Pop Culture Happy Hour : NPR

'Deadpool & Wolverine' is a feast of inside jokes

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman in Marvel's Deadpool & Wolverine. Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel hide caption

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Jay Maidment/20th Century Studios/Marvel

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Deadpool & Wolverine' is a feast of inside jokes

July 26, 2024 • In the highly meta Deadpool & Wolverine, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman finally meet up for their own big movie. Deadpool is still smarmy, Wolverine is still tragic, and they have to get together to save the world. Along the way, Deadpool continues his usual routine of endless wisecracking. The movie is jam-packed with fan service and Easter eggs. But how will casual Marvel fans like the movie?

'Deadpool & Wolverine' is a feast of inside jokes

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In 'The Decameron,' the Black Death makes for black comedy

Zosia Mamet and Saoirse-Monica Jackson in The Decameron. Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix hide caption

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Giulia Parmigiani/Netflix

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

In 'The Decameron,' the Black Death makes for black comedy

July 25, 2024 • In Netflix's weirdly compelling dark comedy The Decameron, the bubonic plague is ravaging Florence in 1348. A group of rich nobles and their servants decide to retreat to a picturesque villa in the country to wait it all out. The large ensemble includes Tony Hale and Zosia Mamet. Every character is hiding something, and those secrets get revealed — and more than a few uglies get bumped.

In 'The Decameron,' the Black Death makes for black comedy

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Celine Dion's "It's All Coming Back To Me Now" is one of the perfect communal karaoke songs. Robert Laberge/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Robert Laberge/AFP via Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Three great karaoke songs

July 23, 2024 • What makes a good karaoke song? In this encore episode, we're suggesting three great songs to sing at karaoke night.

Three great karaoke songs

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Glen Powell in Twisters. Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal hide caption

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Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal

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'Twisters' has us spiraling

July 19, 2024 • Twister was one of the biggest disaster movies of the '90s. Now, it's finally got a sequel — one with an all-new cast, state-of-the-art effects, and a whole lot of tornadoes. The new film stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as rival storm-chasers who have a habit of running into tornadoes while everyone else is fleeing. Twisters was directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who also directed the Oscar-nominated Minari.

'Twisters' has us spiraling

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FX

Pop Culture Happy Hour

We unpack the 2024 Emmy nominations

July 17, 2024 • The nominations the Emmy Awards were just announced, and it was a good day for The Bear, which set a new record in the comedy category. And plenty of our favorites also got Emmy nods, including Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Shōgun, Reservation Dogs and What We Do in the Shadows. We'll help you unpack this year's the notable nominees and snubs.

We unpack the 2024 Emmy nominations

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'Exploding Kittens' turns a simple card game into a wild cartoon

Tom Ellis as Godcat and Ally Maki as Greta in Netflix's Exploding Kittens. Netflix hide caption

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Netflix

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Exploding Kittens' turns a simple card game into a wild cartoon

July 16, 2024 • The best-selling card game Exploding Kittens has been adapted into a new Netflix animated series. It does plenty of its own world-building: God (Tom Ellis) and the devil (Sasheer Zamata) are sent to earth, where they take the form of talking cats — and meddle in the lives of a struggling family.

'Exploding Kittens' turns a simple card game into a wild cartoon

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Maika Monroe in a scene from Longlegs. Neon hide caption

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Neon

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'Longlegs' is a (satanic) panic

July 15, 2024 • They're calling it the scariest movie of the year. The new horror film Longlegs follows FBI special agent Lee Harker (Mika Monroe) tracking a serial killer in the 1990s. If that sounds like familiar ground, consider this – the clues she follows hint at the involvement of the occult in general and Satanism in particular. And the killer in question: Nicolas Cage, uncaged.

'Longlegs' is a (satanic) panic

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'Fly Me to the Moon' soft launches Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum

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Apple TV+

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'Fly Me to the Moon' soft launches Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum

July 12, 2024 • The cheeky new romantic dramedy Fly Me to the Moon stars Scarlett Johansson as a NASA publicist at the height of the space race. She must stage a top-secret fake version of the moon landing as backup, just in case the real attempt fails. No one else at NASA can know about it — especially the upstanding launch director, played by Channing Tatum. The pair clash (and flirt) as they prepare for Apollo 11 to launch.

'Fly Me to the Moon' soft launches Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum

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We recommend three great sports documentaries

Lance Armstrong celebrates during the Tour de France in 2004. He is the subject of the documentary The Armstrong Lie. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images hide caption

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Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

We recommend three great sports documentaries

July 11, 2024 • Sports aren't just games. They're intertwined with epic stories about struggle, human behavior, historic greatness and grand emotions. In other words, sports make for great documentaries. And if you're looking for some good ones, we've got recommendations: Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, The Armstrong Lie, and Athlete A.

We recommend three great sports documentaries

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'Despicable Me 4' serves up 90 minutes of bankable mayhem

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Universal Pictures

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Despicable Me 4' serves up 90 minutes of bankable mayhem

July 10, 2024 • Despicable Me 4 is the latest film in an animation franchise that made household names of reformed supervillain Gru (Steve Carrell) and his army of nattering Minions. The franchise has grossed billions of dollars, and the latest movie topped the weekend box office. But are these films growing up with their audience, or continuing to cater to young kids? And does that matter?

'Despicable Me 4' serves up 90 minutes of bankable mayhem

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How we entertain and amuse ourselves on a road trip

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

How we entertain and amuse ourselves on a road trip

July 8, 2024 • It's summer, so we're talking all about road trips. Should you blast music that's familiar or unfamiliar? What makes for a good road trip audiobook? What are some road trip games we hate? Pop Culture Happy Hour talked all about how to entertain and amuse ourselves in the car way back in 2012. Today, in this encore episode, we're revisiting that conversation.

How we entertain and amuse ourselves on a road trip

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'MaXXXine' closes a grisly trilogy in style

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Justin Lubin/A24

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'MaXXXine' closes a grisly trilogy in style

July 5, 2024 • The new movie MaXXXine stars Mia Goth as an adult-film actress who gets her big break in Hollywood, only to be revisited by horrors from her past. Set in 1985 Los Angeles, it's the final film in director Ti West's beloved horror trilogy that began with the movie X. MaXXXine also features performances from Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, and Giancarlo Esposito.

'MaXXXine' closes a grisly trilogy in style

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Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

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Mike Coppola /Getty

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

July 4, 2024 • The Pop Culture Happy Hour team is off today, so we're bringing you an episode of the NPR podcast Wild Card with Rachel Martin. This episode is an interview with Bowen Yang. He is the first Chinese American cast member on SNL, the co-host the podcast Las Culturistas, and he starred in the rom-com Fire Island. He talks to Rachel about living too much in the present, hard truths from Tina Fey, and why the afterlife should have a rollercoaster.

Bowen Yang thinks being present is overrated

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Megan Thee Stallion sheds her skin on 'Megan'

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Megan Thee Stallion sheds her skin on 'Megan'

July 3, 2024 • A lot has happened to rapper Megan Thee Stallion over the last couple of years including a highly publicized trial after being shot by a former friend, a messy breakup, and a feud with artist Nicki Minaj. She confronts all of that and more on her boastful and vulnerable new album Megan. But she also has fun on playful tracks like 'Down Stairs DJ' and 'Otaku Hot Girl' that are odes to self-pleasure and her anime nerddom.

Megan Thee Stallion sheds her skin on 'Megan'

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Yes, chef: 'The Bear' has a lot going on in its third season

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FX/Hulu

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Yes, chef: 'The Bear' has a lot going on in its third season

July 2, 2024 • The Bear just returned for its third season and it's still one of the most stressful and most interesting shows on TV. Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) are launching their new fine dining restaurant, but he's estranged from some of the people who are closest to him just as he sneaks up on a new level of success. The series is streaming now on Hulu.

Yes, chef: 'The Bear' has a lot going on in its third season

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In 'A Quiet Place: Day One', Lupita Nyong'o makes silence golden

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Gareth Gatrell/Paramount Pictures

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

In 'A Quiet Place: Day One', Lupita Nyong'o makes silence golden

July 1, 2024 • In the post-apocalyptic world of A Quiet Place, aliens kill anyone who makes a sound, forcing humans into a near-silent existence. The new movie A Quiet Place: Day One takes us back to the beginning, but this time through the eyes of a terminally ill cancer patient played by the excellent Lupita Nyong'o.

In 'A Quiet Place: Day One', Lupita Nyong'o makes silence golden

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In 'Kinds of Kindness,' the cruelty is the point

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Yorgos Lanthimos/Searchlight Pictures

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Pop Culture Happy Hour

In 'Kinds of Kindness,' the cruelty is the point

June 28, 2024 • Kinds of Kindness is a weird, dark, and bleak film. It's directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) and it re-teams him with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, along with Jesse Plemons. Each actor plays different characters in three different stories — which all involve someone going to extreme measures to regain something they've lost.

In 'Kinds of Kindness,' the cruelty is the point

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Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

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Apple TV+

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Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

June 27, 2024 • The new film Fancy Dance offers something all-too-rare on screen: contemporary Indigenous perspectives, front and center. Lily Gladstone plays a woman trying to keep it together under stressful circumstances. Her sister's gone missing, and she steps in to look after her young niece (Isabel Deroy-Olson). The pair take what turns out to be a rocky road trip and a unique bonding experience.

Lily Gladstone's 'Fancy Dance' is a road trip worth taking

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Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

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Chuck Hodes/FX

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Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

June 25, 2024 • Jim and Pam. Mulder and Scully. Janine and Gregory. Carmy and Sydney. Meredith and McDreamy. You know how it goes: two television characters with obvious chemistry who fight or look at each other longingly. You know that there's only one question: will they, or won't they? Today, we break down the different types of will-they-won't-they couples and discuss some of the best and worst couples in television, including Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Cheers, Grey's Anatomy, Dawson's Creek, and more.

Will they or won't they? Unpacking TV's eternal question

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Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

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Lucasfilm Ltd./Disney+

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Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

June 24, 2024 • The new Disney+ Star Wars series The Acolyte is a murder mystery. Someone is killing great Jedi masters, and while we learn the killer's identity early on, the real mystery driving the series is why they're doing it. It stars Amandla Stenberg as Force-sensitive twins Osha and Mae, and Squid Game's Lee Jung-jae as Osha's former Jedi master. By the time it's finished its eight-episode run, The Acolyte may shed new light on the nature of the Force, and the hidden history of the Jedi.

Is 'The Acolyte' a Star Wars Force to be reckoned with?

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June Squibb's 'Thelma' is the wrong grandma to mess with

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Magnolia Pictures

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June Squibb's 'Thelma' is the wrong grandma to mess with

June 21, 2024 • Financial scams are an unfortunate phenomenon, but what happens when a fraudster messes with the wrong grandma? The very fun action-comedy Thelma imagines exactly this scenario. The movie stars June Squibb as a woman scammed by someone pretending to be her grandson. She then enlists her old friend (the late Richard Roundtree) to help get her money back.

June Squibb's 'Thelma' is the wrong grandma to mess with

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HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

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HBO

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HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

June 20, 2024 • The brilliant and idiosyncratic new HBO series Fantasmas has a simple plot. Creator and star Julio Torres searches New York City for an earring he lost at a club. In the execution, that quest gets transformed into something epic and surreal and queer in every sense of the word. He keeps bumping into random New Yorkers whose stories play out in a series of sketch-like vignettes. They are played by actors including Emma Stone, Bowen Yang, and Tilda Swinton.

HBO's 'Fantasmas' is new and different and uniquely itself

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