 This video is brought to you by VitaJax, VitaJax keeping YouTubers awake since 2005. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, my fellow Americans. It's your most trusted voice on radio and television speaking, Larry Lonesome Roads. Here to tell you the truth behind what those fat cats in Washington don't want you to know. You stick with me and I'll be your best friend. Now, a quick word from our sponsor, Eliah Kazan, and his product, the 1957 Dark Satire, A Face in the Crowd. Starring the one and only Andy Griffith in a story chillingly prescient for our media saturated times, that acts as a cautionary tale about the power of the media, the corruption of fame, and how you can never, ever trust what you see on your screen. Opening in a ramshackle jail in rural Arkansas, the story follows go-getting radio journalist Marsha Jeffries, played by Patricia Neal, who attempts to interview several inmates for a program called A Face in the Crowd. After being introduced to down on his luck drifter, Larry Roads, Marsha quickly becomes captivated by the folksy, straight-talking guitar player, and senses a lucrative business opportunity after giving him his own program on local radio. However, as Roads' popularity increases with his audience to the point where he achieves an illustrious new show entirely devoted to him by a major New York broadcaster, it's not long before the ego of this folksy country bumpkin mutates into something far more sinister, a deranged egomaniacal political operator who is then hired by a senator to help him win his bid for the presidency. A Face in the Crowd's depiction of a media personality from humble origins becoming a cult-like leader of millions may have appeared novel and fresh to audiences in 1957, but now, six decades after release, its story sadly contains many disturbing real-life parallels to political and media personas we know today, predicting the rise and fall, if only metaphorically, of figures such as Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, and Bill O'Reilly who once dominated in their field. The casting choice of Andy Griffith soon to become a household name with his eponymously titled show is both ingeniously ironic and, at the same time, darkly subversive, giving a performance in his film debut that is both likable and deceitful, tricking our confidence into thinking that redemption is just around the corner for his character before he descends further and further into madness. Although the film's message might be obvious, we do ourselves a disservice to ignore it. For whether it's false advertising, product marketing, or good old-fashioned demagoguery, there is a depressing realization that some things never change and indeed transcend time, making a Face in the Crowd's relevance to our discourse today only more poignant, and reminding us to always treat with skepticism any media personality who demands that you follow them. Now with that done, don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button. Uh oh.