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Chaotic NFL week wraps up with Philip Rivers getting out-dueled in front of his brood of children (still my GOAT), DK Metcalf fumbling a $40M bag, refs robbing us of an all-time Goff finish & a Chicago miracle. This is why we play.
Powerball jackpot hits $1.7 billion, now the 4th largest pot in history. Wild that the lucky winner will be a mere 81 jackpot wins away from hitting Elon’s Tesla pay package. The first $1.7 billion is the hardest, keep pushing 🙏🏻
Jim Beam halts bourbon production, closing their Kentucky factory for a year as they navigate tariffs and a slump in demand. We may never get the answer to the eternal question of the whiskey industry. Make it make sense.
Reddit tipster helped FBI find the Brown shooter, as the Providence mayor fights to help man known only as “John” get his $50k reward. It’s gonna take a lot more than that to get a Redditor to reveal their identity. Nice gesture though.
Avatar: Fire and Ash takes home $88M, as the 3rd installment in the James Cameron alien soft-corn porn series dominates the box office in its opening weekend. Get ready to hand the mantle over to Chalamet. He’s coming.
PS - reminder to help us keep this gravy train running at Daily Friday HQ by filling out this survey about the newsletter. Feedback is a gift and it’s the holiday season, people.
If you’re feeling extra spicy, ask us a question in our mailbag and we’ll answer it and save your life (full mailbag drops next week to wrap up the year.)
THE DAILY FRIDAY AWARDS
We are keeping the 2025 Daily Friday Awards rolling (check out all our installment here) to wrap up the year that was. Enjoy.
MOST IMPRESSIVE FEAT OF HUMAN ENDURANCE
The human body is capable of incredible things. Let’s give it up for our 5 nominees who pushed the limits of physical endurance this year.
This award should go to any Jets fan that still pays for season tickets but it wouldn’t be a fair competition.
Man Who Walked Around the Entire Globe: Karl Bushby left his home in England in 1989, began an un-broken walking path around the entire globe (no planes, trains, cars, or boats) and has now begun his final leg of the journey home. Incredible story.
Cory Booker’s 25 hour yap sesh: the man can yammer like Senor Schneef at afters. Easily the most impressive political performance since that Texas Congressman went on a 9 hour hunger and thirst strike (I can’t go 3 hours without jerking off and he lasts 3x that with no food or water? He probably skipped breakfast AND lunch. Kudos)
World Record Bar Crawl Man: Martin Perez attended 152 bars in 24 hours in Buenos Aires (loosely translates to Good Aires.) Even more impressive - he went to sleep after 100 bars, rallied & THEN finished the job. I’d love Willy and Rusty take this on next.
Bonnie Blue porking 1057 guys in 24 hours: let’s acknowledge that doing anything with 1,057 people in 24 hours is impressive. That’s 44 people/hour with NO breaks. If she shook hands with 1,057 people, I’d stand and cheer. Remarkable.
World’s Longest Continual Fart: a clip of a 40 second long continual fart from an unnamed gentleman with a bowl cut on a Spanish-language talent show is exactly what the Daily Friday is all about. I hope he does weddings 🙏🏻
What Was Most Impressive Feat of Human Endurance?
“WORD OF THE YEAR” OF THE YEAR
Every year the dictionaries come out with their “Word of the Year,” but only one Word of the Year can be the true Word of the Year of the Year. Here are the nominees.
I know Billy Shakespeare is looking down at all of us with pride and joy for taking the English language and perfecting it even further. You’re welcome, champ.
“6-7”, Dictionary.com: more of a number than a word, but I get it. Anytime you get banned from In-N-Out and can create this level of excitement at a basketball game, you know you’ve made a cultural impact.
“Rage Bait,” Oxford Dictionary: making your “word of the year” a two word phrase is the definition of rage baiting. Well done, Oxford.
“Slop,” Merriam Webster: I miss the days when this word just mean fast-casual bowls of meat and rice for $14 instead of this kind of stuff.
“Parasocial,” Cambridge Dictionary: this describes a relationship with celebrities or AI that is entirely one-sided. Sorry, don’t get this one at all. My relationships with celebrities and my Snapchat gf is entirely two-sided and real.
“Performative,” The Daily Friday: this is my submission. Whether it’s the rise in ‘performative males’ or the Pope’s Letterbox’d top films, everything we do has been geared around the knowledge that there is an audience watching us (our 457 IG story viewers, our weird neighbor Mark, God, etc.) Such is life.
What Was the Word of The Year of the Year
Get Content Workflows Right - Best Practices from Media Execs
The explosion of visual content is almost unbelievable, and creative, marketing, and ad teams are struggling to keep up.
The question is: How can you find, use, and monetize your content to the fullest?
Find out on January 14th as industry pioneers from Forrester Research and media executives reveal how the industry can better manage and monetize their content in the era of AI.
Save your spot to learn:
What is reshaping content operations
Where current systems fall short
How leading orgs are using multimodal AI to extend their platforms
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Get your content right in 2026 with actionable insights from the researchers and practitioners on the cutting edge of content operations.
Join VP Principal Analyst Phyllis Davidson (Forrester Research) and media innovation leader Oke Okaro (ex-Reuters, Disney, ESPN) for a spirited discussion moderated by Coactive’s GM of Media and Entertainment, Kevin Hill.
STUFF TO CLICK WHEN YOU’RE BORED TODAY
What exactly is a Labubu and how can it help you cope with the eternal sting of male loneliness and isolation? Strider Wilson investigates.
Read this on your lunch break: The Last Good Thing: DVDs, streaming and the price of nostalgia.
Jalen Hurts thinks he’s the president made me laugh out loud multiple times. Well done, Who’s Next and Dr. Locks. Excellent piece of content.
The Slopification of Everything: how to identify what is real online in 2026.
Guy who moved from the Midwest to Bushwick is my favorite running series on Instagram right now. Episode 3 was a banger.
I’ve shared this before, but I really gotta highlight Beaver Edits as my new favorite type of content online. God, this shit fires me up.
It’s the last day of work before Christmas (unless you work for Scrooge.) There’s no better way to spend the afternoon than crushing some Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job clips. Who’s got it better than us?
