Friends has remained as popular today as it was when it began airing over 25 years ago, and it’s done so despite not exactly jibing with the politics of today. One complaint: Its all-white cast, which seemed far-fetched then and especially so now. Its cast would agree with that. Speaking to The Sunday Times (as caught by Entertainment Weekly), Lisa Kudrow pondered what a rebooted Friends would look like in 2020.

“It’d be completely different,” the erstwhile Phoebe Buffay said. “It would not be an all-white cast, for sure.”

Indeed, it wasn’t only the main sextet who were Caucasian; most, though not all, of the supporting characters and guest stars were, too. Modern thinkpieces on Friends, which celebrated its quarter-of-a-century anniversary last fall, criticize some of its politics, from the copious fat-shaming of young Monica to its whitewashed portrayal of Manhattan. Kudrow argued that it “should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong.”

She also defended it a bit, pointing out it was ahead of the curve on many other social issues, including its positive portrayal of Ross Geller’s ex Carol (Jane Sibbett), who leaves him and marries another woman (played by Jessica Hecht).

“There was a guy whose wife discovered she was gay and pregnant, and they raised the child together?” Kudrow pointed out. “We had surrogacy, too. It was, at the time, progressive.”

Kudrow’s comments come a few months after David Schwimmer made similar comments to The Guardian, saying he was “well aware of the lack of diversity” on the show, and that he campaigned to have Ross date non-white women.

“One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian-American woman, and later I dated African American women,” Schwimmer said in January. “That was a very conscious push on my part.”

Friends is currently in limbo, its 236 episodes having left Netflix at the turn of last year, but it’s due for HBO Max when it launches on May 27. The reunion special, which was to have dropped on that date as well, had to be postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, but surely they’ll have plenty to talk about whenever it finally happens.

(Via The Sunday Times and EW)

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I feel like this batter dispenser may even motivate me to bake, tbqh.

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The Last Dance has not just thrust Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls back into the forefront of sports fans’ minds, but it’s also brought back plenty of nostalgia and discussion of the 90s NBA as a whole.

With no actual basketball to create conversation and debate, many have begun relitigating arguments about what teams were the real biggest threats to the Bulls in the 90s, what players were the best of that era, and the ever-nauseating “how would current players fare in the 90s NBA’ discussion. The good news of that is it’s given a new generation a chance to appreciate players from that era and give some shine to some players that many know better now for their post-hoops career than their playing career.

On Sunday, prior to the final episodes of The Last Dance, Ahmad Rashad will be taking over the NBA’s social media accounts for an “Inside Stuff 90’s Reunion” that fans can watch at 7 p.m. ET on the NBA Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch accounts. Rashad will be joined by a who’s who of NBA stars from the 90s, as the league announced a long lineup of players that will be hopping on to talk with Rashad — and it’s important to note that the release notes “other surprise guests” are expected to appear as well.

Muggsy Bogues
Dell Curry
Clyde Drexler
Patrick Ewing
Tim Hardaway
Grant Hill
Robert Horry
Shawn Kemp
Karl Malone
Reggie Miller
Dikembe Mutombo
Gary Payton
Mitch Richmond
David Robinson
John Stockton
Dominique Wilkins

It’ll be cool to see all of these legends from the 90’s telling stories and looking back on that era, reminiscing on the battles with Jordan’s Bulls and others.

It must suck to be hated by the people who make your favorite things. On Sunday, Elon Musk — one of the richest people in America — semi-cryptically tweeted “Take the red pill” alongside a socialist red rose emoji. He was clearly invoking a key moment from the movie The Matrix, but more specifically he was referring to his increasingly public derision for nationwide quarantines, which have shut down the economy and caused people like him to lose a miniscule fraction of their unimaginable wealth. Musk’s tweet wasn’t all that well-received, but it did have a fan in Ivanka Trump. One person who disapproves of both of them: one of the creators of The Matrix itself.

That would be Lilly Wachowski who, alongside her sister Lana, wrote and directed the Matrix trilogy, as well as Bound, Jupiter Ascending, and Sense-8. (Lana is handling the forthcoming fourth Matrix solo.) When she saw that Trump had retweeted Musk, lending her support with an excited “Taken!”, she could not remain silent.

“Take the red pill” refers to a scene early in the first Matrix, in which Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus offers Keanu Reeves’ Neo two options: a blue pill, which will cause him to forget he ever learned about the truth behind his artificial world and go on living a lie, or a red pill, which will wake him up. According to Business Insider, the phrase has been co-opted by those on the far right, denoting those who’ve converted to the side of Donald J. Trump.

Wachowski’s curt response — a simple “F*ck both of you” — was well-received on Twitter.

Some also pointed out that The Matrix — made by trans women, whose rights and safety are routinely under assault by the current Republican administration — is not one that should be co-opted by wingers.

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It was a very long time ago — i.e., last November — but perhaps you remember the president of the United States sharing an image of his head badly superimposed upon Sylvester Stallone’s ripped bod circa Rocky. Sharing such content is something he likes to do, allowing him to cosplay as things he’s not, such as strong and ripped and not addicted to McDonald’s. On Saturday Donald Trump was at it again, this time sharing a video that awkwardly drops his head into a key scene from Independence Day. And the actor whose face he usurped was not exactly pleased.

The scene was, predictably, the one where the president, played by Bill Pullman, delivers a rousing speech before humanity strikes back against their alien attackers. As with the Rocky picture, it’s not clear who made it, as Trump — who’s been accused of stiffing contractors and who’s dubiously claimed credit for what was, until recently, a strong economy — credited no one. But it is obvious why he shared it: If he seems incapable of delivering a powerful speech that unites everyone against a common foe, and indeed tends to read pre-written speeches like a drugged-up somnambulist, he might as well pretend he can.

Pullman himself didn’t appear to be pleased. The video retains his voice, simply superimposing Trump’s head upon his shoulders. The Hollywood Reporter reached out to him to see what he thought, and he chose his words carefully. “My voice belongs to no one but me, and I’m not running for president — this year,” the actor told them.

Pullman returned to the role of President Thomas J. Whitmore in the 2016 sequel Independence Day: Resurgence, which arrived mere months before Trump was elected actual president. The video, meanwhile, doesn’t stop by inserting Trump into a beloved scene; it also works in such supporters as Sean Hannity, Ted Cruz, Tucker Carlson, Matt Gaetz, even James Woods, who played a rightwing villain in Independence Day director Roland Emmerich’s 2013 thriller White House Down — his last major role before retiring.

(Via THR)

Nearly three months ago, Pop Smoke was shot and killed in a home invasion. He was only 20 year old. Just like that, a career with a great deal of promise was snatched away from the hip-hop community at its peak. Last week, his manager, Steven Victor, announced that the rapper’s debut album would arrive next month, but the question of who killed him still remains a mystery. It may stay that way for a while: According to TMZ, the LAPD has reportedly hit a few roadblocks in solving the case.

One hurdle: The LAPD has naturally been using most of its resources to fight against the virus. A source tells TMZ that battling the pandemic has been their top priority for the last two months, leaving few resources to crack the case. The source also said that when they have time they do go out and safely conduct face-to-face interviews. Days after the rapper’s death, it was reported that the break-in and the eventually shooting of Pop Smoke was not a robbery gone wrong but rather a targeted hit.

Meanwhile, Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign released a new video for their song “Zoo York,” which featured an appearance from Pop Smoke.

Read our tribute to the late rapper and his legacy here.

Video game football is not like the real deal played in the NFL in fall. In Madden, for example, you’ll see players go for two much more often than you would in the NFL, and games are often see more points than you would in a typical NFL matchup. Saturday’s Madden Bowl, however, saw one of the most fascinating departures from real football we’ve ever had.

Namely, that the best Madden player in the world didn’t throw a single pass in route to winning the tournament. Saturday saw Raidel “Joke” Brito win $65,000 and a Madden belt for his efforts in the annual tournament where he executed a run-only strategy and had Washington punter Tress Way serve as his quarterback, handing the ball off every offensive play en route to a 17-0 win in the final.

As ESPN’s Arda Ocal layed out in detail, the Madden Bowl has a different setup than most of the games you might play against friends. Teams are assembled fantasy football-style, with a salary cap limiting players from getting too stacked a team. But if you don’t value the pass and don’t pick a top quarterback, you can use those assets to build a solid team everywhere else.

Joke did not throw a single pass in the entire tournament, taking advantage of the run-focused meta of the game and his skill to create a championship-winning formula. In the tournament, players crafted their rosters in a salary-cap system, with current and former NFL players available. Joke used this to his advantage, opting not to field a true quarterback in his lineup; Washington Redskins punter Tress Way was under center.

This freed up funds for Joke to go after strong offensive and defensive players with special abilities, such as Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, a power specialist, and former NFL safety Taylor Mays, a secure tackler. Joke chose the run-dominant Raiders offensive playbook and the widely popular Miami Dolphins defensive playbook to put it all together.

It’s an extremely risky strategy, of course, but Brito is a talented Madden player who clearly made it work. He’d finished at the top of various tournaments all season, and put it all together this weekend to take belt. It was a particularly emotional tournament for Brito, who dedicated the win to Taylor “SpotMe” Robertson, a Madden player and friend who was killed in a tragic shooting at a Madden event in Florida. This year, due to COVID-19, the tournament took place entirely online.