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The Problem With...

The Problem With The Internet: Jacob Hawley & Jake Farrell

The Problem With...

James Smith

Society & Culture

4.99.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Comedians Jacob Hawley and Jake Farrell, hosts of the hit podcast Screen Rot, join James Smith to dissect the madness of the modern internet - where everyone’s a brand, outrage is currency, and idiots become superstars overnight. From online fame to fake authenticity, steroids to OnlyFans, they unpack the comedy and chaos of living in a world that never logs out. Jacob and Jake, two of the UK’s freshest stand-up voices, bring their signature blend of humour and insight to questions that define our time: Is the algorithm killing culture? Why does everyone need a platform? And can you stay sane while being online for a living? They discuss: ◼️ Why the internet rewards bad behaviour ◼️ How outrage, moral superiority, and “hot takes” became entertainment ◼️ The rise of online characters - from influencers to politicians ◼️ The dark side of the creator economy and performance-enhancing everything ◼️ What the future of comedy, fame, and humanity might look like Welcome to "The Problem With" where each week we look into a problem to get a better understanding of it. This podcast has no sponsors, only my businesses and investments, please check out the links below. I'm on a mission to help men check their levels of Testosterone, more info here: https://www.manual.co/smith Please check out and try Neutonic here: https://www.neutonic.com/jamessmith For a free trial of my online personal training app go here: https://www.affordableonlinecoaching.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Our lives as digital consumers are like a Stockholm syndrome.

0:03.5

I don't give a fuck about being cancelled, but I fucking pile on. It's more, it's more numbers. I don't give a shit. They're trying to turn everyone transgender. They is like, you're the most powerful man in the world. Even like J.K. Rowling would be a bit like, I wouldn't go that far. The jokes we make, they're filth that we talk. The only thing that ever gets me is having to look the other

0:21.7

parents in the eye at my kid's school. That's what gets me.

0:29.6

What is the problem with all the shit that we're seeing on the internet? I mean, to be honest with

0:34.6

you, the level of it has hit a point now where it's difficult to answer that question succinctly, and I'm grateful we've got time.

0:42.3

Because the grade of shit out there now has got so vast that you don't know where to start.

0:48.3

There's the element of it makes idiots into superstars, which in our very small circle we're grateful for.

0:56.1

You'll see his job.

0:57.2

But it's what it teaches people in terms of like everything should be content, right?

1:01.7

If you're walking to the fucking shop in the morning, you've got to film it.

1:04.6

You've got to talk to yourself about your fucking daily routine.

1:08.0

Everyone's daily routine has become some LinkedIn bait now of how you wake up

1:13.2

for everyone else. You take salts and fucking whatever else to make yourself hard and working.

1:18.8

High class productivity. Yeah. I mean, which I will say, delicious. But also, half of these,

1:26.9

especially that sort of like business side of it is the entrepreneurs who get up at five and do three cold baths and a workout every morning.

1:34.9

It's like, you lot seem to spend more time telling people how much work you do than actually doing any fucking work.

1:40.9

And I think that's humanity is content now and content is humanity.

1:45.0

Do you know what I mean? And people place it above everything. The importance people place on creating content, creating shite. And I think it's lost some of what it had maybe even just five years ago, which is what you used to see on the internet was, you know, like on the X Factor, there'd be three good singers and then a freak.

2:04.3

And the internet was for the freaks. Do you know what I mean? It's like, like, like, pre-Tiktock when it was just like Instagram and shit like that.

2:10.3

The most viral people were mentally ill. And now, too much of the internet is people who are annoyingly sane and actually competent humans pretending to be mentally ill to go viral.

2:23.5

You know what I mean?

2:24.4

Like, keep it to the nutters.

...

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