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You should watch The Price is Right clip above without any context. I’ll wait.

Welcome back. I probably do not need to describe The Price is Right “Showcase,” as you have also spent time in a waiting room, but just in case: the winners of the Showcase Showdown (that’s the big wheel spin) compete against each other to take home a bunch of prizes, some more impressive than others. After the first showcase is presented, the highest-earner can either pass the showcase to the other contestant, or keep it for themselves by guessing how much it costs. Either way, both contestants will pretend to know the cost of a jet ski, or whatever. Whoever’s closest without going over, wins it. Also, Drew Carey is there. This is, all these years later, still a surprise every time.

The showcase for Jennifer, a contestant on the March 3 episode, included a video camera, a home theater, and a Nissan Versa. She guessed $23,294. Considering Robert, her game show enemy, was over by $6,083, she had a good chance of winning. “You bid $23,294,” Carey said, drawing out the tension. “The actual retail price is 23 thousand… two hundred… ninety… one.” Jennifer was over by three dollars. Three! My favorite part of the whole thing, above even the Ralph Wiggum-esque look on her face and Carey suggesting that she drown her sorrow in ice cream,” is the “buzz” sound effect that plays right after Jennifer’s heart is broken. It’s no “losing horn,” but it still stings.

Poor Jennifer.

There are a lot of bourbon choices on the shelf. Big-name distilleries in Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and beyond can put out five, ten, even 20 or more different labels from the same stills and barrel houses. Celebrities are launching lines left and right. Drinkers are rich with choice and, even still, many of them like to stick to the tried and true.

It must be scary as hell to be an upstart craft distillery. How do you compete?

By being as skilled at creating craft expressions as Woodinville Whiskey Co. out in the Seattle suburbs, that’s how. The relative newcomers have been killing the whiskey game over the past couple of years. Their entry-point bourbon won Double Gold and was named the Best Straight Bourbon of 2020 at last year’s San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Their 100% Rye is equally lauded, along with their Port Finish Bourbon — our favorite bourbon of 2020.

This is quality juice, is what we’re getting at. And people who know bourbon whiskey see that.

Woodinville is a small operation making big whiskeys, which makes this ranking a little shorter than our normal Friday brand rankings. We’re only talking about their four core expressions (though you can find some serious barrel picks out there and great cask-strength one-offs at the distillery when it’s open). The flipside of that coin is that it also makes ranking these four bottles almost impossible — it would have been easy to finish with two ties.

Still, we’re going to give it our best shot. That way, when you do come across a bottle, you’ll know which one to start with.

4. Woodinville Double Barrel Blended Whiskey

ABV: 43%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

Double Barrel is a great example of the craft involved with this brand. The juice is fermented from grains (corn, rye, and barley) pulled exclusively from Omlin Family farm in Quincy, Washington. The distillate then goes into barrels that spend two years air-drying on the leeward slopes of the Cascade Mountains before a light toasting and very light charring. The hot distillate mellows in those barrels and is then transferred to used bourbon barrels to finish out their maturation.

Tasting Notes:

There’s a nose of red berries dusted with cinnamon and brown sugar with a buttery base next to a hint of that toasted oak. The palate veers away from the berries towards a ripe peach floating in vanilla cream with honey and eggnog spice cutting through. The end circles back to the dry wood notes, with a slight spicy tobacco chew offering a counterpoint to that silken vanilla cream and stonefruit on a medium-length fade.

Bottom Line:

Something has to be at the bottom of this list. The main reason for this landing in the bottom slot is that this feels like the best mixer on the list — or the bottle we reach for the least when sipping neat or on the rocks. It’s absolutely a fine sipper but, really, it’s a better cocktail base for a craft Manhattan or old fashioned.

3. Woodinville 100% Rye Whiskey

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $45

The Whiskey:

American Distilling Institute Craft Spirits Awards named this their Best Rye back in 2017. The juice is 100 percent rye with grains sourced locally from the Omlin family farm. The whiskey is barreled in air-dried and toasted barrels but this time they’re heavily charred before the spirit goes in. The barrels are then hand-selected and married to create a pure rye whiskey experience at an accessible 90 proof.

Tasting Notes:

This very much falls into the “classic” rye category with a nose full of dark and woody spices next to bright red fruits, honey, and a touch of fresh and (maybe even wet) tobacco leaves. The palate embraces the nose while adding in a, dare we say, plummy Fruit Roll-Ups taste and vibe next to a slight nuttiness, mild vanilla/caramel, and spicy dried tobacco chew on the end of the sip. The finish is long-ish, velvety, and touches back on the almost cedar woodiness and leathery fruit as the spicy tobacco warms the chest.

Bottom Line:

This rye feels like it’s for aficionados while still holding onto real accessibility in flavor and mouthfeel. While it can be a bit bold, it’ll never overwhelm, especially when you get a little ice or water in there to really let it shine in the glass.

2. Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $42

The Whiskey:

This much-lauded bourbon is Woodinville’s touchstone expression. The whiskey is made with those same family farm grains. The juice spends years in the toasted and heavily charred barrels maturing until it’s just right (around five years in total). The results are married and proofed down with local water to a very welcoming 90 proof.

Tasting Notes:

You’re greeted with a thick vanilla pudding with caramel candy and a cedar box full of dark spices. The caramel thickens to a buttery and rich toffee with notes of dark chocolate peeking in next to more of those woody spices and a vanilla oil velvetiness. The end is long and really embraces the sweeter edges of the vanilla pudding while allowing the spice to warm the senses.

Bottom Line:

This is one of those drams where you’re left thinking after the first sip, “Oh, this is what good bourbon tastes like.” It’s matter-of-fact while also being incredibly sippable neat or on the rocks … in a highball … or in your favorite cocktail.

In short, it’s as versatile as it is drinkable.

1. Woodinville Straight Bourbon Whiskey Port Finished

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $52

The Whiskey:

This expression is the brand’s award-winning five-year-old bourbon taken up a notch. That means you’re getting that grain-to-glass experience of local Washington craft along with the bespoke barreling process on those snowy Cascade Mountains. The juice is then finished for six to 12 months in port casks, adding a whole new dimension to the bourbon.

Tasting Notes:

Candied fruit, roasted nuts, and bourbon vanilla entice you throughout the sip. Those notes lead right into a Christmas cake full of dried fruits, spice, nuts, and plummy sherry depths. The end shines in all of those notes, adding a warming feeling that revels in all the candied fruit, cake, spice, nuts, and oak as it slowly fades away, leaving you with a silken mouthfeel and sweet warmth.

Bottom Line:

This word gets thrown around a lot, but this bourbon is smooth. It’s just the right amount of sweet, spicy, and bourbon-y, creating a unique and delicious sipping experience. We like it neat. But don’t sleep on making a killer cocktail with this one — something like a Sazerac, eggnog, or boulevardier feels right.

Australia has been kind to the world in terms of its musical output, as the country has exported a range of esteemed artists including Kylie Minogue, AC/DC, Courtney Barnett, and a host of others. One of the country’s most successful groups of all time may not be an obvious pick, but it’s one a lot of children have heard over the years: The Wiggles.

Hosts of Triple J’s “Like A Version” segment and fans recently campaigned to get The Wiggles to make an appearance on the show, and sure enough, those efforts were a success: The band stopped by to cover another Australian classic, Tame Impala’s “Elephant,” but mixed it up by combining the track with one of their own most beloved tunes, “Fruit Salad.”

At this point, the only remaining member of the band who was around during their commercial peak in the 2000s is Anthony Field (the Blue Wiggle), as Murray Cook (the former Red Wiggle), Jeff Fatt (Purple), and Greg Page (Yellow) all left the group in 2012. However, Cook and Fatt put their colored shirts on again and rejoined the band for this performance.

The appearance coincided with the band’s 30th anniversary, which they are celebrating with the compilation album We’re All Fruit Salad: The Wiggles Greatest Hits.

Watch The Wiggles cover “Elephant” above. They also spoke about the cover in an interview video, so check that out below.

(Spoilers from Marvel Studios and Disney+’s WandaVision will be found below.)

After weeks of speculating what the ramifications of bringing Evans Peters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe might mean, the WandaVision finale went a direction that we can safely say no one saw coming: a boner joke. Instead of a dramatic bridging between the Fox X-Men movies and the MCU, which the show seemed to be heading towards thanks to the official Disney+ caption labeling Peters as “the version of Pietro from the X-Men films” when he first arrived in Episode 7, Peters ended up being an entirely different character. Namely, Agnes’ mysterious husband Ralph whose last name is Boehner, which sounds exactly like you think it does.

The problem is the “Ralph Boehner” moment is the last we see of Peters in the finale. He literally laughs at his own last name just to drive home the boner joke, and that’s the end of his story. Obviously, that wasn’t the explanation Marvel fans were looking for after weeks of hoping for some sort of big Multiverse X-Men reveal, and they’ve been sharing their feelings on Pietro being reduced to a dick joke on Twitter.

Of course, even in the end, WandaVision can’t help but stir up fan theories. Right now Marvel funs are furiously sifting through the finale for clues that maybe Pietro is more than just a boner gag, and they’re zeroing in on the fact he has a photo of himself with his name on it, which seems odd. Not to mention, he laughed at “Ralph Boehner” like he’d just heard it for the first time, and we still don’t know the identity of the witness protection suspect Jimmy Woo was looking for…

At the time of his death, Pop Smoke was one of the hottest commodities in the rap game but he wasn’t the only drill-influenced artist with a stranglehold on radio and playlists. Chicago artist Polo G, working from the blueprint established by Windy City forebearers like Chief Keef and Lil Durk, also had a parade of hits traveling down the pipeline. Although the two shared common roots — they were even the same age — they never got to work together while Pop was alive. That’s a shame because “Fashion,” their posthumous collaboration from the Boogie soundtrack, is a stone-cold banger.

Built over a more New York drill-style beat — which is, technically, more of a UK drill style — the track leaves plenty of space for the two rappers’ lyrics to breathe, although there is a truly thunderous low-end typical of the style as well. There’s an interesting contrast between their styles as well, Pop’s gravelly, laid-back growl offering a smooth complement to Polo’s jagged, high-energy cadence.

Boogie, Pop Smoke’s acting debut and Eddie Huang’s directorial one, is out today via Focus Films. It follows a first-generation Chinese-American high-school hoop star as he tries to decide what to do with his future, with Pop Smoke playing his rival. Pop appears multiple times on the soundtrack, including on the song “AP.” The music for the film is by New York rap legend Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest and go-to New York hip-hop television composer Adrian Younge, who previously worked on Marvel’s Luke Cage.

Listen to “Fashion” above.

Things are going pretty well for Desus and Mero right now. Well, as anyone who has followed along with their careers over the years can tell you, the pair are as good as any at having fun with just about anything they do. But even beyond that, there are plenty of things that are making them happy amid all the weirdness in the world right now.

The pair are well-documented fans of the New York Knicks, which will enter the NBA’s All-Star break at 19-18, good for fifth place in the Eastern Conference. The team is the surprise of the season so far this year, getting spurred on by the individual brilliance of All-Star selection Julius Randle and head coach Tom Thibodeau’s tough, hard-nosed approach to basketball. The duo, like all Knicks fans, have been starved for a ray of hope to come from Madison Square Garden, and that hunger has been satiated in a big way so far this year.

The two are also parlaying their ability to be good at, well, most things they do into hosting an awards show, teaming up with Gatorade and taking the reins for this weekend’s Bolt24 Real Star Awards. What awards will they be giving out? Well, they couldn’t tell us most of them, but Mero made a promise: these are “fire awards.”

Dime caught up with the pair to discuss the Knicks, taking the various punches that come with Knicks fandom, why the Nets are “carpetbaggers,” and of course, their partnership with Gatorade, which will become clear in about two seconds.

I think the obvious place to start is how has this season been as Knicks fans?

Mero: HOOOOO HOOOO HOOOO HOOO, BABY. Refreshing, like a long sip of Bolt24.

Desus: Well-played! Well-played!

Mero: There you go! All the vitamins involved, all the electrolytes, we’re feeling refreshed and revived and great. For real, though.

Desus: We joke, but he’s 100 percent right. If you think about, to keep the analogy going, Knick fans have been dehydrated for quite some time.

Mero: For real.

Desus: I mean, the last energy drink we had was one called Linsanity, so now, we are back. We can actually check the standings and not be scared, we’re hopelessly optimistic. We’re using the forbidden P-word,”playoffs.” So you know, we’re having a good time, man. It’s a great time to be a Knick fan.

Mero: It’s been a while since I’ve had to use “the Knicks covered, so they won” excuse, the moral victory excuse. It feels like a really good time to be a Knicks fan, hovering around .500.

In your own words, what happens in New York City when the Knicks are good? Because, I’m from New Jersey, and I don’t think people understand how the Knicks are the one team that unites the entire city when they’re good.

Desus: Absolutely. And it’s just one of those thing where even if you’re … the Knicks are basically the default team. Like, if you don’t watch basketball, you don’t follow any sports, but you’re from New York, you’re like, “Oh, I’m a Knick fan.” Or you do the thing New Yorkers do where if the Knicks get in the playoffs, all of a sudden, you start watching, you start rooting for them, you start cheering for them.

So it’s a natural team for New York, it’s an established team, and New Yorkers love this team. And now you see it on the back of the Daily News, on the back of the New York Post, good news about the Knicks, and it’s raising the hopes and spirits in the city right now, especially when the city really needs it, because the city got really hit hard by COVID, and you know, just a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel is helping people get through it.

Mero: Oh, man, it’s such a beautiful thing. Because people tell us all the time, “Hey guys, yo, your guys show, your podcast, the stuff you guys put out, it gives me a little bit of respite from all this wild stuff that’s going on.” And, like, the Knicks are that for us, right now. Watching the Knicks be up 20? In the fourth quarter? You’re like, “Yo! Let’s go!”

Desus: I mean, they might blow it and have to only win by two, but it still feels good.

Mero: Still’s a W.

Desus: A win is a win.

When was the moment that it dawned on you guys that this team is different, that it’s not just the kind of Knicks team that we’ve seen in the past where they have a nice little stretch but you know they’re gonna hit that bump and then the Knicks happen.

Mero: It’s really Thibs, man. Thibs, and the roster’s so young. Thibs is an NBA coach, but he’s like a college coach in his brain. He’s really like, “Yo, I don’t care if you’ve got 35 points, if you blow this defensive assignment, I’m yanking you.” Everybody bought in, I feel like the average age on the roster is like 17 and a half.

Desus: Super young.

Mero: That’s exactly what they need, a real coach that’s gonna be like, “Yo, this is a system, we’re all buying in, don’t worry about minutes, just play hard and success will come.”

Desus: Also, very early in the season, I think probably the first game, every Knick fan was like, “Wow, they are doing ball movement, something we have not seen for how many seasons with the Knicks?” The Knicks, what was it, pass the ball, you just hold the ball until there’s like five seconds left on the shot clock and chuck it up, or just keep passing it around, no one has it. Now they’re running plays, just seeing that, you knew this team was going to be different. You knew this team, Thibs was doing his thing, and it was a whole new day in the Knicks organization.

Mero: Listen, I don’t wanna be hyperbolic, but like, yo, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Skyhook, Immanuel Quickly floater, same thing, right there. Unstoppable move, works every time.

Desus: Also, shout out to our guy Obi Toppin. He’s out there doing big things, it was a big pickup when we got him for the Knicks. Also, you know, to parallel, he’s gonna be one of the people in the Bolt24 Real Star Awards. That right there is cool because we’re New Yorkers, he’s a New York Knick, you know the vibes, bro. You gotta throw him an award real quick, throwing some of our friends awards, Sue Bird, it’s gonna be litty.

The story I always tell whenever I tell someone how starved New Yorkers were for a good Knicks team is that I went to a game in 2015 where they lost to the Hornets by 28 and Quincy Acy got MVP chants because he played hard. Do you guys have any stories like that where it’s just Knicks fans will fall in love with anyone?

Mero: Yup.

Desus: Bro. Bro, come on.

Mero: Ron Baker! Ron Baker!

Desus: First of all, I wanna let you know, I was probably at that game. I went through the Quincy moment. But yeah, like he said, Ron Baker, I own a Ron Baker jersey.

There we go.

Desus: If you wanna know how dysfunctional Knicks fans are. I was at that first Jeremy Lin game and I remember, we were just chanting, we just wanted him to play. The Knicks always have that one player that…

Mero: 12th guy on the bench.

Desus: You have no chance of him being good, so you’re like, “Yo, we’re already losing, let’s see him play.” And Lin came in, it changed everything for a couple weeks. I was there for when Melo set the scoring record against Charlotte, so many Knick memories. But yeah, we Knick fans love to give anyone an MVP chant for the littlest thing. We gave Doug Christie an MVP chant. Doug Christie!

Mero: Doug Christie, fam.

Desus: Come on!

Mero: Yo, I’m out here publicly comparing Julius Randle to LeBron James with no sarcasm, no irony whatsoever. I’m like, yo, Julius Randle? LeBron James? Same thing. Same court vision, all that.

Desus: Just getting everyone on Twitter upset, I love it.

I wanted to ask about the Nets, because I think non-NY people will say there’s Yankees/Mets, there’s Jets/Giants, there’s Rangers/Islanders, Knicks/Nets have to be part of that. But I’ve never gotten that sense as someone from the tri-state area that Knicks fans view the Nets as anything other than “the team that came to our city,” what about you guys?

Desus: Literally, that’s what it is.

Mero: The little brother team.

Desus: It’s one of those things where Nets fans are like, “We’re your rivals.” And we’re like, no you’re not. We’re chillin over here, because it’s just like they literally just moved to Brooklyn, they’re still figuring out how to ride the train, the Knicks are established. Us Knick fans are invested in the Knicks — we’ve had so many losing seasons and that’s what New York is about. New York is not about being a carpetbagger and getting quick success, you gotta earn your keep here. You have to prove that you can make it here, like Frank Sinatra said.

So, it’s never seen as a rivalry. Every now and then we’ll joke, “Oh, it’s a rivalry,” whatever, but Knick fans, if the Nets win, we don’t care. You go on the timeline, if the Knicks win, it’s taking over everything, everyone’s reporting on it, ESPN is like, “The Knicks are great this year!” Meanwhile, the Nets have three superstar players, they’re barely winning some games, and it’s not as hyped as everyone thought it was gonna be. That’s because when the Knicks are good, everyone benefits from it in the NBA, and that’s what people wanna see.

Mero: And it’s like what Desus was saying, when the Knicks do something good, it’s like, that’s what they report on. That’s how the media is covering the Knicks and the Nets right now — the Knicks are like, wow, the Knicks are overperforming! They’re performing beyond expectations! And with the Nets, it’s like, they need help defensively, they have no interior defense, they need perimeter defenders, they’re very thin on the bench, blah blah blah blah blah, you know what I mean? As a Knicks fan, it’s kind of, like, ha ha ha!

Desus: It’s also cause the Nets have set the bar so high. If they do anything less than a championship this season, they fail. Meanwhile, all the Knicks have to do is get to the playoffs and we’re gonna have a parade. What team you wanna be on?

What do you guys have going on with Gatorade?

Desus: Oh yeah, baby! We are hosting the first-ever Bolt24 Real Star Awards, it’s an awards show honoring the realest talent in basketball. But it’s Bodega Boys-style, so it’s a hot, fun mess. You guys are gonna enjoy it, you’re gonna be like … if you were worried, you’re like, “Desus and Mero are working with Gatorade and Bolt24, they sold out,” wait til you see this. No we did not.

Mero: Nooooo!

Desus: This is authentic, sucio boy, you’re gonna enjoy it. Bolt24 did their thing, they got us talent, we’re gonna be giving awards out to athletes, but not, like, regular awards.

Mero: Not, like, corny awards like most points scored in a game. Fire awards. We’re not even gonna tell you what it is.

Desus: Here’s one: Who’s most likely to wear a sweatsuit to a wedding?

Mero: There you go.

Desus: Someone’s gonna win that award.

I mean, Carmelo once wore a bathrobe to a bodega, so.

Desus: We can’t say anything!

Mero: We can’t reveal the winners!

I respect it.

Desus: Shout out to Bolt24, cause we’re drinking it through the whole awards show, it’s delicious, they’ve got a lot of flavors. My favorite is Watermelon Strawberry.

Mero: I bang with Cherry Lime, got mad vitamins, A, C, know what I’m sayin? Mad antioxidants, all that good stuff. It was mega hydrating. It was so hydrating to the point that we were like, “Yo, we gotta go to the bathroom, like, right now, cause we’re not athletes.”

Desus: But if did that to our washed bodies, imagine what it could to do if you’re an athlete.

The coolest thing is, if you wanna see this show, it’s gonna be on Instagram Live on our respective social handles, so either go to desusnice at Instagram, or thekidmero on Instagram, Saturday, March 6 at 7 p.m. Eastern, it’s gonna be right there. Special guests, I can name a couple: Damian Lillard, Seth Curry, Obi Toppin, Tacko Fall, Sue Bird, Robin Lopez, some surprise guests.

Mero: Some musical performances. It’s a real, legit award show.

Desus: It’s gonna be great.

The last time Sacha Baron Cohen was on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he wasn’t. It was Borat on the late-night talk show (that also served as the world’s introduction to Tutar, played by Oscar hopeful Maria Bakalova). But on Thursday, Baron Cohen came as himself to talk to host Jimmy Kimmel. He discussed Borat Subsequent Moviefilm and how he “really wanted to expose the hypocrisy… those using power to get ahead, criminality…”

Baron Cohen trailed off because his phone started ringing during the interview. “Bono?” the Golden Globe winner said, answering the call. “Hey man, what’s up? Yup, I’ve got AstraZeneca, I’ve got some Pfizer, what do you want? Yeah yeah yeah, Venmo is fine.”

To get by during these dark times, Baron Cohen has taken to selling COVID-19 vaccines to his famous friends, including Tom Cruise (“I thought the thetans were immune”), Kanye West (“I can get you Johnson & Johnson. No no, not Dakota and Don… What do you mean you only need one now? I’ve got you down for six. Oh, sorry, I hadn’t heard”), and Mark Ruffalo. A strung-out Isla Fisher also made a cameo, “looking higher than Don, Jr.” The interview only gets wilder from there, including a dig at the Hollywood Foreign Press and a police raid on the Baron Cohen/Fisher household. You can watch it above.

Tyler The Creator has shared songs with the likes of rapper-turned-hustler Pusha T now, he can confidently say they share something in common: They’re both Coke rappers.

[Ducks thrown tomato.]

Okay, okay, sorry. I know that was bad. But if you’re still reading, Tyler The Creator really has added Coca-Cola to his impressive list of brand partnerships. His new song, “Tell Me How,” soundtracked a new television commercial for the world’s favorite soft drink last month, and today, he’s released the full version of the song.

When the commercial first rolled out, Tyler naturally shared a few tweets to offer fans some background on the collaboration.

“That’s me playing the flute at the beginning,” he revealed. He also thanked the brand for the opportunity, saying that after getting over some initial skepticism, he realized he could elevate the form. “Thanks coca cola for reallll,” he wrote. “big love for the opportunity i was like ehh idk but then i fucking ran with it. commercials need sounds like this, thanksssss.”

The commercial represents a huge milestone for Tyler, who has completely transformed from the artist he was at the beginning of his career. Back then, brands would have been terrified to work with him and Odd Future; even Questlove was nervous they’d get The Tonight Show canceled (like, TV canceled. We weren’t doing Twitter cancels yet). Ten years later, Tyler is working with one of the biggest brands in the world — and very nearly becoming one himself.

Watch the Coca-Cola commercial up top and the song below.

It’s been teased for weeks now, but the time has finally come: Indiecast is delving into the career and music of Animal Collective. At one point in the aughts, the Baltimore-based group was inextricable from the overall concept of indie rock, and thus indie rock as an actual force in pop music. These days, however, the band seems to have little to no profile or lasting impact. What happened in the last decade or so that forced one of the most important bands in the genre into near obscurity? In the latest episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen look to get to the bottom of this mystery, while also reevaluating some of the band’s definitive works like Merriweather Post Pavilion and Centipede Hz.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is digging Florida quartet Home Is Where, who just released the new EP I Became Birds. Meanwhile, Hyden is enjoying the long-running rotating collective of musicians releasing projects under the name Sunburned Hand Of The Man.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 29 on Apple Podcasts and Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

Sarah Silverman’s earlier career in stand-up was built around a certain shocking persona. Silverman, like a lot of comedians at the time, made jokes that would not fly today. In light of the Framing Britney Spears‘ documentary, a number of old interactions have been revisited and recontextualized, like an old interview of Lindsay Lohan by David Letterman. In fact, last month, Silverman apologized for jokes she made about Spears at the 2007 VMAs.

Now Silverman is apologizing to Paris Hilton for jokes she made about her at the same 2007 Video Music Awards hosted by Silverman. Hilton, like a number of celebrities during the pandemic (including Silverman) has recently gotten into the podcast game, and on a recent episode of This Is Paris, Hilton took Silverman to task for a joke that was “disgusting and cruel and mean.”

The joke was a reference to Hilton turning herself into the police for a parole violation around the time of the 2007 VMAs. “I heard that to make her feel comfortable in prison, the guards are going to paint the bars to look like penises,” Silverman joked. “I just worry that she’s gonna break her teeth on those things.” Silverman regrets the joke today.

“I’m gonna talk about Paris Hilton. Paris Hilton, on her latest podcast, calls me out for jokes I did about her when I hosted the 2007 MTV Movie Awards,” Silverman said this week on The Sarah Silverman Podcast. “As she said herself on the podcast, this would never happen today and she’s right, I wouldn’t. I would never do those jokes today.”

While admitting to having a lot to be sorry for about jokes in her past, Silverman suggested that she has evolved, and she has worked in recent years “do comedy that attempts to marry hard-hitting jokes with actual heart”:

“Back then, the consensus seemed to be that was not possible and I fully accepted that. I came up in a time when talk show hosts and comedians hired to make fun of pop culture were roasting the biggest celebrities and pop culture icons at the time and nobody was bigger than Paris Hilton.”

“So here we are in an awakened world and I am totally into it, it’s how we grow, it’s how we change. I’m super down with reflecting on the past and my part in perpetuating real ugly sh*t. And yes, we can continue to litigate the past, but I do believe that maybe that should be coupled with taking into account any growth that has come with those passing years.”

“I have lived too long to not have f*cked up a lot, and publicly,” Silverman said, and even noted that she felt bad about the jokes in the moment. She said that after delivering the joke and spotting Paris Hilton in the audience, she recognized that “there was a person under there.” She said that, a few days after the VMAs, she wrote a letter apologizing. “I felt awful and I never heard back, I certainly wouldn’t expect to anyways,” Silverman continued.

“Here I am, 14 years later, telling you, Paris, that I am really sorry. I was then and I am, much more completely and with far more understanding I think, now,” Silverman concluded.

Given Silverman’s history of stand-up, this may not be the last apology she is asked to make, but considering the way that Silverman has evolved as a comedian, I doubt she’d mind making those apologies.

Source: The Sarah Silverman Podcast