Month: January 2021

At least no one can ever accuse Donald Trump Jr. of making it boring. From his unhinged Fox News appearances to his bizarre, glassy-eyed rants from inside what looks like a Motel 6, one can always count on Jr. to bring the “wtf” quality to presidential-spawn speeches. On Monday night, he stumped at his Dad’s Georgia rally for GOP Senate-runoff candidates David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler (who are going toe-to-toe with Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock). Control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance, and Don Jr. did his best (and succeeded) at stirring up the MAGA audience with a speech that rivaled the shouty nature of his partner, Kimberly Guilfoyle.

That’s quite a feat, but this speech stands out most for Don Jr.’s “jokes,” which sound like they could come from the mouth of a certain The Office character. That’d be Michael Scott (played-up to perfection by Steve Carell), known for his offensive remarks that viewers know not to take at face value because Scott’s buffoonery (and the environment that he perpetuates) is part of the joke. The similarities between Michael Scott and Don Jr. are stark with this sexist line from his speech: “Amen is not a gendered term… if I go to a restaurant and ask what’s on the womenu…”

And of course, that’s the part of the speech that Don Jr. proudly chose to showcase on his own Twitter account (it pairs well with his transphobic entries of late).

Granted, this is not the first or the second time that Don Jr. has been compared to The Office boss, and what’s obviously different in this equation is that the audience is laughing along with Don Jr. at this rally. That gave him the opportunity to drop weak metaphors about balls and going home and, well, everything that his dad will have to do on January 20.

The bottom line, though? Don Jr. sounds like a bit of a madman and an awful stand-up comic, but clearly, there’s a market for that with the MAGA crowd.

Following a New York Times profile with DC Films head Walter Hamada that reported studio execs view Zack Snyder‘s director cut of Justice League as a “creative cul-de-sac,” there’s been heavily speculation about whether or not he’ll have chance to make more DC Comics film. (Fans even started the social media campaign: #RestoreTheSnyderVerse.) Recently, longtime Snyder advocate Kevin Smith defended the director by revealing that the ending to the Snyder Cut of Justice League is “very not a cul-de-sac,” and “you can keep going with the story.” But just as that information suggested that the SnyderVerse still has a chance, Snyder confirmed to ComicBook Debate that he has no plans to make more DC Comics films after restoring his original version of Justice League. Via Collider:

“The truth is, and it’s been widely reported, and I have no issue, this is an old movie. This is a years-old movie I’m working on. The DC universe has gone and branched off and done its own thing and that’s fine. As far as what I did and as far as what my vision for what I wanted to do with these characters and the journey I wanted them to go on, it’s well known that I planned on more movies, five movies or something, but I’m busy. I’ve got a lot going on. Is it cool that the fans have so much faith in the trajectory? Yes, it’s amazing, and I couldn’t be happier and I’m excited for them to see Justice League so they can really drink the entire elixir of Justice League. But, would I continue? I have no plan to.”

Snyder did add, however, that he never thought his cut of Justice League would see the light of day, and now, it’s on its way to a heavily-hyped release on HBO Max. So while he plans to pursue his other projects for Netflix, anything is possible. “I didn’t think I’d be here,” Snyder said. “So who knows?”

You can watch the full (40-minute) Zack Snyder interview below:

(Via ComicBook Debate)

John Roderick — a podcast host, member of The Long Winters, and former touring member of Harvey Danger — had one of the year’s first big internet stories when his Twitter thread about making his young daughter open a can of beans went viral. He was quickly dubbed “Bean Dad,” and just as quickly, he was the recipient of a lot of backlash.

To summarize, Roderick’s tweets told the story of his daughter asking him to open a can of beans for her. Instead, he and his daughter sat together as she tried to figure out how to work a can opener and he refused to help. While his story was intended to be lighthearted and silly, a lot of people online interpreted Roderick’s approach to the situation as abusive and not as cute as he thought it was. On top of that, critics resurfaced some old tweets of Roderick’s that featured anti-Semitic, racist, and homophobic language. Once the criticism started pouring in, Roderick deactivated his Twitter account, but now he has returned to the internet with a lengthy apology, which he posted on his website.

Roderick said his story was “poorly told” and was lacking details that would have presented the tale in a more positive light. He continued:

“I framed the story with me as the asshole dad because that’s my comedic persona and my fans and friends know it’s ‘a bit’. What I didn’t understand when posting that story, was that a lot of the language I used reminded people very viscerally of abuse they’d experienced at the hand of a parent. The idea that I would withhold food from her, or force her to solve a puzzle while she cried, or bind her to the task for hours without a break all were images of child abuse that affected many people very deeply. Rereading my story, I can see what I’d done. I was ignorant, insensitive to the message that my ‘pedant dad’ comedic persona was indistinguishable from how abusive dads act, talk and think.”

He also addressed his old tweets, writing, “My language wasn’t appropriate then or now and reflecting on that has been part of my continuing education as an adult who wants to be a good ally. That education is ongoing, and this experience will have a profound effect on the way I conduct myself throughout the rest of my life.”

Check out Roderick’s full apology below or on his website.

“Hi..

I deactivated my Twitter yesterday in a panic. I had to reflect on what I’d done and the hurt I’d caused and my mind was clouded by an unprecedented flow of new information. I want to acknowledge and make amends for the injuries I caused. I have many things to atone for. My parenting story’s insensitivity and the legacy of hurtful language in my past are both profound failures. I want to confront them directly.

My story about my daughter and the can of beans was poorly told. I didn’t share how much laughing we were doing, how we had a bowl of pistachios between us all day as we worked on the problem, or that we’d both had a full breakfast together a few hours before. Her mother was in the room with us all day and alternately laughing at us and telling us to be quiet while she worked on her laptop. We all took turns on the jigsaw puzzle.

I framed the story with me as the asshole dad because that’s my comedic persona and my fans and friends know it’s ‘a bit’.

What I didn’t understand when posting that story, was that a lot of the language I used reminded people very viscerally of abuse they’d experienced at the hand of a parent. The idea that I would withhold food from her, or force her to solve a puzzle while she cried, or bind her to the task for hours without a break all were images of child abuse that affected many people very deeply. Rereading my story, I can see what I’d done.

I was ignorant, insensitive to the message that my ‘pedant dad’ comedic persona was indistinguishable from how abusive dads act, talk and think.

I woke up yesterday to find that I had become #BeanDad. I was a locus for a tremendous outpouring of anger and grief. It took me hours to fully grasp. I reread the story and saw clearly that I’d framed it so poorly, so insensitively. Bean Dad, full of braggadocio and dickhead swagger, was hurting people. I’d conjured an abusive parent that many people recognized from real life.

I am deeply sorry for having precipitated more hurt in the world, for having prolonged or exacerbated it by fighting back and being flippant when confronted, and for taking my Twitter feed offline yesterday instead of facing the music. I wish the parents I modeled didn’t exist; I wish no one had to grow up with a parent who tortured them physically or emotionally. I would never intentionally make light of those experiences and I’ll never underestimate again the pain I can cause with some poorly chosen words and by acting defensively when challenged.

As for the many racist, anti-Semitic, hurtful and slur-filled tweets from my early days on Twitter I can say only this: all of those tweets were intended to be ironic, sarcastic. I thought then that being an ally meant taking the slurs of the oppressors and flipping them to mock racism, sexism, homophobia, and bigotry. I am humiliated by my incredibly insensitive use of the language of sexual assault in casual banter. It was a lazy and damaging ideology, that I continued to believe long past the point I should’ve known better that because I was a hipster intellectual from a diverse community it was ok for me to joke and deploy slurs in that context. It was not. I realized, sometime in the early part of the decade, helped by real-life friends and Twitter friends too, that my status as a straight white male didn’t permit me to ‘repurpose’ those slurs as people from disenfranchised communities might do. They were injurious regardless of my intent, because the words themselves have power and because actual violence is often prefaced by people saying, ‘I’m not racist, but…’

That was wrong, so I stopped.

Yesterday those old tweets resurfaced and hurt a lot of people anew. People who are close to me, people in my community who couldn’t square those words with the person they know me to be. And people who don’t know me, going about their business yesterday, had to see those awful slurs and feel the hurt those words inspire. They had to suffer this asshole #BeanDad casually demeaning them and their friends. I deeply regret having ever used those words. I do not want to spread more hate in the world. I want the opposite.

My language wasn’t appropriate then or now and reflecting on that has been part of my continuing education as an adult who wants to be a good ally. That education is ongoing, and this experience will have a profound effect on the way I conduct myself throughout the rest of my life.

I’m a middle-aged, middle-class straight white male and I try to be cognizant of that and of the responsibility my privileges entail in everything I do. In this case, it was precisely my privilege of not living in an abusive family, of not being a member of a community that routinely experiences real trauma, that caused me to so grossly misjudge the impact of the language I chose.

I have a lot more reflecting to do in the coming days so I’ll be taking a hiatus from my public life to let some of these lessons sink in. I apologize to my partners, my friends, and to all the people affected by my words for the hurt I caused.”

Finale spoilers for The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina will be found below.

Netflix’s The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina came to its planned end with “Part Four” over the holiday weekend. Granted, this finale got buried underneath the pushed-up release of Cobra Kai, which is still so infuriatingly good that Sabrina didn’t have much of a chance to grab eyeballs. She should have been pushed back a week, but at least the Riverdale spinoff received a proper conclusion. It’s also worth noting that some people assumed that the show was “canceled.” Yet for many who watched the Sabrina, it’s obvious that this was an expected ending point for a few reasons: (1) Netflix followed up Part One by announcing that they were fast-tracking (and fast-shooting) a total of four mapped-out seasons; (2) Part Four ended with the death of the title character, and you don’t get much more plotted out for finality than that, my Satan-praising friends.

Yup, and to make things even more final, both Sabrinas (Spellman and Morningstar) left this mortal coil. It was a convoluted chain of events with only colored headbands to tell us which Sabrina was onscreen at any given moment (confusing!). Well, Sabrina Spellman sacrificed her life to save those she loved (and Greendale at large). It was sad, yes, but the finale also contained multiple nods to the mid-1990s Sabrina The Teenage Witch series (starring Melissa Joan Hart). And in a satisfying flourish, the heretofore silent Salem The Cat transformed into a very vocal, smartass kitty.

This happened in the best way: out-of-nowhere and much to Sabrina’s surprise, too.

The cat-voice controversy has been a thing, and a point of contention, since the show launched. People expected Salem Saberhagen to talk. Part of the issue here is that Salem served a different function in this Archieverse show than he did in the 1990s sitcom, where he was a sarcastic warlock trapped in a cat’s body as a punishment for attempting to conquer the world. Whereas in this Netflix show, Salem’s a softer presence and mainly Sabrina’s familiar, who can apparently communicate through telepathy.

Not that this change was a well-received one. Showrunner and comic-book writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa previously explained his decision to “dispense with the chatty cat” because he didn’t feel that a smartass feline would “project the horror tone,” of this show, which differed from the sitcom vibe. Still, Aguirre-Sacasa dangled the carrot: “That isn’t to say that Salem won’t talk in the future.” Well, it was cool to finally allow Salem to talk by turning the first of Chilling Adventures‘ two finale episodes into a sitcom.

The set-up was a clever one, even if O.G. Salem voice actor Nick Bakay wasn’t onboard for the ride. Instead, Luke Cook, who plays Lucifer, did double duty, but actresses Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick came back from the 1990s sitcom to act as Sabrina’s aunts in the sitcom-cosmos, and fans finally got their carrot when Salem turned out to be the lead sitcom writer and the Eldritch Terror known as The Endless. Fortunately, Salem isn’t nefarious — unlike the rest of the terrors unleashed by Father Blackwood as part of his hissy fit about the coven leaving the Church of Night — and he helped Sabrina defeat The Void, thereby stopping it from becoming the End Of All Things.

All of this is not a massive deal in the grand scheme of the show’s four seasons. Yet it was a nice way to tie up the series and reward fans for embracing the darker feel of the Netflix show while also gifting them with a little treat. It was great fun to watch Salem snark out for an episode while he and Sabrina worked to shut down The Void before crashing back into her usual cosmos. When showrunners can integrate fan requests while staying true to a show’s spirit, that’s pretty rad. Hats off to Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, too. Navigating social media while running a Netflix series cannot be easy, and it was probably tempting for him to put the blinders on and, you know, simply create art.

Instead, Talking Salem feels like a collaborative experience between the Internet and a creative team. I’m not even a cat person, and I wanted this to happen, simply because we could use some lightness in the midst of all darkness, especially now, you know? A damn talking cat ended up being a love letter to franchise viewers while staying true to the show’s horror tone before Sabrina made a stand to save humanity from oblivion. And we got to see a reality where all kinds of crazy sh*t happened, including a Caliban who’s relieved to only take his shirt off (and willingly be objectified) when he chooses to do so. Back in Greendale, the show gave Sabrina a fitting farewell with her sacrificial act and a funeral to mourn the deaths of both Ms. Spellman and Mrs. Morningstar.

RIP, Sabrinas, and all hail Salem for helping a teenage girl make a final stand against the horrors summoned up by a patriarchal leader who’s mad with power. Father Blackwood got his punishment, Sabrina ended up happy in the afterlife with Nick. We also saw all manner of aesthetically pleasing chaos that we’re used to from the show. Fans got the one thing that they wished for but felt was lacking, and no one is raving on social media about wanting to raise Hell. That adds up to a winning finale.

‘The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina: Part Four’ is now streaming on Netflix.

A recent Quinnipiac poll found that 77 percent of Republicans believe that there was widespread voter fraud in the presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, while only 60 percent of “registered voters polled” trust that President-elect Biden’s victory was legitimate. Not great. These voters are unable to accept reality, CNN’s Don Lemon claims, because Trump and GOP senators like Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and Ron Johnson keep peddling absurd conspiracy theories.

“Why do they believe that? Because you have been telling them that!” Lemon said on Monday night, speaking to Republican politicians who continue to push Trump’s illegitimate agenda. “Of course they’re going to believe it. If you would stop telling them that and start telling them the truth, then maybe they would believe the truth, that the election was not stolen and it was a clean election, according to everyone who has investigated, most of them Republicans.” Lemon wants everyone to “stop saying that we must respect Trump supporters who believe bullsh*t because it is bullsh*t that you have been feeding them! The president and you have been feeding them the BS. And now that they believe it… another self-fulfilling prophecy and feedback loop. ‘I can’t believe that. My constituents believe this, so I must…’ It’s all BS! And it’s all made up!”

Lemon’s well-said rant echoes what Whoopi Goldberg told co-host Meghan McCain, who believes the media doesn’t respect Trump voters, on The View yesterday: “Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. We lost four years ago now. He’s lost this year. You’re not allowed to kvetch and poop all over this!” (I guess you can’t say “bullsh*t” on ABC, but you can say it on CNN.) Watch the Lemon clip here.

(Via Mediaite)

Cardi B drew some attention over the holiday break after she shared a video which suggested that she doesn’t like Kulture listening to her latest hit, “WAP.” In the clip, Cardi is listening to the song but frantically pauses it when she notices that Kulture is walking into the room. For some reason, that led to backlash among some, which Cardi has now addressed.

One Twitter user wrote to Cardi, “So ya daughter cant listen to it but everybody else’s daughter can ? @iamcardib AW OKAY ! Exactly what I been saying you have an agenda to push with that trash ass label your with. DISGUSTING.”

Cardi fired back, “Ya needs to stop with this already ! I’m not jojosiwa ! I don’t make music for kids I make music for adults.Parents are responsible on what their children listen too or see.I I’m a very sexual person but not around my child just like every other parent should be.” She continued in another tweet, “There’s moms who are strippers.Pop p*ssy ,twerk all night for entertainment does that mean they do it around their kids ? No! Stop makin this a debate.Its pretty much common sense.”

Cardi also addressed her salty language recently when she vowed to stop talking “about suckin and f*ckin” on Twitter after she was apparently “shadow banned” on the platform.

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

The Pacers and Pelicans met on Monday night in New Orleans in what turned out to be the most exciting game of the night in the NBA. Indiana led by as many as seven in the fourth quarter before Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball caught fire for the Pelicans to take a 10-point lead with just over two minutes to play. From there, chaos ensued as New Orleans’ offense would shut down, unable to score over the final 2:22 of regulation, and a wild late sequence from the Pacers saw them force overtime.

Immediately following a three to cut it to a one possession game, Victor Oladipo helped force a turnover as J.J. Redick and Lonzo Ball got swarmed in the backcourt as Oladipo ripped it away from Ball while on the ground — and the Pelicans had a timeout to use had they recognized it. From there, the scramble was on and they found Myles Turner who faked a pass and found himself wide open for the game-tying three.

In overtime, the incredibly physical play continues as the two teams traded buckets, with the Pacers, briefly, taking a four point lead before Zion Williamson came in and got a bucket within seconds of entering the fray.

On the next possession, the Pelicans managed to get a takeaway from the Pacers and get Lonzo Ball running on a leak out for the tying score, forcing the Pacers to try and win the game on their last possession, turning to Malcolm Brogdon to make something happen.

His floater bounced in and the last second heave to Zion was unable to connect for New Orleans, giving Indiana a rather improbable come from behind 118-116 win as they steal one on the road against a feisty Pelicans team that is still figuring things out. Oladipo continues his strong play to start the season, looking like the All-Star of old with 25 points, six assists, and five rebounds to lead the way, while getting ample help from his fellow starters as Malcolm Brogdon, Domantas Sabonis, and Myles Turner all chipped in 17 or more.

For the Pelicans, it was a disappointing game to let slip away after such a strong fight in the fourth quarter to take control. Ingram finished with 31 points and eight assists, while Zion added 24 points and 10 rebounds and Ball had 18. Still, they have to find ways to get some easier offense late rather than needing Ingram to create so much for them, as we saw what happens when his path to the basket gets cut off and the contested jumpers aren’t falling.

Indiana moves to 5-2 with the win as they continue to impress to open the season, while New Orleans drops to 4-3 as they lose their first game at home.

Back in April, Eminem celebrated twelve years of sobriety. The rapper had been addicted to prescription pills for some time and he was finally overcame it during a stint in rehab in 2008. Afterwards there was a period of time where Em had to relearn how to live without giving into his addiction. And as he recently mentioned in an interview, that also meant he had to relearn how to rap sober.

Em touched on the time period in a recent interview with SiriusXM’s Gray Rizzy. He’d recently had a lyric leak from his Relapse era which referenced Chris Brown’s assault of Rihanna and Em formally apologized to the singer in his recent track “Zeus.” He told Rizzy that he has no recollection of recording that line because it was during the time that he was relearning how to rhyme.

“The rhyme schemes didn’t even sound familiar to me. So I was caught off guard, too. I was like, ‘What the f*ck, I said that?’ And that was during early stages of the ‘Relapse’ record that I was working on. So, you know, it’s ten-plus years old, but not making excuses for it. I said it and I was wrong for saying that, it was f*cking stupid. A lot of times, especially with the Relapse record, when I first started learning how to rap again, because of the drug situation that I went through and having to relearn a lot of things, that was one of those things that it was like, well, if it rhymes, say it. I think that being able to look back — I mean, that’s not even an excuse — but I’m just saying there was a phase I was going through with that Relapse record.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Em address his subtle Snoop Dogg diss on the same track. He said the source of his contention was a Breakfast Club interview where Snoop said he could live without his music. “I think it was more about the tone he was using that caught me off-guard ‘cause I’m like, where is this coming from?” he said. “I just saw you, what the f*ck? It threw me for a loop. I probably could’ve gotten past the whole tone and everything, but it was the last statement where he said, ‘Far as music I can live without, I can live without that sh*t.’ Now you’re being disrespectful. It just caught me off-guard.”

Listen to Eminem’s full interview with SiriusXM above.

There was a lot that was appalling about Trump’s notorious Georgia phonecall this weekend. He begged secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough votes to flip the state, which he lost by nearly 12,000. He straight up told him to claim he’d “recalculated” the votes in his favor. He complimented the last name of an attorney named Ryan Germany, which was weird. He also might have — in a story picked up by Pop Culture and later extrapolated upon by Defector — also farted. Loudly.

Not long after The Washington Post released the full hour-long audio of the smoking gun of a chat, one internet sleuth a) appeared to listen to the whole thing, which ye gods, and b) singled out a moment during the 51-minute mark in which Trump seems to let ‘er rip mid-sentence, in the midst of a nonsensical rant about corruption. He even says “excuse me.”

It’s a muffled recording, so it could have been anything. Maybe he moved weird in a particularly noisy chair. Maybe one of his minions farted instead. Or maybe the outgoing president really let an audibly wet one into the air while trying to steal an election.

It was a moment eerily reminiscent of a similar moment from another of his team: when Rudy Giuliani let loose an ambiguous fart sound while also trying to baselessly argue voter fraud. But whatever the case, it sure sounds like a fart, and others agreed, especially since it betrays Trump’s lack of self-control.

Of course, let’s not take our eye off the ball here. Fart or no fart, it happened while he was trying to, at the very least, undermine democracy so he doesn’t suffer legal and economic hell.

(Via Pop Culture and Defector)

After winning the Sixth Man of the Year award in 2019-20, Montrezl Harrell struggled mightily in the NBA’s Orlando bubble. Fortunately, Harrell looks to be back to his old ways as the 2020-21 season begins, contributing 12.9 points and 7.6 rebounds per game in the first seven contests for his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers. However, Harrell’s free agency didn’t necessarily go according to plan and, since leaving the L.A. Clippers, he hasn’t been shy about making a few quips about his former employer.

That theme popped up again this week in speaking to Kyle Goon of the Orange County Register, with Harrell speaking about the Lakers’ “free-flowing” attack and throwing in the phrase “we play basketball over here” when referencing his new team.

“It’s really just being able to just play my game and just not being kind of told and sit on, ‘You always got to be this, this or this,’” Harrell said. “It’s kind of been the system I’ve kind of been playing in for a while. It’s got to be threes, layups or let’s get free throws. But that’s not like that over here. They play to the style of everybody’s game and we’re not looking at anybody that, ‘You have to do this, you got to do that,’ man. We play basketball over here. It’s free-flowing game.”

It has to be noted that, again, Harrell played extremely well with the Clippers, particularly when paired with Lou Williams on what was a potent second unit. That context makes these particular statements interesting to say the least, simply because it’s not as if Harrell didn’t find significant success in his previous stop in that role he was asked to play.

At the same time, it is natural for a player to not be overjoyed when a previous team lets him go and to find solace with his new group. This time around, it probably also helps that the Lakers are the betting favorites to win the 2020-21 title, and Harrell can thrive in a role built for him alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis.