Possibility-As-A-Product: Superbad, Clubhouse & the "Inciting Incident" (Cafe Society #3)

We watched Booksmart the other night, which is basically the female Superbad. Two goodie two-shoes girls decide they want to have a high school party experience before they graduate and they decide to attend a graduation party, but end up on a boat where a classmate spikes their drink with shrooms, a houseparty where a teacher sleeps with a student, one’s crush makes out with the other’s crush and a yelling fight ensues where they learn about friendship, freedom and their futures and learn to value their not-as-studious classmates as interesting and valuable people in their own right.

Every movie is built around the Inciting Incident (or incidents) - the “the major change or formative event that ignites the protagonist’s connection with the antagonist.”

There are a lot of social apps popping up trying to make interacting online just like interacting in person, and the “hottest” one right now at least in VC world is Clubhouse, and we think they are missing the point because they fundamentally miss why we go out - because we’re in constant search of our own life’s inciting incidents. Possibility is the product. “Going out” or “meeting up in person” is not the actual product that a party, an in-person event, a trip to the bar is selling you. It’s the hope that in going out, SOMETHING will happen…

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David Litwak