Category: News

Maya Rudolph warned during her opening monologue that she would be wearing lots of wigs and doing impressions on Saturday Night Live, and thankfully for us that meant bringing back her Beyonce impression. The former cast member had hosting duties in its latest episode, and thankfully for us that meant a throwback-feeling segment about a very modern concept: Beyonce appearing on the web show Hot Ones to eat some very spicy chicken wings.

The sketch is a throwback to the era in which Rudolph thrived. It’s an absurd concept to begin with: the most famous musician in the world showing up on a show where you eat spicy wings and promote something while answering softball questions. But it’s a sketch that actually critiques not just the thing it’s parodying — an incredibly popular YouTube show — but Beyonce’s notorious attempts to control her image in the media.

Seeing Beyonce struggle with absurdly-named hot wing sauces and curse out the host, played by Mikey Day, is a departure from anything we’ve seen from the actual singer in years. At one point, Rudolph’s Beyonce is so overcome by the heat of the wings that she asked her stylist to take her wig off, put ice cubes in it and put it back on. Her “publicist” then stepped in to refuse to let that happen on camera.

The joke here is, after years of carefully cultivating her image in the public eye, Beyonce would never do anything like this. Or at least we’d never find out about it. Later, realizing just how many more wings she still needs to endure, she has her manager step in to call the whole thing off, with non-disclosure agreements all around to make sure no evidence of it ever happening.

It was great to see Rudolph play a character that’s not Kamala Harris and be free of the political news cycle that brought her back to the SNL stage at various points over the last year. And it was a strong start to an episode that reminded many viewers of the kind of sketch that was more common when Rudolph was a more permanent member of the show’s cast.

The Walking Dead is obviously Robert Kirkman’s most famous comic-book, but among his other creations is Invincible, which premiered the same year as TWD and completed its run only a year before. The animated adaptation of Invincible, meanwhile, kicked off this weekend on Amazon Prime, and it couldn’t not drop at least one The Walking Dead Easter egg, what with the fact that TWD gave at least a couple of nods toward Invincible over the years.

Take, for instance, the Science Dog T-shirt that Carl occasionally wore early on in the series.

Science Dog is the favorite comic book of the lead character, Mark Grayson, within Kirkman’s Invincible comic-book, so this Easter Egg is two layers deep. There’s yet another layer because in the animated series, Kirkman changed the name to Seance Dog so that he could retain the rights, should he decide to turn Science Dog into its own series.

The other Invincible Easter Egg on The Walking Dead was a little more obvious. In Sam Anderson’s bedroom, there were several action figures from Kirkman’s Invincible comic, including Invincible himself, Mark Grayson, as well as Allen the Alien, Atom Eve, and Omni-Man.

It would only make sense, then, that Invincible would repay The Walking Dead with a nod of its own, beyond the number of TWD cast members participating on Invincible, that is. Besides Steven Yeun providing the voice of the lead, Khary Payton (Black Samson), Ross Marquand (Aquarus), Chad L. Coleman (Martian Man), Michael Cudlitz (Red Rush), Lennie James (Darkwing), Sonequa Martin-Green (Green Ghost), and Lauren Cohan (War Woman), also provide voices in the series.

However, the Invincible premiere also made a subtle but obvious nod toward The Walking Dead in its premiere episode. In the episode, Mark Grayson is trying to come up with a superhero name for himself before he finally settles on Invincible. However, while dealing with a bad guy, Grayson — played the Yeun, who used to play Glenn on TWD — asks him what he thinks his superhero name should be? After pummeling the bad guy, Grayson offers a suggestion to himself. “Huh, what about Ass Kicker? No … that sounds willfully childish. What are you thinking?”

Lil Ass Kicker, of course, is the nickname that Daryl once gave to “childish” Judith Grimes on The Walking Dead, which brings the mutual exchange of Easter eggs full circle, although I doubt it will be the last of The Walking Dead Easter eggs we see in the Amazon series.

In the meantime, Invincible airs Fridays on Amazon, and The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC.

Excessive partying despite a still-ongoing pandemic forced Miami Beach into a state of emergency last weekend, and this weekend Saturday Night Live used its cold open to address the wild spring break scene many fear will help contribute to a fourth wave of coronavirus cases.

The sketch itself was a parody of MTV Spring Break coverage. Called “Snatched! Vaxed! or Waxed!” a show “where the party don’t stop until the government-mandated curfew.” In it, three dopey men picked out of the party scene have to decide if the woman on the show has the vaccine or something else is going on in their backstory. Hosted by former SNL cast-member Maya Rudolph, as Cece Vuvezela, the sketch made light of the actually-alarming scene that’s unfolded in Florida as cheap flights and loose pandemic mitigation rules have caused wild scenes to unfold as people looking to party have flooded the region in recent weeks.

“We are so close to the end, let’s ruin it,” Vuvuzela said.

There’s a contestant who claimed they “can’t wear a mask because it irritates my cold sores,” and there are a lot of statements about the kind of people who decide to throw caution to the wind and potentially spark a fourth wave of cases for their own personal party goals. Hopefully the trip to the “Versace Murder Steps” was worth all the risk in the end.

The best part of March Madness is someone hitting a three in the dying moments of a game that gives their team a win in stunning fashion. This year’s NCAA Tournament has been a bit light on those sorts of situations, but fortunately for those who love to see someone beat the buzzer, the Sacramento Kings are here to scratch that itch.

Sacramento took on the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday night and found themselves in a bind. Collin Sexton hit a shot with 1.6 seconds left to put the Cavs up by one, and Sacramento was stuck 94 feet away from their basket in need of a miracle.

In a pretty fun twist on a classic March moment, a Kentucky guy and a North Carolina guy came together to create their version of Duke’s game-winner scored by Christian Laettner. De’Aaron Fox fired a dart down the court into the arms of Harrison Barnes — seriously, Fox put some extra mustard on this thing — and the veteran forward was able to get off a reasonably clean look despite being swarmed by defenders. As a result, Barnes saw his shot go right through the rim.

The bucket gave Sacramento a 100-98 win. Barnes had 16 points on the night and only hit one three, but hey, at least that triple came at the best moment imaginable.

Francis Ngannou (16-3) knocked out Stipe Miocic (20-4) to claim the UFC heavyweight title from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas at UFC 260.

Compared to the first time they faced off, a significantly more patient Ngannou opened the first round with a deep leg kick, tracking the champ around the Octagon and looking for his openings. Ngannou landed a huge right hand behind Miocic’s ear, but the champ took it clean.

Miocic went for a takedown and Ngannou stuffed it. The contender defended it, jumped on Miocic’s back and dropped bombs. Back on their feet, Ngannou landed a big head kick, but was able to take it clean. Miocic connected on a slew of low calf kicks, but Ngannou kept his measured pace.

Miocic attempted to push the pace to open the second round, but Ngannou lit the champ up and put him to sleep to earn the win.

After closing out his trilogy with Daniel Cormier back in August, Miocic turned his attention to a slew of potential opponents ranging from Ngannou to former light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. But in the end, it was Ngannou’s stellar run that earned the contender another shot at UFC gold.

After dropping his first title shot to Miocic in what was a career-altering loss in 2018, it was fair to question the future for Ngannou. Miocic outworked Ngannou, using precise strikes and a heavy ground game to frustrate the rising star in their first bout. He stumbled through a decision loss to Derrick Lewis and had clearly lost his confidence. After that, Ngannou went on a tear, needing less than two minutes to knock out each of his last four opponents before his showdown with Miocic.

Ngannou knocked out top contenders Cain Velasquez, Junior dos Santos, and the formerly-unbeaten Jairzinho Rozenstruik in his last three fights heading into Saturday.

Up next for Ngannou is likely a showdown with Jon Jones as the former light heavyweight champ makes his jump to the heavyweight division, something that Jones seemed to cryptically mention in a tweet after the fight.

Don’t rule out a return bout with Miocic though. Regardless of who the next opponent is, the division is on notice with a new champ at the top.

Now that Donald Trump is no longer president, several of the public health officials that were part of the nation’s pandemic response have publicly detailed the struggles of working under him during the COVI-19 crisis. More than 500,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and complications caused by coronavirus, and while vaccines are saving lives now those lost are a tragic reminder of how poorly the pandemic was handled in several regards. And while Trump was in charge of the country, the response to the pandemic was about as scattershot as it could be. Between bizarre moments where he touted junk science, downplayed its severity or insisted the virus would simply go away, Trump drew near constant criticism and made even the simple act of wearing a mask a political issue.

CNN previewed a show that will premiere on Sunday called COVID War, which included interviews with both Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx about the nation’s response to the pandemic. While the triumph of the vaccine was discussed, one moment that stood out from that preview was when Birx admitted that thousands of lives were lost that could have been prevented if the government reacted differently.

“I look at it this way: the first time, we had an excuse. There were about 100,000 deaths that came from that original surge,” Birx said in the clip. “All the rest of them, in my mind, could have been mitigated or decreased substantially.”

It’s a shocking disclosure from a medical professional that played a role in what the nation’s government did, or could have done, to mitigate those deaths. The former White House coronavirus response director clearly saying the government could have and should have done more to protect people and stop the spread of the deadly virus was a shock to many.

“Dr. Birx” was trending on Twitter as of Saturday, as video of her appearance circulated and drew a lot of comments on the social media network. Many lamented the terrible loss of life from coronavirus over the past year, feeling failures in the Trump administration and other governments making things much worse than they could have been.

Others, though, expressed frustration that Birx enabled Trump and others to create that response. Many simply wished she did more, while others were angry she is now attempting to distance herself from Trump after doing little to stop his uneven and deadly governing.

It’s just one comment from a much larger interview and reflection on the pandemic response, but it speaks to the frustrations many have had over the state of things under Trump and even today, as the vaccine rollout is now a race against time as new variants and strains of COVID-19 continue to make people sick and die. There’s a lot of blame to go around when it comes to all the pain and death America has experienced over the last year, but many wanted to make it clear that Birx bears some of that blame as well.

Cinderella’s slipper finally slipped off on Saturday night. The No. 15 Oral Roberts Golden Eagles came mere inches away from knocking off the No. 3 Arkansas Razorbacks in the Sweet 16, but Max Abmas’ prayer at the buzzer was not answered, and as a result, Arkansas will keep on dancing thanks to a 72-70 win.

With 32 seconds remaining, Oral Roberts big man Francis Lacis hit one of two free throws to tie things up at 70. On the ensuing Razorbacks possession, Jalen Tate burrowed his way into the paint, dumping a pass off to Davonte Davis for a midrange jumper to go up by two.

They didn’t quite take as much time as they could off the clock, though, and with 3.1 seconds left, the Golden Eagles went for the win. Abmas, the team’s sensational shot-making guard was able to receive the inbound pass and race up the floor despite being smothered by a pair of opponents. Somehow, he gave himself just enough space to pull up from deep, and it looked perfect, right up until it bounced off the rim and fell to the floor.

Oral Roberts was shooting to become the first 15-seed to ever make the Elite 8, and they could not have come much closer to making it happen. There will be plenty of looking back on how they could have made one or two things bounce differently — they got hammered on the glass and missed a ton of wide-open threes in the second half — but on the whole, there’s plenty to celebrate about this run. Abmas is a star (this’ll happen any time your name gets put next to Steph Curry’s for NCAA Tournament excellence), big man Kevin Obanor is a handful, and the team is slated to bring almost everyone back, barring defections to the NBA or transfers. They looked prime for another run next year, only if they make it back, we’ll bet they won’t be a 15.

The New York Knicks suffered a major loss due to injury on Saturday night. During the first quarter of their game against the Milwaukee Bucks, starting center Mitchell Robinson went down with what was eventually called a fractured right foot, although he is slated to be re-evaluated on Sunday after the team returns to New York.

Robinson, while attempting to break up a pass to Brook Lopez, came down awkwardly and did something to his right foot. It was unclear exactly what happened, but after six minutes of work, he made his way to the team’s locker room.

Shortly after, the team announced the extent of Robinson’s injury.

This is, unfortunately, the second major injury that Robinson has suffered this season. Back in February, Robinson suffered a fracture in his hand that required surgery, and injury from which he had only just returned on March 21. While the Knicks do have some understanding of how to play without their defensive stalwart at center, this is still a brutal blow for a team that has major postseason aspirations, and the big question in the coming days might be if they hop into the buyout market to add a big man.

On the year, Robinson is averaging 8.5 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks, and 1.1 minutes in 28.2 minutes per game.

As a veteran in the twilight of his NBA career, Al Horford doesn’t make a ton of sense on a rebuilding Oklahoma City Thunder squad. With the NBA trade deadline in the rear view and Horford having a whole lot of money slated to come his way on his current contract, leaving the team this year is not tenable.

Because of this, Horford will not suit up for the Thunder again this season. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the two sides have come to a mutual agreement that Horford won’t be active for another game this year, and in a statement, Horford explained how they came to this decision.

“When I arrived, I understood the direction of the team, we had a great individual plan in place for me, and I feel like as a result I’ve played really good basketball for the Thunder. At the same time, I know what it’s like to be a young, aspiring player, and at this point in the season I understand how important playing meaningful minutes is for their careers and their development,” Horford said in a statement. “I also understand how important it is for the organization to give them that opportunity.

“I’m looking forward to supporting the guys who supported me, watching them continue to play the right way and play together as we have throughout the season, while still being around the team and continuing my training.”

Wojnarowski reports that the Thunder, Horford, and his agent will all work together to find a new landing spot during the offseason. Horford, who came to the team via a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers last offseason, will have two years and $53 million left on his deal next year.

The world of basketball and the world of music intersect pretty frequently for one reason or another. Our latest example of this came on Saturday afternoon thanks to new Toronto Raptor Rodney Hood, although it had nothing to do with him dropping a mixtape or deciding to produce an album or anything like that.

Back in June, a since-deleted post by our pal Marco Romo of Five Reasons Sports Network caught the attention of Paramore singer Hayley Williams. In it, Williams revealed that her childhood neighbor in Meridian, Mississippi, was named Rodney, helped teach her how to dance, and “may be an nba player now.”

Now, Hood is the only current NBA player from Meridian, and since the only other Rodney in the NBA is from Maryland (Rodney McGruder), we can probably make an assumption here. Anyway, some time passed, and then Hood got traded to the Raptors, where he was asked about this. Dime pal Blake Murphy of The Athletic, who I lovingly say is the NBA reporter most likely to remember that Williams tweet, brought it to Hood’s attention during his first meeting with the media up north.

Hood revealed two things: 1. He did not realize his neighbor grew up to be the lead singer of Paramore and, 2. He can’t dance.

This is now the best story in the NBA. Once bands can begin touring safely again, I sincerely hope Hood and Williams are reunited during a concert in Toronto.