It’s always revolting, and it can almost always be traced back to one guy named Rick Lax, a street magician/Facebook robber baron.
Lax started out on social media like every other geek with a pack of cards, posting videos of his tricks to his Facebook page, but he soon earned a Ph.D. in viral video making. Along the way, he amassed a seemingly infinite network of creators who all brainstorm together and share each other’s videos until the sheer volume of gluttony comes crashing down onto your feed in an unsanitary tsunami. As Ryan Broderick illustrated for Eater, tracing these videos back to their sources results in seeing the words “Rick Lax Productions” so often that it’ll start to feel like your own personal Twilight Zone.
These videos aren’t the only kind the network cranks out, but Lax freely admits that “Whenever we see a video trend doing well on Facebook, I try and ask, ‘What is our version of this popular trend?'” The unholy smorgasbords were inspired by street food videos, which Lax deduced were popular because of “the visual impact of seeing lots of food spread out in front of a camera.” It would take a toddler level of naivety to think that was the reason “nacho cones” went viral, but feigned delusions of quality appear to be the party line at Rick Lax Productions. Lax himself scoffs at the idea that the food is “gross,” and the creator of the Nerds spaghetti burger explained that “We’re entertainers. We’re just trying to put smiles on your faces.” You might think they’re all horrifically unaware of the opposite of smiles among the people sharing the videos, but Lax later clarified that when he insists they make “good videos,” “I mean videos that perform well on social media.” Basically, he totally knows.
The Guy Who Invented the Like Button Just Wanted to Organize Photoshop Contests
These days, the like button controls our lives as much as heroin did in the ’90s and hairspray in the ’80s. It’s equally addictive, and it’s completely free of the associated social stigma. It’s not without its downsides, though, which you know if you’ve ever secretly felt way too bummed out that a joke you made only got two likes or seen some shady startup threaten to shoot a puppy unless they got 10,000. It’s the subject of an honest-to-god Black Mirror episode, but it was only ever intended to help some dude figure out which action figure reimagining of Picasso people liked better.
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