My first standup special, Unmedicated, is LIVE NOW ON
@dropout
! I spent two writing and touring this material, juicing every punchline. The taping was, in all honesty, the best show I've ever done. I'm SO excited for you to see it.
We did it. We have a tentative deal.
Over the coming days, we'll discuss and vote on it, together, as a democratic union. But today, I want to thank every single WGA member, and every fellow worker who stood with us in solidarity. You made this possible. Thank you.
#WGAStrong
My former employer CollegeHumor did this. In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so CH pivoted to FB. So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated. A $40m fine is laughable; shut Facebook down.
The viewership metrics were inflated by 150 to 900%. Whole companies shifted their strategy to video. Companies going bankrupt, people losing jobs, FB gets away with 0.18% of annual income ($40M / $22B), a slap on the wrist.
The details of the new Writers Guild contract are out. We won:
• Success-based residuals
• Strong limitations on A.I.
• Minimum writers room staffing
• Guaranteed compensation and 13-week minimums for Comedy/Variety writers in streaming
(cont)
These three writers shut down an entire production. IATSE crew refused to cross their picket line, so the producers couldn’t shoot, and sent everyone home. If just three WGA members standing together can do this, imagine how much power all 12,000 of us have! ✊🏻
#wgastrong
"Actually, it's a common misconception that hitting me with bug nets and reporting me to Isabelle will cause me to leave your island. Looks like I'm here for good! Now, let's talk about how this game encourages environmental destruction in the name of consumerism."
This story is horrifying. An LASD officer followed a trans man who was leaving their teaching job, then brutally attacked him without provocation. The reason given: an air freshener. The deputy was not disciplined; the victim was charged with a felony.
Vons and Albertsons stores in California just laid off every one of their full-time, union delivery drivers, and will replace them with DoorDash gig workers who receive no benefits as a direct result of Prop 22.
BREAKING: Visual Effects (VFX) crews at Marvel Studios have filed for a unionization election with the National Labor Relations Board.
This signals a major shift in the VFX industry, which has been largely non-union since the 70s.
VFX WORKERS ASSEMBLE!!
This is why we’re striking. The studios are trying to turn writing into a gig job. Eliminating the writers room, forcing screenwriters to work for free, paying late night writers a “day rate.” If we don’t fight back, writing will cease to exist as a livable career.
According to the WGA negotiating committee, the studios are pushing for a "day rate" for comedy/variety writers. Truly horrifying. We won't survive something like that.
#WGAStrong
#WGAStrike
#WGAStressed
Need proof that corporate mega-mergers are bad? Pull up a chair while I tell you the story of how a merger killed not just my show, but also put an entire TV network worth of workers out of a job.
Remember when the promise of streaming was an endless library where even niche shows would be watchable forever? Now b/c of the merger, HBO Max is DELETING dozens of shows, just to save $ on taxes and residuals. A needless, shameful waste.
Neither the WGA or SAG-AFTRA is calling for a consumer boycott right now. If you want to support the strike, we're asking folks to:
1) Boost our message on social media
2) Donate to the Entertainment Community Fund, which supports affected workers
@adamconover
genuine question: I'm having a hard time morally resolving whether I should skip seeing Barbie and Oppenheimer this week re: SAG/AFTRA solidarity. Thoughts?
Hey Apple: no more eps of your hit show about workers using collective action to fight back against an exploitative tech company until you give your real-life workers a fair deal.
THANK YOU to the Teamsters and IATSE crew who honored our picket line!
There’s a disturbing trend in LA politics that the media isn't talking about: More and more candidates are running as Democrats, but hiding the fact that they’re backed by right-wing Republicans.
It’s happening in CD4, where I live, and it’s going to work unless we stop it. 🧵
@adamconover
Hey Adam, could I challenge you to a conversation about ethical capitalism? Or even a challenge to try and convince you that there is a path that can create a good billionaire?
Los Angeles folks: I believe that we all need to be a LOT more worried about Rick Caruso's candidacy. We're on the verge of allowing a Trumpian, anti-abortion billionaire to buy our city government. And he can do it this June, in the primary, if we don't stop him. Thread:
I'm going to be very clear: Lisa's beautiful show was cancelled because of the Warner/Discovery merger. After the merger, Zaslav announced $3 BILLION in budget cuts. Long-time execs who fought for shows like Tuca were laid off. As a result, WBD has cancelled *38* animated shows.
I'm incredibly proud of how transparent our union is. In the
@WGAWest
's strike announcement, we included a list of our proposals, and the AMPTP's responses. Read it for yourself: it explains in black and white we're forced to go on strike.
It's incredible to me that there were people out there rooting for this merger because they thought it would somehow "benefit" workers and gamers.
Mergers destroy jobs, ruin lives, reduce consumer choice, and make our economy less free and less fair. Always.
BREAKING: Microsoft is laying off 1,900 people in its gaming division, including Activision Blizzard, just three months after closing its $69 billion acquisition. Story coming shortly (first reported by The Verge)
Sony owned Funimation is closing its services on April 2 as part of the previously announced merge of its catalog into Crunchyroll.
Annual price will increase to $100/year and users who purchased Funimation shows/films will sadly lose access to them.
➡️
These are essential protections that the companies told us, to our faces, that they would NEVER give us. But because of our solidarity, because they literally cannot make a dollar without us, they bent, then broke, and gave us what we deserve. WE WON.
The BBC published a puff piece promoting a new cryptocurrency three days before its creators disappeared with every dollar invested in it. The media's slack-jawed credulity for crypto is literally costing people their livelihoods.
Los Angeles: There's a measure on this year's ballot that should be getting a LOT more attention. It's called Measure ULA, and it's a once-in-a-decade chance to radically address the housing crisis and make LA affordable for ALL. Let me explain why it's such a big deal: 🧵
This is unbelievable: LA City Council President Nury Martinez was recorded calling a fellow councilmember's 2 year-old Black son "a little monkey" and said she wanted to give him a "beat-down." She said this about a TWO YEAR OLD.
@CD6Nury
must resign.
Finally, you can no longer be fined in California for "jaywalking", a derogatory term based on a slur that the auto industry made up in the 1920s-30s to shame pedestrians for using the public streets. 100 years late is better than never.
For 20 years, CH paid some of the best young comedians, writers, and artists in the country to do nothing but come up with the funniest shit ever. Today, they all lost their jobs. That sucks. Let me tell you why. (Thread)
This is incredibly disappointing.
@DrewBarrymore
's show employs WGA writers who are currently on strike. She is choosing to go back on the air without them, and forcing her guests to cross a picket line. Drew: This harms your writers and all union workers. Please reconsider.
The
@DrewBarrymoreTV
Show is a WGA covered, struck show that is planning to return without its writers. The Guild has, and will continue to, picket struck shows that are in production during the strike. Any writing on “The Drew Barrymore Show” is in violation of WGA strike rules.
My first job in media was as a VFX artist, and I have enormous respect for them and their work. My criticism is of the bosses, for using VFX as a tool to cut costs, underpaying artists, and forcing them to work under brutal conditions. I apologize for not making that more clear.
• Guaranteed 2-step deals for screenwriters
• Guarantee that writers be kept on through production
• Individual P&H contributions for writing teams
• Script fees for staff writers
• AND A HELL OF A LOT MORE.
I'm a TV showrunner, I'm currently in production, and I stand with
@IATSE
. Our crews are asking for no more than weekends off, a good night's sleep, and a living wage. That the AMPTP is unwilling to provide that bare minimum tells you everything you need to know. Give 'em hell.
A simple reminder that one of the best hosts in the history of television is still on the air for us to watch and enjoy every single night, and that he won't be forever.
The next time a billionaire like Zuckerberg uses "philanthropy" as an excuse to justify their greed, send them this video. The truth is that their "charity" is almost always structured in ways designed maintain and build their own power.
A lot of wealthy people seem to be under the mistaken impression that having money makes them funny and likable. It is our sworn duty as comedians to disabuse them of this notion.
Very funny to watch the same comics who have spent the past year righteously eviscerating anyone ever seen in a photo with Jeffrey Epstein suddenly hush up when the child predator is a guy they shared a green room with once in Cleveland.
Remember when Uber, Lyft, and Doordash spent millions lying to the public about Prop 22 so they could keep paying their workers poverty wages? Well get ready: McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Chipotle are about to pull the same trick. Don’t fall for it!
NEW: McDonald's, Starbucks and Chipotle are backing a 2024 ballot measure campaign to overturn a landmark fast food workers' rights bill recently signed into law in California.
Barely 2 weeks after the Warner/Discovery merger closed, TBS & TNT are shuttering their entire scripted TV depts. Multiple friends tell me they were working on shows that were suddenly cancelled today. Once again, a mega-merger is killing jobs and media options. When will it end?
Guess what? The billionaire who "donated" Patagonia to "fight climate change" will:
💰 Get a $700 million tax break
💰 Still control the company
💰 Spend the "donated" $ to influence US politics
Billionaire philanthropy is a scam. Tax the fucking rich.
This headline from the
@LATimes
isn't just blatantly false and misleading; it's also the result of a years-long propaganda campaign by the fossil fuel industry to halt progress on climate change. Thread:
An anonymous postal carrier on the deliberate destruction of the USPS: "I can count on zero hands how many times I’ve personally withheld delivery of mail without a goddamn good reason."
I'm such a mark for Nintendo, this commercial actually made me tear up.
The actor's little "yes" at 1:29
I love that Nintendo doesn't just advertise gameplay. They advertise how it feels to be a human, playing their games. They advertise what they can mean *to your life.*
American police are deliberately attacking journalists. "Militarized police" isn't an adequate descriptor anymore; we've turned them into a paramilitary army that violates the Geneva Conventions.
🚨 Only 5% of voters under 34 have returned their ballot in L.A. Meanwhile, nearly HALF of all votes cast are by people over 65. Unless you want to let retirees decide the fate of our city, return your ballot by Tuesday and urge your friends to do the same.
A little more context: when I joined CH, fans watched videos on OUR SITE. That meant that we sold the ads & controlled the metrics. We had a killer ad sales team, and made custom videos for major brands. YouTube was mosty just to drive traffic to the site. It was a real business!
Essential thread; exactly right. This time a film worker was killed by a gun. Last time, it was a train. Next time it could be a stunt or a fall off a jib. The solution is not to ban a prop. The solution is for our employers to stop prioritizing speed and profit over human lives.
This is an interesting comment, considering that Caruso donated nearly $1 million to Mitch McConnell and the other GOP politicians who engineered the overthrow of Roe.
The result: the beautiful constellation of independent comedy sites that represented a new emerging middle class of content creation shrunk and in many places collapsed. All because of Facebook’s falsified viewer data (oh, and all the other shady shit they did)
Instead of respecting employees' right to form a union, Starbucks just FIRED the entire union leadership of a store in Memphis. This is not only grossly illegal, it demonstrates that Starbucks values profits over the well-being of their workers, and proves WHY they need a union.
The next time you hear someone say "it's too late to stop climate change" tell them they're dead wrong. The harmful effects of our carbon emissions are a gradient, not a binary. That means we always have the opportunity to make changes today that will result in a better tomorrow.
1. "Climate Change" is not a bomb that's gonna go off in 2030 if we don't cut emissions. It's an ongoing process (that is already well underway) and every day we don't take action to mitigate it, it gets worse.
But the flip side of that is: everything we DO do makes it better.
Comics who think that protecting and excusing sexual abusers in our industry is "defending comedy" are the dumbest people alive. Defending comedy means standing up for the fellow comics and comedy fans who are being ABUSED by these assholes, you fucking idiots.
The WGA reached a tentative agreement with the AMPTP. Today, our Negotiating Committee, WGAW Board, and WGAE Council all voted unanimously to recommend the agreement. The strike ends at 12:01 am. Check out our deal at .
#WGAStrong
In ONE HOUR I'll be on the picket line with Hasan for an irl stream as the
#WritersStrike
continues. Come cheer us on, and learn a thing or two about this historic action!
Sony's overall profits are up, so what are they doing? Laying off workers at the studios that make their most profitable, lucrative games in a blood sacrifice to investors. Repulsive. And yet another effect of the massive spree of mergers and concentration in the industry.
I am so proud to be a SAG-AFTRA member today. Tens of thousands of us refused to work for less than we deserved, and that gave us massive leverage. Next we’ll stand with crews, animators, Teamsters, and every worker in our industry when they do the same. When we fight, WE WIN.
Finally: despite FB’s fuckery, CH has never stopped. Their new site is called
@dropout
. If you love independent comedy and want to support the people who make it, subscribe and watch the hilarious shit they’re making. It’s better and weirder than ever.
Musk doesn't have the money or the staff to meaningfully update or even fix Twitter, so he's making the cheapest, smallest tweak he can - literally swapping out a GIF file - that grabs the biggest headlines. It's nothing but a cheap, meaningless play to get his name in the press.
Hell yes!! These talented VFX workers amaze audiences and power Disney’s profits - they deserve the protection of a union! Strength and solidarity to them as they take this brave step. ✊🏻
BREAKING: Visual Effects (VFX) crews at Walt
@Disney
Pictures have filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to unionize with backing of
@vfxunion
.
This marks only the second time in history VFX pros have joined together, with the first being earlier just this month.
TurboTax will run multi-million dollar ads to convince you their "tax experts" make filing easier, but what they don't tell you is that the reason taxes are hard to do in the first place is that they've lobbied the IRS to keep them that way:
This. Our picket lines were packed until the final day. Members of other unions stood with us until the very end. The companies tried to divide us, and then break us. They failed. We stuck together, and we won. And SAG-AFTRA members will do the same.
a short 🧵!
Back in May, when it became clear we were going on strike, I got real sad. Because I remembered the last strike.
How the AMPTP plan to play unions against each other worked. How the picket lines swelled at first but after a few weeks, thinned out.
Not this time.
The secret clause in Prop 22 that Uber and Lyft isn't telling you about: if it passes, it's designed to make it IMPOSSIBLE for our elected officials to ever pass legislation to protect workers again. It's purely, chillingly anti-democratic.
#NoOnProp22
When you "tip" an Amazon driver, the driver doesn't receive that money as a bonus. Instead, Amazon uses it to pay them the base wage they were already promised. This is an unfair and misleading practice that doesn't match anyone's understanding of a tip.
The problem: no way to monetize. In fact, instead of viewers coming to OUR site & seeing ads, Facebook’s model is to CHARGE YOU for access to your fans. Site traffic plummeted. So did ad rates, and thus video budgets. Our FB views were awesome!! But we now know those were a lie.
Vote
#NoOnProp22
, not just because it takes essential rights away from workers who need them, but because it would send a message to every corporation in the country that they can just buy their way out of following the law. (thread)
Let me get this straight: Billionaire Jeffrey Katzenberg has one-on-one meetings with LA City Councilmembers and demands they criminalize homelessness. Within days, they ram through a bill doing just that. Is the Council straight up admitting they take orders from billionaires?
Lots of folks asking how they can support the strike today. Not sure why, might be because our employers just announced their goal to render us all homeless? Anyway.
The answer: Donate to the ECF to support writers and other workers affected by the strike.
AHHH K WE INTERVIEWED
@adamconover
TODAY AND HE WENT ON A WHOLE RANT ABOUT HOW UNPAID INTERNSHIPS ARE TRASH AND HE LOOKED AT ALL OF US (the interns) DURING THE INTERVIEW AND WAS LIKE WHERES YOUR BOSS PAY THESE PEOPLE i love and appreciate him
Don’t use AirBNB again until you read this story. As report Allie Conti documents, their listings are full of scammers who will take your money, then at the last moment displace you into disgusting, unlivable units. AirBNB won’t give you a full refund, nor fix the problem.
update: the fbi has contacted me about this article. i still haven't been able to have a meaningful conversation with a human being at
@airbnb
, though.
We posted links to FB, of course, but the links led to our site! I specifically remember the fateful day someone said “You have to see the numbers native videos get on Facebook. They’re INSANE.” Too good to pass up! So we started posting videos natively to Facebook instead.