As promised, Duana and I are trying to produce more episodes of Show Your Work now that we’re all in lockdown. Today’s new episode opens with a discussion about the sounds of flesh-slapping. It’s one of the most lucrative entertainment streams… and no, we are not talking about porn. We are talking about professional wrestling! As in WWE. Pajiba had an article the other day about what watching wrestling is like without an audience and how that industry has had to adjust its work practices to accommodate the new reality. And, yes, now that I think back to our discussion, Duana does manage to get porn in there for comparison.
From there, we go to Oprah and her new COVID-19 informational series on Apple TV+. The first episode featured Idris Elba and Sabrina Dhowre, who both tested positive. This is not a show that looks like any of the shows that Oprah’s done before – and it’s coming at a time when we’ve been listening to people “talk” in ways that are not necessarily of the brand that Oprah built. Can she be successful in this format? And is this format suited to her?
Is there any format better suited to DJ D-Nice than Instagram Live? He’s the superstar of social media right now because of #ClubQuarantine and, interestingly, he’s revived something that people thought was dead: Monoculture. When the whole world is self-isolating, the chances of the whole world – or a LOT of people in the world – doing and watching the same thing goes up. There’s nostalgia to it too…because way back in the day, people would gather in their parlours (why did we stop calling it a “parlour”?) and listen, together, to the radio. One time, so many people were listening at once, they actually thought aliens were invading the earth. Are these nights with DJ D-Nice are the modern, much less scary, version of that? And is it possible that monoculture isn’t exactly as extinct as we thought?
Speaking of monoculture, last year, it was thought that Game of Thrones would be the last show that we would all watch together, one given night, at the same time. Which gives me an opportunity to introduce a new feature, or what I hope will be a new feature, called “The Five Minute Dump”, during which I take a five minute dump on sh-tty work. Duana’s not sold on the name. I, obviously, love any reference to poo.
Thanks for listening – and please keep sending us your story ideas! Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. We’re back with another new episode soon!
