“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-17 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of February 6, 2017
This Week’s Podcast:
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
(Due to a cold that caused me to lose my voice, only two programs were recorded this week)
YouTube Sitcom
How do you know when you’ve “made it”? There’s a lot of different ways to answer that question, but in the age of television and mass media, when they start making fun of you, you’ve probably made the grade.
Think about all of the professions and lifestyles that have become the basis for situation comedies. Going back to the earliest days of television you can include bus drivers and sewage workers from “The Honeymooners”, even Cuban night club owners. We’ve covered cops, emergency response personnel, spies, restaurant wait staff, hotels, lawyers, and the judicial system. Archie Bunker made bigotry funny. Fox’s “Last Man on Earth” has made the Apocalypse the subject of a sitcom. A brand new sitcom on CBS even puts the classic American donut shop at the center of the laugh track. TV has never been shy about taking shots at itself or other mainstream media. TV, radio, magazines and newspapers have all had their time in the sitcom sun.
Having a sitcom about your particular profession or group is a sign that the vast American middle is comfortable enough to have a little laugh with you. Not everyone is happy with that. Nerd culture absolutely froths at the mouth when “The Big Bang Theory” is mentioned. While a lot of folks in that sub-culture don’t find the show funny, it still draws fifteen million viewers or so for each episode. I’m sure that not every police officer found “Car Fifty-Four, Where Are You” funny either.
So I’m wondering how the folks in the YouTube-universe are going to react to being the subject of a sitcom? The good news is that this means they’ve “made it” into the mainstream. The bad news is that it won’t be YouTubers making the jokes. Starting this week on the British Broadcasting Corporations online channel, BBC Three, is the show “Pls Like” with “please” spelled P-L-S. It follows a contest winner who has to become part of the YouTuber universe in order to collect his prize. As near as I can tell, there are no YouTubers on the creative team for the show. The online channel is intended to serve an audience demographic between 18 and 34, a group that has grown up with YouTube. Of course, YouTubers can fall inside that Nerd Culture demographic as well. So you have to wonder if this show will represent that culture in a way that is more palatable to that group.
Of course, if the show is a turkey, the folks of YouTube have the singular platform to seek revenge. There are at least twenty-five YouTube channels with as many subscribers as “The Big Bang Theory” has viewers.
Also, a pretty good sign that you’ve “made it”.
Zuckerberg Tour
There’s an interesting aspect to being famous. It inspires people to try and figure out how you plan to live your life. And it can take off in some very interesting directions.
Each year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announces what his personal objective for the new year is going to be. That’s not that unusual, I will admit that I did the very same thing this year. I will also note that the blog post with my personal objectives, there were four of them if I recall, has not gotten nearly the attention that the Big Z’s one objective has this year.
For all the fact that he is a multi-multi-billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg’s yearly objectives are pretty down to earth. One year it was to read twenty-five books. Another year was to learn Mandarin. Still, another was to run 365 miles.
This year’s personal challenge is to have visited all fifty states, and meet and talk with people who live there. He says he needs to visit about thirty more states. Now right off the bat, there is a certain flavor of a king getting out to meet with his kingdom. Given the place that Facebook holds in many people’s lives that may not be as far off base as it might seem. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that, as the father of a just turned one year old, and the leader of a multi-multi-billion dollar business, he is interested in getting a better feel for how the rest of the nation is doing. In his announcement, he noted that while technology has been a boon for many people, the game doesn’t work for everyone.
That’s where things start to get interesting. Because all of that is exactly what a politician would do if he were thinking of running for public office. Like maybe, President of the United States.
Zuckerberg would just be old enough to run for office by 2020. He turns thirty-five in 2019. A recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission even mentions the possibility of serving in the government.
The social media mogul has contributed fairly evenly between Republican and Democratic candidates, spanning from Orrin Hatch to Chuck Schumer. His personal political beliefs he has kept very close to his vest. So what exactly his candidacy might look like is pure speculation at the moment.
Silicon Valley has moved into a central position in our culture and our economy. We are going to see more political influence coming from that direction. Is this beginning of a new generation of tech-savvy politicians?
Or is the Big Z just looking for a way to get out of the office for a while? We’ll have to see if this personal objective spreads into the NEXT new year.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2017
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
Stories Are My Life 
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