Each year, the Comedy Wildlife Awards highlights photos that capture our animal friends in hilarious moments, made all the more delightful by the fact that not one of them is actually trying to be funny.
Perhaps that’s one reason we love animal and little kid videos so much. Their hilarity is so pure. And we’ve got a whole passel of funny kiddos and furry friends in this week’s list of things that made us smile.
If you’re looking for some small joys to lift your spirit, we’ve got you covered! Enjoy!
1. Kiddo steals the show at his sister’s end-of-year dance school concert
33 Days Until Christmas! We had to take a trip to the North Pole so Kohen can tell Santa what he would like for Christmas personally đ đ„č #santaselevator #fyp #santaselevatorexpress #santa #christmas2023
The Natick Mall has taken the mall Santa visit to a whole other level. Read the full story here.
3. You think you’ve seen every cute kitten-attacks-dog-friend video and then this one comes along
â (@)
And the doggo was still so gentle. So darn cute.
4. Groom surprises his bride’s family by learning Korean in secret
6. Twins separated shortly after birth were both named Jim and led wildly parallel lives
Identical twins separated as newborns may not seem like a smile-worthy story, but the parallels between their lives are so remarkable, it’s like the universe decided to play a hilarious joke on everyone. Not only did their adoptive parents name them both Jim, they also both had childhood dogs named Toy and a brother named Larry. They both married women named Linda, got divorced, then married women named Betty. They both named their sons Jamesâone of them James Alan and one of them James Allan. And that’s not even the end of the bizarre coincidences in their lives before they met at age 39.
In an era where sustainability meets self-care, the Boie Body Scrubber emerges as a standout hero in our daily routines. Itâs not just another bath accessory; it’s a revolution in skin health and environmental responsibility. Crafted from unique, 100% recyclable materials, the Boie Scrubber redefines what staying clean and green means. As we become more conscious of the products we use daily, the Boie Scrubber promises a cleaner body and a cleaner planet.
Picture this: a body scrubber that loves the planet as much as you do. Boie’s Scrubber is a dream come true for anyone who takes recycling seriously. Made from BPA and phthalate-free thermoplastic elastomer, it doesn’t just clean your skin; it helps clean up your environmental act. Every Scrubber is engineered for longevity, drastically reducing waste from tossing out traditional sponges and plastic loofahs. And when it’s finally time to part ways? Boie has ensured their scrubbers are 100% recyclable, completing a full circle of sustainability. You can even send your worn-out scrubber directly to Boie as part of their âSend-It-Backâ program, and theyâll recycle it for you. Because choosing Boie isn’t just good for you; itâs a step towards less plastic waste.
Here’s a not-so-fun fact: traditional bath sponges can be breeding grounds for bacteria. But with Boie, it’s a different story. Their Body Scrubberâs design features antimicrobial properties for keeping those unwanted bacteria at bay. This isn’t just about staying clean; it’s about staying healthy. While typical scrubbers can irritate your skin or introduce bacteria, the Boie Scrubber is a guardian for your skin’s health, ensuring a cleaner, safer wash every time. Itâs also hypoallergenic, which is great news for people with acne, eczema, and keratosis pilaris.
Wave goodbye to the endless cycle of buying and tossing out old plastic loofahs. The Boie Body Scrubber is here to break that loop. Engineered for endurance, this Scrubber doesnât just survive shower after shower; it thrives. Where traditional sponges and loofahs deteriorate and become less effective over time, the Boie Scrubber stands the test of time. This isnât just good news for your wallet, saving you from constant replacements; it’s also a win for reducing waste. In the long run, Boie isnât just a purchase â itâs an investment in sustainability and savings.
Step into a shower experience that’s not just clean but comfortabe too. The Boie Body Scrubber’s ergonomic design fits snugly in your palm, so using it is a breeze. This scrubber isn’t just about ease, it elevates your daily ritual. Its flexible bristles glide smoothly over your skin, offering a gentle yet effective cleanse. Every curve and contour of your body is effortlessly reached, turning a simple shower into a spa-like experience. With Boie, it’s not just about getting clean â it’s about indulging in a moment of self care.
Let’s face it: nobody enjoys the post-shower chore of cleaning a soggy, bacteria-laden sponge. Enter the Boie Body Scrubberâ the low-maintenance hero of your bathroom. Thanks to its clever design, this Scrubber is a cinch to clean and dries in a snap: no more unpleasant dampness or the accompanying worries about hygiene. While traditional sponges can become a hassle to keep germ-free, the Boie Scrubber makes maintenance effortless. It’s all about giving you more time to enjoy your shower and less worrying about what’s lurking in your loofah.
Generally speaking, Iâm not a fan of Christmas creep. It should go: October is for Halloween, November is for Thanksgiving, and December is for Christmas (and/or Hanukkah). But my Grinch-like protest is for naught: Mariah Careyâs âAll I Want For Christmas Is Youâ has been terrorizing retail workers since October, and donât even get me started on people who replace their inflatable 12-foot skeleton with a 15-foot Rudolph on the first of November.
The only good thing about Christmas creep is that it means we get to look forward to a certain commercial. Yes, it does exist.
The M&Mâs commercial âFaintâ debuted in December 1996 (the same year that America had Tickle Me Elmo fever). It still airs on TV every holiday season in all its standard-definition glory. The ad, as Iâm sure you know, begins with Yellow, voiced by Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, asking Red (Futurama legend Billy West) if Santa Claus will enjoy eating red and green M&Ms. âI donât know. I never met the guy,â Red answers. They never find out, because as they skulk around a living room at night, they run into the big man. âHe does exist!â Red yells. âThey do exist!â Santa says incredulously. Both Red and Santa faint from shock and wonder, leaving Yellow alone with his bowl of candy.
The commercial is a classic, but it also begs a lot of questions. Is Santa in Red and Yellowâs house? Why is Red so mad at Yellow for asking a reasonable question? Is it cannibalism for Yellow to serve a human being his own kind? And most importantly, who plays Santa?
That last question remains a mystery (sorry Santa), but I did learn the actor nearly got a concussion while filming the ad. This was among the many revelations during my chat with âFaintâ animation director David Daniels, who is also the co-founder of Bent Image Lab and creator of the strata-cut animation technique. He, along with his co-workers at Will Vinton Studios, helped imagine the M&Mâs âto be a kind of CG update to the California Raisins, with broader personalities, clear actions, and not cynical, â Daniels told Uproxx. Thatâs apparent in the commercial, which has run for decades because of its wholesomeness.
Below is our interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.
How does it feel watching a 1996 commercial in 2023?
Wow. Thereâs a tremendous amount of different feelings. Itâs amazing generally, just to know that the crew and the talent that I was directing still resonates. And that in a larger sense, itâs because the M&Ms themselves still exist as they were designed in 1994 and 1995. Having been there at the birth, I see it as a testament to all the thoughtful energy put into their characterizations and their movements and their surfaces. And then generally the humor of two myths meeting each other thinking the other is not real. It works for a 15-second spot. Itâs impressive that it doesnât need to be a 30. It still works, which is why they could play it so much.
Itâs a very charming spot, because generally the M&Ms are built around their own insecurities, and how small they are or how edible they are, so they live in a world of threat. People are either going to be nice to them, or theyâre going to eat them. So, we did a lot of thinking about what they could do. You could have a gag where a truck comes by and Red is in the middle of the street, and he goes, âAhh,â but then heâs still standing there, of course, because heâs so small. And the truck just went right over him. Thatâs just a tip of the iceberg of the theory that you take everything thatâs their flaw and make comedy out of it.
Iâm probably overthinking things here, but itâs weird that Red and Yellow are serving Santa a bowl of M&Ms, right? Itâs candy cannibalism.
Many of our brothers had to die for this, this holiday treat experience [laughs]. I think that happens on a practical level, like, well, what are you going to do? OK, well, theyâre coming in to do this. Well, we want to put more product in the spot, so therefore, theyâre carrying a bowl of M&Ms. Itâs not a cup of hot chocolate or something else that would be more traditional. And then the irony comes from that, but I donât think it comes from, like, the first thing weâre going to do is make something ironic here. Itâs the second thing that happens. But itâs certainly funny that way, isnât it?
Tell me about when you started working at Will Vinton Studios.
I moved to Portland in 1992 as a stop motion and strata-cut animator. Having succeeded at first MTV during the decade of the â80s and then a larger sort of mixed media thing, I was doing all kinds of styles and Will Vinton Studios needed to expand beyond the California Raisins and the Noid, which were the moneymakers for them in the late â80s. So they hired me. I was the first director at Will Vinton Studios who was not homegrown. They went outside of their community. That was an effort to revitalize the studio, which, in a sense, the M&Ms is the culmination of that revitalization.
I brought computers with me, which they didnât have. There was no computer animation in Portland in 1992. And I had been doing a lot of work in motion control as well. So motion control is really pivotal to elegant stop motion. Itâs stuff that I had been doing that they didnât have a knack for. So I was able to bring technical innovation to the studio. I was able to bring a lot of jobs to the studio that they wouldnât get because I was much more different in how I use clay.
How did you land the M&Ms gig?
I had been working on a lot of other jobs. And I was taking a vacation, literally the week that the job started. The first M&Ms job with a live shoot in 1994, the director⊠Will Vinton is the guy the agency thought they were hiring, but as they got to know him, they wanted to work with his assistant director Larry Bafia. Will, letâs say, let his ego get in the way of the relationship. They were trying to make Seinfeld with candy, the agency, and he was trying to make Mark Twain with candy. Bless his heart, heâs a very sweet man.
It was a 12-week animation schedule, and Larry quit in week one during a live shoot after a humiliating public tongue-lashing from Will that horrified the agency in all respects during a voice record session in Los Angeles. Will wanted to have final say on the voice reads, and it is traditional for the agency to have the last word. So Larry walked off and quit. And the agency said, âOh my God.â They threw me into it, right? It was literally, âOK,â the next day, âwhat do we do?â And I got on the phone and we landed that puppy.
We had to hire 16 people who really hadnât worked at Vinton before. So it was a talent thing. It was everything. We had to buy a lot of equipment and we parallel-processed our way so every person would, in a sense, work on one shot and only one shot. I became the animation director because the agency was freaked out about not making the M&Ms into the Pillsbury Doughboy. Thatâs exactly what they didnât want: nice and cute. Predictable. It went on for two years. Kirk, my technical director, we had to do a lot of hot wiring, hacking, just brute forcing our equipment to make it professionally finished in that time.
Because the ad has been playing for so long, is there a consistent paycheck, year after year? Or was it a one-time lump sum?
No, itâs like advertising. Itâs one sum. Nobody gets paid after the job is done. I mean, youâd have to be celebrity status to write a contract like that, and weâre a production company. Iâd be rich [laughs]. But what they did get was, of course, M&Ms ads forever. Not forever, but up until⊠Well, thatâs a longer story I donât want to get into. But pretty much 12 ads a year at $200,000 to $400,000 each, depending on if it was 15 or 30. It was a great baseline because it kept coming. [Advertising agency] BBDO was a juggernaut of advertising, and it had high visibility and fun character work.
I give credit to Susan Credle, whoâs still highly successful in advertising, and her partner Steve Rutter. They wanted small, subtle, human acting with sarcasm and self-involved personalities. With complex thinking for the characters. The comedy was to be built from the flaws and very human quirks of each personality. To make candy not be, as they would say, âa mile wide and an inch deep,â which is what the Pillsbury Doughboy is. Very likable and completely forgettable, except for [Daniels does an impression of the Doughboy giggle]. You have your one mnemonic, but you have no personal connection with him, right? Whereas with a variety of M&Ms, the point of it is to allow personalities.
What do you think Billy West and JK Simmons brought to the roles?
It started off with, as you know, as Jon Lovitz and John Goodman [as the voices of Red and Yellow, respectively]. The braggadocio, the pompous self-importance of Red with verbal vulnerability. You know heâs bullshitting half the time or pumping himself up, or just being an asshole, but not with an edge. What Billy brought to it is charm. Heâs great. Itâs a great voice. And Yellow is the lovable lunk, which allows you to not think so badly about Red. Red likes having Yellow around because he likes people, letâs say, less astute than him. So he feels bigger. Thatâs why heâs friends with Yellow. But for the audience, itâs good to have the complement of the two. Thereâs a Laurel and Hardy thing, as well. Classic shapes and behaviors that are opposites. I think a lot of other people could have played Yellow. I think Red is really key.
One piece of information that I canât really find out there about the ad is the name of the actor who played Santa. Do you remember?
No, but that actor also has some stunt credit credentials. It wasnât just that he was an actor, but he also had done some stunt work. Because he has to fall, like, literally fall in that shot. And he falls behind the sofa. Well, the first take we did, he fell and he pretty much got his bell rung. That was a concussion, the poor guy. There was a moment on set weâre like, â[scared, frantic noise].â We didnât kill Santa, but itâs like, who is going to put on the suit? It was a good 10 minutes, half hour as they were trying to shake him, shake the cobwebs out, and then they were redesigning his suit. He needed to be better padded on the back of his suit when he fell. All that stuff needed to be improved, so it just wasnât done right. We got it on the next takes. He was a trooper and came around.
That was one of the physical challenges. What were some of the technical challenges of combining live action with computer graphics at the time?
Well, cameramen and live-action people who are generally shooting this donât visualize invisible characters very well. So a lot of the challenge is first to set down an object thatâs a yellow egg thatâs three feet tall and a red oval thatâs two and a half feet tall. So, we build little creatures to put into this, so they can line it up. Literally, weâre saying, âOK, theyâre here, theyâre here, theyâre here.â
We would also shoot plates so we could get the surfaces in the lighting correct. A lot of animation matching is to see the exact lighting and the exact position, so as you get the plate back, you shoot them with it and without it so you can use the reflection on these puppet-like models that have been put in.
The longevity is crazy. Iâm waiting for AI to improve that commercial. I havenât looked at it recently, like I didnât look at it last year. Have they finally done it?
Nope.
Usually, thatâs a telltale sign, and you wouldnât put that up in 2023. But itâs charming perhaps when people think of it like that. I know when I was young and I watched things that were made a decade or two earlier, the charm is that theyâre so quaint.
Do you remember any of the rejected character designs for the M&Ms?
I want to give credit to Robin Ator, who was key to the design of these characters and their success. He was a longtime storyboard artist at Will Vinton Studios, and I really loved his ability. Those characters in a sense had already been generalized in the storyboard stage at the beginning, but manifesting them into three-dimensional objects was a completely different thing. And thatâs what I was really responsible for. But he established the character stuff. The one thing I think that I really did add was the mouth shapes. I â and Chris Olgren, who sculpted the lip shapes and mouths for Red and Yellow â really went after the fact they have to have fatter lips. Yellow has to have a fatter lip at the bottom. The mouth shapes really are charming. In CG at the time, you could make very kind of pinched-looking things. And it took a lot of work.
Have you been to M&Ms World? That has to be a weird experience.
Itâs odd. Itâs indescribable. Itâs such an epiphany. Itâs amazing. One thing that runs through my mind is if it was going to last this long and be this widespread, and be so prolifically recreated in all these venues, I would have done a better job. Itâs that kind of feeling. I look at it and go, âOh, we could do better now.â But they stick with a series of original decisions. Because of course, you know, I understand that thereâs their thing and why mess with something if itâs working. So thatâs what goes on in my little machine, I think, âOh, itâs still working. Like, wow, thatâs crazy.â Because youâre thrown into something not knowing the length of time itâs ever going to be seen. I was just working two jobs for 10 weeks. I knew more would come if we succeeded⊠but youâre not thinking, 25 years out in your mind. So yes, itâs kind of really amazing.
I have mixed feelings in the sense that â this would probably be the dark version of it â they represent obesity to me in some respects. Since obesity has become such a big thing in the acceptance of culture, you know, weâre a very overweight culture, and thatâs putting it politely. Iâve recently done some McDonaldâs nugget characters too, recently, and I think, âIs this a gateway drug to allow people to think itâs OK to eat all this stuff and be fat, right?â Thatâs the dark side.
But thereâs some really good stuff, too, because it brings joy. Thereâs a lot of people who say, âOh, thatâs such a great set of memories from my childhood.â A lot of work Iâve done that isnât the M&Ms, they will say, âOh, wow, you did that spot, too.â And Iâll have that mixed feeling. But Iâll be very grateful to bring a little laughter to life. Itâs not the worst thing. There is a fantasy component to it, which I think is good. People should have more imagination.
Youâre speaking like a true creative by finding perceived flaws in things that people love.
Especially over time. And I have a lot of not nostalgia, but a sense of cultural Gestalt. You have to always give credit to the animators and the team, and the actual CG sculptors who I was trying to direct to get these things done. The great thing about animation is youâre always working with another team each time, but youâre all in it together. And youâre all with it. Thereâs a humility about the achievement because it took so much to actually create an illusion of life.
Weâve been talking so much about the present but letâs change the subject to the future. Are there any upcoming projects of yours that you would like to highlight?
What Iâm super excited about is that Iâm going to be doing strata cuts as neural radiance fields (NeRF). Currently, thereâs a form of neural radiance fields called a Gaussian splatter. That will allow your phone to capture from multiple cameras, but then itâs able to synthesize it as an inference. You can now re-cut up your strata cut from any angle. This will help stop motion. Imagine I can see the stop motion, but I can move my head around it now from any angle, and I can watch it in time from any time duration. The term is âSpatial Cinema.â Thatâs something Iâve dreamed about four years ago and thought maybe, you know, eventually, but I think time has finally caught up. Thatâs the one thing I live for because it gets beyond the two-dimensional nature of the screen finally. Itâs literally a three-dimensional understanding of something over time thatâs sculpturally happening in front of you. Thatâs my goal.
Rootinâ tootinâ Lauren Boebert simply could not help herself. The controversy courting congresswoman (and confused Dolly Parton fan) is still attempting to make people forget about her public groping escapades, and so of course she is seizing upon every opportunity to draw attention to her not-so-inclusive agenda instead. And what better way to do so than by pulling in a very famous comedian who happened to be on Capitol Hill to visit some old friends?
Those friends do not include Boebert, although she was all too happy to lend that appearance. Hereâs Boebert grinning away with Chappelle in the background along with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna. And then came the brazen caption: âJust three people who understand that thereâs only two genders.â
Given Boebertâs outspoken anti-drag show sentiments, her caption was clearly meant as a reference to Chappelleâs dust-up over his 2021 Netflix stand-up special. However, the truth about this photo quickly began to come out due to footage tweeted by reporter Pablo ManrĂquez. Boebert is shown approaching Dave and asking for a selfie, and Luna thanked him âfor all you do.â
Reps. LAUREN BOEBERT and ANA PAULINA LUNA grab a selfie with Dave Chappelle. “Thanks for all you do,” said Luna. pic.twitter.com/KQku73E4GU
Additionally, Newsweek followed up by relaying reported remarks made by Chappelle at a subsequent stand-up set. He had declared, âShe tricked meâ while also remarking that the MAGA cheerleader was ârubbing her mitts together.â He added that he felt âblindsidedâ by her caption, and concluded, âItâs a shame she tricked me. I had two tickets to Beetlejuice and I was going to give her one!â
The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that itâs Friday, and we are here to have some fun.
ITEM NUMBER ONE â The richest man in Flavortown
The Guy Fieri thing is relentlessly interesting to me. He burst onto the scene 20 years ago with blonde spikes and chain-related jewelry and people kinda dug it. Then it became a caricature and people kinda mocked him for it. Now, a lot of people have come back around and learned to kinda appreciate him for it all. And the weird thing about it is that heâs just been almost exactly the same dude the entire time. He didnât bend and flap in the breeze to seek the publicâs affection. He just kept being Guy Fieri every day and people eventually were like, âGood for him.â Itâs a weird ride. I would read a book about it.
Itâs also been a very lucrative ride, as we learned this week when details about his new Food Network deal trickled out. I admit that I gasped a little when I read this.
Guy Fieri has signed a new three-year deal with Food Network, which sources tell Variety is valued at more than $100 million.
This fresh pact means that Fieri retains his title as the Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cable channelâs highest-paid talent and bests his most recent multiyear deal, which closed in 2021 for $80 million.
That is⊠so much money. I donât know how much money I thought Guy Fieri made before I read it. It probably wasnât nine figures, though, even if it does make sense when you think about it for a while. Like, how many other Food Network personalities can you name? Bobby Flay? Thatâs about as far as I got. Which means Guy is pretty much the face of an entire television channel. Thatâs a lucrative endeavor.
Add that to other various ventures â restaurants, a new line of spiked Fruit Punch, etc. â and you start to put together a picture of a whole empire, which is another thing I had not considered until recently but also makes sense in retrospect. Guy Fieri could be a billionaire before this is all said and done. Ruminate on that for a while.
And it gets wilder. The new contract wasnât even the wildest piece of Fieri news that dropped during the month. There was also the thing where heâs holding a two-day Flavortown Fest in Ohio next summer. Look at this blockquote.
The Food Network star announced the launch of Flavortown Fest on Friday. Planned as a two-day festival held in the Arch City, the event promises to âfuse food and funk, bringing to life the one and only Flavortown, embodying Fieriâs larger-than-life energy and charitable spirit every step of the way,â according to a press release.
Although specific talent has not yet been announced, this description touts wild times will be had: âGuy Fieriâs Flavortown Fest will be unlike any other festival. Like Guy, it will be bold, loud, bad-ass and full of flavor with unparalleled surprises, one-of-a-kind programming and Guy-curated curveballs all weekend long.â
Three things here in conclusion:
The majority of the proceeds of this sucker are going to charity, because Guy Fieri is a good dude through and through and thatâs probably one of the reasons heâs stuck around so long
There is a big part of me that wants to drive to Ohio and cover this with a documentary film crew like itâs Woodstock, maybe with Kristen Stewart
I need to know what a âGuy-curated curveballâ entails
Really just a lot to consider here. Guy Fieri fascinates me. I want to study him like heâs an exotic creature. Maybe I will.
ITEM NUMBER TWO â Yes, I will watch it
This is the first trailer for Griselda, a new show coming to Netflix in January that stars Sofia Vergara as real-life drug queenpin Griselda Blanco. Itâs made by the team that made Narcos and the trailer looks cool and thereâs one part where sheâs just walking around with a baseball bat that she just got done bashing some dude with. Between her and Juno Temple in the new season of Fargo, this is gonna be a big winter for ladies smashing dingers on peopleâs faces. I support this.
Here is the official description.
From creators Eric Newman, Doug Miro, Ingrid Escajeda and Carlo Bernard, the six-episode series chronicles the life of Colombian-born Blanco, who created one of the most profitable cartels in history. In 1970s-80s Miami, Blancoâs lethal blend of unsuspected savagery and charm helped her expertly navigate between business and family, leading her to become widely known as âthe Godmother.â
Great. Wonderful. Exactly the type of thing I would watch. And I will watch it. My only request is that everyone involved step up their promo photo game before January. I scrolled through a bunch of them and was not blown away, which would be a weird complaint about any other show from any other production team, but not this one. This is the Narcos crew. These are the people who gave us âPablo Escobar sitting in a cocaine-filled room with a little smirk on his face like Dennis the MenaceââŠ
Netflix
⊠and âa stylish lady Narco in front of a huge truck filled with cocaineââŠ
Netflix
⊠and âa character played by Diego Luna walking away from an airplane with a brick of cocaine in his hands and a look on his face that makes it seem like he just found the cocaine on the airplane and was like âwell, I guess I might as well sell some drugs nowâââŠ
Netflix
⊠and multiple pictures of Pablo Escobar looking like the saddest little boy youâve ever seen.
NetflixNetflix
I do not ask for much. But I do ask for this. Give me, like, Sofia Vergara on a speedboat in a fur coat. Or something like that. Just one. Please. I need it.
ITEM NUMBER THREE â Tell me more about the sharks
Background, quickly: Thereâs a movie coming out next year called Anyone But You that stars Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell and is loosely based on Shakespeare and which I have been referring to as Attractive People: The Movie. Thatâs the trailer for it. It will probably be, at worst, fine, if only because putting very good-looking and charismatic people on a screen together for a couple of hours is a pretty solid place to start. Maybe it will be great! I donât know! No one does yet! This is, generally, how it works with things that will happen in the future.
More importantly, to me, for now, writer and director Will Gluck talked to Entertainment Weekly about it all recently and revealed that the filming was apparently shark-adjacent enough to be⊠a thing.
âInitially they wouldnât give us permission because itâs a huge shark area and people get hurt by sharks all the time there.â That meant every time an actor or stunt double filmed in the water, they had to do so with a huge shark tank around it.
Two things:
Itâs really kind of funny that they risked maiming via shark to make a silly lil rom-com
I would also watch a movie about Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney battling bloodthirsty sharks
Moving on.
The production employed shark consultants to advise on best practices, only to learn that the more activity in an area, the more sharks it will draw. Thus, the longer they shot and the more that was happening in a scene, the more sharks they had to contend with. But no actors (or sharks for that matter) were harmed in the making of Anyone but You â and the only bite weâll see on screen is the edge that comes with the âenemies to loversâ banter of its leads.
Two more things:
Giving us this whole lead-up about sharks and then closing with âbut none ever showed up and everything was greatâ is like spitting on Chekhovâs grave
I am so proud of everyone at EW for getting that preposterous last sentence into print
I am glad Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell did not get eaten by sharks.
ITEM NUMBER FOUR â Go Birds
My beloved Philadelphia Eagles are currently in first place in the NFC East and coming off of a few big wins and my editor is a nice man who will let things like âBrian will use any stupid excuse to talk about his favorite football team in his entertainment column againâ slide and so, yes, it is time to talk about the Philadelphia Eagles. And Hollywood. But mostly the Eagles. For two reasons.
REASON NUMBER ONE: Bradley Cooper, star of the upcoming Oscar contender Maestro and lifelong Eagles fan, appeared on the Howard Stern show this week and said, well, thisâŠ
âHereâs the big question, and I really want you to answer in a serious manner,â Stern told Cooper. âSophieâs Choice for 2024. You win the Oscar, not only for Best Director but also for Best Actor and Carrie wins Best Actress. Or, an Eagles Super Bowl victory.â
Cooper didnât pause even for a second before choosing the Eagles Super Bowl win.
âYouâre lying,â Stern replied.
âI donât think so, bro,â Cooper said.
Two things once again:
I respect this greatly
I too would rather the Eagles win the Super Bowl than Bradley Cooper win an Oscar
No offense, obviously. But go Birds.
REASON NUMBER TWO: So there was this big auction to raise money for charity and Itâs Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney kept bidding on this cool green Eagles jacket that was worn by Jason Kelceâs wife and he kept getting outbid and he ended up losing and then he found out who he lost too and explained it all to the Kelce brothers on their podcastâŠ
âI couldnât believe that someone was immediately jumping on every time I bid, and so my final bid was going to be representing my favorite player on the Eagles, 62. [$62,000], I thought that was a good number,â McElhenney told brothers and football players, Jason and Travis Kelce.
âAnd then I got a text from somebody I know who said, âIâve been the one bidding against you, bozo.â And it did not even cross my mind that this was a possibility, and it turned out I live with this person,â he continued, referring to his wife and Itâs Always Sunny costar [Kaitlin Olson].
Two notes once again:
This is extremely funny and great for charity and I like it a lot
I donât have any facts to prove this but I suspect marriages where the spouses call each other âbozoâ last many years longer than marriages where they do not
In conclusion, again, Go Birds
ITEM NUMBER FIVE â NOM NOM NOM
PBS
The New York Times did a big fancy piece of journalism about the Cookie Monster this week. Thatâs a fun thing to say but itâs also true. Look, you can read it here. And you should. But I want to talk about this part of it: the cookies the Cookie Monster eats are actually real food, kind of, but not real cookies. This passage is going to stick with me for years.
The recipe, roughly: Pancake mix, puffed rice, Grape-Nuts and instant coffee, with water in the mixture. The chocolate chips are made using hot glue sticks â essentially colored gobs of glue.
The cookies do not have oils, fats or sugars. Those would stain Cookie Monster. Theyâre edible, but barely.
âKind of like a dog treat,â MacLean said in an interview.
I must have one.
I also need Guy Fieri and the Cookie Monster to go on a road trip together.
Maybe they can drop some of these disgusting cookies off at my house on the way.
I must have one.
READER MAIL
If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put âRUNDOWNâ in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.
From Lynn:
Brian, Iâm curious as to your thoughts on the movie Labyrinth. I searched your tweets and found nothing, but Iâm certain you have a strong opinion as it:
â stars David Bowie and a young Jennifer Connelly
â is Muppet-adjacent
â features a Bog of Eternal Stench!
â has an animated dog riding a real dog like a horse
â brought us the song Magic Dance which is an absolute bop
Please share your thoughts on the original and Iâd love to hear your pitch for a sequel.
Wow. I had not thought about this movie for maybe 5-8 years. Then Lynn emailed me and I googled âMagic Danceâ and I watched this video 100 times. Look at David Bowie sing with these creepy little fuzzballs.
As to the other part of the question: I really need the world to focus a little harder on putting megastar musicians into weird little musicals with Muppets or Muppet-adjacent creatures. It doesnât have to be a straight Labyrinth sequel. Give me Olivia Rodrigo and the Muppets in space. Give me Dua Lipa doing a duet with Fozzie Bear on a haunted cruise ship. The people deserve this at least once every four years, like the Olympics.
Police are investigating after Big Boy statues were stolen from two Frischâs restaurants in Kentucky.
Two notes here:
A reader named Nick sent this in and I am very grateful and would like to encourage more of you to be like Nick
BIG BOY STATUE HEIST RING
I need to know more.
The restaurantâs manager said this isnât the first time the statue has been stolen.
God yes. Iâm gonna go ahead and believe thereâs a massive black market for these and they get auctioned off at black-tie underground galas where the worldâs wealthiest criminals get together and bid on them like theyâre exotic animals. You canât take this from me. I hope thereâs a whole episode of Griselda about it.
And police in Georgetown are also investigating, after thieves there made off with another Big Boy statue. Customers noticed right away.
Yes, sure, fine. But I need you to see this quote coming up. I need you to see what Linda said.
âMonday morning, I came in and it was like somethingâs missing,â Linda Allen said. âAnd I looked around, and everybody is saying âwhereâs the Big Boy? It was like oh my gosh, somebody took him!’â
This is absolutely the opening scene in the trailer for the movie about the Big Boy statue heist ring that I am quitting my job to write in 2024. Linda talking to the local news reporter about the theft. Iâm picturing, like, Kristen Wiig with a menthol cigarette. And now you are, too.
Okay, sorry for the fake out. Although the video above and the image for this post both depict a Rick And Morty character named Water-T, this character is not actually played by 22-year Law & Order veteran Ice-T, on whom it is based. The character appeared in the season two episode âGet Schwifty,â where it was revealed that Ice-T is actually an alien recruited by the titular adventurers to help save the Earth from the talent-obsessed Cromulons. At the end of the episode, he returns to his home planet, where his original form is restored â hence, âWater-T.â
However, contrary to popular belief, the character was not voiced by the â6 In The Mornin’â rapper; instead the seriesâ co-creator Dan Harmon did a vocal impression. But, thanks to an upcoming episode, Ice-T will finally voice a character on the show, albeit a different one from the same alphabet-based planet. This Sundayâs episode (December 3), titled âRise Of The Numericons: The Movie,â returns to Alphabetrium, with Ice-T voicing Magma-Q. This brings the rapperâs relationship with the show full circle after he initially voiced his approval for his âguest roleâ on Twitter in 2015.
This isnât the first time the show has secured a guest role for one of Dan Harmonâs favorite rappers. In 2017, Logic appeared in an episode as himself, while the next year, the showâs stars appeared in the video for Run The Jewelsâ song âOh Mama.â Noise-rap group Clipping. appeared on a soundtrack for Rick And Morty, contributing the song âStab Him In The Throat.â
Itâs the beginning of December, and youâve settled down after a long week of being cold, and all you want to do is watch an elderly man propose to a woman he met just a month ago, is that too much to ask? For Hulu, it might be.
The season finale of the acclaimed and unparalleled dating series The Golden Bacheloraired Thursday night on ABC, but if you have the bedtime of a 72-year-old perhaps you missed the final reveal.
For most Bachelor shows, the episode lands on Hulu âthe next dayâ (normally around 3 am ET, but they like to be ambiguous about it). As if right now, though, the finale of The Golden Bachelor is not on the streamer, which is why you might hear several old ladies in your neighborhood yelling in frustration at their remotes, or millennial women threatening to murder over it. But itâs not their fault!
The finale of The Golden Bachelor is expected to find its way onto Hulu today, Friday, Dec. 1st, but there has been no comment from the streamer as to why itâs been delayed. Perhaps they are trying to stretch out the drama? There is enough off-screen drama to hold you over until the episodes finally lands, whenever that will be.
Before you rethink getting a ticket to the film, Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay took to Instagram to praise the visual. âThe woman is a director in every sense of the word and beyond,â she wrote. âIn the film, the performances are spectacular for their entertainment value but also as a gorgeous spectacle of craft â from the art direction to the costumes to the editing and lighting design. Itâs stunning.â
Gen V delivered the first live-action spinoff in the increasingly popular and wildly expanding The Boys universe, so you better believe a Season 2 is happening. Thanks to the strong reaction from both fans and critics, plus high viewership numbers, Amazon renewed Gen V weeks before the Season 1 finale started streaming.
Set at Godolkin University, Gen V follows a diverse group of young Supes as they learn to control their powers, and hopefully, become world famous heroes like The Seven. However, this is the world of The Boys weâre talking about, and things spin out of control, which is bound to happen when you mix destructive powers with horny college kids. Not to mention, young people are adept at spotting bullsh*t like the carefully curated public persona of Homelander and The Seven.
Hereâs the official statement on Gen V Season 2 via Variety:
âExpanding the universe of âThe Boysâ with a series as bold as âGen Vâ has been an incredible journey for us and our wonderful partners at Sony,â said Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios. âFrom our first conversation with showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters, along with Eric Kripke, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen, we knew âGen Vâ would push the boundaries. Their unapologetic approach is exactly what audiences love, and it has helped âGen Vâ become the No. 1 series on Prime Video in over 130 countries. âGen Vâ is Prime Videoâs most acquisitive new Original series of 2023, and weâre excited that our incredible cast and crew are going to continue telling brave and bold stories from âGen Vâ to our customers.â
Gen V Season 1 is available for streaming on Prime Video.
House of the Dragon wonât be back for season two until next year, but thereâs something coming out soon for fans of the Game of Thrones prequel to be excited about. This weekend, in fact. The showâs official X account confirmed that the âfirst lookâ at season two will be unveiled on Saturday, December 2nd. It probably wonât be a full-length trailer â a teaser full of âfire and bloodâ is more likely â but itâs better than nothing.
HBO also released two character posters for the upcoming season: one of Emma DâArcy as Rhaenyra, and another for Olivia Cooke as Alicent.
Showrunner Ryan Condol teased what House of the Dragon viewers can expect in season two earlier this year. âIâm excited to pick up where we left off,â he said. âNow we get to fall into the more traditional rhythms of storytelling and Game of Thrones. Weâve always talked about this particular tale, George [R.R. Martin] has too, of being a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy. This series is very much about a house tearing itself apart from within. Now that all those pieces have been set on the board, Iâm really excited to tell the next chapter, to see what happens now that Viserys is gone and no longer keeping a lid on things.â
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
