**No spoilers, it’s an end-of-the-year recap!**
I know there’s a lot of Twitter debate over celebrating accomplishments and end-of-the-year threads, and honestly? I get that. I’ve had a pretty difficult year. I also had some good things happen this year. I’m thankful I survived and I’m thankful for the work I was able to put out into the world. I get to write about TV shows that I love and people I admire. I put together this round up of things that brought me joy to work on, so I figure they might bring you joy too.
So, below are the articles and interviews that made me happy this year:
Moses Ingram Has The Answers To Your The Queen’s Gambit Questions (Elle)
My pandemic epiphany: the best part of having eight partners is being alone
(The Guardian)Ma Rainey’s Moment: The Mother Of The Blues Gets Her Due (Slate)
In the NXIVM docuseries showdown, Seduced is the clear winner (The A.V. Club)
So You’re Ready to Explore the World of 90 Day Fiancé … (Vulture)
A Look Inside the Costumes of I May Destroy You (Cosmopolitan)
Dear White People Creator Justin Simien on Netflix, Hollywood, and Black Art (Vulture)
Spike Lee goes to Vietnam with his politically muddled war movie Da 5 Bloods (The A.V. Club)
Spy thriller Queen Sono is Netflix’s newest binge-worthy series (The A.V. Club)
The entire TV, I Say archive! I started a podcast this year and somehow convinced Roxane Gay and Seth Rogen to talk about my favorite reality show! I got to talk to Brandee Evans and Nicco Annan from P-Valley! I am thankful for all the jokes and wisdom shared.
Recaps:
And here are some performances/things I did that you should enjoy:
After doing my 30-minute presentation “Shaun King is a Liar Sometimes” I got to talk about it on Scam Goddess, one of my favorite podcasts.
Doug Benson is one of my weed heroes and I got to talk to him about movies!!
I thank The Bechdel Cast for letting me explore my weird relationship with the movie Secretary.
Also, these newsletter pieces:
I was going to say a bunch of personal stuff and, I don’t know, share my most embarrassing/funniest moments from Twitter this year or something, but who cares? I’m just thankful for everyone who follows me, reads anything I write and enjoys my silly TV opinions. I took a break from Twitter and will be doing so again, but I do have an alt account running if you want to follow it. It’s very hard to share articles and get people to read them without a Twitter account, so this is the dance I find myself in: wanting to leave it all behind, but required to have some presence. That being said, discovering the world of social media entertainment is not for me was one of the blessings of 2020.
I’ve long used social media as a sort of notebook to test out jokes or whatever else I’m writing. It’s never been my goal to have tons of followers or to be verified. Those things happened because of what I do outside of Twitter. All of those things I just linked to in the first part of this newsletter. But, it just puts you in this weird vacuum where the perceived benefits of online “clout” and the reality do not line up. Even if you swear the adoration of strangers only causes you anxiety and your only goal for being online is to tell everyone Bridgerton is about jizz, people prefer to operate on bad faith. They assume you are using the social media machine because you want followers, clout, money, or jobs and…well, the fame they think goes with it. And, sure, that’s fair. I did get some good connections and free vibrators and Parade panties.
But, it also leads to resentful strangers who are eager to attack you when you say the most benign shit. I got death threats for saying Serena Williams is married to a white guy and Kim Kardashian has white privilege in the United States. And sure, some of those Twitter conversations led to good conversations with smart people who could understand the nuances of speaking specifically to the creation of the Kardashians in America and the complicated melting pot that is privilege here, but it mostly led to me getting death threats while I was taking care of my mom. Hardly worth it for whatever perceived “clout” people seem to crave from the internet. It seemed like a pretty clear misunderstanding: No, I was not talking about your ancestors or the country of Armenia, I was specifically talking about the Kardashians and their privilege in America. Yes, I care about genocide and…yes, I still think the Kardashians have white privilege in America.
Also, like most things I tweet about, it’s not even a topic I really care about. People still DM me to this day to say “just because you don’t like Kim Kardashian…,” and the thing is, I like her! I never said I disliked her! Someone asked me a question about her and white privilege and I answered! In fact, I like her as far as reality TV celebrities go. I shocked so many angry strangers who DM’d me when they realized: You can say someone has white privilege and still like them. There was no slight or insult.
But, that’s Twitter: it gets you pulled into nonsense you couldn’t care less about because the nonsense feeds the craving. You dunk on people, you get likes, you get followers. We’ve all fallen victim to the cycle. I have dunked and been dunked on. This was really the first year I started doing so on a “higher platform” level. I only hit 10k followers in February of this year. By the time I blew up my account in November, I had 36k. If that number was supposed to make me feel something inside, maybe I’m broken. I just kind of wondered why and how it even happened.
Over the year, I’ve been interviewing people like Michaela Coel and Steven Weber and they were all saying the same thing to me: Social media is a drug and I don’t see how you get anything done being on it how you are. I do not know more than Michaela Coel or Steven Weber and I was not getting things done. So, I made the choice to blow up my account at some point and then I did. I mean, look, here I am at the end of the year breaking down Twitter events that sound absolutely silly in detail. As fun and funny as it all can be sometimes (and I am thankful for the laughs, so thankful), I never wanted to be known as “Twitter famous” or a “Twitter comedian.” I’ve never enjoyed the passive aggressive tension of Media Twitter and being a “character” for people in Media Twitter…well, that is not my dream.
For me, it’s best to put the drug down that just makes me feel productive when I get a few likes on a dumb thought instead of finishing my actual work. Or at least I’ll continue using it in smaller doses.
But, I’m still thankful. From the worst of it came some pretty good stuff. Hell, idiots getting angry at me on Twitter is what started this entire newsletter and my podcast. Because of the whole “I’m good” thing (which is still so silly to try and explain to people), I realized people actually care about what I have to say in detail. Before that, I was just goofing around on the internet and doing my day job. For whatever 2020 was, I’m glad I’m walking away with this realization. Going into 2021, I know I have work coming out people are going to want to see.
So, I’ll be on my alt account, doing it for the RTs on articles that I am begging you to read. Or, you know, you can just subscribe: