“But it was supposed to be funny.” It’s an excuse we’ve ALL heard and probably used when we’ve been confronted by our past mistakes and gone immediately on the defensive. It’s easier than taking accountability sometimes. And that’s just amongst friends. But what happens when your past mistakes are documented on video? YouTube videos that you’ve put out there. That have accrued to form a brand in your name, made you a ton of money, and put you in a position of power and influence in the lives of ...
Mar 07, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Janet Damita Jo Jackson, Britney Jean Spears. Two pop goddesses who entered the music game as kids and grew up to garner more critical and commercial success than their 10-year-old selves could ever dream of. But what else do they have in common? Problematic white pop star and Former N*Sync co-frontman Justin Randall Timberlake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Feb 28, 2022•22 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Why do so many women get a hard time when they speak up? It’s like: How dare you do anything but sing, dance, play … entertain me? How dare you have an opinion? It doesn’t matter if you’re the darlings of ‘country’ and one of the most successful bands in the world. Don’t badmouth my president, especially overseas. We’re taking you back to the eve of one of the most contentious wars in recent history. Emotions were running high and all it took was one little comment to start a national boycott sl...
Feb 21, 2022•23 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Today’s topic has had many tweets, think pieces, and much mainstream media coverage devoted to it. And while the subject matter was initially reported as yet another example of salacious {tabloid fodder}, it eventually took a more disturbing turn, exposing our ‘protagonist’ while also raising valid concerns about future press freedoms and the First Amendment. But how did the beloved Hulk Hogan go from being an ‘immortal’ icon to a figure of scorn and derision? This episode was written by Oumar S...
Feb 14, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 20
A controversy-courting YouTube chat show, a twitter clapback, and a verbal gymnastic session with a move so bold, so bewilderingly audacious, that it’d probably leave Simone Biles a bit rattled. This is the story of Daniel Caesar, the rising R&B star whose commitment to catching stray bullets for his friend, Julieanna ‘YesJulz’ Goddard, got him CANCELLED with a permanent C. Sort of. This episode was written by Annique Simpson This is a Broccoli Prodution. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
Feb 07, 2022•20 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Art and controversy go hand in hand. Many celebrated artists tiptoe on the edge of taste, decency and political correctness as a means to explore emotions and boundaries. In the 1980's underground queer entertainment was grounded in shock value. But, by the tail end of the decade, the landscape looked and sounded very different. The prominent razzle dazzle doyennes found themselves in very different territory... Leigh Bowery included. This episode was written by Rhyannon Styles This is a Broccol...
Jan 31, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Think public takedowns or mass moral outrage, and social media is often the arena. A tweet, the weapon of choice. But people have been called out, vilified and openly flogged since … well … forever. And it usually involves some form of prejudice or privilege, either way. Let’s take one example: a WTF moment during one of the biggest events in live television. How an alleged wardrobe malfunction exposed much more than a body part, derailing pop icon Janet Jackson's career. It’s so contentious tha...
Jan 24, 2022•27 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Summer 2020 was peak cancellation season and no one was safe. The murder of George Floyd forced people, who had otherwise had the privilege of ignoring racism’s pervasiveness, to begin to see it for what it is. Callouts on racial injustice became callouts on social justice across the board and a number of brands – and the people at their helm – were brought to reckoning and the fashion brand Boohoo were top of the hitlist. This episode was written by Ore Ogunbiyi This is a Broccoli Production Le...
Jan 17, 2022•19 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Retweets are not endorsements. That’s what people say. It’s become a universal disclaimer in our online discourse – used to dodge criticism for, say, retweeting Trump during his Twitter heyday. Read: a retweet is not an endorsement, even if you’re retweeting a fascist. Unless, of course, you add a little message saying you agree with a fascist. That’s pretty much what Mumford & Sons banjoist, Winston Marshall - who once adopted the moniker “Country Winston” - did, out of the blue, on March 7...
Jan 10, 2022•21 min•Season 1Ep. 15
If I could only choose one word – a polite, podcast-friendly word – to sum up the past 18 months, it’d be... ‘weird’. A global pandemic that had people fighting over toilet roll and governments telling us when we could leave the house or have sex? Weird. At times, tragic and necessary... except the toilet roll thing. But 100% weird. One celeb who has successfully capitalised on the social currency of ‘weird’ is Gen-Z’s fave singer slash rapper Doja Cat. But her ‘out of the box’ behaviour almost ...
Dec 06, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 14
TW: this episode features dicussion of sexual violence. It’s an age-old story –or at least, it’s becoming one. Subject –usually young, usually good looking, usually versed in pop culture –discovers the internet. It could be singing clips on Instagram, or comedy bits on TikTok, or, as it is in this case, YouTube. They make videos, they generate content. It’s all a bit of fun. Perhaps they get a couple of friends involved. Then, if the stars align, the internet discovers them. Before long, fame co...
Nov 29, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 13
When Lana Del Rey burst onto the scene with the alt-girl anthem “Video Games” in 2011, the world was ready to welcome her and her melodic melancholy with open arms. Open arms and open pockets, as we saw, when Born To Die, her debut album, became the fifth-highest-selling album of 2012 worldwide. But our question today is: how did Lana Del Rey become so cancellable? Well, as we are about to discover, we can put it down to a whole clusterf*ck of messy, ill-informed and down-right ignorant {mishaps...
Nov 22, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 12
You may know her as the first African American supermodel to grace the covers of Sports Illustrated and GQ with that body 'ody 'ody. You may know her as the ethereal beauty that sashayed down the runway as one of Victoria’s Secret’s iconic angels. You may EVEN know her as the shining star of the iconic, straight to TV, 2000 film... “Life Size”. But at her most iconic, she is the host and face of America’s Next Top Model and brought 24 cycles of drama, challenges, ‘go-sees’, eliminations, controv...
Nov 15, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 11
From the start of his campaign to his ungracious – at best – defeat last year, Donald Trump has called for a boycott of – well, quite literally – everyone. From Macy’s to Mexico, and Harley Davidson to HBO, the wrath of “The Donald” has – according to CNN – single-handedly tried to cancel over thirty people and organisations. How very anti-cancel-culture of him. Well, needless to say, the Twitter-happy leader of the free world wheeled into action once more on the morning of the 19th of August 20...
Nov 08, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Here’s the thing about fame; it gives you carte blanche. Fame equals money equals access equals freedom –freedom to do pretty much anything you want. Sounds great, right? This inter-disciplinary zeal has produced some extraordinary moments of art and culture. But a blank cheque can be a dangerous thing. You can attempt to cash in too much, and then it all goes horribly wrong. Sometimes, sticking to what you know is for the best. And having insulted a whole section of society with her directorial...
Nov 01, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 9
There used to be a saying in the olden days, long long before the birth of content and cancel culture, it went like this - “today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip papers”. It’s important to remember that cancel culture isn’t only a phenomenon of the 21st Century, much in the same way that trans people weren’t all birthed in the year 2000. Although in today’s world, we do have transgender cover stars specifically chosen to celebrate and support the individuals, it wasn’t always the case. Nothin...
Oct 24, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 8
A story about a woman who found her Eden, shared it with everyone and then promptly lost it all. It’s a story about privilege, a collision of culture and the nasty underbelly that makes paradise for a select few possible. It’s a story about ignorance and influencers. And ultimately, it’s a story about getting heavily cancelled. On this episode of Cancelled, we’re going to introduce you to the unfortunate tale of Kristen Gray. This Episode was written by Moya Lothian-McLean This is a Broccoli Pro...
Oct 17, 2021•17 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Today’s cancellation is a work in progress. Hailed as aqueer icon who blazed newtrails for gay people in the public eye,she’s now derided as the enablerof a toxic workplace, an arbiter of harassment, and a bully.Ellen DeGeneres is less falling off the cliff of cancellation, than tumbling down the hill next to it. But how did Ellen, once so beloved she’s in a category where her first name does all the work, go from a pioneer of the LGBTQcommunity to someone accused of being arbitrarilymean.And cr...
Oct 10, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 6
It's January 2021 and what is likely to be the craziest celebrity story of the year (you’d hope) has already made waves across Hollywood, Pop Culture and Social Media, which, let’s face it, is known for being the messiest Venn Diagram. At the centre of the story is actor, Armie Hammer who went from Hollywood Golden Boy to Hannibal Lecter Tribute Act,and, more pressingly, an alleged abuser, in the space on one evening. But how? Well, like so many of these stories, Trial by Twitter, and the unimpe...
Oct 03, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Jamil is best known for her body-positivity activism, having battled with anorexia as a teenage model, and a young woman navigating the fashion and tv worlds, her crusade against the misogynist and fat-shaming diet and detox industry has delivered some impressive results but she also regularly finds herself in the middle of online spats. None more genuinely confounding than in February 2020 when she faced Tracie Egan Morrissey – an ex-Jezebel editor who suggested that Jamil has, or is acting lik...
Sep 26, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Its September 3rd 2018 and a tweet from an alt-right looking account goes viral. Embedded within the tweet is a forty-five second video which has racked up over eleven million views so far. It’s a single shot of a pair of white Nike trainers engulfed in flames on a burnt-out lawn. The trainers belong to an S Clancy, who by his own admission, has been a loyal customer of the multi-billion-dollar global sportswear brand for over 20 years. So, why would he proudly set fire to his favourite pair of ...
Sep 19, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 3
May last year. Do you remember that time? A strange and eerie period where lockdown still felt new. Think shuttered shops and restaurants, and more people than ever working from home. Remember that context as you listen to this episode and ask yourself how much lockdown boredom -and the never-ending entertainment of celebrities fighting -may have played a part in the media storm surrounding food writer and chef Alison Roman whose career grounded in making good food accessible, was being question...
Sep 12, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Morning television; It’s a medium built upon being the relaxing background music to your pre-breakfast routine. A light fusion of news, entertainment, and weather, wrapped up with soft furnishings and ambient intro music, with the melodious alto of a Scottish woman never far away. (Carol Kirkwood and Lorraine Kelly–holler). Hardly a bastion of excitement. But such tranquillity is fertile ground for a disruptor, and there is perhaps nobody more deserving of that adjective than one Piers Morgan. T...
Sep 05, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 1
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Aug 05, 2021•4 min
