Year: 2022

Gunna put forth another highlight moment in his stellar 2022 year through a recent appearance on Saturday Night Live. His debut appearance on the show came after he kicked off the year with his third album DS4EVER. It’s highlighted by “Pushin P” with Future and Young Thug as well as other records with the likes of 21 Savage, Drake, Chloe Bailey, Lil Baby, G Herbo, and more. DS4EVER went on to be Gunna’s second No. 1 album following 2020’s Wunna. During his SNL appearance, he celebrated the album with performances of “Pushin P” and “Banking On Me,” but he also made sure to have some fun with some of the show’s cast members.

During last night’s episode of SNL, Gunna teamed up with Pete Davidson, Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty), and Chris Redd for a rap about “short-ass movies.” The group gave quick reactions to short films like The Lion King and Austin Powers while joking about longer ones like Amadeus, Once Upon A Time In America and Heat. Elsewhere in the sketch, Davidson goes to see the new three-hour Batman movie and ends up pissing his pants. The group even slips in a joke about Judd Apatow’s The King Of Staten Island, which stars Davidson and clocks in at 137 minutes

You can watch the sketch about “short-ass movies” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Donald Trump has always had problems with telling the truth, an ailment that’s only gotten worse since his single term in office ended. At rallies, he continues to spread falsehoods about the 2020 election, which he lost by over seven million votes. But that’s not the only whopper he’s been telling.

As per Insider, the former president dusted off an old favorite fib: that he won Man of the Year award in Michigan several years ago. He’s been telling this one for ages. Problem is: There is no such award. He made it up. And while he hasn’t mentioned it in a while, on Saturday, at a rally in Michigan, he busted it out again.

This rendition of the lie was more vague than usual, belying its untruth. “And then I was named a long time ago, I was named — did you know this? — a long time, I dunno, your Chamber of Commerce, somebody, who the hell knows what it is, they named me the man of the year in Michigan,” Trump told to a cheering crowd. Maybe they even believe it.

The first time Trump publicly made this claim was in 2016, when he was still running for office. Reporters dedicated time and energy to searching for such an award, in vain. The closest they could find was a Detroit News honor known as “Michiganians of the Year.” But that trophy has never gone to Donald Trump.

Of the many fictions Trump has spread, there’s a subgenre dedicated to fake awards he’s won. Perhaps you remember him boasting about nabbing a “Bay of Pigs Award.” That, too, does not exist. Then again, sometimes he does tell the truth, if accidentally.

(Via Insider)

On Saturday, Estelle Harris, the actress best known as the easily agitated Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld, passed away. She was 93. Blessed with a distinctive voice, Harris didn’t begin her acting career until her 40s, after her children were grown up. She began in television commercials, moved into movies, and eventually clinched the role that would make her career: as the long-suffering and domineering mother of Jason Alexander’s profoundly neurotic George Costanza.

After the news was made public, Alexander gave his TV mom a moving tribute on social media.

“One of my favorite people has passed – my tv mama, Estelle Harris,” Alexander wrote. “The joy of playing with her and relishing her glorious laughter was a treat. I adore you, Estelle. Love to your family. Serenity now and always.”

Harris was first paired with John Randolph, who initially played Frank Costanza, but was soon replaced by Jerry Stiller. Together, Harris and Stiller made for a tag team of anxiety, quick to burst into shouty bickering, making their already tetchy son even worse. Like Stiller, Harris appeared on 29 episodes total, making a mark on one of the ‘90s most iconic sitcoms. She also frequently lent her voice to animation, including playing Mrs. Potato Head in all four Toy Story movies.

Seinfeld now streams on Netflix. You can watch a supercut of some Harris’ finest Seinfeld moment in the video below.

(Via CNN)

SNL kicked off with a Cold Open that barely mentioned the number one topic of last week: Will Smith smacking Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. But after that they went all in. Weekend Update devoted most of its opening stretch to the incident. It also inspired an entire sketch of its own, which showed what it would have looked like to a lowly seat filler.

Host Jerrod Carmichael played one of the normals hired to keep the Oscar ceremony looking full. Sadly, he winds up occupying a seat right behind Chris Redd’s Smith. The star is shown chilling in his seat, happy to chit-chat with a fan. Thing is, he keeps excusing himself so he can a) smack Rock over a joke he made about his wife and b) repeatedly shout obscenities that caused the American broadcast to go silent for a good half-minute.

But in between assaulting someone and shouting cuss words, he seems nice. When Carmichael’s character tells him he loves the 2006 drama The Pursuit of Happyness, Redd’s Smith responds, “I love that! That’s what it’s all about!” Shortly thereafter, he storms the stage, hits someone, then sits back down as though nothing happened. Rinse, repeat.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Will Smith’s Oscars slap may have dominated the news last week, but it was barely mentioned in the Cold Open of the latest SNL. Instead they tackled all the other stuff that happened. Ginni Thomas’ bizarre love of conspiracy theories, the ever-escalating Jan.6 committee, Madison Cawthorn’s alleged orgy invites — these were the subjects with which the show chose to begin.

The sketch was centered around just another spin-heavy morning at Fox & Friends, where the hosts invited on Kenan Thompson and Kate McKinnon as Clarence and Ginni Thomas, snuggling as the latter spouts nonsense and the former is epically evsasive.

“I take my duty as the Yoko Ono of the Supreme Court very seriously,” McKinnon’s Ginni said. “All I want is a tidal wave of biblical vengeance to wash away the Biden crime family all the way to Gitmo, and then we release the Kraken.”

Cecily Strong made an appearance as Judge Jeanine Pirro, joining her fellow Fox News hosts in slamming Disney for their “exciting new project: turning your kindergartener gay,” warning that the corporation was hellbent on making kids like “America’s dangerous Ellens and Caitlyns.” She then welcomed her new colleague Kaitlyn Jenner to the Fox News fold.

Then it was James Austin Johnson’s turn. He busted out his well-loved take on Donald Trump, face-timing from bed in Mar-A-Lago — and casually admitting to the crimes he’s accused of committing on Jan. 6.

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Last Sunday, in about 30 seconds, Will Smith changed his entire career — and later he won an Oscar. The beloved rapper-turned-actor has been the top news story for a week after he stormed the Academy Awards stage and slapped presenter Chris Rock over a joke he made about his wife (and, later, danced to one of his own songs). And while hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost kicked off their latest Weekend Update with an update about Ukraine, the punchline was about that slap — as were most of the jokes.

“Intelligence officials are saying that Vladimir Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about how badly the Russian military is performing in Ukraine,” Jost said, “which is kind of like Will Smith’s agent telling him, ‘You crushed it at the Oscars!”

Jost also called Smith’s actions “disgraceful,” adding, knowingly, that they set “a terrible precedent for having to defend your wife at awards shows.”

Che seized upon one of the things Smith said during his acceptance speech: “Love will make you do crazy things.”

“You know what else makes you do crazy things? Crazy,” Che joked. “But I understand where Will’s coming from. I mean, you can’t expect him to sit there and watch another man jump all over his wife—without signing an NDA.”

Che also took issue with the idea that everyone knew Jada Pinkett Smith, whose bald head was the source of Rock’s joke, had a hair condition.

“Can we stop pretending everybody knew Jada had alopecia?” Che said. “I mean, as much as we’ve heard about Jada and Will’s personal lives, you can’t expect us to retain everything,” he said. “It’s like Kanye saying, ‘Don’t act like y’all don’t know I had psoriasis!’”

On a more personal note, Che said he was “tired” of audiences “putting their own insecurities” onto him when he’s cracking wise. “I mean, I can’t make a joke about it being cold outside,” Che said, “without somebody yelling back, ‘Stop making fun of my small penis! Keep my small penis out your mouth!’”

In summing up, Jost deemed it “one of the craziest things we will ever see in our lives.”

You can see those jokes and more in the video above.

Like plenty of other artists before them, Halsey has a bit of a history with the Grammys. After the Recording Academy snubbed of the pop star’s excellent 2020 album, Manic, they shared some frustration on social media about the “bribes” they felt are necessary to make it onto the award show’s radar. Since working with Nine Inch Nails’ icons Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on their most recent album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power, they did earn a nod in the Best Alternative Album category, so the plan was for Halsey to attend the star-studded event in case of a win there.

But, things got a little complicated over the last few days, as the artist recently underwent surgery. So recently… it was just three days ago. In a post on Instagram, Halsey let fans and peers know that they might be a little “fragile” at the event. “The last time I attended the Grammys was 2017 and it was 3 days after I had my first Endometriosis surgery,” they wrote. “I walked the carpet with my stitches still in As luck would have it, I’m attending tomorrow for the first time in years and I had surgery again (you guessed it) 3 days ago. Only posting this to say, if you see me be gentle lol I’m fragile. Fragile but excited :)”

Sending healing vibes to Halsey — and winning ones, too, though their category is stacked with contenders: Fleet Foxes’ Shore, Japanese Breakfast’s Jubilee,
Arlo Parks’ Collapsed In Sunbeams, and St. Vincent’s Daddy’s Home.

Though he’d return later in the night to perform his incredibly popular “Pushin P” single — joined by his Atlanta rap elder, Future — Gunna kicked off his appearance on Saturday Night Live with a rendition of the slow jam, “Banking On Me.” Though the more gentle number didn’t appear on the original version of Gunna’s 2022 album, DS4EVER, it was released later on as one of four additional bonus tracks. Since the rising Atlanta rapper has been romantically linked to Chloe Bailey several times, this kind of emotional song will always raise a couple of eyebrows, but it’s generic enough that there are no specific references to the R&B star.

For the late night set, Gunna showed up in an all cream, double-breasted suit — which he, of course, paired with some signature sneakers — and sat perched on a trunk for the rendition while fog swirled around him and a live band, who got a chance to flex on a musical interlude toward the end of the appearance. Showcasing his softer side on national television side was a smooth move from Gunna, who is fighting against the same stereotypes that plenty of hip-hop artists face. This performance proved that he’s more than just trap bars, although he did bring those in later on. Check out his performance of “Banking On You” up top.

Last night on Saturday Night Live, Gunna brought out Future to show the world exactly what “Pushin P” means. The song is so popular it’s spawned the usage of the specific “Pushing P” emoji, a blue capital P, but Gunna has given his best description of the infamously phrase in an Instagram story following up the song’s release and right before his January 2022 album DS4EVER, was released. “P don’t just mean Playa, P also mean paper too,” he said. “You could be pushing this P with paper too.”

First released right around the top of 2022, the “Pushin P” video has been, ahem, pushing, the Atlanta rapper’s new slang for the last few months, and its raunchy music video certainly helped get eyes on the song in the beginning. For their TV performance of the track, though, Future and Gunna kept it fairly PG, decked out in their usual designer swag, and slowly swaying while they rapped through swirling fog and a tumultuous laser light show.

Perhaps what’s most impressive about the performance, though, is the way Gunna and Future seamlessly trade bars, exhibiting the kind of on stage chemistry that few rappers can manage — especially two who are both such stars in their own right. Check out the performance up top.

The greatest coach in men’s college basketball history is ending his career without one final championship. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski announced before the 2021-22 college basketball season that he would retire when the Blue Devils’ year came to an end, and on Saturday night, that happened thanks to the North Carolina Tar Heels. The two sides faced off in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in the history of their lengthy rivalry and the Tar Heels came out on top, 81-77, to earn a date with the Kansas Jayhawks for a national championship on Monday.

But in the immediate aftermath of the game, the focus for college basketball fans on the internet was celebrating the fact that Coach K’s career is over. While his success as a coach is unparalleled in the men’s game, Krzyzewski isn’t exactly beloved for what he’s done at the helm of the Blue Devils. As such, when the clock hit zero, a whole lot of folks pressed send on tweets to wish him goodbye.

The official Twitter account for the Tar Heels couldn’t help but bid him adieu in its final score tweet.

There were some attempts to send him out on a really positive note, like the one from Nike — the longtime uniform sponsor for Duke basketball. The official Nike hoops account asked the Twitterverse to name their favorite moment of Coach K’s career…

…and there’s about a 99.9999999 percent chance you can guess how that went.

The loss on Saturday was the second time this season that the Tar Heels spoiled a big night for Krzyzewski, as they went to Cameron Indoor Stadium during the final game of the regular season and picked up a win.