Month: December 2021

Jimmy Fallon has worked with Ariana Grande and Megan Thee Stallion a bunch before. Grande has appeared on The Tonight Show plenty of times, and Meg previously linked up with Fallon to re-work “Hot Girl Summer” into “Hot Girl Fall.” While those collaborations were mostly Tonight Show bits with no life outside of the program, now Fallon has teamed up with those two on an actually commercially released single, “It Was A… (Masked Christmas).”

The track is led by punchy drums and a simple but catchy keyboard melody, and Fallon sings on the hook, “It was a masked Christmas, we stayed in the house / We covered our nose and covered our mouth / But it’s Christmas time / We’ll be in line for a booster.”

The song is Fallon’s first official single since 2014’s “Ew!” with Will.i.am, which managed to peak at No. 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it Fallon’s only charting single so far. Meanwhile, his most recent album is 2012’s Blow Your Pants Off, which consists of songs first performed on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.

Watch the “It Was A… (Masked Christmas)” video above.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In 1964, Paul McCartney of the Beatles famously sang, “I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy me love.” While Mr. McCartney’s sentiments were definitely a major foreshadowing of the hippie, free-love movement that was to come in the ‘60s, it appears as though he was also onto a big truth that wouldn’t be proven for another 50 years.

Seven years ago, researchers Hugo M. Mialon and Andrew Francis-Tan from Emory University embarked on the first study to determine whether spending a lot on a wedding or engagement ring meant a marriage would succeed or fail.

The pair wanted to see if the wedding industry was being honest when it came to claims that the more money a couple spends, the more likely they are to stay together.

“The wedding industry has consistently sought to link wedding spending with long-lasting marriages. This paper is the first to examine this relationship statistically,” the researchers wrote.

The researchers carried out online surveys with more than 3,000 ever-married people living in the United States.

After reviewing the answers to the questionnaire the researchers learned that spending big bucks on a wedding and engagement ring made a couple more likely to get divorced. The researchers determined that “marriage duration is inversely associated with spending on the engagement ring and wedding ceremony.”

Conversely, they found that “relatively low spending on the wedding is positively associated with duration among male and female respondents.”

The researchers also found that the number of people who attend the wedding matters, too. The questionnaire revealed that “high wedding attendance and having a honeymoon (regardless of how much it cost) are generally positively associated with marriage duration.”

The researchers haven’t studied why people who splurge on weddings and rings have a greater chance of having to hire divorce lawyers, but they have a few theories.

“It could be that the type of couples who have a … (cheap wedding) are the type that are a perfect match for each other,” Mialon told CNN. “Or it could be that having an inexpensive wedding relieves young couples of financial burdens that may strain their marriage,” he added.

Francis-Tan believes that people who have weddings with a large number of attendees are more successful because they have a lot of support.

“This could be evidence of a community effect, i.e., having more support from friends and family may help the couple to get through the challenges of marriage,” Francis-Tan said. “Or this could be that the type of couples who have a lot of friends and family are also the type that tend not to divorce as much.”

Could it also be that people who put a big emphasis on a flashy wedding and jewelry tend to bit a bit more materialistic? It makes sense that couples that are really into keeping up appearances may not have their properties straight when it comes to building a loving relationship.

To finish things off with another pop music analogy, “If you liked it then you should have put a ring on it,” (just make sure it’s an inexpensive one, in front of a lot of people, in your backyard).

Monday night’s NFL matchup between the New England Patriots and the Buffalo Bills was fascinating on multiple levels. The headline was the weather conditions, prompting the Patriots to effectively stop throwing the ball entirely and forcing Buffalo into some incredible struggles that eventually led to a home loss. While the game was certainly interesting on its own, many observers drew even more enjoyment from watching the ESPN2 Manningcast with Peyton and Eli, and one of the best moments happened to involve Joe Buck in the closing moments of the night.

With the Patriots firmly in control in essentially clinching the win, Peyton asked Buck if he ever considered having a guest that Buck and Troy Aikman could interview to pass the time. The answer created fireworks and overall hilarity.

Buck roasting Peyton is A-plus television, and Eli’s reaction is also tremendous. Buck’s sense of humor is always sarcastic and dry in this way, but the delivery was perfect, burning Peyton about what might be the most painful loss he’s ever had, a 43-8 defeat in the Super Bowl at the hands of the Seahawks.

Granted, Peyton has had enough success to where that may not sting as much as one might think, but it really was the perfect answer to the question. Overall, this was another reminder of the Manningcast’s appeal, as it created a memorable moment even as the game was firmly in hand in the wee hours of the night.

Jim Jordan doesn’t have the infamy of his good buddy Matt Gaetz, the Butt-head to his Beavis. But he tries. Sometimes the Trumpist lawmaker and nasal-voiced weirdo is content to fire off dunkable tweets. Other times he’s simply a nuisance at congressional hearings. Every now and then he’s a little more ambitious, such as when he went on Newsmax over the weekend and compared the “radical left” to Nazis and slavery.

“Every third generation in this country has had to do something big,” Jordan told host Seb Gorka. “You think about the Founders and what they did when they declared why we’re going to be an independent country, what they had to overcome, the greatest military in the world. They did it.

“Three generations later, Lincoln and the Americans then held the country together, got rid of the evil of slavery,” continued Jordan. “Three generations later, we defeated imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, the evils that those two countries represented and the greatest generation won that war.”

Jordan then made a connection, however dubious, between owning people as property, a murderous authoritarian regime and…people who protest systemic racism.

“Here we are three generations later and the assault is from the radical left,” Jordan averred. “We have to step forward and do our part like previous generations of Americans have done. I think we’re up to the task.”

It was unhinged even for Jordan, who back on October was widely mocked for saying that all vaccines, even ones for long-conquered diseases like polio, should be banned.

(Via Raw Story)

While Alec Baldwin might have officially broken his silence during an ABC News appearance last week, the star has, understandably, kept a pretty low profile following the tragic events that took place on the set of his upcoming western movie Rust. This past weekend, the actor even deleted one of his two verified Twitter accounts, presumably due to an influx of comments and messages following the actor’s emotional interview with George Stephanopoulos. However, after nearly two months of largely avoiding the public eye, Baldwin is finally making his first public appearance, serving as the Master of Ceremonies at this week’s Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights event in New York City (via The Hollywood Reporter).

Created by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights group, the half-a-century old ceremony honors “leaders across the international business, entertainment, and activist communities who have demonstrated a commitment to social change and reflect Robert Kennedy’s passion for equality, justice and basic human rights.” This year, these leaders include Stacey Abrams, poet Amanda Gorman, Clearlake Capital Group co-founder José E. Feliciano, Insight Partners managing director Deven Parekh, and Verizon chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. Baldwin will reportedly be emceeing the event, which will be officially hosted by Kerry Kennedy with Vice President Kamala Harris delivering a virtual keynote address.

While some participants will appear at the ceremony via Zoom, Baldwin is one of the select few who will be attending in person. However, he will reportedly not be participating in red carpet interviews, which makes sense given the present circumstances and ongoing investigation into cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ death. As of right now, Baldwin is the subject of many lawsuits and is still currently defending himself against claims that he is the one who pulled the trigger ultimately taking Hutchins’ life. While this marks a slight return to “normal” Hollywood life for the actor, it feels safe to say things won’t return to the way they were for sometime, if ever.

The ESPN2 Manningcast with Peyton and Eli has been a delight throughout the NFL season, as the two brothers host an almost weekly side broadcast of Monday Night Football. Part of the charm of the Manningcast is how casual it is — although, at times, it could use to be more buttoned up with regards to talking over guests — balancing their intense football analysis with guests bringing funny stories to the broadcast.

During the Patriots-Bills wind-wrecked disaster of a game in Buffalo, the Mannings had David Letterman join them, as the Indiana native is a big fan of Peyton’s from his time with the Colts and spent enough time in New York to be very familiar with Eli as well. Letterman provided the expected dry humor to the proceedings, including poking some fun at Bill Belichick as he arrived on the broadcast, as the Patriots coach was on camera wiping snot on his hoodie to the delight of Dave.

However, at the end of his visit in the second quarter he really got going, as he got to talking about being there to speak at Peyton’s statue ceremony in Indianapolis and a funny interaction with Roger Goodell. He was just getting into how much he enjoyed the commish getting booed mercilessly by Colts fans, which Goodell told him would happen, when ESPN abruptly went to commercial mid-story.

Now, guests getting cut off by a hard commercial out is nothing new to the Manningcast, but this one was particularly strange because the game was still rolling on the splitscreen as the other half cut to an ad. Given this is a broadcast that’s refused to hit the dump button on people cursing and Eli throwing up the double birds on camera, it’s funny to think the line gets drawn at possibly making fun of Roger Goodell.

Lil Nas X is well-known for his sense of humor, which has served him well over the past two years — especially when he accidentally becomes the (hehehehe) butt of jokes. In May of this year, Nas suffered an unfortunately timed wardrobe malfunction during his performance on Saturday Night Live, ripping his pants while pole dancing to his hit song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” He later joked that he’d “never trust pants again” in an effort to avoid repeating the incident but it looks like even his backup plan went awry during a performance at the Audacy Beach Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Nas, decked out in a bright pink getup including bondage belts, a crop top, and a shiny skirt, took a tumble during his set when the skirt split in the back. In an effort to maneuver off the stage without showing the world his hindquarters (not that it’s nothing we haven’t seen before), he tried to awkwardly hop off stage to his left, only to trip and take land squarely on the part he was trying to hide, exposing nearly everything under the skirt anyway.

The “Old Town Road” star took his misfortune in stride, jokingly responding to a fan’s video of the spill, “the universe was determined to embarrass me yesterday lmao.” He also retweeted another fan’s screenshot of his vow to switch to skirts in which the fan accurately assessed Nas’ declaration one of the “Top 10 tweets that aged horribly.” Check out video of Nas’ second wardrobe malfunction above and for one of his more intentional funny moments, check out his take on the popular SideTalkNYC TikTok here.

TRUTH Social, Donald Trump’s long-threatened social media service, was supposed to start beta testing last month. That didn’t happen. But it’s already making waves. The former president’s new media company is already in legal hot water. And it’s already being accused of malfeasance by its competitors in the world of far right social media.

As per The Daily Beast, Gab — the “free speech” service that bills itself as an alternative to Twitter and has, of course, become a hangout for neo-Nazis — has recently succumbed to a “porn bot” infestation. Over the weekend, the platform’s founder and chief executive Andrew Torba took to his own service to complain about an alleged cyberattack involving, among other things, accounts advertising “escort” services.

“The porn bots stop right now,” Torba railed in a post. “All new Gab accounts must now be manually approved by our team until further notice.” He even claimed he stayed up till 3 a.m. personally trying to “stop these porn bots.”

Who was to blame? Torba had an idea. “This is the most sophisticated attack we have seen in five years,” he wrote, “and the timing of it is incredibly interesting given that Truth Social and Rumble both raised a boatload of cash this week from hedge funds to compete with Gab.”

Yes, Torba accused Trump and Rumble, the Canadian right-wing YouTube clone, of conspiring to keep him up all hours deleting escort accounts from his beautiful service, whose own account sometimes posts images of dogs with guns. Last week, Trump announced plans to team with Rumble on TRUTH Social, which already share some infrastructure.

What will happen to the far right social media-verse when (or if?) TRUTH Social drops? Will everyone who’s been banned from Twitter and Facebook for violent content jump ship for the one owned by the guy who doesn’t even know how words work? Or will TRUTH Social never happen because it’s too shady for this world? But it’s clear places like Gab are a touch on edge.

(Via The Daily Beast)

In a matter of hours, two of the 12 head coaching jobs in the WNBA came open on Monday. First, Walt Hopkins and the New York Liberty agreed to part ways, a rather stunning move considering New York had made the leap to being a playoff team in 2021 and seemed to be a team on the rise.

Later in the evening, the team that beat the Liberty in the first round of the playoffs, the Phoenix Mercury, made an even more shocking announcement that they too would be searching for a new coach after parting ways with Sandy Brondello, fresh off a run to the WNBA Finals where they fell to the Chicago Sky, 3-1.

Brondello won the Finals in her first season in Phoenix in 2013 and led the Mercury to the playoffs in each of her eight seasons. That the Mercury, coming off a Finals trip, now have a coaching opening, there will be plenty of speculation and interest in one of the best jobs in the WNBA, where Britney Griner, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and Diana Taurasi make Phoenix a perennial contender.

The Suns have those three all under contract for another year, but some significant decisions to make this offseason to round out the roster around those three to try and make another push for a title with Taurasi. A new coach will be tasked with putting all of that together, and we’ll have to wait and see who Phoenix tabs to take over.

Most of us spend our lives understanding that there is a certain order to nature. We have prey and we have predators, and some predators, like big cats in the wild, sit at the top of the chain, feared by all.

So when a big honking mountain lion, also known as a cougar or a puma, shows up on your property, it’s normal to be concerned—especially if you have pets that spend time outside. Most people would find themselves sweating a bit if a cougar showed up at their door, even with a thick pane of glass between them and the big kitty. Most animals would, too, if they understood the danger of what they were looking at.

But Dash the tiny doggo is not most animals.

Dash is delighting the masses with his reaction to a mountain lion that paid his house a visit in Colorado recently. In a video shared by Sarah Bole on Facebook and then reshared on Twitter, Dash sits right up against the glass door, cool as a cucumber, as the cougar approaches. Even when the lion taps the glass with its formidable paw, Dash stands his ground, totally unfazed. While you can hear the panic in his human’s voice, Dash just sits there wagging his tail.

“I came home from work tonight and walked to see this on the patio. Watch the whole thing as the lion taps the glass. Pardon my language and shaking voice. I was shitting my pants.” – Sarah Bolepic.twitter.com/tKpfNLoJbY

— Reesus Patriot (@Reesus Patriot)
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Is Dash a brave badass? Is he lonely and thought he’d found a new friend? Is he terrified on the inside but playing it cool to protect his castle? Who knows?

There’s so much to love here. It’s the tail wag. And the casual stare as the cat approaches. And then the “I’m not looking at you, I’m just staring out the window” bit. And then the barking and growling that only came after the cougar walked away. Absolutely hilarious.

Dash is a friggin’ hero. His poor human was distraught, and Dash just exuded calm confidence that that cougar was not gonna get him. His human kept telling him to get back, and he was absolutely not having it. You can almost hear him saying, “Shush, human! I’ve got this.”

You do got this, Dash. Clearly. That cougar didn’t even know what to do with you. If you can’t beat a predator, confuse them to make them think you’re not prey, right?

(Also, let’s hope that owner had those door handles locked and considers changing to a round doorknob instead. The only real danger here is if kitty cat had reached up and pulled down on the lever of the door handle, which domestic cats have been known to figure out how to to do.)

Now we just need to give the little puppers a neckerchief that says, “Dash don’t dash.”

Or maybe just “Here kitty kitty.”