Category: News

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is getting roasted after showing up to survey damage from Hurricane Ian while wearing a staggeringly white pair of rain boots without a trace of dirt on them. It also didn’t help that DeSantis wore the boots during a staged photo op that forced relief workers to pause their efforts while the governor was on the scene.

Volunteers reportedly grew angry after working diligently to provide much needed supplies after the damaging storm only for DeSantis to come in and pause their efforts. A tense exchange took place with state troopers who seemed sympathetic to the relief workers. Via ABC Action News:

“I don’t give a rat’s ass,” one woman yelled.

“Personally, I want you to go over there,” one state trooper told Nelson. “I want you to get as much supplies to help these people out.”

“So, legally, why can I not?” Nelson asked.

“Our hands are tied,” the trooper said.

“I’m not trying to be rude,” Nelson told him. “But, we’ve been doing this very thing one street over, and the only reason we are not over there…”

“Is because the governor’s coming…I understand,” the trooper responded.

Meanwhile, DeSantis got roundly roasted on Twitter as the Nancy Sinatra jokes started flying. The governor’s awkward footwear proved to be an irresistible target as people dunked on the blatant photo op.

You can see some of the reactions below:

(Via ABC Action News)

Of the many ways Donald Trump has embarrassed himself over the years, what could have easily been in the Top 10 of All-Time single most mortifying moments of his presidency unfortunately — for all of us — never came to fruition.

On Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel shared that, in an effort to prove that no amount of deadly virus pumping through his veins would ever be enough to take him down, Trump had planned a hokey stunt for when he left Walter Reed Medical Center in early October 2020 after being hospitalized with COVID: disrobing to reveal that he was Superman. As Kimmel explained:

Remember a couple of years ago, after Typhoid Donny was discharged from the hospital for COVID — when he had COVID? He said he wanted to open up his shirt like Clark Kent to reveal the Superman. Well, according to [Maggie] Haberman’s book, he didn’t just mean that figuratively.

While he was in the hospital, he sent an aide — a guy named Max Miller — to the store to buy a Superman shirt for him. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find Underoos in a size Triple XL, which is a shame. Can you imagine him coming out of that hospital squeezed into the shirt like Kal-El Pollo Loco or something?

In Haberman’s much-talked about new book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America (which, finally, comes out today), The New York Times reporter writes that that plan was for the then-president to be “wheeled out of Walter Reed in a chair and, once outdoors, he would dramatically stand up, then open his button-down dress shirt to reveal [a] Superman logo beneath it.”

“Listen, the only thing Trump does faster than a speeding bullet is have sex,” Kimmel noted. “We know that from Stormy Daniels.”

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 1:30 mark.

The soul of Hasan Minhaj’s howlingly funny and revelatory new Netflix comedy special, The King’s Jester (which you can stream now on Netflix), came from a prompt from his director (and Patriot Act co-creator) Prashanth Venkataramanujam: “I just need you to bleed on the page. Anything that you’re too humiliated or scared to talk about, you should talk about it.”

Seems simple, right? But accepting what Minhaj describes in our recent conversation as the closure of a gap between his public and private persona requires a commitment to a kind of authenticity that people have no problem talking about. Living that truth? Now there’s the challenge, but Minhaj seems to pull it off in a new special where the target is usually himself as he talks about the dopamine hit of social media uber relevancy and brushes with real consequences from his work pushing back on some of the world’s most powerful entities. Throughout, though, there’s a theme that we unpack in this interview: the idea of graduating and also being comfortable with who you are. Along the way, we also discuss the hard conversations that helped him get to a place where he could see the line and reorder his priorities and this golden age of stand-up special auteurism.

The thing that really drew me into this is you are unafraid to get vulnerable. Not that you were a closed book before, but this is just really open. I’m just curious about what it’s like to have to push past any sort of protective shield and also be self-aware enough to see these things.

For me, the bridge that I’ve always been trying to close is the gap between who I am on Instagram and who I am on iMessage. If I’m going to be honest with you, when I just had my notepad out and I was writing out the material and writing out the stories, there really was a gap there. People see me or saw me as the Daily Show, White House Correspondents dinner, Homecoming King, Patriot Act guy. And then there’s the iMessage, WhatsApp Hasan Minhaj that Beena, Ayesha, my parents, my in-laws, my cousins, they really know who I am. And there’s a little bit of, “Hey, if I’m going to try to do this thing, be an artist for life, I got to close that gap.” The King’s Jester, I think, is really my just sincere offering to try to do that as I continue to grow and evolve. And I don’t want to live a life where I’m kind of being duplicitous or I’m putting something on for the crowd. And I’m sure you know this in media, there’s that kind of blue check Twitter, Instagram persona, and then there’s who you really are. That goes for whichever side of the aisle you’re on. That’s not a political framing, it’s the actual quality of your character. For me, if I want to be an artist for the rest of my life, I got to show you who iMessage me is.

You talk about driving a Honda Minivan in the special, talking about sucking snot out of your kids’ nose, and there’s this idea of, “Okay, I’m going to talk about all this kid stuff.” I’ve talked to other comics about how that can be a tough transition for them. Does that factor into it at all?

Man, look, I really sincerely believe this, life is about graduating. There are two things you got to think about. I have to be honest, I do drive a black Honda Odyssey that we lease from White Plains Honda. My monthly payment is $938 a month. This is true.

That’s a tricked-out Honda.

Yeah. Bro, it’s got a leather interior. I’m doing all right. I’m not ballsy enough to buy, but I do lease. And I will say, if I was fronting, I’m not that. To me, I just don’t want to maintain that charade. And then also, there is something sad about the 37-year-old dude trying to act 25. There’s kind of nothing worse than that, and so I think it’s okay, especially in our society, we have this thing where we always want to hearken and hang onto the past through vintage style or the idea of rebooting. Really what we’re trying to do is just, there’s this warm blanket and you want to reach back to when things were simpler and made sense. I actually think it’s more courageous to be like, “Nope, I’m embracing this and I’m going to talk about it, and I want to break new ground for myself personally and for the audience.” And if you think that’s corny or lame or not incisive, that’s fine, but at least I have the satisfaction to know I’m being honest.

And this feels like a graduation. It does.

I hope so. Thank you, man. That was really what I was going for.

When you talk about some of the stuff you went through with Patriot Act — some scary shit (death threats, getting white powder mailed to him). When that happens, is there anger that rises in you and a want to push back harder at that point? Do you want to say, “Fuck this, I’m doubling down?”

I’ll be candid with you, I got to give a lot of credit to both Beena, my wife, and Prashanth Venkataramanujam, the director, but also co-creator and showrunner at Patriot Act. Both of those people in my life have served as kind of firewalls and guardrails of, “Hey, let me tell you something with the sobriety of morning here, these are the consequences that are going to happen. And the cost that you’re going to have to pay, that our family is going to have to pay, and loved ones are going to have to pay, are going to last a whole lot longer than, no disrespect, but what UPROXX or Vulture covered as the news of the day.”

People are going to forget about this viral video or this kind of mic drop moment with the flick of a wrist. We have to carry the consequences. So, do you want to make your pilgrimage and do your hudge and go to Mecca? Do you want your parents to be able to go to India and be okay? Do you want to be able to fly and be routed via Dubai and not be extradited and taken away? There are real consequences that IG stories and the Instagram Discover page do not care about, but your family has to really live with those things IRL.

So, those were sobering moments for me when kind of, “You get the bill,” and I’m like, “Oh wow, I’m dealing with this, Beena’s dealing with this, the kids and my parents, and nobody knows and nobody cares outside of our house.” That was the terrifying thing, that real kind of sobering reality of, and this is going to sound weird to say, “Man, if I died, people wouldn’t even put me in their feed. Maybe they’d share the story. The value of my life dissolves within 24 hours in the public eye. Man, I got to care about the people that don’t give a fuck about Blue Check Hasan Minhaj. They care about who I actually am.” And that was a real, “that’s my line.”

Was that an instant realization or was that something that you had to be kind of slapped in the face a little bit to get?

Candidly, when my marriage was going through those really tough spots, it was a realization that I came to and that my wife and I talked about, and it was like, “What really matters here?” And I care so much more about Beena than I do Deadline articles.

I love the visuals of this special. I feel like we’re in a golden age visually for stand-up specials right now.

I couldn’t agree more. The level of auteur filmmaking that is happening right now between Jerrod Carmichael, Bo Burnham, shout out to the Lucas Brothers and their amazing film, as well. It’s really inspiring. My personal belief, I think within the next 20 years we’re going to see five to ten standup comedians enter that genre of auteur filmmaking that 30 years ago, only Woody Allen embodied and was a part of that. There is no doubt in my mind that Bo, Jerrod, the Lucas brothers, they’re going to win Oscars, man. There’s no doubt in my mind.

I have had conversations with other comedians, though, older guard maybe, who have described it to me more as something that can sometimes be distracting. I get how that can be the case, but I don’t see that with any of the stuff that you just mentioned or Moses Storm’s special or anything like that, is that ever a concern for you, the idea of making it feel additive as opposed to distracting?

I actually think that’s a fair criticism. I think it starts with the idea and the PDF. Prashanth and I will talk about this all the time, start with the PDF and build from there. And so, one of the things that we started with when we just had the show on its feet, and I was doing it in black box theaters, the emotional threads that we were pulling, there were more emotional threads than visual cues or threads. For me, I wanted to use color as an emotional tool. What does fertility look like? What does clout look like? What does fear look like? All of those things. And you can see that in the special. So, I couldn’t agree more. I think you start with the idea itself and build from there. I think it’s distracting if you go, “Hey, I just want a crazy set. I want to use antique lenses. I want to shoot this on film.” But it’s not servicing the PDF. So for me, it’s always the power of the PDF, start there and then you can build from there. And I think the great shows and the great specials do that.

And I put this up in that echelon, this and Rothaniel really are my two favorite specials from this year.

Wow. Thank you, man. Dude, that’s an honor, man. Because Jerrod is operating at a level that I aspire to, man.

Yeah, like you were saying, he’s obviously being true to himself. He’s always been such a really interesting voice. It’s so great to see him be able to just get a chance to really just spread his wings.

You know what’s always humbling and terrifying? And I’m sure you’ve noticed this working in media. One of the lines they always use is, “Do we need this movie now or do we need this special now?” And one of the things you feel as an artist, author, creator, is what that’s implicitly saying is, “Do they need me now? Am I not cool? Am I not the cool kid anymore?” You feel like Woody in Toy Story, “Is Andy going to get rid of me?” But I can’t make art for the meta-narrative. You know what I’m saying? I have to do what feels honest. If that lines up to what, quote-on-quote, we need, great. If it doesn’t, at least I can go to sleep at night being like, “Hey man, I really did try. And I’m being, again, honest.” I just turned 37 and I’m now measuring success by… it’s actually a hedge against regret rather than what I can transactionally get out of an experience.

‘The King’s Jester’ is available to stream now on Netflix

On January 6, 2021, an estimated 2,000 rioters stormed the Capitol — less than half of whom have been identified and/or charged. If the FBI is looking for an easy way to identify the remaining insurrectionists, Trevor Noah has an idea: create a dating profile on The Right Stuff.

Over the weekend, the Peter Thiel-backed dating app for conservatives launched, and has since become the butt of many (many, many) jokes. On Monday, The Daily Show host joined in when he took a moment to talk about dating apps, or what he describes as “the quickest and most convenient way to meet a few dozen psychopaths.”

The Right Stuff, however, is different: It was founded by Daniel Huff and John McEntee, a pair of former Trump staffers who claim that being associated with the 45th president has been reason enough for more than one woman to get up and leave in the middle of a date. While Noah isn’t sure he’s buying that, he’s happy to hear that The Right Stuff will change all that for these narrow-minded singles. Because “once people started signing up, it was immediately clear that this isn’t like other dating apps,” Noah said. As he explained:

[T]here are prompts for things like Favorite Bible Verse. Well, that’s fine. Favorite Conservative Pundit — huh. And: January 6th Was… blank? Yeah, so good luck out there all you conservatives hoping to match with that special FBI agent monitoring the site.

You can watch the full clip above, including the promo for The Daily Show‘s new app — Hate F**k.

ESPN is heading into its 21st season as a broadcast partner of the NBA and will be making a number of updates and changes to its presentation of NBA games and studio shows for the 2022-23 season.

While the voices on games will be the same — the biggest news from Tuesday’s media call was Hubie Brown being back on a one-year deal to do “abut 15 games” and confirmation of JJ Redick being a more regular game analyst this season — there will be a number of ways things will look and sound different when watching games on ESPN. Among the biggest is a new NBA on ESPN theme for the first time in more than a decade, as they looked to make a more contemporary sound.

It is a perfectly fine theme, nothing particularly exciting, but it’ll surely get some reaction, good and bad, simply by being new. That will be heard prior to games, ahead of NBA Countdown, and in promo packages, while NBA Today might get its own theme in the near future.

As for visuals, there is a wholly new graphics package for games and promos this season, with an emphasis on team colors and logos (note: the music is not part of the NBA on ESPN changes, but just some commercial music they used to provide some backing for the new look).

In games, the biggest change being a scorebug that will no longer take up the entire bottom of the screen, instead going for a condensed look to provide more court space. Along with the condensed size, fans will also be pleased to learn that the color swatches for each team will change based on what uniform set that team is wearing so they always match, ensuring there’s no longer any confusion when a team wearing white might have a green scorebox.

They also have new player graphics to provide in-game updates and stats that share a similar look to the scorebug.

The full screen graphics will also be more colorful and feature player images more heavily.

Overall, it’s a solid update, particularly with the scorebug. Showing more of the court is always good and still getting information to viewers without as much clutter is a welcome change. All of these changes will go into effect for the ESPN’s first preseason broadcast on Thursday night.

Last week, George R.R. Martin announced that a new companion book, Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One, would be released this month for anyone who wants to go even deeper into the Targaryen dynasty and their complex world of dragons. While this isn’t surprising considering the fact that Martin is busy doing everything besides actually finishing Winds of Winter, fans are upset with the book’s co-authors, Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr.

In response to Martin’s tweet linking the book, many fans piled on with various examples of “racist” statements from Antonsson over the years. The two authors have been working with Martin since 1999 when they began an online lexicon of A Song Of Ice And Fire knowledge before Game of Thrones even existed on HBO. She and her husband García have been working as fact-checkers for Martin for over two decades.

Antonsson has a history of criticizing diverse casting choices in the series, which has angered fans who refuse to support her writing or works. Most recently, she was angered when House of the Dragon cast Steve Toussaint as Corlys. “There are no Black Valyrians and there should not be any in the show,” Antonsson blogged at the time. Obviously, this was not well-received!

In a statement to Variety, Antonsson said that it bothers her to be “labeled a racist, when my focus has been solely on the world building,” and that “diversity should not trump story” when it comes to the show’s casting. Antonsson also confirmed that Martin is “aware” of the backlash, though he has not made a public comment. According to the author, Martin “doesn’t see the point in engaging with people” on social media, and “he has not suggested we should stop sharing our opinions.”

Martin is no stranger to controversy and backlash, though he has consciously made the effort to avoid the “f*cking toxic internet” altogether after Game of Thrones ended. Instead, he will spend the next three decades working on Winds Of Winter, maybe.

(Via Variety)

It took Rolling Loud just two years after its 2015 inception for the festival to stretch its arms outside of its original location of Miami, Florida. The massive hip-hop festival, which debuted to critical acclaim, allowed rap fans from all over to come to one location and see a playlist worth of their favorite artists perform over the course of three days. Yes, a bit of running from stage to stage is needed, but many would say it’s all worth it in the name of knocking a few must-see artists off of the bucket list. In 2017, Rolling Loud added cities in California as festival locations, and two years later, Sydney, Australia, and New York City joined the aforementioned spots as locations to house Rolling Loud.

As of 2022, Rolling Loud has or will make stops in Miami, Inglewood, New York City, Toronto, The Netherlands, and Portugal. In the midst of this expansion, Rolling Loud hasn’t had the smoothest string of moments – especially over the last year. After letting off homophobic comments at last year’s Miami festival, DaBaby’s return in Los Angeles was far from welcomed. Kid Cudi cut his performance short in Miami this year after fans threw objects at him as he performed. Additionally, a gun was reportedly fired at the Toronto showcase in July. Bumps in the road are to be expected, but so are smooth stretches, and it’s the latter that Rolling Loud New York 2022 was aiming for.

This year’s New York festival was headlined by Nicki Minaj, ASAP Rocky, and Future. It also featured performances from big names like Lil Baby, 21 Savage, Moneybagg Yo, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Lil Uzi Vert, and Pusha T as well as newer acts hoping to expand their audiences like Armani White, Kali, Jeleel!, GloRilla, TiaCorine, Lakeyah, and Symba. Rolling Loud New York’s goal to have a smooth and mostly uninterrupted festival was quickly nixed as the NYPD reportedly forced them to remove three acts – 22Gz, Ron Suno, and Sha Ek – from the showcase prior to its start due to concerns that their appearances could increase the chance of violence at Rolling Loud. The NYPD pulled a similar move in 2019 with 22Gz, who later performed in 2021, as well as the late Pop Smoke.

If the NYPD was involved, the removal of 22Gz, Ron Suno, and Sha Ek isn’t something that Rolling Loud is truly at fault for. With the additional unfortunate events that occurred at this year’s New York show, there wasn’t too much that organizers could be blamed for. A big pain point for this year’s festival was the absence and tardiness of scheduled performers. Headliners Nicki Minaj and ASAP Rocky were late for their respective sets by well over a half hour, and as a result, they both had their sets cut short due to New York’s late-night curfew for shows. Minaj concluded with an acapella performance of “Moment 4 Life,” while Rocky expressed his frustrations for his performance being cut before apologizing for his underwhelming closing to day two. Future was about 20 minutes late to his headlining performance, which was cut short after a few songs and an appearance from Offset thanks to a brutal rainstorm that sparked a “code red” from Rolling Loud and a request for attendees to immediately exit the premises.

These pains didn’t stop with the headliners, they also trickled down to other performers over the weekend. Playboi Carti was also late to his performance while 21 Savage’s own was canceled for unknown reasons. The rapper was certainly frustrated by whatever went down behind the scenes as he tweeted on day three, “Rolling Loud will never get a show out of me ever again.” To round things out, Ski Mask The Slump God and Big Sean were also no shows at this year’s New York festival. Frustrations about all the absences and long waits were aired out on social media, leaving the organizers to reportedly respond to them onstage. “Don’t be mad at us! Be mad at the artists being late,” Rolling Loud organizers told fans according to one attendee. There’s certainly some truth to that, to say the least.

Despite all of this, Rolling Loud 2022 New York had just enough to make the bad feel not so bad. Starting with the headliners, Nicki Minaj’s guests that included Fivio Foreign, Bia, G Herbo, and Lil Uzi Vert made for an enjoyable set despite its brevity. ASAP Rocky performed very promising songs from his next album and Future seemed ready to knock his set out of the park to close the weekend. Elsewhere, Lil Tjay made a triumphant return on day one as he was all smiles during his first performance since was shot seven times back in June. Toosii was a joy to watch as he stepped off the stage to join the crowd on several occasions for his performance. Lil Uzi Vert turned things into a party as expected and Lil Baby was commanding as always through his set. Pusha T, a known critic of tardiness, was extremely punctual for his performance, coming out on stage right at his 8:20 pm start time to kick off what was an assertive, confident, and overall excellent performance. Saint Jhn, Don Toliver, Jeleel!, and Lancey Foux also join the list of performers who shined.

To the average music fan who attended Rolling Loud’s 2022 New York Festival – that is someone who wasn’t there for one or two specific artists – you most likely left just short of satisfied. Things certainly could have been worse just as much as they could have been better. In more ways than one, both literally and figuratively, Rolling Loud’s 2022 New York Festival had its parade rained on. However, if you were willing to venture out and explore, there was some fun to be had in the rain. Strong options between activations and food trucks made for decent opportunities to boost your morale while a massive section for artist merchandise made it almost guaranteed that you could leave the premises with something to remember the weekend by. In short, Rolling Loud tried their best to put on a great festival, but the powers that be proved to have a stronger arm in the matter. Maybe changes are in order for the festival, maybe not, but one thing is for sure: artists could help in making the weekend go better. It’s something to keep in mind as Rolling Loud gears up to shift its attention to Inglewood next spring.

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

Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington died by suicide on July 20, 2017 — days before the band was scheduled to begin the North American leg of their One More Light World Tour with Machine Gun Kelly. Linkin Park understandably canceled that tour. Five-plus years later, MGK is headlining his own arena tour in support of Mainstream Sellout, his March 2022 sixth studio album.

On Saturday (October 1), the 32-year-old hybrid provocateur spoke to his sold-out audience at London’s OVO Arena Wembley about Bennington before performing “Glass House.” The moment was captured by a fan and posted to YouTube.

“Great human being. He took me in,” Machine Gun Kelly said. “Him and Mike [Shinoda] would always f*cking give me words of encouragement. We had a tour that we were about to start, and three days before we started that tour, Chester passed away. But the last time I saw him was here in Europe. So, I encourage you, because life is short, to go live this life. I know it’s hard, man. I know this sh*t is f*cking hard, but nights like tonight make life worth it. So, I hope you leave here [and] you find more nights like this and that you live this short life. I love you very much.”

In the second verse of the 2019 ballad “Glass House,” MGK mourns Bennington and other artists who have gone too soon: “Look, wish Lil Peep and me had spoke, but I can’t get that back / Just came from Pittsburgh, damn, I miss my homie Mac / Yeah, last time I got off the stage, I looked Chester in the face / But now he gone and ain’t no going back.”

Machine Gun Kelly had performed with Linkin Park at the Poland stop of their One More Light World Tour before they tapped him as an opener.

This isn’t the first time MGK has used his current tour to acknowledge lost life. In late June at Madison Square Garden, he dedicated “Lonely” to TikTok star and aspiring model Cooper Noriega, who passed away earlier that month. Noriega, 19, had tagged along on MGK’s fall 2021 Tickets To My Downfall Tour because of his friendship with the opener, Jxdn.

MGK’s MSG date coincided with the release of his Hulu Life In Pink documentary, which revealed his own struggles with suicidal ideation.

Watch Machine Gun Kelly’s tribute to Bennington above.

If you or someone you know is at risk of suicide or contemplating self-harm, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text TALK to 741741, or visit Speakingofsuicide.com for additional resources.

YG — whose new album I Got Issues is out now on Def Jam — is no stranger to controversy. Still, one of his new album’s singles is drawing criticism that it might not have gotten in a different context. No doubt, when YG recorded “How To Rob A Rapper” and planned out its release, he couldn’t possibly have known that just weeks before his album dropped, Philadelphia rapper PnB Rock would be shot to death in a robbery in Los Angeles, just a few miles from the Compton rapper’s hometown.

That hasn’t stopped rap fans from censuring YG over the song’s awkward timing. The general consensus appears to be that “YG should have took that How To Rob A Rapper song off the album,” according to one tweet. Another wondered “if nobody in YG’s camp told him not to drop ‘How to Rob a Rapper’ right after PNB Rock’s death.” Even those who liked the song admitted that it had “terrible timing.”

Still, there were some who defended the rapper’s decision to release the controversial track when he did. “I get why people trippin off YG’s song ‘How To Rob A Rapper,’ but ya also makin it clear ya dont really listen to his music,” wrote one fan. “He got similar songs like ‘Don’t Come To LA’ talkin about the same culture he warnin mfs to not lack when coming into. But y’all trippin off the timing.”

YG hasn’t reacted yet, but he has shown himself to be sensitive to valid critiques in the past. Last year, he updated his My Krazy Life song “Meet The Flockers” to remove lyrics perceived as “anti-Asian” after a backlash in the wake of a wave of attacks on Asian Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can watch YG’s “How To Rob A Rapper” video above.