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The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

ITEM NUMBER ONE — Hey look, a good show

My only real complaint about the show How to With John Wilson is that I’m not sure how to explain it in a way that will get across how good it is. I’m going to try, but bear with me. How to With John Wilson is a new HBO docuseries that premiered last week and featured its host banging around New York and making conversation with people to try to understand more about the human condition. Nope. That’s not good. Let me try again.

How to With John Wilson is a new HBO docuseries and comedy that uses massive amounts of footage shot in New York and a number of interviews with people on the street to try to get at what makes people tick and why they are the way they are and sometimes the episode claims to be about scaffolding but it’s actually about psychology and nope, this sentence is entirely too long. Strike two. Let’s give it one more crack.

How to With John Wilson is a good show. It uses what its host described to us in an interview as a “psychotic” amount of footage to get at what makes people, and a city, work, together. There are man-on-the-street interviews that reveal more in 30 seconds than some documentaries do in an hour. The episodes range from funny to sweet to heartfelt to kind of crushing, in a good way, sometimes all in one 30-minute block. It’s not entirely like anything I’ve ever seen on television. The closest I can get, I think, is to tell you that it’s kind of like Nathan for You, but less mean-spirited and more hopeful about humanity, which makes sense because Nathan Fielder is an executive producer on the show.

Yeah. That’s as close as I’m going to get, I think. Let’s turn it over to John himself, from the interview he did with our Jason Tabrys earlier in the week.

Just hearing someone being able to speak in their own words and give them time to… you give the microphone to people who usually don’t get it. I want to see what makes these people happy or sad or what they think about all of these complicated issues. We pretend to be all black and white about stuff, but we all live in this gray area, and a lot of times people don’t know why they feel a certain type of way about something. I feel like I can relate to that a lot and that’s why I just like having discussions with people and showing them… I don’t know, I also feel like it’s anthropology in a way and just documenting a specific time and place. A lot of my favorite documentaries are people just talking about their love lives or their obsessions or stuff like that.

That’s better. I probably should have just started with that. I think you’re getting the idea now. Each episode claims to be about one thing — the premiere was “How to Make Small Talk”; future episodes include “How to Put Up Scaffolding” and the stunning finale “How to Make the Perfect Risotto” — but twists and turns to get at something much deeper. It’s a wild ride that works even when it probably shouldn’t. Most of that is its creator, John Wilson, who narrates and films almost everything and is perfectly happy to follow a loose thread wherever it takes him. Sometimes it takes him to Spring Break in Cancun. Sometimes it takes him to a half-constructed hotel. Sometimes it takes him into the New York subway for a 14-second single shot of Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan trying and failing to swipe his MetroCard.

I would discuss this particular shot at great length — great, great length — but there’s no reason to, seeing as Vulture’s Kathryn VanArendonk already did it so well.

When I watched this perfect gem, these 14 incandescently funny seconds, I ached to know more. Did MacLachlan realize he was being filmed? It sure doesn’t seem that way. How did he resolve his MetroCard problem? Did HBO have to clear this with him? Does he know he’s appearing in this series? Has he watched it? Does he love it? (I really hope he loves it.)

The short version of everything I’ve tried to say goes something like this: How to With John Wilson is a fascinating experiment that required a Herculean effort and a dedication to a very specific craft and the fact that it works at all, let alone well, is a borderline miracle. It is sui generis, one of a kind, in a time where that’s becoming more rare. I’m not sure how they did it. I’m still not sure I’ve explained it well, or even accurately. I am glad it exists, though. It’s a special little thing.

ITEM NUMBER TWO — You can’t fool me

This is a commercial for LinkedIn. It is fine. It does the thing most commercials do In These Uncertain Times, with the people in masks, and the assurances that their company and/or service can be useful in new and/or different ways, and the… and the… and…

Hang on.

Wait.

Is that…

THAT’S THE TRUE ROMANCE MUSIC.

It is. I checked and everything, even though I did not have to. I have seen True Romance enough times to know the dinky bonk sounds of Hans Zimmer’s “You’re So Cool” the instant I hear them. It’s not an unrecognizable song. It stands out. It stands out in True Romance, a movie about a man who falls in love with a prostitute and kills her pimp and runs off with a suitcase full of cocaine. It’s a strange fit in that context the first time you hear it, but eventually, it becomes identifiable with the film to the degree that it becomes a very strange fit for a commercial about, like, networking to advance your career.

I won’t lie to you. I pointed at my television and shouted the first time I saw this. I interrupted the conversation I was in and yelled “THAT’S THE TRUE ROMANCE MUSIC” at my screen like I was going to win a prize for identifying it. I have done the same thing every time since. I caught myself muttering it under my breath to an empty room. It’s been a weird few months for all of us.

Anyway, here’s the proof.

And here’s the text of Alabama Worley’s closing monologue, which I really do think someone should lay over top of the footage from the LinkedIn commercial, just to see how weird or funny it is.

Amid the chaos of that day, when all I could hear was the thunder of gunshots, and all I could smell was the violence in the air, I look back and am amazed that my thoughts were so clear and true, that three words went through my mind endlessly, repeating themselves like a broken record: you’re so cool, you’re so cool, you’re so cool. And sometimes Clarence asks me what I would have done if he had died, if that bullet had been two inches more to the left. To this, I always smile, as if I’m not going to satisfy him with a response. But I always do. I tell him of how I would want to die, but that the anguish and the want of death would fade like the stars at dawn, and that things would be much as they are now. Perhaps. Except maybe I wouldn’t have named our son Elvis.

Three notes in closing:

• You are a fool if you thought you were going to sneak this past me, LinkedIn
• I am going to watch True Romance again this weekend
• Christopher Walken’s line reading of “They snatched my narcotics” in that movie will live inside my head until I expire and possibly beyond

True Romance. Good movie. Brad Pitt is a delight.

ITEM NUMBER THREE — I’m not entirely sure that I’ll watch this show but I am very happy it exists

There are very few jobs I want in this world more than “judge on a daytime television show.” It seems very easy and lucrative. Judge Judy films like 50 days a year and makes $50 million. That’s a cool million per day of work, just to boss people around and call them bozos. I could do that. I could do it for way less. It is infuriating that I am not a television judge yet. I even, for real, not joking, have a law degree. It’s sitting 10 feet away in a box I haven’t opened in three years. I’m qualified. Come on.

I say all of this in part to get it on the record and in part because Ice-T has a judge show now. Kind of. He has a mediator show. Called The Mediator. Here, look.

Each side will plead their argument, providing the evidence, facts and details of the case to Ice-T, who will then call upon various well-known and knowledgeable experts to share their perspective and advice. As an unbiased and respected third party, Ice-T will offer his best recommendation for how the complainants should proceed. If they accept his suggestion, the case will be settled. If they choose not to accept, the case will move to court.

This is all cool and interesting and it’s a little funny that Ice-T of all people has now played both a cop and a judge on television, but the real story is the quotes Deadline ran to accompany this announcement.

“Finding a resolution between two hostile sides means finding someone levelheaded that not only has respect but can also analyze complex issues in different ways,” said Ice-T. “I think my opinions are rooted in facts and fairness so I know I can help these people.”

Well said, Ice-T. But I think what would really drive this home is a borderline insane set of analogies from a well-meaning producer who has no fear at all of deploying hyperbole on the record.

“Ice-T has the credibility of an OG, the wisdom of Yoda, and the sense of humor of a standup comic. Never has a voice like his been needed more in the marketplace,” Krasnow added.

Again, I don’t know that I’ll ever watch this show. I might check it out once out of curiosity. Either way, I’m mostly just glad it exists. Good for Ice-T.

ITEM NUMBER FOUR — “To be fair…”

I don’t have much to say about this video. I don’t know that I need to say much. It is Desus & Mero — who are consistently great — doing a parody of John Oliver’s show, as a bit, in reference to Oliver and his crew always winning the Emmy in their category. It is very good and very funny and it nails a lot of the little gestures and phrasing that Oliver uses on his show, probably without even realizing. The accents are… less on point. Which makes it even funnier. And the wigs. Wigs help, too.

It’s a good bit. I support all of it.

ITEM NUMBER FIVE — Paul Rudd rules

I voted by mail last week. It was easy and straightforward and important, in general, obviously, but also specifically, because I live in Pennsylvania, one of the only states that matter this year, thanks to the relentlessly stupid Electoral College. I did miss voting in person, though. There’s a ceremony to it all that I really enjoy. I love pressing the buttons. I wish I got to pull a big lever that made a loud KA-CHUNK sound when I locked in my decision. That would be satisfying.

Another reason I like voting in person: snacks. There are these sweet ladies who work at my assigned polling location and the last few elections they’ve handed out donuts to people who voted. And that’s cool. At least I considered it cool until I heard that ageless wonder Paul Rudd was handing out cookies to rain-soaked voters waiting in line outside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

And lest you think those pictures are just some hokey celebrity photo opp, here’s video of him doing it.

What a king. What a sweet man. Do you think he baked the cookies himself? I bet he did. I have no reason to believe it, nor is it very likely, but I still believe it anyway. Ugh. Paul Rudd might legitimately be the most likable human being on the planet. It almost makes me angry how likable he is, but even then, I can’t stay angry at Paul Rudd. No, I love everything about this. Almost everything. It does put a damper on my excitement about the sweet ladies with the donuts, though, because none of them have ever been Ant-Man. I mean, to my knowledge. I only see them every two to four years. I don’t know what they’re up to the rest of the time. One of them could be Ant-Man.

Although, I will say this: Donuts are a better snack than cookies. So the sweet ladies have that going for them, even if none of them — again, I’m assuming — own a powerful suit that allows them to adjust their size to sneak into and out of places in the name of fighting crime. So I guess, taken as a whole, I still have to give the edge to the sweet ladies who may or may not be Ant-Man. Unless Paul Rudd shows up on Election Day with bear claws. Which he might. That would tip the scales back in his favor.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

READER MAIL

If you have questions about television, movies, food, local news, weather, or whatever you want, shoot them to me on Twitter or at [email protected] (put “RUNDOWN” in the subject line). I am the first writer to ever answer reader mail in a column. Do not look up this last part.

From Lee:

I saw this article about a girl going on the date of her dreams with Godzilla and started thinking about my ideal Godzilla date. I think we’d start in Pripyat, so he could smash buildings without an army hassling him and I could hoot and holler while he does it, wash the dust off with a nice float in the Dead Sea, and then watch volcanoes erupt in the Ring of Fire before dropping him off at Monster Island. What would your evening on the town with Godzilla look like?

Lee, this is a really great email. It has a link to a fun and true story (and yes, you should all go watch the sweet/weird video of the teenage girl going on her dream date with Godzilla), it has a thought-through answer of your own, and it tees me up nicely. I could not possibly ask for more.

To answer your question: I would take Godzilla to a drive-in movie where we would watch all three John Wick movies in order throughout the night, and every now and then I would lean over and whisper things like “Hey, please don’t eat me” or maybe “Hey, don’t rip the screen out of the ground and start destroying the cars.” It would get really annoying. Godzilla would be like “Ugh, I’m not going to do that. I’m on a date.” And then some jerk would start laying on his horn and hooting and hollering at the screen and I’d lean over and say “You know what? Maybe you should eat that guy and heave his car into the ravine, just so we can enjoy the movie,” and Godzilla would be all “Actually, that’s more of a work thing for me. I’m just trying to enjoy the movie.” And then I’d get kind of huffy about it. And Godzilla would sense it and get irritated, too. We’d probably leave between the second and third movies and say we should try it again sometime, but we never will.

We’ll still see each other around sometimes at parties thrown by mutual acquaintances. It will be awkward.

AND NOW, THE NEWS

To Laguna Beach!

A dispute between bond king Bill Gross and his next-door neighbor over a $1-million outdoor sculpture has devolved into police calls to their Laguna Beach mansions, multiple legal actions — and allegations that the billionaire investor blared the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song on a loop at all hours to annoy his neighbor.

I’ll tell you what: I love a story about wealthy neighbors feuding over the dumbest stuff in the world. It’s petty of me and it’s probably not the slice of my personality that I’m proudest of, but I don’t care. I love it. There’s something relaxing about it, in a weird way, just knowing that people can reach the pinnacle of their profession and be considered a success by their peers and have every possible advantage in life right there at their fingertips and still be hopelessly miserable in a deep, ugly way. This isn’t even my favorite example of it. My favorite example is from this exhaustively reported longread in Vanity Fair that I read five years ago and still think about constantly.

But this one is close. You should definitely read the whole thing to grasp just how stupid and childish it all is, but start here.

The neighbor’s lawsuit accuses the billionaire and his partner of playing blaring music at all hours, including the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song, rap and pop, in an effort to force him to drop the complaint. The couple say they have had to take refuge twice either with relatives or in a hotel room. In an application for a temporary restraining order filed Oct. 15, which was granted, Towfiq cites a text message allegedly sent to him by Gross after he asked the music to be turned down: “Peace on all fronts or well [sic] just have nightly concerts big boy.”

They’re cluttering up the courts with an argument over a big stupid statue that is or is not blocking a view and they are taunting each other with text messages and beloved television theme songs. Imagine having a billion dollars and behaving this way. You could just sell your house and move, or go on a three-month vacation. You could buy an island and stay there and never have another neighbor. You could hash it out over a barbecue and a handshake like civilized human beings and go back to enjoying your otherwise picturesque lives.

But, bless them, they did not.

Towfiq and his wife allege in their lawsuit that the harassment escalated to the point this month that loud music was played even when Gross and Schwartz were not home, “apparently controlling their sound system remotely.”

Money can buy you a lot of things. It can buy you peace of mind. It can buy you a big beachfront mansion in Laguna Beach. It can buy you a giant sculpture that drives your neighbors insane. But it can’t buy you the joy I feel in reading about you wasting hours — days, weeks, months! — of your life on a massively stupid argument with your neighbor. No price on that one, baby.

This week’s episode of Indiecast kicks off with a reader question asking for Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen’s thoughts on the artists of the 2000s and 2010s that were hugely influential to the new crop of indie musicians coming out today. Each “scene” has its own central name, but Cohen is quick to assign roles of leadership to artists like Mac DeMarco, Frankie Cosmos, Alex G, and Title Fight. Hyden also adds to the stack artists like Tame Impala and The War On Drugs, who influenced a whole other sect of emerging indie artists with their psychedelic tendencies.

The meat of the episode is dedicated to diving into new albums from Oneohtrix Point Never and Salem. In the case of Magic Oneohtrix Point Never, Hyden wonders whether this will be the record that breaks Daniel Lopatin into the pop mainstream, with a track featuring none other than The Weeknd. On the other hand, Hyden and Cohen are unsure what to think of Fires In Heaven, the new album from Michigan duo Salem, who The Washington Post called “the stupidest band on Earth” in 2011.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is digging No Driver, the new album from Swedish band I Love Your Lifestyle, while Hyden is tiding himself over until the return of live music with new live albums from The War On Drugs and Arctic Monkeys.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 14 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.

If President Trump loses next week’s election, do you think that Civilian Donald Trump will continue to unleash ALL-CAPS rants from 3:00-8:00 am? Probably, but Trump’s doing anything possible to make sure he’s got four more years, and that includes the appearance of unduly influencing another branch of government by threatening the Supreme Court in a few ways. That includes attempting to frighten them with the notion that Joe Biden wants to render the nine current justices ineffective through “a heavily PACKED” and “REVOLVING COURT.” Never mind that Biden is actually leery of adding justices because Trump simply wants to win, so he’s being spooky.

“If Sleepy Joe Biden is actually elected President, the 4 Justices (plus1) that helped make such a ridiculous win possible would be relegated to sitting on not only a heavily PACKED COURT, but probably a REVOLVING COURT as well,” Trump tweeted. “At least the many new Justices will be Radical Left!”

Well, it is almost Halloween, so spooky fits. Trump’s clearly spooked on his end over how current presidential polling is trending, and he’s preemptive blaming the Supreme Court for a potential Biden win in these ways: (1) In the case of a razor-thin margin, the court might have to step in, which would make the newly installed Amy Coney Barrett very valuable to Trump; (2) The president is steamed over recent mail-in ballot rulings, and he’s convinced that these ballots will help “rig” the election against him.

He wasn’t done yet. Trump — while diving in and out of other topics this morning on Twitter — also fired off a “Biden will destroy the United States Supreme Court. Don’t let this happen!” Then came a strange cheerleading-esque tweet that simply read, “SUPREME COURT!”

November 3 is almost here, but there’s a decent chance that we might have a hanging-chad-esque situation on our hands, and the election might actually not be “decided” on Tuesday night.

It’s that time again: Recording artists from across the music world are beginning to post their costumes for Halloween. Despite the ongoing pandemic and decided lack of places to show of their effort, stars are upholding the tradition as best they can with the help of their glam teams and social media. However, they may all want to pack it in after seeing Bay Area rapper Saweetie‘s impressive triple costume, which she posted to Instagram last night.

Saweetie is a huge fan of Beyonce and Destiny’s Child — see almost any of her 2000s-era-inspired music videos for evidence — and put her fandom on display with a costume inspired by the cover artwork and music video for the girl group’s 2001 mega-hit “Bootylicious.” Not only did she perfectly recreate the cover right down to the wardrobe and hair, but she also remade the music video with the help of some fancy editing to portray all three members.

Although Saweetie’s been quiet on the musical front in 2020, only releasing a handful of singles throughout the year, those singles have been absolute chart monsters, gobbling up streams and taking over the public consciousness. A remix for her 2019 hit “Tap In” featured the hugely successful DaBaby, breakout artist Jack Harlow, and Hot 100 mainstay Post Malone, while her “Pretty Bitch Freestyle” rebutted years of criticism about her flow. Her latest single, the R&B-sampling “Back To The Streets,” had fans begging her to release it for months ahead of time. With her debut album right around the corner and her Icy Life and Icy University shows running up numbers on social media, Spotify, and YouTube, it’s only a matter of time before she’s as recognizable as her idols.

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

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion have already taken fans behind the scenes of their “WAP” video in a clip from last month, but now there’s a new video that unveils more trivia about the production. For example, Cardi originally wanted Meg to have a spider on her head, as if being surrounded by snakes wasn’t skin-crawling enough.

This fact comes via a new “Vevo Footnotes” version of the “WAP” visual, which quotes Cardi as saying, “I really like my solo, I like both the solos because I just really thought and I knew that it was gonna be so fire. A room completely covered with cheetah. A room covered with like, tigers. I originally wanted Megan to have a spider on her head, I don’t know why, I just thought it was gonna be so beautiful.”

Director Collin Tilley also noted some of his visual inspirations for the video, saying, “I’m a big Tim Burton fan, I would say I’m always inspired by childhood books, Dr. Suess, etc.”

The clip offers some other neat tidbits beyond those, so watch the “Vevo Footnotes” video of “WAP” above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

When beloved Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died at age 87 in September, a sizeable chunk of the United States uttered an F-bomb upon hearing the news. The liberal firebrand shall remain irreplaceable, even though the Senate inserted a Trump nominee into her spot on the court this week. Quite simply, RBG was a legend, and even in the face of an increasingly conservative court, her searing dissents will stand for all of posterity. Her decades of work — on issues including gender and abortion rights, same-sex marriage, Second Amendment, healthcare, and immigration — will never be forgotten. As the chaos of 2020 continues to swirl, Comedy Central decided to give RBG a proper sendoff on Friday, October 30 at 11:00pm EST with a special that’s entitled, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents: Remembering RBG – A Nation Ugly Cries with Desi Lydic.

Desi, of course, has been a The Daily Show staple since Trevor Noah began his post-Jon Stewart tenure in 2015. This shall be her second special for the news satire program (the first one being 2019’s “Abroad”), and as with everything in 2020, things are very different. Desi’s been bringing us the quarantine humor for most of the year, and she was gracious enough to hop into a Zoom call with us to discuss RBG’s legacy and how the special will unfold with both serious and humor-filled notes aplenty.

I was just watching the Elizabeth Warren clip from this special. Since you were scrambling to put on makeup, I figured I’d put some on for you.

Let me tell you, I went to the effort to put on a blazer but did not blow dry my hair today, so it’s all a balance.

It’s very beachy, so I’m digging it.

Oh thank you, it’s so lazy.

You’re working at home these days, of course. What’s the biggest adjustment that you’ve had to deal with?

You know, I have so much respect for our crew, for our camera operators and our directors, and audio. I always thought I had respect for people doing our jobs at our show, but this has really blown my mind, how difficult every step of the process is. For the special, we shot everything at home. We did not go out. We had an incredible director, Stacey Angeles, who works at the show as well, but my husband was camera-operating everything, so we were, like, rigging the iPhone to my son’s scooter and pulling back for dolly shots.

I bet that changes the whole at-home dynamic.

It’s a full-on family affair at this point.

With this year being such a total nightmare, how do you wrap your mind around such serious subjects and stay, you know, funny?

[Laughs]

That’s a real question, Desi!

It’s still to be determined! TBD from the audience after they see this special. For me, working through this period of time in history with like-minded people at the show, who all happen to be very funny people, is very cathartic. It’s the only way that I know how to deal with pain and any sort of difficulty. I also think comedy can be a great unifier. I come from a family that has different political beliefs… and we can laugh together. It’s the one thing that can be a conversation starter, and we hope that by laughing through these times, there’s some sort of cathartic conversation that comes out of it.

Speaking of cathartic, this special’s cold open included your “reaction” to RBG’s death, and it was the same reaction I had.

Oh good!

It’s exactly what a lot of people I know did, too.

Well, I mean, it’s not good, but we’re in this together.

Then the Senate went ahead and “replaced” RGG this week. Did that alter your plans for this special?

I think we were pretty realistic about what the outcome was going to be. We thought that we might have to reshoot a few things, but we sort-of prepared for the outcome that ultimately came to fruition. That’s part of why we wanted to make this — after the news of learning about Justice Ginsburg’s death, there was just this collective feeling, and particularly from women, who I spoke to, it was just this, “Oh [throws hands up].” That word that I probably shouldn’t say, which we bleep out on Comedy Central. I felt like the GOP was pushing this through so quickly with this confirmation that there wasn’t really a chance to take a minute and take a step back and appreciate her legacy and talk about some of her greatest achievements and process the grief and the emotional roller coaster that many of us are on right now and figure out the “what is next?”

What kind of tone does the special strike while paying tribute?

We go on a journey of processing the five stages of grief and everything that is ridiculous and funny about that. And then I sit down with some legal experts, and we sit down with Elizabeth Warren to discuss the possibility of court expansion, how that can potentially be an option, and what’s difficult about getting something like that through? What the Democratic Party might be able to do, going forward, about RBG’s legacy, and not just to protect it but build onto that and what’s next. We were fortunate to speak with a lot of incredible women who can lay the groundwork on where to go next. In addition to getting some really nice interviews from people who knew Justice Ginsburg personally with anecdotes and stories that I hadn’t really heard before. Nina Totenburg told a story about a theater outing with Justice Ginsburg that was very funny.

The word “legacy” is overarching, and it includes her dynamics within the court. I can’t help but think of how RBG was such a liberal firebrand, but she didn’t let that stand in the way of being great friends with arch-conservative Justice Scalia. But then they could argue at work! What’s your fondest memory of her?

You know, so much. I think so much of her work, early on, before she was on the Supreme Court, was dedicated to fighting legal discrimination all over the country and pregnancy discrimination. The Daily Show hired me when I was six months pregnant so that one really hit me, I can’t help it. That is baked into the sensibility of The Daily Show without even blinking.

That’s seriously incredible. You gotta conclude that RBG paved the way.

Her work, so many years ago, with changing people’s perspectives about how women can have careers. It doesn’t have to be the man as the breadwinner and the woman as the homemaker. She really challenged those gender roles and those stereotypes that had a huge impact on so many of our lives. In the middle of shooting this special, for the last three weeks, my work, this job, has taken over our entire apartment and my entire family and my husband, without blinking an eye is keeping my dinner warm and fully raising our son for three weeks without my help at all. So, I just think about all that work she did early on to shift the American perspective for that to be something that, now, you might not think about twice.

Her work ethic was unparalleled, and Trevor Noah singled that out on-air. She even scheduled her chemo to miss as little time as possible.

Yeah, we discuss how much she was able to accomplish in her years. That’s one of the most incredible things that I remember processing after I watched in this really great RBG documentary. They spent a lot of time talking about that, including her struggles early on with taking care of her husband and raising her child.

Her husband suffered from cancer while she was in school. Damn.

And she helped him with his schoolwork while she was getting a law degree at the top of her class. It’s really incredible, I can’t even imagine how hard that was for her.

Imani Gandy, who has always gone by the @AngryBlackLady handle on Twitter, is one of your legal experts. I love her. What does she bring to the table?

Imani, yeah! She’s great. I wish Imani’s interview could have been so much longer than we had time for in the show. She spoke on so many issues. We talked about what’s at stake, like reproductive rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights, climate change, and all of these things that are on the line right now. And Imani’s fantastic because she’s so dynamic, and as a legal expert and a woman with a really dynamic personality, she really makes it very understandable for myself and her audience.

Everyone, of course, thought of Roe v. Wade being in jeopardy when RBG died. What did your experts think of the likelihood of that decision being dismantled?

We do get into that a little bit, yes. There’s some concern, and a lot of concern on a state-by-state basis. It really only affects the states between New York and California, so just a few!

I immediately thought of Texas, which will do anything to shut down pro-choicers.

Yes, Imani speaks to that a lot about being concerned for what could come next there.

You also dive into the same-sex marriage issue and possible court fallout.

We do. We talk about that potentially being on the line, and we also spoke to a very lovely couple that RBG married. She officiated their wedding, so also hearing their story of their interaction with her and what she meant to their lives was really nice. Seeing that up against, “Oh, this is on the line now?” That really hits home, the reality of what we could be dealing with.

Before we go, I’m curious about what your experts thought about court expansion. Do they think that’s a reasonable possibility?

That depends on who you ask. We talked to Kate Kendall, who is part of Take Back The Court, and Imani Gandy had her take as well. They both are somewhat optimistic that it could potentially be a possibility and that it’s a real solution to a lot of the problems. We talk about whether it’s stooping to their level, and if it’s a reasonable thing to ask for. And we come to the resolution that it is a reasonable thing to ask for, according to Kate and Imani, and it would be difficult to pull off. And we don’t know if it’s going to be a possibility, and if it is, there might be a long wait for something like that to happen. It’s challenging, and Imani talks about how the Democratic Party is going to have to, as she would put it, “Blow sh*t up.”

That sounds about right from Imani.

Her words, not mine! But yes, “Blow sh*t up” and get in the fight.

‘The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Presents: Remembering RBG – A Nation Ugly Cries with Desi Lydic’ premieres on Friday, October 30th at 11pm EST.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) thinks of himself as one of President Trump’s closest political allies. He said so earlier this week at a rally in Greenville, South Carolina, telling a crowd, “We got off to a rocky start. He beat me pretty badly,” but now, “we’ve got something in common: I like him and he likes me.” That’s debatable, as Trump is notorious for holding grudges and Graham said some damning things about him in 2016.

“Are you a citizen?”
“Am I a citizen? No, I’m not. I’m not, why?”
“Do you have a green card?”
“I do not.”
“If I were you, I’d be in a hurry. If Trump wins, your days are numbered, pal. Young black liberal guy from Africa is not going to work with him.”

That’s an exchange between Graham and host Trevor Noah on The Daily Show in the months before Trump was elected president. The senator also compared Trump to “being shot in the head” and called the Republican party “completely screwed up.” Four years later, he’s spinelessly begging for money on Fox News, while his Democrat opponent Jaime Harrison is breaking fundraising records, and sucking up to Trump. What happened? That’s what The Daily Show wants to know — on Thursday, the show’s Twitter account tweeted, “@LindseyGrahamSC is this one of the tapes we were supposed to play back for you?” It also re-uploaded the 2016 interview, as seen above.

“Use my words against me,” Graham once said. “OK” — Trevor Noah.

Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl cares deeply about schools and the educational system, party because his mother, Virginia Grohl, was a teacher. He has discussed education on multiple occasions and now he has done so again, this time with his mother and Jill Biden for a new Joe Biden campaign video.

Foo Fighters shared a four-minute clip of a video call between the three. Grohl begins the video, “I was raised by a school teacher, so I knew as a child how hard my mother worked, not just at the school, but within the community.” Biden responded, “The teachers are the rockstars,” to which Grohl replied, “I have always felt that way!”

Grohl’s mother also explained the issues she faced as a teacher, saying, “Nobody has listened for a long time. I mean, teacher salaries is one thing. I taught in northern Virginia, and [as] a single parent raising kids, I couldn’t afford to live there on my pay. So, I had to work two or three jobs all the time.”

Grohl responded with some praise for his mom and her drive, saying, “Every morning, I would wake up in our little house in Springfield, Virginia, and my mother was already ready to get us in the car and get us to school, knowing that she had a full day ahead of her with hundreds of children that relied on her to help them move forward in life. And every night after dinner, I would watch my mother at the desk in the living room working on the plan for the next day. And so I watched my mother make plans to help other people my entire life. I started looking back on that and thinking, ‘Well, who’s making the plan for the teachers?’”

Watch the video above.

BABY YODA.

Now that I have your attention, BABY YODA.

If you are a fan of The Mandalorian but have, somehow, only seen the first Star Wars movie, you could still probably recognize most of the references in the season two premiere. Much of “Chapter 9” (the second episode in the post-The Rise of Skywalker era) is centered around characters, creatures, and throwaway lines from A New Hope, including the Tusken Raiders, Jawas and their sandcrawler, the oft-mentioned womp rats (seriously, even whiny Luke only brought them up once), Tatooine’s two suns, the Krayt dragon (skeleton only), and Timothy Olyphant’s beautiful face. Oh wait. That one’s new to Star Wars, and very appreciated. It doesn’t make up for hiding Pedro Pascal under a helmet for 99 percent of season one, but it helps. Even though so much of “Chapter 9” is dependent on A New Hope, however, you have to look to The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and the prequels to recognize the face at the end of the episode.

The Empire Strikes Back introduced us to bounty hunter Boba Fett (let’s pretend the Special Edition and Holiday Special never happened, for many reasons), who helped capture Han Solo for Darth Vader; he reappeared in Return of the Jedi at Jabba the Hutt’s palace and sail barge, but fell into a sarlacc pit and died… Unless he didn’t.

We’ll get to that, but first, let’s rewind to decades before the original trilogy. In the prequels, we learn more (arguably too much!) about Boba, including that he’s a clone raised by Jango Fett, who served as the genetic template for the Republic’s clone army. Boba watched his “dad,” the “best bounty hunter in the galaxy,” get killed by Mace Windu, which is a more honorable way to go than rolling into a sandworm’s mouth.

I have always said this.

Put another way: dad Jango has clone son Boba; Jango die; Boba becomes bounty hunter; Boba dies (?). Got it? It’s long been part of the Extended Universe, er, Legends that Boba Fett survived his fall into the sarlaac pic, and his return was even foreshadowed during a season one episode, but now it’s canon: that’s Jango’s kid at the end of “Chapter 9,” watching Din Djarin and Baby Yoda speeding off into the sunsets. How can you tell it’s Boba? The closing credits. The guest stars include Olyphant (as Cobb Vanth, of Vanth Refrigeration, a character introduced in the book Aftermath), Amy Sedaris returning as Peli Motto, John Leguizamo as the one-eyed alien who betrays Mando, and Temura Morrison, the New Zealand actor who plays Jango and other clone troopers, including Commander Cody, in the prequels. This is the first time we’ve seen adult Boba without his armor (which the Jawas traded to Cobb for some crystals), but as he’s a clone, he would look exactly like his father. With more battle scars:

You probably wouldn’t look so hot after a tumble with the sarlacc and at least five years living as a hermit in the Dune Sea (not that Dune, this Dune), either.

Ariana Grande’s new album Positions dropped at midnight, and in the hours since, it has spawned multiple trending topics on Twitter. The song “My Hair” is among them and it’s due to the impressive vocal abilities Grande displays on the track. Towards the end of the song, there’s a section where Grande hits uncommonly high notes while singing in whistle register, which is the highest possible register of the human voice.

When fans heard this, they were pretty amazed and took to Twitter to share their reactions, which was a mix of shock at her abilities and jokes about her being out of breath after recording that part of the song.

As for the rest of the track, it’s about Grande opening up to a special someone and being vulnerable by letting them run their fingers through her hair, as she sings on the second verse, “It’s been way long overdue / Just like these inches down my back / Usually don’t let people touch it / But tonight, you’ll get a pass / Spend my dimes and spend my time / To keep it real, sometimes it’s tracks / But I don’t care.”

Listen to “My Hair” above and check out some more reactions below.

Positions is out now via Republic. Get it here.