Month: May 2021

It’s a battle of the podcasters with Prince Harry taking side against admitted “f*cking moron” Joe Rogan’s recent anti-vax remarks. What a sentence, right? Let’s back up for a moment and absorb this more fully.

Prince Harry (along with Meghan Markle) recently launched his own podcast as part of his newly formed production company, Archewell Audio, which joined with Spotify in a multi-year partnership. However, Harry made it known on Thursday — while appearing on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast — that he wasn’t impressed by certain behavior from a fellow Spotify podcaster, Joe Rogan. To recap that hot mess, Rogan recently declared that young, healthy people should skip the vaccine because (and this is erroneous) they aren’t at risk for contracting COVID. After significant backlash, Rogan backpeddled while admitting, “I’m not a doctor; I’m a f*cking moron.”

Well, Harry had no comment on the “f*cking moron” description, but he does think that Rogan needs to shut it. “The issue is in today’s world with misinformation endemic,” Harry told Shepard. “You’ve got to be careful about what comes out of your mouth.” He added that it would be best for Rogan, who has no medical expertise, to “stay out of it” because “with a platform comes responsibility.”

Back during Rogan’s aforementioned backpeddling, he told his listeners, “I’m a cagefighting commentator who’s a dirty standup comedian who [is] drunk most of the time. And I do testosterone and I smoke a lot of weed. But I’m not a respected source of information — even for me.” Still, Rogan should probably think harder about his level of influence, given that he’s hosting the most popular Spotify podcast and attracts millions of listeners for each episode. It seems that he forgot about being owned by Bill Burr last year for calling people who wear masks “bitches.”

You can listen to Harry’s full Armchair Expert episode, which includes his thoughts on what life’s like after saying goodbye to the British Royal Family, here.

(Via Armchair Expert)

Whiskey awards season is officially ramping up. This coming Monday, the New York International Spirits Competition is going to announce its full line-up of winners from over 3,000 bottles. We were lucky enough to get a look at the list early and today we’re calling out the best whiskeys in the field — those that won the coveted Double Gold.

The whisk(e)ys below span every category, representing multiple regions around the world. Of course, that doesn’t mean this is a complete (or exhaustive) list of great whiskies. As with all of these competitions, it’s wholly dependent on which businesses decided to submit their expressions to be judged. Still, from this sample size, it does look like Texas whiskey is dominating whiskey awards right now.

That all being said, what we dig about this competition is that it brings some bottles to the public attention that we’ve never heard of. It also feels pretty accessible — the vast majority of these bottles are under $100 and pretty easy to track down. To that end, click on the prices if you want to try these double-gold-winning whiskies yourself!

Ardbeg Uigedail

ABV: 54.2%

Average Price: $85

The Whisky:

The mix of peated malts, yeast, and that inky lake water creates a spirit that’s already full of flavors. The hot juice is then aged in both ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. When the whisky in the barrels are just right, they’re blended into this single malt expression and bottled.

Tasting Notes:

Smoky plums in a Christmas cake mingle with a very distinct sense of dried flowers and a sugary banana. The star of this show is the balance between the sweet fruits and smoky malts as the spices fade in to accentuate, not overpower. The sip slows down when you add a few drops of water and really lets the smoke, spice, and fruit work together. The end is soft but carries a sense of urgency, driving you towards your next sip.

Bottom Line:

Ardbeg is the Islay whisky that’ll either help you fall in love with the peaty smoke bombs or turn you off them completely. Still, it’s a subtly fruity/smoky/spicy dram that clearly has a lot to offer, even if you don’t dig the smoky side of whisky … yet.

Balcones Mirador

ABV: 54.8%

Average Price: $85

The Whisky:

This is a fascinating single malt from Texas. The Balcones’ juice is aged for two to five years in refill whisky casks. That means the wood has already been sapped of a lot of the natural sugar that both flavors and colors whisky as it ages. This creates an ultra-mellow sipping experience while maintaining a rich malt character.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a nose full of just-peeled apple and pear skins next to very floral honey and a hint of soft, wet leather. The taste holds onto the honey and fruit while folding in fennel, dill, and sun-kissed fresh lavender that leads towards a fruit/lemon pancake syrup vibe and a touch of savory melon. The end dries out and takes on a slight black tea bitter edge as it fades away fairly quickly.

Bottom Line:

This is a super easy-sipping single malt. It certainly shines with a little ice or water to help all those floral and fruity notes open up. Perfect for a Sazerac.

Bear Fight American Single Malt Whiskey

ABV: 45%

Average Price: N/A

The Whisky:

This whiskey comes from Next Century Spirits. That’s a company that makes ready-to-sell booze for companies that don’t have distilleries, blenderies, or bottling capabilities.

Tasting Notes:

None available.

Bottom Line:

There’s not much else known about this label. It has started popping up at competitions and seems to be getting a warm welcome.

Braunstein Distillery Edition 12

ABV: 51.7 %

Average Price: $300

The Whisky:

Braunstein is probably more known as a Danish craft beer brewer than a distiller. That’s about to change. Their whisky prowess is starting to gain international attention (and awards) for a rye whisky that takes on a very local Danish terroir and attention to detail.

Tasting Notes (from the distillery):

A finely balanced, soft, and complex whiskey, aged on an oloroso sherry cask — from one of the oldest whiskey warehouses. The characteristic lightly smoked Braunstein whiskey distillate retains a fresh and fruity impression even after several years of storage. The barrel that has housed dark sherry whiskey contributes a deep and rich character of dried fruit.

Bottom Line:

This is going to be damn-near impossible to find in the U.S. unless you’re an importer or really in the know. Still, we know Braunstein makes one hell of a craft beer, so we’d imagine this is winning awards for a reason.

Bushmills Black Bush

ABV: 40%

Average Price: $34

The Whisky:

Black Bush is a more refined version of the Bushmill’s white label. The juice is a blend of grain and malt whiskeys aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks. The final blend leans more into the single malt juice with a balance set towards the sherry profile rather than the bourbon.

Tasting Notes:

That sherry jamminess and plumminess come through with a hint of vanilla, apricot, and nuts. The palate carries on along that path and adds in a serious Christmas spice matrix, with amped-up nuttiness and a touch more vanilla. The end is fairly quick, sherry-fueled with spice and sweetness, and slightly malty.

Bottom Line:

This is a fantastic mixing whiskey that really harnesses the essence of “Irish Whiskey” in every sip.

Doc Swinson’s Alter Ego Solera Aged Rye

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $50

The Whisky:

Doc Swinson’s is all about finding the best barrels of whiskey and treating it to a finishing touch to really help them pop. In this case, that finishing touch was using the solera method of keeping a little bit of juice in the barrels as they’re moved and refilled, creating a sort of lasting lineage to the final product.

Tasting Notes (from the blender):

Light oak, drizzled caramel, velvet tides of fig, poached pears with cinnamon, a hint of anise, followed by long grassy cane sugar.

Bottom Line:

Their tasting notes sound delicious and you can also find bottles pretty easily. For only $50, this feels like a worthy risk.

Elijah Craig Small Batch

ABV: 47%

Average Price: $32

The Whisky:

This is Elijah Craig’s entry-point bottle. The mash is corn-focused, with more malted barley than rye (12 percent and ten percent respectively). Originally, this was branded as a 12-year-old whiskey. The brand decided to move away from that labeling and started blending younger whiskeys in with the 12-year-old stuff.

Tasting Notes:

Classic bourbon notes greet you with a clear focus on vanilla, caramel, oak, orchard fruit, and a touch of fresh mint. The palate holds onto those flavors while adding in mild Christmas spices with a touch of oak and tobacco. The end is short, simple, and will leave you with a warm Kentucky hug.

Bottom Line:

Heaven Hill will rarely mislead you with their products. Their small-batch bourbon remains one of our perennial favorites that’s also amazingly affordable. That said, this is definitely a mixing whiskey for us.

Garrison Brothers Laguna Madre

ABV: 50.5%

Average Price: Sold Out

The Whisky:

Garrison Brothers upped their game with this one-off limited release. They’ve taken their much-loved straight bourbon and finished it in hard-to-get Limousin oak casks under that blazing Texan sun. The end results are all about subtly coaxing out chocolate, spice, and vanilla notes from that oak.

Tasting Notes (from the distiller):

Intense A&W Root Beer meets Dublin Dr. Pepper. Vanilla bean. Hazelnut. Saltwater taffy. Hershey’s Kisses. Frosty white chocolate and “ADULTS ONLY” Almond Joy candy bar finish. Pucker up. 101 proof.

Bottom Line:

We’re pretty big fans of Garrison Brothers around here. So if you do see one of these, it’ll probably be worth the big secondary-market mark-up (if it’s not too egregious, that is).

Glenmorangie Signet

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $232

The Whisky:

This Glenmorangie expression is a prime example of something truly special. The juice is a mix of single malts with estate-grown malts and “chocolate malts” (meaning they were roasted until dark and chocolate-y). The hot juice then went into new American oak (not ex-bourbon) for varying amounts of time.

While there’s no age statement, there are barrels up to 40 years old in this mix.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a note of dried apricots with a hint of clove, leading towards a very light dark orange chocolate. The chocolate amps up the bitterness, reaching espresso bean levels as some eggnog spice kicks in with a silky mouthfeel and a touch of wet tobacco. The end brings about a flourish of bright citrus zest that dries everything out, leaving you with a lingering end and a final note of earthy dried mushrooms.

Bottom Line:

This is one of the most expensive bottles on this list. It’s also a bottle we 100 percent believe is worth that price tag. This is a true “time to level-up” bottle of whisky.

Laws Whiskey Bonded Four Grain Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 50%

Average Price: $74

The Whisky:

This craft whiskey from Colorado tends to always be atop award lists. The juice is a local grain-to-glass experience that highlights the terroir underfoot and the soft water coming down off the Rockies. The whiskey is aged for a minimum of four years and proofed to 100 proof in accordance with bottled-in-bond regulations.

Tasting Notes:

You’re drawn in with the orange-spiked honey sweetness that’s counterpointed by an almost silky black tea bitterness with a floral note. The palate holds onto that bitterness as a spicy stewed plum vibe arrives to carry the taste towards browned butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon sticks sticking out of pound cake. The end is just long enough and leaves you with that bright orange and warming spice.

Bottom Line:

Colorado whiskey is quickly becoming its own thing (much like Texas, Washington, Michigan, etc.). This whiskey is still fairly affordable and accessible. But, it won’t be for much longer — as more people catch onto the beauty of these bottles.

Oban 14 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $90

The Whisky:

This is a great gateway to both Oban and scotch to have on hand. The juice is classically made and then matured in the Oban storehouses for 14 long years — all within a stone’s throw of the sea.

Tasting Notes:

Citrus, salt, and a billow of peat smoke open this one up in classic fashion. That citrus carries on as a foundation for mild spices, a note of honey, hints of pears, and plummy dried fruits mingle on the tongue. The oak spice and extremely mild peat smoke meet on the end, with a slight malty sweetness as the sip fades.

Bottom Line:

It’s no secret we’re pretty big Oban fans around these parts. This is a great gateway to the brand at an affordable price for something that’s truly brimming with unparalleled craft and quality.

Redemption Barrel Proof High Rye Bourbon

ABV: 57.2% (varies)

Average Price: $100

The Whisky:

This limited edition from Redemption is all about the barrel picking process. The whiskey starts with a mash of 60 percent corn, 36 percent rye, and four percent malted barley. That rye-heavy juice is then aged for ten long years. Then the Redemption team sorts through those barrels to find the perfect one to bottle, completely untouched.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a definite sense of the whole vanilla bean (husk-to-oils) next to nuttiness and a mild floral flourish that’s fresh and… almost wet. The taste veers away from that and indulges in eggnog spices, rich and buttery toffee, pecans and walnuts, cedar, and a silken vanilla texture. The end is long-ish and has this very distant hint of lemon curd that leads back to those eggnog spices and egg custard creaminess, paired with a little high-proof buzz.

Bottom Line:

This might be one of the best examples of sourced whiskey on the market. A dialed-in whiskey that’s sure to wow.

Spirit of Hven Rye Whiskey

ABV: 45.6%

Average Price: $70

The Whisky:

This Swedish rye is also starting to turn heads around the world as a world-class rye whiskey. The juice is a small-batch blend of whiskey from 42 Quercus Alba American oak barrels that are a minimum of three years old, with the average hovering around six years old for each cask.

Tasting Notes (from the distiller):

The first scent reveals dark chocolate and deep notes from the heavy charred, air-dried American oak, it is followed up by notes of creamy almond carrot cake. Distinct Fine-tuned peppery notes with light minty hints from the Rye evolves slowly. The whisky is well balanced with round, smooth vanilla, coconut scents from wheat and corn. All kept together with elegant herbal, grassy notes from the malted barley. The taste is strong but not overwhelming. Balance lands mid-front tongue highlighting the creamy sweet-peppery rye character. Elegant bitter tannins play well with reserved acidity and perfectly balanced alcohol strength. Long aftertaste with playful esters and a round oiliness. Wonderful mouthfeel.

Bottom Line:

This is starting to get easier to find in the U.S., which means you should definitely give it a shot if you’re already into rye whiskey.

Stellum Rye

ABV: 58.12%

Average Price: $55

The Whisky:

Stellum works as a blendery, creating subtle and classic bourbons and ryes with equally subtle branding. This bottle is mostly MGP’s 95 percent rye from Indiana, mixed with malted barely-forward ryes from Tennessee and Kentucky. That tinkering creates an alchemy that helps this bottle rise above.

Tasting Notes (from the bottler):

Nose: Stewed apples, peaches, and pears dominate the initial nose, along with an undertone of baking spices. Nutmeg and clove provide a counterbalance to the sweet fruits, while a light mint and licorice note bring further depth to the aroma.

Palate: Aniseed, cardamom, and coriander wake up your palate with an intense spice punch. Notes of lemon peel and tangerine coming from the rye grain provide a nice citrus component to the overall spiciness. As the whiskey breathes in the glass, fresh green apples and spearmint arise, which offers just enough of a sweet component to engage all your taste buds.

Finish: Star anise, white pepper, and mint linger on the palate before fading into a honey-sweetened jasmine green tea.

Bottom Line:

MGP’s 95 percent rye is one of the most sought-after and beloved whiskeys in American right now (Bulleit, WhistlePig, Angel’s Envy are but a few labels selling that particular booze). It seems clear that Stellum’s crew is nudging this already great product towards new heights.

Talisker 10 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky

ABV: 45.8%

Average Price: $75

The Whisky:

This is one of the most awarded single malts ever. The juice is matured in ex-bourbon casks in Talisker’s warehouse, which is literally feet away from the sea. The subtly peated malts take on a real seaside feel as those years tick past, creating a whisky that will not disappoint.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a distance to Talisker that draws you in on the nose — I like to describe it like campfire smoke smelled from a few hundred yards down a rainy beach. The sea spray mellows the smoky peat to a fine point as oyster shells dance with almost pears rinsed in seawater, dried apricot, and rich malt. The end doesn’t overstay its welcome and reminds you of oysters, liquor, and that smoldering campfire two coves over.

Bottom Line:

This is one of our favorite whiskies of all time. It’s also considered one of the best whiskies on the planet. So yeah, give it a shot already.

Templeton Rye 6 Year

ABV: 45.75%

Average Price: $46

The Whisky:

Speaking of MGP, this is that classic 95 percent rye that Templeton brings to Iowa and touches up with their own, local water and own-make. The brand and taste of this whiskey are meant to recreate the rye whiskey that was very popular in the Iowa area pre-Prohibition and honor that deep local history.

Tasting Notes:

The nose opens with hints of floral honey next to eggnog spices with creamy vanilla and toffee sweetness. The taste veers very fruity with hints of ripe cherry and pear driving back towards spice and dark chocolate. The end lingers fairly long and leaves you with bitter chocolate spice and cherry.

Bottom Line:

Templeton has just gone through a big rebranding and has been distilling its own juice since 2017 now. It’s likely we’re on the last legs of their sourcing of whiskey, as their own-make starts to make up the lion’s share of these blends.

The Busker Single Malt Irish Whiskey

ABV: 44.3%

Average Price: $32

The Whisky:

This whiskey from Royal Oak Distillery in County Carlow is all about the Irish single malt experience. The Irish whiskey is triple distilled and then aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks for an undisclosed amount of time. The barrels are then vatted, proofed, and bottled.

Tasting Notes (from the distiller):

The Busker Single Malt is a deep golden whiskey. It begins with an arrangement of fruit, which gently leaves space for an explosion of pine essence and malt biscuit. The palate is very intense, with rich, chocolate notes. The whiskey concludes with a sweet and creamy finish.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those expressions that we have seen on the shelf and just haven’t had the time to get around to yet. Given this accolade, it looks like it’s time to give it a try and see what all the fuss is about.

TX Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $48

The Whisky:

Firestone & Roberston Distilling is helping Texas whiskey dominate the game right now. Their bourbon is all about the grain-to-glass experience with Texan grains, water, and yeasts in the base of this spirit. The juice is then aged for a minimum of four years under that heavy Texas sun until it’s just right for blending, proofing, and bottling in Firestone’s hefty bottles.

Tasting Notes:

This one draws you in with this lovely nose of maple syrup with dried wildflowers and cinnamon sticks right in the syrup bottle. The sweetness holds on as the spice leans towards eggnog levels, with a slight fig savoriness and vanilla creaminess. The end is long, dark, and leaves you with a serious vanilla tobacco chew buzzing.

Bottom Line:

This is a bold whiskey with a low-ish ABV. It’s very much a nice sipper with a rock but really shines as a cocktail base for an old fashion or even a julep.

TX Blended Whiskey

ABV: 41%

Average Price: $38

The Whisky:

Sticking with Texas, this expression is Firestone & Robertson’s first release and is a blend of sourced whiskeys that are brought together in Texas and cut with their local water. The mix is said to be comprised of straight bourbons married with single malts that matured in ex-bourbon casks.

Tasting Notes (from the distiller):

Nose: Vanilla bean, pear, slightly sweet. Palate: Honey butter, banana, caramel. Finish: Long, smooth, no burn.

Bottom Line:

Given how much love the brand’s bourbon (deservedly) gets, this is worth giving a shot as a slightly cheaper cousin. We’d probably use it more for mixing though.

Wild Turkey American Honey

ABV: 35.5%

Average Price: $22

The Whisky:

This flavored whiskey from Wild Turkey is a blend of honey liqueur with their own signature Wild Turkey straight bourbon. The honey liqueur is the star of the show and brings the ABVs down to a very crushable 71 proof, especially over ice.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a sense of the bourbon left in this sip. Hints of orange zest, cinnamon, and caramel corn lurk in the background. Really though, this is a sweet and very honeyed whiskey that lets the saccharine nature of the honey dominate.

Bottom Line:

We’re not big fans of liqueur-based flavored whiskeys. Still, this is fine if you’re using it as a base for a cocktail and want to jettison bar syrups. We would argue, however, that the Wild Turkey Honey Sting (with a sharp cinnamon spice) is the superior option if you’re in need of a flavored bourbon.

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I’ve been thinking a lot about Bridesmaids, the Paul Feig-directed comedy set to celebrate its 10th anniversary this year.

After all, it’s not every box office hit, even a Judd Apatow-produced one, that has a term coined after it to measure its influence on an entire genre of movie-making. “The Bridesmaids Effect,” as it was first called in a Hollywood Reporter op-ed that ran shortly after the film’s surprisingly lucrative theatrical run, was intended to be an umbrella label that encompassed the scores of female-led comedies soaked in raunch and vomit and a very particular brand of feminism that would soon follow Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo’s brain-child.

The producer who penned it posited that entire genres might now be reimagined. “Chicks on horses. Women in space. Time-shifting gals.” All were now possible, and all were because Wiig — along with an insanely talented lineup of budding female comedians like Melissa McCarthy and Ellie Kemper, Wendi McLendon-Covey and SNL alum Maya Rudolph, hell, even Rose Byrne re-type-casting herself with a delightfully grounded turn — dared to imagine a group of women who retched, f*cked, and had explosive bouts of diarrhea in the middle of a traffic-laden street with the best of them. Them of course being the men — the John Belushis and Jeff Daniels, the Seth Rogens, Will Ferrells, and Seann William Scotts that defecated and ejaculated and projectile vomited on-screen to repulse and amuse audiences, a heady blend of nauseating buffoonery that people gladly tested their comfort-levels for.

That prediction — that Bridesmaids would revolutionize the world of comedy, making it possible for more women to step in front of and behind the camera — didn’t come to pass as quickly as most of us hoped. We had to slog through years of fairly formulaic remakes from studios who thought the success of Feig’s bridal escapades was because he’d taken the tenants of bro-comedy — the gross-out humor and heinous antics — and substituted the men who performed them for women.

In reality, what Bridesmaids did was much more difficult — it crafted a genuinely moving, achingly authentic story about the continual growing pains of female friendship. The hoagie-inspired sexual innuendos and Xanax-fueled in-flight meltdowns were just icing on top of the giant, stupid f*cking cookie.

The Apatow Effect

Judd Apatow is a prolific producer, a man responsible for most of the raucous, free-wheeling, drug-laden ridiculousness that lines the DVD shelves — or, more accurately, the virtual queues — of current and reformed frat-bro boyfriends around the world. Apatow’s male-centric comedic adventures guarantee a good time, normally at the expense of their schlubby, nerdy, every-man hero’s dignity. They often revolve around bearded, middle-aged Peter Pans who are confronted with the harsh realities of adulthood and attempt to conform (while suffering through a series of comedic mishaps), before trudging their own path that walks the fine line between acknowledging one’s own impending mortality and sampling from the hard-partying, pot-smoking fountain of youth when nostalgia demands.

His are the Knocked Ups, the Superbads, the Forgetting Sarah Marshalls, and 40-Year-Old Virgins. Judd Apatow makes movies that are hilarious and often endearing, but they are firmly rooted in the male gaze. Bridesmaids was something different — a chance to champion the bawdy, foul-mouthed humor that lurked inside so many of the female comedians his films had relegated to side-kick status, but its genesis was similar to other Apatow projects. Kristen Wiig had a bit part in another Apatow title and, as he did with Steve Carell during shooting for Anchorman, the producer hit her up for ideas.

“This was before people [knew] who Kristen was from SNL,” Apatow told The Daily Beast. “She would just get giant laughs right off the bat. So I just said to her, ‘Let me know if you have any ideas for a screenplay for yourself.’ That’s what happened on Anchorman when I worked with Steve Carell. He had the idea for The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

As it happened, Wiig and her writing partner Annie Mumolo did have an idea — a story about a woman hitting rock bottom as her best friend readied to begin the next phase of her life. It would take years of honing a script and bringing on the right director — a fairly green Paul Feig — before that journey took shape on the screen.

“I’d been wanting to make female-led comedies forever, but every time I would pitch something like that, I would be told, ‘Oh, they don’t make money,’” Feig told Uproxx. “I was green enough in the industry to go like, ‘Oh, they know something I don’t know. I’m so embarrassed that I pitched something like that.’ Then after a while, you start to go like, ‘Well, wait a minute. This is crazy. Why can’t women star in a comedy?’”

It’s a fairly quaint question to entertain now, but back then, it was probably revolutionary.

After all, Christopher Hitchens had just penned an op-ed for Vanity Fair titled “Why Women Aren’t Funny” in which he equated an entire gender’s lack of humor with the physiological and psychological demands of childbirth. Women aren’t funny, he wrote, because they’re consumed with more serious issues of propagating the human race — the sole reason for their existence — and because they know men suffer from a profound stupidity and inferiority complex that might be triggered by a woman with more wit. (His words, paraphrased, not mine.)

“It really looked like it was going to bomb in the lead up to coming out because the tracking wasn’t any good,” Feig says of the box-office pessimism the film faced early on. “But then it obviously took off. I was just thrilled as it proved that there is an audience for this kind of thing if you do it right.”

The New Kind Of Bathroom Humor

Doing it right, at least for Wiig, Mumolo, Feig, and the rest of the cast, meant finding organic ways of inserting gross-out humor into a story that dealt with everything from the ever-changing nature of female friendships to the financially draining wedding industrial complex. Wiig’s Annie, was a middle-aged woman who lost her business and her boyfriend, was rooming with a pair of weirdly-intimate twins (hello Rebel Wilson) and spending most of her time entertaining the sexual whims of a douchebag f*ck buddy — played with surprising comedic precision by none other than Jon Hamm. Her life, by definition, was messy. Juxtaposed with that was Rudolph’s character Lillian, Annie’s childhood best friend who’d found a fiance and a new, wealthier circle of acquaintances to hang out with. Lillian’s impending wedding — and all of the bridesmaid duties that came with it — only widened the divide forming between the two women.

The build-up to Lillian’s nuptials — and the competitive jockeying for Maid of Honor position between Annie and Rose Byrne’s Helen — set the stage for punchlines that took stereotypical humor and gender-swapped it. The bachelor party — a pinnacle of plenty of male comedic adventures — was given a twist. Instead of watching the women go wild on a Vegas vacay, with night-of mishaps forcing them to confront each other or work together, Bridesmaids accelerated the conflict timeline. The ladies never made it to Sin City, but Annie’s drug-fueled panic spiral mid-air served a similar purpose — alienating her from the rest of the group while driving home a larger theme of wealth, classism, and what happens when friends begin to operate in different circles.

The bridal shower — a puppy-peppered climax that tasks Wiig with doing some brilliant physical comedy as Annie finally voices her frustrations with Helen’s strange obsession with her friend — placed the unquestioned rituals involved in initiating single women into blissful matrimony under a spotlight and asked us to look at them more closely. Bleached a**holes? Chocolate fountains? A trip to Paris gifted from one woman to another? Were these really the things women wanted?

The engagement party, a set-up that introduces the film’s main players to one another, reworked the idea that women in competition must always resort to cattiness. Instead of trading jabs in their first meeting, Annie and Helen choose the infinitely funnier route of publicly embarrassing each other, and themselves, while we laugh along.

In each case, the key to subverting expected tropes and “feminizing” traditionally masculine comedic elements for Feig and company was, oddly enough, restraint.

“We shot for hours and hours all these passive-aggressive jokes from Helen going like, ‘Oh, did you come from work?’ making fun of her clothes,” Feig told us of that initial meeting scene. “They were really funny and I remember they all got giant laughs, but we all realized it was going to hurt the speech off because then you already know that they’re enemies.”

“Even the studio wanted us to keep all those jokes and we were like, ‘No, let’s just make that scene completely innocuous and pull all the jokes out of it.’ The joke is that Helen turns around in this gorgeous gown, she looks beautiful, she comes over, she’s really nice, and everybody in the audience hates her guts immediately. But then it makes that speech contest so much funnier because you don’t know at first, is she competing with Annie? Is she not? Then it just gets ridiculous. That’s the kind of restraint you have to have. You have to throw out some really good jokes, which a lot of people don’t want to do. But good jokes can wear out an audience if they’re not timed right.”

Restraint even came into play during the film’s scatological piece-de-resistance: the food poisoning scene.

After dining at a fairly suspicious Brazilian restaurant championed by the maid of honor, Annie, the group heads to a swanky bridal boutique where Helen is able to score them a last-minute booking. Annie’s empty bank account comes into conflict with Helen’s preference for impossible-to-pronounce couture, but before the women can brawl over price tags, Meghan (McCarthy), Rita (McLendon-Covey), and Becca (Kemper) race to the store’s only bathroom where they defile sinks, toilets, and designer dresses with their out-of-control bodily fluids.

That scene was not in the original script and it’s one even Wiig was concerned about during the filming process.

“Kristen had moments in the lead-up where she was a little worried about it because basically two dudes are directing and producing this movie,” Feig admitted. “Originally, it was just Annie trying to talk Helen into these cheap, shitty dresses. Then Kristen puts on the fancy dress in the dressing room and has this harlequin-romance-novel fantasy in her head about what her life would be like if she could afford this dress. It’s her running through the woods, and Matt Damon’s chopping wood, and then he’s like, ‘Run into my muscles,’ and all this. It was very funny. It just didn’t advance the plot in a way.”

Instead, Feig worked with Wiig and Mumolo to build a scene where Annie’s carefully crafted facade quickly falls apart.

“There’s a reason for it other than, ‘Let’s be outrageous,’” he explained. “In the funniest, most relatable way possible, we wanted to tell the story of somebody with no money who is trying to compete with somebody with a lot of money. To look good to their friend, they take them to a shitty restaurant and say it’s a great restaurant and then cannot look bad, cannot look like they made a mistake in front of the rich friend. That’s the setup and it’s a very relatable thing, but then the comedy of it’s going to come from the fact that once you realize you screwed up, you could not admit that you screwed up. You have to hold the line.”

So yes, there’s McCarthy simulating a detonating case of diarrhea in a sink and Kemper spewing vomit onto McClendon-Covey’s head, but Feig puts the horror of the situation into focus, crafting tension by constantly cutting to Wiig’s sweaty, Almond-Joy snacking stand-off with Byrne and having the only sound effects be the women shouting, apologizing, and pleading with each other to look away.

“In the face of overwhelming evidence, how is she going to still pretend this didn’t happen?” Feig questioned. “The fun is the overwhelming evidence, which is, ‘Oh my God, we’re all white-faced, we’re going to be sick, we’re either going to throw up or sh*t our pants.’ It wouldn’t be funny if it wasn’t for cutting back to Kristen going like, ‘I’m fine. I feel fine. That restaurant was great.’ It’s always funny to me that the takeaway for a lot of people is just like, ‘Oh, let’s just do a gross-out scene.’ It’s like, ‘No, it’s got to have a reason for existing because then you feel empathy for everybody in it and you’re laughing because you feel so bad for everybody.’”

That scene’s most memorable shot might just be Rudolph’s dramatic finale, one that sees her running into traffic, desperately searching for a toilet before slowly sinking to the pavement, a resigned expression on her face, while quietly muttering “It’s happening” over and over again. It’s another example of how good writing and a woman’s perspective challenged the expected punchline, rewriting the film’s comedy DNA.

“We had two different ways we wanted to do it,” Feig says. “One was that her diarrhea was so explosive that it literally blew her off her feet and she slid across the street. When we were talking about it in the writer’s room, Annie Mumolo was like, ‘Or she would just slowly sink down in the street going, ‘It’s happening, it’s happening, it’s happening.’’ Clearly, we know which one was funniest.”

“Chick Flicks Don’t Have To Suck” – an actual slogan pulled from the film’s poster

But Bridesmaids did more than just prove that women could be as funny and disgusting and f*cked up as their male counterparts — it made money, which meant it opened the door for other films of its ilk. There were underappreciated successors like Bachelorette and For A Good Time Call … There were ensemble-focused hang-outs like Bad Moms — a movie that took the exploits of Feig’s film and placed them in a domestic setting. There was Girl’s Trip, a movie that made history with the amount of money it scored at the box office while telling the story of a group of Black women trying to reconnect despite the pull of real-world obligations, and the less-impressive Rough Night, another bachelorette-party gone wrong that was bold enough to flirt with murder, heavy-drug use, and the most disturbing way to hide a body even if it rarely hit the mark. Just the fact that these two female-centered comedies about women behaving badly hit theaters in the same year feels like a testament to Bridesmaid’s cinematic influence.

There’s also the less tangible effect the film probably had, the way it changed perceptions of women in comedy and inspired creators to champion their own ideas. Amy Schumer credited Bridesmaids when discussing her own unapologetically filthy rom-com Trainwreck. The writers of Pitch Perfect admitted that their film wouldn’t have been greenlit without Wiig and Mumolo’s success. More than changing stubbornly archaic attitudes about women’s ability to tell a joke, Bridesmaids challenged an entire industry to weigh the desires of audiences it too often ignored, and it gave others a blueprint for bold experimentation within the world of comedy. It wasn’t the most radical, intersectionality-feminist piece of filmmaking possible, but it was revolutionary all the same.

So yes, I’ve been thinking about Bridesmaids a lot recently because I’ve been watching films and TV shows that clearly benefited from the trailblazing that Wiig and company unknowingly did in that movie. I see interesting, shameless meditations on the joys and tribulations of female friendship in films like Booksmart and Ibiza. I see the authenticity of women pursuing non-traditional paths in Someone Great and How To Be Single. With Shrill and PEN15, I see stories of messy, complicated women navigating growing pains that we often ignore.

I see Bridesmaids in a lot of things on TV and in film right now. Hopefully, I’ll see it more.

In a new cover story for Rolling Stone, BTS addressed one of the things that’s most concerning to their fans who know about South Korea’s mandatory military service: If this looming draft will break the group up? Due to the active tensions between North and South Korea, this 21-month army term is required for all men to start before their 28th birthday, and group member Jin turned 28 last December.

That month, though, the government issued a directive that “a pop-culture artist who was recommended by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to have greatly enhanced the image of Korea both within the nation and throughout the world” can defer their enlistment until the age of 30. “I think the country sort of told me, ‘You’re doing this well, and we will give you a little bit more time,’ ” Jin said of the law, telling Rolling Stone further that he considers serving to be “an important duty for our country. So I feel that I will try to work as hard as I can and do the most I can until I am called.”

He also said he hopes the group will continue to have the success they’re currently experiencing — even if it means without him. “I have no doubt that the other members will make a good decision because, you know, this is not something that I can tell them what to do,” he said. Even if they continued on without him for a while, he added: “I’ll be sad, but I’ll be watching them on the internet and cheering them on.”

Even with the two year grace period, the military requirement remains a concern for the group at large: RM is turning 27 soon, J-Hope is 27 and Suga is 28, too. Who knows if the government will further modify the draft, or if the band will find a workaround, but so far, that requirement seems like the only thing that might slow the success of BTS. Read the full cover story here.

Boban Marjanovic, the NBA’s premier guy everyone likes, has decided to take his friendship with one Dallas Mavericks teammate to a new level. Prior to the Mavs 125-107 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night, Marjanovic and Luka Doncic rolled up to the arena with a pair of hoodies on. While the hoodies themselves were different colors, the pair turned around and showed off matching LUKA & BOBI BFFS logos that included caricatures of both dudes looking like they were having the time of their lives.

The graphics on the screens in the background really make this, and hopefully, we get to see more Luka and Bobi merch in the coming days. Although there is one thing that needs to be resolved in all of this, because it seems like there is one very obvious glaring issue with Boban Marjanovic saying someone other than Tobias Harris is his best friend, and it was on display when Harris reacted to videos of these hoodies going around.

Harris and Marjanovic are, of course, tight from their days as teammates on the Detroit Pistons, Los Angeles Clippers, and Philadelphia 76ers. It’s to the point where they appear in commercials together and do interviews with one another. Perhaps this is why the big man asked for forgiveness.

Every friendship hits a bump in the road at one point or another, but we’re confident things will be fine here.

Despite all that went down in 2020, Travis Barker had an exceptionally busy year. He toured with Blink-182, worked with major artists like Post Malone and Run The Jewels, and he started dating one of the biggest celebrities: Kourtney Kardashian. The pair began seeing each other several months ago and it’s apparently going well, judging by the fact that Barker has let Kardashian leave a permanent mark on him.

The notoriously tattooed drummer cemented his love for the Kardashian sister by letting her ink his arm. Kardashian documented he entire process, from drawing up an outline of the concept to using the tattoo gun, and shared it on Instagram. For her design, Kardashian opted to go simple, writing a thin “i love you” over some of his more faded ink.

Though the end result is very shaky and by no means professional looking, Barker still loved it. “Woman of many talents” he wrote underneath the image.

While Barker and Kardashian’s relationship may have come as a surprise to some, the two had reportedly been friends for a long time before officially dating. Barker in the same gated Calabasas community as the Kardashians and have been running in the same social circles for some time.

Watch Kourtney Kardashian tattoo Travis Barker’s arm above.

Before dropping the huge announcement that Jungle Cruise will now have a simultaneous theatrical and Disney+ Premier Access release, The Rock apparently needed to get in a good workout. In a sweaty video shared with his millions of Instagram followers from his personal gym, a shirtless Rock spoke directly to his fans about how “honored” he is to be a part of Jungle Cruise‘s new release strategy that will allow families around the world to see the film in whatever way is safest for them.

As someone whose own family had a bout with COVID-19, The Rock is all about taking precautions, but he’s also big on making sure we get back to living our lives when the pandemic comes to an end. Options matter, though. Via his Instagram caption:

Join my ace Emily Blunt (the female Indiana Jones) and myself on THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME as our DISNEY’s JUNGLE CRUISE hits theaters and your living rooms ON THE SAME DAY – JULY 30th. The most important thing with our movie was to ALWAYS take care of families around the world by giving you options to watch it.

Audience first.

Offering Jungle Cruise on Disney+ Premier Access is another significant move for the studio, which turned when they announced a similar release strategy for Black Widow, after almost an entire year of Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige mulling over the pandemic release. According to Deadline, Disney was also hesitant to follow course with Jungle Cruise, but the pandemic is continuing to hamper the box office internationally, which prompted the production team to add the streaming release to the mix.

Jungle Cruise hits theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on July 30.

(Via The Rock on Instagram)

Back in 2019, word leaked on some of the NBA and WNBA players who would have roles in Space Jam: A New Legacy, although it was unclear how they’d be folded into the script. That ended up getting resolved on Thursday afternoon, when the film’s official Twitter account revealed how those five basketball players — Anthony Davis, Damian Lillard, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi, and Klay Thompson — will be involved.

That quintet will make up the opposing team in the movie, the Goon Squad, and as an added bonus, we learned all of their names.

A fun twist is how all of these names have some sort of tie to the various athletes. The Brow for AD is simple enough, as is Wet-Fire for Thompson, while White Mamba is one of Taurasi’s nicknames. The two most interesting ones are Ogwumike and Lillard, both of which are derived from Green mythology — the former’s name is a play on Arachne, a figure who transformed into a spider (which, having eight arm seems like a pretty big boost when you want to have a tight handle), while the latter is the personification of time, an obvious nod to “Dame Time.”

One thing that is still unknown is how, exactly, the Goon Squad will be formed. The movie takes place in a mysterious virtual space called the Serververse, so it might not be exactly the same as “a bunch of little goofy dudes go to basketball games and steal talent from players mid-game” from the original.

Space Jam 2: A New Legacy debuts on July 16 in theaters and on HBO Max.

Piers Morgan’s relentless bullying of Meghan Markle did not go unnoticed when he pounced upon Chrissy Teigen over Courtney Stodden. Of course, Piers is an incorrigible bully who keeps attacking Markle for the silliest of reasons, after he threw an on-air temper tantrum at Good Morning Britain and left his job. In the aftermath, he’s resorted to throwing tantrums in his Daily Mail column and on Twitter, where he’s free to rage over frozen yogurt to keep his anger-bear tendencies satisfied.

Naturally, Piers has never apologized for attacking Meghan because he’s so mad at being ignored after they went on one pub date, years ago. He certainly doesn’t see his own hypocrisy for attacking Chrissy Teigen over her decade-old bullying of Courtney Stodden. Make no mistake — what Chrissy wrote to Courtney (both publicly on Twitter and through private DMs) was atrocious (telling her to take a “dirt nap,” among other things, and allegedly telling Courtney to kill herself in a private message). This week, though, Chrissy made a public apology while labeling herself “an insecure, attention seeking troll” who is “ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior.” And it’s important to note that Chrissy is not being celebrated or anything. In fact, the opposite is happening because Stodden Instagrammed a screenshot of Chrissy blocking her on Twitter and wrote, “It feels like a public attempt to save her partnerships with Target and other brands who are realizing her ‘wokeness’ is a broken record.”

Still, Piers (the ultimate bully) isn’t going to score any points by pouncing on Chrissy. He did so while calling her a “wokie” and wondering why Chrissy hasn’t been “cancelled.” He wondered, “Does she get a pass for her despicable conduct because she’s a wokie?”

Naturally, this led to responses that asked Piers if he was ever going to apologize for all of his troll-like behavior, particularly against Meghan Markle. It’s a valid question, but no one should hold their breath waiting for him to own up.

Over the years, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has branched out into a number of industries outside the expected range of an ostensible rap label. There’s a school of entertainment management, book publishing arm, and a social justice initiative already, but Roc Nation isn’t stopping there. The latest move is a bit of a surprising one; Roc Nation announced today that it is partnering with American Greetings to release its own line of greeting cards.

The line will include traditional paper cards and digital e-cards featuring personalized messages and custom lyrics from artists like Dolly Parton, Donny Osmond, Michael Bolton, Shaq, and Smokey Robinson. It will also include “SmashUps,” although details on what those entail are scant for the moment.

Roc Nation president of business operations Brett Yormark told Billboard about the collaboration, explaining, “When we were introduced to the leaders at American Greetings and began discussing the idea of customized greetings, both on behalf of Roc Nation and its artists, we felt like it was a natural fit. It is an unexpected category that in many respects, given the breadth and depth of our talent, gave us a [different] way to reach new audiences.”

The partnership will begin with digital cards and eventually expand into physical cards in stores.