Matthew Gardner

Stupefy

A newsletter on culture, media, and advertising. 103 issues, 2018–2025.

2025

Apr 24The Slop Leak Theory

2023

2022

2021

2020

Dec 8The Office Nostalgia of "Industry"
Nov 23Why "Queen's Gambit?"
Oct 27Remembering How To Hang
Oct 20There’s nothing to talk about. Enter Kanye and Rogan.
Oct 13The Anti-Now of "Emily in Paris"
Sep 29The Rock and Inverse Authority
Sep 22The Emmys and the Celebrity Availability Divide
Sep 15"Cuties" and Creative on Autopilot
Sep 1Our Abandoned Pop Culture
Aug 25Travis Scott and Cultural Laziness
Aug 18"Project Power" and the Primacy of Ease
Aug 11Creator Collectives Are Terrifying
Aug 4Jake Paul and the Narc Culture War
Jul 23Hit Movies Are Still Fun
Jul 21Logic and the Twitch Crossover Artist
Jul 16“Unsolved Mysteries” Ditched Marketing for Conspiracy Theories
Jul 14Jada Pinkett Smith, Woj and an Entanglement With Honesty
Jul 9Quibi, The Self-Loathing Media Company
Jul 7The Convenience of The Facebook Boycott
Jun 30Everyone Is Freaking Out When We Watch Political Freakout Videos
Jun 26"Floor Is Lava" Is a Hit Meme Show
Jun 23Murals As Message Insurance
Jun 16Netflix Is the Only Institution We Trust
Jun 5The Protest Experience Economy
May 29Barstool and the Personal Brand Snark Resurgence
May 26Workplace TV Cannot Be Killed
May 22The Week of Cults
May 19OnlyFans and Clubhouse Want Total Availability
May 12When Biden Meets Reality
May 5Work Streaming Will Be Twitch for Old People
May 1Every TV and Movie Ad Is Retro
Apr 28HBO Max’s Ad Campaign Is Clumsy. But Excess Is The Right Message.
Apr 21Only The Brands Are Together
Apr 14“Too Hot To Handle” and Hostage Situation Content
Apr 7The Dome Is a Perfect Time to Learn Something New
Mar 31You Just Watched The First Bio-Hit
Mar 24A Great Corniness Is Coming
Mar 17How "Go Off Kings" Predicted Media Awkwarding
Mar 3Why Netflix Virality Is Even More Sentimental Than Social Virality Was
Feb 19Taylor, Justin and Refreshing Cynicism
Feb 4Super Bowl Commercials' Baffling Reflection
Jan 28Joe Rogan and the Shadow Monoculture
Jan 22The Circle and Our New Era of Shamelessness
Jan 14Prince Harry, Meghan And Super-Prestige TV
Jan 7The Witcher and unpredictable meme success

2019

Dec 17Our uncool future
Dec 10Scavenger culture vs. nostalgia culture
Nov 26The best show of the 2010s
Nov 19Decks are mysticism for business
Nov 12Ghost content and media real estate
Nov 5Did raging against the machine skip a generation?
Oct 29Hillary and the franchise remix
Oct 22Kanye and the zero-touch cultural product
Oct 15The goal is a black hole
Oct 8There is no middle
Oct 1The frenetic standstill of entertainment
Sep 24Will TV look like Peloton and Twitch?
Sep 17The size divide
Sep 10Our silent future
Aug 27Streaming service superfans
Aug 6Expensive things, embarrassing things and more
Jul 30Streamers are this generation's grunge
Jul 23Stress and the streaming wars
Jul 16Stupefy: Obscurities as hits - I Love You, Now Die
Jul 9Stupefy: TikTok is the next Netflix
Jul 2Stupefy: Graydon's return - Kyrie and KD's media ambitions
Jun 25Stupefy: Murder Mystery - WeChat ad - Reality TV
Jun 18Stupefy: Conversations - Capitalist realist content
Jun 11Stupefy: Lip syncing - Quibi - Movie titles
Jun 4Stupefy: Watch my phone - Listen with me
May 29Stupefy: China content - Carti - Facebook mines
May 21Stupefy: Comedy - Bio-Musicals
May 14Stupefy: Local gossip - Dissecting Billie Eilish's taste
May 7Stupefy: Slack vs. Fortnite - Netflix and consumer products
Apr 30Stupefy: Peloton - Time Crisis
Apr 23Stupefy: At-work media - Endgame
Apr 16Stupefy: Discord's influence - Container over content
Apr 9Stupefy: Patronage - Kingmakers - 2020
Apr 2Stupefy: Meme Gatekeepers - Algorithm Music - Social Capital
Mar 25Stupefy: Future - Vessel - No Local
Mar 19Stupefy: Hate - Binge - Remember
Mar 4Stupefy: Plepler - Graydon - Thought Control
Feb 25Stupefy: Music Edition - Stage production from a garage, The sound of Instagram, Karaoke for a lonely age
Feb 18Stupefy: World's best interviewer is on VR Chat, Cult hit Instagram account, Mobile video hit show, Chicken
Jan 21Stupefy: Posts behind a paywall, AirPod Money and Netflix's war on time

2018