Kick streamer Ed Matthews found himself in a position many music fans would kill for: a chance to hang out with legendary musician and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. However, Matthews managed to get into such a situation without even knowing Starr’s musical identity.
Ed Matthews was broadcasting live when Starr walked into frame alongside his wife Barbara Bach. The boxing personality had a polite conversation with Starr before the latter left, which is when Matthews turned to his chat to figure out his interlocutor’s identity, deducing that the Starr must’ve been of some renown due to his “classy” wife.
While his chat immediately identified the Beatles drummer, Matthews treated “Beatle Ringo'” like an online handle, rather than one of the most famous musicians in history. While he remained confused for some time, asking the chat if Starr was “one of the guys on the statues in Liverpool,” he eventually looked up Starr’s net worth to get to find out the drummer’s identity.
This was all made all the more absurd by the fact that Matthews is English, hailing from the same country as The Beatles. While England and the wider UK don’t have nearly as much pride in the band as their home city of Liverpool does, the country’s people largely view The Beatles as a major cultural export, and it’s rare for someone of adult age in the UK to be so unaware of such a keystone.
IRL streaming is making worlds collide
The humor found in the generational disconnect between Matthews and music culture makes for an easy gag, especially in how the controversy surrounding Kick has given the platform a certain reputation. Kick is treated by many as the pinnacle of consumerist, personality-and-brand focused streaming, a million worlds away from the nostalgia invoked by the Beatles.
Moreover, the moment shows how IRL streaming on Kick often leads to a bizarre mix of online and offline worlds, as well as the many niches therein. With Kick being the posterchild for these self-surveillance stream events, sheer happenstance, often combined with an incentive to poke bears for views, often leads to wild and strange moments being caught live.
