Photo by Rid Burman (right) and courtesy of DJ AJ (left)
Every generation likes to think it’s lived through peak absurdity. Our moment in history just happens to be the most live-streamed, meme-ified, and re-posted. Culture moves fast, the AI slop cycle moves faster, and somewhere on this high-speed train wreck of a timeline, we’ve rebranded chaos as content. But amidst all the gloom and doom-scrolling, it’s kind of comforting to know that the internet is still capable of coughing up moments that can wrangle an involuntary smile (or smirk). In our new series, The Rodeo, we dissect some of the most unserious, unhinged, and wildly viral news from the month. Hop on, it’s going to be one hell of a ride.
The Baraat That Shut Down Wall Street
Watching hordes of people bring traffic to a screeching halt as they dance along to the cacophonous beats of a dhol while decked in their festive finery is a sight that wouldn’t feel too out of place at an Indian wedding. But when that horde of people, about 400 of them to be precise, takes their frenetic energy to the streets of New York, things are bound to get a bit…crowded. In a viral video shared by wedding DJ AJ, hundreds of attendees go absolutely feral to a heady mix of Bollywood bops and pop bangers for the baraat of power couple Varun Navani and Amanda Soll. “Shutting down Wall Street for a baraat was a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” DJ AJ said in a press statement. “The energy was electric, the dhols were pounding, and for a moment, the streets belonged to us.” India’s $130 billion wedding industry is known to take things to the next level (one time, a groom skydived into his own baraat), but we bet that 6’5, blue-eyed man in finance who snuck out for a smoke break didn’t know what hit him.
The Digital Snan Dude is Still Popping Off
At the peak of India’s Mahakumbh Mela in February this year, an entrepreneur named Deepak Goel surfaced on the internet for offering one of the most jaw-droppingly bizarre services in India’s booming spiritual tourism economy. People were paying him to perform a digital snan, where he immerses their photos (yes, just their photos) in the holy river in a ritual believed to cleanse sins and impurities. Months later, our man refuses to let his business model sink. He continues to take nominations and paid requests, virtually purifying everyone from Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and rapper Chaar Diwaari to pop musician Franke (or, as he puts it, “Franke and his boys”)—and even an obviously Photoshopped (or possibly AI-generated?) image of Sydney Sweeney posing with YouTuber ThePJ.
AI Gets Eerily Self-Aware
When Google launched Veo 3—the most advanced version of their generative AI video model—it was only a matter of time before the AI slop spiral got even more out of hand than it already is. But in a use case that feels ripped straight out of a Black Mirror episode, Hashem Al-Ghaili, a filmmaker and science communicator, dropped a bunch of AI-generated videos that are somehow creepier than the missing (now apparently found) Annabelle doll. In these videos, the AI-generated characters become a little too self-aware and realize they’re trapped in a simulation. They beg, kick, scream, and plead with their creator to “just write another prompt” as they battle high-stakes situations like being held at gunpoint by a kidnapper, living through the pandemic, or falling in love with someone shorter than them. This surreal saga follows a previous series where AI characters discuss the “prompt theory,” which is basically their version of the simulation theory—where they refuse to believe they’re nothing more than pieces of code willed into existence by a bored human.
Getting Grilled With The Fam
In one of the more wholesome moments served up by the algorithm recently, DJ and grillz designer Shrikesh Choksi staged a fun, family-style photoshoot with a subtle flex: his parents’ toothy smiles were iced out in bling. Shot by photographer Rid Burman, the portrait series featured Choksi and his parents sporting his brand Frostbite Labs’ signature grillz at a beachside family outing, mashing up hip-hop flash with traditional Indian craftsmanship in the most endearing way.
Swapping The Swipefest For a Live Dating Comedy Show
If you’re one of the many singles battling dating app burnout, there’s a new way to shoot your shot. Forget swiping—you can now have that awkward first date on stage, as a room full of strangers watches it all go down in a format dubbed the “live dating comedy show.” Live dating experiences like Pitch A Friend and First Move, a show hosted by comedians Abhishek Kumar and Nirmal Pillai, are sliding into the mainstream, making the cringe communal and the first-date nerves a full-blown spectacle. Because who needs Hinge prompts when you’ve got an entire audience waiting to watch you fumble?