GoneTrending

With new episodes of Beavis and Butt-head set to premiere this week after being teed up by their new movie, Beavis and Butt-head Do the Universe, creator Mike Judge has been opening up about the show’s wild prominence during the ’90s.

Originally released on MTV, the cartoon featured two teenage morons as they watched music videos and got into all kinds of mayhem out of sheer boredom and stupidity. While the show’s comedy style quickly found an audience, it also became a lightning rod for controversy thanks to Beavis’s love of fire, which had to be frantically yanked from the series. Beavis wasn’t even allowed to say the word following accusations that a five-year-old committed arson because of the cartoon.

“The show came along at a time when there wasn’t a whole lot going on in the world,” Judge told IndieWire. “Things were pretty good. The Cold War was over. Crime was starting to go down in the ‘90s. Suddenly there was this whole thing about blaming violence on television. ‘Beavis and Butt-Head’ was served up perfectly as the show that defined that.”

However, Judge revealed that he wasn’t causing concern with just parents and the media. He apparently had one particular fan who did not appreciate that Beavis and Butt-head made white people look bad. Yup:

Back in the ’90s, I got a string of hate mail from this one neo-Nazi white supremacist because of the way I was portraying white people. He was accusing me of being Jewish, too. He would circle my name in articles and say things like, “Is this real name Judge-stein?” He was just a really awful dude. Every now and then these days, someone celebrates this work the wrong way, but I don’t see it as often as the reverse.

Neo-Nazi hate mail aside, Judge has been pretty happy that, as far as he can tell, Beavis and Butt-head never took off with Donald Trump supporters.

“I haven’t really seen any of the MAGA-head right-wingers celebrating these guys,” Judge said. “Beavis and Butt-Head are such losers. They’re not tearing ass with a giant truck or anything. So hopefully it doesn’t cross paths with all that.”

Beavis and Butt-head starts streaming new episodes August 4 on Paramount+.

(Via IndieWire)

It’s been an astounding 60 years since The Rolling Stones formed, so Mick Jagger has been performing live for a long time now. Even after all these years, it looks like Jagger is still having a ton of fun on stage, especially at a recent concert.

At a performance in Spain (as Daily Mail notes), as the band played “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Jagger spotted a female fan who had gone ahead and removed her top, leaving her chest exposed for all to see as she bounced around seated on top of somebody’s shoulders. Jagger took notice and decided to return the favor by lifting his own shirt up. Jagger shared a video of the fun moment on his Instagram Story.

It’s nice to see Jagger doing well, as Rolling Stones had to cancel a June concert after Jagger tested positive for COVID-19. Elsewhere, Jagger found himself in the news back in May after sharing his thoughts on Harry Styles, saying, “I mean, I used to wear a lot more eye make-up than him. Come on, I was much more androgynous. And he doesn’t have a voice like mine or move on stage like me; he just has a superficial resemblance to my younger self, which is fine — he can’t help that.”

Revisit our recent ranking of The Rolling Stones’ songs here.

A new mainline title in the Pokémon franchise is already almost here and we can’t believe it, either. Soon enough, all of us will be diving in, choosing our starter Pokémon and going on an adventure through a whole new region. Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, the latest releases, promise to be some of the biggest yet with promises of an entirely open world and some wild looking legendaries.

On Wednesday, we got a closer look at the upcoming games thanks to a Pokémon Presents showcase, which gave us some new information about Pokémon Go, the world championships, and other Pokémon spin-off games, like Pokémon Cafe. That wasn’t what everyone was waiting on, though — the stars of the showcase were obviously Scarlet and Violet, and we got a lot of fun information to break down throughout the presentation.

Legendary Rider Pokémon

Remember when legendary Pokémon were great beasts to be conquered? They were mini-boss fights that put a player’s skills and patience to the test to see if they were worthy of taking on the power of such beasts. As time has gone on, though, they’ve become less a challenge to be conquered and instead an ally on the player’s journey. In Scarlet and Violet, they’re taking on their most prominent role yet by being the player’s main form of transportation. Biking, surfing, and flying can all be accomplished with the assistance of legendary Pokémon, and that’s a little odd to see when you consider what the games used to be like. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, because what child didn’t dream of riding around the Kanto region on a Zapdos, but it’s just weird that these creatures that used to be a major challenge of the game are now a mode of transportation.

Terastal Forms

Ever singe MegaEvolutions were added to the franchise, every new mainline game has needed a new special form of some kind. There were Z-Moves, Gigantamax, and now, there’s Terastal. This new transformation for our Pokémon surrounds our allies in a shiny crystal that unsurprisingly makes them more powerful, but it can sometimes come with a type change on top of that. The showcase didn’t give away too much info about how these new crystals will impact gameplay, but it sounds like Pokémon can have multiple “Tera-Forms,” which will obviously encourage players to catch the same kind of Pokémon more than once.

New Multiplayer Features

The last couple of Pokémon games have been taking big steps forward in improving the multiplayer aspects of the game. Scarlet and Violet will be no different with each game providing new features like co-op multiplayer, where multiple players will be able to run around in the same world. Not only that, but the games will allow players to hang out with each other, creating some fun virtual get together opportunities with friends. The new big feature has to be buffed up “Tera-Raids,” where players will be able to try and capture extra powerful Tera-Form Pokémon in raid battles. Features like this are always fun because it’s going to give players more to do beyond the single player plot.

No Set Gym Path

Gyms are returning in Scarlet and Violet, but there’s a really cool twist to them that most games in the past haven’t done. These games will allow players to tackle the gyms in any order they want. Essentially every traditional Pokémon game has sent the player on a set order to explore the world, but by removing that, it’s going to make this new open world feel that much more freeing for longtime fans. This does raise the question about just how “open” these gyms are going to be. Will the game’s difficulty be based on how many badges a player has gotten, or will they have a set difficulty from the start? If it’s the latter, then most players will obviously take on the easy gyms first, which kind of defeats the purpose of letting players choose. It will be fun to see what the devs at Game Freak have decided.

Two Extra Stories

For anyone tired of the old gym format, don’t worry, because there’s supposed to be two more plot lines the player can follow along. Having multiple plots isn’t exactly new in a Pokémon game, but they’ve traditionally been interwoven together so the presentation making it a point to tell us that there are two extra plots for players to follow will hopefully mean that they’re just as fleshed out as the gym badges path that most traditional players will follow. Hopefully, these aren’t just the same three plots in most Pokémon games — Gyms, 11 year old saves the world, complete the Pokédex — and we actually get some variety.

Everything teased Wednesday sounds like an opportunity for the devs at Game Freak to take the mainline games in an entirely new direction. It’s also an opportunity to repackage what many of us are used to and call it something new, but let’s be hopeful and assume it’s the former. The franchise has been leaning towards a refresh for a while and maybe this is finally it.

[Potential spoilers for future episodes of Better Call Saul]

If you watched the latest meme-inspiring episode of Better Call Saul, “Breaking Bad,” on AMC Plus, here’s what the closed captioning for Jimmy / Saul / Gene’s call that ends with him angrily smashing the phone against the booth reads.

Saul (not doing Jimmy / Saul / Gene every time) was trying to get in touch with Kim, who has apparently left New Mexico for the swampier pastures of Florida. Did he succeed? According to a German-speaking Better Call Saul fan on Reddit, he did — and the contents of the phone call may have been revealed, too.

“The ‘inaudible’ conversation in the phone booth is actually pretty audible in the German dub. Here is what is said,” the title of the post from Redditor mcmike8 reads.

German: „Du hast keine Ahnung was ich getan, oder nicht getan habe, okay? Wieso stellst DU dich nicht, auf mich musst du keine Rücksicht nehmen, ich kann nur EINMAL gehängt werden. Okay, hör zu, Kim, wieso reden wir überhaupt darüber. Wir beide sind zu clever…

English translation: (The beginning is inaudible…but it’s mid-sentence and he is already upset about what Kim must have said): “(…) you have no idea what I did or didn’t do, okay? Why don’t YOU turn yourself in, you don’t have to be considerate of me, I can only be hanged ONCE. Okay, look, Kim, why are we even talking about this. We’re both too smart…“

Saul writer Thomas Schnauz confirmed that “we will learn the details of the phone call” in a future episode (there are only two left), but if the Reddit transcription is true, Gene and Kim are a long way from a possible reunion. This makes me… something like this.

(Via Reddit)

Last year, Kathy Griffin was “locked out” of Twitter for reposting a 2017 photo where she’s holding the bloody, decapitated head of Donald Trump. The gory pic cost the comedian and My Life on the D-List star jobs and she was “erased” from culture, but she’s continued to criticize the former-president on social media, including a recent tweet where she’s drinking from a “F*CK TRUMP” mug.

Although maybe it should read “F*CK ROGAN.”

Griffin recently appeared on the Pivot podcast, where she expressed her concerns about the influence of The Joe Rogan Experience host. “It’s kind of the Roganization of America that I now am more worried about than Trumpism,” she said.

While Griffin didn’t specify the source of her concerns about Rogan, she told Interview earlier this year that she makes a point of avoiding “guys like Joe.” “His fan base is very frightening because the misogyny runs so deep,” she explained. “When I make fun of his show, the Elon Musk army comes after me, the Rogan army comes after me…They’re very into swarming. I’ve known guys like Joe my whole career, and guys like that are best to stay away from. There are other people that can get in the arena with him.”

To recap, this is a star of Suddenly Susan being worried that a NewsRadio actor is more dangerous than the host of The Apprentice. NBC has an oversized influence on American politics in the 21st century. In this essay, I will…

(You can listen to the podcast below.)

Warner Bros. Discovery stunned DC Comics fans on Tuesday when the studio announced that it was pulling the plug on the Batgirl movie. While the film was originally headed to HBO Max, there was talk of expanding it to theaters, which made the sudden decision to completely shelve the project altogether all the more surprising. Not only did the film have Michael Keaton reprising his role as Batman, but Brendan Fraser had been tapped to play the movie’s villain Firefly.

“A minute after this story posted got a call from a rival studio exec who was floored by move,” Deadline reporter Justin Kroll tweeted. “‘Worked in this town for three decades and this is some unprecedented sh*t right here.’”

Naturally, fans on social media have been reacting heatedly to the news, but Brendan Fraser fans seem particularly aggrieved. The actor started trending on Twitter as fans couldn’t believe that Warner Bros. would just go ahead and shelve a film that locked down The Mummy star as a Batman villain. It just didn’t make any sense.

You can see some of the reactions below:

As for why Warner Bros. made the unprecedented move to shelve a superhero blockbuster that was, by accounts, mostly finished, it’s a tale as old as time: For the tax write-off. Via Variety:

Releasing the movie on HBO Max would seem to be the most obvious solution. Instead, the company has shelved “Batgirl” — along with the “Scoob!” sequel — and several sources say it will almost certainly take a tax write-down on both films, seen internally as the most financially sound way to recoup the costs (at least, on an accountant’s ledger). It could justify that by chalking it up to a post-merger change of strategy.

Needless to say, #ReleaseBatgirl has already become a thing, but after recently getting burnt by the “Release The Snyder Cut” campaign, maybe don’t hold your breath on Warner Bros. giving into this latest hashtag.

(Via Variety)

Whether or not Time Skiffs was Animal Collective’s comeback record, Panda Bear has never fallen off. 2019’s Buoys and especially 2015’s Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper were bona fide slaps and just like he always has with Animal Collective, Panda Bear’s Noah Lennox has always explored child-like dreamworlds and nostalgia. He’s picking up in that familiar sphere with his new collaborative album with Sonic Boom (the moniker of Beach House and MGMT producer Peter Kember). Their album, Reset, is due out next week and the latest single, “Edge Of The Edge,” hearkens back to ’60s doo-wop with a decidedly modern message.

Kember fancies himself a collector of ’60s records and a sample of “Denise” by Randy & The Rainbows is prominently featured on “Edge Of The Edge” as soon as the track begins. The video, directed by Danny Perez, is chock full of emoticons and digital-age imagery. Over clicks and dial tone effects, claps and bells, Panda Bear seems to warn us of the perils of our addictions, and in the video’s case, of online fixations, singing: “One taste to break the fall, one wave to take us all to the shore. Can’t say it’s what you bargained for, it’s forever at the push of a button.”

Watch the “Edge Of The Edge” video above.

Reset is out 8/12 via Domino Recordings. Pre-order it here.

The boys of BTS are working harder than ever, despite being on a hiatus collectively. While it may be a while until we get new music from them as a band, BTS has something special cooking up. This October, BTS will release a cookbook featuring each of the member’s favorite recipes.

The book, called BTS Recipe Book: Book Of Tasty Stories, will contain recipes that the BTS members use themselves, paired with anecdotes about the band, as well as the backstories behind the dishes.

“We hope that you will enjoy every moment as you follow the steps of these recipes, imagining the conversations and feelings of BTS when they were making these dishes,” reads a description for the book on Weverse.

The book will be published in Japanese, and in Korean, with the latter version containing English translations. Although a release date has not yet been announced for the book, however, it is expected to ship during the week of October 17, according to Weverse.

Additionally, Benny Blanco is dropping a new single this Friday called “Bad Decisions,” which features Snoop Dogg, as well as Jin, Jimin, V and Jung Kook of BTS.

“I’m still pinching myself,” said Blanco in a statement. “I can’t believe I have a song coming out with Jin, Jimin, V and Jung Kook of BTS and Snoop Dogg. It doesn’t even feel real.”

You can pre-save the single here.

There are tell-tale signs in a country with a majority continental climate that summer has, or has just about, come to a close. A nip in the air most mornings, foliage flickering through a beautiful array of fall tones, people wearing jean jackets again, and of course, a renewed frenzy and ramped up pride around the Toronto Raptors and their imminent season.

Since 2012, NBA Canada, in tandem with the NBA, have tapped into that excitement and actively sought to broaden it by hosting the NBA Canada Series — official, pre-season games held outside of the league’s lone market of Toronto. Previous match-ups have featured franchises like the Clippers, Bulls, Knicks, and Nuggets in cities such as Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, and the Grizzlies’ former home of Vancouver. The series was put on pause in 2019 due to the COVID pandemic, but is set to make its return this fall with two games presented by Bell.

On Oct. 2, the Raptors will take on the Jazz in Edmonton, a first for Utah as a team featured in the series and for the city as a host for an NBA game. On Oct. 14, the Raptors will face the Celtics in Montreal, a second-time appearance for the recent Eastern Conference in the city and hometown of the Raptors own Chris Boucher, who hasn’t played there since the preseason of Toronto’s title winning season in 2019.

“It’s so good to once again be able to play in front of our fans across Canada,” Raptors general manager Bobby Webster said of the Canada Series’ 10-year anniversary and return. “We’re looking forward to returning to Montreal, and to playing at Rogers Place in Edmonton for the first time. It’s a fantastic reminder, as we begin a new season, that we are Canada’s team, and we look forward to making Raptors fans proud, no matter where they are cheering from.”

Of the Jazz’s inaugural appearance in the series, Utah general manager Justin Zanik echoed those sentiments. “We’re excited to be featured in the preseason NBA Canada Series,” he said. “It is a unique opportunity for our organization to engage with the league’s Canadian fans in Edmonton. Our players and staff are looking forward to it.”

Canada, oft touted as a kind of tacked on extension of the U.S. market, has a rich history in and rapidly growing fanbase for basketball. The rise of exciting, Canadian stars in the NBA like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Andrew Wiggins, Jamal Murray, and Dillon Brooks — not to mention the Raptors rostering three Canadian players including Toronto-born Dalano Banton — has created a renewed awareness for Canadians of a flourishing Canadian identity in the league. On and off court the stylistic nuances of Canadian players, aided by the volume of talented players being drafted into the NBA each season and expansion of national leagues like the CEBL, has underscored not only that the culture of basketball in Canada is thriving, but that a budding regionality is taking shape. The return of the NBA Canada Series underscores the necessity and value in treating Canada not as a far-flung outpost, but a compelling and completely unique country of basketball, symbiotic in the league’s goal to take the game global.

Generally speaking, when a lawmaker’s attempting to show off movie-based knowledge, this involves Ted Cruz falling all over himself. The Princess Bride superfan previously feuded with Cary Elwes and botched both Watchmen and The Avengers. But Lauren Boebert is here to threaten Ted’s crown of stumbling into Twitter traps. No, she’s not “liking” saucy tweets (like Ted presumably did) late on a Monday night, but she is taking issue with Kevin Costner, and she got trolled mightily as a result.

Costner had decided to throw his Yellowstone weight behind Liz Cheney to support her House reelection campaign. Cheney, although a Republican, regularly angers the MAGA crowd and continues to do so as a prominent figure in the House’s investigation into Jan. 6. And Boebert couldn’t resist tossing a barb at the Bull Durham actor. “How did Kevin Costner go from Dancing with Wolves to slumming with RINOs?” she tweeted.

It’s one of those silly tweets that begged for a little trolling, so the notorious Three Year Letterman account stepped up to do so. He baited Boebert with an equally mindless (and purposefully inaccurate) tweet. “Kevin Costner was not in Dances with Wolves, Senator,” Letterman responded. “He was in Field of Dreams. You’re thinking of Jeff Bridges, so delete and correct this.”

Boebert took the bait, and while this might seem inconsequential (obviously, Costner really was in Field of Dreams), it’s quite something that Boebert’s entrenched enough on Twitter to express well wishes for “Catturd2” but not recognize the Letterman account for what it is. And she fired back: “I’m not a Senator, and Kevin Costner acted in and directed the dang thing. Next!”

Letterman continued to tweet random gibberish about DVDs and how he’d like to be addressed.

And it doesn’t matter, at all, except for the “owning the libs” angle. Also: “Next!”