It’s happened, y’all: MEL has made the pivot to video. Last week, on our Instagram page, we posted the first of what we hope will be many Deep Dives into the stories we report on — from the use of “spit hoods” by police, to the history of why some men don’t eat pussy (looking at you DJ Khaled) — starring the very people reporting on them. You’ll laugh; you’ll cry; you’ll get to see whether or not our writers have the chops to pick up a second job as on-screen personalities (spoiler alert: they do). It’s all very exciting.

Now, watch a grown man scream (again and again) at a plant:

Must Read

“A Real Man is a Union Man”
Men have long been the dominant demographic in American unions; as such, the battle around unionizing has always been cloaked in arguments over masculinity. Dave Portnoy is a man who has weaponized masculinity to build a digital media empire in Barstool Sports. So it comes as no surprise that Portnoy dipped back into that well in a preemptive union-busting Twitter rant on Tuesday. But equating unionizing to being a “pussy” — as Portnoy has inferred — isn’t one in the same. In fact, if history serves, it’s actually the opposite. READ MORE

Dick From a Dead Guy

No, we’re not talking about necrophilia — we’re weird, but not that weird. Actually, what we’re talking about are dick transplants, and specifically dicks sourced from cadavers, a procedure first performed four years ago in Sweden that’s the very, very, very first step toward solving the very real problems of traditional male gender-reassignment surgery. Unfortunately, though, the science behind this new type of dick transplant is the least complicated thing about it.

That ‘True Detective’ Scene

No nude scene in the history of TV has titillated quite like that one True Detective scene with Alexandra Daddario. I know this, because there’s a 60,000-strong club dedicated to her and Woody Harrelson getting it on, aptly named That True Detective Scene With Alexandra Daddario, or TTDSWAD. Luke Winkie spoke to members of the group to find out what it is about those tig ol’ biddies dropping out from under a taupe polo shirt that they find so thoroughly rewatchable (meme-able).

Tall Bois Be Congregating

Do tall guys gravitate toward each other? Miles Klee, a tall drink of water himself, noticed recently that all his guy friends stand over six feet, a statistical anomaly when you consider only one-in-five American men are members of the six-foot club. So he set out to understand whether this was actually a thing, i.e., that men of similar heights tend to be friends, or if it’s just one of those things.

Bella Thorne… Doing Porn?

Psst — you hear that Bella Thorne is on Pornhub? Do you know even who Bella Thorne is? Don’t worry, we’re happy to explain what’s going on here, and why her latest career move should come as no surprise.

Alex Jones Says AAAAAGGHHH—!!!

The subreddit r/PerfectlyCutScreams — home to clips cut at just the right time so they end in someone yelling wildly — never attracted much controversy. That is, until a video of Sandy Hook truther and InfoWars host Alex Jones screaming got more than 15,000 upvotes. Since then, the otherwise innocuous forum has been overrun by Jones’ army of fanatics.

What is the ‘Yield Curve’?

People are beginning to freak out that the U.S., and perhaps the world, is once again slipping into a recession. If you’re wondering where a lot of this is coming from, you need only look at the inverted yield curve, a canary in the proverbial coal mine that’s correctly predicted the last seven recessions. If all this yield-curve mumbo jumbo sounds like Greek to you, not to worry — we’ve got everything you need to know about what it all means right here.

Cotton FTW

You rarely see anyone at the gym wearing cotton anything, and if you do, they probably stick out like a sore thumb in a sea of polyesters and nylon. And for good reason: Cotton is just about the worst fabric to sweat in, because while it might be breathable, it also absorbs moisture rather than wicking it away like the synthetic stuff. And yet, some folks swear by cotton in the gym, even if it earns them dirty looks from regular gym goers.

Mexico’s Little Big Men

Once upon a time, “midget wrestling” was a thing, and a big thing at that, positioned as a lighthearted portion of undercards at some of pro wrestling’s most popular events. But in the 1980s, when the WWE (then WWF) went national, the jig was up, and grappling dwarves became just another uncomfortable footnote in wrestling history. To the south, though, dwarf wrestling is bigger than ever, and since getting going in the 1990s, Mexico’s “minis” division has evolved from sideshow status to legit must-see in-ring action.