Vol. I · No. 001 Wednesday edition · MMXXVI · MIT license
Price · Free with your keys · or $8/mo A weekly, running live in your Chrome side panel.

Open-source archive · MIT "Four staff critics. One video. No mercy." Self-host at your own legal risk
Cover Story

Four AIs walk into your video tab.

A writers' room for whatever you're already watching — live in Chrome's side panel, reacting as the transcript comes in.
By the Gallery Staff
Filed 4:12 PM · Pressroom wire

Peanut Gallery is a free Chrome extension that opens a running commentary alongside any video or audio tab — livestreams, podcasts, webinars, Zoom calls, YouTube. A fact-checker pulls receipts. A cynical troll says what chat is thinking. A sound-effects guy drops cues. A comedy writer turns the dryest term sheet into a bit.

"Finally — a peanut gallery that heckles back."

It runs in the native side panel, not on top of the page. Under 300 milliseconds from spoken word to posted reaction. Swap packs between the Morning Crew and the TWiST staff in a click. No signup. No paywall. MIT licensed.

The Staff
Live
Now
● ON AIR
01
BB
The ProducerFact
02
CT
The TrollDunk
03
FN
The Sound GuyCue
04
JM
Joke WriterBit
Subscribe free. Uninstall anytime.Chrome · Chromium · Edge
▶ View source Operator's manual →

Inside this issue

Pg. A2 · Features
HOT
WIRE
TWiST WIRE · E1926 · 04:02–04:142026-04-18
04:02FACTJASON SAID UBER WAS 2007. THE COMPANY WAS FOUNDED IN MARCH 2009. AGAIN.
04:05DUNK"OH COOL, ANOTHER AI WRAPPER. VERY 2024."
04:07CUE[RECORD SCRATCH] THAT COMPANY WENT BANKRUPT IN 2023. [SAD TROMBONE]
04:10BIT"JASON'S INVESTMENT THESIS: IF IT HAS 'AI' IN THE NAME AND THE FOUNDER HAS A PULSE, IT'S A YES."
04:12FACTPER THE 10-K THEY FILED LAST QUARTER — THE NUMBER IS CLOSER TO 2.4 BILLION. WORTH NOTING.
04:14BIT"AT 200K/MO BURN, A 4M ROUND IS 20 MONTHS. THAT'S A PREGNANCY AND A TODDLER."
How it works

The transcript comes in. The staff goes off.

Deepgram Nova-3 streams the captions. Claude Haiku handles the fact-checker and comedy writer — the two roles that benefit from nuance. xAI Grok Fast powers the troll and sound-effects guy — reflexive, punchy, no deliberation. Grok Live Search pulls receipts when the fact-checker needs one.

The Rack
  • Deepgram Nova-3 — transcription
  • Claude Haiku — fact-check, comedy
  • Grok 4.1 Fast — troll, sound FX, fact-check receipts

The Staff

Pg. A3 · Masthead
01
The Producer
Fact-Checker
"[FACT CHECK] Jason just said Uber was founded in 2007. It was 2009. Again."
MODEL · Haiku + Grok Search
02
The Troll
Commentary · anonymous
"Oh cool, another AI wrapper. Very 2024."
MODEL · Grok 4.1 Fast
03
The Sound Guy
Sound FX · as himself
"[record scratch] Fun fact: that company went bankrupt in 2023. [sad trombone]"
MODEL · Grok 4.1 Fast
04
The Joke Writer
Comedy Writer · as himself
"Jason's investment thesis: if it has 'AI' in the name and the founder has a pulse, it's a yes."
MODEL · Claude Haiku
Where it lives

Docked
beside the
broadcast.

The feed runs in Chrome's native side panel — the wire room next to the studio. No modal overlays, no layout shift, no tab-switching. Mute any channel. Clip a line. Swap packs between the Morning Crew and the TWiST staff in a click.

Under 300ms from word to reaction
Read the operator's manual →
Vol. I · No. 001 AI v2.0.2
THE PEANUT GALLERY
Broadsheet “Four critics. One tab.” Daily
AI-generated parody of public figures — not real people
Listening
00:04:12
🎧 Listening to Founder Friday w/ Lex Fridman — This Week in Startups Jump →
The Producer
Fact
The Troll
Dunk
The Sound Guy
Cue
The Joke Writer
Bit
On air …and I said the round closed at a point-two…
04:02 Fact The ProducerHeads up — he said Uber was 2007. Founded March 2009.
04:05 Dunk The TrollOh cool, another AI wrapper. Very 2024 of you.
04:07 Cue The Sound Guy[record scratch]
04:10 Bit The Joke WriterIf it's got AI in the name and a pulse, it's a yes. Hey-ohhh!
04:12 Fact The ProducerPer the 10-K, closer to $2.4B in revenue, not $4B.
Fact Dunk Cue Bit

Self-Host Desk

Pg. A5 · Operating cost
Form 001 · Run it yourselfMIT · Bring your own keys

You're the operator.

Source on GitHub · MIT licensed$0
Three API keys · Deepgram, Anthropic, xAIPaste
Both persona packs · Morning Crew & TWiSTIncl.
Fact-check receipts · via Grok Live SearchIncl.
Hours per weekUnlimited
Total — hourly cost~$1 / hour
You pay the providers directly at their rates. All three vendors ship generous free tiers. The operator's manual has the full self-host walkthrough.
Form 002 · Peanut Gallery PlusRetired · never shipped

Plus did not ship.

Plus was planned as a flat-rate hosted backend ($8/mo, 16 h/wk, no keys to juggle). It did not ship. The project was unpublished from the Chrome Web Store on 2026-05-02 before the subscription went live. There is nothing to buy here. The pricing page documents the original design for posterity.

If you fork the source and run a hosted backend yourself, you are the operator — you handle providers, billing, ToS, abuse policy, and any legal exposure for the speech your instance produces. Manu Games LLC is not the speaker for sessions you operate.

Letters to the editor

Pg. A6 · Opinion
To the Gallery —

"Does this thing send my browsing to anyone? I watch some weird stuff, is what I'm saying."

— Concerned in Cupertino
Editor responds
Audio from the active tab goes to Deepgram for transcription; transcript snippets go to Anthropic and xAI for reactions. That is it. No history, no profiling, no ads. Self-host the backend and even that round-trip is yours to audit. The extension never touches a tab you haven't opted in on.
To the desk —

"You talk a big game about 300ms. What actually happens between the video and the side panel?"

— J. P., latency snob, Austin TX
Editor responds
Deepgram Nova-3 streams partials as the words land. Each partial fans out to the four critics in parallel — Haiku for fact & comedy, Grok Fast for troll & FX. First tokens come back in 120–180ms; the feed renders as they stream. Nothing waits for anything else.
Dear editor —

"I don't want a fact-checker. I want four Joke Writers. Can I do that?"

— Pack-curious, Brooklyn
Editor responds
Yes, and welcome to the party. A pack is a JSON file — four personas, four prompts, four model picks. Write a Joke-Writer-only pack, sideload it, name it whatever you want. The Pamphlet has the schema and a worked example.
To the staff —

"Does it work on anything besides YouTube?"

— Podcast loyalist, Vermont
Editor responds
Yes. Any Chrome tab with audio — podcast players, livestream platforms, webinar tools, even a Zoom window. The transcript hook is cleanest on captioned video today; the generic tab-audio pipe is on the bench and already permissioned. Watch the github for pre-release builds or subscribe to the Sunday bonus (see page A5, circa 2027).
Hey —

"Why Morning Crew? Why TWiST? Why not just name four roles and move on?"

— Anonymous, via the chat
Editor responds
Because a fact-checker is a boring job title and The Producer is a person. Personas bring voice, cadence, in-jokes — the things a role description can't specify. Swap them for the Lex Fridman pack, the NBA on TNT pack, the Mystery Science Theater pack. The role is the floor; the persona is the ceiling.
To the editor —

"Wait, is this free or is it $8 now? What changed?"

— Economics-curious, Oakland
Editor responds
Self-host with your own keys. Paste your own Deepgram, Anthropic, and xAI keys, run the backend yourself, never pay us a cent. The Plus tier — a planned $8/mo flat-rate hosted backend — never shipped; the project was unpublished from the Chrome Web Store before launch. The source is MIT, on GitHub; if you stand up a hosted backend yourself, you're the operator and you carry the legal exposure for what the personas say.