Month: October 2022

The above logo belongs to Velma, which will be Mindy Kaling’s much more grown-up take on the brains of the Scooby-Doo gang. Kaling anticipates that the series will make some people “freak out” because Velma will be South Asian, and Scooby won’t be a focus of the show. That’s not the HBO Max Velma project that we’re here to talk about today. Instead, people are talking about the new Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo movie that slid onto HBO Max on October 4.

This movie will also be a more adult version of the turtlenecked character than we’re used to seeing in pop culture history. Actually, that’s not entirely true because Variety reminds everyone of what James Gunn (who wrote two Scooby-Doo movies in the aughts) confirmed about Velma Dinkley (played by Linda Cardellini): “In 2001 Velma was explicitly gay in my initial script.” Gunn added that “the studio just kept watering it down” before making her “ambitious” and “then nothing” before giving her “a boyfriend” (played by Seth Green) in the sequel. And over on Instagram, Tony Cervone has also declared (while posting a Pride image starring Velma and Marcie) of the Mystery Incorporated series, “We made our intentions as clear as we could ten years ago.”

Fast forward to 2022, and Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo has Velma crushing on Coco Diablo, who is (via the film’s synopsis) “the head of the notorious costume crime syndicate that colludes The Black Knight, Space Kook and the Ghost Diver.” In other words, yep, Velma is outwardly lesbian in this movie, which is nothing new for her (offscreen), but people love to see it.

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Every year, John Schumann of NBA.com (now the NBA App) does a survey of all 30 general managers in the league to get their predictions for the upcoming season, and the 2022-23 edition was released on Tuesday morning, with 50 questions being answered by the league’s top decision-makers.

It’s always an interesting glimpse into how GMs view the league, and this year’s edition offers some rather unsurprising predictions for who will win the championship and who will take home the NBA’s top honors this season.

The Bucks are the favorite to win it all, pulling in 43 percent of the votes for who will win the championship, with the Warriors (25 percent) and Clippers (21 percent) splitting the votes in the West, and Boston in fourth at 11 percent. It’s worth noting that last year, the overwhelming choice of GMs was Brooklyn at 73 percent before everything fell apart for the Nets.

In the MVP race, the frontrunner on the odds sheet also takes the top spot, with Luka Doncic getting 48 percent of the vote, followed by Giannis Antetokounmpo (34 percent), Joel Embiid (14 percent), and one vote for Stephen Curry. What was maybe more fascinating is that when posed the question of who you’d start a franchise with today, only Giannis (55 percent) and Luka (45 percent) received votes.

In terms of how GMs viewed this offseason, the Cavs got high marks for their maneuvers, most notably the addition of Donovan Mitchell. 41 percent of GMs had the Cavs as having the best offseason, with the Timberwolves, Sixers, and Jazz all earning 17 percent of the vote — a particularly interesting look into what success means for GMs, as the Jazz traded their top players away but brought back a ton of first round picks. Donovan Mitchell also got 59 percent of the vote as the most impactful new addition to a team, with Rudy Gobert at 31 percent.

While the Cavs made the biggest offseason splash, they were second to the Clippers in terms of the team expected to make the biggest leap next year, as they get Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back healthy, adding to a deep and talented veteran roster.

Feid is going to be touring the US for the first time. The Colombian singer-songwriter revealed the news of his upcoming tour on Monday (October 3).

Since the release of his LP Feliz Cumpleaños Ferxxo Te Pirateamos El Álbum last month, Feid’s career has been on a high. After the album’s first week out, it was certified Gold in the US. Feliz Cumpleaños also became his first LP to crack the top 10 of Billboard‘s Hot Latin Albums chart when it climbed to No. 8 last week. The album also became his first to enter the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, at No. 188.

With that momentum going in his career, Feid announced his first solo headlining tour in the US. His US Trip Tour kicks off in Atlanta on October 15. The 14-date tour wraps up in LA on November 25. Last year, Feid was the opening act for Karol G‘s Bichota Tour in the US. Now he’s hitting the road all on his own. Tickets for Feid’s tour will go on-sale starting tomorrow on Ticketmaster.com.

Last week, Feid released a remix EP of his deep house track “Nieve.” He did the A&R for the project alongside Universal Music Latino’s Albert Piedrahita. Among the DJs that remixed “Nieve” for the 5-track EP are Benny Benassi, Armand Van Helden, and Good Times Ahead.

10/13 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theatre
10/16 – Charlotte, NC @ Fillmore
10/20 – Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
10/25 – Washington, DC @ Howard Theater
10/26 – New York City, NY @ Irving Plaza
10/27 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts
10/30 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
11/01 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues
11/08 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues
11/10 – San Antonio, TX @ Aztec Theater
11/13 – San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
11/14 – Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
11/20 – San Francisco, CA @ Fillmore
11/25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Belasco

It seems like Rage Against The Machine simply wasn’t meant to complete their reunion tour. Zack De La Rocha injured his leg during the band’s show in Chicago this July, which was later revealed to be a torn Achilles after the band canceled their UK and European dates in August. This morning (October 4), the Los Angeles alt-rockers canceled the 2023 North American leg.

“It’s been almost three months since Chicago, and I still look down at my leg in disbelief,” De La Rocha wrote in a note posted to Twitter. “Two years of waiting through the pandemic, hoping we would have an opening to be a band again and continue the work we started 30 some odd years ago. Rehearsing, training, reconciling, working our way back to form. Then one and a half shows into it and my tendon tears. Felt like a sick joke the universe played on me. As I write this I remind myself it’s just bad circumstances. Just a f*cked up moment.”

He continued: “Unfortunately it is a moment that requires a lot of work and healing. I have a severe tear in my left Achilles tendon and only 8% of my tendon was left intact. And even that portion was severely compromised. It’s not simply a question of being able to perform again but extends to basic functionality going forward. That’s why I’ve made the painful and difficult decision to cancel the remaining shows on our 2023 North American leg.”

This reunion tour was initially announced in February 2020 and was scheduled to kick off on March 26, 2020, in El Paso, Texas. It was punted due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, and their first show in 11 years finally took place at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in Wisconsin on July 9.

The band used their long-awaited set in Wisconsin to advocate against the Supreme Court after June’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. Days later, they spread awareness around violence against Indigenous people in Canada as headliners at Ottawa’s Bluesfest.

De La Rocha’s cancellation announcement included confirmation that refunds will automatically be provided within 30 days for those who purchased tickets online from AXS or Ticketmaster.

Chloe x Halle are on a tear. The sisters have enjoyed plenty of success together, as Beyoncé’s R&B protégés and actresses on Freeform’s Grown-ish, but 2022 has thus far been marked by their individual successes. Halle Bailey is starring as Ariel in Disney’s 2023 live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, and Chlöe, August’s Uproxx cover star, is rolling out her self-titled solo debut album behind sizzling singles like “Have Mercy,” “Treat Me,” and “Surprise.”

And on Tuesday (October 4), Chlöe debuted as the face of Pepsi’s revival of its Pepsi-Cola Soda Shop, putting her unique spin on “Footloose.” The music video begins with a waiter named Kevin serving bacon — an obvious nod toward Footloose star Kevin Bacon and a perhaps accidental perpetuation of the Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon — but the star of this show is Chlöe.

The Atlanta star takes over the diner with her spicy performance, dancing on the countertops before being transported to a Pepsi-themed barn for a true dance party. According to Adweek, the commercial will make its TV debut during this Saturday’s (October 8) episode of Saturday Night Live.

According to a press release, Pepsi “is encouraging all to create their own modern take on the song via a TikTok dance challenge, inspired by summer 2022’s viral ‘Footloose’ TikTok trend” from October 7 to October 16 for the chance to win Chlöe-autographed posters and sneakers. Chlöe has never been one to shy away from a TikTok challenge herself.

Watch the new Pepsi spot above.

Kanye West appears to be on a mission to completely alienate whatever is left of his fanbase, and while he’ll always have defenders in some of the more controversial corners of the alt-right, it looks like many members of the fashion establishment are fed up with his nonsense. Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson walked out of Kanye’s recent YZY fashion show in Paris after his models walked in shirts reading “White Lives Matter” on the back, and when Kanye responded with his typical wave of trolling Instagram posts, supermodel Bella Hadid came to Karefa-Johnson’s defense.

After Kanye posted screenshots of Karefa-Johnson’s Instagram, calling her a “droid” and writing “I KNOOOOOOOW ANNA [Wintour, the notorious Vogue publisher] HAAATES THESE BOOTS” under one of her fit pics, Hadid chimed in in the comments. “You wish u had a percentage of her intellect,” she wrote. “You have no idea haha… If there’s actually a point to any of your sh*t she might be the only person that could save u. As if the ‘honor’ of being invited to your show should keep someone from giving their opinion…? Lol. You’re a bully and a joke.”

And as far as pots calling kettles “black” — every possible pun intended, IYKYK — fans were quick to point out that Kanye’s fits of late haven’t exactly rung any bells, while he’s received a wave of criticism from folks like Van Lathan, who has been calling Kanye out on his sh*t as long as anyone, and Jaden Smith, who made it a point to tweet “Black Lives Matter” after telling fans he too left the fashion show early.

It might be lost on Kanye now, but look: when even someone like Boosie is scoring easy points on you, it might be time to put that jersey in the rafters and walk away from the game before you do anymore damage to your legacy.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is getting roasted after showing up to survey damage from Hurricane Ian while wearing a staggeringly white pair of rain boots without a trace of dirt on them. It also didn’t help that DeSantis wore the boots during a staged photo op that forced relief workers to pause their efforts while the governor was on the scene.

Volunteers reportedly grew angry after working diligently to provide much needed supplies after the damaging storm only for DeSantis to come in and pause their efforts. A tense exchange took place with state troopers who seemed sympathetic to the relief workers. Via ABC Action News:

“I don’t give a rat’s ass,” one woman yelled.

“Personally, I want you to go over there,” one state trooper told Nelson. “I want you to get as much supplies to help these people out.”

“So, legally, why can I not?” Nelson asked.

“Our hands are tied,” the trooper said.

“I’m not trying to be rude,” Nelson told him. “But, we’ve been doing this very thing one street over, and the only reason we are not over there…”

“Is because the governor’s coming…I understand,” the trooper responded.

Meanwhile, DeSantis got roundly roasted on Twitter as the Nancy Sinatra jokes started flying. The governor’s awkward footwear proved to be an irresistible target as people dunked on the blatant photo op.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via ABC Action News)

Of the many ways Donald Trump has embarrassed himself over the years, what could have easily been in the Top 10 of All-Time single most mortifying moments of his presidency unfortunately — for all of us — never came to fruition.

On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel shared that, in an effort to prove that no amount of deadly virus pumping through his veins would ever be enough to take him down, Trump had planned a hokey stunt for when he left Walter Reed Medical Center in early October 2020 after being hospitalized with COVID: disrobing to reveal that he was Superman. As Kimmel explained:

Remember a couple of years ago, after Typhoid Donny was discharged from the hospital for COVID — when he had COVID? He said he wanted to open up his shirt like Clark Kent to reveal the Superman. Well, according to [Maggie] Haberman’s book, he didn’t just mean that figuratively.

While he was in the hospital, he sent an aide — a guy named Max Miller — to the store to buy a Superman shirt for him. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find Underoos in a size Triple XL, which is a shame. Can you imagine him coming out of that hospital squeezed into the shirt like Kal-El Pollo Loco or something?

In Haberman’s much-talked about new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (which, finally, comes out today), The New York Times reporter writes that that plan was for the then-president to be “wheeled out of Walter Reed in a chair and, once outdoors, he would dramatically stand up, then open his button-down dress shirt to reveal [a] Superman logo beneath it.”

“Listen, the only thing Trump does faster than a speeding bullet is have sex,” Kimmel noted. “We know that from Stormy Daniels.”

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 1:30 mark.

The soul of Hasan Minhaj’s howlingly funny and revelatory new Netflix comedy special, The King’s Jester (which you can stream now on Netflix), came from a prompt from his director (and Patriot Act co-creator) Prashanth Venkataramanujam: “I just need you to bleed on the page. Anything that you’re too humiliated or scared to talk about, you should talk about it.”

Seems simple, right? But accepting what Minhaj describes in our recent conversation as the closure of a gap between his public and private persona requires a commitment to a kind of authenticity that people have no problem talking about. Living that truth? Now there’s the challenge, but Minhaj seems to pull it off in a new special where the target is usually himself as he talks about the dopamine hit of social media uber relevancy and brushes with real consequences from his work pushing back on some of the world’s most powerful entities. Throughout, though, there’s a theme that we unpack in this interview: the idea of graduating and also being comfortable with who you are. Along the way, we also discuss the hard conversations that helped him get to a place where he could see the line and reorder his priorities and this golden age of stand-up special auteurism.

The thing that really drew me into this is you are unafraid to get vulnerable. Not that you were a closed book before, but this is just really open. I’m just curious about what it’s like to have to push past any sort of protective shield and also be self-aware enough to see these things.

For me, the bridge that I’ve always been trying to close is the gap between who I am on Instagram and who I am on iMessage. If I’m going to be honest with you, when I just had my notepad out and I was writing out the material and writing out the stories, there really was a gap there. People see me or saw me as the Daily Show, White House Correspondents dinner, Homecoming King, Patriot Act guy. And then there’s the iMessage, WhatsApp Hasan Minhaj that Beena, Ayesha, my parents, my in-laws, my cousins, they really know who I am. And there’s a little bit of, “Hey, if I’m going to try to do this thing, be an artist for life, I got to close that gap.” The King’s Jester, I think, is really my just sincere offering to try to do that as I continue to grow and evolve. And I don’t want to live a life where I’m kind of being duplicitous or I’m putting something on for the crowd. And I’m sure you know this in media, there’s that kind of blue check Twitter, Instagram persona, and then there’s who you really are. That goes for whichever side of the aisle you’re on. That’s not a political framing, it’s the actual quality of your character. For me, if I want to be an artist for the rest of my life, I got to show you who iMessage me is.

You talk about driving a Honda Minivan in the special, talking about sucking snot out of your kids’ nose, and there’s this idea of, “Okay, I’m going to talk about all this kid stuff.” I’ve talked to other comics about how that can be a tough transition for them. Does that factor into it at all?

Man, look, I really sincerely believe this, life is about graduating. There are two things you got to think about. I have to be honest, I do drive a black Honda Odyssey that we lease from White Plains Honda. My monthly payment is $938 a month. This is true.

That’s a tricked-out Honda.

Yeah. Bro, it’s got a leather interior. I’m doing all right. I’m not ballsy enough to buy, but I do lease. And I will say, if I was fronting, I’m not that. To me, I just don’t want to maintain that charade. And then also, there is something sad about the 37-year-old dude trying to act 25. There’s kind of nothing worse than that, and so I think it’s okay, especially in our society, we have this thing where we always want to hearken and hang onto the past through vintage style or the idea of rebooting. Really what we’re trying to do is just, there’s this warm blanket and you want to reach back to when things were simpler and made sense. I actually think it’s more courageous to be like, “Nope, I’m embracing this and I’m going to talk about it, and I want to break new ground for myself personally and for the audience.” And if you think that’s corny or lame or not incisive, that’s fine, but at least I have the satisfaction to know I’m being honest.

And this feels like a graduation. It does.

I hope so. Thank you, man. That was really what I was going for.

When you talk about some of the stuff you went through with Patriot Act — some scary shit (death threats, getting white powder mailed to him). When that happens, is there anger that rises in you and a want to push back harder at that point? Do you want to say, “Fuck this, I’m doubling down?”

I’ll be candid with you, I got to give a lot of credit to both Beena, my wife, and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, the director, but also co-creator and showrunner at Patriot Act. Both of those people in my life have served as kind of firewalls and guardrails of, “Hey, let me tell you something with the sobriety of morning here, these are the consequences that are going to happen. And the cost that you’re going to have to pay, that our family is going to have to pay, and loved ones are going to have to pay, are going to last a whole lot longer than, no disrespect, but what UPROXX or Vulture covered as the news of the day.”

People are going to forget about this viral video or this kind of mic drop moment with the flick of a wrist. We have to carry the consequences. So, do you want to make your pilgrimage and do your hudge and go to Mecca? Do you want your parents to be able to go to India and be okay? Do you want to be able to fly and be routed via Dubai and not be extradited and taken away? There are real consequences that IG stories and the Instagram Discover page do not care about, but your family has to really live with those things IRL.

So, those were sobering moments for me when kind of, “You get the bill,” and I’m like, “Oh wow, I’m dealing with this, Beena’s dealing with this, the kids and my parents, and nobody knows and nobody cares outside of our house.” That was the terrifying thing, that real kind of sobering reality of, and this is going to sound weird to say, “Man, if I died, people wouldn’t even put me in their feed. Maybe they’d share the story. The value of my life dissolves within 24 hours in the public eye. Man, I got to care about the people that don’t give a fuck about Blue Check Hasan Minhaj. They care about who I actually am.” And that was a real, “that’s my line.”

Was that an instant realization or was that something that you had to be kind of slapped in the face a little bit to get?

Candidly, when my marriage was going through those really tough spots, it was a realization that I came to and that my wife and I talked about, and it was like, “What really matters here?” And I care so much more about Beena than I do Deadline articles.

I love the visuals of this special. I feel like we’re in a golden age visually for stand-up specials right now.

I couldn’t agree more. The level of auteur filmmaking that is happening right now between Jerrod Carmichael, Bo Burnham, shout out to the Lucas Brothers and their amazing film, as well. It’s really inspiring. My personal belief, I think within the next 20 years we’re going to see five to ten standup comedians enter that genre of auteur filmmaking that 30 years ago, only Woody Allen embodied and was a part of that. There is no doubt in my mind that Bo, Jerrod, the Lucas brothers, they’re going to win Oscars, man. There’s no doubt in my mind.

I have had conversations with other comedians, though, older guard maybe, who have described it to me more as something that can sometimes be distracting. I get how that can be the case, but I don’t see that with any of the stuff that you just mentioned or Moses Storm’s special or anything like that, is that ever a concern for you, the idea of making it feel additive as opposed to distracting?

I actually think that’s a fair criticism. I think it starts with the idea and the PDF. Prashanth and I will talk about this all the time, start with the PDF and build from there. And so, one of the things that we started with when we just had the show on its feet, and I was doing it in black box theaters, the emotional threads that we were pulling, there were more emotional threads than visual cues or threads. For me, I wanted to use color as an emotional tool. What does fertility look like? What does clout look like? What does fear look like? All of those things. And you can see that in the special. So, I couldn’t agree more. I think you start with the idea itself and build from there. I think it’s distracting if you go, “Hey, I just want a crazy set. I want to use antique lenses. I want to shoot this on film.” But it’s not servicing the PDF. So for me, it’s always the power of the PDF, start there and then you can build from there. And I think the great shows and the great specials do that.

And I put this up in that echelon, this and Rothaniel really are my two favorite specials from this year.

Wow. Thank you, man. Dude, that’s an honor, man. Because Jerrod is operating at a level that I aspire to, man.

Yeah, like you were saying, he’s obviously being true to himself. He’s always been such a really interesting voice. It’s so great to see him be able to just get a chance to really just spread his wings.

You know what’s always humbling and terrifying? And I’m sure you’ve noticed this working in media. One of the lines they always use is, “Do we need this movie now or do we need this special now?” And one of the things you feel as an artist, author, creator, is what that’s implicitly saying is, “Do they need me now? Am I not cool? Am I not the cool kid anymore?” You feel like Woody in Toy Story, “Is Andy going to get rid of me?” But I can’t make art for the meta-narrative. You know what I’m saying? I have to do what feels honest. If that lines up to what, quote-on-quote, we need, great. If it doesn’t, at least I can go to sleep at night being like, “Hey man, I really did try. And I’m being, again, honest.” I just turned 37 and I’m now measuring success by… it’s actually a hedge against regret rather than what I can transactionally get out of an experience.

‘The King’s Jester’ is available to stream now on Netflix