About two weeks ago, a surprise trailer dropped for Here Today, a rommy-comedy starring Tiffany Haddish and Billy Crystal, leaving many of us both intrigued and perplexed. A movie co-starring Tiffany Haddish and Billy Crystal seems like it could go one of two ways: inspired or disastrous. Crystal even directs the film, out in theaters May 7th, his first feature in 20 years — since 61*, in 2001.
Weird as it is on paper, Here Today, it turns out, is neither a memorable embarrassment nor a surprise masterpiece. It’s more like a solid proof-of-concept for how great a non-Woody Allen Woody Allen movie could be, should that non-Woody Allen not be Billy Crystal next time.
I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bash Billy Crystal. I have nothing against the man and he does so many things right here. Though he does give the impression of someone who can’t be critical enough when he needs to be. Here Today is, ironically, named after a song Paul McCartney wrote about John Lennon. Knowing that, it’s easy to think of Billy Crystal as the McCartney to Woody Allen’s Lennon — the more ingratiating, less problematic version; a brilliant craftsman who generally seems like a happier person, though that same ingratiating quality can turn grating to some. Here Today is a sweet premise and a compelling story that maybe needed a director who would’ve toned down rather than played up its schmaltzier elements.
Written by veteran comedy writer Alan Zwiebel (It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, SNL) Billy Crystal stars as Charlie Berns, a legendary-ish comedy writer who serves as the elder statesman on a sketch show, mentoring comedy writers half his age more than he actually writes. Presumably, he’s sort of a stand-in for Zweibel himself. Charlie Berns also has one big problem: he’s developed a rare form of dementia and hasn’t told anyone about it yet.
One day after work, Charlie has a lunch date with Emma Payge (played by Haddish) a fan who has won him in a charity auction. Or at least, her ex-boyfriend did, and now she’s living it up at a free lunch with some old white guy she’s never heard of. It’s the perfect New York comedy writer meet-cute, a setup that’s a little constructed, a little contrived, but creative and clever enough that you don’t mind. It works the same way good jokes work and feels like a veteran joke writer doing what he knows.
Then Emma discovers she’s allergic to shellfish and Here Today goes full Nutty Professor, with Haddish shouting Borscht Belt one-liners through giant lip prosthetics. All of a sudden it feels like there should’ve been an adult on the set.
This becomes a pattern in Here Today, in which an intriguing premise offers a tantalizing hook and leads to some interesting scenes, though the execution of many make you wish they were just a little less hammy, a little less hacky. Charlie Berns and Emma Payge quickly develop a sweet, unorthodox friendship, even if she feels like a gender-swapped version of Sinbad in House Guest at times, the manic pixie dream girl meets the boisterous black person who teaches the whiteys to loosen up. Luckily House Guest was fun and Haddish is likable enough that she can actually pull this off.
The non-lecherous, May-December New York thing Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish have going here is surprisingly compelling, a glimpse at what a sanitized Woody Allen movie might look like. Interestingly, one of Here Today‘s recurring motifs is Charlie Berns rejecting younger writers’ too “risqué” jokes, including one about “a Rottweiler’s balls” (which was actually funny). “Sure, they’ll laugh, but will it be the right kind of laugh?” Berns asks, in a scene in which Berns comes off pedantic in a way that doesn’t seem intentional.
Here Today also fails at the one thing Woody Allen consistently tended to get right: the performances of the female principals. While Haddish does wonders with what could’ve been a lame role, there’s also Charlie Berns’ dead wife, Carrie, played by Louisa Krause, who appears to us in Charlie’s first-person flashbacks. Acting directly to a camera admittedly seems much harder than acting with another person, but Carrie treats Charlie (and us) more like small children than an adult humans, telegraphing every emotion and overly ingratiating in a slightly unctuous way. It’s something Crystal himself can also tend towards, raising the question of whether this was a matter of direction. In any case, it’s an important character and it just plain doesn’t work.
Likewise, Charlie Berns’ daughter, Francine (Laura Benanti) has been written as a little uptight, presumably as a foil for Haddish’s “outrageous” Emma, but she’s so easily scandalized that she comes off both obnoxious and not believable.
It’s a symptom of Here Today‘s larger problem: Crystal’s inability to decide how much is too much. Even the ending suffers, the film sort of lingering upon the stage a little too long, drawing out a conclusion that could’ve been sweet but instead comes off saccharine. And yet, there was something here, if imperfectly delivered. It deserves credit for at least making us wonder what if.
‘Here Today’ hits theaters nationwide May 7th, 2021. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.
Plant-based burgers, blind taste testing ketchup, knocking back shots of olive oil… there comes a time when a food writer must ask his editor: “Do I ever get to eat anything fun?”
“But Dane,” he replies. “you just reviewed fast-food double cheeseburgers — what more do you want?”
Milkshakes. Creamy, sweet, decadent milkshakes. Milkshakes are dope. So drinking a double-digit number of them in an absurdly compact window of time could never be a bad thing right?
Comedy Central
Turns out that you actually can have way too many milkshakes. I’m not lactose intolerant, but I am human. Eventually, the body lets it be known that you’re consuming way too many milkshakes at way too fast a rate. (Sorry… not the best visual to lead into a food article with.)
Luckily, you don’t have to try every fast food milkshake.* I did it for you! Over the past few weeks, I re-tested the best flavor from each fast food outlet** and ranked them. I also gave each shake a rating out of five for thickness (insert obligatory THICC joke here). And since I’ll only be ranking one milkshake from each fast food establishment, I’m going to take things even further by shouting out a second-choice pick (generally reserved for seasonal shakes). Let’s jump in!
*Apologies once again to Whataburger and Culver’s. I just got my second vaccine shot. In a few weeks, I won’t have any more excuses and promise that they’ll both start showing up in these reviews!
**Honorable mention to Burgerville and so many other regional spots. In fact, you could make a case that if you want a milkshake, regional fast food is a better option than national chains.
14. Burger King — Chocolate Mini Shake
Burger King
Calories: 365
Thickness: 2/5
The Milkshake
Oh Burger King, back at the bottom it seems. I don’t think there is a single fast-food restaurant that has more noticeable self-loathing in its own menu than Burger King. They have a section dedicated to “best sellers” on their online menu as if to convince all of us that they actually sell food that people like. You won’t find BK’s shakes on that menu, and it looks like the King knows that no one could stomach a whole shake from them, which is why they’re only sold in mini-sizes.
I’m sure when I ordered the shake it created a panic in the BK kitchen, like when someone orders the lobster from a diner menu. Because I doubt anyone is going to Burger King for milkshakes. Aside from not being very thick, the real offensive part of this shake is the whipped cream. Just what the hell is going on with this whipped cream? This stuff tastes like sugared air. The shake itself is sweet, but nothing remarkable, and the sludge-y not quite thick not quite watery consistency really doesn’t do it any favors.
This should’ve been a slam dunk for Burger King. The smaller form factor is great — a mini shake is only about nine ounces and it’s only 365 calories. But they just couldn’t nail the flavor for any of their three shake flavors (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry).
The Runner Up Pick
Just get a Coke.
The Bottom Line
How Burger King? It’s a f*cking milkshake, how did you screw this up?
I’m surprised McDonald’s landed so low in this ranking. While far away from my favorite fast food joint, McDonald’s consistently ranks in the middle of our rankings (save for French fries). But their milkshakes just aren’t it. It’s important to note that a McFlurry is not a milkshake, as it’s served with a spoon and milkshakes are for at least kind-of drinking.
Like the McFlurry, the milkshakes utilize McDonald’s signature vanilla ice cream as its base, but it’s cut and blended with either McCafe vanilla, strawberry, or chocolate syrup, which slightly warms the ice cream and changes the consistency in order to make it drinkable. Which would be cool and make sense if it didn’t make it gross at the same time. It’s just way too sweet. The chocolate is easily the best flavor, it’s subtle and not overpowering, giving you a nice balance between chocolate and the vanilla base. The strawberry is the next choice, with the last place going to vanilla. It’s just too much vanilla.
The whipped cream is wholly unnecessary, it does nothing for this milkshake.
The Runner Up Pick
The Shamrock shake, despite its insane popularity, isn’t that good. But it is at least interesting. With a McDonald’s shake, that’s all you can really hope for.
The Bottom Line
Order a McFlurry if you want something sweet from McDonald’s, this isn’t worth your time unless it’s a Shamrock. And even then…
The Frosty, it’s not really a milkshake (Wendy’s defines it as simply “a dessert”) in that it’s essentially just dense as hell soft serve ice cream in a cup. But it’s still somehow smooth enough to drink through a straw, so it’s not really ice cream either… so it is kind of a milkshake?
Whatever. It comes with a straw, we’re including it.
People have a strange nostalgic allegiance to the Frosty but as far as milkshakes go, it’s simply not nearly as good as the other milkshakes on this list. This is a mid-tier milkshake at best, and I’d argue it’s way better as a fry dip than it is enjoyed through a straw.
As far as the taste goes, it’s just not very notable. It has a heavily watered-down flavor. You taste some chocolate but you mostly just taste ice. People love this shake because it’s thick, which I’d guess they’re mistaking for richness, but at the end of the day… who cares if it’s thick? Seriously, a thick milkshake might be essential to a good experience but when the flavor is this weak, it doesn’t matter how thick it is.
I want to walk away from a milkshake thinking “that was a good milkshake” not “that milkshake was thick!” People who care about thickness over flavor are shallow milkshake drinkers. Don’t be a shallow milkshake drinker, the milkshake is a generous and beautiful snack.
Anyway, if you don’t believe me about the weakness of the flavor, check out Wendy’s ingredients list for the Frosty: Milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, whey, nonfat dry milk, cocoa, etc. In a chocolate-flavored drink, we’re getting chocolate as the seventh ingredient.
That’s an insult to chocolate milkshakes. You heard it here; The Frosty is an INSULT TO MILKSHAKES.
The Runner Up Pick
You don’t really have options here, chocolate is better than vanilla, but if you love vanilla, go for it.
The Bottom Line
It’s okay, doesn’t live up to its hype unless used as a fry dip.
11. Carl’s Jr — Hand-Scooped Ice Cream Vanilla Shake
Carl
Calories: 690
Thickness: 4/5
The Milkshake
Carl’s Jr’s vanilla milkshake is a solid pick for fans of vanilla milkshakes. It’s creamy with a prominent vanilla-forward flavor that is really a key feature of this milkshake, not just a base to work off of like with a lot of the other shakes on this list. McDonald’s uses vanilla ice cream, Wendy’s… isn’t really a milkshake, but Carl’s Jr uses actual scoops of ice cream, and the depth of flavor that real ice cream has over a generic vanilla soft serve base sets this one notably higher than those ranked below it.
The whipped cream, which is more of a whipped topping, almost hits its mark but it’s not quite as creamy as we’d like it to be, leaning more on the sugary-air side.
The Runner Up Pick
Strawberry and Oreo are both great. This is one of the few milkshake lines where we’d rank chocolate last.
The Bottom Line
A quality milkshake! We’re officially out of bad fast food milkshake territory with Carl’s Jr. Everything from here on is great and definitely worth the cash and extra calories.
When it comes to In-N-Out’s milkshakes, I have to admit my personal favorite is chocolate. But I’ve decided to go with my second favorite, Neopolitan, to prove a larger point about In-N-Out milkshakes. Each flavor is great, so if you like chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry just go ahead and order them all by grabbing the Neapolitan via In-N-Out’s secret menu. It gives you everything, the only thing better than a Neapolitan shake is a Neapolitan Root Beer Float.
In-N-Out’s milkshake has a great consistency that starts off a little too thick but settles into a very creamy and drinkable state after the cup starts to warm slightly in your hands. Through some strange alchemy, it still manages to hold its thickness for the entire duration of your milkshake, whether you’re a fast or slow drinker. The flavor here has a strong ice cream-forward quality, which leaves the chocolate a little wanting (it’s not actually that chocolate-y, but I still like it).
The Runner Up Pick
Pick your personal favorite flavor, you can’t go wrong here. Vanilla-Strawberry mix is my editor’s pick.
The Bottom Line
Stop complaining about In-N-Out’s fries, just dip them in the shake — it’s a better experience than the Frosty could ever give you.
A coffee and chocolate-flavored milkshake? The fast-food world needs more milkshakes like this. A blended coffee drink and a milkshake almost scratch the same itch, but choosing between them can be hard. The Jamocha shake says “why choose?” and manages to give you that decadent bold coffee flavor with the consistency of a decently thick chocolate milkshake.
Arby’s also drizzles some chocolate syrup on the whipped cream, which is a strong move and helps the whipped cream seem like more than just an over-sweetened visual component. It actually looks worth stabbing with your straw and mixing into your milkshake. The coffee takes a back-seat to the chocolate here, it’s not quite a mocha blended coffee frap, but there is enough coffee there to add that complex bitter bite that lingers nicely on the palate.
The Runner Up Pick
Orange Cream Shake. It’s a nice flavor alternative to the other more standard milkshake flavors like chocolate or vanilla. It’s sweet and refreshing, perfect for summer sipping.
The Bottom Line
Coffee and chocolate in a milkshake, what more can you ask for?
You don’t expect a milkshake from Del Taco to be good but this is probably the best strawberry milkshake in the fast-food universe. I rarely prefer strawberry over chocolate and vanilla but Del Taco’s has a light and fresh flavor that pairs perfectly with its thick and creamy vanilla base and is further elevated by the inclusion of real strawberries, which occasionally come bursting through the straw — adding a bright hit of juicy flavor.
Our only complaint is that the straw isn’t quite big enough to always allow the strawberries to stream though, creating clogs that sometimes make enjoying this milkshake a bit of a chore.
The Runner Up Pick
Just get the strawberry, even if you don’t like strawberry milkshakes. I wasn’t kidding when I said I think it’s the best strawberry milkshake in the fast-food universe. Otherwise… I guess go for chocolate if you must.
The Bottom Line
Fresh and bursting with flavor. A true dessert treat and the perfect pick if a strawberry milkshake is your jam.
I’m a little torn on this milkshake. I like the Black and White, which mixes vanilla and chocolate. On the one hand, the flavor is great, both the chocolate and vanilla are creamy and sweet but it just seems like a milkshake from a place called Shake Shack should taste better… and thicker. This milkshake is way too watery in consistency. Luckily, that doesn’t translate to the flavor, which is rich (if not a little artificial and powdery).
If Shake Shack’s milkshakes had the consistency of the Frosty, it would be a winner, but unfortunately, it’s just an upper mid-tier milkshake that is only saved by its flavor. Shake Shack does have some delicious creamy high-quality custard to top their milkshakes though, we’ll give them that.
The Runner Up Pick
Shake Shack often has special promotional limited-time flavors for their milkshakes. My personal favorite is Black Sugar Vanilla, with its aromatic vanilla and complex notes of burnt butter and caramel. If it wasn’t a promotional item we’d probably rank this one higher.
The Bottom Line
Aromatic and rich, but way too watery and underwhelming for a place with “shake” in its name.
Are you seeing this thing? Sonic rarely ranks this high on any of our fast food lists but their Strawberry Cheesecake Master Shake is truly some next-level milkshake shit. It’s totally deserving of its ridiculous name. This milkshake is straight-up gourmet with a complex flavor that is creamy, then tangy, then sweet with hints of cherry and bright strawberry, and finishes with the slightly nutty earthy flavor of graham crackers.
This milkshake is pretty much a meal, so don’t plan to eat anything else if you order it. If you really want to go nuts, add a serving of bananas, which takes things to the next level.
The Runner Up Pick
If you love cheesecake but aren’t too crazy about strawberry, Sonic also makes a regular cheesecake and an Oreo cheesecake shake. If you can’t stomach the tangy richness of cheesecake, go for the Hot Fudge or Fresh Banana Classic shake. Better yet, go banana fudge!
The Bottom Line
It turns out Sonic is a place to go if you want a really good milkshake. Who would’ve thought Sonic was this good at anything? One of the fanciest milkshakes in the fast-food universe, if not quite in the convo of “best.”
Is this one ranked too high? Maybe, but I love a good Oreo shake and Jack in the Box is probably the reason why. This is the Oreo shake that introduced me to the flavor, and it features large chunks of crunchy Oreos spread throughout a thick and creamy vanilla base. If anything, this milkshake is a little bit too thick, sometimes causing your straw to bend with the pressure it takes to drink it.
You’re going to wish you had a spoon to eat this one. Or at least some fries.
We wish this wasn’t the case but the whipped cream and maraschino cherry here are purely decorative. They don’t do much to add to the experience. But you don’t need all that flair, Jack in the Box Oreo Milkshake. We think you’re delicious as you are.
The Runner Up Pick
Sometimes Jack in the Box has a Mint Oreo Cookie Shake. When that’s an option grab that, otherwise stick to the OG.
The Bottom Line
If you like thick chunks of Oreo cookies in your shake and don’t care about quality whipped cream, it’s hard to go wrong with Jack in the Box’s Oreo Cookie Shake.
Fresh and creamy, with cool notes of mint that pair nicely with the semi-bitter cocoa complexity of Oreo cookies, this milkshake is everything Jack in the Box’s Oreo shake wishes it could be. The whipped cream is much thicker, and it has bits of Oreos that mask its probably bland flavor, with a maraschino cherry that adds a nice bright contrast to the refreshing almost Andes Mint-like quality of this shake.
Admittedly, I’m probably the least familiar with Steak n Shake’s milkshakes, so maybe this deserves to be ranked higher. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to refresh my memory on this particular milkshake as there are only four locations in Southern California and the closest Steak n Shake to me is temporarily closed for the foreseeable future. The next closest is nearly two hours away and I like milkshakes (and my job), but not that much. So we’ll have to rely on the old memory for this one.
The Runner Up Pick
It was a toss-up between the Oreo Mint Shake and the Kit Kat shake so allow me to spend some extra time talking about the Kit Kat. Kit Kats are a perfect complement to ice cream, they add a nice hit of chocolate and a great mouthfeel thanks to the wafer cookie inside. It’s a great texture for a milkshake, and Steak n Shake takes it a step forward by crumbing Kit Kits into the whipped cream.
The Bottom Line
Steak n Shake know how to make a milkshake, it’s why they were comfortable enough to put it right in the name. But the Oreo Mint and Kit Kat are your best bet. Unless you don’t like Kit Kats, in which case you can get Butterfinger (weird) Peanut Butter Cup (acceptable), or even Nutella.
I love all of Dairy Queen’s milkshakes and admittedly I probably chose the Raspberry Chip for variety’s sake but come on — where else are you going to get a raspberry shake in the fast-food space? [Editor: BURGERVILLE!] You’ve got bitter semi-dark chocolate chips blended with tart and refreshing raspberries in a creamy vanilla ice cream base, offering a nice mouthfeel and a complex flavor that bounces between sweet, tart, and bitter.
The whipped cream is an absolute joke, skip it. This milkshake is remarkably thick and holds its consistency nicely, but it’s not too thick that you can’t get it through the straw. Be careful not to suck any chocolate chips down your throat without chewing, though.
The Runner Up Pick
If refreshing and bright isn’t your thing, grab the Choco Hazelnut Chip. It’s chocolate and hazelnut, you can’t go wrong!
The Bottom Line
Like Arby’s Jamocha combines the best of blended coffee with the best of milkshakes, Dairy Queen’s Raspberry Chip shake brings the refreshing quality of a smoothie to the milkshake space.
Five Guys is the refined grown-up version of dipping your fries in a Frosty. You get salty smoked goodness from the bacon which contrasts nicely with the sweet and creamy vanilla base. The experience is entirely better than dipping your fries in a milkshake, providing a crispy crunch that makes the mouth feel of the shake a delicious savory part of the experience.
One of the things I love about Five Guys is that the menu is completely customizable but doesn’t lack character like a build your own pizza place or the food from Chipotle, and the customizability extends to the milkshakes. Don’t just throw bacon in there, add salted caramel, or peanut butter, or coffee. Or do another mix entirely with strawberry and banana. Anything goes here.
Runner Up Pick
Salted Caramel is always a great and easy choice, but feel free to get weird here. Go for that “coffee, malted milk, strawberry banana” milkshake. You do you.
The Bottom Line
Salty and sweet with a smokey complex flavor that is unlike any other milkshake on this list. But bacon in a milkshake… it’s not exactly what comes to mind when we want a milkshake, so for that reason, it can’t get the top spot, as good as it is.
I hate to give Chick-fil-A the top spot because they’re so easy to dunk on and are pretty generally overrated, but credit where credit is due, this is the best milkshake in the fast-food universe. I might be biased because Oreo milkshakes are my personal favorite, and this is the best one, but… them’s the breaks. Anyway, this is essentially a drinkable version of cookies and cream ice cream with perfectly sized bites of chocolate Oreo-esque cookies (you can tell this isn’t official Oreo, it’s richer and slightly more bitter) that don’t get lodged in the straw and pose no threat to your life by lodging in your throat.
The consistency is dense, but not so dense that it’s hard to drink. The whipped cream is good, not great, but it has pretty ribbons so the presentation is on point.
Runner Up Pick:
The only thing better than Chick-fil-A’s Cookies and Cream milkshake is the seasonal Peach Milkshake which usually drops in the summer, but as it’s a seasonal option we can’t give it the top spot. It is damn good though.
The Bottom Line
The thickness is there with a rich and creamy flavor and perfect bits of semi-bitter chocolate cookie bits. Chick-fil-A has some of the best soft-serve ice cream in the entire fast-food universe so this shouldn’t surprise anyone. I’m always actively rooting against Chick-fil-A but credit where credit is due.
Earlier this week, Bill and Melinda Gates announced their plans to divorce after 27 years of marriage. Since news broke, more stories about the state of the couple’s relationship have emerged and the latest one involves the Microsoft inventor’s troubling friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein, who died in his jail cell in August 2019, operated a sex trafficking ring that abused and exploited young girls with Epstein often “lending” these minors out to his wealthy, sometimes famous, friends. While Bill Gates has never been accused of any crime in relation to Epstein, sources close to the couple are now revealing that Gates formed a friendship with the disgraced financier, one his wife definitely didn’t approve of.
According to The Daily Beast, Melinda Gates was “furious” after she accompanied her husband to New York City where the pair had a meeting with Epstein in 2013. After the visit, Melinda reportedly relayed to friends how “uncomfortable” she was around Epstein and that she wanted “nothing to do with him” following the encounter. Still, Gates struck up a beneficial relationship with the financial advisor, one that may have contributed to a rift between the couple.
The former Microsoft CEO’s ties to Epstein stretch all the way back to 2011, just three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl in Florida. According to a New York Times report, Gates met with Epstein on numerous occasions, well after Epstein’s criminal activity had been widely commented on in the press.
The Times revealed that Gates had met with Epstein multiple times between 2011-2013, attending a party at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse, taking a ride on Epstein’s infamous private jet, and visiting his home in Florida. Once Epstein was hit with sex trafficking charges and his associates faced more public scrutiny, Gates addressed with friendship with the convicted sex offender by denying he’d ever gone to “New Mexico or Florida” and maintaining he only met with him to further his own philanthropic endeavors. In 2011, Gates reportedly sent an email to staff about Epstein, writing “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.” His spokeswoman said he was “referring only to the unique décor of the Epstein residence.”
Friends of the couple tell the Daily Beast that Melinda Gates is still “haunted” by the encounter with Epstein and her husband’s relationship with him, especially since she’s dedicated most of her philanthropic work to helping displaced and disadvantaged girls and young women. Reps for Bill and Melinda Gates have yet to comment on the story.
Through 66 games, the New York Knicks are in the driver’s seat for the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference. Though there was some level of optimism in some corners of the basketball world prior to the 2020-21 season, predicting this kind of showing from the Knicks would have drawn glazed-over stares in the preseason and, even after 37 impressive victories, not everyone is on board with New York’s performance being “real” at this juncture. Still, there have been plenty of plaudits for Julius Randle, who was rightly selected to the 2021 All-Star Game and is drawing deserved attention through the prism of All-NBA debates.
Randle is, without question, the biggest part of New York’s success on the floor, and he often shares credit with head coach Tom Thibodeau for spearheading the Knicks’ turnaround. After all, the best player and the head coach have a lot to do with the success or failure of any NBA team, which is a tale as old as time. However, New York also has supporting heroes this season, and perhaps the most prominent has been last year’s No. 3 overall pick RJ Barrett.
Barrett, the former No. 1 recruit in America, arrived with sky-high expectations coming out of Duke, and he did fill up box scores in his rookie season. Though it would be tough to argue that Barrett was a net positive as a rookie, most first-year players don’t break through that threshold, and he averaged 14.3 points per game while flashing his NBA-ready body, rebounding potential, and overall skill set — the tricky thing, of course, was having this translate into contributing to winning basketball, particularly due to some pretty rough efficiency numbers (40.2 percent from the field, 32 percent from three, 61.4 percent on free throws). Then, the lengthy offseason arrived and, while the hype train followed some of his rookie cohorts, Barrett operated in relative obscurity, at least when adjusting for the New York of it all.
This season, Barrett has been a different and better player, and the numbers bear that out. He is second on the team in scoring, averaging 17.6 points per game, with 5.7 rebounds and vastly improved shooting efficiency — 44.7/39.6/74.3 splits. As with many Thibodeau-led teams, he is getting “all you can eat” from a minutes perspective, averaging 34.7 minutes per night and appearing in all 66 games, but Barrett’s mentality and confidence also allows him to thrive in that setting.
“This year he’s just a complete—I wouldn’t say 180 [degrees], but as far as his mentality, he doesn’t let things affect him,” Randle recently told SLAM of Barrett’s development. “He’s very steady, confident and knows who he is as a player, and he’s just been proving it.”
Barrett’s season-long numbers are quite solid, and he’s been even more productive after the All-Star break. In 29 games since the March hiatus, he is averaging 18.9 points, which rises to 19.6 points per game in the last 10 contests. Barrett’s three-point shooting, currently at 45.5 percent in the last 10, is unsustainably hot in the present, but the mere fact that he is taking more threes is wholly encouraging for his development. He has gotten better as the season gone along, something that is invaluable with the postseason around the corner.
Beyond the scoring that he was best known for as a prospect, Barrett’s rebounding and overall physicality fit like a glove with New York’s current ethos. Barrett isn’t an elite defender at this stage, but he is stout and willing to engage, which is half the battle for a player with his tools. Advanced “catch-all” metrics largely paint him as a solid piece on that end of the floor but, for a 20-year-old wing with plenty of room to grow, that is encouraging at the very least.
It has to be noted that the Knicks may be catching lightning in a bottle that isn’t wholly replicable, particularly with Randle’s out-of-this-world play and Thibodeau seemingly pressing all the right buttons with a roster that isn’t overwhelmingly talented. However, there is a clear belief in New York, and Barrett, even at a young age, seems to be in the middle of it all. And the best part is that, unlike so many youngsters who have gone to the Big Apple and were eaten alive by the expectations that inherently come with that, Barrett seems to embrace the fact that he is playing under the bright lights of Broadway.
“I feel like we were the only ones that kind of believed in ourselves. No one thought we were going to be here,” Barrett told SLAM. “No one thought we were going to be in this position except for us. Even making the playoffs, we’re very excited for that. It’s not just about making the playoffs. We want to go far. We want to try to win championships. That’s what we’re about.”
Through two seasons, there are indications that Barrett may not join the tier with Zion Williamson and Ja Morant as franchise-changing entities at the top of the Draft. Within the last six months, though, Barrett has fortified his standing as one of the best prospects from the 2019 class and, in the process, he is operating as a key piece of the best Knicks team in a long time.
When Floyd Mayweather agreed to a fight with YouTuber turned boxer Logan Paul, both men likely knew there’d be a rise in media scrutiny on them, even compared to their usual level of attention. Of course, Mayweather proved to be a bit too susceptible to the Paul brothers’ trolling ways at the fight’s media day when Jake Paul snatched his hat, leading to a scuffle that wound up going viral when footage hit the internet. If that trolling got under his skin, the trolling from his former friend turned antagonist 50 Cent might just make him break out in hives.
“WTF going on on champ head,” 50 wondered in a post about the incident on Instagram. “I heard he had his pubic hairs put on his face. Lol.” In a separate post on Twitter, he again roasted Floyd’s haircut. “Floyd like [sad face] you can’t show people my hair,” he teased.
Floyd and 50’s feud extends back to 2012 when a dispute over money led to an exchange of vicious rhetoric between the two. In the years since, 50 Cent has mocked Mayweather’s reported trouble with reading, while Floyd sent some “jabs” back on social media as well. They’ve both even gone so far as teasing a potential bout between the two. But first, Mayweather has to get through Logan Paul on Sunday, June 6.
it’s finally official… fighting @FloydMayweather at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Sunday, June 6.
While the question wasn’t explicitly asked when we spoke with Rob McElhenney ahead of season 2 of Mythic Quest(which you can start streaming on AppleTV+), the subject of why he chooses to run and star in two very different and very very successful TV comedies at once is ever-present in a conversation that also touches on the right approach to navigating COVID with his characters, nuance, and the freedom and fun of breaking out of a box.
For McElhenney it seems to be about getting nourishment from two very distinct wells. As he explains it, the characters on Mythic Quest (which feels more like an ensemble than ever before in season 2) are “real human beings. They might be difficult. They might be arrogant. They might be narcissistic, but they’re still navigating a pretty close approximation of what this real world is.” When it comes to Always Sunny In Philadelphia, which has been a part of his life for 16 years and 14 seasons, it’s a bit less evolved. But that’s sort of the point. “They’re cartoon characters and so there are no real consequences to the behavior other than their continual descent. […] they’ll never change or grow or learn… or win.” Imagine the fun of using those two distinct tools to take a crack at an ever-complex world that often needs more empathy, connection, and to have the piss taken out of it, and you’ll get a sense of where McElhenney is.
Mythic Quest gets looped into this wave of feel-good television alongside Schitt’s Creek and Ted Lasso. That’s obviously a little different from the reception to Always Sunny. What does that feel like and was it the intention to find a kind of lovability with some of these characters?
Well, certainly we liked the idea of presenting an optimistic look at the world because we’re optimistic people. I mean, the people who are writing the show are optimistic people, and yet we still liked the idea of exploring difficult characters. There’s no doubt that Ian is a troubled person and Poppy is very clearly a troubled person. And yet we feel like it’s really interesting to explore the difficult dynamics of working with difficult people. And yet [we’re] really looking towards an eye of a bright future for them, honestly.
There’s the freshly released bonus season one episode, Everlight, which is great. And then you seem to move away from COVID. It seems to be in a past tense state. What was behind the decision to not really dig in more on COVID?
When we had to rewrite the entire second season, because we had written the entire second season… We were about ready to shoot when we had to shut down and then we essentially threw out the whole season and started over. And we were writing much like this, just on Zoom calls, Megan (Ganz), David (Hornsby) and I, and a couple of other writers. And then we realized this wasn’t going to air until… We knew sometime in the spring of 2021, maybe summer 2021, we weren’t a hundred percent sure. But we thought, well, are people really going to want to watch an entire season reliving what they just lived through for an entire year? And my thought was, no, I think we’re going to want to have COVID in our rearview mirror even if it’s not in our rearview mirror at the time, [so] we can project to a near future. Maybe it’s six months from now, maybe it’s a year from now where COVID is behind us. And that we really don’t mention it or talk about it at all.
That being said, we felt like it would be irresponsible and inauthentic for us to just move past that as if it didn’t happen. We did the quarantine episode, where we addressed what it was like to work at home, but we felt like we needed to address what it would be like to return to “normalcy.” And we recognized that there’s going to be a lot of practical challenges to that. There are going to be a lot of emotional challenges to that. There’s going to be a lot of things that people didn’t necessarily account for, which is once again, coming back into your office that you left a year ago and now being able to interact with human beings for the first time, people who you haven’t seen in a very long time. There’s going to be some level of emotional catharsis that’s going to have to happen, so we wanted to do an episode that at the very least honored that.
You’ve said publicly that you are going to tackle COVID a little with Always Sunny. There’s obviously a side to this beyond the longing for communication and connection. There’s a lot of anger about the way the situation has gone. And some of the people that have kept the situation going. Does it make it easier to know that you can potentially scratch that itch with another show?
Oh yes! Yes, yes, yes. I mean, that’s what’s so fun about Sunny is that we can take popular culture and put it through the meat grinder of that very specific point of view, that is the show, more specifically the point of view of the characters within the show. And then we can essentially tackle any topic because we’re really not taking a political or even oftentimes social stand in a lot of these episodes. The characters might, but we as the filmmakers, generally, we’ll just try to take as many different arguments from the extreme sides of whatever the spectrum might be, and then just mash them all together and see what comes out. And oftentimes it winds up being biting criticism, not necessarily of one particular group or the other, but the culture itself. And that’s what we’ve always tried to do with Sunny and I think that’s why we’ve been able to do it for as long as we have.
Apple TV+
There’s a scene at mid-season with you and Rachel in a Porsche [while talking about her aspirations] which is very interesting. Your character is definitely going out on…you’re putting yourself a little bit on a limb when you say in the scene, “It’s exhausting helping women.” You’re putting yourself into a conversation, which is interesting and I’m curious about your take on what that scene meant for both those characters.
Yes. I’m glad you asked about that. Ashly (Burch) is one of our writers who plays Rachel, and these are very similar to conversations that we have in the writer’s room. Of course, this is an extreme version of the conversations that we have. But what I try to do is to surround myself, certainly in our writer’s room and then with the cast, of course, later on, but in the writer’s room, with very different points of view. I try to find really young people, real older people, obviously, there were actually more women than there are men, different ethnicities, different cultural backgrounds, and just try to get a rich understanding of what the current state of American culture is, and then what everybody’s point of view is. So we find ourselves in these kinds of conversations all the time. Some of it gets stored away for Sunny, in which I can explore that in a way that’s more cartoonish and ultimately biting.
And then some of them, we can explore these kinds of conversations in maybe a more nuanced, more interesting way. Where both characters… and it was very important to me… As it is oftentimes when you’re writing those scenes, the most interesting scenes are not the ones where one person’s right, and the other person’s wrong, and that’s the end of the story. There’s something, to me, [that’s] much more interesting where somebody has a good point, somebody has a good counterpoint. Somebody responds to that counterpoint with a good point, somebody then responds to that point with a good counterpoint. And then you take it to the extreme of having a button that is ostensibly offensive, and yet it’s a comedy so people get it, they understand where we’re coming from.
Obviously, Ian is changing to a certain extent. Do you have to be mindful of the velocity of that change and not bring him to a point where maybe he has attained… I don’t want to say this word, but for lack of a better term, a level of wokeness? Is that a concern?
100%, because that just doesn’t feel authentic to the experience of being a human being, right? The characters of Sunny will never wake, ever. That’s the point of Sunny. A show like this, to watch people… To your point, I don’t necessarily want to use that word, but to watch people learn something and grow, that is authentic to the experience of being a human being. To watch them go from zero to a hundred is bullshit. And no one’s going to believe it. No one’s going to buy it. That’s why, for example, you might see a little change in Ian in a certain direction, and yet he can also very easily have that same conversation that he has with Rachel, where he’s getting Rachel to maybe take a second look at why she’s standing on her soapbox and what that soapbox actually represents. And maybe she shouldn’t be screaming into a megaphone because she’s got nothing to say. Those are really interesting conversations that I love to find these characters in, and that will allow us to understand why they’re making the changes in their life that they eventually do.
One of my favorite episodes of television in the last 10-15 years is the dance in the Sunny episode when he comes out to his father — it’s such a beautiful scene. As a creator, using that kind of thing, or even these standalone episodes, like the one coming up in Mythic Quest with C.W. where we go into his backstory or the one last year with Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti, which was such a beautiful episode…. Beyond it being a very exciting and freeing thing, what’s the value in being able to break rhythm on what a show usually is and kind of zig instead of zag?
Well, obviously, like you just said, there’s a certain freedom in that, but I also think what it winds up doing is, it makes the rest of the process equally as interesting. Let’s speak to the second season [of Mythic Quest]. You have “Everlight.” Then you have an episode in the middle of the season, which is another throwback episode flashback. And then we have another episode that’s very different from what we normally do. And then another one. And yet, when you start saying, “Well, this is different from what you normally do, but you’re doing it four and five times a season.” What you’re realizing is that that is essentially what the show is. And that when you go back to what the original form of the show was, which is an office comedy, then all of a sudden you realize, “Oh, I didn’t know the show I was making until right now.”
And I still don’t know what the show is. If I’m being honest, I don’t even know what Sunny is, because we just show up and do it. And it changes all the time. I would absolutely be lying, and every single fan of Sunny knows for sure that I’m lying, if I were to say, I knew Mac was gay season one, episode one. I never assumed that at all. It wasn’t until 10 years later where I was like, “you know it’d be an interesting thing… it would be interesting to maybe look back and see if this makes a little bit of sense.” And then we started planting those seeds, but we wouldn’t have been able to do that if we weren’t willing to just take wild risks and hope that the audience is going to go along for the ride. I guess that’s the long answer in saying, I like the idea of jumping off into the abyss because it’s exciting and you don’t know if people are going to like it and if they don’t, then fuck them.
Look, Jason. Ultimately it’s just more fun. If people don’t know what they… I often think when I hear people say, “Oh, I hated that episode of Sunny. It wasn’t like the other ones. I hate it.” I actually think that is important. I think that’s important to the television show because you realize like, “Oh, I don’t know what I’m going to get. I might sit down and I have a completely different experience week to week to week.” And I think there’s something about living in the moment of like, “I don’t know what to expect.” And then having something delivered to you, whether you like it or not, I think is an important part of the experience.
The first two episodes of ‘Mythic Quest’ season 2 are available via Apple TV+ with new episodes to follow every Friday.
“Tom Holland vs. Zendaya” is to Lip Sync Battle as “The Suitcase” is to Mad Men. It’s the show’s best episode. Emmy winner Zendaya (still fun to say) killed it with her lip syncs of “Tyrone” by Erykah Badu and “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars, but the reason the episode is recalled so fondly is because of Tom Holland. His medley of “Singin’ in the Rain” by Gene Kelly and “Umbrella” by Rihanna was a viral sensation, with the Spider-Man actor flawlessly transitioning from old school Hollywood to pop music androgyny. It’s great.
It also almost killed him.
“Every agent says that their celebrity guest is a great dancer. Then, when they show up on set, it just really is never the case,” choreographer Danielle Flora told Insider in an oral history of the episode. Holland, who has a background in dance (he was in Billy Elliot the Musical), was the exception. “This was the most beautiful blessing. It’s like this wonderful human has fallen out of the sky and on top of that, he really can dance his butt off,” she said. Still, there was time for only one full run-through of the performance before the taping. “We only did one dress rehearsal with the body suit because then it had to dry,” costume designer Jeanie Cheek explained. The water proved especially tricky:
Flora: Dancing in water, it’s scary because it is slippery. There was a moment in rehearsal where we did it with the water for the first time, and he slipped a little bit when he did that flip at the end, and I was like, “Oh, god. I’m going to lose my job. I killed Tom Holland.” But he was adamant about it. He was not taking it out.
A lot of people listen to Coldplay. Spotify notes they have over 37 million monthly listeners, and their two most-streamed songs on the platform, “Something Just Like This” and “The Scientist,” have over a billion streams each. Chris Martin probably isn’t one of those 37 million monthly listeners, though, as he has revealed that he doesn’t actually listen to his own songs.
Speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Martin said:
“I don’t listen to things, really, after they’re done because it’s too difficult. It’s also… if I listened to it and thought it was amazing, I don’t know how healthy that would be for my ego, and if I listened to it, the most normal thing is I’d think it’s awful. It’s the same as when you hear your voice on an answering machine. […] I always love playing and singing the songs that we’ve released. First off, we have a song called ‘The Scientist.’ When we first did that, I thought it was amazing, the recording. But now if I hear it, I just feel like, ‘Oh, this is awful.’ But then if we’re playing the song… we were just rehearsing last week… Oh, I love… it’s so nice to get into the song. I think maybe it’s partly because while you’re working on something, you’re already inside those clothes and then as soon as you give it to the world, a mannequin fills those clothes. You’re not inside the song anymore, unless you’re playing it live.”
Check out the full interview above.
Coldplay is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
While signing a controversial voting law on Thursday morning, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis drew widespread criticism after his office froze out reporters and gave Fox News exclusive coverage of the event in West Palm Beach. According to a statement from Fox News, the news network did not “request or mandate” that it have exclusive rights to the bill signing, which suggests that it was purely the doings of DeSantis’ office. The proceedings were so sketchy that later that evening, Late Night host Seth Meyers devoted a segment of the show to the concerning display of political theater.
“It’s like your spouse saying they have something to tell you, and they want to do it live on Maury,” Meyers quipped about DeSantis’ attempts to call the voting bill “bipartisan” while refusing to let its signing air anywhere but Fox News. Meyers then drew a straight line from Donald Trump’s election loss to the bill, which like the Voting Integrity Act in Georgia, has been criticized for its blatant voter suppression. Via Mediaite:
“The GOP has attempted to rebrand itself as a populist pro-workers party, but it’s all a giant fraud,” the Late Night host said Thursday night. “All they really care about is dismantling democracy and purging anyone who disagrees with the unhinged lie that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election. They don’t care what it means for you, so long as Trump can say, ‘I feel great.’”
Meyers then saved his most scathing remarks for Republicans’ recent obsession with voting bills for the end. “Rather than appeal to a majority of voters, they’d rather just rig the game so they always win.”
If you were ever fell asleep on the couch watching TBS and had a dream combining Castaway, Pirates Of The Caribbean, and The Hobbit, it might look something like the video for DJ Khaled’s latest Khaled Khaled single “We Going Crazy.” The Jamaica-filmed video opens with a shipwreck that finds Khaled and his costars HER and Migos marooned on a tropical island littered with luxury goods, including watches, sneakers, and bottles of Ciroc.
After building themselves a shelter and feasting on shellfish, the newly island rich protagonists hold a banquet in a cave with pirate skeletons (and the extant treasures with which they were buried) and follow the pirates’ map to an underground mountain of gold — which is protected by a massive, Smaug-like dragon, naturally. There’s a lot more product placement and eventually, Khaled buys a helicopter(!?) to get them off the island, signing off with his signature catchphrase: “Another one.” Indeed.
Fire and tropical islands appear to be a running theme with this album’s rollout, as the videos for the Lil Wayne and Jeremih-featuring “Thankful,” Lil Baby and Lil Durk collaboration “Every Chance I Get,” and the all-star reggae jam “Where You Come From” all prominently feature at least one or the other. In fact, only “Sorry Not Sorry” with Jay-Z and Nas excludes flames and beach scenery — although if they want to film a remix video, I’m sure neither artist would be opposed.
Watch DJ Khaled’s “We Going Crazy” video featuring HER and Migos above.
Khaled Khaled is out now via We The Best / Epic Records. Get it here.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
