Sup, ya' beautiful bastards,
hope you're having a fantastic Friday,
Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco show.
And for this Friday show I want to cover some of the stories that you guys have been recommending,
stories we also wanted to get into the show this week, but then we had to cut it for time and we were unable to get to it.
But before we jump into the first story,
I want to throw a big note out there.
This episode is actually the last episode of the Philip DeFranco show for 2017.
The show will officially be back January 3rd, 2018.
Now between now and then, while I don't officially have anything scheduled,
we will most likely do some live streams, so make sure you're not only subscribed, but
you have that a little alarm bell checked. That way you make sure that you're getting a notification if I
post a video, or if I go live. Maybe if it is a big enough story, it'll make sense to sound off if I have the time,
but for the most part, I'm going to try and treat it as a real, real break.
We'll see though. Any time I take a "vacation" and it goes past like four days, I start going crazy.
And then let's talk about the controversy around Poundland.
Poundland, not to be confused with the town your mother frequents, is kind of a UK dollar store.
And they recently came under fire for their elf focused marketing.
The ads we're talking about included things like one of Santa's elves
literally tea bagging a woman,
playing strip poker,
offering free mustache rides,
drawing very prickly Christmas trees,
riding a donkey with a caption "don't tell Rudolph, I found a new piece of ass",
scrubbing his ass/taint area with a toothbrush,
drawing some nips on a windshield,
farting on Donald Trump,
[Fart sound]
[Elfish Laughter]
Going full Miley.
There's also a weird scenario where Barbie's giving birth. The elf is the doctor, and Ken asks,
"How come our twins have got your ears Elfie?"
And you know what, just straight to the point, Santa's elf in bed with two Barbies and some nookie blue pills for men.
And very unsurprisingly, there were some people that were very angry about this.
Some saying it's offensive, some say the elf is sexually assaulting the woman with a tea bag.
People are arguing about the consciousness of a Barbie doll, pointing to the fact that she has her eyes open.
I think people are diving too deep on this.
Twinings tea, which is the brand of tea featured originally, they tweeted,
"We are aware of an image that is circulating that mists uses our product.
This is to confirm we had no involvement in this and that it is obviously not reflective of our brand values."
There was also a person that complained to the police about the teabag pose,
saying that it incites violence against women. The Advertising Standards Authority has come out and said,
"I can confirm we have received eight complaints so far about a series of Poundland Tweets that feature an elf."
And as far as Poundland's response to the outrage, they're sticking by their marketing.
The marketing director for Poundland said,
"If you think this is edgy, you should see the ones we didn't post.
The love on Facebook is overwhelming - that's because it connects with our shoppers.
In fact, we're proud of a campaign that's only cost us £25, and is being touted as the winning marketing campaign this Christmas!"
And that's just where it is right now. As far as my opinion on it,
I find a lot of it funny because I have a dirty and sometimes just childish sense of humor.
Also, and we've talked about this on the show before, there is such a thing as outraged marketing.
You put something out specifically because you know there is a small section of people that will be pissed off about it,
then people are going do news stories about it. Boom, you get free promo, or I guess in this instance, £25 promo.
But I don't know, maybe you have a different opinion on this, let me know.
Then, in pretty damn big tech news, Apple came out
And admitted they actually do slow down older phones.
You know it's kind of that old thing. You're like
'oh good. It's an Apple Keynote. That means that my phone is gonna slow down in about a month'.
I don't know why, but it just will. Apple is trying to make me buy a new phone.
Well, Apple has now come out and said
'Yeah, we do that now'
But, they say it's not for evil reasons.
Stating Wednesday that it was a "software feature released last year that makes your phone operate more
slowly to offset problems with an aging lithium-ion battery."
As batteries get older, they don't hold a charge as well.
that's also made worse if you're outside and the cold,
and they said that's what they saw. You'd have these people with their old phones, the processor would try to
keep up, the batteries couldn't keep up with the demands, so the phones would just turn off.
So they said starting with iOS 10.2.1,
"The operating system now slows down the device to prevent it from shutting down." Apple also adding,
"We've now extended this feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to support for other products on the future.
And while it seems like their explanation is pretty reasonable, there are still a lot of people that are angry.
Some saying it should be an option,
others saying Apple should have been louder when they launched this feature so people knew.
Others pointing out that this is the problem with making it so hard to remove the battery yourself.
And if your battery is no longer covered by the warranty, it costs $79 to get a new one from the Apple Store.
But at least then if you got a new battery, it does go back to its regular speed.
So, there you go. Now you know you're not crazy.
Then let's talk about the huge update around the Slenderman stabbing story out of Wisconsin.
You may remember this from when we talked about it in 2014.
Long story short, two Wisconsin girls tried to kill their classmate. This they said to please the fictional horror character, Slenderman.
The two girls were Anissa Weier and Morgan Geyser.
Geyser reportedly lured her classmate out to a wooded park. Geyser then stabbed the classmate 19 times.
This while Weier encouraged her. Luckily, the victim was able to crawl out of the woods. A bicyclist found her.
At the time of the attack, all three of these girls were just 12 years old.
And the big news, an update we have now is that 16 year old Anissa Weier has been setenced.
She was given maximum punishment possible. 25 years in a mental health facility.
And as far as why that specific punishment,
back in August she pled guilty to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, but,
claimed that she wasn't responsible for her actions because she was mentally ill.
And in July, a jury agreed with her, which is why we're talking about this kind of punishment
And as far as Geyser, the girl that did all the stabbing, she's pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree
intentional homicide with the agreement that she isn't criminally responsible, and shouldn't go to prison
She won't be sentenced until February, but prosecutors are asking she get 40 years in a mental health facility.
And I want to pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts on such a long prison sentence to a mental health facility?
Other than let's say an actual prison. Does it bother you? No, you think it's appropriate?
I'd love to know your thoughts.
Then, and don't let anyone ever tell you your vote doesn't count news, let's let's look to Virginia.
back in Nov, Democratic candidate Shelley Simons appeared to have lost her race for a Virginia House seat.
This to Republican incumbent, David Yancey, and by just 10 votes.
It was an insanely close race, and under Virginia law a losing Canidate can actually can request a recount if the vote differential is less than 1%
So they did it, the recount took place, and the final result?
11,608 votes for Simon,
11,607 votes for Yancey.
She won by a single vote, and Democrats rejoice.
And the reason for that is even before this recount, the Virginia House was massively changed.
Before the Virginia elections, Republicans held a 66 - 34 majority,
But they came out of election night with just a 51 - 49 majority
And so with Simon's winning, all of a sudden there was a 50/50 tie, so the only thing in their way from making
that a reality was for the recount to be certified, and that did not happen.
And the reason for that is there was a questionable ballot.
A ballot where someone had filled in the bubble for both Simons and Yancy.
But it appeared they drew a line through their vote for Simon's, also pointing to the fact that they had voted for
every other Republican on the ticket.
You also people arguing that maybe the line was to indicate that that was actually a vote for Simon.
Look at the vote for Ed Gillespie. He has an X there.
You also had others saying that the ballot shouldn't be valid. The person voting filled in two bubbles.
All of a sudden you have to kind of guess what he was voting for, and ultimately a three-judge panel decided
that instead of this vote just not counting, it would go to Yancy.
Which means the race ended up tied at 11, 608 votes each. So that may make you wonder 'well who the hell wins, then?'
Well according to Virginia state law, in the instance of a tie the winner is selected by lot.
They will literally, and I wish I was F**king around,
James Alcorn, the chairman of the State Board of Elections, said the winner,
once again to remind you, of this political position,
will be chosen by placing names on slips of paper into two film canisters, and then drawing the canisters
from a glass bowl or his bowler hat. That drawing is scheduled for December 27th at 11:00 a.m.
But even then it's most likely not gonna be over because the loser will be able to have a second recount.
Also, the house Democratic Caucus has vowed to fight the judge's decision here.
So we'll see what happens there, but I feel like this story is a perfect example of every vote counts.
And that's also why, and it's a bit of a tangent, it's why I think that election day should be national holidays.
We should make sure all eligible voters have the time to vote.
I'm a big believer in putting out what you want to see more of in the world, and a vote goes along with that.
And then let's talk about the accusations against T.J. Miller. The accuser,
who's remaining anonymous but The Daily Beast is calling Sarah, says that she and Miller began dating
in fall of 2001. A few months into their relationship, she recalled having a lot to drink.
She recalled having a lot to drink. She admitted that there are parts of the incident she doesn't remember,
and she stressed that it was important to her to cop to that, saying
"I'm not interested in forcing a pretend a memory on anyone...15 years later, I remained terrified of accusing
someone of something they didn't do, but I have a visual and physical memory of that."
She said she had a distinct memory of them beginning to fool around, but then Miller began shaking her
violently, and then punched her in the mouth during sex. She said she woke up the next morning with a fractured
tooth and a bloody lip. When she asked Miller what had happened, he claimed she fell. According to her, they still
continued seeing each other. Saying "I couldn't bring myself at the time to believe this had happened.
It was me not wanting it to be true."
Also, saying she had lost her virginity to Miller, and that she felt especially connected with him.
But then she recalls another night where she met up with Miller at a party. They went back to her apartment and
she says, "We started to fool around and very early in that he put his hands around my throat and closed them,
and I couldn't breathe. I was genuinely terrified and completely surprised.
I understand now that this is for some people a kink, and I continue to believe it is something that should be
entered into by consenting parties, but as someone who had only begun having sexual encounters like about three months earlier,
I had no awareness this was a kink, and I had certainly not entered into any agreement that I would be choked.
I was fully paralyzed."
Then saying at this point her roommates came to check on her. In response to them asking if she was okay,
she said 'I don't know I'll talk to you in the morning.'
She then said this situation with T.J. Miller continued, saying, "He anally penetrated me without my consent.
Which I actually believed at that point I cried out like, 'no' and he didn't continue to do that-
but he also had a beer bottle with him the entire time.
He used the bottle at one point to penetrate me without my consent."
Adding that she wasn't prepared, and that she didn't want to believe it was happening.
Then saying that after Miller left the apartment she confided in her roommates about what happened.
Two of her roommates also corroborated this story. One remaining anonymous.
The other, her roommate Katie Duff. She talked about fighting sounds and banging and loud, violent sounds,
saying she recalled seeing bruises.
Then a year after the incident the accuser went to the George Washington Campus police.
Reportedly there was a student hearing, but there are no specifics about the results of this trial.
The article also included other sources saying they didn't believe that T.J. Miller could have done this.
A friend of Miller saying that Sarah "knew she was making this up to intentionally and maliciously fabricate
a sexual assault allegation"
Following this story coming out T.J. Miller and his wife responded.
I'll include the full statement in the links down below, but here the highlights.
"We met this woman over a decade ago while studying together in college.
She attempted to break us up back then by plotting for over a year before making contradictory claims and accusations.
She attempted to discredit both of our voices and use us against one another by trying to portray Kate to be a continuous abuse victim of T.J.
She was asked to leave our University comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which
angered her immensely. She then became fixated on our relationship and began telling people around campus
"I am going to destroy them, and I'm going to ruin him"
We stand together in stating this is nothing more than an unfortunate resurgence of her lies designed to wreak
havoc on two happily married people in the public eye.
Sadly, she is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again.
It is unfortunate that she is choosing this route as it undermines the important movement to make women feel safe coming forward about legitimate claims
against real, known predators."
And following that, some more people shared their stories. Adult film actress Dana de Armond Tweeting,
"I was harassed by both T.J. Miller and the director Jordan Vogt-Roberts shooting for Comedy Central's
Mash Up. I've been saying T.J. was an asshole for years. So there you go."
Another accuser going by the name Dahlia said Miller tried to spike her drink.
Writing that the bartender warned her that Miller had messed with her drink. They threw out that drink.
Miller asked multiple times how she was feeling.
We also saw a Comedy Central announced that they are canceling T.J. Miller's new show.
It was called the Gorburger Show.
Some reports have said the cancellation decision was made back in summer, they're just announcing it now,
so it might not be the reason it was cancelled, but it definitely seems like the reason they're announcing it.
That's where we are as of right now, and I'd love to know your thoughts on this story.
Obviously, we're in this very interesting and very important time where people are standing up against
the people that did wrong against them, empowered by more and more voices speaking up every day.
So knowing that, what do you think about T.J. Miller's defense that this woman's just trying to use this
movement as a way to try and continue Assassinating his character?
For you does it boil down into a he-said she-said?
I was just thinking about this today. Things used to be so simple. Remember back in 2009 where the person that
people were just really, really angry at was Tiger Woods because he had way too much consensual sex with a lot
of women that weren't his wife?
But then I remind myself, it was just the difference of in front of the counter / behind the counter.
what I mean by that is in 2009, in front of the counter was Tiger Woods and his however many women.
But all the while, behind the counter were all of these things that are now just coming out.
And it's not really that in 2017 in the world is scarier and it's more horrible.
Actually, if anything, people being more open and talking about it, that hopefully does drive change.
I mean this outside of the T.J. Miller situation,
and I also want to note that we should take into account all of these accusations,
all of these situations, as individual ones.
But I mean, more and more each day, people are coming out. Just last night, Anna Akana, prominent Youtuber,
came out against Max Landis.
Max Landis is of course a big Hollywood writer. His movie Bright just came out.
Last night in response to a tweet from Netflix about the movie Bright, Anna Akana wrote
"Written by a psychopath who sexually abused and assaults women, right? Cool."
And the reference there was obvious because Max Landis wrote Bright.
I've reached out to Akana and Landis for further comments. So as of right now, this is a developing story
that will update soon.
And that's just one story of many and many and more that are coming out.
Hopefully, one of the biggest changes is that people, victims. Victims feel more comfortable and more
supported in coming forward sooner. Time sews doubt in a lot of people's minds. You don't have to be alone,
you don't have to go through this alone, and you can help stop it from happening again.
Yeah, let me know what you think about the whole situation.
That's actually where I'm going to end today's show. Remember, if you liked this video or you like what I'm
trying to do on this channel, hit that like button. If you're new here, hit that subscribe button.
Hit that little bell to make sure you get notifications for the show. Also, remember if you missed the last Philip
DeFranco show and you want to catch up, click or tap right there to watch that. Or if you want to watch the
newest behind the scenes vlog, we got a brand new one today. Click or tap right there.
But that said, of course as always, my name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been phill'd in.
I love yo faces, and I'll see you next time.