Month: January 2022

Now is the winter of Joe Biden’s discontent. Omicron rages. Major legislation can’t get passed, largely thanks to some quisling Democrats. Russia’s acting up. His approval ratings are low. Things aren’t great. But at least the version of America’s sitting president in SNL had someone to blame: Spider-Man.

James Austin Johnson — who has the distinction of being both the show’s resident Biden and Trump (and is excellent at both) — returned as the commander-in-chief, where he held a press conference to give Americans an order: stop seeing the movie that’s somehow grossed a record amount of money all while COVID cases spiked back up.

“There’s one simple thing you can do to make this whole virus go away: Stop seeing Spider-Man,” Johnson’s Biden implored. “Now think about it, when did Spider-Man come out? December 17. When did every single person get omicron? The week after December 17. Stop seeing Spider-Man. That’s really all I have to say.”

He then took questions, most of which were variations on whether or not he was blaming all the world’s many ills on the movie where Doctor Strange sends Peter Parker into the multiverse.

“I didn’t say don’t go to the movies,” Johnson’s Biden said. “I said stop seeing Spider-Man.”

After blaming No Way Home for other problems, Johnson’s Biden went on to embrace the multiverse.

“I’ve actually thought about this a lot,” he said. “I’m consulting with Dr. Fauci and Dr. Strange. As far as I can tell, there are at least three Joe Bidens. One of them’s me. One of them is me, the Joe Biden that lost to Trump,” he continued. “And then there’s a third Joe Biden, who’s the greatest president in history.”

Then there was a twist and one surprise cameo from the guy who this weekend caught the ire of Kanye West.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Roddy Ricch was initially slated to perform as the first musical guest of 2022 on Saturday Night Live tonight, but the rapper had to postpone his first appearance on the show due to Covid-19 exposure on his team. While plenty of pop heads sure did wish the folks at SNL might consider bringing back Charli XCX because her spot got canceled due to rampant Omicron variant spread in late December, that scheduling didn’t work, and instead, Jack Antonoff of Bleachers stepped in.

Antonoff makes sense because he just released a new Bleachers album in July of 2021 called Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night, and that’s basically the same goal that SNL has. Kicking off tonight’s show with the jazzy “How Dare You Want More,” he ventured into a slower song for the second set of the evening. Though Antonoff release the album last summer, he started sharing singles from the record as early as fall of 2020, including a collaboration with his idol, Bruce Springsteen, called “Chinatown,” and the B-side, “45.” Obviously, it made sense for Jack to play the song since collaborating with Springsteen is a big deal for anybody, especially an artist who has clearly been so deeply influenced by his bombastic sound and New Jersey roots. Check out Bleachers performing the song above, sadly, sans Bruce.

Roddy Ricch was initially slated to perform as the first musical guest of 2022 on Saturday Night Live tonight, but the rapper had to postpone his first appearance on the show due to Covid-19 exposure on his team. While plenty of pop heads sure did wish the folks at SNL might consider bringing back Charli XCX because her spot got canceled due to rampant Omicron variant spread in late December, that scheduling didn’t work, and instead, Jack Antonoff of Bleachers stepped in.

Kicking off the night with a performance of their Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night single “How Dare You Want More,” Bleachers were in fine form despite the quick substitution. Antonoff has been pretty open about the painful breakups that informed his most recent album, and this song definitely sounds like it’s hashing through some of those issues. With not one but two saxophonists on deck for the performance, who both got to strut their stuff during a few different musical breaks, the performance was a great introduction Bleachers’ jazzy, confrontational sound. Since so many people are familiar with Jack as the right hand collaborator and producer for pop stars like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, it’s nice to see him get the spotlight for once. Watch above.

The Los Angeles Lakers are not in a particularly good place right now. The team traveled to Denver to take on the Nuggets on Saturday night and found itself on the receiving end of a beatdown, as Denver came out on top, 133-96. The loss knocked Los Angeles to 21-22 on the season, and while they are still in seventh place in the Western Conference, they’re now two games back of the six seed.

The Lakers have struggled with consistency this season for a number of reasons, but in Magic Johnson‘s eyes, something else was amiss against Denver. Johnson posted a tweet after the game excoriating the Lakers for a lack of effort and saying that Jeanie Buss deserves better than what the team is doing on the floor.

It’s a pretty damning statement from Johnson, a Laker legend who is as plugged into the team as anyone, even if he famously left his job in their front office during a game. But despite this, Russell Westbrook was asked about the tweet after the game and made clear that he believes Johnson, while entitled to his opinion, doesn’t know what goes on during the team’s day-to-day.

Westbrook did, however, concede that the Lakers need to play harder sometimes.

The team will get its next chance to find that extra gear on Monday when they host the Utah Jazz.

Kendrick Bourne got the New England Patriots’ first touchdown in their AFC Wild Card game against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night. Sure, it came in the second half while the Bills already opened up a big lead — the touchdown and extra point made it 33-10 — but hey, it was a cool moment for Bourne, who reeled one in from Mac Jones on fourth-and-goal to keep the team’s slim hopes of a win alive.

You might notice at the very end of the clip that Bourne appears to be pointing to something on the ground and is kind of upset about it. Well, the NFL cut it off in their video because they’re a pro sports league that probably doesn’t want this on their socials, but someone at Highmark Stadium threw a dildo at him.

If you’re a longtime football fan, you might remember that this is not the first time we’ve seen this happen during a Bills-Patriots game in Buffalo. Back in 2016, someone threw a dildo onto the field while Chris Hogan caught a screen pass and tried to punch one in against the Bills’ defense. Tom Brady — who, you might remember, played for the Patriots at one point — said of the incident, “I thought it was funny the ref didn’t want to pick it up. He was kicking it. Nobody wanted to reach down and grab it.” There is no word on whether or not that dildo did anything before the game to improve its circulation in the cold Buffalo weather.

Things could have gone a whole heck of a lot better for the New England Patriots in the first half of their Wild Card game agains the Buffalo Bills. If not for a field goal at the very end of the half, the Pats would have entered the locker room getting shut out, but because the kick was good, Buffalo’s lead at the break was 27-3.

Mac Jones did not have a particularly great half. While he wasn’t as catastrophic as some rookie QBs look in their playoff debut on the road against a very good team, Jones went 10-for-16 for 106 yards with an interception. He also nearly cost the team their only points of the half, because while the Patriots were driving down the field at the end of the second quarter, Jones ran a fake spike. The catch: One player on the Bills’ defensive line, Jerry Hughes, realized immediately was going on, so he turned on the jets, blew past right tackle Trent Brown, and took Jones down.

At the very least, Jones could take solace in the fact that this wasn’t a total disaster, because the Patriots converted a third-and-12 after this. Still, in a half of low points for New England, this was among the lowest.

The Cincinnati Bengals snapped a 31-year postseason winless drought on Saturday evening with a thrilling 26-19 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. The game came amid a bit of controversy, as borderline inexplicable decisions by an officiating crew that drew a ton of scorn from football fans negatively impacted both teams.

The one that drew the most attention came at the end of the first half, when Joe Burrow threw a touchdown to Tyler Boyd. The problem: One of the officials accidentally blew their whistle before Boyd caught the ball, and by the letter of the law, the play should have been immediately ruled dead and replayed. It’s a silly rule, especially because it appeared Boyd was gonna catch the ball not matter what, but Raiders fans have a legitimate gripe with this one.

Then again, this assumes everyone heard the whistle before the play ended. Because you have ears, you did, but according to the referees after the game, that did not actually happen. No, seriously! They said that!

Alright so let’s do a quick fact check here. I am about to drop in the clip and you, dear reader, are to listen and determine when the whistle was blown. Here we go:

My ears tell me the whistle was blown approximately right here.

Folks, between you and me, I think the refs are trying to save face with this explanation.

The Brooklyn Nets are already without one of their three stars during their home games, as Kyrie Irving cannot play in games that take place in New York due to the city’s vaccine mandate. Now, the franchise is holding its breath as a second star went down with an injury on Saturday night.

During the second quarter of the team’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans, Kevin Durant tried to get back on defense as Herb Jones was bringing the ball up the floor in transition. Jones collided with Bruce Brown, who went flying backwards and collided with Durant’s left leg, causing it to bend inward at the knee. The former league MVP eventually had to make his way back into the locker room, although he was able to do that under his own power.

After getting his knee examined during halftime, the Nets eventually announced that Durant would sit for the remainder of the game due to a left knee sprain.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Durant will get an MRI of his leg on Sunday.

At the time of his departure, Durant had 12 points, three rebounds, two assists, a steal, and a block. Following Saturday night’s game, the Nets will play 17 games before the NBA takes its All-Star break in the middle of February.

For the first time since the first Bush was president, the Cincinnati Bengals have won a playoff game. Cincinnati, the 4-seed in the AFC, knocked off the fifth-seeded Las Vegas Raiders at Paul Brown Stadium, 26-19, to punch their ticket to the divisional round of the postseason.

Despite one heck of a ref show, the Bengals and Raiders put on a thrilling game, one that came down to Las Vegas’ final drive. After forcing a Cincinnati punt, the Raiders got the ball with no timeouts left, 1:51 left on the clock, and 65 yards between themselves and the potential game-tying score they needed. Twice did the team convert a third-and-long, including a third-and-17 that got them into the red zone thanks to the reliable Derek Carr and Darren Waller connection.

There was a curious decision on the game’s final set of downs, as Vegas faced first-and-goal from the Cincinnati 9-yard line with 30 seconds left but decided to spike the ball instead of running a play. After two straight incompletions, the Raiders faced a fourth down where nothing but a touchdown would work. Carr dropped back, tried to rifle a throw into Zay Jones, and got picked off by Germaine Pratt.

Now, the Bengals will wait have to wait and see which team they’ll play next week as the rest of the AFC Wild Card round figures itself out.

One great thing about Snoop Dogg? He’s never been the kind of rapper to shy away from collaborating with women, in fact, he’s also embraced feminine energy (and lullabies) with open arms, from Katy Perry, to Martha Stewart, and now, supermodel Heidi Klum.

In her native Germany, Klum hosts the modeling reality show Germany’s Next Top Model, and when the idea came up for her to also create a theme song for the show, well she jumped at the chance. After Snoop got on board, Klum also managed to get Rod Stewart to approve the pair using his song “Baby Jane” for their version, which is called “Chai Tea With Heidi.” Finally, DJ Duo WeddingCake, composed of Tom Kaulitz (48-year-old Heidi’s 31-year-old husband) and Devon Culiner.

Still, the most fascinating part is Klum wanting to work with Snoop Dogg — she spoke to SiriusXM today about the unlikely collaboration. “I love Snoop Dogg,” she started. “Like why don’t I do a duet with Snoop Dogg? And they were like, ‘Really? With Snoop Dogg? That sounds amazing. Like do you know each other?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I feel like I know him enough over the years that I feel like I can, you know, call him up and just ask him.’ And so I really literally just did. I called him up and I said, ‘Hey, do you wanna do this song with me for my TV show in Germany? And hey, while we’re at it, we might as well just like put it out in the world.’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, you know, let’s do it. Come to Inglewood and let’s see what we can do.’”

Check out the full song below, and the shortened theme song version, complete with a Snoop and Heidi dancefest, up above.