Plus: SNL musical guests, cruelly ranked

View this email online by Glen Weldon Why, hello! It was the week when we girded ourselves for the possibility of bidding "Cheddar, Bye!" to Cheddar Bay. It was the week when a famous travel destination for poor boys and pilgrims with families enjoyed a moment of grace. And it was a week when we asked ourselves: If you can't antitrust Ticketmaster, who can you antitrust? Let's get to it. The timesinks, they are a changin' This week, as YouTuber Jenny Nicholson's review/eulogy for the shuttered Disney Star Wars hotel started making the rounds, I was curious. I'd of course heard about the "immersive experience" officially called Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, and here was someone who'd actually experienced the, um, experience. But then I saw the video's running time – four hours and five minutes! – and I closed the tab faster than I do whenever the algorithm wants to show me some dumbass trying to pick up a cobra. A worker checks alarm clocks in a London clock factory in 1946. Eric Harlow/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Who has the kind of time, I wondered, to sit around and watch YouTube for half the damn workday? In this, the era of TikTok? And Reels? And in what is, we have all been repeatedly assured, a time of shrinking attention spans? In the case of Nicholson's Starcruiser video, millions and millions of people have the time, it turns out. And she's not alone: Over the past few years, you may have noticed YouTube suggesting videos to you so long they make Lawrence of Arabia seem downright punchy. In my feed, most of these take the form of disquietingly deep – and often critical – dives into various aspects of nerdy pop culture. "That internet D&D show we all used to love sucks now, and here's three hours worth of proof!" "That new movie that everyone loves sucks, and here's 63 reasons why!" "Here's a recap of that series no one but you and me is watching, and the 43 glaring errors in continuity it overlooked!" It's not hard to understand why this is happening. Nerds gonna nerd, after all. We love what we love, and we're prepared to corner you at a party, maybe over by the onion dip, and talk to you (OK: at you) about our every concern with it. At considerable length. (Why, yes, we do notice you gazing imploringly over our shoulders for someone, anyone, to rescue you; we just don't care, because the really interesting thing about Buffy Season 4 that most people overlook is …..) And of course the YouTube monetization model prizes every precious minute it gets to spend with those delicious eyeballs of yours. Passion + Profit-Seeking is a powerful motivator; these videos will keep coming. Or, if you truly believe in the marketplace of ideas, maybe they won't. After all, most of these long-haul grievance videos aren't worth anywhere near the time commitment they demand, and spending so many hours watching such sustained negativity leaves you feeling coated in a kind of psychic grime, a residue of greasy cynicism. I should note that Nicholson's Starcruiser video is a glaring exception – she's passionate, yes, but admirably clear-eyed about that passion. She makes her points (her many, many, many points) with equanimity and humor, and she's got the literal receipts. She's also quick to praise those aspects of the experience worth praising, and smartly drills down on the question of value-for-money. But there's no denying that a shift is happening. TikTok itself – that online smithy wherein memes get forged and hammered – is launching longer videos, and Mr. Beast, arguably the quintessential YouTuber, recently started pumping out longer videos based, he says, on viewer demand. Now, me? I'm so old I remember thinking a 13-minute music video was downright audacious. And I'll admit, I didn't actually watch the Starcruiser video, I listened to it while driving to and from the city for a movie screening. But I do watch several actual-play D&D YouTube shows, which sometimes stretch past the four-hour mark. And back in the early aughts I'd happily sink endless hours into reading smart, well-written TV recaps that might as well have been novellas. Is there any substantive difference? But I choose to be heartened by the rise of long-form video. Or more specifically: By the willingness of people to watch a single video for hours on end. It suggests that quality of work continues to matter – you do, after all, still have to earn all those extra minutes of our attention. And in a culture so quick to blame a raft of societal ills on shrinking attention spans, it offers a surprising and intriguing counter-narrative to the experts who cite audience data to dictate precisely how long a YouTube video, or a web article, or a podcast episode "should" be. Turns out the answer isn't quantitative, but qualitative – not precise length, but personal value. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend Hazbin Hotel is an adult animated series about a demon who's trying to reform the souls in Hell because … well, to go into that would take more time than I have in this blurb. There's plenty of lore underpinning this show, is my point. Other things underpinning it: Showtunes! Queer characters! Stylish design! A great voice cast! And plenty of solid, well-earned, bounce-a-quarter-off 'em jokes! The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is a very, very British historical comedy series about an infamous (in the U.K., at least) highwayman who's something of a folk hero. Noel Fielding essentially plays himself as Turpin, and as you might imagine, the whole thing lives in that well-carved out liminal English-comedy space where the jokes are very silly but the delivery is very dry. Brokeback Mountain. The Power of the Dog. Almodovar's Strange Way of Life. The upcoming National Anthem. Queer cowboys have been around since the very first cowman made … "friends" with a farmer. It's easy to forget that, so it's nice that Orville Peck and Willie Nelson teamed up to remind us. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week 'SNL' just wrapped its 49th season: It's time to cruelly rank its musical guests NBC/WIll Heath/NBC On Monday, Linda was joined – for the first time! – by NPR's Rachel Martin, and by our trusty pal Kristen Meinzer, to tackle Part 1 of Season 3 of Bridgerton. Monday was also the day Stephen's coldly calculated annual ranking of SNL musical guests went live. Treat yourself to a great, tough-but-fair, winningly Thompsonian read. On Wednesday, Stephen, Bedatri Choudhury, and Cristina Escobar talked IF. On Thursday, Linda, Janet Woojeong Lee and Laura Sirikul to discuss HBO's adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning novel, The Sympathizer. And on Friday, I was joined by Stephen, Roxana Hadadi and Mallory Yu as we spray-painted our mouths silver (long story) and threw ourselves upon Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Roxana Hadadi: Books by Megan Abbott Mallory Yu: The song “Bouncy (K-Hot Chilli Peppers)” by ATEEZ Stephen Thompson: The song “Birds of a Feather” from Billie Eilish’s new album, Hit Me Hard and Soft Glen Weldon: The comedy podcast Valley Heat Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy