"The main thing," he says, "is tastefulness."

March 12, 2018 3:20 PM

The Shocking Assassination of President Guy Fieri by Hudson Hongo [Motherboard] “Good luck finding someone who's actually optimistic about the future of online entertainment, given that major platforms like YouTube and Facebook are currently locked in a death race to the bottom to win meager slices of our attention. Certainly not Hudson Hongo, who, as news editor of Gizmodo, knows as much about this algorithmically mediated, brain-flattening future as anyone, and who brings us a dispatch from the only logical conclusion to the content wars.”
posted by Fizz (13 comments total)

> The Shocking Assassination of President Guy Fieri by Hudson Hongo

"Why did he do it?" they asked. After what happened at Gizmodo, Mr Hongo had no choice but to become trained in the art of deadly combat. The rest, as they say, is fake history.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 3:29 PM on March 12, 2018

MetaFilter: "Maybe the story just sucks?"
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:38 PM on March 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

This is like Don DeLillo got crossfaded while watching Black Mirror and brain dumped while double-fisting premade aioli and those margaritas that come in a can.

I love it.
posted by a halcyon day at 3:45 PM on March 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

YouTube, the Great Radicalizer - The New York Times

Intrigued, I experimented with nonpolitical topics. The same basic pattern emerged. Videos about vegetarianism led to videos about veganism. Videos about jogging led to videos about running ultramarathons.

It seems as if you are never “hard core” enough for YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. It promotes, recommends and disseminates videos in a manner that appears to constantly up the stakes. Given its billion or so users, YouTube may be one of the most powerful radicalizing instruments of the 21st century.

posted by krisjohn at 3:57 PM on March 12, 2018 [24 favorites]

Booyah.
posted by adamrice at 4:03 PM on March 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

I remember Hudson Hongo from his websites, Literally Unbelievable, where he showed people on Facebook mistaking Onions tories for real ones, and Least Helpful, a site about lunatic Amazon product reviews.

This seems about what I'd expect, is what I'm saying.
posted by kewb at 5:11 PM on March 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

This reminds me of the rivalry between the Straight Shit and the News Nipple. Where are Hildy, Cricket, and Brenda when you need 'em?
posted by los pantalones del muerte at 5:25 PM on March 12, 2018

It's creepy how science fiction-y (mostly Brunner, with some Doctorow and Stephenson crossed with Idiocracy) this feels, but also very very real, like only 2 years away. At least there are still off switches, so it's not full Philip K. Dick yet.
posted by ASCII Costanza head at 5:50 PM on March 12, 2018 [6 favorites]

Is the link correct? The FPP reads like its supposed to be some sort of speculative fiction story but I read the whole thing and it's just some content producer's work blog written in the first-person. 🍔
posted by glonous keming at 6:39 PM on March 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

This can't be right, I was told Guy Fieri was going to become the entire Supreme Court.
posted by one for the books at 7:06 PM on March 12, 2018 [1 favorite]

After solid viewcounts all morning, our streaming numbers just went in the shitter—or more like below the shitter, in some shitter sub-basement where producers' careers go to crap themselves and die. That's bad news for me and Toby, who's looking over my shoulder and chewing what sounds like all his fingernails at once.

Is this Max Headroom fanfic? Because it sure sounds like the memoirs of some exec at Network 23.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 7:07 PM on March 12, 2018 [3 favorites]

I'd buy that for a dollar!
posted by davidmsc at 10:22 PM on March 12, 2018 [2 favorites]

Well this explains why bunny showjumping videos eventually lead to horrible videos of people feeding things to savage fish.

If I'm watching bunny showjumping videos I do not want to get any more real than people urging tiny rabbits to hop gaily-striped poles.
posted by winna at 12:40 PM on March 13, 2018 [1 favorite]