Month: June 2020

HBO Max’s original programming lineup is about to get more crowded, with the impending premieres of Adventure Time: Distant Lands, Doom Patrol, and Search Party.

Created by Sarah-Violet Bliss, Charles Rogers, and Michael Showalter, the millennial-satirizing comedy aired for two very funny seasons on TBS before HBO Max (not to be confused with HBO) picked it up for two more seasons. The new episodes can’t get here soon enough, as the last time we checked in with Dory (played by Arrested Development‘s Alia Shawkat), she had just been arrested for murder.

Season three finds Dory, as well as Drew (John Reynolds), Elliott (John Early), and Portia (Meredith Hagner), “swept up in the trial of the century after Dory and Drew are charged for the semi-accidental murder of a private investigator,” according to HBO Max. “As Elliott and Portia grapple with whether or not to testify as witnesses, the friends are pitted against each other and thrust into the national spotlight. Dory’s sanity begins to fracture, and it becomes increasingly clear that the group may not have brunch together again for quite some time.” Guest stars include Louie Anderson and Chelsea Peretti.

Search Party returns on June 25. Brad Pitt will be watching — will you?

As the NFL begins the process of getting their facilities back up and running, with the insistence that the season is going to happen as planned, they have been given the green light to test players for the novel coronavirus ahead of opening the doors for training.

On Monday, the league’s two Texas teams reportedly received test results back that confirmed that “several” players on the Cowboys and Texans had tested positive for COVID-19, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

While the teams do not disclose the names of those player that tested positive, Ezekiel Elliott’s agent confirmed to Rapoport that the star running back was among those to test positive, but offering an update that Elliott was “feeling good” despite the positive test.

Hopefully, as was the case with the known positive cases for players in the NBA, all of the players involved will be able to make full recoveries and not deal with a severe case of the dangerous and deadly disease. That more serious, non-fatal cases can do significant damage to the body’s respiratory system — among other things — is one of the chief concerns athletes have about contracting the virus, as there are still questions about all of the long-term effects of the disease.

That Elliott is feeling good is hopefully an indication that he has a mild or asymptomatic case and will be able to return to the field at full capacity in the near future, but it also shows that the NFL will likely see plenty of positive cases around the league and will need to prepare for plans to change as the season nears and case numbers in the United States continue spiking significantly.

Kevin Durant’s basketball career has been on pause for a full year now as he rehabs an Achilles injury, and while he won’t be making any surprise returns to the NBA’s bubble in Orlando, he’s been plenty busy expanding his off-court business portfolio.

Durant has always had one eye looking to the future and ensuring himself financial stability long-term, launching Thirty-Five Ventures, which has business holdings, a media arm, and more. On Monday, his latest investment became official as Durant has added sports ownership to his portfolio, purchasing a 5 percent stake in the MLS’ Philadelphia Union ownership group, with an option to add an additional 5 percent in the “near future.”

That the announcement video puts his old number 35 on his jersey rather than his new number 7 is a bit funny, and also understandable given he hasn’t played a game in 7 yet so it’s not hard to forget he made that change when he moved to Brooklyn. Durant and the Union’s partnership also includes a pledge from the team to expand their community outreach efforts

“I’m excited to partner with the Philadelphia Union for years to come. My team and I connected instantly with the Union coaching staff and leadership, as well as the team’s story,” said Kevin Durant. “Off the pitch, I’m looking forward to working in the Chester and Philadelphia communities and making an impact in the same way that the KDCF has been able to in my hometown of Prince George’s County.”

…

The Union and Thirty Five Ventures have committed to developing programs in the Chester and Philadelphia areas with three main focuses. First, they will work to empower Chester’s youth to tackle social and racial injustice in their community and beyond via social justice programs and resources. Second, they will address needs related to COVID-19, with support for food banks and local small business recovery efforts. Finally, they will support youth sports programming and development in Chester and surrounding areas.

The MLS will return to action with the MLS Is Back Tournament in Orlando in July at the same site as the NBA’s return at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, so Durant will have an eye on his new team, the Union, while also cheering on his Nets as they fight for playoff position in the East.

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

It’s fitting that RMR’s debut EP, Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art, arrives at the midpoint of a year filled with debate, discussion, and reflection on the classification of Black music. After Tyler The Creator pointed out the drawbacks of his Best Rap Album Grammy win in February, the discussion culminated in the week leading up to RMR’s release, with Billie Eilish echoing Tyler’s sentiments and Republic Records announcing the discontinuation of the term “urban” after the industry’s Black Out Tuesday in response to the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.

RMR (pronounced “Rumor”) emerged into this strained climate with the surprise hit “Rascal,” a remake of “God Bless The Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts. The video, which went viral within a day of its release, features stereotypical rap visuals but twists them around an unexpected concept, as the ski-masked RMR, clad in designer bulletproof, brandishes guns at the camera and occasionally flashes a gold-grilled grin. The lyrics, repurposed from the lovelorn anthem to a “f*ck 12” refrain, center around plugs and flexing — the standard accoutrements of rap stardom. The juxtaposition flouts the rules of genre even more flagrantly than Lil Nas X had with “Old Town Road” just a year before. And he followed it up with the “trap&B” hedonism of “Dealer,” suggesting that his debut project would subvert expectations — whether listeners expected an industry plant gimmick, or a typical trap rap technician.

Throughout the seven tracks on Drug Dealing — “Dealer” appears twice, including a remix featuring Future and Lil Baby — RMR makes it his mission to dab into various genres without rinsing his paintbrush in between. Opening with a Westside Gunn feature that wouldn’t be out-of-place on turn-of-the-millennium, New York mixtape, RMR flies in the face of purists who insist that rap music be separated into neatly regimented categories. He doesn’t care for the sensibilities of traditionalists who “hate it when food touches.” Anything goes in RMR’s laboratory, where there are no control samples, just formulas to be mixed and remixed until something interesting happens.

In a recent interview published on Complex, RMR detailed “showing you what the future could look like” in a few years, when consumers “stop listening to one-track-minded artists and open up to different variations” of music unconstrained by petty distinctions that mark most genres’ boundaries. He describes his own music as “anointment” sans genres or labels, insisting that the inspiration just comes to him. However, his assertion that “Rascal” was the first song he ever made — and that “Dealer” was the second — runs contrary to the polish on a track like “Nouveau Riche.” Blending elements of trap rap, R&B, and country as liberally as his prior efforts, “Nouveau Riche” sounds like the result of painstaking trial and error that belies parts of the organic narrative RMR and his management have promoted.

In the end, though, it doesn’t much matter how genuine his breakout stardom has been. As pointed out by NPR’s Mano Sundaresan, RMR is far from the first artist to utilize mystery or focus-grouped, forced virility to promote themselves. There’s plenty of others accused of being industry plants; look no further than TikTok for a list of suddenly-famous, former nobodies who have possibly paid their ways to the top. Within hip-hop alone, MF Doom, Leikeli47, and more have used masks to draw attention and provoke curiosity. The aforementioned Lil Nas X added the nearly-untouched tools of country music to hip-hop’s kit, and he was hardly the first. And debate has raged about the classification of Black singers like Ty Dolla Sign and The Weeknd and whether they are singers, rappers, pop, or R&B.

RMR presents the most polished, promising possibility of the world where those distinctions are less important than the music itself. I don’t fool myself into thinking that new artists won’t be marketed in the future with overwrought backstories of struggle or authenticity, or that Black artists will stop getting pigeonholed into a narrow range of genre markers like R&B and rap. However, Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art is an intriguing peek at what such a world may look like. After all, rumors often spread faster than even the people who’ve started them intend. One day, the message this RMR has put out into the world may end up being accepted as nothing more than common sense.

Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art is out now on CMNTY CULTURE/Warner Records. Get it here.

RMR is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The U.S. Supreme Court unleashed a flurry of rulings on Monday, including a surprising turn from the court’s current conservative-leaning players. In a 6-3 decision (Bostock v. Clayton Country, Georgia) authored by the Trump-nominated Justice Gorsuch, the court ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act not only bars sexual discrimination in the workplace but also protects LGBTQ employees from being terminated over their sexual orientation. Gorsuch was joined in the majority ruling by Chief Justice Roberts, along with liberal Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan.

More than a mere Title VII ruling, though, this decision is a federal declaration that recognizes trans people and supports their truth for the LGBTQ community. Although it’s not a unanimous ruling from the court, it’s a resounding one. It’s also worth noting that the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s decades-long roots arrived only following Black freedom movements, which in turn are advancing freedoms for more Americans. So, it’s a timely declaration in light of current Black Lives Matter visibility, and this couldn’t be a more welcome decision during Pride Month, even against a somber U.S. backdrop (and after the Trump administration nixed transgender health protections last week).

Justice Gorsuch explained in the majority opinion why the court determined to evolve Title VII from its original legislative vision and apply it to this case:

“Likely, they weren’t thinking about many of the act’s consequences that have become apparent over the years, including its prohibition against discrimination on the basis of motherhood or its ban on the sexual harassment of male employees. But the limits of the drafters’ imagination supply no reason to ignore the law’s demands.”

“It’s a victory for liberty and justice for all,” tweeted Hillary Clinton in response to the decision. “Happy Pride month.” She was joined by ecstatic Hollywood figures, including The Matrix visionary Lilly Wachowski, Queer Eye‘s Jonathan Van Ness, and Drag Race star Peppermint, along with George Takei, Mandy Moore, and more.

While the NBA and NBPA both nearly unanimously approved the league’s 22-team return to play plan for an Orlando bubble from July through October, there are still plenty of questions that needed to be answered and negotiated by both sides.

Complicating matters beyond just figuring out how to play out the remainder of an 8-game season and then full postseason during a global pandemic are the nationwide protests of police brutality and systemic racism that have been taking place for two-plus weeks following the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police in Minneapolis and Louisville. Players spent the weekend having calls and discussing the best ways to ensure that basketball doesn’t become a distraction or escape for people from confronting the problems in this country, with some like Kyrie Irving voicing their concern that playing would take away from the movement.

NBPA executive director Michele Roberts spoke with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Ramona Shelburne about those calls and explained that it’s not a fight happening internally, but a much needed discussion around whether playing harms or enhances the movement they all embrace.

“It’s not a question of play or not play,” Roberts told ESPN. “It’s a question of, does playing again harm a movement that we absolutely, unequivocally embrace? And then whether our play can, in fact, highlight, encourage and enhance this movement.

“That’s what they’re talking about. They’re not fighting about it; they’re talking about it.”

The positioning of reports has, at times, made it seem as though there’s a growing number of players with large enough concerns to be willing to sit out, but the ESPN report indicates that isn’t really the case. What is important is that the players use this moment to ensure that they are able to take whatever position they want and can make statements to try and, as Roberts says, “highlight, encourage, and enhance this movement” while in Orlando. Given the immense financial pressure on the NBA to return and the PR disaster it would be for them to let things fall apart because they wanted to put limitations on players ability to speak out on such a big issue, the players seem to have ample leverage to push the league to ensure they are able to make whatever statements they deem fit.

These are discussions that needed to happen and maybe should’ve happened prior to the swift vote to approve the return plan format — if for no other reason than the optics, even if false, that there’s sudden dissension internally over a plan that was unanimously approved. Talking as a whole about how to proceed and raising questions and concerns is literally the point of having a union, but it seems there’s optimism from the executive director that they will figure this out and have a plan of their own in place to ensure basketball elevates, rather than pushes down, the Black Lives Matter movement.

With all sports (and sports-entertainment) leagues currently hurting for new content to keep audiences engaged, networks are pulling out the big guns: Multi-part documentaries of some of their most iconic athletes. And what The Last Dance is to the NBA, Undertaker: The Last Ride is is to the WWE Universe. This five-part docuseries, airing exclusively on the WWE Network every Sunday through mid-June, follows the journey of the Undertaker from the days before his WrestleMania 33 match in 2017 until, presumably, present day.

We at With Spandex will be watching along with the rest of you every Sunday and distilling each episode down in our new recap, Ride Or Die. Here’s what we learned from episode four of The Last Ride.

Previously on The Last Ride: We learned that the Undertaker was just as embarrassed at his Crown Jewel 2018 main event as the rest of us. Surely, his trip to Saudi Arabia will go better this time around!

The Undertaker And Vince McMahon’s Relationship Is Still A (Power) Struggle

If you made it through the previous three episodes of The Last Ride with some shred of kayfabe intact, it will all go out the window this time around, as Mark Calaway himself says at the start of this episode:

“My days in the ring are numbered, it’s time for me to cash in on the things I never would allow myself to do for the sake of the character and the sake of the business.”

We get a blooper reel of Taker and Paul Bearer goofing around in cemeteries 30 years ago, complete with a talking head inserts from Bearer filmed in 2012, as well as a bunch of examples of other WWE Superstars trying to get Taker to break character in the ring (and if you’ve never spent a half-hour watching everyone trying to get him to a spinaroonie, there’s no better time than the present).

Then, kind of surprisingly, the docuseries actually takes a look at that weird moment in 2019 where Mark Calaway was alllllmost All Elite: As Taker tells the story, he hired a team to get him active on social media and seeking endorsements, and somehow, it “accidentally” ended in him being booked for Starrcast II in Las Vegas, the convention loosely affiliated with All Elite Wrestling, taking place the same weekend as AEW Double Or Nothing. Taker admits he and Vince McMahon had a pretty serious falling out over it, remarking, “We didn’t talk for a little while, then we both let our guard down enough to talk. It’s all been sunshine and rainbows since,” before delivering the face to end all faces:

This episode is full of examples of both the respect Vince and Taker have for each other, as well as the challenges of a billionaire and a multi-millionaire trying to get along with each other after decades of a friendship that’s largely predicated on money. This leads us into WrestleMania 35 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, the home of the last actually good Undertaker WrestleMania match, where, somewhat surprisingly, Mark Calaway, like Dennis Stamp before him, isn’t booked.

Was this a power move by McMahon to remind Taker just who actually signs his paychecks? It’s hard to say. Footage taken that weekend of Taker show the man trying to justify his lack of involvement, making remarks such as, “At this point I’m not sure if I’ll work Mania again. Mania’s probably come and gone for me. And I’m okay with that, I think,” and “I don’t want to be on the card just to be on the card. if it’s not something important or that means something, there’s really not a reason for me to do it,” as footage of his forgettable WrestleMania 19 match plays in the background.

Of course, after Taker has already arrived for WrestleMania weekend, he’s informed by Vince McMahon that he’s actually scheduled to appear on Raw the following Monday — only he forgot his gear, the ultimate rookie move. We then get the hilarious reveal that Taker flew back to Texas that same day just to get his gear bag and make it back in time for WrestleMania, which results in this delightful exchange:

VINCE McMAHON: “A pro would bring their gear. Always.”
THE UNDERTAKER: “A pro would’ve booked me to start with.”

While this is amusing on its face, it’s also all sorts of fucked up that McMahon pulled this sort of power play and made one of the top stars of all time spend another eight or so hours of his life cramped on a plane just to chokeslam Elias at Raw (something I literally forgot even happened until they showed it here). This scene is indicative of WWE as whole: Nothing ever feels planned out more than a few hours in advance, and talent is expected to jump through whatever hoop creative puts in front of them, no matter how stressful. (But also, Mark, buddy: You mean to tell me there isn’t a single person in Austin you could’ve had swing by your house and FedEx your shit? You gotta start leaving a spare key under a rock or something!)

Super ShowDown? More Like Super ShitDown

Finally, the moment many of us have been waiting for: A look at the Undertaker/Goldberg trainwreck that main-evented Super ShowDown in 2019. Whereas everyone involved in the main event of Crown Jewel 2018 felt comfortable making fun of it and themselves, this one was looked at far more seriously, for a reason we didn’t know until now.

First, though, we learn that it was Triple H who pitched the clash of these two titans, and that Taker was excited for it:

“I know we’re building for the big show in Saudi. That’s important to me, due to the fact the last time in Saudi didn’t go great in my eyes or anyone else’s eyes for that matter. A little redemption for my last trip to Saudi and get me out of my own head… Hopefully we can deliver on the hype.”

NARRATOR: They did not.

We all know how much of a disaster that match was, but the doc spends little time talking about the whys (mainly because to do so would just to be saying “Goldberg sucks, you guys”). Frankly, I kind of got the vibe that Taker and Goldberg haven’t even spoken since the match: At one point, Taker says he assumes Goldberg got concussed from that ringpost spot. He assumes? Like, couldn’t he have actually found the answer out himself by now?

Of course, the reason why Taker probably doesn’t care that much about Goldberg’s health and well being after the match is because Goldberg didn’t care that much about Taker’s health and well being during the match. It turns out that botched Jackhammer spot did a tremendous amount of damage to the Deadman, as explained by Michelle McCool:

“I knew when he came inches, centimeters away from breaking his neck, I instantly texted our doctors and was like, ‘Is he okay?’ Normally if he’s away and I know something’s happened and I text him, ‘Are you okay?’ it’s ‘Yeah, I’m good, don’t worry.’ [This time] I texted him and was like, ‘How bad is it?’ and he says, ‘Man, my back is jacked up.’ For him to admit he was truly in some serious pain, I don’t think I could even fathom how bad it really was… I’ve seen a lot of scary moments, but that one got me. It was hard.”

The resulting back injury put Taker into yet another funk, and caused him to ask some serious questions of himself:

“‘Am I risking permanent injury?’ I need to take a real honest look at this and assess where I’m at. ‘Is it me?’ You start second guessing yourself. ‘Have I lost that big of step? [Am I] the reason why this stuff is happening?’ I was overwhelmed with all these negative thoughts coming out of Saudi.”

This leads us to this episode’s biggest reveal:

The Undertaker Actually, Really Retired After Extreme Rules 2019

Yeah yeah, I know: fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me and all that. But after he finished his tag match with Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules, just a few weeks after that disastrous Goldberg experience, the Undertaker headed straight back to gorillaand told Vince McMahon, and I quote, “I’m done.”

There it is, folks. The Undertaker will finally rest in peace.

A New Challenger Has Appeared!

And he loves Diet Dr. Pepper as much as Mark Calaway! Seriously, there is so much AJ Styles sprinkled throughout this episode that it seems like next week is being set up to make him the savior of Taker’s career by convincing him to get back in the ring – er, boneyard — for one more go ’round.

Next week on The Last Ride: All the foreshadowing comes to a head, as The Last Ride finishes up with a look at the Undertaker’s Boneyard match with AJ Styles. Is this really his last match, or the start of the next leg of his career? Tune in next week to find out.

The Kardashians have a long history in the beauty industry. Nearly all of the sisters have launched some form of beauty product line and Kylie Jenner’s cosmetic brand nearly earned her billionaire status after her net worth was recently disputed by Forbes. Now, Kanye West is reportedly taking notes on the lucrative nature of his in-laws’ beauty business practices and staking his own claim in the industry. The rapper is allegedly expanding his Yeezy clothing line into makeup and cosmetics.

According to a report from TMZ, Kanye recently sought trademark status for his Yeezy brand in the world of cosmetics. The rapper filed to get “Yeezy” trademarked to cover a number of beauty products. According to the report, Kanye pursued trademark status for makeup, false eyelashes, face masks, nail polish, lotions, bath products, body oils, shaving cream, hair care products, perfumes, and hygiene products like toothpaste and deodorant. The rapper even covered peculiar items like scented pine cones and aromatherapy pillows.

This wouldn’t be the first time Kanye attempted to expand his brand to the world of cosmetics, according to the same report. Just three years ago, the rapper sought the legal rights to launch a brand of cosmetics under DONDA, the creative content company named after his mother, though the plan never came to fruition. Similarly, Kanye released the fragrance Whatever It Takes in 2013, but the scent never gained traction.

Balancing doing what you love in the face of something dangerous requires courage. Even more courage, one can argue, is required to stand up to your employers and peers when it comes to voicing your concerns in an attempt to make that aforementioned dangerous scenario a little more safe.

Brooklyn Nets standout and NBPA vice president Kyrie Irving reportedly hosted approximately 200 of his peers on a Zoom call Friday night to express his opinions about the league taking over some property at Disney for a bubble league to wrap out its season. While he was among the most prominent voices against this arrangement, Irving was ruled out for the rest of the season in March following shoulder surgery, and he will not take the floor in Orlando.

Among a number of lines Irving apparently said on the call, the quote that flew around NBA Twitter was Irving’s declaration that he “wasn’t with the systemic racism and the bullsh*t.” Irving is of the belief that playing NBA games would drown out the voices in American streets crying for social reforms.

While he’s been the person making headlines given his superstar stature, Irving’s quotes aren’t the only ones we should pay attention to.

It helps to establish that Friday’s Zoom call was a union meeting where members could do the thing they pay into the union to do: weigh in on matters that affect them. If there was any appropriate forum for Kyrie to voice his issues, it was then. If one of the VPs of the union either didn’t voice his concerns nor those who voted him there, he’d be failing the rest of the players.

What also matters is that Kyrie doesn’t appear to be alone when it comes to the idea that the NBA shouldn’t come back and that games are a distraction to the Black Lives Matter movement is a real one amongst players, and it should not only be listened to, but also be addressed. Lakers guard Avery Bradley reportedly called on his fellow players to “play chess, not checkers” in approaching all of this. Lou Williams tweeted that he believes basketball is a distraction right now, even if he would play if there was a game scheduled for tomorrow. Dwight Howard, who knows first-hand about the horrors of COVID-19, reportedly said on the call that he thinks players should use this moment to, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, “take a stand and to use their collective power to implement change in the justice system and how police treat people of color instead of playing.”

Beyond the very valid questions of how restarting the league would impact the effectiveness of player activism are the legitimate concerns over how safe the bubble would be. A high-ranking NBA executive admitted to NBC Sports’ Tom Habestroh that Orlando “isn’t a bubble, it’s a mesh hat.” J.J. Redick, along with a few other players in his replies, voiced concerns over this. If the NBA and Disney haven’t functionally figured out a way to keep staff safe, why would any player put their career in the hands of rushed plans to save what little basketball revenue they can?

An added wrinkle to the location issue is that Florida is setting record numbers in terms of positive tests for COVID. More than 3,000 people tested positive over the weekend in the same state that will host these playoffs. Even if Disney happens to be the insulated place in Florida, all it takes is one positive test to derail the best of plans.

Even with rosters expanding to 17 to work around a positive COVID test, that margin of error might not be enough to avoid potentially sidelining an entire team. If that happens, what’s the contingency? Would teams be forced to forfeit depending on how many tested positive? Would players hide COVID signs in order to potentially win a championship?

If younger players are reaching out to NBPA officials about insurance just in case something bad happens during a pandemic — which, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, is happening — there’s a problem with the plan. These younger guys should be focused far more on getting better in the gym, not having those worst-case scenarios possibly floating in their heads. This does not even consider the fact that there is still no data about the long-term effects of catching COVID-19. Catching COVID could be a death sentence to the career of an NBA player, because even if they survive, it is unclear what this does to a person’s body, which shouldn’t be lost on anyone.

Donovan Mitchell has even reportedly voiced his concerns about soft tissue injuries after such a long layoff from actual basketball activities. Mitchell’s point makes a ton of sense considering that we’ve seen such injuries in the Bundesliga with younger guys like Borussia Dortmund’s Gio Reyna, who hurt himself warming up for his first match back. Mitchell can earn a max-extension in the offseason, would it be worth it to him to go down to Orlando and play in a sequestered tournament that he’s likely not able to win?

Disagreeing with Irving is fine, and those arguments and discussions are playing out within the confines of the players union as well. LeBron James believes they can continue having an impact on the world while playing basketball and using that platform to amplify the message as well. There are also significant short and long-term financial implications for players keeping the NBA from returning and impacting revenue from this season and beyond, as revenue tied to the restart is critical for the league moving forward without the salary cap cratering. As Austin Rivers said in response to Irving. he believes playing and receiving those paychecks to financially support the Black Lives Matter movement is an important part of how NBA players create change. There are quite literally millions of reasons for players to play, but also some very legitimate cases to be made for them not to and you can find those directly facing those questions on both sides of the coin.

As such, all of this requires a nuanced discussion many in the sports field aren’t equipped to handle, and as such the discourse around it all has been nauseating at best. Add in that it’s Irving, who leads the NBA in galaxy brain jokes at his expense thanks to previous flat earth commentary, leading the charge, and people are so much quicker to shout him down. However, dismissing Irving and others outright for voicing their concerns would be wrong, as there are legitimate reasons to worry about a restart, both from how it impacts the effectiveness of player activism to the very real health concerns that are yet to be fully sorted.

Jon Stewart stepped down as The Daily Show host in 2015, and in the five years since, he’s made his directorial debut, testified before the House Judiciary Committee to secure funds for 9/11 first responders, and, very importantly, rescued two goats that were wandering on the subway tracks. He’s now getting ready for the release of his second feature, which finds him returning to a genre he knows as well as anyone: political-comedy. To promote Irresistible, which stars Steve Carell, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis, and Rose Byrne, Stewart spoke to the New York Times interviewer extraordinaire David Marchese about, among other topics, the “worst legacy” of The Daily Show.

When asked how feels about Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson replacing frequent sparring partner Bill O’Reilly as the worst that Fox News has to offer, Stewart replied, “I think they’re just the next level. As things progress, to get the same dopamine hit, you have to push it further. Although O’Reilly pushed it pretty far. The question was always, ‘Why would you talk to him? Why do you have him on the show if you can’t destroy him?’ If you want to talk about the worst legacy of The Daily Show, it was probably that”:

“That’s the part of it that I probably most regret. Those moments when you had a tendency, even subconsciously, to feel like, ‘We have to live up to the evisceration expectation.’ We tried not to give something more spice than it deserved, but you were aware of, say, what went viral. Resisting that gravitational force is hard.”

Marchese brought up Stewart’s evisceration (in internet speak) of Jim Cramer, a takedown so epic (and again) that it has its own Wikipedia page. But while Stewart might have regrets about The Daily Show dipping into takedown culture, there’s one evil, irredeemable target that we can all agree deserved to get owned: deep-dish pizza.

“This is an aboveground marinara swimming pool for rats.” Harsh, but fair.

(Via New York Times)