The Best One Yet - 😎 “SPF Miami Vice” — Vacation’s viral sunscreen. DORK meme stocks. South Park’s $1.5B deal. Sydney Sweeney’s Stock Surge.

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

What do Krispy Kreme, Kohl’s, OpenDoor, & Rocket have in common?... 2025’s meme stocks.Vacation put sunscreen into a ‘80s whipped cream bottle & sales doubled… It’s Plot Twist Packaging.South Park snagged a $1.5B deal with Paramount, which just sold for $8B… things got awkward.Sydney Sweeney is causing an economic boom… whatever she touches, the stock pops.$DNUT $OPEN $RKT $KSS $PARAWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.TBOY Live Show Tickets to Chicago on sale NOW: https://www.axs.com/events/949346/the-best-one-yet-podcast-ticketsAbout Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today’s top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, TBOY Lite is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Our 2nd show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, July 28th. And today's part is the best one yet. This is a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Oh, all I got to say, Jack, what a show in Chicago.

Wow. Nick, we had Yeties flying in from San Diego, San Francisco, Virginia, North Carolina, Boston, Denver, Dallas. We got Yetie groupies. We got Yeti groupies. Oh, and then what about the local besties in Chicago? We got to meet everyone. One of our listeners gifted me this football jersey because they know I love football.

I guess I'm a Patrick Mahomes fan now. It was so loud. Our voices still haven't fully recovered yet. It was an emotional, wonderfully satisfying experience for Nick and me, and we hope it was for you all, too. It was a life moment. We were born to do this, Jack. Yetis, thank you so much for coming out, for sharing your stories with us and hanging out past midnight after the show. Nick, what's the takeaway of our Chicago show?

Talk to me. Let's do some more live shows. Yeah, drop a comment about what city you think we should hit next. But in the meantime, Jack and I spent the weekend recovering and preparing three fantastic stories. Jack, what's on today's tea boy? For our first story, we need to talk about the dork stocks. Dorks. Open door, crispy cream, rocket, and coals.

The dorks are 2025s and meme stocks. They're surgeon, but Jack and I know exactly what they'll do next. For our second story, South Park just naggedy five times. year one and a half billion dollar deal from Paramount. But that same day, South Park eviscerated Paramount. And the next day, Paramount got sold. It's the strangest media moment of the year. And Nick and I are jumping in, T-boy style. It's too weird. And our third and final story is Vacation. The most viral sunscreen brand in America with sales doubling every year. Because vacation puts sunscreen into a whipped cream bottle full of Baywatch. But yet is before we hit

that wonderful mix of stories. A mix of stories. Great to be back with you, Jack. This next bit is definitely not financial advice. But if you do see Sidney Sweeney today, then that's a buy signal. Because Sidney Sweeney, the 27-year-old It Girl actress, has been messing with the stock market. Yeah, Sidney Sweeney has become an economic stimulus package. Because get this, last week, American Eagle announced a new denim deal with Sydney. Sydney Sweeney's signature American Eagle jeans, classic. The result, American Eagle stock, jumped 15%. That's an announcement that created 300 million bucks in market value. That's more than any of Sydney's movies.

And it reminds us of last year. When Sydney did a deal with Hey Dude, which is owned by Crocs, and Crocs stock popped 5%. Oh, not convinced yet? We have way more evidence proving the Sydney-Sweeney stock surge. Earlier this year, she did a collab with Dr. Squatch, and one month later? It was sold to Unilever for $1.5 billion. What about White Lotus season one, Jack? it made it HBO's biggest hit franchise. And now American Eagle stock is surgent. Sidney is becoming a bullish buy signal. If Sydney signs up, investors get euphoria. Peloton could probably rescue its stock

by just giving Sydney a spin class to lead. Jack, maybe Jamie Diamond should name Sidney his successor, J.P. Morgan. Jamie! Jack, I kind of feel like Fed Chair Sidney Sweeney has a nice ring to it. Yeah, it is. We don't need less interest rates. Apparently, we just need more Sydney screening.

Jack, let's in our three stories. 15 years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice. 50% that's a fat tip.

Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. First, a quick word from our sponsor. Our first story. Meme stocks are officially back. But now they're called dorks.

The dork stocks surged last week as they got hyped by retail investors on Reddit. But Nick and I ran the numbers, and we can tell you how this is going to end. Yeties, let's start this story with a joke. A donut, a mortgage, a department store, and a home buyer walk into a bar. What do they have in common, Jack? I don't know, man. Is it that they're the top performing stocks last week? Those four things you said.

It's actually not a joke. It's what just happened on Wall Street. Because Krispy Cream, Open Door, Rocket Mortgages, and Coles were the top performing stocks of last week. And their ticker symbols spell out the word dork. D-O-R-K. They're all dorks. But let's just focus on the D part. Donuts.

Specifically, Krispy Kreme. Yeah, yeah, because donuts are delicious. Let's focus it because of that. And because I happen to own Krispy Kroof stock there. Although I should point out. this is an accidental meme stock that I own. Jack bought a meme stock like two years ago. He didn't know he was going to become a meme stock.

I guess you're going to get a long-term capital gain on that, Jack. Let's just say I feel like I have extra frosting on me right now. Because even though Jack bought the Krispy Kreme stock years ago, in the last week, it's up 30%. And in the last month, it's up 60%. It's not just the price of Krispy Kreme stockhead's soaring. It's the volume two, which is the measure of the number of shares traded on the markets.

Krispy Cream option contracts typically trade about 3,000 of them per day. But last week, 100,000 of them were traded. That is 33 times more trading than typically happens with Krispy Cream. Why is a donut chain the most active stock on Wall Street right now, Nick? Is there something in the glaze? Pardon me? Thinks it could be the glazed, Jack. The real answer, it's a meme stock. That's right.

We saw this phenomenon in 2021. This is a textbook meme stock moment. And the way Jack and I see it, there are four. ingredients that distinguish a meme stock rally from a regular stock rally. First, with all meme stocks, they start cheap. Cheap. Most shares of a meme stock begin under $10. Krispy cream, for example, it was a $3 stock earlier this month. Number two, meme stocks are underdogs. That's right. You buy them to fight financial firms that have shorted the stocks, thinking that the price would go down, but you think they would go up. Third, meme stocks tend to have a nostalgia element. Ah, that's right. They smell like nostalgia, Jack.

Many of the stocks that end up meming are childhood brands that you remember, and they also tend to have simple business models that everyone can understand. Who hasn't had a weekend Coles run with their mom followed up with a sweet treat at Krispy Cream because you were well-behaved? And number four, this is the kicker. The three conditions above result in them being discussed on Wall Street Betts. Wall Street Betts, the Reddit Forum where retail traders chat, chat, chat, chat, chat. This current bout of meme stocking with the dorks started with one Redditor presenting a bullcase for open. Open Door Stock on Reddit. Just like in 2021, when one Redditor presented a bullcase for GameStop stock.

And meme stocking only works with a team mentality. We're all in this together. Everyone's got to buy or the stock stops popping. Yola, FOMO, Hodel, do not sell. Everybody, hold the line. Crispy Cream Sprinkles to the moon. And the result of those four key meme stock ingredients, we're having a meme stock moment 2.0 right now.

And it's never been dorkier. But Nick and I, spoiler, we're going to tell you how it all ends. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who are everyone watching the dork stocks? We can't know the future, but we can study history. Yeties, when GameStop, AMC theaters, and Blackberry became the first meme stocks back in 2021, it was unprecedented. Never before had a bunch of tiny, Every-every-man retail investors use the internet to create one massive united buying force against Wall Street. In fact, during peak meme stock mania, GameStop stock surged 135% in a single day.

We had no idea how it would end. But four years later, we can tell you how meme stock 1.0 ended. It didn't end well. Here are the numbers. Blackberry jumped 200%, but has since erased all of its meme stock gains. AMC theaters surged 2,000. in early 2021, but has fallen 99% since. GameStop also rose 2,000% but has now dropped 70% from its all-time high. It shouldn't be a shocker that meme stocks eventually fall. After all, they're up on hype, not substance.

But with people still plowing in money, hoping to make a quick buck, it's always a good reminder. We can't predict what will happen with the dorks, but we can study history. Like a dork. For our second story, South Park, one of the most culturally relevant shows of our generation, just diss the president and its parent company and got its biggest deal ever. This South Park Paramount Drama is now the biggest media story of the year. So, Yeties, Jack and I love studying the storytelling craft, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone is South Park, they're the best at it. And their show South Park has no bound to.

when it comes to satire. That's why they're so good at storytelling. Take us down memory lane, Jack. In 2006, they ridiculed Al Gore, implying that climate change, his most passionate issue, was complete fiction. In 2009, they highlighted Kanye West's narcissism before anyone else did.

Jesus Christ and Satan have both made regular appearances in South Park in ways that your pastor would not approve. And South Park did an entire movie, mocking Canadians. Including a theatrical number called Blame. Canada. Jack, I haven't told you this, but even though we were in the middle of New York City,

our elementary school growing up banned South Park T-shirts. You weren't allowed to wear them in class. What? It's not very progressive of your school. I was in second grade, so I didn't even understand, but still, it was the thing. I mean, they kind of pioneered potty language on television, so I kind of understand when it comes to elementary school. But Yeties, what South Park did last week in its season premiere was boundary-breaking even for them. Because South Park roasted Paramount for its deal with Donald Trump, and then it flame broiled Donald Trump for his connections to Jeffrey Epstein. But here's the most vicious part. Just 12 hours earlier, Trey and Matt shook hands with Paramount in a one and a half billion dollar South Park deal. It's true. At 10 a.m.

on a Wednesday morning of last week, while we were prepping for our live show, Paramount issued this press release. A five-year deal that paid South Park and its creators one and a half billion, for the exclusive rights to stream Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and Stan on Paramount Plus. But then at 10 p.m., that same day, South Park eviscerated Paramount on their very own network. They ripped Paramount for canceling the Colbert Report and doing that deal with Donald Trump. And get this, that first episode of the new South Park season includes an AI deep fake of fully naked Donald Trump. Also in that first episode, Trump was romantically involved with Satan. under the sheets with him. It was a ruthless roast of the president. But then something even more

unexpected happened. Right after President Trump got roasted in the South Park season premiere, he ordered his FCC to finally approve Paramount's merger, the one that Paramount desperately wanted the president to approve. Besties, this is big because it appeared President Trump had not approved that deal as leverage because he's in a lawsuit against Paramount's 60 Minutes news show. Now, for a president who punishes those who say bad things about him, it was a surprise that he rewarded Paramount right after this South Park episode that destroyed him. I think what you're saying, Jack, is simply put, after Paramount South Park showed a naked Donald Trump sleeping with the devil, you wouldn't think he would have proved the deal Paramount wants.

You think he would have blocked the deal as punishment? Or killed Kenny. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at South Park? To quote the Who, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Yeties, for Paramount, this is the opposite of a fairy tale ending for one of Hollywood's most renowned TV and movie studios. Now that the merger is approved, Paramount is now part of privately owned Skydance, which means Paramount has a new boss. And Jack, who is Paramount's new boss? David Ellison, aka the son of Oracle's founder, Larry Ellison.

A.k.a. The Ultimate Nepo Baby. He's buying a Hollywood. studio and a media company basically with his dad's credit card. But Nick, guess who that ultimate Nepo baby is buying Paramount from? And who would that be, Jack? Sherry Redstone, herself a Nepo baby. This is insane. It's a neppy baby paloosa. Sherry Redstone inherited Paramount's largest ownership stake from her father, Sumner Redstone. So besties, the way we see it, it's telling that the only one interested in buying this legacy media company is also a Napo baby. Because streaming, YouTube, and podcasts have crushed the business model of TV. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, Vacation, the 1980s-inspired sunscreen brand is double in revenue to 80 million bucks this year. Vacation's whipped cream sunscreen can is a case study in plot twist packaging. Now, Yeties, as you know, Jack has his 42-step skin care. routine and a funny thing he shared with me the other day, it's never been a hotter market for sunscreen. I wear SPF pretty much every day. Because sunscreen is no longer a seasonal product just for your summer beach days. Consumers now wear SPF year around. The result, sunscreen is the top performing

sector of skin care. It's actually up in the last year. And we're talking about a brand called Vacation, which launched just four years ago, but did $40 million of revenue last year and is on pace to double to 80 million this year. And unlike Neutrigina and Copper Tone, Vacation has venture capital and Hollywood invested. Emma Stone is in on vacation. But here's the interesting context we noticed. Vacation is actually still small. They're the number 13 sunscreen brand out there. They only have 1.1% market share of all of American sunscreen. But here's what's wild. At Target, Costco, and Bloomingdale's where vacation competes with other sunscreens on the shelf, they're one of the top sellers.

Because vacation is the only sunscreen you will find that is served in a whipped cream can that looks like it's straight out of 1984. We will explain. Yeties, this is what we found fascinating about this story. The founders of Vacation sunscreen, they only worked in advertising. They have zero beauty or sunscreen experience. So they leaned into their strength. They built a brand before they even had a product to sell under that brand. We repeat, these three friends,

literally came up with imagery, fonts, vibes, before even knowing what they would put them on. They thought that the 1980s aesthetic was underappreciated. Are you talking like Richard Geer, Julia Roberts, pretty woman kind of thing, Jack? Exactly. So they moved to Mexico and realized they could stick that 1980s brand aesthetic onto sunscreen.

Here's how they whiteboarded this. What sunscreen would Gordon Gecko bring to the Hamptons? What sunblock would Jane Fonda bring on her carry-on to Key West? Jack, what lotion would they lather on for Miami Vice? You know what I mean? But then here's the kicker. Based on that branding, they redesigned the packaging to look like another popular 1980s product.

Whipped cream. That's right. They created the first canned aerosol sunscreen that looks and feels basically like 1980s insta whip. It looks so much like whipped cream. I'm surprised their lawyers let it happen. You know somebody's going to grab it and put it up to their mouth and start pounding that thing.

Someone's going to lick it. Now, here's the insight, actually. You see, the sunscreen industry, it competes on boring health issues, a race to the bottom, basically. Yeah, this one's paraben-free. That one's high SPF. This one's coral reef safe. And of course, they're all number one recommended by dermatologists. That's an expensive competition.

But Vacations differentiator is just taking itself less seriously. They think the entertainment sells. So it's kind of like the brands we told you about, Liquid Death or Dr. Squatch. They're not trying to be the best. They're just trying to be your buddy. your buddy, who will always put sunblock on your back if you ask them to. Because if you put vacation up to your ear, you can hear David Hasselhoff sweating.

So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at vacation sunscreen? We don't call this chaos packaging. We call this plot twist packaging. Yeties, the key to plot twist packaging is an ironic twist, creating attention. Something that makes you pause, that's the appeal. Graza put olive oil in a squeezable plastic shampoo bottle. Liquid death put water in a tall boy beer can. Glossier was the OG.

They put makeup in bubble wrap like it was fine art. And now vacation has put sunscreen in a whipped cream can. And their latest idea, it's a jug of sunscreen that you wear as a bracelet. These products disrupt your expectations. They cause you to pause and you become interested. And that makes the mundane rebellious. And in this economy, there is appeal to rebellious. Don't call it chaos packaging.

This is way more thoughtful. It's plot twist packaging. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week? The latest crop of mean stocks is known as the dorks. The dorks. We can't predict the future, but history says these dorks will eventually go down. For our second story, last week, South Park ruthlessly roasted both Paramount and President Trump. And then President Trump approved Paramount's merger.

But for Paramount, here's the situation. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. And our third and final story. Vacation sunscreen is the hottest SPF in the aisle, doubling sales this year to $80 million. Vacations innovation? The plot twist packaging. Sunscreen in a whipped can. But Yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, Uber and Lyft, both announced updates to give riders more choice for their drivers. Uber will let women book rides with only women drivers if that's what they prefer.

And Lyft will now that riders mark their drivers as favor. or block drivers they've had who were bad, which my mom is definitely going to use this because she, like, remembers everyone's name. Nice. Speaking of rides, Tesla just launched Robotaxi in San Francisco this weekend. I know. I'm just trying to jump in T-boy style. First city they've expanded to since Austin.

And second, Starbucks has a new strategy to woo you to its stores. Free study rooms. Get this. In China, to attract student coffee drinkers, Starbucks is creating library-like rooms. Come on in. bring your textbooks, you don't even need to buy a single cup of coffee. It's the opposite strategy you see in the U.S. where some coffee shops forbid you from opening up a laptop. We are bullish on the Starbucks library, by the way. And finally, Washington, D.C. has now officially beaten Los Angeles

for worse traffic in the United States. Yeah, the new administration's return to office mandates have added to gridlock in D.C. Which is not good news for people in Los Angeles. In fact, it's arguably bad because the traffic is still the same in Los Angeles, but you can't brag that your number one of traffic anymore. That was the only consolation to L.A.'s bad traffic is the superlative, worst in the country. Every time we go to L.A. Jack, someone's like, I was in Santa Monica and the 405 was backed up to New Beach, Venice. Now L.A. just gets second worst traffic, the silver metal. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one, because it's Monday, means T-boy trivia. Jack, what do we got today? Trivia. What? What?

kids' product has been banned and then unband more than any other product. To sprinkle on more context, it was banned in San Francisco and then banned in Philadelphia. And then banned in Norway for 11 years. For years, parents, schools, and governments did not allow it. This product was banned. And the HOA's? Oh, they hated this thing. Jack, what do we say you give a hint as well? It's no longer banned, pretty much anywhere. In fact, it's an Olympic sport now. Let us know what you think it is in the comments, and Jack and I will reveal the answer on tomorrow's pod. Yeties, you look fantastic to start the week.

Jack, you are glowing over there. What a time in Chicago, man. Highlight of the summer, I can't wait to do another live show. We can't wait to do another. Thank you to everyone in Chicago for coming out and for just giving everything to that show. It was so loud, it was so cool, and we were so appreciative to be with you.

As always, Nick and I'll be back with you tomorrow. H-Y-H-T-B-O-Y. If you know, you know, see you there. And before we go, a happy, birthday to Yeti Christina Marin Casanova's, aka CMC, over in London celebrating a birthday. Happy birthday to Lillian Yang in Los Angeles. And to Mary Walsh, the legendary Panther of New Jersey, living in Greenwich, happy birthday. Happy birthday to Elchin Agabayov in Fairfax, Virginia. And Evan Cordova from Salt Lake City just finished their first Iron Man, the 70.3 finish.

Fantastic. And a big shout out to Eric for giving me this epic jersey, number 15. it was my number in college. How did he know that? The Nick's jersey he gave me? Eric, thank you so much. And a big shout out to Jack Williams from Joplin, Missouri, just came out as trans and chose the name Jack.

Great name, congrats Jack. And Moncie and her whole Bachelorette buddy crew on the trip to Napa met you on the airplane. You guys had a blast, I'm sure. Congratulations. And finally, big shout out to Dan and Trish, Boulder's finest for coming in clutch with a Sharpie. Nick and I did a ballast.

bunch of autographs. It was amazing. Couldn't have done it without your shark. We love seeing you, Dan and Trish, and we can't wait to see it the next one. Thank you for being our number one gleeves. This is Jack. I own stock of Reddit, Krispy Cream, and Lyft, and Nick and I both on stock of Peloton.