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This summer, a Twitter user went after Jason Isbell with an attempted insult about his level of fame, but Isbell embraced it, replying, “B list is the best list, though. I can go to the grocery store without being bothered, and I afford the good eggs.” Indeed, Isbell is in a position where he’s not a household name to all but has plenty of fans who enjoy and respect his work. It turns out even those folks don’t always recognize him, though.

Yesterday, Isbell shared a story about a peculiar encounter with somebody who appeared to be a fan of his, tweeting, “I just rode an elevator with a guy in a Jason Isbell t-shirt and I said nice shirt and he just said thank you. So either I’m looking not so good today or that’s one cool ass dude. Or maybe the shirt was a gift and it’s laundry day and he’s not a fan at all.”

Isbell’s post prompted some other similar stories of famous people not being recognized. Variety‘s Chris Willman shared a tremendous Dave Matthews story, writing, “I once interviewed Dave Matthews in a park. A young couple asked if we’d help them move furniture. We did and spent a nice half-hour hanging out at their new house. I got their number and later called to ask if they’d heard of Dave Matthews. ‘Yeah, we just went to his show. Why?’” Isbell responded, “I’m honestly not surprised by this one.”

Isbell re-shared another story he called “so magical,” from a Twitter user who wrote, “I once invited David Lee Roth camping/rock climbing and he said yes AND CAME because he was so tickled that I didn’t know who he was IRL despite being an avid MTV teen in his Van Halen years. It happens.” The person later elaborated, “I met Dave at Rat Rock in Central Park. We were both bouldering & struck up a convo & I said my friends & I go climbing in the Gunks every wknd, would he like to come? He said yes, we exchanged # s, he left. […] Dave showed up with his bodyguard/belayer, a ton of food, drink (& other things) A great time was had by all. He said he came bc it was clear I had no idea who he was & we seemed like a fun group.”

A follower also introduced Isbell to a classic viral clip of a street musician singing Matisyahu’s “One Day” while Matisyahu himself watched, unbeknownst to the musician (Matisyahu changed his signature look in 2011).

While Avengers star Jeremy Renner managed to maintain his rule-abiding and theft-free reputation on-set for quite some time, much like the character he portrays, he’s now proving he’s got a bit of a rebellious streak in ‘em. In a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the Hawkeye star confessed he has officially taken home his first item from set: his Hawkeye suit.

Of course, Renner was quick to defend his actions, explaining the harmless situation that led to him obtaining the suit, as well as pointing out his co-star’s penchants for taking prop items home with them:

“Over the decade or so of doing ‘The Avengers’ and stuff, I never took anything, because they asked us not to and my mom taught me well, so I never took anything, right? And then all the other Avengers took stuff! Those dirtbags, they stole something! Like, Thor’s got his hammer!”

Kimmel then laughed and doubled-down on what Renner was saying, telling the star he’s seen numerous “Mjölnirs lying around” Chris Hemsworth’s home. However, ever the on-set good guy, Renner says he didn’t straight up take the suit like his fellow superhero squad members might have. Instead, Renner explained the volunteer system at his daughter’s school to the studio, expressed interest in wearing his superhero get-up during his turn to help out, and then simply asked the studio if he could borrow it. The studio then allowed him to take home his costume from his upcoming Disney+ series, and so far, hasn’t asked for it back. Though even if they do, Renner admits he most likely won’t be returning it.

“I don’t know if they’re going to ask for it back, I probably won’t give it back at this point. But I got it finally.”

According to Renner, he still hasn’t gotten the chance to wear the costume yet. He then proceeded to joke that even when he does, he doesn’t expect his young daughter to be very impressed with his outfit, telling Kimmel “she barely knows I’m Hawkeye” and will probably accuse him of wearing pajamas.

You can catch Renner in his pajamas — er, super suit — when the Hawkeye series premieres over on Disney+ on November 24. Set after the events of Avengers: Endgame, in addition to Renner the show stars MCU newcomer Hailee Steinfeld and Black Widow’s Florence Pugh.

An old George Carlin interview has resurfaced in the wake of Dave Chappelle complaining about being canceled (while performing in front of a packed audience) following the backlash to his Netflix special, The Closer. The clip is from 1990, when the legendary comedian appeared on Larry King’s show to discuss Andrew Dice Clay’s sexist and homophobic jokes.

“I would defend to the death his right to do everything he does,” Carlin admitted. But “the thing that I find unusual, and it’s, you know, not a criticism so much, but his targets are underdog[s]. And comedy traditionally has picked on people in power, people who abuse their power. Women and gays and immigrants are kind of, to my way of thinking, underdog[s]. And, you know, he ought to be careful, because he’s Jewish. And a lot of people who want to pick on these kind of groups, the Jews are on that list. A little further you’ve got women, gays, gypsies and boom, boom, boom, and suddenly you find the Jews.” King asked why Dice Clay was able to “get away” with these offensive jokes that target marginalized communities, to which Carlin replied:

“I think his core audience are young, white males who are threatened by these groups. I think a lot of these guys aren’t sure of their manhood, because that’s a problem when you’re going through adolescence. You know, ‘Am I really, could I be, I hope I’m not one of them.’ And the women who assert themselves and are competent are a threat to these men, and so are immigrants in terms of jobs.”

Thirty-plus years later, Carlin’s wise words are still worth hearing:

This year, Kidz Bop celebrated its 20th anniversary, meaning they’ve been making family-friend covers of the most popular pop songs for two decades. They’ve tried hard to spin some raunchy lyrics into kid-friendly verses over the years, like when changed Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” to actually be about snakes. But their recent version of Lil Nas X‘s Montero title track perhaps takes the cake for being the most laughable.

The Kidz Bop team got wildly creative when switching up the lyrics to “Montero (Call Me By Your Name).” Of course, they couldn’t have 10-year-olds singing Lil Nas X’s lyrics about cocaine and f*cking people out of his league, so they instead swapped out many of the lines.

One of Lil Nas X’s “Montero” lyrics reads, “I wanna sell what you’re buying / I wanna feel on yo’ ass in Hawaii / I want that jet lag from f*cking and flying / Shoot a child in your mouth while I’m riding.” But Kidz Bop’s version is much different: “I wanna sell what you’re buyin’ / I wanna lie on the beach in Hawaii / I want that jet lag from livin’ and flyin’ / Put a smile on your face whilst we’re dining’.”

In fact, the updated version of the song is so ridiculous that Lil Nas X himself was left speechless. The rapper simply posted a screenshot of the chorus of the Kidz Bop song to his Twitter without a caption.

Listen to the Kidz Bop version of Lil Nas X’s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” above.

According to a new report from Politico, plenty of GOP heavyweights are starting to get seriously worried about how detrimental some of the more ludicrous conspiracy theories circling amongst their voter base will be to the party as a whole come 2022. Things have gotten so bad that top Trump lieutenants like Hogan Gidley and QAnon-loving Congress members like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene are speaking out in hopes they can convince MAGA supporters to fill out their ballots when midterms happen, despite many of them believing our current election system is compromised.

“People are going to do whatever they want, and I can’t answer for any of those other groups,” Gidley told Politico when asked about misinformation campaigns and the efforts of “Stop the Steal” believers like Mike Lindell to cast doubt on our voting systems. “But as it relates to election integrity and voter protection, it is vital that we help states get these simple, popular security mechanisms in place to ensure honesty for the 2022 midterms. I want to make sure that the data we gather and the information we share is built on solid ground as opposed to sinking sand.”

Gidley’s view is one shared by top brass Republicans like Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and Senator Roy Blunt, who have publicly criticized Trump and his allies for pulling focus from upcoming midterms to push baseless voter fraud theories about elections that happened nearly a year ago. And, according to a poll conducted by Politico, they’ve got reason to be worried. Among Trump voters, 22 percent said they believed the 2020 Presidential Election was “fair” while just 38 percent expressed the belief that the 2022 midterms would be. That kind of distrust in government is the direct consequence of Trump’s ongoing “Stop the Steal” messaging and it could signal a lower turnout in Republican voters next year.

“When my fellow Republicans are focused on the wrong things, when they’re focused on conspiracies about secret algorithms on voting machines, and they’re focused on ideas there is a group of ballots printed in China snuck in the back door of the board of elections — all those things are easily disproven,” Republican Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose told Politico. “But a focus on those things distracts from what I consider the real concerns about election integrity.”

Things have become so dire that even Greene — a mascot for some of the more bizarre conspiracy theories floating amongst party members right now — has had to issue warnings to her voter base.

“I recently conducted a poll on Georgia’s elections and if my constituents felt their votes would count during a teletown hall. Sadly, 4% said they won’t even vote due to voter fraud. This is WRONG. Legal votes by Rs are just as important as stopping illegal ones,” she tweeted.

It’s all fun and games and nonsense about secret sex cabals run by lizard overlords until Republican voters stop showing up to the polls, we guess?

(Via Politico & Raw Story)

A few years ago, the midwives of the Royal Oldham hospital in England decided to illustrate the horrors of childbirth using the whimsy of Halloween pumpkin art. The maternity ward became a zone of terror, as the “dilation pumpkins” were lined up in ascendant order, matching how the cervix dilates during labor, from a harmless 1cm to a terrifying 10cm.

The first pumpkin looks adorably surprised. Nothing too scary about that, right? Kind of like it just had an unexpected visit from a cute puppy.

Then take a look at that last pumpkin, apparently at the optimum dilation for giving birth, mouth fully agape, with an expression that can’t help but convey “OUCH!” No amount of fun googly eyes are gonna make that image less frightening. Yikes.

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I think one twitterer put it best: “I like how they go from mildly surprised to utterly baffled,” along with an appropriate yet disturbing GIF.

Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris, a medical historian at the University of Oxford, reposted the ghastly gourds on her Twitter, saying “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything scarier in my life.” And now, with more than 10,000 likes and 1,500 retweets, the image is viral yet again.

This year, there were more pregnant pumpkin contributions. One twitterer shared an image of a pumpkin actually giving birth. Yep, this was from the same hospital. They really know how to express their creativity in a very acute way over there.

Another person commented on the original photo, observing that “3 and 9 appear to be wearing condoms for hats which I would suggest is a bit late to be thinking about!” By the look on the pumpkins’ faces, I’d say they wish they had thought about using those condom hats.

Speaking of birth control, one suggestion was to show these pumpkins in a sex ed class, saying it would “stop the birth rate in no time!” So hey, if you’re looking to kill two birds—scare teenagers and promote the use of contraceptives—there’s a way to do it!

Apparently it had a visceral effect on mothers and non-mothers alike. One person wrote “23 years ago I went from 2 to 10 centimeters in 45 minutes, without anesthetic. Those pumpkins don’t look nearly terrified enough,” while another replied, “I’m assuredly not pregnant and this is still distressing.”

Many were at a loss for words and resorted to using memes that sent a clear message. I think this one pretty much sums the general group reaction:

But at least it made some a little more appreciative of mom. One daughter is gonna go bake some “thanks for enduring incredible pain to birth me” brownies. That almost makes it worth it, right?

Kudos to the dark humor of the Royal Oldham midwives. When it comes to conveying the nightmare otherwise known as the miracle of life, they’ve really squashed it.

Many fans were left concerned when the Yakuza series decided to spin off into an RPG with Yakuza: Like a Dragon. What did this mean for those who had fallen in love with the action brawler routes the game had been built on? Thankfully, SEGA had a plan for us all along. Judgment, the spin-off series starring lawyer turned detective Takayuki Yagami, was set to become the series’ new action game. While Yakuza would continue to explore RPG’s, Judgment would stay true to the series origins. The split between Judgment and Yakuza ended up doing more than just representing gameplay styles, though.

Yakuza is a series about characters. The stories are terrific, but people play those games because they love to see how the characters are going to pan out. This also means that the stories those games tell are solely focused on those characters. As a crime drama series starring actual Yakuza, it’s hard for the series to break out from certain crime drama themes.

Lost Judgment, meanwhile, is still a crime drama, but it can tackle subjects that Yakuza cannot. It’s a plot that involves a serial killer, organized crime syndicates, and corrupt politicians. Yet it also touches on themes such as bullying, teenage suicide, and handling grief. It tells a story that is complex and will leave the player wondering if the protagonist, Yagami, is truly on the right side of this conflict.

Unfortunately, it has to be said that while the game has lofty expectations, it does fail to hit on every note. It handles the more personal portions of the game incredibly well. The developers at Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio understand people as individuals in a way that many games fail to do. They bring those characters to life yet again in Lost Judgment and it’s why those personal moments are done so well. Unfortunately, the final third of the game tries to make this story bigger than it needs to be, and while it’s entertaining, it doesn’t carry nearly the same emotional weight as the earlier and mid-point scenes do.

All of that said, the story and characters are only one part of what makes Lost Judgment. There’s still an entire video game in here, and even if the story doesn’t manage to stick the landing perfectly, there will be plenty of other reasons to play the game for hours on end.

We’re happy to report that this game is just as fun to play as any other in the series, in large part because there is so much that you can do. The cities of Kamurocho and Yokohama are filled to the brim with activities that could keep anyone busy for months on end. The usual suspects are back, such as Mahjong and SEGA arcades, but there is an incredible amount of new activities to dig into, such as boxing, dancing, collecting SEGA Master System games, or even bike racing. All of these mini-games are thankfully optional, but they give the player the opportunity to break away from the story and just get lost in the world.

There are a whole heck of a lot of side-quests, too. As a detective, Yagami makes a habit of taking on weird cases, and he can find plenty on his office boards in Kamurocho or Yokohama. He can also help out random people throughout the two cities by exploring the “Chatter” app. By inputting keywords into the app, Yagami can run into some of the wackier residents around town and get to the bottom of a few mysteries, such as the Café Robber or a UFO sighting. These missions are great because they introduce to us some of the wackier characters that the Yakuza series has become so well known for. Still bored? Then team up with the Mystery Research Club at Seiryo High School and solve some of the mysteries around the school.

There is so much to do in Lost Judgment that it’s very easy to get distracted and play for hours on end without completing a single story mission. That is the best compliment anyone can give a side-quest.

While side missions are fun, the bread and butter of Lost Judgement is in the combat. This is how anyone who plays the game will spend the majority of their time, so combat needs to be fun and engaging. The developers unsurprisingly hit this one out of the park. They managed to take an already very good system from the first game and make it even better. Fighting styles make a return, with Crane being suited for large crowds and Tiger better for 1-on-1 combat. New to Lost Judgement is Snake, a style that is best suited for taking down enemies that use weapons or have a tendency to block. What’s fun about Snake is, with enough of the EX Gauge built up, scared enemies can be eliminated immediately no matter their health.

What Lost Judgment has done a good job of is getting players out of their old habits of building up the EX Gauge and spamming heat moves to win fights. Enemies have a good variety in them, forcing the player to switch styles a lot, and if you don’t pay attention, it’s actually very easy to die. Yagami has never been as tankish as previous series protagonists, but it will catch some players off guard how quickly he can take a beating. It shouldn’t be a problem as long as the player stays on top of upgrades and health items.

One of the best parts of this franchise, whether it’s Yakuza or Judgment, is that the games are extremely accessible. There is no game that can’t stand on its own because all the stories are self-contained. That said, if someone has not played Judgment or Yakuza before, then they might want to give those a try before they play this one. Lost Judgment is another great game in that universe, but it’s not the best of those games.

That said, for people that have played the franchise before, then this is a great place to continue. The story is good, the combat is incredible, and there are endless activities for the player to enjoy. It’s always a fun time getting lost in Kamurocho and bringing back Yokohama was a brilliant idea. It hits all the right notes for those of us that love this series, and as such, it gets the highest recommendation for returning players.

21 Savage recently celebrated his 29th birthday (it was on October 22, the night 21 opened for J. Cole at The Forum in Los Angeles) and was given a truly impressive gift by one of his close rapper friends to celebrate. Young Thug, who most recently collaborated with Savage on “Emergency” from the latter’s soundtrack for the Saw spinoff Spiral, gifted 21 with a custom Dodge Hellcat TRX worth $150,000, according to TMZ. While the pickup truck is normally between $60,000 and $70,000 at retail, the custom detailing Thug had added boosted the price tag.

Among those customizations are headrests stitched with Savage’s face, glow-in-the-dark stars embedded into the ceiling, a custom bright red paint job featuring 21’s signature forehead knife tattoo imprinted all over, and more. The customization was done by Roadshow International in Atlanta, and a video was posted on Instagram capturing the moment 21 excitedly received the gift from his friend.

A couple of months ago, their roles were reversed as they partied together for Young Thug’s birthday. A playful 21 shot a viral video of Thug during dinner, teasing him to the point Thug had to snatch the phone from his hand.

Young Thug is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The Chicago Bulls have rattled off four consecutive wins to open the 2021-22 season and sit atop the NBA as one of three undefeated teams. Moving forward, though, their star guard, Zach LaVine, will be compromised in some capacity. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, LaVine “has a small ligament tear in the thumb of his non-shooting hand.” However, Charania reported that LaVine “intends to play through the injury” and “it’s a matter of pain tolerance.”

K.C. Johnson of NBCSports Chicago reported “LaVine underwent an MRI on his left thumb on the Bulls’ off-day Tuesday” and noted that he “was wincing and shaking this hand after taking a whack on it during the Raptors game.”

After notching his first All-Star berth last season, the explosive eighth-year wing was off to another prolific start, averaging 25.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 4.8 assists on 64.4 percent true shooting (.500/.444/.952) through four contests.

Although this injury is far from ideal, the Bulls are better equipped to mitigate its impact than they were in previous seasons after bolstering the roster over the past seven months. Nikola Vucevic is off to a slow start, but he’s an All-Star creator and DeMar DeRozan was also brought in to ease LaVine’s scoring burden. Fellow free-agent signees Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso can also conduct the offense in certain situations.

To open the year, LaVine had played off the ball significantly more than in prior seasons and this injury suggests that could remain the case or even increase for the time being as his thumb heals.

As the basketball and music worlds continue to crossover in entertaining and unexpected ways — think Damian Lillard’s rap career, Kawhi Leonard curating a rap compilation, or 2 Chainz, Jack Harlow, Lil Baby, and Quavo participating in a 2-on-2 during NBA All-Star Weekend — one of the more welcome surprises has been Kevin Durant’s podcast, The ETCs. The well-noted Drake stan and his co-host Eddie Gonzalez not only talk music and sports, but they also occasionally bring on interesting guests from both worlds, including TDE engineer Derek Ali, Roc-A-Fella Records founder Kareem Burke, and in today’s episode, Insecure creator Issa Rae.

While discussing Issa’s role in curating music for the popular dramedy and running her own label, Raedio, in conjunction with Atlantic Records, Issa wonders what the two hosts have been listening to lately. While there seems to be agreement around the table that Drake’s new album Certified Lover Boy is worth revisiting, Issa stops cold when the fellas mention Meek Mill. “I have not listened to Meek Mill,” she admits. “Y’all forgave him?”

“For the Drake thing?” Durant asks. “You didn’t forgive him.” Eddie points out that Drake forgave Meek, which Issa acknowledges but refutes, saying, “I’m the girlfriend that’s like, ‘He asked for no onions!’ So that’s like, I just felt protective of him — with him and Pusha T.”

I guess that means we’re not going to hear any Pusha T music on the final season of Insecure. Check out a video clip of the conversation below.