Month: October 2022

Pulling in double duty as tonight’s host and musical guest, Megan Thee Stallion opened this week’s Saturday Night Live with a hilarious monologue.

During her monologue, Megan ran down her list of nicknames: “We’ve got Tina Snow, the Hot Girl Coach, the H-Town Hottie, and if you are one of my many, many haters, I’m probably ‘ugh, that b*tch.’”

Shortly afterward, she detailed her impressive resume, saying “I know everyone is used to seeing me twerk, doing hood rat stuff with my hood rat friends, and flat-out being one of the hottest MCs in the game right now, period. But there’s so much more to me than meets the eye. For example, I’m a really good actress. I don’t want to toot my own horn or nothing, but I think I do a pretty good British accent.”

“Alright, check this out, she said, before speaking in a British accent. “Put me in Bridgerton, b*tch.”

She also noted that she graduated last year from Texas Southern University with a degree in Health Administration, and recently launched a mental health resource website called Bad B*tches Have Bad Days Too.

“I can’t believe the domain wasn’t already taken,” she said. “It was supposed to be called ‘Hot Girl Bummer,’ but somebody stole it,” referring to Blackbear’s hit single, “Hot Girl Bummer.”

“You know who you are,” said Megan.

Check out the full monologue above.

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

USC entered Saturday night’s trip to Utah as a 3.5-point underdog despite being ranked 7th in the country at 6-0, as the Utes playing at home figured to be their biggest test yet.

Early on, it looked like we might see another USC boatrace, as they jumped ahead 21-7, but Utah’s offense would start to settle in and make things a 28-21 game at the half. Utah quickly tied it up in the third quarter and from there the two teams traded blows, with USC taking the lead back each time the Utes tied it up, like in the fourth quarter when Cam Rising’s second rushing touchdown of the game was answered almost immediately by Caleb Williams’ fifth touchdown pass of the night.

At that point, Utah had two options to have a chance at winning, it felt. The first was to score quickly enough that USC would score too quickly and give them the last possession. The second was to grind out a drive and leave as little time on the clock as possible, and they achieved that in a bit more stressful of a fashion as they’d hoped, punching it in with Rising on the ground again with 48 seconds left.

Wisely, recognizing that they weren’t stopping USC’s offense and playing for OT was a bit foolish, the Utes lined up to go for two and, once again, it was Rising using his legs after USC covered up his receivers to push Utah ahead for the first time all night, 43-42.

From there, USC had a long kick return called back for holding and started at their 20, facing a sea of black shirts and a wall of noise, leading to an immediate false start.

Williams would then throw what appeared to be a game-sealing pick, but got a reprieve with a pass interference flag — with USC getting an even bigger break by a referee making an errant timeout signal on the field that gave them almost 10 extra seconds on the clock after review. However, Utah’s defense finally bowed up and wouldn’t give up a big play, eventually forcing Williams into a last second heave on the run that didn’t make it anywhere close to the end zone from 60-plus yards away to give Utah a non-upset upset win, moving them to 5-2 and back in the hunt for the Pac-12 South title.

For USC, their defensive woes finally resulted in a loss, as Williams’ monster night was in vain as he went for 381 yards and five touchdowns in defeat. On Utah’s side, Rising was equally sensational, throwing for 415 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 60 yards and three more scores. Rising’s favorite target on the night was Dalton Kincaid, as the tight end showed out with 16 catches for 234 yards and a touchdown, as he terrorized the USC defense all night.

It was a fittingly chaotic end to a chaotic day in college football (and sports in general), as No. 7 USC joined No. 3 Alabama as Playoff contenders to suffer their first loss of the season on the road against a conference rival.

Saturday night in Cleveland was a battle of two very different styles of offensive baseball, as the Yankees scored five runs on five hits, three of them home runs as they took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.

The Guardians, meanwhile, had gotten their three runs on 10 hits, playing small-ball against the powerful Yankees and, it appeared, that would not be enough. However, in the ninth inning the Guardians would not stop hitting singles, scoring three runs on five singles, the last of which came off the bat of Oscar Gonzalez, sending Progressive Field into full on pandemonium.

It’s an incredible hit from Gonzalez who was down to the team’s last strike when he went down below the zone on what was really a good pitch by Clarke Schmidt, a breaking ball that got below the zone and forced a swing. Gonzalez was able to get the barrel on it and fire it back up the middle, and with the runners moving on contact with two outs there was never a chance for a play at the plate.

Cleveland, and most importantly, Spongebob Kid, were fired up.

It is the third go-ahead hit from Gonzalez this postseason, as he’s become the Guardians most clutch hitter in late-game situations, moving them a game away from the ALCS. On the other side, it’s a dismal loss for the Yankees, with Aaron Boone coming under heavy fire from Yankees fans for how he handled his bullpen in the ninth inning, leaving Wandy Peralta in for his third inning of work to start, as he gave up the first two singles, leaving Schmidt to come in for a clean up spot, which he wasn’t able to close out.

The Seattle Mariners got to host a playoff game for the first time in 21 years on Saturday afternoon and the folks who were starved of postseason baseball for two decades were provided with two full games for the price of one.

Neither offense could do anything all game and the two sides went to extra innings tied 0-0. That continued for another eight innings, with the two pitching staffs combining for more than 100 outs without a single run being scored, a legitimately unbelievable feat that had never been achieved in playoff history — it was the fourth 18-inning game in playoff history overall, but the first to get there scoreless.

There weren’t a lot of “highlights” aside from some impressive pitching displays, but in the 16th, Mariners center fielder Julio Rodriguez helped keep the game stalemated at 0-0 with an unbelievable diving grab in the right center gap.

However, in the top of the 18th, Jeremy Pena launched one deep into left center that Rodriguez was not afforded a shot at, as it carried over the wall for a home run to, finally — and mercifully, for those watching — put a run on the board.

Seattle was unable to find their own miraculous run in the bottom of the 18th, bringing their incredible season to an end in about as painful a loss as you can have — especially for fans who sat there for 11 innings sobering up after they stopped serving alcohol in the seventh. Playing two full games worth of innings and losing 1-0 feels like an especially cruel way for a season to end, particularly for the pitching staff, and the Mariners will feel they let all three games in this series slip through their hands in various ways having blown two late leads in Houston prior to Saturday.

It appears Azealia Banks has been banned from Instagram.

Known for her outspoken nature and controversial takes on music matters and contemporary world issues, Banks’ Instagram page has apparently been cleared of its posts and removed from the platform.

In recent weeks, Banks had been using her Instagram page to sell her line of soaps, as well as share snippets of new music. She had also weighed in on music news, and accused Nicki Minaj of “sabotaging other black female rappers behind the scenes” in one of her lengthy Instagram stories.

Last week, Banks took to her Instagram stories to call out Kanye West for comments he made regarding Lizzo’s weight during an interview with Tucker Carlson.

“He can’t be trying to lollipop off the four-year-old discussion about Lizzo’s health and weight when he has an entire McDonald’s commercial,” Banks said.

In one of her last posts, before her account was removed, Banks said Minaj needed “serious help” following a Twitter row with Latto.

“The Barbs need to petition to get Nicki Minaj some rehab and mental health services through the Grammys music cars program,” she said. “…because this level of anger is not normal at all.”

A representative from Instagram did not immediately reply to our request for comment.

The game of the week in college football was in Knoxville, Tennessee, where two undefeated teams met in an annual rivalry (that hasn’t felt like one in quite some time) as Alabama made the trip north to face the Volunteers.

The Vols jumped out to an early 21-7 lead as they were simply unstoppable offensively, with Hendon Hooker orchestrating a lethal passing attack that was headlined by Jalin Hyatt, who caught six passes for 207 yards and five touchdowns, as the Tide struggled to cover him all night up the seams.

However, as one would expect from Alabama, they fought back to tie things up on a few occasions, with Bryce Young putting forth a ridiculous performance with 455 yards passing and two touchdowns, while Jahmyr Gibbs had 104 rushing yards and three touchdowns to help the Tide reel the Vols back in.

In a game dominated by the offenses, it was a defensive play that seemed like it might be the difference in the fourth quarter when a bad mesh from Hooker and his running back left the football on the turf for Dallas Turner, who gladly scooped it up for a touchdown to give Alabama their first touchdown lead of the day.

The Vols would strike back with another touchdown from Hooker to Hyatt, and the tension was palpable in Knoxville.

Alabama would march into field goal range, but the monkey’s paw of college kickers curled and the kick stayed wide right, leaving things tied at 49-49 with 21 seconds to play.

After quickly getting to midfield, the Vols were able to connect on one more deep pass to Bru McCoy to get them in range with two seconds to play to avoid overtime.

Vols kicker Chase McGrath was able to get just enough on the ball — that was maybe tipped at the line — to creep over the crossbar from 40 yards out to send Neyland Stadium into pandemonium.

It was a wild game that delivered on everything anyone could’ve hoped for — unless you are an Alabama fan — and any questions about how legit the Vols offense is were answered in a big way as Hooker made his Heisman case on the biggest stage in the sport so far this year.

On the heels of Blink-182‘s reunion tour announcement, Matt Skiba, who briefly replaced Tom DeLonge from 2015 until now, has shared a message yesterday (October 14) upon the release of the band’s new single, “Edging.”

Skiba took to Instagram, saying, “CONGRATULATIONS to the homies @markhoppus @tomdelonge and @travisbarker on their triumphant @blink182 return/reunion and the release of their new single today,” said Skiba. “I’m sure there’s a joke in here about releases and happy endings I’m missing but I am truly grateful for my time with blink and I am truly happy you guys are a band and a family again. THANKS TO THE BAND AND ALL THE BLINK FANS FOR HAVING ME. You were delicious!”

Earlier in the week, Delonge shared a message to Skiba on Instagram, thanking him for holding down Blink-182 in his absence.

“I think you are enormously talented (I still love and listen to your band [Alkaline Trio] to this day),” said Delonge. “You have always been so kind to me, not only in the press, but also to others. I really noticed. Emotions between the three of us in blink have always been complicated, but Mark’s cancer really put things in perspective. But to be honest, the band would not even be here today if it were not for your ability to jump in and save the day. So from my heart to yours, thank you for being a member of our band.”

Blink-182 is set to hit the road early next year, kicking off their much-anticipated tour in March.

The Golden State Warriors were busy on Saturday, hammering out a pair of big contract extensions to lock their core group in long-term.

First, they inked Jordan Poole to a 4-year, $140 million deal that pays him $20 million more than the guarantee number Tyler Herro got in Miami that seemed to set what the market would be for the Warriors scoring guard. That was particularly noteworthy considering Poole is a week removed from getting punched by Draymond Green in practice, with Green reportedly snapping over Poole bragging about his impending extension and Green not getting one.

Green continues to be without an extension and this could be his final season in the Bay, but a different member of the Warriors title team last year inked a new deal shortly after Poole. Andrew Wiggins, who emerged as a key two-way contributor to the Warriors a year ago, earned himself a $109 million extension from the team and joins Poole in being locked in for five more seasons in San Francisco.

Wiggins’ contributions last year were huge for the Warriors returning to title contention and he proved himself to be a 16-game player in the playoffs, where at times he was arguably their second-best player. The Warriors prioritized Poole and Wiggins’ extensions and now have their core locked in for the long haul, with Green notably not part of that currently.

One of the best things about baseball is that every ballpark can be unique, with varying dimensions and strange wall angles that make every deep fly ball its own little adventure.

There’s a homefield advantage element to knowing your park and where the weird bounces come from and how to play them as an outfielder, but also when you hit the ball to one of those weird walls and the opposing player doesn’t have that same experience. On Saturday afternoon, the Phillies were the beneficiaries of just such a moment when JT Realmuto hit a ball to deep left center, where Braves centerfielder Michael Harris came just short of making an incredible running catch.

Instead, the ball bounced off the angled wall and instead of bouncing back into the outfield as it would in most parks, it shot dead right and rolled down the warning track away from Harris, with no one else in sight. Realmuto (who is very fast for a catcher) turned on the jets and touched em all while the Braves tried to get the ball back to home plate.

It’s a microcosm of how this series has gone for the Braves, as they just haven’t been able to get key outs on defense or key hits on offense for most of the series. For the Phillies, it keeps their hot streak going as they woke up the bats after a low-scoring Wild Card and have been absolutely shelling Braves pitching with the exception of Game 2. This inside the park home run put Philadelphia up 3 as they looked to close out Atlanta at home and advance to their first NLCS since 2010.

House of the Dragon has been doing this thing where it introduces child actors as the many kids in Targaryen/Hightower/Velaryon family and then suddenly, just when you finally processed who they are, they’re gone and replaced by a slightly older actor in the next episode. Aging up the actors helps move the show’s accelerated timeline forward, but it also doesn’t help anyone become attached to any of the kids. So when Prince Aemond lost his eye in the gruesome cousin-on-cousin combat in episode seven, no feelings were felt until the adults got involved.

But in episode eight, everything changed with literally one eye. Prince Aemond Targaryen (my spell check insists I change it to Almond Targaryen) is all grown up now, and he wears an eye patch. Over the time that passed between episodes, the character has been recast. Now, and (hopefully?) permanently, Prince Aemond is played by Ewan Mitchell, who is doing some of the greatest eye work any screen has ever seen. Steve Buscemi, you better watch out.

The episode teases Aemond’s big debut as a grown-up, a sign that everyone involved knows how iconic this guy’s eye is. It had to have its moment. Aemond is fighting Criston Cole, and we see nothing but the back of his long white-blonde hair (similar to Daemon Targaryen’s) and the black band of his eyepatch. Then we finally get to see the front of his face. Here it is in all its glory:

Mitchell understands exactly what House of the Dragon is: a high fantasy soap opera. With its royal intrigue, complex family dynamics, hint of camp, and slightly trashy melodrama, it’s like Succession meets the Real Housewives plus incest. Prince Aemond is obsessed with Daemon (aren’t we all thanks to the brilliant Matt Smith), and he communicates all of this with his body language and his eyeball. There is a glimmer in his eye when he is in the presence of his uncle/brother in law Even when he’s out of focus, his eye is working:

Once King Viserys is carried out of the strange family feast, Aemond immediately stirs the pot with his toast to his cousins which includes the intentionally insulting use of the word strong, because that’s the name of their real father. “Let us drain our cups to these three strong boys,” he says even after his mother Queen Alicent tells him to stop. He is a badass.

Aemond thinks he’s giving some dark, mysterious, sneaky Daemon energy here, but immediately silences his uncle/brother-in-law once he steps in. Daemon and Aemond have a little moment where they understand each other, and Daemon lets out a deep, heavy sigh, because he knows he’s accidentally created a problem. I hope we will be seeing more of this eyeball, perhaps even an episode from the perspective of it but maybe not until in season five, when they’re really trying to drag things out. If not, maybe there will be an Emmy category for best eye work by the time House of the Dragon ends its run.