Month: July 2021

Human rant machine Tucker Carlson continues to dodge the question of whether or not he’s vaccinated in increasingly gross ways.

The Fox News anchor has made a spectacle of his questionable vaccination status over the past few months. While his colleagues at the network began to admit that they’d gotten their shots, especially once people started returning to the studio and the company put safety protocols into effect, Carlson continued to spread baseless claims about the “dangers” of getting vaccinated. He asked viewers to harass mask-wearers, he cited misinformation as fact, he told his followers that thousands of people had died from the vaccine (which, of course, is not true), all while the rest of his conservative buddies, including boss Rupert Murdoch, got jabbed.

Carlson’s anti-vax campaign became such a big talking point on his show that people on Twitter started demanding to know whether, like pretty much everyone else hosting a Fox News program, he’d gotten his shot so, of course, journalists also started asking that question. And Carlson? He’s found a really weird way to avoid answering.

Carlson spoke with reporter Charlotte Alter in a wide-ranging interview for TIME that eventually touched on his hesitancy to admit whether he’d been vaccinated or not. When Alter asked him if he had received his shot, Carlson responded, “Because I’m a polite person, I’m not going to ask you any super vulgar personal questions like that.”

“That’s like saying, ‘Do you have HIV?’” he continued after Alter assured him he could ask her anything he wanted to. “How about ‘None of your business?’” But things got uncomfortably awkward when Carlson employed a deflection tactic he’s used in past interviews to sidestep his vaccination record.

“I mean, are you serious?” Tucker questioned. “What’s your favorite sexual position and when did you last engage in it?”

Apparently, that’s his go-to comeback when asked if he’s vaccinated. He told New York Times reporter Ben Smith something similar when Smith dared to question him on his beliefs about Covid vaccines.

So yeah, it sounds like Carlson’s going to drag the whole “did he get jabbed?” thing out for a while. Whether that’s because he really thinks it’s no one’s business, he’s protecting his brand, or he’s just oddly curious about other people’s sex lives and thinks he’s found the perfect excuse to ask strangers about their favorite sex positions, we just don’t know.

(Via TIME)

The AV Club‘s recap of the most recent episode of Rick and Morty asked if it was the show’s “stupidest” episode yet, while a top comment from the episode discussion thread on the Rick and Morty subreddit reads, “This was the most repulsive and unenjoyable sh*t ever. Like if in two years Dan Harmon reveals they were doing a prank and trying to write the worst episode of Rick and Morty without telling anyone I would not be surprised at all. Jesus christ.” What could cause fans of the show to dislike an episode so much?

Folks, we got giant sperm. And an incest baby.

To be honest, I kind of liked “Rickdependence Spray.” It was ridiculous, sure, and not everything worked, but I laughed a bunch (“Morty, you dirty little doggy”) and I can’t hate any episode with President Keith David. Plus, it’s fun to imagine the creative team, including creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, writer Nick Rutherford, and director Erica Hayes, daring themselves to see what they could get away with. It turns out, a lot!

Even they were surprised with “Rickdependence Spray” making it to air.

“I don’t know how this is an episode,” Rutherford admitted in an “Inside the Episode” video uploaded to Adult Swim’s YouTube channel. “I still don’t know how this is allowed to be on TV, to be honest.” He thinks the episode, which features Beth and Summer riding sperm down the Las Vegas strip, CHUDs (Cannibalistic Horse Underground Dwellers), and, to quote Hayes, a “massive incest fetus” being launched into space, turned out “disgusting and tasteless.” But sometimes all you want is something disgusting, like a Baconator from Wendy’s. I might get one tonight (I guess those ads worked after all).

You can watch the behind-the-scenes video above. It has Dan Harmon saying “giant sperm” and “Jumanji sequence where people had to ride sperm,” if that’s your thing. Rick and Morty season five continues with “Amortycan Grickfitti” this Sunday.

It’s been about two weeks since Doja Cat dropped her astrology-inspired “You Right” video featuring The Weeknd, a track off her otherwordly Planet Her album. The singer has now shared some behind-the-scenes footage of the shoot where, true to the video’s theme, Doja researches her astrology sign. In doing so, Doja finds out that she’s apparently very comparable with Paul Rudd.

The behind-the-scenes footage opens with Doja calling up her mom to find out the exact time she was born, a crucial piece of information needed for finding out an astrology birth chart. Doja’s birth chart describes her as “committed and assertive,” to which she responds, “Oh. This is about me being a b*tch.”

Using the same app, Doja looks up Paul Rudd’s birth chart to see if they are compatible. Doja reads off the results: “Right away, Paul might have seemed familiar, like you two were close friends or family in a past life. This sense of shared history creates an ease of comfort between you and a deep sense of immediate trust. It’s like Paul’s the kind of friend you can let down you guard with, you can be yourself with.” The singer then mentions, “I’ve never met this guy, but that’s very weird because his demeanor is very much like my family, which is very strange.”

Doja then checks her compatibility with Beyonce, which is apparently her “strongest connection.” The app says the two musicians would make “incredible allies,” and Doja seems to agree.

Watch Doja’s “You Right” behind-the-scenes above.

Planet Her is out now via RCA. Get it here.

Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) upped her clout in the music world with her 2020 album Color Theory, a sophomore effort that became a critical- and fan-favorite. There’s no word yet on when a follow-up might arrive, but Allison did share some new music today, a song called “Rom Com 2004.”

The song was produced by BJ Burton, who is known for his work with artists like Bon Iver, Charli XCX, Chance The Rapper, and many others. Allison says of the track, “I wrote this song a while back and made a poppy demo for it. Then I told BJ to destroy it.”

Based on how Allison described the creation of the song, the result makes sense. For a lot of the track, it sounds like one of the breezy, poppy tunes from one of her last two albums, but there are times when it sounds like the device used to play the track is malfunctioning, resulting in some dissonance that keeps you on your toes and wondering what’s going to happen next.

The song arrives with an appropriately glitched-out visual, which features a Nintendo Mii-like representation of Allison adventuring through a city and encountering all sorts of madness.

Listen to “Rom Com 2004” above.

DDG is having a breakout year/month/week. His recent shift toward music from vlogging can definitely be considered a success after his Die 4 Respect mixtape with OG Parker charted on the Billboard 200 and its single “Moonwalking in Calabasas” was certified Platinum by the RIAA. Those feats were followed up by his selection to the 2021 XXL Freshman class and this week, Uproxx debuted our digital cover story profiling his journey from working at TJ Maxx in Pontiac to making five-figure checks from YouTube to his current hip-hop stardom.

Today, he caps all that off with a performance of his latest Die 4 Respect single “Hood Melody” for UPROXX Sessions, projecting the calm confidence befitting of a burgeoning star. Along with his XXL Cypher, it’s a glimpse at a surprisingly polished performer who is taking the craft seriously, even as he continues to expand his interests into even more areas like acting and amateur boxing.

Watch DDG perform “Hood Melody” for UPROXX Sessions above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Bradley Beal’s dreams of participating in the 2020 Summer Olympics appear to be on the verge of ending. According to a report by Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, USA Basketball is looking for someone who can take a spot on the roster from Beal, who entered health and safety protocols on Wednesday.

This would be an absolutely brutal blow for Beal, who figured to play a major role for the Americans as they looked to win their fourth consecutive gold medal. It is unclear if he entered the protocols because he tested positive for COVID-19 or was just a close contact of someone who did, nor is it clear if a similar fate will befall Jerami Grant, who reportedly had the same thing happen to him on Thursday.

The question, should Beal need to be replaced, is whether or not the organization tries to get another guard to fill his role — Cleveland Cavaliers youngster Darius Garland, a Select Team member who has been with the team in recent days while they wait for their players that are still participating in the NBA Finals, would be a snug fit — or if they look to address their relative lack of size by adding someone who can play big man and go up against the likes of France’s Rudy Gobert. The team has a little time to make a decision, as their first game will take place on July 25 against Gobert and the French.

Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox are far from shy about their relationship. The two made out on the red carpet, recently had less-than-glamorous ayahuasca trip, and Fox even had some choice words for those criticizing their age gap: “Go f*ck yourself.” Though the two officially met on set of a film, Kelly recently admitted that he had been crushing on Fox for several years.

In a cover interview with GQ, Kelly sat down with a writer who published his first-ever profile in their high school newspaper. During their conversation, Kelly talked about his rise to fame, his decision to pivot to pop-punk, and, of course, his headline-making relationship with Fox. Kelly even admitted that he had a poster of Fox plastered on his teenage bedroom wall, and someone from their high school remembers him vowing to marry her one day. “It was from her GQ shoot,” he said after confirming the details with Fox. “So that’s some full-circle sh*t.”

Kelly is now known for his eccentric style, but when he was growing up, he took inspiration from any and all media he consumed. “My guidance came from who was talking to me in my headphones and who I was watching on TV. The neighborhoods I was hanging in, the people I was around, those were my influences, those were my parents, those were my guidances,” he continued in the GQ interview. “I had to be whatever I was seeing on TV. I will never forget when I saw American Gangster in theaters, with Denzel Washington. I immediately went to my boss.… I borrowed his fur coat and I borrowed his suit…and swore to God that I was Frank Lucas. A week later I would see Travis Barker in a music video and I would be in a T-shirt with a purple tie over it and some baggy JNCO jeans.”

Read GQ‘s full profile on Kelly here.

The last time we got a new BadBadNotGood album was 2016, when the Canadian jazz group dropped IV. Now, they’re coming back with a new one: Talk Memory is set for release on October 8 and will be their first release through XL Recordings in partnership with Innovative Leisure. The cover art, by the way, was created by Virgil Abloh’s design firm Alaska-Alaska. The news is accompanied by the single “Signal From The Noise,” a nine-minute single that combines elements of ambient, jazz, and electronic music.

The band says of the album, “It took a year or two of just living life to get to the place where the creative process was exciting again and once we actually went in to the studio it was the most concise recording and writing process we’ve ever had. We hope that the improvised studio performances bring the listener closer to our live experience.”

Listen to “Signal From The Noise” above and find the Talk Memory art and tracklist below.

1. “Signal From The Noise”
2. “Unfolding (Momentum 73)” Feat. Laraajii
3. “City of Mirrors” Feat. Arthur Verocai
4. “Beside April” Feat. Karriem Riggins and Arthur Verocai
5. “Love Proceeding” Feat. Arthur Verocai
6. “Open Channels”
7. “Timid, Intimidating”
8. “Beside April Reprise” Feat. Arthur Verocai
9. “Talk Meaning” Feat. Arthur Verocai, Terrace Martin, and Brandee Younger

Talk Memory is out 10/8 via XL Recordings. Pre-order it here.

WARNING: Spoilers for the Loki season one finale below.
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After Loki Episode 2 dropped, series director Kate Herron revealed that Miss Minutes, the talking cartoon clock who, at the time, seemed like just a friendly information mascot for the Time Variance Authority was in for an “interesting” character journey. As the series went on, Miss Minutes didn’t seem to do too much, but in Episode 5, Journey into Mystery, she is shown to be a clever cog in the TVA machine as she secretly arranges for Minutemen to swarm Sylvie (Sophia Di Martina) at the behest of Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). Again, nothing revelatory, but then things go wild in the season finale.

With a jump scare that still has folks reeling, Miss Minutes swings open the door to the Citadel and reveals that she’s been working with Kang/He Who Remains (Jonathan Majors) the whole time as she tries to persuade Loki and Sylvie to take a deal to save the Sacred Timeline. When they refuse the anger, we see a flash of anger from Miss Minutes, which shows that she’s more sentient than anyone imagined.

In a new interview, Herron and head writer Michael Waldron reveal that keeping Miss Minutes around and making her a part of Kang’s plot was something they all agreed right out of the gate. Via Marvel:

“Early on in the scripts, we all were definitely united on, ‘We’ve got to keep Miss Minutes in the story somehow,’” director Kate Herron tells Marvel.com.

“She was a really fun way to deliver some pretty heady exposition,” head writer Michael Waldron adds. “There’s something sing-songy and sort of non-threatening about [the way she talks]. But yet, when it turns, and when she becomes evil, suddenly it’s really scary.

At one point, Miss Minutes was going to engage in a fight scene in the Citadel, but that never made it into the final episode. As for voicing the character, animation veteran Tara Strong took an unusual approach by recording the lines over video chat and reacting to the episodes in real time. According to Strong, it was a blast to see Miss Minutes evolve from “cutesy little stuff” and “exposition” to an integral part of the story.

“It was so much fun to play her angry after starting at this place of very cute and cautious of how much you know about her, to finally let her emotions really come out and be furious that Loki’s messed up the timeline so much, and she’s so angry about it,” Strong said. “It’s just fun to unleash and play her to this next level in this maximum capacity.”

With Loki Season 2 officially announced, hopefully, the Citadel won’t be the last place that we see Miss Minutes turn up.

(Via Marvel)

For the second day in a row, a member of the group the United States plans to send to Tokyo to participate in the Summer Olympics has been placed in health and safety protocols due to a COVID-19 scare. Bradley Beal received word of his need to enter the protocols during his stint in Las Vegas with Team USA on Wednesday, and on Thursday, Jerami Grant learned he’ll have to do the same.

The news was broken by Shams Charania and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. While there is no word about how this impacts his availability for the Olympics, Charania did note that Grant did not test positive for the novel coronavirus.

Grant would be a gigantic loss for the United States, which already suffered from a general lack of frontcourt bodies ahead of the Games. A member of the team following a career-best season with the Detroit Pistons, Grant played 17 minutes in the tune-up game against Nigeria, started and played 13 minutes against Australia, and saw eight minutes of action in the team’s 28-point win over Argentina.

Should Grant not be able to take the floor, the United States would be left with Bam Adebayo, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Kevin Love, and Jayson Tatum as its primary frontcourt options. The team is slated to begin Olympic play on July 25 against France.