the real streamer world

clavicular is the future of reality tv

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A few years ago I had a phase where I would watch old seasons of The Real World on The Internet Archive. These were seasons not included on Paramount+: Boston, Seattle, New Orleans, Hawaii. Incidentally, the last good seasons of the series. They aired before the debut of Survivor (2000), the hit show that introduced mainstream America, not just MTV's youth audience, to unscripted content; before Paris Hilton's The Simple Life (2003) popularized the idea that reality television could be a vehicle for celebrity status. This was before the Writers Guild of America strike of 2007–2008 taught Hollywood that producers could craft narrative arcs just as well as writers.

Early participants in reality television, like David Burns from The Real World: Seattle, were innocents. The project was pitched as a social experiment—an interesting experience for those in their early twenties, uncertain about their place in the world—not a path to fame. But as he recounted in a 2019 Jezebel interview, by the time his season aired in 1998 the game had already changed:

It was a complete shock for me. I had gone on a study abroad trip to Morocco five days after we wrapped shooting. I went and lived in Fez and Marrakesh for an entire summer. I was in a different headspace. I actually kind of forgot that I had done the show. Then, when I got back, I got off the plane in JFK Airport and I was swarmed by people outside of customs. I had no idea what the fuck was going on.

Clavicular, of course, is nothing like David Burns, despite his content's uncanny resemblance to MTV's original unscripted franchise (the ambient apartment settings, the dark nightclub confrontations, the confessional asides to the camera, the socially relevant scandals). His rise to fame and notoriety was calculated. His onstream antics are calibrated to maximize outrage. He is a Chad in search of virality. All of which is true, and yet there is something experimental about his endeavor.

I'm not so sure he intended to overdose or to be sued for sexual assault. His forays into the grey market of peptides and body modifications have already had potentially life-altering side effects. (Clavicular claims he is infertile due to the testosterone and steroid protocol he began when he was 14.) In unguarded moments onstream—perhaps when the meth is wearing off—he looks exhausted. One wonders when the show airs 24/7, how long can it go on?

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Harmony Korine claims streamers from Clavicular's generation are the new filmmakers, "iShowSpeed is a movie. Kai Cenat is a movie." Or, put even more grandiosely, "iShowSpeed is the new Tarkovsky." iShowSpeed is the new Road Rules, The Real World's Winnebago spin-off. His recent trip through Africa is just another iteration of the travel show, broadcast on Twitch rather than cable.

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