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This 1997 episode of 'Brass Eye' foreshadowed how we'd use Tinder

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Brass Eye is a satirical British show from the '90s that skewered everything from pedophilia to drugs to news media. It was brought to the masses by writer Charlie Brooker and creator Chris Morris, and if Brooker's name sounds familiar, it's because he's also the creator of hit TV show Black Mirror

One eagle-eyed redditor posted this clip from a 1997 "Sex" episode, positing that the show predicted how we'd utilize Tinder.  

Of course, people were mentally swiping left and right way before touchscreens. But Morris and Brooker are quite prescient: They foresaw the current forever-bro tech culture back in the early aughts with Nathan Barley, and we've lost track of how many things Black Mirror's probably predicted

H/T Reddit | Photo via Alexandra E Rust/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)


John Oliver is surprisingly fed up with April Fools' Day

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Last Week Tonight is taking a break this week, so John Oliver turned to YouTube for his latest hard-hitting takedown. This week's topic? April Fools' Day.

For most people, April Fools' is either a fun opportunity for pranks or a mild annoyance, but John Oliver seems to hate it with a fiery passion.

"Anybody who claims to be excited for April Fools' Day is probably a sociopath," he says, before railing against the pointlessness and idiocy of the holiday.

Who knew a comedian could have such a deep and abiding hatred of pranks?

We're inclined to think that Oliver is being a little harsh, although he did fail to call out one of the most irritating culprits on April Fools' Day: "fun" pranks from brands. They're the worst.

Screengrab via Last Week Tonight/YouTube

'Fear the Walking Dead' teaser hints at the zombie outbreak's origins

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Rick Grimes and his group live in a bleak world, but the zombie apocalypse wasn't always like that.

The first teaser for the spinoff series Fear the Walking Dead, which aired during the Sunday night season finale of The Walking Dead, confirmed that the companion series will feature a storyline we've only seen in flashbacks. Although it’s doubtful we'll learn what actually caused the outbreak, the teaser gives us a glimpse of how the world initially reacted, calling it a “strange virus” that initially popped up in five states.

The show will eventually catch up to The Walking Dead, but until it does, we'll be watching these characters make some of the same discoveries about the infection—and since it takes place in Los Angeles, we could potentially see zombified celebrities along the way without it feeling too jarring.

The six-episode first season of Fear the Walking Dead, starring Cliff Curtis, Alycia Debnam, Kim Dickens, and Frank Dillane, will premiere this summer.

Screengrab via amc/YouTube

Trevor Noah is the new host of 'The Daily Show'

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Daily Show correspondent Trevor Noah will be taking over for Jon Stewart when he leaves the show later this year, the New York Times reported.

The announcement comes at the end of almost two months of speculation about who would replace Stewart. Early frontrunners included correspondents Jessica Williams, Jason Jones, and Samantha Bee

Williams confirmed that she wasn’t in the running early after Stewart revealed that he would retire from The Daily Show in 2015, and the latter two announced their respective departures soon after Stewart’s. Noah, 31, wasn’t even on the shortlist until this past weekend; he only joined The Daily Show in October, and his first appearance came in December.

Choosing Noah, a biracial comedian from South Africa, brings more diversity into the mostly white, male pool of late-night hosts (three of whom are named James). Many had hoped for a woman to take the Daily Show chair, however, prompting Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless to address the potential backlash it will receive for not going with a female host.

“We talked to women,” she told the New York Times. “We talked to men. We found in Trevor the best person for the job.”

“[Noah] brings such a unique worldview and a deep understanding of human nature, which makes his comedy so insightful,” Ganeless added. “He’s truly a student of the world.”

Stewart also threw in his support for his successor. But he’s on hiatus this week, so we’ll have to wait until next Monday for the official Daily Show take.

“I’m thrilled for the show and for Trevor,” Stewart said in a statement, joking that he might rejoin the show as a correspondent. “He’s a tremendous comic and talent that we’ve loved working with.”

As for Noah? He’s currently doing a comedy tour in Dubai, so he’ll be away from the majority of the spotlight and attention that’ll come with the announcement, but that also means that one method of coping might not work so well.

“You don’t believe it for the first few hours,” Noah told the New York Times. “You need a stiff drink, and then unfortunately you’re in a place where you can’t really get alcohol.”

On Twitter, Noah expressed his respect for Stewart while vowing to continue what he built over the past 16 years.

Although we now have a successor, there’s still no official end date for Stewart’s run on The Daily Show. Until then, we’ll have plenty of time to get to know Noah even better.

H/T New York Times | Screengrab via The Daily Show

Everything you need to know about Trevor Noah, your new 'Daily Show' host

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It’s time to meet your new Daily Show host.

To many of the people who woke up to the news that correspondent Trevor Noah would be taking over for Jon Stewart, Noah is a virtual unknown. But the South African comedian is a star in his own right outside of the U.S.

The 31-year-old has been on the South African soap opera Isidingo; hosted an educational show, a talk show, a gossip show, and awards shows; and even had his own radio show, called Noah’s Ark—making the joke a decade before Twitter’s comedians. All of this was before he made his American television debut on The Tonight Show in 2012 when Jay Leno was still at the desk. At one point he sold a pilot for a TV show based on his life to Fox. Oh, and he speaks six languages.

We’re bound to see much more of Noah in the upcoming months, but until then, let’s get to know him and his work a little better.

1) His stint on The Daily Show

As Business Insider pointed out, Noah has only appeared on The Daily Show as a correspondent three times. Nevertheless, his Daily Show material is a good place to start learning about him. All of his appearances are worth checking out, but let’s start with Noah’s take on the lack of coverage surrounding Boko Haram and the thousands of people the group killed while the rest of the world paid attention to the attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

2) His late-night appearances

Noah made his U.S. television debut two years before Stewart hired him, and he made history as the first South African comedian to perform on The Tonight Show and The Late Show. In both instances, he was there for his standup comedy.

3) He has a comedy special you can watch right now

Noah is among the many comedians working today who has his own comedy special. Trevor Noah: African American aired on Showtime in 2013. Noah's humor touches on racism, culture, and growing up in South Africa as the child of a mixed-race couple when apartheid made that illegal. You can stream the special on Netflix.

4) He’s the star of a documentary

For the 2011 documentary You Laugh But It’s True, a film crew followed Noah and documented his unique comedic perspective as he prepared for his first one-man comedy show. The documentary showcases the South African comedy scene, gives viewers a glimpse into a darker time in the country’s history, and offers another layer to Noah's personality.

5) He hosted a YouTube talk show

Noah sat at the host’s desk while Eugene Khoza played sidekick as they talked to other comedians in a makeshift studio back in 2012. Most of the set may have been made of cardboard and the audience cheers came from a sound effects machine, but they made it their own.

6) He’s a pretty decent roaster

We don't know whether he'll ever be in a Comedy Central roast in America, but on the South African version, he’s shown that he’s already an old pro at it. Watch him take some jabs at South African musician Steve Hofmeyr and his fellow roasters, showing that he’s not afraid to ruffle some feathers.

7) He performed standup for charity

Earlier this month, Noah did a special performance for Red Nose Day 2015. Some of the themes in his earlier work were still present, but in this routine, he spent plenty of time making Ebola funny, comparing airport security’s attitude toward the disease to asking about one of his relatives.

Screengrab via Red Nose Day/YouTube

Tidal, Jay Z's music streaming platform, has a fighting chance

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Like most obsessive music fans, I enjoy rampant day-to-day sound transmitted through low-grade audio equipment—white earbuds, default laptop settings, that cord connecting a phone to my 2007 Chevy Cobalt’s factory speakers. It’s a lifestyle that cranky dads hate, one that’s forfeited amplifiers and wooden woofers from companies like Dayton Audio.

We’ve been collectively trained to favor on-the-go music where even the home stereo system is sanded down into a Bluetooth-ready shoe box that can barely fill up a pool party. To combat this, Jay Z is betting that enough audiophiles exist who are simultaneously fluid with modern, on-demand technology.

In January, he dumped $56 million into the streaming music business. Hova bought Swedish company Aspiro, which owned WiMP and Tidal. Tidal is the eyebrow-raising gamble: It works as a premium streaming platform (accessible via Web, mobile, and 30-plus home audio platforms like Sonos), and its 25 million-song library loads only top-shelf, 16-bit FLAC files. 

But at $19.99 a month, Tidal is double the cost of Spotify with a library that has 5 million fewer songs, to say nothing of the cultural inroads made by Spotify since it launched stateside in 2011; it's where 60 million users share music, where our playlists breathe. 

So Jay Z is launching a full-on marketing assault, aided by his friends. On Monday the rapper attacked Twitter with a turn-blue campaign—the kind generally reserved for humanitarian efforts.

He has a press conference penciled in Monday evening where he’ll announce his imminent plans for Tidal. Thus far the campaign has been loudly mocked across social media because of its bloated self-importance. The hashtag #TIDALforALL is inherently absurd because of the service’s sticker price. 

Still, if Hova can frame the conversation to be about artist compensation, then attacking Spotify’s royalty model and compelling conscious consumers is more than doable. When he signed Taylor Swift to Tidal, we had to take this platform seriously. As such, I'm on Day 5 of a Tidal trial bender. 

Tidal isn’t perfect, but it is intuitive, well-curated, and cool. Here are five reasons why taking a flier on Tidal might result in sustained, emotive pleasure.

1) About that whole hi-fi thing…

I am not an audiophile, and my ears are among the 1 billion at risk for hearing loss because of “recreational noise.” I mostly defer to garage punk and rap music—two visceral genres known to favor the message over the medium. I also lack the high-end stereo equipment that most millennials likewise skip. But I've been listening to Bob Dylan, Beck, Led Zeppelin, the Pixies, Neil Young, Charlie Rich, the Clash, Aretha Franklin, Big Sean, and Jay’s immaculate catalog, and the muscular richness is distinct and immersive. 

Spotify’s OGG format maxes out at 320 kilobits per second, whereas the FLAC files get to 1,411 kbps. From that D.J. Rogers “Say You Love Me” sample ingeniously flipped by DJ Mustard on “I Don't Fuck With You” to the opening cowbell tings on “Good Times, Bad Times,” the difference in ditching MP3s, AAC, or OGG files in favor of FLAC files is significant.

2) The platform is OK!

It’s idiot-proof. It is black and white and kinda simplistically masculine. Making playlists is cake. There are helpful tutorials. More importantly, everything is sufficiently intuitive so as to not spark disdain; it’s built for a smooth transition.

3) Tidal’s curatorial lifestyle approach 

The service is still in the trenches for hearts and minds, and it deserves credit for actively trying to forge a community with competent music reviews, platform-wide playlists, and most-streamed charts. It’s a good look to market critical darlings like Action Bronson and Tobias Jesso Jr.; it builds Pitchfork-ian trust in the taste. Whereas Spotify’s mass appeal means catering to youthful genres like EDM and YouTube pop, Tidal is content to handfeed an older, more cynical audience. For instance, it has this tremendous, 15-years-later High Fidelity tribute playlist with 50 songs.

4) Mobile swag

Likewise, the iOS Tidal app is a smooth ride. The big underlying problem Tidal faces is that with so many heavy files to load, streaming on an LTE signal means significant buffering. You can, of course, sync files to play offline on your phone, but that’s a beefy allotment of storage space. When it does work, however, you feel like a spry person-about-town because the interface is easy like Sunday morning.
Even the icon itself looks royal stationed alongside your other basics.

5) Taylor Swift

Following a high-profile breakup with Spotify, Swift was spotted canoodling with Tidal last week.

There’s a library of 75,000 music videos built into Tidal. While you can enjoy the visuals of “Shake It Off” visuals, the song itself or its accompanying record—2014’s massive 1989—remain unavailable. But the rest of her discography is here, and that’s a mighty power play by Jay Z’s company. With so many high-profile musicians pledging allegiance, it’s the most lethal threat Tidal poses to the era of Spotify. 


What started as a niche service for nerds sees blood in the water. We might have to diversify soon anyway if music streaming services start eating one another and dying off. Tidal is an intriguing theoretical alternative that works well now. But despite the audio quality, I prefer the library I’ve built on Spotify. That’s the trouble with building a service around the cranky purist: We're too stubborn and slow to change.

Update 5:07pm CT, Mar. 30: In a Monday afternoon press conference, Arcade Fire, Kanye West, Beyoncé, Daft Punk, Jack White, Nicki Minaj, Madonna, Rihanna, Usher, Alicia Keys, Deadmau5, and J. Cole all announced that, along with Jay, they are co-owners of the streaming service. 

"This is the beginning of the a new world," West said in the adorning promo video.

The Verge has confirmed that Tidal plans to beef up artist royalties.

Photo via Slippy Slappy/Flickr (CC BY ND 2.0)

Behind the scenes of 'The World Underground' with indie music archivist John Yingling

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If something’s worth doing at all, then it’s worth doing right. When John Yingling—the force behind the Midwest scene-chronicling Gonzo Chicago blog—announced that he was putting together a project to capture and document underground music from all across the world, you might have expected him to start cautiously. Perhaps he’d begin in Montana (where he now lives), return to Chicago, or play it safe in another previous home, Green Bay, Wis.

But Yingling started big. For the first foray of The World Underground, despite having never before left the U.S., he traveled to China, video camera in hand, to begin creating what could well become the grandest repository of international indie music.   

Clocking in north of 90 minutes and featuring over 40 bands, the first episode from the project is supplemented by 50-plus live recordings. It is almost exhausting in its thoroughness—an accessible video and audio archive of a music scene that few in the Western world would have previously considered. Even Yingling readily admits his naïveté. “I knew little about it before diving in,” he told the Daily Dot via email.

So after “digging around on old articles, following link wormholes and Douban pages,” he was able get in contact with a few insiders who pointed him in the direction of the seminal post-punk band P.K.14, who were about to embark on tour. “The P.K.14 tour was crucial, as [singer] Yang Haisong and the band picked the openers in all of these smaller cities,” Yingling said. “Back in Beijing, I think I went to 20 shows in 30 days, then I followed Haisong’s other band, the excellent After Argument, back down south to Guangzhou.” In a trip lasting just over two months, he saw “something like 50 shows.”

Recording something transitory, like a scene, is clearly something that appeals to Yingling: “Bands, venues, and labels can be a fleeting endeavors. I think the beauty of this project is not only capturing moments in time with a little budget, but also archiving the audio files and contacts pages,” he said.

“As it grows, and I continue to do trips, all of this will grow larger and larger. I gush about each place, to everyone, and now I have a place I can point to and say, ‘All right, go here, and you'll find more than you probably want to know.’ We tried to make the site as mean and clean as possible, so people can just enter the wormhole.”

The World Underground is intended to be open-ended, the idea being that each release will fund the next. Donations are encouraged, and viewers can opt to buy a high-quality version of the episode. Once enough is raised, Yingling can then pack up his camera and head to his next destination. 

A few of those destinations have already been named, and episode 2, a film based on a tour with a couple of Beijing noise acts, GUIGUISUISUI and Noise Arcade, is currently in post-production. Like the first episode, it will not just focus on the headline act but also feature other artists that Yingling came across, “like the excellent GENIUS in Korea and Go Tsushima in Japan.”

After leaving Asia the project will head to Montana and the small town of Missoula—which has “a scene so lively for its size”—before heading to an “extremely exciting” secret location. A future return to Chicago is also in the pipeline, and with an upgraded camera and gear since he was last there, Yingling is enthusiastic about taking back what he has learned from his Chinese trip and “[doing] the incredible scene justice.”

It could seem as if little discretion is displayed in the compilation of The World Underground’s collection, that it is just a mass of sound captured and delivered in a quest for completeness. But Yingling is quick to dispel such a notion. Although he does consider himself an archivist, he is also a filmmaker, and as such, there will always be a leaning toward the production of entertainment. 

“It's bands I like. That’s it, really. I will never include a band I don't like,” he explained. “It defeats the purpose. I like to think my taste in music is pretty good, so I just dive in and roll with it all. I really try to get a broad spectrum, too. There’s so much out there. Noise, pop, rock and roll, experimental. The term ‘indie’ means so much these days.”

Photo via John Yingling

This Rube Goldberg machine is a must-have at your Passover Seder

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Why is this night different from all other nights? On this night, we use a Rube Goldberg machine to deliver the perfect PassoverSeder dinner.

A group of students at Technion in Israel banded together to create an elaborate Rube Goldberg machine in honor of Passover, the Jewish holiday celebrating the ancient Israelites' liberation and exodus from Egypt. The engineers and architects take us through the story of Moses, complete with a burning bush, several plagues, and even the parting of the Red Sea. 

It all circles back around to unveil a perfect Seder plate, a symbol of the holiday, for the students to enjoy. Sure, it would have been easier just to lift the lid off themselves—but that wouldn't have been nearly as fun.

Clarification 2:56pm CT: A previous version of this article called the Seder plate the meal of Passover; it is actually a representation of the elements of the Passover holiday.

H/T BoingBoing | Screengrab via Technion/YouTube


Ari Shaffir called out a 'fat, one-armed' comedian in a standup set—and she responded

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Ari Shaffir is a comedian with a few standup specials under his belt, and his profile has been raised considerably since Comedy Central’s longform storytelling series This Is Not Happening debuted. In his first standup special, 2013’s Passive Aggressive, he does a bit in which he talks about “annoying” people and addresses a fellow comedian by name (it starts around the 3:40 mark):

I was talking to this girl in Los Angeles, a comedian. Her name is Damienne Merlina. She is so annoying. She’s the worst. We never have anything to talk about. She’s not even that annoying; we just have nothing in common. So when we talk I’m just like, ‘Uhhhh. You’re killing me.’ She’s so annoying.

Also, she has one arm. But it’s got nothing to do with the story. ...It’s not why she’s annoying. I knew her when she had two arms. She was just as annoying then. One day her arm-to-annoyance ratio just shot the fuck up. ...And she smelled. She had that fat smell. You know the fat smell. Ugh. Not every fat person has it. But it’s like, one out of 12 fat people.

This special made its network TV debut on Comedy Central on March 13, which got it in front of more eyes. One of those people watching? Damienne Merlina. On Friday, the comedian posted a video addressing Shaffir’s body-shaming, after a fan clued her into the bit. She introduces herself as a “fat, one-armed” comedian. The comments on the post alone should give you an idea of how some men view female comedians, their bodies especially. (And there are obviously more nuanced ways to explore the issue in comedy.) 

Merlina has spoken about the fact that she has one arm in her standup before. And sure, comedians talk shit about each other all the time; it's a cottage industry now. But Merlina said the two have only shared “two paragraphs” of conversation, so the tone of his bit is somewhat odd.  

Still, Shaffir had a right to include the bit if he thought it was funny, and censoring comedians’ words and tone is a whole other suitcase to unpack. (Shaffir’s past “comedy” content also includes a series called The Amazing Racist, for context.) Daily Show contributor John Hodgman addressed the “rules” of standup comedy and Comedy Central’s responsibility in this matter in a blog post on Sunday:

If Comedy Central finds this bit worthy of being part of an hour special that’s their choice. But why wouldn't they protect Damienne, themselves, and even Ari from what I think we can all agree is just a grossly dumb and damaging and hurtful decision?

Indeed, what’s even more mind-boggling than a male comedian taking out his aggression on a female comedian by name—and the bit didn’t even have a punchline or a lesson—was that it made it onto a nationally aired comedy special. (We reached out to Comedy Central for comment but did not hear back before press time.) Other comedians were similarly confused.

Instead of going after Shaffir, Merlina used her video as a platform to speak about bullying and body-shaming: “You can have bad experiences in life, and you can turn them into positive experiences. You can have bad experiences in life, and you can still be a nice person. And you can still be a funny person without being super-duper crappy to other people.”

Perhaps that is the punchline Shaffir’s bit was sorely missing. We reached out to both Merlina and Shaffir for comment, and we will update if and when we hear back.

Photo via CleftClips/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

The Nerdist opens its improv school with a 12-hour performance event

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School is officially in session after a 12-hour improv kickoff event at the Nerdist School, a performance school offering classes in improv, sketch writing, and storytelling in Los Angeles.

L.A. is home to various improv-focused juggernaut programs like the Groundlings and the Upright Citizens Brigade that serve as training grounds for comedy hopefuls who often go on to massive mainstream careers. Nerdist Industries, which spans a popular YouTube channel, website, and podcast network, is expanding its brand with the new class offerings.

“The Nerdist Showroom has spent the last several years cultivating a wonderful community of performers and comedy fans to become one of the top venues in Los Angeles,” Nerdist founder Chris Hardwicktold the Hollywood Reporter. “The goal of the school will be to broaden that community to give young comedy minds the tools they need to leap from audience to stage!”


The school, which is adjacent to Meltdown Comics, which already hosts Nerdist’s NerdMelt Showroom for performances. However, the new improv theater is a sparse space next door with just a few rows of chairs and a small stage. Still, the performers who took to the kickoff events filled the space grandly. 

Various teams joined in over the daylong event, showcasing their own styles and promoting the Nerdist School’s classes and weekend performance schedule. They even opened the stage up to the audience, starting improv jams with various groups in which different teams and unaffiliated viewers could try their hand at performance. 

If the low-key carnival atmosphere continues, the Nerdist School might be a welcome alternative in an L.A. scene flush with super serious comedy training grounds. From this early look at things, fun comes first at Nerdist. 

Screengrab via NerdistSchool/Instagram

Hannibal Buress stops a heckler in his tracks

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Somewhere between opening for Dave Chappelle and sparking a national conversation about Bill Cosby, Hannibal Buress became one of the most biting, essential-to-our-societal-fabric standups. It helps that the guy can quip off the dome like it's nothing.

Proof positive: During Buress's weekend at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Del., a seemingly drunk rando began barking at his jokes. Buress turned on a dime and spent three minutes reducing the heckler to kibbles. 

"Why can't you hold your liquor?" Buress asked, before clarifying: "I want to give you the excuse of being drunk, and not just being a shitty, obnoxious person."

The moment sparked a smooth aside, "When I'm drunk I like to ruin one or two people's nights—a cab driver, a bartender, a woman that I'm seeing... I like to work on a small scale."

The heckler was apparently criticizing something Buress said about Compton, Calif., rapper YG. But Buress attacked the heckler's entire psychological structure.  

And rather than just clown the dude Buress went righteously defiant: "If you want attention you have to do what I did and work really hard for 13 years." 

Screengrab via Hannibal Buress' Comedy Camisado TV/YouTube

The 11 best jokes from the Justin Bieber roast

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You have to hand it to Justin Bieber—the boy’s got a thick skin.

Comedy Central’s roast of the 21-year-old Canadian bad boy/pop icon hit the Biebs high, low, and everywhere in between Monday. Roasters took shots at his fans, hair, sexuality, desire to urinate in mopbuckets, and even (in really bad taste) his mom. A fairly large percentage of the barbs are either only funny in context or are way too crude to repeat. Fear not, though, there will be clips abound of Bieber’s night until he's eligible for social security.

The big winner of the night was the one you’d least expect great yucks from—Martha Stewart.

Stewart, who won the popular vote on Twitter, went hard at Bieber using her experience in prison to provide tips for what she called his “eventual incarceration.” She also took shots at others on the stage even saying that listening to roastmaster Kevin Hart’s jokes “was the hardest time I have ever done.”

Stewart was not alone in her ability to skewer Bieber, with a firing line of Hannibal Buress, Snoop Dogg, Ludacris, Jeff Ross, Shaquille O’Neal, Natasha Leggero, and Chris D'Elia (allegedly Bieber’s favorite comedian).

Ludacris: "You’re not tough, you’ve been on Ellen 14 times... Justin wants to be black so bad he’s actually seen Kevin Hart’s movies in the theater."

Leggero fired off this missile about Bieber’s breakup: "Selena (Gomez) is the luckiest Selena in entertainment in history."

Shaq tossed in this layup about Bieber’s egging of a neighbor's house: "Imagine what kind of damage you could have done if you threw like a boy."

In his usual acerbic manner, Ross cried out, "This is the first roast I’ve done for someone with a bedtime." He later called the Biebs "the King Joffrey of pop."

Buress reared back and let loose with, "I  hate your music more than Bill Cosby hates my comedy."

And in a guest appearance, Will Ferrell, as Ron Burgundy, soberly stated, “This kid has spunk, moxie, and a few other STDs.”

While the jokes made at Bieber’s expense were brutal, the best laughs of the evening were directed at other roasters.

Buress on Snoop Dogg: "The only way you'll get another hit is if you stand behind Suge Knight's car."

Shaq on his co-roasters: "I haven't seen a more disappointing lineup since the last Lakers game."

And Kevin Hart on to Martha Stewart: "Put your ankle bracelet on vibrate."

Social media was ablaze during the two-hour taped event.

Screengrab via Comedy Central/YouTube

This little boy's 'Uptown Funk' dance routine just wowed an entire arena

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For some people, “Uptown Funk” is irresistible. When you hear the song, you have to dance, and this young Binghamton Senators fan is by far the most adorable example we've seen so far.

As soon as Bruno Mars echoes through the arena, this boy starts showing off the kind of dance moves that would shame most adults. He doesn't even falter once the cameras are trained on him and everyone starts applauding and yelling along. Could he be a star in the making?

 Photo via FOX40WICZ/YouTube | Remix by Max Fleishman

The loopy creative career of Vine's Nicholas Megalis

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Thumb through Vine’s Popular Now page and you certainly won’t have a hard time spotting Nicholas Megalis. Nestled among six-second clips that find the app’s poster boys showing off their chiseled jawlines and washboard abs is the hirsute 26-year-old, shirtless and rapping about wearing a necklace made of congealed Chinese food.

But don’t count this lyrical salute to General Tso’s as a one-off. Click through to Megalis’s profile to enter the mind of a madman who is equal parts Weird Al and just plain weird. From donning fright wigs to mocking moms who try to be hip to painting on a full face of makeup to sing about stankface, this performer takes an unabashed approach to comedy that makes his peers look both shallow and lazy.

“To be totally transparent with you, I make things so I don’t lose my mind,” he says over the phone as he paces around his Brooklyn apartment. We’ve known each other for less than 10 minutes, yet his warm candor makes me feel as if I’m grabbing a drink with an old friend. He’s earnest and vulnerable, a refreshing combination in an age inundated with millennials trying to find their 15 minutes of fame online. “My dad always says, ‘People who make things and are insane are artists. People who don’t make things and are insane are insane.’”

While it’s up for discussion if insanity runs in his family, it’s clear that artistry does. Megalis grew up in Cleveland with parents who ingrained the importance of artistic expression from an early age. “My dad always had an art studio my entire life, a sanctuary where we could make shit,” the Vine star tells me. It was in that studio that Tom Megalis, a visual artist who served as head animator on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show, began nurturing his son’s passion for film.  

“My dad gave me a 16 millimeter Bolex camera when I was 11 or 10 years old and said: ‘Here’s how to shoot. Crank that crank and make this movie,’” Nicholas says. But Tom didn’t just dispense an education in creativity; the animator also taught his son to hone his technique. From lessons on how to edit actual film by cutting and splicing to recording audio and creating soundtracks, the elder Megalis sowed the seeds that would one day lead to his son’s viral success.

Yet when his son joined Vine in March 2013, the father who had been endlessly supportive of his son’s creative ventures was suddenly unsure. After a skateboarding accident left him briefly homebound, Nicholas turned to the app and quickly became obsessed with creating manic vignettes. “‘Hey Nick, it’s Dad. It’s about 3:30 in the afternoon. I’ve been watching these little videos you've been making, and you gotta get a job,” Megalis says, mimicking a voicemail his father left him shortly after screening a few of his early posts. “‘You really got a get a job, buddy. I don't know what you’re doing, and I don't know what the hell this is, but this is not right.’”

But Megalis didn’t let his father’s uncertainty dissuade him. Soon he began building an audience by dawning pretzel glasses, mocking hipster apathy, and imaging what it would be like if Snoop rapped about refried beans. In June of that year, he saw one of his posts about a wallet full of gummy worms entitled “Gummy Money” take on a life of its own.

With over 20 million loops, fans suddenly clamored for more, and in 2014 Megalis released it as a single that stormed the iTunes charts. With traction like that, it wasn’t long before big brands like Ford and Trident began clamoring for a chance to work with the Vine wizard who spawned the hashtag #singwhatyousee.

Since then, his dad has eased up on his penchant for posting wild videos. “He changed his tune a little bit when Vine integrated itself into my career,” he tells me. In fact, Tom Megalis was so inspired by his son’s success that he established an account of his own where his son makes frequent cameos.

But this father-son collaboration isn’t just limited to six-second sketches. When Megalis was tapped by infamous publisher Judith Regan to write a book, he decided to turn the work into a family affair by pairing his tales of anxiety and adolescence with illustrations from his father. The self-proclaimed “artist/musician/idiot” wanted to make his collection of 20 short stories more personal by including full-page illustrations from the same man who first encouraged him to express his weirdness.

Mega Weird, out today, plays to all of Megalis’s strengths. The collection of essays follows the Vine model by offering a generation with a winnowing attention span hilarious, bite-size stories that skip from the first time he went to jail to a poignant outing at Auntie Anne’s pretzels. “I want to read 10 stories that are different, that have no connection to each other,” he tells me, explaining the non sequitur storytelling he’s become famous for. “That’s what life is. Life is short stories. Life is not very linear for me.”

Non-linear thinking is just one of the things that makes Nicholas Megalis so beautiful. When I ask him what’s next, he tells me he’s unsure. Where his Internet personality peers would gleefully rattle off a laundry list of projects and collaborations in the works, all I’m met with is the simple and very serious answer of “probably time travel.” Megalis’s ambitions outstrip those of his peers by going beyond the tangible. Rather than focus on followers, views, and branding, this artist thinks in terms of the greater good. “I just want to expose people to my mind, and I want to challenge the world a little bit,” he says, passion rising in his voice. “Just poke it with a stick a little bit if I can.”

In celebration of the release of Mega Weird, Megalis will be holding an author event at New York City’s Barnes and Noble on March 31 at 7pm.

Photo via Regan Arts

Can new 'Daily Show' host Trevor Noah survive these damning jokes?

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The Internet might want to put its celebration of Trevor Noah on hold. 

On Monday night, it emerged that the next host of The Daily Show had tweeted some very offensive things about women, Jews, and victims of naked photo leaks.

Here is one of the tweets at the center of the firestorm.

Here is another.

Noah's weight-related humor also targeted Adele.

The comedian also weighed in on the topic of naked celebrity images by pretending to disavow the practice before encouraging it.

And then there is this tweet, which some are calling anti-Semitic.

In case Noah deletes these tweets, hereare some archivedversions.

The Independent has rounded up more of Noah's tweets belittling women's sports, Israel, and other topics.

Noah is far from the first comedian to earn criticism for humor that his supporters will simply shrug off as edgy. The question is whether Comedy Central sees the growing backlash over his tweets as a problem that merits a response. At press time, the Viacom-owned network had yet to issue a statement.

Photo via Trevor Noah/Facebook


Dame Helen Mirren sounds incredible on helium

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If anyone can still sound incredible after consuming helium, it’s Dame Helen Mirren.

That's the challenge Jimmy Fallon put her up to on his show last night. And although Dame Mirren claims she hadn't sucked helium since she was 11 years old, her voice is so silky smooth and her British accent so plummy that she can actually pull it off. 

If nothing else, we now know what Mirren saying “spotted dick” with a voice laced with helium sounds like.

Screengrab via The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon/YouTube

'The Humpty Dance' is even better with Gonzo and the Muppets

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An artist with a hell of a schnoz is taking inspiration from another like-nosed musician.

Having already tackled Biz Markie and and the Beastie Boys, the Muppets are putting on their dancing shoes for a rendition of Digital Underground’s “Humpty Dance,” thanks to another mashup from isthishowyougoviral, or Mylo the Cat. And who better than to take up Shock G’s mantel than Gonzo?

Gonzo has a lot going for him: fans that go gaga, impeccable fashion taste, a cool Rowlf on the piano, and enough craziness about him to actually pull off the dance (which Shock G explains later in his song). If anybody can get the Muppets (and all of us) to dance now, it’s gonna be Gonzo.

H/T Huffington Post | Photo via frikitiki/Flickr (CC BY ND 2.0)

'The Late Late Show' is a hundred times sexier with David Beckham modeling underwear

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James Corden is trying his hand at underwear modeling with some help from a man who’s had plenty of experience with it.

We’re not exactly sure what prompted Corden and David Beckham to launch their own fictional underwear line on The Late Late ShowBut if it means getting to see Beckham acting like a serious model while Corden basically does what any of us would do while modeling with him, we're certainly not complaining.

Both men put everything out there—and they're rewarded for it.

While this might seem like a bit that came out of nowhere, Beckham and Corden have actually been bonding and cuddling in an adorable and mysterious friendship for years now.

Screengrab via The Late Late Show With James Corden/YouTube

Martha Stewart's set from the Bieber roast is one for the history books

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There were a lot of “Oh, snap” moments during last night's Roast of Justin Bieber, but the biggest snaps came courtesy of Martha Stewart.  

Here’s her full set, in which she knocks down Kevin Hart within the first 30 seconds, zings Chris D’Elia with a douche joke, then gives Justin Bieber some very solid advice for when he inevitably ends up in prison, while dissing Shaq’s mom. 

She then tells Bieber he needs a “player in the boardroom and a freak in the bedroom”—specifically, her. Someone please give her an hour special on Comedy Central, and remix her set with this song

Screengrab via Comedy Central

YouTube beauty queen Michelle Phan launches Icon, a global lifestyle network

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Michelle Phan has conquered the world of YouTube beauty, now she's branching out and making herself  an even bigger brand with Icon, her own multichannel network for lifestyle content.

At press time on launch day, Icon already has 380,000 subscribers and counting. In Phan’s own words, the network is a place for “collective moments to become memories we all can share together.”

The network’s more business-focused trailer celebrates the collective reach of the stars already signed on to the network, with a counter streaming their combined views easily into the 20 million range—without Phan's contribution of her own 7.5 million fans.

Phan isn't going it alone. She’s partnered with Endemol Beyond, and the network will be launching a plethora of beauty and lifestyle shows helmed by its stars, from a Dumpster-to-DIY fashion series to a makeover prank show featuring celebrities.

Phan has branched out beyond her YouTube presence before, helming ipsy, a digital destination for makeup fans. She’s also partnered with L’Oreal for a makeup line. Endemol has been developing new digital content for the past year, with its Originals and Reality lines launching several series. The combination of these two digital powerhouses joining forces in the booming business of lifestyle content is a recipe for success.

Screengrab via Michelle Phan/YouTube

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