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Celebrity

Brendan Fraser cements his comeback with an emotional Oscar win for best actor

"So this is what the multiverse looks like."

Brendan Fraser; Oscars; Academy Awards; best actor; The Whale

Brendan Fraser emotionally cements his comeback.

Brendan Fraser has become everyone's favorite comeback story after his long break from Hollywood, which he attributed to being blacklisted after his 2018 interview with GQ. In the interview, he revealed that he was sexually assaulted by the former president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, Philip Berk, though Berk denies the claims.

Fraser also experienced a lot of personal setbacks during his time away from Hollywood, including losing his mother, getting divorced and living with depression. But since the release of his recent hit, "The Whale," in which he plays a morbidly obese, gay father attempting to reconnect with his teenage daughter, it seems the awards keep coming and people can't get enough. Fraser's most recent win is the coveted Oscar for Best Actor, his first nomination with the Academy, and his speech was full of emotion and gratitude.


After thanking the Academy for the award, Fraser hopped right into pulling out all of the nautical stops.

“I’m grateful to Darren for throwing me a creative lifeline and hauling me aboard the good ship 'The Whale,'"Fraser said. “It was written by Samuel D. Hunter, who is our lighthouse.”

Fraser told NBC that had this role come earlier in his career, he wouldn't have had the life experience or heartache to play the character authentically. While some people took issue with him portraying a 600-pound man by wearing a fat suit in "The Whale," he continues to receive accolades for his acting in the film as evidenced by the multiple awards he has won this season.

The Oscar winner has been acting for 30 years, and while this role is more serious with a lot of depth, Fraser may be better known for his corky roles. Most people instantly recognize his big blue eyes from "George of the Jungle," "Encino Man" or "The Mummy." By all accounts, he was the shirtless poster child of the 90s, though he did start taking on more serious roles like "Crash" and "Gods and Monsters." But the film that won him an Oscar and seemed to solidify not only his comeback but his range as an actor is "The Whale."

While he kept the speech focused on the theme, his emotional reaction was echoed on the faces of others in the audience. It's clear he has a lot of cheerleaders, both in Hollywood and out.

Catch his entire acceptance speech below:

@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

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Delivering packages AND safety.

Amazon delivery drivers don’t have the easiest job in the world. Sitting through traffic, working in extreme temperatures, hauling boxes … not exactly a fun time. So when a driver goes out of their way to be extra considerate—people notice.

One delivery driver has gone viral for the way she delivered a little bit of safety education, along with some lighthearted advice. The TikTok video of the encounter, which now has more than 4 million views, was shared by Jessica Huseman, who had only recently moved into her new house.

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via YouTube

These days, we could all use something to smile about, and few things do a better job at it than watching actor Christopher Walken dance.

A few years back, some genius at HuffPo Entertainment put together a clip featuring Walken dancing in 50 of his films, and it was taken down. But it re-emerged in 2014 and the world has been a better place for it.

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Joy

A major UCLA study says that at least 65 species of animals laugh

If you've never seen a fox giggle, you're in for a treat.

Foxes giggle like children on helium.

Laughter is one of the most natural impulses in humans. Most babies start to laugh out loud at around 3 to 4 months, far earlier than they are able to speak or walk. Expressing enjoyment or delight comes naturally to us, but we're not the only creatures who communicate with giggles.

Researchers at UCLA have identified 65 species of animals who make "play vocalizations," or what we would consider laughter. Some of those vocalizations were already well documented—we've known for a while that apes and rats laugh—but others may come as a surprise. Along with a long list of primate species, domestic cows and dogs, foxes, seals, mongooses and three bird species are prone to laughter as well. (Many bird species can mimic human laughter, but that's not the same as making their own play vocalizations.)

Primatologist and UCLA anthropology graduate student Sasha Winkler and UCLA professor of communication Greg Bryant shared their findings in an article in the journal Bioacoustics.

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Joy

People are sharing the weirdest, most unforgettable art they've found in thrift stores

As the old saying goes, one person's trash is another one's treasure.

A few of the rare finds at Thrift Store Art's Instagram page

As the old saying goes, one person's trash is another one's treasure.

Even though people can easily buy used items on eBay, the thrift store business thrives in America, bringing in an estimated $10 billion annually. At a time when the economy is shaky, thrift stores are a recession-proof business. When times are tough, people love to find a deal, and there's never any end to the fashionistas who roam thrift stores looking for a rare find.

San Francisco surfer and self-proclaimed thrift store junkie Bryan Dickerson has turned his passion for rare treasures into an Instagram page with over 246,000 followers. Thrift Store Art showcases the most bizarre things that thrifters find in stores and leans heavily into strange-looking works of art and clothing with questionable sayings. His crowds of followers send him countless strange finds every day, and he rewards them by calling them rude names in the comments.

But for Dickerson, it's all in fun.

He told Bored Panda that the idea of Thrift Store Art is “not to bash art but to expand what can be considered as art—clothing, album art, book graphics, vacation souvenirs.” Dickerson's foray into thrift store content was a much-needed break from his job as the editor of a news website.

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Pop Culture

Guy shares the reason viral gym videos need to end, and it's so spot on

"If you can’t respect other people in a shared space, you don’t belong filming at all.”

“This sense of entitlement has gotten out of hand."

Gyms are communal spaces where people can come to improve their health, fitness and/or overall well-being.

However, it’s no secret that many gyms have also become a production studio of sorts where influencers can set up a tripod to demonstrate the most cutting-edge squatting technique or where the average Joe can take that obligatory gym selfie to prove that the workout did, in fact, happen.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of these activities. However, they have sparked a new kind of behavior in gymgoers where they feign extreme frustration if folks walk from one machine to the next or grab a piece of equipment and, heaven forbid, enter the frame.

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