Category: Viral

As the first press secretary for Donald Trump, then-future Dancing with the Stars contestant Sean Spicer kicked off his residency in high fashion: by lying to the press. He thundered that the 45th president’s inauguration drew bigger crowds than they did. It set a template for his successors to follow. So when Spicer got his military milestones mixed up, it only seemed fitting for a guy infamous for bending the truth.

Wednesday was the 81st anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, when the Japanese army finally drew the United States into World War II. You wouldn’t know that if you followed Spicer on Twitter. Instead, you’d think it was the day of another WWII turning point. “Today is Dday,” he tweeted. “It only lives in infamy if we remember and share the story of sacrifice with the next generation.” He hashtagged it “#DDay.”

Alas, the Normandy landings, which laid the foundations for the Allied forces to vanquish the Axis powers, happened over the summer of 1944, on June 6. Spicer was over two years and seven months off. Spicer deleted the bumbling tweet and apologized, but only after he’d been suitably dragged for his error.

Enough people screengrabbed the gaffe before it was taken down, prompting lots and lots of jokes.

To make matters worse, Spicer should know his military history: He joined the Navy in 1999, and is currently a commander.

Some wondered if Spider knew what “infamy” meant, and whether he knew it was not a good thing.

At least this was misinformation Spicer didn’t spread purposefully. Besides, unlike one guy who almost became a GOP congressman, he probably knows how many states there are in America.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is among the top wide receiver prospects in the 2023 NFL Draft. Smith-Njigba managed to put up monster numbers during the 2021 campaign despite playing for an Ohio State team that also had Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, both of whom were selected in the first round earlier this year, lining up at receiver.

The reason he did not come close to replicating those numbers in 2022 stems from a lingering hamstring issue that limited him to five catches and 43 yards. He got hurt against Notre Dame in the season opener and tried to come back twice, only to aggravate it both times. It’s led to him sitting out of Ohio State’s upcoming College Football Playoff appearance, and according to Todd McShay of ESPN, this is rubbing NFL people the wrong way.

“NFL scouts would love to see him play, and there are a lot of reports from NFL scouts that I’ve talked to that said he’s healthy enough to play, and he’s protecting himself for the Draft,” McShay said. “And I’ve got news for every prospect out there: NFL teams know, they know what you had for lunch last Thursday, they’re gonna know whether you’re healthy or not, and if you’re healthy enough to play, you need to be out there with your teammates playing.”

While McShay said there’s no guarantee this will hurt Smith-Njigba’s stock, he pointed out that there were things scouts wanted to see him do coming into this year. But the implication that the now-former Buckeye is sitting out to protect his position in the Draft did not sit well with his family, as Smith-Njigba’s mother and brother, the latter of whom plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates, expressed their disappointment in McShay.

“I want to be out there competing with my brothers more than anything,” Smith-Njigba told ESPN’s Pete Thamel earlier this week. “The decision to turn pro was made after I was unable to come back on multiple occasions during the season and the doctors determined I would be unable to participate in the playoffs.”

Smith-Njigba caught 95 balls for 1,606 yards and nine touchdowns last season. He had the most productive game in Rose Bowl history during the Buckeyes’ win over the Utah Utes to end the year, as he registered 15 receptions for 347 yards and three scores. Smith-Njigba told Thamel he plans to participate in the NFL Draft Combine, which begins on Feb. 28, 2023.

Your favorite rappers aren’t speaking in code; you’re just not hip to their lingo. From onomatopoeias to alliterations, an artist’s chosen lyrical content help tells the stories and paint pictures of music culture from around the globe. West coast rappers have always added their own flair to hip-hop’s dictionary. As corny as it sounds, “fo shizzle/fa shizzle” became the go-to way to say “for sure” thanks to Snoop Dogg’s “Suited N Booted.” And we can’t forget E-40 teaching us how to ghost-ride the whip!

Ready for some new additions to your West coast rap vocabulary? Look no further than Uproxx’s Cherise Johnson’s sitdown with SoCal’s Kalan.FrFr as he decodes phrases like “light speed” from his song “Light Breeze,” the dating moniker “sweet tea,” and the exotic car nickname “toys.” Nevertheless, it’s safe to say Kalan has been on a winning streak all of 2022. His most recent album, 222, which helms production by Hit-Boy, JetsonMade, and more, saw major streaming success. Also, we can’t forget his Made In America set and “TwoFr Tour,” bolstered by appearances from fellow Cali rap homies Blxst and 1Take Jay as well as R&B singer Mario and the enchanting Rubi Rose.

Outside of FrFr Language, catch Kalan and his Cali swag for UPROXX Sessions performing the song “Light Breeze” and his past performance of “Never Lose You.”

You can watch Kalan.FrFr’s FrFr Language for Uproxx Music up top.

Set your calendars. The annual Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival (more commonly referred to by the shorthand Coachella) has been confirmed for April 2023. The annual multi-day outdoor event is almost always one of the most highly anticipated musical events of the year. From stylish fashions, and a wide array of food options to unique visual art installations, there are so many things to do on the grounds of the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.

But to be frank, most attendees are there for one reason only, the epic music concert. Last year’s concert lineup was epic, even after Kanye West dropped out. “Bad Buy” singer Billie Eilish had a trippy set, as well as Harry Styles and The Weeknd. So with ticket packages going on sale soon, the question is, when will 2023’s lineup be revealed?

Last year’s lineup wasn’t announced until mid-January, so it is safe to assume we can expect an announcement around that same time, which gives attendees a few weeks to gather up their coins to snap a ticket. Additionally, festival promoter Paul Tollett ensures R&B singer Frank Ocean is still slated to be one of the following year’s headliners after the 2020 festival was canceled due to COVID.

The 2023 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival is set to take place across two weekends in April of 2023. The first week is April 14 through 16, and the second weekend is April 21 through 23.

To order your tickets, click here.

The most famous music festival in the world will return to the California desert next year after an eventful and historical 2022. The dates for Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival have been set for April 14-16, as well as April 21-23. Fans looking to get a jump on the tickets for the coveted festival before the lineup is announced can do so on Friday, June 17.

Next year’s festival already looks like another momentous one, as co-founder Paul Tollett said Frank Ocean would make his long-awaited return to the Coachella stage. While the remaining headliners and other performers have yet to be announced, judging from the most recent example in 2022 and the pre-pandemic show in 2019, there’ll be a massive variety in artists taking the stage, with some of music’s biggest stars closing it out.

In 2022, Billie Eilish and Harry Styles headlined, while Brockhampton played one of their final shows as a group. Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar surprised fans at his cousin Baby Keem’s set, and Doja Cat made a case for a headlining set of her own.

Unfortunately, Coachella fans who purchased the festival’s NFTs to secure a lifetime ticket may be out of luck unless the organizers can sort out the mess left behind by the FTX crash. They’re working on that now; for the rest of us, it might just be safer to buy tickets the old-fashioned way for the time being.

Following Mindy Kaling‘s debatable remarks about how every character on The Office would be “cancelled” today, The View panel discussed how classic comedies would go over in today’s social media-addicted world. Whoopi Goldberg, in particular, went after critics of Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, and the outspoken co-host pushed back on criticism that the movie goes way too far with its satire of racism.

Via Entertainment Weekly:

“It deals with racism by coming at it right, straight, out front, making you think and laugh about it, because, listen, it’s not just racism, it’s all the isms, he hits all the isms,” the Oscar-winning actress said. “Blazing Saddles, because it’s a great comedy, would still go over today. There are a lot of comedies that are not good, okay? We’re just going to say that. That’s not one of them. Blazing Saddles is one of the greatest because it hits everybody.”

Not content with just offering an impassioned defense of the film, Goldberg encouraged audiences to literally watch it today. “If you’ve never seen Blazing Saddles, you should do yourself a favor, get some popcorn, get a glass of wine, and put it on,” Goldberg said, “because it’s magnificent.”

As the rest of the panel brought up other examples including Joy Behar who went to bat for Archie Bunker in the classic sitcom, All in the Family, Goldberg took things one step further by firing a warning at Twitter critics who really don’t want to find out if she’s playing.

“Leave my Blazing Saddles alone,” Goldberg said. “Don’t make me come for you!”

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

One-time Trump supporter Ann Coulter is now dragging the twice-impeached president, blaming him for the embarrassing loss Republicans suffered in the recent Georgia runoff.

Coulter, who initially backed Trump’s run for office in 2016, has spent the last few years skewering the GOP’s golden boy for not delivering on his promises, not appealing to the white working class, and distracting from the MAGA message. Now, she’s pinning Herschel Walker’s Senate defeat on Trump too, accusing him of saddling Republicans with a weak candidate and then distracting voters with his voter fraud rants online and on the campaign trail.

“The former president is now responsible for losing three successive Senate seats in the state of Georgia. That’s in addition to losing 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms, losing the presidential election in 2020, and losing seat after seat in this year’s midterms — a year that should have been a Republican sweep,” Coulter wrote in her newsletter. “Instead of crime, the border, and inflation, Trump demanded that GOP candidates fixate on his “stolen” election.”

After pointing out that Trump refused to give any money to Walker’s runoff campaign, hoarding donations Republicans could’ve used in the race to pay for his extensive legal fees, Coulter trashed her former presidential pick by claiming he’s the weak link that is slowly destroying the GOP.

“The fact that Herschel Walker barely lost his Senate runoff in Georgia demonstrates beyond a doubt that any other Republican candidate would’ve won. We have to get to the bottom of who chose Herschel,” Coulter continued. “It’s not as if running for office had been Walker’s lifelong dream. Trump picked him. Why? Because Walker had played for Trump’s United States Football League and was a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice. That’s how Trump picks candidates.”

Coulter is also pissed about how expensive Walker’s runoff became, suggesting Trump should’ve footed the bill.

“Trying to save Walker turned an election that should have been a cakewalk into the most expensive race in the country — money that Republicans really could have used elsewhere,” she said before noting how Trump-backed candidates in other races lost by a large margin in the recent midterms. “I think the voters were trying to send a message: Please just give us a normal Republican.”

Bold to assume any Republican candidate can be labeled “normal” in this day and age, but the message from Coulter and other fair-weather Trumpers seems to be clear: Trump’s losing streak has turned him from a dark horse candidate to the horse no one wants to back anymore.

Things have been rough for DaBaby since his infamous Rolling Loud festival performance in July 2021. As a reminder, it was then that, on stage in front of many people, he decided it would be a good idea to say things like, “If you didn’t show up today with HIV, AIDS, any of them deadly sexual transmitted diseases that make you die in two or three weeks, then put your cell phone light in the air,” and, “Fellas, if you ain’t suck a n****’s dick in the parking lot, put your cell phone light in the air.”

The rapper quickly insisted his words were taken out of context and “twisted up.” Regardless, since then, DaBaby has lost business deals, been removed from festival lineups, and the version of Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” featuring him fell out of favor. This past October, DaBaby said this whole situation has cost him “$100 million within a year’s span.”

Now, the backlash continues, and this time, it’s coming from a lion.

As TMZ reports, the rapper was recently visiting the Al Buqaish Private Zoo in Dubai, and a video shows him hanging out with a leashed lion. As he makes Lion King references to it, the animal at one point seems to take exception to how DaBaby is holding the chain leash and raises its head, which startled the rapper and prompted him to hand the reigns off to somebody else off camera.

Fortunately for DaBaby, while that first lion blamed it on Baby, different clips show him interacting with other animals and enjoying the zoo facilities without issue.

As you can imagine, the British Royals are not thrilled about the Harry & Megan docuseries coming to Netflix soon. This was to be expected, given that the Palace pushed back against Season 5 of The Crown because it (fictionally) presented Prince-Now-King Charles in an even more negative light than Season 4 did. Yet this new docuseries seems to have struck a personal nerve with Prince William and Duchess Kate, perhaps since (as Meghan detractor Piers Morgan noted), the trailer happened to arrive while Prince William and Duchess Kate toured the U.S.

As a result, US Weekly now publishes word from an insider who claims, “Kate and William were left flummoxed when the Netflix trailer aired during their trip to Boston.” This person added, “It’s put a huge amount of strain on relationships that are already hanging by a thread.”

There’s more from this source, who declared, “Harry and Meghan wear their heart on their sleeve in the docuseries and blow the lid off the prejudice they experienced at the palace.” And that’s (reportedly) especially upsetting to William, who US Weekly asserts is “very, very angry with his brother,” along with the entire family being “horrified” by what materialized in this trailer.

Future reactions should be interesting to watch.

Harry & Meghan will arrive in two parts: Part One (Eps 1-3) on December 8, and Part Two (Eps 4-6) on December 15.

As the invasion of Ukraine continues to be an ongoing embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, the embattled Russian president has reportedly already made plans to flee the country, should he be ousted from power. According to a former aide, Putin made the plans in the spring as it became clear that the invasion of Ukraine was not going to be a crushing demonstration of the Russian military’s strength. Instead, the embattled country has held off Russian forces and rallied the world to its cause.

Thanks to crippling economic situations and a chance at victory being practically non-existent, Putin is facing everything from assassination plots to outright civil war. Needless to say, he’s not about to stick around and find out how any of that goes.

Via The Daily Beast:

The evacuation plan, according to [former speechwriter Abbas] Gallyamov, got underway back in the spring, when it was unofficially dubbed “Noah’s Ark.”

“As the name implies, it’s about a search for new land to go to in case it becomes completely uncomfortable in the homeland. The leader’s entourage has not ruled out that he will lose the war, be stripped of power, and have to urgently evacuate somewhere,” Gallyamov wrote.

While China was originally an option, Putin is reportedly eyeing Argentina or Venezuela, but will probably choose the option with the least amount of stairs. According to reports, the Russian leader recently fell down a flight of stairs and pooped himself, which is again, not exactly a sign of strength as Putin’s time in power hangs by a thread.

And, yes, it’s not lost on us that both he and Donald Trump have issues with stairs. What are the odds?

(Via The Daily Beast)