Category: Viral

Jeffrey Wright would make one hell of a Batman, and now, he’s getting a chance to do exactly that but in a comedy podcast. Which is kind of the next best thing! Batman: The Audio Adventures is a “multi-episode series” that will debut on HBO Max, where it will feature Wright as the voice of the Dark Knight along with a massive cast of comedy stars and Saturday Night Live alums. Think Harley Quinn, except you listen to it instead of watching cartoon characters break each others knees. But the podcast will definitely have the laughs. Just look at this line-up via The Hollywood Reporter:

In addition to Wright, the all-star roll call includes Chris Parnell, Melissa Villaseñor, Seth Meyers, Brent Spiner, John Leguizamo, Ike Barinholtz, Bobby Moynihan, Kenan Thompson, Rosario Dawson, Jason Sudeikis, Alan Tudyk, Heidi Gardner, Brooke Shields, Paul Scheer, Tim Meadows, Fred Armisen, Ray Wise, Ben Rodgers, Katie Rich, Pete Schultz, Paula Pell, Toby Huss, and [Dennis] McNicholas.

As for which characters the cast is playing and what exactly the series is about is currently under wraps, but it marks HBO Max’s aggressive expansion into all things Batman. The streaming service plans to dive even further into the world of Matt Reeves’ The Batman with a prequel series focusing on the Gotham PD, which also could involve Wright. The actor is doing double-duty in Gotham by playing Commissioner Gordon in Reeves’ film, but he is not yet attached to the series, which suffered a setback after Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos veteran Terrence Winter walked away from the project over “creative differences.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Though she’s since tried to walk back the specifics of who “Skin” is about, Sabrina Carpenter’s bet that responding to Olivia Rodrigo’s record-breaking debut “Drivers License” would get her some attention has paid off in a big way. The singer dropped what fans considered a response to the song a couple weeks after “Drivers License” came out, and as of today the track became her first entry on the Billboard chart, hitting No. 48. I mean, it’s not a No. 1 single, but it definitely moved the needle. As far as the video, well, it’s a dreary, heavy-handed affair — to the point that there’s a scene where Sabrina sits on top of a car in the rain.

Carpenter has been rumored to be dating Joshua Bassett, who is rumored to be the guy Olivia was writing about in her own song. Dating rumors swirled around Rodrigo and Bassett after the characters on High School Musical: The Musical: The Series had an on-screen romance going on. Now that they’re no longer together, and Olivia is writing torch songs, the internet jumped to conclusion… and then Sabrina fed into the story. Which isn’t to say Joshua didn’t do his part, too, quickly releasing a pair of songs called “Lie Lie Lie” and another poignant breakup song about karma and regret called “Only A Matter Of Time.”

Check out the video for “Skin” above.

In 2021 it’s strange to look back on the days when pop culture truly didn’t travel. I remember going to see Bros: After The Screaming Stops at Fantastic Fest a few years back, and leaving early. As a mockumentary it was arch, but maybe just a little too on the nose, the fractious, pretentious English popstar brothers with the dopey band name who didn’t get along. Only after I left did I discover that Bros was a real band, and After The Screaming Stops was an actual documentary.

Likewise, at the outset of The Sparks Brothers, director Edgar Wright’s new documentary, I was ignorant enough about the subject that you could’ve convinced me that they were a fake band he’d gotten real celebrities like Patton Oswalt and Flea and Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols to gush about as an elaborate troll. At the very least, famous-person-explains-importance-of-band is a familiar enough format to apply it to just about anything, real or fake.

That still seems like a fun idea, but it turns out Sparks, a musical act featuring brothers Ron and Russell Mael, is (are?) very real. The incredible trick Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, The World’s End, Shaun Of The Dead) pulls in his first documentary feature is arguably even more impressive than the troll I’d imagined: he made a two-hour-plus documentary about a band I’d never heard of that by the end left me feeling like a fan.

It’s worth reiterating how difficult a thing this is to pull off. I went into Alex Winter’s Frank Zappa documentary, Zappa, as a Zappa agnostic genuinely wondering why so many people think Frank Zappa is a genius. But after 45 minutes of fans explaining their fandom, Zappa describing his origins, and archival footage of young Zappa hairily waxing nonsensical between songs, I was still no closer to an answer. I shut the thing off for the sake of my sanity. By contrast, Edgar Wright never takes Sparks’ greatness or our knowledge them as a given. Maybe it’s because he’s British — with our inescapable cultural footprint, Americans aren’t used to having to explain our popular culture to outsiders in quite the same way.

It helps that Ron and Russell Mael aren’t easy to explain. A slithery Jagger for a singer (Russell) backed by a scowling wraith with a Hitler mustache straight out of a German expressionist movie playing keyboards (Ron), they’re a band that everyone (everyone that’s actually heard of them, that is) assumes is British, or maybe German. That they’re actually American, from West Los Angeles of all places, and grew up playing high school football and going to the beach is our first taste of their contradictory nature.

Combining period footage, cutesy animation, and contemporary interviews, The Sparks Brothers doesn’t look drastically different than any music documentary you may have seen. If I had to put my finger on why it succeeds where so many iterations of this fail, I’d say it’s that Edgar Wright approaches “this is why this band is important” through the lens of “this is why I love this band” — an important distinction. Wright has a knack for finding just the right snippet of Sparks lore (which is no easy feat drawing from a 40 or 50-year career) to make it contagious, finding universal in the specific. Wright once remembered that I’d called him a “detail-oriented motherf*cker” in a review of one of his movies and I stand by that (and yes, that Edgar Wright remembers lines of reviews you’ve written makes him easy to like, but he also makes very good films).

It helps that Sparks, it seems, are generally up my musical alley. When Flea points out that America is an earnest place, and that Sparks may never have gotten their due partly on account of being too funny, with songs that border on the satirical, I can think of at least four of my own favorite bands to which this also applies. Whereas docs on famous comedians have a way of sucking the comedy out of the performances and encasing them in amber, Wright’s Sparks vignettes, like Russell Mael belting “I’ve got a snapshot of your Aunt Maureen” as the opening line of a song and album, frequently had me laughing out loud. Turns out you didn’t have to be there.

Musically, Sparks’ insanely prolific catalog seems to run the gamut from songs that sound like jangly 60s pop to songs that sound kind of like Queen to ones that sound like Devo and The Pet Shop Boys, always with punny album and song titles — like “Angst In Your Pants” and “Sextown U.S.A.” It’s a refreshing departure from the usual kind of music dorks featured in these kinds of documentaries, where Yngwie Malmsteen shows up to explain the significance of composing a bridge in 6/8 time. Yeah yeah, tell it to the band students, Satriani.

The Sparks Brothers is such a genuine joy from start to finish that it takes its place alongside other legendary music documentaries like Anvil: The Story Of Anvil, Searching For Sugar Man, and A Band Called Death. The one burning question I had that kept echoing around my head as I watched it: why the hell hadn’t I heard of these guys before?

‘The Sparks Brothers’ is currently playing Sundance and searching for a US distributor. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Following the tragic death of pioneering pop producer Sophie, musicians and fans alike mourned their loss. Fans also rallied around those who were especially close to Sophie, like Charli XCX, who had formed a friendship and professional relationship with the producer. Fans tried to consult Charli and offer their support by starting the viral hashtag #HereForCharli, but things went south when fans of TikTok star Charli D’Amelio co-opted the hashtag.

The #HereForCharli hashtag popped up over the weekend when Charli XCX and Sophie fans alike flooded Twitter with encouraging messages of love and support. People shared their favorite moments of the two musicians together and offered consoling messages.

Eventually, D’Amelio fans caught wind of the hashtag and thought it was meant for them.

When D’Amelio noticed people on Twitter were using the #HereForCharli hashtag, she thanked fans for their support without realizing she was not the intended recipient. “i am looking through the ‘hereforcharli’ hashtag and oh my goodness you are all so sweet to me you have no idea how much your kind words warm my heart,” she wrote. “i am so lucky to have you all by my side!”

People were quick to point out that all the praise was actually directed at Charli XCX, and not the 16-year-old influencer. See more responses below.

Charli XCX is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Rappers love making wild, borderline-unverifiable claims. Back in 2001, Jadakiss boasted that “my bathtub lift up, my walls do a 360” and Jay-Z claimed to have made back the money after losing 92 bricks of cocaine. Just last night, The Game posited that he was the best rapper from Compton, which counts among its rapping natives such luminaries as DJ Quik, Kendrick Lamar, and King Tee. While these claims are fun to debate, every once in a while, one of our favorite MCs throws out a declaration so profoundly astounding that the only response is to question whether rapper weed is just too damn strong these days.

Case in point: Offset of Atlanta rap trio Migos is currently being taken to Twitter’s woodshed after self-affirming his own trendsetter status by claiming, “u n****s wasn’t wearing Jordan n Nike just one year ago.” Instead, Offset says, “It was all about designer.”

Well. At least he’s not the first to make this mistake. Just last year, ASAP Rocky claimed to have made Nike Air Force 1s popular, which… is also very, very wrong. Maybe they’re talking to people in their specific, insular social circles, but the fact that there are several sneaker blogs that have been in business for the better part of a decade — many of which had regular “celebrity sneaker” features — would suggest that maybe they would benefit from hanging out with some new people or just checking in on the world once in a while.

For what it’s worth, he did halfheartedly clarify that his tweet was “Not for the regular ppl,” but by then the damage had been done. Look, I understand where he’s coming from. Sometimes, you have a very specific person in mind for that subtweet and you don’t consider the broader implications right off the bat. But that’s why some folks are great at Twitter, like Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs, or Offset’s wife Cardi B, and some should stick to using it strictly for album promotion. Granted, he wisely switched to posting adorable pics of Kulture (perhaps a tactic he learned from Cardi last week), but sometimes, you just want to be way more specific. Name names, Offset!

Of course, Offset may very well be learning that lesson now — and probably, the whole history of sneakers in hip-hop culture — thanks to the massive response he accidentally sparked. You can check out some of the replies below.

It’s February and we’re living under a new presidential administration. Meaning it’s a brand new day for the future of cannabis in the United States. While former President Donald Trump wasn’t explicitly anti-weed, indicating on the 2016 campaign trail that he considered it a state’s rights issue, his administration was no friend to marijuana — stalling House-passed bills related to marijuana convictions, rescinding the 2013 Cole Memorandum (which directed federal prosecutors not to pursue marijuana prosecutions in weed-legal states), and even going as far as planning to remove protections for state medical marijuana laws in his 2021 fiscal budget.

Generally speaking, the Biden-Harris administration comes as something of a relief for weed lovers. But Joe isn’t exactly Tommy Chong and Harris was the Attorney General of California (with a tough stance on marijuana-related crime) before her Senate run. So while progress was essentially halted under Trump, don’t expect joints in the White House just yet. Still, there’s good reason to believe that we’re moving in a more progressive direction.

Here’s the current state of cannabis and where things seem headed under our new President and VP:

President Biden’s View:

Looking at Biden’s track record in the Senate regarding marijuana is… not very encouraging. In 1986, then-Senator Biden introduced the Comprehensive Narcotics Control Act, which helped to strengthen the Federal Government’s already strict drug enforcement policies, sponsored the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1993, which then led directly to the 1994 Crime Bill (the notorious bill that introduced mandatory minimum sentencing), set up the three-strikes mandatory life sentence, and had a tremendous impact on mass incarceration.

To President Biden’s credit, his views on cannabis seem to have evolved since his days as a member of the United States senate. On the 2020 campaign trail, Biden indicated that he believed cannabis needed to be “basically legalized” but wasn’t for full federal legalization. According to Politco, Biden campaigned on a policy that included eliminating marijuana-related criminal penalties, erasing marijuana-related criminal records, but ultimately left recreational legalization to the states. Certainly a mild improvement over the previous four-years and a definite improvement on what was being proposed by Trump for 2021.

Vice President Harris’ View:

Vice President Kamala Harris has her own troubled and disheartening legacy with marijuana and incarceration. Forbes reports that during her time as a prosecutor in California, Vice President Harris oversaw more than 1,900 cannabis-related convictions in San Francisco, an increase over her predecessor.

According to the Sacramento Bee, while a California prosecutor, Harris opposed the state’s 2010 initiative to legalize the drug in certain instances. As attorney general, Harris did not back 2016s Proposition 64, which would go on to create the state’s now-booming legal cannabis market. However, as a Senator, Harris’ views shifted. According to USA Today, while in the Senate, Vice President Harris co-sponsored a Senate proposal along with Sen. Cory Booker that would make marijuana legal, expunge criminal records, and create a reinvestment fund to aid communities directly impacted by the war on drugs.

On the 2020 campaign trail, Kamala Harris doubled-down on that position, saying during the October vice-presidential debate that a Biden-Harris administration “will decriminalize marijuana, and we will expunge the records of those who have been convicted of marijuana crimes.” This is a huge step in the right direction — expunging criminal records and attempting to right the injustices of the drug war are incredibly important moves — but Harris did not back full federal legalization.

Where Does Congress Stand?

Part of the reason cannabis progress stalled under the Trump administration was then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Despite broad bipartisan support for cannabis, Mitch McConnell wouldn’t let cannabis-related bills come to the floor for a debate, let alone a vote. The Democratic Party now holds a majority in both the House and Senate, meaning it’s going to be a lot easier for the Biden Administration to deliver on some of their campaign promises and govern in the most effective way.

But don’t celebrate just yet, the Democratic majority in the Senate is slim, with a 50-50 share. That will prove itself to sometimes be a good thing, as Vice President Harris will act as the tie-breaking vote, but will require a completely unified front on the part of the democratic caucus, which is easier said than done. This almost guarantees that a vote directly on federal legalization won’t happen in the next four years, instead expect legalization to come piecemeal in order to garner bipartisan support.

There are some positive signs, though:

The Senate is now under the Majority leadership of Sen. Chuck Schumer, who Politico reports is the chief sponsor of the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, which would federally decriminalize marijuana and create a trust fund for small businesses owned by minorities, women, and marginalized groups operating in the cannabis industry. Sen. Schumer is the first high ranking politician of any political party to support full nationwide legalization.

In a recent interview with former NBA player Al Harrington — who owns his own brand of cannabis, Viola — Schumer confirmed that lawmakers in the 117th Congress are now in the process of merging several existing marijuana bills. One of those bills is likely the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which passed the House last year with bipartisan support but was not able to advance in the Senate. The MORE Act would expunge marijuana records, use tax revenue from cannabis sales to revitalize communities impacted by the War on drugs, and provide funding towards efforts to expunge prior cannabis records. Sen. Schumer says the new bill will seek to do the following:

“Decriminalize, let’s the states do whatever they want. Number two, expungement of the records, it shouldn’t be that someone should carry this burden around his or her whole life when marijuana shouldn’t have been a criminal offense to begin with. Number three, the tax that will be made from legalization should go into the minority community, to help minority businesses… it was the minority community that suffered so we should put the money back into the minority community. I don’t want to see these big tobacco companies coming in and shoving everybody out.”

Outside of reform, we can also expect cannabis banking legislation to pass, which is a big deal for the legitimacy of cannabis as a business. Right now banks won’t deal with cannabis companies because doing so would violate the Controlled Substances Act. Not only is there bipartisan support for removing cannabis from its status as a Schedule 1 drug, but Politico reports that the SAFE Banking Act, which would open up banks to the cannabis industry, also enjoys broad support from both parties in both chambers of Congress.

Legislation surrounding medical marijuana also enjoys broad support in both the Senate and the House, so expect more studies surrounding cannabis to come out of Biden’s first term.

Most promising, pro-cannabis Democrats in weed-legal states also now sit in multiple committee chairs, which will ensure that cannabis isn’t ignored like it was under McConnell’s Congress. The Hill reports that Sen. Cory Booker — a long-time advocate for legal marijuana and criminal justice reform — will likely use his role in the Senate Judiciary Committee to ensure reform is front and center. The incoming Senate Appropriations Chair will be Sen Patrick Leahy of Vermont, a weed legal state, and the Senate Finance Committee will be chaired by Ron Wyden of Oregon, also a longtime proponent of legalization who has introduced his own legislation in the past regarding post-prohibition regulatory structure. So while President Biden stops short of supporting federal legalization, a number of Democrats in power do, and that’s a good sign.

The Orlando Magic have struggled mightily in recent weeks after a strong start to the season, and their road to another playoff berth grew all the more difficult on Sunday when Aaron Gordon left a loss to Toronto with an ankle injury.

Gordon left in the third quarter and did not return, and according to Shams Charania of The Athletic, he will miss 4-6 weeks after an MRI determined he had suffered a severe left ankle sprain that, while not requiring surgery, will keep the swingman out for a month or more.

The Magic have been brutal offensively since Markelle Fultz suffered a season-ending knee injury, but when Gordon’s on the floor they are able to stay afloat. When he leaves, they lose one of their few creative offensive players and things get very dire.

Orlando has had brutal injury luck in the past year, starting with Jonathan Isaac’s torn ACL in the Bubble followed by Fultz suffering the same injury early this season. Now, without Gordon, they’ll have to rely even further on Nikola Vucevic, Evan Fournier, and Terrence Ross to prop up what is already just the 28th best offense in the NBA, with rookie Cole Anthony being tasked with an even greater creative role than he already has been thrust into. For a team that’s gone 2-11 in its last 13 games, it appears things will not be getting much better anytime soon, which is a real shame for a team that’s been highly competitive in recent years despite the lack of star power.

Lil Uzi Vert returned to music in a big way in 2020. The rapper unveiled his highly-anticipated LP Eternal Atake, it’s deluxe counterpart, and the joint album with Future titled Pluto x Baby Pluto. Though we’re just now a month into the new year, Uzi is already back in the studio. Revealing that 2021 may turn out to be just as prolific of a year for the rapper, Uzi said that he’s recently teamed up with an unexpected collaborator: Grimes.

After Uzi and Grimes shared a short exchange on Twitter, the rapper revealed that the two recently got together to start “making hits” in the studio. “Me and grimes making hits,” he wrote. “respect my sister.”

He has yet to share any more concrete details on the nature of their collaboration, but Grimes isn’t the only celebrity Uzi has mentioned he wants to join forces with. Last week, the former Nickelodeon star Amanda Bynes teased a snippet of her debut single “Diamonds,” which boasts a shuffling beat and steady flow. Uzi was impressed by Bynes’ pivot to rap and announced his wish to collaborate with her. “I wanna work with Amanda Bynes,” he tweeted, adding: “SHE BETTER HIT THAT AMANDA PLEASEEEEEEE.”

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After 50 years of quietly playing a key role in shaping the national response to health crises and infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci became a household name in March 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic reached America and began exacting a death toll that continues to this day. However, without the diligent work of Fauci, who faced several obstacles from the Trump administration, the COVID pandemic could’ve claimed more lives, and the veteran physician is finding a thankfully cooperative partner in the Biden administration as the country gets vaccine distribution running up to full speed. Fauci has been a steady hand through the ongoing ordeal, and it’s because of his tireless work that he’s receiving the documentary treatment from National Geographic in upcoming film Fauci from Emmy winning directors Josh Hoffman and Janet Tobias. Via Deadline:

“There is only one Dr. Fauci, and it is an incredible privilege to bring his inspiring, lifelong quest to cure disease and prevent outbreaks, to viewers around the world,” said Hoffman and Tobias in a release announcing the project. “This film will be an unprecedented, intimate portrait of our nation’s greatest public servant, whose relentless pursuit of truth and devotion to science has never been more important.”

Fauci’s efforts to guide America through the pandemic have not been easy. He recently revealed the number of concerning and almost successful death threats the he and his family received during his time with the Trump administration. Because of his devotion to telling the American public the truth about the coronavirus, Trump supporters felt that Fauci was trying to “sabotage” the former president’s re-election chances. Fauci also routinely shot down Trump’s endorsement of questionable COVID treatments from his “friends” in the business world.

(Via National Geographic)

The next great game show may not involve obscure trivia knowledge or the ability to solve word puzzles with limited information, but how well you can wield a smooshy hammer. The Hollywood Reporter wrote on Monday that arcade game Whac-A-Mole is getting the TV treatment, with a game show coming thanks to a partnership with Mattel and Freemantle, the makers of American Idol and America’s Got Talent.

Whac-A-Mole is simple: you grab a hammer and smash the creature that pops out of an array of holes in front of you for points and prizes. The arcade game has long been a coin-op staple since its debut in 1976, and versions with gators and other animals have come along over the years as well. There’s even an at-home tabletop version as of 2009, which is where Mattel comes in here.

According to the report, the Whac-A-Mole game show will be an elimination-style competition where players work in teams, including “life-sized Whac-A-Mole” and an obstacle course with a “surprising twist.” It’s unclear what you’re whac-ing with if the moles in question are human-sized, or if the surprising twist is that the moles can whac back. But anything’s possible right now, no wrong answers when you’re making game show magic. Look at Holey Moley, another show that added giant obstacles for… reasons.

This is apparently the second Mattel property in development for a game show, as THR reported that the card game Uno is also in development. That one probably doesn’t have an obstacle course involved, but Adam Bonnett sounds extremely excited about the Whac-A-Mole series according to the report.

“Whac-A-Mole is a beloved, action-packed arcade game with a deep fan following, and the interactive nature and comedic energy of the game makes it a great franchise for episodic television,” said Adam Bonnett, who is developing the series for Mattel Television and who will exec produce, “Jayson and the team at Fremantle have had unparalleled success creating iconic reality television series and are the perfect partners to help us bring this classic game to life in new ways.”

It’s unclear if the “deep fan following” means we’re in line for a Whac-A-Mole cinematic universe, but the whole concept is intriguing. Not every tabletop game deserves to be a TV game show — the Candyland show on Food Network, for example, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be — but Whac-A-Mole is certainly chaotic enough to reach the goofy weirdness of a Japanese-style game show. And, hopefully, no moles will be harmed in the making of good TV.

[via THR]