what happens when mediocrity is the goal

on bobbi althoff's new podcast

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One of the scariest things about being a Normal Person who gains some sort of online following is the sudden belief that people want to hear you talk about everything under the sun. To see you do things you have little expertise in or knowledge of, all because now, there are people watching. There is a creeping notion that the sheer possession of an audience is enough to grant you the special skills that other people — who may not have, alas, cultivated a Strong Online Brand — have been honing for years. The delusion is rampant in the influencer/content creator community and those who profit off of it, and I feel like we need to discuss. We are sacrificing quality and meaning at the altar of engagement.

Earlier this year Bobbi Althoff, Content Creator, published the first episode of her podcast, The Really Good Podcast, under the "Comedy" category of Apple Podcasts. There are at least three choices in that sentence that I, personally, would've re-considered. When I first saw the clips making the rounds on Twitter, I thought Althoff looked familiar, but couldn't place her until someone reminded me of her TikToks from the depths of the pandemic, a time period that I have locked somewhere in the recesses of my mind. I was never a regular consumer of her content so forgive me for generalizing, but it centered on her being a young mother who joked about naming her daughters Richard and Concrete. I may be missing certain idiosyncrasies, but people enjoyed her parody of motherhood.

A couple of years later, and Althoff has re-branded fully into what we are told is comedy.

Now I will say that popular influencers and content creators are often pushed, without adequate preparation, into roles they may not be ready for, because there is nothing the Powers That Be love more than an engaged, monetizable audience. From many of them, though, there are discernible efforts to at least attempt to meet those expectations. Coaches, classes, practice, the regular incorporation of feedback. None of these efforts are apparent in Althoff’s new podcast. Below, a snippet from her interview with Offset.

bobbialthoff

A post shared by @bobbialthoff

I understand there is a certain irony in me criticizing this content creator. And yes, it would be the height of hypocrisy for me to call into question another white girl's dry (I’ve read some people calling it deadpan, but I can’t bring myself to do the same) sense of humor. Even if it's not funny to me. Even if I think she’s giving us dry-humored white girls who are also content creators (a shockingly large subset of the population) a bad name. Subjectivity, eye of the beholder, etc. If only that were all!