Last year, I wrote that there will be a presidential debate inside Fortnite, or something like Fortnite, during the 2024 election cycle. This admittedly trollish idea lurched one step further into mainstream consciousness yesterday when Lis Smith, the mastermind behind Pete Buttigieg’s successful shock and awe media strategy during the primary, went on Politico Live and said something that wouldn't be surprising at all to anyone who's been in a meeting with a creative agency in the last two years. While discussing Biden’s possible digital strategy for the campaign, Smith said, “Travis Scott’s takeover of Fortnite… if we could do that with Joe Biden [for the convention], Joe Biden projected over the Grand Canyon.” Smith is not a part of the Biden campaign, but is seen as a representative of Democratic digital gurudom and part of a wider braintrust of potential advisors who can help the Biden campaign out of its pandemic-induced digital rut. She was also citing another Democratic digital media strategist. The idea was widely mocked. Some were horrified by what they considered potential pandering, bringing up references to Hillary Clinton’s infamous “Pokemon Go To The Polls” line.
Others trolled, pointing out the incongruousness of the image of a barely lucid old timer inside a game mostly used by Zoomers. I mean, it is funny, since the campaign can’t get the guy through a video conference without technical difficulties. And still others got caught up in the political and business implications for both Epic and the Democratic party, rightly pointing out that holding a political rally for one party inside a game used by millions of people on both sides of the political spectrum would be problematic. Epic, the maker of Fortnite, might be called biased. And the Trump campaign might demand their own Fortnite rally. What they all seem to think is that a digital playground, populated mostly by kids and young adults, is the wrong place for Biden to campaign. Fortnite’s not real, they seem to be arguing. This would be opportunistic. It would be silly. And it would not be an appropriate place for politicsBut what yesterday’s mini-outrage cycle illuminates is not only how right something like Fortnite actually is for a campaign, but also how out of sync with reality the campaign is now. First, so what if it’s opportunistic or pandering?
A Biden campaign ad or experience inside Fortnite would be genius. It’s just not possible. Joe Biden needs Fortnite way more than Fortnite needs Joe Biden. It wouldn’t happen not because enough people can't be gathered there, but because the people who would gather there don’t care about or have any enthusiasm for his campaign. In this way, the parallel isn’t to Hillary citing Pokemon Go at a rally. It’s to Hillary holding a rally at a concert with Jay-Z and Beyoncé. Few laughed at that idea at the time. Second, yes it’s a silly idea, but the silliness of the idea of Biden inside Fortnite comes from Biden, not Fortnite. Trump could pull off a Fortnite event easily, and he’s just as senile as Biden. Why? Because there would be some people inside his digital event who actually like him and his message. Trump doesn’t need Fortnite because, unfortunately, he has enthusiasm already among his base. Which brings me to my third reason for being suspicious of reactions to this news. Epic wouldn’t allow a Biden event in Fortnite not because it’s politically sticky, but because it would bomb. People would boo!
The analogous Fortnite event to this hypothetical Biden one isn’t the Travis Scott concert. It’s the Quibi premiere. When Quibi livestreamed the premiere of “Punk’d” inside Fortnite, it was widely mocked. Players actually vandalized the screen and erected barriers so people couldn’t watch it. No one in Fortnite wanted to see that. Funnily enough, the joke that is Biden in Fortnite is when the campaign ran right into reality. That reality isn’t that people gather in strange new digital places like Fortnite. It’s that the campaign has a serious problem with relevance that has nothing to do with their digital media strategy. That’s what funniest about this whole thing.
The shorter stuff
Tired of the unrelenting corniness that is the glorified table-read-TV of SNL and John Krasinki? I suggest "#blackaf." It's misanthropic! And funny. (Netflix)
Speaking of, I will never recover my respect for other people after seeing this fan art of the casts of "The Office" and "Friends" playing basketball against each other. (Twitter)
The new Jerry Seinfeld special on Netflix reminds Bob Lefsetz of Hamilton! (Lefsetz Letter)
Thank you, ESPN, for allowing us to continue to just relive 1998 instead of actually living through 2020. (Chicago Tribune)
Mindy Kaling's new Netflix show "Never Have I Ever" was #1 Trending in basically every country at the same time. (Image)
Special "I Don't Believe Your Pandemic Suit" Section
Paul Feig is doubling down on being weirdly always in a suit. Now with extra off-putting out-of-touchness. (THR)
David Sedaris claims he's been wearing a Commes Des Garçons blazer with avian ruffles? (WSJ)
"Spies say that hot topics of discussion on the calls have included...of course, from which exotic island locales people are dialing in." (NYPost)
Satire. When you're this good at it, you get to be the COO of Air Mail. (Air Mail)
A tabloid insider thinks New York could be "a zero-tab town by 2021," exacerbated by this pandemic. (VF)
Not one mention of "Macgruber" in Taffy Brodesser-Akner's sublime piece on Val Kilmer. (NYTMag)
Between Taiki Waititi directing a new "Star Wars" movie and the beloved mute Boba Fett coming to "The Mandalorian," it's gonna be an extra annoying couple years. (The Verge) (THR)
Going back to the office sounds like a nightmare. (WSJ)
Liking Supreme’s probably-baffling-to-Zoomers nose dive into 90s indie iconography. First My Bloody Valentine, now Daniel Johnston. (Pitchfork)
Speaking of, the new BTS album is all Daniel Johnston covers. This joke never gets old to me. (Bandcamp)