Hi all.
I completely disengaged with all J&L content quite a while ago. It started when I began to feel really uncomfortable with the way those poor shut-in viewers were throwing money at them on those livestreams left, right and centre. Then, the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Lia uploaded an image of herself on Instagram and the background was literally the view outside my kitchen window!
I already frequent a few of Joel and Lia’s favoured London haunts and had feared running into them but this really gave me the creeps. It felt like a sign to step back!
I’ve been keeping up with their antics through all your hilarious posts and by occasionally nosing on their Instagram stories. I saw a few months ago that their main channel had basically flopped and they were hardly ever uploading as even the shut-in Americans had given up. I find the whole thing with Mouldy Manor so bizarre - is anyone living in it now?
However, I noticed yesterday that they have reformatted their channel into a vodcast format and I was curious, so decided to listen to them all (well, I had to watch them as Lia has only made one episode available on Apple Podcasts
- is this a silly way for redirecting people to YouTube, where they make more money through ads?). Some takeaways:
- They actually come across as significantly more down-to-earth than they ever did in the “Joel and Lia” era. It’s not just that there’s a more relaxed vibe but it’s the things they say. An odd example but Joel said something about how he has an office for the first time in Keegan’s house when I’m sure he once tried to convince us all that that weird corner next to Lucy’s room in Mouldy Manor was his “office”. Joel also said at one point that he shouldn’t really call himself an actor as he hasn’t acted in anything in ages!!!
- On that point, they basically admit at one stage that their core audience is middle-aged American women. We’ve all suspected this on Tattle for years but I don’t think they’d have ever admitted that previously. There’s nothing wrong with that demographic but they never were these trendy, youthful influencers that they often tried to present as.
- The whole thing feels like they know they have flopped and are starting completely from scratch. It’s good that that’s humbled them.
- All that being said, the conversations do feel like two work colleagues chatting. They don’t really have much in common and lead very different lives. The podcasts are unstructured but the kind of things that come up (moving house, the fact that they’re both “influencers”, the fact that celebrities have short marriages) honestly seems like the stuff I would bring up when making small talk with someone from work that I didn’t particularly like. They’re both too guarded (and, quite frankly, too dim) to make a truly interesting conversation.
- They are also terminally online. Not in a weird culture wars way but there’s endless talk about “manifesting” and “being present”. They namedrop some online motivational speakers as if they are household names and never expand on who they are. This is probably by virtue of being influencers and not really having work colleagues/seldom leaving the house.
- Renaming the channel “Those Two Brits” seems like a really bad move if they want to broaden their audience. Who in the UK would click on a channel called “Those Two Brits”? They also seem to have deleted that second channel that involved them travelling the UK - this seemed to be a really good way to move the channel away from endless “UK vs USA” videos so that seems odd.
- Lia said something at one point about “when we used to fly to America” which possibly suggests that they won’t be any more, so the money has really dried up or that those trips just didn’t make a return on the investment. Their insistence on staying in bougey AirBnBs probably factors into that.
- A significant portion of their viewers hate the new format. Lots of negative comments on the first few episodes but they’re less prominent as it goes on. Those people probably just quit watching. The view count almost halved between episode 1 and episode 4.
- They are offering channel memberships for £7.99! Who on earth is paying the equivalent of a Netflix subscription for extra Joel and Lia podcasts?!?!
- They are booking a video podcast studio in London to batch record these every few weeks. She lives in the Midlands and he lives in the North - surely there’s somewhere in Manchester that does the same thing? Or they could buy some podcasting equipment themselves (it’s not that expensive) and shove a camera in front of them.
- They are also doing a tour to Scotland in a few months but have sold out just over half of the tickets. I think they said there were 20 places and 13 were booked.
- I feel that they both seem resigned to being a househusband/housewife who make a bit of money online on the side. Joel talking about going on holiday with Keegan and “the kids” was really jarring. His solo channel is much more successful but I can’t remember the last time I saw a sponsored story on his Instagram - surely he’s not making much money? I saw that Lia posted on IG recently that her family has sent her to Greece to clear out a relative’s house ready for sale - there seems to be a widespread acknowledgment in her own family that she doesn’t do a lot and has a lot of time on her hands.
- I’d love them to do an episode where they are a bit more frank about how their main channel has flopped and their careers are “influencers” don’t look as promising as they did in 2019 but I don’t think they are at that point yet.
I think I’ll keep listening (I can’t believe it either). This truly is one of my favourite threads on Tattle so thanks again everyone for always making me smile
. And sorry for the long post!