Celebrities: Who Are They Now? (Premium E283) Sample
Ah, the lives of the rich and famous. The clones of the lives of the rich and famous. Perhaps the rich and famous are only rich and famous because they’ve been alive for centuries honing their craft. This week, we descend into a ‘page six’ gossip podcast, and examine a handful of conspiracy theories obsessed with the idea that our favorite celebrities are not who they say they are.
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Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
https://qaapodcast.com
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
So before we dive into the episode, Liv, do you want to talk?
A little bit about what the White House official account just tweeted.
Oh god.
It was in reaction to, and I'm not sure about the underlying news story here, a supposed fentanyl drug dealer being deported.
And it's someone who's like in handcuffs and they're crying.
They're being deported.
And the White House account quote tweeted it with a Studio Ghibli style AI slop depiction of the person being arrested.
So just, like, Studio Ghibli, AI slop, you know, Reddit, fascism, basically.
Like, that's the world we live in now.
It's like I was saying earlier before we jumped on the recording, you know, the last administration, you know, they were, like, kind of trying to match, you know, the channers, you know, with the Dark Brandon memes and, you know, the ice cream stuff,
the, you know, the sunglasses, the joint, you know, they were trying.
But now that you've got, like, A real channer in there.
It's just like unabashed racism.
Yeah, like, we're finally seeing what a real poster looks like.
Yeah. They're proper posters.
It's terrifying.
It's grim.
It's real grim.
It's the right-wing version where, like, you know, they think AI is actually based, so they're willing to use it to mock you.
I mean, it truly is.
I mean, I know that this was a lot of the times the reaction to the Nazis is they made fun of them.
Like, people made fun of them because they're, like, stupid in a funny way.
But, I mean, a part of this, I think, is to say, like, well, we have the power.
It doesn't matter.
Yeah, they have the power.
We will post fucking Scudio.
Studio Ghibli edits.
I know, just like some trash AI slop.
Like, I wonder how many different IP filters they went through before they decided that Studio Ghibli was the one that they wanted to go with.
It looks oddly like, I don't want to say wholesome, but the photo is cute.
Like, it's a cutesy style.
It's like, who is this?
What is it for?
I don't understand.
It's like Reddit fascism?
Like, soft boy?
Ooh, small bean fascism?
Yeah, because it's like, you know, like a...
White guy in, you know, a military sort of uniform with a scowl on his face, you know, handcuffing this crying woman.
They've aged her horribly in the AI slop.
It's a young woman who the meme is actually based on.
And it's got 51,000 likes, 7.1 million views, so...
Yeah. It's really, this is the future.
They don't care about culture.
All that shit about, you know, we didn't...
Just defend Western culture or whatever, the classic.
It's like, no, they have no artistic or aesthetic sense.
No, there's nothing.
It's just pure, it's pure, like, uncontrolled hatred.
I saw another one of someone had an AI-generated image of, like, this, like, idealistic, you know, 60s white-only, like, bar area.
And they were like, oh, this is what we have to return to.
And of course, all the signs are gibberish because AI has a hard time, like, generating, like, real, like, signs.
It's, like, a perfect image of, like, what their aesthetic sensibility is.
It's purely this modern, even though they're trying to invoke some return to tradition, go to the past, it's purely this junk, modern, brainless, automated sense of the world, aesthetic sense of what art is, what culture is.
It's just nothing.
It's just a void.
Yeah, it's insane.
It's insane.
But it's a product of society at large, where the internet is going, as we will see in this episode.
Well... We're sort of focusing on all of the same swamp creatures.
And so I was trying to kind of move away from that and focus on a conspiracy that felt a little bit less political, even though it's become one of them.
So in November of 2021, on episode 168 of this podcast, Travis brought us an episode on the extreme QAnon cult led by Michael Protzman, aka Negative 48. Among many other things,
the Hardcore QAnon group was known for their belief that various dead celebrities and big ones were disguised as white hats within Donald Trump's inner circle.
This included the belief that Princess Diana was Melania Trump.
They also thought Michael Jackson was alive and Elvis was in there along with JFK and his son.
There was a whole smorgasbord of celebs.
And in July of 2022, Annie Kelly let us down one of the original pop culture rabbit holes, the conspiracy theory that in 1966, Beatles member Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash and replaced by Billy Shears, even now.
And then the other day, Travis asked me if I'd heard about the theory that Katy Perry is JonBenet Ramsey, the young girl who was the victim in an unsolved homicide in 1996.
It seems like in the depth of the internet, being famous for one thing, Just isn't enough.
And I'm not quite sure I understand the value add here, right?
Like, if you're a Katy Perry fan, is she more impressive because she's actually Jean Benet Ramsey, or is it just an easier story to digest, one where you don't have to accept the reality that an innocent child suffered and instead went on to become one of the most popular singers of the 2000s and beyond?
Yeah, I wonder what the hook is here of, like, she has to say that she isn't because, like, the CIA or something?
Yeah, there's not too many...
It seems more that people are just like, they're like, eh, reality on this isn't quite interesting enough.
Like, let's see if we can find a way to make it, you know, to make reality.
Cooler. Yeah, it's one of those things where it's, like, the thing that, like, it's, like, conspiracy theorists have the same problem that, like, 14-year-old girls have, which is they don't realize that, like, focal lenses on cameras, like, drastically change your face.
Right, right, exactly.
You kind of look like this person in this way, and they kind of look different, like, otherwise, and, oh, is that a new person?
Because in this photo, they look way different.
Yeah, sure.
Lighting, makeup, yeah, all of the various things that can alter a photo.
Just digital altering, like, because the, you know, the, I don't know, the studio or the company is like, oh, well, we're going to have these touched up, or the artist wants it that way.
Yes, many factors.
So, we've discussed the phenomenon of doppelgangers on the show before, of course, most memorably with Naomi Klein, but this trend of insisting celebrities aren't who they say they are stretches back long before Katy Perry.
I was curious to dredge up other famous figures who have died and since been replaced in an effort to understand yet another way the average human being processes fame, wealth, and tragedy.
So let's kick off what will no doubt become my personal slide into a Page Six gossip rag, which actually sounds kind of fun.
Celebrities. Who are they now?
You've been listening to a sample of a premium episode of the QAA Podcast.
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Travis, why is that such a good deal?
Well, Jake, you get hundreds of additional episodes of the QAA Podcast for just $5 per month.
For that very low price, you get access to over 200 premium episodes, plus all of our miniseries.
10 episodes of Man Clan with Julian and Annie.
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It's a bounty of content and the best deal in podcasting.
Travis, for once, I agree with you.
And I also agree that people could subscribe by going to patreon.com slash QAA.
Well, that's not an opinion.
It's a fact.
You're so right, Jake.
We love and appreciate all of our listeners.
Yes, we do.
And Travis is actually crying right now, I think, out of gratitude, maybe?
