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This week on the Frot, we’re talking about the hot new Sacha Baron Cohen project currently setting the internet wags on fire. That’s right, I’m talking about The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Aaron Sorkin’s new Netflix joint about hippies, protests, the radical left, broads who need a good talking to, brave men in uniform, and courtrooms. We discuss Sacha Baron Cohen’s bonkers accent (so strange coming from a guy who has spent his life doing weird accents in real-life situation) and the filmography of Aaron Sorkin in general. Sorkin had it all with this project — Boomer heroes, courtroom drama, a packed cast, a premise generally far less obnoxious than The Newsroom… his whole wheelhouse. After years of giving him a hard time we were so ready to finally give him his due. And yet he even managed to make this one kind of annoying at the end.

Before that, we discuss this week’s top story. That’s right, I’m talking about Jeffrey Toobin cranking his hog on a Zoom call. You’d think that would be the perfect joke for at least a week, but now, the internet had to quickly separate into warring camps of which teachable moment this incident best represents. But you remember the Frotcast rule: no hugging, no learning, only lumming. Finally, it’s an episode worth paying a premium for. No refunds.

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Empathy. Compassion. Heart-to-heart human connection. These qualities of leadership may not be flashy or loud, but they speak volumes when we see them in action.

A clip of Joe Biden is going viral because it reminds us what that kind of leadership looks like. The video shows a key moment at a memorial service for Chris Hixon, the athletic director at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018. Hixon had attempted to disarm the gunman who went on a shooting spree at the school, killing 17 people—including Hixon—and injuring 17 more.

Biden asked who Hixon’s parents were as the clip begins, and is directed to his right. Hixon’s wife introduces herself, and Biden says, “God love you.” As he starts to walk away, a voice off-camera says something and Biden immediately turns around. The voice came from Hixon’s son, Corey, and the moments that followed are what have people feeling all their feelings.

Oof. The spontaneous hug was sweet. Corey shaking his head “no” when Biden asks if he’s okay was rough. But seeing this young man cling to the former vice president, who kisses his head and reassuringly says, “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay. I promise.” Well, that’s almost too much to take.

Biden knows the pain of loss first hand. His first wife and baby daughter were killed in a car accident while on their way to pick up a Christmas tree in 1972, leaving him a single father of 3- and 4-year-old sons. He remarried nearly five years later, but experienced close personal tragedy again in 2015, when he lost his son Beau to brain cancer at age 35.

Understanding someone’s pain is a powerful thing. And being able to share words of comfort from a place of experience and knowing is a gift. In less than 30 seconds, Joe Biden exemplifies what genuine empathy and compassion look like.

“I don’t have it in me a lot of times to give him that comfort,” Corey’s mom shared in a video ad shared by Gabby Giffords. “So it meant a lot for somebody else to give him…to take that time and to care enough about him.”

It meant a lot to lots of people, seeing Biden in one of the genuine human connection moments he is known for. There’s a reason people call him “Uncle Joe,” though this clip feels more like a hug from a warm grandfather.

And Americans made it clear that they are craving this kind of compassion to return to the White House. Here’s a handful of the responses to the video:

It’s also worth noting that Biden was not in office at this time, and he was still more than a year away from announcing his run for presidency. So for the cynics out there, this wasn’t a political move for the cameras—this was just Joe being Joe.

Consideration, compassion, decency, empathy, and dignity are all on the ballot this election. Even Lindsey Graham in on video saying that “if you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person” then “you’ve got a problem and you need to do some self-evaluation.” He said he’s “the nicest man I’ve ever met in politics” and “as good a man as God ever created.”

Empathy. Compassion. Heart-to-heart human connection. That’s the leadership we need now more than ever.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman (Netflix series) — The venerable former late-night TV host returns for Season 3 episodes. This brand new crop of deep-dive conversations will feature Robert Downey Jr., Dave Chappelle, Kim Kardashian West, Lizzo, and more.

537 Votes (HBO documentary) — In case this wild election season wasn’t enough drama, this film revisits the 2000 political earthquake that took place in Miami-Dade County, resulting in a razor-thin margin of victory for George W. Bush. Political machinations abounded, and this documentary digs into the operatives of the era, including Roger Stone, master of political chaos. Billy Corben directs, and Adam McKay of HBO’s Successsion executive produces.

Rebecca (Netflix film) — Armie Hammer and Lily James star in this fresh adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s beloved 1938 gothic novel. Underneath it all, the film’s a psychological thriller about a bride who finds herself living in the shadow of a wealthy man’s first wife, the Rebecca of the title, after a high-speed courtship in Monte Carlo.

Devils (CW, 8:00pm EST) — The Patrick Dempsey-starring series sees Massimo dig into some possibly sketchy stuff involving a colleague and… Gaddafi? Alright.

Coroner (CW, 9:00pm EST) — The death of a lab assistant sparks action for Jenny and Donovan, and for Jenny, this is becoming personal.

Archer (FXX, 10:00pm EST) — Archer must help rescue the kidnapped AJ while Lana’s rampage threatens to go off course.

Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Bruce Springsteen

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Tracee Ellis Ross, Eric Andre, Tate McRae

Late Night With Jimmy Fallon — Anthony Mackiem Lily James, Black Thought ft. Portugal

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Bill Gatesm The Head and the Heart

In case you wanted to catch up on what happened during the past few Wednesdays:

Blackpink: Light Up the Sky (Netflix documentary film) — Fans of the highest-charting female K-pop group in history can now head behind the scenes with Blackpink ahead of their 2019 Coachella performance. As they reach new heights, the quartet will reflect on the highs and lows of fame while cementing their success that shall not be deterred by borders or barriers in language.

Hubie Halloween (Netflix film) — This movie might be wonderfully funny escapism for you, or it might be Adam Sandler’s revenge for not receiving an Oscar nomination for Uncut Gems. Perhaps it can be both things? Regardless of intent from the Sandman, settle in for the latest Happy Madison production, which follows Sandler’s Hubie Dubois, a Halloween safety crusader who gets sucked into a murder mystery. Kevin James and Kenan Thompson play cops, and more co-stars include Julie Bowen, Ray Liotta, Noah Schnapp, Steve Buscemi, and Maya Rudolph.

Since the classic battle between Gladys Knight and Patti LaBelle saw record-breaking attendance, all eyes are on the Verzuz social media pages to see who the next competitors will be. The popular competition series kicked off at the start of quarantine and has already gotten many famous musicians challenging each other. While the next Verzuz has yet to be announced, Busta Rhymes is “begging” T.I. to go head-to-head with him on the show.

Busta recently joined Fat Joe in an Instagram Live session to chat with the rapper about his recent projects. Joe asked Busta if he would be up to confront T.I. in a battle, and Busta immediately jumped at the opportunity.

“It is intriguing to me that you have such a concern with New York emcees,” Busta said, speaking directly to T.I. “I wanna understand what that’s about. From one brother that loves you to another brother that knows your level, I’m begging you to step in the ring with me. I’mma bust your ass. Let me tell you something, we’re gonna do it with grace. Come on, T.I., let’s have fun.”

While Busta is celebrated for much of his early catalog, the producer has been working with several artists on new music lately. Most recently, the rapper linked up with Missy Elliot for their boisterous single “Get It,” hopped on Trippie Redd’s “I Got You,” and became frenemies with Anderson .Paak on the track “Yuuuu.”

Check out Busta’s bid for Verzuz above.

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

Over the weekend, New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced that she wanted to dive into the world of Twitch and stream a game of Among Us, the murder-mystery game that has become a sensation in 2020 as people try to find ways to interact with friends without leaving the house.

A number of gamers lined up for the chance to hop on the stream with AOC and Minnesota rep. Ilhan Omar, but a select few made the cut, with some of the biggest names in streaming who have accrued millions of followers hoping on as they promoted the importance of voting and discussed various issues all while playing a highly entertaining game.

AOC struggled a bit with the morality of it all when it was her turn to be the imposter, which made for some pretty hilarious moments, and as the stream went along it garnered some massive attention.

The stream peaked at 439,000 viewers on AOC’s Twitch channel, becoming the fifth most-watched individual stream in Twitch history, per GINX. She currently has over 600,000 followers after her first night of streaming. The video of the 3.5 hour long stream (which you can watch here if you’d like) is now up to 4.9 million views, a preposterous number that shows how effective her efforts were in getting a massive audience and reach by going to Twitch.

We’ll see how frequent AOC streams, but her goal was to reach a young generation on a platform that few politicians successfully use and she more than succeeded in that quest. As she looks to get more into the gaming space, she can get some tips from Omar on how to set up a professional gaming rig, as the Minnesota Congresswoman blew folks away with her setup.

Jared Leto is getting another crack at The Joker thanks to Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The actor is reportedly taking part in reshoots for the “Snyder Cut” version of the film that will air as a four-episode miniseries on HBO Max. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Leto will be joined by Ben Affleck, Ray Fisher, and Amber Heard, who are returning for additional footage. With Affleck reprising his role as Batman, Snyder could be giving fans a showdown with Leto’s Joker that never materialized after the theatrical release of Justice League scattered future plans for the DC Extended Universe. That stressful experience led to Affleck leaving the Batman role, which now rests in the microwave-exploding hands of Robert Pattinson.

While this is clearly an exciting time for DC Comics as it seems to be very much in the business of reviving its stalled cinematic universe, Henry Cavill fans might want to temper their expectations as far as the Snyder Cut is concerned. While the actor has been petitioning hard to return to his Superman role, he recently revealed that he will not be taking part in the Justice League reshoots. Via Collider:

“Not shooting anything additional. No. It’s all stuff that has been already done. Obviously I don’t know how things are going to evolve and change and adapt depending on now a different length of movie and whatever may happen in post-production. Whatever lessons may be learned from what is it four years since Justice League came out? Four years’ worth of fan reaction. For me… I’m now just watching the party.”

Of course, with the news of Leto returning as The Joker amidst reports of The Flash movie featuring multiple Batmen, it seems like anything is possible at this point, and you can probably see where this is going: Bring back Halle Berry’s Catwoman. It’s time.

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)

Vinyl Me, Please, a lovely company that offers exclusive versions of new and old albums, really ticked off a lot of pop fans today (through no fault of their own). This morning, they teased a “big new album” they were releasing soon. Grande and Adele fans both assumed VMP was talking about one of those two, but it turned out Vinyl Me, Please was referring to Julien Baker’s Little Oblivions, which she announced today. That’s certainly a “big new album” in the indie community, but pop fans were furious when their wishes didn’t come true, and Baker herself understands.

Baker responded to an Uproxx tweet sharing our original post on the situation from earlier today, writing, “little do you know I’ve prepared my whole life to be the okayest alternative for a better thing.” Baker then showed a strong sense of empathy by putting herself in Grande and Adele stans’ shoes and realizing how she’d feel if she was one of them. She added in a follow-up tweet, “if I was expecting either I’d be a lil pissed too.”

Through all the backlash, Vinyl Me, Please put on a brave and happy front. They summarized the whole ordeal by tweeting, “Yeah, this thread has gotten pretty f*cking wild pretty f*cking quick, lol.” Responding to a frustrated Twitter user wondering who Baker even is, VMP wrote, “Great that you ask, she makes incredibly raw, self-confessional music. So jealous of you that you get to discover her now!” They also endorsed a tweet that wondered why Vinyl Me, Please would be the ones to reveal a new Adele or Grande project: “Plus why tf would a vinyl company be the ones to announce an artist of Adele’s size instead of Adele herself it just doesn’t make sense.”

All in all, cheers to Baker and Vinyl Me, Please for handling the situation well, and here’s to the disappointed Grande and Adele fans who decide to give Baker a listen today and discover that she’s great.

After launching just a little over six months ago, Quibi is reportedly facing a shut down after failing to find a buyer for the struggling startup. The app often made headlines for reeling in top stars for its “bite-size content” offerings, but even with a pandemic ramping up consumers’ demand for more streaming entertainment, Quibi notably failed to connect with audiences. As for the subscribers that it did manage to attract, 90% of them left once their free trial was up. The situation grew more dire as talks of a “strategic sale” emerged, and now, the fledgling streaming service is looking at having its own cord cut.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Quibi hired a restructuring firm to navigate its financial troubles, and one of the options presented was to cut its losses and power down the app, which appears to be the only option left. The proposal arrived after founder Jeffrey Katzenberg was unable to secure a buyer for Quibi, and not without a lack of trying. Katzenberg reportedly shopped the app to Apple, WarnerMedia, Facebook, and NBCUniversal who all passed on the offer and were “put off by the fact that Quibi doesn’t own many of the shows it puts on its platform.”

The shutdown news arrives after Quibi landed a surprising amount of Emmy nominations that seemed to boost the platform’s prospects for the future, if only for the moment. Despite the Emmy recognition, the platform continued to face scrutiny for handing out large paydays to celebrities for literally minutes of work while continuing to layoff employees. It was not a good look on top of Quibi’s documented struggle to entice and retain a scalable user base.

(Via Wall Street Journal, Variety)

Travis Scott’s massive Fortnite performance broke the record for most concurrently playing gamers — 12.3 million to be exact — and now the game’s developers Epic Games are inviting another superstar to their virtual stage. Fortnite announced that J Balvin will be joining the game for his own concert on Halloween night.

The special performance will happen in Party Royale, meaning you can put on your favorite skin and dance along to Balvin’s music with other players. In celebration of the show, Fortnite will be making Balvin’s exclusive Party Trooper outfit available for players who want to arrive in style. But the outfit won’t be the only special edition of the night. According to Complex, the singer will also debut a new single during the set titled “La Luz.”

In a statement about the event, Balvin said: “I am always looking for innovative ways to connect with fans that have been so incredibly supportive of my career and music, as well as gain exposure to future fans. Partnering with Fortnite is an out of this world way to perform a concert in 2020.”

Echoing the singer’s statement, Epic Games’ Nate Nanzer said: “This show is going to be incredibly special, and nothing like our players have seen so far. J Balvin was the perfect partner to work with to create an unforgettable show as his music appeal is boundless. We are honored to work with him and bring his music to fans worldwide.”

J Balvin’s Fortnite performance kicks of 10/31 at 9 p.m. EDT.

The English language is constantly evolving, and the faster the world changes, the faster our vocabulary changes. Some of us grew up in an age when a “wireless router” would have been assumed to be a power tool, not a way to get your laptop (which wasn’t a thing when I was a kid) connected to the internet (which also wasn’t a thing when I was a kid, at least not in people’s homes).

It’s interesting to step back and look at how much has changed just in our own lifetimes, which is why Merriam-Webster’s Time Traveler tool is so fun to play with. All you do is choose a year, and it tells you what words first appeared in print that year.

For my birth year, the words “adult-onset diabetes,” “playdate,” and “ATM” showed up in print for the first time, and yes, that makes me feel ridiculously old.

It’s also fun to plug in the years of different people’s births to see how their generational differences might impact their perspectives. For example, let’s take the birth years of the oldest and youngest members of Congress:

Senator Dianne Feinstein was born in 1933, the year in which “antihistamine,” “jet engine,” and “goose bumps” first appeared in print.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in 1989, the year that saw “cybersecurity,” “eco-friendly,” and “intersectionality” printed for the first time.

It’s almost like a time capsule, isn’t it? So indicative of how much changes just in one lifetime.

Like any dive into the dictionary, Time Traveler can also help you expand your vocabulary. I found some words I’ve never seen before that have apparently been around for more than four decades when I searched my birth year. Some seem like they might come in handy, like “phallocratic,” which means “relating to, resulting from, or advocating masculine power and dominance.” (Could be a useful alternative to “patriarchal.”) Others I’ll likely never use, such as “becquerel,” which is “a unit of radioactivity of a given sample of material equal to one atomic decay per second.” Cool, but pretty useless in my non-scientific life as a writer.

It was even fun to see what words came about during my kids’ short lives. My youngest is 11, and words that came into print in his birth year include “crowdfund,” “mansplain,” and “photobomb.” Seriously, it really is like a time capsule that offers a snapshot of life and culture in any given year.

Merriam-Webster gives this note about what it means for words to be used in print for the first time (which doesn’t meant the first time they were ever used):

“The date most often does not mark the very first time that the word was used in English. Many words were in spoken use for decades or even longer before they passed into the written language. The date is for the earliest written or printed use that the editors have been able to discover.

The date is subject to change. Many of the dates provided will undoubtedly be updated as evidence of still earlier use emerges.”

Language is a fascinating thing, ever-changing and ever-evolving. Thanks, Merriam-Webster, for providing a simple way to see that truth play out over time.

You can try out the Merriam-Webster Time Traveler here.