TERFs are astroturfing Pedro Pascal right now

Welcome to Garbage Weekend. It’s the internet garbage you know and love, but in a format that’s easier to read while you hide from the vengeful and angry sun that hangs above us.

Hey there folks, we are all real tuckered after the last month of live shows in New York. So today’s weekend edition is both a little smaller than usual and also we’re making it free for all our readers. If you like this sort of thing, though, definitely think about throwing us $5 a month or $45 a year for a paid subscription! It helps us keep supplying you with wonderful online garbage every week. You can hit the green button below to find out more.

AMERICA, THE FINAL SEASON

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was interrupted by a protester at an event this week. A man in the crowd shouted, “You bow down to a fucking pedophile! You’re a fucking pedophile!” We’re now in a very interesting ticking clock situation. Exactly how long will it take Republicans to turn on President Donald Trump if the Epstein scandal isn’t completely squashed? Excited to find out exactly how many times you can call a Republican politician a pedophile before they give up on the MAGA movement.

This X post from Homeland Security is exactly 14 words and the only capital letters in it are H’s. The painting in the post has also historically been used to promote Manifest Destiny. These are all probably coincidences.

The Trump administration wants you to know South Park is so irrelevant they don’t have to even comment on it. Though they, of course, did. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone set up a website called HeTrumpedUs.com where you can view the fact PSA they made about Trump for this week’s episode. Warning: It does feature a completely naked Trump talking to his own micropenis. It’s good to have South Park back.

Great news for weird losers, you can now Venmo money to the government to pay off the federal debt. We tried to imagine the type of person who would do this and got so sad we had to get up from our computers and take a lap.

OUR ROBOT OVERLORDS

Lebron James’ legal team is going after Instagram accounts posting AI-generated videos of him giving birth (lol). Here’s a link to an X post with the video they’re trying to get taken down. Is the proliferation of AI-generated content of celebrities a huge problem? Yes, definitely. But this is also just a little funny.

Sam Altman went on Theo Von’s podcast. As WIRED’s Kylie Robison wrote on X, “Sam Altman on Theo Von is indescribable, like the first contact between two alien species from entirely different parts of the universe.”

Vogue ran an AI-generated model in a recent issue. It was an advertisement for Guess created by AI firm Seraphinne Vallora. Obviously Vogue is getting a lot of heat online for featuring AI-generated models and rightfully so. But this has also been a long time coming. “Virtual influencer” and “virtual model” companies have spent years trying to convince publications that their totally washed photoshops are as good as real models. One can only hope that the backlash against this is so big it takes the whole industry with it.

FANDOMS

Itch.io will no longer sell adult or NSFW games. It follows a similar move from Steam. The pressure here is coming from payment processors, which are cracking down on NSFW gaming the same way they went after adult content platforms like OnlyFans a few years ago.

There’s a fake AI-generated Tyler, The Creator song floating around right now. The song is going very viral because it’s so awful. But could it also be the song of the summer???

STREAMERS

Exactly how bad are superhero movies doing? Well, as journalist Darren Mooney laid out on X recently, things look really, really bad. Basically, Superman (which is great btw) is on track to be the highest-grossing superhero movie of 2025. It just crossed the $400 million mark. Well, the highest-grossing superhero movie of 2024 was Deadpool & Wolverine, which made $1.3 billion.

The View is going on hiatus. The timing of the accidental announcement, which host Joy Behar revealed this week, is more than a little creepy, seeing as how the Trump administration is currently attacking it.

The Skydance/Paramount merger was approved by the FCC. (The View is owned by ABC.) Part of the FCC’s ruling noted that Skydance does not have any DEI programs in place.

DRAMA

TERFs are astroturfing a Pedro Pascal hate campaign right now. They’re even sharing AI-generated videos on X to make Pascal look more aggressive and predatory. X users are speculating that a lot of Verified TERFs are attacking Pascal because JK Rowling has been stewing over him for months after he called her a “heinous loser” lmao.

The VShojo drama continues. The company’s CEO, Justin “Gunrun” Ignacio, posted a message on X this week announcing he was dissolving the company. Which now nullifies the NDAs VShojo was apparently making its talent sign. Former VShojo member Veibae wrote on X all about the company’s allegedly shady practices.

AROUND THE WORLD

4chan (and a bunch of other sites) are blocking UK users. This is happening because of the UK’s Online Safety Act, which is requiring age verification on site’s that feature adult content. Photo or ID scanning will be required to view pornographic websites. As we have said a few times, blocking children from viewing certain kinds of internet content sounds great in theory. The only problem is you have to figure out how to prove someone is or isn’t a child. So have fun wondering what porn sites are going to do with a scan of your face, Brits!

French President Emmanuel Macron is suing far-right influencer Candace Owens. Owens has continually claimed that Macron’s wife Brigitte is trans and is now saying she won’t back down after the Macrons have sued her for defamation.

Both Meta and Google are overhauling their advertising policies in the EU starting in October. Both companies are banning ads promoting political or social issues. The European Union’s new Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation goes into effect this fall and basically forces online platforms to label who paid for political ads. Seems like Meta and Google crunched the numbers and figured it wasn’t worth have any political ads at all in the EU if shadowy institutions weren’t allowed to secretly use them anymore.

SOME FUN STUFF

• An incredible backflip video (X post)

• Da Vinki

• “Ghislaine Maxwell Can’t Help But Notice Interview Room Covered In Plastic Sheeting”

• The coolest guy in the parking lot

• A magical encounter

• Mouse Dropout

• An important fashion post

• A good take on Jubilee (X post)

P.S. here’s Honda lead engineer Shotaro Odate

***Any typos in this email are purpose actually, but with more of carefree weekend vibe***