Month: March 2023

Everyone has their favorite place to eat, and if you visit enough, you get to know the regular servers and sometimes even form a bit of a friendship with them. When 8-year-old Kayzen Hunter started going to a local Waffle House in Arkansas with his parents and sometimes grandpa, he became familiar with his server, Devonte Gardner. Actually, Gardner became Kayzen’s favorite server, giving him high fives and letting Kayzen tell him jokes.

The relationship between Gardner and Kayzen’s family continued to develop, which led to the little boy noticing Gardner was often dropped off for work because he didn’t have a car. Eventually, the Hunter family found out Gardner had a wife and two daughters who were living in a hotel because of issues in their previous home.

“We wanted to find something affordable, so we moved into a low-income area,” Gardner told Today.com “We just got tired of infestations with rats and roaches and all this black mold. My daughters were getting sick. No heat and things like that. When it was cold outside, we had to bundle up with like four or five blankets in order to stay warm.”

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Garner had been living in a hotel with his wife and two daughters, who are 2 and 3 years old, for the past eight months. I’m sure most people have spent a night or two in a hotel, and unless it’s a penthouse suite, the space is crowded with more than two people in a room. It serves the purpose for a vacation, but living in a standard hotel room would likely begin to take a toll on your mental health as well as your finances. But when your options are limited, it’s an understandable best option.

Of course, after learning this information about his Waffle House best bud, Kayzen wanted to do something to help. That’s when he came up with the idea to start a GoFundMe to help Gardner get a car to help him get back and forth to work. Kayzen’s mom took a bit of convincing to get on board, but since 8-year-olds can’t open an account on their own, his mom had to sign off.

Originally, the goal for the fundraiser was set at $500 to help Gardner get back and forth to work, but as it started to gain more traction, it blew past the original goal and continued to climb. People were moved by the GoFundMe page written by Kayzen and his mom.

“Devonte is one of the most joyous and positive people you’ve ever met!! He always greets us with the biggest smile,” Kayzen wrote on the GoFundMe. “I hope your heart is as BIG as mine and you will help me spread kindness in the world. Any amount helps!!”

Gardner has big plans for the money raised by Kayzen, but his first step is moving into a brand new apartment. The father of two told Today.com that he recently signed the lease on a two-bedroom apartment. As for the rest of the money? Well, the donations keep pouring in. It’s currently up to $108,000, and Garner isn’t planning on spending it frivolously.

“I’m gonna save the rest because I want to put my daughters in a good school, I want them to be in a good environment,” Gardner explained to Today.com. “Everything I’m getting is going mostly towards my daughters to make sure they have a great, great life. Make sure we won’t have to struggle anymore.”

And yes, he still works at Waffle House and greets Kayzen and his family just like always, high five and all.

Well, well, well, if it isn’t one of the cutest pranks I’ve ever seen pulled off. (I know I started that off like I was going to say something negative, but sometimes you’ve gotta mix it up a little.)

Usually, when you see pranks being pulled, there’s a line that can get blurred fairly quickly. Pranks can quickly go from harmless fun to questioning if the prankee is actually being hazed and we are being forced to witness it. But this prank is probably one of the most wholesome pranks ever committed. Kevin Christian was retiring and his co-workers weren’t going to let him go quietly into the night.

On his last day at work at Monterey County Probation Department in California, Christian’s co-workers decided the best way to send him off was to dress exactly like him—complete with a bald cap, in case he wasn’t quite sure who they were all supposed to be, I’m sure. Then they uploaded their shenanigans to TikTok, where the video got over 4 million views.

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“People wanted to know how we knew he was going to wear that day. We just banked on it. We had been planning this for weeks,” Diana Manuel shared in a video update.

The co-worker then showed a clip of Christian on his birthday wearing the same outfit, so it’s probably safe to assume he wears that outfit a lot, putting the odds in their favor. The original TikTok video is set to the “Mission Impossible” theme song and you get to see how they worked together behind the scenes buying a ridiculous number of blue shirts.

@dianajanexo

#screammovie #retirement #fyp #newyears

Christian appears to be shocked by seeing himself multiplied before clocking out one last time.

“What is wrong with you people?” the new retiree repeated.

Obviously, nothing’s wrong. They’re all getting to retire too. Their names are all Kevin Christian, can’t you tell? It looks like Christian will be missed and his co-workers are a blast. Surly there wasn’t a dull day around there too often.

See his reaction below:

@dianajanexo

Replying to @bomberolui Nothing is wrong with us 😂

Smiling is the universal language of joy—an involuntary response and innate human behavior that starts when we are wee babes, long before we’re able to talk.

Research shows that children smile on average 400 times a day, but that dwindles to only 20 times a day for an average adult. Even particularly happy adults only smile around 40 times a day, so it seems we could all use a few more reasons to smile!

We’ve got 10 rounded up here for you, from a sweet love story between two lonely geese, a hilarious hammerhead shark prank, a mom with the patience of saint and more.

So take a few minutes to revel in the joy and share with some other smile-deprived grown-ups in your life.

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1. Professor’s grad students surprised him with a silly response to his ‘irrational fear’ of hammerhead sharks.

None

— (@)

Usually, it would be considered unkind to taunt someone with their fears, but this kind of hilarious exposure therapy might just be healing. At the very least, it’s heartwarmingly entertaining. Clearly, these students love their teacher.

2. A soon-to-be dad asked parents to share their favorite parts of parenting. The responses were beautiful.

See on Instagram

All Harris Fanaroff was hearing was horror stories of parenting, so he asked for the brighter side. Parents delivered, big time. Scroll through to see some of the sweetest responses and see more of what parents shared here.

3. Ever seen a bunch of parrots get tucked into bed with kisses and a bedtime story?

“I love you, my bebeees!!!” Talk about a bond. Read more about Johan Devenier and his macaw babies here.

4. Two lonely geese found a second chance at love through a singles ad.

Geese mate for life, so what happens when they lose their mates? You gotta read this one to see how Frankie and Blossom met and how they took to one another after a blind date. Read their full love story here.

5. This tattoo is proof of the power of tea at grandma’s house.

See on Instagram

Sometimes the simplest things turn out to be the most meaningful. What a sweet way to honor Grandma.

6. People are loving the way this mom handled her son’s bedtime meltdown.

See on Instagram

Every parent has been there, and it’s so hard to stay calm, cool and collected—AND clear AND firm AND loving—all at the same time. But this mama pulls it off beautifully, and the fact that the little guy is able to articulate his feelings so clearly is a testament to his parents.

7. A 62-year-old fashionista is inspiring older women on TikTok with her sense of style.

@californiaistoocasual

#stitch with @oliviaamcdowell can’t wait for us to twin when I visit nyc 🫶 #abercrombie @Abercrombie and Fitch #abecrombiefind #abecrombiehaul

As she says, “Style has no age.” Love it. See more of Gym Tan and her fabulous fashion sense here.

8. Friends threw an epic party for their friend who got her U.S. citizenship.

@mias_memories

2.25.23. Congrats on getting your citizenship @sharonlin118 #fyp #usa #costumeparty #merica #fypシ

What a fun way to welcome someone to officially becoming an American citizen. Read the full story here.

9. Watching foxes hunt in the snow is as fascinating as it is entertaining.

The head tilts and jump.. 😅💯 pic.twitter.com/nczgq2BlTI

— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) March 8, 2023

The fact that they can hear the creatures burrowing under the snow is pretty sweet, but watching them do their leap and dive is hilariously impressive.

10. Dance your way through the weekend with the smooth moves of this guy and…himself.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cale Brown (@calebrownnnnn)

No idea how he did it, but it’s impressive!

Hope that gave you a few reasons to smile! Come back next week for more, and if you’d like to get these posts delivered to your inbox, subscribe to our free email newsletter here.

Ted Cruz generally doesn’t let the world know whether he’s upset about being dragged, but the Internet might have struck a nerve this week. He’s endured (well deserved) Cancun jokes and a merciless dragging by the star of one of his favorite movies, The Princess Bride. Ted even left his much maligned Fight Club take remain intact, so it’s quite something when he actually deletes a tweet.

That appears to be exactly what happened. A tiny bit of backstory: Ted and many of his GOP colleagues love to criticize President Biden over the longstanding chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border. Heck, Marjorie Taylor Greene recently made what could be more than a typo by claiming that Biden had let a majority of the global population surge over the border. Ted has spent some time at the border while lurking in the bushes like a “Brooks Brothers Bear Grylls,” so he might think that Biden should do the same. And now there’s what appears to be a now-deleted tweet about how “Biden has never been to the border. He went to El Paso, which is 800 miles from the Rio Grande Valley.”

As screencaps indicate, Ted would have been promoting his recent Fox News appearance, in which he accused Biden of aiding the journey of cartel heads from “vicious murderers” into billionaires. Well, we now know that Ted Cruz has not been watching Narcos or Narcos: Mexico on Netflix. Also, here’s what Cruz said on Fox News (around the 4:00 mark in the below clip):

“You have Joe Biden, who’s been to the southern border once. He went to El Paso, 800 miles from the Rio Grande Valley. And amazingly enough, he says that he went to our southern border and didn’t see a single illegal alien, which is extraordinary political theater because they cleaned everyone off the streets and said, look. Nobody’s here.”

How could Ted not consider El Paso to be a border city? Social media seems puzzled by this as well.

Perhaps Ted was trying to make his own type of point, but whatever the case, it appears that he actually rethought his words and deleted a tweet. So this remains a mystery, but it doesn’t seem like this type of Twitter mess can be blamed on an intern.

Festival season is upon us. Just last weekend, Rolling Loud California shut down the greater Los Angeles area for several days. Next month, Coachella will storm the grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. However, as music fans across the world look for festivals near them, scammers are looking to take advantage of this growing demand.

According to Complex, a Canadian festival by the name of Festival Aurora is the latest example of this ploy. Allegedly led by Harry Styles, Doja Cat, Tyler The Creator, SZA, Khalid, and Charli XCX, fans of the musicians are calling out the festival on its Instagram page (@festivalaurora). Specifically, fans of Styles noticed that the date listed for the singer to appear, June 3, seems nearly impossible given that his Love On Tour will be in France the day before and the Netherlands on June 4th.

The lineup got people excited, though, as the festival reportedly made $7,000 in ticket sales in five days.

After receiving several inquiries about the legitimacy of the festival, The Vieux-Port de Montreal (overseers of Montreal’s Old Port district), released a statement denying that the event has been approved for use of the space, writing, “We learned about this festival like the general public, through social media and their online platform. A festival with such popular names would have to be planned months in advance, and neither the SVPM nor the other partners on our territory (Port-de-Montréal / Grand Quai) were approached.”

The supposed festival has not responded to the statement released by Vieux-Port de Montreal. As of today (March 10), the festival’s Instagram page is still active.

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

The Oscars are back, baby! After last year’s Slap Heard ‘Round The World, most commentators agree that this year’s telecast couldn’t possibly live up to the excitement of the last year’s. In fact, there are apparently “crisis response teams” standing by in case things get too interesting. (Would “crisis teams” require “crisis actors?” No one tell Alex Jones about this). The rub is that there’s a decent chance I’m going to have to go back to getting drunk during this thing to make it interesting.

Jimmy Kimmel is set to host the telecast, meaning probably fewer musical numbers and more pranks (I’m not mad about it). Word around the campfire is that he was chosen basically because he’s an emcee who wouldn’t get too rattled if any big brouhahas or kerfuffles happen again. “We felt like we needed someone who could definitely handle the show,” Janet Yang told the Hollywood Reporter back in November.

It will be Kimmel’s third time hosting, having previously hosted in 2017 and 2018. (I also ranked this year’s best picture nominees here).

How To Watch:

The basics: The 95th Academy Awards ceremony will air live this Sunday, March 12, 2023, at 5 pm Pacific/8 pm ET on ABC. You can also stream it on Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV, FuboTV, and AT&T.

The Presenters

This year’s presenters will include (deep breath):

Pedro Pascal, Kate Hudson, Harrison Ford, Halle Berry, Paul Dano, Cara Delevingne, Mindy Kaling, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Andie MacDowell, Elizabeth Olsen, John Travolta, Dwayne Johnson, Ariana DeBose and Jonathan Majors, as well as Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Antonio Banderas, Elizabeth Banks, Jessica Chastain, John Cho, Hugh Grant, Danai Gurira, Salma Hayek Pinault, Nicole Kidman, Sigourney Weaver, Riz Ahmed, Emily Blunt, Glenn Close, Jennifer Connelly, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael B. Jordan, Troy Kotsur, Melissa McCarthy, Janelle Monáe, Deepika Padukone, Questlove, Zoe Saldaña, Donnie Yen.

Good for you, Questlove. Okay, I think we’re all sufficiently backgrounded, let’s get to it.

The Drinking Game

The Basics

Probably you should play with beer, though I would also accept hard seltzer, wine coolers, or wine. Don’t hurt yourself. “A drink,” for our purposes, is a sip, a gulp, a finger’s worth — just be consistent.

Evergreen Rules:

The “Marty” Rule:

One thing entertainment industry folks love is referring to famous people familiarly, to show what good friends they all are. Whenever you hear someone reference a celebrity by their shortened name, a lá “Marty” Scorsese or “Steve” Spielberg during their acceptance speech. Everyone yells “Marty!” like when Norm walks into Cheers and takes one drink.

Band Plays Them Off

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but any time the band starts playing before the acceptance speech is over and the music tries to cut someone off, drink until the recipient starts to leave the stage or until your drink is finished.

(Pro tip: don’t choose a giant-ass stein or other large-sized glass as your vessel for the evening).

Tears In Heaven

Any time an Oscar winner cries during an acceptance speech, waterfall.

The person with the alphabetically-last name in the room starts drinking (it’s your time to shine, Zacks and Zeldas). Everyone else, don’t stop until the person to your left has finished.

So, So Brave

Any time an awards recipient praises the “brave people of” wherever (let the record show Jared Leto was dedicating awards to Ukraine before it was cool), or a performance as being brave, ONE DRINK.

Borat Rule

Any time an acceptance speech-giver mentions or thanks “my wife,” everyone has to yell “MAH WAHFE” like Borat. Last person to say “mah wahfe” has to drink.

New Rules For 2023

The Slap

Obviously, people are going to talk about The Slap. One drink for the first Slap reference (and that includes sly jokes about Chris Rock, Jada, and/or Will Smith), two drinks for the second Slap reference, and so on.

Tom Cruise Saved Movie Theaters

It has become essentially gospel that Tom Cruise saved movie theaters, thanks to Top Gun: Maverick. Everyone in Hollywood loves Tom Cruise while also sort of acknowledging that he’s completely insane. So:

–One drink for “Tom Cruise does his own stunts” joke.
–Two drinks for “Tom Cruise is short” joke.
–Finish your drink for Scientology joke. (If someone brings up Shelly Miscavige again, get out a fresh one and shotgun it).

Weez The Juice

Brendan Fraser is nominated for Best Actor this year, and I get the feeling B-Fraiszh is gonna be the hot reaction shot. The camera loves him. Hell, I had this gif from the Golden Globes saved on my computer for at least 10 years, and that was well before the Brendannaissance.

So, one drink for every shot of Brendan Fraser in the crowd.

Nicole Kidman’s Weird AMC Ad

Will they parody Nicole Kidman’s weird AMC ad? One drink for a reference, finish your drink for an actual parody.

The Brad Pitt Lighting Round

According to Little Gold Men (via Gawker, RIP), “the mayor of Hollywood” is an official role whereby the mayor sits center stage at all the awards shows, as has been true of Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, and Meryl Streep. Gawker pointed out that Brad Pitt seemed to be auditioning for the role at the Golden Globes.

So, every crowd shot of Brad Pitt initiates The Brad Pitt Lightning Round, after which all the other rules count double (two drinks instead of one, and so on) until the next crowd shot of Brad Pitt ends the round.

Phew, that’s probably enough rules for this year.

Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

It looks like Bad Bunny is finally blessing us with a “Carpool Karaoke” segment. Today (March 10), The Late Late Show With James Corden shared a preview of an upcoming segment featuring the Puerto Rican superstar.

In the clip, Bad Bunny is introduced as “The biggest streaming artist in the world.” Corden and Bad Bunny are then seen singing along to the latter’s hit single, “Tití Me Preguntó.”

Bad Bunny’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment will air on this Tuesday’s (March 14) episode of The Late Late Show, at 12:37 a.m. ET. It’s coming just in time, too, as Corden’s last episode of The Late Late Show is set for April 28, so who knows how many “Carpool Karaoke” segments Corden has left before the show wraps up.

Last year proved to be eventful for Bad Bunny. His fourth studio album, Un Verano Sin Ti, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and boasted several hits, like “Tití Me Preguntó,” “Moscow Mule,” “Me Porto Bonito,” and “Despues De La Playa.” The album was nominated for two Grammy awards, including the coveted Album Of The Year award, as well as the Best Música Urbana Album. He won the latter of those, and in his acceptance speech, Bad Bunny said that the album was a result of pure passion.

“I just made it, this album, with love and passion,” he said, “and when you do things with love and passion, everything is easier, and life is easier.”

Check out a preview above.

Marjorie Taylor Greene wasted no time capitalizing on a bad joke on The View. During Friday morning’s episode, guest Jane Fonda made a less than ideal joke about how to deal with the loss of abortion rights after Roe v. Wade was overturned. While it’s clear the legendary screen actress was trying to work in a comedic connection to her new movie, co-host Joy Behar immediately tried to get ahead of the lead ballon of a joke because she knew exactly what kind of trouble it was going to cause.

Via Raw Story:

“Well, I’ve thought of murder,” Fonda said, pausing for effect as actress Lily Tomlin also started to answer before interrupting herself.

“What did you say?” said Tomlin, who co-stars with Fonda in the dark comedy “Moving On.”

“Murder,” Fonda repeated, drawing on the theme of the movie she was promoting.

“She’s kidding, she’s just kidding,” Behar said. “They’ll pick up on that and just run with it.”

Like clockwork, Greene immediately latched onto the Fonda clip and accused The View of trying to get the Georgia congresswoman assassinated.

“I routinely get death threats because of the nasty women on The View and the things they say about me,” Greene tweeted. “But calling for us to be assassinated makes The View, the hosts, the producers, the network, the advertisers, and everyone involved responsible for death threats, attacks, and potential murders of Pro-Life politicians and activists. I am reporting this.”

While Greene very slightly had the upper hand thanks to Fonda’s ill-advised remark, the congresswoman quickly squandered it by taking a nasty shot at Fonda’s age and trotting out the disingenuous conservative framing for abortion.

“By the way @Janefonda your eggs are dried up so you don’t have to worry about getting pregnant anytime soon,” Greene wrote. “So you can retire from demanding baby murder now.”

(Via Raw Story)

Tragedy struck at GloRilla’s March 5 performance at Rochester, New York’s Main Street Armory: People were injured during a crowd surge, with one person later dying at the hospital. It was later reported that a second person died from their injuries, and now, so too has a third.

The Associated Press reports that according to police, 35-year-old Syracuse resident Aisha Stephens died in the hospital on Wednesday (March 8) night. That follows the deaths of 33-year-old Buffalo resident Rhondesia Belton and 35-year-old Rochester resident Brandy Miller. Stephens was the only remaining person in the hospital who was there as a result of injuries sustained at the concert. Police note the stampede, which took place as the show was ending, was possibly triggered by “unfounded fears of gunfire.”

GloRilla previously addressed the situation on social media, writing in a tweet, “I’m just now hearing about what happened wtf [single tear emojis] praying everybody is ok.” She later added, “I am devastated & heartbroken over the tragic deaths that happened after Sunday’s show. My fans mean the world to me [single tear emoji] praying for their families & for a speedy recovery of everyone affected.”

Meanwhile, it appears there won’t be any more concerts at the Main Street Armory for at least the foreseeable future, as the venue just had its entertainment license revoked.

Between June and August, the heart of blockbuster season, only a precious few comedies will be released into the movie theaters. There’s the swearing dog movie; The Blackening, a Scary Movie for the Get Out-era; and the untitled Please Don’t Destroy project from the SNL trio. But most intriguing is No Hard Feelings, a raunchy throwback starring Jennifer Lawrence as an Uber driver who gets hired by two parents to “date” their unf*ckable teenage son. It’s a high-concept premise, a rarity for a studio comedy in 2023, let alone a studio comedy being released a week before Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

Will No Hard Feelings be any good? Maybe! Hopefully! The trailer is pretty funny, the world needs more R-rated sex comedies, and director Gene Stupnitsky also made Good Boys, which was way better than anyone expected. It also sees Jennifer Lawrence in her first straight-up comedy in… ever?

The Causeway star’s films tend to not be overtly comedic (Silver Lining Playbook is a drama with comedic elements, for instance), but Lawrence herself is very funny. And it will be refreshing to see her on a press tour again where she doesn’t have to talk about trauma. Although being hired to have sex with a teenager by his parents is pretty traumatic. For her, not the teen.

There have been lots of excited reactions for Lawrence in a comedy.

Here’s more:

On the brink of losing her childhood home, Maddie (Jennifer Lawrence) discovers an intriguing job listing: wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to “date” their introverted 19-year-old son, Percy, before he leaves for college. To her surprise, Maddie soon discovers the awkward Percy is no sure thing.

No Hard Feelings comes out on June 23rd.