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On Wednesday night, in his third appearance as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, Mikal Bridges floated, darted, and bobbed his way to a career-high 45 points in a 116-105 win over the Miami Heat and their fifth-ranked defense. Only 19 players have scored more than that in a game this season. He shattered his previous career-high of 34 and did so on a preposterously efficient 83.1 percent true shooting.

His performance was the latest in what has been a breakout scoring campaign. After averaging a career-high 14.2 points in 2021-22, Bridges is up to 17.6 points in 2022-23. Seven of his 10 highest regular-season scoring games have occurred this season.

The 23 points he scored in Saturday’s narrow home loss to the Philadelphia 76ers and 45 from Wednesday are not solely the product of newfound opportunity in Brooklyn. He tallied at least 21 points in each of his final six games with the Phoenix Suns and 11 of his last 13. Over his past 18 games, including three with Brooklyn, he’s averaging 22.7 points on 60.4 percent true shooting.

Phoenix entrusted him with a grander slice of the creation pie this season, both to accentuate his development and because Devin Booker and Chris Paul missed extensive time. The Suns presumably wanted to unearth another perimeter handler, tap into Bridges’ potential to be that guy, and avoid the offensive pitfalls of their last two playoff defeats, when far too much of the burden rested on Booker’s shoulders amid Paul’s scoring decline.

Before the trade, a career-high 29 percent of his shots were unassisted, according to Cleaning The Glass. He ran more pick-and-rolls, nestled himself into midrange pull-ups from the wings, and sought mismatches inside via post-ups or deep seals.

Those trends have continued in Brooklyn. Thirty-eight percent of his field goals are unassisted through three games. Without Paul or Booker around, as well as someone like Deandre Ayton inside to release pressure — Nicolas Claxton is excellent, but in a much different manner — Bridges is assuming an even bigger ball-handling role. Outside of Spencer Dinwiddie, nobody else in the Nets’ starting lineup creates as often as Bridges. Even when you expand that out to the entire rotation, only Cam Thomas joins Dinwiddie above him, and he’s a reserve playing 20ish minutes a night. Head coach Jacque Vaughn also intends to grant Bridges the requisite ball-handling latitude.

Not all of this is solely about the autonomy Bridges’ teams are presenting him. Individually, he’s become much less tepid and amped up his aggression. There’s a diligent assurance in how he hunts shots now, far less wired to solely finish plays or keep the ball movement flowing. When something is schemed for him or he senses a crease, he strikes. A career-high 33 percent of his field goals are pull-up jumpers, a substantial spike from last season’s career-high of 24.5 percent. Those numbers are nearly identical pre- and post-trade as well — it was at 33 percent as a member of the Suns and it is at 34 percent during his short time in Brooklyn.

One of his more notable limitations as an initiator is his handle. A bit loose and robotic, it poses issues in traffic and hinders his driving game. To counter those shortcomings, Bridges has maximized the scope of his 6’6 frame and 7’1 wingspan. He spirals around defenders and reaches where he wishes to venture. He surveys the floor before attacking. His 7.5 drives per game blow past last season’s career-high of 4.4. A year prior, he was at 3.5. He’s more than doubled that clip in the span of two seasons, an indicator of his heightened assertiveness.

Given his physical tools, midrange comfort, and elevated release point, bothering his intermediate pull-ups is quite challenging. He’s also dishing out some physicality rather than being neutralized by it offensively. The blueprint for virtually everything he’s doing with the Nets arose in Phoenix this season. It’s merely referred to more often nowadays.

Bridges’ budding creation is so encouraging because none of it has silenced his longstanding off-ball prowess. Ten of his 17 makes on Wednesday came via assists. He’s still a premier and perceptive cutter. On the break, his length and keen recognition of space overwhelm defenders en route to layups or dunks. When someone else commandeers the half-court offense, his spot-up prowess (40.7 percent on catch-and-shoot triples this season) ensures he remains a prominent threat. If defenses fully commit to prevent his quality outside looks, he’s similarly adept burning closeouts. In a series of words that keep popping up: The Suns utilized all of these traits for years. Early on, the Nets are doing the same. He’s routinely fashioning easy chances.

Bridges is 26 years old. His prime is just beginning. Brooklyn, as currently constructed, is not a title contender. Yet it’s easy to envision a world where he slots in as a malleable secondary or tertiary offensive option for a championship-caliber club. Once almost exclusively confined to cutting, transition reps, and off-ball shooting in the NBA, has proven that he’s a bona fide second-side creator this season.

And of course, while all of this analyzes the steps forward he’s taken as an offensive player, there is also the fact he’s the reigning Defensive Player of the Year runner-up and one of the league’s foremost perimeter stoppers. Bridges has struggled throughout various points of his last two playoff runs because of timid offensive touches and certain matchups mitigating his defensive impact (see: Doncic, Luka).

Both events could transpire again, but he seems much better prepared whenever that next go-round comes, which could be as soon as two months away — while the Nets traded away two All-NBA caliber player, they currently are 2.5 games up on the 7-seed in the Eastern Conference, six games up on the 9-seed, and 8.5 games ahead of the 11-seed with 24 games left this season. They might not need the play-in tournament to earn a postseason berth, but if they do, they will almost certainly get two shots (if needed) to secure a spot in the playoffs.

Bridges’ offense bloomed this year in Phoenix. The franchise clearly believed in his eventual stardom and wanted to facilitate its arrival. His new team evidently feels similarly and is providing him the runway to actualize it. The norm certainly won’t be 45 points moving forward. But Wednesday’s dominance was an apt summation of his strides and the possibilities that lay head as he helps usher in this era of Brooklyn basketball.

I will die on the “Chance The Rapper’s debut album The Big Day was good” hill, but while I might be up there alone, almost no one disputes the opinion that the Chicagoan’s second mixtape, Acid Rap, was a stone-cold classic.

With the tape’s 10th anniversary coming up soon — time is, after all, a flat circle and expeditious as hell, besides — Chance told his fans on Twitter that he’s thinking about holding a virtual concert to celebrate. This is good marketing because if there was one artist who excelled at the virtual concert format throughout the pandemic, it’s Chance. “What songs do I absolutely need to do?” he asked the digital audience.

Naturally, the results began pouring in almost immediately, with fans requesting (demanding, really) such favorite tracks as “Juice,” “Cocoa Butter Kisses,” and “Everybody’s Something” (okay, fine, two of those are my personal favorites and I’ll let you, dear reader, figure out which ones). One user Chance retweeted just straight up said “all of them” — and that might not be a terrible idea, even though Chance did say only “5 or 6 songs” from the tape.

Acid Rap was originally released on April 30, 2013, so Chance has a little over two months to figure it out — and once he’s locked down a date/venue for the concert, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Ernest Withers lived a complicated life that elicits equally complicated feelings from those who knew him. To the public, he was an incredible photographer who captured millions of images from historic scenes like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s first marches, the Emmett Till murder trial, and early performances of musical legends like BB King, Elvis Presley, and more. After his death, however, it was revealed that he was also a long-time FBI informant who accepted as much as today’s equivalent of $170,000 in payments.

Phil Bertelsen, an Emmy and Peabody-winning director and producer, has been working on The Picture Taker (now streaming on PBS) for 16 years, telling the story of a man who lived two very distinct lives and how his friends, family, and fans of his work each come to terms with his legacy.

Uproxx had the chance to speak with Bertelsen shortly after the film premiered o talk about how long he’d been working on the story and how he depicted the life of the late photographer with such a complicated past.

How did you first hear about Ernest Withers and what spoke to you about his story?

Well, to be honest, the film was a dedication to a man named St. Clair Bourne, a trailblazing Black documentarian, who made stories about the life of Paul Robeson, John Henrick Clark, and Gordon Parks, just to name a few. Ernest Withers was his last subject before he and Ernest himself died within two months of each other. And this was before the revelations about him being an FBI informant had been made public. Saint died making a film about a civil rights photographer and I inherited a film about a civil rights photographer who was shown to be an FBI informant. For me, that’s kind of the evolution of the story. Saint was a mentor to me, so I finished his last film and it was nothing like the film (he) started.

The film asks viewers to juxtapose the legacy of Ernest as this iconic photographer and chronicler of the community who was also an FBI informant informing on that exact same community. Did your perspective about Ernest change?

It’s an interesting question. My perspective on Ernest never changed so much as it evolved and is still evolving. As I deepen my understanding of his legacy of work as a photographer, deepen my knowledge of his role as an informant, my opinion of him got increasingly complex and complicated. At times he was a hero to me and other times a traitor to me, but, ultimately, he was neither and he’s both.

It’s difficult to express how complicated it is to come to know a man like that whose work really is profound and irreplaceable and to think that he may have put his friends and neighbors at risk, either by arrest or in some cases death. You know, it’s troubling. At the end of the day, I refuse to think of him as one thing. He’s a lot of things and as his picture got more complicated, so did my own opinion of him.

It can be challenging to tell a story about such a nuanced person who is no longer living. How did you counteract that while making this film?

Only Ernest knew why Ernest did what he did. And Ernest took that to the grave. So in an effort to give him a voice in this film, we made every effort to use found footage of him talking about his life and his career to make him as much a narrator of his own story as we possibly could. What you will find in the film are early sound bites from Ernest’s journey through the years. I think the earliest video we have of him is probably in the early 90s up until the last known video of him alive, which was shot by St. Clair Bourne in 2007. So you get this kind of 20-year stretch of time, from the man whose career stretches 60 years.

It’s got to be difficult to tell that much story in an hour and a half. Is there anything left on the cutting room floor you would’ve liked to keep?

Different things, quite honestly. Again, here’s a man, whose life spans 80-plus years, and whose career spans 60-plus years and we only tell about 15 to 20 years of that time, for the sake of storytelling. There’s a whole nother chapter, at least, left on his role as a father of nine children, which is worthy of a film in and of itself. To be a Black family in the segregated south and somehow manage to send all your children to college, some of who go on to elected office and government positions that give Ernest access to the White House. I mean, that’s a significant story that we couldn’t even begin to tell. But that’s just a slice of what’s left on the cutting room floor to say nothing of the 1.8 million images that he photographed. Only 350 or so more are in the film.

This may be an oversimplification, but I felt Ernest kind of had a Forrest Gump quality by always being around important people during important moments. Did that play a role in some of the people you got to appear in this film?

It was all a function of the fact that Ernest was Forrest Gump. He knew everybody and touched every life, so when the news broke about him being an informant, I immediately thought that I wanted to hear from the leaders of the movement, who knew him to be that guy embedded in their movement, who he was on a first name basis with. By all accounts, if the movement came through Memphis, then on Saturday they were all at the Withers house and Dot was making brunch for everybody. To get Reverend [Joseph] Lowery, to get Kathleen Cleaver, and to get Jesse Jackson was just a matter of asking, and scheduling, obviously. But they all knew him and they all had something to say about him and what he did and what he didn’t do.

People were very eager to talk about his life and career, but not so eager to throw him under the bus. I did notice that there was a general reluctance to condemn him for what he did across the board with, you know, a few exceptions. Now there were those out there who were adversely impacted by him. For whatever reason, you know, they weren’t willing to sit before our cameras. So, it’s a complicated story, and people have their reasons for wanting to speak or not speak.

Courtney B. Vance was another matter altogether. He, like most people, today, discovers Ernest when they wander down Beale Street after one of those nights and see the lights on in this gallery and looks around and sees these photographs. Courtney became a collector and a real advocate for the collection and that’s how he ended up being in the film alongside Carl Hickson, both of whom have taken a great interest in digitizing the collection for its own preservation.

One of the most fascinating parts of this documentary for me was seeing how he helped get the photographer who captured the famous photo of the moment immediately after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Ernest didn’t get that shot, but he played a major role in its release.

You know, it’s interesting. You point out that photograph because that whole story when you hear ‘FBI informant,’ ‘Memphis’ and ‘1960s,’ you immediately think, ‘Oh, man, that’s where Dr. King was murdered. Wasn’t the FBI involved in that? Could Ernest have somehow gotten his hands dirty with that?’ At least that was the question on everyone’s mind when these allegations, and what turned out to be revelations, about him came through.

That photograph was taken by the documentarian Joe Louw, who was not a still photographer, but a filmmaker who had the presence of mind to get his camera and take that shot of folks on the balcony pointing to the assassin – that legendary shot. In my view, if Ernest had any prior knowledge or role alongside the FBI in conspiring to kill Dr. King, he would have botched that role. That role was given to him to develop and if he was in any way, a co-conspirator in that assassination, why not just pull that roll? That roll is really the only evidence there is about who may have done what they did. And he sits there full of pride and gives you perfect development.

He and Danny got that man out of town and on a plane back to New York so those photos could be printed in Life Magazine the following week. For me, that photograph was evidence that Ernest had no role whatsoever in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

‘The Picture Taker’ is available to stream now on PBS

Mean Girls, the upcoming movie-musical based on the musical that’s based on a movie that’s based on the bestselling parenting book from 2002, is shaping up to either be really good or really depressing, depending on how they approach it. Are people really into musicals right now? Not really! But revivals are having their own moments, and even if it ends up being underwhelming, it couldn’t possibly be as bad as Mean Girls 2.

The good news is that Tina Fey, who wrote the screenplay and starred in the original film, confirmed that she will be coming back, because what’s high school without your favorite math teacher with her own slew of emotional problems?

Fey stopped to chat with her former co-worker Seth Meyers to promote her upcoming comedy tour when she made the announcement that she would be heading back to school amongst the terrifying teens. “Teachers work forever,” she joked, “I want it to be like when Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island would be at a trade show and you’d be like, ‘Oh, he looks so old in his little hat.’ That’s my goal.”

The comedian, who played Ms. Norbury (the math teacher who has to wrangle all of those mean teens), also revealed that Tim Meadows would be reprising his role, though she didn’t say if he would be belting out any tunes. The upcoming musical will also stay Angourie Rice as Cady, Auli’i Cravalho as Janis, Jaquel Spivey, and Reneé Rapp, who previously starred as the queen bee Regina George in the Broadway adaptation.

Even though we probably won’t get any of the other original cast members, here’s to hoping we get to see Fey using her singing chops. Who could possibly forget her dazzling musical number in the British Academy Children’s award-winning Muppets Most Wanted?

(Via Deadline)

Liam Neeson isn’t holding back his thoughts on the current state of Star Wars. The actor, who famously played the venerable Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, is apparently not a big fan of the recent crop of spinoff projects, which have predominantly appeared on Disney+. Naturally, this is anathema to anyone who rightly worships at the adorable feet of Baby Yoda, but let’s hear the man out.

While appearing on Watch What Happens Live, Neeson shot down a question about whether he’d be interested in doing his own series similar to last year’s Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“No, I’m not,” Neeson said bluntly. “There’s so many spinoffs of Star Wars. It’s diluting it to me, and it’s taken away the mystery and the magic in a weird way.”

However, Neeson did have somewhat good things to say about (very briefly) reprising his role of Qui-Gon Jinn for Obi-Wan.

“It was nice to do the little bit with Ewan after 25 years,” Neeson said before turning to Paul Rudd who he just assumed had no idea what was happening. “You know, I did a TV version, and I appeared in the last episode. I had three lines to say, two lines. And that was cool. I loved it. That’s it.”

As for how Neeson was talked into his Obi-Wan appearance despite not being a fan of the constant spinoffs, well, that’s simple. He doesn’t want anyone else touching the part.

“I certainly didn’t want anyone else playing Qui-Gon Jinn,” Neeson told The Hollywood Reporter following the season finale back in June. “And I wanted to show my respect for George [Lucas] and that mythical world that he created. Plus, Ewan [McGregor] is a pal.”

(Via Variety)

Shaquille O’Neal has never been one to hold back an opinion on a big man. Whether he’s praising someone like Nikola Jokic or setting a high bar for a guy like Joel Embiid to clear, Shaq views himself as an important voice when it comes to centers in the sport of basketball, which makes sense because he was one of the best for a very long time.

One frequent source of Shaq’s ire is Dwight Howard, who famously gave himself one of Shaq’s most prominent nicknames, “Superman.” Shaq has called out Howard numerous times over the years, and on the latest edition of “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” Candace Parker brought Howard up during a conversation about how some guys need to go overseas to continue their careers as they get older — Howard, who has expressed his desire to play in the NBA again, is currently playing for the Taoyuan Leopards of the T1 League in Taiwan.

The mere mention of Howard got a laugh out of Shaq, who has criticized Howard for his current situation in the past and decided to mock him this time around.

It is unclear why Shaq believes that Taiwan is “not overseas,” but he is correct that Howard’s team has a losing record. The team is 3-11 right now (he has played in all three of their wins), with Howard appearing in eight games and averaging 24 points, 14.1 rebounds, 6.1 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game.

22-year-old artist Rema — who has been praised by Barack Obama and Drake and is set to perform at NBA All-Star Weekend — is rising ever since the release of his debut album Rave & Roses last year. It definitely helps that he’s teamed up with superstars for collaborations such as Selena Gomez for “Calm Down” and FKA Twigs for “Jealousy.”

Rema is back today with the new songs “Holiday” and “Reason You.” “Holiday” comes with a video that watches Rema biking around, dancing in the grocery store, and just having fun with his friends while he raps. There are drinks and video games to really prove the hook: “Every day is a holiday.”

“Reason You” is a slower, more melancholy track, grappling with past relationships against a gloomy beat. Still, the track hits, showing Rema’s impressive musicianship — he can make anthems that make listeners want to dance, as well as tear-jerkers.

Gomez didn’t only work with Rema, but the singer also expressed her enthusiasm for the collaboration. “I’m really excited to see the person that asked me to be on a song that I couldn’t be more honored to do,” she said. “The song’s fun, I hope people like it. That’s all I want.”

Watch the video for “Holiday” above; listen to “Reason You” below.

The McDonald’s Celebrity Meals are evolving and not in a good way. Let us take you back in time to 1991 when McDonald’s introduced its first celebrity meal — The McJordan Special. This Michael Jordan-centric meal, made to commemorate the Bull’s Championship run, consisted of a Quarter Pounder with a special cut of smoked bacon, and a new blend of BBQ Sauce. Without tasting it we can conclude that that meal is dope because it’s special.

It’s not something you can just walk into a McDonald’s and order at any time. It’s unique and crafted (“crafted” is relative, this is fast food).

For whatever reason, McDonald’s gave up on the celebrity meals in the ’90s and ’00s but brought them back in in the ’20s (likely because of Covid-19 killing innovation in fast food) with the Travis Scott Meal, BTS Meal, J Balvin Meal, and Saweetie meal. Unfortunately, with the exception of one of those meals (the BTS meal which included two special off-menu sauces) these branded meals didn’t bring anything new to the table and instead consisted of foods that are permanent fixtures on the menu. While this is frustrating for a food writer who gets excited by new menu offerings, it seems to be working for the hungry masses — it certainly doesn’t look like McDonald’s has any intention to stop with these low-effort celebrity meals.

This brings us to the latest branded combo, this week’s Cardi B and Offset Meal.

In a move of admittedly genius marketing (seriously, watch the commercial), McDonald’s is giving us our first dual celebrity-branded combo in the Cardi B and Offset Meal which consists of a cheeseburger with a side of tangy BBQ sauce (Cardi B’s contribution) and a Quarter Pounder with Cheese (Offset), a shareable order of Large Fries, an Apple Pie and two large drinks, a Coca-Cola and a Hi-C Orange Lavaburst all for the price of $15.89.

Naturally, that might lead you to ask “is that cheaper than normal?” Yes! I added up all the elements independently and got a total of $17.04, so this meal meets the criteria of being a “deal”… but considering it’s just two of the most basic ass orders imaginable combined into one shareable meal, consider us sufficiently disappointed. This isn’t the McJordan Special or the BTS Meal, it’s a pure cash grab that offers absolutely nothing new.

So — and we can’t believe we’re asking this — is the Cardi B Offset Meal any good? We found out by sampling it. Yes, that’s right, we’re reviewing a McDonald’s Cheeseburger, a Quarter Pounder, and an Apple Pie. Let’s dive in.

The Cardi B Offset Meal — REVIEWED

Despite that very sad-looking burger above, it’s good! I know, I know I just spent a couple of paragraphs complaining about the lack of innovation here, but if we’re coming at this from a flavor perspective, I can’t pretend that this meal isn’t tasty. The cheeseburger, while pathetically thin, is what McDonald’s does best. There is something about the way the diced onions, ketchup, pickles, mustard, and weird plastic-y cheese come together that is so addicting. The only way Cardi B’s burger could be any better is if it was a double.

Since it came with a side of BBQ sauce I took the liberty of dipping the burger and… well it tasted like a McDonald’s cheeseburger with some sweet smokey notes. Not exactly a game-changer.

Let’s talk about Offset’s burger for a second. In the commercial, Cardi B says Offset’s order is “a quarter-pounder, no onions just cheese,” and yet in this meal, the burger comes standard. This means we’re not even eating Offset’s f*cking burger! What gives McDonald’s? To add insult to injury, I think the onions, which are sliced instead of diced, are part of the reason the Quarter Pounder isn’t quite as good as the regular stock cheeseburger.

It gives the burger an entirely different flavor, the onion notes come across as much more prominent despite having all of the same toppings. So not only is Offset’s burger not actually Offset’s burger, it tastes the most strongly of the very thing he doesn’t even want on his burger!

It’s like McDonald’s heard Offset’s order and said “Da fuq? This guy doesn’t get onions, pickles, or sauce on his burger? We can’t let that fly, we’re a business!”

Having said all that, the Quarter Pounder is still a good burger, and offers a meatier bite than a regular cheeseburger, though we’d still argue the Double Cheeseburger is the move. The fries, as expected, are delicious. My meal was Door Dash’d to me and they were still able to hold up surprisingly well. The apple pie is a nice delicious sugar bomb of a snack, but it seems cruel that you’re expected to share it when McDonald’s could’ve easily thrown a second pie in there.

The Bottom Line:

If you want to get a Quarter Pounder, a cheeseburger, a large order of fries, an apple pie, and two large drinks for about $2 cheaper, then this deal is for you. But as a fan of Cardi B, Offset, and fast food, this half-assed meal concept just breaks my heart.

Find your nearest McDonald’s here.

What do you get when you combine a hilarious Boyz II Men remake, Paul Rudd singing about a beanie, a heartwarming obituary and a sling-shotting squirrel with perfect aim?

You get Upworthy’s list of 10 things that made us smile this week. Naturally.

These roundups are always an eclectic mix of delightful finds, and this week’s list is no exception. Joy can be found in so many places in so many ways, and it’s fun to see what trips people’s smile triggers.

If you’re looking for something to lift your spirits, something in this list is sure to do the trick. Enjoy!

1. Daughter shows her deaf mom Rihanna’s interpreter at the Super Bowl and it’s so wholesome.

@mylifeasbella

#duet with @rollingstone My mom didn’t watch the superbowl so this was her first time seeing this and SHE LOOOVED 🤩 #fyp #deafparents #ASL #rihanna #reaction #coda #xyzbca

The way she starts to jam! Priceless. Read the full story here.

2. A baby started crying on a flight and three older women came to the rescue.

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It really does take a village, even when your village is a temporary one 30,000 feet in the air. Here’s to the kindness and helpfulness of strangers.

3. Boys II Men remade ‘I’ll Make Love To You’ for long-time couples and it’s hilariously spot on.

“I’ll make love to you like you want me to. Unless you’re too tired, because I’m tired too.” Oh my gosh. Nailed it. Read the full story here.

4. Daughter’s viral TikTok made her indie author dad a bestseller overnight.

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The internet has its problems, but it also has a whole lot of beautiful moments. Check out dad’s reaction to finding out the book he spent 14 years writing was selling out on Amazon and read the full story here.

5. Emmy-winner Bob Weide’s obituary for his wife of 25 years is a heartwarming viral love story.

u201cIt is with profound sadness that I report my dear, sweet wife, Linda Weide, of blessed memory, passed away on Christmas Day. My tribute to her in the L.A. Times only scratches the surface. If you click on the attached, please read to the end. You would have loved her.u201d

— Robert B. Weide (@Robert B. Weide)
1676137767

It may seem odd to put an obituary in a “things that made us smile” list, but this one deserves it. It’s a wonderful tribute to his wife Linda, wrapped up with a perfect last line: “For those who never knew her, I’m sorry for your loss.” Read the sweet love story here.

6. Dad captures his son’s pure joy riding his bike and his giggle is infectious.

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There’s nothing better than the sound of a child experiencing genuine delight. So precious.

7. Squirrel slingshots a chipmunk off its pad with perfect aim.

u201cThe squirrel knew exactly what he was doing.. ud83dude02u201d

— Buitengebieden (@Buitengebieden)
1676195400

(Pardon me while I watch this half a dozen more times.)

8. Paul Rudd and Jimmy Fallon’s ‘Teenie Weenie Beanie’ song just gets funnier and funnier.

Give it 45 seconds to get to the best parts. I promise, “teenie weenie beanie on a tub of Vaseline-y” is worth it. Read the full story here.

9. Sound up to see why this dog’s perfectly timed side-eye got 10 million views.

@noodleandtilde

feel like someone in this room might have been part of the survey (original credit @Paddy)

Yep, Noodle is most definitely judging you. Read more about Noodle’s constant side-eyes here.

10. Let’s take some lessons in stealth and precision from this brilliant ragdoll cat.

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Talk about walking in someone’s footsteps! Impressive. And the way it took one step into the snow and said, “Nope.” Totally felt that.

Hope you found some reasons to smile here! If you’d like to have these posts delivered straight to your inbox each week, subscribe to our free email newsletter, The Upworthiest, here.

Because the area experiences rainfall year round, it’s not uncommon to see giant waterfalls spontaneously fall from the plateau’s cliffs. And on cloudy days, the tepui more closely resembles some kind of sky island.

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In other words, it’s magical. The indigenous Pemón and Kapon certainly felt this way. According to their folklore, Mount Roraima is the stump of a sacred tree that once held all the fruits and tuberous vegetables of the world. The tree was struck down by the trickster god Makunaima, unleashing a terrible flood.

Throughout history, Mount Roraima has enchanted Native tribes and travelers alike. English explorer Sir Walter Raleigh climbed it in 1596 on his quest to find the legendary golden city of El Dorado. His findings were said to have inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel “The Lost World,” which depicts an expedition to a plateau in the Amazon basin of South America where prehistoric animals still survive.

Being home to several species of plants and animals that can only be found on the plateau—including carnivorous pitcher plants and the black and yellow Roraima Bush Toad, which is listed as a vulnerable species—it’s no wonder that Mount Roraima helped bring science fiction worlds to life.

Mount Roraima isn’t the only real-world place that helped create Pandora, by the way. China’s Zhangjiajie National Forest Park, Hawaii’s Hamakua Coast, Jamaica’s Bioluminescent Lagoon, New Zealand’s Glowworm Caves and the caves of Thailand’s Khao Sok National Park are just some of the filming locations used for “Avatar” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” collectively.

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Many of us love to watch movies that transport us to mystical imaginary places, but the planet we live on has so much natural beauty to marvel at.