Tubi has become one of Black American’s favorite guilty pleasures.
The free streaming service provides a platform for movie makers at the independent local level to showcase their works. Many productions from independent movies go viral for post-editing bringing a mriad of reaction from the audience.
Nah tubi movies are crazy 😂😂you telling me you couldn’t do the gun headshot off camera they must have forgot to add the effect 🤦🏾♂️ pic.twitter.com/hY4o2FbcrJ
— TREDERAYE 🧑🏾🚀 (@TREDERAYE) November 21, 2023
Among some of the Tubi references in hip-hop comes Noname‘s “oblivion.”
I’m that b—, you sound like cat piss on popcorn
Eat the popcorn, this is Tubi, n—-
Low budget, whole summer ready to go dummy for me
They ain’t f—— with me, but I’m f—— with me
Recently, rolling out had the opportunity to catch up with Dana Balch, Tubi’s director of product and consumer communications.
What’s your reaction when you hear a shout-out like the one Noname gave you all or you see a movie from the platform go viral because someone’s making fun of the quality of an independent film?
I talk about this all the time, but like, the way the Black community loves Tubi, it’s from a place of love.
It’s like a cousin that you have who’s a little off, but you’ll love them. You never know what they’re going to bring to the table, but you love watching them.
When we see ourselves reflected in culture, like Noname dropping us in a song, I mean, that’s just the highest compliment to us. We know the way people Black people watch Tubi is from a place of entertainment and love, they really enjoy what is happening here, and they appreciate we’re willing to bring these kinds of stories to the table, because where else can you watch this raw, exciting, entertaining, kind of content? I think it’s really just on Tubi, or maybe TikTok? It’s something we really embrace as a company. We honestly are always finding more content we could bring to the platform we know will engage this audience.
Do you ever take the jokes about Tubi personally?
I think the Black community in particular understands the heart that goes into these films and series. Even if the sound’s a little off, even if it feels like it’s filmed on an iPhone, the viewer understands the time and effort the filmmaker put into making this movie. This might be someone’s first acting role, and that’s one of the things I love about us as a community is we say, “Hey. We’re willing to watch this and watch you grow up, and we know that if you make it on the other side, and you win an Oscar one day, we will have been there from your first Tubi movie.”
Tubi just did a survey with HBCU students. What did you all find out in that survey?
We saw that more than 72 percent of students are looking for soothing content to watch at the end of a hectic school day, which makes so much sense. It’s such a period in your life where you’re stressed, you’re frazzled, you’ve got new relationships going on, you got new friend groups happening, you’re trying to do your best in class and get your best grades.
