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THE FUNKO REPORT

🕑 Added 2021-12-06 05:26:58 +0000 UTC

Comments

Christopher Clark

For future reference, Disney Adults around 8:20

Lorraine Cornillie

I appreciate this video and how much it's made me reflect on my biases toward toxic/positive masculinity and what it means to redirect both sides of discontent. My perspective is constantly being rewritten, never fully being able to explain why either side is right or wrong. This video felt like being pulled out of a suffocating ideology and breathing fresh air again.

Teodor Eliasson

bruh why tf have I waited so long to join the Patreon this shit is incredible

Frigid Mirth

got a ticket from a cop the other day with a funkopop mounted to the back of his motorcycle

Ryan O’Connor

Maxwell Hoffman

This is great

Geraldo_Rivera

your reports make my heart race :)

Alex Harris

I also appreciate that you consistenly shy away from casting blame on one party or another and instead return to class disparity as the enemy

Alex Harris

Holy shit, the part about the soft talismans and pastiche nature of traditional hard talismans is wild as hell

Nicos Ledakis

🤯

Samy Guidoum

I'd like to add to the point of the cancellation of the future the great success of nostalgia music that preys on idiomatic tropes from specific eras, most notably Dua Lipa(the album is literally called Future Nostalgia) and The Weeknd heavily borrowing from the 80s synthpop musical and visual aesthetics as well as Silk Sonic basically just remaking Motown style soul music. It's not so much that it's invoking the spirit of those era-defining styles moreso than being a caricature of them: the Skate song off Silk Sonic being a prime example of that. That being said, those are all 3 fantastic albums with breathtaking production that I respect and admire very much. Great work Brad!

Kez Dearmer

Genius, thanks Brad

Eric M Diehl

Love it, Brad. That montage at the end had me laughing. I'll have to sort out what my own version of Funkos are, but I hate all of the soft AND hard talisman starter pack signifiers you shed light on. A lot to reflect on.

G

I mean, they literally refer to themselves and their listeners as "failsons", a direct nod to their "failed" masculinity. The real funkos are the podcasters we made our friends along the way. I'm absolutely not denigrating the podcast btw, I'm a big fan/faildaughter myself

G

as long as it's not a vasectomy gift from your wife's boyfriend, I think you're in the clear

Danny McIntyre

We all have our Funkos, don't we. Those that take us back are memories...And those that carry us forward, are dreams.

Pablo J

great report, thanks brad

John J Stone

Fuck yes. This rules.

Mary

First of all I'm obsessed with this, second - I feel like this is somewhat true for women, too. Every time I imagine getting married and having a family etc etc I feel like "a republican" and feel some odd need to justify it to my friends. Super bizarre

Eric Wiley

Why'd you put Chapo in the slideshow at the end? Would make a lot more sense if you put Ezra Klein, Vox, or Pod Save America there—no way a Chapo listener is a Funko collector.

Zach Mueller

In support with Driely: “URBAN MEN’S FASHION / THROWING FITS / AIME LEON DORE / ‘ARCHIVAL’ “

Will Wharton

same. my girlfriend bought me a nintendo switch recently lol

James Wills

It’s interesting that as a gay man I didn’t identify with much in this video. I goes because there is less of a worry about coming across as toxicly masculine? Like I can grow a scraggly neckbeard and wear flannel and vote for Bernie and my woke coworkers give me a pass for it in a way they wouldn’t if I was straight. Hear me out: What if the liberal male ideal is just being gay?

Nick Vitou

Thanks

John

Touchdown by John maus

Nick Vitou

What is the song at the end?

Nick Vitou

Global homogeneity.

Benjamin Arnold

💪🏼 Ps. I'd add 'Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past' by Mark Fisher's close friend Simon Reynolds to any reading list on the subject of culture's inability to formulate a coherent vision of the present

Devon

Another fantastic report!

sixty four

have always seen marvel films as mchappy meals of cinema so this really speaks to me

Alexandra Michelle

Love this! My experience with men and Funko though has actually been that if they are serious collectors, they are not experiencing that these licensed toys are softening in the nu-male way. A lot of the men I've met are actually beta nerds who perform masculinity through collecting them and getting "rare" or valuable ones. Very much like NFT's. So they actually perform masculinity through resource collecting and hoarding and even over emphasize these traits to maybe cover the shame of being into collectables. I really liked the difference between hard and soft talismans, I think the lines between how men are using these items to feel secure is really blurry, both being a pastiche of traditional masculinity when taken to extremes (one economic "I have rare items" and one visual "I can survive in the wilderness") .

za

great work. feeling a pang of guilt everytime something i enjoy is referenced lol. feels good tho. like someone is tenderly touching a wound in my soul.

Steve

Recently left a five year job working at a shop that sold these things. This really articulated a lot of my feelings about this type of fandom culture and was pretty cathartic, thanks Brad!

Rachael Milton

One of my fav general fandom fandom tiktoks are the "tell me your man won't leave you without telling me your man won't leave you" trend lmaooo its full of fandom bois. It always cuts to "secretly" filmed clips of the men looking at their basement full of thousands of dollars worth of fish tanks or them explaining why Bionicle are not mean to be played with to their dog. It's the theatrical pov of wifey to grownup lol random man hahah

Will McCracken

This video really put to words a lot of things I’ve had trouble expressing recently. The cultural expression of being “a fan” feels so steeped in sickness and subservience. Dedicate yourself to a product, live vicariously through other’s work, it’s easier than living your own wasted useless life. And I’ve been wondering how one can be “a fan” in a healthy way. I mean I’m pretty far from a consoomer, but I’m not a cultural hermit and so these fandom anxieties pop up in my life. Of course the other problem is how in a profile centric society your cultural consumption is existential to your own identity. I can’t watch anything anymore without being plagued with questions of what it means for my personal identity - or more so what other people would think about it. And it sucks because it’s great to share and enjoy art and content with others. But the current landscape makes it such a show: enjoy the right things, enjoy them for the right reasons, enjoy things subversively, etc. Its just exhausting to even engage with.

Big G Shedda

well wicked mate

Joey Brodnax

God damn. This rocked me.

Peem

Cum town

Nathan Rutkowski

Your best one yet damn you!

Peter M. Loftus

ok epic much??

Evan Lamb

Hey cool video, thanks for all the work. I especially like your wondering at the end, almost like a call to action. I think the new-new masculinity you ask about creating exists. It is an understanding that the forms of masculinity, and gender presentation in general, are related in the same terms as family resemblence. Lined up in a row, you can see that your cousins are all related, even if some look totally different than others. Lined up in a row, I can see that positive masculine role models are all related by masculinity, even if some behave completely different than others. What traits they have in common is complicated, difficult to pin down. What they all lack is simple: they're not antiquated shitheads. Thanks again for sharing, and for reading this far!(!?)

Jackie

Another fucking banger of a video Brad. Your end sequences always make me feel like I’m strapped into a Total Recall-esque reprogramming machine. I think one of the consequences of the nu male is the total disengagement from forming, or at least voicing any opinion on… anything? Whether it’s “making space” or “uplifting voices” or “trusting the science” it goes beyond apathy or fear. It’s actually virtuous to refrain entirely from engaging with any social or political questions. Even when their opinion is the *right one*, its virtue-signaling, white-knighting, here’s-your-prize-for-doing-the-bare-minimum. I think that in engaging instead with these infantilizing interests, these men with their tails between their legs feel like they can be themselves, free of sin. I think a lot of them have surrounded themselves with scolds online for so long now that they’ve backed themselves into a Funko-lined corner.

Joe V

Finally subbed after years of lurking on the insta and it looks like I'm here to stay. The positive vs negative analysis of modern masculinity hit the nail on the head, and the way you tie in infantilization and consumer identity feels like it filled in some gaps for me personally. It seems to me like at least one form of consumer fanatic existed before technology flipped it from a largely antisocial to potentially social phenomena. I'm thinking of the LOTR fans who actually learned Elvish, or the Star Wars fans who could tell you why a particular Sith in the early aughts prequels didn't make sense as a character. Do you see there being a rare but more robust and substantive form of consumer fanhood out there? If so, what separates it from the Marvelcon crowd? Thanks for all you do Brad - I look forward to exploring more of your Patreon and purchasing my very own Brad Troemel Funkopo, when the time comes.

Rein Berenschot

fucking loving your patreon brad <3

Paul Maertens

The lack of a liberal masculine archetype in American society is a fascinating observation. Kindof blew my mind.

Pedro Bello

anyways really loved this report <3

Pedro Bello

lI use "LIL B" the "basegod" as my archeotype of the male I want to become.

Mara Zupsich

the solution is in the Gen X model, sensitive art dudes rebelling against their toxic dads

Dondo

Being based, luckily this doesn't apply to me

Pietro Alexander

You really popped off on this one Brad

Forrest Hamilton

So good! I agree that the modern man has become so empty with personality. It seems that so many people's interests now are not based in participating in pop culture, political, and career niches but creating a fake sense of personality from the infinite information floating on the internet. Additionally, no one wants to evaluate themselves on topics like if they are presenting the right version of themselves. How can someone know who they are if their personality is based on their own interests at this moment rather than the sum of their life experiences?