Creator Thanksgiving and ‘The Curse’ Of Gratitude

CREATOR NEWSLETTER


Happy Thanksgiving y’all. 

It’s November again, so once again time for the most problematic holiday (though Labor Day is running a close second…as is the new holiday I made up yesterday to celebrate Insider’s heel turn with its Cracked.com-circa-2017 headline: “From Thanksgiving to Labor Day, these 9 holidays have surprisingly dark origins.”) What are we grateful for this year, folks?

I, for one, am not in the celebrating mood. There’s a tribal casino in the San Joaquin Valley where I’m spending the holidays that stays open through Thanksgiving, which I can’t stop thinking about. That’s so bleak. Like something straight out of the new A24 Showtime series “The Curse” from Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie, who co-star alongside Emma Stone. And even typing this out, I realize this sounds like a pitch from a coked-out network exec who threw some darts at a Gen Z Film Twitter mood board, but I’m very thankful to everyone involved for bringing us some of the darkest HGTV-inspired satire and late-night performance art of the decade


THE COMMENTS SECTION


The premise of “The Curse” is as nasty as it is relatable: A millennial couple Whitney and Asher (Stone and Fielder) are eco-conscious home-flippers with reality TV aspirations. Enabled by a college friend turned producer Dougie (Safdie), the couple and their camera crews descend on the fictional town of Española, New Mexico to help renovate (read: gentrify) the indigenous community with Whitney’s “passive” homes and $10 lattes. Even before Asher gets himself “cursed” by a local kid selling sodas in a parking lot, you know these characters are fated for a life of misery. Whitney’s slumlord parents will always rub against her self-perceived altruism; Asher’s barely concealed rage (Fielder is channeling Antony Starr’s Homelander from “The Boys”) and micropenis are incompatible with his desperate desire to start a family with Whitney; Dougie’s truly tragic backstory makes him double down on his most toxic instincts. (His previous pilot, “Love to the 3rd Degree,” styles itself as “The Bachelor” meets “The Masked Singer,” except the lead is a terribly scarred burn victim.)

“The Curse” is supposed to make you queasy and uncomfortable; a reflection of modern living where the cost of celebrity status is self-delusional virtue-signaling, no matter how blatantly disingenuous or exploitative your intentions.

So how does it all connect? Looking at the estimated annual $215 billion “creator economy” as it stands today, it’s hard not to get the same sense of A24nfreude – defined by Webster’s Urban Dictionary as “the sense of absurdist vibes deteriorating baroquely”– invoked by “The Curse.” Platforms claim to support their users by constantly rolling out new “creator fund” initiatives, patting themselves on their backs for spotlighting diversity, but show of hands: How many of you have ever made money from one of these programs before they shutter unceremoniously, making way for “Creative” ad-rev splits

Who is sitting down this year giving thanks to Elon Musk’s Creator Program (available to Premium subscribers only), or to SAG for forcibly enlisting them in their strike for better working conditions, resulting in four months of lost revenue and reach on behalf of someone else’s union?

Actually, that’s a ludicrous question, because it presupposes that creators can afford to take off for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July, Labor Day, et. al, instead of grinding through all of it, attached to their computers via some invisible umbilical cord made of algorithms; the stars of David Cronenberg’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

And YET! Despite all my righteous indignation on behalf of their plight, my timelines and Inboxes are full of artists taking time out to express sincere gratitude: for their fans who support them, for the community of content creators, and yes, even for the mercurial platforms without which they’d never have been able to do what they love for a living. That’s humbling.

So maybe this year I’m grateful for two things: “The Curse” for pointing out the obvious flaws designed into influencer culture, and for the IRL creators who have chosen a different path to defining success.


NOTED BY LON HARRIS

The Matt Rife Blowback Shows the Painful Transition From TikTok to Netflix

Why it’s not always easy to shift between platforms.

matt rife netflix tiktok

Illuminate your creative vision with Lume Cube

The best ring light on the market just got better. Lume Cube‘s special edition Ring Light Pro in White looks just as good as it performs, elevating and enhancing any creative space. Experience a new level of creativity with the best cordless ring light on the market.


IN THE BIZ


TOOLS REVIEW

The Best Early Black Friday Deals For Creators Who Want To Escape The Hell of Black Friday

Get your shopping done before Black Friday to avoid the hell of the mall.

By John-Michael Bond, Passionfruit Contributor

best black friday deals for creators - hell featured

PERSONALITIES

colleen ballinger returns vlog

Colleen Ballinger Is Back and Wants You To Move On From the Toxic Gossip Train

Toxic Gossip Train (Fall Vlog remix).’

By Steven Asarch, Passionfruit Contributor


CULTURE

What We’re Thankful for This Year

We’re taking a look back at some of our favorite pieces from this year.

By Passionfruit

passionfruit stories thankful thanksgiving

WHAT WE’RE WATCHING


YOUTUBE MADE ME DO IT

Content for Creators.

News, tips, and tricks delivered to your inbox twice a week.

Newsletter Signup

Latest Newsletters

  • 🕹️ TikTok Mega-Star Launches Web3 Gaming Company

    🕹️ TikTok Mega-Star Launches Web3 Gaming Company

    CREATOR ECONOMY NEWSLETTER Issue 41 | May 26, 2022 Like most ventures on the blockchain, play-to-earn gaming has been met with a lot of skepticism. In addition to the environmental impact and volatility of the crypto market at-large, gamers have brought up concerns unique to play-to-earn gaming. Critics say these games are costly to enter,…

  • The Appeal of Hours-Long YouTube Recaps

    The Appeal of Hours-Long YouTube Recaps

    CREATOR ECONOMY NEWSLETTER Issue 37 | April 28, 2022 As I write this, I am three hours deep into YouTuber Quinton Hoover’s first iCarly recap, which clocks in just under five hours. If you think that’s bizarre, it’s not as unusual as it seems. Uber-long YouTube videos like Hoover’s have risen in popularity over the past couple…

  • Nikita Dragun’s New Chapter

    Nikita Dragun’s New Chapter

    CREATOR ECONOMY NEWSLETTER Issue 38 | May 5, 2022 Nikita Dragun is a complicated fixture in the creator space. She’s one of the most visible and outspoken trans influencers in the world. She’s also become infamous for drama and controversy over the past few years. Scandal has been a driving force in her career thus far, following her from YouTube to…