Month: May 2022

A pair of AL East rivals squared off on Saturday night as the Boston Red Sox traveled to Baltimore to take on the Orioles. Despite the Sox getting a sterling start from Nathan Eovaldi, they were unable to beat the worst team in the divison, and Baltimore was able to come out on top, 2-1, in extra innings.

Hirokazu Sawamura was on the bump for Boston in the bottom of the 10th inning, while the Orioles put Jorge Mateo in the game as the team’s ghost runner on second. After an intentional walk to Ryan McKenna, veteran catcher Robinson Chirinos stepped to the plate and planned to bunt to advance the runners.

While he put the ball in play, Sawamura was able to pounce on it and throw over to third base. The issue was he airmailed Rafael Devers, sending the ball into left field and letting Mateo jog towards home.

The win marked Baltimore’s first against an AL East rival that wasn’t the Yankees this season, and meant that Sunday afternoon’s game between themselves and the Red Sox will be a rubber match to determine who wins this three-game series. Our hunch is it won’t end on a walk-off bunt with an error, but hey, you can’t predict baseball.

Trevor Noah was the first comedian to attend the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in four years. The last one was Michelle Wolf, whose set was so infamous — at least amongst Republicans, her chief target — that the next year they brought in a historian. (Donald Trump, one of the thinnest-skinned people on the planet, never attended the ceremony, at least during his lone term.) Noah, of course, roasted everyone. But he used the climax of his set to get a little serious.

“The media is in a tough position,” Noah said. “Informing the public is harder than ever before. You’re battling conspiracy theories: that the election was stolen by George Soros, that JFK Jr. is still alive, that everyone in this room is a secret pedophile. And that’s just what Clarence Thomas’ wife believes.”

Noah called what we’re living through right now “the golden age of conspiracy theories, whether it’s the right wing believing Trump can still win the 2020 election, or the left believing Biden can still win the 2024 election.” (Biden gave a laugh-and-clap to that one.)

Noah then turned serious. “Now as we sit in this room, people, I hope you all remember what the real purpose of this evening is,” he said. “Yes, it’s fun. Yes, we dress nice. Yes, the people eat, we drink, we have fun. But the reason we’re here is to honor and celebrate the fourth estate, and what you stand for. What you stand for: an additional check and balance that holds power to account and gives voice to those who otherwise wouldn’t have one.”

He continued:

“Every single one of your is a bastion of democracy. And if you ever begin to doubt your responsibilities, if you ever begin to doubt how meaningful it is, look no further than what’s happening in Ukraine. Look at what’s happening there. Journalists are risking and even losing their lives to show the world what is happening. You realize how amazing it is? In America, you have the right to seek the truth and speak the truth, even if it makes people in power uncomfortable. Even if it makes viewers or readers uncomfortable. You understand how amazing that is?”

He then pointed out that not even Biden escaped his roasting. “I stood here tonight and I made fun of the president of the United States, and I’m going to be fine.” He then addressed Biden directly: “I am going be fine, right?”

Noah called the freedom of the press a “blessing,” saying, “Ask yourself this question: If Russian journalists, who are losing their livelihood and their freedom for reporting on what their own government is doing, if they had the freedom to write any words, to show any stories, or to ask any question, if they had basically what you have, would they be using it in the same way that you do? Ask yourself that question every day. Because you have one of the most important roles in the world.”

You can watch Noah’s entire set in the video above. His closing remarks come around the 22:30 mark.

Pusha T is riding high off the release of his fourth solo album It’s Almost Dry. It’s a project that arrived with 12 songs and guest appearances from Jay-Z, Pharrell, Nigo, Lil Uzi Vert, Don Toliver, Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Labrinth, Malice, and Clipse. It’s been projected that It’s Almost Dry will debut at No. 1 to become Pusha’s first chart-topping solo album, but we’ll have to wait for an official announcement to see if that is the case. Nonetheless, the arrival of It’s Almost Dry has also caused Pusha to be a bit more open with the public through various interviews.

Over the past couple of months, Pusha has discussed Kanye and Cudi’s beef, his own rift with Drake, and more, but in a recent sit-down, Pusha had to clear up rumors regarding him and another rapper. Many believed that Pusha and Eminem were not on good terms, but according to the former, that couldn’t be further from the case. “I saw just recently on Twitter people saying myself and Eminem,” he said during an interview on The Morning Hustle. “I’m like, bro! It was a misinterpretation of something I don’t even remember. Something I said or whatever. But you know, people decode, and they have their own thing — and I was like, ‘Nah, man!’”

He continued, “Em is somebody that I respect. He’s one of them people that I really like what he does because, after all of his success, I can still find Lyricist Lounge Eminem. That’s a goal for me, personally.”

Pusha’s comments come after he released a sinister video for “Call My Bluff.”

You can check out The Morning Hustle interview above.

It’s Almost Dry is out now via GOOD Music and Def Jam. You can stream it here.

Lil Uzi Vert is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Ever since the pandemic began, Fox News has done a terrible job of protecting their viewers. They’ve let hosts speak ill of masks and vaccines — all while requiring their on-site employees get vaxxed, so at least they will be protected. So at the first White House Correspondents’ Dinner in three years — and the first with a comedian in four — someone got in a dig at the network’s hypocrisy. And that someone was President Joe Biden.

While resident comic Trevor Noah roasted plenty of individuals, Biden included, it was the president who took aim at an entire news network. Noting that COVID-19 is still a threat — his vice president, Kamala Harris, tested positive last week — Biden managed to combine a joke with a convincing pitch for getting vaxxed.

“I know there are questions about whether we should gather here tonight because of COVID,” Biden told the crowd. “Well, we’re here to show the country that we’re getting through this pandemic. Plus, everyone had to prove they were fully vaccinated and boosted. So if you’re at home watching this and you wonder how to do that, just contact your favorite Fox News reporter. They’re all here, vaccinated and boosted, all of them.”

Amongst the crowd reactions shots was one of Fox News’ Peter Doocy, not looking pleased to be outed.

There was one Fox News presence who was not visible at the event: Tucker Carlson. Probably because he at least claims to not be vaccinated against a highly transmissible virus that can lead to long-term health issues even amongst people who downplay Jan. 6.

It was four long years ago that the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner featured a comedian, partly thanks to a certain president who can’t take a joke, partly thanks to a public health crisis said commander-in-chief did a terrible job of containing. But now that Joe Biden is president — and now that indoor group gatherings are slightly, if not entirely, safer — the roasting was back. Trevor Noah nabbed the gig last held semi-infamously by Michelle Wolf in 2018, and he did not hold back — and yet he didn’t incur the wrath of the room, as Wolf once did.

The Daily Show host opened by addressing the elephant in the room: COVID-19. Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris tested positive for the virus, and yet here was a room packed with politicians, journalists, and entertainers, unmasked and brushing up against each other. Noah cracked that it was a “great honor to be speaking at the nation’s most distinguished superspreader event.

“I expect this from Sean Hannity, but the rest of you, what are you doing?” Noah added. “You spent the last two years telling everyone the importance of wearing masks and avoiding large indoor gatherings. Then the second someone offers you a free dinner, you turn into Joe Rogan.” Noah joked that Dr. Anthony Fauci “thought it was too dangerous” to attend while “Pete Davidson thinks it’s OK.”

There were jokes about Kyrsten Sinema (“openly bisexual but closeted Republican”).

Chuck Todd. (“How are you doing? I’d ask a follow-up, but I know you don’t know what those are.”)

Ron DeSantis. (“He won’t even tell people if he got the booster. Or as they say in Florida, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’”).

Jen Psaki punching bag Peter Doocy. (“I think people need to be held accountable if they’re using their dad’s name to get ahead in life. And I can’t think of anyone better to ask about that than Peter Doocy.)”

And Mitch McConnell (“Don’t you think it’s strange that you and the devil have never been seen in the same place at the same time?’)

There was even a joke about student debt, which the president could — but may not — forgive.

As his 25-minute set wound down, Noah ended not with a joke but with an impassioned defense of journalism. “In America, you have the right to seek the truth and speak the truth, even if it makes people in power uncomfortable,” Noah told the crowd. “Even if it makes viewers or readers uncomfortable. You understand how amazing that is? I stood here tonight and I made fun of the president of the United States and I’m going to be fine.” He then turned to Biden and asked, “I’m going to be fine, right?”

His final remark, though, took aim at the sitting president. “Please be careful leaving tonight,” Noah said. “We all know this administration doesn’t handle evacuations well.”

You can watch Noah’s full set in the video above.

(Via The Daily Beast)