The Crazy Rise & Fall Of Cameo

[@J.Blogsblues-ns4to]

Nigel Farage saying to camera 'happy birthday Hugh Janus' must be Cameo's pinnacle!

[@lakrids-pibe]

I would love to pay Marina to stumble through a birthday greeting and forgetting half of it.

[@MrAlexrann]

Love this channel. Please do an episode on why there aren’t any reality TV shows that celebrate smart people. Why are we so obsessed with good looking stupid people

[@mattblack6736]

Great question! I remember the OG Big Brother when "normal" people were on it.

[@Cchogan]

I used to work for this wonderful old lady whose father owned "The Gramophone Shop" in Sloan Street London in the 1920s. She was a debutante. She told me all about the cult of celebrity that existed through magazines back then. It was no different to now, just not as instant. Beauty was the driving factor behind everything. But as for good-looking people being stupid, rather a lot of them are not, but their clever side is forgotten or not known. You tend to find out about them years later when you discover that after they left the more glamourous side of their career, they set up a pile of successful businesses. Or they become TV presenters etc. You can't do that job if your brain doesn't work. Even if you money-making persona is dippy (wow, there is an old word), in reality, you have to be right on the ball. I saw some come into the studio to do voice work. When the mic was off, they suddenly sounded a lot less idiotic.

[@mattodonnell7186]

@@Cchogan Quiz shows?

[@MrAlexrann]

@@Cchogan I don’t disagree with you that quite a few of these reality stars are quite savvy and probably more intelligent than they seem but love island does exist. Beauty is always an advantage in life. I guess my train of thought is really comes from conversations with my sister who is a primary school teacher and loads of her kids just want to be famous or get on a show like that. Why are there no shows that promote being an engineer or a doctor. But I guess filming folk sat in a room reading books and being interested in the world doesn’t make good viewing. How do the tv boffins make that show fun.

[@Elwaves2925]

@@MrAlexrann I get both yours and the other commenters point about some of them being more savvy and intelligent than they seem. Maybe using those types of shows as a foot in the door or something like that. However, I also think if they were that smart, wouldn't they be smart enough to go a different route? Using reality shows seems pretty desperate to me. As for good looks, I'd argue against that, at least on the visual side of things but obviously it's very much an individual taste thing. To me, it seems like the vaccuous, vain side of beauty, those who obsess over fake tans, huge amounts of makeup and so on. As for your sister and those kids, I feel really sorry for the future if that's their aim in life. Of course, they're still very young at that age and reality will set in at some point. We all went through something similar, it just wasn't reality shows back then.

[@stixdan]

Surely everyone would want cameos of Marina doing personal top 3's?!

[@lisamortini8567]

And starting with number 1s!

[@andrewbutler7681]

I think Richard's giant left hand deserves it's own "also starring" credit!

[@Rob-gx7rx]

trying to panda to the chinese market... thank you, thank you. i'll be here all night.

[@mrwabit]

I love Tubi, I use it a lot, but not for the reason you've suggested. Tubi is full of some outrageously entertaining B movies. From Corman to Troma there's a wealth of hurriedly made nonsense to fill you with joy. I'll carry on paying for Criterion, HBO (Crave in Canada) and Disney, but I can always rely on Tubi to have some delightful silliness if I need it.

[@GrahamCStrouse]

FreeVee’s also pretty great. Lotta good TV dramas & comedies on there that I can watch when I’m feeling nostalgic for just put on in the background while I’m doing something else.

[@Ulleskelf]

As much as I love Marina, we know she couldn't do Cameo convincingly because of the Sky ad in the middle of the show :)

[@Robutube1]

I cycled through Ulleskelf a few weeks ago when cycling back from the Hull ferry to W Yorks 😊.

[@philipwhiuk]

Plus the hilarious flapping about for the Q&A intro.

[@melhughes3567]

I thought the same 😂

[@chriskigen]

💀

[@jonquills66]

Thanks

[@hjt2236]

Spot on about Cameo - it's a lovely site for niche celebs and old school ones. Keep it at that!

[@polyglotuk]

Despite the internet and all these FAST channels it is still so hard for foreign language students to access quality foreign-language content because of geo-blocking restrictions. I wish the EBU would launch FAST channels showing documentaries from various European PSBs - things like Uppdrag granskning, Frontal 21. Sure the audience would be niche, but it would be loyal, engaged and easy to target with ads. Why do some PSBs (SVT, ZDF) let you watch their in-house content abroad on catch up but others (NPO, francetv) do not?

[@MooreAvery]

You nailed the intro! That makes me so happy!

[@MikeCandeland]

I moved from Merseyside to Shanghai 5 years ago and I can tell you that Chinese cinemas do not have pick ‘n’ mix 😢 You can get popcorn and some weird potato sticks, but no gummy snakes and cola bottles

[@elbee909]

Oh, I expected this to be about the pop-funk band that did 'Word Up'

[@TheLoveOfTracks]

Me too! 😂

[@billswifejo]

I love all the Walter Presents programmes on All Four. Fabulous drama and crime programmes from Europe, sometimes partially in English and all subtitled. Do go and watch it now in case it suddenly disappears!

[@travelwell6049]

I have watched some of those but was having to watch on my laptop so I could sit close enough to read the subtitles quickly enough.

[@pd4165]

The curse of Osman 'No way you'll ever see Oasis again'

[@Elwaves2925]

This is why I rarely work with absolutes, someone will (almost) always prove it wrong.

[@daviebananas1735]

Did he say that? Seems silly if he did. Although Noel was against it, it was always mooted and almost inevitable, even if not right now, unless one of them popped their clogs.

[@pd4165]

@@daviebananas1735 It was in the previous broadcast.

[@jfc4798]

he was only hoping we wouldn't. As was anyone else with any taste.

[@m-alexandria-g]

Such fun! 😂 Marina is now officially Miranda’s mother in my headcanon.

[@XexusNH]

It's interesting listening to TV talk, but we've cut the cord almost a decade ago, and now we watch KZbin on the TV about 90% of the time, The idea of investing time in a tv series is just a foreign concept now. We pay for KZbin to be rid of the commercials (which are said helps the creators more than ads do), and having done so for so long, any ads are just the trigger to reach for the remote (or mouse)

[@CharlieCooksey-hd6ty]

Who is 'we'? Are you answering on behalf of the entire world?

[@XexusNH]

@@CharlieCooksey-hd6ty What a silly reply: Use your context clues. Obviously "We" is that woman who lives in Botswana, reportedly a very pleasant person who spends her days tending her garden and frequenting Karaoke bars when her hubby has to work the night shift. I can't remember her full name, but she was the one who did that stunning rendition of "Rocky Raccoon", which got a glowing review in the Arts and Entertainment section of Mmegi back in the late 90's. Happy to have cleared that up for you.

[@Hutchmaster95]

It's been years since I've read Fight Club, but isn't that Chinese ending more faithful to the book than the Hollywood version?

[@Cchogan]

Cameo is a surprising story in some ways. This sounds more like the early days of the internet, before the dot bomb, where excess was almost a business model, and for all the companies that succeeded (like Amazon), THOUSANDS fell over having spent so much investment money on everything except spending it wisely on the business itself. So many of these kinds of businesses could have stayed in the garage where they began, have grown nicely, and would be cash-rich. As it is they think "Debt Rich" is a thing rather than realise that however you play it, it is always "Debt Poor."

[@Alec_Collins78]

Is the Cheers thing the one with Norm at the end?

[@andyballard1883]

Great selection of subjects as usual but for me the switching between cameras just didn't work. This is my favorite podcast and thrives on Richard and Marina both being on screen or in studio together and that is fundamental dynamic. Completely get that schedules dictate where both presenters are but the edit needs a split screen.

[@Visherex]

Got hooked, now I'm the guy 40 seconds early

[@pd4165]

Amateur.

[@Visherex]

@@pd4165 rookie numbers

[@finneganwoolley6557]

speaking of the necessity for growth, in the approximately 6-9 moths I've been watching Tubi (off and on), I'd say the advertising frequency has doubled. Then again, the content has improved, leaving me feeling that I don't know whether I'm Arthur or Matha.

[@DreamyGirl73]

I've been getting so many adverts for Tubi! Kept blocking them as they were annoying me so much and just realised I never even knew what it was until you said 😂😂

[@billsherrington5996]

like your Graphic EQ Richard👍

[@jonquills66]

Is Marina broadcasting outside the old TVC?

[@rob_in_stowmarket_uk]

Tarantino, particularly, HASN’T pandered to the Chinese market and, consequently, his films are, effectively, banned there. Rebel to the last! 😜

[@costeris35]

That most movies this last decade or so have been tailored to appeal to Chinese teenagers really does explain a lot.

[@muskerp]

Cameo is a lovely concept - once upon a time BT had some celebrities send voice messages to people (probably in the 80s). I seem to recall that you sent a text message and then the celeb would send it as voiced (maybe it was created from automation I cant remember) I had tom baker call my friend "a right C**t and at the time it was hilarious. Just for fans - seems less hilarious and just a bit sad.

[@angelaloaiza1021]

I gave my husband a Cameo for Father's Day. In 34 years of marriage it was THE best gift I ever got him - he cried! So it's sad that things have gone the way they have.

[@mungoboomdecker9711]

Was it John Virgo?

[@jfc4798]

Your other gifts must have been abysmal.

[@angelaloaiza1021]

@@jfc4798 Rude - I give good gifts. He was just blown away with this.

[@TravelingBibliophile]

One of my guilty pleasures in the age of streaming is to binge watch commercials on KZbin😂

[@richardbutler4488]

Richard looks unwell 🤒 and voice very rough, hope he gets well soon. This channel is very interesting regarding its content.

[@TommyDaniels-zt8zy]

When I saw the title of this podcast, I thought it would be a discussion about the music group who sang "Word Up".

[@DannyDenay]

I have massively got into tubi, specifically their horror section. Currently only shows ads for other shows available on the tubi platform. Presumably proving the numbers before they can sell spots to advertisers. How many ad plays would they need to generate before they can start selling real ad spots?

[@PeterTheTyke]

One of the problems with the so called premium channel’s still have ad’s especially the sports ones.

[@amg4098]

The part where Marina mentioned about the alternative ending in Fight Club, the reason for that, if a protagonist breaks the law and gets away with it without punishment,, the ending has to be tailored so that the protagonist faces justice or is killed. The censorship department don’t want it to be seen that a protagonist can get away with breaking the law. Hong Kong movies have had to film loads of alternative endings (for certain movies) for different markets such Malaysia, Singapore because of that.

[@kevinsoutham]

Marina tells us she can’t deliver a convincing birthday message on cameo…two minutes later there’s a stealth ad for Sky 😂

[@gma5607]

A stealth ad? A full cutaway with graphics, a watermark in the top left and the lead line saying the podcast 'brought to you by Sky' is a stealth ad? Kevin did you think, even briefly about the words you were going to type?

[@Robutube1]

Tubi is owned by Fox. Be careful what you wish for because, as someone much wiser than me said: if something's free, you're the product.

[@bianquita1]

Eww, I didn't know it was owned by Fox, but due to its subpar offerings, I didn't bother with it.

[@Robutube1]

@@bianquita1 Good call IMHO😀.

[@55tranquility]

Nice

[@SuzeTries]

Here in Canada we do not have free tv unless you have an antenna and where I live that is not possible. If you did have an antenna the channels available are very limited maybe even limited to just CBC.

[@GRLintern]

in the studio together, is much better, but this is better than nothing

[@tmac9972]

These free streaming services are on internet suppliers and that's where you will see rate increases because everyone is using up more bandwidth . You can offer free streaming but at what cost from the supplier.

[@parlonfilmco]

The Chinese ending to Fight Club is coincidentally much closer to the ending in the novel, where (from memory) the bombs fail and the narrator ends up in a psychiatric hospital.

[@davidjscox1]

The only place in 2024 you can still get a reference to Hi-de-Hi !

[@Alienalloy]

The things art department have to pull out of their arse last moment is second to non, Osman's back ground was literally knocked together an hour before they shot this, kudos to the AD.

[@jonsoftedge]

I was wondering why he had a random Klark-Teknik graphic equaliser on the shelf behind him!

[@jfc4798]

Thought this was gonna be about the legendary Larry Blackmon. Would have been a lot more interesting.

[@gtc9966]

Weirdly, I downloaded Tubi yesterday, as I heard Babylon 5 was on there…it’s not. Spent 10 minutes flicking through the catalogue, deleted it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@alansouthall8221]

the pirate IPTV providers, as in many areas where leading on this. they have always provided 24hr channels showing one show or genre.

[@iandavidson99]

Miriam Margolyes famously said she'd made hundreds of thousands from Cameo

[@scattygirl1]

21:01 I'm being dense- what does Marina mean by "distribution is more important than content"? I've replayed that section several times and I'm still non-plussed.

[@scattygirl1]

And "content is not a meritocracy"? Does she mean breadth of content is only available to those that pay more? Or to the better informed? Or does she mean it's not meritocratic for the creators of it?

[@mimasweets]

"In order for a show to achieve higher viewership numbers it's more important for it to have high distribution and high visibility within those distribution method, than it is for the show's contents to appeal to mass audiences"

[@MaddiemanGames]

​@@scattygirl1 a lot of big streaming services (Netflix, Apple, Disney, Amazon, etc) have focused on big budget 'prestige' content -- Stranger Things, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Star Wars, etc, under the belief that having exclusive "must watch" shows will be the deciding factor in convincing customers to choose their platform over others. However, I think what Marina and Richard are suggesting is that actually a large majority of people are more than satisfied with just turning on the tv at lunch or dinner time and just watching whatever's on. It's not a meritocracy in the sense that the best written, most expensive, high brow HBO-style shows are necessarily going win over large numbers of viewers compared to freely available ad-supported platforms that are showing reruns of Bargain Hunt and Death in Paradise. Consider also KZbin's many failed attempts to establish a 'premium' version with subscriber only shows -- it's never taken off, it's not what people go to KZbin for. So I think what they're suggesting is that once these free platforms become more established here they might start overtake the likes of Disney+, Apple tv, Paramount+, etc. As for distribution, it comes down to convenience: audiences will move to where the most content they want to watch is easily accessible, with the fewest barriers and friction, preferably free. We saw this in music where people would rather listen to adverts interrupting albums on Spotify than purchase or pirate music. There were other companies doing similar things back then, but Spotify simply gave people 'all the music' in a neatly designed app, with the least amount of strings attached. As a result Spotify has become not only the biggest distributor of music, but arguably a more powerful force in the music industry than the record labels themselves-- any time an artist (prestige content) has tried to boycott them over streaming royalties, it's made no meaningful impact, and they've grudgingly returned the platform a few years later -- Taylor Swift, Neil Young, and The Beatles spring to mind. The same is true for games -- they were talking about Steam earlier in this episode -- Valve's primary business used to be developing critically acclaimed games like Half Life 2 and Portal, and they built Steam to distribute them. Flash forward 20 years and Steam has essentially become the defacto storefront for the entire PC market. There are other stores like Epic, but the vast majority of customers prefer Steam and are willing to wait *multiple years* for Epic exclusivity contracts to run out and the game be distributed on Steam. Anyway, that's my interpretation of what Marina meant about distribution being more important than content. I can think of other examples, but hopefully this all made sense.

[@Neddoest]

Me, now thinking of all the people it would be cool to get a cameo message from. Kevin from the (US) office is a good one.

[@jamestanton7424]

James Buckley made Cameo work for him!

[@Altn246]

would love to see these guys get critical of Sky and their business model or some flops they've had... Dunno why they've never got anything negative to say about sky??

[@alho9231]

Word up! 😉

[@euansmith3699]

Cameo? Word up! 👍 Game streamers covering Black Myth are not allowed to say anything that might lead to negative discourse? Has the Chinese government actually looked at the internet?

[@kevinsoutham]

Gutted Cameo isnt about the 80s pop star. Word up!

[@dangermouse0480]

Cameo had their fingers on the trigger of the money game

[@morphunkown]

If you want to talk about Chinese censorship in the West they have gotten a game called "Devotion" taken down from Steam for offending their Dictator. They also got it blocked from being sold on GOG. I don't think you can buy it anywhere now. Also Tencent releases a lot of games and have bought shares in American video game companies, but I don't know much about the specifics other than it makes people mad to find out a game is funded by a Chinese company.

[@chriskigen]

22:28 editor missed this take?

[@bianquita1]

I had a look at TUBI, I couldn't find anything that was worth my time.

[@od9694]

Nigel farage on two separate occasions siad pro-IRA slogans

[@NickDusting]

Regarding China - wasn't the Matt Damon / Pedro Pascal "the wall" the biggest Chinese produced film to date? It was a running film but hey!

[@andyking7621]

Where's the red codpiece?

[@TheSgtsMess]

I can honestly say I have not watched even one episode of game of thrones.

[@2wheelsgood.]

The ‘world’ is not obsessed with a certain Dartist, just saying.

[@hpoonis2010]

I started watching because I thought Cameo was the Word Up, codpieces, flat-top guys. Imagine my disappointment: no codpieces and no "yaw pretty ladies around the world".

[@JG-jc8dm]

You can tell content isn't that important just by looking at Amazon Prime and the quantity of films on there from the "High Fliers" studio. I've learned to "swipe" away from anything of theirs as soon as I see the logo because it's often below student film quality. Like 4 or less on IMDB. Absolutely shite.

[@heatherrobertson6110]

Treating celebrities like meat puppets? You mean...paying actors to say scripted words? Outrageous! I get that Cameo isn't everybody's cup of tea, but I think the disdain shown by Marina here is a bit OTT. Nobody was harmed in the making of these birthday videos.

[@phill6859]

Actors never just read the words that one person writes. There is a writer, # script editor, director, producer etc. And not all celebrities are actors

[@deanmcloughlin2360]

No, using them like puppets as in tricking people into saying things they don't understand which suits a certain agenda, which they clearly explained in the video, had you been smart enough to understand

[@dibdab101]

I got all excited when I saw the title and thought it was going to be about cameos in films....but sadly no, just another story about another pointless social media platform.

[@fusi56]

Great idea for a topic!

[@GeraldineHughes-oj9fs]

Is Tubi owned by Fox?

[@TCJones]

I hate the netflix home screen, it just shows the same 40 films in different orders under different titles its no uncommon for me to browse for 30 mins and then not watch any thing, its so on my things to cancel list, if i actually paid for it.

[@robmoore5276]

Dammit I clicked on this video because I thought you were gonna talk about the band Cameo that did the song Word Up 😅😅

[@55tranquility]

It got a bit lame, when literally everyone you know had a birthday message from Jay from The Inbetweeners ... it felt a bit sh*t.

[@Cchogan]

These ad-supported channels have to be the future. Subscription content is mad. If I look at British TV, as it was, everything TV created was free at the point of delivery (either ad-supported or funded by the TV licence), and if you wanted a premium product that was not available (which was either a film at the cinema or a rented video), then you paid one-off. You weren't trapped into multiple subscriptions which most of us either cannot afford or can't justify, if we are being sensible.

[@backelie]

If I have a choice between a free streaming service with ads or a reasonably-priced streaming service without ads I'm picking the paid one every time.

[@tiredhippo82]

The online rhetoric around black myth has been horribly toxic with huge amounts of people acting like it’s a some weapon against ‘wokeism’ and huge amounts of super obvious propoganda bots who list game features in a way an actual human never would.

[@artiezonk]

"The Russians" damn good for the millions of Russians to come together to do what most students can't... work on a group project

[@davidraynorsnow]

Cameo never heard of it lol

[@Patrick-xf1cw]

The more episodes there are, the more apparent it becomes that Marina’s pretty snobbish

[@grahambuckerfield4640]

Try searching for her coverage of London 2012, in particular (with The Guardian) the equestrian event. She leaned into her background (never hidden) to comedic effect while mingling with the posh horsey people, some noting her affiliation on her press pass with that paper ‘yes but one doesn’t keep it at home’.

[@Malky24]

When the Sky advert feels less like an advert than the rest of the podcast.

[@sasaki_on_aoba]

Sorry but Marina could get the camera at face level?! Petty I know but…

[@sarahdisco-dolly1150]

Disney Hahahahaha.....

[@Calzaki]

Oh my god, I get Sky have block bought your sponsership but please find a different show to talk about

[@andy2950]

How does Richard know that his books aren't censored in China? Can he read Chinese? How would he ever know?🤔🤨

[@boreilly82]

He researched the question before the show

[@GMitchell2012]

Black Myth Wukong is the second on Steam first is PUBG.

[@honey-fe6pj]

Worth having a quick read for a min or two to understand Cameo’s history. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameo_(band)