I GOT THE ICK
Mōrena lil shits!!
OMG so last night Liv and I went out with two of our (single but extremely eligible) mates for a wee Valentine's day dinner, and I low key got date shamed. I walked in (I was first there), scanned my vaccine passport, and the dude at the counter saw my name and said “Lucy, you’re special” and I was like “ok” and he was like “you win a prize because you’re the only table of 4 tonight” and I was like “?????” and then he said “you, know because everyone else is at a table of 2… because it’s Valentine’s Day?” and I had to awkwardly, idk, laugh, and shuffle off to my table and sit on my own til my PLATONIC DATES joined me. How dare a single person try to go out on a day that is only optimised to make a lot of money off couples!
Anyway, on another note, you guys know I love breaking the fourth wall with you about what we’re up to with Shit You Should Care About (at this point you’re running the bizz as much as me!!!) so lemme tell you that Rubes, Liv and I sat down yesterday to really get the wheels in motion to bring back “Shit You Should Read About” (our book club) for you!!! We’re in the v early stages of planning, but I’ll keep you in the loop coz yay!
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In today’s newsletter:
The Great Smushing
Scomo butchered “April Sun In Cuba” and Dragon aren’t happy
What gives you 'The Ick?'
The Superbowl halftime show
90s album covers, but make them Spongebob
Is it loe, low or lo and behold?
The Great Smushing
This is the newer, and much cuter version of "The Great Resignation," "The Great Gatsby" and all the other things we name “The Great ____” because originality doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, I read about ‘The Great Smushing’ last night before going to sleep and it really got me thinking about how, yeah, literally all my identities like who I am at work/ home/ around my pals is all smushed into one… but for me, I kinda like it that way… there is no environment where I’m trying to impress anyone or be more corporate, but then I do find it really hard to switch off and be stupid with my pals without thinking it’s content.. anyway, here’s what The Great Smushing actually means, and not my silly interpretation of it:
“This non-peer-reviewed term refers to the crashing and flattening of our personalities, responsibilities, and selves, driven by frictionless Everything Devices and greatly accelerated by Covid.”
Here’s an interesting (and wrong) thing that Mark Zuckerberg said in 2009:
"You have one identity," a 25-year-old Mark Zuckerberg famously told journalist David Kirkpatrick in 2009. "The days of you having a different image for your work friends or coworkers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly.” And then his moralizing kicker: “Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity." Strap on your Oculus blinders and ignore the fact that there may have been times that Facebook (now Meta) has displayed multiple identities or a lack of integrity. Zuckerberg’s prophecy has been thoroughly fulfilled.”
The Great Smushing is tied to availability, attention, and all the other good stuff that we either feel like we have too much or too little of these days (too much availability because work can kinda contact us whenev, and too little attention because we’ve been ruined by our little rectangles) and speaking of attention, mine has run out. You can read the full piece here!
Scomo butchered “April Sun In Cuba” and Dragon aren’t happy
Not Dragons as in those big flying scaly things (though I can’t imagine they were pleased either) but Dragon as in the band whose song it is. What happened was, Australian PM Scott Morrison went on ‘60 Minutes’ and was for some reason compelled to play April Sun In Cuba (well one line of it, twice) at the dinner table.
Here it is:
Maybe it would be endearing if the song wasn’t about running away to a hot island/ looking for greener pastures when things weren’t going well for you, and if they hadn’t gone on that infamous family holiday to Hawaii during the bushfires in 2019/20.
Here’s the statement from Dragon:
“Maybe if his trip to Hawaii had not been cut short, he could have learnt the lyrics to the rest of the chorus”
It also gives me extreme John Key signing “All I want for Christmas” energy:
That's enough.
The Ick
Yesterday Liv and I recorded an episode of Culture Vulture about the Tiktokification of words like ‘lovebombing’ and ‘gaslighting,’ and within that chat we talked about ‘The Tindler Swindler’ and ‘The Ick.’ First of all, it’s a really good/funny/personal ep that you’re gonna wanna listen to when it drops tomorrow, and second of all, I got you to send in some of your “icks” to me via our insta story yesterday and some of them are too good not to share here.
Ooooh, I should probs explain what “the ick” is right?? Well, its definition is “where attraction to a current or potential partner is suddenly flipped to a feeling of disgust.” But I reckon there are like two types of ick: there’s “the ick” like the full-on, start of a relationship ick that you see on Love Island, where something happens and you’re just turned off and there’s no coming back (common when you’ve just started dating someone.) When you get this type of ick it’s like… you’re done. OR there’s “an ick”, which could be something small that your partner does that makes you shiver, or be put off in the moment (or whenever you think about it), but you can easily look over or deal with it. Liv and I also have a super nuanced conversation about the sometimes fine line between icks, gut feelings, intuitions, red flags and self-sabotaging - but for the sake of this newsletter I’m gonna keep it light and just list some of your icks (I am also a walking ick, so all of these are incredibly hypocritical.)
Your icks:
Playing crack the egg on the trampoline and they’re the egg
Poor spelling/ grammar in comms (agree)
Running to scare a pigeon and it doesn’t move
BABY TALK
When he jumps in a pool and his trunks INFLATE
“Sowwy 🥺” (I must give so many of you the ick)
Wearing a t-shirt with no pants or undies
Confidently singing the wrong lyrics
Basketball singlets
Thinking of them re-taking a selfie for Snapchat
Referring to inanimate objects with female pronouns
Poking their tongue into the glass before drinking from it
Long nails
Chasing a ping pong ball / a piece of paper down the street
Burping and not saying excuse me
Can’t poach an egg
Fedoras
When they can’t read a room/ their jokes don’t land
Running with a backpack on
Them wearing a dressing gown
Honestly, some of these are out of pocket and I’m obsessed (and you should all definitely listen to tomorrow’s Culture Vulture episode about why we get the ick!!)
I haven’t watched it, but here’s the Superbowl Halftime show for you
Also 90s album covers but make them Spongebob
Is it loe, low or lo and behold?
Lo and behold... the results!!
Most of you voted for 'lo and behold' (which is correct), but a LOT of you voted for 'low and behold' which is incorrect.
Olympics, Omicron, & OMG IT’S SWEATY!! (The Shit Show)
Everything We Thought About Euphoria Was Wrong (Culture Vulture)
How the pandemic warped Gen Z (Salon)
No, The New York Times did not make Wordle harder (The Verge)
IT’S YOUR FRIENDS WHO BREAK YOUR HEART (The Atlantic)
The Women Make Euphoria: The cast on playing teens forever on the brink of disaster (The Cut)
GET A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL TO WATCH EUPHORIA OR YELLOWJACKETS! (Neon)
You can listen to us talk about all things pop culture on Culture Vulture, about THE WORLD on The Shit Show or watch us explain the internet on Extremely Online.
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