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‘SNL’ Weekend Update Blasted Marjorie Taylor Greene And Begged Donald Trump To Testify At His Second Impeachment Trial

The latest Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live started with jokes about the current president, but it still can’t escape the pull of Donald Trump’s presidency. Which is probably why the highlights were cracks at Trump and his most unhinged follower elected to congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Greene was stripped of her committee seats in the US House of Representatives earlier in the week, and Update made sure to mock her for that and the various conspiracy theories she has supported that led to the rebuke from Democrats. Michael Che joked that all those beliefs made her his “type” before issuing support for a conspiracy theory that seems much less immediately harmful to the health of the republic.

“I’m kidding, anyone who believes in those crazy conspiracies would have to be as blind as Stevie Wonder is pretending to be,” Che said.

The segment also covered the Fox News election fraud lawsuit, and called Donald Trump a “former social media influencer,” which drew applause. But the biggest laugh line came when Colin Jost begged Trump to reconsider his refusal to testify in his second impeachment trial in the Senate.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say ‘Come on, please?” Jost asked. “Give us one last show, man. You know? Stop feeling sorry for yourself, put in your extensions and bust into that trial like it’s Maury Povich and you are not the father.”

Later in the segment, SNL cracked a Morgan Wallen joke at Jost’s expense, though the show did let the musical guest who broke coronavirus safety protocols issue an apology by way of song just a few months before his hate speech controversy made him newsworthy once again.

It seems unlikely that he’ll get a chance at a second apology song for this particular incident, but you never know.

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Negan Will Bookend The Next Batch Of ‘The Walking Dead’ Episodes In Confrontations With Maggie And Lucille

Though we have only seen one episode of The Walking Dead over the last 306 days, the next batch of six episodes is finally approaching. The episodes will debut later this month, on February 28th (although, the first episode will premiere one week earlier for AMC+ subscribers). Thanks to newly release episode descriptions, we now also know that Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character, Negan, will bookend the six episodes. In the first, he and Maggie will confront each other for the first time since Maggie left in an awkward scene (although, hilariously, there is appropriate social distancing!):

The first episode, however, expects to be more about Maggie’s backstory than it will be about Negan himself. The sixth episode, meanwhile, will be the long-awaited episode, “Here’s Negan.” The Negan origin story will feature his wife, Lucille (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s wife, Hilarie Burton), for whom his baseball bat was named. AMC has released a new trailer highlighting all six episodes.

For the curious, AMC has also released episode descriptions:

“Home Sweet Home”
Maggie (Lauren Cohan) has returned with a story she is not ready to share, even when her past catches up to her. Negan’s (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) safety is at stake again. Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Maggie fight an unseen and unknown threat.

“Find Me”
An adventure for Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) turns sideways when they come across an old cabin. It takes Daryl back to the years when he left the group after Rick disappeared as he relives a time that only the apocalypse could manifest.

“One More”
Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Aaron (Ross Marquand) search for food and supplies to bring back to Alexandria. Small tragedies lead to bigger tragedies as faith is broken and optimism is fragmented when they are put to the ultimate test.

“Splinter”
Eugene (Josh McDermitt), Ezekiel (Khary Payton), Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura), and Princess (Paola Lázaro) are captured and separated. Princess struggles with memories of her traumatic past and tries to escape one way or another with the help of Ezekiel.

“Diverged”
Daryl and Carol come to a fork in the road and head their separate ways. Each going into their own type of survival mode, the easiest of challenges become much harder. Will their individual journeys be the tipping point needed to mend their friendship or is the distance between them permanent?

“Here’s Negan”
Carol takes Negan on a journey, hoping to minimize the increasing tension. Negan reflects on the events that led him to this point and comes to a conclusion about his future.

Finally, AMC has also released new images from the upcoming bonus episodes.

AMC
AMC
AMC
AMC

The Walking Dead returns on February 28th and will run until April 11th, when the back half of season six of Fear the Walking Dead returns.

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The ‘SNL’ Cold Open Shared An Early Look At Some Disturbing Super Bowl Ads

There will be plenty of pregame coverage ahead of Super Bowl 55 on Sunday, but Saturday Night Live got things started a bit early with a look at some concerning Super Bowl commercials during its cold open. Rather than the politics-filled opens the show has focused on in 2020 and early in the new year, Saturday’s edition was framed as the CBS pregame show for the biggest football game of the season. A game that was cleverly described as “four hours of television for 11 minutes of action.”

The sketch featured a packed studio full of analysts doing their best to keep things awkward. There were some uncomfortable jokes about the NFL plowing through its season amid the coronavirus pandemic, and a riff about showing various simulcasts of the Super Bowl, including a catty one on Bravo and a kids broadcast on Nick. That probably had the best visual joke of the sketch, which featured a doctored video of slime spraying out of an injured player’s leg.

SNL on YouTube

But the highlight of the sketch was a spoof on Super Bowl commercials, which may be a bit more dour than in recent years in real life. On SNL, however, corporate social justice co-signing was spoofed by a commercial about equal rights from Cheez-It, and a “conservative” ad from Papa Johns that had a not-so-subtle nod to the QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories.

Kenan Thompson nearly broke during a riff about turtles and frogs, but recovered in time to set up Aidy Bryant to play both Super Bowl-bound coaches during an interview switchero. It was an early highlight in a rare SNL cold open that didn’t focus explicitly on the political, but it was a welcome break from all that if we’re being quite honest.

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Watch Phoebe Bridgers Totally Destroy Her Guitar Afer Performing ‘I Know The End’ On ‘SNL’

Though 2021 may be off to a rough start, Phoebe Bridgers fans got a delightful bit of news a few weeks ago — that she’d be making her debut on Saturday Night Live. Given the dearth of concerts and most of the country still following relatively strict lockdown orders, SNL is the closest we can get to a live show these days, and with a performer like Phoebe, the songs do not disappoint. Starting off with “Kyoto,” one of the more upbeat, early singles off her new record, Punisher, Bridgers closed out her two-song set with the towering closer off her latest record, “I Know The End.”

The song is a doomsday, apocalyptic affair, only made more fitting by the cataclysmic way 2020 unfolded, and Phoebe did the song justice on the SNL stage by going so far as to smash her guitar at the end of the performance. It’s the kind of tongue-in-cheek-but-deadly-serious move that’s made Phoebe such a beloved star over the past few years, and though there might’ve been a few diehard fans who wanted to hear songs off her first record, Stranger In The Alps, overall the song selection made sense for where Bridgers is right now. And that’s what makes a great TV performance. Check out the clip aboove.

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Phoebe Bridgers Wore Her Skeleton Suit To Perform ‘Kyoto’ On ‘Saturday Night Live’

Last year Phoebe Bridgers released her second album, Punisher, to immense critical acclaim. The follow-up to her debut record, Strangers In The Alps, came mid-summer, just as the pandemic was beginning to become a more intense reality and civil rights protests for Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd were erupting all over the country. In response to the growing unrest, she released her album a week early, hoping it would be a balm for some and wanting to step out of the spotlight while more important conversations were happening.

It’s that kind of self-awareness that has turned her into such a beloved young musician, and seeing her appear on Saturday Night Live — along with Schitt’s Creek star and creator Dan Levy — is a bright spot for fans during a rough start to 2021. For her first song on the show, Phoebe performed the more upbeat “Kyoto,” one of the first singles released off Punisher. It’s a song that might sound more hopeful, but deals with disassociation and disappointment. And for the special performance Phoebe and her band brought back what has now become a signature skeleton suit. Check out the video performance above and stay tuned for her second song later in the evening.

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Two More ‘Cheer’ Cheerleaders Were Arrested On Charges Of Sexual Misconduct With Minors

Cheer was an instant hit when it was released on Netflix in early 2020, the documentary series even garnering an SNL sketch of its own. But the story of the cheerleaders from Navarro College in Texas has become much more harrowing in the months since the series initially aired.

One of the show’s most notable cheerleaders, Jerry Harris, was arrested on child pornography charges in September. And according to reports, two more people featured on camera during the show’s episodes have been arrested for sexual misconduct involving minors. According to Deadline, Robert Joseph Scianna, a 25-year-old coach and choreographer, and Mitchell Ryan, a member of the Navarro College team, were arrested in separate cases earlier in the week.

Scianna Jr. was arrested Wednesday in Virginia and charged with felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child and using an electronic communication device to solicit sex. The Chesterfield County Police Department claimed he arranged to meet a juvenile with whom he connected on social media for sex.

Ryan was also arrested Wednesday in Texas. Ryan, 23, was charged with felony aggravated sexual assault of a child relating to an unspecified incident that allegedly occurred July 24, Dallas County Sheriff’s Department records show.

It’s troubling news to say the least, coming just months after Harris was arrested on charges of soliciting nude photos and sex from minors. Cheer was already a show that cast a lens on some of the more troubling and dangerous elements of the physical risks and demands competitive cheerleading puts on participants. But these recent cases are an indication there’s even more disturbing things going on that weren’t caught by cameras.

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Report: A Derrick Rose Trade To The Knicks Is ‘Close’

Things have not gone particularly well for the Detroit Pistons this season, and as a result, one of the team’s veterans is interested in seeking greener pastures. According to a report by Shams Charania and James L. Edwards III of The Athletic, the Pistons and backup Derrick Rose have come to a mutual agreement that a trade would be in the best interest of both sides.

The good news for Rose is that if he wants out of town, an old friend has interest. Tom Thibodeau, who coached Rose during his MVP season in 2011, and the New York Knicks are reportedly “engaged in talks” with Detroit about a deal to send Rose to the Big Apple, and while there is no word on any other teams that are conversing with the Pistons, the report indicates that a few teams have reached out in recent days about Rose’s availability.

Additionally, Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports brings word that a deal with the Knicks is “close.”

Rose has not played in a game since Jan. 30. He was fantastic off the bench for the Pistons last season, and word has been circulating since last trade deadline about the level of interest that other teams would potentially have in the All-Star. This year, Rose is averaging 14.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 22.8 minutes per game. Rose has previously played for the Knicks, as he suited up for them in 2016-17, and would give them a steady hand in the backcourt in place of the mercurial Elfrid Payton. On Saturday, New York beat the Portland Trail Blazers to move into a tie for sixth place in the Eastern Conference.

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The Canceled Xbox 360 ‘GoldenEye’ Remake Leaked Online And It’s Playable

The Xbox 360 GoldenEye that never was now is … kind of. The remake of the 007 classic from the Nintendo 64 never got a release on Microsoft’s second gaming console, but a ROM of the game hit the internet after years of clips and teases that showed the classic game with some refurbished graphics and gameplay.

As The Verge reported earlier in the week, the Xbox Goldeneye game, though unfinished, leaked online. And now it’s making the rounds on filesharing services. The game even had an option to switch from N64-style graphics to the, at the time, next-gen look.

As Polygon explained, the game was never released because of copyright issues.

Grant Kirkhope, composer on the original GoldenEye, told VideoGamesChronicle that the game was never released to the public because of a complicated knot of copyright and legal issues. “The main reason it didn’t happen was because there were too many stakeholders,” said Kirkhope. “Microsoft, Nintendo and [Bond rights-holder] EON could never agree on terms, and that’s before you even start to consider getting all the original movie actors to agree to have their likenesses used again.”

This is why you have to find it on filesharing services in 2021. If that’s too much effort, you can always just play Perfect Dark, a game that borrowed heavily from GoldenEye and saw a release on Xbox. But if you’re looking to get the GoldenEye experience with slightly improved graphics, it’s out there waiting for you.

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Someone May Have Ruined One Of The Super Bowl’s Biggest Prop Bets

A whole lot of prop bets get made for the Super Bowl, with books all over the world offering a collection of lines that appeal to everyone from the hyper-casual bettor to the folks who put money on everything. There is some bad news: One of the more well-known Super Bowl prop bets got ruined thanks to one intrepid reporter with a cell phone.

Zach Maskavich, a reporter with WESH out of Orlando, found himself near Raymond James Stadium, the site of Super Bowl LV, on Friday afternoon. His timing was pretty fortuitous — while he was outside, Jazmine Sullivan and Eric Church were practicing their rendition of the national anthem, which they will perform before kickoff.

Now, Maskavich knew that the over/under on how long the anthem will take is quite popular, so he started recording, pulled out his cell phone, and gave away how long their sound check went.

“I just thought it was pretty funny,” Maskavich told David Purdum of ESPN. “Some of the responses have been hilarious; some people are really mad.”

As Purdum laid out, Maskavich’s video unsurprisingly caused a bit of a stir in the gambling world, as PointsBet, a book out of Australia, saw money come in on the over after this video went up, and in response, they halted betting on that line. If this ruined any of your prop bet plans, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

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Bryson Tiller Updates Fans On His ‘Anniversary’ Deluxe And ‘Serenity’ Albums

After a three-year absence, Bryson Tiller made his return to the music world in late 2020 with two projects: his Trapsoul deluxe album and Anniversary. Shortly after he released the latter project, the singer revealed that there was more music on the way for fans and during a recent stream on his Twitch channel, Tiller shared his plans for the next 12 months.

His first update was about his Serenity album. Before he dove into the new details, Bryson revealed that the album was one that he’s incrementally worked on since his 2017 album True To Self. Due to his struggles with depression, however, he was forced to put the album’s creation on pause to better himself and find the right “peace of mind” to continue working on it. That time finally came and now the album is on the way, but it won’t be your typical project.

“Over the years, I realized how much f*cking music that I had for Serenity, all this different sh*t, so Serenity is now not one album, but it’s three albums,” the singer said during the stream. “It’s three volumes, one is a rap album, one is an R&B album, and then one is a pop album.”

While this is exciting news for fans there is just one obstacle in the way of its release.

“Until I figure out the sh*t for my deal, with my label and all that sh*t, the business side, I can’t necessarily give that,” Bryson said about a potential release date, though he does still plan to release Serenity sometime in 2021. “That’s the only thing holding those projects back.”

As if the triple album wasn’t enough for fans, the Lousiville singer will also drop a complete Anniversary album soon. He said the original project was “never finished to begin with,” but because of a deadline to submit the album, he was forced to release what was complete at the time. During an appearance on Sneaker Shopping with Complex, an on-screen message revealed the deluxe album would arrive at some point in February.

You can watch talk about the album in the video above.