Frontpage Popular News

Barbie, Baby!

How Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Is The Hottest Thing This Summer

“Barbie has a great day every day. Ken only has a great day if Barbie looks at him.”

- Helen Mirren, narrator for Barbie

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Frontpage Popular News

We Are Entering Barbie’s World

Our beloved childhood friend and icon - Barbie - is coming to life. The first teaser trailer of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was released today…and I already feel a surge of tremendous excitement.

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Culture Feature

Joe Rogan Is Right — Straight White Men Are Being Silenced!

Won't anyone please consider the plight of the straight white man?

Joe Rogan interviews Valentina Shevhcenko

By Dawid S Swierczek (Shutterstock)

I'm not supposed to be saying this.

I'm not really sure I'm supposed to be saying anything at all. Because the truth is... I'm a straight white man.

I know it's shocking. I'll probably be fired before I can finish typing this sentence. A straight white male being paid to voice his opinions in the year of our lord 2021 — and saying shit like "year of our lord" as if it weren't bad enough already.

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TV Features

This Haunts Me: Wolf Blitzer Crashing and Burning on Celebrity Jeopardy

Because sometimes the people in charge of keeping us informed are morons.

CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer introduces CNN Republican presidential debate at the RNC

Photo by Joseph Sohm (Shutterstock)

Celebrity Jeopardy has been a source of comedy since Will Ferrell first donned a fake mustache on SNL in the 1990s.

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When Gal Gadot posted a collaborative version of John Lennon's "Imagine" last month, it seemed like the dumbest thing that any of the celebrities involved had ever done.

But now, Kristen Wiig, Will Ferrell, and Jimmy Fallon—who all contributed to Gadot's video—have teamed up to make something even dumber, and it is glorious.

The Longest Days of Our Lives is a social distancing soap opera that took over The Tonight Show on Wednesday, with all the mainstays of daytime television drama reimagined for a group video chat. With Fallon playing the protagonist, Winston—who suffers from on-again off-again amnesia as a result of "a mysterious canoeing accident"—Ferrell and Wiig each took on multiple characters who revealed various shocking secrets to a recurrent chorus of gasping.

Ferrell's range is particularly impressive, ducking out of frame to don or doff a fake mustache, a cowboy hat, and a scarf to represent each of Winston's identical triplet brothers in turn—with varyingly offensive accents. As Ferrell's cowboy character succinctly puts it: "I'm Fontaine, your other other brother. We have the same mother. We're evil twins of each other, and I'm your lover's lover."

Wiig, meanwhile, initially portrays Winston's lover Vanessa, who had a socially distant affair with Fontaine "through, like, Skype or something"—the revelation of which insights a vigorous video chat slapfight. But Vanessa is then transformed, through a wig and a wardrobe change, to become Melinda Charmin, who is simultaneously "the heiress to the Charmin toilet paper fortune," "Vanessa's estranged mother," and "the daughter of all of you."

Needless to say, the whole spectacle is so stupid that all three of the participants can barely keep straight faces, and neither can we. It's a refreshing bit of absurd comic relief that successfully takes the edge off the general sense of a global crisis, and much more the kind of stupidity that people need right now—as opposed to a (literally and figuratively) tone-deaf version of a classic song.

Will Ferrell and Kristen Wiig are officially absolved—the other "Imagine" celebrities still have some work to do.

TV

"SNL" Tried to Make a Point About White Nationalism—and Failed

Will Ferrell dressed as a Native American for SNL's Thanksgiving episode, and it gets worse.

Will Ferrell on SNL

SNL

With Thanksgiving around the corner, 'tis the season for Saturday Night Live to feature skits depicting the potential awkwardness surrounding our family dinners.

During his fifth turn as an SNL host, Will Ferrell was the centerpiece of a skit entitled "First Thanksgiving." He portrayed a grumpy, skeptical man meeting his granddaughter's boyfriend for the first time at their family's Thanksgiving dinner. The only issues with the skit are that his family is supposedly Native American, his granddaughter is Pocahontas, and the visiting boyfriend is John Smith. Melissa Villaseñor, Beck Bennett, Maya Rudolph, and Fred Armisen also star, none of whom are indigenous. Non-Native actors in these roles causes enough concern (and, honestly, is never OK), but even more eyebrow-raising are the additional problems woven in the script.

The skit attempts to flip white supremacy on its head, as Ferrell's character—decked out in a long wig and full traditional Native attire—represents a fervent Republican, full of allusions to President Trump's white nationalist ideals and his policies. When Ferrell suggests everyone around the table share what they're thankful for, he begins: "I'm thankful for our land, and our great and mighty chief. And let's hope he finally builds that wall." When the rest of the family asks where he's been getting information on the "palefaces" invading their land, his response is plain and simple: "Fox" (but a literal fox, get it?) Then he teases Pocahontas for getting her news from "a peacock" (NBC, we presume). Pocahontas defends the European colonizers—or "illegals," as Ferrell's character so distastefully nicknames them—saying, "They're just regular, hard-working people seeking refuge."

The skit doesn't outwardly mock Native people, but in its ill-conceived analogy, it suggests that we're supposed to be on the "Republican" side of this story; white people are positioned as the "immigrants" who are bringing over "diseases and guns." Ferrell's character is supposed to be mocking Trump supporters, but he still makes valid arguments against colonization. As one Twitter user explained, it "accidentally suggested the white nationalist crowd has a point." It's a bad look to say the least.

While this skit was surely well-intended, the execution was very poorly realized. To use the exploitation of Native Americans as a vessel for jokes about right-wing ideals is extremely dangerous and offensive, however accidental. The skit made light of the genocide that decimated Native peoples, not to mention it only brushed over the massive age gap between Pocahontas and John Smith: Rudolph's character points out that Smith is nearly 30 while Pocahontas is 12—close to their real ages at the time—and everyone is just OK with it.

Ferrell attempted to redeem the skit's controversy in the end by breaking the fourth wall to give a disclaimer. "If you're anything like me, you know there's a lot of problems in this crazy, crazy sketch," he said, facing the camera under a spotlight. "I mean, white actors playing Natives? What is this, 2014?" So...you're telling me the writers knew this sketch was problematic and racist, but they just ran with it anyway? Ferrell's brief monologue didn't address the colonialism the jokes referenced, instead offering a cliche about contrasting political opinions between family members and delivering an anticlimactic punchline about bowel movements.

Making a joke of indigenous people on television only encourages other white folks to do the same, and it's deeply disappointing to see these well-regarded comedians participate in it. If SNL is supposed to exemplify peak comedy, then they should've been able to convey their intended messages without cultural appropriation; if anything, this only reaffirms why we desperately need more diversity in media. So, this Thanksgiving, please enjoy spending time with your families—but don't forget that you're stuffing your face and watching football on stolen land.