Month: October 2021

When I was around 12 or 13, I finally saw Star Wars. At the time I was a little confused about what all the fuss had been about. I’d been hearing about Star Wars basically as long as I’d been sentient, playing with my older cousins’ toys and internalizing the concepts of droids, lightsabers, Darth Vader, “the force,” etc. without ever experiencing the source material. When I finally did, I couldn’t quite grasp what it was that had blown all those Gen Xers’ minds. After a decade of buildup maybe it was inevitable that it couldn’t live up to the hype. Or maybe I just should’ve started with The Empire Strikes Back instead of A New Hope.

Whatever the case, watching Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 novel, has been in many ways the experience I had once hoped Star Wars would be. After years of never quite getting around to reading Dune, forgetting to watch Dune (1984) and Jodorowsky’s Dune, and pretending to understand memes about sandworms and the necessity of spice flowing, I now feel ready to jump into the world of imperial fiefdoms, Fremen prophesy, and Bene Jesserit tricks with both feet.

Yes, Dune, adapted by writers Jon Spaights, Eric Roth, and Villeneuve, is the first part of a planned serial and is essentially a movie without a third act. It might as well have a “TO BE CONTINUED” title card for an ending. But for this Dune virgin it was exactly what a Dune introduction needed to be: a compelling primer on the material that created a coherent universe, introduced intriguing characters, and left me wanting more. Fire up the thopters, we worm dance at dawn!

Like Star Wars, Dune is set in a dimension where technology has advanced to the point of intergalactic travel while politics have regressed to those of medieval Europe; authoritarian empires, warring clans, hereditary dynasties, even sword fighting (explained through invisible shielding devices that bullets can’t breach but blades can). Like Star Wars, the front line of imperial strife seems to be a desert planet. Dune though, offers greater narrative justification for this: the planet Arrakis is a rich source of “spice,” which for the locals is an ayahuasca-like sacred hallucinogen but for the rest of the empire is the driving energy force powering interstellar travel. Their “unobtanium,” say.

The Harkonnen have ruled Arrakis for years, growing wealthy on spice and treating the local Fremen brutally in the process, but the Emperor has recently dispossessed them. This remote, unintroduced Emperor has offered the fief instead to the rising Atreides clan, led by Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac), who thinks he can be a kinder, gentler kind of extractive steward, not just profiting from the spice but adding the Fremen to his coalition in the process. “Desert Power,” he calls this plan, about which his son, Paul (Timotheé Chalamet) and concubine Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) seem suitably skeptical, but cautiously hopeful that he can pull off.

Most of the film takes place during this transfer of power, as the Atreides move to Arrakis, a harsh environment where the war-like locals have learned to adapt both to water scarcity and to giant sandworms that can sense vibration and devour entire spice harvesters (think: offshore drilling platforms). Yes, the local Fremen have developed a little sand dance (my words) they do to avoid attracting the worms (Let’s do the worm dance agaaaaaaa-aaaain…).

The big question for the Atreides is whether the Emperor has given them Arrakis as a just acknowledgment of their rising power, or simply as a deliberate quagmire designed to ratfuck a potential rival. “The Emperor is a jealous man,” says Baron Harkonnen, played by Stellen Skarsgard in a CGI costume combining revolting corpulence with unchecked alopecia. A Scandinavian-coded race of villains, how about that.

Paul’s mother, meanwhile, comes from a race of pseudo-witches with mysterious mind-control powers in which she has been tutoring her son. The Fremen too think there may be something strange and prophetic about young Paul. “I think I recognize you,” says Stilgar (Javier Bardem), leader of Fremen cell, the first time they meet.

Again, it’s hard not to notice the Star Wars parallels in a story with a desert planet, giant worms, an ancient religion, and a potential messiah, among other things (and Star Wars has been accused of being a Dune ripoff for years). Yet whereas I never quite understood what I was supposed to get out of a battle between “the light” and “the dark side” in Star Wars, Dune turns on a valuable commodity (“spice” can be actual spice, it can be oil, it can be rare Earth minerals, etc) and the feuds between warring clans with conflicting dynastic pretensions all trying to curry favor with an authoritarian state. The allusions there are endless, both historical and contemporary. Not that Dune needs to be an allegory, its characters simply have recognizable motives and the story has coherent levers of cause and effect. Star Wars feels like it’s all stitched together with vague platitudes and childish generalizations by comparison. It’s fitting that Disney owns Star Wars now because it feels, in mid-20th century parlance, pretty Mickey Mouse.

Maybe this is all hopelessly remedial for the Dune scholars out there but it was exciting for me. This Dune being the first of a multi-part story may even play to Villeneuve’s strength. He has long been the best in the business at staging a scene, creating massive, immersive spectacles that have occasionally been a little weak on story structure. In Dune, he balances the book’s storylines deftly, staging spectacle always with an eye to suspense without the burden of closure and a cast that’s fairly perfect from top to bottom. I could watch Oscar Isaac and Rebecca Ferguson paint a house and it’s been wonderful witnessing the continued evolution of Jason Momoa as he plays more and more Momoa-like characters. It’s hard to tell whether Jason Momoa has become that much better of an actor or if Hollywood has just become that much better at recognizing what stories could benefit from some Jason Momoa. Either way, I’m happy. Give me all of the Momoa. The Momoa must flow!

Maybe I’m just happy that I can finally do Dune memes now. In some ways it’s a blessing that Dune doesn’t have an ending. It allows us to focus on all of the best parts of the material (I can only assume) married to the strongest aspects of Villeneuve’s filmmaking: it’s an immersive, transporting, intriguing, fully-realized world that we can enjoy spending time in without rating against our ideas of which characters should “win” in that world. I don’t know how this story plays out but for now I’m content to bask in the spice glow.

‘Dune’ is out now in theaters and on HBO Max. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Last year saw Ryan Pollie dive into a new project, adopting a distortion-heavy sound for music under the name Total Revenge. Here in 2021, though, he’s been getting back to releasing material under his own name. He dropped the multi-part “The Shore House” a month ago, and now he’s back with the upbeat and lighthearted “On The Nose.”

Pollie says of the track, “Inspired by summers seeing the Dead at outside theaters, pre-gaming in parking lots. Having fun in the car. Rob Dobson plays the lead guitar role of Jerry here, taking John Mayer to school. The lyrics grapple with getting older, missing shows and taking summer vacations for granted. We don’t get those anymore.”

Of his new music in general, he previously noted that while it touches upon his recent cancer battle, it’s actually upbeat: “Of course the music you’re going to be hearing from me has a bit to do with when I was sick and what I’ve been pondering about my own life and life in general since then. Looking back, regret, and the like. But this is certainly the most joyous material I’ve ever released — my sad boy 22-year-old self would be in disbelief!”

Watch the “On The Nose” video above and find the Stars tracklist below.

1. “The Shore House”
2. “On The Nose”
3. “Harriton House”
4. “Our Of It”
5. “Don’t Lie”
6. “Best Love I Ever Had”
7. “Spine”
8. “Steal Away”
9. “The Thing”
10. “Market”

Stars is out 12/10 via Forged Artifacts. Pre-order it here.

Jason Momoa once described filming Dune as the most “beautiful” he’s ever felt on set, and now the actor is opening up even more about bringing the classic sci-fi epic to life with director Denis Villeneuve. In a new interview, Momoa delved into the fight training that was required for his role as Duncan Idaho. Granted, the actor is well-versed in big-budget action scenes thanks to his work on Aquaman, but the final battle in Dune required him to fight a massive amount of people. Yet despite the grueling fight preparation, Momoa revealed he tucked in a secret message to his son in the intricate fight. From a fun chat with IndieWire:

“We did a bunch of stuff like Kali,” which is a martial arts technique native to the Philippines. “I never really learned that. My son does that. There’s definitely these intimate moments where I’m signaling to my son. That’s a Kali move, where you put your hand on your heart and put it on your head. That’s to Timothée in the movie, but that’s to my son in real life.”

Momoa also revealed that when his agent called him to say Villeneuve specifically wanted him for the part, he had to literally race down from the top of a mountain to FaceTime the director, and it was worth the effort.

“Everyone was staring at me, and he had a whole book. It was this manifest. Pictures, everything. It was almost like he was pitching it to me, and I was taken aback,” Momoa said. “He asked if I would play Duncan. That’s never happened before.”

Dune is now playing in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.

(Via IndieWire)

Ricky Velez’ publicist reached out to me 16 months ago to set up this interview ahead of him taping his HBO comedy special (which drops Saturday on HBO at 10PM) which was “set to shoot post-COVID” back when we thought such a thing was around the corner or even possible. I bring this up to illustrate an obvious point that Velez (who you may remember from King Of Staten Island, which he co-starred in and produced, collaborating with friend Pete Davidson and now frequent collaborator Judd Apatow, who also produced the special) speaks to in our conversation — the world of stand-up comedy got turned upside down by something that kept performers from the audiences that support and validate their professional existence.

How did that time away impact Velez’s work and relationship to a profession that he is confident he’ll do until the day he dies? We spoke about that, his willingness to open up and talk about his life on stage in pursuit of connection, and what he’s learned from observing some of his most frequent collaborators.

How do you stay sharp and get that fill-up kind of feeling from doing comedy during COVID when you’re kind of just stuck doing nothing.

Yeah. I was stuck, and I definitely use stand-up a lot… it’s something that I love to do. And I love being a part of it, but at the time, it was a good time to exercise a new muscle, which was writing. And I worked with Judd [Apatow] and Judah Miller through the whole pandemic. And that kept me sharp. And then we went right back on the road the moment it was safe to. The moment I had two vaccines in me and two weeks passed me, it was time to hit the road, and we hit it as hard as we could.

Beyond just the monetary side of things, I’m sure comedy also fills a specific need in terms of just talking through stuff, processing your life. Without that, where did you turn to kind of get that fix while not being able to do comedy?

You just stay in touch with the guys you know that are funny. That’s what I did. I mean, I have great friends that are really, really, really funny people. And we all helped each other out during that time. And they were there for each other. It was a really tough time for comics, I believe. Because, unlike any other art, you absolutely need an audience to even practice it. So it was a hard time, but we’re through it. And I’m so happy we are.

The special was in the works for a long, long time. How does your idea of what the material’s going to be for this special change over that period?

The world changed, as did I, right? My environment changed, the people I was around, the people I was seeing, the people that I was able to see, let alone the people that I got to. And that was very important when getting back out on the road, to make sure this was the way to do it. I just felt that I knew, going into my special, based on traveling and seeing the world and seeing how other people were taking everything in. [That] was very important.

I know I’d read an interview where you talked about kind of catching fire for some stuff that you had said on Larry Wilmore’s show back in the day. When you’re coming up with material, what is the do not cross point for you?

I think I just try to be funny, not to just one group or another. I try to be funny across the board. And I don’t like to limit myself, so I’ll try anything. But I mean, if I’m hurting somebody or feel like I am, I move away from it.

What role does the challenge of it play? The challenge in terms of, “I’m going to tell this joke, I’m going to walk a really tight rope, and I’m going to find the funny there, and I’m going to get everybody to laugh at this thing.” Is that a part of what drives you as well?

Yes. Yes. I think it is, it definitely is finding a way to go about something, to talk about either topics, or your family, or something that means something to you, and making a whole room understand it in a moment in time. It’s a thrill.

What do you think it is that pisses comics off so much about the idea of quote cancel culture and the notion that if they, while they’re trying to do this comedic alchemy… if they veer too far in one direction, they may not just alienate people, but just actively spoil any notion of people picking them up again?

I don’t know, I don’t. I don’t know. I think that comics don’t like to be told much, so they definitely don’t want to be told how to speak, but I don’t know. I truly don’t know.

But at the end of the day, I mean, that is part of the challenge too. Isn’t it? To be able to say something and essentially make an impact and get away with it.

No, I think, me personally, I don’t go for that as much as I go for I want to make this a fun experience. That’s how I think about it. And this is what I find funny, and this is what me and my friends that I grew up with and that I’m friends with now belly-laugh about. And hopefully, you guys can understand what we’re saying, what I’m doing.

In the special, you talk about your father and your childhood and being beat as a kid. Have you always been willing to open yourself up to talk about certain things you’ve gone through in your life or did that come over time?

I started writing more personal the more I started to realize how much I was connecting with other people and the things I was talking about, I no longer felt alone about it.

Is that something achieved through direct interactions with your audience and people actually telling you about their stories?

Yeah. I remember when I first started talking about anxiety, I was shocked about how many people were coming up to me and telling me their stories. Even when my mother passed away, I had numerous people come out and reach out to me that had been in my everyday life when it comes to comedy and the rest, telling me their stories. And I just had no clue. So I feel like so often you feel alone and there are people just like you right next to you, and you don’t even know.

How does the working relationship with Judd inform your comedy and what have you learned from working with him?

The work’s never done, that’s how I feel until it’s taped. That’s something I learned from Judd. A lot of work is good work. And be open and lose the ego, and you’ll be fine.

What have you learned from just working with and observing the world as it responds to Pete Davidson [in terms of tabloid coverage]?

I think good work always trumps all that noise. And if you continue to do good work, you’ll continue being great. And that’s what I’ve noticed from those guys.

Who’s in your internal focus group? Do you run material by your wife before it even gets to a crowd before it even gets to other comedians, are there people in your life that you kind of run material by, just to see if it’s hitting, if it feels off?

No, I don’t do that. I bring it straight to the stage. I trust the audience, and I put myself in situations that I can play with it and everybody and get honest reactions. The one thing about my wife, though, if you want to make fun of your wife on stage, you have to have it kill when she comes to see it. If you just have a joke that’s poking at her, whatever, just make sure when she sees it, it’s amazing.

What is up next for you?

Writing, more stand-up, and just keeping the projects that I have in motion, in motion, and just allowing myself to be open to opportunities that are around.

Is there ever an endpoint? I guess the question is, do you ever perfect the art of stand-up comedy, or is that something that you feel you’re just going to do it till you die?

Yeah. I think I would probably do stand-up until the day I die. It’s one of those things, it’s a puzzle that’s never done. It’s a lot of fun. And I got to make my job, my hobby and vice versa. And I just feel really lucky to be able to go do my job whenever I want now. And that’s the one thing I’ve taken away from COVID is how grateful I am to have audiences again. But yeah, this isn’t something, just one day you stop doing.

Nate Bargatze has a great joke about how you can never really quit. You can’t just call somebody and be like, “I’m done.” So it would always just linger. It would always just linger in the back of your head, I would believe. But yeah, that’s why you see people do this until the day they die because it’s an addiction. It’s definitely something that fills a void possibly for a lot of people. And I think it’s changed my life, and I don’t know where I’d be without it.

Ricky Velez’ ‘Here’s Everything’ premieres on HBO Saturday at 10PM ET

While we’ll never say never when it comes to the possibility of the DC cinematic universe and Marvel cinematic universe one day colliding in a cape-filled showdown of epic proportions, as it stands now it does seem pretty farfetched. However, just because the two studios are owned by different parent companies and are in a pretty contentious rivalry with one another doesn’t mean the film’s directors can’t have a bit of fun slyly acknowledging the other one exists, right? Right.

In an exclusive interview with Comicbook, Eternals director Chloe Zhao admitted she did just that, placing a pretty apparent Superman reference within her debut Marvel film. According to the outlet, the scene occurs when Ikaris (Richard Madden) and Sersi (Gemma Chan) reunite with fellow Eternal Phastos (Brian Tyree Henry). Upon seeing Ikaris, Phastos’ son says, “Dad, that’s Superman! With the cape, and you were shooting laser beams out of your eyes!” However, Ikaris dismisses the rumor, responding with a quick, “I don’t wear a cape.” Zhao has now confirmed the young boy was, in fact, referencing that Superman, and proceeded to explain why:

“I take some responsibility for that. I think we’re in the business of telling stories about mythology, and Superman, for example, comes from origin of mythology. In many different cultures, there’s a form of Superman. And the people that created Superman and the brilliant filmmakers [who] brought Superman to screen, their movies are basically, in my opinion, doing a modern interpretation of that mythology.”

You gotta admit, Zhao’s reasoning makes complete sense given the Eternals intense emphasis on history, mythology, and an ever-expanding multiverse. It’s also just nice to hear that the folks working at Marvel still appreciate what the folks over at DC are doing with their stories. While Zhao certainly isn’t the first to pay tribute (in fact, Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige has actually admitted he watches Superman: The Movie before the start of production on most Marvel movies because it’s “the archetype of the perfect superhero film origin story”), it’s pretty cool to see Marvel studio’s newest addition to their directing team is already eager to spread some love.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t pay tribute and have a good time with these iconic ones that we all love to so much,” Zhao said. “I mean, who doesn’t love Superman and Batman? Clearly our Eternals like them.”

Eternals, starring Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayak, Lia McHugh, Don Lee, Barry Keoghan, Kit Harington, and Angelina Jolie, opens exclusively in theaters on November 5.

Barack Obama has maintained a public presence since leaving the White House, and he kept that going earlier this year when he teamed up with Bruce Springsteen to start hosting Renegades: Born In The USA. While it might be natural to assume that podcast was an idea the former POTUS was approached with, Obama says he was actually the driving force behind it.

Obama and Springsteen are the subject of a CBS Sunday Morning profile set to air this weekend, and in an advance clip, Obama says the podcast was his idea: “I always say when I first met Bruce, he seemed surprisingly shy considering he goes out there and sings before tens of thousands of people for hours at a time. And we just ended up being in settings where we’d have these long conversations, and I thought the things we were talking about — What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to be an American? — these were things that were just kind of poppin’ up over a meal or a drink. And I thought, “You know what? This might be something that would be useful for folks to hear.”

Springsteen them chimed in, “I initially thought that he had gotten a wrong number when he called me. I answered, I said, “Okay, let me figure this out. I am a guitar-playing high school graduate from Freehold, New Jersey, and you want me to do what?”

Watch the clip above.

As soon as I heard the line “I got my peaches out in Georgia/ I get my weed from California,” I knew Justin Bieber would be debuting a weed line. I even had a few guesses about the name. Of course, I didn’t know know. But I’ve been around the legal weed industry long enough to recognize a good marketing opportunity when I hear it.

So I was unsuprised when I heard the Biebs dropped a line of pre-rolls and I was even less surprised to hear that it would be called “Peaches.” The least surprisingly of all? My editor hitting me on Slack 12 seconds after the news broke to say, “We need to try these ASAP.”

So I did! Check my full review below.

PART I — THE WEED

Price:

The pre-rolls can be expected to retail from $50-$60 for a pack of seven, depending on where you live.

Availibility:

In California, Peaches partnered with pre-roll brand Palms and can be found at MedMen stores. The joints are also availible for delivery via Eaze. In Massachusetts and Florida, Peaches is partnered with Parallel and will be available exclusively at New England Treatment Access and Surterra Wellness, respectively. In Nevada, the line will be powered by Flower One and can be found at MedMen and Planet13.

Extra Context:

“I’m a fan of Palms and what they are doing by making cannabis approachable and helping to destigmatize it,” Bieber shared in a press release. “Especially for the many people who find it helpful for their mental health. I wanted to make sure that I was doing something with them that felt genuine, and PEACHES felt like a good place to start.”

Broadly speaking, this is a big deal for the cannabis world. There are plenty of celebrities with weed brands these days, including many hip-hop stars, like The Game, and actors like Seth Rogen, who were already vocally and proudly embedded in weed culture. Justin Bieber is arguably one of the most famous people on earth but isn’t associated with weed in any significant way.

Don’t forget, this is a guy who began his career as a child star and catapulted to stardom thanks to the affection of teenage girls. Every step he’s taken away from that image has proven to be sensational and controversial. It was only natural, as Bieber grew up and matured, that he would eventually shed his squeaky clean image. So while it wasn’t exactly a surprise to hear he gets down with the devil’s lettuce, it’s definitely a big step for reducing the stigma of the plant, however one chooses to use it.

The Philanthropy Angle:

A portion of proceeds from PEACHES Pre-Rolls will go to philanthropic partner organizations like Veterans Walk and Talk, a community of veterans who advocate for the outdoors and cannabis utilization as a form of medicine, and Last Prisoner Project, a leading nonprofit dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform that supports individuals and their families impacted by cannabis convictions.

Additionally, the Palms team will be supporting Eaze’s Momentum Business Accelerator and Social Equity Partners Program that aims to create a more diverse and sustainable industry.

PART II — TASTE TEST

Joint Details:

The pre-roll packs consist of seven 0.5 gram joints bucketed into Indica, Sativa and Hybrid strains, as well as a Peaches-branded lighter. The Sativa pack strain is Golden Jack, which clocks in at 28.34% THC. The Indica pack is made with Skittles-n-Cream, which tested at 27.96% THC and the Hybrid pack’s strain is White Runtz, which I was pleased to learn contains 23.11% THC.

Structure-wise, they are longer and skinnier than most half-gram joints, which I like. They look chic. The pack was a little tight and, sometimes, I had to massage the joints to break up the weed to make sure it pulled evenly and consistently.

The High:

As for the weed, it’s… okay. Pre-rolls are a tough category for manufacturers because the very things that make good weed good weed are inherently hampered by the manufacturing process. Mechanical grinding causes trichomes to fall off, which are the little crystals that deliver THC and other cannabinoids. It also causes terpenes, which give smell and taste, to evaporate, and the actual weed to go dry. Some companies also use crappy weed in the joints, causing them to be repositories of trim and other less potent and desirable by-products of the cannabis manufacturing process. Pre-rolls are convenient, sure, and there are some top-shelf options out there that manage to retain taste, smell, and the appropriate amount of moisture, but for the most part, it’s a difficult category to get right.

I sampled joints from each pack and tried the Hybrid first, and I was surprised the smoke was so mellow, high-wise. Smoking the other two packs resulted in a noticeable difference in the high — I got more stoned from the Sativa and Indica joints. Learning the THC content of all packs confirmed my suspicion that some were more potent than others.

“Peaches Pre Rolls don’t have terpene infused papers or infused plant material, they’re full-flower, single strain indoor-grown from partner farms in California,” Noah Annes, the founder of Palms told me, also confirming that no shake or trim was used.

Apart from a few whiffs of taste here and there, they’re largely tasteless. Many pre-rolls are — it’s not necessarily an indicator of the resulting high, which is pleasant. In the Hybrid joints there are faint fruity terpenes, which at times are redolent of peaches (the fruit).

PART III — THE BOTTOM LINE

Ultimately, Peaches pre-rolls will definitely get you buzzed, though it’s not the most potent stuff out there. That’s actually okay with me because I like to smoke throughout the day, and, lately, I am getting a little bulldozed by extremely high THC weed that results in nothing other than couch lock.

Point being: peaches are good social joints. They’re not going to get you the highest nor are they likely to impress OG weed heads, who more often focus on THC percentage and terpenes than anything supporting functional smoking. But they will be a hit at the party, which I think is really the point of why these exist at all. They are perfect road dogs, which will have you looking stylish and pleasantly buzzed for whatever adventures the day should bring.

This is weed you can chill on and socialize with. It’s weed you can take hiking or enjoy at the beach. It’s functional weed. That’s a sorely needed thing in this day and age of legal weed.

CNN’s Jake Tapper didn’t hold back his thoughts while addressing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s unhinged screaming match with Liz Cheney on the House floor. Despite both being Republican congresswomen, Greene and Cheney represent an ideological divide inside a party that continues to grapple with its allegiance to Trump. During a Thursday night hearing on holding Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for his refusal to testify before Congress, Greene randomly approached Cheney, who serves on the Jan. 6 select committee, and she began yelling bizarre questions about when the House would start investigating the Black Lives Matters protests.

It was an awkward scene, to say the least, and Tapper unloaded on Greene. “I’m not a licensed psychologist, I don’t know her, but her behavior suggests somebody that has real issues, that is not tethered to reality or basic standards of decent behavior,” he said during Friday’s edition of New Day.

The CNN anchor also made a wider point about what Greene’s actions say about the current state of the Republican Party. Via Mediaite:

“Kevin McCarthy has chosen the Marjorie Taylor Greene direction, that is the MAGA direction, that is the Donald Trump direction, that is the election lie direction, that is the, ‘We are not going to care if people are engaged in racist anti-Semitic conspiracy theory politics.’ That’s fine. And Liz Cheney provides the alternative view,” he said. “I look at what happened on the floor of the House as much more significant than just a squabble.”

According to Tapper, Republicans have either two choices for the future of the party: Greene or Cheney, and there is no third option. “Which one are you going to follow?” he asked to close out the segment.

(Via New Day on Twitter, Mediaite)

One of the more amusing/annoying things about Twitter is the preponderance of food opinions and the rigor with which users debate such weighty and controversial topics as pineapple on pizza, whether hot dogs are sandwiches, and drumettes vs. flats. It generally tips further into annoying, though, when folks get snooty about things like bottled water brands as indicators of wealth (it’s a whole thing; you can read about it here). Unfortunately, it seems no one is immune from the judgment of the Twitter peanut gallery — not even young artists as universally beloved as Chloe Bailey.

The 23-year-old singer recently attended the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks vs. Dallas Mavericks game, drawing attention for two major reasons. One was her immediate neighbor on the courtside seats: Atlanta rapper Gunna, whose reaction to Chloe’s recent VMA’s performance of her debut solo single “Have Mercy” went viral. And the other was her choice of beverage — a bottle of water. As photos of the couple(?) began circulating on Twitter, the water began drawing even more attention, mainly due to the name on the label: Dasani, which according to some Twitter users is an inferior brand (the ingredients are H2O, people, it shouldn’t be this serious).

Meanwhile, as some more astute folks observed, the brand of water being served is controlled by the venue, not the guest, and they were rightly amused at the water snobbery on display.

I guess it just goes to show that you can’t do anything right as far as social media is concerned. Also, y’all need to drink more water, I promise it’s better for you than whatever sweet drinks you’re guzzling — no matter what brand it is.

Every SNL fan adores Kenan Thompson. He’s the longest-running cast member on the show, and he’s a comedy legend who finally gained leading man status NBC sitcom (Kenan, obviously) this year with a second season to come. He’s been making us laugh since D2: The Mighty Ducks and Kenan and Kal, and he’ll probably be the best part of the upcoming Home Alone follow-up on Disney+. He’s held countless SNL sketches together (he’s the greatest fake game show host of all time — sorry, Will Farrell) and earned the highest level of respect from his fellow cast members. No one ever has a bad word to say about Kenan Thompson’s character as a person. I dare you to go google that. You won’t find a thing.

Nope, the guy is simply committed to making you laugh, and he inherently knows what works, and what doesn’t, and when to just roll with it. And as Kenan told us, he absolutely loves it when sketches don’t turn out as planned, when the cast can’t hold it together and starts laughing, and when the energy flow from the live audience is palpable. That’s part of why SNL is an institution, and part of why Kenan’s been a ready, steady presence there for nearly two decades. He’s slightly less funny in a new ad campaign from Autotrader, which aims to make the car-buying process easier and, yes, fun. We chatted with Kenan about his career and why he’s so grateful for everything that he’s got going on these days, at work and in life.

I think that I’m obliged to pester you about how long you’re planning on staying at SNL, so let’s get that out of the way first.

Oh yeah, that’s a main topic of discussion. It’s a staple in my life and in America’s life, but yeah, I have my number that I would like to get to, and then after that, it’s up in the air-ish, you know what I mean? It’s just such a special place, and I don’t know that I ever have to leave, but at the same time, I would like to make room for others, so if I can get to my 20 [seasons], that would be great. And I’m on 19 right now, so that doesn’t seem too far-fetched.

What do you think it is about SNL that makes people ask that question? No one asks Law and Order: SVU people that question.

It’s the greatest comedy show in history. Just the live element and the air, and what the show has achieved. It’s a monument and a staple, and everybody respects it, and everybody protects it. So, when you’re inside of that studio, no matter how famous you are, people come back down to their human selves and have a good time. It’s just a special experience.

Well, one of my favorite things about SNL is when you guys break character when something is just so funny that you can’t keep it together.

Yeah, that’s another thing! That’s another thing that makes it special.

Last season with Keegan-Michael Key, he was beating the hell out of Muppets. You started to break. What goes through your head at a moment like that, when things are going off the rails.

I crave those moments. I want it to go off the rails. That’s what makes it different and exciting and much-watched TV and all of that. And when anybody like Keegan comes on, it’s hard for me to keep a straight face at all. But the fact that the audience gets to see the fun that we’re having as well, you know, that’s a whole different experience for everybody.

I got carried away last night rewatching “Black Jeopardy” sketches, and I was thinking of the major hosting mess with actual Jeopardy. Will SNL truly give its view on the host-changing fiasco, maybe through “Black Jeopardy”?

I guess we’re waiting on the official outcome before we harp on what has happened [laughs] so far. That’s usually how it goes. We have to wait for the finished story, so we can actually reflect it, basically. Right now, it’s still fluctuating or something, or did they finally land on a host?

For the rest of the year, Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings are sharing things until they really figure it out.

Exactly, so I guess there will be little touches like me doing LeVar Burton in the Cold Open. And little mentions of LeVar, like the week before, I played Levar B. Burton because he’s in the zeitgeist right now, but as far as doing the whole journey of the Jeopardy! host, we’ll just have to wait until the end.

With interviews about commercials, things can get really random. When Ice-T did that Tide commercial, we talked about, you know, Twitter. Speaking of which, I saw that you saw that Dionne Warwick called you out. Did you figure out why?

[Laughs] Not yet! But I’m intrigued. I think it’s so hilarious that Dionne Warwick tweets so much. It’s really funny. She was definitely on Ego [Nwodim]’s back when she did the impression, so I just think that’s great. We’ve got action with Dionne Warwick out there, that’s an awesome thing.

So how does an LA-to-New York guy like yourself get involved with Autotrader?

You know, they called! Luckily, I was checking a lot of boxes with them as far as people who could be potential faces for their brand right now. When they called and talked about their platform, I mean, I was familiar with Autotrader, but I wasn’t as familiar with all the advances that they’re making with their product, so I just thought it was great. And it was an easy thing for me to do. It was like a one-day shoot, so it checked a lot of boxes for me, too. It was a nice, pretty even conversation. I like what they’re doing. The car-buying experience is easier probably than it’s even been in history. It’s right there in the palm of your hand, and the car gets delivered to your house. That’s the thing.

Well, buying a car, traditionally speaking, is not a very fun experience.

Yeah, it’s a tough deal! Going and shopping and figuring out, “Which brand do I want?” Walking that strip in everybody’s town that’s just dealership row and just trying to figure out which one fits and what you want and what you can afford. Those are usually two very different things. They’ve really broken it down to a way where you can skip a lot of headaches and still have the involvement of the car salesman as well, so it’s not like you’re cutting out the middleman or anything like that. It’s just making it convenient for the everyday guy like myself.

You’re an everyday guy whose sitcom got renewed for a second season. Did NBC’s Kenan seem overdue to you?

I’m a big believer in destiny, so I believe that things work out like they’re supposed to. It doesn’t really help for me to have a chip on my shoulder like, “Oh, I should have done this years ago!” Because that might sour what I’m trying to do right now. I want to feel appreciative in the moment and just go to work happy and dedicated because I am doing the show, and nothing is necessarily promised. Not even tomorrow, so I just try to approach it that way and just take the blessings as they come and not harp on the fact that the blessings didn’t come when I expected them to. They say a lot in church and stuff that, you know, God comes when he’s supposed to and I think there’s validity in that. Things happen when they happen, and I think a better attitude about it is to be grateful when it does happen.

Here’s a tangent for you: Snakes On A Plane recently turned fifteen years old.

Nice!

When was the moment while you were making that movie when you realized it would be such an instant cult classic?

I thought it was gonna be that from the idea. I hadn’t seen an airplane horror movie where snakes get loose on an airplane. I was like, “Oh, that’s a crazy idea in general.” And then Sam Jackson is probably one of the best on-deck players that there’s ever been. Whenever he takes a swing, it’s gonna go somewhere, so that was cool. And they added on the rest of the cast: Julianna [Marguiles] and everyone else. That was before anyone knew Chris Hemsworth’s wife, Elsa [Pataky]. I could tell, just from the vibing. Flex [Alexander] was in there, and he’s my brother, so I got to play a character with him. I was excited about building something with people that I liked… It felt like it had the pedigree. And when I was making it, everyone was taking it very seriously. I was like, “You all know we’re making a comedy, right?”

For sure, including your cockpit scene with Samuel. That was gold.

They were like, no, we’re making an action movie. I was like, “Sure!” And I was right. Everyone took it as a cult comedy because it became kinda silly with CGI snakes, early in the CGI game. It just looked kinda funny, so I enjoyed the whole movement of it becoming cultish. You know, “Get these snakes off this MF-ing plane!” It was becoming a thing even before it came out, so I think I was right in my approach that we should be having fun with it.

Back in the day, what led you to stick with comedy when you were sort-of at a crossroads after Kenan and Kel?

Acting, I guess, was always on my mind, the career trajectory path or whatever, was just going heavy in the comedy direction, so I didn’t feel the need to grind gears to a halt, just as I was getting started in the adult world. The kid world and the adult world are two different things, so I until I was able to get it going in the adult world, and I was qualified to be like, “I’m done with that and did everything I wanted to in comedy,” I was always in the mindset to just keep working and doing it, and then if I get dramatic opportunities, I’ll get a chance to showcase that, and it’ll be a thing later down the line.

I’ve read that a lot of funny people have a hard time turning off their comedy during downtime, and they always feel the need to entertain. Do you ever feel that way?

I guess it’s different for me because I approach entertainment through acting, so yeah, I can turn it off and on, I think. But like, my sense of humor and the need to laugh never goes away, but the need to entertain others, I don’t know if I have that itch.

It’s probably so much easier that you can turn it off at home.

Yeah! And I also don’t wanna, like, annoy my family.

No matter how cool you are in real life, your kids are never gonna tell you that you’re cool.

Yeah, they’re living their life. So, if I have jokes that actually pertain to their life and are on point, and what they’re going through and the timing of their day, yeah, they’ll laugh. But if I’m just making jokes like a jokester guy, I’m just their dad telling jokes.

We’re out of time, but if you could join any drama on TV right now, as a guest, what would it be?

It’s gotta be Law and Order: SVU, man. That’s the longest moving thing, that’s the mothership. Shout out to Ice-T.

500 episodes!

23 years and counting. Good for him.

Let’s get you on there.

Incredible.

‘SNL’ is currently cranking through its 47th season, and you can find out more about Autotrader’s “Finally, It’s Easy” ad campaign at their website.