Month: March 2021

The character of Gollum in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings movies was famously an all-CG creation by a team of animators at Weta Digital. Yet those animators would no doubt have been at a loss, had master actor Andy Serkis not been there to dance around in a spandex suit showing them how fantastical creatures act.

In an interview with The Guardian over the weekend, Serkis revealed that his preparation to be the model for the CG character Gollum went further than green clothing covered in ping pong balls. No sir, in order to play Gollum he had to be Gollum.

“I used to walk on all fours off set when we were filming Lord of the Rings,” Serkis told The Guardian. For hours. Off set.

“I spent a lot of time in preparation for that; I would go off for walks on all fours for hours. I did occasionally come into contact with other people, so I just had to pretend I was looking for something. It’s fair to say that’s pretty method.”

Method, yes, that’s definitely the word I’d use for it. And it totally worked out! Why study an animal that walks on all fours to draw a quadripedal creature when you can study an actor? The actor has so much more experience acting.

I like to imagine Andy Serkis’s kid’s friends popping over to play some video games and when they open the door, Andy Serkis is there in his underpants, perched on the back of the couch biting into a whole raw fish. “Go away! Can’t you see I’m WORKING?!”

Forget the Snyder cut of Justice League, give me the pre-CG cut of Lord Of The Rings with Andy Serkis in full leotard.

John Oliver’s disgust at Tucker Carlson is well documented. One need only look at how Oliver ripped the Fox News host over his defense of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse to know that there’s no love lost there. And especially when Tucker gets all ragey about what he feels is destructions of childhood icons, like when Elmo showed support for Black Lives Matter, Tucker loses it. So naturally, the so-called “cancelling” of Dr. Seuss (according to right-wing figures including Don Jr. complaining with Fox and Friends hosts) really got under Tucker’s skin.

Well, the Last Week Tonight host isn’t here for how Tucker tried to rewrite what actually happened. Not only did the “cancellation” of six Dr. Seuss titles happen because Dr. Seuss Enterprises (a private company, yes) decided to stop publishing these titles because of racially insensitive imagery that resulted in “hurtful” portrayals, but Tucker completely glossed over the actual titles (And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, If I Ran the Zoo, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, and The Cat’s Quizzer) that got yanked because, yeah, those books weren’t a good look.

“Given how strongly all of those commentators were defending those books, it is worth knowing exactly what they’re defending,” said Oliver while showing how some of the pulled books caricatured an Asian man that’s drawn as yellow and African people represented as monkeys. “Are these things we really want to fight for kids to see?” wondered Oliver. “To be honest, I’m squeamish about showing them to you right now, and just three minutes ago, I was more than happy to subject you to a basketball arena jizz storm.”

And with that, Oliver took issue with Tucker complaining that “cancel culture” proponents are “really trying to eliminate is a very specific kind of mid-century American culture. A culture that championed meritocracy and colorblindness.”

The host had had enough. “Okay, first: shut the f*ck up, Tucker, you fearmongering lacrosse injury,” he ranged. “And second, it’s a little weird to claim that mid-century American culture championed colorblindness when signs from the times explicitly demanded the opposite.” Oliver then showed a telling photo of segregated water fountains. Enough said.

(Via Last Week Tonight)

During a candid and revelatory interview with Oprah on Sunday evening that could have a profound impact on the Royal Family moving forward, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle opened up about their experiences with racism in the British monarchy and psychologically taxing attacks in the British tabloids that were often aided by that very racism. Only a small handful of American celebrities can truly relate to the non-stop assaults Markle faced in the press from the very beginning of her relationship with the royal prince, and apparently The View‘s Meghan McCain considers herself one of them.

If McCain equating herself to Markle sounds ridiculous, she agrees, and even says as much. “I want this to be interpreted the right way: in no way am I comparing any of my life experience to Meghan Markle’s,” McCain said during Monday’s episode of The View. “She experienced something that had egregious racism and happened on a global stage, and she was a complete cultural paradigm shift for the U.K.”

But even though McCain acknowledged that comparing herself to Markle would look ridiculous, she went ahead and did it anyway. Via The Daily Beast:

“But I do know what it feels like to be on a TV show or a political campaign where people are leaking stories about you with the sole intention to make you look bad, and let me tell you, it’ll do a number on your mental health like you can’t believe.”

McCain is referring to tabloid reports about her in the Daily Mail, which have accused her of throwing tantrums off-camera and berating producers. Those reports allegedly relied on leaks from her The View co-hosts, so it was an interesting choice for McCain to bring them up in the context of the Oprah interview especially when those stories are particularly tame when compared to the British gossip surrounding Markle. Was McCain really trying to make a point about how women are treated in the press, or was she capitalizing on a chance to take a jab at her fellow co-hosts? Why not both?

(Via The Daily Beast)

Ventura, California rapper Kyle’s video for “But Cha” contains an adorable twist. In the first half of the video, he appears to be on a date, sitting at a dinner table and sharing a stimulating conversation with the diner across from him. He offers his “date” a present which, when opened, is revealed to be a bejeweled collar — his “date” is actually his puppy, who makes quizzical doggy faces for the rest of the video as Kyle exhibits infatuated pet owner behaviors like sharing a bath with the pup and dressing them up.

The video’s a classic example of the good-natured artist’s witty sense of humor. The second season of his hilarious animated variety show, Sugar & Toys, just concluded on Fuse, while Kyle himself is about eight months removed from the release of his second album, See You When I Am Famous!!!!!!!!!!!!, which similarly included tongue-in-cheek videos for singles like “Money Now,” in which he commandeers Tyga’s house for an episode of MTV’s Cribs, and the title song, where Kyle’s puppy gets a front-row seat to a stereotypical rap video pool party with scantily clad models and Too Short guest appearances.

Sharing his thoughts on making funny videos instead of serious ones with Uproxx in 2019, Kyle explained his humor. “I really like relating to the most innocent parts of people,” he said. “So, the morning cartoon is just such a nostalgic thing that every human, every race, ethnicity, rich, poor… we all experience the same thing. We all went through it, we all have those memories.”

Watch Kyle’s “But Cha” video.

Lindsey Graham is the kind of politician who’s never had made a statement he couldn’t walk back but his latest flip-flop when it comes to former current buddy Donald Trump is a stunning feat of self-serving PR acrobatics, even for him.

The Senator from South Carolina was one of the last allies to turn on Trump following the Jan. 6th insurrection, giving an impassioned speech in front of Congress that blamed the riots on his good friend and plead with former Vice President Mike Pence to do the right thing by ratifying the Biden vote. Here’s a video of Graham dragging his old pal just a couple of months ago, to jog your memory.

So, cool. Graham appears to value democracy. Except, now that the treasonous dust has settled, the Southern Senator is singing a different tune, telling Axios in a recent interview that, contrary to his earlier statements, he believes Trump might be the Republican party’s saving grace. Or at the very least — yet most crucial to Graham himself — the kind of fundraising unicorn that can keep an aging, out-of-touch white man from losing his cushy public service job.

“Donald Trump was my friend before the riot. And I’m trying to keep a relationship with him after the riot,” Graham told interviewer Jonathan Swan. “I still consider him a friend. What happened was a dark day in American history, and we’re going to move forward.”

He went on to detail how fervently he still believes in the kind of policies the Trump administration enacted — like building cages to house child immigrants, for instance.

“I want us to continue the policies that I think will make America strong. I believe the best way for the Republican Party to do that is with Trump, not without Trump,” Graham continued. “He could make the Republican Party something that nobody else I know can make it. He can make it bigger. He can make it stronger. He can make it more diverse. And he also could destroy it.”

We don’t know about those “diversity” claims, but we’re pretty sure the only thing Trump’s really good at is destroying stuff — the Republican Party, confidence in our democratic process, our desire to ever eat a Filet-O-Fish sandwich again. But really, the main reason for Graham’s sudden change of heart comes near the end of the interview clip Axios released and it has everything to do with Graham, who narrowly won his re-election bid in the most expensive Senate race in history, avoiding unemployment.

“There’s something about Trump. There’s a dark side and there’s some magic there,” Graham said. “What I’m tryin’ to do is just harness the magic.”

Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters have shown a lot of love for disco lately. A month ago, Dave Grohl picked the Bee Gees’ Saturday Night Fever soundtrack as an album all kids should listen to, saying, “If you put Saturday Night Fever on, it’s going to feel like Saturday night, but it could be a Monday morning.” Not long after that, the band covered the Bee Gees’ “You Should Be Dancing.” The band’s Rami Jaffee also recently noted that Saturday Night Fever would be included on his party playlist.

The band’s recent fascination with disco continued over the weekend while they participated in the Rock-N-Relief livestream. They performed a live set for the benefit, which included a cover of Andy Gibb’s disco classic “Shadow Dancing.” The song, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the charts in 1978, is about as close to a Bee Gees song as a non-Bee Gees song gets: Gibb wrote it with Bee Gees members (and his brothers) Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.

The band’s rendition gave the song a bit more of a live edge, although it still maintained a strong groove. Taylor Hawkins sang lead vocals from behind his drum kit while Grohl sang some Gibb-inspired backing vocals.

Watch Foo Fighters cover “Shadow Dancing” at 5:44:15 into the video above.

Russ’s high-concept “Hard For Me” video looks like something out of a spy thriller. Directed by Joán, the video depicts Russ trying — and failing — to break the female lead out of a transparent cell as a computer screen on the glass warns that the oxygen within is depleting. After the first verse ends with Russ’s female interest lying on the floor after the oxygen runs out, the second verse reverses their roles; now, Russ is the one trapped. However, this time his coldhearted consort simply watches him struggle until his time runs out.

As a metaphor for a one-sided relationship, the video is a fitting reflection of the song’s lyrics, in which Russ recalls the dissolution of his relationship with a lover with whom he can’t see eye-to-eye. “Tired of goin’ hard for people who don’t go hard for me,” he croons on the hook. “If I go hard for you, please go hard for me.”

The video is Russ’s third of 2021, although the song itself dates back to December of 2020. It seems that after focusing on bars-first battle raps on his Chomp EP, he’s returning to emotionally vulnerable fare like “Hard For Me” and “Misunderstood,” as well as celebratory anthems such as “Ugly” with Lil Baby.

Watch the “Hard For Me” video above.

At any given moment, at all hours of the day and night, tens of thousands of people in an exponentially-growing online community believe they’re plotting the future of the Internet. More than 200,000 members of the NBA Top Shot Discord are convinced the blockchain-based collectable is a rocket ship that’s just starting to tap into its fuel supply. And for more and more each day, the Discord is their best source for news about the digital basketball memorabilia that’s quickly become the most-hyped Non-Fungible Token (NFT) in a fast-developing cryptocurrency marketplace.

The sprawling boards are a nonstop stream of messages about market value and smart investments and diamond hands. First timers wander into #general and ask when new packs of these video highlights will go up for sale. Moment flippers and day-traders lament the Top Shot marketplace going down for maintenance in #selling or about being unable to extract money from their Top Shot accounts in #vent. When complaints come many more talk about that future, calling everyone present early adopters of the Dapper Labs product that’s still very much in beta, touting the value of their collections on evaluate.market and dreaming of what’s to come.

Like every online community, the board has its own memes and lore and personalities. But NBA Top Shot has extended its influence far past those waiting for pack drop announcements on Discord. The platform is the talk of the NBA world, the latest instance coming this week when the league used Top Shot to reveal its Rising Stars selections as part of NBA All-Star Weekend.

For some, the announcement and a slew of All-Star Game-related pack drops is the latest heights for the wild ride that is NBA Top Shot. It meant new packs, full of fresh Moments and even more money likely to flood into the marketplace that’s seen hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and transactions in recent few weeks. To skeptics, though, the metaphor was perfect: a risky collectable marketplace for a product that doesn’t have any tangible form had announced the hypothetical rosters for a basketball game that doesn’t exist.

The enormous gulf of opinion between its biggest boosters and loudest critics is part of what makes NBA Top Shot so fascinating. The growth is impossible to ignore: it officially debuted in the summer of 2020, about a year after the NBA first announced a partnership with Dapper Labs to bring the blockchain-based product to market. Things really took off at the start of the 2020-21 season, though, and by January the collector base exploded in a way that’s surprised, and thrilled, everyone at Dapper Labs and the NBA that’s worked to make Top Shot a reality.

“The engagement we’ve seen around NBA Top Shot since the start of the season has exceeded all of our expectations,” Adrienne O’Keeffe, NBA associate vice president of global partnerships, told Uproxx by email. “The product is still in beta and Dapper is focusing all of its efforts on scaling its operations to accommodate the demand. This is a partnership, and we’re working hand-in-hand with Dapper Labs to create a compelling product for our fans.”

Some of that partnership is working to determine which Moments get minted on the blockchain and sold by Top Shot, which quite simply can’t keep packs in stock. Like trading cards, Dapper initially hoped to make “common” packs always available so anyone with $9 can start a collection of low-value moments and maybe luck into a LeBron James or valuable rookie highlight. Instead, every single pack has remained sold out for weeks, and drops have seen hundreds of thousands of people leaving online queues empty-handed. So while seeing the hashtag #NBATopShotThis is a nightly occurrence on Twitter these days, actually getting your hands on a pack has become something of a challenge.

No one has felt the joys and demands of that growth more than the team at Dapper, which is working frantically to keep up with the influx of new customers and match expectations of a now-enormous group of collectors.

“We had optimism that it would grow and become a huge thing in the sports collectibles world,” Jacob Eisenberg, community lead for Dapper Labs, told Uproxx last week. “I think I’d be lying if I said we thought it was gonna happen as quickly as it happened. Like, we’re still in beta.”

NBA Top Shot, for better and worse, is a tech product that’s evolving in real-time. Much of Dapper’s daily struggle is in dealing with the growing pains of attempting to scale a product still in development. Eisenberg said Dapper’s engineers have “exponentially improved” the site’s capacity for traffic and simultaneous clicks from users, from a few hundred just weeks ago to tens of thousands in recent days. But the site often goes down for maintenance as new bugs and problems pop up, as it did for hours after its Rising Stars drop on All-Star Sunday. Scheduled pack drops are often delayed as botting and other issues arise in the huge activity the site sees in anticipation of a release.

Creating the product — literally minting new Moments on the blockchain — takes time and resources (and a LOT of energy, unfortunately), as does everything else the now-understaffed Dapper needs to handle as added publicity brings in more and more users. Dapper, which uses a blockchain called Flow to operate Top Shot, essentially has to decide what parts of the site to prioritize maintaining while also handling customer service issues, a huge pool of new users demanding new packs and those who have made real money buying and selling on the platform asking to extract those profits back into the physical world.

Controlling that growth is a balance, too. Eisenberg said Dapper is basically forced to disable new user signups with every major TV appearance or Twitch stream from NBA players who are now flooding into the market themselves. The same move is made before pack drops to cut down on multiple accounts and bots, which can take away packs from actual collectors playing fair. It’s a delicate balance, and some collectors are more sympathetic about the road ahead than others.

“They need like 100 more engineers at this point,” Steve Poland of Mighty Minted, a Top Shot newsletter, told me in February. “And they’re just trying to do whatever they can to kind of idle this rocket ship and keep it on the ground because they’re just not ready for this much. I doubt they want the publicity they’re currently getting.”

Eisenberg said Dapper had hired 10 new employees to handle outstanding support tickets about things like transaction issues and site errors this month. That’s just the start of the hires, and employees are constantly linking their jobs page on social media. Eisenberg himself is now working with a copy editor to handle some of the writing and communications Top Shot needs for its Moments, blog and social media accounts. It’s been an exhausting few weeks for the small staff, one that’s seeing new and unanticipated work arise as the site grows. Dapper, for example, has started doing livestreams during pack drops and spending time on Twitch streams doing promotional events, which add attention to the site and also take away precious hours to handle other business.

That work includes some big priorities for Dapper, like letting collectors withdraw money from their Dapper accounts. Dapper said last week that just 6,000 people can withdraw money from their accounts, and the percentage of people with accounts that can get their money out is still in the single digits. Part of the reason is the process is complicated by tax issues, credit card transactions, people with multiple accounts, and identity checks Dapper says they need to do. It’s labor-intensive and time-consuming work, but it’s a problem they’re racing to fix.

“I think that’s the most valid criticism we get,” Eisenberg said. “And we know that’s something that we really want the community to have.”

For Poland, a tech veteran who covered the rise of Web 2.0, the rise of Top Shot follows a similar model of past products like Twitter. Poland described seeing the early version of the microblogging platform at South By Southwest in the mid 2000s. Once it clicked for him, and he saw the potential the platform had he knew, like so many others, that “this is the future.” Poland said it’s happening again with NBA Top Shot, frustrations, and fail whales, and all.

“We’d see the “fail whale” every single day and kind of get a little angry and frustrated,” Poland said, recalling the image that would come up when the growing platform was at capacity in its early days. “And I’m seeing that with NBA Top shot. These pack drops go wrong, or whatever, and these users that are on there are very vocal and that’s when you know you’ve got, just, a home run. Because everyone just wants this so bad.”

Other problems remain, like collectors who have created multiple accounts in order to increase their chances of snagging rare packs, “gifting” the moments to their non-burner after a drop. And then there are bots: scripts written for profit by coders that can flood queues with thousands more spots in line than there are actual people. It’s a constant battle, and Dapper wouldn’t get specific about the volume of bots they see, but it’s a problem they’ve acknowledged several times and have decided to get serious about by officially banning them last month. NBA Top Shot has sneaker and concert ticket problems, but for intangible video highlights that are now routinely selling for six figures if you get lucky enough to pull something rare.

“These are kind of problems that no other company has gone through before,” Eisenberg said, noting their model and success is fairly unprecedented, especially in the digital collectable space. “That’s kind of carving out new territory, so we don’t have the benefit to learn from others’ mistakes. We don’t have the benefit to know exactly how big problems are when we’re analyzing them.”

As demand — and perceived value — of packs increase another frequent criticism from collectors has been packs seemingly set aside before drops. They’ve noticed unopened packs landing in the hands of NBA players and others to open on livestreams, sometimes hours after pack drops where hundreds of thousands are left out in the cold. Dapper has been more transparent about holding some packs back lately, saying certain amounts are “withheld for community giveaways, customer service and promotional purposes.” And Eisenberg admitted that, while players have gotten packs for giveaways and promotions, that’s part of the company’s strategy.

“We made a conscientious decision not too long ago that if it’s an NBA player coming to us wanting to do anything from you know, a pack opening to a giveaway, we’re going to help facilitate that,” Eisenberg said. “Because at the end of the day, NBA Top Shot is nothing without the players, the moments they create on the court.”

The influx of players in the Top Shot community has complicated things for sure. While players like LeBron James and James Harden have claimed not to know anything about it, their moments are some of the most popular on the platform. It’s already made its way into trash talk on the court, and it’s not hard to imagine SportsCenter’s Top 10 list replaced by a Top Shot reference in sports broadcasts, should that league partner with Dapper if things keep growing.

That growth, in more ways than one, has been fueled by some NBA players who have wholeheartedly embraced Top Shot and started making moves in the marketplace. One of the first was Pelicans guard Josh Hart, who last month became the first player in NBA history to pull a Moment where he was scored on by another player. But others have followed and become downright evangelical about their embrace of what they call the future of collecting.

“I think there’s two things that a lot of us love, and that’s money and basketball,” Kings rookie Tyrese Haliburton said late last month, pitching reporters on a Buddy Hield Dunk Moment selling for nearly $8,000. “We’re at the ground level, but we can take this to the moon.”

The cheapest version of that Moment, mind you, is currently selling for nearly twice as much a fortnight later.

Players like Terry Rozier have bought their own moments and resold them to, presumably, people who do not also play in the NBA. The novelty is notable, but also profitable. There are various ways some Moments are considered to have higher value than others: low circulation count, low serial numbers, and even specific numbers like 69, 420 or a player’s jersey number. It’s all determined subjectively by the market as a whole, which has already decided there’s value in knowing an NBA player has owned it for themselves.

Part of what makes many so excited about blockchain technology is that its movement comes with a visible ledger, which means everything done on Top Shot can all be seen publicly and in real time. Seeing which NBA players have owned moments is just the start of that transparency: Third parties have already built tools to measure value and do other analytics to gauge scarcity, market trends and find deals others with fewer tools may miss. And while Dapper has promised a digital game — expected to be akin to FIFA’s Ultimate Team — as one of many things attached to Top Shot moving forward, avid collectors have already made a fantasy game of their own.

All of this market movement has Dapper making millions on pack sales and fees per transaction, and it’s reportedly seeking a $250 million investment round that would value the company at $2 billion. That would certainly dwarf an earlier $12 million investment led by NBA players like Spencer Dinwiddie, Andre Iguodala, Aaron Gordon, JaVale McGee and Garrett Temple. Those players certainly got in on the ground floor, but on top of that all players get a cut of sales and fees as part of the NBPA through their licensing agreement with Dapper. The potential grey areas of conflict, though, have been met with enthusiasm everywhere, including from the NBA.

“At its core, NBA Top Shot, is a digital collectible game that rewards building and showcasing sets,” an NBA spokesperson said when asked about players getting involved with buying and selling moments. “It gives our fans a chance to own and display their fandom just like any other piece of memorabilia.”

Despite skepticism from outside observers, nearly all of those already on the ride only see problems as roadblocks normal as part of the beta they’ve signed up to endure in order to strike it rich when the rest of the world comes calling. And though many on the platform are bigger fans of cryptocurrency and speculation than any specific NBA team, the messaging remains that this is for fans first and foremost. Eisenberg equated NBA Top Shot to going to the arcade: you’re there to have fun, and maybe if you’re lucky or good at enough of the games you can win one of the big prizes. But no one goes expecting to win all the big stuff every time they go.

“We’re building Top Shot, very specifically, for the collectors that believe in Top Shot as kind of collectibles, long-term,” he said. And the site has tried to make it clear to those looking to make “a quick buck” that it will take time, and there are roadblocks to getting in, flipping a bunch of Moments and getting that money out. Despite all that, though, many people flooding into the market and studying its growth certainly seem to have their eyes on the big prizes.

“This is instant. You can just buy a Moment in a second, and list it a minute later,” Poland said, noting the broad crossover of daily fantasy enthusiasts, gamblers and sports fans who have congregated for NBA Top Shot. “And make a profit, possibly. Or you could also lose it all. This is the stock market. People are day trading these Moments.”

That speculative aspect of the marketplace has already resulted in some big swings and market depressions following pack drops, announcements or the completion of challenges. It’s why Eisenberg has said in many interviews that Moments should only be bought with disposable income, not money that should be going to more essential expenses like rent.

“We get a lot of feedback from collectors like ‘I missed my kid’s soccer practice for this drop.’” Eisenberg said last week. “And my response is, like, you should reexamine your priorities, perhaps.”

Regardless of priorities, it’s that kind of enthusiasm that’s made NBA Top Shot so popular so fast. And the enthusiasm is contagious. Many players and those in the NBA media have commented on the community’s dedication to the platform as part of the reason they got hooked in the first place.

“I think this community is very welcoming and what’s kind of cool is that everyone has some vested interest in its success,” Eisenberg said. “If you’re buying moments you want the community to continue to grow so I think the more it does grow the more great content creators, they’re gonna come to the yard and continue to spread the good word of what Top Shot has done for them and what it can continue to do.”

Fittingly it seems that when you ask around the advice offered, whether to the curious or more skeptical alike, always seems to be the same: just buy a pack.

In a move that’s sure to go over well with WandaVision fans, director Matt Shakman has revealed that at least two theories were heading in the right direction, but the show was edited at the last minute as Marvel monitored social media reactions. One of those theories is a particular doozy considering just last week Shakman had to temper expectations ahead of the series finale after fans seemingly read too much into Monica’s “aerospace engineer” contact being an important cameo. Turns out, the fans were right to pick up on the significance of the engineer because the show was building up to a character reveal that was scrapped while the show was still airing as fans started zeroing in on Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, who apparently was not the cameo.

Shakman admitted pulling the aerospace engineer reveal, and copped to purposefully teasing it in the show, while talking to Kevin Smith’s Fatman Beyond podcast. He also confirmed another popular WandaVision theory that Agatha’s bunny, Señor Scratchy, was hiding a dark secret. Via Heroic Hollywood:

Matt Shakman explained to Smith and Bernardin that originally, a sub-plot was filmed involving the twins, Monica, Darcy and Ralph Bohner as they attempted to steal the Darkhold from Agatha Harkness’ basement. It sounds like it would’ve teased more monstrous things in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the director confirmed that Agatha’s rabbit, Scratchy, would’ve been revealed as a demon.

Shakman’s admission is pretty surprising considering there was a noticeable effort to chastise fans for reading too much into the show while coming up with WandaVision theories. Clearly, fans were doing what the creators intended by picking up on deliberate clues, so it’s only fair that they would be frustrated when those payoffs were pulled at the last second. However, WandaVision seems to be a huge hit with Marvel fans, so it’ll be interesting to see if there’s any backlash to this latest revelation, or if the show has built up enough goodwill that fans won’t even mind.

(Via Fatman Beyond)

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Burger King UK tweeted the following:

The tweet from the fast food giant was meant to highlight the lack of female chefs in the restaurant business, which is an important issue. But removed from any additional context, it came across as tone-deaf and sexist. “If they want to, of course,” the thread continued. “Yet only 20% of chefs are women. We’re on a mission to change the gender ratio in the restaurant industry by empowering female employees with the opportunity to pursue a culinary career. We are proud to be launching a new scholarship programme which will help female Burger King employees pursue their culinary dreams!”

But you wouldn’t know that from the “women belong in the kitchen” tweet (100,000+ retweets and counting) — the full-page ad in the New York Times is only slightly clearer.

As AdWeek notes, “The print ad quickly makes it apparent that the headline is being used ironically, as the message continues: ‘Fine dining kitchens, food truck kitchens, award-winning kitchens, casual dining kitchens, ghost kitchens, Burger King kitchens. If there’s a professional kitchen, women belong there.’ However, the same campaign, created by agency David Miami, was repurposed into a series of tweets via the @BurgerKingUK Twitter account, where the full context wasn’t quite as obvious.”

A lot of bad choices were made here, but the most bizarre is that it could have been one tweet:

When a Twitter user pointed out that “somebody working at Burger King really looked at this and thought it was a good idea,” the account replied, “To bring attention to the huge lack of female representation in the restaurant industry? Yeah, we think it’s a good idea, that’s why we’ve created a scholarship to help give more of our female employees the chance to pursue a culinary career.” Maybe start there, not with a sexist trope, next time.

The Wendy’s roast is coming.

What a bad week for the royals.