_silverman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Previous Episode
11 Why Professional Content Moderators Can't Afford to Lose Faith in Humanity | Alice Hunsberger
When we report a spammer, a scammer, or online harassment, where does it go? Who decides what gets removed or banned? Bots can do some of the work, but when it comes to messy online emotions, we need human expertise for context and judgement.
So who are these heroes? What do they see all day? And how does content moderation work on a global scale, where the ethics, laws, and cultures of different platforms are so subjective?
This week on INFLUENCE, Alice Hunsberger breaks down this complicated world. She's the VP of Trust & Safety and Content Moderation at PartnerHero, a company that staffs some of our favorite social media apps with specialized teams that weed out bad actors to ensure everyone has a safe experience online.
Alice explains why this crucial work is often unnoticed or deeply misunderstood by the public, why viewing humanity's worst behavior for a job is so punishing, the impossible tasks for regulators, and why she remains optimistic about the Internet despite the constant flow of harmful content.
For more on the Trust & Safety industry, subscribe to Alice's newsletter and podcast: https://alicelinks.com/
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
Watch the show on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@influencepodcast
Listen & subscribe wherever you get podcasts:
Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/influencepod
Call the show and leave a message: (347)-871-6548
Email me with guest & trivia suggestions! [email protected] (NOICE)
Follow me:
🐤https://twitter.com/Matt_Silverman
📸 https://www.instagram.com/matt_silverman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Next Episode
13 There's Never Been a Better Time to Talk About Death | Caren Martineau & Jade Adgate
You and everyone you love will die. There's no way around it. Yet we rarely talk or think about the topic until we have to. For the first time in human history, we are "living longer and dying slower." That's good news, but it also creates a cultural disassociation with the reality of death.
But there's a growing movement - online and IRL - around death literacy. It advocates for ongoing conversation and education about this universal part of life. Just like exercise, finances, or playing piano, how can we be successful at something if we don't learn, practice, and grow?
That's the mission of Bevival, an online community and resource devoted to changing the cultural conversation around death. It's the brainchild of Caren Martineau, an entrepreneur who suddenly realized she has more time behind her than ahead.
Jade Adgate is a death midwife, who supports people with terminal diagnoses and the families left behind. She also empowers a large community on social media by sharing her work and insights to help grievers she can't reach in person.
Together, they produce the Exit Interviews podcast, a regular conversation with leading authors and philosophers about how we can make meaning from "the final frontier."
This week, Caren and Jade sit down with (a reluctant) Matt to discuss their calling around death literacy, their mission to engage the Internet on difficult topics, how death has become commercialized in the 20th and 21st centuries, and why that dehumanizes mortality.
Connect with Caren at http://bevival.com
Follow Jade on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.farewell.library
Subscribe to the Exit Interviews podcast: https://www.bevival.com/books-podcast-death-literacy
This show is made possible by listener support: https://www.patreon.com/influencepod
Watch & subscribe on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@InfluencePodcast
Join our Discord community! https://discord.gg/influencepod
Call the show and leave a message: (347)-871-6548
Email me with guest & trivia suggestions! [email protected] (NOICE)
Follow me:
🐤https://twitter.com/Matt_Silverman
📸 https://www.instagram.com/matt_silverman
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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