Watching someone become the internet's main character for the day is always a spectacle, and many people on social media often eagerly await to see which unsuspecting strict rule-setting parent, group of stans or pick-me commenter is the next on the chopping block. As long as it's not you, all is fair in love and memes. Or is it?
Comedian and writer Jamie Loftus is following this train of thought with her new podcast Sixteenth Minute (of Fame), a weekly show that reports on and catches up with people who gain fame — or infamy — online.
In the introductory episode of Sixteenth Minute, Loftus explained her decision to follow up on some of the internet's most notorious "characters of the day," the ones who discovered what it's really like when all of social media are looking their way whether they want the attention or not.
"Internet history is a tricky thing to be invested in," she said. "It feels like every time a bad-with-business billionaire buys up another platform, history starts being erased... We're taking these characters' 16th minute of fame to see what their moment meant to them and what is says about us."
Throughout the podcast, Loftus will catch up with some of the so-called characters to see how they are faring now that their 15 minutes of notoriety are over, whether they became a light-hearted meme or the unfortunate main character of the day who said or did something that caught the internet's eye and therefore the overwhelming attention, both positive and negative, that comes with it.
In addition to seeing where they are now and talking to experts about different topics, Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) aims to answer the questions of what happens when the attention becomes too much and when the ire and judgement from anonymous social media users is more than one person can take.
"Things will get serious sometimes, but I'm mainly here to have fun and try to bottle these little bits of internet history that feel like they're slipping away from us," she said.
Learn more about the Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) podcast at iHeart.com and tune in to new episodes each week.