Every week, I co-host a pop culture discussion (Keeping Up With Kulture) on Complex's Pop Culture Facebook page, discussing all of the new and noteworthy things going down in the pop culture realm. While we've had some high power guests (DJ Pauly D, Jessie T. Usher) sit in the hot seat, I can't front like we've hit the number of consistent viewers that I'm looking for (shouts out to our five loyal listeners, though). Last week, it looked like we picked up the most random of viewers, though. During the broadcast, as we discussed season two of Stranger Things, we got word that Martin Shkreli was watching our program and dropping some hot takes on our convo in the comments sect (and calling us "NOOBZ" after a miscommunication).
Yes, the Martin Shkreli. The guy who, after buying the rights to a drug to fight AIDS, hiked the price pill up almost 5,500 percent. The same guy who reportedly spent $2 million to buy that one-of-one Wu-Tang Clan album, talked about wanting to bail out Bobby Shmurda, and wanted to buy the gun George Zimmerman used to kill Trayvon Martin. No matter what his reasoning, these items alone have turned Shkreli into one of the more hated men in America over the last nine months or so — but the question you're really trying to answer is "what the fuck is Shkreli doing keeping up with pop culture via a Complex Live show?" Same, if I'm keeping it a buck.
For those that don't know, two of my esteemed colleagues—Sara David and Maurice Peebles—went down to Flavortown with Martin Shkreli last month, proving that a scam email thread with a bunch of journalists can turn into an IRL meet-up with a guy who's facing federal security fraud charges. Our superproducer Rachel hit up Sara during our broadcast to see if she could confirm if this was the real Shkreli, which she did. When it comes to trolls, you know how that shit go.
The fun begins during Part 1 of this week's show, around the 8:10 minute mark; our social media maven Lauren chimes in to let us know that Shkreli was on, and he had questions (primarily about Eleven's whereabouts, breaking down how the tank she was in during Stranger Things correlated to the door to the Upside Down being opened, and why a "snake" came out of Will's mouth). Check my surprise.
Now, in doing this Facebook Live thing for a bit, there are certain things you learn, one of them being that people dissect information in certain ways for certain lengths of time, so one thing we like to do is split our shows into two 20-minute blocks. We know some people don't want to stare at their phones for 40+ minute blocks of our smiling faces, but that can sometimes mean that viewers drop off, especially if they aren't down with the topics of the second part. Not Martin Shkreli! While he wasn't as active in our conversation regarding Gene Wilder's passing, he was here for our rousing discussion on Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna...although that really just meant he's trying to mack on some single Kardashians. I personally suggested Kourtney, although I asked if he would be OK dating a woman who already has two kids (which apparently is "not an issue" for Martin). Shkreli's always got business on the brain; he mentioned that he needs "that last name" (that's right, Shkreli is here for being "Martin Kardashian" as opposed to having his bride being "Kourtney Shkreli"), primarily because it'd be, as he put it, "progressive for my net worth."
While I loved having the likes of DJ Pauly D and Jessie T. Usher on our program, I never thought I'd be chatting about Stranger Things with Martin Fucking Shkreli in the comments. This internet thing is a weird contraption, and I'm glad/mortified that things can happen this easily.
