Way back in 2015, The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus received his own hog-focused road-trip series, Ride With Norman Reedus. The show is still kicking and hasn’t yet been eclipsed by fellow franchise stars’ own AMC reality series, including Colman Domingo’s Bottomless Brunch At Colman’s and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Friday Night In With The Morgans. Perhaps that’s because Reedus’ series theme appears to go hand in hand with Daryl Dixon’s own preference for riding, which is one of the reasons why the previews for the Daryl In Paris spinoff have been somewhat confusing due to no motorcycle or Vespa on the scene.
Still, never fear because Reedus himself keeps riding even when Daryl does not, and somehow, his motorcycle series is now in Season 6 and will continue to air after The Walking Dead Shows, which keep multiplying and extending themselves with every given update. There are so many more stories of humanity among the undead coming your way, but in the meantime, here’s ^^^ a trailer, which proves that Keanu Reeves is aboard as a guest.
From this season’s synopsis, which sounds like the rest of the show, only with Keanu and a Jackass star in tow:
Join Walking Dead star and motorcycle enthusiast Norman Reedus on epic road trips around the world. Each episode features Reedus and a riding companion – a fellow actor, musician, or friend, exploring local culture and seeking adventure on the road. Guests this season include Keanu Reeves, Adri Law, Josh Holloway and Johnny Knoxville.
What did you do this past Saturday night? If you’re Elon Musk, you spent it suddenly announcing you were doing a complete rebranding of the social media service you semi-reluctantly purchased late last year. By Monday, Twitter was no longer Twitter. It was “X.” The friendly bird logo was gone, replaced by a dark, vaguely authoritarian depiction of the English language’s third-to-last letter. There were other strange changes to the company, though some you’d only notice if you were one of the few employees he didn’t unceremoniously fire months back.
A new piece by The New York Times offers some insight into what greeted Twitter — sorry: X! — employees when they returned to work on Monday:
Inside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, X logos were projected in the cafeteria, while conference rooms were renamed to words with X in them, including “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” according to photos seen by The New York Times.
Why a conference room would be called some variation on “sexy” is currently unknown.
Musk didn’t stop by putting “X” everywhere he could at his company’s main base. As promised, he had the big Twitter sign removed from the corner of the building where he’s not always paid rent. Even that proved a chaotic mess.
Early reports claimed Musk had failed to get a permit to remove the sign, but TheSan Francisco Standardsaid it was a different internal screw-up: They did have a work order but they never told Twitter security nor the building’s property owner. As such, the police showed up and temporarily halted the removal.
HBOHBO Max Max just released its August streaming lineup and there are a few original series worth getting excited for.
A second season of the flashy, LA Lakers biopic Winning Time arrives early in the month to deliver one of the most riveting sports rivalries of all time while Issa Rae’s hip hop comedy, Rap Sh!t brings the laughs as it embarks on a cross-country tour. More Abbott Elementary, a few great films from the Warner Bros. vault, and plenty of docuseries are also on the menu this month.
Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Max this month.
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty: Season 2 (streaming 8/6)
Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and the LA Lakers defend their title this season, facing off against familiar rivals like Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics. But the drama isn’t just reserved for the court. Season two of HBO’s breakout sports biopic sees everyone from Adrien Brody and John C. Reilly to Michael Chiklis and Jason Clarke pushing the Lakers to greatness as coaching shakeups and ownership succession questions threaten the magic happening in the paint.
Rap Sh!t: Season 2 (streaming 8/10)
Self-made rappers Mia and Shawna are hitting the road for a cross-country tour that promises the chance at superstardom if they can get past their dislike for their headlining artist and figure out their voice in an industry determined to make them conform.
Abbott Elementary: Season 2 (streaming 8/21)
Who knows when we might see a third season of this Emmy-winning comedy series so, for now, take comfort in the fact that you can re-watch all of season two on Max.
Coming to Max this August
Avail. 8/1 A Hologram for the King (2016) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985) A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988) A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989) A Royal Affair (2012) Agent Cody Banks (2003) Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London (2004) American Gangster (2007) Amsterdam (2022) Angel of Mine (2019) Animal Kingdom (2010) Annie Hall (1977) Antitrust (2001) Before Midnight (2013) Best Man Down (2013) Beyond the Reach (2015) Blown Away (1994) Body of Lies (2008) Bulletproof Monk (2003) Chernobyl Diaries (2012) Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) De-Lovely (2004) Deadfall (2012) Death Wish II (1982) Death Wish 3 (1985) Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987) F/X (1986) F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991) Fame (2009) Fargo (1996) Flash of Genius (2008) Good News (1947) I Am Not Your Negro (2016) Ice Station Zebra (1968) Infinitely Polar Bear (2015) Inside Job (2010) Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993) Kill Your Darlings (2013) King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) Kingpin (1996) Leaving Las Vegas (1996) Love Is Strange (2014) Maggie’s Plan (2016) Miss Congeniality (2000) Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous (2005) Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021) My Scientology Movie (2015) Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994) Night Catches Us (2010) Night Moves (1975) Ocean’s Eight (2018) Ocean’s Thirteen (2007) Ocean’s Twelve (2004) Our Family Wedding (2010) Out of Time (2003) Restless (2011) Ronin (1998) Rubber (2010) Searching for Sugar Man (2012) Shattered (1991) Soul Plane (2004) Spaceballs (1987) Spawn (1997) Stage Fright (1950) Stan & Ollie (2018) Star 80 (1983) Stealing Harvard (2002) Take Shelter (2011) The Age of Adaline (2015) The Amityville Horror (1979) The Amityville Horror (2005) The Assistant (2020) The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) The Bronze (2015) The Comedian (2016) The Dirty Dozen (1967) The Exception (2017) The Fluffy Movie (2014) The Getaway (1972) The Good Lie (2014) The Goodbye Girl (1977) The Hollars (2016) The Hunted (2003) The Illusionist (2010) The Iron Giant (1999) The Killer Elite (1975) The Mean Season (1985) The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991) The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) The Omega Man (1971) The Phantom (1996) The Prince & Me (2004) The Seagull (2018) The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) The Wash (2001) The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (2007) They Died with Their Boots On (1941) This Is Elvis (1981) Till the End of Time (1946) Torpedo Run (1958) Transcendence (2014) Travels with My Aunt (1972) Twister (1996) Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994) Whiteout (2009) Wild Wild West (1999)
Avail. 8/3 House Hunters, Season 200 (HGTV) House Hunters International, Season 172 (HGTV) Vlad and Niki, Season 2B
Avail. 8/4 Khun Pan 3 (2023)
Avail. 8/6 Big Sky Kitchen with Eduardo Garcia, Season 2 (Magnolia Network) Evil Lives Here, Season 14 (ID) Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, Season 2 (HBO Original) Worst Cooks in America: Love at First Bite, Season 26 (Food Network)
Acail. 8/7 Kim vs Kayne: The Divorce (Discovery Networks International) Ugliest House in America: Summer Road Trip, Season 4 (HGTV)
Avail. 8/8 Bugs Bunny Builders, Season 1F Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets (HBO Original)
Avail. 8/9 Contraband: Seized at the Border, Season 1 (Discovery Channel) Doubling Down with the Derricos, Season 4 (TLC) Get Hard (2015)
Avail. 8/12 Belle Collective, Season 2B (OWN) I Survived Bear Grylls, Season 1 (TBS)
Avail. 8/14 Forensic Files II, Season 4A (ID) Signs of a Psychopath Season 6 (ID)
Avail. 8/15 90 Day: The Last Resort, Season 1 (TLC) Good Bones, Season 8 (HGTV) House Hunters International Season Volume 8: Season 188 (HGTV) Scent of Time (Max Original) What’s Wrong With That House?, Season 1 (HGTV)
Avail. 8/16 Battle of the Decades, Season 1 (Food Network)
Avail. 8/17 Avatar (2009) I Love You, And It Hurts (Te Quiero y Me Duele) (Max Original)
Avail. 8/18 American Masters: Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light (2000) MarkKim + Chef (Max Original) Time of Essence, Season 1 (OWN)
Avail. 8/20 Disappeared: The Bradley Sisters (ID) Sister Wives, Season 18 (TLC) Stand Up to Cancer
Avail. 8/22 Bobby’s Triple Threat, Season 2 (Food Network)
Avail. 8/23 BS High (HBO Original) Why The Heck Did I Buy That House?, Season 2 (HGTV)
Avail. 8/24 Bargain Block, Season 3 (HGTV) Save My Skin, Season 4 (TLC)
Avail. 8/25 Tracked, Season 1 (Discovery Channel)
Avail. 8/27 Disappeared, Season 11 (ID) We Baby Bears, Season 2B (Cartoon Network)
Avail. 8/29 Bugs Bunny Builders: Hard Hat Time, Season 1C (Cartoon Network)
Avail. 8/30 Design Down Under, Season 1 (Magnolia Network) In With the Old, Season 4 (Magnolia Network)
Leaving 8/5 Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Detroit Lions (HBO Original)
Leaving 8/12 A Very Venture Christmas (2004) From the Ladle to the Grave: The Shallow Gravy Story (2011)
Leaving 8/13 Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House (2008) (HBO Original)
Leaving 8/28 Tokyo Revengers (Dubbed & Subtitled) (2021)
Leaving 8/31 20 Feet From Stardom (2013) 3:10 to Yuma (2007) 93Queen (2018) A Vigilante (2019) Acts of Vengeance (2017) Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) Airplane! (1980) Anger Management (2003) Basic (2003) Best of Enemies (2015) Big Daddy (1999) Blue Bayou (2021) Brokedown Palace (1999) Bullitt (1968) Cobra (1986) Deep Blue Sea (1999) Demolition Man (1993) Dolores Claiborne (1995) Dragonball Evolution (2009) Dunkirk (2017) Eagle Eye (2008) Enter the Dragon (1973) Finding Forrester (2001) Ghosts of Mississippi (1986) Godzilla (2014) Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Going in Style (1979) Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) Heist (2015) Hellboy (2004) Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) Hellraiser IV: Bloodline (1996) Hellraiser V: Inferno (2000) Hellraiser VII: Deader (2005) Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002) Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) House at the End of the Street (2012) Hunter Killer (2018) I Am Love (2009) I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) Iris (2015) Jackson (2016) Jersey Boys (2014) Johnson Family Vacation (2004) Journey 2: The Mysterious Island (2012) Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) Just Cause (1995) King Kong (1933) Lemon (2017) Lethal Weapon (1987) Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) Letters to Juliet (2010) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Make Your Move (2003) Miss March (2009) Miss Sloane (2016) Mona Lisa Smile (2003) My Bloody Valentine (1981) My Bodyguard (1980) My Week with Marilyn (2011) Netizens (2018) Never Grow Old (2019) Norma Rae (1979) Outrage (2009) Over the Garden Wall (2014) Paparazzi (2004) Ready Player One (2018) Results (2015) Robin Hood (1991) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) RocknRolla (2008) Rush Hour (1998) Rush Hour 2 (2001) Rush Hour 3 (2007) School Life (2017) Sinister (2012) Sleepers (1996) Slums of Beverly Hills (1998) Squidbillies (2004) Tangerine (2015) Taxi (2004) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) Tequila Sunrise (1988) Thanks for Sharing (2012) The Accused (1988) The Animatrix (2003) The Big Hit (1998) The Card Counter (2021) The Cold Light of Day (2012) The Crazies (2010) The Pick-Up Artist (1987) The Ring Two (2005) The Sentinel (2006) The War of the Roses (1989) TMNT (2007) Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) What a Girl Wants (2003) What Lies Beneath (2000) Whip It (2009) White God (2015) Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger (2014) Wild (2014) Wild Hogs (2007) Woman Walks Ahead (2017) Yogi Bear (2010)
Ever since Jamie Foxx was hospitalized with a mysterious medical complication back in April, there has been no shortage of rumors and conspiracy theories about what’s really going with the actor.
Due to his notoriously private nature, Foxx has not yet disclosed the exact nature of his health issues, but he did recently share a video thanks his fans for all of their love and support. That video arrived after Foxx was spotted around Chicago in a series of surprise public appearances.
However, despite Foxx clearly being very much alive, alert, and cognizant, that hasn’t stopped the conspiracy theories from running wild on social media. The latest rumor claims that Foxx has been “replaced” because he looks different in his thank you video to fans. Ice-T caught wind of these crackpot theories and immediately shut them down.
People would rather believe that Jamie is now a Clone or Ai, than the man was just seriously sick and damn near died… Cause he doesn’t look EXACTLY the same??? YOU look different after a bad cold! Smh weirdos.. https://t.co/EWklg56bnW
“People would rather believe that Jamie is now a Clone or AI, than the man was just seriously sick and damn near die,” an exasperated Ice-T tweeted. “Cause he doesn’t look EXACTLY the same??? YOU look different after a bad cold! Smh weirdos.”
While Ice-T hit the nail on the head that Foxx has been sick for over five months now, and the actor candidly revealed that his recovery has been difficult, another Twitter user pointed out another contributing factor for why Foxx looked different: Camera angles.
People don’t understand how camera lenses work. Probably lost a little weight and the lighting is different. But 90% of the difference is just a telephoto lens (probably a 70-200mm) vs the super wide selfie camera on your phone. pic.twitter.com/fCER16zWad
“People don’t understand how camera lenses work,” Jared Monroe tweeted. “Probably lost a little weight and the lighting is different. But 90% of the difference is just a telephoto lens (probably a 70-200mm) vs the super wide selfie camera on your phone.”
Long story short, no there isn’t a sophisticated Jamie Foxx AI clone running around, you dorks.
While in Iowa for the Hy-Vee IndyCar Race over the weekend, David Letterman dropped by a Hy-Vee supermarket in Grimes. “This is my first time in a Hy-Vee store. We don’t have them where I live and I’ve known of them through the racing team, but what I’ve known of them is the tip of the iceberg,” the former late-night host said, according to the Des Moines Register (he co-owns a race car sponsored by Hy-Vee). “So I walk in here and it’s the world of the future.”
Letterman spent roughly an hour in the store, where he “filmed a series of skits with two store employees, Caden Grimes and Elyse McIlhon. They played with a gumball machine, bagged groceries in the self-checkout area, and organized soup cans.” Letterman also ate (drank?) soup straight from the can, which should become a new tradition in the midwest.
Letterman posted about the experience on his Instagram. “I spent spent a considerable amount of my life in a grocery store in Indianapolis, and it was the last of the singular, independent owned grocery stores and I loved it,” he said in the video. And if I can give something back to the marketing community, I would like to do that – but I don’t have all day, of course.”
You can watch footage from the trip below.
I can’t wait to find out which random celebrity will be spotted pumping gas at an Exxon in West Virginia next!
As K-pop gets more and more popular stateside, more artists in other genres have become more eager to collaborate with K-pop stars to increase their own reach, and it’s paying off. The latest is Latto, who teamed up recently with BTS’ Jungkook (or Jung Kook, as he’s apparently presenting himself to US audiences) to release “Seven” — and in the process, reached her biggest career milestone yet.
The latest week’s Billboard charts have arrived and guess who’s landed at the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100. That’s right: Jungkook, Latto, and their collaboration “Seven,” which has become both artists’ first-ever No. 1 on the Hot 100 chart. That accomplishment has them overtaking Jason Aldean’s Jim Crow anthem “Try That In A Small Town” (I guess the power of diversity and globalism is still stronger than thinly veiled dog whistle racism).
“Seven” is, of course, thought to be the first single from Jungkook’s speculated solo debut; its success indicates that the appetite for said project is just as high as fans could expect from a solo member of BTS, one of the most popular boy bands in the world. It’s also just one of many crossovers between hip-hop and K-pop recently, including J-Hope’s J. Cole collab “On The Street,” FIFTY FIFTY’s Kaliii crossover “Barbie Dreams,” and Blackpink’s “Bet You Wanna” with Cardi B.
Christopher Landis, a choir director at Hingham Middle School in Massachusetts, didn’t tell his students he was engaged to Joe Michienzie three years ago. According to Inside Edition, whenever they asked who Michienzie was, Christopher would say, “That’s Joe. He’s my friend.”
Landis kept his relationship a secret in front of his students because he wasn’t sure how their parents would react. Sadly, even today, LGBTQ people still have to be discreet about their personal lives in some professions.
This is sad for the teachers who have to stay closeted and also for the LGBTQ students who miss out on having a positive role model.
However, somehow the secret got out and two mothers of Landis’ students, Margit Foley and Joy Foraste, approached Michienzie to see how they could get the students involved in their wedding.
“At the end of the summer, Margit and I heard he was getting married. He’s the best teacher, and he’s got this great energy, and he makes every school function fun. We thought, wouldn’t it be awesome to do something for his wedding?” Foraste said according to The New York Times.
The women emailed the other choir parents to see if their children could perform at their teacher’s wedding rehearsal dinner.
“We hoped we’d get at least 15 kids to do it,” Foraste said. But 50 of the 70 kids in the chorus said they’d be there to support their teacher’s wedding. They secretly rehearsed for four Sundays in a row at a local library so Landis wouldn’t catch a whiff of the plan they hatched.
The kids and their parents kept the secret for four months before the big day and had to get off school and travel 30 miles to the event. Landis had no idea what was about to happen but he felt something was up when people at the dinner started picking up their phones.
Out of nowhere, 50 kids filed into the room, songbooks in hand. After Dona Maher, a colleague of Landis’, banged out the first few notes of the French National Anthem on her keyboard, the kids began to sing the word, “Love.” It was the perfect song for the occasion, “All You Need Is Love” by the Beatles.
Video taken by the bartender at the event shows Landis unable to hold back the tears as his kids sang their hearts out. It was a beautiful moment of acceptance for a teacher who wasn’t sure if his kids and their parents would understand his love for his husband-to-be.
After the performance, Landis turned to the crowd with a huge smile and said, “These are my kids.”
“It was so wonderful for the kids to see him with his family and his close friends, and they saw him as a person, not just their teacher,” Foraste told The Patriot Ledger. “They saw how much it meant to him. He immediately started crying and the kids started crying. It’s something they’ll never forget.”
A quick-thinking 10-year-old boy escaped a woman trying to lure him by pretending that a local store clerk was his mother. ABC 6 reports that Sammy Green was walking home from school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday, November 11, when a strange woman started following him.
The woman “started walking with him and asking him where his family was, asking where his dad was,” Sam Green, the boy’s father, told ABC6. The boy didn’t know the woman but she insisted that she knew his family.
She tried to lure him into going with her by promising she’d buy him “anything he wanted” at Wawa, a local convenience store that sells shakes, sandwiches and other treats.
“She was like, ‘I’m going to Wawa, are you going there? What are you getting from Wawa? Where’s your family at?'” Sammy told CBS.
“She said she probably knew me and was going to Wawa and that he was supposed to go with her and he could get anything he wanted,” Sam Green said.
In an attempt to flee the suspicious woman, Sammy walked into Dani Bee Funky, an unconventional gift shop, where he went straight to 17-year-old Hannah who was working the register. “He was like, ‘Pretend like you’re my mom,'” Hannah told CBS, “and I was just like, ‘all right go to the back.’ He didn’t want to leave my side.”
Security footage shows that Hannah then calmly walked up to the store’s front door and locked it, preventing the woman from coming inside. After she was locked out, the woman walked away. “I was still shaking when I was in here,” Sammy said.
The security camera footage is hard for Sammy’s dad to watch. “When we were watching that video, I cried every time I saw it,” said Green.
u201cthat are so scary i glad he was able to get help nnA 10-year-old boy in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, escaped a woman who was following him.nnThe boy asked a cashier to pretend to be his mother nhttps://t.co/2WYLX9nQvNu201d
The shop’s owner has nothing but praise for Hannah’s calm way of handling the dangerous situation. “I am very proud of her. Hannah is a 17-year-old young lady. She did everything correctly,” Small said.
This story is a great reminder for parents to talk to their kids about what to do if they are approached by a suspicious person. The first thing they should know is that it’s OK to say “No!” as loudly as possible to a suspicious person. They should then scream, “Help! This is not my mom or my dad!” to alert the adults around them and then run. If they are grabbed by the person they should bite, punch and kick as hard as they can until they can get free.
Sammy’s dad is proud that his son remembered what he told him to do when confronted by a suspicious stranger. “Think of every scenario and make sure that children know and also practice it,” he reminded parents. “Practice your situations and scenarios just like fire drills.”
For the time being, Sammy is going to have a family friend walk him to and from school. The Pottstown Police have spoken with the woman and she is now getting help for mental health issues.
All people have a need to communicate, but the way we do that varies greatly from place to place. Every culture has its own communication peculiarities that make our human family delightfully diverse.
Not only do humans speak thousands of languages around the world, but we also engage in culturally specific speaking styles, speech patterns and body language, some of which are immediately identifiable.
Case in point: the Italian “finger purse.”
Italian people are known for using their hands a lot when speaking. Italian hand gestures can vary a bit between northern and southern Italy, but one of the most universally recognizable is the pinched fingers or “finger purse.” That’s the gesture in which the tips of the fingers and the thumb are pressed together (forming a purse shape) and pointed upward, often in a repeated back-and-forth or up-and-down motion, sometimes with one hand and sometimes with both. Along with the rhythm of punctuated emphasis on certain words, especially when speaking passionately, the finger purse is often used to convey a question with a sense of annoyance, exasperation or confusion.
It’s a gesticulation most of us associate with a classic Italian grandma or grandpa, but when you see it coming from a tiny little Italian person, it’s utterly hilarious. A viral video, originally shared by @guiseppe_matilde on TikTok, shows a preschooler engaging in a passionate rant that is unmistakably Italian, both in the actual language she’s speaking and in her hand gestures.
u201ci absolutely need to have an italian baby who gesticulates with the passion of a 64 year old sicilian manu201d
According to Italian speakers in the comments, the little girl is conveying a story about how someone commented negatively about her wearing a miniskirt. u/shykawaii_shark on Reddit shared:
“Rough translation for English speakers. Not a literal translation, I made it easier to comprehend
Mother: What kind of sense does that make!
Daughter: They told me ‘What sense does going out with a miniskirt make?’ Like, think for yourself! I can wear my miniskirt, and you mind your own business!
Mother: Exactly!
Daughter: Think about your own miniskirt, not mine!”
Got a feisty little feminist here.
The full video on TikTok is even better (but it doesn’t have the Italian subtitles):
Secondo voi ha ragione matilde ? #foryoupage @Giò Canaletti seguitela tutti su istragram matilde_vaccar
As adorable as this video is, it’s also an example of how culture gets passed on from generation to generation. An Australian study found that young humans across different cultures imitate adults in ways that animals don’t. Animals will imitate adult behavior to the extent that it’s efficient and necessary to perform a task, whereas humans will mimic even silly or frivolous behaviors that have no purpose whatsoever.
“Animals focus on getting the job done,” Mark Nielsen, a psychologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, told Science. “Humans seem to almost forget about the outcome and copy everything we see.”
That mimicry of unnecessary actions may contribute to the complexity of human cultures. After all, it’s not really necessary to do the finger purse to make a point, but Italians do it anyway. Little Italians pick it up from adult Italians, and so the classic Italian communication style is passed on.
And thank goodness it is, because babies gesturing in Italian is absolutely adorable.
What started out as a lighthearted class presentation quickly turned into a fabulous humanities lesson for all.
A teacher under the pseudonym Larry Lexicon has 1.8 million followers on TikTok, where they tune in to catch the funny-yet-inspirational interactions Lexicon has with his students.
Recently, Lexicon had his class rolling with his meticulously crafted PowerPoint explaining what certain Gen Z words mean.
“All year long I’ve been listening to you and making a list, which I’ve compiled here for you — the Gen Z Term Dictionary,” he told the class, saying that they should speak up if anything was inaccurate.
Here’s what he came up with.
He took “bruh,” (aka the “staple of their generation”) to simply be the alternative for “bro,” except that “bruh!” can also be used as an exclamation. That was correct.
Although the word “Rizz,” was fairly new to him, he also correctly guessed that this was short for “charisma,” and thus refers to someone who has the ability to charm.
“You can use it in all kinds of ways. Like I’m the Rizzard of Oz!” he joked.
“Bussin” he took to mean that something was good, particularly food. Also correct. He even knew that “bussin’ bussin’” meant that something was really good. Clearly, Lexicon had done his homework.
However, a few people pointed out in the comments that many terms have roots in African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). So in his third TikTok, Lexicon chose to make some revisions, and explained to the class why those revisions were important.
“I know you think you came up with a lot of these words, but you didn’t, and they’ve been around for a long time,” Lexicon said, noting how parts of AAVE language are at first “looked down upon by society as uneducated or thuggish” yet nonetheless sneak into daily vocabulary through pop culture.
“What happens is it makes its way into like, white suburbia, and you get a middle-aged dorky white dude mislabeling it just for a whole generation as a term dictionary,” he said. “And it ends up erasing the importance of it.”
Lexicon then admitted that it was a mistake made by his own ignorance, which was okay, because he was able to take feedback, learn and act on it to grow.
“Being ignorant’s OK, but being willfully ignorant and not doing anything about it — not so OK.”
Viewers who have been following Lexicon’s series applauded him for taking the time to make even a silly little powerpoint into an important conversation for everyone involved.
“I love how you’re learning it and then teaching it! This is education!” one person wrote.
“The fact that you came back and showed HOW TO LEARN and that it’s OK NOT TO KNOW but not ok to be willfully ignorant,” added another.
“This is a hell of an example for your students,” read the top comment.
In case you’re curious, here are all the words gathered so far for the newly re-titled “AAVE-inspired Gen Z term dictionary.”
“Delulu”— delusional.
“Eepy”— really sleepy.
“Be so for real”— “Are you serious?”
“Witerawy”— “Literally,” but with emphasis.
“Baddie” — “A pretty girl, typically very curvy and independent.” But can also be a guy.
“Gyatt” — A substitute for “gosh darn!” typically used in response to seeing a baddie.
“Getting sturdy” — A dance usually used when winning, kind of like a touchdown dance.
“Bet” — Another way of saying “OK” or “alright.” Likely a shortened version of “you bet.”
“Slaps” — a verb for when a song is really good. Or food. Maybe? Debate’s still out on that one
“Cap” — A lie.
“No cap” — The truth.
“On god”— undeniable truth.
Lexicon plans to add new words each week throughout the remaining weeks of school. If you’d like to follow along, he can be found on TikTok.
This article originally appeared on 5.19.23
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