Episode 390 · The Studio Revamp
Harvey Weinstein's Overturned Conviction & TikTok Ban | The Tim Dillon Show #390
Apr 27, 2024 · 1:05:31 · 454,000 views · 14 segments, 101 moments indexed
Tim talks about the TikTok ban, not asking questions, Harvey Weinstein’s conviction being overturned in New York, an Italian ice cream ban and why it’s not cool to brag about adult parties.
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- 2 min
Tim explains the TikTok ban is tied to a foreign aid package for Israel and Ukraine, with ByteDance given 270 days to sell the app or face a ban.
4moments
- TikTok ban has passed both houses of Congress and is on its way to becoming law with broad support in Washington.
- Congress is trying to force a sale to an American company rather than outright ban the app; Chinese owner has 270 days to sell or face significant consequences.
- The TikTok ban was included in a foreign aid package that also funds Israel and Ukraine.
- Tim predicts TikTok's decline is already inevitable regardless of whether it gets sold, marking the beginning of the end.
- 3 min
Why the Government Actually Wants TikTok Gone
#Tim argues the real reason for banning TikTok isn't kids' mental health but that young people are asking uncomfortable questions about war, citing Jonathan Haidt's book The Anxious Generation as a smokescreen.
7moments
- 170 million US users and 7 businesses operate on TikTok; Tim tried it briefly but couldn't get into it.
- Tim explains the government probably wants to ban TikTok because young people get information from it.
- Jonathan Haidt wrote a book saying social media damages children by feeding their anxiety.
- TikTok started fine with everyone dancing, then shifted to people asking 'why did we shoot that baby in the face.'
- Tim jokes the government doesn't want to explain to prepubescent kids why they shot the baby in the face.
- Haidt's book argues social media damages children because they discover they're losers.
- Kids on TikTok pick the mental illness or disease they want as if choosing a community, unlike choosing BMX bikes.
TikTokJonathan HaidtThe Anxious Generation
- 4 min
The Government Doesn't Care About Your Mental Health
#Tim riffs on how the US doesn't actually care about citizens' mental health or privacy, using his mother's schizophrenia and difficulty institutionalizing her, plus the viral Bin Laden letter TikTok controversy as evidence.
8moments
- The government doesn't care if your children are mentally ill—they won't ban food additives or fund mental health because they have no investment in it.
- This country isn't designed to help people's mental health; citizens live without insurance, one car accident away from financial collapse.
- Tim's mother was schizophrenic and had to be institutionalized; getting someone into a mental hospital is very difficult because Medicare won't pay.
- Mentally ill people are punching others on New York streets and walking around because laws prevent commitment and nobody wants to fund their care.
- The government doesn't care about privacy—the Chinese spy on us with TikTok and the government does the same thing.
- A Bin Laden letter went viral on TikTok and young girls were sexually attracted to him, which got him big on the platform.
- Young kids are now turning against the U.S. war machine because of the Israel-Gaza conflict, which the government doesn't want happening.
- The U.S. keeps giving Ukraine billions in aid, which results in dead kids, while everyone debates Gaza.
Osama bin Ladensocial mediaTikTokmental healthIsrael-Gaza conflict
- 4 min
The Ukraine Aid Package and the Meat Grinder
#Tim argues the $60 billion Ukraine aid package is really about bleeding the Russian military and provoking regime change, with young men on both sides being sent into a meat grinder while Americans cheer.
4moments
- The $60 billion Ukraine aid package sends young men from both countries into a meat grinder with no genuine connection to American national security.
- People celebrate the aid package and cheer, but the real goal is to bleed the Russian military and engineer regime change in Moscow.
- Tim's frustration: anyone who questions the Ukraine spending gets attacked, while the same government allocates only $15 billion to Israel and moves to ban TikTok.
- Tim delivers a sarcastic monologue defending the necessity of shooting babies in the face as the cost of geopolitical complexity that civilians don't understand.
- 4 min
Why Do We Shoot the Baby in the Face?
#An extended surreal bit where Tim voices a parent explaining to a crying child why the military has to 'shoot a baby in the face,' spiraling into a bleak monologue about loveless marriages and resignation.
7moments
- Young people on TikTok are asking uncomfortable questions about US military interventions worldwide.
- Tim argues the US government is trying to suppress young people's voices and control information flow.
- Tim performs a bit as a parent explaining to a child why a baby got shot in the face, comparing it to natural phenomena like the moon and sun.
- The parent's logic: shoot enough babies in the face and eventually babies won't have to worry about getting shot in the face.
- Tim shifts to the mother's perspective—a jaded woman no longer attracted to her husband, drinking Pinot Grigio and masurbating to women.
- The mother explains she's learned not to ask questions, and will teach her daughter the same resignation in loveless marriages.
- Tim concludes the bit: the baby getting shot in the face is what it all comes down to—the consequence of resigned, miserable lives.
US governmentTikTok
- 6 min
Tim reacts to Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction being overturned by an all-female panel of judges, declaring the #MeToo movement a failure given Weinstein and Cosby's fates, and imagines him triumphantly returning to the Soho House.
9moments
- Tim declares the #MeToo movement a complete failure with Harvey Weinstein's conviction overturned and Bill Cosby out of jail.
- The movement's problem wasn't the goal but the scale: Weinstein and Cosby on one end, a guy making an off-color remark to his secretary on the other.
- Movie fans should be cautiously excited about Weinstein's return, maybe hoping his next film is about someone falsely accused of rape.
- Tim invokes the principle of living in a country of laws to defend due process for Weinstein despite calling him an ogre and tyrant.
- The Soho House in LA collects the worst of humanity: dilettantes, rich kids pretending to be in the arts, agents and brand deal people with zero talent.
- When Weinstein walks back into Hollywood institutions like the Soho House, don't be surprised if he's greeted warmly by the frauds Tim just described.
- Tim's test for whether the country is truly back: women throwing their underwear at Harvey Weinstein in public.
- People don't realize how quickly the tennis ball comes back over the net in this country.
- Tim pivots to ask why the conviction was actually overturned.
- 5 min
Judge Jenny Rivera Doesn't Feel Bad for Hoes
#Tim speculates on why female judges overturned the conviction, inventing a persona for Judge Jenny Rivera who has no sympathy for privileged women like Angelina Jolie or Gwyneth Paltrow.
7moments
- Tim criticizes how the Weinstein trial allowed testimony from people uninvolved in the charges, comparing the 2020 atmosphere to Salem witch trials.
- Female judges on the panel don't feel sympathy for the accusers because they didn't become hoes to climb the professional ladder.
- Tim jokes that Harvey Weinstein is calling him right now, then cuts the call to defend him on his podcast.
- A female judge with accomplishments won't sympathize with wealthy actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie in the courtroom.
- The #MeToo movement has gone so far that even women judges are saying release the monsters from jail because they're exhausted.
- Judge Jenny Rivera refused a COVID vaccine and could face removal, which Tim calls exemplary.
- Rivera likely refuses sympathy for Angelina Jolie and Gwyneth Paltrow, remembering when she was making chopped cheese at a bodega while going to school at night.
Harvey WeinsteinGwyneth PaltrowJenny RiveraAngelina Jolie
- 2 min
Weinstein's Triumphant Comeback Movie About Gaza
#Tim imagines Weinstein getting out of jail and immediately making a propaganda film about Israel and Gaza starring Gal Gadot and Ghislaine Maxwell.
5moments
- Everyone deserves a second, third, or eighteenth chance, including Harvey Weinstein returning from jail to Hollywood.
- Weinstein will make the greatest movie ever about the mass grave at al-Shifa hospital, portraying it as Palestinians killing themselves.
- The film will feature two-year-old Palestinians carrying guns in a world where no one can be trusted.
- The Weinstein Brothers present 'Israel: It Had to Be Done,' starring Gal Gadot, Kevin Spacey, and Ghislaine Maxwell.
- Little Palestinians come out with little guns in the movie, and Tim says he's ready to see it.
Harvey WeinsteinIsraelGal GadotKevin SpaceyGhislaine MaxwellJudge Jenny Rivera
- 4 min
Tim discusses Milan's proposal to ban late-night takeaway food like pizza and gelato to curb noisy drunken crowds, connecting it to Italy's high youth unemployment.
7moments
- Milan proposes banning late-night ice cream, pizza, and takeaway food after midnight to preserve residential tranquility.
- The core issue: Italy believes people will behave badly if given the opportunity to eat late at night.
- Tim connects the ban to Italian youth unemployment and nostalgia for Mussolini's era, suggesting Europeans need a world war.
- The ban runs until November because summers get wild when tourists arrive and teach Italians how Americans do things.
- Tim describes the American template Italy fears: late-night Denny's and Waffle House fights over nothing, people attacking each other with chairs and hash browns.
- Italy recognizes that a couple scoops of gelato at midnight is harmless, but they know what escalates: full-scale wars in restaurants at 2 or 3 a.m.
- Italian officials watch videos of Denny's and Waffle House brawls, people getting choked out and bludgeoned with metal chairs, and decide to ban late-night food now before the violence arrives.
- 4 min
Tim contrasts violent late-night diner brawls in America (Waffle House, Denny's) with his peaceful meal in Sweden, then transitions into a Mack Weldon clothing sponsor read.
7moments
- Freedom is the freedom to crack someone over the head with a napkin holder at 2 or 3 a.m.
- One negative of freedom is that people use it to take a chair at Waffle House and skull somebody with it at 1 in the morning.
- Add drugs, poverty, and social media to the mix and people start popping off about each other.
- American diner brawls are an exclusively American phenomenon—you don't see many brawls in Swedish pancake restaurants.
- People eating pancakes and deciding to kill each other is somehow more disturbing than other types of violence.
- Tim went to a nice Swedish restaurant with Sam Talent for meatballs and pancakes, and nobody tried to kill anyone with a fork.
- In America, diner brawls happen quite often, and Italy is starting to wonder if we can stop it before it starts.
- 4 min
Tim reacts to a viral TikTok video of a trans person recounting attending three sex parties in one night while wearing a COVID mask on the subway, mocking the mismatch between the content and the caution.
6moments
- Tim reads about someone invited to three sex parties in one night across NYC, with a five-hour timeline and explicit logistics planning.
- The TikToker describes falling in love with multiple people at the first party and trying to manage emotional expectations.
- Tim points out the contradiction: the person had sex with five or six people at parties but then wore a CO2 mask on the subway.
- Sex parties Tim knows about are Long Island swinger couples in their 40s, 50s, or 60s on engineered wood floors, not glamorous events.
- The TikToker concludes that trans and non-binary people can have healthy, wonderful sex lives and be loved and desired.
- Tim notes the third sex party's group got deleted from the app, leaving the person stranded at the hotel.
- 6 min
The Lost Art of Discretion
#Tim argues society has lost the value of keeping secrets, using the sex party TikToker as an example of someone who should have just kept quiet about her exploits instead of broadcasting them.
10moments
- Tim criticizes the 'mommy blogger energy' of people documenting their sex party attendance online instead of just being cool about it.
- The mechanization and video documentation of sex parties suggests people care more about the footage than the actual experience.
- Society has lost the value of keeping secrets; people used to maintain private lives they didn't share with everyone.
- Tim finds one positive thing about Harvey Weinstein: his preference for quiet, discreet behavior rather than public boasting.
- The distinction between close friends and internet followers has been destroyed, leading people to overshare intimate details with strangers online.
- Some things should be taken to the grave; attending three sex parties in one night is not something that needs to become a video.
- Tim does an extended parody of someone recounting multiple sex parties with the same pedantic tone as a cooking tutorial.
- Tim's recommendation: people should keep their sexual behavior close to the vest rather than broadcasting it to prove how much sex they're having.
- Going out and announcing you're a pervert while trying to demand respect contradicts itself; the LGBT community isn't suffering from being seen as insufficiently promiscuous.
- A 20-person polycule discussing boundaries is absurd—the boundary should simply be: don't tell anyone what you're doing and shut up about it.
Harvey WeinsteinStorage Wars
- 10 min
Tim tears into a New York Times article about a 20-person polyamorous 'polycule,' mocking the invented terminology, the boundary-setting jargon, and the absurdity of covering this while the world is on the brink of war.
10moments
- The word 'polycule' is a synthesis of polyamory and molecule, coined to describe what Tim calls a sex cult.
- Tim argues families aren't supposed to have sex with each other, and networks aren't either—20 people in a relationship is just a cult.
- He questions why the New York Times runs weekly articles about people's group sex arrangements and boundary-setting discussions.
- One polycule member claims abundance of love to give to all participants, which Tim dismisses as completely untrue.
- With seven wars ongoing and potential nuclear conflict, Tim can't fathom why the Times publishes detailed reporting on whose body parts go where in orgies.
- The Times provides investigative journalism on the rules and boundary-setting protocols of the polycule arrangement.
- Tim argues these people aren't interesting and that group sex arrangements have existed forever under different names without needing new terminology.
- These are the most boring people ever, needing the polycule concept to feel interesting and wild in their own minds.
- One woman's nesting partner owns the home because he inherited money from his great aunt, while she'll put her ass in anyone's face.
- The Times publishes articles about polycules weekly, explaining how people handle jealousy, which Tim notes is a real and serious problem in these arrangements.
- 7 min
Weinstein's Agent Pitches a Comeback Role
#Tim performs an extended improvised scene of a talent agent nervously pitching an actress a role in a new Weinstein Brothers film, softening the news that Harvey is attached to the project.
10moments
- Harvey Weinstein gets out of jail and reads about polyamory relationships instead of anything else.
- Tim announces Weinstein is coming back and everyone will be better for it despite his convictions being overturned on technicalities.
- If Weinstein's California conviction gets overturned, he'll be out making movies because that's what he does—painters paint, he makes films.
- Everyone at the Soho House has no soul except people who might give Tim money, and they'll absolutely warm to Weinstein when he returns.
- An agent pitches a Weinstein brothers film to an actress with full disclosure about who's producing it.
- Tim's agent claimed to not be a liar, which Tim points out is literally contradicting the agent's job description.
- The agent sells the actress on the role by emphasizing it's a lead part but not the lead, so she won't take the heat for working with Weinstein.
- Agent describes the character Morgan as someone who loves nature and rivers, noting the actress did improv comedy—or at least signed up for a class she never attended.
- Agent claims to not be trying to influence the actress while actively attempting to persuade her, positioning himself as merely a guide while she's the captain.
- The agent minimizes the expected backlash to a couple of blogs and tweets, arguing the movie is worth considering and features the actress as Morgan in a polyamory story set in post-war Gaza.