It's Sunday and here’s a handpicked selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

But first, Sony has developed an AI that crushes humans at ping pong. Our question: can the robot defeat a fast-talking Jewish New Yorker with a rogueish streak?

CREATOR COMMOTION

Clavicular’s looksmaxxing hype isn’t enough to get him unbanned on YouTube.

Creators are getting banned and impressing Gordon Ramsay

The looksmaxxer: Clavicular may be having a moment, but YouTube isn’t interested. Last year, YouTube banned the looksmaxxing star’s channels because he linked to websites that violated illegal or regulated goods or services policies. If you’ve been hit with the ban hammer, you can’t restart on new channels without being reinstated first, so YouTube has banned some other hubs affiliated with Clavicular.

The interns: Dude Perfect has cultivated a new creator crew. The DP Interns, as the creator crew’s junior employees are known, now have more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.

The creator chef: Move over, Nick DiGiovanni—iGumdrop just crushed it on MasterChef. DiGiovanni broke out thanks to an appearance on the Gordon Ramsay-hosted cooking show, and iGumdrop is his heir apparent. The Twitch streamer impressed Ramsay with a wagyu steak satay that continued to turn FOX’s reality competition franchise into a creator showcase

The web series: The Honorable Gays are holding court in Tan France’s new web series. The former Queer Eye fashionista is ruling on Reddit arguments as the latest traditional celeb to wade into the YouTube waters.

THE BIZ

The Unwell Network is going through it.

This week in the creator economy…

The media company: The vibe at Alex Cooper’s media company is just a little unwell. The Call Her Daddy host made a bold move when she launched The Unwell Network, but a string of executive departures and uneven content initiatives has made the road rocky for Cooper and her associates. And this comes before Alix Earle drops her hotly anticipated response to Cooper’s public dig.

The figurine: iShowSpeed has been immortalized as a Funko Pop. Fresh off his official WWE debut (which featured him laying the smackdown on Logan Paul), Speed is lending his likeness to a Funko Pop figurine that features his pro wrestling persona.

The winners: Earlier this year, FiveTwoNine and Billion Dollar Boy teamed up with Patreon to continue an initiative that brings creators to the Cannes Lions festival and helps them network with marketing industry bigwigs. The lucky winners of the 2026 Cannes Lions creator fund have now been revealed, and they’ll be a formidable 20-person crew once they touch down in the south of France.

The Hail Mary: Can creators save David’s Bridal? The wedding retailer is looking to bounce back after declaring bankruptcy, and it’s testing whether creator partnerships can help it return to relevancy. If David’s Bridal wants to engage in influencer marketing, it should start by teaming up with all those couple channels that have been popping off on YouTube Shorts.

PLATFORM POTPOURRI

It’s been 21 years since YouTube’s first video hit the web.

YouTube and Kick are celebrating major milestones—and Roblox is handing out $50K

The YouTube milestone: “Me at the zoo” has officially reached legal drinking age. It has been 21 years since YouTube Co-Founder Jawed Karim traveled to the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo, where he recorded the clip that went on to become the first video on YouTube.

The nine-digit club: Kick has made it to 100 million users. On X, Stake Co-Founder Bijan Tehrani—a key backer for Kick—announced that the streaming platform has joined the nine-digit club. Tehrani is not resting on his laurels, though. “We know our app sucks,” the exec wrote, “we’ve got it to a point where it’s almost crash free but the experience is weak.”

The updates: More features have come to beehiiv. Top newsletter platforms are engaged in an arms race to determine which one of them can best serve as an “everything platform” that serves creators’ diverse needs. As it enters that competition, beehiiv is making its partners a compelling offer by equipping them with webinar capabilities and customizable paywalls. That’s a lot of monetization.

The showdown: Roblox put $50,000 up for grabs at the latest “Creator Showdown” in Las Vegas, where stars like CaylusBlox will play the most competitive games in the sandbox platform’s community.

WATCH THIS 👀

Druski’s face says it all.

Mark Wahlberg is making creators work out with him at 4 AM

The challenge: Druski and Brent Rivera are two of the digital luminaries who have taken on Mark Wahlberg’s 4am Challenge.

We would never enjoy waking up that early, but if you’re already on the creator grind, a quick workout with Mahky Mahk is perhaps a more reasonable addition to the calendar. (Although we’re not sure Druski would agree with that sentiment after suffering through Wahlberg’s extensive gym regimen.)

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