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New VH1 series tells the origin story of iconic, viral YouTube videos

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For some YouTubers, a single video was all it took to catapult them to stardom. A new digital series from VH1 and What's Trending aims to capture the stories of creators and what made them Huge on the Tube.

"We approach a YouTuber that has not just built a career, but definitely had one video that threw them in the spotlight," series host Shira Lazar told the Daily Dot. "That’s a foundation for telling a bigger story. That one video is a bit of the entry way for it."

The series will dig deeper into the success of various YouTube celebrities, similar to VH1's Behind The Music franchise. The first episode features singer and dancer Todrick Hall, who explains the origin of his breakthrough Cinderonce video. 

"I’d never met [Todrick] before, but there’s camaraderie when you see these people because they’re all connected to each other in some way or another," Lazar said. "He’s such an outrageous personality. He taught me how to dance! To think about how excited he still is about what he does. A lot of people are doing this day in and day out on no budget, so for some of these creators to still be as enthusiastic as they were when they put up their first video. People get excited by excitement, they feed off of it."

The series marks a new partnership between Lazar's digital What's Trending empire with television outlet VH1.

"Even though I was a Canadian, coming to the states I remember watching MTV and VH1 was a big deal, watching Pop Up Video and Behind The Music," Lazar said. "I was part of a generation that grew up with networks like VH1, but I think that as things are shifting to digital and connecting to the next generation of viewers, we came together. VH1 was interested in YouTube culture and the world around that."

For Lazar, the VH1 partnership is just the first in further expanding What's Trending in new ways for 2015.

"People look at us like we’re a show, but we’re developing beyond that," she said. "We’re a dot com, we have social streams, and this is a way to get to a co-production with a partner that aligns with our philosophies, but allowed us to try a new format and take advantage of everything we love and are passionate about."

Future stars on the program will include Jenna Marbles, Grace Helbig, and Michelle Phan. The 12-episode series will roll out daily on VH1's YouTube channel.

Screengrab via VH1/YouTube


A former adult star is transitioning into comedy

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What happens when a former porn star tries standup? A new webseries is attempting to find the punchline.

Bree Does Comedy is a collaboration between Kimberly McVicar, star of Funny or Die's Kim Kardashian Show, and adult star Bree Olson, who has appeared in more than 250 films and was one of Charlie Sheen’s “goddesses,” once upon a time. A Kickstarter for the project was launched in early February to fund season 1. As of this writing, it's halfway there.

McVicar has background with improv groups like UCB, Second City, and the Groundlings, and explains she and Olson met through the L.A. comedy scene. The first time she saw her perform, Olson was playing the Virgin Mary in a Bethlehem manger scene, but in a low-cut dress. McVicar noticed when the two would be out together, they were treated differently. So she decided to write a show about an adult star who tries to cross over. 

Olson says she’s always “dabbled” in comedy—the Kickstarter page explains her first experience with comedic acting was Swallow My Squirt 5—but she’s also aware of how people view her and former porn stars who try to transition.  

“I’ve been out of the adult industry for three years, but there are a lot of people who hold on [to that], and a lot of my following doesn’t understand I’m not in the industry anymore,” she said. Olson adds that her name often hinders her chances of getting a callback, but she says she didn’t anticipate that when she left the business. There are positives and negatives post-porn, and the webseries explores that.

I asked Olson about some of her favorite comedians. “You better say me,” McVicar laughs. She also likes Amy Poehler and Sandra Bullock, and thinks Nathan Fielder is completely underrated.

McVicar already wrote all six episodes, and each tackles chapters in Olson’s journey: the audition, improv, standup, sketch, and the makeover/makeunder. McVicar plays the over-eager manager, and Grace Santos Feeney plays Grace, who's obsessed with Olson and pops up unexpectedly.

“[Grace] is based on a million people,” Olson said. “But I don’t put a restraining order on Grace like I do [some of] them.”

So are there parallels between porn and comedy?

“I think the scripts are similar,” Olson laughed. "It was interesting because most of my time in adult I spent doing films people fast forward through. I got accustomed to being on set and having heavy dialogue. Obviously there’s a huge difference in quality, but being on set is not that different at all.”

As for the series, if it’s successfully funded, McVicar says it should be out “before your taxes are due.”

Photo via Bree Does Comedy/YouTube 

Jimmy Fallon counts all the A-list celebs at the 'SNL' afterparty

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It doesn’t take much for Jimmy Fallon’s inner fanboy to come out, but when you put him in a room with a bunch of talented comedians and musicians, it will no doubt appear.

On his first show after Saturday Night Live’s 40th anniversary special, he spent a good chunk of the episode talking about the previous night. What starts off with a lot of name-dropping turns into the start of a crazy night once he and the other stars are put in a room with a bunch of instruments.

With the help of some liquid courage, he basically planned a setlist with some jabs and dares that easily tops the Grammys' ability to put two unlikely acts together and make it mesh. His performance with Taylor Swift and Sir Paul McCartney was only the beginning.

Like a Bill Murray sighting, it’s almost too insane to believe, but at least there’s proof.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

'Modern Family' pulls a Beyoncé and shoots new episode on iPhones

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Modern Family is going to get even more modern.

Like many upcoming filmmakers (and Beyoncé) before it, an upcoming episode of the Emmy-winning sitcom was filmed almost exclusively with Apple’s iPhone 6, iPads, and for a couple scenes, MacBook Pros. It’s set to air Wednesday, Feb. 25, on ABC, and the episode takes place entirely on a laptop screen.

In “Connection Lost,” Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) enlists the help of her family to locate her daughter Haley (Sarah Hyland) after an argument while she’s stuck at the airport through email and apps like iMessage and FaceTime, often times multiple of them popping up at once.

Apple provided Modern Family with the technology to shoot the episode, along with a Mac Pro for the postproduction work. This isn’t the first time Modern Family devoted an episode to an Apple product; a season 1 episode focused on one character’s mission to buy an iPad as a birthday present.

For Modern Family co-creator and executive producer Steve Levitan, the inspiration for the episode came from real life.

“I have two daughters at college, and we do a lot of FaceTiming,” he said last week during a Q&A session. “One day I was on my computer, and I had some emails open, and some websites, and then my daughter showed up. But I couldn’t only see her, but I could see me.”

Along with showing multiple conversations happening at once, the use of the computer screen allowed the writers to insert some inside jokes, gags, and Easter eggs. The episode can show an aspect of the characters’ lives that’s unavailable when it’s just the actors on-screen. Gloria (Sofia Vergara), for example, loses interest in a conversation and goes on Pinterest.

“That’s a type of a joke that you just couldn’t tell within a normal show that we get to tell here,” Megan Ganz, who cowrote the episode, said about the gag.

H/T New York Times | Photo via Disney | ABC Television Group/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Billy Eichner got Michelle Obama and Big Bird to run around a grocery store

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The first Billy on the Street video of 2015 is here, and it features everyone's favorite power couple: Michelle Obama and Big Bird

As part of the First Lady's healthier-eating initiative, Eichner teamed up with Funny or Die to present Mrs. Obama with a new challenge: Ariana Grande or eating a carrot?

Eichner's sidekick Elena joined in the competition, which involved a lot of screaming, blindfolds, Michelle Obama slow-dancing with Big Bird, Elena's declaration of love for One Direction, Mrs. Obama pushing Eichner around in a shopping cart, and Big Bird schooling FLOTUS on Facts of Life.

This video is basically a dream come true.

We didn't think it could get better than that turnip Vine, but here we are. 

Screengrab via Funny or Die

Guy blames 'social justice agenda' for loss in film competition

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It always struck me as odd that angry dudes on the Internet think “social justice” is a threat to everything good and pure in this world, but one redditor’s hysterical rant about identity politics and the death of filmmaking really raises the bar for privileged whining.

“I just sat through a night of indoctrination and been kicked in the nuts by the social justice agenda. I'm so fucking done,” wrote Nicholas Henderson, a.k.a. Rebelarch, in a post on the subreddit r/KotakuInAction (also known as a fiercely misogynist hub for the Gamergate movement). He was furious over his failure to win glory at Campus MovieFest, the world’s largest student film festival, with a five-minute short called Loot

Why did Henderson’s movie flop? Because of those damn ladies and queers, of course.

My cast and crew went through a grueling 100 hour shoot in 6 days. I spent three 20 hour editing sessions to cut the movie right after and hand it in by the deadline. Little did we know, we fucked up. We didn't need to compose shots, fight the sun for perfect lighting, develop a coherent script, wait for wind, planes, and motorcycles to pass to get good audio. No you could take an afternoon, not know how to use a camera, no need for proper ISO, aperture, shutter, or even a fucking color balance, hell your footage could be completely over exposed or crushed in black to the point where the image can't be made out, the audio could be sloppy with noise, popping, essing, and inaudible. You could take this one afternoon and film absolute shit, and hand in a recognition worthy film as long as you were in on the agenda. As long as you knew what was up, and got it. Just include homosexual relationships, transgender identity, rape, sex trafficking, poverty, domestic violence against women and you'll be in.

By now you’re probably wondering what Loot is actually about, if not these supposedly unimportant and pandering topics. Well, I’m glad you asked.

Are [sic] film was beautiful, it was genuine, creative, and clever. Hell it had to be for what we pulled off with the amateur equipment. I layered multiple video feeds together to have action play on multiple screens cut to fit the screen like comic book panels, and all these screens and feeds synced up, they all cut on action fluidly. A character would move off one panel as it moved into another. I then layered all the video again and added a bloom effect to give us that video game feel and look. I built a monster with my own hands starting with a pvc frame work, building it up with epoxy and carving it out. I made 30 props in just one week by myself. Swords, spears, shields, potions, spell books. I had a text book perfect script about a young adventurer who seizes his first loot only to have it stolen. It was our own world, where video game and anime tropes were real, were old men handed out swords and quests, and you had to pay rent and buy food with loot. It was pure and only about the story, and it was shit canned bc it didn't try to infect anyone with a way of thinking. I can't even show you are [sic] film, bc this trash organizations now owns it and I haven't recieved permission yet to give it the proper treatment it deserves.

Oh, but that’s where Henderson is wrong. You can watch his unsung masterpiece in full right here:

Even Reddit’s gaming geeks couldn’t stomach this trainwreck. “I don't think the subject matter had anything to do with you losing,” said one critic. “I literally cringed and closed the window and went to take a shower,” said another. “Next time though, if I may make a recommendation, I'd suggest you use a different everything,” quipped a third.

Not content with the shameful hole he was in, Henderson dug deeper, calling out three finalists he felt had scammed their way to success by exploring anything other than a high-fantasy video game universe with lots of LARP-y swordplay—including a short, affecting documentary on life as a transgender woman and a cautionary tale about Uber and Lyft.

Redditors were at pains to point out the technical superiority of these films as well, though a few jumped on Henderson’s hate-wagon. “Art fits in well with the SJW ideology,” a self-avowed expert declaimed. “You can't be ‘wrong’ and your thoughts/feelings can't be questioned, because art is whatever you say it is. A guy sucking himself off can literally be an expression of anything, if you can spin the bullshit well enough.” Another argued that video games “are one of the places where art is still valued. SJW's are trying to destroy what art is acceptable there and, like OP, it usually has to do more with agenda than beauty.”

What did Henderson learn from being crushed under the bootheel of militant otherism? A bitter lesson indeed:

Our only take away from CMF, is film making doesn't need to be so hard, we don't need to keep putting so much effort in and having pride in our work. We no longer have to stress over our capabilities and create something of quality. You just need an idea. You don't even have to put in the work to turn the idea into anything actionable. The idea just has to be agreeable with the agenda. Take that idea that isn't flushed out or completed, and just film, don't compose the shot, set the lights, or worry about what all those damn buttons on the camera are, just roll camera, show us a montage of shots that don't visually tell a story, and just have a voice over explaining your idea. Then, if your idea is righteous and worthy, if it's apart of the agenda you will be invited in, you will get work, and be celebrated. This social justice movement really boils my blood. I just want to stop being pushed to think and feel things I have no inclination to think and feel. I want the work to matter again not the intentions behind it. This SJW bullshit is too oppressive, too influential, and just too much.

As one YouTube commenter put it, “Actually, it’s about ethics in student film competitions.” Shudder to think what this guy said when 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture.

Photo via Campus MovieFest/YouTube  

This toddler DJ should be headlining Coachella

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It seems like everyone tries their hand at being a DJ, even adorable toddlers.

This South African boy is one of many adorable kidsshowing off their budding DJ skills. What makes him stand out is that he's got the perfect attitude. He's clearly feeling the beats, headphones half off, throwing his hand up to rock out.

We're sure Coachella already booked him for a set.

Screengrab via beardjammin/Vid.me

David Cross's new film 'Hits' misses the mark

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Hits, the first feature film release from BitTorrent Bundle, comes with several extras, including an interview with writer/director David Cross. He explains that the film isn't a laugh-out-loud comedy, then backtracks, saying perhaps it's best he doesn't tell people what it's supposed to be at all. 

That kind of open-ended definition can mean one of two things: The film is either a work of art that's beyond definition, or it's just unfocused. The case with Hits, unfortunately, is the latter.

Hits, which uses a small-town setting to deconstruct the nature of fame in our Internet age, comes with the honesty of an auteur doing exactly what they want to do, as well as the trappings associated with it. As seen with the Star Wars prequels, sometimes it's best if one person doesn't have too much control and ideas are shot down or reworked during a film's creation. 

With more time spent on the screenplay and in the editing bay, this could have been brilliant satire. As it stands, each scene is at least 30 percent too long, and the narrative leaves you constantly forgetting what's going on. It's not a good sign when you're repeatedly thinking, "Oh yeah, this character's involved."

The rub: You're usually happy to remember a character's involved, because they're all fantastic and especially noteworthy when they're manifestations of Cross's deepest loathing. James Adomian's hipster caricature, Donovan, is the sort of character Cross himself might portray—someone convinced they're fighting for social good, but in reality they're a clueless, self-serving manchild too steeped in irony to successfully utilize anything resembling logic. It's a fantastic character that, on its own, could probably carry an entire film. Honestly, most of these characters could probably carry entire films, and Hits seems frustrated with having to balance them all.

That's not to say every character is a caricature. Katelyn (Meredith Hagner), a teen obsessed with obtaining fame, is played with surprising sympathy. Dave (Matt Walsh), a political extremist and chronic pain-in-the-ass for his local city council, is the sort of person Cross would mercilessly scathe during a standup routine, but he's explored with depth and understanding here. Indeed, unlike his standup, watching Hits allows you to build a fairly nuanced hierarchy of who/what annoys Cross the most in the this world. Hipsters are certainly at the top of that list, while others come with some caveats.

Despite great characters and performances across the board, Hits still suffers from being a mess on a narrative level. The ending is a fantastic bit of satirical glee, but the journey there could have easily lost 20 or 30 minutes and a few subplots. While great, some of these characters—like Amy Sedaris as a bar owner/former winner of a television talent show—simply don't need to be here. When your movie makes the Hobbit trilogy look like a lean piece of filmmaking, there's a problem.

If you're a fan of satire or David Cross, Hits is certainly worth a watch, especially with the pay-what-you-want deal. Here's hoping Cross's next film smoothes out the edges: Hits misses the mark, but there's evidence he's capable of something great. 

Screengrab via moviemaniacsDE/YouTube


Drake's new album really did break the Internet

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Nothing was the same, indeed.

Drake's surprise album broke all Spotify four-day records upon its release last week. According to a BuzzFeedreport, hip-hop fans collectively spun If You're Reading This It's Too Late a staggering 23.6 million times, from Friday morning through Monday.

That's leaps ahead of the previous record—set by Drake two years ago—of 15.6 million streams. On Valentine's Day, the album also set the single-day record for streams with a mammoth 6.8 million plays. This without a marketing campaign leading up to the release, or any radio singles released ahead of time. 

The project is on pace to sell more than 500,000 copies its debut week, making it the biggest rap release since 2013. 

H/T BuzzFeed | Photo via mp3waxx.com/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Al Roker gets a 'Fifty Shades'-inspired BDSM makeover

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The publicity blitz leading up to the release of Fifty Shades of Grey was a wild one. In anticipation of the film everyone from Jimmy Kimmel to Jessica Simpson joined in on the BDSM jokes. But when it comes to Fifty Shades laughs, there’s one troll who’s taken things to the next level: Ellen DeGeneres.

That's right, the talk show host known for hiding in stalls and scaring Taylor Swift has taken her pranks to a more technically advanced level. Last week, she managed to green screen Matt Lauer’s head onto a robust, bondage-clad body making it appear as if the Today Show anchor had conducted an interview with the film’s stars while sporting a whip. 

The doctored video received so much attention that the host just couldn't resist giving another one of the Today Show's anchors a BDSM makeover. This time, it was famous forecaster Al Roker, who fell victim to the DeGeneres depravities.

Despite all the nipple tassels, Roker was a good sport about the whole thing, telling the rest of the Today Show cast that "there was a little chafing," when it came to the leather shorts.

Soak it in while you can folks, because it seems like this is as close as viewers will ever come to seeing what happens in his neck of the woods.

Photo via jimgreenhill/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Troye Sivan and Connor Franta to headline Australian tour

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YouTubers Troye Sivan and Connor Franta will headline Amplify 2015, an Australian tour focusing on YouTube and other social media stars.

Besides Sivan and Franta, all the online creators appearing at the festival are based in either Australia or New Zealand. They include Jamie Curry (the New Zealand native of Jamie’s World), Kimmi SmilesTyde LeviJai WaetfordKurt Coleman, and Smallzy (the MC) among others. Their content can largely be found on YouTube, but some have established their digital presence elsewhere, like Kurt Coleman on Instagram.

Amplify 2015 will make stops in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Perth, beginning in Sydney on April 7 and ending in Perth on April 12.

Sivan’s YouTube fame comes largely from his acting and singing talent. He’s best known for his ambient, electronic music and accompanying videos and has over 3 million subscribers on YouTube. Former Our2ndLife member Franta focuses on comedic vlogs on his YouTube channel, which has over 4 million subscribers.

Live events are becoming a huge business for the YouTube/Vine industry, as producers like DigiTour and Amplify look to leverage the deep relationships many stars have with their fans online. MCNs are also getting into the act. Fullscreen, for instance, produced its first live festival just last year, and also acquired Rooster Teeth, which produces a major fan expo of its own. And of course, there’s VidCon, which remains the premier event of this type for the industry.

Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

Tom DeLonge believes in aliens, mind control, life on Mars

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Musician Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves is a proud conspiracy theorist with respect to the existence of aliens, and governmental shadows that exist to cover up what humans know. It's been a proud hobby of the alleged diva for 20 years—most notably explored on Blink cut "Aliens Exist," and in the 2012 launch of his fringe news site Strange Times—but his conviction and transparency went from vague flicker to fluorescent madness Tuesday in an interview with Paper

On his credentials for being so self-important:

People will be like "Oh, you believe in UFOs" [laughs], but I'm reading books on physics, I'm reading books on the secret space program, I'm talking to people that work underground for six months at a time, that are confiding in me about the national security initiatives. I've literally read 200 books on the subject, and I don't spend my time looking at UFO reports or talking to little green men.

On how the U.S. government tapped his phone:

I've been involved in this for a long time. I have sources from the government. I've had my phone tapped. I've done a lot of weird stuff in this industry -- people wouldn't believe me if I told them. But this is what happens when you start getting on an email chains with hundreds of scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and different universities around the country, and you start outing seniors scientists from Lockheed Martin talking about the reality of this stuff, guys that hold 30 patents, guys that work underground out in the Nevada test sites in Area 51.

On alien mind control:

At the time I didn't know it, but the person I was dealing with was being awoken in the middle of the night with clicking and buzzing noises and falling on the ground vomiting, every morning at 4 a.m. I know now that those are artifacts from mind-control experiments, where the same technology that we use to find oil underground, we can zap somebody at the same frequency that the brain operates on, and it can cause some really horrific things to happen. But I didn't know this until 10 years later. I got caught in the middle of it, and this was the time when I was on the cover of Rolling Stone, so I think these guys, whoever was running this operation, were like, "What the fuck? How did this kid show up?"

On his TL;DR version of the global undertaking by elected officials to make the story disappear: 

What people have to understand is the basic history of the UFO is very simple. The phenomenon has been around forever. All the ancient religions were written down based on witnessing this phenomenon in various forms. Governments of the world watched the phenomenon and tried to replicate the technology, but they did in secret. So the governments are fighting each other with these pieces of technology.  

On startling a scientist with his deep knowledge of alien tech:

"You better be real fucking careful about what you're talking about." And I go, "Okay, so I'm close." And he goes, "I'm not fucking kidding with you. You better be really fucking careful." And he calls me up the next day and he goes, "I've had calls about you. If someone comes and asks you to get in their car, don't fucking get in the car." 

On his camping trip to Area 51:

I get everyone up first thing in the morning and go, "Did anybody hear all the chatter last night? I couldn't move my body, I was stuck there. I couldn't hear anything." And one of the guys I was with goes, "Yes! They were all around our tent, they were talking. I told you!" And the other guy slept right through it.  

On an alien future we'll likely experience in our lifetimes:

I think what's gonna happen, mark my words, is that they're going to find the microbial life that's they've been talking about on Mars and then, it's one planet over. We're gonna send people up there, and we're gonna find remnants of other types of life. But really, what's going to be there are remnants of other civilizations: architecture, old monuments, machinery, things that have been fossilized, whatever, and then that will get dripped out for another 30 to 40 years.

All of this may very well be true. But Christ 11 years into Facebook and with billions of photos uploaded online, we can't tag one convincing shred of evidence? 

Photo via Kmeron/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0) 

We have a crush on YouTube's Carrie Hope Fletcher

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When I think of Carrie Hope Fletcher, I think of three things: her incredible singing voice; her ever-relatable vlogs about relationships, Disney, tea, pep talks, life’s big and small moments; and her overflowing bookshelf that will one day collapse the floor of her bedroom.

Since starting her channel It’s Way Past My Bedtime in 2011, Fletcher has established herself, and her gorgeous mane of curly blond hair (it’s full of secrets!), as a role model and friend to her nearly 600,000 subscribers—or Hopefuls, as she likes to call them.

Can you tell I’m one of them? No? Keep reading.

Her channel is a mixed bag of content, including covers of popular songs, book reviews, vlogs following her crazy life, and video letters between herself and her brother, Tom Fletcher of McBusted. While it’s clear Fletcher loves making YouTube videos, her daily life is a juggling act of countless other full-time jobs. She performs eight shows a week as Eponine in Les Miserables on London’s West End, and recently, she just finished writing her first novel, All I Know Now, which will be released on April 23.

When sitting down to watch Fletcher’s videos, viewers are instantly taken by her genuine enthusiasm for the big and little moments of life. But unlike many other vloggers who present only the “picture-perfect” moments, Fletcher isn’t afraid to talk about both sides of the coin. In an interview with Ben Cook, she candidly shared her struggles with bipolar disorder and being “YouTube famous.” Last year, after allegations surfaced that Fletcher’s then-boyfriend Alex Day had sexually assaulted numerous fans, Fletcher kept her chin up and took the high road, addressing that the two had separated, and later on, she used YouTube to talk about the importance of a healthy relationship.

Fletcher has said publicly that she will not swear in front of her fans because she considers herself, and all individuals who chose to make content on YouTube, role models for their audiences. And just like her fans, Fletcher is continuing to evolve as a person—embracing new projects (she must have a time-turner, right?) and to our delight, taking us along for the ride!

While we may not be a professional Broadway performers or a published author, we can live vicariously through Fletcher’s adventures, and even I’ll admit, sometimes that’s pretty amazing.

Screengrab via ItsWayPastMyBedtime/YouTube

Conan O'Brien's hardware store commercial parodies that ridiculous 'Fifty Shades' scene

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There's a lot to make fun of in Fifty Shades of Grey, but the hardware store scene is a strong contender for the film's weirdest moment. Are household supplies really that sexy? And isn't it kind of creepy for Christian Grey to show up at Anastasia's workplace unannounced and start making suggestive comments about rope like a serial killer?

Conan O'Brien was one of the many people to pick up on the inherent ridiculousness of this scene, and now he has parodied it in a commercial for an imaginary hardware store. Need some rope for your mildly kinky sexcapades? Why not head right over to Done Right Hardware, because that's totally a better idea than going to a sex store and talking to a professional. 

This skit may be kidding around with Fifty Shades' love of hardware store products, but it's dangerously close to the truth. Just before the release of the Fifty Shades movie, British hardware chain B&Q sent out an internal memo warning employees about a potential rush on amateur bondage supplies like cable ties and rope—although it was later revealed to be a joke from the PR department.

Screengrab via Fifty Shades of Grey/YouTube

Ben & Jerry's and Jimmy Fallon team up for a 'Tonight Show' ice cream flavor

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The Tonight Show is about to get a whole lot sweeter.

Jimmy Fallon had the scoop on Tuesday’s show, revealing that he had teamed up with Ben & Jerry again for a new flavor. In honor of his first year on The Tonight Showas well as being named Entertainer of the Year, Fallon and the ice-cream duo unveiled The Tonight Dough. Yes, really.

This ice cream seems to have everything: chocolate and caramel ice creams, two types of cookie dough, and a chocolate cookie swirl. Your teeth are already heading for the dentist’s chair—and it’ll probably be worth it.

“The Tonight Dough is chock full of the stuff people love," its creator, Flavor Guru Eric Fredette, said in a Ben & Jerry's press release. "A double-double flavor with two ice creams, two cookie doughs and a crunchy cookie swirl. It’s simply over the top!"

All of the proceeds from sales of The Tonight Dough will go to charity, so you’ll be scooping out and digging in for a good cause.

If you’re now thinking about scrambling to buy Fallon’s last flavor, Late Night Snack, scramble no more and clutch onto what you have left. A Ben & Jerry’s spokesman confirmed last month that Late Night Snack had disappeared from shelves. It’s already melted off Ben & Jerry’s list of flavors.

“It was a [slow] phase-out,” the rep told Yahoo. “It is pretty unlikely that there is any left on shelves at this point.”

This is one of those times we really miss Stephen Colbert, since unlike last time, he and Fallon can't have a scoop-off over their Ben & Jerry’s flavors.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube


Domino.fm wants to add a human touch to music discovery

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If you use music blogs as a source of discovery, it can often feel like an unwinnable race to keep up with all the content. Enter Domino.fm.  

The app, which launched today and is available for Android and iPhone, aggregates music blogs and creates a stream tailored to your tastes. You choose which categories of music you want to listen, then choose the feeds you want to follow. As of its debut, big-name sites like Spin, NME, Brooklyn Vegan, and the Fader are available, as are smaller blogs like Resident Advisor, Aquarium Drunkard, and Earmilk. Once you’ve set those parameters, your feed will give you the latest news from those sites, as well as new music. It also pulls from SoundCloud and Rdio.

The idea is to give more of a human touch to music discovery, rather than relying on an algorithm to tell you what you want to hear. Creator Jett Wells came up with the idea while at NYU.

“I was always a little frustrated that if you wanted to get into an artist, you’d have to track down their Bandcamp page, go find their Facebook page,” he told the Daily Dot. “If I wanted to find their albums I’d have to go to iTunes... It was kind of all disconnected. And that’s not the fault of the bands or their managers, but it leaves consumers a little disjointed with all the platforms.”

In January 2014, Wells started getting more serious about developing the app in an effort to “bridge the gap between all the information” on music blogs and connect users with the info they need on an artist they’re interested in. Last summer, a Kickstarter was created to fund the development. Wells has spent the last few months tweaking data.

My initial interactions with the app were fairly kink-free, and it was certainly nice to have a feed for discovery rather than scrolling through Spotify or YouTube wondering what you want to listen to. Wells says he doesn't really believe in algorithms or computers predicting what we like. 

"I know it's the job of great minds to build great tech, but I think when it comes to music—and maybe it's just me and I don't have enough faith—I don't think data companies are able to get into a person's soul and know what they're about specifically. I don't think technology's at that point. I don't know if it ever will be. 

"But music is a really personal part of one's life... I'm a true believer in how what people curate adds interest in new artists, and raises the value of new artists." 

Update 10:27am: Press pause; the launch is slightly delayed. The developers got in touch this morning to say: "We're working hard to sort a server issue for the launch. We hope to finish tweaking the kinks by end of day, but will update as soon as we know more. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate the patience."

Photo via Domino.fm 

Terry Crews dances and paints in a 'Sesame Street' PSA about creativity

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Sesame Street wants you to know that it's OK to call yourself an artist, because art describes a lot of things.

To help get that message across, the Count and his sparkly assistant Abby Cadabby brought in an unconventional artist—Terry Crews.

Brooklyn 99 fans are currently having a renewed love affair with the former NFL player turned comedian and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host, but if you haven't seen Crews in action lately, this Sesame Street video will make up for lost time.

Crews looks so excited about being turned into a beret-wearing painter that it makes you want to go out and buy an easel. But that's just the start of the fun. Wait until he busts out the disco moves.

Can we see that dance one more time?

Bless you, Sesame Street. Bless you.

Correction: Terry Crews is a former NFL player.

Screengrab via Sesame Street/YouTube

Jimmy Fallon and Taylor Swift made a hilarious jumbotron dance montage

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Taylor Swift and Jimmy Fallon are two of the biggest names in show business—and two of America’s biggest goofballs. That's why it made perfect sense that, during Swift’s Tuesday night appearance on The Tonight Show, the two would produce an incredibly silly video—silly even by late night show standards.

Swift is known for her enthusiastic dance moves, but Fallon claims it used to be just their "thing." To drive his point home, he gathered jumbotron footage (i.e. footage filmed in the studio earlier that day) of the two buds hamming it up at New York sporting events.

The New York Islanders are having a moment in the sun thanks to Long Island mom Joy Rosen’s sexy confession at Monday night’s game, so they decided to capitalize on Fallon and Swift's jumbotron outburst by issuing a statement.

The Islanders have a blank space, baby, and they'll write Taylor and Jimmy's names.

H/T Hollywood Reporter | Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

Getting lucky with the ladies of 'Broad City'

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My best friend recently attempted to get a boyfriend to watch Broad City. Halfway through season 1, he turned to her:

“Is that really how women talk to each other?”

“Yeah,” she responded. “If you’re lucky.”

The friendship between Abbi Abrams (Abbi Jacobson) and Ilana Wexler (Ilana Glazer) is the heart of Broad City. They have brief romances and shitty jobs. They get high and get in low-pressure situations that comically snowball. But the focus always comes back to their love for each other—and for New York City, which serves as the show’s maze. In so many programs, friendships are used to drive plots, but in Broad City, the story is Abbi and Ilana.

At the end of season 1’s final episode, the two walk home in the early morning hours, after Abbi saved Ilana from an allergic reaction. They talk about their “gross sex” lists, but there’s something about their ease together as they fade out of view that is true and real. At the end of season 2’s second episode, the two talk about childbirth—specifically, Ilana’s fear about pooping while giving birth.

“I’m going to see you give birth, then?” Abbi asks.

“Bitch, durrr,” Ilana responds. “Who else would be my focal point?”

Broad City is about two women who were lucky enough to find each other—through UCB Theatre, in this case—but it’s also about the way they communicate. In the show, their computers connect them; some of the best scenes are of webcam conversations between the two. In the Broad City webseries, which debuted in 2009, they also communicate via webcam. Glazer says they pitched the show as something more webcam-heavy than it is now. (In tonight’s episode, the ladies try to unplug from the Internet, which leads them both to put on rollerblades and get “in touch” with nature.)

In those early webseries episodes, we see Abbi and Ilana still as tuned into each other as they are now, though their city-wide escapades were a little more low-key. The show could have hit two seasons and then quietly slept on YouTube for the next decade, a digital vigil we checked in on every few years.

Something magical happened with Broad City, though. It existed in that sweet spot when the webseries format was still experimental and Netflix and Amazon hadn’t yet forced the medium to grow a few notches. It wasn’t a major hit at that time, but it found the eyes of Amy Poehler, the Oprah of comedy, and later Brooke Posch at Comedy Central, who was also responsible for developing Inside Amy Schumer.

The webseries always felt like it was made to transition to TV. And now that it has, we have scenes in which Abbi finds out her annoying roommate Bevers is gone and runs around her apartment naked singing along to Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory.”  

“That’s my guilty pleasure song,” Jacobson told the Daily Dot. “I think I already knew all the words.”

The second season has also seen Abbi penetrate a man with a strap-on. Were risks more important in season 2?

“Risk-taking isn’t really on our radar when we’re creating,” Glazer said. “We just wanted to make the show something we’d want to watch and laugh out loud at. It feels like, from the response, that we’ve done risky stuff, but we never say, ‘How risky can we make this?’”

“In the season second, while risks aren’t on our mind, we do have a little bit more freedom to explore,” Jacobson said. “People know the characters a little bit better, and people know this world a little bit better. But as Ilana said, it’s about what’s the funniest thing. I think that’s the natural progression for any show in its second season.” (When asked about dream guest stars for the show, Glazer says Drake is someone they’ve brought up. Drizzy, if you’re reading this, let’s make it happen.)

True to real friendships, Ilana is also finding out more things about Abbi she didn’t know this season, which provides some of the best plot twists. Last week, there was Abbi’s blackout-drunk alter ego, Val, which Jacobson says was an actual college character she would inhabit while sauced. Even the Lady Gaga scene, Glazer says, was something the audience saw, not Ilana.

Further deconstructing the four walls around Broad City, real websites for Hannibal Buressdentist character, Lincoln, and Trey, Abbi’s oblivious trainer boss exist. Why this extension into real life?

“The more we get into this world, certain things come up and we’re like, ‘That should be real. Why can’t we make this world exist online as well?’” Jacobson said. “They’re these little things we hope the viewers stumble upon.”

“I think we’re trying to make the world of Broad City the real world,” Glazer said. “Website by website, we’ll get there.”

We should be so lucky.

Broad City airs tonight at 10:30pm ET on Comedy Central.

Photo via Comedy Central 

'Wheel of Fortune' contestant impresses Pat Sajak with impossible guess

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At this point, Pat Sajak has probably seen it all during his decades hosting Wheel of Fortune, from the inspiring to the downright infuriating. Even the nearly impossible winsaren't exactly new, but that doesn't mean Sajak isn't occasionally stunned by them.

The latest clutch solve on Wheel of Fortune came from a player named Rufus, who had already shown that he was skilled at the tossup rounds. In the clip below, Rufus has only one letter on the board, and he has to offer a guess.

Had he known what the answer was, he might have held off for a few rounds, but you can't pull off a cool move and win a metric ton of cash at the same time. Life has rules, you know. 

Rufus ended up finishing second in that game, but he's still a winner, because he did something almost as impressive as finishing first: impressing Sajak.

H/T Brobible | Photo via Paul Stack/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

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