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Cobra Kai successfully does the underdog-success thing in more ways than one. Not only does it continue building upon the actual underdog story that the first The Karate Kid movie started back in 1984, but the series began as an unlikely success due to the whole reboot factor. You know how that usually goes (not good). One can’t dodge the avalanches of attempts to reinvigorate long-dead franchises. Reboots, remakes, reunions, revivals, or however they’re classified: we could do without most of them. These usually end up being misguided stabs at harnessing nostalgia. Yet Cobra Kai brought the warring dojos back and conquered all odds to capture a multi-generational audience. The series successfully ignites sentimental feelings for beloved returning characters while investing in new players and appealing to the young-adult crowd. And yes, it’s almost infuriating how well the show pulls off this feat.

Let me be clear here: I am not actually furious at Cobra Kai for being so good. Well, maybe a little bit. It’s not fair to stage such well-choreographed mall fights and school hallway throwdowns in the midst of story arcs that make me genuinely care about these characters. It’s almost heartless for this show to be so grump-lovable, to the point where I gobbled up the entire third season in a time period that makes me feel like a glutton. Now I’ll have to wait god knows how long for the greenlit fourth round. Meanwhile, all of those other re-vival-boot-unions are out there, putting up half-assed efforts to make lighting strike twice while clumsily roundhousing childhoods, and that is inexcusable.

[John Kreese voice] No mercy.

By now, I’ve given away how Cobra Kai is still a champion after crushing the first two YouTube Premium seasons and moving over to Netflix, where a larger audience could catch up while awaiting the third round. With that acknowledged, I must also say that Netflix passed out an enormous list of plot points that cannot be mentioned. Even if that wasn’t the case, it would be really uncool for me to spoil the hell out of this season for you, so I’m going to stay as vague as possible here. I can still dance around things to express how wonderful these young fighters are, even when they’re behaving very badly. The flaring nostrils of Hawk (Jacob Bertrand) and the pouty abandon of Tory (Peyton List) get fleshed out more this year, and they are so much fun to watch.

Obviously, the show must pick up after that peril-filled cliffhanger. The karate surrogates of Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), respectively, threw down in a knock-down, drag-out battle that left Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) gravely injured in the hospital and Robby (Tanner Buchanan) in hot water with authorities. This seemed impossible to sort out in a satisfying manner, but Macchio promised us that “the best is yet to come in this series! And I believe in that.” Did I believe him? I mean, c’mon. What else was Ralph Macchio gonna say, right?

I was reluctant to believe him because those first two seasons were a tough self-act to follow. Could the show really keep the same momentum going? Could the awakening of Johnny continue to charm viewers after he and Daniel-san had so righteously f*cked up with their charges? Well, the show still works, and Cobra Kai creators Jon Hurwitz, Josh Heald, and Hayden Schlossberg again proved that they’re beholden to the spirit of the The Karate Kid franchise. They’re resurfacing old tensions and settling scores in an honorable way, one that would make Mr. Miyagi (RIP Pat Morita) proud. It’s a triumph.

Many cool things happen this season, including the following:

— Both Johnny and Daniel must look within to help repair the damage they caused. In Daniel-san’s case, he undertakes a spiritual quest while returning to Okinawa, the original home of the Miyagi-Do. There, he meets up with a few familiar faces from The Karate Kid Part II, including Chozen (Yuji Okumoto reprises his antagonistic role), who is still steamed about losing his honor to the “honk!” all those years ago. Daniel also meets up with Kumiko (Tamlyn Tomita), who helps him recapture the Miyagi spirit in a touching way. Those two aren’t the only two new comebacks, but I shall say no more.

— The younger generation of dojo members remain both kickass while gaining added dimension. Miguel and Robby both have enormous hurdles to conquer after their tragic showdown, and these issues are treated with appropriate emotional heft but enough lightness to keep this show’s tone consistent. Samantha LaRusso (Mary Mouser) grows far beyond her borderline-bratty earlier days, Demetri (Gianni Decenzo) continues to be the most lovable geek of the bunch, and these “kids” maneuver remarkably well for being buried in the collateral damage of their senseis’ lingering beefs. The younger generation doesn’t quite carry the torch yet, but they are moving in that direction, and I feel confident about their abilities. Their relationships, their motivations, their fears, and their successes all feel very realistic.

— John Kreese (Martin Kove) is handled with a careful threading of the needle this year. In short, he transforms into a somewhat more complex character with the exploration of his backstory. There are some touches of softness up in that bad boy, but don’t get me wrong. This is no antihero game. The franchise knows better than that, and Kreese remains the most imposing villain of the franchise. This season simply makes him a more interesting, textured, and less cartoony, villain.

– A Twisted Sister concert turns out to be a game-changing pusher of the plot. I never thought I’d type those words, but here we are.

Cobra Kai Season 3 is a crowd-pleaser, pure and simple. It’s a shot of adrenaline that’s sorely needed right now, and it’s wild that this show can still bring the heart, hurt, healing, and honor while revisiting two men whose life paths diverged following one fateful crane kick. Both are looking for redemption in different ways, and although I feel that I’m still being teased without the answer to one lingering question, the new batch of episodes is a satisfying one that sets up even more conflict for season(s) to come. Cobra Kai fills itself with the best kind of drama, and I’m so looking forward to watching these senseis and students continue to hold court in the future.

Netflix’s ‘Cobra Kai’ returns for Season 3 on January 1.

For a brief, shining moment, Chris Pratt finally wasn’t the “Worst Chris” after dominating the Marvel universe in the AGBO Fantasy Football League. However, it didn’t take long for his Guardians of the Galaxy co-star, Pom Klementieff, to drop in on Pratt’s victory with a light-hearted troll. Klementieff, who played Mantis in the second Guardians film along with Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, praised Pratt for his win by sharing a photo of herself reading a book with his face on it. Except the title says, “The One and Only Hemsworth.”

“Congrats Chris on winning the superhero fantasy football league!” Klementieff wrote on Instagram. “So proud of you. I will re-read my favourite book ever, in your honor. Yay!”

You can see Klementieff’s Instagram post below:

Pratt’s victory in the AGBO Fantasy Football League was announced on Monday night by Marvel directors Anthony and Joe Russo, who organized the event that saw Pratt and other MCU heavy-hitters like Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Paul Rudd, and Tom Holland compete against each other for charity. Thanks to Pratt’s win, the Special Olympics Washington will now receive a $150,000 check.

In the lead-up to his victory, Pratt surprisingly acknowledged being dubbed by Twitter as the “Worst Chris” back in October. The actor had ignored the controversy, opting instead to let his wife and Marvel co-stars defend him. But when Pratt made his way to the finals just before the holidays, he couldn’t help but have some fun with the social media scandal.

“I’m in the finals! How did this happen? It’s a 14-man league. I had 14th draft pick. You know how hard that is?” Pratt said in an Instagram video. “I guess we can finally put an end to that debate of who’s the better Chris? (whispering) It’s one of them.”

(Via Pom Klementieff on Instagram)

As the new social app Clubhouse gains popularity and momentum, it continues to be a focal point for both education and drama. While many users note that it has offered a chance to network with luminaries in numerous fields, learning from the best in music and entertainment, not every room has proven to be productive. Unmoderated arguments and shameful antics are just as likely to break out, while calling celebrities to the stage sometimes becomes a bad idea, resulting in Twitter trending topics meting out judgment on their behavior.

The latest star to receive this treatment is Meek Mill, who somehow found himself in a heated argument with another man in a Philadelphia meet-and-greet discussion. A recording of the intense shouting match found its way onto Twitter and from there, the boo birds came out in force to make fun of Meek for his impassioned responses.

For his part, Meek seems to have calmed down and acknowledged his overreaction. He appeared on Twitter in the wee hours of the morning today to apologize and explain himself. “Ima have a better reaction in 2021,” he promised. “I apologize when snap out sometimes ..then convos that stem from hatred, strike me hard from my upbringing!” He related the antsy feelings that prompted his outburst to recently losing a close friend. “After that nip sh*t my hatred level went up,” he explained. “I’ma boss up leave it in 2020!”

Check out Meek’s response above.

Between Christmas and the start of the next year, there’s usually a bit of a lull in the music world. Many artists don’t really feel like releasing new music or doing much of anything beyond relaxing and preparing themselves for next year, and who can blame them? Thankfully, Kevin Bacon has come through in the clutch to give music fans some delightful new material with which to obsess.

Yesterday, he shared a video of himself covering Radiohead’s classic “Creep” on acoustic guitar. He delivers a totally serviceable performance, but what sets the video apart is the fact that he is joined by some goats, one of which (an adorable baby) settles next to him and nibbles on his shirt sleeve. Bacon captioned his Instagram post, “The goats were insisting, so I had to try. Here’s Creep by @radiohead #GoatSongs.”

As for Radiohead themselves, there’s hope that 2021 will bring new music from the group. In a letter to fans, Jonny Greenwood wrote, “Right now, I just feel this: I hope you are safe and well and not too scared, or too bored. I also hope that somehow we can be part of making music for you soon, and that the pleasure of making music, and hearing music, whether in a gig, concert hall, church, or at home with friends — is not forgotten in this desolate year.”

Check out our interview with Bacon from this summer here.

Over the weekend, CNN’s Jake Tapper echoed Don Lemon’s “carnival of lies” comments about Kayleigh McEnany, criticizing the White House Press Secretary for “[telling] lies the way that most people breathe.” He also said that she “can’t acknowledge reality.” McEnany replied to Tapper’s comments by tweeting, “I do not lie,” which itself was a lie. The lying didn’t stop there, either: the pearl-clutcher went on Fox News on Monday to continue to spread baseless (a.k.a. bullsh*t — sorry to swear) claims of election fraud.

“This happened in the places that needed to happen, which is why the four metros, the only four, where Joe Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton were Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta, and Detroit,” said McEnany above a chyron that read “The Fight for Election Integrity.” Soon after the clip went viral, Tapper tweeted, “The National Review’s @baseballcrank had a comprehensive fact check about this long-debunked lie.” It reads:

Biden improved his margin of victory compared to Hillary in 31 out of 36 urban counties — and Philadelphia was one of the five in which he didn’t. In 29 of the cities, the Democratic margin of victory grew on a percentage basis. Of the twelve cities in which Biden overperformed Hillary by enough that his margin of victory grew by 10 percent or more (as a percentage of the 2016 electorate), only one (Atlanta) was in a swing state, and one other (Omaha) in a swing district. Biden’s improvements in Milwaukee and Detroit were distinctly subpar, and in Detroit, Trump improved his own share of the vote enough to be the first Republican to break 30 percent of the vote in Wayne County, Mich., in 32 years.

Now that’s how you subtweet someone.

(Via the Daily Beast)

Trump’s still attempting to convince the world that he won the election (he very clearly did not, as the electoral college and courts agree), so of course, he figured that he could drop a Nobel Peace Price claim on top as gravy. This isn’t exactly a new tactic, since Trump has recently complained (while on his failed reelection campaign trail) that the press ignored his two (nonexistent) Nobel Prize wins (though he was nominated). The King of Fake News may have also believed a 2018 satiric article (that was debunked by Snopes) that started such a rumor for kicks. Whatever the cause, Trump has now tweeted out a campaign-style video that (after the 0:40 second mark) superimposes a Novel Peace Prize over footage of him with international leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As NPR’s David Gura quickly pointed out on Twitter, Trump definitely has not won the Nobel Peace Prize, and as such, he definitely doesn’t have the right (and could be held liable for) using the image without express permission.

Who has won the Nobel Peace Prize, though? Former President Barack Obama, who received the honor in 2009 “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The Nobel Foundation also “attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”

Twitter was clearly amused by the newest Trump claim full of nonsense, and they are throwing Obama’s actual win in Trump’s face.

Elsewhere, yep, there’s a whole lot of laughter at Trump’s lies, but hey, at least this is a silly falsehood (unlike the COVID lies) that can’t harm anyone.

2020, please end soon!

A lot of people played a part in helping to get the Save Our Stages Act passed as part of the new stimulus bill, and on the musical front, perhaps nobody brought more awareness to the cause than Dave Grohl. He and Foo Fighters supported the act on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the band played a significant role in the Save Our Stages Fest. Now that the act has passed, Grohl has taken to Foo Fighters’ social media to express his joy and give thanks to everybody who supported the act.

Grohl wrote:

“A huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone who supported the Save Our Stages Act, which passed yesterday as a part of the economic stimulus bill. The preservation of America’s smaller, independent venues is not only crucial to the millions of concert goers whose lives are bettered by experiencing their favorite artists in the flesh, but to the future of music itself, as it gives the next generation of young musicians a place to cut their teeth, hone their craft, and grow into the voices of tomorrow.

The absence of live music this year has left us all longing for that communal feeling of connection, one that is best felt when joined in a song. The Save Our Stages Act brings us one step closer to sharing that feeling again, one that I hope we can all experience again very soon.

Everyday we’re one step closer.

See you there,

Dave.”

Grohl wrapped up the year with a flurry of activity: In addition to his work for Save Our Stages, he also busted out a Hanukkah covers series.

Find Grohl’s post below.

Musicians have about as big an impact on social media as anybody, and the numbers back that up. Now that the year is just days from wrapping up, the rankings of 2020’s most-liked Instagram posts are pretty much settled, and a couple musical names have found their way into the top ten (according to Wikipedia, with data accurate as of December 28 and updated by Uproxx on December 29 for this post).

Kylie Jenner had the strongest grip over the rankings, as four of the top posts are hers. Travis Scott pops up in a couple of them: One was a gallery post featuring photos of Scott, Jenner, and their daughter Stormi in honor of Scott’s birthday (which landed in fourth place after racking up a hair under 16 million likes). The other one featured a pair of photos of Scott and Jenner dressed up (No. 10, 14.2 million likes).

Also making the list as a late entry is Ariana Grande, whose December 20 post needed just about a week to accumulate 15.4 million likes and slide into sixth place on the list.

Outside of the music world, sports were another dominating factor. Posts from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi about the death of soccer legend Diego Maradona took up two of the top three spots, while another post from Ronaldo and a LeBron James post about Kobe Bryant’s death also made the top ten. The acting world was also represented strongly, as the year’s No. 2 post was the one from Chadwick Boseman’s account that confirmed his death.

Check out the top ten list of the year’s most-liked Instagram posts below.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo — post about Diego Maradona (November 25; 19.7 million likes)
2. Chadwick Boseman — post confirming his death (August 28, 2020; 19.1m)
3. Lionel Messi — post about Diego Maradona (November 25; 16.4m)
4. Kylie Jenner — birthday post for Travis Scott (April 30; 16.0m)
5. LeBron James — post about Kobe Bryant (January 27; 15.5m)
6. Ariana Grande — engagement announcement (December 20; 15.4m)
7. Kylie Jenner — photo of Stormi (March 27; 15.3m)
8. Kylie Jenner — video of Stormi (October 1; 14.5m)
9. Cristiano Ronaldo — birthday photo (February 5; 14.3m)
10. Kylie Jenner — photos of herself with Travis Scott (October 18; 14.2m)

We’ve all been there: dunking on a younger sibling or cousin for celebrating their gross high school relationship “monthiversary” at Olive Garden because they think it’s fancy. And we’ve been the roasted cousin in that scenario, too. Accidentally believing that chain restaurants are the height of fine dining is a rite of passage, precisely because it’s a universal experience — as evidenced by a now-viral tweet shared by comedian John Crist early Sunday morning.

Crist’s tweet posed a simple question but had Twitter users debating the merits of their childhood favorites and looking fondly at some lost and forgotten culinary experiences. You know, like eating at a sit-down Pizza Hut. Don’t get us wrong, we are by no means saying places like Olive Garden, P.F. Changs, Red Lobster, Cheesecake Factory, and the like don’t have anything to offer. They often do.

But they aren’t haute cuisine.

Under no circumstance is a restaurant with a kid’s menu fancy, because nobody wants kids at a genuinely fancy restaurant. So which restaurant did your childhood brain lead you to believe was fancy? For me, P.F. Changs was once a culinary mecca and the only restaurant I had ever been to with a statue of a horse. And for a 10-year-old, that was something!

Check more of the chatter below.

At the end of the day, whether you still love these restaurants or not, I think we can all agree that being able to sit down at a table, being served by a person that isn’t wearing a blast shield and gloves, and eating without fear of killing each other is a day we all desperately want to get back to. Regardless of where.

Before Harry Styles was a solo star with classic albums like Fine Line and his self-titled debut, he was already a massive star as part of One Direction. While all the boys are striking off on their own for now, most of them have remained on good terms, so Liam Payne took it all in good stride when he was asked recently to weigh in on the enormous amount of attention Harry received for wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue earlier this year.

In an interview with Capital FM’s Roman Kemp, Liam said he thinks people should focus on other things — especially in such a fraught year — and let Harry enjoy himself. “I thought it was great,” Payne began. “He’s enjoying himself and he’s free to do as he wishes. I think people don’t need to be so bothered about stuff. There’s been a lot more stuff going on this year, and whether or not he’s wearing the right clothes in someone else’s mind… in my opinion, just let him on with it! He’s enjoying himself.”

Meanwhile, Harry is remaining unbothered by clapping back at critics with a well-timed banana photo. But having Liam on his side is definitely a nice way to close out 2020.