Shrek, Is He Real?

Flex and Fromes.

I'm Kit, Hello Bingchers, Welcome to the podcast Flex and Frons.

We are so glad you're here. Today's gonna be a super juicy, juicy juicy one. We've been talking about this phenomena that I've been seeing on TikTok with famous celebrities like Doja Cat and Fka Twigs saying that their label is forcing them to go viral before they can drop new music. So super spooky.

Sure, that's actually my demon paralysis being made to post certain things. Imagine, I hate it. We're also going to be talking about the most popular girls names. I was having this conversation with my sister yesterday.

It's giving Charlotte, it's giving Olivia. My sister's a great name. I love the name Olivia. Oh thank you.

Bitchy but hot, she's a bitch. And of course we're going to be talking about Shrek. Yeah, just a little tiny taste.

And you taught us about this morally motivated network, about how there are a bunch of people who think that their duty is to cancel people because it's motivated from this, like Inna Vigilante, Are they the hero?

Are they the villain? Find out next Stay tuned, my little lovelies.

This is flex and frooms.

I'm going to talk about a man and a woman again it with any other you know, this is what happens on FLEXA.

One thing about frooms. She loves a heterosexual relationship dilemma.

I don't see sexuality. It's really that simple. Yeah.

So this is a very very simple question that slid into my DMS a week ago. I can't remember the person's name, but I know that it's a woman, a heterosexual woman.

Let's call her Maddie, Maddie, Thank you, Maddie.

See, I think these people want to be anonymous, but we'll call her Maddie a good girlfriend.

One day, we'll talk about why people who have this propensity to want to overshare to strangers want to be anonymous at the same time. Pick one. Do you know what I'm saying. It's very counterintuitive to be like, I want to share this very intimate thing to you, for you to share with hundreds of thousands of people the most not intimate thing you can do.

I mean, anyway, go on gone. It makes sense to me, So eat secret keepers. This is simple.

She goes a good girlfriend and I had a falling out due to her thinking that I didn't like her boyfriend when I had never said anything to allude to that, and now she has blocked me.

What what do I do?

I have more questions than answers.

It's like, that's pretty simple, isn't it. It's like a very simple love line. Yeah, no nuance to that.

As you would say, imagine your friend blocking you because they think you don't like their partner.

I chose this love line, of course. Why I choose anything? Because I have a personal connection.

You do, Yes, I have been in this situation.

What you really have lived? This story? You keep sharing one incriminating sorry after another.

I'll share this one because I look like a saying to it and I did nothing wrong.

Yeah.

As someone with an expressive face, I can imagine I give people the impression that I hate things that I'm indifferent about. Something about my facial structure can be real frowny, real quick. And also the intonation of my voice.

Sarcastic at all times.

Yeah, but that's not even my humor. That's what gets me, Like, I feel like when people think I'm being really facetious, I'm telling the truth.

Well, what's your thoughts on that?

I think that the person Maddie, who we absolutely named, is lying.

I think she's lying.

You've never given your friend the impression that you hate her boyfriend, yet she's gone out of her way to block you. Either you lack self awareness and you've got resting bitch face, or you've been flirting too much with her boyfriend.

And she's like, no, no, no, no, no, no no no, I'm not doing this. I'm not doing this.

I'm not doing this.

Okay, Well, I'm going to give you the inside scope of what it's like to be Maddie. And I actually don't care if I say that.

Often.

I'm telling stories and halfway through I'm thinking, oh no, this can't go to air. I'm incriminating myself and others. But with this one, I know I didn't do anything wrong, so I'm going to say it. So twenty fifteen, you're so good with date. Literally, in my mind, I don't remember anything except certain periods of time. I had a best friend, very best friend since high school, and she had a long suffering relationship with a man we're going to call Sam long suffering.

It was long suffering. They've been dating since she was in year eight. He was three years older, bit edge, But I digress.

That's your community though, what that's your community, is it? Yeah?

Okay, with a.

Boyfriend at the wedding and the Haviana sandals.

If you want to hear the Havanna experience, you're going to have to go listen to our podcast and it's all there. But basically, my very best friend, she had a boyfriend who was by all accounts a bit of a crap person, oo bad person, very mean to her. Would often like she would do things to throw back, like kind of couple that would like put the truth rush on the toilet.

That was the level of relationship we were dealing with.

Oh that's not that's not like a metaphor.

No no, no, yeah, literal really awful things, spreading rumors about one another, then getting back together. So obviously this happened. You know, they're doing the cycle. We all know a friend who does the cycle getting back together, and when they're not together, she's vicious about him, coming over to my house in front of my parents, spreading lies about his person, to which my parents even thought was a bit weird. So anyway, they get back together. Fastholed to twenty fifteen and.

She was started in twenty fifteen, so were we fast forwarded?

I was backtracking too year, right, Like, I'm working together for like seven years by this point.

It got it, got it finally back together. We're all at a party. It's my friend's twenty first birthday, and I rock up.

I'm feeling amazing, my life is fantastic, YadA, YadA, YadA.

And I see.

Sam and what we're doing. Names, Yeah, we're calling him Sam. It's not as we are names.

Oh, but I'll say it if you asked me kindly enough.

And I see him and obviously we have a funny relationship because I was mean to him when he was broken up with my friend.

So we have a fun you had to. I did what I had to. I run up to him, I go, hey, Sam, this is a photographer. I go, Sam, let's get a photo.

And I stand with him and I like, send me cock my leg up.

So I was like doing this like pretty princess vibes. Yeah, like you I know something you don't know. We're in love.

Yeah.

Anyway, album hits Facebook that Sunday. Get a terse message from my friend. You're being very inappropriate and I don't think we can be friends. You made Sam very uncomfortable. You made it's uncomfortable, Okay, dol same boy that actually was untoward to me at times of predator, So.

You killed him with kindness, I sondh backfire.

Yeah, I did, literally, So I know the experience of someone not liking you because you don't like their partner or because there's like bad beef.

But I think Maddie should move on.

Me and that person aren't friends anymore because that was really the nail on the coffin, because I hadn't done anything wrong.

This has taken so many turns. I'm gonna validate you for that story. That sounds wholly traumatic, and I hate that for you and all parties involved in this instance. If you've been.

Blocked, how do you know what it's about?

Like?

How do you have enough information to go? I know it because my friend thinks I don't like her boyfriend. Okay, well then you know you did something like You've got too much information for a blocked person.

Interesting.

The moral to all of these love lines, which I love receiving never stop sending, is just go talk to the person, because what if it was an accidental block? Now, what if it was like, you know, out on the piss, got a little bit hyped up, block them because you felt some kind of way and just forgot to it.

You're listening to Flex and Frooms on DA.

A few weeks ago, we discovered that our producer Brook has a tattoo of Shrek on her arm.

Yeah, which is pretty full on. And then we discovered that the Shrek looks exactly like you like me in the most beautiful way possible. You look exactly the same.

And then a few days ago someone slid it into my DMS to tell me this incredible fact that apparently Shrek is actually based off a real life man.

Cute and is that hearsay or do we have the evidence? M bit of both? It's four fourful yeah, bit of both.

Okay speaking el, So this is actually what I'm going to call a Shrek conspiracy. Love that supposedly it's based on a real life man who was a boxer called Maurice Tillet who had the nickname the French Angel. Basically, when he was twenty years old, he noticed swelling in his hands, feet and head, and after visiting a doctor, he was diagnosed with our megali, which is a condition usually caused by a benign tumor on the pituary gland,

That's the problem.

He's cute. Yeah, but the man looks like Shrek. There's no denying it.

Shrek looks like him.

Facts, But I did a little bit more digging and apparently DreamWorks never confirmed that it really was based on Shrek.

Doesn't want to pay him?

Oh, always going back to commerce, and I'm going to pay you there, I reckon, you're right. Here's some more pictures of him, and I mean, the man is Shrek.

There's no denying incredible.

Yes, So, Maurice Tillett the real life Shrek. If you want to tell someone if you're a big Shrek fan, I'm going to assume that you are.

If you're listening to this.

Show, type in Morris Tilletts and show all of your friends and you can say I knew the real life track.

And by Morris she means Maurice Fleck and Frooms. We don't often talk about music marketing, which we should because it's fascinating and it affects every single one of your most favorite artists. There is so much more that goes into you hearing the music right like before it gets to your little ear holes. There's all this red tape and bureaucracy that needs to be adhered to that honestly

And the first one I'm just gonna interrupt you was Charli XCX.

Yes, and then Halsey and then Doja Cat and Florence the Machine. So yeah, if one person had done it, I'd be like, oh, yeah, you're fine, but all of them doing it, which is I don't really know if I believe it. I don't gonna be cynical, you know. But the thing that gets me is that these are huge artists that have already proved to the world that they are valuable. They can already make hits, they can

Listen to this clip.

All right, So it's looking like a lot of artists signed the Capitol Records are calling them out for not letting them release their new music unless it goes.

Viral on TikTok.

Now we all know hard it was the most reason one today we heard about Fja Twigs and Charlie Exists. I think last week I believe, but now we're hearing from Florence. Well, I'm glad that ours are speaking out on this because we, as the general publis I have been talking about this for the last two years. Everyone is trying to make money off of TikTok, and they're forcing their eyes in something that they don't want to do.

And so the thing about that is, I feel like part of what I would love to see in music and celebrity culture is a bit of a mystery. Like I think that we have skewed a little bit too far into authenticity culture, and now I'm having to be accountable for what these artists are going through behind the scenes. I love that you're being real, but just figure out how to go viral, babe, so.

I can hear the track.

Now I can't hear the music because you can't go viral.

Be better.

I swear Charlie XX did this like a year ago. I believed her. Yes, she has always been real talk in my experience. I've interviewed her before. She's giving me a real talk kind of vibe. She's she's not ask Kissa, She's here to do her job. Whereas, Yeah, the more recent ones I struggled to believe. Even with Charlie XX, Like I did have this little, tiny like voice in my head being like, there's no way that's real. Not because I am like someone who's totally aware of like

But interesting that you perceived. Charlie XCX is like a real raw kind of artist because I remember back in the early days, like in that boom Clap era, where she was so obviously being a caricature of herself, like this extra heightened version of herself, and then like had a very distinct career change and a very distinct career change, and even recently she said that due to the fact that everybody is doing this hyper authentic thing, she's swinging

It doesn't add anything to your end result.

You just end up stressing more because now the whole internet knows you're anxious. Times back from when Summer Walker said that she didn't want to tour because she's really anxious and she hates performing and she gets on stage and she's like really stiff, and she's not looking at the crowd and she looks very visibly just not comfortable. And she told the audiences eventually she's like, I'm really anxious,

Signed up for, just sing something skiff? Can't you just take a little pill.

I do think that it hits a chord with people on TikTok because I think a lot of people, especially our age, we are.

At the very very end of gen z. I think we're out of it. But nah, oh yeah, I think I'm a millennial. Yeah, I'll take it by one year me that was very millennial.

I think that we can relate to the feeling of not wanting to adopt a new platform. And I think for a lot of people they think of TikTok as the dancing app, Like there's so many people our age that still think it's where teenagers got to do dancers. It's totally a lot from that.

Like, yeah, there's that, there's more to it.

There's a lot more to it, And so I think in sharing that there's relatability to people who are afraid of TikTok.

Yeah, but I just don't think it's an artist's role to be relatable. And I also think my real issue is why are these artists having to be in charge of their marketing? Like is should the pressure not be on the marketing managers to be like, you need to make me go viral so I can drop this hit?

See.

But I'm kind of the opinion if you're an artist and you're a star, you are unrelenting and you want to do everything yourself.

Yeah, but I think the whole point of being signed to a label is that you can do these things by yourself with this of all these like with the sport of an industry behind you, backing you and giving you the push you need to do the things you should want to do. If the artists have already written the music and the labels like it's sitting there ready to click process to the world, and you can't do it until you go viral on this platform, well that is just silly.

I think it's semi think that it could be true because I feel like so many people that get record deals these days are famous on TikTok. Pretty much all entertainers that are coming up from twenty two onwards need a TikTok presence.

Absolutely, you need a TikTok presence.

But look that song you played.

Earlier, mean by whoever whoever, that song is so huge on TikTok.

I don't know that girl's name, I don't know where she's from, I don't know what she does.

It's not resonating.

Going viral on TikTok is like the first step to a career that plateaus in three seconds because you literally cannot sustain that amount of height for any longer than a season. You're not allowed to. Like the biggest artists in the world have an off period. Frank oceanwent am I for five years because he could not sustain the hype. It's of what he created.

It's a three year trial that we were talking about last time. Three years of fame, three years off, three fame, three years off.

That's it. And so I think like this whole idea like go viral on TikTok, But what people aren't really aware of is that, like you need to post viral strategy, like what are we going viral for people to look at the song and never stream it. There are tons of songs that I hear on TikTok that I will never stream. Why because the user path is confusing. I don't know what to do.

Once I hear a thing, I like, I'm not getting off the app.

Yeah, Anyway, that was a Rant, that was two that was two podcasts Rants and Randy Banshee. I just think that all of these things like are so contrived in a way that is making the general public too aware that it's all fake. Like, leave some mystery so we can just enjoy the music.

It's like seeing the sausage factory. Yeah, I don't want to know what's inside.

No more.

This is flex and frooms on Cada.

Listen to this. Australia's most popular girl's name has changed for the first time in seven years. Don't they also say your hair texture changes every seven years.

Or all your cells are in new Yes? Can you guess what the new most popular girl's name is?

So I knew the most popular before was Charlotte? Yes, for some reason, I think it could be Can I have three guesses?

Of course? Isabella?

No, but I can see that. Yeah, it's not Isabella. It's not Bella either.

What's the first letter?

I can't tell you?

Come on, what do you give me the first letter? Please? Because I know I'll get it if you give me the first letter.

Okay, it's I.

Oh right, you were closed. No, it's a girl's name? Is it Uni?

Sex?

Maybe anything would be uni sex. You want it to a gendered gender.

Less genderless okay, three two one. It's not Indigo.

How do you know? Because whose name is Indigo?

I know two indigoes, well know of not my people? Are we ready? Drummer ll please? Eiler is the new number one name, bumping longtime favorite Charlotte down to second place. Olivia, Amelia, and Ava are also in the top five. This is just classic girl names, it really is, but for a particular young person because I don't really know. I know you have an Olivia and your family Olivia, Amelia, and Ava. I don't think I know enough. But this is a

And to me, it's kind of like how certain words are certain colors, Like all of those names go together. Yes, the imagine a sister Lilac, Yeah, all Lemon, five sisters, all those names makes total sense.

Yeah yeah, same same lineage for boys, can I guess sure? I know in the top ten would be like Teddy, No, but that's my nephew's name, or it's Theo Theodore, but Theo, which.

I want it so badly.

Okay, it's not Cooper. Where are you getting Cooper from Jacob. No, I'm so surprised you'd say Cooper. That's like in an Australian accent as well. There's one that's so obvious, and I'm like, if you don't know one.

You are one John Jack Jack in any room Q hugo. Oh that's a good one.

But no, I'm sure I read a little Vice article that said, like, in any group of seven, the it's gonna be at least one Jack or something. If you don't know one, you dated one, or you are one. For boys, Oliver is still in the top spot, remaining the firm favorite for the ninth year. Other popular names include Noah, Jack and Henry. However, William has been bumped down to sith after sitting at number two for a number of two years.

William has I got to do with the royal family.

I'm not really across the monarchy, but I'm sure there's something there isn't that that's fun?

Do you know another Lilian? I don't know. I don't think I know a double l. Lillian as a very rogue name.

And your brother's name is Rodney, Rodney and Maxwell, Yeah, what's going on? Fantastic name. They're great names, but I'm not seeing them all together. Yeah, no synergy, No, they make sense together.

Rodney, liar and colonial, which is like it's a bit of that.

They won't get into it. Your loose cinder. What is that? I'm has it not taken off?

It's giving grandma, Yeah, it's it's it's aged, but so is Lilian. Lilian's a six year old woman with a pomeranium, you know, and Bengals.

We often joke about this off air.

Our next iteration of radio show is when we're going to replace Jonesy and Amanda and Lacinda.

It's perfect. The brand never has to stop anyway.

I love that. I just want to know more things about names. I wish that we had more of, like the origin stories about names. Like let's say I googled, like what does Lilian mean? I need a real story, not like it's Latin' so lily flower or ring.

This is Flex and Froomes.

Something that Flex talks about at length is moral dilemmas and like interpersonal relationships. I'm just here to really tell incriminating stories about my life because I don't really critically think it's for balance. Yeah, we all have our strengths well, today I'm coming to the table trying to level up and bring some moral thoughts and some lessons. That's really hard, and this one is that see I've written it down, so this is going to be a bit proscriptive because I'm not used to doing it.

Okay, I'm happy to close my eyes and listen.

Okay, So I've been keeping up with the Johnny Depp first Amber Heard debarcle.

We're not going to get into it today. It's a it's a core case. It's not really entertained debarkle. Some call it a circus, which I'm going to stop you right there.

And I'm interested in the discussion around it because obviously you would have seen people like going die hard for Johnny Depp, people doing a lot of hate about Amber. And in my research I found out that what people do in these situations is create bots that disseminate fake information. So, for example, eleven percent of the awful kind of like social media chatter around Amber heard is from bots.

Yeah, so you'll create and it's kind of like an allegedly who would create these bots.

Allegedly far right in cell reddit types. I understand they're creating.

These pots and of course, we live online, so we often see things play out in the court of social media, and I find that a really interesting place to be, especially in circles that we find ourselves in. I think we are in like relatively progressive circles, and I've definitely seen it go both ways. I've seen very progressive people do savage takedowns, which I think when you first start seeing it, it's quite entertaining. It's giving you shodden freud

I like that.

I know it's giving you.

So the study suggests that moral outrage is used to justify networked harassment on social media. In morally motivated networked harassment, a member of a social network or online community accuses a target a violating their network's norms. The way to explain that is you've got a community flex Mummy's community, and you mobilize them to hate on frooms. Yes, because Froomes has said eat my pooh, and you're like, that is absolutely outrageous.

That's here pretty princesses would never say that, yeaol, audience comes against me.

The bit I love most is the morally motivated thing, right when people frame these takedowns as you know, I'm upholding moral values. But in upholding this morality, you're doing very immoral things.

Network members send harassing messages to the target, reinforcing their adherence to the norm and signaling network membership. So in doing that, they're making their sense of belonging even stronger, making ties with the other members, and making sure that they're never going to be on the outer. It's like classic social study type of things. And basically now the platforms nor legal regulations protect against this form of harassment. And yes, so it's just going to continue kind of happening.

I guess we don't. I think the most important thing here is that everybody arms themselves with the gusto and the confidence and the vocabulary to defend themselves. So if you find yourself on the attack, you can justify why it is or is not appropriate. Like, for example, I used to say I could never be canceled because one thing about me. If you're going to heut me, I've added myself.

Do you know what I mean?

Like, I don't go on the internet and pretend I'm moral. I say I'm capitalism handmaiden. I say that I'm here for my own self gain. So when I behave in that way, you can't be surprised. I already set it up for you. I think in terms of morally motivated harassment, the best way to manage that is to recognize that not everybody's in a position to hold you accountable, and not everybody is holding you accountable for your best interest. Some people just want an opportunity to exercise power.

Very hard to decipher between the two.

When you're under attack.

It is true, and I think you know when you are quote unquote under attack. I think that phrasing frames a victim and an oppressor really quickly, And sometimes being under attack is just being called in, being reminded of appropriate behavior, being reminded of social norms, Like it's not

Very very interesting.

You've been listening to The Flex and Rooms catch Up podcasts For more, Tune Indicata on DAB or check it out right here on iHeartRadio.