Month: November 2020

A Donald Trump loss means many things to a lot of people. For his entire administration, to name one group, it means they will soon be unemployed. But here’s another person who’s about to be out of a gig: Alec Baldwin, SNL’s resident Agent Orange. Since 2016, the acclaimed actor has played the unlikely commander-in-chief, regularly gracing the show with his smushy-faced impersonation. It even nabbed him an Emmy! But when he learned Trump had finally been fired by the American people, he was not, as the president would put it, sad.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever been this overjoyed to lose a job before!” Baldwin tweeted. He then added, “It will be comforting when we have a President who doesn’t Tweet twice as much as I do … They’re gonna need an enormous shipment of tissues sent to Mar-a-Lago … On to my next wish. That everyone who voted in this election maintains that commitment and votes in the 2022 midterm elections. Let’s keep this going!!!”

Mind you, Trump’s still around for the next 2 ½ months, and there’s no sign that he’s going to go quietly. Even after he’s been out, which could be by force, he’s bound to make waves, prompting lots of cold open fodder. But perhaps Baldwin sees the Biden win as a good exit strategy. After all, no one wants to do the same gig forever, and it has to hurt — physically and mentally — to play someone so exhaustingly nefarious.

(Via EW)

Star Wars was on a lot of people’s minds on Saturday when the presidential race was called for Joe Biden, who had handily defeated his rival, incumbent Donald J. Trump. Celebrations erupted across the nation’s cities, videos of which were compared to the ending of Return of the Jedi, which concludes with an evil Empire defeated by tireless (and often outnumbered) revolutionaries. As noticed by The Hollywood Reporter, There was another person who saw a more broader comparison to the series: Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.

Hamill shared an image — which had appeared elsewhere before — that reworks the posters to the original trilogy so that it tells the story of the last three presidents. In the first, Barack Obama’s face is presented with the words “A New Hope.” (We’ll ignore, this time, the fact that that film is still technically called simply Star Wars.) In the second, Trump’s face is affixed to The Empire Strikes Back. Finally we get to Return of the Jedi, with Joe Biden leading the successful comeback.

The actor has long been an outspoken Trump critic, recording mocking videos and narrating a PSA from the Republican turncoat organization The Lincoln Project, where he reminded people that Trump’s demonizing of absentee ballots means he was also spitting in the face of overseas soldiers, who also vote by mail. And of course, there’s his habit of reading Trump’s deranged tweets in his beloved Joker voice.

(Via THR)

For the third consecutive year, Ariana Grande has released a new album. Positions arrived following months of anticipation and it boasted appearances from The Weeknd, Ty Dolla Sign, and Doja Cat. A little over a week after its release, Positions is now the fifth No. 1 album of Grande’s career.

In its first week the new record sold 174,000 equivalent album units, 129,000 of those streaming equivalent units, 42,000 album sales. Positions is also her third consecutive release to debut atop the albums chart, a feat she pulled off in just two years and three months, making her the fastest scorer of No. 1 albums by a woman in Billboard history. The other two albums in this achievement are 2018’s Sweetner and 2019’s Thank U, Next.

For the record, Miley Cyrus and Donna Summer both landed No. 1 albums in a shorter time period than Grande, but their releases were not all proper studio albums. Miley delivered two soundtracks and an album during her streak from July 2007 and May 2009, while Donna did it with a live album, a studio project, and a Greatest Hits release from November 1978 and January 1980.

You can revisit our review of Positions here.

(via Billboard)

Ty Dolla Sign is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When the majority of media outlets called the presidential election for Joe Biden, the news was almost dwarfed by people making fun of Donald Trump. Early Saturday, the soon-to-be former commander-in-chief — who’d spent the days since Tuesday’s election spreading baseless conspiracy theories about voter fraud — announced a last-minute press conference, to be held at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia. He then corrected himself: He didn’t mean the upscale hotel. He meant…a landscaping company. And it wasn’t in scenic Center City; it was in the metropolis’ northeast, beside a sex shop and a crematorium.

It was a fitting farewell to a presidency that was by turns disastrous, nightmarish, and just plain weird, filled with surreal incidents such as him “declaring” victory over states he hadn’t won over Twitter. As celebrations filled the streets of the nation’s cities, people took the time to mock what appeared to be a gaffe. Some speculated that a staffer had accidentally booked the wrong place, expecting to get one of the city’s tonier hotels and instead getting a random parking lot, far from the action. But the real story about why they wound up at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, as reported by The New York Times, is much more mundane:

In reality, the mistake was not in the booking, but in a garbled game of telephone. Mr. Giuliani and the Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski told the president on Saturday morning their intended location for the news conference and he misunderstood, assuming it was an upscale hotel, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Of course, why single out a random landscaping company, especially one with such a familiar name? That, so far, has not been explained. But the idea, The Times reports, was always to keep Trump — or at least his cronies, chief among them personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, as POTUS himself was, of course, busy playing golf — away from Biden-friendly downtown Philadelphia. Instead, they sought a “friendlier part of town.” And that’s why the president’s bumbling attorney wound up babbling conspiracy theories in a parking lot in a far-flung section of the nation’s birthplace.

The presser wound up starting right after news of the Biden win broke. In fact, it was scheduled for 11:30am and CNN first called the race for Biden at around 11:25. Though a handful of locals with “Trump-Pence” signs showed up, as per The Philadelphia Inquirer, they were soon drowned out by the honking horns of jubilant Biden-Harris supporters.

The Inquirer also reports that, by the next day, the small business had already achieved mythic, or at least comic, status, with people flocking to its barbed-wire gates to take selfies. The staff of Four Seasons Total Landscaping, though, remained “perplexed” by their moment of social media infamy:

Kevin Moran, a foreman at the firm, simply shrugged when approached while opening the gate to the parking lot on Sunday. He said his boss got the call from Trump campaign staffers Saturday morning and thought they must have found the business on Google and been interested because it was a “secure location” set off from the street by a security fence.

Still, while the neighborhood, Mayfair, had achieved national attention for maybe the first time in recorded history, the Inquirer reports that it did not lead to a spike in business. In fact, the influx of people, from Trump staffers to reporters to gawking chuckleheads grabbing Instagram pics, did little more than take up parking spots, frustrating locals.

One person not amused was the 78-year-old employee working the counter of the Fantasy Island sex shop next to the (other) Four Seasons. He said the phone had been ringing off the hook with people calling to ask, “Is Rudy Giuliani there?”

So who can he blame? Giuliani and Corey Lewandowski for not clarifying to Trump which Philadelphia Four Seasons they would be visiting. But the fault still mostly falls on Trump, who, given his finances, should probably get used to not always assuming he’ll be patronizing upscale hotels.

(Via The New York Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer)

The entertainment world was hit with shocking news on Sunday when it was announced that longtime Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek died at the age of 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. As expected, Trebek’s biggest supporters took to social media to share their favorite memories. Among them was Run The Jewels’ El-P, who jumped on Twitter to share an idea involving Trebek that he and Killer Mike had hoped to make a reality on the rap duo’s recently released album Run The Jewels 4.

“True story: when we were originally crafting ‘a few words for the firing squad’ off RTJ4 we were going to make it a sequel to ‘jeopardy’ from RTJ2 and call it ‘final jeopardy,’” El-P wrote. “We reached out to alex trebeks people and tried to get him on the jam but couldn’t make it happen.” The rapper explained why the duo felt that the Jeopardy! host’s involvement would be a great fit on the album. “We thought of that because run the jewels was an answer on jeopardy which we sampled and had in between verses but it didn’t quite work so we tried to get Alex to re-do it a little differently,” El-P said. “When we couldn’t get him we scrapped the idea and created ‘a few words…’ instead.”

Run The Jewels’ “A Few Words For The Firing Squad (Radiation)” is a strong outro from Run The Jewels 4, and it was also crowned Uproxx’s mid-year song of 2020 so far back in June. El-P also shared what Trebek meant to him personally, saying he “represented a calm joy of knowledge and it’s pursuit.” He added, “He had a gentlemanly demeanor and seemingly kind soul and used intelligence playfully and encouragingly. sad to see him go and hope he rests peacefully.”

It’s no surprise that Donald Trump and many of his supporters are having a hard time with Saturday’s Joe Biden win. Since the election Tuesday, the soon-to-be former president has filled with his Twitter feed with baseless (and quickly censored) conspiracy theories about voter fraud. Others, like Gingrich (but not former president George W. Bush) have joined him in parading around bull about ballot tampering and the like, and some have even set up hotlines, where the citizenry can report any malfeasance they may have witness — or made up. Sure enough, it didn’t take long for chuckleheads to take advantage of people trying to rob Biden of his just win.

As caught by Deadline, Alex Hirsch, creator of the much-loved animated show Gravity Falls, has been calling into a hotline set up by Trump’s ever-bumbling personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, informing them that he saw fraud being perpetrated by a man who looked suspiciously like McDonald’s mascot the Hamburglar.

After encouraging people to make prank reports, Hirsch shared a video of him filing a false report. “I saw what I believe is a voter fraud situation,” Hirsch told the operator. “I saw a man. He walked into this building and he was wearing a black hat, black mask, striped shirt, and a red tie. And I believe there were hamburgers in his bag? And he was saying, ‘Robble Robble!’ as he was exiting the building, like a burglar. I think he’s possibly Antifa.” Around this time the operator hangs up.

After the presidential race was called for Biden on Saturday, Trump and his team threatened to file legal action starting Monday, but they failed to specify what hard proof would take said cases legitimate. We may be in for a bumpy — or at least annoying — ride, so amusing distractions like these are more than welcome.

(Via Deadline)

On Saturday, four days after the election, America finally had an answer for who would be their next president — and it wasn’t incumbent Donald J. Trump. The Biden win was a huge relief for many, and the celebrations that broke out in cities across the nation were something else. Others, however, were not pleased, not the least of them Trump himself, who’s spent the last week filling his Twitter feed with baseless (and quickly censored) conspiracy theories and other assorted misinformation. Other Republicans, among them Newt Gingrich, have joined in claiming — again with proof — that the election was “stolen” by Democrats. One noted Republican who’s not doing any of that stuff? George W. Bush.

According to CNN, the 43rd president reached out to Biden by phone on Sunday, not only congratulating him on his clear win but also making sure he knew he wasn’t believing any of that jazz about the election being illegitimate. “The American people can have confidence that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be upheld, and its outcome is clear,” Bush said in a post-call statement.

He added:

“Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country … The President-elect reiterated that while he ran as a Democrat, he will govern for all Americans. I offered him the same thing I offered Presidents Trump and Obama: my prayers for his success, and my pledge to help in any way I can.”

Bush II has largely remained silent during the lead-up to Election Day, not endorsing Trump but also not coming out against him, as a number of Republicans did. Congratulating Biden can be read as an attempt to bring peace and civility to a nation bitterly divided against each other.

Then again, don’t forget that who George W. Bush is. He’s the president responsible for one of the most disastrous and illegitimate wars in American history. And he was the winner in the notorious 2000 presidential election, which led to an aborted recount in Florida that put the man who lost the popular vote in office — much like following Republican president. That said, at least Trump won’t get to do the same thing twice.

(Via CNN)

After three and a half years without a new musical project, Donald Glover delivered his fourth album, 3.15.20, back in March. Its release was a surprise, as her made it available on his own website before it hit streamers. The 12-track project also featured appearances from Ariana Grande, 21 Savage, Ink, and Kadhja Bonet. Glover’s fans might have expected to wait a bit longer for a new release, but apparently that will not be the case.

In a pair of posts to Twitter, Glover sought to build up anticipation with an optimistic message. “Last music project was probably my best. but the one coming will be my biggest by far,” he wrote, then asked followers to listen to a 1999 album called New Ancient Strings, which Vulture said is from Malian musician Toumani Diabaté with Ballaké Sissoko. In the other tweet, Glover built up its musical bona fides. “there is a lot (of magic) comin. yall thought i was hot in 2018.”

Glover also provided an update on the upcoming seasons of his hit FX show, Atlanta. “while im here: ‘atlanta’ s3+s4 are going to be some of the best television ever made,” he wrote. He added, “sopranos only ones who can touch us.”

On Sunday word broke that Alex Trebek — longtime host of brainiac game show Jeopardy! and who had been battling pancreatic cancer over the last year and change — had died. He was 80 years old. Trebek had continued filming the show even as he fought the illness that would eventually claim his life. That means there’s a backlog of as-yet-to-air episodes. According to Variety (in a tidbit teased out by Vox), his final episode as host will air on Christmas Day.

Mind you, there’s still tons of episodes left, and Trebek’s last day of filming is reported to have been October 29, i.e., about a week and a half ago. Those will continue to air over the next month and a half, leaving the final one for the big holiday — a bittersweet way for everyone to say goodbye to game show-dom’s most unflappable host.

The Canadian-born television personality began hosting Jeopardy! back in 1984. It was far from his first rodeo. He hosted his first game show, The Wizard of Odds, back in 1973, and he also lorded over High Rollers, the short-lived Double Dare (not to be confused with the kids game show), The $128,000 Question, Battlestars, Pitfall, Classic Concentration, among others. But it was as the suave and crisp host of Jeopardy! for which he will be forever remembered.

(Via Variety and Vox)

After a long week that was caused by such an even longer Presidental election, the majority of the country came together on Saturday night to celebrate Joe Biden becoming the 46th president of the United States. Holding a rally in his home state of Delaware, Biden delivered a comforting and promising speech centered around unity in all forms.

The President-elect’s speech came with many highlights, one of which was his interpolation of lyrics from the “On Eagle’s Wings” hymn, which caught many viewers by surprise. Moved by the inclusion of the song’s lyrics in his speech, Lana Del Rey took to Instagram to share a video of her briefly covering the song.

“Hey guys well as promised we are getting a Headstart on that album of standard folk songs and all things americana,” Del Rey said in the Instagram video for the cover of the hymn. “But we took a break to watch the Biden speech and he mentioned at the end of it to hymn that he hoped gave Americans hope so I thought I would just give a little version of that as we took a break in the studio.” The cover itself finds the pop singer with a mic in hand as she softly sings the lyrics to the hymn.

The cover may be the first of a few covers Del Rey will release before her Chemtrails Over The Country Club album. Speaking about the album, she said it has a “16-week delay on the vinyl process, so in the meantime, I’m going to give you a digital record of American standards and classics for Christmas because I can’t get the record plants to open until March 5. That probably goes for a lot of people out there.”

You can listen to Del Rey’s “On Eagle’s Wings” cover above.