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Zach Galifianakis Was Blacklisted From A COVID ‘Public Campaign’ Because Trump Wasn’t On ‘Between Two Ferns’

In the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton appeared on web series Between Two Ferns, where host Zach Galifianakis grilled her with tough questions like, “When you see how well it works for Donald Trump, do you ever think to yourself, oh, I should be more racist?” The video was a hit with over 24 million views, as was the 2014 episode with Barack Obama, but when asked if Donald Trump would ever appear on Ferns, the Baskets star replied, “Doing it the other way doesn’t interest me. He’s the kind of guy who likes attention — bad attention or good attention. So you’re dealing with a psychosis there that’s a little weird. I wouldn’t have somebody on that’s so mentally challenged. I feel like I’d be taking advantage of him. And you can print that.”

It was printed, and apparently caught the eye of the big man himself.

The New York Times reports that the Trump administration, led by Michael R. Caputo, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, wanted to make a $265 million “star-studded campaign to lift American spirits” during the pandemic. But “they sought to exclude celebrities who had supported gay rights or same-sex marriage or who had publicly disparaged President Trump. The actor Zach Galifianakis, for instance, was apparently passed over because he had declined to have Mr. Trump on his talk show Between Two Ferns.”

Between Two Ferns co-creator Scott Aukerman had an appropriate response:

And don’t even get Trump started on The Hangover not taking place in Trump Hotel.

(Via the New York Times)

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Dinner Party’s Chilling ‘Freeze Tag’ Video With Cordae And Snoop Dogg Condemns Killer Cops

A community cookout turns into a scene of terror in the video for Dinner Party‘s “Freeze Tag” featuring Cordae, Phoelix, and Snoop Dogg. Filmed in Los Angeles’ Crenshaw district, the video sees a vibrant neighborhood on a summer evening react as an unseen threat moves through the street, prompting kids playing to drop their games and run inside and disrupting other activities. Finally, when one child points out the threat, the POV changes to show that it was a police officer all along as he chases down the witnesses and pushes one face-first into the ground.

Dinner Party is the crossover project from 9th Wonder, Kamasi Washington, Robert Glasper, and Terrace Martin, and while only Martin makes an appearance in the video, Cordae’s verse mirrors the bone-chilling visuals, even as the mellow instrumental suggests better days ahead. Cordae recently tackled similar subject matter at the BET Hip-Hop Awards, opening the show with a forceful freestyle that reflected his activist streak. He’s proven himself to be a favorite of soul and jazz standard-bearers, appearing on Glasper’s 2019 mixtape F*ck Yo Feelings and on Stevie Wonder’s new single “Can’t Put It In The Hands Of Fate” with Busta Rhymes, Chika, and Rapsody.

Watch the “Freeze Tag” video above.

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

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The Girl Scouts’ Amy Coney Barrett Tweet-And-Delete Has People (Including A ‘Scrubs’ Star) Threatening A Thin Mints Boycott

The Girl Scouts of America earned a merit badge in Social Media Disasters on Wednesday when the organization expressed support for Amy Coney Barrett‘s highly controversial confirmation to the Supreme Court. The tweet featured Barrett in a Girl Scouted themed image next to female justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. “Congratulations Amy Coney Barrett on becoming the 5th woman appointed to the Supreme Court since its inception in 1789,” the caption read.

After facing intense backlash from social media users who pointed out the extremely partisan nature of Barrett’s nomination along with her anti-choice views on reproductive rights, the Girl Scouts deleted the tweet and issued the following apology:

Earlier today, we shared a post highlighting the five women who have been appointed to the Supreme Court. It was quickly viewed as a political and partisan statement which was not our intent and we have removed the post. Girl Scouts of the USA is a nonpolitical, nonpartisan organization. We are neither red nor blue, but Girl Scout GREEN. We are here to lift up girls and women.

But by the time the Girl Scouts walked back the Barrett tweet, calls for a Thin Mints boycott had gone viral, in part due to Zach Braff:

Braff was soon joined by others who vowed to get their Girl Scout cookie fix from other sources in protest:

After watching recipes for Thin Mints go viral, this last tweet pretty much sums up 2020:

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Tash Sultana’s Jazzy ‘Willow Tree’ With Jerome Farah Heralds Her Sophomore Album ‘Terra Firma’

Two years after the release of her acclaimed debut album Flow State, Tash Sultana signaled the beginning of a new era in recent months with a handful of playful singles. Now, the Australian singer returns with an official announcement of her sophomore album alongside a jazzy new single.

Tash’s “Willow Tree” was recorded with rising artist Jerome Farah and offers a reflection on the importance of mindfulness, something the singer has been trying to do more of lately. “I didn’t realize that I needed to create a space and home for myself to feel like a person again,” Tash said about the song. “I just went inward and found a really peaceful place and wrote an album, and I feel really happy with it.”

“Willow Tree,” along with her previous single “Greed,” will arrive on Tash’s impending sophomore album Terra Firma. Speaking about the album’s meaning as a whole, Tash said no good will ever come from comparing your success to somebody else’s:

“There ain’t no fast pass up the mountain and you’ve got to clock the hours in to achieve the things you want in life. You can’t just skip the entire middle section of your journey to try and rush to the finish line. Whatever that may be for you. There is no use comparing yourself to someone else’s success. It’s your time when it’s meant to be and it’s only meant to be if you get up day and night and strive for the things you want. No one’s going to serve it to you on a golden platter, you’ve got to get it yourself.”

Listen to “Willow Tree” above.

Terra Firma is out 2/19/2021 via Mom + Pop. Pre-order it here.

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We literally get better info from Steak-umm than from President Trump

Even before he became president, Donald Trump was known for his unhindered use of Twitter. He and his many press secretaries have lauded the president’s frequently used and abused social media account as his way of connecting directly with the people, but if you scroll through his feed, it usually seems more like a venue for him to brag, bully people, and air his grievances. Oh, and lie a whole bunch.

Then there is Steak-umm, the anti-Trump Twitter account. And by “anti-Trump” I don’t mean against Trump, but rather the opposite of Trump. Instead of griping and sharing falsehoods that constantly need fact-checking while being the single biggest source of coronavirus misinformation, Steak-umm use their account to share helpful tips for avoiding misinformation in the midst of a confusing pandemic, to explain psychological concepts like “cognitive dissonance” and “dualism,” and to encourage people to really examine and think about things before sharing them.

In other words, Trump tweets conspiracy theories while Steak-umm tweets about how to not fall for conspiracy theories.


That’s right, this wisdom is coming from a frozen sliced steak brand. Welcome to 2020, y’all.

I mean, bestill my credible-information-and-verifiable-data-loving heart.

This whole thread ^^ is worth reading. It’s pinned to the top of their Twitter page.

Meanwhile:

(Side note: The one and only thing POTUS and Steak-umm seem to share is a complete disregard for capitalization rules. Trump capitalizes words totally randomly, while Steak-umm capitalizes pretty much nothing. It’s a world gone mad, I say. As a former English teacher, this haphazard capitalizing is all just incredibly painful.)

Anyway, moving on…this tweet right here is 100% truth, as evidenced by every comment section on the internet:

Scientists have even taken notice of the company’s Twitter account as it tackles coronavirus misinformation.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York, is one of many infectious disease experts studying the coronavirus. She learned about Steak-umm’s tweets through an online group of fellow scientists.

“It’s really important that people are being informed and are able to look for good information themselves — but also to remember that we’re all going through this together, and we’re all human beings, and we’re all experiencing a really difficult time,” she told Business Insider. “It’s very unusual to see the corporate account for a brand of frozen processed meat sort of marrying those two concepts.”

But that’s exactly what Steak-umm does. While some of us feel tempted to take a “Why are people such idiots?!” approach when we see people acting like fools in a pandemic, Steak-umm explains the answer to that question in a way that doesn’t blame, but encourages thoughtful processing of information. (Which of course will be ignored or rejected by said idiots, but it sure makes some of us feel good to see such eloquence and intelligence, especially in the cesspool of social media.)

Also unlike the Tweeter-in-Chief, Steak-umm is remarkably self-aware and able to provide an honest and transparent reflection of the benefits it derives from tweeting the way it does.

Like, whoa.

And they’re right. People are buying their product because they like their social media statements.

Not all of Steak-umm’s tweets are filled with civilization-saving gems of wisdom, of course. I mean, there’s this:

And this silliness, beeflings.

They also get cute with certain spellings, always writing the word “meet” as “meat” and “mistake” as “misteak.”

If you don’t usually buy your meat in the frozen convenience food section and aren’t familiar with Steak-umm, this tweet describes the brand perfectly:

Thank you, Steak-umm (and their social media manager, Nathan), for fighting the good fight and adding something of value to the Twitter world.

Steak-umm bless, indeed.

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The Queen And The Iron Lady Get Confrontational In ‘The Crown’ Season 4 Trailer

Netflix’s The Crown will introduce two new adversarial pairings in Season 4, and a recently released teaser previewed the upcoming Princess Diana/Prince Charles debacle. The new trailer, however, zeroes in on what happens when there are “two women running the show,” which prompts Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, to cluck his tongue while Queen Elizabeth remarks that it might be exactly what England needs. That’s the introduction to Gillian Anderson as Prime Minister Margaret “Iron Lady” Thatcher, who will square off against the long-standing sensibilities of Olivia Colman’s royal incarnation.

The season picks up in the late 1970s with both the House of Windsor and Downing Street feeling fissures begin to appear, some as a direct result of Thatcher’s divisive policies as the country heads into the Falklands War. And of course, there’s a lot more brewing underneath the surface while the country’s press relishes highlighting the tensions between the two women, who have a lot in common but many differences as well. Gillian Anderson is grabbing onto those distinctive tones (which were partially down to throat lozenges) coming out of Thatcher’s mouth, and Colman’s pulling off the apparently-neutral-but-manuevering-behind-the-scenes vibe quite well.

Meanwhile, the Windsors would love to distract the public with a fairytale by marrying off 30-year-old Prince Charles (Josh Charles) to someone not-scandalous, which is where Emma Corrin’s Princess Diana comes into play. We all realize how that ended up (tragically), but at least we can guess that Helena Bonham Carter will continue to lighten the mood (relatively speaking) as the bawdy Princess Margaret.

The Crown Season 4 will stream on November 15.

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Lil Baby Responds To His BET Hip-Hop Awards Loss With His Own Lyrics

Lil Baby may not have come up big at the recent 2020 BET Hip-Hop Awards but he isn’t sweating it. Instead, he says he remains focused on getting paid — which has been the theme of much of his social media activity over the past year.

While fans were seemingly miffed when Lil Baby wasn’t selected for Hip-Hop Artist of the Year — Megan Thee Stallion won that award instead — the Atlanta rapper merely quoted his own verse from Gunna’s “Blindfold” in an Instagram post: “I Like Getting Millions, Ain Trippin About Awards.”

His response was mirrored by his frequent collaborator DaBaby, who could arguably be said to have had an even worse night at the Awards. Despite being the most-nominated artist with 12 nods, including double nominations for Album Of The Year, he didn’t take home a single trophy. However, he was unfazed, tweeting his congratulations to the winners and telling them they deserved the awards.

Lil Baby isn’t one for tweeting all that much but when he does, it’s usually about money. Earlier this year, he joked that he’d be offended if anyone offered less that $100,000 for a feature, which may explain why he responded to Kanye’s claim that he turned down a collab. He was understandably much more upset over Walmart offering fake 4PF chains on its website since he wouldn’t get his cut. Maybe if BET Hip-Hop Awards came with a check, he’d be a little more invested.

Check out Uproxx’s review for his fan-favorite album, My Turn, here.

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‘The W’ Will Get MyWNBA And MyPlayer Additions In An ‘NBA 2K’ Next-Gen Update

Since the WNBA was added into NBA 2K20, women’s basketball fans and hoops gamers alike have wanted more customization, more realism, and overall an experience in the game that was more like the real WNBA. In NBA 2K21‘s latest Next-Gen update, that’s exactly what’s coming.

2K has effectively created an entire structure around “The W,” which encompasses a GM Mode, Playoff Mode, online leagues, MyPlayer options for women’s players, and a 3-on-3 game like what WNBA players have competed in during FIBA and Olympics competitions in recent years.

“One of our main design goals for The W was to allow you to experience the career of a WNBA player, both on and off the court,” said 2K Senior Producer Felicia Steenhouse in a press release. “The women of the WNBA are more than athletes and are defining professional sports as we know it in real-time.”

Maybe the coolest part about all these updates is how 2K didn’t just plug in female MyPlayers and other updated options into the structure that already existed in NBA 2K21. Instead, the developers created a whole new world within the game for the W and all the gamers who want to experience it in the virtual world in a real way for the first time.

As the WNBA gets more focus among basketball fans, the gaming community is taking notice as well, giving 2K lovers a chance to experience the league and its culture in NBA 2K21.

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The Michael Bay-Produced ‘Songbird’ Trailer Is Set In A World Ravaged By COVID-23

You’re probably not in the mood to watch a movie about COVID-19, for obvious reasons. But could I interest you in a movie about COVID-23 that stars Hot Archie from Riverdale and Demi Moore and Alexandra Daddario and Bradley Whitford and is produced by the king of kabooms, Michael Bay? (That’s a rhetorical question.)

Directed by Adam Mason, Songbird takes place in the near-future during the 215th week of lockdown. “Infected Americans are ripped from their homes and forced into quarantine camps known as Q-Zones, from which there is no escape, as a few brave souls fight back against the forces of oppression,” the official plot description reads. Here’s more:

“Amid this dystopian landscape, a fearless courier, Nico (KJ Apa), who’s immune to the deadly pathogen, finds hope and love with Sara (Sofia Carson), though her lockdown prohibits them from physical contact. When Sara is believed to have become infected, Nico races desperately across the barren streets of L.A. in search of the only thing that can save her from imprisonment… or worse.”

Songbird was the first full-length movie to film in Los Angeles during the pandemic, so if nothing else, now you know an answer to a future-bar trivia question. Assuming bars ever… Actually, that’s too depressing to think about. Instead, watch the trailer for Songbird, which comes out soon. That should cheer you up!

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John Fogerty Joins TikTok To Play ‘Fortunate Son’ As A Subtle Dig At Trump’s Campaign

In recent months, many musicians have repeatedly denied the Trump campaign’s requests to use their songs at rallies. Neil Young finally sued the campaign after Trump repeatedly played his music despite the singer’s protests, and Leonard Cohen’s estate got lawyers involved when the RNC used “Hallelujah” during their event. John Fogerty has similarly denied Trump permission to use his song “Fortunate Son” at various rallies, but the president continues to defy his cease-and-desist orders. Now, Fogerty has found a clever way to get back at the Trump campaign.

Fogerty joined TikTok in order to spread his message across generations. For his first video, the Creedence Clearwater Revival singer tapped his granddaughter to appear in the clip to offer insight into the meaning behind “Fortunate Son.” “Today, with school being online, I thought I would give a little history lesson,” she said. “My grandpa wrote a song called ‘Fortunate Son.’ He was a veteran. It was about himself and others who were forced to fight a war they didn’t support, yet around him were others of privilege and upper class who didn’t have to. My generation can’t let this happen again. Hit it, grandpa!”

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A little history lesson for today.

A post shared by John Fogerty (@johnfogerty) on

The camera then pans to Fogerty on guitar, who delivers an passionate rendition of the song’s intro. The performance stood as a subtle dig at the president, who has reportedly avoided the military draft five different times throughout his life.

Watch Fogerty’s TikTok performance of “Fortunate Son” above.

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