Off Campus is already a frontrunner for teen show of the summer, students are scared to eat in front of their peers, and what the success of Backrooms says about the state of the movies. But first:
Slang of the Week – Lida Bida Boda Butt
Maybe less of a slang of the week, and more of a “meme” or “trending sound on TikTok” of the week, Lida Bida Boda Butt is the name of an ancient dog owned by the TikTok user bunnyrunny7777. Her viral TikTok features her introducing her new dog, Emerald Jade Green Ball, sitting right next to Lida Bida Boda Butt, who is clearly blind and looks not a day under 20. The contrast between the two dogs sourced endless funny comments and memes, but the thing that cemented Lida Bida Boda Butt in teens’ brains was bunnyrunny7777’s distinctive accent. It’s a phrase that is satisfying or fun to repeat over and over again (not unlike “6-7”).
And now for our three conversations..
1. The Summer They Went Off Campus
What it is: An adaptation of a popular romance novel, Off Campus, is Prime Video’s No. 3 debut of all time, garnering over 36 million views for the first 12 days of its release.
Why it’s so popular: Garrett Graham is a star hockey player; Hannah Wells is a nerdy composer. But when Garrett needs a tutor to pass his philosophy class, and Hannah needs a guy to make her crush jealous, they decide to start ‘fake dating,’ and end up actually dating. Off Campus is basically if To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (fake dating) and Heated Rivalry (hockey romance) had a baby. Most of the show is a hedonistic mix of casual sex, nudity, drinking, and crude conversation, but it also offers a few moments of surprising depth. It’s rare to see brooding young athletes depicted saying things like “Nothing is more vulnerable than sex,” and that a girl should feel “completely safe” when she is intimate with a guy. A thread some girls may relate to is Hannah’s journey recovering from sexual assault and how it hinders her capacity for physical intimacy. The show does not affirm a Christian vision of sexuality, but it does offer an unvarnished example of the kind of voices shaping young people’s imaginations about topics including trauma, domestic violence, and sexuality.
Continue the conversation: What is a plotline or trope that you are tired of seeing in movies, books and TV shows?
2. Cafeteria Coercion
What it is: “Lunch shaming,” a form of bullying where classmates will secretly take photos of their peers eating lunch and share the images on social media, is reportedly on the rise, with 14% of elementary students and 18% of middle and high school students reporting being bullied in the cafeteria in the last month.
Why it’s a thing: It is a truth universally acknowledged that mid-bite, nobody looks glamorous. The Wall Street JournalWSJ reported that the shaming tends to fall into two categories: the lonely eater (caught eating alone) and the ugly mouthful. As a result, some kids have stopped eating lunch at school altogether. One 18-year-old told the WSJ that one of his good friends was biting into a turkey sandwich—then, a camera flash. After the photo circulated the school during their freshman year, they did not eat in front of anyone again for years. When one school district in Washington implemented a full-day phone ban, staff noticed an increase in the number of middle-school students eating lunch.
Continue the conversation: What is an embarrassing moment that you wish you could undo?
3. YouTube Takes Hollywood
What it is: The summer movie season has officially arrived, and two indie filmmakers who got their start on YouTube are leading the box office. Gen Z showed up to theaters en masse this month to see Backrooms and Obsession, which claimed the No. 1 and No. 2 spots ahead of the highly anticipated The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Why it’s exciting for teens: A24, the production company behind Backrooms, says director Kane Parsons has become the youngest filmmaker ever to direct a No. 1 movie at just 20 years old. Meanwhile, 27-year-old Curry Barker filmed Obsession in only 20 days for less than $1 million, and it has already grossed nearly $156 million. The two films are very different in content. Obsession is rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, sexual content, pervasive language, and brief graphic nudity, while Backrooms is rated R for language and some violent content and bloody images. In an interview with Variety, James Wan, who co-produced Backrooms, says, “The YouTube generation has finally come of age. They grew up creating their own content with no money and just by being as creative as possible. This spirit ends up fostering a new wave of filmmakers and storytellers.”
Let’s translate this one further…
“I don’t want to go to college. I want to be a YouTuber.”
A commonly heard phrase that could strike fear in the hearts of any parent, because being a YouTuber isn’t a real career… is it? When our kids tell us what they want to be when they grow up, they’re giving us insight into who they want to become. Hearing about my children’s dreams has sometimes been an exercise in restraint for me. I want to be supportive as I tend to be a big dreamer myself, but I also want to help them see their strengths and gifts, which don’t always align. I want my kids to make mistakes. I want them to try new things. I don’t want to shield them entirely from struggle or even suffering.
That’s one reason the success of Backrooms and Obsession caught my attention. If one of these filmmakers had told their parents a decade ago that they wanted to make YouTube videos instead of following a more… traditional path, I wonder how many adults would have seen it as a legitimate career. Yet here they are, directing the No. 1 and No. 2 movies in the country.
Of course, every child with a YouTube dream and a camera won’t become a Hollywood director. That’s not the point. The point is that, as parents, we’re not meant to predict the future for our children. We are told to faithfully steward the children God has given us. Some kids are born storytellers. That, in itself, can be a spiritual gift—perhaps even a way to follow Jesus, whom Mark 4:34 says “did not say anything to them without using a parable.” In other words, storytelling was clearly Jesus’s preferred method of teaching. As Alasdair MacIntyre writes in After Virtue, “Man is essentially a storytelling animal, but a teller of stories that aspire to truth.”
It’s not our job to decide whether our kids’ dreams are realistic (and you’ll probably fare better with them if you don’t). It’s our job to help them recognize and cultivate their gifts. Help them understand how they’re wired and teach them to listen to the Lord’s leading. Sometimes dreams change, and sometimes they don’t, but either way, God’s plans for them will always be bigger than our predictions.
For more context and nuance, check out our Roundtable podcast on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In the meantime, here are three questions to help you continue the conversation with your teens:
- What’s a dream that you haven’t said out loud because it feels too big?
- If you could make any kind of movie or YouTube video, what would it be about?
- What do you think you’re naturally gifted at?
Parenting together,
Irene Tucker and the Axis Team
In Other News…
- Taylor Swift’s new song “I Knew It, I Knew You” comes out today and was inspired by an early screening of Toy Story 5.
- PlayStation’s “State of Play” gaming showcase happened this week, with most of the buzz being around an announcement of a new God of War game where you play as Kratos’ wife, Faye, and an extended look at the M-rated Marvel’s Wolverine game, coming out in September.
- Recent releases of UAP footage from the US government have some Christians debating whether these supposed alien visitations could actually represent demonic activity.
- Indie group Boards of Canada’s first album since 2013, Inferno, explores faith, spirituality, and existential dread over eerie electronic beats.
- A YouTuber known as “Reckless Ben” was arrested for trespassing in his attempt to pursue justice against the Bricks & Minifigs store after the store allegedly stole $200,000 (language) worth of LEGO sets from an elderly man.
PS: Know someone who could use our conversation starters with their teens? Share the CT with a friend!