In my Covid-Cinema Part I post, I mentioned that watching Hot Ones had become an early 2020 obsession, and is partly responsible for not only one of my last nights out in normal times, but that I got to see my mom before the pandemic made NYC shut down. I forever owe Sean Evans this appreciation!
In the first few weeks of quarantine, I convinced myself to buy a much-needed bottle of my favorite foundation makeup from Yves Saint Laurent. It costs $55 but was totally worth it. And while searching fun makeup tutorials, I came across Vogue’s Beauty Secrets videos, featuring celebrities talking about their own routines and tips for self-care wellness.
Both of these YouTube series found unique ways to engage a diverse range of celebrities well before the pandemic, but also to continue through the pandemic. Vogue already had its subjects self-tape in their bathrooms but Hot Ones took a minute between seasons to adapt accordingly.
“Hot Ones” by First We Feast, hosted by Sean Evans
Season 11 premiered on February 6, 2020 with Margot Robbie promoting her Harley Quinn movie, Birds of Prey – released in theaters on February 7th. Concurrently with the 4th wing, Sean introduced what seemed to be a separately taped question from each of her girl-squad co-stars: Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Ella Jay Basco. They stood in front of a black curtain facing the camera, and then the scene cut back to Margot answering. At the end of the interview, in time for the 10th wing (aka The Last Dab) each lady joined Margot in on the fun. Sean, Jurnee, Mary Elizabeth, Ella Jay, and Margot crowded the circular table, passed around the bottle of hot sauce, brought their wings into a huddle to “Cheers”, and then took their bites.
It was a positive moment of girl-power after a great interview. It’s viewed at the time being a normal in-person interaction between friends, with not even a low level of concern. But watching that now, in these pandemic times, it’s a cringe-worthy scene because you’re wondering: (a) Did anyone wash their hands? (b) That bottle has not been sanitized! (c) They are standing within 6 feet of each other! (d) And omg, the wings touched before they ate them!
Birds of Prey also holds a footnote in Covid-Cinema for being one of the first-impacted theatrically exhibited titles amid shutdowns to move to home-viewing on March 24th. Other titles would soon follow suit, or prompted studios to not only indefinitely delay their theatrical releases but also instead initially exhibit on online streaming services. As this was the case coincidentally with April 10th’s release of Universal’s Trolls World Tour – that Justin Timberlake was promoting on Hot Ones’ Season 11 finale on April 9th.
Towards the end of March, Sean Evans released a video, “Hot Ones: Quarantine Update” to give its audience some behind-the-scenes information: that week’s episode has been held-up, but they’ve got two more down the line (Zac Efron’s and Justin Timberlake’s), and given the already anticipated break between seasons, “hopefully we’re behind all this at that point and up and running on Season 12 – but you can’t rush these things”. He then explains how he got the deep cut on his chin: from fainting and hitting the hard-wood coffee table instead of the Lovesac. He’d been feeling sick for a few days, but the doctor told him to stay hydrated and in bed. He didn’t say if he had coronavirus symptoms.
But he did take the opportunity to remind his audience to take care of themselves, to call loved ones, “…stay safe, stay home, stay healthy…” It’s this kind of intimate interaction that YouTubers can have with their audiences. And it’s the immediate look into someone’s life and home that self-taping from quarantine allows.
As the Hot Ones team has been doing for previous seasons, Sean uploaded a video on April 30th that addresses fans’ questions and comments from the Season 11 interviews. It opens with a more serious tone on a placard saying, “Hit the donate button and join us in supporting restaurant workers impacted by Covid-19”, with the charity Restaurant Workers Community Foundation Inc. The production is making an effort to help the very essential frontline servers, cooks, and delivery persons responsible for bringing the customers their Uber Eats, Seamless, Caviar, and Postmates ordered meals.
Sean records again from his living room, with a simple Hot Ones at-home set-up of the branded items, a line of hot sauces on the TV stand behind him, and a mic. But during his introduction is a cut-away shot showing a mid-day blue sky empty Times Square save for the bicyclist and traffic cop – only previously seen in the Tom Cruise/Cameron Crowe movie Vanilla Sky (2001).
“How does this global pandemic effect Hot Ones? The long and short of it is uh we don’t really know. We’re just like you guys watching the news” and staying updated.
On June 18, 2020 Sean introduced the upcoming Season 12 hot sauce lineup. The First We Feast production team figured out how their format can still be accomplished in quarantine, expressed their frustration like everyone else staying-at-home, and gave their support to the Black Lives Matter movement’s resurgence.
“Obviously things are a little bit complicated right now. The second we can get back into the studio we are going to be in the studio…I’m going crazy in here…Black Lives Matter to Hot Ones…as goofy as the show is on paper it’s always been the goal to bring people from all walks of life into the studio, sit them down at the table, and have a very real conversation over real spicy wings. And we owe so much of our success over the years to Black culture: from the guests to the endless questions about rap lyrics down to many of the pop culture touch points that make up the DNA of the show, things that are created and popularized by Black people.” Sean reminds viewers that it was Tony Yayo from G-Unit on their first ever episode, and is “part of our origin story…Without Black culture there’s no Hot Ones, without Black culture there’s no pop culture,” and wants the audience to call out racism in the comments and in real life.
[Backtracking a bit, that Season 1 Episode 1 premiered on March 12, 2015 (just about five years before NYC would shutdown for the pandemic). The most interesting thing about their 5 minute video isn’t that Tony Yayo couldn’t make it past Wing #4, but that when Sean presented the 10 Wings 10 Question challenge to Tony, Sean (and the production) was not prepared to take the challenge himself. Tony’s plate was set-up with 10 wings, some carrot & celery sticks, and dressing (ranch or blue cheese?). But when Tony tells Sean to get in on it too, a second smaller less-fancy plate was brought out only with the wings for Sean. It wasn’t until two months later that Episode 2 with Anthony Rizzo was released, and the production clearly took Tony’s impromptu suggestion to heart. The format was re-developed, closer to the Hot Ones we see today: Sean with his board of 10 wings, the guest with their 10 wings, the Scoville Pepper scale for visual assist, more bottles of water and glasses of milk, white paper napkins (that would later become red linen), and two of the same regular looking plates for the bones to pile upon – no more carrots, salary, or dipping sauce. So, it is absolutely possible that without Tony Yayo there’d be no Hot Ones.]
Season 12 Episode 1 premiered on June 25, 2020 with Tom Segura, followed by weekly uploads of nine more episodes including guests Brie Larson, Eric Andre, Dan Levy, Dua Lipa, T-Pain, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Even though the guests all filmed with Zoom from their own homes, Sean started the season from his own home but later on moved back to the studio; a sign that NYC had “flattened the curve” enough and that the production can still achieve its excellent interviews by keeping its remote guests safe. Sean had his plate of wings, the sauces lined-up, some water and milk - all mirrored by the guests’ makeshift table. Some guests went all-out with their backdrops, their red napkins, their remedies for spice, etc. to stay true to the Hot Ones’ look. And aside from the usual greetings, episodes featured at least one specific question that references the guests’ quarantine time in the pandemic.
Sean opened the interview with Tom Segura asking how celebrities are expected to navigate the moment? His answer is that they shouldn’t be expected to properly navigate the pandemic; they’re human and have the same stressors or potential to mess up just as much as us regular folk.
Brie Larson was asked for her take on what ways Hollywood is looking towards for getting back on set safely. Not only would in-person contact be monitored with quarantine and testing, as well as CGI if necessary but it’s great that instead of the studios being in competition, they started to collaborate on certain rules.
Dua Lipa’s album Future Nostalgia was planned to be released in late March 2020 before anyone knew the pandemic would happen, but fans had started to leak it ahead of schedule so even though it was a mulled-over decision to continue as planned, it couldn’t be helped to continue on. She pondered, “Would anyone care? Is this a good time to put it out? There’s so much suffering going on in the world and is the music what people need?...Maybe the time is now?...And the response was great! Cause it could have gone one of two ways, and I’m really happy that people reacted to it well.” (The album received top critical reviews from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and The Guardian, to list a few.)
Eric Andre, was grateful to have toured and taped his stand-up special Legalize Everything for Netflix, all wrapped with great timing before the pandemic hit. “I totally lucked out”.
And as the last question for Dan Levy, Sean asked, “…drawing on your time as an Internet era philosopher, what’s your directive to the fans watching right now who maybe feel withdrawn, in this year of physical and social isolation?” And to paraphrase Dan’s answer, is that with everyone being home, there’s been more opportunity for connection, for meaningful conversation, and people are more connected to “what’s going on politically….(and) socially,”. It’s about having hope for the future.
Not only was Season 12’s closing episode with Joseph Gordon-Levitt (promoting Netflix’s Project Power) a fine finish but it did a lap around the current and future predictions for culture, yet also having a hilarious interruption with a now Zoom meeting-gone-wrong trope.
Question 1 focused on his 13+ years ago formed production company’s prescient initiative HitRecord on YouTube so that creatives can actively collaborate on projects as well as his appreciation for the access to knowledge such as a channel showing how fruit goes rotten. “I wouldn’t be able to show my kids something so incredibly specific before YouTube, and not to mention I want to hear that Debussy piece played on a banjo. You can just find everything. Not to mention like idiots like me eating too spicy food…”. After the 8th sauce, Joseph’s publicist interrupted, “Joe, really quickly we have to be at Corden in five minutes…”. The episode closes out with his armpit sweat stains through his red t-shirt and sauce across his mouth. And if you scoot over to the YouTube video for James Corden’s interview with him to see how that went, you’d swear there might have been hours between tapings instead of maybe a few minutes, Joseph looking refreshed in a black polo shirt, clean face, and combed hair.
The Season 12 Q&A episode featured Sean Evans answering fans’ questions which he admitted mostly related to filming in quarantine. “Doing the show remotely, logistically everything, it sucks ass. No one wants to get back in the studio worse than me. Here’s what’s standing in the way of that.” He lists out that in case fans weren’t aware, for all other seasons until lockdown, the team would travel all over the country for their interviews with the guests. “That’s not a realistic way to function right now. If I could quarantine, get tested everyday, sign a waiver, take out liability, I would do it.” But there’s too many protocols necessary to do it that way it used to be done. He’s been keeping an eye on all the talk shows (primetime and daytime) to see if guests are in-person, if there’s live audiences, etc. He understands fans have stuck through the seasons’ alternative handling, giving them thanks for the patience and support. “We’re gonna rock through this!” “Obviously in these times, there’s some curveballs we didn’t ask for…We have to deal with it.” Some of those curveballs are guests who were provided the wings and sauces to participate, would more frequently (even if unintentionally) bail on the interview because there’s been less hand-holding from their teams to make the login times. As a strange result, the videos we see uploaded reflect the celebrities who made it, and unbeknownst to us we won’t know who didn’t. “Another charming by-product of the times.”
As of November 1, 2020, the most recent episode for Hot Ones Season 13 Episode 5 with Sam Smith shot remotely. Sean’s last question focuses on what Sam considers perfection is and “how to stop expecting it from ourselves”? In a fully zeitgeist way, the answer is that the idea of perfection or rather of happiness, is accepting it’s a “fluid and fleeting” emotion, along with feeling and appreciating the whole spectrum of emotions.
This week Sam Smith has been virtually promoting, Love
Goes. So not quite coincidentally, Vogue Beauty Secrets’ latest
upload also features Sam Smith.
Vogue’s Beauty Secrets
Vogue has been prolific on YouTube since 2008 with hundreds if not thousands of videos of content spanning the fashion industry’s various niches. Its Beauty Secrets playlist has 180 videos.
The first is Lily Aldridge’s 90-Second Easy Summer Beauty Look from May 2016. With its fast-forward editing from the moment she steps out of the shower, Lily’s video tutorial includes: a quick towel-dry and brush through her wet hair, a blow-dry exchanged for a bun, a quick application of her MAC foundation mixed with highlighter by the beauty blender, a few dabs of concealer, “more highlighter”, gold eyeshadow for blush applied with a fan brush, then a neutral pink lipliner, some mascara, a q-tip to clean up mistakes, setting powder, and lastly lipstick.
These are very simple steps for a naturally light appearance all done in front of the camera, yet it’s also a very inviting, feminine and relatable video. She’s a supermodel whose job is to look perfect on the runway or in an advertisement, in an industry notorious for allowing very few models with power. Yet here she is, in her own home bathroom putting on her own makeup, and doing what every other woman does: get ready for the day. She doesn’t give too much away about her life but in the few moments she speaks she’s so friendly and funny! All of the steps she takes to leave the house come with her own comments on how blow-drying her hair “will take too long” so she instead puts it into a bun. She puts her hand to the camera with the foundation and highlighter so we can see the blobs of “gorgeous mess” in her palm. She’s going to put concealer on “this thing” on her chin, slightly embarrassed to say zit. She professes her love for highlighter, saying that she’s made fun of by makeup artists when she asks for more, to “make me shiny and dewy and glowy”, and admits to purposefully choosing to do something you’re not supposed to with gold eyeshadow, “that’s the fun of makeup, you can do whatever you want.” Then, reaching up to the mirror, right in the camera’s lens, “You don’t look very cool putting mascara on.” She puts on her “finishing touches” of gold earrings, improvises an air-kiss to the mirror, and leaves the frame but quickly comes back to get her phone.
Over two years and 60 videos of other diverse featured women later, in November 2018, Lily Aldridge Shares Her Pregnancy Beauty Routine is 11 minutes and 29 seconds. That’s 10 more minutes (with minimal fast-forward editing) that she takes full advantage of. From go, she is present for the viewers and narrates the process with even more quips and anecdotes, along with similar gestures we saw from her earlier video. She shows us the makeup blobs in the palm of her hand, still loves more highlighter, she makes the funny face we all do putting on mascara, and she air-blows kisses to the camera at its end.
But even more so during this second routine video, she talks about how we should all be doing more self-care, has changed out her products for those with more natural ingredients, and emphasizes how important it is to “take time for yourself and just breathe.” She laughs at a funny story about her daughter’s reaction to her wearing a face mask, shows off her pregnancy’s stretch marks, and how she takes care of them with a belly mask. She’s thrilled to use her quartz skin roller along her cheekbones and jawline watching the puffiness disappear (maybe those things do work?) “just trying to keep these alive as long as I can!”. She braids her hair for a light beach-wave, because “as a mom you have to cut as many corners as you can.”
As she applies her makeup for a still natural glowing skin look with slight contouring, and puts on some cream blush, she laughs at her own joke, “What the F* Lily, I barely see it”. And then realizes she made a mistake realizing her mascara technique messed-up her eye contouring trick, so she has to redo it. And as she’s deciding between whether to put on red lipstick or lip-gloss, she ends up doing both. “What kind of red lip does this mama want?” “Did I make the right choice? Should we add a little gloss too? Why not? This is a beauty video!” A spritz of perfume is the final step.
She pretty much set and then re-set the standard for Vogue’s Beauty Secret videos.
Cut to March 9, 2020 when (according to their search engine) Vogue’s first published article related to the coronavirus hit the Internet: “How Do You Date Amid the Coronavirus?” That’s a whole other kind of post, and not for this blog. Rather, it means that as (seemingly) early as that date (pun intended?), a Vogue writer was starting to look at pandemic life: filled with hand sanitizer that can get scalped for $100, questioning reflex greeting gestures, and giving a face medical mask as a creepy/quirky gift. On that same day, Hilary Duff’s video was released on YouTube. And Jessica Alba’s video was released a week later on March 16th. Like Lily, they talk about being busy working moms, noticing small details as they’ve aged, what they’ve learned from makeup artists through their careers on-camera, and what they’ve learned themselves through some trial and error.
They showed no indication of the pandemic in its video introductions or in the description notes, but it would have been fair to say that they were filmed and edited before the pandemic. Looking at them now, it gives us a more intimate window back at normal times. Given how everything so quickly changed in March, and all that we’ve experienced since, it would be too easy to dismiss their videos as privileged; Hollywood actresses using expensive products on their ‘off-days’ telling the wide non-famous world of viewers how to do what they do and take care of themselves. Yet you can’t because there’s a wonderful other side to the coin: knowing that even on an ‘off-day’ they still get ready in their bathrooms, they do their makeup thinking about what needs to get done, who they care about, and what inspires them.
Jessica’s video clearly started at Step 0, putting on a fluffy bunny eared headband to keep her hair back while she takes us through her routine. She doesn’t exude or excuse any embarrassment for how she honestly looks: exhausted and a bit splotchy. But through her video, as she applies all of the skincare and makeup layers, she’s revealing her inner layers. About 4 minutes in, she speaks about how important it is for self-care (whether you have kids or not) “as a woman in the world trying to do the things, get your hustle on, wearing all the hats…even if it’s for ten minutes.”
Zoey Deutch’s video was released on March 25, 2020. The description section says she filmed at a NYC hotel and she talks about only having 9 hours of sleep, but getting barely any in the previous week(s) from filming. Whether or not filming had finished per scheduled wrap, or because of shutdown she does not say either. Also, in the description section there was a note from Vogue for requesting donations towards those (not) working in the fashion industry impacted by the pandemic with the CFDA charity.
I want to skip ahead to August 2020 when two pandemic-filmed Vogue Beauty Secret videos were posted. Kat Graham’s Natural Hair Beauty Routine on the 13th and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Guide to Her Signature Red Lip on the 21st. Both are women of color with reputations of the highest professionalism and made very powerful statements for self-esteem.
The Vampire Diaries originally aired from 2009 to 2017 on the CW, but has lived on via Netflix. Kat Graham starred as Mystic Falls’ beloved witch, Bonnie Bennett. Though I’d binged the show only this past June, I was an instant fan. Bonnie was always sacrificing herself and happiness for her best friends. (I’m not sure if Elena deserved it but Damon did.) By the series’ finale, Bonnie was able to save Elena without having to die herself (again) as the curse was supposed to require – but she’d lost the love of her life, Enzo.
Appearing in all 171 episodes over those 8 seasons meant she needed to be in hair & makeup at the start and end of every day’s shoot; which can go as long as 12 or more hours. Plus any awards shows or spokesmodel shoots. Kat had been steadily working in Hollywood since 1998, through and after Diaries ended, with her most recently released projects: Cut Throat City and Operation Christmas Drop. There are very few projects she’s been in that allowed her (and yes, “allowed” is the right word) to wear her own hair in its natural African-textured style. One such example is her 2011 Funny Or Die parody, “Black and Jewish”.
Having been getting her hair done by a team of professionals since she was nine years old (also because her mom didn’t know how to properly help), quarantine has been the first real stretch of time she’s had to take care of her hair on her own. Kat is unexpectedly overcome with emotion for not just how Hollywood “wanted a certain kind of look” but also how it’s been really “therapeutic” to style it and care for it as she wants to: “really, really big.” She uses an afro-pick to comb out the tangles and add volume, saying that not only had she never thought she would own one but that, and because of, it’s not something Hollywood ever embraced. She hopes to someday play a character she can wear her natural hair for.
Wearing her own hair and showing it in a video for millions to see who know her as Bonnie and how Kat wore her hair as Bonnie (with a “lace front…so the glue, and the wig clips, and the pulling, and the braids were hard on my hair”), is even surprising to her. But Kat is super confident and proud to do so, even showing all the steps and products she uses to keep her hair conditioned. It is especially because of the Cantu Avocado Leave-In Repair conditioner that helped build Kat’s confidence through her time in quarantine in order to show off her hair for this video.
“Right before quarantine, I had a week of press to do, we didn’t know what was happening, it was just flights were getting cancelled, borders were getting closed, and (as she tears up)…why am I crying over conditioner, this is so stupid (but it’s not at all stupid), but Rachel (her stylist) gave me this and she said, ‘I want you to start to use this on your hair’…and it was almost like she knew I was going to be on my own, and I’ve never had to be on my with my hair (as she looks down crying at the memories). So anyways, I really love this product because this was the product that helped me figure out that my hair will work with me if I don’t give up on it.”
She composes herself to continue taking us through her steps, but the viewer is undeniably left crying too because whether it’s been a physical or psychological struggle, we’ve all been more isolated this year and forced to deal with something more so on our own. Her unabashedly emotional vulnerability yet also sincere self-esteem is a moment on-camera that she would not have otherwise shown and which we could not have otherwise related to had it not been for Vogue’s Beauty Secrets’ format.
As the youngest woman ever elected to the House of Representatives in November 2018 by NY’s 14th District (much of the Queens and Bronx boroughs), for Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, filming her video was not just another opportunity to showcase her political perspective but an opportunity to invite people into her personal space. This is something politicians do not normally willingly do yet, she’s no stranger to social media.
Falling down a rabbit-hole does not even begin to cover the conversation of public criticism women face in any industry, especially politics; and that’s putting it politely. AOC may have been asked to focus her video on her signature look of wearing “a red lip” but she explains that it doesn’t just come from a choice of wanting to look beautiful. Rather she expresses that it’s what makes her feel most confident to be the woman she sees herself as and who she needs to be when doing her job.
Behind AOC is not some luxury designed bathroom. All you see
is a plain white/cream wall with two gray hand-towels. But like so many of the
other women in these Vogue videos, she starts with a fresh face. Admitting
she (too) has “not gotten much sleep last night at all,…we are trying to get
people healthcare…”. Throughout her 18 minutes, she takes small pauses to
finish saying her thought, or she’s talking so much she doesn’t say what
product she’s using or doing with it.
In some ways, it doesn’t even matter what she’s doing (like putting on Vitamin C serum and moisturizer) because what she’s saying (“femininity has power”) is so important, but both her words and her routine together incredibly represent what all women do each day whether they’re in the spotlight or not. She dives into that well of beauty “as frivolous” versus beauty “as substantive” by concluding that true beauty is loving yourself and feeling free to express that by whatever choices are made to look how you want to look for yourself and not someone else.
AOC is a hero to so many women not just in her district but across the country because her story and her perspective resonates so strongly. She’s not afraid to stand up for herself and what she believes in. She works so that others are protected and provided for. But she decides what makeup she wears and what clothes she wears. She knows photos will be taken of her at opportune times but most often not at opportune times. She knows what the other congressmen think of her. She might second-guess her choice of a shimmer or glitzy eyeshadow as something that won’t help her, that it would further “diminish my voice as young and frivolous and unintelligent” but she tried it anyway and “it looks fire, it looks good! It helps me feel better!” For her red lip, she needs to wear a product “that stay all day because I really don’t have time to be running in and out of the bathroom to be doing touch-ups…that are indestructible.” Her preferred red liquid lip choice is Stila’s in Beso. “It’s like, boom! It’s a nice little shock and even I feel more oomph with the red on.”
Sam Smith’s video was released a few days ago, taking place in the here-and-now, just over 7 months into the pandemic. As a world-wide awarded musician, who goes by the non-binary singular pronouns of they/them, promoting a new album from home is not the usual way of doing things. Instead of performing at late-night and prime-time television shows, on radio programs, or at venues with large audiences across the globe, they is working at all hours to accommodate all those mostly unfavored live time slots. But, for Vogue’s Beauty Secrets that more so necessitate a morning-hours recording to showcase a morning routine, it’s most likely a preferred time of Sam’s choice.
Recalling how poorly they used to take care of their skin growing up, it’s been a complete turnaround since the start of their professional career. Sam’s severely dry skin has become smooth and luminous. Frankly, the excellent bathroom lighting helps accentuate their naturally glowing skin even from just putting on a touch of tinted sunscreen. By sharing their story of not just coming out at the age of 10 but then as a teenager questioning their binary label as male to a more fluid gender queerness, Sam needed to better express what they wanted to look like for themselves and to others, “as a form of survival, to be honest, and makeup for me was the way to do that.” To feel comfortable in one’s own skin is the most important feeling, that self-confidence, you can have about yourself. As Sam continues with gel for their eyebrows, mascara for eyelashes, and lastly a shiny but clear lip-gloss, they talks about their parents’ dynamic as the unusual of the dad staying home while the mom goes out to work.
Lastly, after a quick facial setting spray but right before putting a little hair wax in, Sam reveals they got a hair transplant to cover the balding spot towards the front of their forehead. “How stunning is it?!” It’s not a big deal but it’s not not a big deal either, at least in Hollywood; as something that mostly men try to solve by either shaving their heads or poorly cover. [The only other person to (recently) reveal their getting a hair transplant was Cheyenne Jackson (of American Horror Story fame), back in May as something he was so ashamed about before and knowing it’s not a big deal considering all that everyone was/is dealing with during a pandemic, but he wanted to take the moment to share the secret to set a good example for his son as well as to “inspire someone out there to share” something they’ve been hiding.]
Sam’s parting advice is “sometimes when we’re anxious and we’re feeling down or just feeling shit in general, you gotta think of yourself like a child. Do you need feeding? Do you need water? Do you need sleep? What do you need? You know, asking yourself these basic things. …Because when I’ve been abandoning my mental health, it kinda comes out on my face.”
As Sam signs off the video, they like the rest of the viewers, “I watch these things all the time. And I hope that this was a fun one to watch. I feel great. I hope that helped...And to anyone watching this, have a lovely day!”
[When major regions of the country and the world went into lockdown mode, it was an immediate understanding who was considered “essential” and “non-essential”, who had to go to work versus who had to work from home versus who had just lost their jobs (or soon would). And with either, there’s challenges, fears, and changes to someone’s personal routine. Whether someone has to still commute to their job at a grocery store, or to set up their home office for trading stocks when the market opens, or for the increasing numbers of people filing for unemployment benefits, deciding to keep laying down in bed or sit up to watch a movie, everyone needs to take a few minutes for themselves. At the least, it should be to take a deep breath and to drink some water. And then maybe also to put on some face moisturizer, or lip balm, or mascara, or whatever they want to feel a tiny bit more okay because there might be a disgruntled customer, a Zoom-blunder to live down, or a fitted sheet that just won’t cooperate. It also acts as a reminder that normal times were filled with things to do that produces stress, and then in the transitional period to pandemic times, there’s the stress of uncertainty. And yet, for me at least while starting to watch these videos, they had a relaxing effect. It’s almost meditative to listen to their voices give sage advice on feeling your best even in difficult times, to watch them apply whatever products they’re using, and then to see the final effect looking so put together.]
Conclusion
During the pandemic, mental health has taken center stage. People’s lives have been upended in all kinds of ways. Being alone and/or feeling alone, needing support, needing connection, needing conversation, but also needing to feel calm and finding the minute positive moments in all of the chaos has never felt more immediate and common, whether by those who have already long been struggling or feeling it more for the first time. Watching fictional movies and television shows can be a really great escape, but when you watch these YouTube Hot Ones and Beauty Secrets, there’s a more intimate, authentic, and sincere tone. Even though the viewer is being reminded there is a pandemic when it’s brought up, there is a strong sense of feeling comforted by and relating to those shared experiences. They are (at home and) trying to get through the day too.
On Hot Ones’ even though there’s the challenge of
“hot questions and even hotter wings”, viewers enjoy watching their interviews
not just because of Sean’s thoroughly researched topics or that you can see
they are genuinely enjoying them despite the sauces’ increasing heat, but because
you can see those celebrities more as people instead of only from their work or
public persona. The show’s Season 12 and 13 pandemic transition to an at-home
format can’t help but make you feel like you’re even more in the room with Sean
and the week’s guest. As the screen switches between faces, Sean is looking at
you and telling you to “be careful around the eyes!” And then the guest is
staring back at you, talking about something that happened on a movie set, or
when they were inspired to collaborate on a new venture.
When you watch Beauty Secrets, you are sitting across from a celebrity (model, actor, musician, comedian) as if you’re within their mirror, as they do their self-care routine. There may be specifically used or advertised products and topics to discuss as guidelines, but so many of the guests are in charge of what they say into the camera, and sometimes it takes them to unexpected emotions or stories they wouldn’t have otherwise shared in other ways. You can listen to their more inner-voice’s thoughts on what makes them get up each day and want to give it their best efforts despite not having enough sleep or the criticism they’ll face. As AOC says, “if you need a little boost or if you’re feeling particularly challenged that day, look in the mirror and say, ‘I’m the bomb!’”. And with a quick honorable mention from Selena Gomez’ video (that was promoting her new makeup line, Rare Beauty, “I feel like makeup should be accessories to compliment what’s beautiful about you.”
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