Latest news with #Luigi
NBC News
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Nintendo Switch 2 draws long lines and excited gamers
For the crowds outside Nintendo's store in New York's Rockefeller Center on Wednesday, a long wait was well worth getting their hands on the new Switch 2 console. Some camped out for hours, bringing their own makeshift waterproof tents and lawn chairs. Others stood in the line, which stretched several city blocks. A handful even dressed up as iconic Nintendo characters, including Luigi, the beloved brother and sidekick in the video game 'Super Mario.' 'Really, it's just all about the community and sort of sharing that love of Nintendo with each other,' said Lauren Hyde, who has been in line since she traveled from Maryland on Monday. The Japanese gaming giant is releasing the coveted console Thursday, eight years after the original version hit shelves. The first iteration of the Switch was a major hit for Nintendo, selling roughly 150 million units, according to the company, making it the third-best-selling console of all time, behind the PS2 and the Nintendo DS. The hype for the Switch 2 has been building for months, with Nintendo teasing a brief first look at it in January. With a bigger screen, better graphics and larger controls, the next iteration of the console has drummed up enough enthusiasm among gamers that many showed up early at stores like Best Buy and GameStop to pick up their units at midnight. 'We have a lot of wonderful products that create buzz,' said Jason Bonfig, Best Buy's senior executive vice president in charge of customer offerings and fulfillment. 'Switch is very, very special. They're a passionate community.' Bonfig estimated that 70% of Best Buy's customers indicated they wanted to pick up their Switch 2s in-store, 'and the vast majority of those customers will be there at midnight to do so.' 'Something about consumer electronics in general with that instant gratification is really important,' he added. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Store is selling units at midnight only to those who secured reservations on its website, meaning many lining up outside its New York City location were doing so mostly for fun. Nintendo even warned in a message on its website that 'delivery by June 5 is not guaranteed' for customers who had not already secured pre-order invitations. Though consumers have been fatigued by high prices amid the ongoing global trade war, Nintendo said in April that it would not hike the price of the $449.99 device at launch. There is also hope among some in the gaming world that the Switch 2 could spur the creation of new games and therefore new jobs. The industry has taken a hit in recent years after widespread layoffs affected many studios, and a performers strike has continued into 2025. While some companies release consoles to reviewers early, Nintendo has remained quiet about many of the details of the Switch 2, holding off on review copies for gaming news sites like IGN.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Opinion - The most psychotic musical since ‘Sweeney Todd' — and why America needs it
Luigi Mangione is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in broad daylight. A clean shot. No hesitation. Very soon, he'll sing about the brutal act in a San Francisco musical. I say: Good. 'Luigi: The Musical' is absurd, possibly sociopathic — and yet somehow entirely defensible. In fact, in this grotesque, camp-addled culture of ours, it might be the most honest piece of art produced all year. Not because murder is funny. Not because the justice system is a joke. But because we now live in an age where satire is the last viable truth-delivery system. Much of journalism is corporate. Novels are afraid. Late-night comedy is neutered. You want truth? Put it in a musical. Wrap it in sequins. And give it jazz hands. Satire has always been the most ruthlessly efficient scalpel. Aristophanes mocked imperial war. Jonathan Swift proposed devouring Irish children. George Orwell, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Vonnegut — they didn't protest. They staged freak shows. Molière shredded hypocrisy in powdered wigs. Charles Dickens dragged Victorian England through the gutter it tried to ignore. Joseph Heller turned bureaucratic madness into 'Catch-22.' Before his comedy went off a cliff, George Carlin stood on stage and tore down empire with a smirk. With 'Four Lions,' a pitch-black comedy about incompetent jihadists, Chris Morris made terrorism absurd. Before that, he had already terrified the British establishment with 'Brass Eye,' a fake news satire so savage it tricked members of Parliament into denouncing fictional drugs on air. Trey Parker made everything absurd, or at least appear absurd. From Mormonism ('The Book of Mormon') to war propaganda ('Team America') to the bloated theater of American politics and celebrity culture ('South Park'), nothing was sacred — and that was the point. Satire doesn't whisper; it slaps. It offends. It remembers what the real world would rather forget. 'Luigi' stands firmly in that lineage — not in spite of the outrage it invites, but because of it. What are we really so scandalized by? The idea of a murderer with a musical number? Please. We've been there before: 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Chicago,' 'Heathers,' 'Assassins.' We have clapped for John Wilkes Booth. We have cheered for razor blades and ricin. What bothers people about 'Luigi' isn't the violence. It's the contemporaneity — the fact that it's still too soon and the wound hasn't scabbed yet. This character, the corporate assassin-turned-accidental folk hero, feels dangerously plausible. Deep down, we know the real absurdity isn't the musical. It is the world that created such a man. We live in a culture that glamorizes sociopathy but gets offended when it's reflected back. Netflix ran 'Dahmer.' You can now buy 'American Psycho' mugs, t-shirts and beanies. 'The Sopranos' has a wine label. Real-life cartel hitmen share their 'wisdom' on TikTok. And yet, when a fringe theater group stages a smart, cynical satire about a real-life killing, we're told it's 'too far'? Get real. 'Luigi' doesn't play by prestige rules. It's too camp. Too gaudy. Too loud. It isn't Oscar-bait. It's black box theater with blood under its nails. And that's why it matters. It's not Netflix. It's not Hulu. It's not a limited series you can binge and forget. It's theater. And theater — real theater — makes you sit with it. The show is Gulag humor for the Uber Eats generation. It weaponizes the ludicrous, stitches viral violence to choreography, turns cellmates like Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried into Greek chorus figures, and mocks our collective appetite for the borderline insane. 'Luigi'isn't glorifying Mangione. It's not trying to humanize him. It's trying to indict us. The audience. The algorithm. The economy of attention that turns killers into content. The culture that made a young man with a gun a trending topic before the body hit the pavement. This is a country where mass shooters get Wikipedia pages before their victims get autopsied. Where headlines blur into hashtags. Where the line between infamy and influence disappeared sometime around 2014. In that context, 'Luigi' isn't satire. It's realism. But there's a deeper tragedy here — not in the subject matter, but in the medium. Theater is dying — with its empty seats, aging donors and young people who'd rather scroll through cat videos, theater is losing the war for attention, and fast. This makes 'Luigi' both timely and, in some ways, necessary. Perhaps it's too campy. Perhaps it's too crass. Maybe it turns a murderer into a meme with a melody. But you know what? It gets people off their screens. It gets them out of their apartments. It gets them into a room with other humans, watching a live act of provocation unfold in real time. That used to be called art. Now it's called a liability. 'Luigi' won't win prestigious prizes. It might not even last its full run without protests. But it belongs. Theater isn't supposed to be sacred. It's supposed to be a mirror. Sometimes cracked, but always honest. So let them sing. Mangione won't be the last killer to dance under a spotlight. He's just the first one to do it with a chorus line and a cellmate named Diddy. John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hill
The most psychotic musical since ‘Sweeney Todd' — and why America needs it
Luigi Mangione is accused of gunning down the CEO of UnitedHealthcare in broad daylight. A clean shot. No hesitation. Very soon, he'll sing about the brutal act in a San Francisco musical. I say: Good. 'Luigi: The Musical' is absurd, possibly sociopathic — and yet somehow entirely defensible. In fact, in this grotesque, camp-addled culture of ours, it might be the most honest piece of art produced all year. Not because murder is funny. Not because the justice system is a joke. But because we now live in an age where satire is the last viable truth-delivery system. Much of journalism is corporate. Novels are afraid. Late-night comedy is neutered. You want truth? Put it in a musical. Wrap it in sequins. And give it jazz hands. Satire has always been the most ruthlessly efficient scalpel. Aristophanes mocked imperial war. Jonathan Swift proposed devouring Irish children. George Orwell, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Vonnegut — they didn't protest. They staged freak shows. Molière shredded hypocrisy in powdered wigs. Charles Dickens dragged Victorian England through the gutter it tried to ignore. Joseph Heller turned bureaucratic madness into 'Catch-22.' Before his comedy went off a cliff, George Carlin stood on stage and tore down empire with a smirk. With 'Four Lions,' a pitch-black comedy about incompetent jihadists, Chris Morris made terrorism absurd. Before that, he had already terrified the British establishment with 'Brass Eye,' a fake news satire so savage it tricked members of Parliament into denouncing fictional drugs on air. Trey Parker made everything absurd, or at least appear absurd. From Mormonism ('The Book of Mormon') to war propaganda ('Team America') to the bloated theater of American politics and celebrity culture ('South Park'), nothing was sacred — and that was the point. Satire doesn't whisper; it slaps. It offends. It remembers what the real world would rather forget. 'Luigi' stands firmly in that lineage — not in spite of the outrage it invites, but because of it. What are we really so scandalized by? The idea of a murderer with a musical number? Please. We've been there before: 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Chicago,' 'Heathers,' 'Assassins.' We have clapped for John Wilkes Booth. We have cheered for razor blades and ricin. What bothers people about 'Luigi' isn't the violence. It's the contemporaneity — the fact that it's still too soon and the wound hasn't scabbed yet. This character, the corporate assassin-turned-accidental folk hero, feels dangerously plausible. Deep down, we know the real absurdity isn't the musical. It is the world that created such a man. We live in a culture that glamorizes sociopathy but gets offended when it's reflected back. Netflix ran 'Dahmer.' You can now buy 'American Psycho' mugs, t-shirts and beanies. 'The Sopranos' has a wine label. Real-life cartel hitmen share their 'wisdom' on TikTok. And yet, when a fringe theater group stages a smart, cynical satire about a real-life killing, we're told it's 'too far'? Get real. 'Luigi' doesn't play by prestige rules. It's too camp. Too gaudy. Too loud. It isn't Oscar-bait. It's black box theater with blood under its nails. And that's why it matters. It's not Netflix. It's not Hulu. It's not a limited series you can binge and forget. It's theater. And theater — real theater — makes you sit with it. The show is Gulag humor for the Uber Eats generation. It weaponizes the ludicrous, stitches viral violence to choreography, turns cellmates like Diddy and Sam Bankman-Fried into Greek chorus figures, and mocks our collective appetite for the borderline insane. 'Luigi'isn't glorifying Mangione. It's not trying to humanize him. It's trying to indict us. The audience. The algorithm. The economy of attention that turns killers into content. The culture that made a young man with a gun a trending topic before the body hit the pavement. This is a country where mass shooters get Wikipedia pages before their victims get autopsied. Where headlines blur into hashtags. Where the line between infamy and influence disappeared sometime around 2014. In that context, 'Luigi' isn't satire. It's realism. But there's a deeper tragedy here — not in the subject matter, but in the medium. Theater is dying — with its empty seats, aging donors and young people who'd rather scroll through cat videos, theater is losing the war for attention, and fast. This makes 'Luigi' both timely and, in some ways, necessary. Perhaps it's too campy. Perhaps it's too crass. Maybe it turns a murderer into a meme with a melody. But you know what? It gets people off their screens. It gets them out of their apartments. It gets them into a room with other humans, watching a live act of provocation unfold in real time. That used to be called art. Now it's called a liability. 'Luigi' won't win prestigious prizes. It might not even last its full run without protests. But it belongs. Theater isn't supposed to be sacred. It's supposed to be a mirror. Sometimes cracked, but always honest. So let them sing. Mangione won't be the last killer to dance under a spotlight. He's just the first one to do it with a chorus line and a cellmate named Diddy. John Mac Ghlionn is a writer and researcher who explores culture, society and the impact of technology on daily life.
Toronto Star
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
This playwright had never heard of being embarrassed to be Italian. But his father's experience of feeling like an outsider prompted this award-winning solo show
When Farren Timoteo's Italian-Canadian father Luigi was growing up in Jasper, Alberta, in the late 1960s and '70s, he felt like an outsider. 'He wore a suit to school and he would take these elaborate Italian lunches — pastas or cured meats, like salami — and the other students would make fun of him,' said Timoteo on a Zoom call from his home in Edmonton.
The Review Geek
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Has Real Men been renewed for Season 2? Here's what we know:
Renewed or Cancelled? Real Men is the latest comedy on Netflix, with an energetic cast and a simple premise. Having watched the first season in its entirety, you may be wondering if this one has been renewed or cancelled. Well, wonder no more! What is Real Men about? Real Men centers on four middle-aged friends – Massimo, Luigi, Riccardo and Mattia – who find themselves forced to navigate changing gender dynamics. Through humour, the four confront bias and toxic masculinity, redefining relationships and roles amid the push for equality. Has Real Men been renewed for Season 2? At the time of writing, Real Men has not been renewed for season 2. Generally Netflix would gauge numerous metrics before renewing a show, including how many people initially watch it and then looking at the drop-off rate. With some shows, cancellations or renewals happen quickly. Other times, it can take months before a decision over a show's future is made. So far, Real Men has had a very mixed reaction online from critics and audiences alike. Given the way this show is set up, and the ending we receive, we're predicting that this will not be renewed for a second season. Getting Deja Vu watching this? Well, Real Men's premise is almost identical to Alpha Males, Shafted and Roosters that are all basically the same show in different languages. This has been well-trodden ground for a while now. The series has potential no doubt, but as we've seen with shows like Money Heist: Korea, just rebooting a show into a different country doesn't always work. We also know completion rate is a massive metric for these streamers and this feels like one of those shows that people will drop before the end. However, we could be completely wrong too, so take our prediction with a pinch of salt! What we know about season 2 so far: Barely anything is known about Real Men season 2 at this point given Netflix haven't officially renewed or cancelled this one. Given the first season's conclusion and the hopes from cast and crew for more, we'd likely get another 8 episode season if this one is renewed. Furthermore, the story's tone and style will likely remain very similar to what we've been graced with in season 1. We will update this page when more information becomes available, so be sure to check this page out in the near future. Would you like to see Real Men return for a second season? What's been your favourite part of the show? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
