Sumner Redstone died last week. Is it time his famous credo, "content is king," dies with him, too? Because this past week helped prove that in everything from streaming hits and streaming platforms to mobile video products and viral comedy videos convenience matters as much or more than quality. Ease of use is everything when it comes to content right now. If it's spoon-fed to us, it might become a hit. If I had less shame, I'd attempt to coin my own update to Redstone's maxim: "convenient content is king."Here are a few of the ways that the primacy of ease became obvious this week:Streaming hitsTake "Project Power," currently sitting at number 1 on Netflix's Top 10 list in the US. The superhero flick, about a pill that puts anyone who takes it on X-Men Shuffle Mode for five minutes, is not getting great reviews. But I'd be willing to bet it's a much bigger hit than "Lovecraft Country," a prestige drama with an absurd pedigree, namely executive producers J.J. Abrams and Jordan Peele, and critical buzz.
Streaming platforms
Obviously, part of the difference in audience between "Project Power" and "Lovecraft Country" can be chalked up to their respective platforms. Would "Project Power" be a blockbuster if it were on any other platform? It's just extremely easy to watch something with Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levin and Machine Gun Kelly when it's auto-playing at the top of the streaming service you reflexively open every time you turn on your TV. HBO Max, where "Lovecraft Country" lives, has seemingly gone out of its way to be inconvenient. The name is extremely confusing, making it anything but easy for the average person to understand and find the platform itself despite the excellent content on the platform. The inconvenience of HBO Max is being blamed in part for WarnerMedia's executive purge.
Mobile video products
That's not the only rough rollout for a new entertainment product recently. Instagram's Reels is getting dinged for being difficult to use. It's inconvenient in more ways than I can count, from being hard to find to making it more difficult than TikTok to create a video.
Viral comedy videos
Comedian Sarah Cooper leveraged convenience for explosive results, too. Cooper, whose lip-sync impressions had not only exploded this year but also bedeviled me with their unfunniness, broke news with her own Netflix special last week. Her videos are, uhhhhh....not for me. But I get why they work:
They start with a faceThey "reveal" a different speakerThat speaker happens to be the most famous person on the planet
Those videos have a very broad appeal, making it very easy for very many people to get the joke very quickly. It's content that's not necessarily that good but easy for a lot of people to love. Who am I to say that's not what Redstone actually had in mind?
The shorter stuff
Jared Kushner is currently running an absolute trainwreck of a campaign and you love to read about it. (NYMag)
Lizzo didn't steal her own most famous lyric, turns out. Remember this? (THR)
Will Smith is coming down with a case of whatever Elon Musk has that makes him think every meme is hilarious. He's shopping around a "gritty 'Fresh Prince' reboot" off of a viral fan-made video. (Insider)
Kombucha Girl got scammed out of her Sabra Super Bowl commercial money. (NYT)
Special "Partying Is Not Allowed" Section
Travis Kalanick thinks he's Jake Paul, throwing parties in LA. (VF)
This thread of videos from TikToker Bryce Hall's party over the weekend is nuts and features a male stripper, Harry Jowsey from "Too Hot To Handle" and FaZe Banks. (Twitter)
David Koch's widow is hiding out in her house on "Billionaire's Lane" in Southampton "so gold diggers can't get to her." The appearance of someone named "Bronson Van Wyck" is just a bonus. (NYPost)
Amanda Hess with the best explanation of Ruth Bader Ginsburg stans' performative fandom: "As if the sheer force of cultural production could sustain her." (NYTMag)
Apple is launching their own virtual fitness class subscription service. They've got Peloton envy because everyone they know won't shut up about theirs. (Bloomberg)
Matt Taibbi on the DNC that absolutely no one cares about: "A four-day Zoom meeting in which the likes of John Kasich, Michael Bloomberg, and Nancy Pelosi warn you for the fifty through sixty millionth times about the 'existential threat' of Donald Trump." (Reporting by Matt Taibbi)
The cofounder of Sleeping Giants just realized that marketers have no idea where their ads are actually running. (Wired)
Victoria Song with a rare personally-informed piece on what makes videos work and why c-suites often get that wrong. (Gizmodo)