When video podcasts go viral on Twitter, it’s rarely for a good reason. Every week or so, a video clip circulates of a couple mic’d-up dudes complaining about “issues” like women’s rights, drawing criticism and usually a bunch of “podcast bro” jokes. The same goes for videos of ostensibly straight podcasters debating topics like whether men or women should pay for dates or share bills in the year 2023. In other cases, it’s Joe Rogan saying something derogatory.
Despite their recording sessions blowing up on Twitter recently, relatively new podcasters (and former Bravo stars) Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan have managed to avoid such ire—probably because their opinions are both funny and good.
Their comedy podcast, I’ve Had It, where they talk about trends and behaviors they’ve had it with, launched last October. But over the past two weeks, their commentary on important matters like cryptic Instagram posts and men pulling out their dicks in cars have earned them some new fans.
“We had this conversation that maybe we shouldn’t go heavy on Twitter, because I don’t know if that’s a platform where our podcast would flourish,” Welch tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed over Zoom. “Then some random dude that has, like, 1,000 followers on Twitter found us on TikTok [where the pair does regularly upload clips], downloads three or four videos, and tweets it. Thirty million views later, it’s crazy viral.”
The tweet that Welch’s referring to has actually been seen 27.4 million times. (Thanks, Elon, for this needless metric!) However, the actual video has been watched 6.6 million times on the platform, so far. For all intents and purposes, this number still counts as “crazy viral.”
In the TikTok, Welch denounces the practice of manifestation, now commonly associated with rich, white women obsessed with wellness and spirituality. Specifically, she recalls a social media post where a woman shows off a Birkin bag, her and her husband’s matching Rolls-Royces, and a private jet. The caption: “I manifested this life.”
“I bet if you got to the deep, dark bottom of it, she just has rich parents,” Sullivan says matter-of-factly in the clip.
Without missing a beat, Welch offers her own crude theory. “I bet if you got to the deep, dark bottom of it, she could fucking suck the chrome off of a tailpipe.”
In another hysterical snippet, Sullivan goes off on people that record themselves crying on social media. “Bitch, have some pride!” Sullivan says. In another, Sullivan recalls the time a man flashed her while driving from his car. Instead of calling the police, she let the man drive off. “So the #MeToo movement just kind of passed right by you,” Welch says, with a slightly judgmental glare.
It seems to be the combination of the duo’s wit, bluntness, and chemistry (not to mention those soothing Southern accents) that has Twitter users calling their podcast “top tier content.” Despite the pair telling me they haven’t really enjoyed Twitter since Rudy Giuliani’s Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference in 2020, it seems like the ideal platform for them both to thrive. As someone who identifies as a reasoned hater, I can say that airing low-stakes grievances is the app’s most useful function.
The best friends met almost 30 years ago when Welch, an interior designer, worked on Sullivan’s house. Appropriately, Sullivan, an attorney, knew she and Welch would hit it off when Welch insulted her decor. “The only thing worse than silk flowers is a painting of silk flowers, and you have both,” she recalled Welch stating. It makes sense, then, that shit-talking would be a ritual in their friendship, with its own special code.
“[Sullivan] will text me the horse emoji,” Welch explains. “And that means, ‘Call me. We need to beat a dead horse.’ So we knew that the podcast would be us just beating a subject that has been beaten to death. But we have enthusiasm, even if we’ve beaten it 25 times in the past.”
“Jennifer has always said, ‘I've had it,’ when she's worn out about something,” Sullivan says, about the podcast’s name and inception. “I mean, for 20 years, that's [been] her punchline. So when we were talking about doing a podcast, that was kind of an easy evolution of what it could be about.”
However, when Sullivan shared the idea for I’ve Had It with her oldest son, she says she got a less than enthusiastic response.
“My eldest said, ‘Just what the world’s world needs, two middle-aged white women bitching,’” Sullivan says with a laugh.
Welch and Sullivan are aware of the negative implications of two Southern, white women complaining publicly. On social media especially, the archetype of the nagging white lady—referred to exhaustingly as a “Karen”—is immediately associated with white privilege and dangerous outcomes. However, the hosts’ diatribes are less “let me speak to the manager” and more “fuck off.” Likewise, the internet has yet to interpret their chatter as harmful or annoying; rather, they agree with the hosts’ extremely relatable sentiments about the most irritating human behavior.
“There is this expectation that we’re going to be textbook Karens,” Welch says. “We're progressive, middle-aged women that live in a red state, but we do live in an urban, purple city. And we identify more with progressive politics.”
“We see the insanity of a lot of these red-state policies,” Welch continues, as Sullivan nods assertively. “They get under our skin just as much as they do the majority of the population.”
The podcast has also brought more attention to their 2017 Bravo show Sweet Home Oklahoma, which lasted two seasons, and the 2018 one-season spin-off Sweet Home. The show’s paradoxical nature was essentially the logline for Sweet Home Oklahoma, a group of friends, including Lee Murphy and Welch’s ex-husband Joe, “living liberal lives” in Oklahoma City. (Welch and Sullivan are both divorced). The “progressive” caveat was maybe why the reality show, which premiered a few months into Trump’s presidency, didn’t catch on with viewers. Meanwhile, the Charleston-set Southern Charm, which boasts “traditional” Southern culture and some racist overtones, has been a runaway hit for Bravo’s more conservative audience since it began in 2014.
In the wake of I’ve Had It going viral, Bravo fans are reminding the internet of the pairs’ origins on the cable network. It seems like the perfect opportunity to either create or renew interest in the hilarious, slice-of-life series. However, the pair insists they’re not interested in using the podcast as a “thirst trap project” to get back on television.
“Filming a reality TV show is exhausting,” Welch says. “Everywhere you go, you’ve got 30 people following you. You have no control over how it’s edited. This is better because we own this. And we approve everything that goes out. We’re in charge of what comes out of our mouths, sometimes to our own detriment. But no, there’s no desire.”
“We were never dying to get back on TV,” Sullivan concurs.
For now, Welch and Sullivan have their attention focused on nurturing the podcast. Since the show started going viral, the hosts say that a talent agency has reached out to them for an opportunity to grow their audience. As for live shows, they say, if a tour “shows [them] money,” they’ll go.
“This is a hustle for us,” Welch says bluntly.
Talking with such artful shit-talkers like Welch and Sullivan, it’s hard not to be a bit self-conscious or wonder if you’ve displayed an annoying habit worthy of being roasted on their podcast. (Maybe it’s my excessive use of the word “like.”) If I do happen to hear them raging against “annoying interviewers” on next week’s episode, it would honestly be an honor.