That's a Thing?!

Here are some of the things we talk about:

• Part 1 - The cons and cons of YouTube
• Timeline: 
  • 2002: Elizabeth is born.
  • 2005: YouTube is born. 
  • 2006: Google buys YouTube.

• Flaw 1 - Copyright confusion
  • YouTube copyright strikes
  • Somehow, Leprechaun 4: In Space is still available
• Flaw 2 - Demonetization
  • PewDiePie and anti-Semitic stunts 
  • Boring-to-teens but safe channels like Jimmy Kimmel
  • Demonetization of LGBTQ content
• Flaw 3 - The algorithm
  • Values longer videos, which hurts animators 
  • Elizabeth was mysteriously unsubscribed to The Bible Reloaded (now called Hugo and Jake)
  • She does not want to receive meme compilations on YouTube (but we did do a whole episode about memes)
  • How to end up in an right-wing echo chamber via autoplay
  • What we mean by “Spider-Man and Elsa” (NSFW, not safe for kids) 
• Lindsay Ellis’s channel 
• Hank Green’s tweets about YouTube and authenticity
• Our Team 10 episode, to remind you of Jake Paul (sorry)
• Shane Dawson’s business is to restore authenticity 
• Just like reality TV and wrestling, YouTube thrives on breaking kayfabe
• The fall of Onision

This episode is brought to you by two new podcasts that you should check out: Back To School Again, presented by NorQuest College, and Let's Do Coffee, from NAIT's Mawji Centre.

That's a Thing?! is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. Shoutout to our friends at 2 and Out and Let’s Find Out, and to Auntie Kate for helping out at 2 and Out Live.

You can subscribe to us in all the places, and most of them let you rate and review, too, which would be lovely.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

Many thanks to Unit B Coworking for the recording space and to our podcast host, Transistor.

Our theme music is Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin.

Here are links to the things we referred to.

• Elizabeth’s spooky inspiration
• Karen’s spooky inspiration
• Episode 1: Creepypasta
• The SCP Foundation
• Creepy art on Twitter: 41Strange, Toilets with Threatening Auras
• The Sun Vanished on Twitter
• Crypt TV
• The Little Mermaid on Crypt TV
• Salad Fingers
• Don’t Hug Me .I’m Scared
• That story about disturbing animation aimed at children

Many thanks to our sponsors this episode: 

• OtherWise is an affiliated podcast of the Alberta Podcast Network, created under the auspices of the Ribbon Rouge Foundation. It features the lived experiences of people of colour living on Treaty 6 territory. Episode 2 is out now.
• Let’s Do Coffee is an APN-affiliated podcast created by the Mawji Centre for New Venture and Student Entrepreneurship at NAIT. It features great interviews with alumni and student entrepreneurs. Episode 2 is out now.

By the way, Part 2 of our double-header on Tanacon is in the works. Watch for that in November. (Here's Part 1.)

That's a Thing?! is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. 

You can subscribe to us in all the places, and most of them let you rate and review, too, which would be lovely.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

Many thanks to Unit B Coworking for the recording space and to our podcast host, Transistor.

Our theme music is Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin.

Here are links to things we referred to:

• VidCon, the YouTube conference
• Our guest Kyle Marshall’s YouTube channel  
• Kyle also owns Media Lab YYC, and has three podcasts in the Alberta Podcast Network: Assumptions, Putting It Together and Creative Block
• Hank Green’s vlogbrothers, Crash Course and SciShow
• Tana Mongeau’s YouTube channel
• “Why I Won’t Be Attending VidCon 2018: A Rant”
• The only thing you see if you visit tanacon.com
• Shane Dawson’s The Truth about Tanacon
• Tana’s apology video: Tanacon: The good, the bad, and the ugly
• New York Magazine: A Mouth to Hell Opened This Weekend at Tanacon, a Fyre Festival for the YouTube Set
• In case you forgot about Fyre Festival
• PodCon, a much better convention that we were lucky enough to attend last year.

Stick around beyond the end for more baritone goodness from Kyle.

This episode was brought to you by LitFest, Canada’s original nonfiction festival, which runs in Edmonton from Oct. 11 to 21. Use the offer code APNROCKS to get $5 off your ticket purchase.

This episode is also brought to you by Back to School Again, a new affiliated podcast of the Alberta Podcast Network, featuring stories of people returning to post-secondary studies in midlife.

That's a Thing?! is a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. 

You can subscribe to us in all the places, and most of them let you rate and review, too, which would be lovely.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

Many thanks to Unit B Coworking for the recording space and to our podcast host, Transistor.

Our theme music is Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin.

Here are links to things we mentioned and other things that seem relevant in hindsight:

• The meaning of “meme”
• The inciting tweet from Jason of The Young Gaffers
• The Markiplier E meme 
• The Hey Beter meme
• The original Hey Peter video
• Suicide Mouse video
• Despacito, the original  
• The Despacito 2 meme 
• The This is So Sad Alexa Play Despacito meme 
• The This is So Sad meme
• The Slaps Roof of Car meme 
• The Repost Fish meme
• A deep dive into the Loss meme
• Know Your Meme is helpful. Urban Dictionary? Use at your own risk.

That's a Thing?! is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. Check out what ATB is up to in the realm of transformation at atbalphabeta.com.

Shout-out to The Young Gaffers, an irreverent look at the beautiful game. We’re proud to be in the Alberta Podcast Network with them.

We'd love it if you'd rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can subscribe to us in all the places.

Questions? Comments? Requests? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

Many thanks to Castria for lending us some recording equipment, and to our podcast host, Transistor.

Our theme music is Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin.

Elizabeth made a Spotify playlist of songs we refer to, for your listening/cringing pleasure.

Here are links to some of the other things we talked about:

• Not this kind of flossing
• This kind of flossing
• We keep talking about Fortnite
• Edmonton Podcasting Meetup, where Mack Male of Taproot Edmonton asked Elizabeth to explain flossing
• Swish Swish 
• Backpack Kid
• Flossing Song
• Forget fidget spinners, now the craze is The Floss dance
• Victory animation in Fortnite: Flossing, Electro Shuffle, Dab
• We keep talking about Tide Pods
• Ironic dabbing 
• Iconic dabbing 
• Dabbing at a funeral
• Harlem Shake 
• We find a way to talk about K-Pop
• Michelle Obama doing Evolution of Mom Dancing with Jimmy Fallon, i.e. how Karen knows what The Dougie is
• Drake gif memes: Tennis, Pizza, Star Wars
• Don't sit like a horse (not clean)
• That time we went on I Don’t Get It to talk about Batboy: The Musical
• Hat tip to Karen’s Facebook friends for reminding her of all the dances she forgot
• The Moonwalk
• Rock Lobster on Just Dance  (Even more about Rock Lobster and the B-52s from Slate’s Hit Parade)
• Walk Like an Egyptian  
• The Macarena  
• Debbie Harry explains the Pogo
• The Electric Slide
• Country line-dancing to Cadillac Ranch
• The Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Show

That's a Thing?! is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. Have a business? ATB is good at helping you.

Shout-out to fellow APN members Press Start to Join. Please fill out this listener survey!

We'd love it if you'd rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. You can subscribe to us in all the places.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

Many thanks to Unit B Coworking for the recording space, to Castria for help with the production, and to our podcast host, Transistor.

Our theme music is Ragtime Dance by Scott Joplin.

Here are the links to a bunch of things we mentioned:

• K-Poparazzi on Radiolab
• The Monkees
• H.O.T.
• Our episode on fan fiction, which mentions K-Pop a lot 
• Gangnam Style (as if you haven't seen it)
• BTS
• BTS at the Pyeongchang Olympics 
• BTS at Billboard Music Awards 
• BTS on The Ellen Show in  2017 and  2018  
• BTS with Taylor Swift
• BTS on Twitter
• Urban Dictionary definitions of ARMY, no true scotsman and bias
• #mermay on Twitter
• Examples of #mermay shipping BTS members from @cosmicpens and @Capramare
• Rantasmo on queerbaiting in Sherlock  
• Moonlighting's "finally" episode 
• The X-Files tension
• Riverdale's trailer  
• Supernatural, still going on 
• BTS skin care routines
• Hope you'll join us at Make Music Edmonton and/or Podcasts Connect
• Hear us on I Don't Get It talking about Bat Boy: The Musical

That's a Thing?! is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. We are sponsored this month by the Rotary District 5370 Conference.

Can you do us a favour? Please fill out this listener survey!

We'd love it if you'd rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. You can also find us on Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

Many thanks to Castria for help with the production, and to our new podcast host, Transistor.

That's a Thing?! is a member of the Alberta Podcast Network (https://albertapodcastnetwork.com), powered by ATB (https://atb.com). It is sponsored this month by YESS Painting (https://yesspainting.com)

Find full show notes at thatsathing.transistor.fm/6

• Fortnite on Twitch
•  Brace for Impact, the upcoming season of Fortnite
•  Fortnite Battle Royale
• Game Theory: WARNING - Pokemon May Cause DEATH!
•  What is ‘Strip Fortnite’ and Why Are Women Signing Up? (Cosmopolitan)
•  The Real History of Twitter (Business Insider) — another example of a happy (?) accident
•  ‘Fortnite’ Now Asks Students to Not Play in Class (Rolling Stone)
• Overklocked Gaming in Edmonton has a Battle Royale Night every Tuesday, if you want to watch it with people.

We'd love it if you'd rate and review us on  Apple Podcasts. You can also find us on  Google Play, Stitcher and  Spotify.

Questions? Comments? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us: @thatsathingyeg.

This episode is brought to you by YESS Painting. If you live in Edmonton and need a paint job, get your free quote here.

We're proud to be a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. We mentioned a few fellow members — Ed: Conversations about the Teaching Life, Press Start to Join and Assumptions.

Join the Alberta Podcast Network at NorthwestFest on May 8 to watch Sickboy and Picture This, two documentaries with a podcast connection. Use the offer code APNBOGO18 to get two-for-one tickets.

Many thanks to Castria for help with the production.

Some links to things we talked about:

• Definition of fan fiction
• Hamilton shipping, like Lams 
• Sherlock shipping 
• Sarah Marshall’s piece in The Baffler: The Afterlife of Newsies 
• Original Character Do Not Steal meme
• Urban Dictionary definition of Mary Sue
• Places to find fan fiction: 
  • Tumblr: #fanfiction and #fanfic
  • Quotev
  • fanfiction.net
  • Wattpad
  • Tap by Wattpad
• Business Insider on Fifty Shades of Grey and Twilight

We'd love it if you'd rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. Want to know how? The wonderful Dana Francis of Career Pod made this handy how-to guide.

This episode is brought to you by the Edmonton Community Foundation, creator of The Well Endowed Podcast.

We're proud to be a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. We mentioned a couple of fellow members — Let's Find Out and Don't Call Me A Guru.

Check out the Alberta Podcast Network events page.

Many thanks to Castria for help with the production.

Elizabeth dives into the world of indie video games, introducing some that her mother would really rather not know about (hi, FNAF), and some that she's kind of looking forward to trying. Plus, #PaulWatch and the meaning of THOT.

Some links to things we talked about:

• Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
• Hello Neighbor
• Cuphead
• Super Meat Boy
• Slender (You thought we'd talk about Slenderman in the Creepypasta episode, but nope.)
• Undertale
• Why the Game Theory guy gave Undertale to the Pope (and yes, he actually met the Pope.)
• Five Nights at Freddy's
• What Remains of Edith Finch (suggested by our pals and fellow Alberta Podcast Network members Press Start to Join)
• Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
• Doki Doki Literature Club
• Speed Dating for Ghosts

Also, we're now a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. 

Learn more about The Branch for Arts and Culture.

Elizabeth explains how eating Tide Pods became a thing, and analyzes media coverage of the phenomenon. This leads to a discussion of challenges past and present, and the ensuing freakouts.

Links to some of the things we referred to:

• Tide Pods official webpage
• Washington Post article on eating Tide Pods
• Onion article from 2015
• College Humor video
• Know your Meme, tide pods
• Know your Meme, drinking bleach
• Tide Pod Chan and Cosplay (Safe for work, if you’re cool with your coworkers watching you stare at anime chicks)
• Gronk Twitter video
• The Tight Ends podcast episode with Gronk's video
• Michelle Obama mannequin challenge
• Paul McCartney mannequin challenge
• ALS research related to the ice bucket challenge
• The failure of Bald for Bieber
• The fire challenge
• Jackass (which was on MTV, not network TV)

We also revisit Logan Paul (shudder), who also invaded the grownups' part of the internet this month. Here’s a timeline of the scandal.

• Dec. 31, 2017: Logan Paul uploads a video of him and his friends finding a dead body in the Aokigahara forest in Japan.
• Jan. 1, 2018: After amassing millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes, the video is taken down. The internet is outraged. Logan Paul releases his first apology via Twitter.
• Jan. 1: Mainstream media picks up the story.
• Jan. 2: Logan Paul releases an apology video. His social media then goes silent.
• Jan. 3: The internet community continues to lampoon him, releasing parody videos and demanding that YouTube takes action.
• Jan. 9: YouTube releases a string of tweets condemning Logan Paul’s actions.
• Jan. 10: YouTube announces that Logan Paul has lost the advertising privileges granted to him by the platform. The sequel to Logan’s movie, The Thinning, is put on hold indefinitely.

And that’s enough of that. We talked about the Paul brothers in Episode 2 of That’s a Thing?!, if you want to go back to simpler time.

Finally, we fielded a question from Tammy, who wanted to know what teens mean by “mood.” Elizabeth explains.

If you have a question about what the youngs are on about, you can ask them on our Twitter account, @thatsathingyeg. You can also email questions to [email protected].

Subscribe to That’s a Thing?! In Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher and other places that catch pods (but not Tide Pods).

The music for That’s A Thing?! is Scott Joplin’s Ragtime Dance from the Free Music Archive. Many thanks to Castria for production assistance.