The Glitter Conspiracy, Revisited ✨
CHUPPL leaves no stones unturned
blog.eighty-two // Just three more days remain to pitch a story for our next magazine.
The theme? “TOUCH GRASS.”
Submissions so far have included:
A four-panel comic about how a creator deals with Internet trolls
An essay on technology’s relationship with nature…through birdwatching
And more!
Selected submissions will be notified August 18. All contributors featured in the magazine will be compensated for their work; you’ll also receive a complimentary print issue, as well as free tickets to the launch party in October.
Even if it’s a half-formed idea, we’d love to hear it—pitch us your story here.
One last note: We’re getting back into the swing of things with our next in-studio gathering next week, and we’re curious…
Alright…onto this week’s edition of Neighborhood Watch.
— NGL
P.S. Last blog, we shared guest contributor Elina Osborne’s essay and poem from hiking the eight hundred-mile Hayduke Trail. You can read it here.
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Video: ‘The End of the Glitter Conspiracy’ (2023)
Creator: CHUPPL
Runtime: 27m 6s
Review by: Nate Graber-Lipperman
“When attempting to solve what might be the Internet’s greatest mystery, where do you even begin?”
Before stumbling upon CHUPPL’s video, I’d never heard of the so-called “Glitter Conspiracy,” which had been captivating TikTok theorists and New York Times readers alike for years. Yet in 2023, that thumbnail felt damn near inescapable on my YouTube homepage. So I popped some popcorn, sunk into my couch…and was blown away by the story that followed.
CHUPPL is the brainchild of Jack Joyce, a DC-based journalist and video producer who cut his teeth editing for Johnny Harris.* The influence of Johnny’s visual storytelling style is clearly felt through Jack’s work; the former leans more into explaining modern economics and geopolitics, however, while the latter tackles mysteries in a tone reminiscent of the true crime podcast genre that took off in the mid-2010s.
With CHUPPL, though, we’re not only along for the ride—we can see it, too. And throughout all twenty-seven minutes of The End of the Glitter Conspiracy, Jack and Co. leave no stone left unturned.
The journalists start their search where any seasoned pro would deem fit: Reddit. Internet denizens began sounding the alarm bells when a manager at New Jersey-based Glitterex—one of the two biggest glitter manufacturers in the world—refused to reveal their biggest customer to a New York Times reporter in 2018.
“I asked if she could tell me why she couldn’t tell me. ‘Because they [the customer] don’t want anyone to know that it’s glitter.’” —The NYT in conversation with Glitterex Manager Lauren Dyer (2018)
Who was this mysterious customer? The U.S. military? Explosive manufacturers? Toothpaste companies? All of the above? Redditors wanted answers, but no one seemed able to find anything.
CHUPPL takes it from there. And when the team hits a snag early on in the video, they realize something: They’re looking at the wrong glitter company. Because, as it turns out, the world’s other big glitter company, Meadowbrook Glitter, is also located in New Jersey. And this family-owned farm is not only rumored to have invented glitter, they also have their own bag of secrets to uncover—with a patriarch tied to none other than the Manhattan Project.
I’ll leave it there so as not to spoil anything further. What I will say is that this video’s twists and turns are made all the more effective by its creator’s ability to find answers out in the field, all alongside a keen eye for pacing. Which is remarkable, given it’s the channel’s third-ever video.
CHUPPL succeeds because it does “real” journalism without shoving its rigor down viewers’ throats. But the channel also manages to have fun…while never resorting to self-deprecating irony. You can see that throughline across the channel’s now-burgeoning catalogue, featuring titles such as “Why the FBI Wants This TikToker” and “How The Simpsons Predict The Future.”
Regardless, two years later, Jack’s foray into the Glitter Conspiracy still holds up as one of his best. Every time this video comes around, I feel like glitter.**
Nate’s Score: 4.9 / 5
‘Making Audio Waves That Look and Sound Like Things’ (2018)
Creator: Japhy Riddle
Runtime: 4m 18s
Japhy Riddle has built a wonderfully random catalogue of videos spanning nearly two decades. This one—a rather quaint explainer covering audio waves and their shapes—marks a perfect entry into his marvelously curious world.
Like many of his videos, Riddle delves rather deeply into a recently-developed shower thought. But where many creators may add standard sound effects or background music to keep the viewer intrigued, Riddle strips down the video as much as possible.
Look at his most recent uploads, and you’ll see this format is relatively unchanged. He only includes what is an absolute necessity, or a supplement to help the viewer understand the concept at hand.
It’s not for lack of effort, though. Making Audio Waves has mesmerizing wave graphics to illustrate the sound. So why does Riddle strip it down so much? To keep the production process simple?
My belief: Riddle wants you to see inside his mind with his videos. His train-of-thought-esque dialogue, cutaways for digressions, and soothing voice characterize that perfectly.
This video had less than a thousand views around a year ago…and then skyrocketed into the millions in a matter of days. It’s one of those cases where one of YouTube’s hidden gem is finally found by the algorithm. But honestly, I’m just surprised it took this long.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to see a man make a cow-shaped audio wave that actually sounds like a cow?
Judd’s Score: 4.75/5
‘HYUKOH(혁오), Sunset Rollercoaster - Antenna (Official MV)’ (2024)
Creator: rafhoo & HYUKOH
Runtime: 4m 17s
An absurd visual adventure, this music video—directed by Seoul-based artist rafhoo—complements its song’s dreamlike synth track perfectly.
We drift seamlessly from one fog-blurred landscape to the next. Everything feels one in the same: tangential. Shot entirely on iPhone and bluntly compiled together, the video plays like a personal, whimsical collage, dreamlike in tone and execution.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a music video quite like this. It integrates itself so tightly into the music it sits behind, while, simultaneously, feeling so singular.
Judd’s Score: 4.75/5
Thanks for reading! Shoot us a reply, comment, or DM if anything resonated with you in particular—we respond to them all.
* Remember how I wrote about the Vox “farm system” a couple of weeks ago? As some of those former Vox video journalists have gone independent, they’ve built their own teams (and farm systems) in the process. Now-former Johnny Harris editors-turned-independent-creators include CHUPPL, Daniel Steiner, and Jordy McNeill. Funny how that works!
** That’s how the song goes, right?