+
upworthy
Joy

10 things that made us smile this week

From a Kevin Bacon-Kyra Sedgwick duet to a hilarious crash course in sibling rivalry to an unassuming, crowd-pleasing kid named George, this week's list is full of joy and delight.

kevin bacon, kyra sedgwick, kids

A dad-daughter day out, a Kevin Bacon-Kyra Sedgwick duet, a crowd-pleaser named George and more.

Here at Upworthy, we have a handful of famous folks who regularly make our headlines for their consistent, continued awesomeness. The legendary Dick Van Dyke is one of them. The legend-in-his-own-right Kevin Bacon is another.

Both of these gentlemen are featured in this week's roundup of joy, and we couldn't be giddier about it. Is it possible to see Dick Van Dyke's bright-eyed grin and not smile? Doubtful. Could someone watch Kevin Bacon sing with Kyra Sedgwick and a screaming goat and not be tickled? Unlikely.

This week's list has plenty of additional delights as well, from a hilarious crash course in sibling rivalry to an unexpectedly stunning piano performance to an unassuming, crowd-pleasing kid named George and more. So many opportunities to smile! Enjoy!


1. Delighted crowd cheers louder and louder for a kid named George at his first hockey game

Aw, yay for George. So fun to see some hive mentality put to positive use. George has a core memory being formed right there.

2. Woman who was an only child asked what it's like to have siblings, and her friends launched an immediate crash course

@lonnieiiv

Don’t ask, just bring it

Welp, she definitely learned. Too real and too hilarious. Read the full story here.

3. Blind, neurodiverse 13-year-old blows everyone away playing a challenging Chopin piece on the piano

Beautiful. Even professional pianist Lang Lang was amazed at how she played the deceptively difficult Nocturne in B minor. Read more about Lucy and her extraordinary abilities here.

4. Dad surprises his daughter with a day out, just the two of them, and it's so joyful

Her disgust with fishing turned to sheer delight real fast. A day she'll never forget for sure. (And Dad, too.)

5. A kid wrote to Costco's CEO to ask for help with a school fundraiser. He personally responded.

Costco, Craig Jelinek

Costco CEO Craig Jelinek responded to a kid who asked for help with a school fundraiser.

Images courtesy Lesley Cerwin

We already knew Costco was awesome, and CEO Craig Jelinek just pushed that awesomeness over the top with a literally humongous donation. Read the heartwarming story here.

6. 97-year-old Dick Van Dyke brought a judge on 'The Masked Singer' to tears with his surprise reveal

Nobody expected it to be him behind the gnome costume. What a legend. Read the full story and see his performance here.

7. Shelter kitten pushes its sibling out of the way when a potential adopter stops by

Cutest sibling rivalry ever. Definitely gotta take them both. Read the full story here.

8. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick sing a duet of Miley Cyrus' 'Flowers' and they could not be cuter

Total #couplegoals. The screaming goat is the icing on the cake. Read about how their 35-year marriage has survived Hollywood and how they often sing with real goats here.

9. Speaking of goats, you may not think you need to see goats eating tomatoes, but really you do

New goal in life: Enjoy anything as much as these goats enjoy downing whole tomatoes.

10. May we all dance with the self-assurance—and the support—that this kiddo has

Let's allow ourselves to dance without embarrassment or apology like this little man and also remember how much it means to be someone's backup dancer. Just goodness upon goodness.

Hope that brought some smiles to your face! Come back next week for more. And if you'd like to have these posts delivered to your inbox each week, you can subscribe to our free newsletter, The Upworthiest, here.

True

After over a thousand years of peaceful relations, European semi-superpowers Sweden and Switzerland may finally address a lingering issue between the two nations. But the problem isn’t either country’s fault. The point is that the rest of the world can’t tell them apart. They simply don’t know their kroppkakor (Swedish potato dumpling) from their birchermüesli (a Swiss breakfast dish).

This confusion on the European continent has played out in countless ways.

Swedish people who move to the United States often complain of being introduced as Swiss. The New York Stock Exchange has fallen victim to the confusion, and a French hockey team once greeted their Swiss opponents, SC Bern, by playing the Swedish National Anthem and raising the Swedish flag.

Skämtar du med mig? (“Are you kidding me?” in Swedish)

Keep ReadingShow less
Photo by insung yoon on Unsplash

The MC Hammer dance though.

Father and daughter dances are a traditional staple of weddings. They tend to range somewhere between tearfully sweet and hilariously cringey. But sometimes, as was the case of Brittany Revell and her dad Kelly, they can be so freakin’ cool that millions of people become captivated.

Brittany and Kelly’s video, which amassed, I kid you not, more than 40 million views on TikTok, shows the pair grooving in sneakers (Brittany’s were white because, hello, wedding dress) to their “dance through the decades.”

It all began with Young MC’s “Bust a Move,” to give you a clear picture. And bust a move, they did.

Though the duo did a handful of iconic moves—the tootsie roll, the MC Hammer dance, the Carlton, just to name a few—“the dougie,” made famous by Cali Swag District, was the obvious fan favorite.
Keep ReadingShow less

Fowl Language by Brian Gordon


Brian Gordon is a cartoonist. He's also a dad, which means he's got plenty of inspiration for the parenting comics he creates for his website, Fowl Language (not all of which actually feature profanity).

He covers many topics, but it's his hilarious parenting comics that are resonating with parents everywhere.

"My comics are largely autobiographical," Gordon tells me. "I've got two kids who are 4 and 7, and often, what I'm writing happened as recently as that very same day."

Keep ReadingShow less
Identity

75-year-old ‘hip-hop granny’ impresses and inspires with her dance moves

Ms. Stephanie didn’t even start formal dance lessons until she was almost 30.

Ms. Stephanie bringing it at her hip-hop class.

Stephanie Walsh isn't your average hip-hop dancer. At 75, "Ms. Stephanie" is still able to hold her own on the dance floor, popping and locking with people a third her age, and she loves it.

When you see her dance—and her enviable muscle tone—you might think she'd been a trained dancer all her life. But she actually didn't take any formal dance lessons until she was almost 30.

Walsh told Growing Bolder that she had wanted her daughter to dance when she was little, so she got her ballet lessons, which the daughter hated. Realizing that dancing was her dream and not her daughter's, Walsh took her kiddo out of ballet and started classes herself right away.

She had always loved to dance and developing her skills only led to more and more dancing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

A teacher asked a great question about superintendent pay. Then, all hell broke loose.

Her earnest question about inequality in our education system was met with a grotesque abuse of power.


Why should a superintendent get a raise while teachers in the same district struggling to make ends meet see their paychecks flatline — year after year after year?

Teacher Deyshia Hargrave begged the question. Minutes later, she was handcuffed and placed in the backseat of a cop car.

The scene was captured below by YouTube user Chris Rosa, who attended a board meeting for Vermilion Parish Schools in Louisiana.

You can watch Hargrave begin speaking about 33 seconds in. The situation starts becoming contentious around 6:35 minutes. Hargrave is arrested at 8:35, and then walked outside in handcuffs and placed in the back of police vehicle.


Keep ReadingShow less



Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody has been covered dozens of different ways. But you've never seen it performed like this.

As one of the most iconic songs in rock music, Bohemian Rhapsody is recognizable no matter how it's done. As children, my brother and I used to belt out Galileos and Figaros in the backseat of our parents' Volkswagon whenever the song came on (yes, just like in Wayne's World). While other kids learned about Beelzebub in Sunday School, I learned about him from Queen's perfect harmonies. If there were an anthem from my classic rock-filled childhood, it would be Bohemian Rhapsody.

It's one of those songs that is hard to cover well, though it hasn't stopped people from trying. I've enjoyed some renditions, but nothing has caught my attention or delight more than this kapa haka version from New Zealand.

Keep ReadingShow less
via TheEllenShow / YouTube

Mark Wahlberg on "The Ellen Show."

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently attended a daddy-daughter dance with his 10-year-old, Grace. Sadly, Grace had no interest in seeing her father strutting his stuff on the dance floor.

"I didn't get one dance," Wahlberg told Ellen DeGeneres. "And I told her we were going to do the whole big circle and I was going to go off. And she said, 'Dad, if you embarrass me, I will never talk to you again.' But what she did do is she hung out with me."

No matter who your dad is, especially if you're a 10-year-old-girl, you have zero desire to see him dance in front of your friends.

But the parents at the dance probably would have had a blast seeing Wahlberg bust out some of his old-school '90s Marky Mark moves.

However, Wahlberg couldn't help but leave his mark on the music being played at the dance.

Keep ReadingShow less