The soundtrack for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released today (November 4). For this second visit to Wakanda, multiple up-and-coming artists from Mexico were enlisted, including Blue Rojo. The Mexico City-based singer contributed the song “Inframundo” to the Disney soundtrack.
In September of last year, Blue Rojo went from indie artist to major label when he signed with Universal Music Group. That following November, he released his debut album Solitario where he sang about the pain of his unrequited crush on a straight man. Almost exactly a year later, he considers his inclusion in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever to be his biggest break yet.
“I can’t believe I’m on a f*cking album with Rihanna!” Blue Rojo told Uproxx. “It’s such a dream. I feel so honored to be a part of it and blessed.”
With the introduction of the character Namor, who is played by Mexican actor Tenoch Huerta, the sequel is introducing elements of Mayan and Indigenous cultures. Ludwig Göransson, who helmed the soundtrack, sought out Blue Rojo after hearing his song “Soy Tu Payaso Papi.” Nine months ago, in a studio in Mexico City, he wrote “Inframundo” with Göransson.
“I love that they were mixing this African story with more like the Mayan and pre-Hispanic world of Mexico,” Blue Rojo said. “We were talking about [Chadwick Boseman‘s passing]. We were talking about Mexico. We were talking about the movie’s story. I felt so connected.”
Blue Rojo calls “Inframundo” a song of “mourn.” The track’s title in English translates to “Underworld.” Backed by sparse production, the star of the song is his voice. Blue Rojo’s operatic vocals hit new emotional heights as he sings about being haunted by the spirit of loved one that has passed on. It’s one of the few songs on the soundtrack without a feature and his standalone performance is breathtaking.
“I really felt connected to like an ancestral energy,” Blue Rojo said. “I was really inspired by the pre-Hispanic feeling in Mexico, and that’s what I felt at the time.”
Next up, Blue Rojo will release his new single “La Foto x Whatsapp” towards the end of this month. Wakanda Forever will be released in theaters on November 11.
The Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack is out now via Def Jam/UMG/Hollywood Records. Listen to it here.
The NBA is already through the first month of the season. Multiple teams will have played their tenth game by the end of this weekend, Christmas decorations are out at Walmart, it’s all gone by pretty quickly.
Every Friday throughout the 2022-23 season, we’ll dive into three players who have impressed or caught my eye for one reason or another each week. Without further adieu, here are this week’s Most Intriguing Players.
Jalen Suggs
Thursday night provided one of the best games of the season, as the Magic snuck in a close win over the reigning champ Golden State Warriors. No, the Warriors are not at their best and have been off to start the year. Perhaps they could hit the trade market in an attempt to balance out their bench depth. Orlando’s players did not care, nor should they!
This is one of those games that I’m going to come back to in a few seasons when the Magic have matured into a playoff-caliber team. They wanted this win. They competed like heck for it, and as they won, the depth of its importance was felt by the team. Yes, they’re now just 2-7 on the year, but it was evident in Jalen Suggs’ postgame interview and as the buzzer sounded that this meant so much more than that to a young group looking to put their stamp on the league.
Suggs’ final two minutes were nothing short of tremendous, arguably the highlight of his pro career so far. His threes late in the game, the only two he hit throughout, were emblematic of the dynamism he can bring at his best to the Magic as he set a new career high with 26 points.
Orlando has played inarguably the funkiest lineups in the league this season, leaning into their size and length, but it’s been partially out of necessity due to a plethora of injuries to backcourt rotation players. Suggs’ return in the past two games highlights his importance to the rebuild.
It’s difficult to define being clutch and having a gamer mentality, but Suggs fits the bill. His shot is cleaner and smoother in its mechanics than it was last season. He’s more comfortable driving and finishing. He still has looseness in his handle and can struggle through traffic — something to track growth of as the season goes on — but his ball-handling and initiation are game changing.
Nearly every player on the court for Orlando is capable of some semblance of ball-handling and secondary creation. Suggs smooths that over by kicking sets off with his downhill potential and budding pacing and craft out of ball-screens.
He’s not a traditional primary or point guard, but the vision is there for just the right blend of creation and potential ability to shift on and off the ball to make Orlando’s lineups functional offensively.
The defense is already bordering on elite. His hands are fantastic, averaging two steals per game on the season and snagging four against the Warriors. Suggs is adept at using his chest and feet simultaneously to ward off drivers and drag them into the deeper waters of the shot clock.
Suggs is making an impact and finding ways to make strides. As a result, the Magic are on their way.
Trey Murphy III
Say it with me, or maybe even yell it from Bourbon Street: Trey Murphy has creation potential.
That is not something I believed in the slightest coming out of the 2021 Draft, as I way undersold that he was still growing into his body due to a late growth spurt. Murphy was a fairly stiff athlete coming out of Virginia and for much of last season, but there’s a more defined flexibility in his game and his vertical pop continues to stand out, which is impressive considering he plays alongside the best vertical athlete in the game.
Why does this added pliability matter? Simply put, Murphy is already fairly entrenched as one of the best shooters in basketball. Eighty-two players in the league are taking five or more threes per game thus far in the season, and Murphy is stanchioned in the upper echelon, nailing 47.5 percent of his triples, tied for fifth when filtered for volume.
You can’t lose him in transition. He’s made it his mission to seek out open lanes, gaps, and corners in early offense, sprinting to make himself a 6’10 lightning rod that can let fly in a split second once the ball finds its way to his shooting pocket.
The Pelicans run a ton of ball-screen continuity offense, cycling through ball-handlers. I love this considering how it adds flow to the offense inherently and is beneficial to a roster chock full of players who can make decisions with the ball and get into the paint before rinsing and repeating.
By virtue of how he has to be guarded as the shooter he is, Murphy has garnered some secondary on-ball reps out of pick and rolls, something we saw during Summer League as well.
It doesn’t always look sexy. In fact, it rarely does. It’s funky, it’s limby (I’m claiming that as an adjective because it works perfectly here). Regardless, it’s encouraging. He’s toying with some pacing, snaking screens, and getting into floaters, which makes sense considering how adept his touch is. It’s very raw, but the beauty is in that underdone nature, seeing how he’s processing things, making decent reads, trying wacky wrap passes, and exploring the two-man game. I still want to see him sniff out and exploit advantages a little quicker, but that should come with more time and reps.
Figuring out more as an interior finisher will be crucial in the coming months, but where he’s at right now compared to when he was a rookie is staggering. With the shooting chops he already possesses, the real estate market inside the arc is wide open for Murphy.
De’Aaron Fox
The Sacramento Kings are 2-5, and have been absolutely pummeled by a difficult schedule out of the gates. And yet, only one loss has been by double-digits and they’ve had a chance to win every game, which is either encouraging or devastating depending on how you look upon it. I choose optimism!
I still have questions about this team. They’re almost competing too much on defense, as they throw themselves into rotation at will with their scramble. Their wing depth — or lack thereof — creates awkward lineup situations. I still am not sure how to feel about the Davion Mitchell dynamic. I don’t love how their offense runs, even if it has good elements. I could (and will, at some point) fill a whole column with questions about the Kings.
For once, however, De’Aaron Fox is not a question for me, and I consider that the most important aspect of this season. It’s been just six games from him, as he’s out with a bone bruise right now, but this is without question the best he’s played in the NBA from an all around standpoint.
Fox is playing defense consistently, working to be a deterrent, and thriving. He can still overplay at times, overshooting because he’s just that much faster than you, but the effort has been unquestionable and he’s come up huge down the stretch multiple times this season. He’s not a negative, and that’s all I’ve been hoping for the past two seasons.
He also, by far, is the most efficient he’s been throughout his career. His true shooting of 63.9 percent is about seven percentage points above league average, which is gigantic for someone who is usually a league-average or so player in this regard.
His patience has improved. He’s finding more ability to seamlessly change gears on drives and blend his East/West guile with lightning quick speed on his first step of acceleration. You might look at the career-high turnover rate and be disappointed, but I watch Fox and see him making better decisions, cutting down on some of the rashness and unplanned drives and grenade passes. I would argue the turnovers are largely a product of playing good teams and small sample size. He still telegraphs some reads and the decisions aren’t always quick.
But the process is improved, and that matters greatly to me when looking at this early season stretch. I’ve really appreciated the way he’s started to gel with his rollers — can we get this man a lob threat, though?
Fox’s efficiency will likely not hold, because shooting 90 percent at the rim is a bit unsustainable! His touch on floaters and the shorter pull-ups that he likes to get to have been so good that you’re willing to let him get into that bag of tricks in the gray area. As a result, he’s shooting 59.5 percent in the paint outside the restricted area.
More importantly for the proliferation of his positive efficiency, he’s taking more catch-and-shoot threes than pull-ups for the first time since his rookie year. It can’t be put into words how big of a development this is if he keeps it up. Fox has been a fine-to-solid off-ball three-point shooter for much of his career, but has teetered on the precipice of damaging at times with how often he typically is shooting pull-up threes. That’s part of the game as a lead guard operating out of screens, but cutting down on the self-created shots and getting up what is currently a career-high rate on catch-and-shoots is immense. He’s not going to shoot over 50 percent on them for the rest of the season, but again, it’s great process.
The Fox and Damontas Sabonis pairing has intrigued, but also shows room for growth. The screening aspect has been essential for Fox, as the two work in tandem to screen and then quickly re-screen to catch defenders going under and open space for a drive. Their pick-and-roll game has been pretty good, but they’re still ironing out how to compliment one another.
Fox is arguably one of the bets rim threats and interior finishers in basketball, but is currently only taking 23 percent of his shots at the rim per Cleaning the Glass, which is a career low. He’s been fantastic within the confines of the system, which is why I’d like to see a tweak there from Mike Brown as the season goes on. I want to see the Kings lean more into Sabonis as a playmaking hub and elbow operator, getting the most out of Fox as a driver and movement threat while opening up the floor by utilizing Sabonis as a decision-maker.
They were aggressive in utilizing Sabonis as a DHO savant and Fox as an elite cutter and mover without having to worry about how he gets guarded in screens for a short time immediately after the trade last season. We haven’t really seen them go back to that since, and it feels like low-hanging fruit to get the most out of their two man game, and the entirety of the offense.
I still need to see a lot more from the Kings overall. But early on, it’s hard to be anything other than encouraged with what we’ve seen out of their star guard.
They just kicked off their At Their Very Best Tour last night and it was definitely an interesting experience. A video has gone viral depicting Healy smoking a cigarette while slouched on a couch, his hands… adventuring over his pants, to put it lightly. “rip to anyone going to this show with their parents,” the caption reads.
To be fair, The 1975 have always been a horny group, which many fans are pointing out (their debut has a song called “Sex,” so…). Another video catches Healy singing “Love It If We Made It” and dancing around so vehemently that he stumbles onto the ground.
He’s an impassioned performer! What else can be said? He’s definitely giving fans their money’s worth. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the shows on the tour go — especially at their Madison Square Garden concert, which will be livestreamed.
When Carrie Hollenbeck needed to sell her 1996 Honda Accord, with over 140,000 lifetime miles on it, having a filmmaker boyfriend paid off. Big time.
Max Lanman had the idea to produce an actual commercial to advertise his girlfriend’s jalopy. But this wouldn’t be some low-budget production for a 4 a.m. run on the local access cable channel. Oh no. Not at all.
“I thought it would be hilarious to make a high-end car commercial for a really junky car,” Lanman told ABC News. “And she had just the car.”
The ad begins like any high-gloss, self-important, sleek car commercial, with a deep-voiced narrator uttering some vaguely inspiring patter: “You, you’re different. You do things your way. That’s what makes you one of a kind.”
Cut to — instead of a luxury vehicle with a slick dash, leather interior, and impeccably dressed anonymous driver — Carrie’s old Honda, complete with coffee spills, random objects rolling around in the back, and one of those cassette things you use to play your iPod in a car without Bluetooth.
“You don’t do it for appearance. You do it because it works,” the narrator adds triumphantly.
Check out the finished product, which has gone viral with over 4 million views:
Lanman may have intended the piece to be more silly than satire, but the faux ad inadvertently makes an important point about the car buying experience in America.
As commonplace as the ads he’s lampooning are, the majority of Americans cannot afford a new car. Things are only getting worse — the average price of a new vehicle has skyrocketed 35% since the 1970s, while the median household income is only up about 3% for the same time period.
Cars have always been a status symbol, but somewhere along the line — between the time of horse-drawn carriages and the modern era of Matthew McConaughey selling Lincolns by falling backward into an infinity pool while wearing a tuxedo — cars have become an extreme symbol of status.
Car commercials would have you believe that cars are not something you buy because of how well they can get you from Point A to Point B, but because of how they made you feel and how they make you look to other people. For every person buying a $60,000 car that fits their “lifestyle,” (or to sit in their garage, barely touched) there are dozens more people buying a used junker on Craiglist or eBay because it’s all they can afford. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
Though it wasn’t intended to be, Max and Carrie’s viral ad is almost a digital middle finger to those who want the rich to get richer and income disparity to get worse. It reminds us to be proud of our ability to successfully live our own lives, even if it’s not always pristine or glamorous. This ad … is practical and real and … well, it’s all of us.
“Luxury is a state of mind,” the narrator bellows at the end. Finally, a car slogan everyday Americans can get behind.
It’s not rare to see powerful and high profile men overcome with emotion at times, but when they do, it’s usually met with some form of criticism or seen as a display of weakness. Simply put, in today’s world boys and men are simply not expected to display vulnerable emotions like sadness and grief. (But anger is usually A-OK!)
When we think of the founding pillars of “manliness,” we think of strength, bravery, and stoicism, and we often assume that it’s just always been that way. After all, ancient Greek warriors didn’t cry! Medieval knights didn’t cry! Men just don’t cry! It’s, like, biology or something! Right? Right?
Well, actually…
A couple of historians recently took to Reddit to debunk this myth once and for all.
A user named Sassenacho prompted the thread on the r/AskHistorians subreddit with a simple question: “Today, there are voices that call for (much needed) acceptance of men’s emotionality, but it is still kind of taboo. I was wondering when and why this changed in western society.”
The explanations that ensued were fascinating.
Cassidy Percoco, a curator and historian at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association and author of “Regency Women’s Dress” kicked things off, explaining that “masculinity and tears have not always been at odds.”
Those rough and tumble medieval knights with their shiny armor and big swords? Percoco says they were actually expected to weep on occasion.
“In the Middle Ages there was a trope of masculine weeping being a mark of religious devotion and knightly chivalry; by the sixteenth century it was well-established that a masculine man was supposed to have deep emotions and to show them — in some cases, through tears.”
It was a part of the whole chivalry thing and a sign of religious devotion.
As far back as Biblical times and in the age of Greek and Roman heroes, crying out of grief or sadness was just something men were expected to do.
From there, Percoco jumped forward to 17th and 18th century England. Hundreds and hundreds of years later, men crying and sharing their feelings — a gentlemanly trait known as “sensibility” — still hadn’t gone out of style.
“A gentleman was to be courteous to women and other men, to talk problems out, to keep from bursting into loud displays of anger or drunkenness. You might think that that would also put the kibosh on weeping — giving way to feelings of all sorts — but this was not the case. Another gentlemanly trait of the eighteenth century was sensibility, which today sounds like it ought to mean “rationality” but is actually being aware of and susceptible to one’s finer emotions.”
Alex Wetmore, assistant professor in the English department at University of the Fraser Valley, chimed in as well to explain that in the mid-to-late 1700s, popular fiction often celebrated male leads who cried “a lot”!
“People are often interested to hear that there was a period of time of a few decades (1740s to 1770s) where fiction devoted to men who cry (a lot!) was not only acceptable, but, in fact, tremendously popular and widely celebrated.”
Wetmore identified an archetype, which he calls “The Man of Feeling,” who appears in a ton of novels from that era. (Wetmore even wrote a bookon the subject.)
“When I try to explain this recurring character type to students, I usually describe him as like a comic book superhero … BUT with the notable exception that the ‘superpower’ of men of feeling is an ability to spontaneously shed copious amounts of tears.”
It’s quite the contrast to the unflinching action heroes we see today.
It wasn’t until the early 1800s that things began to change, and men started feeling the pressure to hold those tears in.
Percoco and Wetmore were both hesitant to prescribe a definite cause and effect relationship, but they do suspect the Industrial Revolution played a big part in turning the tide. (Reportedly, some factory managers actually trained workers, usually men, to suppress their emotions in order to keep productivity high.)
The age of the stoic and emotionless cowboy (a la John Wayne, who most people agree never cried in a movie) wasn’t far behind, followed by the gun-wielding “Die Hard”-ian action heroes of modern cinema.
But … while fictional macho men may have been suppressing their tears, the real men of the real world were doing the same thing they’d always done: wearing their hearts on their sleeves.
Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images
For instance: General Ulysses S. Grant cried when the Civil War finally ended. President Eisenhower cried on the eve of D-Day. And baseball legend Lou Gehrig cried when the Yankees retired his number.
And, yet, since it took hold about 200 years ago, the expectation that “boys don’t cry” persists.
Today’s world is certainly not one that celebrates open displays of emotion from men, often to their detriment.
Research shows that these repressed feelings can often come out in unhealthy and harmful ways, and it’s all so we can meet a standard of masculinity that, likely, never truly existed.
Next time you catch someone bemoaning the “wussification of American boys” and yearning for a time “when men were men,” it might be worth asking them when, exactly, they think that was.
Pam has a little brother, who recently learned that he is actually her half-brother. Of course, half-siblings are still very much siblings, but Pam’s brother doesn’t quite grasp the concept yet and seems upset about having to part with 50% of his sister.
So when she came home recently, she found this letter he’d written. It will make you cry, so have off-brand tissues on hand:
OMG.
As if this letter isn’t enough to turn your heart into a soft pile of oatmeal, he also left her some of her (presumably) favorite snacks, like Chips Ahoy and Takis (excellent choices!).
Pam, being a human with a soul, was deeply moved and tweeted out a photo of her little brother’s letter:
My little brother found out Iu2019m not his fully sister and I came home to this.. Iu2019m crying..pic.twitter.com/DAC0yUUBt4
I was introducing my kids to my new wife and stepson. When I explained that she was their new Stepmom, My Stepson (5) said to my kids Mom “Well if my Mom is going to be their Stepmom, you’re going to be my new Stepmom!”
Most late-night talk show guests show up wearing more than just a rainbow sequin cape. But they’re not Miley Cyrus.
It wasn’t just the sparkles that distracted Jimmy Kimmel when Miley stopped by his show on Aug. 26 ahead of her appearance as host of the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards.
“You are almost naked,” Jimmy accurately observed before turning into the most stereotypical dad ever and asking Miley what her own father thinks of her general attire (or lack thereof).
Miley’s answer came in like a wrecking ball.
Miley goes on to make some awesome points about nudity and double standards (and make Jimmy even more uncomfortable).
Jimmy gets so awkward at the sight of Miley’s sideboob that the only thing he can do is keep commenting on it before (jokingly?) asking her to please cover up. But Miley can’t be tamed, and she uses the opportunity to talk about double standards and the unfair ways that society polices women’s bodies.
Miley Cyrus can’t stop, won’t stop — and at this rate, we don’t want her to.
Sure, there was that whole twerking thing, and she goes on to do some uncouth body shaming with Jimmy toward the end of video but still. She’s come a long way from her days as the Disney-star daughter of the guy who sang that “Achy Breaky Heart” song. While there’s still progress to be made, it’s nice to know that she’s using her rainbow-sequin-cape superpowers for good.
Watch the rest of the totally uncomfortable and delightfully inappropriate Jimmy Kimmel interview below:
It’s that time of the week again, when we grab the best smile-worthy content from the last seven days and deliver it in a nice little package so you don’t have to go searching for it.
Let’s be real. There’s a whole lot we could point to that sucks in the world. But that has always been the case, and it’s also always been true that there’s plenty of good in the world when we look for it.
I once heard someone say, “The grass is always greener where you water it.” If we want more goodness and positivity in the world, we need to place more energy there. That doesn’t mean we ignore problems that need fixing, but there’s wisdom in feeding and nurturing what you want to grow.
So let’s focus on some goodness right here as we celebrate awesome dads, hilarious kids, thoughtful mentors and animals that make us laugh. Enjoy this week’s roundup and share the smiles to spread some joy:
1. The way this man gets emotional when handing out Halloween candy.
It can be easy to take good things for granted. Seeing this guy’s wholesome emotional reaction to the tradition of trick-or-treating is a sweet reminder to revel in the joy of simple things.
2. The way this border collie painstakingly herds a group of ducklings into their puddle.
u201cA border collie gently guiding ducklings into a puddleu201d
Kids unintentionally telling on themselves is always funny, but this one is legendary. “I did not put butter in it.” OK, little one. Guess it’s just a mystery!
4. The way Steven Spielberg honored Drew Barrymore’s vivid imagination by keeping E.T. ‘real’ between takes.
u201cSteven Spielberg appointing 2 guys to ensure E.T. was always operating incase Drew Barrymore went over to talk to him has made my heart so full. What a menschu201d
Drew Barrymore had a famously rough childhood, and she has said the “E.T.” cast and crew really taught her the meaining of family. She and Steven Spielberg have been close since then and he has served as a loving father figure. The way he honored her imagination by keeping E.T. alive is just so sweet. Read the full story here.
5. The way this kid waxes rhapsodic about imagination being the basis for everything we have.
The motivational speaker you never knew you needed! #recesstherapy #viral #motivation
This was … should I say … adorable? What a delightfully thoughtful young man. I think he needs to give a TED Talk. Read the full story here.
6. The way this Indian village sounds a siren at 7 p.m. to remind people to turn off their devices and connect with one another.
All of us could use more unplugged time—and we know it—but it can be hard to disconnect. Love this idea of a whole community marking a specific time, 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., for nondigital fun and bonding. Read the full story here.
7. The way this dad talks his daughter through her feelings during an upset moment.
Kier Gaines is an awesome dad who also happens to be a therapist. Definitely worth a follow to get great advice and see powerful examples of compassionate, effective parenting. Follow him on Instagram.
8. The way these lions don’t give a single hoot that they’re blocking traffic.
Hope that made you smile! Come back next week for another roundup of joy. And if you’d like these posts delivered to your inbox each week, sign up for the free Upworthiest newsletter.
Last week, Aubrey Plaza was walking around New York City as a witch, and we all just assumed that it was because of Halloween, since that would be the logical explanation. But then, it was announced that Plaza would be starring in the upcoming Marvel spinoffAgatha: Coven of Chaos, and then it all started making sense: Plaza is a method actor! Maybe not, but it is true that Plaza will star in the upcoming WandaVision spinoff that’s slated for next year.
WandaVision became a massive hit for Disney+, and while many praised Elizabeth Olsen’s gut-wrenching performance, the unexpected favorite was Kathryn Hahn’s nosy neighbor, Agnes. It’s later revealed that Agnes is really Agatha Harkness, a powerful Marvel witch who fled the Salem Witch Trials. At the end of WandaVision, Agatha is trapped by Wanda, though that surely can’t last long! Buffy alum Emma Caulfield Ford will return as Dottie, while Heartstopper’s Jon Locke will star in an undisclosed role.
As for who Plaza will play, the roles are top-secret, but she is expected to play some sort of villain, which means she might be teaming up with Agatha. Considering her history of playing dark and sarcastic anti-heroes, this would make the most logical sense. Plus, Hahn and Plaza have worked together before on Parks and Rec, so they have some solid history there.
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE – I cannot believe this exists but I am so happy it does
The important stuff here, boiled down to a concentrated goo of facts, goes something like this: Last week, Atlanta, currently in the middle of its final season, aired a standalone episode that featured none of the main cast and had nothing to do with anything that has happened to-date in this season or any other season of the show. It was just a 30-minute flight of fancy about the fictional history of A Goofy Movie, which, in the universe of the show, was the result of a young animator getting elevated to head of Disney by accident and setting out to create “the blackest movie ever made.” If that all sounds completely insane to you, there’s a pretty good reason for that: it was and is completely insane. But also, so good. Just extremely, wildly good. Maybe the best episode of television I’ve seen all year. Maybe the best episode of television I’ve ever seen. It’s probably too soon to make that second claim. I’ll need a little more distance before I feel comfortable saying it for sure. But it is a thought I had when I watched it that I’m still having a week later, so the ball is already rolling on this one.
I’m torn on how much else to say about it, at least plot-wise. I don’t want to step on any of the things it reveals piece-by-piece throughout the episode. That would not be fair to you or to the show, both of which deserve better. What I will say is that it is loaded with surprise appearances and twists you will never see coming and that you can watch this with fresh eyes even if you’ve never seen another episode of the show. It’s kind of like an episode of Documentary Now! in that way, which I say as one of the highest compliments I know how to give. Also, there’s this bit, which is set up by a discussion about how Goofy is technically a dog but still watches Mickey slap a leash into his dog, Pluto.
FXFXFX
Really just brilliant stuff, beginning to end.
I think my favorite thing about this episode is that it even exists at all. Think about what we have here. Think about all the moving parts. Atlanta, one of the best and most creative shows of the last decade or so, slammed on the brakes in the middle of its final season, with only a few hours left to wrap up its story, and yoinked the car off the road entirely so it could tell a fully separate alternate history of a children’s movie from 1995 that features zero members of its now-famous cast. That’s… that’s wild. It’s such a huge swing to take for no real reason other than “because it would be awesome,” which is the kind of thing I support with all of my heart. Chaos for the sake of chaos. Jokes for the sake of jokes. This is all terrific stuff.
It’s also a reminder that you can just kind of just do anything sometimes. It helps to have a good track record and a foundation of success at what you do, just so when you go to someone with your crazy idea they don’t kick you out of their office. But you always have the option to, like, try. It’s kind of depressing to realize we have this many shows on this many outlets and we are slowly teetering back into making thousands of hours of comfort food for our eyeballs instead of letting people try the weirdest stuff they can think of. And it’s kind of thrilling that Donald Glover and the beautiful maniacs who make this show decided to use the capital they’ve banked over three-plus seasons of television to cash in on a standalone half-hour about the weirdest thing they could think of. It’s almost inspirational in a way. Sometimes the only thing stopping you is the furthest limits of your own imagination. It’s good to remember that.
So, yes. Good for them. Good for all of them. Good for us, too, even if all we did was watch it. Which you should do if you haven’t. Today, if possible. Again, you can come into this one blind. You can be completely unfamiliar with Atlanta. You don’t even need to know who Donald Glover is, although you should. This is one of those special things that reminds you of everything television can be, which is a hell of a thing to say about something as silly as this is. I stand by it.
And if you don’t laugh at the sight gag at the very end, I… I don’t know. You need something in your life that I can’t provide. I hope you find it someday.
Maya Rudolph is the best. She’s the best now and has been the best for a while and I suspect she’ll be the best going forward into the foreseeable future. Watch her in a slew of old SNL sketches this weekend. Watch Big Mouth and hear her make a whole buffet dinner out of any number of sentences she delivers via voiceover in character as a sex-crazed hormone monstress. Watch her in Loot, a really fun Apple show we — me included — probably didn’t talk about enough when it came out. The woman rarely if ever misses. The best.
And when you watch all those things (spread them out a little if you have errands to run), you might notice something: Maya Rudolph has been on Hot Ones two separate times in character as someone else, but zero times as herself in real life. (One of them — from Loot — is at the top of this section.) And you should not expect that second number to change any time soon.
But anyone who sits down for an interview does have to eat the wings—or at least be game to try—which can make it a hard sell for certain people. After filming their Loot scene together, Evans says he invited Rudolph—who has actually spoofed the show twice, having previously played a hot wing-eating Beyoncé in a Saturday Night Live sketch—to appear on a future episode of Hot Ones. “She was like, ‘Sean I love you but there is no way in fuh-uck that I’m ever doing your show. I’m not eating those wings,’” Evans recalls, his voice getting high and sing-songy as he swears. “But I kind of like that we have that, that the only time Maya Rudolph does Hot Ones is when she’s doing fake Hot Ones.”
This brings us to yet another situation where two things can be true at the same time. In this case, those things are:
1. I do not think I would enjoy being on Hot Ones very much because, while I enjoy some spicy food, the stuff on the higher end of it all makes me feel miserable in about four different ways for hours, and if Maya Rudolph has a similar reaction I cannot fault her in any way for trying to avoid any part of it.
2. I enjoy both Hot Ones and Maya Rudolph quite a bit and would really like to watch this potential episode.
I don’t know. I’ll think about this some more. Right now I’m stuck somewhere between “Maya Rudolph has brought me a lot of enjoyment over the years and I want her to be happy and free from pain” and “I bet she would be hilarious as the pain receptors in her mouth and face liquefy her brain during an interview.”
I kind of do not have any idea what is happening here or why any of it is happening
I will still go see it in the theater anyway, mostly because there are worse ways to spend a weekend afternoon than staring at pretty colors on a massive screen for a few hours
I suspect I’m not the only person who feels this way
This movie is going to make an absurd amount of money
It would have been funny if they released the trailer and everyone found out this entire movie was just about a high-stakes basketball tournament where a bunch of blue creatures dunked on each other a lot
These are my thoughts on the Avatar trailer.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR – I would pay at least $10 for a standalone podcast episode where Quinta Brunson and Paul Rudd get drunk and talk about anything they want
ABC
The Hollywood Reporter has a big profile of Abbott Elementary creator and star Quinta Brunson over at their site this week. It’s worth a read for a bunch of reasons, some of which can be filed under “Quinta Brunson seems cool and it’s pretty cool to see her succeed like this” and others of which can be filed under “she uses her show to makes lots of very Philly-specific references and nods to the local sports teams that I love very much and I point at the television and smile and shout each time like a marginally well-trained pet.” Both equally important in the grand scheme of things. To me. Go Birds.
Anyway, one particular section of the piece jumped out at me and I wanted to make sure you guys saw it, too. This section. The one I’m about to blockquote. Here…
You’ve said that a chance encounter with Paul Rudd inspired you to pursue comedy. Have you ever connected on this?
I saw Paul recently in New York. We talked about it briefly, but it was at a comedy club, and I was drunk, so I don’t even remember what we said. I know he knew about it and had told Seth [Rogen] that he didn’t remember. I didn’t expect him to! It was just him being nice to someone, and that makes a difference. You never know who you’re going to affect, just being chill and talking to them about the craft when they have a genuine interest.
There’s a lot of stuff in here that I really like a lot. There’s the thing about Paul Rudd apparently being almost exactly as cool as you’ve thought he was for like three decades now. There’s the thing about the good vibes from one seemingly unmemorable encounter causing a ripple effect years later that led to a fun television show that mentions my beloved Philadelphia Eagles sometimes. And there’s the thing about a drunk Quinta Brunson hanging out with Paul Rudd in a comedy club, which is something I had not considered before this week but have been thinking about a lot since.
This brings me to my point: I think I would like a podcast or televised talk show where fun and cool celebrities kick back and have some drinks and talk about whatever. Tell cool stories. Crack some jokes. My ideal version of this is just Quinta and Paul releasing a new episode every week, but I would start to worry about their livers after a while. I do want to hear that episode, though. Very much.
In conclusion: I like when people I like are friends and I like when I get confirmation that people I suspect are cool are actually, in fact, cool. Almost nothing to dislike about any of this. Except maybe the thing where that podcast doesn’t exist yet. I don’t know what’s taking so long. I suggested it a whole paragraph ago.
ITEM NUMBER FIVE – Good cameo
HBO
I have good news: The White Lotus is back. You might already know that. I hope you do. I wrote a whole thing about it. It’s a really good show. I’m glad Jennifer Coolidge is thriving.
A cool thing happened in the first episode, too. The short version, with as few spoilers as possible, goes like this: Michael Imperioli is playing a guy who is on vacation in Italy with his father and teenage son while going through a really rough patch with his wife for reasons that are not fully articulated yet but implied to involve him being kind of a putz. He has a brief phone conversation with her at one point in the premiere that consists mostly of her screaming and cussing at him. That’s a screencap of the scene up there. It was fun.
But maybe you saw that scene and thought, “Hmm, why does that voice sound familiar? Why does it feel like I do not ever want to disappoint that person? Why do I feel kind of ashamed even though I’m not the one getting yelled at?“ And if you did, well, there was a good reason for that, as confirmed by EW the day after the episode aired.
The season 2 premiere of The White Lotus on Sunday featured some surprise cameos from creator Mike White’s previous collaborators. You already know about the former Survivor: David vs. Goliath contestants who showed up in the opening minutes, but perhaps that voice on the phone later in the episode sounded familiar as well. Worry no longer: EW has confirmed that it was indeed Laura Dern who provided that profanity-filled bit of voice acting.
This is cool. It’s just really cool. I hope more shows do this. Get super weird with it. Have the phone ring in an episode of Hacks and have Jean Smart talk to some dude with a deep gravelly voice and let me think “Yo, is that Vin Diesel?” for a while and then talk myself out of it because it would be too strange and then open the internet the next morning and see a headline like “Yes, That Was Vin Diesel’s Voice On The Phone On Hacks” and shout “I FREAKING KNEW IT” out loud in a coffee shop with such unsettling intensity that a woman at the table next to me gets up a minute or two later and leaves without even finishing her latte.
That would be fun.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Dan:
I saw that Pierce Brosnan posted a picture on Instagram of himself standing in front of a Pablo Picasso painting and I opened up Twitter to tell you about it and when I got there I saw someone else had already sent it to you and you had retweeted them. Your brand is so strong. I wonder if Pierce realizes he’s become a meme for all thefts now. I hope you get to tell him some day.
Okay, some background, just in case you are not a sicko who follows me on Twitter: I do this thing where I see a story about a theft of anything — money, art, cheese, donuts — and then I post a picture of Pierce Brosnan with the story. I do this because I’ve seen Thomas Crown Affair 100 times and After the Sunset 50 times and because it makes me laugh a lot to picture some tuxedo-clad smooth criminal played by Pierce Brosnan making off with, say, $300,000 worth of tennis balls. The point here is that I’m an idiot.
And so, where Pierce posted the Instagram in question, embedded here…
… no fewer than five people alerted me to it. Which I love. It makes me happy. Please always do this. And do not tell Pierce about it. I will be so embarrassed if I ever meet him and he looks at me with disappointment in his eyes because of my various online tomfoolery. A real self-esteem heist, if you will.
Anyway, if I were a security guard in an art museum and Pierce Brosnan was walking around looking at priceless paintings, I would absolutely try to figure out how to get “Sinnerman” playing over the sound system. I would get fired immediately. It would be worth it.
Perhaps the greatest controversy in the history of the sport of cornhole unfolded in August at the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championships, in Rock Hill, S.C.
Was the No. 1 ranked doubles team using illegal beanbags?
CORNHOLE SCANDAL
With the cornhole world watching live on ESPN, officials inspected the bags with the solemnity required for such a grave complaint. Then they huddled near sponsor banners for Johnsonville sausage products and Bush’s baked beans.
It was true—the bags weren’t regulation size. “They’re too small,” color commentator Mark Pryor exclaimed to viewers. “That’s going to create some drama.”
I love it. I love it more than the scandals in Irish dancing and competitive fishing but maybe a little less than the scandal in chess, if only because that one may or may not have featured a high-tech cheating plan that involved vibrating anal beads and I don’t see how anything could ever top that.
But still.
Illegal beanbags!
Messrs. Lopez and Richards asked officials to check their opponents’ bags, too. Turns out, they weren’t compliant, either.
This now infamous incident is known to fans as BagGate and it has sparked a frenzy in the game that started in the backyard, enjoyed between swigs of beer.
Two things here: One, it says a lot about humans as a species that we are both capable of creating a million fun little activities to set off the pleasure receptors in our brains and also twisted enough that we immediately try to figure ways to cheat at those same activities in order to defeat or friends and/or enemies; and two, once again, I hope darts is next.
“I think it’s funny that anyone believed it would be all friendships and rose petals forever in cornhole,” wrote one commenter on the Addicted to Cornhole Facebook page, which has 85,000 members. “Now the dirty underbelly is being exposed.”
This is, maybe, the funniest paragraph I have ever seen. I will need to think about it some more. Which I will. A lot. But it’s definitely way up there.
“You have the average players that try everything to make the bag do different things,” says Nate Voyer, a cornhole professional who prefers to wash his bag with a little fabric softener and let it air dry.
He knows a player who lays plywood over his bag and drives a car over it. That crosses into a gray area in Mr. Voyer’s view because it could crush the resin beads into smaller pieces. Cornhole pros are generally good people, he adds, “but all it takes is one bad apple.”
Imagine you go outside today and you see your neighbor — an otherwise normal guy, maybe a bank manager who coaches his daughter’s soccer team and has cookouts where everyone swings by and grabs a hot dog — in his driveway backing over a sack of beanbags with his car and when you wave and ask him what he’s doing he looks at you with a deranged mania in his eyes and says “big cornhole tournament this weekend.”
This would stay with me a long time. Possibly all the way to the grave.
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The explanations that ensued were fascinating.
