Happy Monday! 

Welcome back to Yap Year. I can look at screens again! Right after I hit my head last week, a friend texted me “Spongebob big guy pants ok,” but having not heard the new Ice Spice song for the new Spongebob movie, I thought something was seriously wrong with my brain. Anyways, I’m fine — and I now know that this lyric is just another viral vocal stim, one of many from the past couple weeks. More on that below.

Also in this newsletter, an update on the viral boy band Boy Throb, celebrity alter egos/doppelgangers, the end of a long-running podcast, and more.

People say the darnedest things… especially this past month. There have been quite a few viral videos that have (at least momentarily) made its way into the online lexicon. Sometimes I think it’s just me that can’t stop saying these phrases out loud, but then I get inundated with TikToks that let me know otherwise. In case you haven’t come across them yourself, here’s a short list of some of the memes that people kept quoting in November:

Remember the maybe real, maybe satirical boy band called Boy Throb that I shared with you a couple weeks ago? Well, as a quick refresher, they were hoping to get 1 million followers to help get their member Darshan, who lives in India, an O-1 visa. 

After only a month of posting, the group reached their 1 million follower goal. However, they are now seeking more press to bolster their visa application for Darshan. I have so many questions! I, like many people, are uncertain if this band is real. Yes, the tone of their videos makes it seem like they are Extremely Fake. And yes, they don’t sound Grammy-worthy despite their ambitions. But its members — Evan Papier, Anthony Key, Darshan Magdum and Zachary Sabania — have been seemingly genuinely posting their musical dreams for years. And several people have come out of the woodwork to affirm the individual members’ authenticity. In fairness, this is a great opportunity for people to jump on a trend for clout. So perhaps this group is both earnest and not, meaning this is a comedic group that is a means to an end, with the end being a semi-viral, successful enough music career. 

I’ve been curious about this trend, which I think began with the Mr. Fantasy/KJ Apa conundrum. In August, a mysterious British singer seemingly came out of nowhere bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Kiwi actor Apa. It’s all but officially confirmed that the two are the same person, considering they have the exact same tattoos. Bearing a wig and false teeth, Apa has taken the Mr. Fantasy bit all the way to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

Since Mr Fantasy’s debut, there have been a couple of other viral doppelganger stunts — one real, another fake. I noticed Kevin James posting as an art teacher named Matt Taylor last month and wondered what he was doing. Surely, it had to be a promotional tactic, right? That’s what most people think since James has a movie coming out next year called Solo Mio, in which he plays a man named Matt. Considering there’s no trailer nor much buzz, I suppose this is one way to push a movie. It is pretty endearing at the very least. 

Amid all this alter ego nonsense, we got the viral conspiracy of Timothée Chalamet moonlighting as the Scouse rapper EsDeeKid. It’s not surprising that people would be looking for more of these secret identities after seeing two of them blow up. But given all the work he’s putting in to promote Marty Supreme, I doubted that Chalamet had any time for a side quest like this. This Rolling Stone deep dive affirmed my instinct. At least this theory will likely translate to ticket sales for EsDeeKid, who is apparently going on tour.

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. To usher in December, I’ve made you a grand, ominous winter mix.

In this week’s playlist:

Other things I want to share with you.