Category: News

In a hilarious bit of schadenfreude, Donald Trump is reportedly banning anyone who’s wearing Proud Boys or QAnon symbols from his rallies. If you’re thinking to yourself, “Isn’t that his base?” Yes, it is, and the Proud Boys are pretty confused by the whole thing, too, considering Trump gave them VIP tickets to his most recent rally in Wyoming.

In a new viral video, a Proud Boy films himself being turned away by security after being told of the new rule prohibiting symbols that Trump no longer wants seen at his events. He is given the option of his turning his shirt inside out, but the security team made it very clear that no Proud Boys or QAnon logos are permitted.

As for why Trump is suddenly making a concerted effort to distance himself from the two movements that practically define the MAGA world is unknown, but it probably doesn’t help that the Proud Boys have been in considerable legal trouble for their involvement in the January 6 insurrection. The same January 6 insurrection that was committed in service to Trump, which makes his betrayal of the Proud Boys all the more disingenuous and hilarious to people watching the video online.

“Ahhhh…. Those delicious Proud Boy tears of confusion not being able to understand how quickly Trump went from ‘Proud Boys standby’ to ‘come in disguise ONLY. I’m embarrassed to know you,’” wrote Hadley Sheley.

“To Trump, we already know these are your dudes. Too late to try and disassociate now,” Bethany tweeted. “To the Proud Boys, ‘ha ha f*ckity ha ha ha.’ Your savior does not care about you. You were a prop, a tool, & someone to use just like every other MAGA asshole. Find a bag of dicks. Consume them. ”

“Trumps supporters are finally starting to find out that he wants them for votes and money not to hang out with,” wrote Marc Vondem.

You can check out more reactions to the Proud Boys learning Trump doesn’t want to be seen with them below:

(Via Ron Filipkowski on Twitter)

Last month, Phoebe Bridgers dropped a video for “Sidelines,” offering a Conversations With Friends-themed clip since the song was made for the Hulu series. Now, though, Bridgers has returned with a new visual for the song, going Conversations-agnostic this time around.

The clip is a slice of life of a Bridgers tour, as it features behind-the-scenes footage of herself and her band on and off stage. Specifically, the video comes from the Reunion Tour and was shot by Jackson Bridgers, Phoebe’s brother.

Bridgers previously said of the song’s origins, “[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.”

She also noted of previously indicating “Sidelines” would be her only new song of 2022, “Uh, who knows, actually. I try to do things that are exciting, so I never really know what I’m gonna do.”

Check out the “Sidelines” video above.

The NRA has rarely missed the chance to be in the right place at the most inappropriate time. They proved their impeccable timing yet again over Memorial Day weekend when they decided to proceed with their annual conference, where thousands of gun lovers and pro-gun lawmakers gathered in Houston, Texas, just days after 21 innocent people were killed less than 300 miles away at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

On Tuesday, Jimmy Kimmel didn’t waste any time in laying into the thoughtlessness of everything about the event, which he dubbed a “meeting of the mindless.”

Kimmel shared a clip of a charming couple who very seriously declared that “demons” were the ones to blame for America’s gun problem and that “we don’t need gun control, we need demon control.” Which offered Kimmel the perfect segue to talk about how “Ted Cruz was on hand in Houston to spread his slime all over the NRA halls” (and how he was heckled while he tried to enjoy a nice sushi dinner out in Houston).

Of course, Cruz is on a door rant right now and used some of that material on the crowd in Houston. After explaining that the gunman in Uvalde got into Robb Elementary through an unlocked door (a story school employees deny) and going off about how we need to upgrade our schools to have bulletproof doors, etc. “Senator Ooze” waited for his obligatory round of applause. Except there was a problem with Cruz’s whole story, according to Kimmel:

“By the way, the school in Uvalde already had heavy-duty locking doors. That’s how the killer kept the police out. The police had to get the janitor to give them their keys to unlock it. Any other bright ideas, dumbass?”

But Cruz was only the warm-up act for Donald Trump, who was oblivious to the irony when he told the crowd how “we need to make it far easier to confine the violent and mentally deranged into mental institutions. We have also, very importantly, got to deal with the problem of broken families, because no law can cure the effects of a broken home.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” observed Kimmel. “The deranged narcissist who had children with three different women is lecturing us about mental illness and broken homes.” He also shared a clip of how, after mangling the names of the victims in Uvalde, the former president closed out his appearance “the way only he can”—by busting out his signature hip gyration-fist pump move.

“They were giving him a round of applause,” noted Kimmel. “What’s he gonna do, not dance?!”

You can watch the full segment above.

If the past three decades have taught us anything, it’s that in the wake of any school shooting—especially a highly publicized one—Republicans will offer up just as many ridiculous reasons for why the shooting happened as they do “thoughts and prayers.” On Tuesday night, Trevor Noah was almost amused by the tidal wave of batshit excuses lawmakers had for how a Uvalde, Texas teen with a gun could kill 21 innocent people with that gun, and yet still never blame America’s rampant gun problem.

“While most Americans, liberals and conservatives, are open to common sense restrictions on guns to keep Americans safe,” Noah said, “there is still a small yet powerful group of gun f**ks who believe the problem with gun violence is not because of guns. No, it’s because of everything else.”

Among the many scapegoats cited were: the internet, video games, movies, and music. It’s an argument Noah says “totally falls apart when you realize the entire world listens to American music and plays American video games. Yeah, but they have nowhere the same level of America’s mass shootings. And don’t get it twisted, it’s the same music. It’s not like, in Sweden, Snoop Dogg is like ‘Rat-tat-tat-tat, and I never hesitate to put a hat on a ca–aaat.’ It’s the same music. Why aren’t they getting the same results?”

While Noah understands that lawmakers “want to blame anything but guns, it still has to make sense. Can we agree on that? You can’t just blame stuff that you were already mad at… And if it’s not religion and it’s not video games and it’s not the music, what else could it be?”

While Ted Cruz is sticking to his story that 19 children are dead in Uvalde because of doors, many Republicans are dusting off their favorite chestnut: The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Except in the case of Robb Elementary School, Noah says, “there wasn’t just an armed resource officer on the scene. There was a whole platoon of police officers who responded to the shooting but didn’t do sh*t to stop it while it was still going on. And I’m willing to guess it was because they were also sh*t scared of a gunman armed with an AR-15.”

You can watch Noah’s full clip above.

Take a pinch of Nicholas Hoult, a dash of Anya Taylor-Joy, a smidgen of Ralph Fiennes as a creepy chef, and what do you have? The teaser trailer for The Menu, an intriguing horror-comedy that will make you swear off tasting menus for good.

Directed by Mark Mylod (Game of Thrones, Succession) and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu stars Taylor-Joy and Hoult as a couple who visit an exclusive restaurant on a remote island. They’re there for a fancy meal prepared by a famed chef (Fiennes), who explains, “Over the next few hours, you will ingest fat, salt, protein, and at times, entire ecosystems.” Those in attendance, which also includes John Leguizamo, Judith Light, and Hong Chau as an attentive waitress, are “not the common man… What happens inside this room is meaningless compared to what happens outside. We are but a frightened nanosecond. Nature is timeless.”

Yeah, I’m good. I’ll stick with Popeyes (again).

A couple (Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult) travels to a coastal island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef (Ralph Fiennes) has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.

The Menu opens in theaters on November 18. Just in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s been made clear over the years that One Direction wasn’t without its internal strife, despite the happy-go-lucky image the group cultivated. Now, on a new episode of the Impaulsive With Logan Paul podcast, Liam Payne outlines a particularly tense encounter in which one of his former bandmates pinned him against a wall.

Without specifying who exactly he was talking about, he said, “I think it was well-known within the band that I don’t like taking sh*t… at a certain point. I made it very obvious, I’m not going to tell you how. There was one moment where there was an argument backstage and someone… one member in particular threw me up a wall. So I said to him, ‘If you don’t remove those hands, there’s a high likelihood you’ll never use them again.’”

Elsewhere during the chat, he discussed both the disdain and the empathy he has for Zayn, saying, “There’s many reasons why I dislike Zayn and there’s many reasons why I’ll always, always be on his side. If I had had to go through what he went through — with his growth and whatever else… My parents are overly supportive to the point where it’s annoying at times. Zayn had a different upbringing in that sense. You can always look at the man for where he is and say, ‘Oh yeah, whatever, that guy’s a d*ck.’ But at the end of the day, once you’re understanding what he’s been through to get to that point — and also whether or not he wanted to be there.”

He added, “Listen, I don’t agree with any of his actions. I can’t commend some of the things that he’s done. I can’t be on his side for that. What I can say is I understand and your only hope is that at some point in their life, the person at the other end of the phone wants to receive the help that you’re willing to give them.”

Payne also noted of his relationship with Louis Tomlinson, “Louis was wild. Louis was wild and he wanted to be wild and that’s his spirit. He’s my best mate now, but in the band, we hated each other. Like, to come to blows hate each other. It was close.”

Watch the full Impaulsive With Logan Paul episode above.

Yesterday, BTS swung by the White House to discuss anti-Asian hate and meet with Joe Biden. Naturally, Fox News host Tucker Carlson had thoughts on that, as did his guest, fellow controversial conservative commentator Candace Owens.

In a segment on yesterday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight, the host said, “So things have gotten very bad for Joe Biden, both public-facing and internally. What are they doing about it? Well, they broke glass in case of emergency and invited a Korean pop group to speak at the White House today. Watch.”

The show then cut to a clip of RM saying, “Hi, we’re BTS, and it is a great honor to be invited to the White House today to discuss the important issues of anti-Asian hate crimes, Asian inclusion, and diversity.”

Carlson continued, “Yeah, so we got a Korean pop group to discuss anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States. OK. Good job, guys.” All the while, an on-screen graphic read, “WH invites K-pop group to bolster street cred.”

The host goes on to launch into a point about “white supremacy” in the Biden White House, citing reports of a recent exodus of Black White House staffers. He was then joined by Owens, who talked further on that topic before bringing it back to the White House hosting BTS, saying, “They’re frantically searching to drum up a new narrative of hate, and this one is going to be Asian-American, Asian Lives Matter. ‘Quick, grab me K-pop and hopefully America is going to fall for this,’ when in reality, we’re focused on gas prices, the inflation crisis, and it’s just an absolute, complete joke.”

Now, we wait to see how the BTS Army will respond to this.

LeVar Burton has landed two hosting gigs, but not the one (he thought) he wanted: Jeopardy! Despite numerous fan campaigns to have the Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow star take over the full-time gig following Alex Trebek’s death, the show went in another direction — it did not go well. Burton has since said that he’s “really happy with the way things worked out,” but he talked about the “humiliation” of not being offered the job in a recent interview with Newsy‘s “In the Loop.”

“Experiencing a very public defeat — humiliation, if you will — was sobering. And what I learned from the experience, really, is that it reinforced my belief that everything happens for a reason, even if you cannot discern the reason in the moment,” Burton said. The actor, who called Jeopardy! his “favorite game show,” thought he was “well-suited” for the hosting gig, but “as it turns out, it really wasn’t a competition, after all, the fix was in.”

He continued:

“In the fullness of time, everything will be revealed. And like I said, it was I think in that first week of feeling really sort of not just disappointed, but wrecked. I didn’t expect that I would not be their choice for host.”

“In the fullness of time, everything will be revealed.” In Jeopardy! speak: What is… the most ominous thing I’ve read all week?

Burton called getting asked to host the Scripps National Spelling Bee a “huge balm on an open wound. And I thought ‘Ah, they see me,’ and I’m definitely one to go where I’m wanted and loathe to go where I’m not invited.” The spelling bee final airs June 2.

(Via Newsy and E! Online)

June is upon us, even as a recent arrival, Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi is still getting started. There’s a trend to this month, though. Between The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, and Ms. Marvel, there’s a whole lot of superpowers at work, even though two of these shows happen to be subversive while the other’s full of glee. Hey, TV can bring the blockbusters as well as (and sometimes even better) than the theater can do.

In addition, followup seasons for streaming hits will arrive in plentiful supply. Only Murder In The Building and Physical represent two choices from that category, and South Park is making a streaming-only turn, too. Don’t knock the cable channels, though, because The Chi and P-Valley will offer up fresh seasons to satisfy their loyal fanbases. Oh, and those violently delightful robots shall return, too, because those hosts never really die. Here are the must-see shows coming your way in June.

South Park: The Streaming Wars (Paramount+ special streaming 6/1)

Few people could have predicted that this unapologetically raunchy animated show, which skewers every issue possible, would one day still be running while approaching its 25th anniversary. That momentous occasion will arrive on August 20, but first, the Paramount+-exclusive specials will continue. The streaming wars are a righteous mess already, so expect Trey Parker and Matt Stone to address the chaos appropriately, while Cartman’s got a beef that could endanger the existence of South Park.

Physical: Season 2 (Apple TV+ series streaming 6/3)

Rose Byrne and leg warmers continue front and center here while her Sheila Rubin’s still riding high from the success of her debut fitness video. This leads to even greater obstacles while personal and professional worlds collide. Is her husband too attracted to someone else, and can Sheila manage to construct a full-on fitness empire (with competitors and everything) while dealing with some disaster at home? Expect the neon lights to shine bright while addressing these dilemmas.

The Boys: Season 3 (Amazon Prime series streaming 6/3)

Homelander is most decidedly not okay after the events of the Season 2 finale, so plenty more increasingly sadistic behavior will soon arrive on that end. He’s got competition in the “hero of heroes” department, though, because the ripped and exhausted Jensen Ackles climbs aboard as Soldier Boy (a Captain America parody), and not only will we see the “Herogasm” episode, but we can all look forward to The Deep doing things that made Chace Crawford wondered if he’d work again. If we’re lucky, we’ll see more exploding heads and hopefully some followup on Homelander’s solo performance atop a skyscraper. Thank god the boys (and girls) are back in action.

P-Valley: Season 2 (Starz series returning 6/3)

The darkness has enveloped Chucalissa, Mississippi, and everyone’s survival is on the line. All the while, this strip-club tale is weaving the pandemic into the story while the locker room and the casino aren’t about fun times but, instead, about danger at every turn. Things get super political out there, too, and The Pynk is not immune to the peril with Autumn (Elarica Johnson) and Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan) attempting to keep their footing amid a sea of stilettos.

Ms. Marvel: Season 1 (Disney+ series streaming 6/8)

This series brings us Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), a Pakistani American teen from Jersey City. She’s a fan-fiction enthusiast and loves the Avengers, including Captain Marvel. Kamala somehow ends up with superpowers of her own (apparently sourcing from the same cosmic energy as Brie Larson’s Carol Danvers), and this show’s a roaring ball of glee that will help to set up The Marvels, which will not only include Kamala and Carol but also Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Paris) from WandaVision.

For All Mankind: Season 3 (Apple TV+ series streaming 6/10)

Joel Kinnaman and Shantel VanSanten return along with much of the rest of the ensemble cast , and this season keeps the alternate history going while moving into the future. The new frontier in the Space Race happens to be Mars, and the U.S. and Soviet Union find a third party who isn’t about to stay quiet. It’s a pressure cooker of a situation while the very future of mankind could be at stake, and one should expect plenty of loyalties to be tested amid mounting confrontations and clashes of national egos.

Peaky Blinders: Season 6 (BBC One/Netflix series streaming 6/10)

This season’s been sitting pretty for months now across the pond, but stateside viewers will finally get to see Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby kicking ass and fending off new rivals as he preps to head toward North America. The family’s missing its matriarch now (due to actress Helen McRory’s death), and it’s all coming down to a final batch of a half-dozen episodes, although one should expect some movies and spinoffs to eventually arrive. Dig that cockney rhyming slang!

Dark Winds (AMC and AMC+ series streaming 6/12)

(Mostly) Native American writers are doing the thing here as based upon Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee book series and the two 1970s Navajo cops (at a remote area near Monument Valley) who embark upon apparently unrelated crimes including a double murder case. In the process, they see things that make them think twice about their spiritual beliefs. The forces of evil swirl while the cops’ personal demons could actually be the key to emerging back into salvation territory. Are you intrigued? Good.

Rutherford Falls: Season 2 (Peacock series streaming 6/16)

This Michael Schur sitcom makes a return to follow up on his outings in Scranton and Pawnee. Ed Helms will return as Nathan Rutherford (yep, that has a ton to do with this town’s history), and he’s still accompanied by his best friend, Jana Schmieding’s Reagan. Expect more offbeat magic from The Good Place creator while the leading duo finds more romantic and professional obstacles to conquer. Let’s hear it for lifelong BFFs and knowing how someone will always have your back, no matter how absurd a situation or conundrum might be until things get ironed out.

The Umbrella Academy: Season 3 (Netflix series streaming 6/22)

Ghostly Ben (Justin H. Min) ain’t so ghostly anymore, and he’s also not sweet and devoted to simply antagonizing Robert Sheehan’s Klaus anymore. The Sparrow Academy aims to be front and center, and the O.G. Hargreeves siblings must adjust to this strange new timeline where their common Bad Dad Reginald’s other kiddos exist. Oh, and there’s another rift in the universe, which actually leads Elliot Page’s Viktor to unite with a character who acted fully like an enemy last season. Gerard Way’s comic book series keeps on giving good adaptation, and hopefully, there will be more dancing to go with yet another apocalypse.

The Bear (FX on Hulu series streaming 6/23)

Jeremy Allen White can’t leave Chicago, it seems. The Shameless actor’s now portraying a chef who ends up back home and attempting to helm a sandwich shop for his family. There’s a highly emotional reason for this, and the actual realities of running this business turns out to be quite the challenge. In the midst of everything else, there’s a sense of humanity in how this show portrays relationships, while White’s character (Carmy) transforms his own sense of self and learns to find a second family.

The Chi: Season 5 (Showtime series returning 6/24)

This season fives into the highs and lows (but ultimately the highs) of Black love. That would include issues involving co-parenting and newfound parenting as well as diving into romantic relationships of many varieties. Meanwhile, Jada’s navigating her post-cancer life with a fresh eye toward what she really wants in life, and also importantly: careers and the sense of self ride high here. Oh, and Trig might be running for political office, just to make things even more chaotic when it comes to learning how to achieve a work-life balance.

Westworld: Season 4 (HBO series streaming 6/26)

If you completely didn’t understand the third season of this show, you’re definitely not alone, but the Westworld hasn’t confusion is part of the appeal here. It’s been over two years since Evan Rachel Wood’s Dolores apparently went out of commission, but a death obviously isn’t a death when it comes to this show, as we’ve seen over and over again with these hosts. HBO promises that this season will present “a dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth.” Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, and Aaron Paul are all back for more robot drama.

Only Murders in the Building: Season 2 (Hulu series streaming 6/28)

The dream trio of Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short will return after sticking the landing on their first season finale, and now, they must deal with the homicide investigation turning against them. The show turned around a second season in warp speed (less than a year after the show’s August 2021 debut), and expect a competing podcast to shake things up even more for the show’s sophomore round. Their neighbors have turned against Mabel, Charles, and Oliver, too. Madness!

It’s been quite a while since Rae Sremmurd gave the world a full body of work. To find that, you’d have to go back to 2018 when the rap duo composed of Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi released their third album SR3MM. The project arrived as a triple-disc with one side being a 9-track Rae Sremmurd release, and the remaining two discs being 9-track solo efforts from Swae and Slim. The rappers have shared some tidbits about their fourth album over the years, but music has yet to arrive from it. All of that could change soon as they teased the project once again from their social media accounts.

The rap duo posted an image of the number four of fire to the Rae Sremmurd Twitter page with the caption, “SREMM4LIFE.” In a second tweet that Swae Lee shared from his personal account, he added, “Bout to get a dose of this Sremmy.” Slim Jxmmi also chimed in with his own tweet, writing, “Time for that 4 foe four for phor.” All of the aforementioned posts seemingly confirm that new music from the project should arrive much sooner than later.

In an interview with Essence back in 2019, Rae Sremmurd seemingly confirmed that their upcoming fourth album would be set up like 2018’s SR3MM. For what it’s worth, that interview was more than three years ago, so it remains to be seen if that is still the plan for the duo.

You can view Rae Sremmurd’s tweets about Sremm4Life above.