The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.13 MrBeast Deez Nuts Lawsuit & Scandal, Luke Combs Saves Woman From Being Destroyed, & Today’s News

Episode Date: December 13, 2023

Get an exclusive NordVPN deal here https://NordVPN.com/phil It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee!   Go to https://BeautifulBastard.com for up to 90% OFF and $10 Mystery Items. –��� TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - Fan Selling Luke Combs Tumblers Ordered to Pay $250,000  03:57 - MrBeast Barred From Using ‘Deez Nutz’ Name to Sell Candy Bars  05:57 - Netflix Releases Heap of Viewership Data 09:57 - Sponsored by Nord VPN 10:58 - New York’s Highest Court Allows Democrats to Redraw Key Congressional Districts 13:25 - Your Thoughts on Yesterday’s Stories ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #MrBeast #JennaOrtega ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about and breaking down the Mr. Beast Deez Nuts scandal and lawsuit. Luke Combs just saved a woman's life from being destroyed. Netflix has released previously secret information that exposed a lot. And there's news out of New York that completely changed the 2024 election. We're talking about all of that on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news, so let's just jump into it. Starting with... Imagine a world where you could owe someone that you've never met a quarter of a million dollars,

and you actually have no idea. Because that's a reality for this one Florida woman who ran headfirst into the brick wall that is copyright law. Meet Nicole Harness. She makes a very modest living selling homemade tumblers and t-shirts through Amazon. And the way the story goes is, you know, she went to a concert in Tampa this summer. Country music star Luke Combs is playing. She's a huge fan. She leaves there inspired to start selling a Luke Combs themed tumbler. They're reportedly selling 18 of them for $20 each, making a total of $380. Then one day Nicole comes home after a hospital stay because she suffers from congestive heart failure.

She comes home from the hospital and she's like, "'Oh my God, my Amazon store is locked. "'I can't access any of my money.'" With a recalling, I sent so many messages to Amazon asking for answers but couldn't figure it out. Then she ultimately discovers an email buried in her junk folder. It's a letter from Luke Combs' attorney.

They're notifying her that the musician she loves is suing her with her and several other defendants being accused of selling counterfeit merchandise. With a letter giving her 21 days to respond, but that doesn't help, because that was actually sent back in October. So by the time she reads this, this thing's a done deal. With seemingly case closed,

she's gonna have to pay the singer $250,000. So she emails Combs' attorney, but reportedly they don't answer. So trying to do whatever she can, she brings her tears to News Channel 8. It's very stressful. I don't have. So trying to do whatever she can, she brings her tears to News Channel 8. It's very stressful. I don't have money to pay my bills. I just want this resolved.

I'm not, I didn't mean any harm to Luke Combs. I quit selling the Tumblr. I pulled it down. I just, I don't understand. With a video going up yesterday, and it's not exactly clear what else she can do, because in Florida where Nicole lives, the law actually requires defendants to be notified of a lawsuit by a process server in person.

But in Illinois, where the lawsuit was actually filed, the law recently changed so that an email is fine. So this whole situation could be a test case in how this law does or doesn't work. But then, here's the thing, we actually got an update. Luke Combs ends up actually seeing her interview on News Channel 8. And he immediately put out this video on Instagram. I've spent the last two hours trying to make this right, trying to figure out what's going on because I was completely and utterly unaware of this. And so we do have a company that goes after folks, only supposedly large corporations operating internationally that make millions and millions of dollars,

making counterfeit t-shirts, things of that nature, running illegal businesses. And apparently this woman, Nicole, has somehow gotten wrapped into that. Withcomb's also going on to say that he got a hold of Nicole's phone number and he called her this morning. She told me there's $5,500 locked up in her Amazon account. I'm going to double that, send her $11,000 today just so she doesn't have anything to worry about. I'm going to make my own Tumblr today. It's going to go up today. I'll keep you posted on that. But all that money is going to go to Nicole and her family to try to help with her medical bills.

And I invited Nicole and her family out to a show this year so I could give her a hug and say sorry in person. I just wanted to clear that up, man, because it makes me sick for anybody to be thinking that I'm this kind of person because I'm the farthest thing from it. Now, technically, like the one thing that he didn't fully dive into was the $250,000 lawsuit itself. You know, I think using context clues, it seems like he's doing everything he can to get that drop. So ultimately, I guess the main point of this story is make bootleg merchandise of your favorite artists as long as they seem chill. No, that's not the point of this story. In fact, I don't know what the lesson we can possibly learn from this story is other than I'm happy Luke Combs is being chill with Nicole. Because while obviously artists need to be protected,

I wouldn't want to see Nicole's life completely ruined because she sold 18 tumblers. There's the legal situation, and then there's the human situation. Or the human situation is Luke Combs doesn't want Nicole's life ruined. The legal situation is some are going to argue that they have to go after people like Nicole, otherwise it weakens their cases against the big companies that are ripping him off for millions of dollars, which again is why I'm relieved and happy for Nicole. But I think it's what makes this situation so messy and complex. So actually, with all that, I want to pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then, hey, do you know where the D's is?

The D's is? D's nuts. Okay. Do you know where the Deez is? The what? The Deez is. What? Deez. Deez nuts. Okay. I had no idea that was coming. Okay, love them. So let's talk about Deez nuts. Because while it's a dumb old school joke, or for my nine-year-old son, the pinnacle of comedy,

only to possibly be outdone by yo mama jokes. But in addition to that, Deez Nuts and Mr. Beast, turns out they had a bit of a problem, because Mr. Beast has a company called Feastables. They sell chocolate and they have a peanut butter flavor that's definitely not a Reese's called Deez Nuts. And they rely heavily on that pun in their marketing. But here's the thing, turns out he actually got sued. Or rather, Feastables got sued by a company called Deez Nuts, D-E-E apostrophe S, for trademark infringement.

With the company popping up, arguing that Mr. Beast Bar uses what they said was a confusingly similar and phonetically equivalent word, and claiming that it's cutting into their business. Though of course, Deez Nuts is not a new phrase. And that is exactly what Feastables argued in court. With a lawyer getting paid real money to argue about Deez Nuts,

saying that it was coined back in 1992 by Dr. Dre. And adding, millions of people on the internet have come to use the phrase Deez Nuts as an irreverent way to interject humor or sarcasm into or end a conversation. In fact, Deez Nuts ultimately landed in the urban dictionary and is defined as a euphemism and slang term. The Feastable's lawyer also going on to highlight the spelling differences, saying that the name was only chosen because of the meme. And then going on to call the sales of Deez Nuts Peanuts, quote, objectively unimpressive. And saying it was to the point that there wasn't even commercial overlap.

But there, it appeared that the judge didn't like that argument. Because according to News 4 in Jacksonville, Florida, which is where the peanut company is based, the judge cited against Mr. Beast, approving a permanent injunction preventing Mr. Beast from using the name D's Nuts or anything resembling it to sell Feastables candy bars. And with this, details of the settlement weren't made public, whereas it was unclear if there were any monetary damages. But court documents reportedly stated that Feastables acknowledged that the name was confusingly similar. And it'll be interesting to find out more on this because right now, if you go to the Feastables website, they're still available.

And I've also reached out to Mr. Beast for a comment or a response to the situation. And when and if we get updates to this story, I'll let you know. And then, do you remember when the streaming giants were like, You know, it's just so hard to, like, let people see the data about who's watching how much. Well, it seems, is that okay legal language? They may have just been completely full of shit. Because Netflix actually just took a massive step in data transparency. With them now sharing viewership for over 18,000 titles.

Right, because previously they do things like releasing top 10 lists, but nothing like this. With them now announcing what we watched in Netflix engagement report. Which they say will be released twice a year and it covers what was over a six-month period. And this is going to be including data for both original and licensed programs, though there is an asterisk as long as it was viewed for over 50,000 hours. And notably, the report that Netflix just released covers the viewership from January to June of this year. It's not an all-time thing, which means that there's a bias towards newer titles. So as far as what was the number one show for the first half of the year on Netflix, it was season one of something called The Night Agent, which I will say, isn't that like the state of online streaming? This show

apparently was watched for 812 million hours. I have never heard of it. How is that possible? Although is the real situation, I have heard of it. I just never watched it. And because there's just a bazillion shows, it's impossible to remember stuff. Like I feel like I can remember every movie I watched from like 1995 to 2010. But if you ask me what I have watched in the last five years, I'm like, I don't know. Breaking Bad was over five years ago. Also, I got to say on that note, if you are a show, if you are a show and you're doing your usual thing, you went from season one to season two, there was what, like six months, a year in between at least. Please release two to three minute like optional recaps before the next season starts.

So many times I'm like, wait, who is, why'd they do that again? One, I've probably consumed 87 other series and movies and stuff at least between the seasons. Two, I'm gonna be honest, some of y'all not writing the most interesting shit about your ancillary characters. But Phil focus commentary aside, as far as the rest of the top five, you're the second season of Ginny in Georgia, the first seasons of The Glory, and Wednesday. And to close it out, you have the Queen Charlotte Bridgerton miniseries. And those last four titles all being watched between 500 and 665 million hours. And again, keep in mind the numbers that we're talking about,

this is like a starting point, right? As Variety explained around Wednesday coming in at fourth, that happened not because it was a less popular series, but because it came out in November of 2022, and a good chunk of its massive audience had already completed the show by January 1st, the start of the report. Or something like The Night Agent, it came out in November of 2022, and a good chunk of its massive audience had already completed the show by January 1st, the start of the report. Or something like The Night Agent, it came out in March of 2023. With that said, we also learned a number of other interesting things. Like one, how well older licensed programs do on the platform. Or programs like Breaking Bad and

Gilmore Girls. And there, according to The Hollywood Reporter, 45% of viewing on Netflix was for licensed shows. So nearly half of all the viewing time on Netflix. And one of its notable standouts was actually Suits. The show, I will say, was just such a fantastic, lazy watch. And then, if I'm being honest, the last few seasons, it felt like work to get through it. It's been a minute, but I think it was somewhere around the introduction of the device, the Donna, and or the story arc that results in Donna saying, I'm black in here. I was just like, who is writing this show now? But in this report, about the first half of the year, the first season of the show was watched for nearly 130 million minutes. And if you add up the viewing hours for all nine seasons, it's close to 600 million.

Which is also why reportedly a Suits spinoff and potentially a metric fuckton of other lawyer shows are on the way. We also saw South Korean TV shows being a huge hit. The Deadline calculating that content from the country totaled 3.7 billion hours. And that's just with the top 100 titles alone. Which I will say, there's a lot of good stuff coming out of South Korea. I remember after Squid Game came out, I watched Alice in Borderland. That's fantastic. And I will say, actually, one of my favorite things about Netflix, but also content creation

in general, is non-English speaking content. Like on Netflix, you have great examples. This is not in South Korea, but like Money Heist. Hell, I don't know if it's still in theaters right now, but Godzilla Minus One. That might be one of the best monster movies I've ever seen. But anyway, I'm nerding out more than I try to on this show. Where I'll end this is with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Because while obviously the data transparency was a huge part of the Hollywood strikes this year, Sarandos tried to frame this as saying, you know, that's not the only reason

we're doing this. With him telling reporters that the previous lack of transparency created an environment of mistrust around the data. So this is probably more information than you need, but I think it creates a better environment for the guilds, for us, for the producers, for creators, and for the press. And also a key thing is that now that Netflix is an ad tier, this kind of transparency is likely going to attract companies to put ad spots on the platform. Anyway, this story just made me feel like maybe we need to start doing watch parties. And then the holiday season is in full swing. And by this time, most of us are in a rush with lots of online shopping. Just make sure that you and your loved ones are practicing safe shopping.

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highest court just ordered the state to redraw new congressional maps, effectively throwing out a map that helped Republicans flip the House in 2022. And I'm trying to break this down for you because New York's redistricting over the last few years, it's been an absolute nightmare shit show. And that's like the nice way of describing it. Because back in 2014, New York voters passed a constitutional amendment that created an independent commission to guide New York's congressional mapmaking process. But that commission, which was composed of equal parts Republicans and Democrats, was unable to do its job in 2022. It has reached a deadlock, what Democrats and Republicans do best together. And so as a result, the Democratic legislature, they stepped in and designed a map

that would very significantly benefit their party. Because yes, some Democrats gerrymandered too. With Republicans then responding, yeah, no. And they sued with the New York State Court of Appeal striking down that map. And with that, also appointing a neutral expert to draw a replacement map. And that new map was used during the 2022 midterms, which very significantly helped Republicans flip four whole seats, which was absolutely key to the Republicans taking over the House. They have a five-seat majority.

Very slim, very close. And actually, that majority has now dropped to four seats with the expulsion of George Santos. It'll then fall to just three seats in January, now that Kevin McCarthy's announced that he's leaving. But back on track with the story at hand, because after Republicans flipped the New York districts, a group of voters with backing from the Democratic establishment sued, arguing that the court needs to give the map making process back to the state legislature, saying that voters should have more of a say. And actually yesterday, the Court of Appeals ruled in their favor four to three, arguing that the map used in 2022,

that was only meant to be temporary and ordering new maps to be proposed no later than February 28th, which means we go back to that independent commission that was deadlocked. And technically, maybe something changed. Maybe the commission agrees on a map or, and I would say it's more likely, they get deadlocked again on two different competing versions. But very key thing here, regardless of what happens there, the state legislature is given the ultimate power to reject or change any proposal. Because Democrats there have a super majority in both chambers, they'll have a lot of sway in choosing a map that'll benefit them. Of course, to avoid another drawn-out legal battle, or at least another drawn-out legal battle that they're likely to lose, they target that Democrats

and the legislature need to be smart to adopt a map that's at least similar to designs from the Independent Commission. And understand, all of this is playing out while the state does technically still ban partisan gerrymandering. But experts say that legislatures would really only need to wiggle the map lines a little bit to help Democrats' chances. And potentially, I mean, by a lot. With Dave Wasserman, an elections analyst with the Cook Political Report, telling the New York Times, they might have won two or three of those Biden districts back anyway. Now it might be five or six. When you're talking about such a narrow majority in the House, obviously that's a big deal. But of course, with all this, we're gonna have to see how it plays out in New York and also, I mean, nationwide. I mean, New York's

just a small piece of the greater puzzle, but it is a meaningful piece. It's really just a question of how meaningful it'll be. But then, let's close out today's show and talk about yesterday today, where we dive into yesterday's comments and see what y'all had to say. And as expected, most of the conversation had to do with that crazy story out of Alaska. Which, if you're watching today's show, you missed yesterday's, I highly recommend you watch it. It had y'all saying things like, The fact that more effort was put forth in finding justice for a dog over a human woman is just unconscionable. And I say this as someone that would move heaven and earth for my dog, but my God, indigenous women are preyed upon at an alarming rate and little to no

attention is given to the majority of cases. Also you had Gavin adding the murder and abuse of indigenous women in this country is heartbreaking and doesn't get enough attention. It brings me to tears that these women who had friends and family will never get to have stupid conversations or long nights with them again, like we all get to do. All because some scumbag who has never been held accountable decided their life was theirs to play with. We also had Zedden adding, as a traveling healthcare provider in Alaska, I am unfortunately not surprised by the first story. We see so much domestic violence up here and there's nothing we can do about it. When both police officers in the village are brothers of the abuser, these women will get nothing but trouble for reporting. And

when their entire support network is all located in the single subsistence base village, there's nowhere else for them to go. And finally, I just want to say to all the people that were like, hey, thank you for covering this story, like this story getting reported. It's good news. My responses to that are, of course, definitely. But also this, like all this thanks that goes to ProPublica. They put out the initial deep dive that caught my attention. That was also notably produced by their local reporting network. I mean, that by itself, I think it touches on why it is so important that especially local news reporters get monetary support. Corruption, very questionable, sketchy situations, they get pushed under the rug when you don't have local reporters. And while

it's great, you know, some idiot like me can add their megaphone to the story and try and make it consumable and then try and get the word out. I do genuinely have worries about the future of news because I've found, and this is someone that's part of that system, feels like there's a lot more attention and I mean, even to a certain degree, money on the commentary of news stories, the consolidation and repackaging of news stories rather than the actual on the ground people that are trying to get the stories out. But also, I know that we've done videos touching on that. Yeah, I think that's top of mind because obviously we just covered this story. But also because I mean, I feel like every time I open up Twitter, I'm just like, oh, God, it feels like very loose, reckless engagement baiting stuff is just has become king over like

actually taking time and making sure stuff is real. And it's all happening as we go into the 2024 election cycle. Fun. And that is where your show for Wednesday is going to end. But one, for more news you need to know that maybe you've missed, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap. I got links in the description as well. And two, don't worry because my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.