Posted by Viral fame ain’t what it used to be. Back in the early internet days, you had to do something to become internet-famous, even if it was totally unintentional. You had to look silly while lip-syncing a song or while playing with a lightsaber — something, anyway. Now you can suddenly go viral just for having a résumé on LinkedIn.
On Sunday night, a couple of friends went to a Jonas Brothers show in Buffalo. During the gig, they noticed that the guy sitting in front of them was not that interested with anything happening onstage. Instead, he was on his phone, looking at the résumé of a guy named Scott Kelly. They posted a video and wished Kelly good luck in his job search.
As The Washington Post reports — there’s a whole Post story on this shit, like it was Watergate — the TikTok went viral overnight. Specifically, it became the kind of viral story beloved among the people who do social media posts for gigantic corporations. Many of those brands wished Kelly well in his job search in their own cutesy ways. Obviously, none of them offered him a job or money or anything remotely useful.
The Jonas Brothers also jumped into the conversation, offering themselves up as references.
Last night, the Jonas Brothers were on The Tonight Show because they’ve got a Christmas movie on Disney+ or some shit. During their interview, Fallon surprised the JoBros with big news: They found Scott Kelly. He was right there, in the studio. And here’s what you won’t believe! Scott Kelly? He’s just some guy!
This is backwards, right? You’re not supposed to surprise the celebrities with the presence of some viral internet person with some tertiary connection to them. You’re supposed to have the suddenly famous rando as your guest and then be like, “And the Jonas Brothers are here!” Why would the JoBros care if Scott Kelly was there? Anyway, Kelly didn’t get the job. But plot twist: He wasn’t looking for a job. Kelly, it turns out, has his own telecommunications company. The guy looking at his résumé actually served in the military with Kelly, so I guess he was just checking up on him. He might appear on Kelly’s national security podcast, though. Riveting stuff.
As you can tell, the presence of the real Scott Kelly absolutely electrified the Tonight Show audience. In his greatest moment of showmanship, Kelly told the Jonas Brothers, “I had never heard of you before this.” I don’t think they should be insulted by that. They’d never heard of him, either. Also, Jimmy Fallon put a QR code for Scott Kelly’s LinkdIn profile onscreen. Amazing television. Let’s all have a great time watching this fucking bullshit together.
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Scott Lapatine will try to tell you that I volunteered to write this post. Do not believe this man. This Jonas Brothers résumé guy post was sitting at the very top of our shared spreadsheet. It had the little yellow tag on it, which means we’re putting in on Facebook. We only do that with the important posts. This was a priority. I love my co-workers here at Stereogum, and I would not allow any of them to subject themselves to this useless brain-melt catastrophe. I did not volunteer. I merely jumped on the grenade.