Month: February 2021

Tom Brady’s 10th Super Bowl appearance went about as well as he could’ve dreamed it, as he threw three first half touchdowns to lead the Bucs to a rather stress-free 31-9 win over the Chiefs on Sunday at home in Tampa. The win gave Brady his seventh championship as a starting quarterback, as he continues to pad his stats as the greatest of all time, combining individual stats with team success.

Doing so on a second team also helped shake off those who felt he only won in New England because of the organization and partnership with coach Bill Belichick. Winning his seventh title also moved him higher in the pantheon of athletes from all sports in terms of titles won, taking a one ring lead on Michael Jordan and joining rare air with seven.

On Monday, one of the few with seven titles decided to welcome Brady to the “7 Chip Club,” as Robert Horry, who won seven titles with the Lakers, Rockets, and Spurs in his career, posted quite the meme to celebrate Brady’s arrival.

It is objectively funny and I’m glad Horry has steered into being the championship guy, because it is an incredible feat to be on that many title teams, even if never in a starring role. That latter point is, of course, the difference in he and Brady but still, Tom can now rock seven rings on his left and right hand, [like] Robert Horry.

Brady hasn’t been shy about his desire to keep playing and maybe try to go to 50, which he’ll have to do if he wants a shot at Bill Russell territory.

The Super Bowl halftime show often features guests aside from the headlining performers. That wasn’t the case this year, as The Weeknd said in an interview before the show, “I’ve been reading a lot of rumors. I wouldn’t bet on it. There wasn’t any room to fit it in the narrative, in the story I was telling in the performance. So yeah, there’s no special guests.”

While there were no guests on stage, though, a familiar After Hours collaborator was heavily involved in the making of the show: Daniel Lopatin, aka Oneohtrix Point Never. Warp Records, Lopatin’s label, shared a photo of him and The Weeknd backstage at the game and wrote, “Congrats @0PN musical director of @theweeknd’s halftime show.”

Lopatin of course had a huge role in bringing After Hours to life as well. He is credited as a writer and producer on multiple tracks, including “Scared To Live” and “Until I Bleed Out.” He also re-worked “Save Your Tears” for an After Hours remix EP. Before After Hours, the two also both worked on the film Uncut Gems, with The Weeknd playing himself in a cameo role and Lopatin scoring the movie.

Check out our timeline of The Weeknd’s After Hours look here.

Among the stars of the night for the Bucs in their dominant 31-9 Super Bowl win over the Chiefs on Sunday was Leonard Fournette. The former LSU standout and Jags first round pick was released prior to the season where he signed with the Bucs to share backfield duties with Ronald Jones II.

Against Kansas City, Fournette got the starring role in the backfield, catching four passes for 46 yards and toting the rock 16 times for 89 yards, headlined by this 27 yard touchdown run that all but sealed the game in the third quarter.

For a running back who, while still young, has a lot of tread on his tires from heavy carry numbers dating back to his high school career, it was terrific to see him perform the way he did on the biggest stage. Fournette’s physicality was on display, but so was his effectiveness in space, showcased on his receptions out of the backfield and the way he hit the outside and burst to the end zone untouched on his TD run.

After the game, as has been the case in recent years, the confetti that rained down on the field in celebration of Tampa’s home victory in the Super Bowl was adorned with past tweets from players and their families. Among them was this 2014 proclamation from a then senior in high school Leonard Fournette, among the top recruits in the country and signed to LSU.

Seven years later, he fulfilled that dream and made good on it, playing one of the best games of his professional career and showing the versatility in his game. After Sunday’s win, Fournette had just one thing to say about himself.

Super Bowls don’t come around all that often for players, Tom Brady aside, and Fournette made sure to take advantage of his opportunity and now you can just call that man Super Bowl Lenny.

Shaggy’s 2000 hit “It Wasn’t Me” is back at the forefront of pop culture after being used in Cheetos’ Super Bowl ad with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. While opinions on the commercial itself are mixed, the ad’s debut during the Super Bowl did offer music fans a peek behind the curtain at some of the inner workings of the music industry, courtesy of The Roots’ Questlove.

In the commercial, Kutcher and Kunis sing a remixed version of the 20-year-old hit as Kunis devours Kutcher’s bag of Cheetos, denying it all the while, as Kutcher points to the rapidly piling physical evidence that proves her malfeasance. Eventually, Shaggy himself appears to rap in his trademark patois, advising Ashton, “To keep you own stash you gotta hide it betta.”

While some fans were thrown by Kutcher’s singing voice or felt the ad was a little too — well, cheesy — Questlove regarded it a bit more philosophically than most thanks to the debt he and his band owe to Shaggy. “I will never slander #ItWasntMe the success of that song singlehandedly paid for Things Fall Apart’s promotional budget,” he revealed.

Quest, who’s often a fountain of musical knowledge and loves telling behind-the-scenes stories about the sometimes mind-blowing encounters and crossovers within the recording industry, also elaborated on the story in his book, Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove. In 1999, when The Roots released Things Fall Apart, their Grammy-nominated fourth studio album, both they and Shaggy were signed to MCA Records. At the time, “alternative hip-hop” projects like Things Fall Apart were rarely afforded the promotional efforts and budget tentpole commercial anthems like “It Wasn’t Me” were, but the surplus of revenue the pop-charting song generated could have easily contributed to the coffers of an established but less commercially viable act like The Roots.

Although Quest didn’t offer any further tweets on the subject of Shaggy’s hit, he did seem endlessly amused by the memes generated by the mirror maze sequence of The Weeknd’s halftime performance. He also had some advice for companies that got a little too cute with their ads:

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley thought he could fire off an innocuous tweet rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs, but that decision quickly blew up in Hawley’s face as the Chiefs got steamrolled by Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV. The controversial senator, who’s already been under fire for his role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol, is being relentlessly dragged on Twitter for jinxing the Chiefs and clearly having a penchant for picking losing teams.

It also didn’t take long for folks to use the Chiefs tweet to roast Hawley for his infamous salute to the Capitol rioters and his ongoing participation in spreading the “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was rigged against Donald Trump.

Ever since the January 6 insurrection, Hawley has been facing intense public condemnations from Disney, Hallmark, and even his home state newspaper. Hawley also lost a book deal following the Capitol assault, which put him on AOC‘s radar after the senator fired off a statement complaining about cancel culture. “You fist-pumped insurrectionists and baselessly attacked our elections,” AOC tweeted. “Your actions fueled a riot and you fundraised in the chaos. Five people are dead. Even your GOP colleagues have distanced from your acts. Yet here you are crying over a book deal. You should be expelled.”

But probably the best smackdown came from Pennsylvania’s badass Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman who didn’t mince words when it came to Hawley questioning the integrity of the election. “You know, he went to Stanford and Yale Law,” Fetterman told the Daily Beast podcast. “He knows better than anybody that this is all garbage. And this is the point, and that’s what makes him so reprehensible. You know, I don’t care what your political beliefs are. If you’re willing to damage and endanger over your ambition, your soul is dipped in dogsh*t. I don’t know how else to say it.”

(Via Josh Hawley on Twitter)

Among all the Super Bowl commercials you saw during the Bucs victory over the Chiefs on Sunday, there was one late in the second half you may have missed, featuring Samuel L. Jackson standing atop a pillar holding a “sparkle stick” in a realistic but cartoonish animation similar to Fortnite. Jackson uses the commercial to speak about the virtues of using Verizon 5G to not have a laggy network and also not blaming losses on your lag like a scrub, but the one who steals the show is Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.

In the commercial, Jackson makes a comment towards Smith-Schuster that offends him enough to “bring my fish around.” Before Jackson can finish his speech to the crowd, Smith-Schuster rides in on a giant shark and eats Jackson. The commercial cuts away with Jackson threatening to turn some fish in the stomach of the shark into sashimi.

The commercial is funny and creative, but it’s hard to not enjoy the art style. Is it exactly like Fortnite? No, but the inspiration feels like that’s what it’s supposed to be. Especially with the small fish at the end which looks very similar to the fish you can eat in-game. Of course, even with the Fortnite inspired art, there are plenty of references to video game lore as a whole. You can see an orc from Warcraft standing behind Smith-Schuster for example.

Traditionally when companies try to make video game references in their commercials they fall flat because the people involved don’t play video games, but this one was well done.

Chris Pratt got famously jacked when he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Guardians of the Galaxy, but even he looks tiny compared to Chris Hemsworth. The Thor: Love and Thunder star, seen here pushing a goddamn tire, recently told Men’s Health Australia that if he stops working out, his body “shuts down… I just don’t feel good. I like it for a couple of days, then everything just starts to hurt. I get achy and there’s inflammation, my back’s stiff. I’m just well aware that in order for me to live healthier and happier, I’ve got to keep moving.” Now imagine how his stunt double feels.

Actually, you don’t have to. Bobby Holland Hanton will tell you himself.

“Everyone is like, ‘Wow look at the size and him’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, that’s brilliant, I’m that guy’s double,’ so I text him, I’m like, ‘Thanks very much dude, you’ve just made this even harder,’” Holland, who’s worked with Hemsworth since 2013, said on Australian morning radio show Fitzy and Wippa. “I train with him a lot, we train all the time, we’re on the same diet regime and training. He’s the biggest though he’s ever been, so I have to be the biggest I’ve ever been, which is a challenge but I’m up for it”:

The death-defying stunts mean Holland Hanton can’t get health or life insurance cover.

Hemsworth eats seven meals a day and they need to be at the right time, which means his stunt double has to do the same. “Every two hours we are eating, it’s become a chore, I don’t enjoy eating at all, every two hours it’s like get calories in, training twice a day, it’s full on,” he told the show. “We’re training so much, we are packing on so much size, it’s difficult on the body. I find carrying the extra weight is difficult and hard to maintain on the ligaments.”

This is Holland:

Extremely ripped! Here’s Hemsworth:

Good lord. He must miss the fat suit.

Thor: Love and Thunder comes out on February 11, 2022.

(Via the New Zealand Herald)

Just a month and some change into 2021 and already, things in the world of pop culture have gotten pretty wild. That’s why it’s such a good thing that our resident pop culture gurus AJ Lodge and Naz Perez are here to navigate this terrain. (Hey, those Lady Gaga Hunger Games brooches are sharp!)

The hosts broke down the biggest news in the world of entertainment for a brand new edition of Culture Quick Bites where they marveled over Bernie Sanders’ mittens meme-age, tried to figure out TikTok’s Sea Shanty craze, and cried over their Dunkin Donuts iced coffees at the news of Ben Affleck and Ana De Armas’ break-up …

Okay fine, only AJ took the Ben-Ana split hard.

The duo hyped up Disney+’s WandaVision and its many confusing Easter eggs, debated who could possibly fill Alex Trebek’s shoes on Jeopardy, and made it painfully clear that the whole show was filmed before the Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — though we’re sure the Weeknd’s halftime show will be fire either way. Oh, and if you were thinking about applying to be Cardi B’s chauffeur after she showed love to Olivia Rodrigo’s break-up track, “Driver’s License,” just know you’ll have some stiff competition from one of them.

Watch all of the biggest pop culture moments in the video above.

Smashing a guitar on stage is a time-honored tradition among artists who are financially steady enough to be able to easily replace their axe. During the second-biggest musical moment of the weekend (there was some sports-related concert yesterday), Phoebe Bridgers made her Saturday Night Live debut and made it in a big way by destroying her six-string live on the air. It turns out that it wasn’t exactly how it looked, though.

Bridgers smashed her guitar on a monitor on stage, which prompted one follower to tweet, “It’s the monitor I was upset about. So nice.” Bridgers responded, “they made me a fake one to break lol.”

Elsewhere, Jason Isbell responded some of the backlash Bridgers received (a minority opinion, for sure) after the destruction, tweeting, “That was like an 85 dollar guitar she smashed come on guys.” Bridgers added, “I told [guitar maker] danelectro I was going to do it and they wished me luck and told me they’re hard to break.”

Meanwhile, Bridgers retweeted some of her favorite tweets about her SNL performance and a lot of them are pretty funny. A personal favorite is a reply to a tweet that reads, “Why did this woman, Phoebe Bridgers, destroy her guitar on SNL? I mean, I didn’t care much for the song either, but that seemed extra.” The response: “did phoebe’s guitar write this.”

So, check those out below.

There’s nothing like a common enemy to unite two former foes, and that appears to be what’s happening with Stormy Daniels and ex-Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen. These are strange times indeed, given that (less than two years ago) Stormy was suing Cohen for defamation related to her claims about an alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump. Cohen is now spending his post-prison days doing the podcast thing while serving out the remainder of his three sentence. His joint is called Mea Culpa With Michael Cohen, and surprise, surprise, he’s expressed regret for the “needless pain” he caused to the former exotic dancer.

Throughout their discussion, it’s apparent that both Cohen and Daniels regret their time in Trump’s orbit. Where Cohen is concerned, that regret is quite tangible, since Trump bypassed him for a pardon, yet Stormy is haunted by memories that shall never go away. One can only imagine what’s seared into her brain, even though (as highlighted by the Associated Press) the graphic part of it lasted less than two minutes. Oh boy:

She calls the encounter “the worst 90 seconds of my life, for sure, because it just made me hate myself.” While she did not feel “physically threatened,” she said she had not expected to have sex with Trump and, at one point, thought about how to escape the room, thinking “I could definitely outrun him.”

She repressed details of the rendezvous for years, she said, adding the dynamics only came into focus after she saw the movie “Bombshell” about the sexual harassment women underwent in meetings with former Fox News executive Roger Ailes. “I didn’t say anything for years because I didn’t remember,” she said.

Daniels added that her current taste for ghost hunting doesn’t scare her nearly as much as what her Trump encounter ended up costing her. “I’ve been face to face with evil in the most intimate way,” Daniels added. “Demons don’t scare me anymore.” Of the publicity that turned into a monetary nightmare for her, Daniels added, “Overall, if I could just wave a magic wand and make everything go back to the way it was before, I would absolutely do that.”

Judges have, at various points, ordered Trump and Daniels to pay legal fees racked up by the other, and her battle isn’t over yet. As noted during the podcast, there still might be more to come from the U.S. Supreme Court. “I’ve already lost everything,” she told Cohen. “so I’m taking it all the way.” (Damn, those 90 seconds of hell can stick.)

(Via Associated Press, Business Insider & Mea Culpa With Michael Cohen)