Tim Hitchings

Being a parent of a Barstool employee can be a very unique experience.

Background: My son was a Barstool Viceroy (campus representative) from May 2017-May 2019. He started interning May 2019 in production and was hired in January 2020 as a full time producer. He’s now a Senior Producer. His current projects are The Yak, The Pro Football Football Show and The Brandon Walker Show. I’m 65 and currently active on Facebook and Twitter (May 2009) social media platforms. I consider myself an experienced user of technology and internet software. I would say that my wife and I based on our consumption and knowledge of Barstool lore from 2019 on till today may be considered stoolies in many circles.

Some of my comments are more directed to parents or relatives of Barstool employees that have some sort of on camera time. As Barstool continues to evolve I now see more production and social people with camera time. Camera time results in more social media interaction which is what I describe as some of the lessons learned.

Barstool is a digital media company. I believe they work very hard to be authentic and entertaining. Cameras are everywhere at their HQ and anything captured may end up being shown or heard on their website and other digital platforms such as podcasts and YouTube. By staying away from traditional broadcast tv Barstool is not restricted in any way from creating their brand of content. The language and conversation topics have few bounds. Barstool can choose to create any kind of content in their unique style. See new shows like The Dozen, Surviving Barstool, and Barstool Versus America, etc. Watch for more live shows in the future. This company is constantly evolving and finding what will entertain their audience.

Dave Portnoy: Never tweet at or reply to Dave. If your son/daughter/relative is ever tweeted at by Dave don’t despair and don’t reply. There’s often many reasons if the tweet appears to be mean-spirited in tone. Talk to your son/daughter/relative. Hopefully, they will calm you down and provide context and meaning. Don’t worry. Don’t tweet at Dave. Again NEVER tweet at Dave. My son had the honor of catching fire from Dave. My wife and I understood as a result of deep discussions with our son that this sort of thing happens. This can be a trying time for you when it happens to your son/daughter/relative. Best to be supportive and NOT tweet at Dave or tweet anything about what is going on. In the end it’s often been said that if you went through this test of fire and emerged that it’s a badge of honor for many. Don’t assume that just because your son/daughter/relative isn’t in front of the camera that something won’t happen that causes them to take fire. My favorite story that I witnessed via a live stream before TJ’s incident was the betting Guy Gate that occurred on a live viewing stream. Jack McCarthy and Karim caught major fire from Big Cat and Dave. See Stool Scenes 2019 for the clips. Jack and Karim survived and are now excelling at their positions. Neither are recognized content people. TJ was working on the stream that night. Your son/daughter/relative getting called into the Dave Portnoy show or being mentioned on the Dave Portnoy show is truly a defining moment at Barstool. Always remember that Barstool is an entertainment company. Conflict is entertaining. Losing is often more entertaining than winning

Government names? Many people working at Barstool adopt a stage name in their social media as well as on screen. It’s often forbidden from ever mentioning their real names on camera. There are evil people on social media who delight in doxing (exposing real information) to the world. You may not be able to use social media with your current account if it exposes your son/daughter/relative’s real “government name”. Check with your son/daughter/relative.

Are you on Twitter? No? Get on Twitter if you’re interested in what’s going on at Barstool. A lot of drama unfolds on twitter. Follow everyone at Barstool. They’re fun people working hard to advance their company. Use TweetDeck if you are really interested in twitter and wish to organize how you view twitter in detail. Use MarinDeck for TweetDeck on your phone. Don’t read tweets sent to your son/daughter/relative. There are people out in the world that delight in trying to raise any kind of response via some of the meanest things you’ll ever read. Public replies are only half of what your son/daughter/relative may be experiencing. Twitter Direct Messages can be horrid. If you listen to the Unnecessary Roughness podcast the beautiful Kayce Smith would share some of them on air. Absolutely beyond the pale of human decency. Don’t try to protect your child with any kind of responses PERIOD. Never respond. It’s not your job no matter how much you wish to help. The tweets will never stop no matter how much you wish they would. You are not Brandon Walker. He is truly talented in engaging everyone on twitter and seems to enjoy giving as much as he has to take. Don’t respond to responses to your social media. It’s great to read tweets. Think twice about tweeting replies. If you engage with someone you don’t know that is interested in Barstool you don’t know what direction that person may wish to go. Best to read and not reply.
Be nice to Barstool people. Early on I would tweet much like any other anonymous person and some of my tweets would be poor attempts at humor. I’m forever reminded by Dana B. that I once tweeted mean things about him. I learned quickly to not be like everyone else out there on twitter. I truly believe that if you’re a parent or relative of a barstool employee our role is to tweet good things as often as possible. Some of your tweets may be read by a barstool employee and help to counter all the mean spirited things that are tweeted at them. Remember that Barstool employees are all rowing in the same direction to take the company to the moon. In my opinion every single person deserves a shout-out. It’s easy to remember the people in front of the camera but think about all the sales, data, engineering, business, accounting, travel, production, network, blog editors, etc. personnel. I was fortunate to work at an early video music company and know a little bit how hard everyone in the company must work to deliver a great product every single day of the year. Be very proud of your son/daughter/relative as it can be a difficult job.

I’m not a TikTok user. Barstool does a lot of TikTok but I have no interest at present. Wish I wanted to add the app because Zah (TJ’s production booth mate for many shows) is always posting tweets of his work on TikTok.

Are you familiar with YouTube? If you view Barstool content be sure to Like and Subscribe. This helps with numbers that are used to make decisions on your Barstool employees shows. There is a lot to choose from but only so many hours in the day. It’s a great place to learn the history of Barstool and the people working there. The other day my wife and I went back and binged Stool Scenes starting in 2019. Fun to reminisce on all that we recall from those times with TJ in the mix. Live Barstool events are the most fun to watch live on YouTube as they happen. Twitter is often also flying with tweets as the event is live. Barstool presents live streams of major sporting events where you are watching Barstool personalities reacting to a wall of TVs they are watching. It’s fun to display the barstool stream on your iPad and watch the sporting event on your TV. YouTube has a chat. I can’t recommend reading it or participating. The hatred directed at Marty Mush in the Picks Central show has no justification. YouTube chats can turn one spoken word and erupt in meanness and juvenile responses. On occasion The Yak chat can be fun and beneficial and has resulted in some suggestions adopted by the show. But for the most part I can’t recommend it for most.

Twitch? During the pandemic Barstool quickly adopted using Twitch as another means of presenting content. I’d like to think that my son TJ had a hand in helping to create Barstool adoption during that time. It has a robust user interaction chat system that can create higher real time engagement then any other current digital media platform out there today. Today Barstool continues to use it for entertaining streams of Barstool Casino online gambling with personalities like Dana B, Marty Mush, Steven Cheah, and Hank playing and reading the chat.

BigCat calls me a loser. During an episode of The Yak BigCat started calling me a loser. He even said our entire family is a bunch of losers and turned it into because Rutgers keeps losing football games. You will often hear Barstool people asking if you “get Barstool”. I think of this as a pretty good example of “getting Barstool” and learning to have fun and embrace the moment. I love BigCat and everything he has done for Barstool and TJ.

Football season is the busiest time of the year for Barstool. I don’t recommend planning anything that requires your son/daughter/relative presence. Every employee is working long hours and weekends supporting the company’s football content.

Likely many of my experiences are not typical of most people who have a son/daughter/relative at Barstool. That’s partially my fault for engaging at a likely higher level than others and choosing not to be anonymous and often entering into twitch stream chats and YouTube chats.

When in doubt ask your son/daughter/relative. You can’t beg for forgiveness once something is posted and seen on social media.

In conclusion, NEVER TWEET AT Dave.

In all honesty, having had the rare pleasure of meeting Dave in person, he is a gracious and personable host. It was a privilege to have a 10 minute conversation that my wife and I will likely never forget. There is video of our introduction with Dave saying “You guys were dead to me at one point but you’re back, you’re back”.

Don’t ask us about the story of why we were dead to Dave. To discuss something in the past is to breathe it back into existence. To disavow is forever.

VIVA