Category: Viral

Despite the challenges 2020 has given, DJ Khaled has been making moves this year. He donated an huge amount of PPE supplies to hospitals at the onset of the pandemic, he teamed up with Drake for two singles, and he announced his 12th studio album Khaled Khaled. Now, DJ Khaled has announced that he’s starting a new venture and launching his own CBD company.

The producer has yet to unveil the company’s name, but did mention that it was started in partnership with CBD manufacturer Endexx Corporation. It’s expected to launch some time in 2021 and will feature a series of “lifestyle and wellness products.”

Detailing his inspiration behind the new endeavor, Khaled to Rolling Stone that his “personal wellness journey” has led him to incorporate the products into his daily routine. “As a father, an entrepreneur, a music exec and visionary I am blessed with daily inspiration, a drive to work hard and a passion for success,” he said. “CBD has become a part of my daily routine and allows me to focus myself and my energies, while striving to better myself every day.”

Echoing Khaled’s statement, Endexx Corporation CEO Todd Davis said, “We are excited to announce our partnership with DJ Khaled. Khaled’s knowledge and passion for CBD is bountiful and we realized we are aligned in our approach towards product quality and business acumen. We understand and share the values that a brand goes beyond physical products; it needs to help people feel good about themselves and be part of a day-to-day lifestyle.”

Our communities are nothing without local restaurants. Our favorite hometown haunts serve as meeting places to chop it up with our family and friends, act as sources of pride we eagerly show out-of-town guests, and create smells and flavors that live forever rent-free in our sense memory. So it’s important we recognize that local restaurants have had it particularly hard during the pandemic.

COVID-19 has all but flattened the foodservice industry. And it’s affecting our communities in a big way.

For context, the restaurant industry is the second-largest private-sector employer in the entire country, proving jobs for more than 15 million people (pre-COVID). According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), in 2019 alone the industry raked in $863 billion in revenue, that’s money that often stays in local economies. But restaurants rely on the patronage of their regulars. The reason the people behind your favorite taco joints, Chinese noodle houses, or mom and pop burger shops remember your face and favorite order is that they need us as much as we need them.

Especially now. And occasional takeout orders aren’t cutting it.

According to the NRA, COVID-19 is responsible for the permanent or long-term closure of 1 in every 6 restaurants. That accounts for nearly 100,000 restaurants, 3 million employees, and close to $240 billion in sales, and none of that takes into consideration the emotional loss that comes with a restaurant shuttering — from the employees to the owners to the patrons to the community at large. Undoing the damage done to communities by the loss of locally-owned eateries during COVID will be a years (if not decades) long project.

While the continued danger to the restaurant industry is undeniable, many chefs, restaurant owners, and ambitious employees have found ways to survive — pivoting their businesses in order to keep afloat while doing the very thing they’ve always done: tapping into the power of their local communities. The innovators featured below are just a few of the names (there are others) that caught our attention this year, defying the odds when it seemed like everything was working against them. They helped support their communities during the darkest days of the pandemic, and now we’re here to shed some light on their efforts (and delicious-looking food).

Wesley Avila — Guerilla Tacos, Los Angeles CA

California, and Los Angeles in particular, has been subjected to the strictest lockdown measures in the entire country. So when the state went deep into lockdown in April, local chefs needed to pivot fast. Guerrilla Tacos owner Wesley Avila did just that with his Mini Emergency Taco Kit. Avila dubbed the kit “a true Angeleno Survival pack during these crazy and uncertain times” — designing it with the purpose of keeping people indoors and fed, rather than risk ordering take out day after day.

The $85 kit consisted of 4 pounds of meat, two pints of two different salsas, tortillas, onions, cilantro, rice, and beans — enough to produce 30 Guerrilla-quality tacos. Avila did this all while not making a single dollar of profit, using the money instead to help support and provide the cooks, staff, and people who make Guerrilla Tacos possible with health insurance.

The strategy seems to have worked, as Guerrilla has since made Sweet Potato Kits fitting for Thanksgiving Dinner, and a Tamale Kit, bouquet, and basket for the coming holidays.

Help support Guerrilla Tacos here.

Sarah Stegner, George Bumbaris — Prarie Grass Cafe, Northbrook IL

When COVID lockdowns forced Stegner and Bumbaris to close the doors of the Prairie Grass Cafe to indoor diners, not only did the restaurant quickly shift to a curbside model with a rotating daily menu, but they offered meal kits for spring holidays, donated meals to front line workers at local Chicago hospitals, set up a Cooking Tips Hotline answered by Chef Stegner herself, and found a way to support the farmers they normally rely on by setting up a directory so that families would be able to buy directly from farms (which suddenly had a surplus of produce with nowhere to go).

Whether you needed meat, specialty vegetables, fruit, or even hot sauce, Prarie Grass did their part to help their supply chain and community, even sometimes acting as a delivery hub for good themselves.

Help support Prairie Grass Cafe here.

Jamie Malone — Grand Cafe, Minneapolis, MN

How do you continue to feed a community and make ends meet, while simultaneously trying to keep people safe? It’s a conundrum that every chef has had to battle with for the better part of this year. When COVID lockdowns forced Grand Cafe chef Jamie Malone to close her doors, she found a way to keep her kitchen staff afloat by turning her elegant French fare into a take-home experience designed to provide meals for a week at a time, helping to encourage folks to stay at home and thereby limiting their exposure to the outside community.

Sadly, the pivot wasn’t enough to keep the Grand Cafe alive, in November it was announced that the restaurant would not be reopening its doors at its original address. But that hasn’t stopped Malone from innovating.

“The pandemic has created opportunities to rethink and reimagine restaurants, take stock of what works and what doesn’t,” Malone told Eater Twin Cities, “Now is our chance to… create a better world for restaurant workers. I believe a smaller space with more dynamic revenue streams is the best way for our team to move forward.”

While the Grand Cafe may have closed its doors permanently, Malone and her team continue to provide Keep It Grand meal kits, keeping her restaurant alive in the kitchens throughout her community.

Help Support Keep It Grand here.

Deborah VanTrece — Twisted Soul Cookhouse & Pours, Atlanta, GA

Deborah VanTrece has always put the safety of her staff and customer base first, so she opted to close her soul food restaurant’s doors even before it was mandated by Georgia’s Governor, Brian Kemp. Georgia has had some of the laxest COVID safety measures in the country, but that doesn’t mean business has been easy. COVID has disproportionally affected BIPOC communities in devastating ways and as a black-owned business in a space predominately populated by white restaurant owners and chefs, Twisted Soul has the deck stacked against them.

VanTrece knows what she’s up against, but refuses to let it slow her down. Through Twisted Soul Cookhouse she’s offered meal kits, a pay-what-you-can concept to burn through an inventory of leftovers and support those struggling financially, Fish Fry Fridays, and even a pop-up concept she calls “A Different Kind of Chick,” a curated mini menu of chicken entrees and sandwiches designed specifically for take-away and delivery eating.

Despite all these shifts, VanTrece is still struggling. She told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that sales are down 50% compared to pre-COVID days and she’s waiting for action from Congress and keeping Twisted Soul afloat by any means necessary. The holiday season is traditionally the restaurant’s busiest season, and with the pandemic worse than ever Twisted Soul is still finding ways to feed families, offering up a massive holiday meal package that feeds a family of four.

Help support Twisted Soul here.

Neighborhood Provisions — Arlington, VA

This isn’t one chef or restaurant so much as it’s a collective of local chefs and beverage specialists put together by the DC-based Neighborhood Restaurant Group that offers deliverable pantry staples and prepared meals for families in the Virginia, DC, and Bethesda, Maryland areas. Whether you need fresh baked goods, local produce, prepared meals, fresh-cut meat, or even cocktails, Neighborhood Provisions has set up a vast directory to help you find everything you need, including a regularly rotating menu of restaurant-quality meals, while still working to support local chefs and restaurant owners struggling to get by.

Support Neighborhood Provisions here.

For the first time since a prolonged absence from the Houston Rockets that included a trade demand and several photos and videos showing him partying across the country without a mask, James Harden spoke with the media on Wednesday after making his preseason debut on Tuesday night.

Naturally, his absence from Rockets training camp came up, and Harden explained that he was in Atlanta and Las Vegas rather than Houston not to party or make a show of his dismay with the organization, but to work out.

When Harden was asked to clarify why he couldn’t just work out in Houston, he merely said “my personal trainers.”

The superstar’s conditioning became a trending topic on Tuesday when jokes were flying about a pregame pic of Harden from an unflattering angle, but, then again, that seems to be an annual tradition and has never seemed to stop him from producing some of the best regular season stats in recent memory.

As for his request, Harden also told reporters that he has not yet had a conversation with Rockets general manager Rafael Stone since returning to camp. Despite expanding his list of desired landing spots, Houston has yet to give in and execute a Harden trade until they get back what they want.

Nevertheless, despite all the chaos and folks talking out of the side of their mouths, Harden reiterated that playing in Houston’s preseason game on Tuesday against San Antonio felt good and that he is focused on the task at hand with the Rockets.

It remains to be seen whether Harden will get what he wants and be traded out of Houston by the time the regular season starts or if this will drag into the regular season like the Jimmy Butler fiasco did in Minnesota two years ago, but Harden at the very least is now suiting up for the Rockets and seems like he’ll play there until he’s moved — it just might produce a number of awkward moments until his wish is granted.

For many days this year, Bandcamp held Bandcamp Fridays, during which they waived their usual cut of sales on their platform to help support artists during the pandemic. Now the site in an update post has revealed how much money artists have earned through this initiative and that the event will continue into 2021.

The post notes that over the course of the first Friday of each month since March (so nine days), “fans paid artists and labels $40 million dollars” thanks to Bandcamp waiving their cut of revenues for the day. They also note that “nearly 800,000 fans” participated.
The post also reveals that Bandcamp currently has a handful more Bandcamp Fridays scheduled for 2021, on February 5, March 5, April 2, and May 7, since “it will likely be several months before live performance revenue starts to return.”

Furthermore, Bandcamp points out that artists get a significant cut of their sales even when it’s not Bandcamp Friday: “If you’ve started to feel guilty about buying music on any day other than Bandcamp Friday, here’s something to keep in mind: on Bandcamp Fridays, an average of 93% of your money reaches the artist/label (after payment processor fees). When you make a purchase on any other day of the month (as 2.5 million of you have since March, buying an additional $145 million worth of music and merch) an average of 82% reaches the artist/label. Every day is a good day to directly support artists on Bandcamp!”

Read the full post here.

There are nearly 6,000 movies and TV shows on Netflix but it often feels like I keep scrolling through the same titles over and over again. I find myself constantly asking, “Where are they hiding the rest of their content?”

TikTok user @caseyyisfetchh is going viral because she learned a hack that allows you to search for super-specific movies and TV shows, unlocking thousands of titles that you never would have found before.

“I was today years old when I learned that Netflix has secret codes that bring you into sub-genres that don’t’ show up in your search feed,” the TikTokker says.

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The insane thing is that every Netflix user should know about these codes. But in the ten years that I’ve had the service, I’ve never heard about them. Why was the world keeping this a secret? Why was Netflix hiding all this great content?

How many nights have I given up searching for a show on Netflix and went to bed when I could have stayed up late binging on foreign horror films?

Take a deep dive into the codes you’ll see they get really specific. On a full moon, instead of searching for horror movies and praying to find a good Wolfman flick, you can now put 75930 to see a list of werewolf horror movies.

Do you have a deep love for Turkish cinema? No problem. Just enter 1133133. Like sports movies, but only if they’re about soccer? Enter 12549 into the search bar. It’s also great for people with children because you can search by age-range — 5455 shows you films that are for kids ages five to seven.

The codes are also great for folks who love watching seasonal fare. Netflix has codes for 13 different types of Christmas movies.

The codes also reveal that Netflix has a much broader selection of classic films than they normally show during search. They’re also a great way for you to expand your film palette and try out new movie genres that you never would have seen otherwise.

The codes work whether you’re searching for something to watch on your desktop computer or using the search bar on your smart TV.

You can find a full list of the codes here.

So now, instead of asking your significant other “In the mood for a comedy tonight?” You can ask, “In the mood for a mockumentary?”

Once I finish typing up this article I’m going to do a deep dive into some of my favorite sub-genres and add a ton of movies to My List. From the looks of it, I’ll be able to find enough fun stuff to keep me entertained until we reach herd immunity.

Food is a big part of Tacko Fall’s life. Even beyond the fact that he inherently needs to consume more of it than most folks as a professional athlete and, well, his first name, the Boston Celtics’ second-year big man views the things we eat as ways to build bridges between folks from different cultures.

“Every culture has different food, different flavors, different spices, whatever,” Fall told Dime over the phone. “I feel like being able to share it amongst us really can bridge some of the gap that exists between us.”

Fall’s love of food was front and center recently when he participated in an Airbnb Online Experience in which the big man showed off his culinary skills. With the emphasis on food top of mind, proceeds from the event went towards the organization Action Against Hunger.

Dime caught up with Fall ahead of the event to talk food, cooking, and whether anyone on the Celtics’ roster has skills in the kitchen.

Where does this love of cooking that you have come from?

A love of food, so that helps. For example, my mom was here recently, she came and she was here for a couple of months and she basically cooked like every day, and I was like, “Mom, you have to sit down.” She would be in the kitchen, I would wake up and she was just spoiling us, my brother and I. She would wake up in the morning, make us breakfast. Sometimes I wouldn’t even eat because I was like, “I got to go to practice.” Then I would come back, the breakfast would be there. Then she would make lunch and right after then, she would make dinner. I’m like, “Mom.” But she just loves doing it. I guess some of that probably came from her.

So is it one of those things where you grew up cooking or was it something that once you get to college, once you start getting to the NBA, you have to learn how to start fending for yourself, and you started cooking because of that?

Yeah, I mean, I didn’t start cooking … When I was home in Senegal, I didn’t cook. My mom did all the cooking. When I came here in high school, I didn’t as well. But when I got to college, that’s really when I started to figure out a few things. I started with just mostly simple things.

Actually, yeah, I do remember. When I was in high school, I first went to Texas, and I came with a friend and there was two kids from Macedonia, if I recall, and we’re all in the same apartment. The guy I was staying with would make us go get groceries. Sometimes we would have to cook our own food. So there, I did learn how to make, like, one of my favorites, a nacho cheese dish where we added ground beef and tomatoes and all that kind of stuff. It was pretty good.

Sometimes we would buy a whole turkey and make the turkey. We used to make some chicken and rice and all of that. I was just watching them do it and pretty much learning how to do that from there. When I got to Florida, I didn’t do much cooking, but then when I got to college, I started doing a little bit of it. Obviously we have the meals from the cafeteria and all of that, but we also had … I know they would give us some stipend and allow us to go to Publix and give us gift card where you can go and get some groceries from Publix. So here and there, we’d just get a few, some meat or just make simple things.

What are some things that you like cooking, whether it’s Senegalese food or whether it’s other sorts of food that you like to make?

Senegalese food is a whole process. It takes hours to make. I would be lying if I said I could make some Senegalese food. I never really asked my mom to teach me how to make it because I don’t think I would, like, I wouldn’t have the patience to do that. It’s really good, but it’s a whole process. And we like to do things from scratch. We like to get fresh things. One of my favorite meals back home is called Thieboudienne, it’s a rice and fish dish. Rice and fish sounds simple, but it’s not. You have to get the fresh caught fish, fresh vegetables, and you have to cook the rice a certain way. Before you cook the rice, you got to mix it all. It’s like a whole process. It takes hours. For example, when I was home, even when my mom was here, for them to be able to make the meal, they would have to wake up early to start the process. It wouldn’t be done probably until like noon or one o’clock.

Yeah. One of those things where you have to like let all the flavors kind of get to know each other over the course of like six, seven, eight hours.

Yeah.

I know you mentioned your mom was here recently. When was the last time you were able to head back home to visit?

Actually, when I left my country, I was 16 and I didn’t see my mom until I was a senior in college of this year.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. That was the first time where I saw her since I left, she came to my Senior Night. After that, she left and that’s when I was going through the NCAA Tournament and the pre-Draft process and all that. After I got to Boston, a few months, I think around December last year, she came over. She stayed in New York for a little bit, then she came to Boston and stayed with me. But the crazy part is she came to Boston, her and my little brother came to Boston, and then I had to go to the Bubble.

I want to know, how does food, whenever you’re able to get Senegalese food, serve as a way that you’re able to stay connected to home from thousands of miles away?

Food from home, obviously it’s a cultural thing, but it just brings a lot of memories from when I was a kid. I mean, everybody grows up with different struggles and just kind of reminds me of my upbringing and saw the struggles I went through, and it just makes you become more and more grateful. For me, I just have that type of connection and I do miss it. There’s not a lot of Senegalese restaurants — there’s a few in New York. In Boston, I don’t know if there is one. I tried looking for it, but I didn’t find. But I heard someone say there was one, but I just have yet to find it. I don’t get to eat it often. When my mom was here, I ate it every day.

Made sure she got your fill for whenever you’re able to get it the next time, I’m guessing.

Yeah. I don’t know how she got all the ingredients, but she made it happen.

What do you have going on with Airbnb?

So pretty much I’m going to be cooking live. There’s going to be a few guests. Probably going to make some tacos. It’s almost like a fundraiser. I guess for me, coming from my country, I’ve always wanted to find ways to give back. When the idea came, I was like, this is a great opportunity for me to do it. Action Against Hunger, it’s going to go to fighting against hunger in Senegal. That’s something that I’m really excited to do.

Whether it’s through something like this, whether it’s through cooking for teammates, whether it’s just having a meal somewhere, what do you think it is about food that makes it such a good way to build bridges between people?

Well, so my country Senegal is called the pays de la Téranga. That means anybody’s welcome in my country. I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Senegal, if you haven’t, I highly encourage it. It’s like there is just a sense of community that you won’t find in a lot of places. You will go there and fit in like you’ve lived there your entire life. People are so nice. People are so welcoming. A lot of that is done through food. So if you haven’t, I would encourage you to go experience that yourself, because that doesn’t do it justice. We just have that kind of culture back home where it’s a pretty big deal. And every culture has different food, different flavors, different spices, whatever. I feel like being able to share it amongst us really can bridge some of the gap that exists between us pretty much.

So just have a few quick hitters here at the very end. One, what’s your favorite place to eat in Boston?

I got a couple. When I first got here, it was Redbones, which was a barbecue place. Really good, I love barbecue — when I was in Florida, one of my favorite one was 4 Rivers, but there is no 4 Rivers in Boston. Then, there’s a restaurant that I first went to that restaurant in New York and I found out they had one in Boston called Mastro’s. The only reason why I go to Mastro’s is because of their butter cake. It’s the best butter cake in the continent.

Then do you have a favorite place to eat in any of the other 29 NBA cities? Or is there so much stuff out there that it’s hard to pick just one.

In the other cities, like I said, obviously Florida because I lived in Florida for so long. It’s probably 4 Rivers. But the other cities, I can’t really say there’s one specific restaurant.

Whenever I talk to someone about gaming, I always ask who’s the best and worst gamer on a team. Who is the best and worst cook on the Celtics?

I could not tell you because I don’t think most of us cook. Even me,I have someone drop off some food for me as well. A lot of us probably have chefs and that kind of stuff. I know Grant maybe does a little bit, but because his mom is here every now and then, his dad as well. We live in the same building. I could say some of my teammates from last year, but I’m not sure. Enes definitely didn’t cook. There’s no way I could see Enes cooking anything. He likes to post stuff and look like he was cooking, but I’m like, “Enes, I know very well there is no way you cooked that” — I just like to tease Enes, he’s with the Blazers now.

You can only eat one thing everyday for the rest of your life. What are you eating?

Wow, I might starve to death. I don’t know. I can’t tell you there’s one food that I would pick over anything. I just like a variety of things.

I know that we’ve seen some other NBA players who have explored cooking a bit on the internet — Serge is the big one, he has his YouTube channel where he cooks for people. I’ve seen DeAndre Jordan do some cooking on the internet, that kind of thing. Have you ever considered doing something where you use YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, whatever, to show off what you like to make and use it as a way to feed your teammates or something?

Never crossed my mind, actually. Never did. I did used to watch Serge’s show, because he’s from Congo, I think. His culture and my culture, it’s a little different but not so, so much. We’re both Africans, were French colonies. A lot of the things that he would make … he would make some crazy things, where you’re like, “Yeah, I know.” So, I’ve seen his show. That’s pretty dope. That would definitely be a good idea, for sure.

In a bold move to combat the increasing amount of COVID infections that have showed no signs of slowing down, Maine Senator Angus King has written a letter to all six of the largest streaming services asking them to make their platforms free over the holidays. King believes that if people have complimentary access to Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Amazon Prime, and Apple TV Plus, they’ll be encouraged to stay home and binge TV shows and movies. Via News Center Maine:

“At this time, we must find ways to incentivize people to follow guidance from the CDC, their employer, local public health officials, or school leaders. Unfortunately, some Americans are likely to choose to ignore public health advice and carry on their typical holiday traditions instead of remaining safely at home. While your platforms would likely experience greater traffic as a consequence of extending service, we encourage you to provide temporary service at no cost to non-subscribers as a way to encourage people to make responsible choices and safely navigate this holiday season.”

As of this writing, King has yet to receive a response. He also might be facing a hard sell with at least one of the streaming platforms. HBO Max is currently set to stream Wonder Woman 1984 on Christmas Day and has stopped offering free trials ahead of its release. Its parent company, WarnerMediam is also hoping to help ease lost revenue from the pandemic by shifting its entire 2021 film slate to HBO Max. In short, the studio is gambling big on Wonder Woman drumming up paying subscribers that will stick around for the upcoming Warner Bros. movies.

Then again, as 2020 has repeatedly shown us, anything can happen, so it’ll be interesting to see which streaming platforms, if any, will heed King’s call.

(Via News Center Maine)

Back in October, burgeoning indie-pop singer Claud signaled the beginning of something exciting as they announced they were the first signee of Phoebe Bridger’s newly minted Saddest Factory label. They’ve now officially announced their debut record Super Monster and are following-up the news with a vibrant video alongside their recent single “Soft Spot.”

Directed by Brad Bischoff, Claud’s “Soft Spot” video shows them aiming to part with their emotional baggage. Claud packs up a truck with their belongings and hits the road, only to find themselves continuing to mourn a past relationship.

Speaking about the concept behind the visual, Claud notes that they’ve learned the difference between moving away and moving on from their past:

“Something I’ve come to realize in the last couple years is that moving away is VERY different than moving on (seems obvious but is really not…). This video is about the stuff that you can’t seem to leave behind and that comes with you wherever you go, whether they’re good things or not so good things.”

About the single, Claud said, “I have a soft spot for lots of people, places, and things. This song is about knowing I can’t be with this one specific person, but my feelings won’t go away… I still hope I run into them, or they randomly text me about something. It’s just me romanticizing what I can’t have and being like ‘but what if…’”

Watch the “Soft Spot” video above.

Super Monster is out 2/12/2021 via Saddest Factory. Pre-order it here.

Bun B recently told HotNewHipHop that he doesn’t mind if defending Megan Thee Stallion damaged his relationship with Tory Lanez because protecting Black women is more important. The Houston legend stood up for Megan at a time when few of his contemporaries did, shortly after Megan was allegedly shot in both feet by Lanez after an argument at a Hollywood house party.

Responding to a question about the hip-hop community’s reaction to the shooting, Bun told HNHH, “Initially, many people are hesitant to get into other people’s business. This was a domestic issue between a couple and most people tend to stay out of those. Things can get very touchy.” However, he said, “We have to make sure that we are standing up and supporting and defending our Black women. Because if Black men don’t say, ‘Don’t touch our Black women,’ white men and white women will do and act however they feel or choose against our women. And those days are done.”

He elaborated, “People are usually waiting for that first person to say something, and then more and more people will step to the table. I feel like if I hadn’t said anything, I’m not sure how much people would have even spoken on this issue. And if my relationship with Tory Lanez is damaged, then so be it. We have to protect our Black women and any Black man that doesn’t feel the same way is not my brother.”

He also noted that Tory didn’t “read the room” when he released his defensive album Daystar while allowing that Tory has the right to defend himself in court. Bun admitted he didn’t know whether Tory would be able to continue performing in Houston after the incident, pointing out that “People still went to R. Kelly concerts, so I can’t really say what people will and won’t do.”

You can read the full interview here.

Scott Baio got steamed over John Stamos wanting to be Chachi in a reunion and the reunion itself, and Ralph Malph wants Baio to sit down. Yes, I did type that sentence in 2020, but it’s certainly no less messed up than the rest of what we’ve seen lately.

Let’s briefly recap here. Baio, a noted MAGA enthusiast who recently took over a craft store to celebrate his Trump love, grew angry when his former Happy Days co-star, Ron Howard, crossed nostalgia with politics. Howard’s perceived offense was to organize while raising funds for Joe Biden in the swing state of Wisconsin. Quite quickly, cast members — including Henry Winkler, Anson Williams, Marion Ross, and Don Most — hopped aboard. Baio decided not to reprise his Chachi role (even though he has “Chachi” in his Twitter bio), and he complained that Howard plotted “to use a classic show like Happy Days about Americana to promote an anti-American socialist. #Shameful.” Then John Stamos stepped up with an offer to play Chachi, and Baio judged hard: “This is what Hollywood has come to. #shameful #LiberalsAreDesperate.” He fired shots at Stamos about “Aunt Becky.” It got pretty ugly.

Don Most didn’t appreciate Baio’s tantrums. While speaking to Fox News to promote his Lost Heart film, Most related that he wasn’t surprised that Baio sat out the reunion, but he wishes that Chachi would chill out and realize that free speech goes both ways:

“It was disappointing to hear how strongly he felt. And how he was so critical and negative about us doing this. I felt it was way out of line. I really did. Because we are entitled to our opinions. And we were all as a group uniting to do something, just like he proposes his views. He was part of the show and people are aware of him because of that show. And he’s using that as a way to present his views. We’re entitled to do the same. And we were all united in the way we felt.”

Most also related that he and Scott used to play golf together, but they really don’t touch base anymore, and it doesn’t sound like they’ll be hanging together anytime soon. And what does Scott Baio think of this (which is the reason why he’s currently trending on Twitter)? He has a Chachi GIF in response.