Month: February 2022

A little over a week ago, word came out that the Los Angeles Police Department was investigating Charlotte rapper DaBaby for assault with a deadly weapon after a video surfaced online of the rapper and his companions attacking a man identified as Brandon Bills, the brother of DaBaby’s ex DaniLeigh, in a bowling alley. It was reported two days ago that Bills was seeking compensation, suing DaBaby for assault, battery, emotional distress, and negligence, according to court documents obtained by TMZ.

Now, according to TMZ, DaBaby’s lawyer Drew Findling is claiming that Bills initiated the threats: “It is offensive that this alleged victim threatened and instigated violence and has now used this incident to make a quick money grab […] Garbage like this has no place adding to the backlog and wasting law enforcement time and energy.”

Bills did threaten to fight DaBaby due to his ill treatment of DaniLeigh in a video he shared back in November. “When you come to the West Coast, bro, which I know you be out here, you’re going to catch this one-on-one fade, bro,” Bills said. “One-on-one fade to see what happens between me and you. I want to see how gangsta you are, to see how much of a real man you are.”

John Oliver will be back on your TV with Last Week Tonight‘s Season 9 premiere that airs on February 20. It’s been a long wait for those of us who appreciate the show’s particular brand of satirical humor, and the writers surely have no shortage of material upon which to give their takes. Speaking of “takes,” Oliver straight-up described his response (while speaking with USA Today) to the Joe Rogan/Spotify mess as a “punchy hot take,” and that demands a certain respect of the self awareness at hand.

Because obviously, you and I can joke about giving a hot take while tweeting a hot take, but we don’t have the same twinkle in our eye and the “mongrel” (his word) permutation of a British accent going on while doing so. And after seemingly everyone else on topical TV has weighed in on Rogan’s habit of casually dropping misinformation to his millions of viewers (as part of his reported $200 million contract), people would like to know what Oliver thinks as his hiatus comes to an end, so here’s what he told USA Today:

“It feels like they’re reckoning with the line between what a platform and a publisher is. Previously, (Spotify was) a platform. But when you employ (Rogan) and you make his show for him, that line between publishing and platform gets blurry, so now you’re accountable in a very different way than you were before.

“Secondly, it’s clearly not just (about) Rogan. There is a much broader problem of people confidently passing on (malarkey) whether they know it’s (malarkey) or not, and whether they intend to misinform or they actually misinform, at some point it doesn’t really matter, right? The consequence is the same. There’s a punchy hot take for you.”

Fair enough, and Oliver makes a fine point about how people often talk without thinking (or simply claiming to “do my own research” without doing any research at all) and don’t really care that they are spread erroneous information to others. And that’s kind-of the vibe that Rogan emitted during his initial apology after Spotify put a “content advisory” on his podcast episodes. At the time, he described his podcast as something that “started off is just f*cking around with my friends.” And all he wanted to do is “just talk to people and have interesting conversations.” Somewhere along the way, though, Rogan stacked up millions upon millions of listeners, and that, of course begs for accountability with what what he’s describing as simply having fun with friends. If it’s really all about fun, maybe stop talking about Covid altogether.

(Via USA Today)

FX’s hit series Atlanta finally returns this spring after nearly four years and several lifetimes since the second season graced our screens. The highly-anticipated third season will air on March 24th, and show-runner Donald Glover confirmed that the fourth season will be its last, to air later in the fall.

The upcoming season will take place primarily in Europe, where the crew filmed most of the season. During a recent TCA press tour, series screenwriter Stephen Glover (Donald’s brother) recalled how different it was to film in London vs. the States.

“This group of people walks up. And maybe one of them kind of notices Donald or recognizes him, Glover said. “And she stops and they start asking if they know anywhere around here to get something to drink. I think we were talking to them for a second. It’s this girl and two or three guys.”

On the first night abroad, the crew were harassed and racially profiled by a group of locals, who accused them of trying to break into a closed bar. One of the harassers insisted the team must be carrying “hammers,” aka guns.

“Mind you, all of the writers on Atlanta are Black. So, he’s making a reference that we all have hammers, and we can just break into this place, which we kind of ignored,” Glover added. Show co-writer Stefani Robinson chimed in, “It was so insulting but not insulting at the same time because it took us five minutes to fully understand. He got to a point of like if the insinuation was lost on us, he got specific and he was like, ‘You guys are Black, you’ve gone to jail and you do things like that.’ Like he kept doubling down on it.”

It gets worse, as Glover describes talking to the woman. “She’s talking to us. And then, after a minute, the guy just runs back down the street and grabs her and throws her over his shoulder, and he’s like, ‘Run. They are going to rape you, like, rape you.’ The girl was literally, like, ‘I’m sorry,’ as she’s being taken away. So, it was pretty bad. We are just standing there, like, ‘What just happened?’”

Despite the horrifying interaction, the team was able to shoot the season in Europe, in addition to finishing the fourth and final season. Donald Glover says he doesn’t feel sad about the series ending, since the show progressed so naturally. “The story was always supposed to be what it was. And the story, it really was us. Everybody in that writers’ room, everybody on set. It really was what we were going through and what we talked about…I think it ends perfectly.”

Season three airs on March 24th on FX, streaming on Hulu the day after.

When 50 appeared during Dr. Dre’s Super Bowl halftime performance packing a few extra pounds, the jokes came flying. A seasoned vet of the internet troll game himself, 50 took the roasts in stride, and even re-posted a few of his faves. Then, he used his Instagram account to explain why he wasn’t bothered by the burns after creating his own merch of the meme-worthy moment.

“I call this teasing me,” he wrote. “They’re just teasing me because they know I can drop the weight. that’s why I laugh with them. Fat-shaming only applies when you’re ashamed of your fat.”

For what it’s worth, it should be common knowledge that 50 was a little rolly-polly when he first appeared on the scene in 1999 with the attention-grabbing “How To Rob” — which was itself an introduction to his trollish sense of humor, as he name-checked over 50 celebrities and hip-hop personalities that he would be more than happy to mug on the subway. But, of course, by the time of his re-introduction to the public at large with “In Da Club” — the video for which he reproduced during his Super Bowl performance — he’d slimmed down greatly, presenting an imposing, muscular physique with which he’s been associated for much of his career.

And he’s right about one thing: He certainly can lose the weight — seemingly at will. In 2011, he was able to drop 54 pounds for his cancer-riddled role in All Things Fall Apart, so he’s no stranger to physical fluctuations.

The 2021 NBA Draft happened more than six months ago, and the prospects selected are making an impact as they begin their professional careers. If anything, this rookie class is performing at a better level than expected, with several players making positive waves in meaningful situations and others showing flashes of what is to come. With that in mind, the race for the 2021-22 NBA Rookie of the Year award is also heating up.

In this space, we’ll highlight the top candidates in alphabetical order, along with a few honorable mentions, and project what might take place in the second half of the season. A lot can change with more than a quarter of the season remaining, but the early returns are promising, and the candidates are intriguing.

Scottie Barnes

In similar fashion to another prospect we’ll discuss in this space, Barnes is contributing to a good team. He is a starter for the Raptors, playing well over 30 minutes per game, and fits in snugly with Toronto’s innovative approach. He is disruptive on defense. He is shooting better than expected. He is rebounding and passing at a high level by rookie standards. It’s going very well, and he could crash the top three by the end of the season. That’s not too bad for a pick at No. 4 overall that surprised many people.

Cade Cunningham

Since Nov. 28, Cunningham is averaging 17-5-5 for the Pistons while shooting more than 37 percent from three. That seems like a typical profile of a No. 1 pick that entered the league with sky-high expectations. Unfortunately for Cunningham’s ROY candidacy, he had a slow start and a couple of injuries along the way, in addition to team struggles. If he maintains this recent baseline in terms of production, Cunningham should have the inside track to a top-three spot.

Evan Mobley

When a prospect is garnering frequent comparisons to Tim Duncan, that is probably a good sign. Mobley isn’t on Duncan’s level just yet, to be fair, but he is the best defender in the class and he is also putting up numbers on a good team. Mobley is shooting 50 percent from the floor, averaging nearly 15 points and eight rebounds per game, protecting the rim, defending in space, and filling in the gaps like a veteran. It also helps that Cleveland is a very good team, and he is a big part of the team’s success. Mobley is the clear favorite to win the award right now, both in perception and in the betting market.

Franz Wagner

Wagner has played in every single game for the Magic, and his numbers are startlingly good. After a rough Summer League performance, expectations were low, but Wagner’s shooting percentages have been rock solid, and he’s been quite aggressive in hunting his own shot. On top of that, the former Michigan standout has keen instincts on the defensive end, pairing anticipation and awareness with great size at the forward spots, and Wagner is also a willing passer. He really should be in the top-three mix, even if the other candidates are more prominent names.

Honorable Mentions

Chris Duarte – The second half of the season might be an “all you can eat” scenario for Duarte with the Pacers finally in a rebuilding mode. Even before that, Duarte was firmly in the rotation for a team that featured several key veterans, and he doesn’t look out of place. That was one of the positives about the Oregon product in the draft, and he is already quite solid.

Josh Giddey – He isn’t an efficient scorer yet, and that needs to develop in the future. However, Giddey’s size and passing vision are tremendous, and he has flashed in the morass that is Oklahoma City.

Jalen Green – It isn’t a big surprise that Green is off to a slow start, both because he missed time with injury and because rookie scorers sometimes need some seasoning. His efficiency will (or at least should) keep him out of the top spots right now, but the talent is undeniable.

Herb Jones – Jones isn’t going to have the offensive stats that get noticed, but he’s been the second-best defender in the class behind Mobley. That is earning him a ton of minutes for the suddenly vibrant Pelicans, and Jones has managed to post solid shooting efficiency based on a moderate shot diet. He’s a fun player.

Davion Mitchell – Mitchell has a long way to go as a primary option on the offensive end, but there is more playing time available for him in the absence of Tyrese Haliburton. The lottery pick is also very good at bothering opposing guard with his on-ball defense, and that is his calling card at this stage.

There were a couple of pieces of unfinished business I had to bring up with Boyd Holbrook before getting into his new film, Sean Ellis’s The Cursed – a stylized, yet gnarly 19th-century werewolf movie that premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival to strong reviews (back when it was titled Eight for Silver). The last time I spoke to Holbrook he was promoting Logan, and Holbrook was so confident of Logan’s upcoming success (he was right to be optimistic), he was trying to bet anyone that Logan would make more money than Deadpool, a movie Holbrook liked a lot, but also targeted as a movie he wanted to beat because it, too, was a rated-R superhero movie. In the end, Logan did incredibly well, but still made about $150 million less than Deadpool so I was curious how many $5 bets he lost.

Also, while trying ot make a point, Holbrook took a shot at McDonald’s. Basically his point was people eat McDonald’s once then never eat it again. Now, due to no other information than the continued existence of McDonald’s, this can’t possibly be true. After that interview published, I received a handwritten letter from a publicist at McDonald’s thanking me for defending them against Boyd Holbrook (I didn’t really so much “defend” them as much as just point out people do eat their food; I, too, have had McDonald’s more than once) and also included some sort of elaborate Happy Meal looking collectible that I only saved, for five years now, and through a move, for this moment to show Boyd Holbrook what he had done. And that, who knows, maybe The Cursed could have had a Happy Meal tie in, including bloody werewolves for the kids, but now that would never happen.

Holbrook is also in Indiana Jones 5, directed by his Logan director, James Mangold. The plot of Indiana Jones 5 is so secret we still don’t even know who Holbrook is playing. But the question today is, would Holbrook risk another $5 on the future of its box office?

The last time I spoke to you, you tried to bet me and anyone else who would listen that Logan would make more money than Deadpool. Logan made $619 million, and Deadpool made $782 million. But your publicist wouldn’t let me take the bet because she was worried you were going to lose $5 to about 50 people…

That’s okay. I mean, 50 times $5…

Yeah, $2,500 … I feel you could probably swing that.

Well, yeah. Maybe. It depends on what it is. But hey, hats off to Ryan Reynolds. He’s doing great things.

Now you’re making a face like Logan underperformed or something, this beloved movie that everyone saw.

No, it overperformed, but a bet’s a bet.

Also last time you made a crack about how no one eats McDonald’s twice. Now, I didn’t defend McDonald’s, but mentioned I think people do seem to eat it more than once. After that published I received a letter in the mail from McDonald’s thanking me for defending them against Boyd Holbrook and it came with this fancy Happy Meal display I saved just for this moment to show you.

Wow. Don’t tell me it’s…

Yeah, the Hamburglar is in here.

That’s awesome. Well, damn. Do I have a hit out on my head from McD’s? I hope not. I was just playing, guys. I was just playing.

You cost yourself a sponsorship that day. You could be the face of McDonald’s.

I was really gunning for a lifetime supply of apple turnovers. By the way, are one of my favorite things and my guilty pleasure.

Just in general or their version of it?

I just remember that as a kid it was just this staple. You had me, McDonald’s.

You’ve turned a corner on that particular franchise.

I guess I have to, yeah. A lot of lessons were learned today.

Okay so this movie used to be called Eight for Silver. And now it’s The Cursed, which it’s probably a better title? I’m just used to the other one.

Yeah, me too. I mean, I get it. I was reading a lot of the comments and a lot of people enjoyed Eight for Silver. It is original, what it is to the film, and I also get it for marketing’s sake and what is this movie about? It could be that, which is fine. I even had a friend, he had a film. It was called Weirdo, which is such a great title. Of course, to spare him some ramifications because if McDonald’s is coming after me now and Ryan Reynolds, I won’t tell the name of what it was changed to, but yeah. It happens. It happens.

So see, if you hadn’t said what you said, kids could have gone to McDonald’s this week and gotten Happy Meals with werewolves in them in support of The Cursed.

Wow. Wow. All is lost. You know what they say, be nice to the people on the way up, because they’re the same people on the way down.

It’s such a good pairing. Get kids out there interested in gnarly horror really early on.

Yeah. Eight and up, seems appropriate.

This movie is pretty gnarly.

Yeah. I’m a big fan of, personally, I love watching horror films. There’s nothing better than getting a scare from a movie. And Sean’s an amazing director, and the film is really gorgeous and stunning, and it’s got that art-house feel to it. And I got to go all over the south of France. It was creepy and just kind of haunting out there in these vineyards. You just have this fog that looms over anyways.

What do you like about horror?

There’s something about it. It doesn’t matter if they’re great or if they’re bad or if they’re whatever. It’s just something about that anticipation. Because I don’t particularly like being scared in my life either, but I do like to double down when I’m watching a horror film and just kind of let this in.

Do you like the actual scary stuff? Or more the Friday the 13ths or Nightmare on Elm Street type movies that are fun?

Oh man, when I was growing up, Freddy Krueger, Jason, Friday the 13th, Halloweens, those three films were at the apex of horror films. So yeah, I’ve always enjoyed … “love/hate relationship” I guess is maybe the way to say it because you love the feeling off getting scared, but you hate the anticipation of the feeling of that.

I don’t know if you know this, but Jason and Freddy, they fought.

It’s like Alien vs. Predator type of epic battle.

We need more of those types of movies.

Yeah. Put the main bosses against each other.

You’re in the new Indiana Jones movie. They’re being very secretive about it. But I have one Indiana Jones question. Are you going to bet $5 it makes more than Deadpool?

Um…

You don’t have to do it with me, anyone out there can take this bet.

No, listen. Listen. I don’t have it in for Ryan Reynolds…

You made it clear. You like that Deadpool a lot. It was a spirited competition. In fun, you wanted to beat it.

Yeah, exactly. It was a spirited competition. I think this Indiana Jones film is going to be kick-ass.

Oh, I can’t wait.

I can’t wait for it either. I’ve seen a lot of it.

Oh?

Yeah. I’ve been doing it for nine months. But yeah. It’s badass. I don’t think it’s any secret that Jim Mangold is directing it.

The Logan director himself.

Exactly. And he’s an amazing guy to work with.

It seems like a good choice for you to be in multiple movies of his.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Jim has a way to just draw an amazing performance out of every actor he works with, and I think he’s very suited for this one. Logan, and obviously Ford v Ferrari, all the action stuff. I think you’re going to see all that kind of bottlenecking for Indiana Jones. We’re on literally our last week, week and a half of filming.

Oh wow.

And so I’m just trying to enjoy the last bit of it.

It’s always great talking to you, and I can’t wait to find out what the good folks at McDonald’s have to say to me this time.

Hey, tell them let’s squash it, man. Let’s squash it. I want to do some apple turnovers. I’ll work the food line. Put me in the window.

They’ll be happy to hear that. They finally won you over.

Come on. Put me in.

‘The Cursed’ opens in theaters this weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Before she started dating (and later, broke up with) Kanye West, Julia Fox was in Uncut Gems. It was a “crown jewel” performance in a great movie (I am still angry Adam Sandler wasn’t nominated for an Academy Award), especially for someone making their feature film debut. But Fox had a history with New York-based directors and co-writers Josh and Benny Safdie, who partially based the character of, well, Julia on her.

Uncut Gems is back in the news not only because we should always be talking about Uncut Gems, but also: during an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, Fox had an inexplicable pronunciation of the film’s title. Prepare to watch this clip at least 15 times.

After Unka Jamz (?) became a TikTok trend, Fox commented on the clip, writing, “Omggggg, I was stoned, leave me alone!!!! Hahahahahah.” It’s too bad the Weeknd already released an album this year: “UNCLE JAMS” (??) could be his next hit single.

As for Fox, on top of continuing her acting career, she would like to step behind the camera, too. “My dad always told me that I should have been an actress, but that wasn’t really my main focus,” she told Interview Magazine. “I really love to be the director, the person in charge, making my fantasy come to life. But if I love someone else’s fantasy, I’ll definitely help them bring theirs to life, too.” Until then, I’m going to watch this again:

(Via E! Online)

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Listening to Beach House is a little like praying: Under the right circumstances, any and everyone will turn to them. What listeners take from the experience probably depends on their mental state at the time, but the music is always there. At this point, they loom more as a mystic force in indie rock than as an actual band. Beach House’s dreamy, spiritual sound has been pretty much unchangeable for eight albums, and Once Twice Melody might expand their palette a bit, but it’s no experimental reach or brand new direction. Why mess with perfection? Their gauzy soundscapes are vague enough to sustain quite a bit of emotional projection, but there’s depth of meaning lurking within the songs that few other bands yield.

Victoria Legrand’s strangely neutral, always mesmerizing vocals continue to lead the way, with her longtime creative partner Alex Scally on backup vocals and various production duties (all songs are credited to Beach House, jointly), and in this case, no one else involved. Live drums were added later, but no other collaborators were involved until the mixing and arranging phase. The band also self-produced this album entirely on their own, a shift after years of working with co-producer Chris Coady, who joined them on Teen Dream and also worked on Bloom, two of their most critically-acclaimed releases. The choice to work on the record at home, and in isolation, was mostly due to the pandemic, but if anything, it only seems to enhance the fogginess and softness of the record, which is mammoth compared to past releases: exactly double their more standard offering of nine songs per release.

Because it’s so long, it will be up to each listener to winnow out their favorites, and that’s an experience the band is looking forward to giving to fans. “There’s a real joy in the expanse,” Scally told Pitchfork of the band’s choice to keep all 18 songs. Spread out over months across four smaller EPs, the space between each “chapter” gave longtime fans and newcomers alike the space to really sit with each section. Then again, when was the last time Drake released a proper album that was less than 18 tracks? (The answer is 2013) Maybe Beach House is leaning into the structure of the future; all the rare bits, all the deep cuts, and all the bangers, released as one. In terms of semantics, Once Twice Melody is described as a “double album,” but despite the song’s disparate moods, it still feels apiece.

From the first “chapter,” early on “Superstar” was tagged as the standout, a classic, repetitive Beach House synth line that slowly explodes into all sorts of floating pieces about halfway through, and surges into an extended outro rather than fading. My pick from that EP, though, is “Pink Funeral,” a song that’s more Swan Lake than Teen Dream, completely buoyed by their newfound inclusion of live string arrangements and whining electric guitar alike. Chapter two’s “ESP” is vintage Beach House, a sighing, simmering anthem punctuated by organ and more strings. Similarly, “Sunset” is a standout from chapter three, incorporating acoustic guitar in a way that feels fresh for this band, even if, in some ways, that was a sound they were replacing when the band debuted in the early 2000s.

Part of the ethos of Once Twice Melody does seem to be that zen-like conclusion that everything comes back around. Just before the release of their final chapter, and subsequently, the entire album, the band opted to share “Hurts To Love” as a stand-alone single on Valentine’s Day, a more openly sentimental move than they might have adopted in the past. More midi than some of the other offerings here, this song’s lyrics also seem to be more direct than most of the others, confronting the confluence of pain and pleasure that any deep relationship necessarily invokes. “If it hurts to love / You better do it anyway,” Legrand sings. “If it hurts too much / Well, I loved you anyway.”

The track before it, “The Bells,” is much more romantic though, again leaning into guitar tones that might come as a pleasant surprise to veteran fans. More than starlit skies or cosmic forces, Legrand finds comfort in what ties us to earth, the tolling of the bells, the neighborhood bar: “I can’t live without you, I’ll be the last one at the bar.” More Lorde’s “Big Star” than Dylan’s “Ring Them Bells,” the essence of both seems to run through Beach House’s approximation. Of course, the most blatant love song on this record is about a familiar, ordinary sound that evokes the strongest connection of all. Like a prayer, it might all be nothing. It all depends on who is listening.

WARNING: Spoilers for Peacemaker below.

After Peacemaker (John Cena) and the team of ARGUS agents spent all season gathering intel on the “Butterflies” — a race of tiny alien creatures that look like multi-color praying mantis and bloodily burrow into a person’s brain through their mouth and take over their body — the situation comes to a head as what’s left of the not-so-covert team prepares to destroy the “Cow.” That’d be the massive caterpillar-like creature that provides the only source of food for the Butterflies.

After tracking the Cow to a remote farm where its being milked in an underground lair, Peacemaker, Vigilante (Freddie Stroma), Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), Harcourt (Jennifer Holland), and Economos (Steve Agee) concoct a plan to have Eagly place Peacemaker’s sonic boom helmet on the roof of the barn where the Butterflies are gathered. That plan quickly goes awry as Eagly flies right past the barn and dumps the helmet in the woods nearby.

While searching for the helmet, Peacemaker is haunted by a vision of his dead father, the racist villain White Dragon (Robert Patrick), who he killed in the previous episode. Peacemaker “shoots” the ghost of his father with a poisonous blow dart, and Harcourt witnesses the aftermath as Peacemaker is seen yelling defiantly at a tree. However, her concern is cast aside as the sonic boom helmet is found near the same tree.

With the helmet in hand, the team sends an extremely reluctant Economos to drop the sonic boom inside the barn while disguised as a Butterfly security guard. Unlike Eagly, this plan goes much smoother, until a Butterfly notices the duffel bag Economos left on a stairwell leading towards the Cow. The Butterflies begin to swarm on the now-fleeing Economos, which prompts Adebayo to activate the sonic boom helmet. After exhausting all of its blasts, and collapsing a significant portion of the Cow’s lair below, Peacemaker, Vigilante, and Harcourt load up their weapons and charge at the remaining Butterflies.

While taking out as many Butterflies as possible, Harcourt tells Peacemaker to finish the mission and make sure the Cow is dead. However, after he leaves, Harcourt is severely wounded after taking a shotgun blast to the torso. Grabbing two guns, Adebayo ignores her orders to stay back and charges into the fray. Economos attempts to follow her, but instantly drips over a fence and grotesquely breaks his leg, not even a foot from their hiding spot.

Proving that Adebayo was “born for this sh*t” — she is the daughter of Amanda Waller after all — she makes short work of remaining Butterflies and rushes to Harcourt, who is not looking good. She tells Adebayo to help Peacemaker just as Economos crawls up to them with a Human Rocket helmet that the group was warned not to use because it’s dangerous as hell.

Armed with the helmet, Adebayo descends into the underground lair, where she finds the Butterfly-controlled Officer Song (Annie Chang) slamming Peacemaker against a wall. Adebayo activates the human rocket helmet and… completely misses Song by a mile before slamming into the cave wall. Song then releases Peacemaker and tells him she’s not going to hurt him.

Inside the Cow facility, Song reveals that the Butterflies have the same mission as him: peace. (Song is also controlled by the Butterfly Goff, who Peacemaker had kept alive in his house earlier in the season.) They came to Earth after recklessly exhausting the resources on their own planet. However, they soon realized that humans were making the same mistake, their plan was to infiltrate world leaderships and steer humanity away from destroying the planet. All Peacemaker has to do is help them teleport the Cow, their sole food source, to another facility in Maine, and the Butterflies can get back to their mission of protecting the Earth.

While it seems like Peacemaker is about to take the offer, he reactivates the Human Rocket helmet and sends Adebayo straight into the Cow, killing the massive creature and leaving poor Adebayo on the ground in a pile of alien guts. Peacemaker kills Song, but he does not kill Goff when she emerges from her now deceased human host.

After exiting the facility, Peacemaker finds the wounded Harcourt and picks her up so he can get her to a hospital. However, the team has guests. In a move that immediately had social media exploding with reactions, the Justice League appears, minus Batman and Cyborg. Clearly unimpressed, Peacemaker walks right past the superhero group while calling them “d*ckheads” for being late and mocking Aquaman (Jason Momoa) for “f*cking fish.” A rumor which Aquaman clearly hates, so naturally, The Flash (Ezra Miller) jokes that it’s true.

As Harcourt recovers in the hospital, Adebayo goes public with the team’s actions and also reveals the existence of Task Force X (a.k.a. The Suicide Squad) much to chagrin of her mother. As the group goes their separate ways, Peacemaker returns home where he finds Goff waiting for him and feeds her what little bit of alien goo he has left in jar while sitting outside on his porch. However, the quiet moment is disrupted by Peacemaker’s father showing up on the porch to laugh at his son, who is clearly terrified this is going to become an ongoing thing heading into Season 2.

Peacemaker Season 1 is available for streaming on HBO Max.

Ever since his official debut in 1999, Eminem has been a lightning rod for controversy. He’s mellowed out a lot since then, but it appears he still has the juice to get the establishment all riled up, 23 years later. While many folks agreed with Britney Spears regarding his performance during Dr. Dre’s Super Bowl halftime show, some more conservative viewers freaked out, with one coining the term “sexual anarchy” to describe the largely sexless performance.

One, Rudy Giuliani, went on a baffling tirade against Eminem specifically for kneeling after completing his set, presumably in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick’s 2016 protests against police brutality. Giuliani, popping up on a conservative talk radio show, seemed to equate Eminem’s action with a (nonexistent) rise in crime in Los Angeles, and said that the NFL “made a mockery out of law enforcement.” Yeah, I don’t know what world this guy thinks he lives in either… I kid. I know he’s just shilling to his paranoia-ridden base.

And while Eminem himself has yet to respond to the bad-faith, disingenuous rant, it looks like Stephen Colbert was more than happy to take over some of that workload on last night’s episode of The Late Show, employing a soundalike — similarly to when he lampooned Nicki Minaj’s “cousin’s swollen balls” tall tale — to imagine Eminem’s frankly hilarious response to Giuliani. Set to Em’s “Lose Yourself,” the song that the rapper performed at the Super Bowl (and one of his least offensive songs ever), the remixed track takes aim at Rudy’s many (many) missteps over the past couple of years, from his Borat embarrassment to his stumping for the failed January 6 coup.

Watch “Eminem’s” response to Rudy Giuliani’s Super Bowl halftime show rant above.