The Minnesota Timberwolves score NBA fandom in Brazil, but there's a kink

Rodrigo Barbosa runs social media for the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves Brazilian fan club. He's fluent in Brazil's particularly zany brand of internet humor. But when one his weirdest tweets went viral in the U.S., he had some translating to do.

Show notes

Amory: Here we are.

Ben: Here we are

Amory: Six years.

Ben: And what do we have to show for it?

Amory: On January 12th.

Ben: Not much. Not

Amory: In the year of our Lord, 2018, that we –

Ben Johnson: Launched a podcast.

Amory: Wow, six years ago. Because you know how, like, the six years between, say, ages 12 and 18, that's astronomical.

Ben Johnson: Yeah. Even zero to six is also astronomical,

Amory: That's true. Well, speaking of that, you had little, little, little

Ben Johnson: Yeah, this show is as old as my children.

Amory: When we were launching the show

Ben Johnson: Yeah, that's true.

Amory: and now they have thoughts and feelings and words and songs and dances and Fears and hopes and

Ben Johnson: That's true. That's

Amory: And we don't have any of that anymore

Ben Johnson: No, just nightmares. Pure nightmares.

Ben Johnson: No, that's not true. I think we, we've, it's been a good run. I feel like I know you better than many, most people that I know now.

Amory: I feel that way both about you knowing me and about me knowing you.

Ben: I'm good with it. I'm, I'm

Amory: Me too. Me too. Well, that's the thing, is that you and I have talked about, not all co-hosts, co-collaborators actually like each other. And I think, what's great about working with you is that I think we do like each other. I hope I'm not wrong about that. But I think, I think we do like each other. And I think that the things that we, that we don't always appreciate about each other, we're just so direct about with each other that we almost like, do like that about each other. Do you know what I mean?

Ben Johnson: Yes. Oh, absolutely. I think that has made the show what it is in some ways, right? I think we have like an uh honesty with each other and an appreciation for each other even if we drive each other crazy sometimes and that's that's real and it's, I think that's, I so appreciate that because I think it's rare,

Amory: Yeah.

Ben: And I think when the show has been very special to our listeners and to us, it's in part, because of that, yeah, and I, yeah, I, I, I would even go so far to say is, I love you, man.

Amory: Yeah, I love you too, man. And in case we totally buried the lead –

Ben: Oh yeah

Amory: We’re marking six years.

Ben: People listening are like, what the fuck is this? What's happening right now?

Amory: No, we're getting all mushy because here we are on a Friday when we usually pop into your feed or whatever day you listen to us. And this is the actual six-year anniversary of when we launched Endless Thread, when our first episode came out. So it just seemed like a nice moment to say like, Hey, it's really cool that we get to do this because not everybody does and not everybody gets to do it with someone um, as terrific as you. So I feel really lucky and, and thank you for, being my partner in podcasting.

Ben Johnson: man. Thank you. The only other six year olds I really know are my kids and six year olds are great. Like they are great. They want to party and hang out. They like if you just like do something crazy, they're like immediately in. You know what I mean? Like, I'm trying to think of an example. Like, if you just put peanut butter all over your face, they're like, yes.

Yes. That, and do me next. You know what I mean? Like, and so like, I feel, if I were to set an intention for the like, the sixth year of Endless Thread, I would say. Or is it going to be the seventh year? Whatever.

Amory: our seventh year of making it. Yeah, six years completed. Six turns around the sun.

Ben: But if I were to set an intention for this, you know, the seventh year I'd say that, you know, joy, joy and gameness and like just fun. So I hope –

Amory: Hear, hear. I'm toasting my jar of peanut butter to your jar of peanut butter. This is the year. It goes all over our faces. Metaphorically, literally, spiritually –

Ben: Yeah, I mean you've been on a journey doing something else that we're, like, extremely excited about our Endless Thread listeners hearing, I want to say.

Amory: And yet, I can say, because I've been on that little side quest, it is so nice when we come back and do this. this feels like a cozy home to come back to. After like going out and exploring a

Ben Johnson: Climbing over the mountain, the mountain, the icy, terrible, scary mountain.

Amory: Yeah, just a very unknown thing and, and so I like that this is both a space that feels, familiar and very comfortable and also that in that space we get to keep, putting peanut butter on our faces and seeing, seeing what reaction

we get and seeing what we want to do next.

Ben Johnson: Well, on this day, six years in, we've got another internet-y episode for you, and we're, yeah, we're excited that you've been with us for this long, if you have, and if you're new, get the hell out. Just kidding. We love you.

Amory: You know what's great though too is that this is an episode that I don't think that we could have made six years ago with each other.

Ben: That's true.

Amory: And now we can.

Ben: Alright. Well, let's do this in another six years. Let's do it again.

Ben: Enjoy.

(Music)

Ben: Amory, do you like sports?

Amory: Sports! Um, I like some sports very much and I don't –

Ben: Yeah, you do, I guess.

Amory: I don't give a damn about other sports.

Ben: Alright, so I want you to listen to the first clip and tell me what sport we're talking about.

[This month should be as fun as any of the others. No Lebron tonight…Minnesota (fade)]

Ben: What sport?

Amory: Well, I think I know.

Ben: Yeah, that's fine. What sport?

Amory: Basketball.

Ben: And what tipped you off to it?

Amory: You asked me earlier in the week if I had heard about some Timberwolves thing. And…

Ben: The audio didn't tip you off.

Amory: Well, I think I heard, see, I think I heard a shoe squeak.

Ben:  Mm.

Amory: Basketball is a very squeaky sport.

Ben: Yeah, the old shoe squeak, yeah. The fact that the announcer says LeBron James?

Amory: He does. I totally missed that. I'm sorry.

Ben: No, that's okay. You know what? All that matters is you stick the landing and you stuck the landing.

Amory: Yes, because of that shoe squeak.

Ben: It is basketball season. and this was a recent game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Minnesota…

Amory: Timberwolves.

Ben: Yes. Did you know, before I mentioned it to you this week, did you know that the Timberwolves existed?

Amory: I did, because, because my husband's into basketball.

Ben: Oh, okay. There you go. Okay. So like I, you probably know more about basketball than I do.

Amory: Mmm, doubt it. I could, I could spout off some names, but I can't tell you who they play for.

Ben: Go, let's hear it. I'm ready.

Amory: Well, there's that guy, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Ben: Okay. That's a fun name to say.

Amory: Yep. There's another guy named Boban something, who is like 11 feet tall. He is so tall. He was in some commercial and whoever he was in the commercial with was only going to look comically small next to him.

Ben: Okay. This is more of a dribble than a spout. No pun intended, but go on.

Amory: Whoa, I've got facts, man. Kevin Durant.

Ben: Okay.

Amory: Jayson Tatum.

Ben: Yeah. Okay.

Amory: Marcus Smart! These are all Celtics.

Ben: Okay.

Amory: There was a guy on the Cavs for a while that I called little two because he was number two and he was a little small.

Ben: A little small. All right. All right. Well, again, you know more about basketball than I do. And this story is about a video, which some may call disturbing, others may call arousing, and still more may call amusing.

Amory: You’ve been practicing that.

Ben: It is a video that involves the Timberwolves, kind of. And I came across it on Twitter, or X, Elon Musk's X, after it was investigated thoroughly by this guy.

[Jack Nickas: I'm Jack Nickas. I'm the Brazil bureau chief for The New York Times. I cover Brazil and the southern half of South America, and I'm based in Rio de Janeiro.]

Ben: And this wasn't a story assigned to Jack by some editor at the Times, at the Mothership. You know, it wasn't like a must-cover-this-massive-Brazil story story. This was honestly where a lot of journalists do in fact get certain kinds of stories. It came from Jack's friend group.

[Jack: I actually came across it from my own online community, which is my fantasy baseball,  WhatsApp group, which are always sharing weird memes, and this video was going viral, uh, on Twitter, which I don't use that often anymore. And someone sent it to the group and was like, you're the Brazil reporter. Figure this out. It’s from Brazil.]

Ben: Do you get story ideas from your WhatsApp Fantasy Softball League, Amo?

Amory: I don't play fantasy sports Ben, I live in the real world. Um, no I don't.

Ben: Alright, alright. So again, we should say this was a strange video that was sent around, and it might be a bit of an earmuffs situation, so parents, if you're listening with your kids right now, consider this your warning. Um, this video was sent to Jack in his WhatsApp fantasy baseball group, and Jack was very confused. It was a video talking about a U. S. basketball team, the Timberwolves of Minnesota. But it was a Brazilian account.

[ Ben: You didn't understand. But what you could see was it was it was, like, from a Brazil account. Is that – what what are your first impressions? 

Jack: I mean, my first impressions were What what the hell? Um, I think that was most people's first impressions, which is the point.]

Ben: We're going to come back to the fact that the point of the video is how bizarre it is. But we need to talk a little bit about basketball in Brazil.

[Jack: So the NBA is a big deal in Brazil. Um, I mean, I think no surprise. Everyone knows soccer is the sport in Brazil. But basketball has a decent following, but Brazilian the Brazilian Basketball League really doesn't have much of a following, and the NBA does.  Each NBA team has a sort of fan club in Brazil the Boston Celtics has on the Lakers, the Warriors, etcetera. and this is the sort of official account of the Brazilian fan club of the Minnesota Timberwolves.]

Ben: Okay, so let's review what we know so far. Okay.

Amory: Okay.

Ben: What, what do you got? Just give me, hit me with the basic facts.

Amory: There was some sort of video that blew up on Twitter. It's a weird video having to do with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Brazil is involved. It sounds like an NBA fan club of the Minnesota Timberwolves in Brazil is involved.

Ben: Yep, it's getting shared. It's good. It's blowing up and going viral in Brazil and then it sort of blows up in the U.S. too.

Amory: Okay, so that this reporter from The New York Times sees about it, hears about it in his Whatsapp fantasy baseball group chat.

Ben: Yes, and so we're about to see this pretty weird video. The video was posted in Brazil, which I underscore because it is maybe interesting later, I hope. And it's been posted by what can be described as a fan account. and fair warning again, while this is not technically not safe for work, it is, it's, it's, I think you can handle it.

Amory: Okay,

Ben: You trust me?

Amory: You think I personally can handle it?

Ben: Yeah, I think you can handle it.

Amory: Oh okay.

Ben: I think we can handle it. As colleagues, I think we can handle it. Okay?

Amory: Oh, yeah?

Ben: I think it'll be okay.

Amory: I think we got it.

[Video sounds begin]

Amory: Oh, yeah, this is very strange. Okay, there is…. Does this develop or is it just a minute of the same?

Ben: I don't know, you gotta watch the whole thing, man.

Amory: Oh, oh, oh.

Ben: Okay, folks. Amory is going to process this and think deep thoughts about it, um, and you know, and then, uh, we're, we're going to take a break. And when we come back, she's going to describe the video, right, Amory?

Amory: I sure am.

[Sponsor break] 

Ben: Okay. How would you describe what you have now witnessed?

Amory: You want me to give you, give you the play-by-play as we say in sports? Okay, the play, the play-by-play is there's a, there's a very large gray wolf. A timberwolf, you might say. I don't know what a timberwolf is. And the timberwolf has, who are they playing? Who are the Minnesota Timberwolves playing?

Ben: I can't remember. This is like the second game of the season. So.

Amory: OK, well it seems like that’s important information because the other, um, creature of sorts involved, it looks like a snow leopard, right? Or it's like a grayish leopard on the bottom?

Ben: I don't think it matches up with the team that they were playing, but I could be wrong.

Amory: Oh, that's weird. I would have thought that this was symbolic of, like, defeat. So the, the wolf's mouth is like… It's a, this is a very, um, it's a very suggestive video, shall we say. The wolf's tongue, the, okay, the wolf is, this is very hard to describe.

Ben: I know. It's really hard to describe what it like and be safe for work. It's very difficult.

Amory: I'm just gonna go for it. The wolf is, every time you're hearing the wolf, like, panting, it’s lifting its mouth and specifically its tongue, pulling its tongue up against the body of a kind of a, a feminine, classically feminine build or a slightly androgynous male build of whatever the bottom half, feet sticking out, bottom half, slightly anapomorphic, what's that word, you know, anthropomorphized, thank you, a slightly anthropomorphized snow leopard's bottom half. So the tongue is, like, stroking the body as the wolf is, like, panting and lifting its head up. I'm doing the motion of the wolf's mouth with my hand, which is why I just hit my, hit part of my microphone here, because my hand is the wolf right now. I just want you to know.

Ben: All right. Good.

Amory: And so it's like gliding its tongue up the body of this snow leopard for a very long time. I can't, if, if I had encountered this video, I would have given up on it, because I would have just assumed it was more of the same or like a loop.

Ben: Uh huh.

Amory: But eventually the wolf picks the snow leopard thing up completely in its mouth, swallows it and you kind of watch as the creature goes down the wolf's..

Ben: Gullit. Yeah.

Amory: And then I thought it was gonna like burp or fart at the end, but it didn’t.

Ben: Oh, that's good! Yeah. That was a great description. Let's have Jack describe it too.

[Jack:  it's basically a a large,  It's a wolf the size of a dinosaur maybe, right, that is basically eating,  uh, a man dressed as a wolf. It's all very cartoonish, but he's eating him up and down in a rather, uh, like, erotic manner.]

Ben: Now I should say that there was text sent out with this short video in the tweet. It basically says 1-1 and another word in Portuguese.

[Jack: When I saw this tweet, it was kind of like I mean, I love the NBA. I am a student of the internet, and someone's reported on the Internet for a long time, and I'm I cover Brazil and speak Portuguese. So I was sort of like I I felt in a way, okay. If anyone's gonna figure this, what the hell's going on here, I might as well talk to this guy.]

Ben: So here's what Jack does. He gets in touch with the owner of the Timberwolves Brazil Twitter account by DMing him. And not surprisingly…

[Jack: It's really just some dude, this publicist in Rio, this guy Rodrigo Barbosa.]

Ben: While Rodrigo is a publicist, he does not work for the Timberwolves. He's just a fan, man.

[Jack: He became a Timberwolves fan, uh, you know, when they had Kevin Garnett on the team and all that, and he sort of stuck with this team even though he has no connection to Minnesota.  And he, you know, started posting memes and things like that.] 

Ben: But what Jack realizes as he's talking to Rodrigo is that the guy was just looking for Timberwolves related content to post as a fan. And Rodrigo found this YouTube video by finding an account run by someone else back in the U. S.

[Jack: It's made by an account, Spruce Moki, which appears to be an animator from Wisconsin is a self described voraphile.]

Ben: Do you know what a voraphile is?

Amory: He says voraphile?

Ben: Voraphile.

Amory: I'm going to guess that it's, uh, wolf enthusiast.

Ben: Vorophilia, often shortened to vora, or vor…

Amory: Oh, this is going to be darker than I was thinking.

Ben: Is a paraphilia wherein sexual arousal occurs in response to the idea of someone or something eating or being eaten by someone or something.

Amory: Oh.

Ben: So if you get your jollies from being consumed…

Amory: Or consuming others.

Ben: Or consuming others –  Vorophile. Apparently.

Amory: You know, you really do learn something new every day.

Ben: The more you know.

Ben: Did you know about voraphiles? I did not.

Amory: No, I did not.

Ben: It's a whole thing.

Amory: I, I love the English language, man.

Ben: All right. So Spruce Moki, speaking of the English language, is not exclusively Timberwolves content. They're, they're voraphile videos. You know, they, they got a whole mess of them.

[Jack: They involve a lot of dinosaurs, wolves, uh, deers, basically, like, eating people, uh, but doing in this sort of erotic suggestive manner. And it's kind of a mix between, like, cartoon, softcore porn,  uh, furries, but all around the idea of getting eaten.  

Ben: What a nexus.

Jack: Yeah, which. No one is surprised that the internet has this.]

Ben: Right. Are you surprised?

Amory: No. No, I think, I mean, truly, I know there is so much I do not know. And I'm okay with that. But I like learning about it. I'm glad to know. That this is, this is, this was made to scratch a particular itch, shall we say.

Ben: So what I think is surprising about this is this sort of extremely weird and vaguely erotic thing from the internet, like, jumped into NBA sports fan culture. So this tweet was retweeted 22,000 times, and it really, truly blew up. People were talking about it all over the place. That's how it made it into Jack Nickas’s group chat. And, you know, I, I just think it's interesting and, and Jack thinks it's interesting too.

[Jack: I mean, it was the second game of the season. Right. They won, and he just posted, like, we're now he just said one on one, the record of the team. We're back. And then this video, uh, with no context. And so I think everybody was just like, what the hell is this? So, um, yes. And I I think it also just it's an example  of a fringe Internet community  being suddenly thrust into the spotlight of, um, a more mainstream community, you know, like the NBA Twitter. Right? Yeah. It's got a big Twitter –

Ben: So actual NBA players were retweeting this and tweeting about it and wondering what the heck it was?

Jack: Yes. Correct.]

Amory: That's beautiful, man. This kind of, this culture hopping.

Ben: Right?

Amory: It's like, you know what this is? This is on the internet when you, when you, like, open a door and you see something that you weren't supposed to see behind that door and you're like, “Oh, sorry! I was looking for the bathroom.”

Ben: Ha. That's so right. That's such a perfect analogy. That's such a perfect analogy. Yeah, that's right. And I think like basically like, the entire U.S. was the person opening the door in a weird way. You know what I mean? And when this blew up, you know, there are of course, other fan accounts in Brazil for NBA teams, and they started posting all of these like other ridiculous and inappropriate videos also.

Amory: Oh, of course, because there's so many animal team names, right?

Ben: Yeah, I mean, I actually haven't looked at these, but apparently the Golden State Warriors account also did it, and I'm kind of afraid to find out what that’s about.

Amory: Yeah, and of course as soon as I said there's so many other animal teams, I couldn't think of a single other one, so forget that I said that. Isn’t there like a Jacksonville Jackals?

Ben: Yeah, sure. That sounds right. You and I, as sports experts, you and I are perfect for this.

Amory: Would you like to co-own the Jacksonville Jackals with me? That doesn’t actually exist?

Ben: the, the,

Amory: if it doesn't already exist?

Ben: yeah, the, the I'm trying to think of which team would be the Turtles.

Amory: I think there is a a turtle. No, there's not a turtle. So there's the,

Ben: You know what? We're gonna be the Turtles. They seem super athletic.

Amory: I think it's the University of Maryland. They're like, is Terrapin? Is that another name for a turtle

Ben: Oh, yeah.

Sure.

Amory: they're the Terrapins.

Ben: Yeah, but not a professional team, Amory. Come on. They're not, they wouldn't do that to themselves.

Amory: Anyway, we're getting off track. I'm sorry. I derailed this.

Ben: No, that's fine.

Amory: Back to the Golden State Warriors and whatever creature was  licking another creature.

Ben: Again, this blew up. There were other Brazil fan accounts doing their own tweets of this kind of thing. There were follow-up Tweets from Rodrigo, who posted more voraphile wolf-consuming person videos, for, after later games. Uh, and NBA players started reacting, including a Celtics forward, O'Shea Bursette, who tweeted, quote, they can't keep getting away with this.

And eventually, the official Timberwolves account basically had to respond. And so they sent out a tweet.

[Jack: So the official Minnesota Timberwolves account tweeted the viral wolf-eating video, uh,  and they put their own meme with Thanos looking, sort of aghast at a cell phone  with a Timberwolves’ hat on. So they kinda responded with their own meme.]

Ben: So this is like a very brief and ridiculous kind of like meme, meme war if you will that started in Brazil with fetish content from Wisconsin and blew up in Brazil and then went back to the U. S. and, you know, went viral on NBA Twitter and for a brief moment, all of this happened. And I know, Amory, that your head is exploding with the sheer philosophical intellectual thrust of all of this.

But, here's what I think is interesting. It is kind of, like you said, it's something that blew up because of this key difference between Brazil and the U S when it comes to the internet. Have you ever heard of “Had to be Brazil?”

Amory: No.

Ben: So this is a subreddit, which actually has now been made into a private sub. I think ever since the API mass resistance on Reddit. So it's a private subreddit now, but it's also a Twitter account and I think a hashtag on Instagram. It's almost like a distant relative to a normal day in Russia. Have you heard of that one?

Amory: Yes, I have. Yep.

Ben: It's sort of like curating all these crazy things that happen in Brazil. But it also represents the kind of vibes of the Brazilian internet. And the vibes are different than the vibes of the U. S. internet.

[Jack: Brazilians are very well known for an absurdist sense of humor on the internet.]

Ben: And Jack says this is something he's really come to learn while living and working in Brazil. Whether it is politics or sex or, you know, just really anything, there's just this kind of wild, out there, explicit, absurdist, dadaist sense of humor online in Brazil that kind of makes Americans seem a little square by comparison.

[Jack: In Brazil, that has been taken, I think, to another level, where the Brazilian Internet has embraced an especially weird aesthetic, and, like, the weirder and more it gets, the more people like it or it goes viral and particularly among the especially online Brazilians, and they like to push the envelope of what is weird. And I think it reflects the culture in general. It's kind of a point of pride in a way.]

Ben: But Jack says that Rodrigo, the Timberwolves fan account owner in Brazil, When he saw his tweet actually get retweeted 20,000 times, It actually kind of freaked him out.

[Jack: He got worried that, like, the American internet was going to misunderstand and think he was, like,  into weird porn and stuff like that. But, uh, because he basically you know, he told me, quote, jokes are different here. They're, like the Brazilian sense of humor is just different.]

Ben: But I think, I don't know, what do you think about this?

Amory: I think that would be horrifying if you tweeted something not knowing the context of it and then it blows up and then you're like, no, no, no, no, no.

Ben: Yeah.

Amory: That’s not what I meant! Um, so I feel, I feel red in the face on his behalf. Um, even though here we are clearing everything up for you, Rodrigo, don't worry. But yeah, I mean, I, I, love this stuff. This is what I love about internet stories and about how it really is a tool, not just for sharing information, which is like, so 1996.

Ben: Information highway.

Amory: Right, right, and it's like when we're doing it a certain way… I am into the various ways in which we communicate with each other, a sense of what it is to be like a human and alive and weird and wonderful. And this is that in such an accidental, but to me, like, really, uh, invigorating way.

Ben: Are you saying you're voracious for more?

Amory: I'm voracious. Oh, shit. Is that where that word comes from?

Ben: Pretty sure.

Amory: Yes, voracious. Um, yes, I am voracious for culture mishmashing, exchanging, I'm here for it.

Ben: Yeah, I'm the same. And I, I think even though this went viral because in a way Americans were mystified by it and it's almost like a sort of lost in translation thing in the beginning, right? Like, we eventually got it. Like, we realized it was just absurdist humor, I think, and we responded with our own memes that reflected our collective confusion, you know, like, and in a way that made it less of a lost in translation thing and more of like a laughing together thing, which I think is pretty cool, Americans and Brazilians can appreciate each other's, like, very different internet humors in the end, and sort of share that humor

Amory: And beyond humor, I'm kind of curious if anyone watched the wolf video, like a basketball fan watched the wolf video and then realized that they too are a voraphile. You know, they were like, oh, oh –

Ben: We're converting some NBA players.

Amory: Not converting, just uncovering. We're peeling back the layers that have been there all along.

Ben: That's right.

Amory: They did not know how much they wanted to be eaten or to eat something.

Ben: That's good. I love that. God. Wouldn't you just love to know which NBA players discovered that about themselves?

Amory: Yeah, or just fans, you know, how many new, how many new voraphiles do we have out there? Yeah? Let's hear it. Aoooooo!

Ben: Raise your hand. Don't be shy. I love that. Alright, Endless Thread listeners, if you too have now realized that you are a voraphile, please don't send us photos or videos, but do write to us and tell us.

Amory: Yeah, but send them to each other, if that floats your boat.

Ben: Yeah, find your other voraphile friends and do whatever it is you do.

Amory: Mm hmm.

Ben:  Safely, respectfully, consume each other.

Amory: With each other's consent.

Ben: Consent consumption. Consumption consent. That's my story for you today.

Amory: Thank you. I've learned a lot.

Ben: Yeah. Do you want to thank me for it? I'm not sure. But…

Amory: Hey, I like learning new things. I really do.

Ben: Same. Same.

Amory: So thank you for this, this, uh, another, another corner of the internet.

Ben: Of course.

Amory: That we can tip our hats to from afar.