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Amy Schumer goes inside 'Toddlers & Tiaras' with 'Babies & Bustiers'

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BY ANDREA REIHER

Amy Schumer has done it again on Inside Amy Schumer. This time the target was Toddlers & Tiaras, though the Schumer version is called Babies & Bustiers.

Schumer is “Amy Merryweather Sherman” and she was “put on this green Earth to win pageants and spread the word of the Almighty.” Her mother Cleopatricia is played by Jennifer Coolidge (2 Broke Girls, Best in Show), in a brilliant bit of casting. She gave her daughter “Fetal Red Bull Disease,” which means lil’ Amy is 6 years old but aging at “five times the normal rate.”

“I love mama ’cause she’s my best friend. She’s my support systems. She always yells at me for eatin’ food,” says lil’ Amy. 

“Every stage mother I met is absolutely crazy, and it’s weird to be the only grounded one in the bunch,” says Cleo. “You know, if God didn’t want this for my daughter, then why the hell did he make her so friggin’ attractive?” 

Everything’s going well ... until lil’ Amy’s bosom pops out during a performance. “I’m real upset my t**** ball popped out, but I’m not gonna let that or anything stop me from sharing my talent with these future believers,” says Amy, because as it turns out, her talent is preachin’.

But when she gets her period on stage during her big sermon, she is disqualified. Lil’ Amy Merryweather Sherman eventually “grew to be 9 feet tall and exploded all over everyone at a Cracker Barrel.”

Screengrab via Comedy Central


Learn every intricacy of Korean life with WCW Martina of Eat Your Kimchi

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The Daily Dot is celebrating Woman Crush Wednesday, better known as #WCW on Twitter and Instagram, by highlighting female creators onYouTube whose work we admire.

Every morning Martina Stawski wakes up in Seoul, South Korea—sandwiched between her husband, Simon; her pup, Spudgy; and her cat, Dr. Meemersworth—and pops a dislocated joint back into place. Martina lives in chronic pain caused by the connective tissue disorder EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome)—something fans of her and Simon’s long-running YouTube channel Eat Your Kimchi were shocked to discover earlier this year.

Like most of the couple’s 800,000 fans, I was so shocked by Martina’s story—not because a health condition is so out of the realm of possibility for anyone behind the camera, but because of Martina’s unbridled enthusiasm and a love of life that practically engulfs you through the screen of each video. To me, that zest for life is the sign of a very special lady.

Though YouTube will celebrate its 10th birthday next week in the United States, the video-sharing platform did not become available to the South Korean public until 2008, the same year Simon and Martina moved there from Canada to start teaching English. Originally, the couple began uploading videos about their life in South Korea to show their family they were still alive, but over time, their channel has evolved into an empire, now complete with its own studio, café, merchandise line, and radio show on SBS PopAsia. To put it in perspective, the couple’s fans are so enthusiastic about Eat Your Kimchi that in 2012, when the couple set up an Indiegogocampaign hoping to raise money to build a new studio, they met their goal of $40,000 in seven hours and ultimately raised a whopping $113,000.

Martina and Simon were really the first creators to gain popularity in South Korea, and they were on the vanguard of the travel/culture vlogging genre on YouTube. Today, the couple releases six videos a week (they’re probably making a video as I write this!) and cover everything about Korean life in their popular series Kpop Mondays, TL;DR, Wonderful Adventure Now Korea, Food Adventure Program for Awesome People, and Wonderful Treasure Finds. In each video—whether they’re talking about dumplings, drinking, prostitution, stereotypes, or North and South Korean politics—it feels like the viewer is sitting down to talk with an old, trusted, and hilarious friend. I would have never known half of the things I now know about Korean culture if it weren’t for the discussions by Simon and Martina.

And Martina—with her bright girlie outfits, amazing tattoos, colored hair, crazy nails, eccentric personality, and adorable Spudgy voice—has become a role model, encouraging women to be confident in the multifaceted person they are. Personally, she inspires me to take more adventures and laugh harder along the way. And also to buy more cartoon animal clothing (not that I needed more encouragement to do that).

So from across the ocean, cheers to you, Martina Stawski, and thanks for opening up my eyes to all the adventures the world has to offer.

Screengrab via EatYourKimchi/YouTube

Here's the haunting new trailer for the Amy Winehouse documentary

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“Always a bit upsetting in the end, isn’t it?” Amy Winehouse said at one point during a recording session, in a bit of unintentional foreshadowing.

The Amy Winehouse documentary got rave reviews at Cannes, and from the looks of the first official trailer, it’s easy to see why. With archival footage of Winehouse, interviews with family and friends, and film shot by her and her friends, it manages to give us a look into her life we never would’ve had otherwise. She was a sensational performer with an incredible voice and a troubled personal life, but she was also more than that.

And what we get here is only the beginning.

Amy hits theaters July 10.

Screengrab via A24/YouTube

Popcorn Time just made torrenting even easier

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A new development in torrent streaming may have video providers like Netflix and Amazon running scared.

Previously a desktop and mobile app, Popcorn Time now allows you to stream torrents directly in your browser. PopcornInYourBrowser.net has the same sleek interface as its app counterpart. However, there’s no guarantee this version will remain active for long, as Popcorn Time has previously been shut down or had its domains seized.

Netflix was reportedly already nervous about Popcorn Time in its app form, mentioning the service’s sharp growth in the Netherlands in a shareholder letter. 

However, even with a pretty, user-friendly browser version, the torrents Popcorn Time accesses are, in most cases, illegal. 

H/T Gizmodo | Photo via Popcorn Time/Facebook

Here's proof Taylor Swift did her own 'Bad Blood' stunts

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It should come as no surprise that Taylor Swift wouldn’t let a stunt person have all the fun in her most recent video.

The much-hypedBad Blood” video featured an endless list of famous women in full badass regalia, led by Swift, all kicking ass. Swift revealed with an Instagram video that she did her own stunts for the clip. 


Of course, in true Swift fashion, she doesn’t share a perfect take. Instead it's a #StuntFail, where she admits, “Yeah, I forgot to keep running.” 

You can see the much better take in the full video, which has already surpassed 29 million views in less than a week online.

Screengrab via TaylorSwiftVEVO/YouTube

The most cunning character on 'Game of Thrones' narrates 'The Art of War'

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When it comes to producing a new audiobook version of the most famous military manifesto of all time, who would better narrate it than the voice behind one of the most conniving characters on TV today?

The Aidan Gillen audiobook for Chinese military general and philosopher Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has been out on Audible since the end of March, but people are slowly stumbling upon it and we’re wondering how something like this hasn’t happened sooner.

As Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, one of the major players on Game of Thrones and the Baltimore politician-turned-mayor Tommy Carcetti on The Wire, Gillen knows plenty about how (fictional) cunning masterminds work—and is pretty good at portraying one. While it’s not a requirement, it’s yet another fitting match between voice and text as he speaks in his natural Irish accent.

Over the past couple months readers have largely applauded Gillen’s efforts, which left one commenter to write, “This man could narrate a phone book and I’d pay for it.”

While that probably won’t be happening anytime soon, he’ll likely have some royal decrees to practice on whoever survives that impending battle between Stannis Baratheon’s army and the Boltons.

H/T AV Club | Screengrab via HBO Go

John Green is getting death threats because of his book's casting

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John Green's passionate fanbase that follows him from YouTube stardom to books and movies can sometimes let that passion get out of control. 

Green addressed his social media followers who are particularly upset with the rumored casting of his latest book-turned-film, Looking for Alaska. His reminder to those that have sent Green death threats: He's not a casting director. 

The book follows two friends trying to solve the death of another, and is the third Green movie to be produced following The Fault in Our Stars and upcoming Paper Towns. The threats are a response to rumors that Acacia Brinley, a YouTuber and actress, might have secured the role.

Acacia also tweeted, and later deleted, a page of the script that other fans screencapped. They have reacted negatively to her possible casting.

These are not the first threats Green has faced as a public figure, and he recently addressed on Tumblr that part of the reason his youngest daughter has not appeared in his YouTube videos like his son has previously, is that with his increased fame he's also been subject to threats.

The other thing, to be frank, is that a few people have made threats against not just me but also my family, and I do feel a responsibility to protect my kids from that as best I can.

Screengrab via Vlogbrothers/YouTube

Letterman's star-studded final 'Late Show' finishes with big laughs

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After 33 years and more than 6,000 episodes, David Letterman said goodbye to television Wednesday night. The show opened with a history of U.S. presidents saying "our long, national nightmare is over," before having recently shot footage of Obama saying the line, and Letterman step into the frame to ask if he was kidding.

It was largely a self-deprecating goodbye, with Letterman joking about how "it's beginning to look like I'm not going to be getting yhe Tonight Show," and claiming that one sign that he needed to retire was that his cue card guy, Todd, couldn't possibly make the words on the cards any larger. Many of his opening jokes centered around the various ways in which people were relieved that he was finally going off the air.

Self-deprecation has always been a signature of Letterman's, but such jokes wouldn't work without the fact that he's been adored by his fans for more than three decades—the lengthy standing ovation at the show's open, accompanied by cheers of "Dave! Dave! Dave!" that probably went on for 30 minutes before being edited for television says everything about the loyalty and admiration of Letterman's fans—and why he can so successfully get away with making fun of himself.

In the guest-free final episode, things were mostly an extended version of the usual opening-monologue and solo desk segments, with the show running short clips from old episodes, and such montages as Letterman's famous interactions with children over the years, which was basically this awesomeness:

...and the famous bit in which he worked a Taco Bell drive-thru for a day:

The Top 10 list was appropriately star-studded for the finale, with famous friends of the show reading the top "Things I've Always Wanted to Say to Dave":

The finale also included a long segment,"Slice of Life," which gave viewers an idea of the daily on-goings at the Worldwide Pants offices. Basically: Each day is about as hectic and fun and you'd imagine.

Letterman signed off with an extended list of thank yous, including those to his staff, wife, and son, the band (each member thanked separately), and an especially sincere thanks to CBS President Leslie Moonves for his "patience" with him over the years (he said the word "patience" could be underlined 12 times in print, but we unfortunately lack the ability to do so), and the audience who's loyalty kept him on television so damn long.

The show was closed with the Foo Fighters performing 1997's "Everlong"—a band that once canceled a tour in South America because Letterman had asked if they could be his first musical guest when he returned to the show after undergoing open-heart surgery. 

The end credits included photographs and names of each individual staff member. The show ran 17 minutes past its scheduled time.

Update 7:27am CT, May 21: This post has been updated with clips from the finale as they became available on YouTube.

Screengrab via Late Show with David Letterman/YouTube


Let a 'drunk' Chris Pratt teach you the ways of acting

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The Jurassic World press tour is a gift. Yesterday we saw Chris Prattshowing off his stunts on set, and today we get a master class in acting from a behind-the-scenes video of a GQ photoshoot. But Pratt isn't discussing just any form of acting—he's explaining drunk acting.

After knocking back several shots of Fireball Whisky—okay, the product placement in this video is pretty blatant, but we'll let it slide—Chris Pratt launches into a tutorial on how to pretend a dinosaur is attacking you, how to pretend you don't have weed in your glove box when you get pulled over by a cop, and much more. It's important stuff, and Pratt is the perfect messenger.

First Guardians of the Galaxy, now drunk dinosaur acting. Chris Pratt has the best career.

Screengrab via GQ Magazine/YouTube

You can watch the shorts behind your favorite movies for free online

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Getting a feature film made isn’t easy. You might work your way up the Hollywood ladder for decades before somehow meeting the right person to give you the right job to find yourself directing a film.

Other aspiring filmmakers say “fuck that,” direct a short film, and a studio likes it so much that they fork over to make a full-length version of it.

Sometimes this results in amazing films. Other times, those films may have been better left as shorts, but the studio exec mantra is “I like it—throw a pile of money at it,” and they're made into feature films anyway. Below is a list of short films that you can currently find on YouTube that eventually ended up funded into full-length movies, and making their way into our hearts and personal top 10 lists (well, some of them, anyway). 

1) Mama (2008)

Speaking of films that may have been better off remaining shorts: This is a creepy-as-hell two and a half minutes, but when you start adding in origin storylines, it suffers from the same fate as the Star Wars prequels and Matrix sequels: Once fully fleshed out, a brilliant idea became stupid.

Still, you can’t blame Guillermo Del Toro for seeing this thing and wanting to get a full story on the big screen. It begs to be explained. Who is Mama? Why’s she all spooky? Who do those kids live with (it’s a nice house; surely somebody’s taking care of them)? But the answers we got in the 2013 feature film dulled the scariness of the questions left us with.

2) Bottle Rocket (1994)

Legend has it that Wes Anderson had originally intended to shoot a feature when he set out to make this short, but third Wilson brother Andrew (the baseball coach in Rushmore and Future Man in Bottle Rocket) ran low on the free film stock that he’d secured at work, so a short film was born. 

Anderson had originally intended to use established actors for the project, but those proved expensive, and Luke Wilson and fellow co-writer and University of Texas at Austin alum Owen Wilson were game for playing the leads, and their onscreen chemistry worked so well that they reprised their roles in the feature film. 

The short was submitted to Sundance, where it wasn’t in competition, but its screenings went over well enough to generate some buzz around the budding filmmakers. They’d eventually send the film and script to producers Polly Platt and James L. Brooks, who got the ball rolling on shooting the feature, and eventually saw it become a full-fledged studio production with a $5 million budget (a touch over the short’s cost of $3,500). You can find a lot more great info on the film’s production in this 1996 Austin Chronicle interview.

3) Pixels (2010)

Pixels was a massive hit when it landed on YouTube, catching the attention of several studios. Creator/writer/director of the short Patrick Jean ultimately teamed up with Happy Madison Productions—partly because he thought Adam Sandler would make a great lead for the film and (perhaps mostly) because he felt that it was the studio that would actually make the film, rather that just buy the rights to it and then shelve the concept for years (or maybe forever, as often happens with film properties). 

The script has gone through a lot of changes, with writers hopping on and off the project over the past few years, but Jean’s goal of getting the thing made has come true: The summer blockbuster iteration of Pixels will be hitting screens on July 24.

Although he wasn’t able to retain his desired position as the film’s director—as the effects and budget grew, the studio handed the directing reins to Chris Columbus—he still had a major hand in things as an executive producer. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters director, Seth Gordon, also joined as an executive producer, so even with all the ill-will toward Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison Productions over the last decade, this thing has enough interesting talent behind it to be a surprisingly good film when it’s released. (In fact, we’ll buy tickets to the thing just for featuring Peter Dinklage.)

4) Within the Woods (1978)

As Sam Raimi has told it, when Within the Woods originally screened at a local theater, the theater owner told them that they needed more blood, saying something along the the lines of “it needs to cover the screen!” So in the resulting feature film The Evil Dead, blood literally covers the camera lens in the climax, and there’s stuff like this (NSFW) all throughout.

Within the Woods was made for a mere $1,600, which made its extensive special effects a major pain to pull off, but getting more money didn’t really help things in that regard for the feature. With $1 million (still a pittance for a feature film), Raimi still pushed his budget to the limits, bringing the same makeup artist he’d tortured with budgetary constraints with the short, Tom Sullivan, to work on the feature, and doing all sorts of fun things with his cameras to get more production bang for his buck. (For example, he was friends with the Coen Brothers—Joel is credited as an Assistant Editor on the film—and both parties were big fans of putting their cameras on wood planks and running around with them.) 

The sequel would lose Sullivan, and the makeup department would see early work from names like Greg Nicotero (currently producing The Walking Dead and masterminding its famously amazing gore) and Robert Kurtzman (the film would be only his second credited feature work, and he’d go on to be involved in basically every film with a cool effect in it). 

5) Saw (2003)

Colleagues James Wan and Leigh Whannell had already penned the script for the feature version of Saw when they made what is now referred to as Saw .5, a short from a scene picked from the script to convince a studio to give them the budget needed to shoot their movie. (That studio ended up being Lionsgate, and the budget $1.2 million; what was supposed to be a direct-to-DVD film ended being a smash hit, making over 80 times its budget back.)

The film was shot on a shoestring, and the infamous “reverse bear trap” (NSFW) was, according to Whannell (who wrote and acted in both the short and the feature but played a different role in the latter), fully functional and covered in actual rust. Why a fully functional version of that thing ever existed is unknown to us, but go ahead and let that fact haunt your dreams.

The film was also the first appearance of the film’s famous theme, “Hello Zepp,” which composer Charlie Clouser (who, aside from composing many other great themes, was a member of Nine Inch Nails for six years) wrote for free, knowing the duo was working with a next-to-nothing budget. The theme would continue as a musical motif throughout the rest of the seven installments of the series.

6) Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (1967)

George Lucas had wanted to make a film like Electronic Labyrinth for a long time, saying that he was very interested in something “based on the concept that we live in the future and that you could make a futuristic film using existing stuff,” an interest that very surely carried over to Star Wars.

This is one of only two films on this list that qualifies as a student film, as Lucas made the short—which wouldn’t become a feature for another four years—while he was a student at USC.

Lucas was able to finance the film after a professor suggested that he teach a class of U.S. Navy students; the school and the Navy had an agreement that Navy filmmakers could take a filmmaking class at USC, and in turn, the Navy would pay for all the color film and processing used for the class.

Nobody ever wanted to teach the class, as the students tended to be rowdy, but Lucas took the job because he saw an opportunity in this: The crew for the film was made up of Navy servicemen attending the class, with some even acting in it, and the cost of all the expensive film stock used was all paid for by the government. The Navy teaching gig also allowed him to film in places that he wouldn’t otherwise have had access to. Lucas also had a day job editing films for the United States Information Agency, and he used the editing bay for that gig to cut the film together. 

You can say what you want about Lucas and the terrible Star Wars prequel trilogy, but the man knew how to get things done. The Lucasfilm empire certainly didn’t just fall into his lap. 

7) Frankenweenie (1984)

Frankenweenie differs from other films on this list by actually being commissioned by a big studio: Disney wanted the film to play before Pinocchio when it re-released the film in 1984, but it wasn’t happy with the finished project. Disney execs felt the film was inappropriate for a young audience, and that director Tim Burton had gone rogue and blown money on something unusable, and so they fired him. 

The film finally saw a home release in 1992, after Disney saw Burton go off and make boatloads of cash for Warner Brothers, and the studio decided to buddy up with the director again. It was then later released as an extra on every iteration of The Nightmare Before Christmas’s home video releases. 

Obviously, Burton and Disney eventually became quite good friends: Besides making him the executive producer on Nightmare, which was based on a poem he wrote while working for Disney’s animation department in 1982, he also went on to make stuff like Alice in Wonderland, which netted bajillions of worldwide dollars for the studio. Disney evidently forgot how much it hated Frankenweenie in the first place and let Burton make a feature-length, black and white, stop-motion version of the film (it takes some major clout for a studio to allow you to make a black and white stop-motion film), which was released in 2012.

8) Alive in Joburg (2006)

People like to give director Neill Blomkamp guff over his tendency to include Sharlto Copley in every project he helms, but just look at the thumbnail below; the guy’s been there since the very beginning for Blomkamp (who met him while the two were in high school). He not only played a short role in Alive in Joburg, but he also acted as a producer on the short, which would eventually go on to become the surprise smash hit District 9, which was nominated for four Academy Awards (including Best Picture).

District 9 wasn’t actually supposed to happen. After horror master–turned–Lord of the Rings guru Peter Jackson saw Blomkamp’s four short films, which he’d created in his off time while working as a 3D effects artist, Jackson wanted Blomkamp to direct the live-action Halo film that he was executive producing at the time. It was only after the Halo film fell apart that Jackson looked back at Alive at Joburg and said (and we’re paraphrasing generally here): “Fuck it, let’s just make a feature out of this idea.”

District 9’s first act is basically a fleshed out Joburg: It sets up the situation of aliens stuck in a foreign land, and the tension created by inadequate resources to support both them and locals. But whereas the short simply introduces the situation (and the allegory), 9 picks up where it leaves off and sticks a (great) story in there.

It’s obvious from Joburg that Blomkamp had a knack for computer effects. Although there is a scene that features a fight between a bio-suited alien and some cops that looks like complete shit, the aliens themselves look as if you could visit them on the set, and that’s quite a feat for a short film created in somebody’s spare time. While District 9 would establish the director as one of the most exciting up-and-comers in the industry, his followups would… well, see the next entry.

9) Tetra Vaal (2004)

Neill Blomkamp loves his robots, and after his followup to District 9Elysium, was received with general disappointment from audiences and critics alike, he went back to his well of previous shorts for Chappie. Tetra Vaal made quite an impact when it was released in 2004, with viewers basically saying “holy shit, how did he make those robots?” The robots in Vaal were an embarrassment for Hollywood artists; some guy in Johannesburg was making CGI in his garage that was leagues ahead of their own (paid) work.

The formula used for adapting Joburg, by fleshing out the concept of the original short, didn’t work as well for Chappie as it did for District 9. In the end, they’re actually very similar films, with themes both revolving around the definition of humanity (slight spoiler: Our main protagonist ends up in a similar fashion to that of District 9’s). But the movie’s main problem is probably that it has toomany themes, with the most important one—the concept of nature vs. nurture in Chappie’s upbringing—being completely missed by most critics. The fact that Blomkamp essentially made an R-rated ’90s Disney film didn't help the film’s reception (there's a lot of clashing in tone here).

That said: It’s underrated, and it’s worth seeing just for the fact that Blomkamp’s robots look so amazingly real (and also for Hugh Jackman’s hair).

10) Peluca (2003)

This is the other film on the list that qualifies as a student film: Jered Hess made Peluca (Spanish for “wig”) while attending Brigham Young University. It played at Slamdance in 2003, which is really impressive for a film that was shot in two days for a budget of about $500.

Peluca is 100 percent Napoleon Dynamite, if Napoleon’s name were Seth and Giel and Pedro were combined in the feature version into just being Pedro. This opinion does not necessarily reflect that of the Daily Dot, but: I prefer Peluca to Dynamite. Personally, I feel that it stuffs more heart and emotion into its nine minutes than the latter did in 96. Moments that existed solely for being goofy in Dynamite have real emotional payoff in Peluca (a considered fanny pack purchase coaxed an eye-roll out of this cynical writer, but the following sacrifice made by Seth—or Napoleon—hit me right in the heart).

According to Wikipedia, all of the locations seen in this short were also used in the feature film, although a scene shot in the convenience store (seen in the video’s thumbnail above) was ultimately cut from the film. 

Screengrab via chris down/YouTube

Try not to cringe at this supercut of David Letterman's conversations with female guests

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We tend to look back on the careers of the greats with rose-tinted glasses when they finally retire, but it’s important to remember that people are complicated.

David Lettermanended his run on The Late Show Wednesday after 33 years in late-night television, and while many of his plaudits are well-deserved, he didn't have the best track record when it came to his female guests.

Nell Scovell, one of the few women who wrote for him, recalled a “hostile, sexually charged atmosphere” when she wrote about it for Vanity Fair in 2009. Letterman admitted that he slept with female staff members in 2009 after someone tried to extort him for it.

Gawker put together a compilation of Letterman’s comments to female guests over the years, and the uncomfortable five-and-a-half minute supercut is a reminder that things often got pretty awkward better Letterman and women. Was it harmless flirting or something creepier? The only people who really know are the guests themselves, but when these clips are piled on top of each other, it becomes hard to watch.

The supercut is along the lines of what Amy Schumer tackled in her takedown of the late-night talk show interview format. Many people got the impression her segment, which aired last week, was aimed at Letterman, but she dispelled that belief a few days later when she appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

H/T Gawker | Screengrab via Late Show with David Letterman/YouTube

The 'Boy Meets World' theme is even better as an a cappella cover

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Popular YouTubea cappella group Warp Zone is back with a new tribute for all the '90s kids out there—one that will make you feel like a kid again yourself.

Boy Meets World has always had a huge fan following, and it still carries a huge nostalgia factor, in part because of its immediately recognizable, eminently catchy theme song. In the hands of Warp Zone's a cappella quintet, the theme song gets a whole new upbeat lilt that will have you singing it the rest of the day.

We're always eager for a cappella treatments of our favorite television shows, and we think this is one even Mr. Feeny would like.

Screengrab via Warp Zone/YouTube

Saddle up for more 'BoJack Horseman' this summer

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For those of us addicted to its singular mix of cynicism, sentiment, and silly animal jokes, the wait for a second season of the animated Netflix series BoJack Horseman has been a long one. But it's very nearly over.

That's just two months away—we can make it, you guys. The show will pick up with our eponymous anti-hero, "the legendary '90s sitcom star" who till now has "been trying to find his way through a muddle of self-loathing, whisky and failed relationships," rebuilding his joke of a reputation.  

Now starring in his dream movie (a biopic of Secretariat), but humbled by the events of last season, BoJack attempts to use his career second wind as a stepladder to a springboard to becoming a newer, better BoJack. But new challenges on set and in his personal life, and the demons of his past, make it difficult to shake off the skin of his previous self. If season one of BoJack Horseman is about a character learning he needs to change, the new season is about whether or not he can. It’s a character in a rut, trying to pull out of that rut, and the rut pulling back. 
Sounds like the writers will have more than enough opportunities to get way, way dark—which you might say is their specialty. Now let's quit horsin' around and get this show on the road!

Photo via Netflix/YouTube

Netflix is getting rid of these 56 titles in June, so watch them while you can

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With summer around the corner, it’s time to say goodbye to the shows and movies on Netflix that have graduated from our queues.

We go through it every year with our high-school and college grads, so why not with our content too? Both school and Netflix have the popular kids, the oddballs, the intriguing ones, and the downright terrible specimens, and the next batch of students and content will be full of the same diversity and exciting mix.


READ MORE:


But once summer vacation begins, will you abandon Netflix to go outside and enjoy the nice weather? Of course not; we’re slaves to our computers and TVs, after all. Just fix your queues before you head outside, lest the glare prevent you from doing so.

June 1

1) Bram Stoker’s Dracula

2) City of Ghosts

3) Dance with Me

4) Deep Blue Sea

5) DeRay Davis: Power Play

6) Dream Lover

7) Drugs, Inc.: Seasons 2-3

8) Ever After: A Cinderella Story

9) Frankie and Johnny

10) G.I. Jane

11) Garfield and Friends: Vol. 1-2

12) Hatchet II

13) I Escaped a Cult

14) Ink Master: Season 1

15) Inside Combat Rescue: Season 1

16) Last Action Hero

17) Picture Perfect

18) Platoon Leader

19) Rain Man

20) Reign Over Me

21) Silence of the Lambs

22) Snatch

23) Soul Survivors

24) Swept Away

25) Syriana

26) Tank Girl

27) The Great Queen Seondeok

28) The Perfect Husband: The Laci Peterson Story

29) The Phantom of the Opera: Special Edition

30) The Rocketeer

31) The Triplets of Belleville

32) Waking Life

June 6

33) Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away

34) Crash

June 15

35) Space: Unraveling the Cosmos

36) The River Why

37) Tin Man

June 17

38) Dummy

June 20

39) Amadeus

40) Collateral Damage

41) Lonesome Dove

42) Practical Magic

43) The Guilt Trip

June 22

44) Madonna: The MDNA Tour

45) Stand Up Guys

June 28

46) Biutiful

June 29

47) Iron Man: Armored Adventures: Seasons 1-2

48) Texas Chainsaw

June 30

49) Donnie Brasco

50) Godzilla

51) Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

52) Jack Reacher

53) National Security

54) Steel Magnolias

55) Taxi Driver

56) The Baby-Sitters Club: Season 1

Illustration by Max Fleishman

Remix masters show us a whole new world of Disney sounds

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YouTube remix guru Pogo is at it again, and this time he’s combining Disney works with other vintage films like Breakfast at Tiffany’s for a soothing, dreamlike trance mix that will make you hear these animated classics in a whole new light.

Featuring snippets of everything from Pinocchio to Fantasia 2000, remix master Nick Bertke weaves an intriguing melodic sound from snatches of familiar favorites. It’s a bit like being pulled into a dream full of beloved characters from childhood, singing you to sleep with a hypnotic, rhythmic lullaby.

This isn’t the first time Pogo has turned to Disney to cull beats and tracks for his entrancing remixes. Here’s a collaboration from last year between Pogo and fellow YouTube remixer Joshua Kershaw, aka Jeesh:

Keep them coming, guys. We’ll have this on loop all day.

Screengrab via Pogo/YouTube


These new movies are coming to Netflix in June

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Summer blockbuster season isn't just for the big screen anymore. With this slate of upcoming releases for streaming, Netflix is encouraging us all to grab a cold drink, kick up our feet, and melt to our sofas in a quintessential summer sprawl.

Music fans of all stripes should be particularly excited, with artists from Pussy Riot to Nina Simone to the Backstreet Boys and Katy Perry all represented here.


READ MORE:

And, of course, don't forget two of Netflix's golden originals: Orange Is the New Black returns for its third season behind bars on June 12, and the Wachowskis' Sense8 premieres June 5.

June 1

1) Employee of the Month (2006)
2) Hidden Kingdoms (2014)
3) La Dictadura Perfecta (2014)
4) R.L. Stine's Mostly Ghostly (2008)
5) R.L. Stine's The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It (2007)
6) Sex Ed (2014)
7) Shaquille O'Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live From Atlanta (2013)
8) Shaquille O'Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live From Las Vegas (2014)
9) Shaquille O'Neal Presents: All Star Comedy Jam: Live From Orlando (2012)
10) The Aviator (2004)
11) The High and the Mighty (1954)
12) The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
13) The Perfect Dictatorship (2014)

June 3

14) Best of Me (2014)
15) Hector and the Search for Happiness (2014)

June 5

16) Sense8 (Season 1)

June 6

17) On the Road (2012)

June 7

18) Words and Pictures (2013)

June 8

19) Grace of Monaco (2014)

June 9

20) Free the Nipple (2014)
21) It's Tough Being Loved by Jerks (2008)

June 10

22) Nightcrawler (2014)
23) Pretty Little Liars (Season 5)
24) Rosewater (2014)

June 11

25) Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 2)
26) The Legend (1993)
27) The Legend 2 (1993)

June 12

28) Champs (2015)
29) Life of Crime (2013)
30) Orange Is the New Black (Season 3)
31) The Cobbler (2014)

June 13

32) Antarctica: A Year on Ice (2013)
33) Scandal (Season 4)
34) Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014)

June 15

35) Bindi's Bootcamp (Season 1)
36) Danger Mouse (Seasons 1-10)
37) Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (2013)
38) Really Me (Seasons 1-2)
39) Rodney Carrington: Laughter's Good (2014)
40) Team Toon (Season 1)
41) Wizards vs. Aliens (Seasons 1-3)

June 16

42) Backstreet Boys: Show 'Em What You're Made Of (2015)
43) Curious George (2006)
44) Lee Daniels' The Butler (2013)
45) Two Days, One Night (2014)

June 17

46) Heartland (Season 6)
47) Point and Shoot (2014)

June 19

48) A Most Wanted Man (2014)
49) Some Assembly Required

June 20

50) Cake (2014)

June 23

51) Advantageous (2015)

June 24

52) Beyond the Lights (2014)

June 25

53) Ballet 422 (2014)

June 26

54) Dragons: Race to the Edge (Season 1)
55) Katy Perry: The Prismatic World Tour (2015)
56) What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)
57) Young & Hungry (Season 2)

June 27

58) The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2012)

Photo via Ashley Van Haeften/Flickr (CC BY 2.0) | Remix by Max Fleishman

The Rock officiated a surprise wedding for one of his biggest fans

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Sometimes your worst day can become your best day, with the help of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Prank it Fwd, and the love of your life. 

Nick Mundy, a correspondent for Screen Junkies, is a massive fan of The Rock. Over the course of multiple interview junkets, the two have built a rapport, and Mundy even asked Johnson to be his best man at a previous event. Little did he know that Johnson would do him one better.

Mundy thought he was attending a junket for Johnson's upcoming film San Andreas, but everything suddenly went wrong, leaving him sad and wearing American flag pants. All of a sudden, Johnson surprised him, brought him into a room full of family and friends, and legally officiated the wedding right then and there.

There are two major takeaways from this moment. First, Mundy's wife Dilara is the best person in the world. Someone who understands how huge it is to have The Rock officiate your wedding is someone you should hold onto forever.

Second, Johnson is a legally ordained officiant in California. This means you, too, could potentially have The Rock conduct your marriage ceremony.  Mundy's great day just became a great day for everyone who has ever dreamed of The Rock pronouncing them married for life.

Screengrab via ScreenJunkies/YouTube

Here's proof that Paul McCartney helped write Kanye's 'All Day'

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How much time you spent at the mall?

How many runners do you got on call? 

Swish, swish—how much did Paul McCartney actually have to do with Kanye West's charting-in-13-countries hip-hop smash, "All Day?" 

Sure, the writing credits have more names than the Declaration of Independence. McCartney's on there, too, but most thought that was just because he's historically excellent at paperwork.

Turns out it was McCartney shopping for winter in May. He wrote the chords to the track in 1970 after the birth of his second son, while waiting in the hospital and getting inspiration from a nearby Picasso print. That became B-side "While the Wind Is Blowing," and 29 years later in an interview he explained the process and whistled the melody that would eventually become the winter-fresh cut of 2015. 

“There was this Picasso print on the wall of an old man playing a guitar. I looked at it all week and towards the end of the week I thought what chords he playing? I’m a guitar player, what is he playing? I noticed he had two fingers here. So I thought I’d try and see what the chord is, and if it sounds any good. Ooh that’s nice. So then I tried to use that as inspiration, and tried to write a song that only used two fingers.”

Listen for yourself.

No word yet on whether Macca helped West write any of the lyrics, though the safe money says he most definitely penned this advanced couplet: "Stupid n***a gettin' money, Forrest Gump right now / Shoutout to Jackie Chan, I need to stunt right now."

H/T Noisey | Photo via Richard/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

What is Red Nose Day, and why are celebrities wearing clown noses?

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BY CASEY RACKHAM

Red Nose Day is here! The only problem? No one really knows what it is. 

Leading up to Thursday (May 21) night's event, celebrities have been posing with red clown noses on their faces and joking around with each other in fun videos. But what exactly is Red Nose Day and why is every celebrity so excited for it? The show is the U.K.'s No. 1 television fundraising event and thanks to its creator, Richard Curtis, it's coming to the U.S. According to NBC, the event was "built upon the foundation that mass media and celebrities can help raise money and increase awareness of poverty in order to save and change millions of lives."

Still confused about some of the basics? Take a look below to find out everything you need to know before Red Nose Day begins.

Is it like a telethon?

Kind of: it's a fundraising event and variety show all in one.

What actually happens during the event?

The three-hour show will be filled with both live and pre-taped content. Red Nose Day will feature sketches—watch out for Game of Thrones: The Musical—live musical performances and a variety of other comedy bits. The benefit will also air short appeals films that "shed light on those in need.

What is it raising money for?

According to NBC, the money raised during the event "will be used to fund programs that address the immediate needs of children and young people living in poverty in the U.S. and internationally in Africa, Asia and Latin America."

How long has it been going on in the U.K.?

Red Nose Day has been taking place in the U.K. for 30 years. To date, it has raised over $1 billion in donations.

Is there a host?  

Several, actually. Seth Meyers, David Duchovny and Jane Krakowski are set to host the event.  

So which celebrities are involved?  

Um, a bajillion of them, basically. Get ready for this lineup:  

  • Julia Roberts
  • Will Ferrell
  • Jennifer Aniston
  • Reese Witherspoon
  • Jodie Foster
  • Jimmy Fallon
  • Neil Patrick Harris
  • Ed Sheeran
  • Josh Groban
  • Christian Slater
  • Al Roker
  • Andy Cohen
  • Kellan Lutz
  • Kermit the Frog
  • Julianne Moore
  • Jack Black
  • John Krasinski 
  • Emily Blunt
  • Michelle Rodriguez
  • Gwyneth Paltrow
  • Adam Levine
  • Blake Shelton
  • Christina Aguilera
  • Pharrell Williams
  • Richard Gere
  • Jennifer Garner
  • Keith Urban
  • John Mellencamp
  • One Direction
  • Coldplay
  • Zac Efron
  • Helen Mirren
  • Robert Pattinson
  • Liam Neeson
  • Nick Cannon
  • Sienna Miller
  • Paul Rudd
  • Olivia Wilde
  • Eddie Redmayne
  • Benedict Cumberbatch
  • Sir Ian McKellen
  • Orlando Bloom
  • Leslie Mann
  • January Jones
  • Simon Cowell
  • Matt Lauer
  • Carson Daly
  • Nick Offerman
  • Elizabeth Banks
  • Chris Pine
  • Jeff Goldblum
  • Billy Eichner
  • Martin Short
  • Laura Linney
  • Anna Kendrick
  • Sean "P. Diddy" Combs
  • John Michael Higgins
  • Bill and Melinda Gates
  • Stephen Merchant
  • Naomi Campbell
  • Anna Camp
  • Jeanne Tripplehorn
  • Yvette Nicole Brown
  • Retta
  • Natalie Morales 
  • Danny Pudi
  • Rob Huebel. 
  • Matt LeBlanc
  • Hugh Bonneville
  • Dame Diana Rigg
  • Kyle MacLachlan
  • Rose Byrne
  • Elisabeth Moss
  • Hoda Kotb
  • Gilbert Gottfried
  • Cheryl Burke
  • Nicole Scherzinger
  • Jeff Dye
  • Saturday Night Live cast members Jay Pharaoh, Colin Jost and Michael Che
  • Game of Thrones cast members Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Iwan Rheon, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Emilia Clarke, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Mark Addy, John Bradley, Rose Leslie, Alfie Allen and Charlotte Hope
  • Orange Is the New Black cast members Dascha Polanco, Samira Wiley, Yael Stone, Selenis Leyva, Lea DeLaria, Adrienne C. Moore and Jackie Cruz

When does it air?

Red Nose Day airs on Thursday, May 21 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.

Photo via Sleeping Walrus/Flickr (CC BY SA 2.0)

The Fung Brothers make the leap from YouTube to TV with ‘What the Fung?!’

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After five years on YouTube, comedians and food enthusiasts the Fung Brothers are making the jump to television in their new show What the Fung?!, which debuts tonight on FYI at 9pm ET.

I still remember my first interview with the Fung brothers back in 2011. They had just moved to Los Angeles in the pursuit of comedy, and their YouTube video “626”—an ode to the Asian American community flourishing in the San Gabriel Valley—was gaining attention around the digital media community. The pair’s passion for food is almost uncontainable, and as one question led to another, our interview quickly found us at a table surrounded by Chinese food and me trying a chicken foot for the first time (still can’t really navigate all those little toe bones).

Since then, David and Andrew Fung have racked up over 85 million views on their videos and grown their channel into a space that celebrates and educates the world about Asian American culture and identity. Every Monday and Thursday, the pair releases a new sketch comedy video, food review, or vlog that, while always funny, also does a great job of starting conversations about race, stereotypes, and race representation in media.

Their first mainstream TV offering, What the Fung?! will follow Andrew and David’s adventures around the country in the search of the best, cheapest food in places such as North Carolina, San Diego, Philadelphia, New York City, and Tampa. The brothers will only have $50 to spend on each meal, including food and drink, and as they eloquently explain, the show will teach people how to be “ballers on a budget!”

The show is a big deal not only in the sense that a YouTuber is gaining attention through national television, but also because it’s one of the first shows ever hosted by two Asian Americans. For many young fans, this will be the first moment they’ll see themselves truthfully and honestly represented in the media they’re consuming.

“We’ve built our careers a lot talking about and discussing Asian American stuff. The show is not about being Asian, but we definitely talk about it,” Andrew shared in a recent interview with NBC News. “We are just one of the voices of Asian America, and I feel like we have a pretty holistic understanding of Asian America at this time ... but I don’t want to peg myself—me and David—as ‘representatives,’ you know?”

And truly, it’s a show for a universal audience: If you adore food, sriracha aioli, comedy, and travel, then I can wholeheartedly say this is going to be the show for you.

Screengrab via FungBrosComedy/YouTube

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