The 2020 Effect feat Mike Rothschild (Premium E291)

Tiktokers discovering nostalgia. 2016 wasn't a good year. There wasn't a brief period of world peace because of Pokemon Go. YOU WERE JUST IN MIDDLE SCHOOL!!

It drives me crazy when people are like oh lol remember when we couldn't go anywhere!! remember when we were stuck inside!! No. I don't because I had to go to work at an 'essential business' (hardware retail) and everyone and their fucking grandma was shopping still.

I hope Julian is alright and looking forward to when he comes back but this shift where Jake seems to have taken on more of a leadership role on the pod is awesome, his voice comes across much more confident these days. and of course the guests and awesome analysis continue. thanks y’all!

They can miss me with all this talk about how great 2025 is. So far we've had a death in the family, caught covid again, and had another family member diagnosed with terminal cancer. There's nothing I relate to less than the idea that 2025 is some magical return to the "good old days". Fuck this year.

I don't understand the people who make these videos. I understand even less the people who actually watch this shit on TikTok. Maybe I'm 40+ years too old but I really do have better things to do and more productive ways to waste my time. Like, the content of some of these videos could be boiled down to being reminiscent of random conversations I have with people just bullshitting and laughing at ourselves at how stupid and nonsensical our random thoughts can be. Like, I wouldn't bother to make videos about the content of these convos. It's as though these kids/young adults don't know how to have real life interactions with people, to talk bullshit, and go on with their day. Literally every single nonsensical thought has to be recorded and uploaded. It's such a waste of digital storage space and mental energy of anyone who happens to witness said content.

this one made me apoplectic… we really got the ripple effects of the wave of the destroyed education system breaking right into an even more powerful wave of giving a microphone to everyone dumb enough to think their opinion matters to the machine. Then we somehow got a demiurge algorithm to amplify all those worst-takes in a feedback loop increasing in velocity and narrowing in scope which is now eating away at the younger and older cores of society, seemingly… FUCK.

Some of this is young people discovering out loud what it’s like to get older. I’m 51 and time is odd and funny. 1999-2005 felt like 30 years b/c we lived a lot of life in that small time. Having 3 kids and working and school during 2020-2021- time was very odd. Long and fast all at once. Tell these people, it’s ok to realize time is relative.

Really good episode boys. I love the ones where you use a whacky conspiracy theory as a springboard to explore real scientific and cultural phenomena like this, instead of just going back and forth about how dumb it is.

Aaron Judge doesn’t go 4-4 every day. Loved Mikes analogy there

Why tf were the Donkey Kong Country soundtracks so amazing and aesthetically prescient? They're truly remarkable even 30 years later

GotDAMN this started out interesting and ended up completely boring.

I've been on the planet for 67 years and people have never been so fucking stupid.

Beige toys trend sucking the joy out of life

Isn't the first song from a Donkey Kong game?

jake's adhd will always fascinate me ❤️ #shipshows4ever

should I be embarrassed by how well I acquainted I am with the aquatic ambiance song (first song) … real dreamcore fans rise up

Omg. 😂😂😂 I needed this laugh! You guys were saying what I was thinking! I love you guys.

love Mike making sports references and Jake subconsciously equating them to their respective video games both times

I am so glad Julian was not around for this. Bake, Jake, bake!!

When people talk about the AIDS Crisis as a historic event, they do not mean that AIDS no longer exists, or that people with HIV do not face ongoing medical and socioeconomic struggles. They are using a, probably clumbsy, shorthand to refer to a specific period on which this disease emerged and to the cultural reactions during this time.

Also, I'm halfway through Jewish Space Lasers. Really enjoying it, but I have to be careful not to read it on the bus!

In Kurtis Conner’s most recent YT video, he does a good analysis on the decline of brighter colors in products over the last 40 years.

I noticed how much blacker my wardrobe has got after moving for the first time in about a decade. I wonder how many other millennials finally got their first office job, and find it easier to push the limits on business casual with black jorts

I'm just here for the ship show mentions.

Travis is 100% right that some of this is just people having trouble coping with getting older

OMG Jake, I watched The Two Jakes last night, which rules! I'm half convinced it is a superior movie to Chinatown 🖤

Great music at 7:26, listened to the intro a second time for the tune.

straight to Gulag for quoting fashy tradboi account Cultural Tutor. The Glimmering Font of Sanity known as Julian was truly needed this week

This right here is proof positive that Julian is needed to check Jake’s excesses

This is probably a dumb question, but does anyone know if I can add the QAA premium feed to Spotify? It doesn’t seem to come up as an option

Hastily turning off my blue light filter as I listen.

I'm a video artist and analog video is making a huge comeback these days. Lots of bright, saturated colors

It's ok to sometimes lose in NBA 2K to your cousins

The Donkey Kong song (Aquatic Ambience) has actually been used for a while now, but before this conspiracy shit it was attached to nostalgia, like videos from 90s/early 2000s high school

A while ago I heard someone mention that it was a fucked up experience to be a kid post 9/11 when all the adults seemingly lost their minds. I think Q Anon and COVID may be creating a similar experience for some kids now but with the added layer of social media access

Why is all your merch sold out? Why won't you let me give you more money?

"every millisecond of that just makes me want to die" same mike, same

auto queue echo was just perfect

Jake’s really been killing it recently, keep it up.

I think that this just be my favorite episode so far. Extremely well done.

I work in the vision sciences and you did a great job summarizing the results of the studies you mentioned on color perception!!

It's not new Jake that song was used for the "my gf is annoying" black cat meme where it zooms in on its face

Red Dead Redemption 2 was definitely my touch grass simulator during the pandemic. It actually felt like being in nature. I wonder if it had similar effects on my body chemistry

Donkey Kong!!!

for reference, the tiktok song is "Aquatic Ambience" from the 1994 Donkey Kong Country on SNES. It is "Stickerbrush Symphony" from the same soundtrack/game that, years before any of this hit tiktok, had the odd YouTube trend of people "checking in" about where they were, specifically around depression. The 1990s Nintendo composers, namely David Wise and Konji Kondo, have proven profound in their impact on music, specifically sythwave/video game soundtracks. The early consoles forced simplicity that is often lacking in current electronic music. Donald glover called Aquatic Ambience, or the dumb tiktok sample, "the Eleanor Rigby of video game music." Glover sampled it in his music in 2018 well before tik tok did. It's strange watching these pieces in particular almost morph into new age, tsuki-esque talk tracks when they are in honesty some of the last true pinnacles of good composing.

If you add “-ai” with any Google search it’ll turn off the ai answer

Hearing about Jake’s dream about Teddy being a fish was an extremely important part of this episode and I’m glad Julian wasn’t here to stop it.

Jake neglected to mention that the 2K drubbing that he took at the hands of my nephews was the Curry Warriors dynasty demolishing the Jordan Bulls dynasty. Debate settled.

Off that comment about some people living 2020 over and over again, and it being people with autoimmune conditions. Yes. And long covid. Too real. 🫠

Who is going to be the zoomer to scream IM FREAKING OUT like milhouse when presented with tie dye

Great episode. Really reminded me of the time I put on glasses meant to cure my color blindness. Didn’t realize how bright and vivid the world is, especially the color red. Had to ditch them, as they were making me nauseous. Happy with how I see stuff.

I feel like using psychedelics would help remind people that the world can have color.

I was reminded of how rebellious I was in the early 00s in high school when I wore PJ pants and died my hair all the colors. Also. Is a ship show like Battlestar Galactica or Voyager? Like everyone's trapped on a ship or is it something else because it doesn't seem like that when Jake talks about it.

You should actually post a comparison of these conspiracy TikTok videos with the usual synth pop porno music compared with clown car Benny hill music. Illustrate how much of the implied validity has to do with the presentation.

Everything about this episode left my brain as soon as Jake shared his "Teddy turned into a fish" dream.

This message is for Jake and the other Tok-ers! The "conspiracy sound" that accompanies this trend is also used for slideshows of nostalgic items that are discontinued or stores that are closing/have closed. Just wanted to throw that knowledge to you from the other, less scary side of tiktok 😂

I’m only half way in but please tell me at some point the boys realize that these folks are all just fascists who are happy that Trump brought the good vibes back. I feel like I’m going insane so far…. Update: just finished it and holy shit how did the boys cock this up that bad. Literally a one sentence “this seems a little Trumpy but nahhhh” at the very end. I say this with complete love for QAA but I just listened to over an hour of intellectualizing fash propaganda. This episode needed Liv BADLY to call bullshit on all this.

This conspiracy is just pro Trump propaganda

I think the first bit of music they play from Tiktok is a slowed down version of the Donkey Kong Aquatic Ambience, I believe?

Ah yes, the age old curse of getting older. 😫

Meanwhile, I'm like "2000 can't have been more than 3 or 4 years ago"

As a TikTok user all of those example sounds are an auto skip on a video for me

*sigh* we are NOT "in the wake" of the pandemic. Covid is still very much here and still ruining many, many people's lives.

Jake, as a fellow old — get off the youths’ social media site. Delete the app, man.

Jake’s brain is so awesome. I love how in the 5 yard line analogy he related it to Madden and not the actual game of football

The Apple aesthetic rippled out from the iPhone into every facet of our lives

I'm just wondering if Tik-Tok is the only major social media site that Gen Z dominates and therefor is the only space they feel they can be themselves. In my 20s we had Myspace and Facebook was all college kids, so I could have some random thought and just make a short post and not make a whole video about it. The older Gen Z kids are hitting their mid 20s and first feeling a little bit of aging so I guess it doesn't surprise me they're posting their musing on aging even if they think it's some weird conspiracy.

I got bullied for wearing sweat pants to jr. high back in the mid 90s.

Hearing astrology gives me Havana syndrome

It'd be funny if this bleeds over to X and people start conspiracy theories about how woke somehow took everyone's colors away since Elon quite notoriously doesn't like bright colors and wants everything to be black and gray

Just a friendly reminder to wear a mask! COVID is still an ongoing epidemic and people with disabilities, chronic illness, and pre-existing conditions are most at risk of fatality - and long COVID is still a thing that can strike anyone who gets infected. Plus, increasing fascism in the USA means we can all benefit from normalizing mask wearing again and benefitting from interference with facial recognition surveillance tech. Nothing says "I care about all people and am willing to bear an inconvenience for their health" than wearing a mask.

It's crazy to me that people are saying 2016 was the last good year when I distinctly remember how everyone said it felt like one of the worst years in history. I do remember the joy of Pokémon go, but I also remember the political upheaval, celebrity deaths, bad luck (in general) and bad movies. In hindsight most things weren't super bad, but at the time it was not a good year.

Oh good, an episode where I’m laughing and nodding along with the Tik Tok clippers. I’m officially melted, but still hanging on by a fingernail.

Good job explaining this phenomenon with logic and science Jake. I assumed the explanation was we all went through a dark time and have now gained distance from it and are feeling the depressive effects of it less. A few people post about this experience in the only way they know how in this social media age and millions of people that are influenced by what they see on the internet smash that like button. Again very good job.

What is Jake talking about when he mentions “meshies”?

I mean with regards to the winters being darker and holidays not hitting the same, depending on where the poster is from, climate change leading to less snow does just make things more dreary

Anybody have a link to the conspiracy theme music?

Just me listening to this in my bright orange car (bought in 2020) just as Jake is talking about bright orange cars… 😆

I’m a zoomer who graduated high school in 2019. Thanks for the sympathy, Jake. It feels nice for someone to acknowledge how insane it was for us.

the gang discovers #corecore

I never thought a Jake episode would cover colour, fashion, and design trends so well, but he’s totally on the money 👏👏👏. Five years after COVID - fashion is changing again, it’s more mixed - think sequins and shine with practical daywear and lower heels. I won’t miss millennial pastels ngl. I’m here for the acid greens, bright and deep reds, tangerines and periwinkles

The guy calling 2016 the last moment of peace gave me severe whiplash even as someone who can only be a few years older than him. What do you mean?! Everyone hated 2016 while we were living through it, you can only think that if you were an oblivious child

If anyone has had repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) treatment they can probably attest to the world feeling more vivid when depression subsides. I experienced depression as a kind of sensory numbness, but with rTMS there’s such a rapid improvement in depression symptoms, we’re talking 4-6 weeks, everyday was noticeably clearer and brighter than the last. I was actually feeling things again. I had energy to eat delicious food and go outside, and I slept better. I gave up alcohol and I was around friends again. Those behavioural changes - touching grass - make us feel like the world is brighter, in a more common sense kind of way. I do think the neuro-cognitive / physiological research is fascinating, but there’s so much more to our perception of the world.

teddy turned into a fish

That first music example sounds like Balatro.

As Oblivion’s Shivering Isle, we are leaving Dementia to Mania

I didn't have that experience during COVID lockdowns. I took regular walks with my DSLR camera and made a photobook of very vivid skies, water and greenery lol

The new music has been around for years! It’s the “nostalgia” theme song, usually imposed over memories from 80’s, 90’s, 00’s or frutiger aero

new phones put shitty ai filters on everything that distort colour contrasts

Yeah that 1st new theme reminds me of the Body Double musical themes

The sensual music is more often used in a wistful context so it makes sense it was used there.

20 mins in and enjoying hearing about all this.. I’m not on TikTok. I’m 27 and it absolutely feels like it’s only been about 2 years since 2020, and my Early 20s lasted for like a year and now I’m closer to 30? This has been made even more uncanny by my transitioning starting in 2023 and in many ways literally feeling like a new person who is more profoundly alive than before.

This is the most intellectual Jake episode ever.

Severance did have a very cerulean tone though.

That particular AI voice is an IMMEDIATE red flag, these days.

Synth music in the TikTok videos reminds me of ‘in search of…’ personally.

Really fascinating and meaningful episode. Best wishes to Mike and his family!

Anyone have a playlist of the conspiracy background tracks? Love that synthy goodness.

Let’s all remember that when Jake is talking about the responsibilities of mailing presents because you don’t wanna be the shitty relative… That’s probably him giving it away that that’s him. Felt too real.

What gets me the most is the collective retconning in these videos of 2016-2019 as great years, when I very distinctly remember (2016 especially) that not being the overall feeling. In fact with 2016 specifically there were memes about it being the worst year ever. I think it's in part because a lot of these kids are young enough that all they really remember from those years is cultural entertainment stuff, which is really the only sector you can say was great about those years. It worries me a bit because a lot of conservatism bases itself on an idealization of the past because it conflates not being aware of most of the problems in the world when you're young with problems not existing when you're young, so this type of stuff worries me that the covid period will sort of supercharge that sentiment in a certain window of gen z that was coming of age around the pandemic period

Jake pulling a real Adam Friedland style “what was that thing called again?”

anyway, great to hear Mike (at least sounding like he) is doing okay

hahaha what Mike was referencing: TikTokers reinvent soup; call it "water-based cooking"

The fake "new normal" is wild

Jake Jake Jake

Another episode?!? Praised be!

Mike Agar

Mike Agar!😂

Hell, yeah.

Glad to hear Mike back on the pod!

Liv Rothschild