Category: News

This week’s SNL did not hold back on the biggest issue in America right now: the likely overturning of Roe v. Wade, which would see free and legal abortion outlawed in almost half the country. They hit at it with their Cold Open. They tackled it during Weekend Update. But one sketch took on the lighter side of things, addressing a big, welcome distraction from the horrors of right now: that new Marvel movie that’s making a ton of money.

The same weekend that Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was Hoovering up cash money, the film’s star, Benedict Cumberbatch, just happened to be hosting SNL. He made a brief but key appearance in one of the pre-taped segments, which focused on repertory player Chloe Fineman. Called “The Understudy,” the sketch followed her around on her main duties on the show: shadowing main cast members, learning their lines, and even doing spot-on impersonations should any of them get sick.

Fineman mimicked people like Kate McKinnon, Cecily Strong, and Aidy Bryant. But at one point she played a trick on Cumberbatch, appearing in his dressing room dressed up as the Scarlet Witch, the surprise villain of the new Doctor Strange, played by Elizabeth Olsen. Cumberbatch buys it, thinking it’s really Olsen. But then the real Olsen shows up. When both actresses claim to be the actual Elizabeth Olsen, Cumberbatch comes to a chilling conclusion: “Oh my god. The multiverse is real.”

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

SNL opened its latest episode by tackling the biggest story of last week: the leaked Supreme Court draft that revealed the right-leaning bench was on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade. The decision, when it’s finalized, likely in June, would remove protections from safe and legal abortions, endangering the lives of women in about half the country. But one dig at the decision wasn’t enough. On Weekend Update, they went all-in on the decision.

“Good evening, everyone,” Colin Jost said as the segment began. “Well, guys, tomorrow is Mother’s Day, whether you want it to be one or not.” Jost later addressed the leak. “The Court is usually careful, but they slipped up… and now they have to live with it forever. Sounds really unfair.”

Co-host Michael Che weighed in, too, wondering why Republicans were so obsessed with controlling women’s reproductive rights. “Maybe don’t think of it as abortion,” Che said. “Think of it as a patriot storming the uterus to overturn the results of an unfair pregnancy.”

Eventually Kate McKinnon made an appearance as Amy Coney Barrett, the justice hurried onto the bench in the final months of the Trump presidency, shortly after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (who McKinnon has also played) and while Americans were already in the process of voting in the 2020 election.

“I just don’t understand why you need an abortion,” McKinnon’s Barrett told the crowd. “You can leave a baby anywhere in the United States. Just plop it!” She suggested leaving unwanted babies carried to term on a sidewalk or near a body of water. “Like Moses in a basket? Plop it. Like an infant in Jungle Book? ‘Do your nine,’ and then plop that baby and give it to a panther.”

She then told the crowd how she really feels. “You are a murderer if you have an abortion, but you are not a murderer if you put a baby in a bag in a mailbox,” McKinnon’s Barrett said. “I have seven children and a job and I make it work, so why every single other woman can’t do the same is beyond me—unless I’m missing something about class in America. Don’t answer that.”

You can watch McKinnon above and Jost and Che below.

Last week — on top of everything else the world is dealing with right now — a leaked document showed that the right-leaning Supreme Court is awfully close to overturning Roe v. Wade (with some help from Republican lawmakers). When the decision is finalized, as early as June, free and legal abortion would be outlawed in just under half the country. It’s no laughing matter, which is why SNL did what they could with the first sketch on their latest episode: They made fun of it.

In the leaked draft, Justice Samuel Alito tried to buttress his flimsy argument for overturning a 50-year-old case by citing, among other things, a treatise dating back to the 13th century. So SNL decided to go back to Medieval times in hopes of portraying his argument as surreally outdated.

The sketch finds host Benedict Cumberbatch lording over a small — and, of course, all male — group looking to make abortion illegal. “We should have a law that could stand the test of time,” Cumberbatch’s character says, “so that hundreds and hundreds of years from now, they will look back and say, ‘No need to update this one at all. They nailed it back in 1235.’”

When confronted by an actual woman — a peasant played by Cecily Strong — they assume she, who will soon have fewer rights than she did already, they blow up. “Uh-oh, woman hear ideas and it makes her think, ‘Why I no have those?’” said one of the men, played by Andrew Dismukes.

“I just don’t understand why you’re obsessed with this issue,” Strong’s character says. “What about the fact that no one can read or write and everyone’s dying of plague?”

“You think just because I have active plague, that means I have to wear a mask?” Dismukes responds. “It’s my body, my choice.”

Eventually Kate McKinnon shows up as a witch — or, well, just a woman over 30. “Worry not, dear girl, these barbaric laws will someday be overturned by something called progress — and then, about 50 years after the progress, they’ll be like, ‘Maybe we should undo the progress,’” she tells them. “I don’t know why all my visions from that time are very confusing. It seems like all the power comes from a place called Florida. And if you think our customs are weird. You should watch the trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard!”

You can watch the sketch in the video above.

Charles Oliveira (32-8, 1 NC) submitted Justin Gaethje in the main event of UFC 274 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, Saturday night, but the lightweight title will remain vacant for now.

The main event got thrown a major curveball during weigh-ins on Friday afternoon when the lightweight champion, Oliveira, failed to make weight and was stripped of the title that he’s held for nearly a year. Oliveira’s attempt to make weight saw him come in at 155.5 pounds, just a half-pound above the maximum weight for the title fight.

As for the fight, Gaethje and Oliveira traded big shots to open the fight, with the former champ stunning Gaethje, only for the challenger to respond with a huge leg kick. Gaethje sent Oliveira backward on the mat twice with two huge shots, the second of which opened up a nasty gash on the former champ’s left eye.

Oliveira snapped a big right that sent Gaethje on his back, then moved in to take his back and submitted the challenger to close out his night.

With the win, Oliveira now hasn’t lost in five years, including wins over Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler, and Tony Ferguson. As for who he’ll fight now as the No. 1 contender for the lightweight belt, Oliveira said after the bout that he doesn’t have a preference, but did question if Conor McGregor is ready to step back inside the Octagon.

Canelo Alvarez entered Saturday night 57-1-2 in his illustrious career, with his only career loss coming 17 fights ago to Floyd Mayweather. However, Canelo was stepping into just his second fight at 175 pounds against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, having previously knocked out an aging Sergey Kovalev in 2019 before returning to super middleweight for his next four fights, unifying the 168 pound belts. Even so, Canelo was a -600 favorite in the bout against the bigger Bivol, who had his eye on a stunning upset.

After coming out of the gates strong in the early rounds with some powerful uppercuts, it became apparent that the size differential was going to pose real problems for Canelo, who simply could not push Bivol back in the fight. Alvarez, used to being the aggressor, found himself stymied by Bivol’s strong guard and, as Canelo seemed to get tired, Bivol pressed forward with a consistent, strong jab and began to pepper Alvarez with shot after shot, battering Canelo’s face in the middle rounds.

The late charge fans in Las Vegas were hoping for from Canelo never arrived, as Bivol stayed the course and continued to lean on the smaller Alvarez, keeping a solid workrate but never providing the opening for a big counter to swing the fight back in Alvarez’s favor. The bout went all 12 rounds, with the two sharing a quick embrace and show of respect after the final bell.

All three judges ringside scored the bout 115-113 in favor of Bivol, which some felt was not as indicative of the dominance showed by the champion, but it was the correct decision, even if a bit narrower on the scoring than some had hoped for. With the win, Bivol cements his place atop the light heavyweight division and earned plenty of respect from around the boxing world with a truly impressive performance against the pound-for-pound king.

For Alvarez, one would think this will cap his pursuit of belts to the 160 and 168 pound divisions, as the size differential in this fight proved to be too much to overcome. His early uppercuts were the types of punches that would’ve rattled middleweights but Bivol was able to eat them and stay in against Alvarez, wearing him down with the jab and tight, surgical combinations to pile up round wins. Weight classes exist for a reason and while Canelo impressed in his 175 pound debut, taking on a light heavyweight in his prime proved to be too much for him. What comes next remains to be seen, but while disappointed, Alvarez still should be commended for chasing new challenges and Bivol should be applauded for a sensational performance.

After impressing in his UFC debut with a first-round knockout of Dan Hooker, Michael Chandler was in real danger of seeing his UFC career landslide into three-straight losses. Saturday night at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, at UFC 274, Tony Ferguson had Chandler on the ropes in the first round, hunting him around the cage and peppering him and landing just about everything he threw.

But seconds into the second round, it was a perfectly-timed front kick that caught Ferguson underneath his chin and sent the lightweight contender to sleep.

Chandler entered UFC 274 following consecutive losses to Charles Oliveira by TKO and Justin Gaethje via decision in May and November last year, respectively. Ferguson is now winless in his last four fights, with losses to Gaethje, Oliveira, Beneil Dariush and now Chandler.

Following the victory, Chandler made it known he wants to run it back with Oliveira or Gaethje should he earn another shot at lightweight gold. If the title isn’t in his immediate future, Chandler welcomed Conor McGregor back into the Octagon, who has been out with a broken leg suffered in the first round of his loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 last July.

Entering the showdown Saturday night already at No. 7 in the lightweight division, Ferguson has a long ways to go to find his way back into title contention.

UPDATE: Ja Morant deleted his tweet shortly after it went up. Here it is via a screenshot:

EARLIER: The Memphis Grizzlies got thrashed by the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night during Game 3 of their second round series. While suffering a 142-112 loss is never a good thing, the much bigger concern facing the Grizzlies the health of All-Star guard Ja Morant, who left the game while things were essentially done and dusted in the fourth quarter.

Morant got trapped near midcourt, and it appeared that he got hurt because Warriors guard Jordan Poole made contact with his right knee. It appeared that Morant was in some pain after and made his way to the bench.

Right knee issues held Morant out for nine games in the lead-up to the postseason, so seeing this is especially concerning to Memphis. And after the game, Morant and Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins expressed some frustrations about the whole thing, with Jenkins going as far as to say that the play was “curious” and that Poole “grabbed [Morant’s] knee and yanked it.”

Morant, meanwhile, took to Twitter after the game and tweeted out a video of the incident with the caption “broke the code.”

The line is a clear shot at Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who said after Game 2 that Dillon Brooks “broke the code” that players are supposed to follow on the play that led to Gary Payton II suffering an elbow injury. Brooks was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and suspended from Game 3 as a result, while Payton is expected to be out for at least several weeks.

As for Poole, he stressed that he was going for the ball when asked about the incident after the game and told the press that “I’m not even that kind of player.”

The Golden State Warriors put forth quite the offensive display on Saturday night during Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinal series against the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite Memphis’ offense looking solid and yet another monster game for Ja Morant, the Warriors seemingly could not miss, with the original Splash Brothers being joined by some of their newer teammates en route to a 142-112 win to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Memphis started the game scorching hot from three. The team was able to race out to an early 12-point lead thanks to their shots from deep falling — the Grizzlies hit six of their first eight attempts from downtown, with Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane, and Ziaire Williams all getting in on the fun.

Despite the early onslaught, though, their lead was only two points after one, thanks in large part to a 9-3 run to close the quarter by the Dubs.

That torrid form continued into the second, as Golden State raced out to a 10-2 start to force a Grizzlies timeout.

Throughout the rest of the half, the 1-2 punch of Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry helped keep Memphis at arm’s length. Wiggins ended the first half with 15 points, while Curry scored 10 of his 13 points in the second quarter.

The Grizzlies, unsurprisingly, got a big half out of Morant, whose 17 points led all scorers. It wasn’t enough, though, because despite the fact that Memphis had 11 first-half triples, the Warriors went 26-for-37 (a scorching 70.3 percent) from the field and held a 64-57 lead.

As they’ve done so many times over the years, Golden State emerged from the tunnel at halftime in front of their home crowd and landed the first haymaker of the second half. The Dubs opened up the period scoring the first 10 points — Klay Thompson hit a pair of triples during this stretch — and saw their lead balloon to as many as 23 in the third quarter.

There was also a classic Thompson heat check that went in, as he hoisted a three off of one foot while moving and knocked it down.

While Memphis was able to stop the bleeding a bit, the damage was done. Golden State’s torrid shooting meant they won the quarter, 37-23, and took a 101-80 lead into the fourth.

The fourth quarter followed the same script prior to the two teams emptying their benches. The Warrior offense just kept humming, and despite the best efforts of Morant — who eventually left the game with an apparent leg injury — Memphis just could not keep up with the onslaught. Things went so poorly for them that the usually mild-mannered Kyle Anderson picked up a pair of technical fouls and got ejected.

Curry’s 30 points and six assists were tops for the Dubs, while Jordan Poole gave them 27 off the bench and 21 with nine rebounds. Both Jonathan Kuminga (18 points) and Wiggins (17 points) joined them with double-figure scoring, and as a team, Golden State shot 53-for-84 (62.7 percent) from the field and 17-for-32 (51.6 percent) from three. Morant gave the Grizzlies 34 points, seven assists, three rebounds, and three steals.

Game 4 between the Warriors and Grizzlies will tip off on Monday night at 10 p.m. ET on TNT.

Ja Morant’s first two performances in his Western Conference Semifinal debut have been nothing short of spectacular. While the Memphis Grizzlies are tied at one game each against the Golden State Warriors, Morant has been a thorn in the Dubs’ side on in each game, going for 34 points the first time they went head-to-head and 47 in the Grizzlies’ Game 2 win.

It looks like Game 3 is going to follow that pattern, as Morant has 17 points, four assists, two rebounds, and two steals at the half. While the Grizzlies walked into the locker room at the Chase Center trailing 64-57, that deficit isn’t quite as bad thanks to a jumper Morant hit right before the halftime buzzer went off.

The catch: Morant didn’t just knock down a buzzer-beater, the dude pulled up from half court and got nothing but net despite a contest from Andrew Wiggins.

Here is an alternate angle of the shot, in which — you guessed it — this is still sick.

Morant got hot from deep in the first half of Game 3, going 4-for-6 from downtown despite playing in front of a hostile road crowd. Of course, while they all count the same, pulling up from half court with a hand in your face is easily the most impressive of the bunch.

The referees during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinal matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and Boston Celtics came under fire from people on both teams. Celtics coach Ime Udoka, upset about the officiating after losing 103-101, claimed that he is going to teach his players how to flop more effectively so they can be on the receiving end of charge calls.

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo was likewise not particularly happy with the whistle from the officials, either, only he was not as eager to express his frustration as Udoka. After the game, Antetokounmpo made clear that he wanted to critique the officiating in the game, but ultimately decided to bite his tongue because he didn’t want to get fined.

Despite the fact that he felt this way, Antetokounmpo still managed to have an excellent game in Milwaukee’s win go up in the series, 2-1. The reigning NBA Finals MVP scored 42 points with 12 rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and two blocks while shooting 12 of the 17 free throws that the Bucks attempted. Perhaps he won’t be in as good of a mood after Game 4 if the Bucks lose and the officiating continues to rub him the wrong way and he’ll be a little more willing to speak out, although diapers will still cost far too much money if that happens, so we expect him to bite his tongue no matter what.