š£ weāre all jackie weaver
what happens in handforth doesnāt stay in handforth
You are cordially invited to this weekās brew of High Tea, your dispatch of š„ internet culture served piping hot. This week: we dive into the Parish Council that defies PC (and the standing orders, apparently), LiLo being lowkey on Clubhouse and Alison Wonderland sends us straight down the rabbit hole.Ā
Drink up READ IT AND UNDERSTAND IT!!!!!!!! šøā
p.s. if youāre not a paid subscriber, hereās what you missed from this weekās Bucks Fizz: our Thursday dispatch covering the best of TikTokās unsigned and emerging talent.
š„JESSIA, Cassidy King & OSTON
Artwork: The Doodle Apothecary
what weāve been sipping on:
āyOu hAve No aUtHorITy hERe jACkiE wEaVeR, No aUtHorIItY AT aLLā
January was a big month for the US; in February, the UK really said āhold my Stella.ā Along with TikTok sensation Lubalinās āis this availableā and ofc, our favorite, a group where we all pretend to be boomers, itās no secret weāve been loving the chaotic boomer energy as of late. But this week, Handforthās Parish Council really took the McVities digestive. Hitting YouTubeās #1 trending spot on Thursday (garnering 2.9M views while sandwiched between The Weeknd and Trisha Paytas, no less), this week a viral video covering a meeting of a Parish Council āhaving it outā, positively broke the internet.
In the space of 1hr 20, this small yet mighty force of Councillors (and their Clerk ā more to come), engaged in what could be called some of the most chaotic-discourse-entertainment weāve seen all year; and has since piqued the interest of celebs to play their roles in the Netflix reboot š plus TikTok creators (ofc). Buckle up pals, this edition is brimming with drama, deceit and main characters kicking the bucket (GoT vibes anyones?), while rising stars āJackie Weaverā (best actress) along with āJulieās I Padā (best supporting actress) secure their positions in High Teaās Hall of Internet fame.
Handforth Parish Council? We donāt know her
We are aware that for our US based readers, the Parish Council could seem a rather unknown phenomenon. Quite simply, it is a volunteer group of residents in a local area of the UK who form to represent the interests of the entire community. The intentions are pure, but this Zoom call was anything but. To give you a brief synopsis, despite their best efforts for order, the Handforth Chairman PC Clark and his Vice Chairman dismiss and shout over Jackie Weaver, who decides to enact her Zoom admin privileges and boot the former from the meeting. Once PC Clark is removed against his will, hilarity ensues as the rest of the ācastā discuss how best to continue the meeting without a Chairman present.Ā
Ironically, the only thing they do agree on is making the recording public. And here we all are.Ā
As for the ācharactersā that make up Handforthās Parish Council? Let's dive in šøāļøĀ
š” āDavid Pincombeā: Strangely woke. Comes into the meeting only to say that he thinks that if this video goes on the internet, it will go viral and there will be a āwar of words.ā He wasnāt wrong.Ā Ā
šµļøāāļøāJulieās I Padā: Just like Sia we canāt see her. Ultimately one of the most interesting characters as we never see her face. Julie is really known throughout for her deep sighs and her refusal to mute her mic, despite Jackie politely asking at the start of the call. Julie, ofc, has her shining moment when she takes a personal call while on the Zoom. Which, we allow, because the meeting hadnāt ātechnicallyā started yet.Ā
šāSueā: A keeper of the peace. Sue with her serious āthird mom energyā has a strong sense of community alerting the Councillors that a āmember of the public wishes to speak.ā Democracy lives on in Sue; we must protect her at all costs.Ā
š āJohn Smithā: Reader of the standing orders. John wants this video to be seen by those outside of the meeting. Towards the end he asks: āCan we make this recording available?ā Despite being chaotic and laughing loudly at the wrong moments, heās a friendly, smiley soul who wants to see some accountability for this mess.Ā
š¤¬ āAledās iPadā: Potentially the Vice-Chairman and the man who inappropriately shouts at Jackie Weaver as he believes she hasnāt read the rules of the meeting: āread the standing orders, READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEMā, to which Jackie (and the world) audibly gasped in disbelief.Ā
š¤£ ā(The other man using the Aledās iPad, could be Aled)ā: The one who laughs like a hyena and tells the other man on Aledās iPad to āstopāĀ
šµ āHandforth PC āChairmanā Clerkā: Killed off in the first 4 minutes. The PC Clerk has the most infamous line of the whole show, despite being only ācastā for the first few minutes: āYou have no authority here Jackie Weaver, no authority at allā, to which Jackie boots him out of the Zoom. Iconic. Not using his actual name on the Zoom meeting, and instead calling himself the Clerk (which no one had voted upon) was a bold move. We later hear some other members call this character āBarryā although this is not officially confirmed.Ā
š§ āIanā: The one who has a real problem with the mute button, Ian clearly doesnāt like PC Clerk, nor his choice of calling himself āThe Clerkā: āI noted that his label on his video said āClerkā of Handforth Council and I have a photograph of itā, clearly to report the act. Oooh go off Ian with those receipts.
ā āCynā: A lover of the word āno.ā Cyn lasts the entire meeting without agreeing to anything. We later discover sheās not even from Handforth, sheās from Berkinhead. She doesnāt even go here! š
š āBarry Burkhillā: King of comedy, Barry has a habit of tuning in late to the conversation. An iconic moment occurs when he asks āWhereās the Chairman gone?ā several long minutes after PC Clerk has been sent to the Zoom waiting room by Jackie. Also has a habit of not facing the right way while on the call, the back of his head is a delightful sight. Also owns the infamous line: āthe Chairman of the Council...is the...Chairman of the...of the.....er...Councilā āĀ Barry Burkhill 2021 everyone.Ā
šāJackie āBritney Spearsā Weaverā: Our true shining star. Jackie Weaver has had more of an impact on our lives than any of our politicians in the last year. Iconic moments include standing up to PC Clerk and booting him out of the meeting for the second time despite him telling her she has no authority, while also delivering the news that: āThereās no way youāre stopping him from calling himself Clerk...Please refer to me as Britney Spears from now on.ā Your wish is our command!Ā
British Twitter and TikTok responds:
What do we do when a cultural moment lands so perfectly in our laps? We make it into a full scale internet moment, ofc. Twitter accounts impersonating the infamous Jackie Weaver are gaining pace, and castings have even roped in the likes of Celebrity Chef Rosemary Shrager to play Jackie in the āupcomingā show. Sue has also confirmed that she would be ādelightedā if Dame Judi Dench would play her. Cc: @netflix the people have spoken.Ā
Meanwhile on TikTok, a new cult of accidental celebrity is taking shape, with 5.3million views for #jackieweaver and 3.6 million views for #handforthparishcouncil. Of course, we havenāt yet escaped the Sea-Shanty-as-storytelling (also known as āthe ballad of Jackie Weaverā), which is certainly having its...moment rn. High Tea fave and TikTok sound maker @tompablo (204K followers) did not disappoint with his Zoom audio x Kitchen Nightmares background noises mash up (aptly titled ājackie weaver for PMā), earning comments like āimagine trying to explain this to anyone whoās not from the UKā and āHandforth us now providing my lockdown dramaā. Honorable mentions also go to viral comedian Munya Chawawa for his Jackie Weaver drill takeover and @cropd with his Handforth Parish Council grace (pls see š).Ā
Why we are all rooting for Britney
With the world encroaching on a solid year in lockdown, the Zoom meeting of the Handforth Parish Council has brought us the much needed entertainment in our time of comedic drought (esp since The Office was removed from Netflix at the end of 2020, RIP). In amongst the chaos and misogyny, we have to hand it to the boomers for lifting our spirits and giving us our first UK talking point of 2021. The one thing we ask for? Handforth the Musical cc: Barlow and Bear.Ā
kettleās on: ones to watch
Mean Girls (2021). With recent high profile figures such as Elon Musk, Zendaya, Zuck and Malcom Gladwell making guest appearances in Clubhouse just this week, we know celebs in CH aināt breaking news. But for us, Lindsay Lohan is. Welcomed to the platform 3 days ago by none other than Perez Hilton and joined on stage by Daniel Franzese (aka Damian) and Jonathan Bennett (aka Aaron Samuels), it was the Mean Girls reunion we didnāt know we needed. Past the initial silliness and tea spilling we got to eavesdrop on, Lindsay dropped some remarkable truth bombs and life lessons from the heart, in her own words at long last. See u next week, LiLo.Ā
INFLUENCER-19. Just when we needed him the most, DāAngelo Wallace came out of YouTube docu retirement and blessed us with a new exposĆ© on influencers and their bad behaviour during the pandemic š. With 3.1M views in its first 6 days, āINFLUENCER-19ā is the latest tell-all documentary from DāAngelo, that follows 2020 bangers such as āThe exact moment Shane Dawsonās career endedā (18M views) and āJeffree Star faked everything about...well, everythingā (7.6M views). This most recent drop is a must watch for anyone as obsessed with the Hollywood Fix and influencer culture as we are.
Eat me š. Did someone say Alison Wonderland? Fast approaching a year in lockdown, weāve pretty much worked our way through the landscape of live streams at this point - the good, bad and the booky. Then, thereās Alison Wonderland x Wave, who created the spectacle āWONDERVERSEā that blessed our screens on Friday night (or 3am Saturday morning if youāre as unwell as Alice is) and, tbh, with our respective Chenin and Chianti in hand, we were deep in the forest with avatar AW, wisps, orbs and...mushrooms. 10/10 would bop again. š
Okay, you made it. Now you can go back to streaming the OG Britney doc #freebritney.
ttyl,