Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is the new show from Fey and Robert Carlock, and stars The Office's Ellie Kemper as woman starting life all over again after fleeing a cult, which sounds just delightful. 

Much like the Billy Eichner and Julie Klausner comedy Difficult People, which was slated for USA Networks but landed on Hulu, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt was eying an NBC midseason debut before it got picked up for a two-season order. Netflix also recently picked up two seasons of the new Judd Apatow comedy, Love. 

The first season debuts in March. 

H/T Variety | Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Connor Franta is not a singer, but he’s got an album in the Billboard Top 200 all the same. That’s because the YouTube superstar is using his social influence to curate and promote a compilation album to his loyal fanbase.

Franta’s new initiative, Crown, is a mixture of pop and alternative tracks that caught the 22-year-old’s ear as he’s been exploring his musical tastes this year.

“I’ve always enjoyed music, and I’ve gotten into it way more this year because of Spotify,” Franta told the Daily Dot. “I started building playlists and finding more artists and genres that I had never heard of or was into. These artists had really good music but low playcounts.”

To help up the profile of his new favorite musicians with the help of his millions of social media followers, Franta joined forces with Opus Label, a music distribution and licensing company that focuses on celebrity-helmed compilation releases using the power of social media. The idea started when company cofounder Jeremy Wineberg partnered with Perez Hilton to promote compilation albums of the music Hilton frequently promoted on his website.

“The concept with Connor is basically the same. It’s sharing your playlist at that moment in time with your fans, and using primarily social media to sell your music,” Wineberg explained. “Connor came with 12 artists that he loves, mostly new artists that haven’t really been promoted before. Through Twitter and Facebook and YouTube, we were able to get him to number 12 in the [iTunes] pop music store. We moved 30,000 albums on streaming sites and close to 3,000 albums just on iTunes.”

The compilation even broke the Billboard Top 200, and it served as the debut platform for a track by Manicanparty. Franta says the response has been overwhelming—and surprising since he’s never dabbled in the music space before. Some fans were even disappointed he wasn’t dabbling more directly.

“Once people got over the fact that it wasn’t me singing, because of course that’s what they want, even though I remind them I cannot sing,” Franta laughed. “Once they got over that, everyone was super down for it and super into … me doing something outside of what I normally do. I’ve never done anything revolving around music. Seeing something I created on iTunes was never something I thought would happen in a million years.”

Franta found fame on YouTube as a vlogger—both solo and as a part of Our2ndLife, a collaboration of young male vloggers that Franta parted ways with this summer. On his personal channel, where he talks about sex, relationships, and his life in general and collaborates with other YouTube elite like Tyler Oakley, Marcus Butler, and MirandaSings, he’s grown his audience to 3.5 million subscribers. But Crown is a chance for Franta to spread his wings beyond his YouTube persona. Andrew Graham, Franta’s manager at Big Frame, explained that finding next steps for YouTube based creators is key, and for Franta the move to a curatorial and tastemaker state is a natural step.

“This really was a brand-building exercise, and it’s starting to turn into something bigger,” Graham explained. “But that’s the kind of trajectory every talent on YouTube has taken. They went on to YouTube just to share their voice, and it became something that is a business.”

Franta payed particular attention to the business as he crafted Crown, from hand-selecting the songs to spending hours debating what to name the brand.

“I was looking for cool words,” explained Franta. “I don’t want to just call this ‘Connor Franta, blah blah.’ I don’t like attaching my name too much to projects like that. I want it to be more about the project and what I’m producing than just my name. I came across ‘crown,’ and a crown signifies power and royalty and importance. And these songs are the crown jewels of the music industry, but they’re diamonds in the rough, too, because not too many know what they are.”

According to Franta, the concept of Crown won’t stop at just music compilations, although he does want to create another one soon.

“Not to give away too much, but I definitely do see it growing into more than just my compilation brand, if you will,” Franta said. “I see it branching out into other brands in other industries. I’ve begun working toward that and few secret projects.”

Those secret projects could possibly include incorporating Crown into Franta’s capsule clothing collection, live-events, and even a potential consumer beverage product, according to Graham.

“I’ve always loved design; I’ve always loved coffee. If I can include those sorts of things into it, that would put me over the moon,” Franta admitted.

For now, Franta is simply excited about connecting with the musicians he admires. He says he now counts Betty Who as a friend after being a huge fan of hers for years. Many other artists that were part of Crown have responded favorably to the inclusion, including the Kite String Tangle, whose “Arcadia” Franta sites as one of his favorites on the compilation.

“I think they tweeted it, when they followed me on Twitter, I was super happy,” Franta gushed.

Even YouTube superstars can get excited over some social media love.

Screengrab via Connor Franta/YouTube

We'll be able to test the theory when the hugely successful and popular segment from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon gets its own spinoff this spring, thanks to Spike TV.

Fallon first forayed into the lip-synch battle arena when Stephen Merchant and John Krasinski brought the idea for the segment to The Tonight Show, and from there it's exploded. Fallon and Merchant announced the new show this week on air.

Although the show tapes in January, fans will have to wait until April 2 to find out who reigns supreme. Until then, we can get nostalgic about the original lip-synch moments we've come to love.

H/T Jezebel | Screengrab via The Tonight Show / YouTube

Of course, they added their own twist, inserting two treadmills and two of rap's heavyweights, Action Bronson and Killer Mike.

H/T Digg | Screengrab via Adult Swim/YouTube 

James Acaster is one of the rising stars of British comedy. He’s a constant tourist, continuously pops up on the U.K.’s ubiquitous TV panel shows, and for the past three years he's just missed out on one of comedy’s biggest awards.

But here’s the thing: As a comedian, I can’t stand him. To me, his act is troublesome in its flimsiness—with barely a hint of an excuse for this, such as disarranged absurdity, for example— and it is all delivered in a monotonous nasal drone that manages to suck out any enthusiasm I may be garnering. Reviews about him often include words such as “deceptive” or “subtle,” and while for context he's used framing devices in the past, all I can hear are empty musings.

So it could be guessed that his webseries, Sweet Home Ketteringa, might not agree with me. And that would be right. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t enjoy it.

These are the sort of setups comedians relish because they provide a succession of launching points for improvisation. Give them the dog statues, queer museum exhibits, and fans of a free-falling semi-pro soccer team Kettering offers, and they’ll riff for ten minutes on each and then cut it into something snappy when they get home.

But Acaster’s disengagement kills any momentum these scenarios provide. He’s consistently aloof and, performance or not, it is damaging. Sure, jokes sometimes need to be given room to breathe, but time and again the impetus within scenes is destroyed by his strained pauses and lethargic pacing. It makes for quite a bare series, where attempts at humor are unleashed sparingly.

Mostly though, the problems with the series concern Acaster’s style. Seeing that this is a style consistent with his standup, however, it's not surprising that this is the webseries he made. It certainly contains his hallmark and so it therefore follows that if you like the man’s other work, there’s a strong chance you may like what he’s done here. 

Screengrab via Turtle Canyon Comedy/YouTube 

If your daily social media interactions were to come to life, would it include Gilbert Gottfried acting out your Twitter feed?

In the webseries Life in Your Social Network, a promotional vehicle for Heard, a new social content-sharing network, we're presented with a hyperbolic view of our daily digital clutter. Seen through the eyes of a cocktail party guest, this poor soul, drink in hand, is overwhelmed by the annoying guy he met at Coachella years ago, a social gaming buddy he can’t get rid of, and cloying comedian Gottfried, who spews out a stream of off-color jokes in the form of tweets.

Goodman reached out to noted YouTube celebrity Hunter Davis to write and direct the three YouTube segments. The brainstorming sessions between Goodman and Davis led to two themes which will intersect as the episodes unfold. First, the goal is to show the chaos of social overload, followed, in later installments, by how Heard can help improve the management of your out-of-control posts and tweets.

The message in the first episode is subtle—perhaps a bit too subtle, as no mention of Heard is made until the end of the episode with the tagline “it doesn’t have to be this way. Heard: Social Exchange.” The oblique reference, Goodman said, is intentional. “We felt it would be more compelling at first to set up the narrative and keep it in the background,” he added.

Heard represents a familiar concept of creating a content distribution network that links content providers with targeted audiences. The difference, according to Goodman, is that Heard utilizes some advanced signals and algorithms to create a better profile of a user’s interests.

“We have discovered the balance between personalization and being overpersonalized,” added Goodman.

Heard is available for iOS, Android, and Windows. There is also a desktop version for both Mac and Windows.

Screengrab via Life in Your Social Network/YouTube

Last night's cold open featured a spoof of Schoolhouse Rock!'s "I'm Just a Bill," in which a bill attempts to explain to a young boy how he's passed. That is, until Obama pushes him down the steps of Capitol Hill and an executive order shows up, smoking a cigarette. 

"I'm an executive order, and I pretty much just happen," he sings. 

Then, the executive order actually reads itself. 

Screengrab via Saturday Night Live/YouTube 

Oxygen is targeting a hip, young demographic with its new show, a partnership with fashion and beauty multichannel network StyleHaul that will put the focus on vloggers.

The NBC-owned network announced on its blog that it would partner with StyleHaul to develop Survival of the Clickest, a reality series that follows yet-to-be-determined fashion and beauty vloggers as they juggle fame and friendship.

Bringing Internet personalities to TV is becoming more and more common. Earlier this year, foodie heavyweight Epic Meal Timepremiered a television version of its popular YouTube series on FYI, and Rainn Wilson is developing Hollywood and Vine, a reality series that focuses on famous Vine stars.

Beauty and fashion vloggers are an obvious choice for the next iteration of YouTube-to-TV stardom, and StyleHaul, which works with some of the biggest and most influential in the business, makes sense as Oxygen's partner. 

“The idea behind the show is for us to celebrate the success and entrepreneurial spirit of our talent, who have not only been able to build these incredibly engaged fan bases, but are also now starting to develop their own fashion lines and product extensions, and are really turning their vlogs into amazing businesses,” Mia Goldwyn, chief content officer at StyleHaul, told Video Ink.

Now it remains to be seen if Clickest will become must-watch reality fare like the Real Housewives franchise, or a flash-in-the-pan reality show like the already-forgotten single-season offerings of LOLwork. 

Survival of the Clickest will premiere in 2015.

H/T Tubefilter | Photo via The Makeup PA/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

But what good can come if it, you ask? What about the children?

Well, that's apparently where Catalyst Prep comes in. According to the company's website, Catalyst Prep offers the "spark to an extraordinary score" on SATs and ACTs. A look through the site and their Twitter account proves they definitely have a sense of humor about the dreaded test prep, which is perhaps why they're using Kim K's Paper cover to help kids with math. 

Oh, and Catalyst also found a use for Justin Bieber's face. 

Anna Todd is a Directioner who shot to fame when her hit Wattpad 1D fanfic "After" scored a major publishing deal. Last night, she was the trending target of ridicule as One Direction fans took to social media to attack her appearance at the AMAs. The most common criticisms from her fellow fans included threats of violence and body-shaming.

On Wattpad, the "After" series scored millions of readers, but despite ample amounts of advance publicity buzz, so far sales have been abysmal. Four weeks after publication, the first book currently clocks in at below #10,000 on the Amazon bestsellers list. 

The lack of support for the fic-turned-novel series is perhaps due to the contentious subject of profiting from fanfiction. This is a controversial issue in the best of cases, but in the case of "After," what complicated matters was that, in its unpublished fic form, the story centered around 1D member Harry Styles. "After," often-compared to Fifty Shades of Grey because of its romanticization of domestic abuse, apparently alienated fans who felt Todd first mischaracterized Styles, then exploited that characterization in order to profit from fandom.

Still, despite "After's" lackluster performance, Todd snagged a red-carpet appearance at the American Music Awards alongside One Direction themselves. This left plenty of openings for the 1D fandom to get vicious and snarky in their attacks on Todd—and they did. 

In Anna Todd's case, her transition from celebrated fangirl to published professional appears to removed her from fan culture and made her a target for scorn. 

Still, there were plenty of fans lining up to caution each other not to let their anger at Todd turn sexist:

Todd herself was excited about the evening, tweeting pictures from the ceremony and brushing off the hate.

But the evening made one thing clear: when it comes to fandom drama, Directioners deserve an award.

Turkey pardoning is a veritable American Thanksgiving tradition, so leave it to British expat John Oliver to point out how weird it really is.

In a web-exclusive clip to tide over fans of his late-night show Last Week Tonight, which is on break until next year, Oliver explained that he didn't see the fairness in the president pardoning just one turkey every year while millions of other turkeys were slaughtered. (Many say the modern tradition began with President Harry S. Truman, but it has been around in some form since the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.)

Oliver had a suggestion to make things more fair: either all turkeys should be pardoned or they should all be put on trial. Such a trail, he said, would be a fast one, as all these birds are of one thing (being delicious) and should be punished accordingly.

It has not been a good month for Bill Cosby. Over the past few weeks, the 77-year-old comedian has faced a slew of sexual assault allegations, with at least 12 different women coming forward and accusing Cosby of sexually assaulting them. In the wake of these allegations and the public backlash against Cosby, both Netflix and NBC have canceled projects featuring Cosby, and his social media team’s attempts to “meme” the actor spectacularly backfired.

Although public opinion of the Cosby Show star is at an all-time low, there’s nothing new about the allegations against him, which have been swirling around the actor for years. In 2006, for example, a former Temple University staff member filed a civil suit against him, which alleged that the actor assaulted her at his home. (The suit was eventually settled out of court.)

But it took a Washington Post op-ed by one of Cosby’s accusers to truly bring the allegations against him to light. Since former actress and model Barbara Bowman’s piece was published Nov. 13, more than a dozen women have come forward, claiming that the actor drugged, groped, and sexually assaulted them—allegations that Cosby has long refused to address, though he did dance around the issue during a show in Florida on Nov. 21.

Considering how many women have come forward to publicly accuse Cosby, and how far back his alleged history of assaulting women extends, we’ve compiled a detailed guide to the allegations against him.

Andrea Constand

Constand, who was the director of operations for Temple University’s women’s basketball program when she met Cosby in 2002, alleges that in January 2004 she was invited to his Pennsylvania home, offered three herbal pills to help her “relax,” and subsequently assaulted. (Cosby is a trustee at Temple and will apparently remain one.) She filed a civil lawsuit against him in 2005. Former Montgomery County district attorney Bruce Castor declined to press charges at the time, citing lack of evidence.

In November 2006, the suit was settled out of court. Though Constand knew of other women alleging Cosby sexually assaulted them (13 “Jane Doe” accusers at the time), because the suit was settled out of court, they were not called to testify. Constand is to date the only accuser to seek out criminal charges against Cosby.

Tamara Green

One of the named accusers in Constand’s suit, Green spoke to the Today Show’s Matt Lauer in 2005 about allegedly being drugged and assaulted by Cosby in the ’70s, while she was having a “working lunch” with the comic in L.A. Green claimed she had the flu during the lunch, and Cosby offered her the cold and flu medicine Contac to alleviate her symptoms. After the cold medicine took effect, Cosby offered to take her home, where he allegedly assaulted her.

When asked why she didn’t come forward sooner, Green, now a lawyer in California, replied:

“Well, let me tell you, and I understand this about the current victim. The first thing you feel is stupid, and then you feel that no one will believe you. This is the great Bill Cosby, he has tremendous wealth, power, a P.R. machine, a reputation, he is Mr. Jell-O, but the worst thing you feel is stupid. There's a shame element involved.”

Beth Ferrier

The former model, who had an on-again, off-again relationship with Cosby for several years, came forward with allegations that the comic had assaulted her way back in 2006, in an interview with People magazine. Ferrier says that Cosby took her under his wing as a father figure and “mentor” shortly after they met through a friend in the ’80s. She alleges that one night in his dressing room, Cosby dosed her cup of coffee with an unknown substance, causing her to pass out.

"I woke up in my car in the parking lot with my clothes all a mess," she told People in 2006. "It's one of the pieces that keeps bothering me. I was definitely drugged. All I had to drink was coffee and the room was spinning. Then I wake up with my clothes a mess and my bra unhooked.”

When Ferrier asked Cosby what had happened, he allegedly told her never to bring it up again.

Barbara Bowman

A former actress and model, Bowman sparked the latest wave of allegations against Cosby on Nov. 13, when the Washington Postpublished her story of having been drugged and assaulted by the comic several times in the ’80s. She also referenced Hannibal Buress's standup routine, in which the comedian publicly discussed the allegations against Cosby during a set in late October. In her piece, Bowman explains that she was called to testify in the 2004 lawsuit filed by Constand:

“In 2004, when Andrea Constand filed a lawsuit against Bill Cosby for sexual assault, her lawyers asked me to testify. Cosby had drugged and raped me, too, I told them. The lawyers said I could testify anonymously as a Jane Doe, but I ardently rejected that idea. My name is not Jane Doe. My name is Barbara Bowman, and I wanted to tell my story in court. In the end, I didn’t have the opportunity to do that, because Cosby settled the suit for an undisclosed amount of money.”

Shortly before Bowman’s Washington Post piece published, Cosby’s social media team attempted to launch a Twitter meme, which failed miserably. In an NPR interview from Nov. 15, Cosby refused to address Bowman’s allegations.

Joan Tarshis

Tarshis alleges Cosby assaulted her when she was a 19-year-old aspiring comedy writer. They struck up a friendship, and Cosby invited her to his house and supplied her with “Red Eyes,” Bloody Marys mixed with beer. She toldPeople magazine she passed out, and when she came to, Cosby was allegedly removing her underwear. She claimed she had an STD in an effort to fend him off, so she says he forced her to perform oral sex on him instead.

In a Nov. 18 interview with CNN’s Don Lemon, the host asked Tarshis why she didn’t bite Cosby’s penis in self-defense.

Janice Dickinson

In an exclusive interview with ET, the former supermodel revealed on Nov. 18 that Cosby allegedly sexually assaulted her in 1982, when she visited him in Lake Tahoe. Dickinson had just gotten out of rehab, and Cosby allegedly reached out to her with a job offer. He offered her a pill for menstrual cramps and a glass of red wine, and she recounted what happened next:

“The next morning I woke up, and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man," she tells ET. "... Before I woke up in the morning, the last thing I remember was Bill Cosby in a patchwork robe, dropping his robe and getting on top of me. And I remember a lot of pain.”

On Nov. 21, TMZ published a photo of Cosby in said robe, allegedly taken by Dickinson the night of the incident. She added that she attempted to write about the incident in a 2002 memoir, but that Cosby’s lawyers pressured her to remove the passage.

Linda Joy Traitz

In a lengthy Nov. 18 Facebook post, Traitz, a former waitress, recounted meeting Cosby at the restaurant where she worked in the early '70s. One day, she says, she accepted a ride home from the comic, who drove her to the beach and presented her with a briefcase “with pills and tablets in it, different colors arranged and assorted into compartments,” Traitz told the Washington Post. “He offered me pills and said it would help me to relax.”

When Traitz refused, she says Cosby allegedly “lunged” at her, grabbing her chest and “grabbing me in the front all over.” She managed to break free from Cosby, tearing her skirt in the process.

A recovering prescription pill addict, Traitz has a history of criminal behavior, with charges ranging from ID fraud to battery to trafficking of a controlled substance. She served a five-year prison sentence for the latter charge, and was released in 2012. She says she was initially hesitant to share her story, because she knew “there will be people who are going to say, ‘You have a drug problem. Why should we believe you?’” she told the Washington Post.

In a statement to TMZ, Cosby’s lawyer Marty Singer attacked Traitz’s credibility on those grounds, referring to her claims of a briefcase full of drugs as “absurd.” 

Therese Serignese

Serignese, a nurse living in Florida, also claims Cosby drugged and assaulted her in the ’70s. She told her story to West Palm Beach news station WPTV on Nov. 19, claiming she met Cosby in Las Vegas when she was 19. He invited her to his show, then to an afterparty, where he offered her pills and then allegedly assaulted her in the bathroom. Though she admits she continued to have contact with Cosby and received financial support from him after the assault, she’s now urging him to “quit lying and denying” the allegations.

Carla Ferrigno

On Nov. 19, Ferrigno, the wife of former wrestler and Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno, alleged that Cosby assaulted her in 1969, during a double date at his Hollywood home. At one point, while Cosby was alone with Ferrigno, “he walked over to me and grabbed me and pulled me really tight to him, kissing me in the mouth really, really rough,” Ferrigno told radio station KFI AM 640. She kept quiet for years, she says, because “people don’t believe” female sexual assault victims.

Angela Leslie

On Nov. 20, the former model and actress told the New York Daily News that she was assaulted by Cosby in a Las Vegas hotel suite in 1992. According to her account, Cosby invited her to his suite, fixed her an alcoholic beverage, and asked her to drink it and pretend she was intoxicated as a sort of impromptu audition for a film role.

After Leslie refused to drink the beverage, Cosby allegedly forced her to put her hand on his penis before he ejected her from his hotel room. “I didn’t drink the alcohol, and maybe since I didn’t pass out, he decided to get rid of me,” Leslie told the Daily News.

Louisa Moritz

The 68-year-old actress, who played Rose in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, told TMZ on Nov. 20 that Cosby attempted to stick his penis in her mouth in the greenroom for The Tonight Show when they both appeared on the show in 1971. She claims Cosby "took his hands and put them on the back of my head and forced his penis in my mouth, saying, 'Have a taste of this. It will do you good in so many ways.'" When she turned down his advances, he allegedly threatened to ruin her career, a common theme in the sexual assault allegations against Cosby.

Renita Chaney Hill

The 47-year-old former model and actress alleges she was assaulted by Cosby back in the ’80s, when she was 15 and appearing in his educational TV series Picture Pages. During their four-and-a-half-year affair, Hill says Cosby plied her with alcohol, and that she would wake up in the morning with no memory of what had transpired the night before.

“I remember being in high school saying to him, ‘I’ll come see you, but I don’t want to drink because it makes me feel funny,’” Hill told KDKA CBS News Pittsburgh Nov. 20. “And he would tell me that if I didn’t drink, I couldn’t come see him.” 

Michelle Hurd

The Law & Order actress posted on Facebook Nov. 20, detailing her "personal experience" with Cosby when she was a stand-in actress on The Cosby Show. She describes uncomfortable encounters in his dressing room, and that she "was instructed to NEVER tell anyone what we did together." When he invited her over to his house to shower and blow dry her hair, to "see what it looked like straightened," she declined. 

She also claims she spoke with another actress who did visit Cosby's house, and described the same pattern of waking up and realizing she'd been drugged. She did not name the actress, because "it is her story to tell." 

Joyce Emmons

Emmons told TMZ on Nov. 22 that when she was running comedy clubs in the '70s and '80s, she associated with Cosby, and noted that he often had a "drawer full of drugs," though she never saw him partake. One night, he allegedly offered her one such pill for a migraine. She claims she blacked out and woke up nude in Cosby's hotel room. He claimed it was "just a Quaalude." 

Victoria Valentino

A former Playboy Playmate, Valentino came forward in a lengthy Washington Post piece published Nov. 22. Valentino alleges that Cosby sexually assaulted her in the '70s, when she and a friend met him for dinner in Hollywood. According to Valentino, Cosby offered the women red pills, saying it would make them “feel better,” before driving them to an apartment in the Hollywood Hills, where Valentino alleges Cosby assaulted her.

“He came over to me and sat down on the love seat and opened his fly and grabbed my head and pushed my head down,” she told the Washington Post. “And then he turned me over. It was like a waking nightmare.” Now 71, Valentino decided to come forward after seeing Bowman’s allegations against Cosby in the Washington Post. 

Sarita Butterfield

Butterfield, another former Playboy Playmate, claims Cosby groped her in 1974, when she was attending a Christmas Eve dinner with his wife and five children. While Butterfield says Cosby didn’t attempt to drug her, “he was aggressive... he cornered me,” the now-59-year-old former model told the New York Daily News on Nov. 23. “It was so nasty, trying to get a quick kiss and touch my boobs.”

Photo via vinothchandar/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) and meandmybadself/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0) | Remix by Fernando Alfonso III

After rumors circulated that Katy Perry would be hosting the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show Feb. 1, the NFLconfirmed that she would be the main performer during an “unprecedented multimedia, global announcement” Sunday night.

Perry, who is currently touring in Australia, tweeted about watching the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys face off with her band when she personally confirmed the news.

Perry is currently one of the biggest musicians in the world, and she's also the most-followed person on Twitter.

NBC Sports’ Bob Costas made the announcement during Sunday Night Football’s halftime show, and Pepsi, the Super Bowl halftime show’s sponsor, has already started to release videos advertising the show.

The first one came out Sunday night and features Perry already hard at work planning the sort of stunts to wow millions.

Screengrab via Pepsi/YouTube

If the beauty of a conspiracy theory lies in the mental contortions required to connect two disparate ideas, then the video below stands with the finest artworks of the Renaissance. 

At first, you’ll be tempted to take “Pitch Perfect 237” for a tasteless joke. But as its sharp-eyed narrator decodes the political imagery of 2012’s highest-grossing film about competitive a cappella, unravels Harry Connick Jr.’s ties to Al Qaeda, and explains what “turn the beat around” really means, the conclusion becomes inescapable: Pitch Perfect is Anna Kendrick’s subliminally charged attempt to reveal the truth about the 9/11. 

Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

During the American Music Awards on Sunday night, the rapper appeared in a short ad for Pine Bros. Softish Throat Drops, which is a real product you can buy at Walgreens. He also appeared in a cloud of smoke, so as not to mislead the public about why exactly he uses the product: Because of its all-natural ingredients, naturally. 

H/T Rolling Stone | Screengrab via pinebros1's channel/YouTube

The host asks you to count the number of red cards in a deck, and she promises you that the results of her video will demonstrate your attentiveness—or lack thereof. It seems easy enough, right? Find out for yourself. Don't keep reading until you've watched the video.

The key to the video is that you're supposed to be paying attention to more than just the cards. What the video illustrates is how difficult it is to focus on stimuli outside of those associated with a prescribed task. Even so, many people in the comments section are claiming that they identified the trick early on, with some even forsaking the card-counting task to watch the background for changes.

Are you task-oriented, open to everything, or somewhere in between? How you respond to this video definitely illustrates your attention style.

Screengrab via BuzzFeedBlue/YouTube.

Evangelical former Growing Pains star and banana fan Kirk Cameron has a new film out this holiday season, and the reviews are very bad. But if anyone could find fault with a shoddy dog-whistle polemic like Saving Christmas, it would be the liberal mainstream media, right?  

Photo by Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0) 

With NBC's musical version starring Allison Williams on the horizon, there's another take at the classic children's story coming from Warner Bros. coming July 17. Pan will take a twist on Peter's origin story, tapping Hugh Jackman as the villainous pirate Blackbeard, who kidnaps young wartime orphans, including Pan, played by Levi Miller. 

The Captain Hook we all know and loathe is not gone for good, however, but is instead an "Indian Jones-like figure" played by Garrett Hedlund. Overall the film takes J.M. Barrie's Neverland and turns it on its head.

Entertainment Weeklyhas a first look at some of the characters, from Jackman's Blackbeard to Miller's Peter. 

The deluxe reissue "platinum edition" of her self-titled album was released today, featuring a live DVD, four remixes, and two new songs. With the release came a flood of videos from her VEVO channel. You can now watch 13 videos from the new edition. 

H/T Digg | Screengrab via beyonceVEVO/YouTube 

The most meta show on television is back. After nearly a decade-long hiatus, Lisa Kudrow and Michael Patrick King’s hilarious creation, The Comeback, is in the midst of its second season on HBO. Valerie Cherish (Kudrow), the show’s protagonist, is holding on to her corner of the limelight with as much of a death grip as ever, and she still wants you to notice her perfectly manicured nails.

If season one was keenly aware of the challenges of being an aging “it girl” in a society that exalts youth, season two shows Valerie navigating the challenges of keeping up with an ever-evolving fame machine. 

Here are five reasons to log on to HBO Go and binge-watch the first three episodes.

1) All your friends are here

The first two episodes reveal Valerie landing a role in a new HBO dramedy about the trials and tribulations she endured in season one. All the characters who made that season a riot are back. Paulie G. (Lance Barber), now in recovery for heroin addiction, is the creator and director of the show-within-a-show; Mickey (Robert Michael Morris) is in tow to cheer for Valerie and style, but not “place,” her superfluous wigs, all of which are dead-ringers for her real hair; and Jane (Laura Silverman) is a darker, crisper version of herself from season one. She has an Oscar under her belt for a documentary about “lesbians in the Holocaust,” and she wears her disillusion and skepticism like heavily smudged eyeliner.   

While Paulie G., who reluctantly casts Valerie in his new venture, grumbles and fumbles his way through apologies and outbursts, Valerie’s husband, Mark (Damian Young), begs her to get out of the spotlight, and unwittingly deflates her hopes. Even Juna (Malin Akerman), the kind starlet who outshone Valerie on Room and Bored, makes a cameo where she reminds us that Hollywood loves the young and doe-eyed, but wants to show you the door before you start to wrinkle. The characters are sharply drawn and superbly real.

2) It might be the most feminist show on television

Valerie waltzes into a meeting at HBO ready to claim her part in Paulie G.’s project. And certainly she has a right to: He’s scripted her into the project without her permission. But what starts as a bold move to stand up for herself—albeit one motivated by her desire to create some juicy reality TV for her own project—quickly spirals into an off-the-cuff audition. Fueled by real anger and nerves, Valerie delivers an alarmingly moving monologue:

“You think I’m this dried-up, middle-aged woman. Look at the jokes you write, look at the track suit you make me wear—all saying the same thing: I’m old, I’m annoying, I’m un-fuckable. Well, I’m not the joke, OK? You are, Mitch. And instead of spending all your time trying to make me the joke, why don’t you do your job and write me one? Huh? A real joke, Mitch. Not you and your boys off in a room making fun of an old woman’s pussy. Yeah, I heard you. I heard what you think of me. I heard it. Well, maybe you and everyone in television—oops, said it wrong—well, maybe you and everyone in the television business can’t see me as desirable, but there are plenty of men out there who… but there are plenty of men out there who would still wanna... fuck an old lady like me. So fuck you, Mitch. Just fuck you, and FUCK YOU!”

Valerie delivers Paulie G.’s words with real anger, real venom, and still wavers, because she still wants to get it “right,” to be the kind of woman who is perfect for the part. The resulting scene is an indictment of everyone who calls on women to be this way or that, Valerie included, and it vibrates with the kind of clarity rarely achieved in discussions about what it means to be a woman in today’s world.

3) The guest stars are the best

At one moment in the season premiere, Valerie remarks that reality television has evolved: “And I should know, because I was there at the beginning. With The Comeback. Back then it was just me and people eating bugs on Survivor.” Valerie has flubbed her chances to rub elbows with the reality TV elite, as we see in a series of botched interactions. Real Housewives star Lisa Vanderpump and Drag Race guru RuPaul are among the delightful celebrities who pop up as themselves in the premiere. Vanderpump is charming and composed in a dramatic made-for-reality-TV confrontation gone awry. And the Bravo star’s presence buoys the joke, as Valerie storms off set and cries, “It’s not Housewives of New York. Beverly Hills? This isn't gonna last. Housewives of Beverly Hills? Not one of us even lives in Beverly Hills!” RuPaul is brilliant, as usual, when Valerie attempts to corner Andy Cohen at an upscale restaurant where the two happen to be lunching. The Curb Your Enthusiasm levels of awkwardness that ensue are the best kind of cringeworthy.

4) It will make you feel the feels

In episode three, Valerie films a particularly unpleasant sex scene. Ever eager to prove herself a consummate professional, she dismisses concerns raised by her supporters. The tension reaches its peak on set when Valerie must “stand still” wearing her dowdy Aunt Sassy tracksuit, flanked by nude, hairless young porn stars who smile and simulate orgasm while the entire crew watches. The moment is heart-wrenching, and Seth Rogen, as himself and Valerie’s co-star, comes to her rescue by suggesting a simple rewrite of the scene. “I’ll carry it,” he offers, saying there’s no need to show her doing anything if the focus of the scene is his fantasy of the blowjob. He then winks and tells Valerie, “Got you, gingersnaps.” Valerie, always reluctant to show vulnerability, is clearly moved, and so are we. The show flows seamlessly from satire to tenderness and the effect is profoundly moving.

5) Valerie’s Twitter is full of bonus laughs

Val’s seeking fame and status in a world where media has morphed and become more complex and multi-tentacled than she ever could have predicted. She still wants fame and admiration, but she also wants you to know that she is in the know.

One of the most entertaining offshoots of Valerie’s quest for "with it"-ness is her Twitter account. Although not featured or referenced in The Comeback, the account has been around since June 2011, and the tweets range from nods to Valerie’s favorite new reality TV stars (she loves Bethenny Frankel) to a peek at her most recently used emoji (she uses the smiling turd). Here are some of the best gems in the bunch.