When the great Robyn once said “all I need is a time machine,” she didn’t know just how apt those words would become a full decade and a half later. We’re dreaming of a DeLorean right now for so many reasons: to return to the comparatively blissful time before the election, to remember what joy felt like, and to live once more in a world where YouTubers and influencers did nothing but stay completely and totally in their lane.
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A delicious development…
Clearly we don’t live in that universe anymore, and perhaps nothing drives the point home more than veteran YouTuber Rosanna Pansino’s recent pivot to…weed influencer?
Sort of.
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Need a brief refresher on who Rosanna Pansino is? Of course you do. Back in the day the early 2010s), Pansino was a huge presence on YouTube due to her popular baking channel Nerdy Nummies. As one of the earliest creators to make a lucrative living off of YouTube, Pansino—along with other early-era influencers like Michelle Phan and Lilly Singh—she paved the way for aspirational content creators everywhere, showing that yes, you could, in fact, make lots of money with just a ring light and a dream.
But in the past decade, as folks who started out on YouTube shifted to other platforms or broke into mainstream entertainment, what has Pansino been up to? Apparently using her late father’s ashes to grow a joint and then smoke that joint and then make a podcast about it. Which feels remarkably appropriate for this completely horrible, crappy, confusing time in history.
Pansino announced the branding opportunity/podcast/inevitable celebrity cannabis line yesterday on Instagram, and no one quite knows how to feel.
The story of Pansino’s loss is certainly moving, and we can all relate to the desire to honor a recently-departed loved one. But making it a branding opportunity? I don’t know…it’s giving…iconic. It’s giving diva DOWN.
The good people of the Internet agree. “Smoking on dads pack is crazy work,” said one commenter. “I don`t even have any ideas how to comment on this,” another wrote. You and me both, friend. It’s equal parts iconic and insane, and it’s exactly the combination this traumatized country needs. If you can’t start your career as a baking influencer and slowly work your way into the grief cannabis market, is this even America?
Honestly, nothing but good vibes and hopes for this latest venture. We’ll leave you with only one unanswered question posed by one astute commenter that cuts right to the heart of the matter. “Is he indica or sativa?”
We’ll just have to tune in to find out, won’t we.
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