Rethinking Barstool?

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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The guy is 43 years old and as far as I can tell from 15 minutes of Internet searching has been trying and failing to find any kind of entertainment-related employment since he was posting on here from his job as a minor-league mascot. This is not a job he can afford to lose, so I don't blame him for bending the knee.
That's not really true, he had "real" jobs in NYC for a while when he was posting here.

I'm super disappointed that Berry kissed Portnoy's ass on this, the new Sean Berry would disgust the old Sean Berry. Berry is a very smart guy and when he wasn't trying to antagonize he would make very good points. I enjoyed his posts for the most part.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

Throw Momma From the Train
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Also, Portnoy pulled this same "You need to post more" shit with Carrabis and Carrabis got the hell out of there and landed on his feet to even greater success, so not all of Portnoy's motivational tactics bear fruit.
 

Patriot_Reign

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Also, Portnoy pulled this same "You need to post more" shit with Carrabis and Carrabis got the hell out of there and landed on his feet to even greater success, so not all of Portnoy's motivational tactics bear fruit.
Carrabis's contract was up and he held out for what he felt he was worth which ended up in him leaving. I have zero doubt his first preference would have been to remain at BS.
 

Reverend

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I literally have no idea what the last 30 or so posts refer to.

None.

Thank you.

Although if getting attention for his once again wholly owned social media platform by fabricating and then slaying a dragon slice by slice was Portnoy's real goal, I'd give it a 8.2.
The good news is they were able to use the layoff announcement for content.
My contact with Barstool is occasionally seeing Tweets, some that are funny, but… I often almost forget Barstool has a website or does anything besides, well, cover itself. Like, the Barstool content I see is as often as not Barstool related content.

That’s just entirely too post-modern, even for me. That said, something like that could be a great TikTok schtick for an aspiring young comedian: A channel where he plays a reporter who only covers that same reporter, i.e. himself.
 

Dan Murfman

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Carrabis's contract was up and he held out for what he felt he was worth which ended up in him leaving. I have zero doubt his first preference would have been to remain at BS.
And that actually help SeanBerry get to Barstool. Carrabis was on Minihane's podcast every Friday. After he left Kirk started having SB on every Friday and that is how he was noticed and got on Barstool Idol and was eventually hired.
 

jayhoz

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That's not really true, he had "real" jobs in NYC for a while when he was posting here.

I'm super disappointed that Berry kissed Portnoy's ass on this, the new Sean Berry would disgust the old Sean Berry. Berry is a very smart guy and when he wasn't trying to antagonize he would make very good points. I enjoyed his posts for the most part.
He seems to have found his spine. Or its all made up to drive clicks.

View: https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1699477407084790181?s=20
 

JCizzle

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Isn't Barstool's whole thing basically creating fake office drama ala WWE? Now Portnoy considers it a sports team where you can't call out stupid shit your co-workers say? Hard to keep track of his vision for the company post-gambling.
 

ManicCompression

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My entire BS knowledge is from that one clip, but it really just seems like they're trying to recreate the Howard Stern show, just with much less interesting people.
 

moretsyndrome

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Pawtucket

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I think it’s real, at least on SB’s end - maybe our hero realized he shouldn’t eat shit on this and/or people got in his ear about it.
This is staged. Well, I mean beyond the obvious. It’s not scripted, per se. But the scene is laid out and there are roles, etc. and they know ahead of time what sort of content this is gonna be.

And I don’t begrudge SeanBerry any of that; he’s literally doing his job. I’m not a Barstool guy myself, but to the extent that his character in this particular theater is standing up to Portnoy about what he perceives to be bullshit, well, that strikes me as a better character role than many of the other ones they develop. But he’s definitely playing a character here.
 
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DJnVa

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My contact with Barstool is occasionally seeing Tweets, some that are funny, but… I often almost forget Barstool has a website or does anything besides, well, cover itself
Their email this morning had links to 5 stories. Two of which were about office drama.

And also, SB needs to not skip leg day.


 

sodenj5

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While I agree that the framework of this was set up in a WWE fashion, I have very little doubt that the idea of someone lower on the totem pole shouting up the pole would be grounds for termination at Barstool.
 

NickEsasky

Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em
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100% a photoshop. His legs are incredibly skinny but not THAT bad.
 

8slim

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He thought the tweet was careless and shitty, huh? We all make mistakes, like douche-trolling about the RI Station Fire while the bodies were still smoking. I mean, I'm no stranger to dark humor, but that's stuck with me for over 20 years. Fuck that.
I'm with ya. That thread...
 

Trapaholic

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I got into Barstool in college about 12-13 years ago. They had funny bloggers and at the time were 100% Boston sports focused, so it was a perfect diversion.

Portnoy loves content and clicks. Not sure if anyone is on Tik Tok, but the Mean Girls Pod get an insane amount of impressions and shares. This is mostly because short clips get posted and other users criticize and make fun of what the 2 girls are saying. They have masterfully toyed with the algorithm to ensure maximum visibility.

I don't think Dave understands how social media algorithms work, he just knows they drive eyes to the barstool brand. He will always defer to defending shows and employees that get the most amount of interactions and views.

Take PFTCommenter for example. He and Big Cat have an incredibly popular podcast. From what I have read, PFT and Portnoy have a strictly employer/employee relationship. Does not sound like they like each other, but Portnoy understands that people love the content and Pardon My Take is a wagon.

I get the sense that Portnoy will always err on the side of clicks and views regardless of his personal feelings
 

sodenj5

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I got into Barstool in college about 12-13 years ago. They had funny bloggers and at the time were 100% Boston sports focused, so it was a perfect diversion.

Portnoy loves content and clicks. Not sure if anyone is on Tik Tok, but the Mean Girls Pod get an insane amount of impressions and shares. This is mostly because short clips get posted and other users criticize and make fun of what the 2 girls are saying. They have masterfully toyed with the algorithm to ensure maximum visibility.

I don't think Dave understands how social media algorithms work, he just knows they drive eyes to the barstool brand. He will always defer to defending shows and employees that get the most amount of interactions and views.

Take PFTCommenter for example. He and Big Cat have an incredibly popular podcast. From what I have read, PFT and Portnoy have a strictly employer/employee relationship. Does not sound like they like each other, but Portnoy understands that people love the content and Pardon My Take is a wagon.

I get the sense that Portnoy will always err on the side of clicks and views regardless of his personal feelings
I think it’s fair to say that both PFT and Big Cat supersede Dave on the hierarchy of Barstool importance.

I think either of them could walk away from Barstool either together or independently and sign a deal with someone like Fan Duel or Spotify and be 100% fine.

On the other hand, losing PMT would be catastrophic for Barstool. Portnoy might be a lot of things, but he isn’t dumb when it comes to business, which is probably why he doesn’t say a peep about PFT.
 

kelpapa

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I think it’s fair to say that both PFT and Big Cat supersede Dave on the hierarchy of Barstool importance.

I think either of them could walk away from Barstool either together or independently and sign a deal with someone like Fan Duel or Spotify and be 100% fine.

On the other hand, losing PMT would be catastrophic for Barstool. Portnoy might be a lot of things, but he isn’t dumb when it comes to business, which is probably why he doesn’t say a peep about PFT.
I read, or maybe heard, a few years ago that Portnoy kept Big Cat and PFT on different contract terms for this exact reason.
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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The guy is 43 years old and as far as I can tell from 15 minutes of Internet searching has been trying and failing to find any kind of entertainment-related employment since he was posting on here from his job as a minor-league mascot. This is not a job he can afford to lose, so I don't blame him for bending the knee.
OK.......First off, he was never a minor league mascot. He was the manager for the mascot - Monkeyboy - and he was as in on the joke as he could be, he just enjoyed the whole environment, the joy that Monkeyboy brought to the crowd. And yes, he had to stand in a few times, but he was not the full-time mascot. The rest of his employment was in sales, he was a sales guy and he didn't love it. He has had some bad luck with a few things in life, and he owns his role in that stuff. Chris doesn't deserve this bullshit from Portnoy. I hope that is this is all the usual Barstool "manufactured drama" for clicks. It seems likely, but if Chris is really getting stressed then this is bad.
 

Kliq

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In my professional opinion, I belive this was a shoot that turned into a work.
 

Auger34

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Isn't Barstool's whole thing basically creating fake office drama ala WWE? Now Portnoy considers it a sports team where you can't call out stupid shit your co-workers say? Hard to keep track of his vision for the company post-gambling.
I think it’s pretty obvious….creat fake office drama and call out stupid shit from other people, but you can’t say a word bad about Portnoy
 

8slim

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Holding a grudge against someone over a thread from 20 years ago seems a bit odd to me. We were kids back then. At least I was.
I’m gonna guess that a 20-something year old knew that making fun of people who burned to death was pretty shitty.

A friend of mine died in that fire. He was 28. So I have no tolerance for the “we were kids” excuse.
 

bibajesus

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I’m gonna guess that a 20-something year old knew that making fun of people who burned to death was pretty shitty.

A friend of mine died in that fire. He was 28. So I have no tolerance for the “we were kids” excuse.
How do you feel about catchers who die in fiery plane crashes?
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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OK.......First off, he was never a minor league mascot. He was the manager for the mascot - Monkeyboy - and he was as in on the joke as he could be, he just enjoyed the whole environment, the joy that Monkeyboy brought to the crowd. And yes, he had to stand in a few times, but he was not the full-time mascot. The rest of his employment was in sales, he was a sales guy and he didn't love it. He has had some bad luck with a few things in life, and he owns his role in that stuff. Chris doesn't deserve this bullshit from Portnoy. I hope that is this is all the usual Barstool "manufactured drama" for clicks. It seems likely, but if Chris is really getting stressed then this is bad.
Did you see that there was a Monkeyboy comeback earlier this summer?
 

Rick Burlesons Yam Bag

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Did you see that there was a Monkeyboy comeback earlier this summer?
I don't really read Barstool to be honest. It's pathetically stupid. If I wanted to hear about the drama between "Johnny Smokes" and "Big Alabama" I would politely ask you to murder me in my basement.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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I don't really read Barstool to be honest. It's pathetically stupid. If I wanted to hear about the drama between "Johnny Smokes" and "Big Alabama" I would politely ask you to murder me in my basement.
It wasn't on Barstool, and I feel the same way about them as you do. Chris linked to the Monkeyboy annoucement from his Twitter.