Legendary "Airplane!" director David Zucker has a theory about why today's movies are flopping so badly — and the folks in charge aren't going to like it.

"The studios are very frightened people afraid to take risks," the director told Align, stroking his chin. "I wrote an article ... about the 9% rule. There's 9% of people who just don't have a sense of humor. There's like zero sense of humor. So the studios are being guided by those people."

'There's 9% of people who just don't have a sense of humor.'

According to Zucker — whose cinematic pedigree includes comedies like "The Naked Gun," "BASEketball," and "Top Secret!" — cancel culture is still alive and well in the film biz, pushed by overly cautious studio brass.

Cracked rearview

"It's like driving looking through the rearview mirror," Zucker said — an attitude that leads to unfunny films that repackage old ideas with jokes that don't land.

Zucker didn't have to look far to find an example: the recent "The Naked Gun" reboot, which went ahead without his involvement.

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Blocked calls

Zucker recalled the confusion he felt when he learned Paramount had no intention of consulting him on "The Naked Gun" reboot, despite having pages upon pages of jokes already written. Instead, the studio went with "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, who came in and took over.

Zucker attempted to explained the debacle:

"I'm excluded from it. I called him. He didn't return my calls, refused to meet with me. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on, but that's Hollywood."

Still he said MacFarlane did contact him after the movie finished production and spent "10 minutes just telling me how much he idolized [my movies], hard to get mad at a guy who keeps telling you what a genius you are."

'Painful' viewing

Despite all the flattery, Zucker said he had no intentions of ever seeing the new version of "The Naked Gun," recalling his experience watching "Airplane II: The Sequel," with which he also had no involvement.

"If your daughter became a prostitute, would you go watch her work?" he asked. "So you know, it's painful. It would be painful to sit through. It's somebody else doing our movie, and they don't know what they're doing."

(L-R) Seth MacFarlane, Pamela Anderson, and Liam Neeson attend 'The Naked Gun' New York Premiere on July 28, 2025. Photo by Arturo Holmes/WireImage

In Zucker's view, Hollywood's risk-averse approach is especially obvious in comedies. "If you do a comedy that's not funny, you can't hide," he noted, adding that the new "The Naked Gun" "must have been excruciating to sit through."

It's safe to say Zucker won't be lining up for the upcoming "Spaceballs" reboot either. Not that he was a huge fan of the 1987 original, which he dismissed as "an attempt to copy 'Airplane!'"

"You can't do stuff that's 10, 20 years old ... puns [that] were fresh in 1982," he laughed.

As for his own movies, Zucker said he hopes to advance the pun-filled, slapstick comedy genre he helped popularize — with his next project offering a fresh, humorous spin on film noir.

Bluesky founder reboots Vine for AI-free social media — as human-only video becomes 'nostalgic'

Jack Dorsey is bringing the nostalgia back, just a few seconds at a time.

Dorsey co-founded Twitter in 2007 and served as its inaugural CEO for a year until returning to the position for a six-year stint in its seemingly darkest years between 2015 and 2021.

Now, through his nonprofit called and Other Stuff, Dorsey is bringing one of the internet's most beloved applications back from the dead.

'Can we do something that takes us back, that lets us see those old things ...'

"So basically, I'm like, can we do something that’s kind of nostalgic?" said Evan Henshaw-Plath, Dorsey's pick to spearhead the revival. The New Zealander comes from Dorsey's nonprofit team, where he is known as Rabble, and has outlined aspirations to bring the internet vibe back to its Web 2.0 time period — roughly 2004-2010 or thereabouts.

Dorsey and Henshaw-Plath are rebooting Vine, the six-second video app that predominantly served viewers short, user-generated comedy clips. The format is a clear inspiration for modern apps like TikTok and formats like YouTube's Shorts and Instagram's Reels.

Dorsey and company are focused on keeping the nostalgic feel, however, and unlike the other apps, will keep a six-second time limit while also taking a stance on content. What that means, according to Yahoo, is that the platform will reject AI-generated videos using special filters meant to prevent them from being posted.

i loved vine. i found it pre-launch, pushed the company to buy it (i wasn’t ceo at the time), and they did great. but over time https://t.co/HNsCMGtS04 (tiktok) took off, and and the founders left, leaving vine directionless. when i came back as ceo we decided to shut it down…
— jack (@jack) April 11, 2024

The new app, called diVine, will revive 10,000 archived Vine posts, after the new team was able to extract a "good percentage" of some of the most popular videos.

Former Vine users are able to claim their old videos, so long as they can prove access to previously connected social media accounts that were on their former Vine profiles. Alternatively, the users can request that their old videos be taken down.

"The reason I funded the nonprofit and Other Stuff is to allow creative engineers like Rabble to show what's possible in this new world," Dorsey said, per Yahoo.

This will be done by "using permissionless protocols which can't be shut down based on the whim of a corporate owner," he added.

Henshaw-Plath commented on returning to simpler internet times — as silly as it sounds — when a person's content feed only consisted of accounts he follows, with real, user-generated content.

"Can we do something that takes us back, that lets us see those old things, but also lets us see an era of social media where you could either have control of your algorithms, or you could choose who you follow, and it's just your feed, and where you know that it's a real person that recorded the video?" he asked.

According to Tech Crunch, Vine was acquired by Twitter in 2012 for $30 million before eventually shutting down in 2016.

The app sparked careers for personalities like Logan Paul, Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor, and John Richard Whitfield, aka DC Young Fly. Bachelor and Whitfield captured the genre that was most popular on the platform: eccentric young performers who published unique comedy.

DiVine is currently in a beta stage and is available only to existing users of the messenger app Nostr.

X owner Elon Musk announced in August that he was trying acquire access to Vine's archive so that users could post the videos on his platform.

"We recently found the Vine video archive (thought it had been deleted) and are working on restoring user access, so you can post them if you want," Musk wrote.

However, it seems the billionaire may have been beaten to the punch by longtime rival Dorsey.

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Joe Rogan, Christian? The podcaster opens up about his ongoing exploration of faith

Joe Rogan may not be ready to call himself a Christian, but the former atheist does find himself rubbing shoulders with believers on many a Sunday.

The podcaster once again revealed details about his ongoing exploration of the faith, including his habit of regularly attending church.

'It's almost like everybody is under a spell.'

He also demonstrated a newfound appreciation of why someone would need God in his or her life. When recent podcast guest Francis Foster expressed amazement at how much a friend of his could rely on religion as a foundation for getting through tough times, Rogan didn't seem nearly as surprised.

"If you really do believe that, it definitely will help you," the comedian concurred.

Church going

At that point, fellow guest — and Foster's "Triggernometry" podcast co-host — Konstantin Kisin chimed in that he himself had been becoming more religious.

"I haven't got there, but I have started going to church every now and again," Kisin explained.

"Do you enjoy it?" Rogan asked.

"I love it," responded Kisin.

"I do too," confessed Rogan, adding, "It's a bunch of people that are going to try to make their lives better. They're trying to be a better person."

Rogan then described his church experience as getting together with a group of people who read and analyze Bible passages.

"I'm really interested in what these people were trying to say because I don't think it's nothing," Rogan said.

No 'fairy tale'

From there, the New Jersey native addressed claims he has heard from atheists and secularists who dismiss Christianity as being "foolish."

The 58-year-old pushed back against the characterization that Christianity as a collection of "fairy tales" by "self-professed intelligent people," noting that a proper understanding of the faith requires considering historical context, translation difficulties, and oral vs. written tradition.

"I think there's something to what they're saying," Rogan offered.

Trust the science

While noting that modern science has found physical evidence for the biblical flood story told in Genesis, Rogan said he also appreciated the Bible as a compelling depiction of society 6,000 years ago.

Further segments in the podcast revealed that, perhaps due to a renewed interest in faith, Rogan's algorithm may have even changed.

- YouTube

This became evident when the group discussed some of Kisin's protest journalism, where he asks befuddled liberals the reason they are attending the current protest of the day.

In response, Rogan pointed to a video of a man doing interviews at a left-wing No Kings protest. The man asks attendees if they believe in human rights, to which they affirm, until they are asked about human rights "in the womb," which is when they dismiss the idea.

"It's almost like everybody is under a spell," Rogan laughed.

Rogan first confirmed he was going to church in June, after hinting at the idea that he was becoming more religious. He described his attendance similarly at that time:

"It's actually very nice; they're all just trying to be better people."

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Did American comedians SELL OUT for Saudi cash? The Riyadh hypocrisy exposed

From September 26 to October 9, 2025, Saudi Arabia is hosting its inaugural Riyadh Comedy Festival as part of Vision 2030’s entertainment push. High-profile American comedians, including Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Bill Burr, among others, were invited to perform for payments reportedly ranging from $300,000 to $1.6 million.

However, the conditions for their skits are strict: No criticizing the Saudi government, the royal family, the Islamic faith, or local culture.

Given Saudi Arabia’s suppression of free speech, imprisonment of dissidents and activists, and restrictions on women's rights, the agreement of so many American comedians to perform, especially under such rigid speech restrictions, has sparked widespread controversy.

Glenn Beck is certainly perplexed. If the Trump administration offered these American comedians the same amount of money to perform for a “Trump comedy weekend” on the condition they don’t criticize the government, the Trump family, or MAGA culture, they would never agree to it, he says.

“Everybody would have been out of their mind crazy on the left saying, ‘Look at Donald Trump, wants to shut people down,”’ he scoffs.

Comedian Bridget Phetasy thinks success has gone to comedians’ heads. “I think comedians got too rich. ... Maybe comedians in general just need to go back to being kind of viewed as dumb losers again,” she laughs.

“Maybe this is a challenge for them to push the limits because they can say whatever they want in America. So going to Saudi is, like, a little dangerous, a little titillating,” she adds.

However, she doesn’t necessarily blame these comedians — especially the ones who haven’t had much success — for taking advantage of the opportunity. They may be choosing to “sell their [souls],” but many of them probably needed the money.

“Some of these comedians were not hugely famous and have been struggling for a long time. ... So, I don’t know. It's like, get that bag, but you're going to have to hear about this forever,” Phetasy tells Glenn, noting that some of the more well-known comedians probably ended up doing damage to their brands for agreeing to the Saudis’ conditions.

Glenn’s co-host, Stu Burguiere, doesn’t see an issue with comedians performing in Saudi Arabia either. “I don’t understand why there is a double standard for entertainers in this world. All sorts of American companies sell products in these countries. ... Tons of investors do business in Saudi Arabia,” he says.

“This is not the Nazi regime. We’re not at war with them. They’re supposedly in some ways allies of ours, and, like, do the people of Saudi Arabia not get to laugh? Do they not get to go to comedy shows?”

“That’s all absolutely true, and I don’t blame really any of these people for taking the money and going. At the same time, you also have to understand that you are a useful idiot who’s being used by a regime,” Phetasy counters.

Unlike Stu, she doesn’t think this comedy event is the same as an American company doing business with the Saudis.

“Business people are smart enough to be behind closed doors and do all this stuff in Park City at secretive events where they all fly in on their private jet. And entertainers — their face is their brand; their jokes are their brand. ... I think that’s why they get held to this unfair double standard because they’re actually quite poor compared to everyone else around them. These are court jesters for the kings. Literally,” she says.

But Glenn can’t get past the hypocrisy. “The Jewish state could have put on a comedy festival and paid them the same amount of money, and I bet you almost all of those comedians would have turned it down because it’s Israel. They would never do it for Donald Trump,” he says.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the video above.

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America is now playing by Corkins’ rules — unless we stop it

Floyd Lee Corkins. That name should ring louder than it does.

In 2012, Corkins stormed into the Family Research Council’s Washington, D.C., offices armed and intent on mass murder. A security guard stopped him before he could carry out a massacre. He became the first person convicted of domestic terrorism in the District of Columbia.

Corkins came once. His successors will come again. ... The question is what we’re prepared to do about it.

Yet you probably don’t recall him right away. Why not? Probably because the propaganda leaflets against Chick-fil-A and Christians found in his car tied back to groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center — and the press played down the obvious connection. They helped bury what Corkins meant to announce in blood: that political rhetoric backed by violence was the new normal.

I’ve long warned that when legitimate authorities fail to punish evil, someone eventually decides to take matters into his own hands. Corkins is the left’s demonic version of that. His case teaches a simple lesson: If you’re going to call conservatives Hitler, sooner or later someone will start acting on the metaphor.

That same logic drove the 2017 shooting at a congressional baseball practice, where a Bernie Sanders supporter nearly assassinated a swath of House Republicans. Rhetoric became ammunition. Talking points became bullets.

Fast-forward to 2025. The demons are autographing their shell casings. They want everyone to know exactly who wants us dead. And the corporate left-wing press winks and nods along.

Enter Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night host with fewer viewers than Glenn Beck can pull in an impromptu X Spaces session.

Kimmel should have been irrelevant years ago. But his network kept him on the air. Why? Not because he draws ratings or ad revenue — he doesn’t. He survives because of affinity advertising: the corporate and philanthropic subsidy system that props up “the right people” no matter how much red ink their shows spill. Pfizer, Disney, the Soros family — they all bankroll the propaganda they want in circulation, audience or no.

As the Joker explained while burning an enormous pile of cash, “It’s not about the money. It’s about sending a message.”

That’s why Kimmel could stand on stage and smear conservatives, even after Charlie Kirk’s assassination, and still be untouchable. His words carry the same function as Corkins’ bullets: intimidation dressed up as entertainment.

Blaze Media Illustration

The danger isn’t just one unfunny comedian. It’s the ecosystem that shields him. Advertisers and networks subsidize the message, the media excuses it, and the extremists absorb it as permission. That’s how rhetoric becomes carnage.

We face two choices. We can enforce the law, punish violent actors and those who materially enable them, and protect the marketplace of ideas. Or we can accept the Corkins rules: a culture where calling people Hitler is step one and shooting them is step two.

The notion that we can run in place like Mike Pence, emasculating ourselves for the sake of “proper tone” or one last bow to decorum, is a funeral march. Some may find comfort in that tune, but I will not bind my children’s future to it.

Corkins came once. His successors will come again. Kimmel’s sponsors and allies want you to think this is inevitable. It isn’t. The question is what we’re prepared to do about it.

What if Johnny Carson turned MLK’s murder into a punch line?

What if, in 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Johnny Carson opened “The Tonight Show” with jibes about how one of King’s own supporters had pulled the trigger? What if he followed with a gag suggesting that President Lyndon Johnson didn’t care much about losing a friend? Or how maybe we need to keep up the pressure on conservatives who think free speech includes engaging those who disagree with them in civil dialogue?

Does anyone believe NBC executives would have shrugged and said, “Let Johnny talk — free speech, you know”? Does anyone think Carson’s 12 million nightly viewers would have treated it as harmless banter and tuned in the next night with curiosity about what he might say next?

Jimmy Kimmel needs to ‘grow a pair,’ take his lumps, and find another venue.

When the members of the first Congress wrote the First Amendment, enshrining freedom of speech, they did it within the context of the words of John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

St. Paul puts it this way: “‘I have the right to do anything,’ you say — but not everything is beneficial. ‘I have the right to do anything’ — but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Corinthians 6:12).

Sadly, I was included in an email from a dear relative who chided anyone who did not protest Jimmy Kimmel’s firing, citing the First Amendment. My relative felt very strongly about this. In his own words, if you didn't loudly defend Kimmel, you needed to “grow a pair.”

My wife and I had just finished watching the entire eight-hour-long, beautiful, uplifting, and spirit-filled memorial service for Charlie Kirk. Before I went to sleep, I decided to clear out my email inbox for the day. Unfortunately, I opened the email from my relative (thinking it was just the usual newsy missive) and read his thoughts.

He had written his opinions before the service, so I am not sure if he would have sent the same message; he made it clear that what happened to Charlie was certainly serious and evil.

No buts about it

My relative used words I had heard before from those who want to virtue signal, while also insisting that doing bad things is not acceptable. It was a variation of this: Yes, what happened to Charlie Kirk was wrong, terrible! But ...

If you hear people on the left — or even people who consider themselves rational, reasonable people “in the middle” who like to play the both-sides-are-wrong card — you need to push back. Comparing the temporary suspension of a mediocre, inconsequential talent like Kimmel to the assassination of a beautiful, influential man like Kirk — well, they are not in the same arena.

Since I was the only one on the email thread who knew Charlie personally (we had been colleagues at Salem Radio), I felt my comments would carry more weight.

I highlighted the Martin Luther King Jr.–Carson comparison and then focused on the “free speech” aspect from a purely business standpoint.

Jimmy Kimmel loses tens of millions of dollars for the network annually. It's been said that his viewership was so low that if you posted a video on X of your cat playing the piano, you could attract more viewers than Kimmel gets on any given night.

Moreover, the claim that Kimmel was denied his First Amendment rights is simply untrue. Kimmel remains free to say whatever he wants anywhere else. For example, when Tucker Carlson (who had the hottest show on Fox, making millions for the network) was canceled for speaking the truth politically, he launched his own “network.”

The funny thing is (no, not jokes from Kimmel’s opening monologues), unsuccessful shows hosted by people with varying degrees of talent get canceled all the time in the world of television. If that were not so, we would all be subjected to the 59th season of “My Mother the Car,”starring Jerry Van Dyke.

Photo by Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images for UCLA Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation

Lackluster shows are replaced by something for which the viewing public actually cares to tune in. The public had clearly tuned out of Kimmel’s show a long time ago.

What Jimmy Kimmel needs to do is “grow a pair,” take his lumps, and find another venue. Nevertheless, Kimmel has (viola!) returned after all, because I suppose the network figures it still hasn’t lost enough money — or influence.

Prove Him wrong

Young Charlie Kirk paid the ultimate price for standing against the obvious evil he saw in plain sight. And in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead, many more, unfortunately, may join him.

My relative closed out his email challenging those of us who didn't agree with him to respond à la Charlie: “Prove me wrong,” he wrote.

I closed my email response to him in a way I think the humble Charlie Kirk might have done: “Jesus said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me'” (John 14:6).

“Prove Him wrong.”

Media meltdown as 'Kill Tony' breakout star Kam Patterson infiltrates liberal stronghold

One anti-woke comedian whose life was changed by Monday nights is about to try weekends on for size.

Kam Patterson, known mostly for his appearances on the viral comedy podcast "Kill Tony," has already landed roles in Kevin Hart's upcoming Netflix comedy "72 Hours" as well as the David Spade/Theo Von buddy pic "Busboys."

Turns out he'll also be trying his hand at another, more established, weekly variety show.

'Seeing people try to attack a black kid because he said he "voted for Trump" is absurd.'

"Monday nights changed my life, let's see how I do on Saturdays," Patterson wrote on Instagram, tagging his new employers, NBC.

Last week, "Saturday Night Live" revealed Patterson would be joining the cast for the 51st season, alongside four other rookies.

"Welcome to the cast!" the company wrote. Others in the media were not so sanguine about the Orlando native's new job.

Pajiba's Dustin Rowe attributed the hiring to SNL head Lorne Michaels' desire to tap into the "alt-right comedy space."

"He still uses 'gay' as a pejorative in the way it was tossed around in the ’80s," sniffed Rowe, while also noting that Patterson voted for President Trump.

Meanwhile, NPR's only note about Patterson's stand-up career was his defense of friend Tony Hinchcliffe, who dared to make a joke about Puerto Rico at an October 2024 Trump rally.

Syracuse.com took umbrage with Patterson's attacks on upstate New York, noting that the Orlando native had likened the food in Rochester, New York, to "pig slop" during one "Kill Tony" appearance, prompting Hinchcliffe to add that people in upstate New York settle down with "the first person that said they like you" before getting "stuck there, forever in eternal hell, while literally the rest of America laughs at you."

BlazeTV's Dave Landau offered a different take, however.

"Kam is a genuinely kind person and comedian that crowds really love," the comedian said. "I think 'SNL' is making the right choice with Kam because it’s about being funny, and comedy should never be about filling a quota or an agenda."

Landau continued, saying that Patterson has already won, despite what critics are saying.

"Seeing people try to attack a black kid because he said he 'voted for Trump' is absurd. I hope he hits superstardom."

On top of his many, many appearances on "Kill Tony" as an act, Patterson has also appeared on the panel at least four times ("Kill Tony" #633, #664, #700, and #710), despite outlet Pajiba claiming the reason he "hasn’t sat on a panel is because he’d overshadow everyone else."

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'The Naked Gun' creator David Zucker bashes 'frightened' Hollywood elites

Cracked rearview

Blocked calls

'Painful' viewing

Joe Rogan, Christian? The podcaster opens up about his ongoing exploration of faith

Church going

No 'fairy tale'

Trust the science

Did American comedians SELL OUT for Saudi cash? The Riyadh hypocrisy exposed

Want more from Glenn Beck?

America is now playing by Corkins’ rules — unless we stop it

What if Johnny Carson turned MLK’s murder into a punch line?

No buts about it

Prove Him wrong

‘I Took a Principled Stand’: Shane Gillis Rejects Major Saudi Payday As Other Comedians Cash In

Media meltdown as 'Kill Tony' breakout star Kam Patterson infiltrates liberal stronghold

Why Gavin Newsom’s Bible quotations should alarm Christians — before it’s too late

Diesel under attack: EPA targets engines that power America

Leftist heresy: This Bible pitch sounds holy — until you spot the socialist trick

Glenn Beck corners Cracker Barrel CEO: Did DEI influence the rebrand? — Her surprising answer

Cracked rearview

Blocked calls

'Painful' viewing

Church going

No 'fairy tale'

Trust the science

Want more from Glenn Beck?

No buts about it

Prove Him wrong

We’ll keep you informed with top stories for conservatives who want to become informed decision makers.