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Jennifer Bishop

Prof. Scott

ENC3416-202305

21 July 2023

Internet Commentary

Podcasts come in a wide variety of genres, internet commentary being a very specific

subgenre. Commentary is the act of viewing a situation, creating an opinion of it, and distributing

that opinion. It is similar to essays in that an opinion is being discussed, but commentary is not

necessarily arguing for something; it is more of reacting to a situation. Internet commentary is

the subgenre of commentary where the hosts comment on the trends and scandals of the internet.

Internet commentary videos are everywhere on youtube. An excellent example is when

Dramageddon happened on youtube in 2021 every commentary, and even some non-commentary

channels, YouTuber posted their take on the situation. However, internet commentary podcasts

come with their own style and trials that video formats do not have.

The intended audience of internet commentary podcasts is often Millennials and

Zoomers, as they are the ones most often involved with the topics and are interested in the drama

or trends going around on the internet. That target audience is perfect as the highest population

of podcast listeners are ages 18-29 (Shearer). In fact, in a study conducted by the Pew Research

Center, 67% of adults under 30 have listened to a podcast this year, and almost half listen to a

podcast at least three times a week. Generation Z and the youngest Millennials are not the only

ones listening to podcasts. The older millennials also listen to podcasts regularly, with 45%

listening to one at least three times a week (Shearer). There could not be better news for an

internet commentary podcast, as it’s much easier to reach a target audience if that target audience
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is already interacting with the medium. However, podcasts have some challenges when

discussing the internet and its bizarre trends.

A large portion of the internet is visual content. This visual content can often be hard to

describe in the traditional audio-only setting of podcasts. Popular podcasts of this genre, such as

Sad Boyz, There Are No Girls on the Internet, and Darknet Diaries, adapt to this problem

differently. Each one adapts in ways best fitting their style. With Sad Boyz they have a two-

pronged approach to bridge the audio-visual gap. Their first approach is that they have video

versions of the podcast with the visuals edited in. The second is that one of the hosts, Jordan, will

say, “For the audio listeners,” and then describe what he is looking at in detail. The video

approach is perfect for their brand and the podcast’s personality. Both hosts are YouTubers, so

having a video version of their podcast just makes sense. The podcast’s personality and style are

a parasocial hangout of friends, to the point where fans often who watch the video will count the

number of times Jordan “sits bisexually.” The tone of the entire podcast is informal and friendly.

The main center of the podcast is talking about their lives and judging the internet. Their latest

episodes have been on fake podcasts on TikTok. This is where TikTokers will post a video

looking like they are on a podcast, such as having a microphone in front of them and looking like

they are talking to someone. However, the podcast does not exist; most of the time, there isn’t

even another person they are talking to. The way the Sad Boyz explore these is by going and

showing each other the videos so they can react and comment on both the implication of fake

podcasts and the harmful messages these videos are often promoting. During the editing phase of

production, they add in the videos they were discussing so listeners can watch them as well. For

listeners who are only listening during the recording of the podcast, as soon as a video has been

shown, Jordan will come in and describe it usually in a factual way before adding the comedic
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descriptions he wants to use. This is exemplified in their episode “Hustle Influencers are

Cringe.” They watch a video about this guy explaining how he has twenty-one days in his week.

For this clip, Jordan barely explains the visuals as he is just too overwhelmed with the insanity

that came out of the man’s mouth (Johnson 46:36). All he can explain is how the man is sitting

and how stone-cold sober he looks as the man explains how he “manipulates time to have more

days.” Their friendly demeanor and their inclusion of explaining inside references create a

parasocial experience, like the listener is a part of the conversation. This is heightened by the fact

that the hosts, Jordan and Jarvis, are long-time friends, and they’ll even explain their personal

stories of each other to the listener. It is very relaxed, and as they comment on trends, it feels like

a conversation with friends, especially as they crack jokes. The friendly atmosphere and their

connection with each other and their guests are the large appeals of the podcast, and their

inclusivity for both audio and visual listeners fits their style.

There Are No Girls on the Internet, on the other hand, is not nearly as comical in its

presentation and with such its representation of visuals is also different. There Are No Girls is

hosted by Bridget Todd. She begins the podcast episode “What is a journalism? TikTok and the

future of news (w/ Vitus Spehar of Under the Desk News!)” with the story of how her family

growing up all read the newspaper, including her, but that people do not get their news from

physical newspapers anymore. As Bridget introduces her guest, she describes the visuals of how

Spehar does her news TikToks, “V actually gets down, under her desk to tell their 3 million

followers on TikTok what they need to know” (Todd 3:14). While the idea of a newscaster

giving the news from under a desk seems very comical, Todd’s description of it isn’t. She just

states that Vitus gets under her desk to record her news videos. This factual and uncomedic way

of describing the visuals of the show matches the tone of the show. There are No Girls’ About
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page proclaims, “Marginalized voices have always been at the forefront of the internet, yet our

stories often go overlooked. Bridget Todd chronicles our experiences online, and the ways

marginalized voices have shaped the internet from the beginning.” The podcast’s tone is very

political, which isn’t a bad thing. It just gives these internet happenings a serious tone and treats

them seriously. In the episode mentioned earlier, the women talk about people getting their news

from TikTok and how sometimes the most popular ‘news’ TikToks are not credible; they are just

sensational. They talk about both the good and bad aspects of the news being on TikTok. It is

serious and insightful on topics that are a part of internet culture but aren’t necessarily the most

serious of topics. While There Are No Girls touches on internet culture topics, Darknet Diaries

discusses the worst things to happen on the internet: crime.

Darknet Diaries talks about where the internet meets true crime, the dark web. This

podcast is where internet commentary meets true crime. Seeing as this podcast’s focus is one of

the most serious in nature, it will come as a surprise that the podcast starts with a little story. An

anecdote that is portrayed almost as if it is a scene in an audiobook and seems completely

irrelevant to the episode's topic. The episode, “133. I’m the Real Connor,” an episode about

identity theft, begins with a first-person perspective of a story of someone failing an interview at

a casino (Rhysider 1:40). Then the rest of the episode is just Connor’s story about identity theft

as told by him with host, Jack Rhysider, popping in with extra exposition such as Connor’s

programming background. The majority of the podcast, though, is Connor telling his story. The

story at the beginning begins to make sense when it is revealed that the person who stole his

identity was using it to get well-paying remote jobs, pay someone half as much to perform the

job tasks, and rake in the extra money. All of this was on Connor’s social security number, so

Connor would have had to pay the taxes on that earned income. So learning that the thief was
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using Connor’s identity to get jobs, the personal story where the host failed his interview makes

more sense. However, the telling of the story felt like an audiobook production and really created

this sensational undertone in the episode. For visuals, like many other true crime podcasts, Jack

has the source references listed in the show notes. The fusion of internet commentary and true

crime show creates a sensational feel while having the survivor of the crime keep it in reality.

Commentary podcasts are a very broad genre in both topics and presentations. The

subgenre of Internet commentary is less broad, but the presentations are just as diverse. Some

commentary podcasts use deep research and examples to enlighten viewers on a situation, others

use personality and reasoning to show their personal opinions on a situation. Sad Boyz makes the

listener their friend as they record their commentary with jokes and stories about their lives.

Bridget Todd of There Are No Girls on the Internet promotes being politically active as she and

the occasional guest discuss internet culture and how it's influencing the offline world. Darknet

Diaries wants to tell the stories of when the internet was not just sunshine and rainbows but

facilitated crime. All three have a common topic of the internet’s trends and scandals, but their

implementation of style and production creates different reactions to the commentary itself.
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Works Cited

Johnson, Jarvis, and Adika, Jordan, hosts. “Hustle Influencers are Cringe.” Sad Boyz, 9 June

2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6vGfKU6d-e

Rhysider, Jack, host. “133. I’m the Real Connor.” Darknet Diaries, 2 May 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4SnFB69cP66SXusKN8zt9O?si=b988d56502a44ec6

Shearer, Elisa, et al. “4. Podcast Use among Different Age Groups.” Pew Research Center’s

Journalism Project, 18 Apr. 2023,

www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2023/04/18/podcast-use-among-different-age-groups/.

Todd, Bridget, host. “What is a journalism? TikTok and the future of news (w/ Vitus Spehar of

Under the Desk News!).” There Are No Girls on the Internet, 12 July 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1cptUH8iihltUhiRvDgrX1?si=6dd276ce1fd44159