The Adult’s Guide to Childhood Culture: Dumb Edition
If you are like me, you definitely do not get hung up on the end result of the vote count in Georgia or elsewhere. You don’t click the update button on news sites as if it’s your job, and suddenly you’re not interested in Congressional maps at the district level. So instead of politics, let’s talk about the stupidest and most meaningless things young people are into, okay? (This is really pretty much everything I can handle right now.)
Dumb Urban Legends from TikTok
I asked my teenage niece, Claire, about the dumbest urban legends on TikTok, and she’s had a great time. The first fake story is a little out of date, but it’s so weird and crude and hilarious that I had to bring it up to the surface in case you missed it the first time. That’s it: teenage girls on TikTok started a rumor that girls usually eat tampons after their period.
It all started with this video from caro.trash , which feigns distrust of all the ignorant guys who don’t know that girls “eat their tampons after they’ve done it to reabsorb all the blood they’ve lost.” Soon, other girls “confirmed” this “truth” in the comments section, and the nation of boys asked, “Wait, right ?” in videos with reactions.
Dull Rumor Number Two: According to some TikTok users, spiders and other insects are attracted to the glue on the back of LED string lights that kids love, so if you hang these glue lights in your bedroom, you’ll soon be overwhelmed by the insects that live behind them. Take them off the wall and a gang of spiders will fall on your face. Rude, dumb and even a little true … the perfect urban legend.
Viral Video of the Week: A Day at the Ice House
So far, over 24 million people have watched the incredibly stupid video ofYouTube star Mister Beast trying to spend 24 hours in a house made entirely of ice . Why is he doing this? Nobody knows (I mean other than YouTube ad revenue stream). To add to the pointless drama, if he does, his friends have to cover themselves with maple syrup and feathers because … I mean, who knows?
Spoiler alert: Mister Beast discovers that it is very, very cold in the house of ice. According to The Beast, the video was worth over $ 300,000 in total, and is there anything more stupid in God’s land than spending the cost of a real house to create a video of how to spend a day in a house of ice? But this is so terribly stupid that I can’t help but admire him.
In Video Games This Week: New Consoles Are Almost Here
Okay, waiting for the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles isn’t silly (I mean, depending on your point of view), but that’s what’s happening in games this week. Parents of console gamers will be faced with choices this Christmas shopping season, so you’ll want to be as informed as possible. Check out Kotaku’s in- depth Xbox Series X review and his Everything We Know About PlayStation 5 guide to learn more . I like them both, but I still admire my GameCube, so what do I know? Fortunately, the child or teenager in your life is likely to have a strong opinion of what to buy, so that takes away most of the decision-making from you. The new Xbox launches on November 10, and the PS5 launches on November 12.
This Week In: Teenage Bounty Hunters and the Return of Dawson Creek
I know we are in the golden age of television, where shows have to be “sublime,” “art,” or whatever, but there is still room for dumb, pointless fun on TV. Take Teenage Bounty Hunters , a Netflix show that has attracted a rabid young audience since its August premiere. The plot is as clever as the title: Teenage Bounty Hunters tells the story of sixteen-year-old twin girls who go to a strict religious high school in Atlanta during the day and hunt dangerous jumpers at night. Yes, it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s still awesome and comes with risks that are only possible when the audience doesn’t have to be large for the show to stay on TV.
My other teens TV series this week is Dawson’s Creek , a show that’s not dumb in itself, but pointless. All six seasons of late 90s teen comedy have washed ashore on Netflix like digital trash, and this is exactly the kind of teenage drama the world needs to binge on right now. He’s so serious, and he takes himself and his teens so seriously, it’s kind of a breath of fresh air in our current “everything is meta” media space. I predict a new generation of Dawson Creek fans will emerge, provided that today’s kids can move away from outdated fashion and imagine a world in which no one cares about the “global pandemic”.