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There's a new Grinch among us this holiday season -- it's Neil deGrasse Tyson, whose party-pooping amounts to debunking the existence of Santa Claus ... with cold, hard physics.

The famed astrophysicist went on a tear in the days leading up to Christmas this year, tweeting out fact after fact after fact ... all of which were intended to clear up the reality -- namely, that there's no way in hell Old Saint Nick could deliver presents on Christmas Eve.

First, NDT tackled the North Pole and what every little kid imagines his workshop/village might look like based on storybooks. According to Neil, that's all rubbish ... due to basic geography.

He writes, "Since the Northern Arctic is just ocean, Santa’s North Pole workshop has only ever existed on a floating sheet of ice. Images that portray Santa’s workshop with pine trees and snow-capped hills on the horizon are geographically underinformed."

Here's another not-so-fun fact for all the boy and girls who were waiting on Papa Noel this year -- the guy apparently wouldn't be able to deliver gifts to all of them in one night, because he'd be going so damn fast ... he'd literally burn up and die. Reindeer, too.

As Neil delicately puts it, "For Santa to deliver gifts to all world's Christians in one night requires hypersonic speeds through Earth’s lower atmosphere, vaporizing his reindeer & sleigh. Just sayin’.

And, one more for the all-inclusive crowd ... which has to do with gender, and the assumed sexes of Santa's flying motors. It would seem that whoever came up with the Christmas mythology way back when didn't take into account the differences between male and female reindeer.

Neil explains, "Santa doesn’t know Zoology:  Both male & female Reindeer grow antlers. But all male Reindeer lose their antlers in the late fall, well-before Christmas." He adds, "So Santa’s reindeer, which all sport antlers, are therefore all female, which means Rudolf has been misgendered."

As you might imagine, his harsh read on the holiday got a ton of pushback online ... with folks telling him to kick rocks and that he deserved a lump of coal for keeping it too real.

Young Jock or Yung Joc? Well, it depends on who's asking -- some "Wheel of Fortune" fans are calling out the show out for misspelling the rapper's name during an episode ... but Joc says that's probably not the case.

Folks believe contestant Kennise Miller might have been cheated out of $39k during Monday night's bonus round when she failed to solve the puzzle under the "person" category.

Turns out the answer was "young jock", but some fans say otherwise.

Instead, they believe it was a misspelling of rapper Yung Joc's name. Well, we caught up with the "It's Goin' Down" rapper who didn't really think the answer was a mistake but was simply intended to be the description of a young athlete.

Joc tells us he is a longtime fan of 'Wheel' -- he says he grew up watching with his mom and grandma .... "So, I'm one of the best people to play "Wheel of Fortune," he says.

Kurt Warner was looking like he was ready to go into orbit during the Cleveland Browns vs. Las Vegas Raiders game on Monday ... and naturally, Twitter couldn't get enough of it.

The Hall of Fame QB was looking extra warm in the booth for NFL Network -- rocking a metallic silver puffer coat while calling the game ... and as soon as he showed up on TV, viewers flocked to social media to get their jokes off.

"Kurt Warner looks like he’s about to land on the moon," one user wrote ... while another compared him to "a baked potato wrapped in tinfoil."

"Kurt Warner paying homage to Missy Elliott," another Twitter user said Monday. "I respect it."

There's more -- "Kurt Warner dressed like Puff Daddy lol"

NFLN even got in on the fun ... comparing their guy to a Hershey's Kiss.

Warner addressed the roasting on social media ... saying, "We have to get you all a better game in 2nd half. WAY TOO MUCH TALK ABOUT MY JACKET!!! Haha… #ThanksForWatching."

As for the game ... it's a low-scoring battle. But everyone saw that one coming, especially with Baker Mayfield and a ton of Browns players out with COVID-19.

Elon Musk says he's ponying up to Uncle Sam and then some -- paying more than $11 billion in taxes ... which he likely hopes will get some political bigwigs off his back for a while.

Tesla's CEO put his cards on the table this weekend, tweeting ... "For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year." He doesn't specify where the tax money will be pulled from -- whether it's his personal cash or Tesla -- but it's a large chunk of change, nonetheless.

Of course, EM's been getting dogged by Senator Elizabeth Warren -- among other elected officials -- for not paying his fair share in taxes, and coasting on profits from the huge pile of stock and other assets he holds onto without really ever cashing out.

While Elon's honesty might seem pretty forthright and righteous ... the truth is, he was expected to pay about this much regardless -- especially since he's got A LOT of stock options that are set to expire in August, which was projected to produce a tax bill of at least $15 bil.

Of course, Congress could still come down heavy on billionaires under Biden's agenda ... so it's also possible Elon wants it known he's paying what he considers his fair share already.

Whether he did it to get ahead of the curve or not, Elon's lump sum of $11 billion-plus will go down as one of the highest tax payments in U.S. history, if not the largest. That's counts for something, we suppose.

In any case, you gotta imagine Elon's tweet was mostly for the eyes of Sen. Warren, in hopes she gets off his back about not paying taxes -- 'cause he's definitely doing that this year.

However, if you ask Warren, she likely would say she wants big taxes paid by billionaires to become a regular thing ... and come under the rules of the law.

Jay-Z may be a rap icon, but he doesn't carry as much weight with today's average hip-hop head like he used to, especially compared to someone like Future -- so says ... well, Future.

Mr. Hendrix himself made the bold statement this weekend -- going on a little tweet spree to declare he's not only bigger than Jigga in the streets but that he'll run up a B (billion) perhaps even faster and easier than Jay did. The latter hit the mark (per Forbes) in 2019.

In addition to his Jay-Z tweet, Future had other things to say, including ... "Everything I do legendary or it want get done. Tuh," as well as ... "I’m the only one can get YE to pull up whenever wherever..tuh." And let's not forget ... "100M’s not the goal anymore."

Sounds like Future was on one for whatever reason, and wanted to puff his chest a bit. Still, that original claim of his -- that he's "bigger" than Jay -- is getting A LOT of pushback ... and at the same time, some agreement as well.

Of course, lots of users responded ... giving Future the virtual side-eye and even laughing him off. Even at Jay's billionaire status -- many say Future will never have the pull (not to mention the music bona fides) that Shawn Carter has ... and to compare is ludicrous.

One person pointed out Jay's accolades (there are many) ... while openly wondering why it's become fashionable for modern-day rappers to size themselves up against living legends.

And yet ... there's a small handful of folks who actually seem to agree with Future, saying ... yeah, the guy IS actually bigger than Jay (in the streets), suggesting HOV simply doesn't have the street cred/influence on the culture from the ground floor ... like he once did.

Interesting take ... and is obviously up for debate. Sounds like that argument boils down to relevance, and to whom it applies. We can acknowledge Future's music does tend to be popular (among the youth) today and generally performs better on the charts than recent Jay-Z releases.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's response to Elon Musk is pretty simple -- amounting to the same thing she's been saying all along ... that the guy's gotta pony up.

We got SEW on Capitol Hill and asked if she thought the Tesla chief would start paying his fair share in taxes after the scolding she gave him online over what she perceives as him taking advantage of loopholes ... and avoiding the IRS as a result.

Liz has a list of people she's speaking on behalf of here in response to their little back-and-forth -- mentioning everyday Americans from waitresses to school teachers and everyone else in between.

In the name of those folks -- whom the senator says pay more in taxes than Musk -- she tells us there's a simple solution to get her to stop ragging on him ... and it involves the guy opening up his wallet.

There's also a call to action on Congress, it seems, because it doesn't seem like EM's gonna do all this out of the goodness of his heart -- the tax code's gotta change, and she totally advocates for that (again) here.

Jennifer Lopez might be hot stuff -- but she ain't finer than the great Salma Hayek ... at least that's what Twitter seems to have decided.

Another poll on the bird app has gone viral ... this time with the question being -- who's the baddest out of these 2 ladies??? Those gals being ... J Lo and SH, of course. In fairness, they didn't choose the most flattering shot of Jen here, but still ... the people have spoken.

It appears Salma is the clear victor in the looks department -- with one user responding, "Salma past, present, in her prime, now & twice on Sundays." Another wrote, "Don't ever disrespect Salma and her elite horchata buckets again." Uhhh ... okay.

No doubt, both women are beautiful -- but based on how people are responding to the very unofficial poll ... the feeling is -- Salma may, perhaps, be underrated. Crazy, we know, but if you consider the fanfare and hype one gets over the other ... that sorta makes sense.

Frankly, J Lo is talked about and idolized waaaaay more than Salma is -- but it could be because she's a lot more public with her life ... which obviously includes her SOs, who are a thousand times more famous than Salma's husband, Francois-Henri Pinault.

He's a billionaire and all, but nobody really knows who the guy is. Point being, Salma is very low-key and private compared to J Lo -- which possibly plays into how folks perceive them.

But, on a basic hotness level, it would seem people hold Salma in higher regard ... and there's even visual proof some are offering up to make their point. Salma has shown a lot of skin on camera, and that well of content is helping fans firm up their argument.

Jen, on the other hand, doesn't necessarily flaunt her stuff on the big screen all that much -- but she isn't shy about showing off her body either.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO and one of the founders of Twitter, is expected to step down from his role ... causing the company's stock to make a massive jump.

A report from CNBC says Dorsey -- who is both the CEO of Twitter and Square -- is expected to step down from his executive role with Twitter as early as Monday. After the news, the stock jumped 11%.

It was just last year when Elliott Management -- the Twitter stakeholder -- had wanted Dorsey to step down, under the belief it was hard for him to effectively run both Twitter and Square at the same time. Both had come to an agreement back then to keep Jack on, but clearly, they've now decided differently.

Twitter was founded in 2006 by Dorsey, Biz Stone, Noah Glass and Ev Williams. Dorsey first served as CEO until 2008 and then took back over in 2015. He founded Square -- a digital payment company -- in 2009 and will almost certainly keep his role there.

Of course, over the years, Dorsey made his fair share of celeb friends ... including Jay-Z. The two were spotted together in the Hamptons back in August.

Jack has also been vocal in the career of Ye as well, even suggesting how he should roll out his "DONDA" album.

The Twitter posse is at it again ... this time trying to cancel Seth Rogen for daring to call out a YouTuber who called Seth's stomping ground a "crime riddled 3rd world s***hole of a city."

Seth saw a post from Casey Neistat, who groused that his car had been burglarized and then added some choice comments about the City of Angels. He said his 7-year-old daughter's birthday party decorations were taken and the burglar left bloody handprints on the car.

Rogan responded, "Dude, I've lived here for over 20 years. You're nuts haha. It's lovely here. Don't leave anything valuable in it. It's called living in a big city."

Neistat fired back, saying he felt violated and wanted to know if he's allowed to be mad. Seth's response -- "You can be mad but I guess I don't personally view my car as an extension of myself and I've never really felt violated any of the 15 or so times my car was broken into," adding, "Once a guy accidentally left a cool knife in my car so if it keeps happening you might get a little treat."

That sent some cancelers into orbit, slamming Seth for acting "privileged." True, not everyone can blow off a car burglary, but Seth was responding to someone who is also a multimillionaire.

Truth be told ... L.A. is getting hammered by crime, including a massive number of burglaries -- 10,000+ in 2021, with car burglaries up 10%.

A movie about Serena and Venus Williams -- focusing on their dad teaching 'em tennis -- is, apparently, getting blasted as sexist ... even though they're literally the ones behind it.

Count this as the biggest bad hot take of the week ... and Twitter mostly agrees -- this person seems to be woefully misinformed on the making of "King Richard" -- not to mention the real-life history of Serena and Venus in general -- which stars Will Smith as their father in the titular role, and sees a young Serena and Venus turning into sports prodigies.

A woman named Dr. Jessica Taylor laid into the fact that this flick was more about their pops than them, per se, which she found insulting for some reason ... and to which she expressed outrage, almost on their behalf.

She writes, "Did they seriously make a film called ‘King Richard’ about the success of Serena and Venus Williams - but it’s about their dad, Richard?" What Dr. Taylor fails to realize, it seems, is that Venus and Serena are executive producers of the film.

So the "they" she's referring to here is actually VW and SW ... and the internet let her know about it, with one person responding -- "Venus and Serena wanted it that way. They are literally the executive producers of the movie. Please sit down somewhere"

Unclear if this message got through to the good doctor, because she followed up with yet another equally tone-deaf remark ... saying, "I get this has annoyed people but I genuinely didn’t expect a film about two of the most powerful, successful and amazing black female athletes to be named after a man, or centre a man."

She adds, "I would have loved this film to be all about them, and not a man. That’s it really." The implication, in our eyes, is that there's sexism afoot with the way it's presented.

Of course, what Dr. Taylor, again, does not seem to understand ... Serena and Venus are obviously onboard with this approach to the film, as it's one they wanted to tell and even signed on to shepherd. They've spoken about this in interviews, too, saying they wanted to highlight the role their father played in their lives -- and the gratitude they feel for his hard work.

Funny enough, there are other film critics who are coming to the table with the same POV as this Twitter user -- finding fault in the fact that Will gets most of the shine, and not the girls.

Bernie Sanders reiterated his demand for the top 1% to pay more taxes -- and Elon Musk slammed him ... saying the Senator may as well be 6 feet under as far as he's concerned.

The saucy exchange went down between Saturday and Sunday -- with Senator Sanders tweeting something he usually does ... saying, "We must demand that the extremely wealthy pay their fair share. Period." Nothing crazy there -- typical Bernie rhetoric.

What's wild is what EM tweeted in response, writing ... "I keep forgetting that you’re still alive." Oof -- definitely a harsh dig ... both at BS's age, it seems, and perhaps his gradual retreat from the spotlight since running for President in 2020.

There's more, though ... Elon added, "Want me to sell more stock, Bernie? Just say the word …" That's interesting ... he appears to be touching on what he alluded to (and executed on) last week.

You'll recall -- the Tesla chief held a Twitter poll, asking followers of his if he should sell 10% of his company holdings so he could be taxed appropriately ... and in the end, the internet said yes. While it was unclear if Elon would follow through, he eventually did ... well, sorta.

Elon siphoned off about $5 billion worth of Tesla stock -- and because of that, he'll be taxed on the capital gains from that dough ... so a fair amount, no doubt. It doesn't seem to be anywhere near the full 10% he promised though ... so more stock sales may be forthcoming.

It's a weird tactic he's undertaking -- embracing calls/dares from the public (including politicians, apparently) to subject himself to being taxed more than he normally would.

Elon Musk is about to lose a big chunk of his fortune, assuming he follows through on what he said he'd do ... namely, sell off a ton of stock based on nothing but public consensus.

The Tesla chief entertained a wild concept over the weekend ... the notion that he'd literally unload a crap ton of his company shares -- 10% of it, no less -- if Twitter users deemed it necessary for him to do so ... and then posting a 24-hour poll to that end.

He wrote, "Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?" EM added ... "I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes."

Welp, the people have spoken ... and as it turns out, they're down for Elon to lower his net worth some -- with nearly 58% of the 3.5 million who voted deciding yes ... he oughta do it.

Elon doesn't appear to have responded to the results just yet ... but if he does, in fact, stay true to his word -- he stands to have at least $25 billion taxed, as that's how much 10% of his portfolio would be as it relates to Tesla stock. Word is ... he's got around 193 million shares, which makes up about $250 billion of his estimated $318 billion total wealth.

The funny part ... even if he unloaded 10% just like that -- and had a significant amount taxed -- he'd still be richer than Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is idling at around $200 bil. So, $25B is almost like chump change to Mr. Musk!

Part of the reason Elon appears to have even considered doing this -- assuming he's serious, that is -- is because there's a lot of chatter, especially on Capitol Hill, about enforcing a wealth tax on the uber-rich ... which would tax their sitting wealth as opposed to their income.  Elon notes in explicit terms ... he does not receive a salary or bonuses of any kind.

Alec Baldwin is seemingly declaring his innocence in the accident that killed Halyna Hutchins by pointing out he was told it was a "cold" gun ... when it was actually loaded with a live round.

Baldwin retweeted an article Wednesday night about the most recent search warrant filed in the death investigation. The NYT story -- headlined, "Gun Handed to Alec Baldwin Was Not Thoroughly Checked" -- focused on the documents TMZ first told you about, which highlight several safety failures.

In the affidavit filed Wednesday, Assistant Director Dave Halls admitted to cops he had not thoroughly checked the weapon for live rounds before handing it to Baldwin.

While Alec hasn't said anything publicly since his first tweet the day after Hutchins was killed, his actions on social media speak volumes, retweeting multiple articles saying he was told the weapon was safe.

Head armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, told authorities prior to the scene, and during the movie's lunch break, the gun was locked in a safe and very few people had access to it.

The question that remains ... how did live ammo not only get on set, but into the gun's chamber? We spoke with several people from the set who told us outside of filming, the gun was sometimes used for recreational use and target practice.

Both the Santa Fe Co. Sheriff's Office and District Attorney held a press conference Wednesday where they said charges are technically still on the table for everyone involved.

Tyrann Mathieu says he did not tell Titans fans to "sit on a d***" after the Chiefs' loss Sunday ... calling the reports a straight-up "lie."

The Honey Badger allegedly unleashed the crass insult following K.C.'s 27-3 defeat at Nissan Stadium in Nashville ... with a local reporter tweeting he heard it loud and clear on the sidelines.

"I and another photographer heard him say those words as he turned around to some fans," K.C. sports anchor Harold R. Kuntz said.

Mathieu, though, was quick to deny the allegation ... writing on his own social media page (and then later deleting), "This is a lie!"

"I can’t believe this dude lied on me," Mathieu added in another tweet.

Kuntz said he talked with Chiefs staffers over it all ... and while he regretted tweeting about it and apologized to Mathieu over it -- he stood by his claims.

"I am standing by what I heard, but I should not have tweeted it, in hindsight," Kuntz said. "It was a frustrating game but should not have shared that info on social. For this, I apologize."

Harry Styles is sharing his watermelon sugar high with the cast of the new "Eternals" movie ... because he's taking on the role of Thanos' brother.

The singer is getting back to acting in a big way -- getting on camera for Marvel, no less, in Chloe Zhao's forthcoming superhero offering -- which just had its world premiere Monday in L.A. Variety's Matt Donnelly broke the news ... and no other outlet has confirmed, which seems to be for a reason. Word is, Variety gave up a huge spoiler here. 😅

Donnelly says Harry has joined the MCU as Thanos' sibling, Eros ... who's younger than the 'Avengers' big bad, and apparently is a mischievous womanizer of sorts in the comics.

Sounds like perfect casting, eh?!?

Strangely enough ... Harry did not appear to be in attendance for the red carpet event -- which makes sense. As you may or may not know, the guy's on tour right now ... and he was halfway across the country doing his show in Cleveland Monday night. Seeing how he isn't part of the main cast ... something tells us his intro might be a surprise at the end.

Now, we know what you might be thinking ... are they gonna have Harry boy in a ton of CGI like they did for Josh Brolin to turn him into Thanos. Not necessary, as it turns out!

An old Jorja Smith cover has reignited a fierce debate among music lovers -- namely, whether she can actually sing or not ... but the evidence will make you shake your head.

The English singer-songwriter did her own rendition of TLC's "No Scrubs" in 2018, which for some reason resurfaced on Twitter this weekend ... and got folks chattering (again) about her pipes, or alleged lack thereof.

It's been an ongoing thing with her ... but there's really no question in our minds -- especially when you consider the full breadth of work and live performances, not to mention her background.

First, the claim ... people are taking this specific cover, as well as others she's done over the years, and suggesting her throaty, raspy vocals are a sign that she can't really carry a tune. Some argue this style of singing is one employed by a lot of modern-day singers/pop stars ... and that it's become the standard for what industry types look for. It's a running joke.

The "smoky" turn is something some folks claim Jorja has done a lot of lately ... but many more were quick to surface a plethora of clips that prove definitively -- she's a master of her craft.

Somebody posted a snippet of her performing live with the WDR Funkhausorchester orchestra from last year, and wrote ... "y’all can sit the F*** down and realize that Jorja Smith is and always will be a good singer…"

Others posted even more clips of her singing live, pointing out the range she has ... and the falsettos she can hit with ease. Of course, when you factor in the fact that she's a classically trained vocalist -- having gotten her tutelage at Aldridge and raised and schooled by her dad, who's a singer/musician himself -- it blows all allegations of bad singing out of the water.

One thing she may want to think about ... perhaps switching up her approach, as that's another critique often leveled her against her. Specifically, that even though she obviously CAN sing ... Jorja tends to dabble in the same types of riffs, runs and registers -- at least in some listeners' eyes, to the point where a lot of her crooning sounds repetitive or rehashed.