Philanthropist and advocate Isaiah Garza has made it their mission to help people in need through social media. When they met nine-year-old cancer patient Jazzy and her mom in a parking lot outside a hospital, they knew their connection would be life-changing for them both. Garza shared the emotional meeting in a video that has reached millions of people after learning Jazzy and her mother were living out of their car as Jazzy battles a brain cancer called Neuroblastoma. “I’ve actually known about Jazzy’s story for a while and always wanted to meet her. In the video, she had no idea who I was or that I was coming, which made the moment even sweeter,” Garza tells Upworthy. View this post on Instagram Garza meets Jazzy In the video, Garza approaches Jazzy and her mom. Garza shares that they are going through a hard time, and asks if Jazzy and her mom have any food they would be willing to share. Instantly, Jazzy sweetly reaches into the family’s trunk to give him something to eat. That’s when Garza asks her to share more about their situation. “I’m going through a hard time. I have cancer,” she says, adding that she has been battling cancer since she was two and a half years old (for nearly seven years). Jazzy’s mom adds, “It’s just been really rough. We’re homeless right now.” Jazzy tells Garza that her cancer has spread to her brain, showing them a large scar on her skull. They ask her mom what they can do to help save Jazzy’s life, and she explains that she has reached out to a doctor in Rome who has a medical trial, but that it is “so expensive.” “It’s $350,000, and we just can’t afford that,” she tells Garza. Jazzy adds that if they don’t come up with the money, “I might die.” Garza surprises Jazzy and her mom After hearing more about their journey, Garza shares that they want to help. On the spot, they gives the mother and daughter $1,000 in cash to bless them. Immediately, Jazzy and her mom burst into tears. “Thank you so much,” Jazzy says. However, Garza also went a step further by creating a GoFundMe to help raise more funding for Jazzy’s treatment, and to provide them with housing. “Jazzy’s cancer has now spread throughout her body, including her spine, arms, and brain,” they shared in the description. “In the past two months alone, she has endured three major brain surgeries, had three tumors removed from her head, and doctors have recently found new bumps appearing across her body. She is also currently relearning how to walk.” The GoFundMe raises over $600,000 After Garza set up the GoFundMe, people immediately began donating to Jazzy and her mom. The goal is $650,000, and it has almost been completely funded. “The least I could do was give my absolute highest effort to make the best possible video to help change her life. To see the Internet come together for her and support our mission has been incredibly emotional,” Garza tells Upworthy. Although it has only been a little over a week since Garza posted the video, there have been big changes. “Over the last week, we’ve been talking constantly and planning out her next treatment steps, her dream Hawaii vacation, and helping her family get into a new home and a car that actually works,” Garza tells Upworthy. Throughout the process, the trio have become incredibly close. “One of my favorite moments is when she told me, ‘You’re Stitch and I’m Lilo’,” Garza adds. View this post on Instagram Viewers respond The incredibly emotional video with Jazzy and her mom touched the hearts of millions of people. They shared their supportive thoughts and well-wishes in the comments: “THIS IS WHAT I WANNA SEE ON MY SOCIAL ! god bless.” “My daughter is 8 … can’t even imagine. Have donated and will pray for the treatment to be a success too .” “This sweet baby deserves a chance at life .” “Sooooo beautiful. Humans can be amazing.” “All my prayers to this young girl so she can be healed and live a long and happy life. Amen ” “That baby didn’t hesitate to give him food,.” “First time donating. Her story really moved me. I hope everything goes well for her .” “When she said I might die that hit me in the heart so hard.” “I literally never donate to these things unless I know the people. I didn’t hesitate just now and didn’t even finish the video. Praying for healing and hope.” The post A kind stranger met a 9-year-old girl who is homeless and battling brain cancer. They raised over $600,000 for her. appeared first on Upworthy.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first Star Wars film to hit theaters in seven years. So, as you can imagine, no marketing angle in the universe has been left off the table. Today, you can buy everything from Grogu popcorn buckets to “Bounty Hunter” body wash with fragrance notes of “solar woods” and “protective patchouli,” but when the original film arrived in theaters in May of 1977, the promotional machine wasn’t nearly as sophisticated. To get the word out about an upcoming movie, studios had to rely on you seeing a trailer or an ad in the newspaper, or perhaps a star dropping by the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. This might help explain why we were collectively treated to some of the most deliciously awkward televised cross-promotional moments ever broadcast on the “big three” networks. It’s also likely the reason Star Wars is one of the most tightly controlled pieces of intellectual property today.In the summer of 1977, Star Wars had already racked up over $100 million at the domestic box office, a feat few films had achieved at the time. Still, to leg it out to its eventual $307 million haul, the Lucasfilm publicity team had to think outside the box to remind audiences it was still in theaters. Bringing Star Wars to TV This is where publicity pioneer Charles Lippincott, Lucasfilm’s VP of advertising, promotion, and merchandising enters the picture. It was his idea to approve the appearances of several Star Wars characters on two different TV variety shows, one featuring singing and dancing Stormtroopers hunting down Donnie and Marie Osmond, and the other inside a Mos Eisley-like cantina with stand-up legend Richard Pryor. Both are eerie precursors to the far more infamous Star Wars Holiday Special of 1978. Big fan of this part from The Star Wars Holiday Special where Harrison Ford awkwardly says goodbye to two Wookiees that just blankly stare back at him pic.twitter.com/9jqvrZpiMt— jacob (@jtimsuggs) February 26, 2026 Discussion about the CBS Star Wars Holiday Special has blossomed from a little-seen curio to a pop culture obsession in recent years. A big reason is the November 1978 broadcast remains one of the most bizarre and unintentionally funny two-hour blocks of television ever aired. The films’ main trio of stars (Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and a visibly uncomfortable Harrison Ford) all appeared alongside comedy and variety show legends. These included Bea Arthur in torch song balladeer-mode and Harvey Korman as a cooking show hosting droid in a loosely plotted series of sketches centered around getting the shaggy Chewbacca back to his family’s home planet for Life Day, whatever that is. Despite how huge Star Wars was at the time, the special wasn’t even a ratings hit for CBS that night. In fact, it came in third place in the Nielsen ratings behind an episode of ABC’s The Love Boat. The Holiday Special’s infamy lives on now on YouTube thanks to Lippincott, a self-described science fiction fan whose promotional prowess behind Star Wars would be copied by studios for decades. Lippincott was the person who got the film’s stars and special effects team onto a panel at the 1976 San Diego Comic-Con and inked a comic book tie-in deal with Marvel. He made the merchandising deals that put Star Wars on lunch boxes, collector drinking glasses at Burger King, and he pursued the famously profitable toy deal with Kenner even after a 20th Century Fox executive decided the licensing rights were worthless. For as much of a trailblazer as Lippincott was, not all of his choices looked like winners at the time. Donny and Marie as Luke and Leia Mere months after Star Wars premiered on the big screen, the franchise ran an 11-minute cross-promotional push during the September 1977 season premiere of Donny & Marie. The reason was to remind folks that there was still plenty of time to go visit a galaxy far, far away at your local theater. Characters like R2D2, Darth Vader (voiced here by Thurl “Tony the Tiger” Ravenscroft), and C-3PO, with actual performer Anthony Daniels shuffling about inside the droid suit, join Donny’s Luke and Marie’s Princess Leia. The rest of the Osmond brothers also show up in Stormtrooper armor, singing a parody version of “Get Ready” by The Temptations in front of a live studio audience. But don’t worry, it only gets weirder: Redd Foxx grumbles his way through a conversation as the “force ghost” version of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hollywood Squares veteran Paul Lynde throws a musical snit as a Grand Moff Tarkin-like Imperial Officer for a number, and then outlaw country musician and movie star Kris Kristofferson lands on stage in a NASA-like rocket ship to stand in as Han Solo, complete with mirrored sunglasses. The segment is equal parts naïve, odd, and totally mesmerizing. In the 2023 documentary Disturbance in the Force, Donny Osmond openly wonders how they were ever able to get away with it. “There was a shot of Chewbacca with his arm around Darth Vader. How does that happen? But I guess on Donny & Marie, everyone was friends.” Richard Pryor bartends at the Star Wars bar The family-friendly attitude shifted when Star Wars popped over to the short-lived, but highly influential Richard Pryor Show one week later on NBC. The “Star Wars Bar” sketch mirrors the “den of scum and villainy” of the Mos Eisley cantina, complete with some of its iconic background alien characters: Momaw Nadon, aka Hammerhead, and the demonic-looking Labria. The camera doesn’t linger on them too long because none of the masks are articulated nor are the costumes complete. Most of the aliens can’t even stand up. Why? Because there was no budget for pants. Warning: This video contains strong language. The main difference from the NBC sketch is that Pryor milks genuine laughs from the scene, ranging from encouraging an inter-alien hookup to insulting one of the Modal Nodes musicians. The writers had the freedom to inject more adult-oriented humor into the proceedings, something one could hardly imagine the franchise doing now. Pryor even drops the N-word in the middle of it. And none of this was a mistake. Charles Lippincott explained his methodology behind the appearances years later in a 2015 Facebook post, stating, “… their selection was not an accident. I made a conscious decision to reach different audiences with these different vehicles.” The cultural footprint of Star Wars is enormous, but the initial push to get Episode IV: A New Hope onto movie screens—and keep people coming back for more—changed how films were marketed forevermore. And while these choices may come off as campy and “cringe” today, especially when listening to Donny and Marie croon about how their “goose is cooked unless we lift off of this star,” there’s also something oddly endearing about it in comparison with today’s rigid corporate synergy. The post ‘Star Wars’: How disco-dancing Stormtroopers and Richard Pryor changed movie marketing forever appeared first on Upworthy.

Most of the world’s smartest animals have a backbone. Dolphins, crows, chimpanzees, and elephants have all shown remarkable intelligence, i.e. the ability to form complex social bonds, use tools, develop language, solve intricate problems, and more. However, before we go handing out any “smartest animal” prizes, there are a few invertebrates that would like a word. Notably, the octopus is among the most intelligent creatures on the planet. But if we’re talking pound for pound IQ, you may not find a sharper creature on Earth than the teeny, tiny jumping spider. Coin-sized jumping spiders possess remarkable intelligence There are hundreds of different kinds of jumping spiders, and most of them are smaller than a US quarter and can easily fit on a person’s fingertip. Their bodies, while highly evolved and specialized, are powered by a brain the size of a poppy seed. Their microscopic brain has about 100,000 neurons—compared to about 250 million in a standard house cat—making their nervous system incredibly simple. And yet, jumping spiders are finally getting their due for just how stunningly smart they can be. Filmmaker and science communicator Stephanie Sammann recently published a YouTube video all about these brilliant little creatures. In just a few weeks, it’s racked up over a million views. Evidence suggests jumping spiders can dream Sammann describes how jumping spiders have been observed doing “something scientists thought only vertebrates can do.” A recent study observed jumping spiders with infrared cameras. Because of the spiders’ translucent exoskeletons, researchers got a remarkable view of their entire anatomy. While asleep, they observed rapid eye movements and leg twitching in the spiders. These actions are consistent with the REM cycle of sleep. “I assume that they’re dreaming about their own lives, like what happens to them during the day, the same way that we do—some strange visual version of their own experience. That’s pretty profound,” said Paul Shamble, one of the researchers behind the study. Spiders, they’re just like us. Though the scientist can’t say for sure that the spiders are experiencing a REM-like dreamstate, all the evidence seems to suggest their brains are processing information from throughout the day in order to learn and properly store memories. And speaking of memories… Jumping spiders can remember individuals and places they’ve been before Despite a small number of neurons in the brain, jumping spiders have excellent memory. Not only do they recognize other spiders, they remember them. A study from 2025 found marked differences in how jumping spiders behaved around each other based on whether they had met before. This suggests the presence of a powerful long-term memory. Their short-term, working memory is also excellent. Jumping spiders are able to visualize and plan routes, and remember obstacles or prey locations even when they are out of sight. Slow-motion videos even suggest that the spiders are able to calculate where their lightning-fast prey (like flies) will be by the time they complete their jump, so they can appear to snatch them out of thin air. Intelligence makes jumping spiders appealing pets Sammann says that, while much of the research into jumping spiders is new, people have intuited the little arachnids’ intelligence for quite some time. Besides the obvious cute factor, their intelligence and personality are reasons jumping spiders are popular pets. They are naturally curious, which is another side effect of their intelligence. They even like to interact with people or, at the very least, watch them carefully. Jumping spiders, unlike many other kinds of spiders, have superb vision, which also helps make them more curious about their surroundings. In fact, jumping spiders have the best vision of any spider species. Even people who admit to having arachnophobia seem to be enchanted by jumping spiders. They’re also extremely gentle and unlikely to bite. In the rare event that they do, their venom is not dangerous to humans. “I have 3 phidippus regius jumping spiders. … They definitely each have their own personality. … They will come to me and crawl on my hand. They’ll even sit there and be comfortable enough to groom themselves or even take a nap on my hand. I feel like they do have more intelligence than most spiders, and are definitely more aware of their surroundings. They seem ‘interested’ in things. Not just to eat and hunt. They are curious. It’s so cool,” wrote a user on Reddit. @fosterkittenohana The sweetest spider ever! Boo #jumpingspider #pets #cute #wow #fyp ♬ Cherry – Jordan Susanto Jumping spiders don’t possess the kind of advanced and social intelligence of dolphins or humans. But pound for pound, their tiny brains are remarkably advanced. It’s strange to think about a spider having self-awareness and an inner world that he or she dreams about, but it’s the truth! Science is beginning to unearth more and more about these creatures’ smarts. In a way, these clever and adorable invertebrates are doing great PR for all spiders, who are generally peaceful, non-aggressive, and great neighbors. The post Surprisingly smart jumping spiders can dream and recognize friends, despite poppy-seed sized brain appeared first on Upworthy.

Capybaras are impressive for many reasons. First of all, they’re the largest rodents to exist on the planet, and yet they maintain their delightful adorability. But, perhaps even more excitingly, they make for some of the cutest online videos. Whether they’re just sniffing through a forest or making friends with other animal species (or people), they so very often elevate whatever space they’re in. Dark Wings Wildlife, a nonprofit organization that helps educate people about wildlife, posted an Instagram Reel showing a dog named Stevie on high alert. Why? Because his friend Cheesecake the capybara is essentially tapping on the screen door. Stevie’s owner, Marina, notes that this just so happens to be one of her family’s two capybaras, and she’s there for a reason. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dark Wings Wildlife (@darkwingswildlife) “Did you invite a friend over?” In the clip, we hear Marina ask Stevie, “Did you invite a friend over? There’s a capybara at my door again.” And the day has barely begun. She continues, “It’s like the very first thing in the morning too.” She opens the front door and urges Stevie to tell her it’s okay to come in. Somehow this is communicated, and in lumbers Cheesecake, with Stevie following closely behind. As they both head toward the couch, the woman realizes she left the bedroom door open. Cheesecake takes a moment and turns right into said bedroom. “Hold on, Cheesecake! You can’t go on the bed. I draw the line at that.” The cute capybara obliges and redirects to the couch, where both she and Stevie hop up. Cheesecake and Pumpkin Cheesecake is one of two capybaras in the family, the other being Pumpkin. Marina explains, “Cheesecake the capybara has really taken to sneaking over first thing in the morning while Pumpkin’s still in bed so that she gets the couch to herself. Pumpkin and Cheesecake, our two capybaras, have access to our back porch through a connected pasture and will sometimes come up to the door for some extra attention and cuddles.” View this post on Instagram Pumpkin and Cheesecake can be a tiny bit destructive if left unchecked. “Though they look cute, and I do let them in when I can, they are extremely time-consuming and expensive to care for. When you see clips of them coming in the house, when I say ‘don’t eat anything,’ I mean it. They’re the largest rodents in the world and will chew on pretty much anything, so I have to watch them 100% of the time when they’re inside. They’re also smart, and she will wait until I’m not paying attention to try to chew on wires or the blankets on the couch.” “There’s a capybara at my door” This clip alone has over 3.5 million likes and tens of thousands of comments. One Instagrammer astutely shared an idea for a book series, writing, “This is a children’s book waiting to be written. ‘There’s a capybara at my door. I wonder what it’s there for. The capybara’s in my bed now. I wonder — does it snore?’” Another complimented Stevie, joking, “Your dog brings home capys?! I need a better dog!” Still another noted that Cheesecake seemed to feel quite welcome in the home. “She’s definitely been over before. She had a whole spot on the couch, knew her way around, the whole 9.” View this post on Instagram A site dedicated to wildlife and understanding capybaras backs up the claim that they’re usually pretty chill. “They’ve earned a reputation as the peacekeepers of the animal kingdom. Capybaras have been spotted relaxing with ducks, turtles, cats, monkeys, and even crocodiles! Part of their friendly vibe comes from how they handle stress. As prey animals, capybaras avoid conflict. They rely on stillness or walking away, rather than fighting back.” Dark Wings Wildlife Upworthy had the chance to chat with Marina from Dark Wings Wildlife. Through livestream exhibit cams and virtual interaction programs, the organization’s goal is to “entertain and educate,” which they refer to as “edutainment.” Cheesecake and Pumpkin are part of that wonderful process. Marina shares, “The capybaras are ambassador animals for our virtual animal education program and are kept via a permit.” As for their other animals? “We also have two Asian small-clawed otters and an African pied crow. My pets are Stevie and Chloe, a standard-issue kitty who appeared under our porch one day. We do live on a farm. We have three goats and a blind goose as our ‘farm’ animals.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dark Wings Wildlife (@darkwingswildlife) She makes it clear that they were diligent in socializing the capybaras with Stevie. “The capybaras were carefully socialized to be able to get along with Stevie. Wild capybaras can be quite territorial, so properly socializing them is really important, and the obvious big note to make sure to include is that you should never approach any wild animal unless you have express permission to do so.” The post Cheesecake the capybara makes early morning visit to get ‘couch all to herself’ appeared first on Upworthy.

Jason Bradley Deford, better known to fans as Jelly Roll, did not have the easiest life. He became involved in the drug scene at a very early age and spent much of his young life in and out of prison. During that time, he missed his daughter Bailee’s birth in 2008 while sitting in a cell. Jelly Roll knew that something needed to change, and he gave his life over to Jesus. His Christian faith is now paramount to his existence and that of his family. On May 28, 2026, Jelly Roll shared a very special social media post in honor of Bailee’s 18th birthday. The proud papa gushed about his daughter’s successes thus far. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bunnie Xo. (@xomgitsbunnie) Jelly Roll Wanted Bailee to Know How Proud He Was of Her on Her 18th Birthday Jelly Roll’s 18th birthday was nothing compared to Bailee’s, and he wanted her to see how she’s inspired him. “Today you turned 18 years old and graduate high school.. today you accomplish something very very very few people in this family have ever accomplished, including myself … you are not only a high school graduate. You are soon to be a college student. When we talk about generational curses and breaking them, you literally are the epitome of that. You are kind, smart, caring, loving, adventurous, funny, sassy, honest. To put it plainly you were everything I have never been” Jelly Roll wrote. Many shared their wishes for Jelly Roll’s daughter’s happy birthday. “Happy birthday such an inspiration to so many other chain breakers,” a fan wrote. Others wished they had the kind of support Jelly Roll gives to Bailee. “Bawlin over here I’d give anything for a dad like you,” a fan shared. “That was beautiful congratulations to your beautiful daughter!” Another person agreed. May 18 be the year that Bailee soars. Happy birthday! This story’s featured image is by ETIENNE LAURENT/AFP via Getty Images