Month: October 2021

Being on SNL means often being called on to do impersonations. Pete Davidson doesn’t usually do that. He does himself, usually appearing on Weekend Update to talk about himself. But he’s done the occasional impersonation. One is Rami Malek. They look a bit alike. They both have bulging eyes, for one. So when Malek wound up hosting SNL, it was only fitting that Davidson did his impersonation of him to his face…and vice versa.

In the sketch “Celeb Game Show” — basically their version of Jeopardy! but with twice the famous guests — host Kenan Thompson lords over a treasure trove of celebs. There’s John Oliver (Mikey Day). There’s Adam Driver (James Austin Johnson). There’s George Takei (Bowen Yang). There’s Lil Wayne (Chris Redd). There’s SNL alum Kristen Wiig (Melissa Villaseñor). And there’s current cast member Pete Davidson (Rami Malek) and the night’s host Rami Malek (Pete Davidson).

Sitting a mere foot or two from Malek, Davidson still plays the host as an awkward weirdo, with a monotone drone. Malek returns the favor, amping up Davidson’s raw nerve rantiness and ability to overuse the word “dude.” Neither of them also seem to know the answer to which Revolutionary War battle was fought in NYC. (It’s the Battle of Brooklyn.) Hopefully they had a big bear hug afterwards.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Last week, Paul McCartney delivered his thoughts about The Rolling Stones during a profile with The New Yorker. The singer referred to them as a “blues cover band” while making a comparison to The Beatles and added, “I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.” Many were taken aback by McCartney’s comments, but Mick Jagger had nothing but jokes about it as he used a recent performance in Los Angeles to take a slight jab at McCartney for his comments.

“There’s so many celebrities here tonight,” Jagger said during the October 14 show. “Megan Fox is here, she’s lovely. Leonardo DiCaprio. Lady Gaga. Kirk Douglas. Paul McCartney is here, he’s going to help us — he’s going to join us in a blues cover later.” Just to make sure everyone got a laugh out of the situation, Jagger later posted a video of his comments to his Twitter page.

It turns out that this is not the first time McCartney made comments like these about The Rolling Stones. Last year, during a conversation on SiriusXM with Howard Stern, McCartney dove a bit deeper into the topic. “They are rooted in the blues,” he said. “When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. We had a little more influences. … There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”

Of course, Jagger responded to those comments as well, joking that “there’s obviously no competition” between the bands. “One band is unbelievably luckily still playing in stadiums, and then the other band doesn’t exist,” he added.

You can hear Jagger’s response to McCartney in the video above.

The music world is currently enjoying Young Thug’s second album Punk as the rapper released it on Friday. He first announced the project two years ago, which came less than a week after he released his debut So Much Fun. After previewing songs at Miami’s Rolling Loud festival and during his NPR Tiny Desk, the rapper released Punk with just a slight delay. To further promote the project, Young Thug brought his talents to Saturday Night Live for a pair of electric performances.

Thug started the night with a brief performance of “Tick Tock,” the promotional single the rapper released prior to Punk. It came with the presence of a live band that featured Travis Barker on drums who ended it with an energetic drum solo. Later on in the night, Thug returned to the stage to perform “Love You More” with Gunna as well as Nate Ruess from the bands Fun and The Format. Travis Barker was also on drums for this performance while Ruess covered the song’s hook and Gunna delivered a verse of his own.

Altogether, Punk presents 20 songs and additional appearances from Drake, Future, J. Cole, Travis Scott, Gunna, Doja Cat, T-Shyne, Bslime, Post Malone, ASAP Rocky, Lil Double 0, and Jeff Bashker.

You can watch the performances in the videos above.

Punk is out now via 300 Entertainment/Atlantic Records. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Tennessee Volunteers played host to the 13th ranked Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday night at Neyland Stadium. It was a highly-anticipated night game, one in which the Vols hoped to win and use as a springboard into the top-25, but during the fourth quarter, the game was temporarily stopped due to frustration boiling over from fans over a bad call.

Tennessee faced a fourth-and-24 with the ball on its own 26 while trailing, 31-26, with less than a minute to go. Quarterback Hendon Hooker found Jacob Hooker and appeared to get a first down by a yard or two, but the officials ultimately decided that he was short, giving the Rebs the ball and infuriating the home fans.

Here’s the thing: There were 54 seconds left and the Vols had all three timeouts, so the game was by no means over, even if a lot would need to go right for Tennessee. But the fans in Neyland were (pretty understandably!) not happy, and as a result, they let the refs know that they were upset. There were boos, of course, but things went to another level when the fans started launching things onto the field.

At one point, Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was hit with a golf ball, while Tennessee’s band and cheerleaders had to exit the field.

And then, in one of the more absurd things said/shown on television during a college football game, we learned some of the things that were hucked onto the field, including a bottle of mustard.

Again, the Vols had a chance to win, and they dang near made it happen. They forced a three-and-out, got a good return on the punt, and moved the ball down to the Rebs’ 21. They came up a bit short — backup QB Joe Milton tried running for it and only gained 13 yards — but this was one of the more chaotic scenes you’ll see in the sport. And on top of it all, Kiffin made sure he kept his souvenir.

As he walked off the field, fans kept throwing things, as Kiffin caught a water bottle that was chucked at his head and then tossed his visor to fans above the tunnel as one last sendoff.

As the NBA season approaches and the preseason winds down, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their potential, and for the Indiana Pacers, that means a prolific scoring wing in Caris LeVert.

The 2020-21 season was an odd one for the Pacers, with the team scuffling to a 34-38 record that prompted another head coaching change. During the campaign, it was not a well-kept secret that Indiana’s locker room had turned on Nate Bjorkgren, which could explain some of the uneven performance, but injuries also tormented the Pacers, particularly on the wing. T.J. Warren enjoyed a breakout in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble, but he appeared in only four games, and the Pacers made a move in January to add to their wing depth with LeVert.

During the trade process, a physical flagged a mass on LeVert’s kidney and, while he was able to make a full recovery, the former Michigan and Brooklyn Nets standout did not return to action until March. By the time he returned, LeVert was able to play in 35 games, but the circumstances were suboptimal for evaluation purposes, and questions loom about how Indiana might approach the upcoming 2021-22 season.

For one, Warren remains a giant question mark for health reasons. That puts additional pressure on LeVert, Justin Holiday, lottery pick Chris Duarte, and others to fill the gap on the wing. Beyond that, the Pacers have a proven head coach in Rick Carlisle, and he will likely want to put his own fingerprints on what transpires in Indianapolis.

LeVert is a notable scorer, including a mark of 20.2 points per game last season and 20.7 points per game with the Pacers. That type of scoring prowess from a wing is clearly desirable in the modern NBA, but LeVert has never been a dominant defender, and his career true shooting mark of 52.5 percent leaves plenty to be desired.

Indiana does have talent, with Malcolm Brogdon, Myles Turner, and Domantas Sabonis standing alongside LeVert in the starting group. There are questions about how the Turner-Sabonis pairing might progress but, at the very least, it is easy to project what Brogdon, Turner, and Sabonis might bring individually. The same could be said for LeVert from a volume scoring perspective, but the 27-year-old could also take the next step with a full season in a new environment and an avenue to develop into the team’s clear No. 1 option if things break right.

There are other potential X-factors for the Pacers as a period of potential transition approaches. LeVert tops the list, however, and the 2021-22 season could also be a significant one for LeVert individually, as he attempts to make the jump from a strong supporting piece to a potential centerpiece.

The Cleveland Cavaliers wrapped up their preseason on Friday night against the Indiana Pacers. In a game where both coaches found it paramount to get as many dudes playing time as possible in the lead-up to the regular season, the Cavs came out on top against their division rivals, 110-94. Now, Cleveland can kick its collective feet up ahead of the start of the season.

A fun happened in the aftermath of the win, though. The Cavs’ social media team thought it’d be fun to use a random picture of Kyle Guy in its postgame graphic on Twitter, which, why not, ya know? Here is that:

Again, this is Kyle Guy, a professional basketball player who won a national championship at the University of Virginia and spent the first few years of his NBA career with the Sacramento Kings. It is not Jack Harlow, although plenty of folks wondered if it was.

Among those who thought this was a picture of Jack Harlow playing for the Cavaliers was the man himself.

In fairness to, well, everyone, Guy and Harlow look extremely similar — the former also had some fun with this by retweeting the latter’s post. Guy had five points in 10 minutes of work off the bench for the Cavaliers on Friday night, while Harlow, I presume, did something else.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Tyga was arrested on felony domestic violence charges after the rapper’s now ex-girlfriend, fashion designer, and influencer Camaryn Swanson posted a video to her Instagram Story that showed injuries that she allegedly attained from him. TMZ reported that, on October 11, police officers were called to Tyga’s house around 3 a.m. Swanson accused Tyga of putting his hands on her. Authorities at the scene said they were able to see visible marks on her. But Tyga has denied the claims.

In a post to his Instagram Story on Friday, Tyga wrote, “I want everyone to know that the allegations against me are false. I was not arrested. I took myself into the police station and cooperated. I have not been charged with any crime.” However, a search of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website shows he was indeed arrested on October 12 and posted a $50,000 bond. His next court date is set for February 8, 2022.

Tyga and Swanson began dating in early 2021 and they went official with their relationship in March. Swanson also shared details of the incident in additional posts to Instagram Story, writing that she was “emotionally, mentally, and physically abused.”

As the NBA season approaches and training camps get underway, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their full potential.

In Houston, the goal this season isn’t to win a lot or compete for a playoff spot, but simply to lay a foundation with their young guys. John Wall is, effectively, done playing for the team, while Eric Gordon seems primed for a trade. Christian Wood also could be a hot commodity at the trade deadline if the Rockets shift their focus completely to the future. Jalen Green is the expected centerpiece of it all and will have ample opportunity to learn on the job, but more interesting to me are the rest of their first round picks.

Green is the guy Houston is building around, but after taking four players in the first round, they are hoping that at least one of them shows that they belong in that foundational core. Alperen Sengun, Usman Garuba, and Josh Christopher all got picked up in the first 24 picks of the 2021 NBA Draft and each showed different flashes in Summer League action, where Green was the unquestionable star.

For Sengun, the question is how he’ll fare on the defensive side of the ball, where he has rim protection ability but has a lot of work to do on being able to function in space when asked to defend the pick-and-roll. The pick-and-roll crazed NBA will be trial by fire for him in that regard, but his offensive skillset is robust for a 19-year-old and the Rockets will get a chance to see how he improves across a full season with what should be considerable minutes.

On the other end of the big man spectrum is Garuba. The Spanish national will immediately be a force on the defensive end, as he showed during Spain’s Olympics run, but it’ll be his offensive development that will be critical. Garuba is an outrageously good defender with size, quickness, and a basketball IQ that allows him to make the right reads and rotations seemingly every time. However, he’s incredibly raw on offense and isn’t going to give Houston any real scoring punch early on, but if he can make strides in simply being a better finisher off the catch, he can play a much larger role.

Then there’s Christopher, who’s value is as a scorer but needs to improve on shot selection and, just generally, being a better jump shooter. Playing on a team with other bucket-getters like Green and Kevin Porter Jr. might require him to be a bit more discerning with what shots he’s taking by sheer force, and the Rockets are hoping he can be a high-upside steal — a bit of balance for the high-floor pick of Garuba one spot ahead of him.

Ideally, all four look the part of quality NBA players, but history tells us that’s unlikely. It would be a win for Houston to have one of these three pop alongside Green, and the good news for all of them is that they should get ample opportunity to work through the highs and lows in their rookie season.

A Division III college football game ended in one of the most crushing ways you can imagine. A pair of schools in Wisconsin — 11th ranked UW-La Crosse and UW-Platteville — went toe-to-toe in Platteville on Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers had a chance to pull an upset, all they needed to do was get themselves in position for a score as time expired despite having no timeouts.

They managed to do just that, getting the ball down to the Eagles’ 15 with less than 10 seconds remaining and the team trailing, 24-23. The playbook from there is easy enough: kill some clock, spike the ball with a few seconds left, send out the field goal team, and hope the 32-yard boot goes through the uprights.

But a problem popped up. Platteville’s quarterback mixed up what he was supposed to do in this situation, and instead of spiking the ball with five seconds left, he took a knee.

The quarterback even started walking off, thinking he did the right thing. It was so surprising that even the clock operator in the stadium stopped it from counting down for a moment, because they, too, assumed a spike was coming. The Pioneers had a few seconds to line back up and spike it, but they did not do it in time and their attempt at an upset came up short.

For the second consecutive year (due to you-know-what), The Batman panel capped off the DC FanDome event, and this time, we’re seeing a full-on trailer. (Whew, it’s intense.) DC Comics fans are getting plenty of peeks at director Matt Reeves’ vision of what led Bruce Wayne to become a masked vigilante. And boy, is Robert Pattinson’s take a brutal one, although one would be forgiven for being distracted by Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman wondering aloud about what’s underneath Batman’s cowl while uttering the most glorious movie cliché of all time: “Maybe we’re not so different.”

One thing is certain about this trailer: Bruce Wayne is dealing with many adversaries, and they just won’t stop coming at Batman. As well, the gloom and the grime and all of the tangibly pulpy glory is so vivid and punchy in its presentation, that it’s no wonder that DC decided to release a new collection of Batman comics that include a Frank Miller origin story. However, this is surely not a straight-up adaptation of Year One or any other singular comic. In addition, The Riddler (Paul Dano, enjoying a cuppa and leaving puzzles for fans to solve) and The Penguin (Colin Farrell, who’s sounding like the toughest cabbie in all of Gotham) should figure prominently in this movie.

This trailer re-highlights the “I am vengeance” snarl from Pattinson (from the previous teaser), and he’s not here for anyone describing his Batman as “sweetheart.” It’s a joyous experience to see him pummeling all of those goons. Bye bye, Edward Cullen, you’re gone for good, and this film might also vanquish the sneakily-inserted Batman origin story that Todd Phillips inserted into Joker. Neither film, it must be noted, is part of the DCEU, although The Batman takes place in the same universe as an upcoming HBO Max series about the Gotham PD. So many universes.

The Batman arrives on March 4, 2022.