The Out-of-Touch Adults’ Guide to Children’s Culture: Do It for the Plot

This week, inspiration is coming from unexpected places, like an Indian restaurant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and TikTok’s recommendation algorithm. Young people do it for the sake of the plot, wallow in their own mud and argue over who, Gollum or King Kong, will star in the worst video game of the year.

What does it mean to “do it for the story”? All about the new inspiring TikTok trend

“Doing it for the story,” as Gen Zers say, is doing something unexpected and/or bold to advance the story of your life. This is often advice to a friend making a decision, a way of saying, “Don’t let your fear stop you. Become the main character and create your own story.”

The “it” that is done for the plot is going to a country music festival and making new friends , dancing in the sun , trying to date a nice guy for a change , or shaving your head —maybe not the most important thing. life events for crusty old jerks like me, but when you’re 18, you don’t have a lot of life experience, so deciding not to give a damn can be a new, scary thing that makes a huge difference. Check out the hashtag (story) to see what I mean.

Viral Video of the Week: TikToker LukeFoods Trying Indian Food

Speaking of inspiration, you need to check out this week’s viral video. Lukefoods is a brilliant young man from Kentucky who reviews food on TikTok. He does not eat the exquisite haute cuisine that city dwellers love so much. He eats the kind of food you can find in the Deep South and eats it in his car. He has been making videos for several years, such as trying breakfast at Taco Bell or comparing a Sam’s Club pizza to a Chuck E. Cheese slice , but has not received much recognition. That all changed this week when Lukefoods tried Indian cuisine for the first time .

This doesn’t look like the kind of thing that would get 11 million views in just a few days, but when you see this guy’s reaction, you’ll understand. His excitement is so real and so close. I got scared and screamed, “Damn, this might be the best thing I’ve ever eaten in my entire life” the first time I tried butter chicken. And when he eats it with Naan ? Come on !

TikTok Poster Takes Messy Rooms to New Heights

All this usefulness is making me feel sick, so here’s something depressing to calm me down. It’s nothing new about young people being messy, but today’s kids are taking sloppiness to the next level, and one of them has become famous online for it.

Pauenwy was a fairly successful streamer of Roblox content on Twitch, but then he posted a video called “Cleaning My Room as a Roblox Streamer” on TikTok and his views skyrocketed. This dude’s room is so dirty, like cockroaches and rats. Sensing something “good”, Pauenwi continued to post dirty content. His TikTok feed is now full of dirty videos that regularly rack up millions of views, like this one where he counts cockroaches , all presented with the caption “aren’t I gross?” a person.

In internet parlance, Pauenwy’s room is a “beard nest”, a sleeping area for dudes who don’t shower or receive visitors. The name is nothing new, and neither is the hobby of peeking into the ugliest bedrooms on earth —r/neckbeardnest on Reddit has been around for almost a decade. But as far as I know, Pauheni is the first person to turn lack of hygiene into glory. Major streamers and influencers have started reacting to his content (mostly to make fun of him), and this attracts even more people to point and laugh. But it’s not funny.

I don’t want to judge, but the Pauheni room and other extreme nests go far beyond teenage sloppiness. They look like manifestations of mental illness—“nests of depression,” as a Reddit poster has come to call them. Maybe I’m losing my edge, but I’m fascinated by the question: “How can you live like this?” overshadowed by darker thoughts of how this poor child is being rewarded for everything that is wrong in his life with looks and attention. It’s as disgusting as his room.

Slang watches: “Regarded” and “Spoopy”.

Let’s talk about a couple of new words kids use, would you like? This week I have two definitions for you.

• Dear : If a young man calls you “dear”, it probably does not mean that they think of you in a certain way. Popularized on the weird Reddit stock trading board r/wallstreetbets , the word “regarded” means “retarded” in Algo-speak. This is an attempt to get around this insult by any program that scans Internet messages for banned words, but without using the “r-word” or anything else.
• Spoopy : It’s Halloween, so the kids are calling things “spooky” again. It’s a silly way of saying “spooky,” nothing more, nothing less, and it’s become popular over the last few Halloweens.

Worst Video Game Battle of the Year: Lord of the Rings: Gollum vs. Skull Island: King Kong

When the video game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum was released in May, most gamers were convinced that it would be the worst game of 2023. On Metacritic it has a score of 34 out of 100, with reviewers noting the game’s terrible graphics and frustrating gameplay. , and generally shit. But this week saw the release of Skull Island: Rise of Kong , which is seriously trying to steal Gollum’s place. Kong deserves better. Skull Island is the first game to feature a love-struck monkey in nearly 20 years. It can be played on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC, and people are no doubt playing it just to post videos of its worst moments. Like this one, where the developers seem to have left a jpeg placeholder in the cutscene instead of finishing the animation. It’s too early for Kong to have a Metacritic score , but I’m keeping a close eye on this race to the bottom. If you’re interested and want to save $40, you can watch the first 15 minutes of Skull Island: Rise of Kong on YouTube . I did, and it does look like an extremely crappy game, but at least it’s only $40.