Devil May Care – The Influencer

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

As The Devil (Alan Tudyk) walks out into the living room of his home, we quickly find that Regina (Pamela Adlon) is his wife and that they have two kids, Hell-Spawn and Charlotte. The Devil is quite excited about his new app called “Chit-Chat” and is quite sure that his children have heard of it. Unfortunately, the Devil finds that his children are more into a video about a banana and that Chit-Chat only has eight users as of now. This is quite concerning.

In a meeting with Beans (Asif Ali) and McKinley (Fred Tatasciore), the Devil tries to brain-storm how to make Chit-Chat grow. The ideas bounce from forcing people into signing up for the app to Beans suggesting that they start providing viral videos that will draw users to the site. The residents of Hell begin to receive videos. Using a suggestion from Beans, the first video is the Devil doing an “unboxing” video where he opens boxes to show people what is in them—this initial video is an automatic flop.

Next, Beans has Regina make a video where she gives some good how-to tips, but when Beans asks Regina to be sexier in the video her version of sexy scares Beans into the fetal position while filming. More users are uninterested in subscribing for more content. Gloria (Stephanie Beatriz) then gets in on the action by making a TikTok-esque video that also appears to turn the residents off. When McKinley creates a “cooking” show and is kicked in the face by the horse he attempts to slaughter, this is the content that the residents want to see. McKinley becomes an instant success on Chit-Chat.

With McKinley becoming famous for the horse meme, the Devil decides to up the ante and continue making memes featuring McKinley. From having him spill hot coffee on his face to missing the bus, McKinley’s popularity increases the number of users who go on Chit-Chat. The app is finally a success!

The next morning when the Devil sees his children, they are now thoroughly engrossed on Chit-Chat but a bigger problem has presented itself: McKinley has now become a prominent figure in Hell. Even worse, he is now acknowledged as an influencer. Attempting to dodge the crazed fans on the street, the Devil sees Beans and to their surprise find McKinley utilizing his fame to try and upstage Devil by speaking on a Zoom-like call to the employees.

Beans and the Devil quickly devise a plan. Managing to get on the video chat, Beans and the Devil disguise themselves and quickly turn the conference call into a joke by using filters and funny captions. By bringing McKinley back down to a funny meme status the residents and employees quickly lose interest in McKinley’s influence. Later, Beans reminds McKinley that as an influencer he managed to have more relevance than his time as President. McKinley smiles at this thought and walks away.