The following New Year’s Eve, Clark brought on even more musical acts, including Billy Preston, Tower of Power, The Pointer Sisters, and Linda Ronstadt. Once again, Clark anchored in Times Square while the festivities came to us via the Queen Mary for the second year in a row. However, this time around, the Queen Mary portion of the show was hosted by George Carlin, who kicked things off with a joke about the ship and how, during the previous year, “6 and a half million people paid a million and a half dollars to walk on a ship that isn’t going anywhere.”

Throughout the show, Carlin checks in with Clark to see how things are going in New York and introduces the different musical guests. He also does stand-up a couple times, mostly utilizing material from his albums, like the “White Harlem” routine from Occupation: Foole and the “Some Werds” bit from Toledo Window Box (“Refrigerator-freezer is entirely too long. It should be refrigideezer.”) In between these segments, Carlin appears in a few short sketches where he plays the ship’s captain, Captain Flotsam. After the ball drops, we’re even treated to the rare sight of Carlin dancing—in case you needed any more reasons to check out the show.

In 1974, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve switched to ABC, where it’s remained ever since. Clark stayed with it as the anchor until he had a stroke in 2004. He then passed the duties over to Ryan Seacrest, who continues to host the show to this day. Clark died in 2012.

You can watch the entire 1973-1974 New Year’s Rockin’ Eve broadcast with George Carlin below.

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Miss Sophie invited four of her friends to her 90th birthday celebration, even though none of them are currently living. James then has to assume the roles of the deceased guests, drinking a toast to Miss Sophie on behalf of each of them and getting progressively drunker as time goes on. “The same procedure as last year, Miss Sophie?” he asks. “The same procedure as every year, James,” she replies.

Originally broadcast on the German TV station NDR in 1963, it was awarded the Guinness World Record for “Most annual airings of a television comedy sketch” in 2021. Even with the language barrier, Germans evidently can’t get enough of it, and it keeps being shown repeatedly throughout the day on December 31. The Guardian reported that over 12 million people tuned in to see Dinner for One in 2017 alone. That’s not including the 100,000 who watched it from places like Switzerland and Scandinavia that year.

Odd as it may seem, the tradition has yet to catch on in English-speaking countries. Though Dinner for One originated as a British stage sketch and it stars two British actors, it wouldn’t be shown on TV in the UK until 2018. Its success in Germany was in part due to its being developed specifically for NDR by German comedian Peter Frankfeld. The popularity of the sketch has spawned cookbooks, a commemorative stamp, and, more recently, a spin-off series on Prime Video.

Check out the original 1963 version of Dinner for One in its entirety below.

The post How a British Comedy Sketch From the 1960s Became a New Year’s Eve Tradition in Germany appeared first on VICE.

3. THE APARTMENT

Billy Wilder’s classic 1960 romcom The Apartment stars Jack Lemmon as insurance clerk C.C. Baxter, who lends his bachelor pad to his bosses so that they can carry out their extramarital affairs discreetly. Baxter changes his tune, however, when he finds out that the woman he’s been pursuing (played by Shirley MacLaine) has been utilizing his apartment with the personnel manager. The climax begins at a New Year’s Eve party just before midnight, where MacLaine’s character learns that Baxter decided to quit the firm. If you start the movie at 9:58 p.m. without pausing at any point, the New Year will arrive just as the partygoers start singing “Auld Lang Syne.”

2. WHEN HARRY MET SALLY…

Released in 1989, Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan star as Harry and Sally, respectively, in Rob Reiner’s When Harry Met Sally… The two attempt to be friends despite having wildly different opinions on men and women, and on whether they can maintain platonic relationships. They eventually bond over their failed romances and end up falling in love with each other, with Harry opening up about his feelings for Sally at a New Year’s Eve celebration. Starting the film at 10:30:28 will sync up with the countdown to midnight during the finale’s party.

1. GHOSTBUSTERS II

The Ghostbusters get back to business five years after the events of the first film in 1989’s Ghostbusters II. This time, the team must investigate a river of slime flowing through the subways that appears to be linked to an increase in paranormal activity. They find out that the river flows to a local art museum and break in to save the city from the spirit responsible. Press play at 10:27:53 and the Ghostbusters will descend into the museum at midnight, just as Bill Murray says, “Happy New Year!” 

The post You Can Time These 3 Comedy Movies So That You Ring in the New Year With the Characters appeared first on VICE.

Speaking with local Austin station KXAN, the band explained what they have planned for Brisket Eve. When asked what it is, they replied simply, “It’s a party,” before elaborating.

“So basically, Jimmy Eat Brisket and a bunch of other bands are coming into town for Far Out Lounge,” the band said. “We’re going to have brisket, pop-up artists, DJs. Basically, it’s one big festival for millennials and those who like emo music and also like eating brisket.”

The band itself has previously hosted Brisketfest, which is exactly what it sounds like (brisket festival). Now, they’re bringing that energy and love of smoked meat to the new year. Other Texas-based bands will join them to play the emo hits all night long, according to the schedule on their website.

Emo Hero is coming in from San Antonio, as well as Sum Day Like Blink, Austin’s premier Blink-182 cover band. Additionally, DJ Kitty will be spinning the emo tracks at the start of the night, while the afterparty will feature EDM remixes and mashups of those 2000s pop-punk favorites until 2 a.m.

Jimmy Eat Brisket Continues Combining Brisket and Emo Music in the New Year

When asked if it’s only going to be brisket at Brisket Eve, the band explained a bit about the food options.

“It’s like our Brisketfest we did in August,” they said, “it’s gonna be a lot of brisket trucks, but we also have pizza trucks on stand. Of course, they’ll have brisket specials for those who like brisket, but we’ll also have a sandwich shop on the property as well. There’s gonna be other stuff you can get, not just brisket.”

The website lists Ed’s Smokehouse and Slab BBQ for strictly brisket. Additionally, there’s Far Out Lounge Sandwich Truck with a special brisket menu, and Captain’s Pizza Truck featuring brisket pizza alongside other options. There will also be local pop-up vendors all night with a little something for everyone.

As for the night itself, Jimmy Eat Brisket was asked to describe what a typical show is like. What’s going down at Brisket Eve?

“It’s more than just a band covering songs,” they explained. “It’s a party. We have friends come out. We have fans that turn into friends. It’s a live karaoke situation as well. We like to have everyone come up and dance and sing.”

They continued, “And it’s just, you have a whole cohesive thing going on. It’s not just us and then you. We go into the crowd. We bring the crowd up to us. It’s a unique thing to experience for sure. A lot of crowd surfing in the front. It’s basically a live emo night, for sure.”

Photo via Jimmy Eat Brisket

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“Philly, don’t call it a comeback. We’ve got unfinished business. Shout out to the Mayor for the invitation! Meet me on the Oval this New Year’s Eve as we bring in 2026—live,” LL Cool J said.

In addition to LL and Jazzy, Grammy-winning musician Adam Blackstone and hard rock band Dorothy will perform. Gates will open on Wednesday, Dec. 31, at 6 p.m. The concert is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. A fireworks show will take place over the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at midnight.

“Philadelphia is thrilled to welcome everyone to our vibrant city as we celebrate New Year’s Eve and kick off the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence,” said Mayor Cherelle Parker, per NBC 10. “This free concert and fireworks showcase the incredible spirit of our community and the cultural legacy that Philadelphia embodies.”

The mayor added, “We are honored to have LL COOL J as our headliner, bringing his unmatched talent and energy to The Parkway, with special guests DJ Jazzy Jeff, Adam Blackstone, and Dorothy. Join us for Philly’s first-ever New Year’s Eve outdoor concert as we kick off 2026 in America’s Birthplace.” She added that “this is truly the place to start our celebration of this historic anniversary!”

The Philadelphia Orchestra Is Offering a Big NYE Concert As Well

The Philadelphia Orchestra is also hosting a big concert on New Year’s Eve, one for those in Philly who are seeking a different experience.

The concert will feature guest conductor Anthony Parnther. The conductor is “famed for his soaring readings of hit movie scores.” This includes the Oscar-winning score for Oppenheimer, GRAMMY-winning Encanto, and Emmy-winning The Mandalorian.

“Join this dynamic music-maker and the GRAMMY-winning Philadelphia Orchestra in a goosebump-inducing performance of great music,” reads a description of the concert. Concert attendees can expect renditions of scores from films like Psycho, Citizen Kane, The Wizard Of Oz, E.T., and more. Click here to learn more and find tickets.

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If only LEGO offered an alternative (working, of course), you could spend the evening building it and then count down to the new year as it drops—no pricey cover charge, no soul-sucking slog through traffic.

LEGO, are you listening?

You could make it a replica of the Times Square ball drop, the most famous in the US and, potentially, the world. Just, you know, leave out the part where people wear diapers because there are no restrooms open to the public.

Or not. Heck, they’ve already got LEGO baby figures. Just increase their size by 50 percent, leave the diapers on, throw on some LEGO parkas, and boom, you’ve got New Year’s Eve revellers.

Perhaps somebody will take up this crusade on LEGO Ideas, an official platform by which people present their own LEGO creations to the public. The public votes on it, and if it gets enough support, LEGO puts it into production, with 1% of the royalties going to the designer who created it.

Plenty of iconic LEGO sets started as LEGO Ideas projects. If anyone wants to spend this New Year’s Eve cracking on some ideas, maybe, just maybe, we could feature a production LEGO New Year’s Eve ball drop a year from now.

The post Why Doesn’t LEGO Make a New Year’s Eve Ball Drop Set? appeared first on VICE.

So it’s a bit odd that one gym owner in the United Kingdom has taken extreme measures to combat this. Clayton Leah, the 31-year-old who runs Ascendancy Fitness in Warrington, Cheshire, has turned off all sign-ups from the moment the ball dropped through January. Without going any further into the details, that seems pretty idiotic.

For starters, the lost money with that surge in new memberships alone is worth it for gyms, even with the short-term overcrowding that comes into play. Second, it seems a bit unfair to block out potential new members who want to sign up at their local gym.

Gym Owner Bans New Member Signups After New Year’s

Leah explained the decision to Fox News, citing that his primary rationale behind the odd choice is that he wants to protect his long-time members. Basically, the aforementioned short-term surge that comes for every gym in January can be a turn-off for regular gymgoers.

I know when I routinely went to the gym before building out a home gym, this time of the year was always my least favorite due to the overcrowding. That being said, it’s not my job to gatekeep people from getting healthy. 

This guy apparently does, though. 

It doesn’t sound like he’s seeing any ramifications from it, telling the outlet that the “response has been overwhelmingly positive.” He called it a decision that he says is attempting to “break the mold.” 

To be honest, you have to give this guy a level of admiration. He’s certainly losing out on a quick cash grab for the sake of making a better experience for his committed members. It does seem wrong to block people from signing up at a time of the year when fitness is at the top of the mind for more people than at any point in the 12-month calendar.

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In Berlin, 17 people were injured by the Kugelbomben, which are supposed to be restricted to professional firework displays but are often used by amateurs. Five people—including young children—suffered serious injuries to their eyes, hands and faces. Berlin’s fire department responded to 1,892 incidents, which was 294 more fireworks-related incidents than last year.

“The number of patients treated compared to previous years was average or a little below average,” said a spokesperson for the UKB hospital in Berlin. “But the severity of the injuries is unusual.”

Munich also saw its share of firework mayhem, as a stray rocket led to a fire that damaged an apartment building. Munich’s fire department says three children were hurt by fireworks during the night’s celebrations.

Most of the deaths around the country were of young men, killed while trying to ignite fireworks. In at least one case, in Saxony, the fatality was related to a Kugelbomben that had been tampered with to create a larger explosion. Authorities said these Kugelbomben had been sold illegally through social media channels, having been imported mainly from Poland or the Czech Republic.

Deaths and injuries aside, fireworks were also used during numerous attacks on emergency service personnel. In Berlin alone there were 13 separate incidents where emergency workers were targeted with rockets.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser praised the work of emergency workers while condemning the violence against them.

Deputy Chairwoman Christine Behle of Germany’s First Responders union issued a statement condemning the attacks on its members, saying, “It is unacceptable that people who work for the common good are repeatedly the target of attacks. Under no circumstances should violence against public service employees be accepted as an occupational hazard.”

Burkard Dregger, the interior affairs spokesperson for Berlin’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union, called for stricter measures to curb the spread of Kugelbomben.

“The import of banned fireworks – Kugelbomben – from eastern neighbouring countries has got to be stopped with even stricter border checks,” he told the local public broadcaster RBB, calling for talks with the governments of Poland and the Czech Republic.

Meanwhile, the opposition party The Greens called for a complete ban of private firework sales. “The question is why we as a society are prepared to have a night of setting off firecrackers with immeasurable collateral damage for people, animals and the environment,” said Vasili Franco, the party’s interior affairs spokesperson.

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The incident occurred around 3 a.m. local time and there is no possibility of “a DUI thing,” Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, the police commissioner of New Orleans, said in a statement. The suspect was driving “very fast… trying to run over as many people as he could,” she added.

“He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” police explained of the suspect.

Initially, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the horrific event as a “terrorist attack.” An FBI agent then claimed it was “not a terrorist event.” The agency, however, is now investigating the tragedy “as an act of terrorism,” Reuters reported. Officials confirmed an improvised explosive device was found at the scene.

The suspect, armed with a rifle, helmet, and body armor, died in a gunfire exchange with police, officials told The Guardian.

In a post on X, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wrote that “A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street,” adding that he was “praying for all the victims and first responders on scene.”

Jay McGuffy, a visitor in New Orleans, told The Guardian that she was in a nightclub at the time of the attack. “We were just having fun, celebrating New Year’s, and then they told us to get out ‘cause somebody had got shot. Then we heard that a truck had been through here, and fifteen people had been shot,” she said.

McGuffy explained that she was not allowed back to her hotel because there were still dead and injured bodies on the ground. “How did this happen? There are like 100 cops out here”, she added.

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Seriously, though, how did we ever get to the point of watching a ball slowly lowered to the ground to signify the end of one year and the beginning of another? It seems pretty silly, right?

After all, the phrase “You dropped the ball” has a negative connotation representing some sort of failure. No one wants to drop the ball. Yet, here we are, glued to our TVs watching an 11,000-pound, Waterford crystal-constructed sphere. 

The Times Square Ball Drop Began in 1907

Every tradition has its origin. And for the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, that origin story dates back to the early 1900s. The initial reasoning was to create another way to celebrate that didn’t involve fireworks, which at that point were banned out of safety concerns. The owner of the New York Times, Adolph Ochs, is credited with coming up with the idea. 

The first instance saw a lighted ball running down a flagpole at midnight to signify the new year. The ball was comprised of iron and wood, a far cry from the crystals that now adorn the symbol. It also weighed about 700 pounds. Ochs came up with the idea after being inspired by maritime traditions in which “time balls” were used by ship captains to mark various times. So the ball being dropped on national television represents the start of a new time.

The New Year’s Eve Ball Has Dropped All But Two Years Since Inception

Every year people have gathered in Times Square to watch the ball drop—with the exception of two occasions—since its creation in 1907. There was a two-year span between 1942 and 1943 in which the ball was not dropped. 

History buffs can probably figure out that those dates align with World War II. There were wartime blackouts that prevented the event from occurring. That being said, people still showed up in the city those years despite there not being a ball.

The Times Square Ball Drop is Now an Extravagant Celebration

The first TV broadcast of the event was back in 1941. A lot has changed since then. One of the biggest changes occurred in 2000. That was when the Waterford crystals first made an appearance as a way to commemorate the millennium celebration. From that point on, the ball has been glistening in the evening sky in what is now a sphere that weighs more than 11,000 pounds and measures 12 feet in diameter with more than 32,000 LED lights. 

The event is a television staple for many households, stretching across five-plus hours of coverage with musical performances, celebrity appearances, and plenty of interviews to celebrate the end of one year and the beginning of another.

So when you’re gathering around your TV, at least now you’ll know the significance behind the event… and not wonder to yourself why the heck we’re all worrying about a random ball being lowered to the ground. 

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