Who wants to help me make my TikTok dreams come true?
That's wassup
Hello from summer vacation, where we’re making memories and having fun and definitely letting our kid indulge in too much screen time while we sip beers and work on a (paper) crossword (or sneak away for a bit to work on this newsletter).
I’m keeping it short and sweet and a little silly this week. Hope everyone is getting a chance to soak up the long summer days (and not feeling too crabby about the bugs and the heat and the endless reapplying of sunscreen—and if you are, I see you, I get it; this is not my season either).
My TikTok “For You” page is a strange mishmash that probably speaks to the fact that I don’t use the app very consistently. But I almost always get served a video by Ted Zhar that I inevitably hate-watch to its conclusion. If you’re not familiar, Ted stands on the streets around NYC (mostly Soho, I think?) and asks people what they do for a living. But he’s not asking everyone—he asks a string of beautiful young women, rich-looking preppy dudes, the occasional dapper older gentleman, and some artsy types. One time he interviewed a “professional dad” [insert eye roll]. And in one particularly insulting video, he asks, “What do the MILFs of NYC do for a living?” but as far as I can tell, only one of those women is a mother (insofar as she has a child with her—she could be an aunt, family friend, cousin, babysitter, who the hell knows).
Ted wraps every video with “That’s wassup!” It’s so simple and yet somehow so annoying.
(Side note: Wasn’t “wassup” first made popular via an insanely popular Budweiser Super Bowl commercial TWO DECADES AGO when I was a freshman in college? Yes, I just dated myself, but honest to god, isn’t this a catchphrase that should be long dead and buried? But I digress.)
I have a fantasy about creating my own version of this series, but I’d interview mothers about what they do and how many children they’re raising.
What do you do for a living?
Chief Marketing Officer
Second grade teacher
Doctor
Homeschooler and part-time real estate agent
Product manager
Environmental scientist
How many kids do you have
3
2 and one on the way
1
7
4
2
And you…
put on mascara
packed lunches
did laundry
found a lost toy
closed a deal
saved a life
all before 9 a.m.?
What, like it’s hard?
That’s wassssssupppppp.
Who wants to make this with me? I think it could be huge.
More next week!
xx
Lindsey
p.s. I went back and rewatched that Bud commercial and that’s wassup, even if Ted Zhar isn’t. You should rewatch it.
p.p.s. Shoutout to Johanna for the “What, like it’s hard” line. I wouldn’t say you make it look easy, but you do make it look fun.