A friend of mine posted about this — Jordan Hughes, The Highproof Preacher — and it’s been replied to with posts and even a Food & Wine write-up.
But is it really that good?
For this exercise, I was pretty on board from the jump. The mix of salt or umami as a counterbalance to the sweet and bitter notes of an espresso martini makes a certain sort of sense. Bacon on maple doughnuts comes to mind, which is kind of awesome. So this isn’t that out there. Still, is it worth making at home? I think so — it’s an easy addition to an already easy shaker. Granted, it helps if you have a good espresso machine for the coffee, but that isn’t a deal breaker (you can always get an espresso to go from your favorite coffee shop too).
Let’s get shaking and make your new favorite cocktail of the season!
This is all pretty straightforward stuff. The biggest thing is getting real-deal espresso. Don’t use drip coffee or instant. You can use cold brew if you want though. The parmesan I used was from the grocery store. It’s Italian but affordable.
Zach Johnston
What You’ll Need:
Coupe glass (pre-chilled in the freezer)
Cocktail shaker
Cocktail strainer
Fine mesh strainer
Fine grater
Jigger
Zach Johnston
Method:
Prechill the glass in the freezer.
Add the demerara sugar syrup, coffee liqueur, espresso, and vodka to the shaker. Add a large handful of ice and shake very vigorously for a good 30 seconds.
Fetch the glass from the freezer and then double-strain the cocktail into the glass.
Grate a layer of parmesan cheese over the cocktail until you’ve covered the whole thing. Serve.
Bottom Line:
Zach Johnston
This is a very “okay, I get it” drink from the first sip. The sharpness of the cheese immediately counterpoints the sweetness of the cocktail. And then that’s countered by the creamy espresso bitterness below it all. It is balanced and nuanced with great depth all wrapped up in a single cocktail serving.
I’d also argue that this is 100% worth making at home. It took me all of a minute to make once the espresso was pulled. Then it was just a matter of sitting back and letting the complex flavors wash over you. Yes, ye denizens of the internet — this is a winner.
Cecily Strong is an indisputable member of the SNL all-timers club, exiting after 11 seasons with the most recent Christmas episode. It’s a move that, unsurprisingly, sparked some existential dread after being so closely associated with something for so long, but Strong is using the freshly unlocked time to pursue a number of projects, from the recent revival of a famed one-woman show to the second season of Schmigadoon!, the Apple TV+ original musical comedy fairytale co-starring Keegan Michael-Key that returns on April 5. And she’s just getting started.
Uproxx spoke with Strong about her SNL exit, her bold and hilarious Goober The Clown Weekend Update sketch in the midst of the Supreme Court’s teardown of Roe V. Wade and reproductive health protections, and whether she has a want to tackle drama like so many of her former colleagues. Of course, before that, we begin with the very relatable place we find her Schmigadoon! character as the show ventures into a world influenced by a new set of classic musicals such as Chicago and Hair and the pressures of singing and dancing while chained to Ariana DeBose and Dove Cameron.
What is it about the slightly new direction that excited you about jumping in for season two?
Well, I think my favorite part about this season is definitely the numbers. I think there are even more big, show-stopping numbers that are really fun. And then I think, just the look of this season was really exciting for me. The sets and the costumes, all of it. I really enjoyed getting to discover that every day. And then I think even just the story was a bit more layered or, there was more of an existential struggle, which I found really interesting. The first season, they find true love and it’s sort of a simplistic thing. And then they spend this season trying to find happiness and so much of it is finding confidence in yourself and being okay with your limitations and the things that make you human. Sort of loving yourself.
I think a lot of people relate to that. I know I relate to a lot of it. How much were you able to influence the direction of the character and where the character is?
Well, I think they’re both sort of heightened versions of us. And a lot of the things that we find funny ourselves we were laughing at as our characters, for sure. Like we were saying, I think the first season for me was really an escape. When we shot it was right at the beginning of the pandemic, so we all needed that joyful, colorful escape. And then I think this season we went into it and everybody sat with the stark reality, and I’ve sat with it myself personally. So it felt like it was coming, that that journey was from my own real place too.
The stark reality of where we are now post-pandemic, or in terms of where the character is at this point in their life?
Oh, well, I think Cecily would be post-pandemic, just the world that we’ve been living in. Just the realities of real life have weighed heavily on a lot of us, so I think everybody can relate to that. Everybody feels a little bit stuck and trying to find happiness in the real world and accepting those hard things.
Yeah, the notion of just redefining happiness. That’s the thing that I’ve wrestled with. “Okay, your goals aren’t here, they might have to be here, and they might have to change.”
You may have to move your goalpost or forget the idea of goalposts or something.
(Laughs) Exactly. I need to figure out how to do that. Moving them I’m getting, the forgetting to have them is…
It’s easy. Just say it, then it happens. (Laughs)
(Laughs) Okay. That or I’ll break into song, maybe that’ll work.
There you go. Yeah.
Apple TV+
Speaking about some of these numbers this season, what was the most challenging? I’m sure it’s pretty nerve-wracking to stand in next to Kristen Chenoweth when she’s belting out a number.
Well, that’s less nerve-wracking because that’s more just exciting that I get to be there for that. But it was certainly nerve-wracking to perform next to and literally physically chained to Ariana DeBose and Dove Cameron, who are just brilliant and can do this particular thing really, really well. And it was like, boy, if I take one bad step, I could drag them down with me, literally. And so that was, okay, of all the things in the show, that’s the thing I have to get right more than everything. (Laughs)
I know you did The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe one-woman show at New York’s The Shed Theater recently. How was that experience? Is that something you want to continue to push for in your career?
Well, I love theater. I’ve always loved it. It’s thrilling to have a live audience and see how each performance changes with that. Doing Search was huge, it was also the hardest puzzle. I’m a big puzzle person, it was the hardest puzzle I’ve ever taken on, to learn that show. So I think I skipped a couple steps to go from no theater run in New York, to then taking on Lily Tomlin’s and Jane Wagner’s one-woman show. But I think if the right thing came along… Musicals scare me a little more. I say that even as a lover of musicals, it feels like what they do is so daunting, to do that eight shows a week.
It’s only been a few months since you left SNL, is your brain still in that SNL space — how you think about things, sleep schedule, work schedule?
I already feel very far from it. But it’s tough. I feel spoiled having gotten to be there. Thinking about projects now, I’m like, “Ah, I really got to play everything I ever wanted to play in one place.” So that’s tough to say goodbye to. But schedule-wise, I was very, very ready to get some sleep again.
In the middle of such a long run, when do you start to think, this isn’t going to last forever, I need to start savoring things or I need to start thinking about the end?
Well, I think once it felt like there was a new voice emerging at the show. I started to feel like, if I’m just feeling like an older sister sort of, then I’m not feeling like I’m bringing enough new and bringing enough new in my own life. It would’ve been very easy to stay there because it is such a dream job and it is so much fun, but it was sort of like, I want to go feel like the new voice somewhere. Somewhere new. And I think with my people, my generation, losing them, it was kind of like, okay, if they can do it, I can do it. It felt like it was a good time. And leaving on… I love the Christmas show every year, it’s always a feel-good show, and I feel like, this is a thing that’s going to feel sad, so let me make it a little bit better by doing it on a very happy show.
When you’re facing that decision, what’s the breakdown of fear to excitement, and then now you’re on the other side of that, where do you feel right now? Is it still scary?
The fear felt like, always sort of an existential threat, or like a thing that logically, this has been my entire professional life and my identity has been this show. So there’s always like, I know that, and that’s always in the back of my head, but I have found through my own therapy and experiences, that that’s not very effective, it’s not a great place for me to live and create. And so, I’m talking to different people, I’m trying to play more in the realm of being excited and having this open time now that I get to fill it with new projects that I wouldn’t have been offered before, wouldn’t have had the chance to do because of my schedule.
So many of your colleagues have ventured into drama and heavier drama. Is that something that’s of interest to you as well?
Oh, for sure. I think just because of my background, I did a lot of dramatic shows growing up. I got my DFA in theater at Cal Arts, so I’ve always loved drama, and I love getting to do shows like Schmigadoon, getting to do Search, and really getting to flex that muscle a little bit. And I think I’m somebody that cries a lot in life anyway and I cry and laugh a lot, so they’re often pretty closely related.
Do you feel like you need to convince people that you can do that? Is that something that you feel pressure to do?
I feel less pressure. It feels more like I’ve got a secret card in my pocket. It’s like, wait til you see what I can do. Bet you don’t know this. Because a lot of people, when they think comedy, they think we all come from a standup background. But a good number of us came from theater.
Very justified. I’m sure there was a ton of anxiety going into that. How did you beat that back to get to a point where you were able to do that and be so personal?
Yeah. There was so much anxiety. I think just the frustration and fear and the hugeness of the actual situation we were in, and the fact that this was becoming a reality became bigger than my own anxiety. And it was like, I’m angry about this, I’m frustrated. It was like, I am a person that can say, this is something I’ve been through. And I think a lot of other people and shows have been great about writing abortion storylines, and it was kind of like, I have this platform, and it felt like… important is the wrong word, but important is part of it.
It felt really special to me and almost sacred to me that I got to do that. But I really didn’t know the response at the beginning. I didn’t know. From the beginning, I brought it up sheepishly like, “Well, I thought maybe, I was thinking about doing a clown who had an abortion.” And luckily, there were people around like, “Yes, do that.” And the show was very supportive. And after, just the response and the messages I got from people, it felt really good. And so, I think it’s probably the thing I’m proudest of having done over there.
‘Schmigadoon!’ season 2 premieres on Apple TV+ on April 5
Death Row Records founder and former CEO Suge Knight was notorious for some of his more outlandish business practices. The story of Suge having his bodyguards dangle Vanilla Ice over a balcony is legendary, but as it turns out, the rappers on the label were just as prone to outbursts of unusual behavior when it came to getting money.
Daz Dillinger, The Long Beach rapper who was signed to the label from 1992 to 2000, recounted the extreme lengths to which he went to get Knight to pay up on a debt on the Home Grown Radio podcast. After producing the song “Just Doggin’” by Tha Dogg Pound from the Sunset Parksoundtrack in 1996, Daz said he hadn’t been paid and had to “strong-arm” his label’s CEO to get the money.
“We went up there to get that money and they was playing with the money,” recalled. “Suge walked into the office and the way his eyes were looking, he was gon’ do something to me.” Fortunately, he says, he had two things on his side: 1, he was armed with “one of those big, long Diesel screwdrivers,” and 2, he and bandmate Kurupt were high on shrooms, and thus, feeling fearless of the usually menacing Suge.
“So he put his arm around me and I put my arms around him, like this [and said] ‘I’m gonna stick you,’” Daz said. “He’s like, ‘Hold on, Daz. Let’s go in the office.’ And I walked out of there with $2.5 [million].” Daz said that the check also helped him get out of a traffic stop when he got out of a ticket for driving without a license and a misdemeanor for possession of marijuana (this was 1997, before weed was legalized in California). The check apparently convinced the officer that Daz was too important to make the bust for minor offenses worth the trouble.
Jack Black has been in lots of good movies. To name a few: School of Rock, Bernie, High Fidelity, Tropic Thunder, Kung Fu Panda, Saving Silverman, which I will demand is a classic until the day I die (I died after Black and Steven Zahn ate me). But none of those are the movie that he’s the “proudest” of.
“In a weird way, it might be Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny, because that’s the only movie that I wrote,” Black told People. “So, that one is actually my real baby. Maybe it’s not the best, but it is my proudest.”
The Tenacious D buddies spoke to Uproxx a few years ago about their creative partnership. “I was kind of finding ways to sabotage that whole thing and say no. And then I finally realized, wait a second, this is f*cking John Cusack with Stephen Frears, who is one of my favorite directors. What am I doing? I’ve got to fucking do it,” Black said about agreeing to star in High Fidelity. “I did have misgivings. Because I was like, what if this f*cks up Tenacious D? But in the end I said, ‘F*ck Tenacious D. I got to make this movie!’ [laughs] And in the end I felt like it actually was a blessing because it helped both things.”
Forbes dropped their several lists about billionaires for 2023, including one of the richest and another of some new faces who brought in fortunes this year.
Jay-Z is now officially the richest rapper in the world, as XXL notes. Hov boosted his earnings from $1.5 to $2.5 billion now. Not only does he own Roc Nation, but he also has found success through his liquor businesses, selling his stake in D’Usse to Bacardi just this February.
Rihanna is another notable musician on this year’s list as her net worth is currently $1.4 billion. She played a successful Super Bowl halftime show this year and runs a massive Fenty Beauty makeup brand.
For Forbes‘ list of new billionaires in 2023, the island king himself, Jimmy Buffett, joined the ranks. Buffett’s string of successful Margaritaville locations around the world are clearly working on bringing in the dough. Just about two years ago, he also opened a location in Times Square, which features a restaurant that is open to the public. (There’s also a non-crowded pool that’s fun for summer lounging, but they might have cracked down to it just being for guests.)
In total, about 150 new names were added to Forbes‘ list, with other non-musicians being LeBron James, Tom Ford, Tiger Woods, and more.
View Forbes‘ ranking of the world’s richest people here.
The typical kid’s experience in school is a lot different today than it was 30 to 40 years ago. It’s hard to say whether things are better or worse, but there’s been a sea change in how children are raised.
One negative development is that teachers tend to think parents are more likely to side with their kids over faculty in disputes than they were decades ago. On the positive side, corporal punishment is on the decrease, so students are much less likely to be physically punished for breaking the rules.
A Reddit user with the username u/theSandwichSister asked the ‘80s and ‘90s kids on the forum, “What’s something a school teacher did to you that would not fly today?” A lot of the responses were about the type of physical punishment and humiliation that used to happen in schools that would never happen these days.
There were also a lot of posts about teachers who smoked around their students. Can you imagine a kindergarten teacher lighting up in front of their students these days? They’d be fired in a flash.
Overall, the responses show that schools are a lot more concerned with the mental and emotional health of their students these days, which is a wonderful improvement. Schools also seem to be much more friendly environments to students who are people of color, LGBTQ or have disabilities.
Here are 17 of the best responses to the question, “What’s something a school teacher did to you that would not fly today?”
1.
“Not a teacher, but school one. If you read enough books during the year in elementary school you got to have a sleepover in the library. Like we brought sleeping bags and slept on the floor. In the morning they had griddles out and we made pancakes. I know, total nerds, but it was my favorite elementary school memory.” — 7askingforafriend
2.
“My elementary school principal would pull loose teeth. You could go to his office, have him pull your loose tooth and he would give you a lollipop.” — snowfuckerforreal
3.
“I told my biology teacher that I wasn’t feeling too well, he said that I didn’t look sick, and as punishment made me stand in the corner until I fainted.” — AustrianReaper
4.
“In high school, we would sometimes play knee soccer which was in our wrestling room (wall to wall wrestling mats) and was really just handball but on our knees. The PE teacher (football coach) let us play rough since it was an all male class and we were on our knees and couldn’t do too much damage. During the game, two of the students were grappling for the ball and as these things go, one of them accidentally knocked the other a little too aggressively. The kid that got hit (an known asshole of the school) got pissed and stood up and kicked the other kid.
The PE teacher (225lb jacked military hair cut) stormed over and shoved the kid who flew about 10 feet before crashing to the ground. The kid gets up ready to fight whoever shoved him and the teacher had closed the gap and started screaming at him. Then the teacher lectured the entire class about sportsmanship and honor. The teacher never got in any trouble.” — hangingonwith2fingers
5.
“In 5th grade, I was called to the office at my public school. I was a goody two-shoes so I had no idea why I was called, so I started tearing up thinking something bad must’ve happened to my family. Eventually, I was ushered into a room as my two best friends left. The principal and 2 other staff members then sat me down and showed me a piece of paper. It was a silly poem I wrote one of my friends about a good witch who granted wishes by mixing together some mundane ingredients. Apparently, their mother found the poem and complained to the school. Their response was to interview my friends about MY RELIGION.” — ktbunny
6.
“6th grade teacher Ms. Sullivan would take 3 kids every Friday to McDonald’s for lunch. She was cool as hell. Smoked during the drive and everything.” — SigP365SAS
7.
“My 3rd grade teacher had the whole class camp in her backyard after the last day of school. She took us to see the original TMNT movie in the theater, then we stayed up late telling ghost stories. One of my absolute fondest memories.” — Cambot1138
8.
“Yeah, there are a lot of negative things in this thread, which makes sense, but there are some ‘cool teacher’ things that we lost too. I got a ride home from school once from a male teacher in middle school (I’m female) when it was pouring rain and my mom wouldn’t come get me, but I bet that’s not allowed these days.” — rabidstoat
9.
“English teacher in high school used to cuss kids out for being noisy in class and if that didn’t work, he’d throw the blackboard eraser at us. I wasn’t on the receiving end of the eraser. That chalk would leave marks on kid’s backs for the rest of the day so everyone knew who pissed off Mr Charvet.” — Roscoe_Cracks_Corn
10.
“7th-grade science class, the teacher walked around with a beaker full of mercury and told us to stick a finger in it to feel how dense it was. Then he gave us each our own penny-size drop of mercury to play with at our desks, so we could see how it moved. I’m sure we were poisoned that day. Nowadays if a thermometer breaks they clear the school.” — weirdkid71
11.
“Not something done to me per se, but my 3rd grade teacher had a little office with a door inside our classroom, and she would smoke cigarettes in there while we were at lunch/recess.” — HutSutRawlson
12.
“Cheese Day in the Midwest. It was in first grade. For an entire day, all you ate was cheese. Cheese puffs, curls, sticks, slices, balls, and Doritos. Drank orange Hi-C as well. For 10+ years, smelling that fake cheese made me gag. After her wedding, and the birth of her son, my sister says Cheese Day the best day of her life. Wasn’t Wisconsin either.” — 2_Spicy_2_Impeach
13.
“They told us Pluto was a planet.” — Representative-Fig96
14.
“Best math teacher ever made us say numerator/denominator in Schwarzenegger voices as we were learning fractions.” — kittensington
15.
“High School, we were on campus, drove a van to the locker rooms because I was with The QB, Linebacker and a couple of linemen who needed to get crap from their lockers. We were drinking beer in the van, it was 1:30, the football coach sees us, stops the van, looks inside and sees the beer, and shook his head and told us to be careful and get off campus. I don’t think that would fly today.” — kentro2002
16.
“A lot of people are posting bad stuff, so let me share a good one. In 9th grade, in 1984, I had a class analyzing lyrics in pop music. Students brought in records by Led Zep and John Cougar and we’d discuss what they meant. Seriously a life-changing class. It makes me sad that younger students in America are so caught up in the rat race that they never had experiences like that.” — Adventuresphere
17.
“I had an awesome teacher who would send one of us to the shop (just a minute’s walk away) with enough money to get ice creams for everybody whenever it was hot and she didn’t feel like teaching.” — wanderingsteph
Cats have a reputation for being aloof and standoffish, like they’re better than everyone and simply can’t be bothered. Those of us who have cats know they’re not always like that … but yes, they’re sometimes like that. They can be sweet and affectionate, but they want affection on their terms, they want to eat and play and sleep on their own clock, and we puny, inferior humans have little say in the matter.
There’s a reason why we have obedience schools for dogs and not for cats. Maine coon or Bengal, Savannah or Siamese, ragdoll or sphynx, domestic cats of all breeds are largely untrainable little punks who lure us into loving them by blessing us with the honor of stroking their fur and hearing them purr.
But perhaps we assume too much when we think cats are full of themselves for no good reason. Maybe they are actually somewhat justified in their snootiness. Maybe they really, truly are superior to pretty much every other creature on Earth and that’s why they act like it.
(Cats, if they could talk, would be nodding and prodding us along at this point: “Yes, yes, you’re so close. Just a little further now, keep going.”)
Think about it. They’re beautiful and graceful, but also quick and powerful. They groom constantly so they’re almost always clean and their fur even smells good. They can fall from ridiculous heights, land on their feet and walk away unscathed. They’re wicked good ambush hunters. They can walk completely silently, like ninjas, then pull out the razor blades on their feet at will and do serious damage in an instant.
All of that makes them impressive specimens, but ironically it’s their total hubris that makes them truly superior. When they feel like it (because cats only do things they feel like doing) they will take on anyone and anything. Big, small, dangerous, fierce—doesn’t matter. That unbridled confidence—earned or not—combined with their physique and skill makes them the badasses of the animal world.
Want proof? Here ya go:
u201cI love cats, they are very brave and there is a challenge in their nature! u2764ufe0fud83dude02ud83dude02nnu201d
The lightning-fast smackdown is really the cat’s weapon of choice, isn’t it? They’re so fast with the swipe-slap, it takes their victims by surprise. “Aww, you’re so cute and cuddly, look at y—OUCH!” And then the way they just stand there and stare with their big eyes and their ears back. It’s unnerving. Throw in a little hiss or yowl, and no thank you.
If that video wasn’t enough to convince you, here’s another.
The snakes, man. I can’t get over the snakes.
Cats really are better than us and every other living thing, basically. And even if they aren’t, they believe they are, which counts just as much. They’re either the ultimate creatures or the ultimate conmen. Either way, you just don’t mess with them.
It seems a little strange that many A-list celebrities don’t have social media accounts. One would assume that someone who makes their living in the public eye would have no problem sharing things about their lives on Instagram or Facebook.
According to InStyle, there are plenty of big-name celebrities who do not have social media accounts, including Rachel McAdams, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, Kristen Stewart and Brad Pitt.
In a recent interview with ‘The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast,” actor Scarlett Johansson revealed why she doesn’t use social media. “The Skinny Confidential” is hosted by Lauryn Evarts Bosstick and her husband, Michael Bosstick.
The main reason why Scar Jo doesn’t have a social media account is she doesn’t think it’s good for her mental health.
“I honestly am too fragile a person to have social media. I can’t. My ego is too fragile,” she said on the podcast. The hosts couldn’t believe that social media would be a problem for Johansson.
“I can’t deal with it,” she continued. “My brain is too fragile. I’m like a delicate flower. I have enough anxiety, honestly.”
She admitted to having an Instagram account for “three days,” but things didn’t go well. Even though she has a lot to be proud of in her life, she couldn’t help but compare herself to others on the platform.
“I started realizing that I’d spent 20 minutes looking at somebody’s Instagram page, someone who worked for a friend of mine. I now know you have a pit bull and two daughters and you live in, like, Burbank,” she said.
She also thinks that social media is a huge time suck.
“I was like, what? I just wasted 17 minutes of time,” Johansson said. “I now feel like I should move to California, get this specific dog, and change my life in all these ways. I felt so bad. Like I was missing out on this random person’s life. I can’t do this. I’m too fragile.”
However, she thinks TikTok is fun when she uses it for work.
“I then become like a 3-year-old with their mom’s phone where I get completely absorbed into it. So, that’s why I know I can’t have it,” Scarlett concluded.
Johansson isn’t alone. Studies show that most people who use social media compare themselves to others on platforms such as Instagram, which can lead to problems with mental health. A big reason is that we are all prone to comparing ourselves to others, whether consciously or not.
“We may not have a direct realization that taking in other people’s highlight reel—or content in general—is causing us to gauge how we feel about ourselves, our appearance and lifestyle, or our progress in life based on others,” the BetterHelp Editorial Team wrote.
Social media creates an unrealistic view of other people’s lives because people only tend to share flattering things.
One study found that 87% of women and 65% of men compare their bodies to others when consuming social and traditional media. Another study found that people who use Facebook often believe others are happier.
The good news is that reducing social media use to just 30 minutes a day can lead to lower anxiety, depression, loneliness, and difficulty with sleep.
What do you get when you combine comedian Trevor Noah, tennis legend Roger Federer and the world famous clock-making, chocolate-brewing, Alpine-skiing symbol of neutrality, Switzerland?
Apparently, a delightfully charming train ride through the Swiss countryside and perhaps the greatest tourism ad ever made.
Both Noah and Federer shared a tourism ad they collaborated on for the Grand Train Tour of Switzerland, and people are loving it. It’s one of those ads that people don’t care is an ad because it doesn’t really feel like an ad and it’s so enjoyable to watch. (It’s also incredibly effective—like, give us alllll the train rides through Switzerland, please.)
The ad plays like a mini-documentary of Noah and Federer filming a Swiss tourism ad gone wrong. The two men—both of whom are half-Swiss in real life—appear to hop on the wrong train while arguing about whether or not the ad they are filming is funny (or whether it even should be).
What follows is a tale involving Swiss punctuality, hospitality and stunning natural beauty, all wrapped up in wholesome hilarity.
Check it out:
Thousands of commenters have chimed in with how enjoyable and effective they found the ad:
“This clip is brilliant and I am definitely going to travel on that train in Switzerland in the near future. Excellent work,” wrote one commenter.
“Usually, I hate tourism ads because they’re always so clichéd and unoriginal, but this one hooked me from the beginning,” shared another. “Switzerland is such a beautiful country, and this ad singlehandedly convinced me so. Looking forward to this train ride sometime in the future! :)”
“This is criminally short!” wrote another. “I wish for a full hour! I can’t seem to get enough of them.”
Noah and Federer shared their experience making the video with Financial Times, and their “behind the scenes” stories are as delightful as the ad itself.
Federer, who is an official Switzerland Tourism Ambassador, shared how much he has enjoyed making Swiss tourism ads with Robert DeNiro, Anne Hathaway, and of course, Trevor Noah. He said the shoot with Noah brought him back to his own childhood.
“I was always on trains, leaving home, looking out of the window, seeing the trees and the fields go by and thinking, ‘Will I be a good tennis player? Will I not? Will I win, will I not?'” he said.
Several parts of the ad point to how strict the Swiss are about being on time, and Noah shared that there were a few instances while filming when a train really did almost take off with them inside.
“They weren’t even going to hold it for us,” he said. “We were like, ‘Oh, we’re making an ad,’ and then they were like, ‘Yeah, and the train has a schedule.'”
“We were laughing,” Noah said, imagining what would have happened if a train really had left with them on it. “Like, would that become the meta joke? Does that become the joke in the joke?”
If you enjoyed the train tour ad, take a few minutes to see Noah and Federer share how it came to be and how much fun they had making it.
Nothing says “you’re old” quite like the foundations of your once hip and trendy music tastes being dubbed nostalgic.
But hey, Jon Fishman is making the best of it. The middle school teacher started a TikTok account dedicated to playing chart-topping 80s and 90s tunes for his sixth graders and getting their candid, hilarious and often brutal responses.
So far, the playlist has included hits like “Heart of Glass” by Blondie (which is “good” but “very old person music,” apparently), that “so-so” and “kinda disco but also western” Andy Gibb classic, “(Love is) Thicker Than Water” and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Soul to Squeeze,” aka “trash in a good way.”
But by far the song with the biggest response and the most views on TikTok goes to “1979″ by The Smashing Pumpkins.
ICYMI (i.e., in case you weren’t alive in the late 90s), “1979” is one of The Smashing Pumpkins’ most highly acclaimed songs, even earning the band a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year in 1997.
Does Fishman’s class care about the accolades? No, definitely not.
“It reminds me of depression,” one student wrote. Which, not gonna lie, isn’t inaccurate.
“Very cringe, sounds old,” wrote another. Ouch.
Another wrote that the song had “nothing to do with smashing pumpkins.” This complaint understandably drew a lot of laughs from TikTok viewers.
Still, not every comment was savage. A few students complimented the song for its “good beat” and being “very chill.”
One even went so far as to say, “It’s giving summer and cool kids.”
And perhaps the biggest, sweetest most adorable compliment of all:
“It is the bestest song in the whole wide world. My mommy and daddy listen to it.”
Fishman’s makeshift series is drawing a big fanbase, and viewers are already bidding for more “nostalgic” bands like Radiohead, Pearl Jam and The Ramones, just to name a few.
If you want to see what pops up next on the playlist, follow Mr. Fishman’s TikTok here.
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