Greetings!
Here are the latest trending internet culture stories today:
Dudes on TikTok are taking a cue from the alt-right playbook, the internet is cracking up over a dramatic trailer for the TV show 9-1-1, and actor Zach Woods called out the comedians performing in this weekend’s Riyadh Comedy Festival in his classic dry-yet-zany style.
See you next week!
— W.J.
⚡️ Today in Internet Culture
“Swolecialism”: Gym bros are building an “alt-left pipeline” on TikTok to counter the alt-right
For years, the “alt-right pipeline” has successfully targeted young men and women using a strategy in which online creators use seemingly harmless content to gradually pull viewers towards more extreme ideas. These videos often exist in the world of fitness, gaming, or self-improvement, allowing them to reel in vulnerable and impressionable young viewers, with their reach amplified by social media algorithms.
But now, TikTokers in those same content creation realms are aiming to change that by building their own pipeline.
Fans can’t stop roasting and memeing the hilariously bad “9-1-1” season 9 trailer
The trailer for the upcoming new season of 9-1-1 served as a reminder that you don’t need generative AI to make bad art. Fans and anyone else who saw the ad pretty universally panned it, or else made a TikTok video mocking it.
In fact, this may have been a brilliant strategy to get the show trending on social media again. Or it’s just bad…
“Real as hell for this”: Zach Woods slams comics for taking gigs at the Riyadh Comedy Festival
Actor and comedian Zach Woods recently took to TikTok to criticize American comics who agreed to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, an event backed by Saudi Arabia‘s entertainment authority.
Throughout the video, Woods layered jokes with facts about the comedians attending the festival. He noted, “Now, there’s a lot of drips, kill joys and dweebazoids who are saying, ‘Oh, they shouldn’t do comedy over there because it’s whitewashing a regime that just in June killed a journalist.”
🕸️ Crawling the Web
📺 Who is Sinclair? Behind the TV conglomerate that has been refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel’s return to television all week.
🍕 A wedding guest’s decision to order a pizza during a reception has sparked fierce debate online after she claimed she went eight hours without food.
📱 A TikToker caught an iPhone user “licking” their phone in public—turns out it’s a lesser-known accessibility feature.
💡 LED lights have become a standard in homes and offices, but their safety remains a source of heated debate.
👗 An Anthropologie employee was talking behind a bride’s back while she was in the dressing room, and the customer’s mom overheard.
🤖 What’s behind the walking, talking robot named Rizzbot?
🔥 Hot on the Dot
This was the most-read story on the Daily Dot yesterday: