Month: April 2022

As conservatives continue to attack The Walt Disney Company for its opposition to Florida’s recently passed “Don’t Say Gay” bill, Ted Cruz decided to take things to a whole other level by concocting a pretty specific scenario involving Mickey Mouse and his beloved dog Pluto. It’s an “incredibly disturbing image that we now all have to live with,” quipped Seth Meyers as he roasted Cruz’s weird Disney suggestion during Wednesday night’s episode of Late Night.

“I think there are people who are misguided trying to drive, you know, Disney stepping in saying, in every episode now they’re going to have Mickey and Pluto going at it,” Cruz said on a recent episode of his podcast. “Come on, guys! These are kids! You can always shift to Cinemax if you want that.”

Just so we’re clear, that was Ted Cruz imagining Mickey and Pluto having sex, which naturally concerned Meyers. Via The Daily Beast:

“The point is: Ted Cruz jumping to that conclusion makes it clear he already has some pretty pervy ideas about the Magic Kingdom,” said Meyers. “I’d hate to hear why he thinks it’s called ‘Splash Mountain.’”

However, as Meyer notes, Cruz’s Mickey and Pluto idea probably does exist. “Anytime you come up with some kinky idea involving two cartoon characters, pornography has already beaten you to it,” the late night host joked. Considering Cruz’s documented “like” of porn, maybe he’s just trying to tell us what he’s been watching lately.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Last week, Phoebe Bridgers released “Sidelines,” a song that whipped fans into such a frenzy that they crashed her website shortly after the news broke. However, the song also came with an indication that 2022 would be a relatively quiet year for Bridgers, as press materials noted, “This will be the only original new song from Bridgers this year.” Now, though, it looks like Bridgers is open to changing her mind about that.

In a recent interview, with KROQ at Coachella last weekend, Bridgers was asked if “Sidelines” will in fact be her only new song of the year and she responded, “Uh, who knows, actually. I try to do things that are exciting, so I never really know what I’m gonna do.” She jokingly added, “Dropping a mixtape tomorrow.”

She also said of how the song came about, “[Marshall Vore] had this like love song idea… he sent it to me right in the beginning of the pandemic. I was like, ‘This is insane.’ Was so obsessed with it, was playing it all the time in the house. And then when the show asked me to make something, I was like, ‘But I don’t have anything that fits.’ And Marshall was like, ‘What about that ‘Sidelines’ one?’ I was like, ‘What?!’ So we re-wrote some of it and re-recorded it and changed some stuff around, and it just kind of magically fit and was exactly what I wanted.”

Check out the interview above.

Johnny Depp is expected to take the stand again this morning for the third day in a row as he testifies about his violent and volatile relationship with fellow actor Amber Heard, which began in 2012 and ended just over year after they got married in February 2015. But it’s hard to imagine that anything the three-time Oscar nominee could say today or at any further point in the defecation defamation trial, which Depp brought against his ex-wife, could be any more bizarre than the Pirates of the Caribbean star testifying about Heard allegedly pooping on his side of the bed.

The comments came on Wednesday, as Depp discussed the final days of the couple’s ill-fated marriage, which came shortly after Heard’s 30th birthday in April 2016. Shortly thereafter, when Depp knew his estranged wife was out of town, he had planned to go to their penthouse to collect some of his personal belongings, but was advised against it by one of his security guards. When Depp pushed to know the reason why, he was sent a photo of the current state of their home, which—as The Wrap reports—included a pile of supposedly human poop where he slept.

Depp struggled to find the words to describe what he saw, but ultimately settled on it being “absurd and grotesque and cruel.” When asked to describe what he saw in the picture, the actor chose his words carefully again, but confirmed that “it was human fecal matter.” Depp admitted that his initial response to the situation was to actually laugh. “It was so outside; it was so bizarre and so grotesque that I could only laugh,” he said.

Of course, Depp’s lawyer wasn’t about to let that nugget just dangle, so she pressed further, forcing the actor to come up with some colorful—and, frankly, hilarious—ways of describing the turd. Among some of the more choice phrases? That “someone dropped a grumpy” and explaining how Heard attempted to blame the “fecal delivery” on her two dogs. When asked why he didn’t think it could have been the dogs, Depp explained: “They’re teacup Yorkies. They weigh about four pounds each.”

“I lived with those dogs,” Depp added. “I’ve picked up their… fun. It was not the dogs.”

Heard’s legal team began their cross-examination of Depp just about 20 minutes before calling it a night, so the actor is expected to be back on the stand again first thing this morning—where “the human fecal matter” will undoubtedly be revisited. And help explain why #AmberTurd is trending.

You can watch part of Depp’s testimony above.

Ahead of Wednesday’s episode of Jeopardy! (at least on the West Coast), host Ken Jennings tweeted, “I’m too late for the East Coast but there’s a real @Jeopardy rarity on the show tonight! Plan your evening accordingly!” What could it be? Was it the first episode of Jeopardy! with the Joker as one of the contestants? That would be tWiStEd. Or maybe every answer in the form of a question had to be spoken in Simlish? Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios came true, but it was a rarity nonetheless.

For what appears to be only the second time since 2015 (and possibly only the 10th time ever on the long-running game show), Final Jeopardy consisted of a single contestant: Mattea Roach. It was a “rare solo Final Jeopardy,” as Jennings called it. “Loni Lewis had -$600 heading into the final round, while Sean Wong was down -$1,600, preventing both of them from appearing in the third and final round of the game,” Today reports. “Roach, meanwhile, had $21,400 heading into Final Jeopardy.”

Roach correctly answered, “This website launched in 2015 with 3 offerings, from James Patterson, Dustin Hoffman and Serena Williams,” with “MasterClass,” giving her a 12-day grand total of $271,282. The 23-year-old has already qualified for the Tournament of Champions, along with fellow Jeopardy! experts Amy Schneider and Matt Amodio.

You can Roach’s solo Final Jeopardy above.

(Via Today)

Rootin’ tootin Lauren Boebert’s apparently recovered from receiving Bible schooling for her Jesus-and-lockdowns tweet on Easter. That followed up upon the Shooter’s Grill owner’s triggered response after SNL parodied her Christmas-with-guns photo. The Rifle Republican’s bouncing back, though, and she’s back with a take on why Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in streaming history. And she’s off the mark.

The probable reasons for the decline are easy to pinpoint. The streaming service decided to hike prices again (and this is becoming a regular occurrence) in a time of inflation. This is happening while the streaming service has projected a crackdown and higher prices for those people who share passwords with family members who might not always reside under the same roof. Meanwhile, the entire 200,000-strong subscriber base of Russia has gone out the door. Still, Boebert is convinced that Netflix will fail because it’s not a far-right service and is too “woke.” And for some unknown reason, she’s bringing “physics” into the discussion.

“Netflix is projected to LOSE 2 million subscribers & CNN+ can’t even reach 200,000,” she tweeted. “The correlation between companies going woke & then broke is a new law of physics at this point.”

As one might expect, people are pouncing on Boebert for tweeting about another subject that she clearly hasn’t studied (again, no one is bashing GED earners, but Boebert hasn’t even brushed up on the U.S. constitution, and she’s a lawmaker). No one knows why she’s calling this a “law of physics,” and people are also pointing out how Netflix had a rather non-woke response to the Dave Chappelle/The Closer controversy. Also, yup, Alex Jones is going broke, and he’s the opposite of woke.

Speaking of projections, yep, that subject came up, too:

The midterms should be fun for all, to say the very least.

In early February, the word spread that Rudy Giuliani had been unmasked as a performer on Fox’s The Masked Singer—and that not everyone involved with the hit reality series had taken the reveal very well. Reports surfaced that judges Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke in particular were so incensed by the cheap ratings grab that both walked off the stage in protest, leaving many to wonder whether Giuliani would be cut out of the season altogether.

On Thursday night, viewers got their answer when the disgraced former New York City mayor was unmasked as a jackass-in-the-box. While The Masked Singer creator Wonwoo Park has very publicly stuck by his decision to both invite Giuliani onto the show and to leave the episode (mostly) intact, Jeong and Thicke did not agree. And while Thicke’s walk offstage did not make it onto the final broadcast, Jeong’s did—and many people are praising the doctor-turned-comedian for his decision to declare “I’m done” once Rudy began belting out the world’s worst rendition of “Bad to the Bone” and extricate himself from the situation.

While Jeong’s quiet protest received both positive and negative buzz online, the majority of people seemed to agree with the judge’s decision to not celebrate a man who has been the loudest champion of overturning the 2020 election. You can see just a smattering of those pro-Jeong reactions below.

Earlier this month, quick-to-anger conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly was caught on video having a meltdown at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. He called a JetBlue employee a “f*cking scumbag” after his flight was delayed by a few hours, and later threatened to have the worker fired. “You’re gonna lose your job,” he said.

O’Reilly is now blaming Joe Biden for his breakdown, because [world’s longest sigh]:

The issue, O’Reilly, argues goes straight to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and the Biden administration not addressing the issue. “For some reason, the Biden administration is not big on solving problems. This is a huge problem,” he said. O’Reilly said there is an open invitation for spokespeople from JetBlue to address the situation on his No Spin News, but he has heard nothing.

O’Reilly, who previously hit the road with former-president Donald Trump on a poorly-attended “History Tour,” told Mediaite, “The story is JetBlue can’t get their flights off the ground. It was crazy in the terminal.” He admitted that he handled the situation “poorly,” but in Mediaite‘s words, “he’s not sorry for confronting the worker.” Because that would involve feeling empathy with another human, which is not really O’Reilly’s thing.

(Via Mediaite)

The Milwaukee Bucks lost Game 2 at home on Wednesday night to the Bulls as DeMar DeRozan went off for 41 points to swipe homecourt away from the defending champs, but of greater concern than losing the game was losing Khris Middleton.

The star wing was heating up in the second half as the Bucks clawed their way back into the game, but in the fourth quarter he slipped on a drive and limped to the locker room with a left knee injury the team called “soreness” in the initial injury update that confirmed he was done for the game. Afterwards, coach Mike Budenholzer provided an update that Middleton had suffered a sprained MCL, with an MRI to come on Thursday to determine the severity of the injury.

While we won’t get an official timetable until Thursday afternoon, sprained MCLs typically keep players out for 4-6 weeks (as was the case earlier this season with Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant). That would be a massive loss for the Bucks in their quest to repeat, as they’ll almost assuredly have to get through this Bulls series and likely a second round series (should they get by Chicago) with Boston or Brooklyn without their second-leading scorer.

That’s a tall order and shifts an immense load onto the shoulders of Jrue Holiday, who struggled scoring the ball in Game 2 and would have to not only be Milwaukee’s defensive leader at the point of attack, but also take on the role of lead perimeter creator on the offensive end as well. It’s hard to see how much more Giannis Antetokounmpo can be asked to do after a 33-point, 18-rebound, 9-assist game, but he likely will need to find an extra gear with Middleton out and the rest of the Bucks’ perimeter rotation will need to be able to knock down threes to alleviate some of the pressure now on Giannis and Holiday.

A year before he released his first album with Rick Ross’ Maybach Music Group, Wale gave fans one of their favorite projects from him with his sixth mixtape, More About Nothing. The project is a highlight release from the blog era and it’s one that arrived two years after Wale’s fourth mixtape The Mixtape About Nothing. Comprised of 21 songs, the project is inspired by Seinfield, one of Wale’s favorite shows, and each song follows the naming format for the show itself by starting each title with the word “The.” More About Nothing is also laced with audio clips from various episodes of Seinfield.

Nearly twelve years after the project was released, Wale announced today that More About Nothing is coming to streaming services. He revealed that Jerry Seinfield, whom he has a close relationship with, had a big hand in helping to get the mixtape on DSPs. “Thank Jerry Seinfeld,” Wale wrote in a tweet. “That guy made all the calls to clear so much stuff ..#moreaboutnothing is otw.”

Wale also shared the news in a video that showed some moments he and Jerry shared together over the years. At the end of the video, the date “4.29.22” appeared on the screen, signaling that More About Nothing could arrive on streaming services next week.

You can view Wale’s posts about More About Nothing above.

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

Game 1 of the series between the Bulls and Bucks went about as expected, with Milwaukee jumping out to a big lead early, but a resilient Bulls team hanging around and making things interesting before the reigning champs slammed the door shut.

When Game 2 started, it was the visitors that got busy from the jump this time around, as Chicago came out much more engaged, letting some swarming defense (and sloppy play from the Bucks) fuel a 9-0 start to the game.

Milwaukee would settle down from there and got back into the game, taking a brief lead and trailing by just one after the first quarter, but the Bulls weren’t deterred. A theme throughout the game was strong three-point shooting from the entire Bulls roster, as they shot 48 percent from deep on the night, with seemingly everyone getting in on the act in the first half.

Chicago would extend their lead at the outset of the third, as Nikola Vucevic continued his excellent play this series, winning the matchup with Brook Lopez down low.

The Bucks went on the expected run, though, as Khris Middleton got hot from three and Giannis Antetokounmpo asserted his will, cutting the Bulls lead down from 18 to as few as three.

It looked like the Bulls might fold and become the third lower seed of the night to blow a 17-point advantage, but DeRozan simply would not allow it, as he took control in the closing minutes of the third and the start of the fourth to push the Chicago lead back up to 16 in short order.

Milwaukee again punched back, but as they were getting things back to single-digits they saw their No. 2 scorer leave the game with knee soreness that kept him out for the rest of the game — after losing Bobby Portis in the second quarter after he got hit in the eye. Jrue Holiday would step up, hitting a couple big threes and getting the lead down to five, but blew an open layup to cut the Bulls lead to three that Vucevic followed up with a three to stem the tide once again.

The Bucks would get the lead down to three on a Brook Lopez and-1 layup with just over a minute to play, and twice forced misses from the Bulls on the other end but Alex Caruso and Vucevic got huge offensive rebounds, the latter of which tipped out to DeRozan who put the game on ice with a tough finish through contact to reach 41 points.

It was fitting that it was DeRozan, Vucevic, and Caruso that put the game on ice, as they were vital for the Bulls in the win — with Caruso drawing a game-sealing charge on Giannis with 4.9 seconds to play. DeRozan finished with 41 points, seven rebounds, and four assists, while Vucevic chipped in 24 points and 13 boards, with Caruso only scoring nine but dishing out 10 assists and providing sensational defense, including two blocks and two steals. Zach LaVine let his co-star cook on the night, taking a backseat on offense but provided aid when called upon with 20 points on 13 shots.

For the Bucks, Giannis was his usual sensational self with 33 points, 18 rebounds, and nine assists, and Brook Lopez had some big buckets down the stretch to reach 25 points. But the injury to Middleton put a damper on Milwaukee’s offensive explosiveness down the stretch, as they simply could not hit enough threes without him on the floor to reel in the Bulls — non-Middleton Bucks were 9-of-29 from three on the night. The bench unit, in particular, struggled, going 1-of-10 from three and with Middleton and Portis’ status for Game 3 in question, things are suddenly very interesting in a 1-1 series.

The Bulls will gain a tremendous amount of confidence from this win, as DeRozan was simply unguardable by anyone on the Bucks, including Giannis, and Vucevic continues to play some of the best ball of his season at the right time. When they are able to knock down threes around DeRozan, they give themselves a chance thanks to quality defense on the other end and the United Center will be very loud when they come back home for Game 3 all knotted up at a game apiece.