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Today’s MAGA Republicans should be doing well. Their fearless leader, Donald Trump, continues to inexplicably kill it in the presidential polls. Joe Biden continues to do terribly, even after his shouty State of the Union speech. And yet Trump’s minions continue to act like broken weirdos. Nancy Mace publicly outed herself as someone who either didn’t read or didn’t understand The Scarlet Letter before referencing it. Alabama senator Katie Britt recently became a laughingstock thanks to her instant classic horror of an SOTU rebuttal. Now South Dakota governor Kristi Noem is telling both of them to hold her beer.

Per Mediaite, on Monday Noem confused legions by randomly dropping what appeared to be a five-minute infomercial on her social media accounts. What was she hawking? A chain of Texas dentist offices called Smile Texas. Why would the governor of a northern state be shilling for dentists about 1,000 miles south? Well, because they fixed her teeth so darned good, that’s why.

Nomi regaled viewers with the story of how she had a biking accident that knocked out some teeth. Absent from this anecdote was why she traveled some four states away to get them fixed. But fixed they were, apparently.

“I love that my bite is better, that my teeth are a better shape, that they feel better in my mouth and that I can be confident when I smile at people,” Noem gushed.

Also unclear in the video was whether Nomi was paid by Smile Texas to sing their praises. If so, as The Daily Dot notes, she would have had to disclose that or risk being in violation of Instagram rules. Then again, today’s GOP is no longer the party of following the law.

Or maybe Noem’s just really liked that dentist.

Noem’s video left many understandably perplexed.

(Via Mediaite)

Most of the memorable stuff from Sunday night’s Oscars telecast came in the second half when Ryan Gosling led maybe the best musical performance in the history of the show, John Mulaney aced his audition to be next year’s Oscars host, and Al Pacino woozily gave out the film’s final award. From the first hour, Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s tearful acceptance speech seems to have been the audience favorite, but let’s not forget the passionate words of Cord Jefferson, who won Best Adapted Screenplay for American Fiction, a film he also directed.

Jefferson found an unusual path to Oscar’s glory. He came up as a journalist with bylines at the New York Times, Huffington Post, and USA Today, where he wrote on race, pop culture, and more. He served as an editor at Gawker for several years, then made the jump to television as a writer for The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and producer of Master of None, The Good Place, and The Watchmen. Most recently, he was a writer and producer of the critically acclaimed limited series Station Eleven. American Fiction was his first film of any kind, and it won him an Oscar. Not bad.

Moving from writing about culture to creating it, Jefferson found himself in a unique position to speak truth to power about the business of film. I’ll be honest: His speech won me over immediately. Most winners get to the podium, pull out a piece of paper, and run down a list of friends and collaborators to be thanked. It’s an understandable impulse, but it makes for less than exciting television, and Jefferson seemed to understand that. He started by simply thanking “everyone who worked on the film,” and then got to his actual point.

“This is a risk-averse industry,” he began, “but $200 million movies are also a risk. Instead of making one $200 million movie, try making twenty $10 million movies, or fifty $4 million movies.” The audience lit up at this suggestion, drowning him out with applause before he could even finish his sentence. It’s not a new sentiment, but it’s still an important one. Now more than ever, studio executives protect their jobs by approving big budgets for films based on proven intellectual properties. If it goes wrong, at least they’ll be able to justify the risk because, hey, it worked on the last one. When a film with a truly original vision flops, it’s harder to explain why they ever thought it would be a success.

Typically, a message like Jefferson’s wouldn’t ruffle any feathers at the Oscars. The Academy is at this point mostly responsible for keeping the mid-budget film for grownups alive. But it felt even more important at this year’s ceremony when two of the most financially successful films of the year—Oppenheimer and Barbie—were also the Academy’s favorites. “Blockbuster creep” has already taken its toll on the studio system, but what if it comes for our Oscars? Hollywood is a copycat industry, and while most viewers would be thrilled at the prospect of more established directors in the category of Nolan and Gerwig getting massive budgets to bring their passion projects to life, it might crowd out unproven filmmakers like Jefferson, and remove a rung from the ladder that they use to establish themselves in the first place. Though the occasional blockbuster transcends and proves its value as art and not just commerce, the Oscars are supposed to be more a safe harbor for non-blockbusters, drawing people to them and equaling the playing field a little.

Jefferson walked a tightrope in his speech, honoring the auteurs of today while urging the rest of Hollywood to back the next generation. “I felt so much joy making this movie, and I want other people to experience that joy,” he said. “The next Martin Scorsese is out there. The next Greta is out there—both Gretas [Lee and Gerwig]. They just want a shot, and we can give them one. Thank you to everyone who worked on this movie for trusting a 40-year-old Black guy who had never directed before.”

Jefferson’s delivery made the speech feel extemporaneous, but it couldn’t have been written any better. He blended personal experience with off-the-cuff ebullience—in the tradition of Cuba Gooding, Jr. or Ben Affleck and Matt Damon—ensuring that his pointed message to Hollywood didn’t come off as scolding or condescending. He didn’t thank his agent, his manager, his producers, his leading man, the author of the novel the film was based on, or even his publicist. He’ll save that for later. Instead, he used his platform to speak from a unique vantage point of being both of the industry and outside of it to give Hollywood a message they needed to hear. Let’s hope it didn’t get lost in Ken-sanity.

The Boys undoubtedly plans to skewer some spin off tendencies with a title like the recently announced The Boys: Mexico for a show in development. Yet for three seasons thus far and side voyages to Diabolical and Gen V, this Vought International-engineered world shows no signs of losing its edge. For that matter, there continues to be no shortage of bodily fluids and scintillating subject matter, the latter of which largely arrives courtesy of Chace Crawford’s perverted Deep.

The fourth season of the original series is mercifully on the way in only a few months, again on a mostly weekly rollout. The brand shows no sign of weakening, even as both the DCU and MCU’s empires have considerably weakened. Satire ain’t dead, baby, but it’s hard as hell to pull off, and Eric Kripke runs a tight ship while adapting Garth Ennis’ Dynamite Entertainment comic. Without more f*cking around, let’s dive into what we can expect from The Boys‘ long-awaited return to Amazon.

Plot

The fourth season’s story will kick off only a few days after the events of the Gen V finale, in which Homelander blew away Marie, who later woke up in a lab (the woods?) with a handful of her fellow Supes, including Little Cricket. Homelander had engineered the events of the campus mayhem into an opportunity to hold up Cate and Sam as heroes, so perhaps they could crossover into The Boys at some point.

However, that season finale also showed Billy Butcher stumbling onto the lab where the Supe Virus was manufactured. However, Butcher is not exactly on good terms with the rest of The Boys, and Mother’s Milk has plenty of “unfinished business” with the group’s leader after Butcher decided to join forces with Soldier Boy. Additionally, Butcher only has a few months left on his ticker before perhaps croaking from all the Compound V that he decided to take, and Homelander is lining up more dominoes as Ryan becomes an even more dangerous force than we’ve previously seen:

The world is on the brink. Victoria Neuman is closer than ever to the Oval Office and under the muscly thumb of Homelander, who is consolidating his power. Butcher, with only months to live, has lost Becca’s son as well as his job as The Boys’ leader. The rest of the team are fed up with his lies. With the stakes higher than ever, they have to find a way to work together and save the world before it’s too late.

Additionally, Homelander will stand trial for killing a civilian in broad daylight. The Deep will continue perving, Mother’s Milk will shave (hmm), and Starlight and Queen Maeve’s replacements (Sage and Firecracker) are, according to Amazon, “two of the most dangerous supes you’ll ever meet.” What else?

On some silly notes, Vought International has been shilling for some terrible “Homelander High-Tops!” Those look awfully familiar. Also, The Boys’ social media has been trolling the “Wanker-in-chief.”

On the VFX side, we can expect (as prosthetic penis guru/VFX wizard Stephan Fleet assures viewers) more of the same disgusting flavor that we’re used to seeing: “I’m excited for the cast of @TheBoysTV to see the crazy sh*t I’m cooking up in VFX! They really put a lot of trust in me.”

From there, I can only hope that someone decided to gift Mother’s Milk with a new jacket after that “Herogasm” shower that he received. Yikes.

Cast

Erin Moriarty returns as Annie January, who has formally gone rogue from The Seven, although she will obviously still have her Starlight powers. The show wouldn’t be the same without Antony Starr as Homelander, Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, Chace Crawford as The Deep, Jessie T. Usher as A-Train, Jack Quaid as Hughie, Laz Alonso as Mother’s Milk, Karen Fukuhara as Kimiko, and Tomer Capone as Frenchie. Nathan Mitchell will be back, somehow, as a different version of Black Noir after Homelander killed the previous incarnation.

Additionally, Claudia Doumit’s power is growing as Victoria Neuman, and Colby Minifie is still sh*tting bricks while running PR for Vought International as Ashley. No longer on the scene: Dominique McElligott as Queen Maeve, who is hopefully enjoying her lesbian retirement on a quiet farm upstate somewhere. As far as anyone has gathered, Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy is still out of commission for the time being. We will, however, get some Supernatural flavor with the official debut of Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s secretive-smartass character, although we shouldn’t expect him to play a huge role in the story because The Walking Dead: Dead City hopped into shooting a second season.

A duo of new Supes will join The Seven. They include Sister Sage (Susan Hayward), whose non-classic Supe powers might be much more manipulative than powerful in a physical sense (given that she appears to be encouraging Homelander into a “Caesar”-esque position), and the explosive Firecracker (Valorie Curry) seems to be like Queen Maeve if she was more of a chip off the Homelander block.

Release Date

Season 4 debuts with three episodes on June 13 followed by weekly installments and a season finale on July 18.

Trailer

This ominous teaser trailer suggests that Sister Sage could be pulling some Homelander strings. Democracy begins to fall, too, and this show always feels far too timely, doesn’t it? Somehow, it always manages to entertain in the process. Also, that peek at Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character feels perfect.

It’s been five long years since Marvel had to axe all their Netflix shows. Long before the brand’s interconnectedness clearly got too complicated for audiences, the streamer had a good thing going with a string of shows revolving around the gang known as the Defenders: Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron First. At least some of those shows’ side characters are coming back for the forthcoming revival Daredevil: Born Again, and it looks like maybe — or maybe not, who knows — one of them might be Jon Bernthal’s take on the Punisher.

Per IGN, Bernthal posted a semi-cryptic image on his Instagram account. It was the cover of a children’s book entitled One Batch, Two Batch, showing two bears, a father and child, the latter wielding a chocolate chip cookie with one bit out. Why would Benthal, a grown man, post this?

Real heads know. As IGN points out, One Batch, Two Batch is the children’s book Benthal’s Frank Castle reads to his daughter every night before she goes to sleep. That’s not all: The Punisher sometimes likes to quote a line from it — “One batch, two batch, penny and dime” — before he kills people. Imagine someone quoting a children’s book to you before they take you out.

This seems to confirm a rumor that was floated earlier this month, namely that Bernthal’s Punisher is back for Daredevil: Born Again. If that’s true, he’ll join some other Marvel Netflix show alumni, like Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilison Fisk, aka Kingpin, and Wilson Bethel’s Poindexter, aka Bullseye. Thanks to set photos, it appears another big character may be back, too: Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones. Or maybe that won’t happen. Maybe neither of these things will happen.

Whatever the case, everyone will know for sure when Daredevil: Born Again hits Disney+ and Hulu sometime next year.

(Via IGN)

Justin Fields finds himself in no-man’s land as he gets set for his fourth year in the NFL. The former top-10 pick is almost assuredly on his way out of Chicago as they hold the No. 1 overall pick in April’s Draft and are widely expected to take Caleb Williams to be his replacement. However, the Bears are also going to take their time making that decision final, meaning Fields likely won’t get moved until much closer to (or during) the Draft.

That is an issue right now for Fields. The NFL is already an unforgiving place when it comes to providing opportunity. Teams don’t care about the extenuating circumstances that might’ve caused you to struggle, from coaching turnover to a lack of help on a roster. They just care that the production hasn’t measured up to expectations. Add in the desire to move quickly once free agency opens to fill your most important positions — something that is especially true at quarterback — and you end up with Fields sitting in limbo with fewer and fewer potential landing spots.

Fields, for his part, had the best season of his young career in 2023, completing 61.4 percent of his passes for 2,562 yards, 16 touchdowns, and nine interceptions while rushing for 657 yards and 4 TDS. However, the Bears were still a middling team at 5-8 with Fields starting, and while he took strides as a passer, there are still concerns about his willingness to let it rip and inconsistent production. There are games Fields looks like a potential high-end starter and others were he looks like a young quarterback still trying to adapt to the speed of the NFL game.

Entering his fourth year at 25 years old, there’s certainly still time for Fields to hit his full potential, but his biggest issue is he’s due to get paid next year. The going rate for a mid-tier starting quarterback in the NFL is $25 million (Jimmy Garoppolo, Geno Smith) to $35 million (Baker Mayfield, Jared Goff, Derek Carr). If teams aren’t sold on Fields being a lock to produce like that, they won’t want to give up a lot in a trade and be on the hook to pay him next year, because then you risk having spent decent draft capital on a one-year rental.

That’s why Fields now finds himself in a fairly precarious position as QB jobs dry up with free agency opening and the Draft looming. The Atlanta Falcons were seen as a snug fit for Fields, as he’s an Atlanta-area native, but they paid big money to bring in Kirk Cousins instead. The Steelers were also considered a potential landing spot for Fields, but chose to sign Russell Wilson on a cheap deal. The Vikings, who lost Cousins to the Falcons, quickly scooped up Sam Darnold as their apparent stop-gap quarterback until they can figure out a long-term option, whether that’s Darnold or someone they take in April. The Raiders, which signed Gardner Minshew, are in a similar spot.

That leaves just a handful of options for Fields before he finds himself on the outside looking in, possibly having to go the Geno Smith route to find his footing in the league. Making life harder for Fields (and the reason he’s in this position in the first place) is the fact that this year’s Draft features four QBs many project to be top-12 picks. Williams, Drake Maye, Jayden Daniels, and J.J. McCarthy all could go in the top-10, meaning bad teams that would otherwise be in the mix for a QB on the trade market would rather choose to roll the dice on landing their QB of the future. That’s not because those four are locks to being better than Fields, but because if you get a QB on a rookie deal, it opens up your chances to build out a contender quickly around them by spending money elsewhere.

The only starting jobs currently available are:

• New England Patriots (No. 2 pick)
• Washington Commanders (No. 3 pick)
• Denver Broncos (No. 12 pick)

Any of those three teams could look to trade a second-round pick for Fields and use their first-round selection to give him some weaponry around him — the Pats or Commanders could theoretically use their top-3 picks to pair him with another ex-Buckeye star in receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. However, that seems unlikely because of the financial reasons laid out above and the fact that teams needing quarterbacks tend to take them as much out of fear as out of desire. Passing on a generational quarterback (see: the Bears and Patrick Mahomes) can haunt your franchise for years, and teams are absolutely terrified of that happening. Few will be ridiculed if Fields becomes a star elsewhere for passing on the chance to trade for him, but if Maye or Daniels were to pop somewhere else while Fields stalls out in New England or Washington, they would never hear the end of it.

Is that a thing teams should worry about when building their team? Probably not, but it certainly factors into the calculus. If those three teams all choose to make their quarterback addition through the Draft, the only real hope for Fields is to get traded somewhere he could get into a quarterback competition.

The Titans have a new coaching staff — would they want someone else in the building to compete with Will Levis this year? The Raiders could surprise everyone and trade for Fields to compete with recently-signed Minshew for the starting job, particularly if they don’t end up with a QB of the future at No. 13 overall (or trading up), but that seems unlikely. The Giants just signed Drew Lock to backup Daniel Jones, seemingly removing my favorite potential Fields landing spot from the board of options (I think Brian Daboll would be just about the ideal coach for Fields). Maybe the Saints look to bring in Fields to push Derek Carr now that Jameis Winston is gone, but that’d be a questionable use of resources in New Orleans.

As of now, it seems more likely that Fields is a high-profile backup somewhere next year rather than a starter. That likely sets his timeline back a few years before even getting a chance as a starter again, following the Smith/Darnold/Minshew playbook. That can get you a 1-year “prove it” deal, which can get you a long-term contract. For now, it seems Fields is the latest victim of the NFL’s unforgiving lack of patience, but all it will take is seizing the next opportunity when it arrives to change all of that.

The Oscars have come and gone once again, and they have been the topic of discussion for numerous reasons: Oppenheimer winning for most of its nominations, including Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture; Ryan Gosling’s unforgettable performance of “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie; John Cena wearing nothing but Birkenstocks and his birthday suit to present the Oscar for Best Costume Design; and in the biggest upset of the night, Emma Stone winning for Best Actress instead of Lily Gladstone. A smaller, but still notable, moment that had people talking was Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt presenting together to pay tribute to the community of stuntpersons whose hard and amazing work helps make films so incredibly entertaining to watch. Some viewers at home thought this would’ve been a perfect opportunity for the two of them to announce that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences finally made it official, and introduce the new category of Best Stunt Choreography for the Oscars starting next year, along with Best Casting.

There have been many critics and cinephiles who have been clamoring for The Academy to lavish some praise and acknowledgment on the stunt community outside of the occasional speech and montage every few years. And there have been films that are perfect examples of why this should have become a reality by now. Films like the John Wick series (the staircase scene in Chapter 4 alone is proof of this), the Fast & Furious series, the Mission Impossible series, Bullet Train, The Woman King, Baby Driver (its writer-director, Edgar Wright, expressed his appreciation on Twitter for the film’s inclusion in the Oscars stunt montage, while also stating that more needs to be done), both volumes of Kill Bill, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and last but certainly not least, Mad Max: Fury Road.

If The Academy is truly serious about acknowledging the stunt community with its own category at the Oscars (and it is admittedly a long and complicated process for a new category to be introduced), here are some upcoming films this year that look like they will be deserving of some nominations for their stunt performers.

Monkey Man

Dev Patel makes his directorial debut (and puts his black belt in tae kwon do to very good use) in this Jordan Peele-produced action film about a young man working in an underground fight club who decides to inflict revenge on his mother’s killers. From what has been shown in the trailer so far (especially the red-band trailer), Monkey Man looks to be a combo of John Wick, Oldboy, and even Bloodsport that will earn the film its R rating, and with fight choreography that will have audiences talking about it long after the closing credits.

Boy Kills World

Before we get to see whether or not he surpasses expectations with his lead role in the long-awaited remake of The Crow, Bill Skårsgard stars in this action film about a young boy who becomes deaf and mute after witnessing the murder of his loved ones by a corrupt and powerful family, and spends the rest of his childhood in rigorous martial arts training so he can seek his revenge as an adult. Skårsgard’s inner voice is provided by the legendary H. Jon Benjamin, so have fun deciding for yourself as to whether it is Sterling Archer or Bob Belcher who is providing the narration for this.

Road House

There have been some conflicting viewpoints seen in the press as to whether this should be released in theaters, or whether it should be released on Amazon Prime Video. Regardless of which viewpoint is truthful and correct, viewers will get to see this remake of the 1989 cult classic that starred the late, great Patrick Swayze, and blessed us with memorable quotes like “Pain don’t hurt,” and “I want you to be nice until it’s time to not be nice”. Gyllenhaal plays a former MMA fighter who is hired by a bar owner (Jessica Williams) to help clean up her newest place of business in the Florida Keys so that it no longer resembles a slaughterhouse, which leads to him butting heads with a ruthless and boisterous troublemaker played by UFC champion Conor McGregor.

Deadpool & Wolverine

The long-awaited sequel/introduction of The Merc with a Mouth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is almost here, and this time, we get to see him cross paths with one of the best things to come out of Canada since maple syrup: Wolverine, the adamantium-clawed mutant who will be played once again by Hugh Jackman, despite the fact that we saw him perish in the 2017 film Logan. The Deadpool films have been well-known for their clever stunts and fight scenes, and seeing not just one, but two, superhuman characters who can take lots of punishment while they’re dishing it out, looks to promise even more.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road is centered on the origin story of Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road, and now played by Anya Taylor-Joy in this film), and how she became trapped in the nearly inescapable grasp of Immortan Joe and his War Boys. It already looks like it will be just as delightfully bonkers (or batshit, whichever works best) when it comes to the vehicular mayhem that is to be expected in any Mad Max tale, and much like Fury Road did upon its release, Furiosa is highly likely to inspire just as much noise from its viewers in asking/demanding The Academy to finally give the stunt community the praise and acknowledgment they all deserve.

The Fall Guy

The 1980s television series that starred Lee Majors as a stuntman who moonlights as a bounty hunter to track down criminals every week gets the big-screen treatment, with Ryan Gosling playing the role of stuntman Colt Seavers, and Emily Blunt as Jody, the action film director/ex-girlfriend of Colt who asks him to find the leading man for her mega-budgeted action film before it is shut down. This will be the second time Gosling plays a stuntman, though it’s safe to say that The Fall Guy will be a lot less gory and disturbing to watch than Drive. And if there’s any of these films that deserves an Oscar nod for Best Stunt Choreography, what better candidate than a film about a stuntperson doing what he does best to save the day?

Roku City used to be a safe and welcoming place filled with picturesque purple sunsets and nostalgia-fueled movie references. Now it’s just a glorified commercial. But this is how most cities evolve, so we shouldn’t be surprised. What is surprising is that the company is not very good at discouraging hackers from taking a quick vacation to Roku City, where they subsequently compromised nearly 15,000 accounts. Gotham sure looks like the preferred fictional city right about now.

The Hollywood Reporter revealed that 15,363 Roku accounts were compromised between December 28, 2023 and February 21, 2024. Filings in California and Maine indicate that hackers obtained login data from another source to try and purchase streaming subscriptions.

A company spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter:

Roku’s security team recently detected suspicious activity that indicated a limited number of Roku accounts were accessed by unauthorized actors using login credentials obtained from third-party sources (e.g., through data breaches of third-party services that are not related to Roku). In response, we took immediate steps to secure these accounts and are notifying affected customers. Roku is committed to maintaining our customers’ privacy and security, and we take this incident very seriously.

Bleeping Computer also reported that the stolen accounts were being sold for as little as $0.50 per account.

While it sounds scary, the company assured customers that the hackers did not gain access to “social security numbers, full payment account numbers, dates of birth, or other similar sensitive personal information requiring notification.” It seems like they really just wanted to log in to Hulu and see what Shogun is all about.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

The wait for Stranger Things season five just got even longer.

During a recent appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, star Millie Bobby Brown revealed that there’s still many months of shooting remaining for the final season of the Netflix series. “We have nine months left,” she said, according to Screen Rant.

Bobby Brown declined to reveal any more details than that, however, because “I really like Netflix, I’d like to be employed by them for a really long time, because I sign a piece of paper that tells me I’m not allowed to say anything, and I think I owe it to them to keep my mouth shut… I know what happens to my character. I haven’t read the script because they are in the process of writing them. I think I read up to episode six… But like I said, I like working for Netflix, I’m going to be a good girl.”

Nine months from now is December 2024. Stranger Things requires lots of visual effects, so add another six or seven months, at least, for post-production work. That means fans of the show shouldn’t expect season five to premiere until summer 2025, at the absolute summer. By then, Finn Wolfhard will be [checks notes] 82 years old. It’ll be distracting seeing Mike with a long, white beard, but we’ll get used to it.

Until Stranger Things returns, you can watch Bobby Brown in Damsel.

(Via Screen Rant)

In a relatively short time, 39-year-old Swedish composer Ludwig Göransson has become a favorite of both hip-hop fans and geek fandoms online thanks to his expansive oeuvre. Since 2011, he’s garnered attention from the former for his production work alongside Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, and more. Meanwhile, fans of sci-fi epics and superhero movies know him for his contributions to scores for massive multimedia franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars.

However, there’s one group that isn’t too happy with him this week: Gamers. A search for his name on social media outlets today would surface a roiling debate over Göransson’s comments on Sunday during his Oscars acceptance speech. After receiving the award for Best Original Score for Oppenhaimer (his second win after receiving one in 2018 for Black Panther), he thanked his parents “for giving me guitars and drum machines instead of video games.”

This has obviously riled the gaming community, who view themselves as oft-put-upon despite the gaming industry’s record worldwide profits and popularity. There’s probably a whole 2000-word article to be written about why they feel this way, but in general, they seem salty that Göransson appeared to deride their hobby in his thanks to his parents. Since I started off talking about hip-hop, there’s no better example to use here than the homie Mega Ran, a stalwart of the so-called “nerdcore” subgenre of rap, who called the comments “an unnecessary bit of shade.”

Over on Twitter, the discourse has gotten heated, with many gamers rightly pointing out that video games have featured or inspired some of the most recognizable music in pop culture, from the Mario theme to the chiptune subgenre that reproduces the 8- and 16-bit sounds of millennial nostalgia for original works.

Of course, there’s no speaking for Mr. Göransson either way, but whether he was legitimately putting games down or just joking about his parents’ refusal to let him have something many, many other ’90s kids begged their parents to have (many to no avail), one positive to take away from this whole kerfuffle is an appreciation of the wide range of musical styles in video game music. Maybe as a mea culpa, he can compose the music for a triple-A game or two, just to prove he can.

South By Southwest is happening right now, spanning this year from March 8 to 16. Things haven’t been perfect so far, though. Some artists have opted to pull out of their performances due to one of the festival’s sponsors. Now, SXSW has shared a statement after a hit-and-run in Austin resulted in a death.

SXSW’s statement reads, “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of an individual in downtown Austin following an auto-pedestrian accident shortly after 1:00am this morning. Our thoughts are with all affected by this tragic incident.”

As Fox 7 Austin reports, after 1 a.m. on March 12, two pedestrians were walking at the intersection of 7th Street and Red River and were hit by a vehicle, according to police. One of them died on the scene, while the other was taken to a hospital “with critical, life-threatening injuries.” The intersection has closed after the accident but had re-opened as of 5 a.m. Police are still looking for the driver.

The intersection where the hit-and-run took place is near participating SXSW venues like Elysium, The Creek And The Cave, and Flamingo Cantina, among others.

Meanwhile, Uproxx recently published a guide on the unofficial SXSW parties happening in Austin, so learn more about that here.