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Todd In The Shadows
- Thread starter Random Internet Person
- Start date
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2020
Interesting tidbit: so in the description of Todd's new video which includes the usual simping for Lindsay, there is an extra writing credit
And who is this guy? Well.
If you asked the worst AI to produce a quintessential LA dipshit, he's what would be spit out. I listened to his latest podcast episode for exactly 72 seconds of talk before tapping out from primeval revulsion. But he's Todd's bro and the one who it would appear, when asked about Timberlake's song, replied asking if it was about Trump.
And he's an occasional host at what is probably Todd's go-to karaoke bar, The Good Nite in North Hollywood. It's as gay as could be expected. This is probably the guy he went to the Cheekface show with too that he mentioned on Twitter.
I keep wanting to believe that Todd isn't just another soycuck YouTuber but it's probably time to face reality. It's not like he's ever pretended to be anything else, but I had hoped for better, idk why.
And who is this guy? Well.
If you asked the worst AI to produce a quintessential LA dipshit, he's what would be spit out. I listened to his latest podcast episode for exactly 72 seconds of talk before tapping out from primeval revulsion. But he's Todd's bro and the one who it would appear, when asked about Timberlake's song, replied asking if it was about Trump.
And he's an occasional host at what is probably Todd's go-to karaoke bar, The Good Nite in North Hollywood. It's as gay as could be expected. This is probably the guy he went to the Cheekface show with too that he mentioned on Twitter.
I keep wanting to believe that Todd isn't just another soycuck YouTuber but it's probably time to face reality. It's not like he's ever pretended to be anything else, but I had hoped for better, idk why.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
I know only what’s said here in this post about this guy, and I’m already wondering if he’s thread worthy. Probably another BreadTube associate like Todd at worst.
It’s like this entire decade is just watching Todd’s reputation disintegrate in real time, whether as a music critic, a generally cool guy to be around, or both.
Last edited:
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- Dec 24, 2019
oh, nvm Ninon42 already mentioned it.
Edgeymcedgename
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 14, 2024
Dose anyone actually use nebula? Isn't that why it's attached to brilliant(streaming service)
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2019
considering it's just Breadtubers on it mostly I assume it's mostly Breadtuber superfans who use it, aka nobody noteworthy
I'm all for a Youtube alternative to challenge it's throne, but Nebula just ain't it.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
Did Nebula even have potential to be a YouTube challenger?
- Joined
- Dec 24, 2019
I mean... did anything? did Vimeo? did Rumble?
Arthur Morgan
kiwifarms.net
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- Sep 5, 2019
I think it's to explain why Justin's getting so much hate now, but it does seem pointless and considering how much he liked Justin back in the day, I wonder if this is a Moviebob style "I loved you, you didn't live up to my expectations, so now I hate you" thing. Or maybe he's just trying to be a good little ally.
Surprisingly no, he doesn't mention her in the slightest, except for in the description as mentioned above.
I think Blip could have. You could upload longer videos with better quality on them back when YT was still 240p and 11 minutes max. And they paid out better for the content creators, so you'd think more people would focus on being over there. The problem is YT was much easier to navigate and find new content to watch, and also easier to share with other people. At this point, YT has such a strangle hold, no one can compete.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
TBH, that’s pretty much the only way he’s mentioned Lindsay for several years now. Hardly what I call “simping”
I don’t think anyone has ever gone after JT for Britney or Janet as those things were literal decades ago. Anyone getting hate from Britney stans would be her parents for controlling her finances and general activities or whatever #FreeBritney was raising awareness about.
If there was something he had to be an ally about, Todd would tweet about it or mention it in his videos.
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2017
Blip also got bought out and shut down.
Man I miss it. There was some awesome content on there.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
Last edited:
Edgeymcedgename
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 14, 2024
Does anyone still use pizzagate as a conspiracy or is he just out of touch? Also the eye of providence doesn't mean that. It's the eye of God
Because God is watching over you.
Because God love.... you get it.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
Honestly, any conspiracy theory will have adherents, no matter how fringe.
Remember, this album came out in 2018, when Pizzagate and QAnon were more en vogue. And that Todd’s cowriter for this episode asked if one of the songs was about Trump.
So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Todd make a political comment about years old YouTube comments.
ToddleDoddle
kiwifarms.net
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- May 9, 2019
As bad as Todd may get about politics, at least he is not like this.
For context his guy is another music reviewer in the same sphere as Todd.
For context his guy is another music reviewer in the same sphere as Todd.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
ToddleDoddle
kiwifarms.net
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- May 9, 2019
Brad has cultivated a very progressive audience. If you think Todd getting on his soap box politically during videos is bad, Brad is 100 times worse. Because of that when he got to meet one of the Youtubers who greatly influenced him (Ethan of H3H3) and shared a picture of it, his own community tore him to shreds due to the fact that Ethan and Hila support Israel. Instead of having a spine he had to beg his fans for forgiveness and promise to do better.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
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- Jul 14, 2018
Yeah I can enjoy Trainrecords because it’s just amusing to hear about failed record albums. Todd’s lib opinions don’t even really trigger me. But I could never give this Brad pussy a fair shake.
Random Internet Person
kiwifarms.net
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- Jun 28, 2019
Trying to kill some time before I have to go to work, so it turns out I found a way to get past the Patreon wall and got to read Todd's Ramble On Essays, all think to this website with a bunch of NSFW ads all over the place:
TO BE CONTINUED because of KF character limits.
ASHLEY O - ON A ROLL
“On a Roll” by Ashley O, I feel, was not intended to have fans.
Ashley O is a fictional pop star played by Miley Cyrus in “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” an episode of the sci-fi TV anthology Black Mirror; “On a Roll” is Ashley O’s signature song, or at least the only song we hear much of in the episode. Other critics have read the episode as anti-pop music (including a friend of mine at io9), but I’m not sure it is. The episode has plenty to say about the machinery of pop stardom and what it does to its performers, but not so much the music itself. We don’t exactly get the sense that Rachel, the obsessed fan in the episode, is wrong for liking Ashley O and her music; she doesn’t grow out of liking pop music or anything. When Ashley O breaks free of her image and starts making dark goth-metal, we see Rachel at one of her shows but at best she looks mildly uncomfortable. I think she’s only there to be supportive of Ashley; I don’t really get the sense that she’s repented from teen pop or that it was bad for her mental state. (I don’t get a sense of much at all from that episode because the writing is half-baked and unsatisfying, a problem it shares with about half of Black Mirror’s entire run.)
But if you want to make the case that the episode genuinely dislikes Ashley O’s music, the best case is the song itself because the lyrics are just terrible. “On a Roll”’s big clever move is being a rewrite of Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole,” with the beat given a Gaga-ish makeover (I say Gaga-ish because it doesn’t sound much like anything Miley ever made) and the lyrics altered to sound vaguely like a sexy female-empowerment-for-the-male-gaze kind of pop song. But only vaguely, because clearly not much care was put into it. Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror’s showrunner, and this song’s lyricist) hasn’t bothered to decide whether this is a sex song or a dancing song or an empowerment anthem or what, the lyrics are jammed awkwardly into the original’s meter and every other line is a clunker. “I’m stoked on AM-bition and verve” proves that Brooker was not up to the task of finding a rhyme for “deserve”: “achieving my goals!” is so bluntly on-the-nose it may as well be a punch in the face; and the title line of the original, “Head like a hole,” is given the laziest rewrite of all. (“Hey-ey-oh-ho”? Is that really the best you could come up with, Charlie?)
This doesn’t mean the song is intentionally bad; maybe Brooker just needed something that sounded like a hit song if you heard it for five seconds in the background of a TV show. But it’s certainly not written the same way you’d write a real hit song that you wanted people to listen to because they enjoyed it.
So naturally, it became pretty popular anyway. Not a mega-smash or anything, it wasn’t a hit. But it at least earned some kind of fandom, I heard much more talk about it than “Mother’s Daughter,” Miley’s actual release closest to the airdate of the episode; the two songs have close to the same amount of streams on Spotify. A good chunk of those streams were from me; I couldn’t get the damn song out of my head some months after I saw the episode. Even with the awful lyrics, it’s kind of perfect; Brooker’s best insight is that “Head Like a Hole” was always a fantastic, catchy-as-hell pop song, and he got a legitimate production team (The Invisible Men, the same team that brought you Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”) to bring it to life.
Which makes me wonder: Would this have been a hit as just a regular single, with no connection to Black Mirror? Miley has, in fact, performed it live, and it went over pretty well. And like I said, it has picked up its share of fans. I saw the same phenomenon happen last year for “Why Did You Do That,” the fake pop song Lady Gaga performs in A Star Is Born. (There’s even a mashup of the two songs on YouTube.) Like with Black Mirror, I’m not entirely sure that A Star Is Born is anti-pop, but we’re definitely meant to sympathize at least a little with Bradley Cooper’s character when he winces at the lyrics. But again, the beat kind of rules/slaps/bops/etc., so people forgave the inane lyrics and repetitive chorus.
Or are they forgiving it? Is the quote-unquote “badness” the point? Yes, I know that stupid lyrics have never stopped pop songs from gaining an audience, I lived through the Black-Eyed Peas era just like everyone, but these aren’t radio singles meant to be passively absorbed by the undiscerning listener. You have to seek these out, maybe even watch Black Mirror, to engage with them, and even if you don’t watch that show you probably at least know of it. Pop songs are never just songs, our knowledge of its context shapes how we listen to it – the fact that all the songs from Robin Thicke’s Paula were from an album called Paula definitely changed how I heard them. So I wonder: Are people listening to these “bad” songs ironically? Is there something transgressive about elevating intentional garbage to the level of good music? I mean, surely there’s some kind of trolling going on in turning the work of Trent Reznor into happy plastic crap, something that everyone’s aware of that lends it a level of irony that you don’t necessarily get from just the text.
Or maybe it’s not that deep. Gaga’s early singles were “bad” also, after all – I wanna take a ride on your disco stick, etc – and people were fine with that. Is everyone just enjoying the catchy beat in both cases and not thinking about it very hard?
Honestly, no, I don’t think so, I think these are different things. “Why Did You Do That?” is not quote-unquote “bad” in the same way as “Lovegame.” They both raise the question of how much it is “ironic,” but the “badness” of that disco-stick line is meant to violently punch through your mental filters and force you to pay attention; there’s nothing that grabbing about “Why Did You Do That?”, there’s just a stupid jarring reference to a guy’s ass and an obnoxious repetitive chorus. Gaga has played coy on whether that song is meant to be crappy, but if it is you surely can’t tell from her delivery, which is sung with gusto and played entirely straight, without any of the winking archness that Gaga brought to her first singles. The irony all comes from the metatext, that is, the plot of the movie it’s from. Without that, I don’t think it’d have any fans; people enjoy it because it was supposed to be bad and there’s a thrill in liking something you’re not “supposed” to. (I think the relief of ironic distance might work for the performers, too: Miley performed “On a Roll” at Glastonbury in Ashley O’s pink wig, whereas she hasn’t worn her more famous blonde wig on stage in many years. It surely must feel less fraught to play the solidly fictional Ashley O than the confusingly semi-fictional Hannah Montana.)
Okay, so here’s a funny story. During the TRL craze of the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, I would’ve sworn to you that I hated all that teenybopper shit and it all sucked ass. You know what made me finally see its appeal? It wasn’t anything ‘N Sync or BSB sang; it was “Backdoor Lover,” the fake song that fake boyband DuJour sings at the beginning of the Josie and the Pussycats movie. This definitely was not meant to be good; it’s a lazy buttsex joke from a satire that was nowhere near as smart as it thought it was, but the beat, the screaming fans singing along, I finally understood the appeal of the boybands. It must have been the layer of irony (because the song itself is hardly impressive in hindsight); going from hating to liking the Backstreet Boys forces you to alter your self-perception and as a stupid teenager in the ‘90s I wasn’t ready for that baggage. But this wasn’t a “real” band, so I could just enjoy for its style and not have to worry about what it meant. Meanwhile, I don’t have any similar baggage about Migos but Donald Glover’s parody of them on SNL helped me understand the appeal a lot more than I did. I don’t know, there’s something freeing in not having to worry about whether you’re supposed to like it; sometimes these things are easier to appreciate from a distance.
Ashley O is a fictional pop star played by Miley Cyrus in “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” an episode of the sci-fi TV anthology Black Mirror; “On a Roll” is Ashley O’s signature song, or at least the only song we hear much of in the episode. Other critics have read the episode as anti-pop music (including a friend of mine at io9), but I’m not sure it is. The episode has plenty to say about the machinery of pop stardom and what it does to its performers, but not so much the music itself. We don’t exactly get the sense that Rachel, the obsessed fan in the episode, is wrong for liking Ashley O and her music; she doesn’t grow out of liking pop music or anything. When Ashley O breaks free of her image and starts making dark goth-metal, we see Rachel at one of her shows but at best she looks mildly uncomfortable. I think she’s only there to be supportive of Ashley; I don’t really get the sense that she’s repented from teen pop or that it was bad for her mental state. (I don’t get a sense of much at all from that episode because the writing is half-baked and unsatisfying, a problem it shares with about half of Black Mirror’s entire run.)
But if you want to make the case that the episode genuinely dislikes Ashley O’s music, the best case is the song itself because the lyrics are just terrible. “On a Roll”’s big clever move is being a rewrite of Nine Inch Nails’ “Head Like a Hole,” with the beat given a Gaga-ish makeover (I say Gaga-ish because it doesn’t sound much like anything Miley ever made) and the lyrics altered to sound vaguely like a sexy female-empowerment-for-the-male-gaze kind of pop song. But only vaguely, because clearly not much care was put into it. Charlie Brooker (Black Mirror’s showrunner, and this song’s lyricist) hasn’t bothered to decide whether this is a sex song or a dancing song or an empowerment anthem or what, the lyrics are jammed awkwardly into the original’s meter and every other line is a clunker. “I’m stoked on AM-bition and verve” proves that Brooker was not up to the task of finding a rhyme for “deserve”: “achieving my goals!” is so bluntly on-the-nose it may as well be a punch in the face; and the title line of the original, “Head like a hole,” is given the laziest rewrite of all. (“Hey-ey-oh-ho”? Is that really the best you could come up with, Charlie?)
This doesn’t mean the song is intentionally bad; maybe Brooker just needed something that sounded like a hit song if you heard it for five seconds in the background of a TV show. But it’s certainly not written the same way you’d write a real hit song that you wanted people to listen to because they enjoyed it.
So naturally, it became pretty popular anyway. Not a mega-smash or anything, it wasn’t a hit. But it at least earned some kind of fandom, I heard much more talk about it than “Mother’s Daughter,” Miley’s actual release closest to the airdate of the episode; the two songs have close to the same amount of streams on Spotify. A good chunk of those streams were from me; I couldn’t get the damn song out of my head some months after I saw the episode. Even with the awful lyrics, it’s kind of perfect; Brooker’s best insight is that “Head Like a Hole” was always a fantastic, catchy-as-hell pop song, and he got a legitimate production team (The Invisible Men, the same team that brought you Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy”) to bring it to life.
Which makes me wonder: Would this have been a hit as just a regular single, with no connection to Black Mirror? Miley has, in fact, performed it live, and it went over pretty well. And like I said, it has picked up its share of fans. I saw the same phenomenon happen last year for “Why Did You Do That,” the fake pop song Lady Gaga performs in A Star Is Born. (There’s even a mashup of the two songs on YouTube.) Like with Black Mirror, I’m not entirely sure that A Star Is Born is anti-pop, but we’re definitely meant to sympathize at least a little with Bradley Cooper’s character when he winces at the lyrics. But again, the beat kind of rules/slaps/bops/etc., so people forgave the inane lyrics and repetitive chorus.
Or are they forgiving it? Is the quote-unquote “badness” the point? Yes, I know that stupid lyrics have never stopped pop songs from gaining an audience, I lived through the Black-Eyed Peas era just like everyone, but these aren’t radio singles meant to be passively absorbed by the undiscerning listener. You have to seek these out, maybe even watch Black Mirror, to engage with them, and even if you don’t watch that show you probably at least know of it. Pop songs are never just songs, our knowledge of its context shapes how we listen to it – the fact that all the songs from Robin Thicke’s Paula were from an album called Paula definitely changed how I heard them. So I wonder: Are people listening to these “bad” songs ironically? Is there something transgressive about elevating intentional garbage to the level of good music? I mean, surely there’s some kind of trolling going on in turning the work of Trent Reznor into happy plastic crap, something that everyone’s aware of that lends it a level of irony that you don’t necessarily get from just the text.
Or maybe it’s not that deep. Gaga’s early singles were “bad” also, after all – I wanna take a ride on your disco stick, etc – and people were fine with that. Is everyone just enjoying the catchy beat in both cases and not thinking about it very hard?
Honestly, no, I don’t think so, I think these are different things. “Why Did You Do That?” is not quote-unquote “bad” in the same way as “Lovegame.” They both raise the question of how much it is “ironic,” but the “badness” of that disco-stick line is meant to violently punch through your mental filters and force you to pay attention; there’s nothing that grabbing about “Why Did You Do That?”, there’s just a stupid jarring reference to a guy’s ass and an obnoxious repetitive chorus. Gaga has played coy on whether that song is meant to be crappy, but if it is you surely can’t tell from her delivery, which is sung with gusto and played entirely straight, without any of the winking archness that Gaga brought to her first singles. The irony all comes from the metatext, that is, the plot of the movie it’s from. Without that, I don’t think it’d have any fans; people enjoy it because it was supposed to be bad and there’s a thrill in liking something you’re not “supposed” to. (I think the relief of ironic distance might work for the performers, too: Miley performed “On a Roll” at Glastonbury in Ashley O’s pink wig, whereas she hasn’t worn her more famous blonde wig on stage in many years. It surely must feel less fraught to play the solidly fictional Ashley O than the confusingly semi-fictional Hannah Montana.)
Okay, so here’s a funny story. During the TRL craze of the late ‘90s/early ‘00s, I would’ve sworn to you that I hated all that teenybopper shit and it all sucked ass. You know what made me finally see its appeal? It wasn’t anything ‘N Sync or BSB sang; it was “Backdoor Lover,” the fake song that fake boyband DuJour sings at the beginning of the Josie and the Pussycats movie. This definitely was not meant to be good; it’s a lazy buttsex joke from a satire that was nowhere near as smart as it thought it was, but the beat, the screaming fans singing along, I finally understood the appeal of the boybands. It must have been the layer of irony (because the song itself is hardly impressive in hindsight); going from hating to liking the Backstreet Boys forces you to alter your self-perception and as a stupid teenager in the ‘90s I wasn’t ready for that baggage. But this wasn’t a “real” band, so I could just enjoy for its style and not have to worry about what it meant. Meanwhile, I don’t have any similar baggage about Migos but Donald Glover’s parody of them on SNL helped me understand the appeal a lot more than I did. I don’t know, there’s something freeing in not having to worry about whether you’re supposed to like it; sometimes these things are easier to appreciate from a distance.
TO BE CONTINUED because of KF character limits.