Month: November 2021

Aaron Rodgers won’t be playing against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on Sunday, but that hasn’t stopped him from being the lead topic of conversation around the NFL.

The Packers quarterback is out after getting COVID-19 this week, which led to the revelation that he is unvaccinated and, per league rules, cannot return to the team until next Saturday at the earliest. Rodgers had previously said he was “immunized” prior to the season, leading many to assume he had gotten the vaccine. However, we learned this week what that meant was he underwent an “alternative treatment” that he tried to get the NFL to approve as equal to the vaccine but they denied that request — Rodgers saying they thought he was “a quack.”

On top of Rodgers’ absence, the Packers are now under investigation for not requiring Rodgers to follow all of the league’s protocols for unvaccinated players like flying separately and being masked in press conferences. Rodgers then went on the Pat McAfee Show on Friday and explained his position and why he hadn’t followed policies and gotten the vaccine, saying he took advice from Joe Rogan rather than doctors and medical professionals and spewed an awful lot of other misinformation regarding the vaccine.

On Sunday, Rodgers’ situation was addressed on every NFL pregame show and no one had a stronger rebuke of Rodgers than Terry Bradshaw, who lit into the Packers signal-caller on Fox NFL Sunday for being a liar and calling out those who refuse the vaccine as “thinking only about themselves.”

Michael Strahan also expressed frustration with Rodgers’ comments in which he referenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., saying, “there are times to quote MLK, and this is not one of them.” The Rodgers situation has become fodder for conversation well beyond just the NFL and sports world, as SNL took aim at him in their cold open as well, with Pete Davidson playing the role of the QB.

The tragic events that occurred at the 2021 Astroworld Festival this past weekend have the music industry in complete shock. Eight attendees died and hundreds more were injured in a night gone wrong. The incident occurred during Travis Scott’s solo set, which was to close the first of two nights at Astroworld. What happened left the rapper “absolutely devastated,” as he revealed in a statement the following morning, adding, “My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.” Now, Roddy Ricch, who also performed at the festival, is also taking steps to help the families of those who died.

In a post to his Instagram Story, Ricch shared his plan to help. “Please have the families of those who we lost yesterday reach out to @shawnholiday,” he wrote. “I’ll b donating my new compensation to the families of this incident. #Pray4Houston.”

Roddy’s announcement comes after Travis Scott shared a second statement about the Astroworld tragedy. “I just want to send out prayers to the ones that was lost last night,” he said in part in a video shared to his Instagram Story. He later added, “I’m honestly just devastated. I could never imagine anything like this happening… Love you all.”

Roddy Ricch is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last week, it was revealed that Ice Cube is not vaccinated. And he has no intention of doing so. He even walked away from a comedy movie, Oh Hell No, opposite Jack Black, which would have netted him both $9 million and a winter shoot in Hawaii. What is he thinking? On this weekend’s Kieran Culkin-hosted SNL, the show’s writing room hazarded a guess as to why.

During Weekend Update, Keenan Thompson swung by as the rap legend and movie star to explain to co-anchor Michael Che why on earth he, like Emilio Estevez, is turning down easy money and paid vacations by refusing to take an FDA-approved vaccine to protect himself from a highly transmissible and deadly virus.

“Hey look, man. I’d just rather be myself than take that vaccine, like you other three billion bozos,” Thompson’s Cube replied. When Che pointed out that he’d “lost” a good gig, Cube disagreed. “Not my loss, your loss. Oh Hell No was going to feature the greatest comedy duo of all time: Ice Cube, Jack Black,” he said. “The comedy chemistry, man. You know what I’m saying?”

He then rattled off a list of all the movies we won’t be getting because Cube won’t take some world-saving medication, from a fourth Barbershop, to a Friday prequel (Thursday, natch), to an M. Night Shyamalan twist-a-thon called Uh Oh, Twist Comin’, which has its own novel twist.

Throughout, Thompson’s Cube avoids the question: Why won’t he get vaccinated. But Che had a theory. “So you’re scared of needles, right?” he asked him, to which Cube replied with a sheepish affirmative.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Kieran Culkin isn’t even 40 yet, but he’s been around forever. He made his screen debut, when he was still single digits, in Home Alone, alongside his older brother Macaulay. Not long after, he made his SNL debut, joining Macaulay when he hosted the show. That was just a couple weeks shy of exactly 30 years ago, on the episode that aired on November 23, 1991. Three decades later, Kieran finally got to host the show himself. And during his opening monologue (following an epic, Trumpy cold open), he made sure to point that out.

Kieran — who for the last few years has been receiving raves for his turn as arguably the slimiest (and probably least good at basketball) sibling on HBO’s hit Succession — took the stage at 30 Rock Saturday night, and when he did he set a few records straight. One, he’s a lot nicer than Roman Roy, the character to which he returned for the show’s ongoing third season. Two, he has fond memories of appearing on SNL with his brother “Mac.”

Eventually he started narrating over footage of that episode’s final bows, which saw cast members lifting Macaulay, then only 11, on the shoulders, all while young Kieran watched. Kieran then turns to longtime cast member Kevin Nealon, who winds up doing the same for him. (Speaking of, on Friday Kieran told Jimmy Fallon about how he wasn’t quite as nice to Nealon earlier that week.)

Kieran’s appearance on SNL prompted a lot of people to post then-and-now pics.

Others shared clips from the show 30 years ago, which saw Kieran appearing in three sketches (“two of which are non-problematic,” Kieran himself joked during his monologue).

And sure enough, at the end of the show, Kieran got picked up, just like he did during the Bush I years.

You can watch Kieran Culkin’s SNL monologue in the video above.

On Saturday morning, the music world woke up to the shocking news that eight people had been killed and hundreds had been injured at Travis Scott’s 2021 Astroworld Festival. The tragic incident is believed to be the result of cramped conditions in the crowd, though an investigation is still underway. Travis issued a response on his social media pages on Saturday, writing, “I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld Festival.” Later that day, he shared another message about the matter on his Instagram Story.

“I just want to send out prayers to the ones that was lost last night,” he said in a video. “We’re actually working right now to identify the families, so we can help assist them through this tough time. My fans really mean the world to me. I always just really want to leave them with a positive experience.”

He added, “Anytime I could make out, you know, anything that’s going on, you know I stop the show and, you know, help them get the help they need. I could just never imagine the severity of the situation.” Travis also promised to work with the Houston Police Department to “try to get to the bottom of this.” He also asked those in attendance to contact local authorities with any information, concluding, “I’m honestly just devastated. I could never imagine anything like this happening… Love you all.”

Earlier this year, Republicans went all-in on protecting children’s entertainment. It was shortly after some of them had played some kind of role in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 riot. They needed to distract people from Donald Trump’s disgraceful exit from office. So they made a big deal out of a few problematic Dr. Seuss books being pulled from circulation. They claimed the left was trying to “cancel” the Muppets, Pepé Le Pew, Mr. Potato Head, and certain Disney animated classics. Jump to the back end of the year and now they’re doing the opposite: They’re coming for Big Bird.

It all started with a tweet from the official Twitter account belonging to one of Sesame Street’s most beloved figures: the towering yellow avian, who’s been educating and delighting children since 1969. Last week, COVID-19 vaccines were finally approved for children ages 5 through 11. And so Big Bird did his part by telling kids, and their hopefully not brainwashed parents, that they should get vaxxed against a highly transmissible and very deadly disease.

“I got the COVID-19 vaccine today!” Big Bird wrote. “My wing is feeling a little sore, but it’ll give my body an extra protective boost that keeps me and others healthy.” He thanked CNN’s journalist Erica R. Hill for pointing out that, like most kids, he’s been receiving vaccines “since I was a little bird. I had no idea!”

It was cute! And it will save lives. Nice work, Big Bird! But there were some people who were not happy that a fictional character was telling children to stay safe. Those people were Republicans.

Leading the charge was arguably the most dragged person on Twitter, Senator Ted Cruz. But he wasn’t the only one mad at a children’s character dispensing sound medical advice.

Soon people were mocking Republicans for getting mad at Big Bird.

Others pointed out that Big Bird has been receiving vaccinations against various illnesses since at least 1972.

But some did wonder why it took so long for Big Bird — a performer who regularly works alongside cast and crew, in an industry that is by and large requiring vaccinations — to get vaxxed.

Then again, Big Bird may be over 50 years old, but he’s also perpetually a kid. And he’s not real.

For a while there, it was believed Donald Trump killed satire. No impersonation of the former president and future failed blogger could top the real deal. Alec Baldwin spent years doing his take on him for SNL, but his reviews were decidedly mixed (including pans from DJT himself). Still, there were a few people who found creative ways to do it right. Sarah Cooper did lip-synching. James Austin Johnson simply did a scarily accurate impersonation. His Trump helped make him a viral star, and now that he’s on SNL it was only time until he brought it to late night weekend television.

On Saturday, the fifth episode of the 47th season, Johnson finally got his chance. Cecily Strong returned yet again as Judge Jeanine Pirro, the wine-loving Trumpist who may have gotten him in big trouble, for a packed cold open, which began with Pete Davidson taking down footballer star, former Jeopardy! guest host, and anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers. Alex Moffat’s Glenn Youngkin, new governor-elect of Virginia, was there, too, to demonstrate that, much like Tucker Carlson, he has no idea what Critical Race Theory is, despite demonizing it all the way to a gubernatorial win.

But then Johnson’s Trump took over. Strong’s Judge Jeanine introduces him as “former and basically current President of the United States.” He in turns calls her “Judge Judy” and then away he goes, telling the crowd, “I just want to thank Glenn Youngkin and mostly myself on a tremendous victory in Virginia,” despite having not campaigned for him, in part because Youngkin clearly didn’t want Trump’s sitnk on him.

The key to Johnson’s take on the big guy is that, much like his also scarily spot-on Joe Biden, he doesn’t go big. Instead he goes small. He gets his nervous, desperate yet mysteriously relaxed energy. And he gets how his deranged rants are like a pinning top.

how Trump’s deranged rants are like a spinning top. Once he starts, he can keep going, snaking his way from one topic to another. Twice Johnson calls for 60 seconds on the clock, at which point we see a chart of semi-related topics that Trump will cover in one foul swoop. One rant starts with him praising his gift for advice-giving, veers somehow into Star Wars, pivots into Dune talk (“And look at what they’re doing with Dune. Look at what they’re doing with Dune.”), swerves into dissing the Game of Thrones finale, and suddenly connecting it with Virginia.

And so Johnson may just have to play both the current and former president of the United States. Them’s the rules.

You can watch Johnson’s justly famous Trump in the video above.

If there’s was one sure thing to expect on this week’s episode of SNL, it was that new anti-vax hero and almost-Jeopardy host Aaron Rodgers was going to be in the crosshairs of the show’s writers in the wake of the controversial statements he made this week about COVID vaccines while looking like “the weed dealer who wouldn’t let you leave until you sat and watched 30 minutes of Faces of Death on VHS in 1996.”

In the event you were secluded on an island for the past week devoid of contact with the outside world, the reigning NFL MVP and State Farm spokesperson went on Pat McAfee’s show to say: “I realize I’m in the crosshairs of the woke mob right now. So before my final nail gets put in my cancel culture casket, I think I’d like to set the record straight on so many of the blatant lies that are out there about myself right now…I’m not some sort of anti-vax flat Earther. I am somebody who’s a critical thinker.” Rodgers went on to note that he feared that getting vaccinated would cause him to become sterile and that he was consulting with Joe Rogan about his course of treatment for COVID.

That all said, this predictably led to Pete Davidson’s Rodgers appearing on Cecily Strong’s delightful version of Judge Jeanine Pirro’s unhinged Fox News show where she blasted the “vaccine Gestapo” and praised Rodgers for essentially saying, “Screw you, science, I know Joe Rogan!”

You can watch the full segment above, and/or the Aaron Rodgers portion of the segment below.

Good luck with Jordan Love today against the Chiefs, Packers fans!

Just before he was about to release his fourth album, =, Ed Sheeran faced the worst coincidence — he came down with Covid-19. Releasing an album in the middle of a pandemic is obviously tricky, but the non-stop promo cycle means lots of appearances, performances, and being around other people. That had to all come grinding to a halt as he quarantined and recovered. Luckily, he seemed to have a mild case, thanks to vaccination, and recovered nicely. So quickly, in fact, that he was still able to make his scheduled performance for Saturday Night Live in support of his new music.

Kicking off the night with one of the new album’s singles, “Shivers,” he got into another single for the second performance of the night. “Overpass Graffiti” is a very narrative-driven song about a first love, almost Taylor Swift-esque in its nostalgia and longing, and definitely with traces of “Boys Of Summer” in its DNA as well. Although the album version is a bit synthier and more polished, Sheeran performed the song on SNL with his trusty acoustic guitar, backed by a band. It’s one of the best songs off the new album, and will likely be a fan-favorite very soon. Check out the performance above.

Kamaru Usman (20-1) earned a unanimous decision victory over Colby Covington (16-3) to retain his welterweight title on Saturday night at UFC 268 from Madison Square Garden in New York.

The heated rivalry between Usman and Covington picked up right where it left off in the first round. Covington was much more reserved with his striking, attempting a takedown early on, which Usman rolled through and maintained control. Back on their feet, Usman was patient waiting for his shots. Covington landed a stiff left hand, then Usman slipped a right and earned a takedown. Covington quickly escaped to his feet, where the chess match continued. Usman opened a cut under Covington’s right eye with an errant headbutt, then continued to pepper away at that cut with stiff jabs to close the round.

In the second, Usman set up his shot with feints, then walked the challenger down with his heavy jab. Covington began to chip away with little leg kicks, then tried to attack with aggressive shots up top. Usman was patient, looking for his openings and dropping combinations to the body, then head. Usman stuffed another takedown attempt, continued to walk down Covington, and hurt Covington badly with a short left hook, sending him to the ground. He couldn’t end the fight, though, as the challenger scrambled to safety as the round ended.

In the third, Usman continued where he left off with a patient, methodical approach. Covington strung together a nice combination, but Usman didn’t deviate from his gameplan. Covington yet again tried a takedown and Usman stuffed it. Back on their feet, Covington began to find his confidence, with a handful of combinations up top as he blitzed forward. But Usman was unfazed as he stood and threw with the challenger.

Covington picked up the pace in the fourth, jabbing away at Usman and beginning to find his range with a handful of shots. Usman and Covington exchanged big shots in the middle of the Octagon before the challenger landed a big body shot. Covington stung Usman with another big shot, but the champ continued to fight him off with his own onslaught of shots. At the end of the round, Covington appeared to have hurt Usman before the bell rung.

In the final round, Usman found the jab again and stung Covington twice. Covington responded with a massive uppercut and looked to have hurt Usman, then tried to drop for a takedown. Usman stuffed him again, then went back to the jab on his feet. Through the final minute, Usman and Covington continued trading shots through the final buzzer.

Since getting knocked out in his first tilt with Usman, Covington earned his way back into a title shot with dominant knockout victory over Tyron Woodley before taking another shot at Usman.

After dispatching Covington in 2019, Usman took a decision victory over Jorge Masvidal, knocked out Gilbert Burns, then knocked out Masvidal in their return bout just a year later. In his first fight with Covington, Usman accomplished his favorite fight to date when he broke Covington’s jaw in a back-and-forth affair that ended with a fifth-round knockout victory for the champ.