It all started at Elon club volleyball, where Elon seniors Christian Van Voorhees and Mason Kaiser and Elon junior Carter Puckett first met. Now, the trio of Elon students are behind “Reel Talk,” a fast-growing social media account where “brain rot” culture meets commentary.
Brain rot is commonly known as the consumption of meaningless, mind-numbing and low-quality online content.
Van Voorhees said it merely started with an idea — watching Instagram reels and posting their reactions.
“Mason came to me with this idea one day and just talked about it, and that’s kind of where it started,” said Van Voorhees
Kaiser calls their account “The ESPN of memes.” He said the three find reels with no meaning and make them meaningful.
“We do it in a dry, kind of humorous, super serious way that makes it funny,” Kaiser said.
Puckett said even his grandparents watch Reel Talk’s videos.
“They’re always messaging me like, ‘We don’t understand what this means at all, but it’s funny, and we enjoy seeing you on Instagram,’” Puckett said.
Beginning on March 7 and releasing their first reel on March 10, “Reel Talk’s” Instagram following has grown to over 14,700 followers, or what they like to call “reel ones.”
“I’ve always enjoyed looking through our comments and seeing what random people across the world are commenting on our posts,” Puckett said. “And it’s kind of crazy to see.”
Kaiser said the growth feels good, especially being recognized for putting in over a month of hard work.
“Dudes I know that will be like, ‘I’m a genuine fan. I’m not only watching it because it’s you, I’m watching it because I actually think it’s funny and entertaining,’” Kaiser said.
And according to Puckett, they’re getting recognized by students all over the town of Elon.
“More recently, it’s been people in my classes, or when I’m at the bar or something, they’ll come up to me and be like, ‘Oh, you’re the guy from ‘Reel Talk’,” Puckett said.
Kaiser, Van Voorhees and Puckett film their videos once a week in their apartment. Kaiser said the process starts with going to Elon’s Gear Room and renting cameras, lights, microphones and more. Kaiser said the set up and filming process takes around an hour or two each time.
“I normally turn on my Bluetooth speaker and just jam out, turning all the lights on and stuff,” Kaiser said. “ChatGPT has become my best friend, trying to get camera settings and everything right.”
The three creators of “Reel Talk” are from different majors and have found different ways that the podcast will help them in the long run. Being a computer science major, Puckett said there are soft skills he will take from the experience.
“We’re thinking about making a website portfolio that I could put together, and maybe eventually, when we get enough followers and interest, we can do some merch, and I could put together an online store for that,” Puckett said.
As a business major, Van Voorhees said he tries to help Kaiser whenever possible.
“We kind of built this media kit,” Van Voorhes said. “It didn’t take a whole lot of time, but it took a little time putting all our insights together and things like that, to reach out to potential sponsors and stuff.”
Kaiser is a cinema and television arts major and wants to go into the entertainment industry. He said “Reel Talk” has enhanced his leadership skills.
“It shows that we’ve had to be very consistent,” Kaiser said. “I’ve had to change my whole lifestyle in the past month of just really being able to make use of any free time I have.”
Some “Reel Talk” videos have collected over one million views, including two videos with over four million each.
“When the first one got its first million views, it was definitely a huge milestone for us,” Puckett said.
For the creators, it has been a busy few weeks, and Kaiser said he wants to have an official celebration of the account and its milestones soon.
“We haven’t had a proper weekend where we’ve all been together to just chill and celebrate,” Kaiser said. “But I’m sure the next coming few weeks, we’re gonna have champagne or something like suits and champagne, maybe a little small get together with some of our friends.”
The “Reel Talk” creators have even begun a catch phrase: “Stay reel.”
“Keep staying real. We appreciate it. You guys are goated,” Kaiser said.
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