The Daily Zeitgeist - Fat Trendsday 2/13: KFC, Taco Bell, Golden Bachelorette, Lloyd Austin, February Box Office

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

In this edition of Fat Trendsday, Jack and Bryan The Editor discuss KFC turning chicken into jewelery, Taco Bell's E3-style keynote, the new 'Golden Bachelorette' series, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin being back in the hospital, a "F*ck You, It's February" box office update, and much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me for I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me for I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti and I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career.

That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of Fat Trends Day. I guess that makes it sound like it's Fat Wednesday, but it's Fat Tuesday. It's a play on Fat Tuesday, people. Happy Fat Tuesday to you. Yeah, you and your imagination. My name is Jack O'Brien. That is Brian the editor. That's me. Your vocals sound nice.

Your mic sounds nice. Yes. Yes, and your mic unto you as well sounds nice. Oh my god. That's my vocal warm-up for the week because I didn't feel like I got to hear enough of it during the Super Bowl. I wish he had gone bigger with once was not enough once. Not enough.

Um, all right. Should we tell the people what is trending? Let's do it. Uh, KFC is transmogrifying chicken into jewelry for Valentine's day. It is Valentine's day tomorrow. So fast food companies understand one thing and that is the

search for content brian what were we doing right before we hit record we were googling valentine's day we're like oh yes we need valentine's day content give me valentine's day um and finding not much. There's not a lot of Valentine's Day content. KFC knows that shit. They're smart. They step into that void. KFC Thailand. KFC Thailand, yes, of course.

KFC is a holiday treat for Christmas, I think, in some country. I think, in some country. I think in Japan, maybe. I think Miles told us that at one point. But they're trying to get in

on some other holidays because they have created one of the weirder Valentine's Day promotions. Pizza Hut, of course, as we talked about recently, created the breakup pie which is where you can order someone else a pizza that tells them that you're breaking up

with them what and it's spelled out in pepperoni um what it's not your name goes on the box and it's and then it like leaves a mean like a not a, like a silly message. Like, I've chosen to go explore the forests or something like that. Okay. All right. And Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC, I guess they're not called Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore. They believe in love. They're not this cynical Pizza Hut company. Oh, wait, they're owned by the same company.

Never mind. wait they're owned by the same company never mind but they are the yum brands imprint with whom hope springs eternal and love springs eternal they're giving away fried chicken rings in Thailand these are not unfortunately edible rings made of chicken

they actually have real gems because the fried chicken was transformed into a ring by a quote an organic matter conversion specialist all right um so it's like kind of like the fly but with chicken and jewelry uh yeah that's why and plus hey it'll be uh you know it'll be easy to get that ring on and off with your greasy chicken greasy fingasy fingies. Yeah. I mean,

one size fits all. Go together with, yeah. And then, yeah. Right, right off your finger. If you're not a fan of having a fried chicken diamond. So shout out to our Thailand listeners.

Go out, get your fried chicken diamond ring, or I think it's actually like part of a giveaway. So yeah, it's uh one of a 11 uh lucky fried chicken covered couples yeah that's hot just greasy fried chicken greasy uh bodies you know just coming together covered in gravy yeah oh man the bowl did you ever fuck with the KFC bowls? I did, actually. And I have to say, I was a fan. I was a fan of the bowls.

I always liked KFC. That was a period of my life, like when I was just, you know, in my early 20s. And I was really trying to stretch. Like, I was paying a lot of attention to the number of calories i could get per dollar and that was i think one of the best bangs for buck that i ever came across was the the bowl the density of the bowl was absolutely no joke you know fried chicken great gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, off the cob. You know? It was a blast. Anyways,

we're going to do it all. We're going to do the... We're hitting for the Yum Brands cycle on this episode. We talked about the Pizza Hut. We talked about the KFC. Well, guess what? Taco Bell is out here creating

a new type of content. is out here creating a new type of content, ushering in a new era wherein you don't have to be Apple to have a keynote where you reveal a new thing. You can be Taco Bell.

And so they debuted new menu items at a keynote that was seemingly designed it it was like if a apple keynote took place inside the world of a demolition man you know yeah where they won the franchise wars they won the franchise wars and defeated apple and this is like what we have the instead of the super bowl we just have the taco bell came out i'm like dude did they win oh yeah they won and we all won too um so the first half hour was like you know the the CEO of Taco Bell coming out being like, as this tweet says, Taco Bell is one of the last great melting pots

that transcends class in the United States. Somebody had tweeted as a joke and the CEO took it seriously. There were some guys playing acoustic guitar love songs to Taco Bell. Got off to a not promising start and then they started to reveal products and it went from underwhelming to

whelming. Like definitely some people were whelmed in the audience so Taco Bell wants to and plans on making its popular nacho fries permanent menu items. Woo!

But they're still trying to figure out how. It's hard. It's hard out here. It's just like, I don't know, man. Like, it's hard. We have to, like, worry about supply chain shit. As a massive fan of sloppy sloppy fries

of any kind uh this is this is music to my ears it's good news for sure like on the broad scope of history um humanity this is good news the fact that they haven't figured it out yet doesn't mean they're not going to figure it out yet, especially given that Taco Bell keynotes appear to be here to stay because this was a huge success. I feel like they're not going to go up there next year and be like, we almost got it this time, guys. So I feel like we're going to get these permanent fries, but maybe that's not the one I would have opened with because they're still trying to figure that one out. However, they announced a new cheesy chicken crispada? Crispanda.

I feel like the article does a typo in the article because I feel like it should be crispanada? Maybe? Crispanada. Yeah, that makes more sense. Because they described it as an empanada, so I'm like, maybe it's, I think that's just a typo in the article. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, people don't have, what do you think maybe it's I think that's just a typo in the article yeah yeah no people don't have what do you think they have time for

that money for a fucking it's genuinely hard to tell they might just be like we don't give a fuck how it's spelled Chris Ponda whatever yeah Chris Ponda over here um it's a shredded cheese filled chicken stuffed empanada yeah so it's gotta be Chris Ponda

it's gotta be right people were gas. It's got to be, right? People were gasping in the audience, which that just helps me know that I'm not alone out here. I'm pretty sure those are just farts. Just loose assholes. Yeah. A collection of the loosest assholes in America at Taco Bell. I mean, it would have to be. Yeah, you would think so.

They're also redesigning the sauce packets, which I personally am going to go out and grab all the existing packets because they are a piece of 90s design that I don't want to say goodbye to quite yet. Yeah, and I want to sell on eBay for an exorbitant price. Exactly. The new design is, you know, exactly what I would expect the design to look like. It looks like it was, it looks like an Instagram filter of some sort.

It's pretty clean. It's very readable. Yeah, for sure. Instantly recognizable. They're going to bring chicken nuggets to the menu. You know, they can't all be winners. I personally don't go to Taco Bell for this unless they're like, you know, you could throw these on your grilled stuffed burrito.

And then, you know, if there's like some pricing magic I could work out where if I do a grilled stuffed burrito without the chicken, but then I can stuff some chicken nuggies in the grilled stuffed burrito, and it actually comes out to cheaper than a grilled stuffed chicken burrito. Yeah, the menu hacks are going to be insane this year. Chicken nuggets seem specifically designed

for menu hacks. Yeah, TikTok is going to go nuts with the menu hacks, so I look forward to the reporting on that from Super Producer Becca and Miles. menu hacks. Yeah. TikTok is going to go nuts with the menu hacks. So I look forward to the reporting on that from a super producer, Becca and miles and people who keep track of that sort of thing. Uh, I am not,

I, I am a fan of Baja Blath. Uh, my heart does pump Baja Blath. Uh, that is the color of my blood. That is my blood type. They announced Baja Blast ice cream, not here for it. That is my blood type. They announced Baja Blast ice cream. Not here for it.

I don't. Wow. I don't give a shit. Yeah. I don't care. I don't, I don't want Baja. I don't take my Baja Blast with cream.

Unfortunately. Yeah. Super producer Victor said, why is it not sorbet? And that's what I would say. Exactly. I, I take my Baja Blast black, like my coffee, you know, like just give it to me straight up.

Don't give me, don't give me cream with my Baja blast. So the big one, the thing that like really captured all the headlines, all the attention, uh, was the crunch wrap where, uh, the guy, so the guy opens his life, looks like a regular crunch wrap, right? And there is your first clue that this guy is about to try and trick you. Someone says, hey, this just looks like a regular loaf of bread.

That shit's got a handgun inside it. But in this case, it has a giant Cheez-It inside. Brian, you've been Brian the Editor for a long time on this show. Yes, I have. We covered this shit, didn't we?

Like, years ago? I found a news release where they were test-kitchening this shit like a year and a half ago. I was like, why do I have a very specific sense memory of a giant cheese it because like a giant cheese it being revealed via x-ray it was a it was like a taco right it was like a taco shell that was cheese there's a tostada there's a tostada and then there was also this like specifically a giant cheese it inside a Crunchwrap Supreme. But I guess that had escaped people.

Like, I don't know what was wrong with America that they missed this, but they did. I feel like their food science might take a while. I feel like if you'll remember during the chicken sandwich wars, I can't remember which chain had some shortages, but they had to take a few months to nail down their foods yeah i think it was popeyes where you guys had some inside baseball or somebody somebody from zeitgang was like yo my dad's such and such and it's like they're refining and tweaking and doing all this stuff and making sure my dad is popeye but i think yeah like you know from idea to fruition might take a while to uh to get all this quite up to taco bell standards yeah so yeah maybe

they were just you know doing a little pilot pilot program of uh yeah of cheese it products and they finally found one they They finally found the consistency, the density. Um, I'm, I'm pretty excited about that one. I'm excited that it's going national in the spring. I'm excited about a lot of these.

I'm looking forward to trying them. I'll probably even try the Baja blast, uh, ice cream, but we'll see. Um, let's take a quick break to kind of wrap our minds around this. No.

This new future that we've entered into, the future of Taco Bell Keynotes. And we'll come back and we'll talk about other things. We'll be right back. Okay. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church.

And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and L.A.-based Shekinah Church, an alleged cult that has impacted members for over two decades. Jessica and I will delve into the hidden truths between high-control groups and interview dancers, church members, and others whose lives and careers have been impacted, just like mine. Through powerful, in-depth interviews with former members and new, chilling firsthand accounts, the series will illuminate untold and extremely necessary perspectives. Forgive Me For I Have Followed will be more than an exploration.

It's a vital revelation aimed at ensuring these types of abuses never happen again. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline,

a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions, like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered

work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it? Like you miss a hundred percent of the shots you never take. Yeah. Rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Carrie Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports, where we live at the intersection of sports and culture. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Every great player needs a foil.

I ain't really hear them. Why is that? Just come here and play basketball. I already handled that, and that's what I focus on. From college to the pros, Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Angel Reese is a joy to watch. She is unapologetically black. I love her.

What exactly ignited this fire? Why has it been so good for the game? And can the fanfare surrounding these two supernovas be sustained? This game is only going to get better because the talent is getting better. This new season will cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.

And we're back. We're back. The Golden Bachelorette. So the Golden Bachelor was not just a one-off experiment. It was very popular. It was very successful. People enjoyed it.

It was a reality show event that even caught my attention. They don't always do that. It taught the nation that fuckboys never grow up like Peter Pan. That's right. And now we're going to get to see a whole bunch of elderly fuckboys

because The Golden Bachelorette is coming fall of 2024. So I don't think they've announced who it is quite yet. But exciting news for fans of reality TV. I'm sure Miles will have more to say about this when he is back tomorrow. Let's see. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is back in the hospital. Because it's just so chill there. So this is, he's the person who didn't want to tell anyone he had to go to the hospital.

And people freaked out because they're like, you're Donald Rumsfeld from years past. You have an important job, you gotta tell us. And so he didn't disclose his previous hospital stay. It was actually related to a prostate cancer diagnosis. And now there's a real Streisand effect going on here where he didn't want to disclose his medical situation because he's such a private person. But now there's heightened attention to his hospital stays as a result of that controversy, which is a total bummer for him. Um, and for us, uh, I wish him the best with his, uh, you know, that, that disease is no joke. And finally, this is,

you know, we try and keep an eye on box office uh to see what people are watching uh we say you know the movies have a pretty important impact on how people view how people picture things that they haven't experienced for themselves this is going to be our first box office report where we're talking about what people aren't seeing uh because it was complete dismal weekend for movie theaters but was was it expected to be i mean what were they projecting because it is february it's february traditionally this is not like a huge month for movies is that correct uh no leading the witness but but you are correct, Your Honor. It was not expected to be big.

The other thing they're dealing with is the, like, people really spaced out their release schedule because of the strikes and, you know, production shutting down for a while last year. So nothing came out this weekend other than Lisa Frankenstein from Diablo Cody of Juno fame. That one made about three million. They were hoping that it would be like counter-programming to the Super Bowl and didn't quite work out that way. Lisa Franken Bowl. Lisa Franken Bowl. Yeah, it's not the puppy bowl. It's not the Bud Bowl. It's the Lisa Franken Bowll? Lisa Frankenbowl, yeah. It's not the puppy bowl. It's not the bud bowl.

It's the Lisa Frankenbowl. Get ready. The number one movie was Argyle. Despite the fact that nobody in the world seems to actually like Argyle. Or the Kingsman. Yeah. Spoiler alert.

People don't know. People like it on a plane. I feel like it's a great plane movie. While you're falling asleep in a hotel room or something. That being said, it was actually a good weekend for independent films. Several movies that are nominated for

Best International Feature at the Oscars. Got a lot of Bofo B.O. There were some arthouse movies. there's a new harmony corinne movie aggro drift uh with a one yeah that's interesting that drift's gonna have a one uh the aggro aggro and then drift with a one um because it the future. But it's a experimental action narrative shot in infrared that if you just like go look at a trailer, it's actually kind of cool looking. But that amassed forty six thousand three hundred dollars in five shows over four days.

Madam Web we'll talk about on tomorrow's episode. But Madam Web is coming out this weekend. That is like the thing that's coming through to hopefully save the box office. And the reviews are in. They're not great. We'll talk about it, but the reason Madam Web even exists is because Sony needs to keep their claim

to Spider-Man IP alive while making a movie that doesn't have Spider-Man in it. Yeah. The tone of everything around this film IP alive while making a movie that doesn't have Spider-Man in it. Yeah. It's the, the tone of everything around this film has been very strange. Dakota Johnson's press tour has been very strange. Like impressively. So I'm actually a huge fan now. This is just like a weird,

uh, um, like tax thing essentially, or something. That's the thing so like there's gonna be all this media that's like the movies are dying but like you know as jm pointed out like there was a good weekend for independent films obviously they're not making like trillions of dollars but they did pretty well i just feel like we can't be surprised when the studios and the big corporations who are in charge of making the big budget movies are treating them like fucking tax write-offs

and like deleting like they just announced that that wiley coyote versus acme movie is being shelved and deleted because like they didn't want to sell it for like 70 million dollars so it's just a tax write-off for david zaslav the whole so when big budget movies are made and released to like keep an ip alive and not because anyone thinks it's going to be good or entertaining or you know when interesting movies are deleted as a tax write-off, we're going to get shittier and shittier movies at that tier. And then, you know, it's going to be up to lower budget movies to be good, I guess. And I feel like we're going to see more people going to independent movies, hopefully, or

the whole thing's just going to die off. I don't like the narrative of like, man, movies are fucked, because it doesn't feel like that's true. I don't think it's the movie's fault. I think it's the corporations who use movies as a fucking tax shelter. I think that might be the issue. It's like traditionally,

this is less true probably in recent years, but it used to be that if you had a real fucking stinker that you were going to take an L on, you dump it in January and February as a matter of course. And that's when all the trash movies come out that no one wants to see. And yeah, I mean, they're definitely keeping with that tradition because there's a lot of Spider-Man love out there. Oh, yeah. That's very apparent. People fucking love Spider-Man.

And I'm really not seeing the excitement in those communities online. People are confused by this. Canonically, I mean, I think they understand business-wise what's going on here but canonically what the fuck is this is what i'm getting from people yeah when we got off done recording tomorrow's episode to producer justin was like you guys like don't really

understand marvel and i was like oh shit were we unfair to madam webb he was like no not at all madam webb is a fucking mess um so yeah i don't know i guess they can't all be winners maybe that should just be uh we'll give we'll give sony a pass on this one but um yeah we'll talk more about this on tomorrow's episode uh specifically madam web but go see an independent movie this weekend how about that if you're not gonna see madam web yeah harmony corinne is fucking weird check that out let us know yeah that shit looks interesting um all right well brian the editor thank you so much for uh joining us where can people find you follow you uh come surprise

you on your doorstep in person uh yeah uh you can find me on twitter b Brian, the editor. It's Brian with a Y. I'm at Jack underscore O'Brien. That is going to do it for this episode. We are back tomorrow with the whole last episode of the show. Until then, be kind to each other. Be kind to yourselves. Get the vaccine. Don't do nothing about white supremacy.

And we will talk to y'all tomorrow. Bye. Bye. Bye. I'm Jess Casavetto, executive producer of the hit Netflix documentary series, Dancing for the Devil, the 7M TikTok cult. And I'm Clea Gray, former member of 7M Films and Shekinah Church. And we're the host of the new podcast, Forgive Me For I Have Followed. Together, we'll be diving even deeper into the unbelievable stories behind 7M Films and Shekinah Church. Listen to Forgive Me For I Have Followed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports.

Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadson. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.