Month: January 2022

It’s a new year, y’all! Cue the fireworks, the resolutions, the confusion parents are feeling over pandemic schooling in the midst of the Omicron wave, and the continued uncertainty of American democracy. Weeeee!!!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who could use a little light-hearted content to balance out the existential angst of the era. While we work on solutions where and how we can, we also need mental breaks sometimes to keep ourselves sane.

In that spirit, I offer these 10 sweet and silly things to lighten your load and brighten your day.

Enjoy!

Ever seen penguins get weighed? And where can I get a job weighing penguins? 

Never get bored of penguins getting weighed.. nn St Louis Zoopic.twitter.com/QbqAjDh8B9

— Buitengebieden (@Buitengebieden)
1641386922

They’re like adorable little toddlers who honk. Why are they soooooo cute?

Classic slapstick comedy that just gets funnier and funnier.

Iu2019ve watched this 19 times this morning.pic.twitter.com/zsdt4vN7DU

— Tashy McTashface (@Tashy McTashface)
1641544005

The poor guy in the bear suit keeps slipping falling as they try to film the commercial—but the faceplant at the 0:42 mark is worth waiting for.

This toddler has the cutest reaction to her dad shaving his beard.

See on Instagram

Some kids freak out when their dads shave for the first time, but this kiddo had the best reaction ever.

This baby is a 25-year-old man from 1970 in a baby’s body.

Where did this baby’s ‘do come from? I feel like he’s about to try to sell me a used car or some life insurance or something.

People shared their most embarrassing moments and it’s painfully funny.

Imagine someone you have a crush on holds their fist out for a fist bump, but you mistake it for a pretend microphone, so you lean over and say “hi” into it. GAH, the hilarious, vicarious embarrassment of this collection of stories has people rolling.

Grandpa learns to bake at age 90 and makes a cake for every visit.

See on Instagram

We all deserve a grandpa like this in our lives.

We can all appreciate this woman’s boyfriend’s reaction to his first pair of lefty scissors.

See on Instagram

Sometimes we don’t appreciate the simple joys and conveniences in life until we see what it’s like not to have them.

People are discovering Elmo’s decades-long beef with Zoe’s pet rock, and it’s hilarious.

there are tears in my eyes yu2019all my stomach hurtingpic.twitter.com/bbkF9yDZLf

— cheye (dr.booty) (@cheye (dr.booty))
1641263826

Elmo has been feuding with Rocco, his best friend Zoe’s pet rock, since 1999, and every time he loses it over a rock it’s pure comedy. This clip prompted people to share other Elmo vs. Rocco moments and discuss the ongoing drama, which you can check out here.

Wordle the simple, wholesome and addictive daily word game. 

Most word games are wholesome, but this one has a particularly pure origin story. Josh Wardle created Wordle for his partner who loves word games. There are no ads, there’s no data collection and you can only play it once a day, so even though you’ll want to play more, it’s not a huge time suck. Wardle just wants people to enjoy it. Mission accomplished. Learn more about it here.

Sweet baby being so gentle with another sweet baby.

There is no biggernOr more important lessonnTo teach our children nThan to be kind.pic.twitter.com/LoVv0M9xIm

— Ramblings (@Ramblings)
1641452413

I don’t actually know what this is—a gosling? A duckling? Definitely a big baby bird of some sort, and the little baby human with it is so dang precious.

Hope that brought some joy to your day! Tune back in next week for another roundup of smile-worthy finds from around the internet.

Last week marked the one-year anniversary of the day violent Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, whipped up on voter fraud lies the former president had just fed them. Trump himself was supposed to deliver some vague press conference from the resort he now lives in. He wound up cancelling it at the last minute. Instead, he watched as his successor, Joe Biden, tore him a new one, unambiguously blaming him for the horrors of Jan. 6, 2021. Afterwards, Trump put out one of his unhinged glorified press releases. But a new report from Newsweek claims he was even angrier than he let on.

Sources told Newsweek that as Trump watched Biden give him a tongue-lashing (without ever uttering his name), Trump was “fuming.” He wasn’t surprised that Biden directly him responsible for the unrest, including five deaths (among them supporter Ashlii Babbit, whom Trump and cronies have tried to paint as a martyr).

“He expected Biden and the media to savage him on the anniversary,” Newsweek’s Bill Powell writes. “Not because he deserved it–close friends and political allies of the former president all say he still angrily rejects any culpability for the January 6 riot—but because, as he told one friend, ‘it’s all they’ve got.’”

Trump, a source said, told one person that the Democrats “can’t talk about anything else because the guy [Biden] is such a disaster.”

Trump reportedly didn’t watch the full speech. He took some calls, even ate lunch. But, a source says, “he watched most of it—and was furious.”

(Via Newsweek)

The highly transmissible Omicron variant has caused a spike in COVID cases all over the world. It’s been particularly bad in the United States. Earlier this week, the nation recorded over a million positive cases in a day — the most in the country over a 24-hour span. One person who was hit with a positive test this week was legendary hip-hop DJ and producer Kid Carpi, who shared the news on Instagram and was honest about his condition.

“I’m sick as sh*t man,” he said in a video. “Y’all gotta be careful out there, man. Y’all be careful ’cause it’s bad out there. I’ve been sick for the last three days. F*cking head is pounding. Back hurt. I’m pretty far from good.” He then issued some advice and a warning to those who listened to the video. “I just wanted to pop on here and tell y’all take care of yourselves, man,” he said. “F*ck them parties. F*ck hanging out. If you ain’t gotta be somewhere then don’t go. Just relax, ’cause this sh*t is no joke.”

Capri concluded, “Every shirt I put on, I sweat it out. The lady just left here to give me my test. I had the home test, she came over here and tested me. F*cking head is pounding. But like I said, man, just stay out the way. Take care of yourself out there because it’s serious. Sh*t is serious.”

For three-and-a-half decades, Joel and Ethan Coen were inseparable. They were “the Coen brothers,” and together they wrote and directed 18 films (though only Joel was credited with director until their 2004 remake of The Ladykillers.) But a funny thing happened this fall: We got The Tragedy of Macbeth, a take on one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays made by Joel but not Ethan. It was of course very different from past Coen brothers movies, and not only because Joel was adapting the Bard. And now Joel is opening up about going it alone.

In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times, Joel Coen reflected on collaborating with his brother over so many years, over so many acclaimed films. He spoke about the comfort of working with someone else, saying, “you’re pursuing things that are mutually interesting, which is what we’ve been doing for 35 to 40 years.”

But after their previous film together, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Ethan told Joel, “I think I’m going to change it out and do some other things for awhile.” He then came to terms with “directing the next one by myself.” What’s more, there probably wouldn’t have ever been a Macbeth done by both Coens. “If I was working with Ethan I wouldn’t have done ‘Macbeth,’ it would not be interesting to him.”

Joel also revealed that the initial idea came from his wife, three-time Oscar-winning actress Frances McDormand. She wanted to play Lady Macbeth, perhaps on stage. So she approached her director husband. “I said I wouldn’t do it on stage,” he recalls, “but if you want to think about it as a movie we can do something interesting.”

The result is The Tragedy of Macbeth, which stars Denzel Washington as the scheming Scot, who, along with his wife, murders their way to the top of the kingdom. You can stream it on Apple TV+.

So will Buster Scruggs be the last Coen brothers movie? Maybe, maybe not. After all, Ethan only said he was going to do “other things for awhile.” We may hear from both of them again, and we don’t mean a postcard.

(Via LA Times)

As it turns out, the NBA does not particularly like when players say they did a gesture to fans as a way to tell them to “shut the f*ck up.” The league announced on Saturday that New York Knicks forward Julius Randle was fined $25,000 in response to comments he made after the team rallied from 25 points down to beat the Boston Celtics earlier this week.

“New York Knicks forward Julius Randle has been fined $25,000 for the egregious use of profane language during media interviews, it was announced today by Byron Spruell, President, League Operations,” the NBA said in a statement. “Randle made his comments to the media on two separate occasions — after a Jan. 5 practice and postgame following the Knicks’ 108-105 victory over the Boston Celtics on Jan. 6 at Madison Square Garden.”

During the fourth quarter of the game against the Celtics, Randle made a basket and responded to cheers by giving the fans at Madison Square Garden a thumbs down, which he said after the game was his way of telling them off. One day prior and Randle was asked about fans having a negative reaction to his play this season, which led to him telling the media “I really don’t give a f*ck what anybody has to say, to be honest. I’m out there playing. Nobody knows the game out there better than I do, compared to what everybody has to say. So I really don’t give a sh*t. I just go out there and play.”

In the aftermath of Randle’s comments, which drew criticism from the Inside the NBA crew, the 2020-21 NBA All-Star released a statement on his Instagram account.

Pete Davidson is everywhere lately. Dating Kim Kardashian, co-hosting a New Year’s Eve special with Miley Cyrus, and now, rapping alongside Jack Harlow at his recent LA show at The Novo. Yes, that’s right, Pete can rap. Well, it’s not that surprising since he’s a natural performer and has years of experience hamming it up in all kinds of roles on Saturday Night Live, but if his stint onstage at Jack’s show was really off the cuff, and not rehearsed, then he’s definitely a bigger fan of Jack’s music than any of us knew.

Fans caught video of Jack bringing Pete up onstage during his rendition of “SUVs (Black On Black),” and Pete seemed to know every word when it was his turn to take the lead. He’s also a great hype man, as it turns out, ad-libbing and boosting up Jack’s performance in the meantime. It’s worth noting that Pete’s friendship with Jack predates his relationship with Kim, and the pair did a skit together during Jack’s appearance on Saturday Night Live last year. But hey, Pete, might as well strike while the iron is hot — drop a rap album and see where that takes him? He might have to check with Kim first on that one, though. Check out the video above.

Now that Kanye West has finally moved on from his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, and is actively dating, things are getting interesting. Kim has been openly cavorting around with Pete Davidson for weeks now, so it’s only fair that Kanye head out on some dates himself — and his dates with actress Julia Fox are already turning heads (including her own).

But leave it to TMZ to determine the connection between Julia and Kim, and it turns out, Julia is a huge fan of Kim’s show, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. On the last episode of the 2021 season of her podcast, Forbidden Fruits With Julia Fox And Niki Takesh, Fox talks openly about being a “die-hard, OG fan” of the show, and had even brought up the Ye/Kim divorce in the episode, along with Kim dating Pete. “”Can we talk about the Kim and Kanye divorce? Wait, can we talk about Kim and Pete Davidson, though?” she said.

Later on, Julia also said that she’s been watching the show since it first began airing back in 2007 and called it “embarrassing” that she misses it now that the show has ended. The best part, though, is Julia said she was always rooting for the family: “it’s like you are happy for them when something good happens to them.” So if Kanye and Julia do turn serious, it sounds like there will be goodwill there already — at least on Julia’s side.

Last March, 23-year-old Ghanaian-Australian singer Genesis Owusu released his debut album Smiling With No Teeth, which earned him great success in Australia as it landed him trophies for Album Of The Year, Best Hip Hop Release, Best Independent Release, and Best Cover Art at the 2021 Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards. After releasing a deluxe edition of the album, titled Missing Molars (SWNT Deluxe), last summer, Owusu is seeing some success in the US. Now he’s on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, performing his song “Gold Chains.”

The performance found Owusu standing in front of the mic in a regal bright red suit with a beautiful chandelier hanging above him and his band. In addition to being a standout on Smiling With No Teeth, “Gold Chains” also made an appearance on Barack Obama’s list of favorite songs from 2021.

The Late Show appearance comes after he shared a video for the remix version of “Waitin On Ya,” which features some help from Jagwar Ma’s Jono Ma. Owusu also revealed the dates for his first headlining tour in the United States. He’ll hit the road starting on January 13 in Los Angeles and continue for a little over two weeks before bringing things to an end on January 30 in Austin, TX.

You can watch Genesis Owusu perform “Gold Chains” in the video above.

Smiling With No Teeth is out now via House Anxiety / Ourness. Get it here.

This past December, Green Day released a 16-track album entitled The BBC Sessions, which was comprised of four sessions from 1994-2001 at London’s Maia Vale Studios, and tracked the magic that was brewing with the Bay Area punk trio as they broke through into global stardom. By all accounts, this album marks the end of Green Day’s era with Reprise Records and as Variety reported in 2019 — when their Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out Boy was originally supposed to go down — they are now effectively “free agents.” So what does the future hold for the mega rock band?

Two weeks ago, Green Day posted an initial video of them rocking out in London’s RAK Studios and then the numbers “1972” flashed on the screen. It definitely looked like band were recording an album.

But there’s more. Yesterday, Green Day posted a second clip, also without a caption, but leaning into whatever “1972” insinuates. Rather than a soundtrack of hard driving drums and raucous guitar like the previous clip, we see Billie Joe Armstrong strumming an acoustic guitar, spliced alongside artistic vignettes of the band having fun. As the video comes to a close, “1972” flashes on the screen again.

Bear in mind, 1972 is the year in which Armstrong, drummer Tré Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt were all born. It appears very likely that the band are indeed working on an album with their birth year as the title. Their last album, Father Of All Motherf*ckers, was recorded in California and it would seem that now in their newfound “free agency” period, they could find a renewed sense of creative freedom. The band is scheduled to headline Atlanta’s Shaky Knees Festival in April and these cryptic Instagram clips seem destined to continue for a bit until we get an official announcement. Stay tuned.

Green Day is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ben Affleck has had an up-and-down career. He’s currently up, netting some of the best reviews of his career with last year’s one-two punch of The Last Duel (which he co-wrote, with co-star Matt Damon) and The Tender Bar. But it wasn’t that long ago that the actor and filmmaker felt that he’d reached rock bottom.

In a new interview with The Los Angeles Times (as caught by The Hollywood Reporter), Affleck reflected on that relatively brief stint when he was working in the world of comic book cinema. For a few years he was Christian Bale’s successor as a graying, grouchy Bruce Wayne/Batman. He only played him over three films, one of them (Suicide Squad) nothing more than a glorified cameo. But it was his third spin as the Caped Crusader that particularly irked him.

“It was really Justice League that was the nadir for me,” Affleck said. “That was a bad experience because of a confluence of things: my own life, my divorce, being away too much, the competing agendas and then [director] Zack [Snyder]’s personal tragedy [Snyder’s daughter Autumn died by suicide in 2017] and the reshooting. It just was the worst experience. It was awful. It was everything that I didn’t like about this. That became the moment where I said, ‘I’m not doing this anymore.’ It’s not even about, like, Justice League was so bad. Because it could have been anything.”

There’s something of a happy ending to this. Though the original completed version of Justice League, overseen by Joss Whedon, opened to mediocre reviews and so-so box office, last year Snyder was able to release his re-habbed version of the film, which was able to greatly flesh out Affleck’s performance, among other things. He’ll even don the cape once more, for the forthcoming stand-alone film The Flash.

Affleck also reflected on how he almost directed The Batman, which wound up being reworked into a Robert Pattinson vehicle. “I looked at it and thought, ‘I’m not going to be happy doing this. The person who does this should love it,’” he recalled. “You’re supposed to always want these things, and I probably would have loved doing it at 32 or something. But it was the point where I started to realize it’s not worth it. It’s just a wonderful benefit of reorienting and recalibrating your priorities that once it started being more about the experience, I felt more at ease.”

(Via LA Times and THR)