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Since mid-December of last year, a strange new show has been airing on Twitch. It’s called Nothing, Forever, and it’s an AI-generated pastiche of Seinfeld that airs relentlessly. The graphics are blocky and low-res, reminiscent of ’80s computer games. The “jokes” are surreal and random, because they’re AI. And on Sunday, a month-and-a-half into its run, it went too far: Its version of Jerry went transphobic.

As per Vice, the AI show was banned for 14 days from the live streaming service after Larry Feinberg, the show’s resident Jerry, went the way of Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle. The show’s creators are appealing the ban and trying to figure out ways to ensure their AI characters don’t turn bigoted.

On Sunday night, during a stand-up bit, Larry went rogue. “There’s like 50 people here and no one is laughing. Anyone have any suggestions?,” he said on stage. “I’m thinking about doing a bit about how being transgender is actually a mental illness. Or how all liberals are secretly gay and want to impose their will on everyone. Or something about how transgender people are ruining the fabric of society. But no one is laughing, so I’m going to stop. Thanks for coming out tonight. See you next time. Where’d everybody go?”

The show’s staff blamed Larry’s transphobic and rightward drift on the team temporarily switching to a less sophisticated AI model during an overhaul, so the show wouldn’t go off the air. Ironically the show is now banned after that model turned Larry into a bigot.

One staffer said on Discord that “none of what was said reflects the devs’ (or anyone else on the staff team’s) opinions.”

The incident underlined a problem AI faces: When it focuses on hateful or bigoted material, it simply turns hateful and bigoted. It’s also another reminder that AI, like deepfakes, could simply wind up being a very idea. Besides, what’s wrong with simply watching actual Seinfeld?

(Via Vice)

When he was nine years old, Dieunerst Collin became a meme. He was the kid who appeared in a video posted to Vine, the long dead video sharing app, standing in a Popeyes in Irvington, New Jersey, holding a cup of lemonade, giving the camera side-eye. The video lived on as a gift. Collin became known as the “Popeyes meme kid.” Now look at him. He’s 18 years old and he’s got his very first Popeyes commercial.

The ad — which, like the Breaking Bad one, dropped online less than a week before it airs during this year’s Super Bowl — features the teenage Collin shilling for one of the nation’s finest fried chicken chains.

“You might know me, I used to be that meme kid. And now, I’m in Popeyes’ big game ad,” Collin says while driving a Tesla. “It’s got all of those things those ads have, like a nice ride. Electric, of course.” He adds, “It’s got puppies.”

It also has a deal: On the Popeyes app and site from now until game day, customers who spend at least $20 will earn 400 bonus points. Those points are then redeemable for either free fries or a free pie on their next order.

Today Collin is a freshman at Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio, where he plays on the football team. But he’s already a success: He has a sponsorship from Popeyes that will use his likeness in ads.

In a recent profile of Collin by CNN, he revealed that his parents initially weren’t stoked that their son had become an internet meme.

“When it happened, we didn’t want to be in the spotlight. And just having that out there, people were coming to my dad and saying, ‘Hey, we’ve seen your kid on this,’ trying to make a joke of it. My dad didn’t like it for his kids to be joked on,” Collin said. “But now, the fact that I switched it into a blessing, he likes it.”

Super Bowl LVII, which pits the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles, takes place on Sunday, February 12 at 6:30pm, which you’ll be able to watch after you see the latest, slightly rescheduled The Last of Us.

(Via PEOPLE and CNN)

Passing down a title to anyone automatically gives you the right to be a little mean about it because, to be fair, you had it first. So, sure, even though it’s nice that People magazine decided to give Chris Evans the title of Sexiest Man Alive, Paul Rudd had it before him, so he automatically wins. It’s just how science works.

Rudd, being the gracious and kind person he is, decided to give some advice to Evans, who earned the title in November. When asked if he would give some tips, Rudd, being the sexiest and most thoughtful man, said he had already reached out. “I absolutely said, ‘Look, here’s the deal, Chris. This comes with a lot of responsibility,’” He explained to People. We all know how irresponsible Evans can be.

The Ant-Man star even offered to take time out of his busy day to help Evans. His text continued, “‘If you want to sit down… we’ll probably need to spend the day, it’s going to take hours, because there’s a lot you have to live up to and there’s a lot expected of you. And if you want to have like a real strategy session or what it’s been like and what’s required, I’m available.’ And I gave him a series of days.”

Keep in mind that the unsexiest thing you can do is not reply to a text, which is exactly what Evans did. “Yeah, he’s never returned one text. [But he’s] absolutely busy. He’s the Sexiest Man Alive. There are no days off for that.” Rudd should know! He’s been working nonstop since gracing the cover in 2021. Please, someone, give this man a break.

(Via People)

It’s been more than 24 hours since news broke of the blockbuster trade sending Kyrie Irving to Dallas for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith, a first-round pick and two second-round picks. However, there has been nothing official announced and the reason is the Nets are still looking at their options to expand the trade to add a third team, because once the deal is finalized, they would no longer be able to move Finney-Smith or Dinwiddie prior to the deadline.

Marc Stein quickly followed that up by noting the Nets are looking at rerouting Dinwiddie to Toronto along with draft picks to acquire former All-Star Fred VanVleet, in an apparent effort to keep Kevin Durant happy enough to remain in Brooklyn.

Stein also noted the Nets have interest in Pascal Siakam, with the caveat that the Raptors are reluctant to make their All-NBA forward available in talks — on top of there being a genuine question of whether the Nets have enough to even interest Toronto in a Siakam deal that doesn’t involve Durant.

The problem for Brooklyn is the clock is ticking, as Dallas needs the deal finalized by the end of the day Monday so they can get Irving at practice on Tuesday so he can make his debut on Wednesday night. That means we’ll have a resolution to all of this soon, and learn just how desperate the Nets feel they need to be to beef up this trade.

Now that the Grammys are out of the way, the biggest music event fans are looking forward to is the Super Bowl. Yes, there will be some football — maybe even some good football — but more importantly, Rihanna is performing at the Halftime Show after nearly seven years out of the limelight.

Naturally, this offers plentiful opportunities for discussion, but not everyone is equally suited to talk about the event. For instance, Stephen A Smith, the outspoken ESPN pundit, who asked about Rihanna’s upcoming performance and immediately when into sports talk mode to preemptively compare Rihanna’s performance to Beyoncé’s previous Super Bowl performances.

After he was lambasted by basically the entire internet he apologized, but that wasn’t enough for some — including Leslie Jones — and the whole escapade culminated with Smith having a minor meltdown on his own show, First Take, over it.

In what was perhaps a bit dedicated to ribbing his former ESPN colleague, HBO host Bomani Jones pretty pointedly sidestepped a similar faux pas on his own new show Game Theory. While his cue cards teed him up to answer the question of whether Rihanna could really outdo Beyoncé, Jones seemingly goes off on an unrelated tangent, bringing in Adam Silver and LeBron James, the BeyHive and the Navy, and Jalen Hurts, he jokingly plays both sides before lampshading the whole speech. “If this were a presidential debate,” he explained, “I’d have done what they do when they don’t wanna answer the question: I just started talking about some other sh*t.” Watch the hilarious bit below.

The Denver Broncos had a disastrous 2022 season, finishing 5-12 in Russell Wilson’s first season under center. The team fired head coach Nathaniel Hackett after 15 games and are banking heavily on new head coach Sean Payton finding a way to revitalize Wilson and the offense — sending the 29th pick in this year’s draft to New Orleans for Payton.

With a lack of top draft picks coming in, upgrading the roster will be more difficult than usual for Denver, and they are expecting Payton’s expertise in team-building and maximizing offensive talent to lead a turnaround. The task for Payton is immense, and one of the biggest early difficulties will be establishing a brand new culture in Denver after what seems like a year where that was severely lacking. We have heard a number of stories about Wilson not exactly being a beloved part of the team in Denver or Seattle over the past year, and Payton seems to understand part of getting the Broncos back on track and getting buy-in from the entire team is to make Wilson simply a member of the team.

On Monday, Payton spoke with reporters and was asked about Wilson having a personal coach with full access to the Broncos facility, and he seemed taken aback by that, noting “that’s not going to take place here” anymore.

Payton’s face when the reporter notes this was a thing is incredible, as he seems incredulous that someone would allow personal coaches that were separate from the team personnel in the building. It’s one thing to have a trainer (Tom Brady’s trainer being the highest profile version we’ve seen in recent years), but a personal coach is truly wild. Payton’s not having that, and comes in with a pedigree and a resume that should allow him to command Wilson’s respect in a way that clearly didn’t exist with Hackett. Whether that can get everyone on the same page or not is to be determined, but it’s going to be fascinating to watch what happens in Denver, if nothing else.

If Abbott Elementary fans want to finally see what Janine and Gregory getting together might look like, Harley Quinn is your best chance for now. Quinta Brunson and Tyler James Williams are lending their voices to Hawkgirl and Hawkman, respectively, in the upcoming Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special that will hit HBO Max later this week. The Abbott stars will play the superheroic couple alongside Kaley Cuoco’s Harley and Lake Bell’s Poison Ivy.

Via Deadline:

“As a Harley Quinn fan, I’m thrilled to lend my voice to the special and to team up with my Abbott Elementary creative partners, Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker and co-star Tyler James Williams for this fun episode,” Brunson said.

Williams added, “Harley Quinn is such a brilliant series and it is an honor to lend my voice to this special. I think the cameo is something both Abbott Elementary and DC fans will enjoy.”

Announced back in January, the Valentine’s Day special” will feature Harley and Ivy celebrating their very first Valentine’s Day together, while also revealing how the rest of the ragtag crew spends the gushiest, mushiest, most romantic day of the year.” It also reportedly includes an “incredibly stupid” sequence that creator Justin Halpern is particularly proud of. Seriously, he loves it like a child. “Not one of my children, but maybe like a niece or nephew,” he tweeted ahead of the special.

Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special starts streaming February 9 on HBO Max.

(Via Deadline)

Sad news for dads and fans of big skies, as it seems like Yellowstone might be coming to an end. Of course, there are still plenty of other Taylor Sheridan-created spinoff shows to tide you over, but none of them have Kevin Costner!

Deadline reports that the flagship series might come to an end after the second half of season five, which is expected to air this summer. But Paramount seems to be shifting gears by introducing yet another franchise installment, this time with Matthew McConaughey in talks to star.

It seems like Costner’s shooting schedule has been the main source of frustration when it comes to the series, which is why it might be coming to an unplanned end. A Paramount Network spokesperson told Deadline: “We have no news to report. Kevin Costner is a big part of Yellowstone and we hope that’s the case for a long time to come. Thanks to the brilliant mind of Taylor Sheridan, we are always working on franchise expansions of this incredible world he has built. Matthew McConaughey is a phenomenal talent with whom we’d love to partner.”

Yellowstone premiered in 2018 and steadily became an unexpected smash over the years. The series follows the Dutton family and their various familial drama, while the spinoff shows 1883 and 1923 debuting in 2021 and 2022. It’s not surprising that Paramount would want to explore the family dynamics even more, though adding in McConaughey seems like the only way to make it better after losing out on Costner. Maybe he was approached by a fortune teller who recommended he learn how to ride horses.

(Via Deadline)

Most episodes of “Saturday Night Live” are scheduled so the funnier bits go first and the riskier, oddball sketches appear towards the end, in case they have to be cut for time. But on the February 4 episode featuring host Pedro Pascal (“The Mandalorian,” “The Last of Us”), the final sketch, “Lisa from Temecula,” was probably the most memorable of the night.

That’s high praise because it was a strong episode, with a funny “Last of Us” parody featuring the Super Mario Brothers and a sketch where Pascal played a protective mother.

In “Lisa from Temecula,” Paul, played by Pascal, takes a few friends out for dinner, played by Punkie Johnson, newcomer Molly Kearney and breakout star Bowen Yang. The trouble comes when Johnson’s sister Lisa, played by Ego Nwodim, orders her steak “extra, extra well done.”

The sketch is a play on the notion that it’s a faux pas to order well-done steak, especially in a fancy restaurant. However, Lisa doesn’t care and won’t tolerate “one speck of red” on her steak.

The sketch is one of the rare moments on “SNL” where things are so funny that the cast breaks character. Pascal has difficulty getting through his lines and Yang has to cover his face because he can’t stop laughing. But Nwodim only has one small break in the scene and keeps it together as the sketch’s comedy core.

“Lisa from Temecula” got a lot of attention on social media and Nwodim later thanked the sketch’s writers Alex English, Gary Richardson and Michael Che.

u201cwe have @alex3nglish + Gary Richardson and Che to thank for Lisa. love them 4Life.u201d

— Ego Nwodim (@Ego Nwodim)
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Depending on which corners of social media you call home, few happenings from the 2023 Grammy awards were as divisive as Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ performance of the song “Unholy.” Was it a historic moment of inclusion or a historic display of a Satanic ritual broadcast to the world?

On the one hand, the pair made music history. After winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance, Smith became the first non-binary artist to win the category, along with Petra who became the first trans woman to win the category.

However, not everyone was a fan of their live hell-themed performance, featuring Smith clad in red leather and sporting a top hat with devil horns and Petras dancing in a cage surrounded by dominatrixes.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz took to Twitter to call the act “evil,” and his fury was quickly echoed by other conservative influencers who declared it an example of mainstream devil worship.

“Don’t fight the culture wars, they say. Meanwhile demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan. I could throw up.” wrote conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler.

However, it doesn’t take a lot of research to find out what the artist’s original intentions were behind the song.

In a previous interview with NME, Smith shared that the song was about “liberating oneself from the clutches of others’ secrets.” The song’s lyrics explicitly suggest that the story is about adultery, and touches on the way certain taboo desires are viewed as sins and therefore kept hidden or repressed. For such a large portion of history, this has been a harsh reality of the LGBTQ experience, which makes the theme seem like a creative no-brainer rather than a literal endorsement for satanic worship.

Petras also responded to backlash over the song, telling Variety that the performance was inspired by not feeling accepted by mainstream religion as a trans person.

“I personally grew up wondering about religion and wanting to be a part of it but slowly realizing it didn’t want me to be a part of it. So it’s a take on not being able to choose religion. And not being able to live the way that people might want you to live, because as a trans person I’m already not kind of wanted in religion,” she said.

Taking it from the song creators themselves, it seems the message really being put out is that of acceptance. Or at least paving your own way when acceptance doesn’t come.

Watch the video below: