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Have you ever watched a James Bond movie and noticed that as he races his Astin Martin through the hills of an exotic European locale, the street signs look a lot different than those in America? Did you also notice that they don’t have many words, mostly shapes and pictures?

It isn’t by accident. Many years ago, there was a movement to get America on board with the rest of the world so all of our street signs would be the same, but it never happened. For better or worse, America, once again, exercised its independent spirit and stuck with its signs.

The whole story was recently told on YouTube by Half as Interesting. This channel prides itself on being an “Education-y explainer videos that are almost good enough to watch.”

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The chasm between the U.S. and the rest of the world regarding traffic signs started in the early 1900s when Henry Ford began mass-producing automobiles and America quickly became the car capital of the world.

This also made the U.S. the road capital of the world.

Why US Signs Look Different Than The Rest Of The World’s

The signage across the U.S. in the early days of the automobile was inconsistent, which would cause problems as people drove from region to region and couldn’t make sense of the signage. So, in 1931, a committee of traffic sign organizations created a joint committee that ultimately came up with the 1931 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

This Bible of signage gave us the stop sign we all know and love, along with the iconic “One Way” and “Railroad Crossing” signs that are still used today.

As the rest of the world caught up to the U.S., the United Nations attempted to get the world on the same page regarding traffic signs, but the U.S. wouldn’t go along. “It turned out that Americans, still riding the intoxicating high of World War II propaganda and American exceptionalism, did not look kindly on European triangles telling them how to drive,” the video says.

In 1968, the Vienna Convention on Road Signs & Signals created a universal road sign system joined by 69 countries, and today, it governs the road signs seen in most of the world. The United States refused to sign the agreement. Why? Half as Interesting cites 3 big reasons.

“Technically, legally, roads are under the purview of the states, not the federal government and so the federal government signing a treaty telling them how to handle their roads is a bit legally murky, the video says.

“Second, at the time of the treaty, the US was working on the Interstate highway system, which they felt would require a lot of breathless, fast-paced innovation in the rough and tumble world of roadside signage and they didn’t want to be bogged down by the strictures of a treaty,” the video continues. “Third, given that the US had the most robust driving history in the world, Americans were pretty much their existing signs and they didn’t much want them to change.”

If the UN figured out how to tell the British to drive on the other side of the road, Americans could get a rental car in London.

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It’s no fun when a family feuds, but it gets particularly nasty when the public gets involved. After Cardi B accused her estranged husband, Offset, of wrongdoing during an explosive Instagram Live, fans quickly began to take sides. Despite denying rumors that he was romantically connected to Chrisean Rock, people online have begun to flood Offset’s social media comment sections with nasty messages.

Although the personal attacks haven’t phased him, Offset put his foot down when people began to turn their attention to the late Migos member Takeoff. In a disgusting attempt to hurt Offset, several accounts made tasteless jokes about Takeoff’s tragic death. On Saturday, December 16, Offset reached his boiling point.

“Fan wishing death on Takeoff is crazy. Y’all lil ass better chill,” wrote Offset.

He later posted, “Correction: Fans using Takeoff’s name in the middle of all this isn’t cool. I’m still grieving my brother and would like for his name not to be brought up.”

Quavo also chimed in on the matter, coming to the defense of his late nephew. “Nephew ain’t wit the soap opera. LONG LIVE Rocket pray for y’all tho,” he wrote.

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

Everybody loves TV revivals. Well, maybe not everybody. For every Night Court, which has enjoyed critical and commercial success, there’s a Frasier, which is not as beloved as the original, to put it mildly. Could the fate befall, let’s say, Everybody Loves Raymond? We’ll probably never find out.

Per Variety, Ray Romano went on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday, where the subject of reviving one of the biggest sitcoms of the ‘90s and aughts came up. Romano didn’t even see that as a possibility.

“As far as a reboot, well, it’s now out of the question because unfortunately the parents are gone: Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts,” Romano pointed out.

Still, Frasier 2.0 managed to eke by without even most of its surviving cast members, including David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves. Couldn’t a Raymond 2.0 focus on the remaining Barones? Alas, Romano had another reason to keep on keepin’ on: He doesn’t think reboots are so hot.

“They’re never as good,” Romano said. “We want to leave with our legacy with what it is.”

Luckily, those who love the suburban adventures of the Barones can watch them on either Peacock and on Paramount+. Perhaps 210 episodes across nine whole seasons is enough.

As for Romano, he’s doing just fine. He’ll soon be appearing in Netflix’s No Good Deed, a dark comedy starring him and Lisa Kudrow. Heck, he’s even been (great) in a Martin Scorsese picture, even if the great director had no idea he was a big deal.

(Via Variety)

Everybody loves TV revivals. Well, maybe not everybody. For every Night Court, which has enjoyed critical and commercial success, there’s a Frasier, which is not as beloved as the original, to put it mildly. Could the fate befall, let’s say, Everybody Loves Raymond? We’ll probably never find out.

Per Variety, Ray Romano went on Real Time with Bill Maher Friday, where the subject of reviving one of the biggest sitcoms of the ‘90s and aughts came up. Romano didn’t even see that as a possibility.

“As far as a reboot, well, it’s now out of the question because unfortunately the parents are gone: Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts,” Romano pointed out.

Still, Frasier 2.0 managed to eke by without even most of its surviving cast members, including David Hyde Pierce and Jane Leeves. Couldn’t a Raymond 2.0 focus on the remaining Barones? Alas, Romano had another reason to keep on keepin’ on: He doesn’t think reboots are so hot.

“They’re never as good,” Romano said. “We want to leave with our legacy with what it is.”

Luckily, those who love the suburban adventures of the Barones can watch them on either Peacock and on Paramount+. Perhaps 210 episodes across nine whole seasons is enough.

As for Romano, he’s doing just fine. He’ll soon be appearing in Netflix’s No Good Deed, a dark comedy starring him and Lisa Kudrow. Heck, he’s even been (great) in a Martin Scorsese picture, even if the great director had no idea he was a big deal.

(Via Variety)

“Sorry Not Sorry” singer Demi Lovato might have split from their longtime manager, Scooter Braun, not so long ago, but they’ve rebounded. Lovato’s team shared an exclusive with People, revealing their relationship with songwriter Jordan ‘Jutes’ Lutes is heating up.

According to the outlet, on Saturday, December 16, Lutes asked for Lovato’s hand in marriage, to which they said yes. Now the pair are happily engaged and excited about their future together. The duo first met when they penned Lovato’s song “Substance” together. Since then, they’ve been spotted at multiple industry events, including the 2023 Pre-Grammy Gala in February.

On December 9, Lovato gushed about their relationship during the musician’s appearance on the The Jennifer Hudson Show. When asked about their adorable tattoo exchange, Lovato said, “So my boyfriend was on tour with me, visiting, and we had a tattoo artist there, and he wanted to get a tattoo of a song title of mine called ‘Forever for Me,’ which is a song I wrote about him. And while he was getting tattooed, he was like, ‘I want you to do it.’”

Lovato continued while laughing, “I assisted. I wouldn’t say that I gave the full tattoo. Otherwise, that would have looked really bad. But I did a good portion of it, and it turned out ok.”

Last month, multiple explosive lawsuits were filed accusing the entertainment industry’s biggest names of several egregious acts. On Saturday, December 16, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee’s name was added to this ongoing list. In documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Lee has been sued by a Jane Doe plaintiff, alleging that he sexually assaulted her during a helicopter ride in February 2003.

In the filing, Doe claims that while traveling from San Diego County to Van Nuys, California, Lee forcibly groped, kissed, penetrated her with his fingers, and attempted to force her to perform oral copulation.

“At one point, Lee penetrated the plaintiff with his fingers while fondling her breasts,” reads the paperwork. “Lee then pulled down his pants and attempted to force the plaintiff’s head toward his genitals. By this point, the plaintiff was in tears but had nowhere to go — she was trapped with little mobility to leave the cockpit.”

Lee isn’t the only party named in the lawsuit. Mayhem Touring, Tommy Lee Inc., A Natural High Helicopters, and Social Helicopters are also named as defendants. Although the flight’s pilot, David Martz, who died in 2015, was mentioned in the recounting of the incident, which accused him of facilitating the alleged assault, he was not posthumously listed as a co-defendant.

The defendants are being sued for sexual assault, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence. Doe is asking for past, present, and future damages, including but not limited to medical expenses, loss of earnings, and loss of earnings capacity.

Last week was not a great one for Rudy Giuliani. Most weeks over the last three years have not been great for the very former “America’s Mayor,” but usually they’re simply humiliating. This one was gutting. First it was revealed he’s basically broke. Then a judge ordered him to pay a staggering amount to the two poll workers whose lives he upended, all for a guy who let him take the fall. SNL resisted kicking Giuliani when he’s down for their latest Cold Open, despite the presence of host and impersonator Kate McKinnon. But they saved up some yuks for Weekend Update.

“After being found liable for defamation against two Georgia election workers, Rudy Giuliani was ordered yesterday to pay the hilarious sum of 148 million dollars,” said Colin Jost. “You might as well just make it a billion, ’cause there’s no way he can pay it.”

Jost then went in for the kill: “At this point they only call Giuliani the ‘Mayor of 9/11’ because that’s all that’s left in his bank account.”

The show then brought up an image from Giuliani’s historic mysterious black goo gaffe, with Jost describing him as “amazingly seen here in better times.”

Jost went on saying that Giuliani “said during the trial that it was an ‘accident’ that he attacked the plaintiffs repeatedly on social media, with the judge noting, ‘there’s a lot of accidents going on.’ Said Giuliani, ‘Oh, you could smell that?’”

Later on in the segment, Che and Jost embarked on their annual “Joke Swap,” which resulted in the former forcing the latter to make a brutal swipe at his wife, actress Scarlett Johansson.

You can watch the opening stretch of Weekend Update in the video above.

Every year, for the year’s final SNL, Weekend Update hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost have a fun little tradition. It’s called “Joke Swap,” and it’s just that: Che forces Jost to read jokes he wrote for him, and vice versa. Che’s jokes for Jost, though, are a little special: They usually involve forcing him to say something racially tinged, to make his humiliation all the more powerful. This year Che upped the ante in more ways than one.

For one thing, he invited on one “Dr. Hattie Davis,” described as a “poet, author, activist.” (Note: There is no information online for Hattie Davis, and Reddit folks have ID’d her as an extra seen in past episodes.) That way any joke Jost is forced to recite would be all the more embarrassing for him. We’ll get back to that in a bit.

For another, towards the end of “Joke Swap 2023,” Che got personal.

“New York state now allows movie theaters to serve alcohol,” Jost was forced to say, “which is how I’m finally able to enjoy my wife’s little art movies.” Of course, Jost’s wife is none other than Scarlett Johansson, and the dig prompted a poster for Black Widow, her final MCU bout, to pop up. (In reality, Jost did avoid watching that one, but for other reasons.)

But wait, there was more: “I’m kidding, honey. I love all of your movies. And if you ask me, you’re an even better black widow than Coretta Scott King.”

That wasn’t the most mortifying joke Jost had to make in front of Dr. Davis. You can judge which one was worse for yourself, but Jost did get in his own digs via one joke he made Che read.

“Last month Beyoncé posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a chrome Versace dress and platinum blonde hair that many people online described as ‘too white,’” Che was forced to read. “In fact, Beyoncé looked so white that I was finally attracted to her.”

You can watch this year’s “Joke Swap” in the video above.

Every year, for the year’s final SNL, Weekend Update hosts Michael Che and Colin Jost have a fun little tradition. It’s called “Joke Swap,” and it’s just that: Che forces Jost to read jokes he wrote for him, and vice versa. Che’s jokes for Jost, though, are a little special: They usually involve forcing him to say something racially tinged, to make his humiliation all the more powerful. This year Che upped the ante in more ways than one.

For one thing, he invited on one “Dr. Hattie Davis,” described as a “poet, author, activist.” (Note: There is no information online for Hattie Davis, and Reddit folks have ID’d her as an extra seen in past episodes.) That way any joke Jost is forced to recite would be all the more embarrassing for him. We’ll get back to that in a bit.

For another, towards the end of “Joke Swap 2023,” Che got personal.

“New York state now allows movie theaters to serve alcohol,” Jost was forced to say, “which is how I’m finally able to enjoy my wife’s little art movies.” Of course, Jost’s wife is none other than Scarlett Johansson, and the dig prompted a poster for Black Widow, her final MCU bout, to pop up. (In reality, Jost did avoid watching that one, but for other reasons.)

But wait, there was more: “I’m kidding, honey. I love all of your movies. And if you ask me, you’re an even better black widow than Coretta Scott King.”

That wasn’t the most mortifying joke Jost had to make in front of Dr. Davis. You can judge which one was worse for yourself, but Jost did get in his own digs via one joke he made Che read.

“Last month Beyoncé posted a photo on Instagram of herself in a chrome Versace dress and platinum blonde hair that many people online described as ‘too white,’” Che was forced to read. “In fact, Beyoncé looked so white that I was finally attracted to her.”

You can watch this year’s “Joke Swap” in the video above.

SNL Cold Opens aren’t always great. Some are actively bad. The one last week, though, was a rarity: a true epic misfire. It saw the live sketch show taking on a powder keg situation: university students protesting Israel’s continued attacks on Palestine. To say they didn’t handle it well would be an understatement. Original star Cecily Strong even pulled out at the last moment, allegedly because it left her “uncomfortable.”

Perhaps that explains the rabidly apolitical Cold Open that kicked off the final SNL of 2023, a sketch so anodyne that it might actually be worse.

The subject is the “95th Annual Christmas Awards,” hosted by “two people from the E! Network you’ve never heard of,” played by Heidi Gardner and Bowen Yang. That we never actually learn their lines is the best joke of the sketch. The other jokes are all very safe and easy. They hand out accolades for “Most Disappointing Gift Given to a 10-Year-Old Boy” and “Most Unwelcome Uninvited Guest,” whose nominees included “COVID.”

As with last week’s controversial opener, Kenan Thompson swooped in at the end to save the day, not with better material so much as peerless delivery. He played the winner of the special “Bravery in the Service of Their Family” award, winning for “Grandpa Needs Help In the Bathroom.”

“You never want to get that phone call,” Thompson said. “But when you do, you go in there, grit your teeth and try not to make eye contact. I’m horrified to accept this award.”

It’s tradition that the night’s guest host not appear in the Cold Open, but given that this week was lorded over by alum Kate McKinnon, and given that McKinnon does a mean Rudy Giuliani, and given that Rudy Giuliani had quite another wacky week, surely they could have made an exception.

You can watch the SNL Cold Open in the video above.