This week on The Deep Dive: Why Legally Blonde’s opening scene is so memorable, the 2000s ringtone that’s forever stuck in your head turned out to be a scam, how Bobbi Althoff came up out of nowhere by making her interview guests hate her, that file you just deleted could have been in an internet archive, and a look back at Taylor Swift’s Matty Healy era.

Don't forget to check out all the newsletter-recommended video essays to date in The Deep Dive’s YouTube playlist!

FILM

why Legally Blonde’s intro is cinematic genius by artatmidnight (14:25)

What makes a movie intro perfect? Is it a big-budget opening that gets you hooked early on? A dream sequence that outlines the main character’s hopes for their story? A theatrical song that gets stuck in your head for decades to come? In this video, artatmidnight shares what makes Legally Blonde’s opening scene so iconic, from the college campus setting, to the sorority camaraderie, to the intriguing face-less main character. How does Legally Blonde’s intro scene set the tone for a film about the importance of kindness, loyalty, not judging a book by its cover, and being unapologetically yourself?

NOSTALGIA

The Forgotten $500m Crazy Frog Scam by JimmyTheGiant (17:13)

Remember the Crazy Frog ringtone ads that took over every commercial break in the 2000s? Well, it turns out there’s actually quite a story behind that little blue-gray character with an annoying voice who managed to outsell Coldplay at one point in time. In this video, JimmyTheGiant takes a look back at the Wild West cellphone market that allowed Crazy Frog and ringtones like it to be inescapable to anyone watching TV. Who was behind the Crazy Frog sound and song? How was the creator of the sound bullied into turning it into a ringtone? And how did a shady ringtone company have the funds to run so many commercials in the first place?