- So two of my editors are out sick today.
A backup editor was coming in to help.
Got clipped by a car while riding in.
Had to get rushed to the ER,
luckily just a broken toe.
And then unprompted the one remaining editor,
editor Julie said
she wasn't behind what happened to the team.
(cinematic boom)
Which makes me feel like,
you are responsible for what happened to the team Julie
(dramatic sound)
It's one,
not cool Julie,
but also two,
I kind of respect the hustle.
Passion is important,
but maybe redirect it in a more positive place.
Yeah,
I guess that's kind of a roundabout way of saying
today's show might be a little bit shorter
Then two,
I guess because I might have to hire more editors,
at least at a faster pace than Julie can take them out.
I wanted to give you one final reminder that
today is the last day you can get in
on the Thanksgiving Christmas drop
over at BeautifulBastard.com
Emotionally exhausted.
One day we'll all be skeletons.
Split awesome embroidered designs.
Any and all of the good stuff I've been showing you
for a week now,
all going away at midnight tonight.
But with all that said and joking aside,
welcome back to the Philip de Franco show.
Hit that like button.
If you want to support some common sense news coverage
and/or,
you just want to give editor Julie some props
for putting the show on her back today.
But let's just jump into it.
Now,
the first thing we're going to talk about today
is this crazy controversy and debate regarding Mr. Beast
and his now absolutely massive Squid Game video.
If you watched last Wednesday's Philip de Franco show,
you know I was very excited for this video.
I said,
it's kind of the YouTube equivalent
of a big blockbuster Thanksgiving weekend release,
seeing how it really highlights
how independent creators these days,
can go from several years ago,
recording a random video in their room,
to doing a production has like $3.5 million,
but now five days and over 114 million views separated
from that take,
we're seeing a new controversy with this story.
And what makes it really interesting is that the controversy
is happening at like two completely opposite ends.
On one side,
you have people like Jon Youshaei tweeting
"Mr. Beast Squid Games video 103 million views in four days.
It took seven weeks to make Netflix a Squid Game series
111 million views in 30 days,
it took 10 years to make.
More views,
less time
fewer gatekeepers,
That's the promise of the creator economy."
And on the opposite end,
you have things like this vice article that reads,
while the video is popular,
it's a reductive rip off of the original,
not a triumph for the "creator economy".
Gita Jackson writing that it's bizarre to watch
Mr. Beast and former YouTube executive
celebrate its popularity as a huge success
for so-called "creators."
Saying that this video doesn't just badly misunderstand
the anticapitalist message of Squid Game,
it's a literal recreation of the villain's
ultimate desire to watch desperate people
compete for money purely for his amusement.
And adding,
more than just bizarre,
Mr. Beast's Squid Game
highlights a fundamental problem of YouTube.
There is no shortage of people who make original art
and put it online,
but the internet is dominated instead by people who can take
advantage of existing properties and fan bases.
This is a particular problem on YouTube where people film
themselves literally reacting to things
or laughing at other people's
memes and making a lot of money off of it.
This video is no different from those.
So you have these takes on complete opposite sides of the
spectrum.
People loving and hating both of those.
And personally,
I think both are flawed.
I think the vice piece is unsurprisingly,
but annoyingly dismissive of online creators
or what they call so-called creators.
And the idea that Mr. Beast
is recreating the villains ultimate desire
of seeing desperate people play for his amusement.
Well,
one the main difference is in the show,
people die,
that's how desperate they are.
That's a big part of the commentary.
And two,
if you have such a problem with it,
then cancel all game shows ever.
And I also think we need to throw out this idea that
if something is not a 100% original piece of work,
it's automatically garbage.
Art and entertainment I think just naturally borrows
and steals.
I truly do believe this was an amazing fit to see someone
that once again,
four or five years ago,
his videos were like him saying Logan,
Paula,
a hundred thousand times on camera,
based off the choices he has made over the years,
he's now in a place where he can put out this thing.
And also on the other hand,
I think Jon's argument is really stupid.
Like one,
it just feels weird to compare an original piece of work
and an original series with Mr. Beast's video,
which pretty much strips out most of the story
and just as the gameplay mechanics,
like there's no Mr Beast Squid Game video
without the original series Squid Game.
Also to say that the series took 10 years
and the Jimmy's took seven weeks,
that's weird.
Or the story behind Squid Game is that it took 10 years
because he made this piece of work,
Couldn't get it financed for the longest time,
then Netflix came in.
But using that same kind of thing,
Can you could argue that
Mr. Beast took four to five years to make this
because that's how long it took them to go
from like basic videos to massive
productions like this
or,
I mean,
hell you could even argue that it took
Mr. Beast 10 years plus seven weeks to make this video
because he couldn't remix,
remake,
copy,
whatever the hell you want to call it until
the source material the original is actually released.
Also regarding the note of there being fewer gatekeepers.
I think that is largely true,
but also there are still hurdles.
There are still gatekeepers.
Squid Game the series does not get made
if the gatekeeper that Netflix is
does not write a check almost the same as
Mr. Beast probably doesn't make this video
unless brawl stars,
the sponsor of his video,
doesn't write a check or there are still gatekeepers in
plays.
It's just who the gatekeeper is,
is changing.
And if you haven't been able to tell you,
I think just the whole situation is incredibly stupid.
Both of these things can be awesome.
Not everything has to be a constantly changing of who's who
in the us versus them.
I'm so thankful that we got an original piece of work with
the Squid Game series in a world that prioritizes sequels
and too many seasons of a series over original works.
And I'm also really excited to see a homegrown YouTube
talent like Mr. Beast skyrocketing over the years.
And yes,
he is an outlier,
but someone that's gotten to a place where you can make such
a crazy video for you to raising the bar of
what can possibly be done on a production level.
But that is where I'm going to end this story.
Of course,
the biggest part of the Philip de Franco show.
I'd love to know your thoughts on this,
whether you agree with me or you don't,
right,
maybe you in the vice camp.
Maybe you're agreeing with Jon.
Maybe you agree with me,
let me know where you stand on this and why?
Because I'd really love to know.
And then in massive business and social media news,
we should talk about Twitter CEO,
Jack Dorsey resigning this morning.
Initially we started seeing reports citing an anonymous
source,
but then Dorsey himself tweeted
"after almost 16 years of having a role at our company.
I decided it's finally time for me to leave."
And adding,
"there's a lot of talk about the importance of a company
being "founder led,"
but noting,
ultimately I believe that's severely limiting
and a single point of failure.
I've worked hard to ensure this company can break away from
its founding and founders."
With Dorsey,
then announcing that starting today,
Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal
will begin as CEO.
Dorsey adding that yes,
he himself will be active on the board until around May.
But then after that he's getting the hell out of the way.
Writing "After that I'll leave the board.
Why not stay or become chair?
I believe it's really important to give Parag
the space he needs to lead.
And back to my previous point,
I believe it's critical a company can stand on
its own free of its founder's influence or direction."
You know,
this is a standout story for a few reasons.
I mean,
one,
what a weird wild ride for Jack Dorsey.
You don't know the history of Twitter.
I mean,
he was pushed out as CEO back in 2008,
then later returning in 2015,
then last year he saw Twitter stakeholder,
Elliot Management,
trying to oust him again now because Dorsey is also the CEO
of Square.
And reportedly execs were worried that running bold
was stretching resources at Twitter too thin
and two in the coming weeks,
months and years,
it will be interesting.
If anything with Twitter looks drastically different.
I mean that just in like the way it looks
or the way it works,
but also as far as how it has been moderated.
Right now it appears that Wall Street
doesn't really know how to react to this.
The,
the news first started breaking the,
the stock price went up 10%.
Then later it dropped back to essentially where it was,
ultimately time will tell what the hell this is going to do.
But from that,
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And then because I've seen so much panic,
a lot of confusion,
a bunch of misinformation,
let's talk about the new COVID variant Omicron.
And one thing that I want to make incredibly clear here
right off the bat is the information that we have right now
with this new strain is very preliminary
and subject to change.
So what we know starting from the beginning,
Omicron was first detected in South Africa,
where scientists made the data on the variant in public last
Tuesday,
based on the initial data epidemiologists around the world
sounded the alarms because Omicron has a high number of
mutations,
which could make it more transmissible and more able to defy
immune responses than previous strains,
meaning that it may be more likely to have aid protection
provided by both vaccines and antibodies from natural
infection.
But again,
we do not know for sure if Omicron is more infectious,
but many experts have said that right now it is looking like
it is.
Now already,
the variant has spread rapidly in South Africa though,
notably the country has a low vaccination rate with just
around 25% of adults fully vaccinated.
With the World Health Organization,
warning in a report yesterday that the variant poses a
"very high global risk"
and adding,
"depending on these characteristics,
there could be future surges of COVID-19,
which could have severe consequences depending on a number
of factors,
including where surgeries may take place."
But also going on to know that
"evidence for this assessment contains
considerable uncertainty."
Now,
for those who are vaccinated,
wondering how effective is my vaccine going to be?
Right now,
we don't know,
potential good news is that many experts
believe that the shots will provide at least some
protection against severe infection and death,
which again is one of the main points of the vaccine in the
first place.
While the current sample size is small,
South African public health officials have said that
while they've seen a higher
level of breakthrough infections among people who are
vaccinated in South Africa,
majority of hospitalizations occurred among those who were
not immunized,
meaning that current data indicates that vaccines are
proving effective.
Still with all that vaccine makers are
also working to find out how their products protect against
Omicron as well as developing new boosters
that anticipate strain mutations in designing
Omicron's specific boosters.
Another piece of potentially more good than bad news is that
so far,
there are no indications that Omicron causes more severe
illness and previous strains,
but ultimately like I keep coming back to,
this is very early on we need more information,
we need more time,
which is why right now I think one of the most important
things to note is do not panic,
be aware,
be cautious,
pay attention.
Don't let this be the thing that makes you kind of throw
your hands in the air and give up or panic spiral.
This is not March of 2020 all over again.
As experts have noted,
we have vaccines that experts believe will still provide
some,
if not,
a lot of protection against the worst results of COVID.
We have tests at the ready that can identify.
We have therapies in place that we know work that as far
as where all is this,
right now,
it's been reported in about a dozen countries,
including nearly half a dozen European nations,
as well as Australia,
Israel,
Hong Kong,
and Canada,
but also you have public health experts saying
it is very likely that is spread
to a number of countries beyond where
it's been detected,
but many noting that the first infection in Hong Kong
involved a passenger who landed on November 11th,
more than two weeks ago,
as well as the fact that most but not all of the cases
are tied to travel.
But regarding travel,
we've seen many countries,
including the United States,
responding by cutting off travel to Southern Africa,
other nations going even further like Japan,
Israel and Morocco banning all foreign visitors.
With Those efforts then sparking backlash,
prompting accusations of Western countries are
discriminating against a region that's already suffered
vaccine shortages because of wealthy nations hoarding doses
in the first place.
Many leaders in Southern Africa condemning the travel bans,
calling them hasty,
accusing Western nations of scapegoating countries,
just because they were quick to provide information about
the potentially dangerous new variant,
including South Africa's health minister
who described the bans is misdirected and draconian.
The president of Malawi is saying the restrictions of
mounted to Afrophobia against African nation.
And interestingly enough,
they're not alone,
many public health experts to have cautioned against
the bans warning that they're too late anyway
and can actually make the situation worse in the long run,
pointing to multiple studies have found that travel bans
are not actually effective at preventing the spread of COVID
with researchers saying that the travel ban can actually
provide a false idea that the virus is being contained.
Saying that it makes it harder to transport healthcare
workers and key resources to countries that are in the most
need and it hurt scientific transparency.
Instead,
many of those experts say that the best way to stop the new
variants from emerging is to reduce vaccine inequality
and increased transparency.
Saying these Western vaccine makers
are the problem.
They were refusing to allow the lower income countries
to produce their own vaccine.
But to wrap up this story for now,
well,
unfortunately,
we're going to have to wait and see how all of this plays
out.
The main takeaway that's being echoed by officials all over
the world,
including in
South Africa is don't panic.
And that's also something that president Biden hit on while
addressing the nation earlier today.
First.
- This variant is a cause for concern,
not a cause for panic.
And we have more tools today to fight the variant
than we've ever had before from vaccines to boosters,
to vaccines for children five years and older and much more.
The best protection against this new variant or any of the,
of the variants out there.
But one's we've been dealing with already is getting fully
vaccinated and getting a booster shot.
In the event,
hopefully unlikely that updated vaccinations or boosters
are needed to respond to this new variant.
We will accelerate their development and deployment with
every available tool.
We move forward in the face of COVID-19.
We have moved forward in the face of the Delta variant
and we move forward now in the face of Omicron variant
as well.
- And ultimately that is where that story and today's show
ends.
Of course,
with that whether it be the final,
the first story,
anything in between,
I'd love to know your thoughts and those comments down below
also last friendly reminder,
today is the last day you can go to beautiful bachelor.com
to get any of that awesome gear.
Of course,
as always my name is Philip de Franco,
you've just been filled in,
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.