Month: December 2022

Kanye West has often aspired to be like Jesus, but he’s not doing such a hot job. Not only has the rapper-turned-presidential candidate has rebranded as an anti-Semite, but his apostles so far leave a lot to be desired. At least he’s lost one of them: As per The Daily Beast, Milo Yiannopoulos has either been fired from Ye’s semi-formal presidential campaign or (his claim) left amicably.

A once-mighty far right scourge who was effectively ousted from the GOP after defending pedophilia, Yiannopoulos recently joined Ye’s campaign as its manager. During his brief tenure, he was present for some real lows in Ye’s career/life. He was there for the infamous Thanksgiving dinner with Donald Trump, which he later claimed was a ruse — an attempt to punk the former president.

He was missing from Ye’s also infamous interview with Alex Jones, in which the bankrupted conspiracy theorist came off looking like the saner of the two (while not being sane at all, of course). Perhaps and Ye were already on the outs. But Yiannopoulos claimed he wasn’t canned.

“Ye and I have come to the mutual conclusion that I should step away from his political team,” Yiannopoulos told The Daily Beast. “I will continue to pray for Ye and all his endeavors.”

So ends yet another of Yiannopoulos’ failed attempts to worm his way back into the party that ejected him. Over the summer, he briefly interned for Marjorie Taylor Greene. Perhaps there will be no second act for a former Republican star, whose attempt to become a bestselling author ended miserably as well.

As for Kanye, well, at least he still has the Holocaust-denying white supremacist who gets into food fights in In-N-Outs.

(Via The Daily Beast)

This cuffing season, SZA, Keke Palmer, and the ladies of Saturday Night Live are looking for some fellas to keep them warm. Joined by Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim, and Punkie Johnson, the women delivered a festive holiday anthem dedicated to the heavy-set men.

“Not just any man will do,” says Nwodim.

“That’s right,” says Strong. “We out here looking for some big boys.”

A group of conventionally fit men are then pushed away as a group of bigger men arrives at the winter scene.

SZA then comes in with the song’s chorus, singing, “It’s cuffing season, and now we’ve got a reason, to get a big boy, I need a big boy, give me a big boy.”

Throughout the video, Palmer is seen cozying up with a man by the fireplace.

SZA replaces a picture of Chris Pratt as Star-Lord with a picture of Pratt as Andy Dwyer on Parks And Recreation.

Strong imagines herself and a big man flying first class,” to the tune of Jack Harlow’s Fergie-sampling hit, “First Class,” “because he can’t fit in the back.”

Although Johnson is a lesbian, she expresses the desire for a “big boy” so she can “be the little spoon sometimes.”

Check out “Big Boys” above.

Avatar: The Way Of Water producer Jon Landau tweeted a photo with The Weeknd today (December 4) along with the message, “As the Na’vi say, “Zola’u nìprrte’ soaiane Avatar”… Welcome to the Avatar family.” The Weeknd retweeted it and added a vague “12.16.22” tweet with a 12-second snippet. Avatar‘s official account joined the fun, too. What does it all mean?

The Weeknd’s teaser clip features an ascending choir and evocative percussion, so the natural assumption is that The Weeknd will have a song on the Avatar: The Way Of Water soundtrack. But that has not been explicitly confirmed. According to Variety, “It remains unclear what the extent of the Weeknd’s involvement will be in the film or the soundtrack. Reps for the Weeknd and Disney did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for comment.”

Avatar: The Way Of Water is James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel to his 2009 Avatar film, which won three Oscars and still ranks as the second-highest grossing film in history, per IMDb. The Weeknd isn’t a stranger to unprecedented success — “Blinding Lights” became the longest-charting single in Billboard Hot 100 history and held that title until this October.

Most recently, The Weeknd featured on Metro Boomin’s newly released Heroes & Villains tracklist.

Drake‘s discography contains several anecdotes about exes, former flings, and past loves. Whether the love manifested by way of a long-term relationship, or a brief chance encounter, you can guarantee Drake has written a song about them, or even included a vocal sample of theirs on an album interlude.

Keke Palmer, who hosted last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live formed a union comprised of Drake’s past lovers in a sketch called “The United Tingz Of Aubrey.”

“My name is Courtney,” said one woman. “I left Drake a voicemail once about an overdue car payment and now I’m an interlude on an album. How does that work?

“I served Drake some lettuce wraps at PF Changs in 2009,” said another woman. “I laughed at his little joke about our huge menus and apparently I’m his ex now. Make that make sense.”

Palmer explained how she ended up in the category of one of Drake’s former “tingz.”

“My name is Keke Palmer, and that ‘Kiki do you love me’ song ruined my damn life,” said Palmer referring to Drake’s 2018 viral hit, “In My Feelings.” “That man had the whole internet asking if I was the Keke. Well yes, I am the Keke, just not that Keke.”

Check out the hilarious sketch above.

The clock has not struck midnight on Midnights, Taylor Swift’s 10th studio album from October. Outside of Ticketmaster’s The Eras Tour presale fiasco, this era has so far been pristine. Midnights debuted at No. 1, becoming Swift’s 11th No. 1 album and posting the biggest first-week sales numbers since Adele’s 25 in 2015. Not to mention, the 11-time Grammy winner became the first-ever artist to monopolize Billboard‘s Hot 100 top 10.

The dominance will continue for at least one more week. Billboard reported today (December 4) that Midnights is again No. 1 atop its Billboard 200 albums chart dated December 10. “Midnights earned 151,000 equivalent album units in the tracking week ending Dec. 1 in the U.S. (down 15%), according to Luminate,” the publication relayed. “The last Swift album with more weeks at No. 1 is Folklore, which notched eight nonconsecutive weeks atop the list in 2020.”

Additionally, Pop Base and Pop Crave pointed out that Swift is now the first-ever female artist to log 60 total weeks atop the Billboard 200.

Midnights spent two consecutive weeks at No. 1 before Drake and 21 Savage’s joint album Her Loss wrestled the top spot from her for the chart dated November 19. Swift reclaimed the No. 1 crown the following week and has held onto it since then.

This week’s chart is rounded out by Her Loss at No. 2 and Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti at No. 3, and then a few holiday-themed albums in Michael Bublé’s Christmas (No. 4), Nat King Cole’s The Christmas Song (No. 8), and the A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack from Vince Guaraldi Trio at No. 10.

The Office premiered 18 years ago and ended nearly a decade ago. A lot has changed since then. A certain TV celebrity became president, helping kickstart a massive pushback against reactionary mores and “edgy” racist jokes. Not everything that was once considered ripe for yuks remains so today. Could one of the most beloved and still watched shows of the aughts and early teens still fly today? One of its ensemble cast members doesn’t think so.

On a recent appearance on Good Morning America, Mindy Kaling — who both played Kelly Kapoor and served as one of the writers — came down hard on the program that made her name.

“That show is so inappropriate now,” Kaling said. “The writers who I’m still in touch with now, we always talk about how so much of that show we probably couldn’t make now.”

She continued: “Tastes have changed and, honestly, what offends people has changed so much now…I think that actually is one of the reasons the show is popular, because people feel like there’s something kind of fearless about it or taboo that it talks about on the show.”

Kaling was asked if she would ever show the show to her kids, to which she replied, “I kind of think maybe never.”
Kaling was also asked what Kelly would be up to now. “I think she would have quit Dunder Mifflin to become an influencer. And then probably be cancelled, almost immediately,” she said, adding, “Actually most of the characters on that show would be cancelled by now.”

Not every Office alum feels the same way. John Krasinski recently spoke about letting his young kids watch the show. It was a mixed bag, not because they were offended, but because one of them couldn’t buy that their dad could have ever played Jim Halpert.

The lead-up to the 2022 World Cup match between the U.S. and Iran was filled with anticipation, as the teams battled for a spot in the final 16 and long-running tensions between the two nations on the political stage rose to the surface.

The Iranian team had some internal tensions of its own to deal with as players navigated the spotlight amid human rights protests in their home country and rigid expectations of their government. According to CNN, after refusing to sing the national anthem before its match against England on November 21, the Iranian team was reportedly called into a meeting with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and told that their families would face “violence and torture” if they did not sing the anthem or engaged in any other form of protest.

Hence, before the match against the U.S., the players were shown somberly singing the anthem. Then they got down to the business they were there for—trying to win (or at least tie) a soccer match to advance to the World Cup round of 16.

It was an exciting game, with the U.S. ultimately winning 1-0. But in the end, all of the intense competition and political tensions were superseded by some truly heartwarming acts of good sportsmanship and human kindness.

As the U.S. team celebrated victory and the Iranian team mourned defeat, it didn’t take long for players from the two teams to embrace one another in comfort and solidarity. Videos and images of the opposing team members arm in arm, hugging and crying together, show how sports bring people together regardless of their background.

In one video, U.S. player Antonee Robinson is seen approaching a clearly distraught Ramin Rezaeian, pulling him into a hug and speaking into his ear as the Iranian player let his emotions out.

u201cu2764ufe0fu26bdufe0fnn@USMNT’s @Antonee_Jedi shares an emotional moment with Iran’s Ramin Rezaeian after yesterday’s matchu201d

— FOX Soccer (@FOX Soccer)
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“If we were playing any team—if it was England, Wales or anyone who we would’ve knocked out that day—and I’d seen another player crying, I’d like to think that I’d go over and console them,” Robinson told CBS News. “It didn’t really mean anything to me that the guy was Iranian—he was just someone that I’d just shared the pitch with in a really tough game.

“As a fellow human professional, someone who’s given everything the same way he has, it was just a moment of trying to console him and tell him he should be proud of what he’s done,” he added.

u201cLove this. USA beat #Iran but Josh Sargent & DeAndre Yedlin console Saeid Ezatolahi. nTim Weah, who also came over, sums it up: u201cwe grew up differently. He is still my family, he is still my brother and I love him the same way as the guys I grew up with.”u00a0#IranvsUSAu201d

— Omid Djalili (@Omid Djalili)
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After the loss, Iranian player Saeid Ezatolahi sat hunched over on the pitch, head in his hands as the tears flowed. Seconds later, U.S. players Josh Sargent and DeAndre Yedlin came to console him. Soon, fellow U.S. team members Tim Weah and Brenden Aaronson joined them, pulling Ezatolahi off the ground and embracing him with words of encouragement.

“I could feel the emotion from him on the ground,” Aaronson told Fox Sports. “It’s tough, it’s a tough moment for a lot of things. You put your heart and soul and I think he had a great game too, and a great tournament from Iran. It’s hard to see that from a player. All you want to do is go and console them and tell them that everything is going to be OK. It’s just a human thing.”

u201cClass personified. Tim Weah is awesome.u201d

— USMNT Only (@USMNT Only)
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Weah told Fox Sports, “I think it’s more than just football. I think the United States and Iran have had so many issues politically and I just wanted to show that we are all human beings and we all love each other.

“I just wanted to spread peace and love and show him we come from different backgrounds, we grew up differently,” he added. “He is still my family, he is still my brother and I love him the same way as the guys I grew up with.”

Absolutely beautiful. When you strip away all the geopolitical stuff and the prejudices and conflicts between governments, we are simply one human family on this big flying rock, with far more in common than not. How wonderful to be reminded of our fundamental human connection on one of the world’s biggest competitive stages.

Japanese fans at the World Cup tournament have been receiving praise for their admirable habit of cleaning up the stadium after their team’s matches. It’s commonplace to see Japanese fans, blue garbage sacks in hand, hanging back after the game to pick up the trash everyone has left behind in the stadium.

It’s not the first time Japanese cleanliness has made headlines. Some schools in Japan don’t even hire janitorial staff, as the students clean their schools themselves. Other than in specific educational programs such as Montessori (where practical skills and habits like cleaning and organizing the environment are incorporated into the pedagogy), that idea is practically unheard of in the U.S. But watching the Japanese fans picking up after a game, the automatic assumption that someone else is going to clean up after us feels like a mistake.

So what is it that compels Japanese fans to clean the stadium at the World Cup, despite the fact that there are people hired to do it already?

It generally comes down to one word: “atarimae.”

Atarimae isn’t easy to directly translate into English, but it basically means “natural” or “obvious” or “the norm.” Japanese fans may be getting a lot of attention for their cleaning habits, but they’re not trying to make some grand statement or gesture—for them, it’s simply a matter of course that one would clean up mess wherever they are.

Al Jazeera’s Sandra Gathmann interviewed several Japanese fans after their team’s 2-1 victory over Germany to ask them about their stadium clean-ups. It was explained that the idea of cleaning and tidying up is ingrained as a part of Japanese culture from a young age and that it’s atarimae—obvious, natural, the norm—to leave a place cleaner than they found it.

Watch:

@aljazeeraontiktok

Why do Japanese football fans clean up after a match? @Sandra Gathmann asks the fans #QatarWorldCup2022 #FIFA #WorldCup #Qatar #Football #Qatar2022 #WorldCup2022 #Japan #cleaning #fans

Imagine if everyone thought of cleaning up as atarimae. Wouldn’t that be something?

Having lived in Japan myself, I can attest to how clean Japanese cities there are—despite being densely packed with people—due to this concept. The contrast between an average Japanese city and an average American city in terms of cleanliness is quite remarkable.

But being an American raising kids in the U.S., I can also attest to the fact that it’s much easier to ingrain those automatic cleaning habits into kids when the entire society is living this concept. Parents in the U.S. are in an uphill battle trying to train kids to take responsibility for cleaning up in a someone-else-will-do-it society, and it would take a major cultural shift to make automatic cleaning a matter of course for Americans. I would certainly love to see it, though.

In Qatar, the Japanese are showing what’s possible when a habit is culturally embraced and are setting a wonderful example the whole world can follow. Perhaps before the World Cup is finished we’ll see people from all nations taking trash bags into the stadium and running with the idea that cleaning up after an event without being asked is simply … atarimae.

Over his seven years as host of “The Daily Show,” Trevor Noah brought us laughter and valuable insights, even with a pandemic and political upheaval. He made such a positive mark that the announcement of his departure from the show came as bittersweet news to fans.

During an interview with Hoda Kotb of “Today,” Trevor Noah gave further explanation to his personal decision to leave, and in typical Noah fashion, it touched on something universal in the process.

“I realized during the pandemic,” he told Kotb, “everyone talks about a ‘work-life balance.’ But that almost creates the idea that your work and your life are two separate things. When in fact, I came to realize during the pandemic that it’s just a ‘life-life balance.’ It’s just your life.”

He continued, “Your life doesn’t stop because you are working. And so, if you wanna make more time for family, if you wanna make more time for friends and what you wanna do, and everything … find a way to create that time. Time is the one thing we cannot increase.”

For Noah, creating more time for what was important to him meant changing his career focus. For other people, it might look like incorporating different work hours, outsourcing help or simply cutting out activities that don’t really provide growth or comfort. There are endless possibilities, depending on what someone’s priority is, and often these priorities change at different chapters in our life. But one thing never changes—we never know how much time we have on this planet, so it’s best to use it in a way that is fulfilling.

And if you’re confused as to what might be fulfilling, Noah has a trick: find what feels scary. “Anything worth doing should scare you. I will be scared to do the next project, hopefully.”

No matter what project is on the horizon for Noah, he is bound to bring us something to both smile and think about.

You can watch the full interview below:

Steve Lacy is known for baring his soul in his music. Songs like “Bad Habit” and “Helmet” put raw, queer emotions on display, while sharing poignant, relatable anecdotes on love and heartbreak. Today (December 3), Lacy has revealed more than his heart on Instagram.

The hitmaker shared a nude image of himself revealing his tattooed body, while strategically angled in a way that tastefully censored his naughty parts.

“contemplating what’s real and what’s fake,” read the caption on the Instagram post.

As one could predict, the openly bisexual R&B star received several comments, both thirsting after him, and clowning him for being extra.

“What be the point,” asked Tierra Whack, followed by a bunch of crying-laughing emojis.

More bluntly, Lil Nas X commented saying, “dope c*ck steve”

While Lacy has been putting out music for nearly a decade, his song, “Bad Habit” became a breakthrough hit for him, as the song went viral on TikTok. In an interview with W, he expressed gratitude for the song’s virality.

“I love it,” he said. “I want everybody to listen. It’s dope for everybody to interpret it in their own way. Am I gonna spend my energy being mad about my song doing well on TikTok? No, I’m not. I’ll spend my energy being grateful and working on more stuff.”

Check out the steamy thirst trap above.