Don’t Let This Flop

How did Grimes hide a newborn baby in an Airbnb? Are Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz pretending to be in love with each other on The Batman press tour? Why does Denver appear to such a magnet for TikTokers having condom-free sex? And finally: would you join Scientology if John Travolta were still hot? For our 25th (!) (!) episode, Brittany and Ej discuss such pressing questions of our time, as well as an alleged Pentecostal Christian dance cult, a massively compelling (but weirdly depressing) TikTok sex scandal unfolding in real time, and our new extremely Italian-American Himbo of the Week. 

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok. 

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When will liberals learn their lesson about sexualizing political figures? From Michael Avenatti to Andrew Cuomo, it never ends well. That hasn’t stopped a new batch of thirsty tweets that’s emerged about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky after Russia’s invasion of his country. (Spoiler alert: they’re cringe as hell.) We also discuss Pam and Tommy (not to mention Putin’s crush on Pamela Anderson), the millennial musical theater aficionado the 32-Bar-Chef, and crown a special Himbo of the Week.

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s been a long week — somehow longer than usual. Queen Elizabeth II’s death was falsely reported by a celebrity blogger who may or may not have confused her with a musician from Queens of the Stone Age. Russia invaded Ukraine, and celebrities posted their reactions in the most cringy ways possible. (Except Cher, of course, who is perfect.) Then there was the Euphoria finale, so we had to break down our love for Angus Cloud. 

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

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No sound has captured our For You Page — and, dare we say it, the soul of an entire generation — quite like Julia Fox saying "Uncut Jahhhhhhmz." Fox has gone viral not for her relationship with her now-ex paramour Kanye West, but for her role as Josh Safdie's self-described muse in Uncut Gems (or is it Uncah Jahhhms?), and the interview has got our FYPs in a chokehold. Also discussed on this ep: why poly couples make such cringe TikTok content, a Himbo of the Week who claims to spend $2000 a month on Voss alone, and a definitive ranking of bottled water. Special guest: Daily Beast journalist and author of the recent book Off the Edge Kelly Weill on the spread of Flat Earth conspiracy theories. 

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Links referenced in this episode: 

https://www.tiktok.com/@spotify/video/7062832165914021167?_t=8Px6XUaks07&_r=1

https://www.thecut.com/article/julia-fox-profile.html

tiktok.com/@danaandthewolf/video/7065732291028471086?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id7015988220497643013

https://www.tiktok.com/@ryandubs/video/7064291697500359941?_t=8Px8NuNJ3Ms&_r=1 

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For the past two weeks, Kanye West has constantly been posting on his previously dormant Instagram, aggressively campaigning to get his ex-wife Kim Kardashian back. Some of this behavior, such as referring to her current boyfriend Pete Davidson as "Skete" or posting Marvel Civil War memes, has been absurdly comical — but much of it has arguably crossed the line into public harassment, with Kanye most recently ranting about their daughter North's TikTok and posting Kim's messages pleading with him to stop. To help explain what's been going on with Kim and Kanye, we enlisted resident TikTok Kardashians expert @Kardashian.Kolloquium to shed some light on the situation. We also talk about the Tinder Swindler (and whether or not we'd swipe right), a New York magazine piece about fraudster Danielle Miller, and crown a special Valentine's Day-themed Himbo of the Week. 

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Links we reference in this episode:

Kardashian Kolloquium's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kardashian_kolloquium?lang=en

Gabrielle Bluestone's NY Mag piece: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/danielle-miller-scammer.html

https://www.tiktok.com/@shelbysmall1/video/7064312053397376302?_t=8PrztMB7LWZ&_r=1

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We promised we weren’t going to talk about And Just Like That on the pod…..and yet, the first 18 minutes of this episode are devoted to And Just Like That. We bid farewell to the first season of the endlessly divisive Sex and the City reboot, revisiting its best moments from the cringe (every scene with Che and Miranda, basically) to the unnecessarily horny (every scene with Che and Miranda, basically) to the sob-inducing (Steve won’t take off his wedding ring!!!! d’awwwwwwww). We also discuss the That’s Not My Name trend, the yassification of Pinocchio, and why the cartoon elephant from Sing is cancelled (spoiler: she deserves it).

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why is this season of Euphoria going completely off the rails? What happens to TikTok-famous gay influencer couples when they break up? And why can't playwright and Emily In Paris star Jeremy O. Harris stay off of TikTok? On this week's Don't Let This Flop, we address these burning questions and far more, such as Sydney Sweeney's classic car restoration TikTok account, whether the pop band Future X would survive in a Sims house, and we pledge our love to freegan TikTok himbos who got rejected from Juilliard.

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How did a 6'4" West Elm furniture designer get our FYPs in a chokehold for a solid week? This week on Don't Let This Flop, we unpack the ethical morass of the West Elm Caleb saga, in which the women of NYC TikTok banded together to put a 25-year-old tall guy named Caleb on blast for allegedly lovebombing, then ghosting, them. Brands got involved, and then West Elm's Instagram got involved — and then things turned ugly. We talked to Leah, aka @jewishbrat, one of the TikTok creators who had matched with Caleb and hopped on the trend, to get her thoughts on what it's like to go viral for accidentally ruining someone's life — and how she feels about taking part in the saga afterwards. We also discuss When We Were Young, aka the upcoming Vegas festival that seems destined to fail; bring you an update on a former Himbo of the Week, aka the Gummy Deep Throat Guy; and pay homage to thirst trap satirist extraordinaire @mrbigchops69. 

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Links we discuss in the show: https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz/video/7055052308048170286?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.bigchops69/video/7054554268182875439?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

https://www.tiktok.com/@joyjefferson8/video/7039855969945570606?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESPgo8f6YB8AHhstgUOsyxF2wMBskw4yCc73zxR5GP1sFsQ4RPERVo4emRi19W%2BpzLn623sT4m0fw5AOLwhZZdGgA%3D&checksum=3a1580757c6d89222f5e737666fd4457bc4517823a4900f86f0ab6dce4df525c&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAAngH-CnqIbj792T_2xKpUJgBMM0N1V0n0lzQFkmCntb_xk45DYVp2AAMJqgr23jSS&share_app_id=1233&share_item_id=7039855969945570606&share_link_id=18F25282-48A6-4031-987E-FC17EDA23EE3&source=h5_m×tamp=1642729140&tt_from=copy&u_code=d7327gfg6l95b3&user_id=6708830273024345094&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy&_r=1

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/caleb-west-elm-dating-saga-1288386/

https://www.tiktok.com/@mr.bigchops69/video/7054554268182875439?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

https://www.tiktok.com/@taylorlorenz/video/7055052308048170286?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

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On this week’s Don’t Let This Flop, we dissect Julia Fox’s PR-ready whirlwind relationship with Kanye West (and what, if any, involvement Pete Davidson may have; confront the reality that Lin Manuel Miranda is Cringe, and celebrate the return of both HBO’s “Euphoria” and multiple Himbo of the Week winner Francis Bourgeois, who debuted a highly erotic collab with the most online Jonas Brother (excepting Frankie, of course).

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week on Don't Let This Flop, we dissect the latest drama unfolding within the Adult Disney subculture, as well as "So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings" chanteuse Caroline Polachek, Kardashian kiddie Photoshop drama gone awry, the resurgence of 2014 Tumblr girlie style (and our fears about a subsequent renaissance of ballet flats), and a geriatric Himbo of the Week whose content is so horny it's restricted only to adults 21 and over.

Don’t Let This Flop is a weekly podcast from Rolling Stone, centered around a roundup of this week in TikTok trends and memes, from dances to recipes to makeup challenges to creepy viral videos to celebrity videos to grassroots campaigns intended to raise awareness of social issues. Join hosts Brittany Spanos and EJ Dickson as they unpack their significance, with special guests to break down the latest trends in TikTok. Some of these stories will be silly; some will be more serious. All will have wider implications outside the world of TikTok.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices