A Simple Love Like That

Just be nice to each other.

We're just ants.

We're trying so hard.,

Just try to be nice to - to us.

Zoom out a little bit.

We're just ants, okay?

We're ... we're ants.

And look at us.

Like, each of us.

Hey everybody. Real talk time. If you want @shipwreckedcomedy to be able to keep making stuff, if you want to support female/POC indie creators, you need to watch Headless: A Sleepy Hollow Story. We NEED you to watch and share it. 

Headless is it for us. We pulled out all the stops for this. This show cost us a quarter of a mil to make (thanks to you!). The four of us at Shipwrecked paid ourselves none of that. We’ve worked on this show for three years now. This is what we gambled on.

The response to the show thus far has been so positive, and we’re so happy! But even for the small channel that we are, and even with the INCREDIBLE cast who gave their time to be a part of this project, the views we’ve been getting on this show are fewer than we hoped. 

I remember a few weeks into The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Hank Green made a vlog talking about how the show wouldn’t be sustainable if it didn’t start getting more views. And it really helped! And that’s where we’re at. We can’t keep doing this if we don’t grow. 

Don’t get me wrong, we are going to continue to put out Headless until Halloween and make it the absolute best show we can. But if we can’t grow as a company, we can’t keep making shows like this. It just isn’t sustainable for us. 

We really thought this was gonna be the one to do it. We thought this was gonna be the thing to take us from small creators with less than 50K subscribers and a handful of views to a real, bona-fide channel with reach and influence that pulls the kind of viewership on our projects to match the amount of work we put into them. And I think it can be! It looks good enough to be on any streaming network. It makes me laugh every thirty seconds. But we are a small group and we NEED word of mouth for this show to succeed.

Shipwrecked is primarily female-run, making narrative content in a space where other (more successful) creators are predominantly male. I’m sorry to harp on this, but I can’t help but feel like we have to work so much harder to get the same amount (or a fraction) of attention. 

The episodes we have yet to come in this show are so wild, so wacky, so Intense, and so heartfelt. SO many people put their hearts and souls into this show. I believe it can catch fire and become one of the most successful digital series out there. But WE NEED YOU TO WATCH IT. 

The story we have playing out over the next few weeks is Shipwrecked at its most Shipwrecked. We have some surprises and reveals up our sleeves that I think you are really going to love. More than anything, we love unfolding a big story over a period of time and bringing people along for the ride. I’m so excited for you all to see what we have in store, and I promise you are going to want to do what you can to experience it in real time.  

It’s free. It’s fun. It’s spooky. It’s funny. If you want Shipwrecked to be able to continue to make shows like this - original content, inspired by literature, with a mysterious twist and fresh humor - help us make Headless a success. We need you to take us there - we can’t do it on our own. ♥️💀🎃

There isn’t any.

America stripped the cultures away from all who came here in order to hammer them into the good little uniform consumers that were wanted.

We are casually generous. “I’m going to the store, you need anything?” Does not carry a requirement of paying us back. The other Americans in my program thought nothing of buying one of our British friends a soda or something, whereas when our British friends got each other a drink or something they paid each other back. And if you’re in trouble, Americans will literally offer you the shirt off their back. Or - in the case of one Brit I had a conversation with - a job to a stranger who needed it.

America is brightly colored. I don’t know how else to phrase it. Europe isn’t drab but like the US like brightness, light, and color. It’s the first thing I noticed when I got home - everything was more saturated.

We are genuinely curious. We aren’t always as polite about it as we should be, but usually if we’re asking about your culture, it comes from a good place.

We genuinely love cars. I’m not saying this is a good or bad trait, just that it’s part of our culture. We like to drive a lot more than people in Europe.

We are diverse. I was walking home with one of the other Americans and we were chatting like idk...a couple weeks after we’d met and she was like “ok I don’t want to be weird or anything but like....is it just me or is it SO WHITE here??”. We agreed that, yeah, it was but that y’know...White people came from somewhere and the uk is one of those places. But when I was gone I really missed seeing faces that looked nothing like mine. There are, of course, other ethnicities in the UK but compared to the us where literally half the population isn’t white, it’s definitely a striking difference. And as a consequence of this, our food is way more diverse. We didn’t strip these things from their cultures. The vast majority of restaurants that have, say, Chinese, or Thai, or sushi, or Indian, are run by people who immigrated here, brought their culture here, and adapted to the goods available to them in their new country. That is a natural, normal process and a long-existing part of human migration. And because we have so many more cultures here, we are lucky to be able to take part in what they share with us. It isn’t always a benign process but it’s just wrong to say that it’s always about “us” stealing from “them”.

We talk about our problems. IE, we’re very self-critical. We aren’t always good but we spend a lot of time looking at our culture and our country, breaking it down into pieces, and examining those pieces. We argue about how to make them better. A lot of times we suck at it but at least we’re having the conversation and the argument.

We hate authority. It doesn’t matter what your politics are, chances are you dislike and distrust the govt. we’re rebellious and few things make us more pleased than giving the man the finger or seeing someone else do it. British people protest - I literally saw an anti-Brexit protest march by my window - but they plan a time, politely show up and politely voice their displeasure, and then go home after cleaning up behind themselves. Americans? We fucking RIOT. Part of the entire point of the mall in DC is to yell at the govt every time we don’t like what they’re doing. We hate that we need a permit to do it. We’re always looking for new and creative ways to question authority. I think this is why it bothers a lot of us when people from other countries are like “why don’t you do something about _______”. Like, we’re trying. Trust me, we’re trying.

- Americans smile a lot. Europeans can tell the American in the room just because the American will auto-smile at random passerby. smiling is a greeting as much as “hello” is, and it’s a way of talking. when i talk to American friends, i’m nearly always smiling slightly and my tone rises and falls constantly. my European colleagues do not smile nearly as much, and have much flatter speaking tones. 

- Americans are ultra-casual. after you graduate from school, everyone is going to introduce themselves by their first names. actually, sometimes even in college, professors will do that. Euro and Asian colleagues tell me that in their home countries, professors act like gods and it’s very difficult to disagree with them. one side effect of the casualness also plays into friendliness; Americans are what Europeans consider friendly on a very frivolous surface level, and colleagues of mine have been confused by strangers who they thought spoke to them like friends, but it’s just the American attitude of being casual toward everyone. a German colleague told me that even the notoriously “rude” parts of this country, like the Northeast, are still “friendlier” toward strangers than most of Europe. 

- building on what @kyidil​ said about “Americans love cars”--ROAD TRIPS. road trips are such a staple of American culture. Americans are much chiller about driving long distances than typical for Europeans, and cross-country road trips are a staple of American media, often considered almost a rite of passage.

- and yes, Americans often have a much deeper-seated distrust of authority than Europeans. it often doesn’t look like it, especially due to the Trump phenomenon, but even that’s a type of backlash against authority. it also doesn’t express itself well; our government has eroded a lot of freedoms that Americans are relatively unaware of, but mostly in the realm of privacy. for both good and for bad, the particular form of the American obsession with freedom comes very much in a “don’t tell me how to live MY life” way--regardless of enforcement. ie, i have a strong sense from growing up in this country that if everyone knew they were spied on all the time, but the government actually did nothing with that information, that would be fine. on the flip side, if the government set “how to live your life” laws in place but didn’t check up on anyone or enforce it, Americans would be rioting in the streets. basically, it’s a libertarian streak that runs through the entire political spectrum.

Oh also, complement to the casual generosity thing: while the details of this practice vary a lot regionally, a great way to communicate to an American that you don't like them and are refusing to be their friend/friendly is to politely decline whenever they offer to do you a small favor, like grabbing you a drink or giving you a ride on their way to somewhere.

It doesn't matter how nice you are about it or how cordially you act in general, if you say 'no' to all offers over time without at least coming up with an equally easily fulfilled counter-offer to one of them, you are cutting your American acquaintance dead. Depending on how sensitive they are and why they were trying to bond with you, a grudge may even result, and you may be labeled 'fake' or 'cold' or 'a snob' or some similar thing.

Music: Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rap, Country, and Blues are all inherently American music styles that have spread worldwide

Religion: many of the various major Protestant Christian denominations that exist were founded in the United States. Baptists, Methodists, Episcopalians, Quakers, the AME and other African American churches....you just do not get the same Vibe™ anywhere else. The history of Christian evangelism/evangelical churches is embedded in our culture. The American South is called "The Bible Belt" for a reason, and that reason is the existence of a particular unique culture that gets exported elsewhere.

Also...Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. Both are "fringe" but largely inescapable parts of American culture.

Architecture: Art Deco, skyscrapers, the concept of American suburbia

Technology: the pervasiveness of Apple/Apple products as a cultural signifier of wealth and status

Clothing: wearing a baseball cap abroad is literally the easiest way to get identified as an American. Also, our 'casual clothes' culture compared to most other countries

Holidays and Traditions: Thanksgiving and Memorial Day are the two most notable holidays with unique cultural characteristics and traditions

Sports: American football and baseball, but also "regional" sports like ice hockey, rodeos, and lacrosse....also, frankly, the way that sports and sports teams are integrated into the school system. That's largely unique to United States culture. The concept of Homecoming straight-up doesn't exist in most other countries. Related: the Kentucky Derby and horse racing as social events, golfing as a part of American business culture

Literature and Media: Disney, caped/masked superheroes, the Transcendentalist movement, Slavery narratives, the Beat Generation, late-night talk shows

Other general pieces of American culture: driving at 16, high school prom, car and driving culture, volunteerism, gun and hunting culture, and our weird cultural relationship with alcohol and drugs due to the history of the Prohibition movement and the War on Drugs

Adventurous : willing to undertake new and daring enterprises.

Affectionate : having or displaying warmth or fondness.

Ambitious : having a strong desire for success or achievement.

Amiable : diffusing warmth and friendliness.

Brave : not being afraid of danger.

Considerate : showing concern for the rights and feelings of others.

Courageous : able to face and deal with danger or fear without flinching.

Courteous : characterized by politeness and gracious good manners.

Diligent : characterized by care and perseverance in carrying out tasks.

Empathetic : showing ready comprehension of others’ states.

Exuberant : unrestrained, especially with regard to feelings.

Gregarious : temperamentally seeking and enjoying the company of others.

Humble : marked by meekness or modesty; not arrogant or prideful.

Impartial : free from undue bias or preconceived opinions.

Intuitive : obtained through instinctive knowledge.

Inventive : marked by independence and creativity in thought or action.

Kind : behaving in a caring way towards people

Passionate : having or expressing strong emotions.

Philosophical : meeting trouble with level-headed detachment.

Practical : guided by experience and observation rather than theory.

Rational : having its source in or being guided by the intellect.

Reliable : worthy of trust.

Resourceful : adroit or imaginative.

Sensible : able to feel or perceive.

Sincere : open and genuine; not deceitful.

Sympathetic : expressing compassion or friendly fellow feelings.