Category: Viral

All eyes may be on Maya Rudolph’s widely expected appearances as Kamala Harris on an unprecedented five consecutive Saturday Night Live episodes ahead of the presidential election this fall, but another outstanding Rudolph performance has won her an Emmy this week.

Thursday brought word that Rudolph won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for her role as Connie the Hormone Monstress on the Netflix adult animation show Big Mouth. In a muted year for the Emmys, and buried in the mid-week Creative Arts ceremony, it wasn’t as widely celebrated as it should have been, but still, at least the Netflix and Big Mouth Twitter accounts were thrilled.

It’s certainly well-deserved, as her pronunciation of “bubble bath” alone is worth approximately a developing nation’s gross domestic product. But it’s also a pretty spectacular run for a character that, according to Rudolph, was supposed to be a one-off until she blew the creators of the show away with Connie’s unique vocal abilities and characterization.

And as many pointed out, it seems surprising that it took this long for Rudolph to win an award like that.

Rudolph had actually been nominated for three Emmys for her work on Saturday Night Live as a guest, The Judge on the final season of The Good Place, and, of course, Connie. But it seems the Hormone Monstress is the role that stuck.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards (Sunday, 10:00pm ABC) — Without question, this shall be the most unpredictable Emmys ceremony, so please stop by for our coverage of the Jimmy Kimmel-hosted event. We still tried to predict how this will go: probably a lot of Succession, Watchmen, and Ozark love.

Antebellum (VOD film from Lionsgate) — Amid the pandemic shuffle, this film’s hoping to clean up on VOD with Janelle Monáe in a mindbending horror-thriller. Our own Mike Ryan thinks it’s a terrific movie with a twist that you may not see coming.

Ratched (Netflix series) — This isn’t the Nurse Mildred Ratched origin story that One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest viewers might be expecting, but it’s an entertaining-if-messy watch. Sarah Paulson gives it her all, and Cynthia Nixon makes an extraordinary turn as a public servant (and lover of Ratched). Overall, it’s a stylish and twisted devotional, one that has been rolled around in true Ryan Murphy fashion.

PEN15: Season 2 (Hulu series) — Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle are doing it again — playing 13-year-old versions of themselves — in this exaggeratedly surreal show that’s found a cult audience. This season may not be as funny as last year, but it’s still as good as fans expect.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous (Netflix series) — The cautionary tale continues. Somehow, watching characters ooh-and-ah over cute little baby dinosaurs, who rapidly reach adulthood and terrorize all who dare to tread upon Isla Nublar, never gets old. Steven Spielberg and Colin Trevorrow executive produce, DreamWorks animation handles the visuals, and Amblin Entertainment helped make this a rollicking adventure… with an obligatory cameo from Blue.

Becoming (Disney+ series) — LeBron James produced this docuseries that focuses upon celebrity upbringings and what it means to go home. Expect to see a variety of entertainers, musicians, and athletes in this first season, including Anthony Davis, Caleb McLaughlin, Candace Parker, and Nick Cannon.

ALL IN: The Fight For Democracy (Amazon Prime documentary) — This film digs into the insidious (and real) issue of voter suppression within the United States. Featuring insidght from Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House, all kinds of shenanigans (probably including gerrymandering) will be explored.

The Boys: Season 2 (Amazon Prime series) — This season’s gone weekly from here on out while diving deeper, and Episode 5 sees the female Supes “getting it done” while Butcher takes a trip back home, and Stormfront makes Starlight increasingly uncomfortable while crossing boundaries.

The Devil All The Time (Netflix film) — Robert Pattinson portrays an unholy preacher while Sebastian Stan steps into a crooked sheriff’s shoes, and Tom Holland’s simply trying to stay out of the line of fire while evil forces surround him. It’s a battle between the corrupt and the so-called just that should provide a nice midweek viewing break. This Antonio Campos-directed story spans the period between WWII and Vietnam and co-stars Jason Clarke, Riley Keough, Bill Skarsgård, Eliza Scanlen, and Mia Wasikowska.

Here’s the rest of this weekend’s notable programming:

Room 104 (Friday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — The fourth season of the Duplass Brothers’ bizarre playground continues to churn the weirdest of the weird inside a nondescript motel room.

Lovecraft Country (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — If you’re feeling this 1950s-set dark fantasy series at all (and why wouldn’t you?), this week’s episode finally digs into those strange phone calls that Atticus keeps making to North Korea. Hopefully, he’s paid that phone bill by now.

Love Fraud (Sunday, Showtime 9:00 p.m.) — Richard Scott Smith’s victims embark upon a road trip to stop him for good in this critically acclaimed Sundance Film Festival limited series that feels like the lovechild of Dirty John and Tiger King.

The Vow (Sunday, HBO 10:00 p.m.) — A mother tries to pull her daughter out of the NXIVM organization, but authorities aren’t much help in that department, so parents approach the New York Times.

Desus & Mero (Sunday, Showtime 11:00 p.m.) — The illustrious guest is Janelle Monáe.

And in case you missed these selections last week:

Unpregnant (HBO Max film) — A 17-year-old Type A student, Veronica (Haley Lu Richardson), deals with a never-taken-lightly decision by taking a 1000-mile road trip with her former BFF, Bailey (Barbie Ferreira), and it’s a wild ride that neither of them suspected was afoot. The value of renewed friendships with a dash of both Thelma And Louise and Fast And Furious make this an unexpectedly funny film with costars including Alex MacNicoll, Breckin Meyer, and Giancarlo Esposito, and Betty Who.

Woke (Hulu series) — This show is the comedy series that Lamorne Morris (and the rest of us) deserves with a little bit of everything. It’s surreal, it’s funny, it’s serious, it’s got talking toast and trashcans, and it’s in good hands with director Maurice “Mo” Marable. The quest to “keep it light” never felt so real as Keef (based upon the life and work of artist Keith Knight) experiences a rude awakening and transformation to follow.

Joe Rogan is calling himself out for spreading a harmful conspiracy theory about the West Coast Wildfires on his wildly popular podcast. That episode arrived shortly after Rogan learned that Trump wants him to moderate a 4-hour, no-holds-barred debate between himself an Joe Biden. So of course, the spreading of misinformation whipped up quite a storm upon a storm following Thursday’s Joe Rogan Experience (which recently moved over to Spotify) podcast episode with author Douglas Murray.

Here’s the clip in question, as posted to Twitter by Media Matters researcher Alex Paterson. “They’ve arrested people for lighting forest fires up there,” Rogan said while discussing the Portland, Oregon fires. “They’ve arrested left-wing people for lighting these forest fires, air-quote ‘activists.’ This is also something that’s not being widely reported, you know, that people have actually been arrested for lighting fires up there.”

As the New York Times had already reported, those claims had been debunked as false. Further, the Portland division of the FBI tweeted about the matter last week: “Reports that extremists are setting wildfires in Oregon are untrue. Help us stop the spread of misinformation by only sharing information from trusted, official sources.”

Rogan hasn’t yet returned with another podcast episode, but on Friday, he took to Twitter with an apology:

“I f*cked up on the podcast with Douglas Murray and said that people got arrested lighting fires in Portland. That turns out to not be true. I was very irresponsible not looking into it before I repeated it. I read one story about a guy getting arrested for lighting fires… turned out to be true, but the other shit I read about people getting arrested for lighting fires in Portland was not true. I repeated it without looking into it and it was a really fucking stupid mistake that won’t happen again… I’m sorry.”

Given that his podcast reportedly scores at least 200 million listeners, Rogan surely realized (upon more investigation) that this was a grave matter, and a correction was in order. Good on him, and hopefully, he’ll also address the subject in a future podcast episode for people who missed his Twitter edition.

Lil Tecca is freshly legal — to buy cigarettes and vote, anyway — and has a new album, Virgo World, out today, so why not celebrate with the video for “Dolly” from the new project? The song is produced by TXBITHETEENVGER, C4Bombs, and BRackz and features a verse from Tecca’s outer-space predecessor Lil Uzi Vert as the two rappers reference everything from Fortnite to MDMA in the lighthearted track.

The video, directed by Cole Bennett of Lyrical Lemonade, is equally lighthearted and simple, shooting the two rappers in front of silver curtains as the pose, mug, and dance around with a group of women dressed up like B-movie space aliens, with silver outfits and green hair and makeup. A few of the women are nearly nude, instead covered in silver body paint with green wigs, looking exactly like an 18-year-old’s fantasy of sexy aliens from a 1950s sci-fi movie.

Virgo World is Lil Tecca’s debut album on Republic Records, following his 2019 mixtape We Love You Tecca and his breakout summertime hit “Ransom.” “Dolly” is the third video from the project after “Out Of Love” and “Royal Rumble.”

Watch Lil Tecca’s “Dolly” video featuring Lil Uzi Vert above.

Virgo World is out now via Republic Records. Stream it here.

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

Salem, the Michigan band credited as being pioneers of the witch house genre, have been mostly silent for the past decade. Their debut (and so far only) album, 2010’s King Night, was influential in indie circles, and it found its way onto multiple year-end best album lists. They haven’t release a new one since then, though.

However, there were signs of life earlier this week with the release of their new Stay Down mixtape, which isn’t exactly the sort of mixtape listeners are used to today. It contains some original compositions, but it’s also blended with music from Prince, Frank Ocean, Tchaikovsky, and others. Today, they followed that effort up with “Starfall,” a more traditional stand-alone track that is their first official release since King Night.

For the video, the band’s Jack Donoghue and John Holland linked up with veteran storm trackers to chase storms between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Dallas, Texas during tornado season. Subsequently, the video is full of stormy skies at intensity levels that most people don’t get to experience.

Press materials indicate the song is “a signal of additional work to come,” so for the first time in a long time, Salem fans have something to look forward to.

Watch the “Starfall” video above.

Rubi Rose is the people’s champ, racking up views in the millions for her racy videos over the past year. After breaking out with “Big Mouth” and doubling down with “Hit Yo Dance” and “Pretty MF,” she truly hit her groove over the summer, dropping the video for “He In His Feelings,” a ferociously feel-good power anthem for go-getters and heartbreakers. After appearing in Cardi B’s massive video for “WAP,” Rubi followed up today with a raunchy video of her own for her latest single, “Pogo” featuring Milwaukee hit maker K Camp.

With a bouncy, piano-driven beat produced by Musa, “Pogo” finds the Kentucky-born rapper once again brags about her desirability, sneering, “Rubi bouncin’ like a pogo, n**** / I’m not your ho, though, n**** / When you see me, I be solo, n*** / All that cuffing is a no-no, n****.” In the video, Rubi and her girl gang descend on a house in a seemingly quiet neighborhood, kicking in the door, taking over, and throwing a raucous house party complete with lowriders parked on the lawn (a theme shared with Flo Milli’s “Send The Addy/May I” video which also dropped today).

With her stock rising and fans clamoring for a full project from the velvet-voiced newcomer, it’s only a matter of time until Rubi makes good on her high-profile co-signs as a rap radio/playlist permanent fixture.

Watch Rubi Rose’s “Pogo” video above.

Lykke Li has kept relatively quiet since her 2018 album So Sad So Sexy and her August 2019 Yola Dia festival. She resurfaced yesterday, though, to offer a new spin on a classic: Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive.” Li took the energetic disco track and turned it into a more haunting piano affair, just vocals and piano drenched in spooky reverb.

Li shared a message alongside the song’s release, writing on Instagram:

“i wasn’t going to put this one out but then so many of you asked for it after seeing it… this is something i made for another thing in the heatwave, quarantine, alone at the piano at night with the crickets singing. believe it or not i actually don’t know anything about technology so this was the first time i ever opened garage-band, it’s even the first i ever fully accompany myself on the piano, i can’t really play piano, i usually just write on it but if there’s something this quarantine has done is to bring me back to where i started. singing, playing, for joy, for therapy, for survival. my songs, other songs i love. i know so many people are suffering right now and there’s been so much loss. loss of life, loss of family, loss of love, loss of work, loss of hope, loss of dreams, loss of air! i feel you all and i feel for you all. and i really hope we can all survive this together. love, lykke.”

Listen to Li cover “I Will Survive” above.

The NBA teams that did not go to the Bubble are gearing up for their team minicamps across the country, where they will be tested every day in order to finally get back on the court for full team practices. In San Francisco, the Warriors do not expect Draymond Green and Steph Curry to participate in the minicamp, according to Connor Letourneau of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Steve Kerr told Letourneau that Green and his fiancee, Hazel Renee, are expecting the birth of a child, while Curry will also miss the camp to tend to a family matter.

“If they both aren’t able to make it, I don’t think it’s the end of the world,” Kerr told Letourneau. “These guys have played a lot of basketball for us. They know the system, and they’ll be fine regardless.”

That means the Warriors’ minicamp roster will likely be pretty similar to the G League-heavy group they rolled out during the 2019-20 regular season.

However, Warriors fans can look forward to the return of Klay Thompson, who tore his ACL in the 2019 NBA Finals and has not played since. Thompson will get the chance to get up and down the floor in legitimate practices as he rehabs from the injury.

In honor of National Black Voter Day, “Good As Hell” star Lizzo will have a livestream conversation with Vice Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris this Friday (today) at 6:30 ET / 3:30 PT on Instagram Live. Black Voter Day, an initiative rolled out by BET and the National Urban League, aims to get Black Americans registered to vote ahead of this November’s election.

Partnering with former first lady Michelle Obama’s When We All Vote organization and former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight Action, BET and the National Urban League want to provide resources to get voters registered and push voters to research candidates and policies and how they’ll affect them. The action is a partial response to a drop in Black voter turnout in 2016, when 20 percent fewer Black Americans reported to the polls due to a lack of enthusiasm for either candidate.

However, political action groups see this as an unacceptable turn due to the last four years, which have seen poor administrative response to a series of crises, as well as a rise in voter suppression efforts nationwide as certain leaders look to entrench themselves in positions of power rather than serve the public. Part of the effort to reverse low voter turnout is recruiting visible stars like Lizzo to try to desmystify politcal processes like voting and separation of powers to help those who’d be most affected find their voices for change.

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

Joel Kinnaman is one of the few original Suicide Squad cast members who made the jump to James Gunn‘s quasi-reboot/quasi-sequel The Suicide Squad, and now, the Swedish actor is opening up about what it was like working on the new iteration of the classic DC Comics team.

While promoting The Secrets We Keep, Kinnaman revealed that Gunn’s approach is noticeably different than David Ayer’s attempt to weave the Squad into the burgeoning DC Extended Universe. The new movie felt more like an R-rated comedy, which Kinnaman had never done before. Fortunately, he had a blasting learning the ropes from Gunn while reprising the role of Rick Flag. Via The Hollywood Reporter:

“That movie is going to be insane. The script is so funny. Every page of that script was funny, and every page made me laugh,” Kinnaman shares. “James just has this command of that genre, but also over every aspect of comedy and even the marketing. He just understands the world so well, and since he wrote it, he really reinvents not just the concepts, but also the characters. For me, it was like I did my first comedy, but it’s like heavily R-rated. It was a real learning experience for me too because I’d never done a comedy in that way before. So I asked James to work with me and teach me this sh*t. And yeah, we had so much fun doing it. That movie is going to be a f*cking monster.”

Kinnaman also took a passing shot at the troubles surrounding the first film as Warner Bros. tried to launch its own cinematic universe to compete with Marvel. “There was more energy put into making the movie the second time around,” he said. “The first time around, there was a lot of energy put into everything around us. (Laughs.)”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)