Bill Maher, Jillian Michaels Torch Saturday Night Live Over Tom Hanks' MAGA Character
Robby Soave and Lindsey Granger react to comedian Bill Maher and fitness icon Jillian Michaels bashing Saturday Night Live during a "Club Random" podcast, calling out the late night show for portraying MAGA as racist.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Taylor Swift Buys Back Early Albums After Yearslong Crusade
(Bloomberg) -- Superstar singer-songwriter Taylor Swift re-acquired the rights to her first six albums, ending a long campaign to gain control of the music from her early years. NYC Congestion Toll Brings In $216 Million in First Four Months Now With Colorful Blocks, Tirana's Pyramid Represents a Changing Albania The Economic Benefits of Paying Workers to Move Billionaire Steve Cohen Wants NY to Expand Taxpayer-Backed Ferry NY Wins Order Against US Funding Freeze in Congestion Fight The deal announced on her website Friday marks the end of a battle between Swift, her former record label Big Machine Label Group, music manager Scooter Braun and the private equity firm Shamrock Capital, which had acquired the albums. After losing control of the master recordings of her earlier work, the singer re-recorded some of the songs in an effort to undercut the originals' popularity. 'To say this is my greatest dream come true is actually to be pretty reserved about it,' she wrote in the statement. 'All I've ever wanted was the opportunity to work hard enough to be able to one day purchase my music outright with no strings attached, no partnership, with full autonomy.' While Swift wrote the songs on her first six albums, Big Machine owned the actual recordings that made her famous. The label sold those to Braun's Ithaca Holdings LLC in June 2019, as part of a larger deal. After Swift spoke out about her lack of approval of the deal, Ithaca Holdings sold those rights to Shamrock for about $300 million. 'We are thrilled with this outcome and so happy for Taylor!,' Shamrock posted on its Linkedin page. 'I am happy for her,' Braun said in a separate statement Friday. Swift's re-recordings, dubbed 'Taylor's Version,' were massively successful and gave her fans the choice to side with her in a battle over the rights to her songs. She didn't share how much she paid to obtain ownership in this new deal. The singer said she now controls all of her life's work, including photography, album art, videos and unreleased songs. 'I'm extremely heartened by the conversations this saga has reignited within my industry among artists and fans,' she wrote. 'Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this fight, I'm reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.' (Updates with Shamrock, Braun statements.) YouTube Is Swallowing TV Whole, and It's Coming for the Sitcom Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back? Millions of Americans Are Obsessed With This Japanese Barbecue Sauce How Coach Handbags Became a Gen Z Status Symbol Will Small Business Owners Knock Down Trump's Mighty Tariffs? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Netflix star Harper Steele, Will Ferrell's road trip buddy, named S.F. Pride Grand Marshal
Harper Steele, the Emmy-winning writer and star of the Netflix documentary ' Will & Harper,' has been named the 2025 Celebrity Grand Marshal for San Francisco Pride, organizers announced Friday, May 30. Best known for her 13-year tenure at 'Saturday Night Live,' where she rose to head writer, Steele has emerged as a prominent voice in LGBTQ+ media. Her recent turn in 'Will & Harper,' a road trip film with longtime friend Will Ferrell that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has earned critical praise for its honest depiction of friendship and identity following Steele's gender transition. 'Harper's story is one of authenticity, imagination, and connection — all values that resonate most deeply with our community,' said Suzanne Ford, executive director of San Francisco Pride, in a statement. 'Her visibility and vulnerability are a powerful reminder that queer people can and must be celebrated in every context, including in media and entertainment.' After leaving 'SNL,' Steele served as creative director at Funny or Die, where she co-wrote 'Casa de Mi Padre,' 'A Deadly Adoption' and 'Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.' The Netflix documentary ' Will & Harper' follows Ferrell and Steele, who have been pals since Will was added to the cast of 'SNL' in 1995 when Steele was one of the show's top writers, known by a different first name. After Steele came out as a woman following the pandemic, the two embarked on a cross-country road trip to reconnect and reflect. The journey, and the film, were sparked by Ferrell's realization that he knew little about the experiences and challenges faced by the transgender community. Steele also felt nervous about doing the trip as a trans woman driving through small towns and states where there were anti-transgender legislation was in effect. The documentary received positive reviews, with the Chronicle's G. Allen Johnson noting that Ferrell and Steele 'start with a deep empathy and understanding, and everything else follows.' This year's Pride celebration, scheduled to take place June 28–29, will carry the theme 'Queer Joy is Resistance.' The event is scheduled to kick off with the SF LGBT Center's second annual "Building the Block: House Party" on Saturday, May 31. San Francisco Pride's 2025 community grand marshals include activist Kenan Arun, director of operations at the LGBT Asylum Project; Jahnel Butler, associate director of Trans Services at the San Francisco Community Health Center and a prominent figure in the queer ballroom scene as the 'mother' of the House of Chanel; Jessy Ruiz, a community volunteer who immigrated from Michoacán, Mexico, to escape violence in her home state; and Dr. Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and co-chair of the AIDS United Public Policy Council. The San Francisco Community Health Center was named Organizational Grand Marshal by community vote. Activist Tita Aida, also known as Nicky Calma, was honored as Lifetime Achievement Grand Marshal for her longtime advocacy around HIV/AIDS awareness in AAPI and transgender communities.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump posts meme saying he's ‘on a mission from God' featuring alt-right symbol Pepe the Frog
Co-opting a famous phrase from the 1980 John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd classic The Blues Brothers, Donald Trump posted a cryptic meme on Wednesday night declaring that he is 'on a mission from God' which also features an alt-right symbol in the background. Showing the president walking down a dark city street, the image includes the caption 'nothing can stop what is coming.' While the meme itself could be interpreted as the president's response to the U.S. Court of International Trade striking down the majority of his 'Liberation Day' tariffs, it was the image's inclusion of Pepe the Frog – and the fact that it originated from a 'groyper' account – that has drawn the most attention. Additionally, this latest meme from the president may have boosted a meme coin associated with the far-right movement. With members of his administration likening the court ruling that Trump 'exceeded his authority' on tariffs to a 'judicial coup,' the president seemingly fired back at the three-judge panel with memes on his Truth Social account. One image the president posted featured a billboard emblazoned with the slogan, 'Trump was right about everything.' And then there was the Blues Brothers-themed post, which piggybacks on an overarching MAGA theme that God has anointed the president to save the country, a belief among Christian conservatives that ramped up after last July's assassination attempt and has only increased since Trump's election. In fact, the president himself has repeatedly suggested he was 'saved' by Christ because he is the chosen one. At the same time, the 'mission from God' meme parrots the long-running belief among QAnon adherents that Trump has been given a calling to secretly root out a cabal of cannibalistic pedophiles from within the government and liberal ruling class, and that soon the 'storm will be coming' that will see the mass arrests of prominent Democrats and celebrities. Trump, who has regularly posted memes and video clips that were created by QAnon conspiracists and far-right extremists, appears to have done the same thing with this particular post. The far-right corner of the meme tags the Truth Social account @FruitSnacks, who appears to be a 'groyper,' otherwise known as a supporter of notorious white supremacist Nick Fuentes. The person, who also has an account on X with the same FruitSnacks handle, has regularly reshared posts from Fuentes and a news account associated with the virulent antisemite. Of course, Trump infamously dined with Fuentes and Hitler-boosting rapper Kanye West at Mar-a-Lago in 2022. At the same time, in recent months, it appears that FruitSnacks has grown increasingly jaded with the president following Trump's return to the White House, echoing Fuentes and other far-right MAGA supporters who have sounded off over the administration's perceived lack of action on their pet conspiracy theories. 'There will be no arrests or tribunals. It would have happened by now. Trump is in office, so... what is he waiting for?' FruitSnacks wrote on Truth Social earlier this month, adding in another post about the FBI files on deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein: 'Soooo... how about that Epstein client list?' Meanwhile, the inclusion of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon figure that has been appropriated by 'groypers' and the alt-right in recent years, sparked excitement in the fever swamps of the internet – and also may have contributed to a slight spike in the crypto market. $PEPE, a meme coin named for the alt-right symbol, surged 8.5 percent overnight following the president's Truth Social post. While it dropped 5 percent after the spike, the frog-themed token still showed an increase of nearly six percent over a 24 hour period and now has a market cap over $6 billion. Trump posting a Pepe meme and potentially sparking a crypto rush created quite a bit of chatter on X among the far-right crowd, many of whom have the frog as their avatars. 'Vision of PEPE OF THE UNITED STATES X is here to restore memerican greatness,' one account, which goes by the handle PEPE OF THE UNITED STATES, reacted. 'Trump vibes. Pepe power. Full degen energy.' Earlier this month, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington reported that as many as fifty of the invitees to Trump's controversial meme coin gala – which featured 220 guests who had spent the most on the president's $TRUMP cryptocurrency – were also holders of the Pepe the Frog coin and other assets linked to far-right extremism. 'The most wallets on the list, 45 in all, held assets named for Pepe the Frog as of May 12—the day winners were finalized—but holdings may have changed since they were analyzed,' CREW noted. 'Nine of the wallets, including some that hold Pepe-themed assets, held assets whose names are outright racist or anti-semitic,' the report added. 'For example, one token is called 'F*** THE JEWS,' while another is simply the n-word. Four others are variations on the word 'swastika,' such as 'Swasticoin' and 'Swastika Coin.'' The Independent has reached out to the White House for comment.
