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John Oliver’s show Last Week Tonight is off the air until the new year, and though many, many interesting things have happened in the world since it stopped airing mid-November. But Oliver and company returned on Sunday for a little segment asking a burning question that’s far older than the 2020 election: What does the Pringles mascot’s body look like? After all, since 1967 the world has only seen his head (and fabulous mustache).

It didn’t take long for Oliver to take an answer. The potato chip brand recorded a video response, in which we finally meet the mascot, name of John Q. Pringles, as he welcomes viewers into his shockingly normal (if slightly upscale) home.

Mind you, the video doesn’t answer all of Oliver’s questions. He wondered if Mr. Pringles was short or tall. He’s tall-ish, especially with that outsized head. Oliver also had some more intimate questions: “Does he have a lot of body hair, or is he completely smooth? When will he be able to tell me what his nipples look like?” Those will have to remain mysteries, as John was fully clothed, in festive red. We also know that he’s pretty skinny, with a big fat head. He also conspicuously lacked his famously thick hair.

A dumb distraction from our grim times? Sure, but it was for a good cause. In the tweet, Team Pringles said that “[i]n honor of every second John has thought of Mr. P’s body, we are donating $1 to @feedingamerica, which happens to be $10K.” Feeding America, of course, is a famous nationwide charity of food banks, which feed more than 46 million. And this season, as Mitch McConnell and the Republicans hold up a much-needed second pandemic stimulus package, they’ll be very busy. Perhaps you’d like to make your own donation, if you can.

You can watch the original segment below.

(Via Deadline)

The great state of New Jersey is known for many things — Bruce Springsteen, a debate over what you call a round, circular disc of meat (either Taylor Ham or something else that is incorrect), me, the Cake Boss, lots of stuff. But few things are associated with the state like The Sopranos, HBO’s triumph of a television series that told the story of Tony Soprano, his real family, and his mob family. It ruled.

Anyway, regardless of whether or not you have seen it, you probably know to associate the show with the state. The fine folks at Rutgers are aware of this, and decided to lean in during the team’s basketball game on Tuesday night against Syracuse. Like many teams, Rutgers is unable to have fans in its stadium due to the COVID-19 pandemic, so they’ve opted to put a bunch of cardboard cutouts in the stands.

For Tuesday’s game against Syracuse, this meant that Tony and some of his loved ones took in the performance by the 21st-ranked Scarlet Knights.

Tony (who was portrayed by the late James Gandolfini, a Rutgers graduate) was joined by his wife, Carmella; his henchman, Paulie; his daughter, Meadow; his nephew, Christopher; and his consigliere, Silvio. All of them woke up this mornin’ and got themselves a ticket to see Rutgers play Syracuse.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the tragic death of John Lennon, who was assassinated by Beatles fan Mark David Chapman in 1980. Lennon’s tragic death was mourned by a shocked world then, and now that several decades have gone by, it’s still an important date for those who remember what they were doing on that fateful day when they learned of his passing.

Sports and political commentator and journalist Keith Olbermann shared one such memory today, noting that he happened to be visiting his old college radio station, WVBR-FM at Cornell, and ended up breaking the news while DJ-ing live. Definitely not the kind of carefree content a former student is expecting to provide while visiting their alma mater.

“40 years,” Olbermann wrote on Twitter. “By absolute accident I was back visiting my college radio station, WVBR-FM at Cornell, and of all people I was the disc jockey as the news came in of John Lennon’s shooting, and then death. Here’s part of the aircheck (and the sad news came in as we played “In My Life”).” He shares a recorded snippet of the show that night, which includes them playing several Beatles and Lennon tracks in homage as the news changed from learning Lennon was shot to hearing he had died from the wounds.

Listen to the clip below.

Donald Trump Jr. swore he wasn’t blitzed out of his mind during his infamously keyed-up speech at the Republican National Convention. (He said nothing about his girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle’s even shoutier soliloquy.) Still, the president’s oldest son has become infamous for his unhinged speeches and Fox News appearances and tweets, where he gets worked up beyond all hope and splutters incoherent conspiracies. The same day that his dad was dealt a crushing blow by the Supreme Court, Jr. went on Tucker Carlson and at one point he went from zero to 60 in record time.

The subject was Georgia’s Senate runoff, which occurs on January 5 and which could flip the Senate blue, handing Democrats control of all three branches of government. Jr. wanted to get out the vote. Only problem: The Trump team has spent the last month trying to erode faith in America’s electoral process, claiming, baselessly, that it’s overrun with fraud. The president’s bumbling legal team even made it worse, telling Georgia voters to boycott the runoff election because the two Republican candidates had not sufficiently condemned irregularities, for which no proof exists.

Carlson acknowledged that this all has left Republican voters “very dispirited, very distrustful,” convincing them that “it doesn’t matter who controls the Senate.” When Tucker asked Jr. for his thoughts, he took a very long pause, then man oh man did he give them to him.

“I think that’s literally what the Democrats want you to believe,” he shouted. “They could love for you to take this stance, that it doesn’t matter, to roll over and die.” He then tried to scare them with all the scary things Democrats would do if they controlled both houses, including statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico. He bulged his eyes. He shook. He used the word “literally” at least three times.

The sudden explosion of fury took people, even those used to Jr.’s over-the-top outbursts, aback.

A lot of others wondered if he’d…well, you know.

Some wondered if it was finally time for an intervention.

But if you stopped and actually listened to the content of his words — not just the spastic aggression with which he delivered them — the logic seemed…well, not exactly air-tight.

Taylor Swift has had a phenomenal 2020, due in part to her critically acclaimed album Folklore, which she released to fans back in July and which UPROXX recently named best album of 2020. Now she’s paying it forward, helping two mothers who were in tough financial spots by giving them $13,000 each.

According to Billboard, the singer had read about their struggles in a Washington Post article that highlighted Americans who’d fallen behind on rent due to the government’s failure to reach an agreement over a second stimulus package. One of the donations went to Nikki Cornwell, a single mother from Nashville, who said she fell $5,000 behind on her rent and was uncertain if her children would enjoy Christmas this year. “This has been a horrible year for us,” she said on her GoFundMe page before revealing that she was supposed to begin a new job in May but could not after she tested positive for COVID-19. She added, “It’s been rough because I’m not the only person looking for work. My family would appreciate any help this holiday. I am definitely praying for miracles. God bless everyone.”

Along with the donation, Taylor shared a message with Cornwell. “Nikki, I read about you in the Washington Post and thought it was really brave of you to share your story,” she said. “I’m so sorry for everything you’ve had to go through this year and wanted to send you this gift, from one Nashville girl to another. Love, Taylor.”

Taylor’s other donation when to a woman from Michigan named Shelbie Selewski, who said she lost her job this past spring and was forced to “stay home with my young daughter who was born with a collapsed lung right before Covid (Dec) and was hospitalized for two months after at Childrens.” She added, “We have sold everything we could possibly sell and with that have always paid our bills as much as possible but it feels like every day something else comes up.”

Swift left the following message with Selewski: “Shelbie, I’m sending you this gift after reading about you in the Washington Post … No one should have to feel the kind of stress that’s been put on you. I hope you and your beautiful family have a great holiday season. Love, Taylor.”

(via Billboard)

Republican Representative Louie Gohmert has never achieved the celebrity dunkable status of a Matt Gaetz or a Jim Jordan or even a Steve King, but not for lack of trying. He was part of the Tea Party wave into Congress during the Obama era, and the things he said were harebrained enough to inspire Mother Jones to place him on a 2009 list entitled “Capital Hill’s Most Unhinged Republicans.” But on Tuesday he suddenly went viral — not for something he said, but because it looked like one of his teeth fell out of his mouth while he was talking at a press conference.

The Texas representative was coming out hard against one of the major issues gripping America right now. No, not COVID-19. No, not outgoing president Donald Trump’s increasingly laughable attempts to overturn the election. No, not even about how much Piers Morgan looks like Brenda Fricker’s homeless woman in Home Alone 2. It was about…renaming military bases that were named after Confederate leaders? That’s still a thing, apparently! And as if to show that the GOP is literally falling apart, as he spoke he had to pause while a tooth-like object rattled in his mouth.

The above clip is normal speed, but here’s one slowed down and zoomed-in.

Gohmert later confirmed that it wasn’t a tooth. It was a temporary crown that had come loose. He then somehow managed to tie it into Hunter Biden’s laptop and (baseless accusations of) voter fraud, chastising reporters for being uninterested in a politician who isn’t very famous and is speaking about a subject people cared about over the summer.

Gohmert also tried to create a hashtag around “#Crowngate,” a quick search on Twitter shows it never exactly took off.

In fact, if you known Louie Gohmert’s name in 2020, it’s probably because he was one of many Republican politicians who tested positive for COVID-19, after being mask skeptics who played down the severity of a pandemic that’s currently spiking in places that voted for Trump’s failed re-election. One doctor speculated that teeth falling may be a long-term symptom of having had COVID-19; after all, we’re only now starting to see the grim side effects of surviving the disease.

Still, a New York Times piece says the jury’s still out on that one. Perhaps Republicans simply need better health care, to hook them up with better dentists. Maybe some kind of “Medicare for All” would be a good way to stop people from having teeth fall out while they’re speaking on camera?

(Via Mashable)

In advance of Tuesday night’s clash between the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys, an unexpected storyline emerged, and it went beyond the bizarre nature of yet another NFL game in a non-traditional time slot. Prior to kick-off, Ravens wide receiver Dez Bryant broke the news that he was pulled off the field during warmups and told that he tested positive for COVID-19.

Given the proximity to kickoff, Bryant’s positive test posed a number of questions but, in short order, the league determined that the show would go on. Bryant reportedly had an inconclusive test from earlier in the day and, when that prompted another test, the follow-up procedure yielded a positive result.

Bryant broke his own news but, in a hurry, he expressed frustration about the result, citing his consistent routine.

Finally, Bryant seemingly announced his intention to opt out of the remainder of the 2020 season less than 20 minutes after his initial announcement of the positive test.

The 32-year-old Bryant is no longer the Pro Bowl-caliber player that he was in Dallas, but he caught four passes for the Ravens two weeks ago against the Tennessee Titans in a narrow loss. It will be interesting to see what kind of fallout is produced, both by the NFL’s process and in Bryant’s specific situation, but all indications are that this might be the last time he takes the field in 2020 and, just minutes after the news, the Ravens and Cowboys took the field, which Bryant had questions about.

Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of Juice WRLD’s tragic death. The Chicago rapper died from an accidental overdose of oxycodone and codeine following a seizure at Chicago’s Midway International Airport in December 2019. To honor his passing a year later, his longtime girlfriend Ally Lotti took to Twitter to share a pair of letters he wrote prior to his death.

The first dates back to early 2019, when Juice WRLD served as an opening act for Nicki Minaj’s tour stop in Düsseldorf, Germany. It was written to Lotti and it reads in part, “You are: my sanity, my safe haven, my first and last true love, my BFF, my home… You are my everything.” The second letter is directed at his fans, and it thanks them for their unwavering support. “I’ve been broken 4 so long without repair,” it says. “You fixed me permanently… So I cannot let you out my [sight]. You are my [umbrella] when it’s raining, you keep me dry from my own tears and the tears of the world.”

In addition to the letters, Lotti also shared a pair of text messages between her and the late rapper that displayed the love they had for each other.

Lotti also told XXL that he wrote the letters and hid them in her wallet. She discovered them when she reached into the wallet to pay for the outfit she wore for his funeral.

You can read the letters and the text messages between Juice and Lotti above.

Last week Warner Bros. announced it was moving its entire 2021 movie slate — some 17 films, many of them big screen blockbusters — to its newish streamer HBO Max. (Granted, they’ll also get theatrical releases on the same day. But still.) The news has not been met kindly by many. One critic is Tenet director Christopher Nolan, who did not hold back, heaping scorn upon the company that’s long distributed his films. But Patty Jenkins, director of Wonder Woman and its forthcoming sequel, had a far more measured response.

Wonder Woman 1984 will in fact be the first of Warner’s blockbusters to do a day-and-day release, in theaters and on HBO Max. Its release was bumped a number of times, and as recently as October Jenkins was holding out hope that it would get a traditional release, her response, picked up by Deadline, finds her grappling with her hopes and the grim realities that we face in the midst of a spiking pandemic.

“If you had told me a year ago that we would ever go straight to streaming in any way, shape or form, I would have flipped out,” Jenkins said in an interview with Jess Cagle on SiriusXM Stars . “Like I’m not for that plan in general, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m very pro theatrical release and I will be that again, as soon as this is over.”

She continued:

“However, this is such a crazy year. It’s such a crazy year. It’s like all of us are trying to figure out with our lives, how to do everything the best we can. And so I kept saying there is no good option. Like when we would talk about it, there was no good option. Wait until when. And then every movie in the world tries to come out at the same time. And you know, there was no good option. I literally gasped a little bit when the pitch for this idea was said, because I was like, ‘Oh, the idea of it going into people’s homes on Christmas Day.”

She added, “I just was like, you know what, that’s actually pretty incredible to get to share whether, you know, it’s Christmas for people or not the holiday season and in this moment to just try to reach people however they can see it.”

You can compare/contrast that with what Nolan said, in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,” Nolan said. He added:

“Warner Bros. had an incredible machine for getting a filmmaker’s work out everywhere, both in theaters and in the home, and they are dismantling it as we speak. They don’t even understand what they’re losing. Their decision makes no economic sense and even the most casual Wall Street investor can see the difference between disruption and dysfunction.”

You’ll be able to watch Wonder Woman 1984 in the safety of your home — or, if you chance it, in theaters — starting December 25, on HBO Max. Maybe by then the service — which, despite Nolan’s words, is the most diverse streamer on the market, a place where you can watch the Tim Burton Batman films, The Sopranos, Citizen Kane, and Duck Amuck, among untold others — will actually be on Roku. Or not.

(Via Deadline)

This past Sunday, a report from HipHopDX revealed that A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie was involved in a shooting after celebrating his birthday at the Teaneck, New Jersey nightclub RAIN. Now the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to XXL that the Bronx rapper has been arrested and charged with one count of unlawful possession of a handgun and another count of possession of marijuana.

New Jersey authorities arrived at the rapper’s Dearest, New Jersey on Tuesday home armed with a search warrant. At the end of their search, officers found and took, XXL reports, “a Ruger .380 handgun, a Glock .40 caliber handgun, an H&K 9mm handgun and a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun” as well as “hollow point bullets, various high capacity magazines, marijuana, hashish oil edibles, and drug paraphernalia.”

According to HipHopDX, a video that was uploaded to WorldStarHipHop showed the events that took place before the shooting: The rapper and his team rear-ended a bystander’s vehicle in front of the nightclub and when insurance information was exchanged, a brawl broke out and gunshots were fired, sending one person to the hospital. New Jersey Township of Teaneck Police Chief Glenn O’Reilly confirmed the incident but said the injury was not life-threatening.

(via XXL)

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group