Moved to...

Dead-Frog.com. Go there now!

OddTodd.com --> Hollywood --> WackyTodd.com

A short time ago, Todd of OddTodd.com announced that the Comedy Central version of his unemployed adventures would not see the light of day. He described himself as "OK" with the whole thing, since the show really wasn't what he wanted nor what Comedy Central wanted. No hard feelings. So what happened? OddTodd recently gave a more satirical Flash cartoon account of his development experiences which seems to put the blame on another producer who moved the show into a traditional sitcom style... wacky neighbors, angry landlord and all. The show that came out of the collaboration is stiltedly reenacted with a dumb laugh track inserted so you know where to groan. Todd states he didn't even like his own show. But still no hard feelings at Hollywood execs, though the translation of "very promising" is rather amusing ("Pack your shit and go").

Plugging Away

I mentioned my Jest piece the other day, but they just posted the text to their website. Check out "Sleeper Cell" here.

Comedian Secrets Revealed!

One of the charms of Da Ali G Show is wondering how the hell they tricked luminaries like Boutros Boutros-Ghali into agreeing to an interview in the first place. If you like to treat your comedians like magicians, you probably shouldn't read the piece Slate published detailing exactly that. Included in the report is a sample letter sent to one of the victims and links to two of the fake websites they use to make it all look legit. The article concludes with the observation that Ali G, the character, probably won't be getting away with this for much longer. The producer see a lot more longevity in fashion-obsessed Bruno and Kazakhstani journalist Borat, which is no surprise, considering the targets of both are "real" people, who lack the encumburances of handlers and press agents. In some ways I hope the producers of Ali G would spend an episode detailing their mechinations themselves. But, one of the best things about the Ali G show is that it doesn't break that Ali G, Borat or Bruno are characters. Each character lives in its own reality... for Borat the graphics are done in Kazakhstanian and then English is overlayed on top of them. So they're real not only to their targets, but also for the viewers. It's a tone that I think is infinitely stronger for humor, but not so good once everyone gets in on the joke.

Not only is it Liberal Media, so it's Audience

In the following transcript of an interview with Jon Stewart to promote America (the Book), Bill O'Reilly describes The Daily Show's audiences as stoned slackers, most of whom are intoxicated while watching. And worst of all, they're voters! Check it.

But I ask you, who's gonna follow in Carrottop's Footprints?

Salon published an interesting pair of articles on comedy trailblazers. The first, uses the recent Lenny Bruce box set Let The Buyer Beware as an impetus to find ten comics today who not so much carry Bruce's torch but use it to set fire to everything wrong on this planet. Just like Bruce would. Number one turns out to be Howard Stern, which by admission of the author seems a little off. His main rationale for selecting the "King of All Media" isn't so much funny as Stern's current fight with the FCC and Clear Channel. With Rick Shapiro, who's perhaps more infamous for his flameouts than his act, being second, it's a very Passion-of-the-Christ-kind of way of looking at Bruce's work. If you're a comedy nerd, don't celebrate how Lenny died, celebrate how Lenny slayed audiences. The second article talks about a young devout Muslim female comic named Shazia Mirza. Though she can be incredibly fearless (her 9/11 bit: "My name is Shazia Mirza -- at least that's what it says on my pilot's license"), from what I've heard the rest of her act is pretty tame. Though a 28-year virgin, she'll make the same kind of jokes common to female (and male) comics about how her assets don't seem to attract the opposite sex. Yawn. It's cross-connects my humor wires a little. In another article of Lenny Bruce, Bill Maher says "One generation plants the trees, another gets the shade." Shazia is definitely a tree planter, but I suspect I'm going to enjoy the shade a lot more. But I'll reserve judgment at least until I catch a full live set. Until then, I'm TiVoing the November 12 edition of Comedy Central's World Stands Up, which will feature her. You can preview that set here. And you can find a pre-concerns-about-integrity 60 Minutes story on her here.

Emmys: Not So Hideous After All.

I normally can't stand award shows... self-congratulatory excess is one of Hollywood's worst traits, but awards for comedy writing went exactly where they should (and needed) to go. I'm hoping Arrested Development's Best Comedy Emmy annoints it as the next Seinfeld, with the subsequent ratings explosion to follow. And in some ways, I wonder if that's exactly what the voters were thinking too. The show definitely deserves it, but as far as I can see, that doesn't factor too much in voters' decisions. Everyone imagined that Sex and the City would get it, as congratulations for such a great run (no matter how much limping to the finish line they did). But with so much concentration on how network TV comedy is over, giving an award to a comedy that was over or nearly over (in the case of Raymond) would have been acknowledging the genre's best days were behind it. Even if this was a factor, Arrested was the best sitcom on TV last year. Period. As for the best part of the show, the parody of the Swift Boat Veteran Ad written by the Daily Show writers was amazing. If you missed it, Wonkette has a transcript of it here. Congrats to the Daily Show and its writers (particularly buds Jason Ross and Rob Kutner) on their second Emmy. Also highly-deserved.

Funniest Kid (ha-ha) found, Funniest Kid (strange) still sought.

Not really a Nickelodeon viewer. I'm way out of the demographic and when I was in the demographic, my parents thought cable was a waste of money. So I'm almost a year behind Nick's discovery of the "Funniest Kid in America." Her name is Christina Kirkman, and at least one journalist is impressed with her satirical chops. Thanks to the votes of Nick-addicted youth, she won a gig as a cast member of the kinda juvenile SNL All That (I mean juvenile in a good way, unless you think juvenile SNL is an oxymoron in the first place). Number one cool thing about her, she's a girl. I think one of the reasons why female comedians have a hard time is that women aren't encouraged to be funny when they're younger. So bully for you kids of America. I found what I suppose was her winning video. It's rather like watching a proto-Robin-Williams on a sugar rush rather than a coke binge. Didn't catch many words, but watching Christina switch characters was a little impressive and a bit exhausting. (Like I said, not the demo.) The scary thing: comedian used to be one of those things you fell into after you realized you weren't good at anything else. Between Christina and a 15-year-old in my UCB improv class, I've started to think that's not true anymore. I ain't a geeza, but I'm preparing some flashcards of set-ups and punchlines for Toddi or Todd Jr. just in case.

Plug: Article in the New Jest

If you live in New York, check out the latest issue of the humor mag Jest, which features a humor piece by yours truly entitled "Sleeper Cell." I won't say too much so I don't give away the joke. But if you're wondering why we weren't attacked again on September 11, it's because we owe a great debt to Alan Ball. God bless you and that depressed Fisher family. If you think you could be a better terrorist, the issue also features an Al Qaeda recruitment brochure by my good buddy Rob Bates. You can find Jest downtown at all kinds of places where you find your free weeklies, but if you want specifics, check the Jest site.

TV Critic Survivors Tell Tales of Pilot Error

A mediabistro article invites you to join critics as they remember the worst TV pilots they ever saw. Lots o' sitcoms get the shout out including, the current Center of the Universe, the never-aired Grubbs and the cited-as-perennial-target Desmond Pfeiffer. Anyone wonder now why the sitcom is dead?

AFI Discovers Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey's getting the AFI Star Award at this year's Aspen Comedy Festival. Yawn. Considering the state of film comedy, I'm surprised Jim Carrey didn't win sooner. Of course, I don't see a single one of his early films on the circa-2000 AFI's 100 Laughs list. What happened? Did somebody just get around to watching Dumb & Dumber?

How to Talk Dirty and Influ...

Shout Factory just put out a huge six disc set of Lenny Bruce's comedy entitled Let The Buyer Beware. Great for any comedy completists who need to know who created the path stand-ups tread today, whether they know it or not. I admire Shout Factory for making such a (along with my blessed Freaks and Geeks DVDs. Rock!), but I wish they put longer previews of Lenny's tracks on its web page. You see, back in the day, people were actually willing to wait through a long setup. But today, we only get a minute or so to see if we like anything. It would be nice to hear enough so unfamiliar buyers could get a real taste of the man. Still, you get a taste of Lenny's rhythms with this excerpt of "To Is A Preposition; Come Is A Verb." (quicktime audio file)

Wernham Hogg doesn't need to open a portal to hell. It is hell.

Apparently the developers of Doom 3 were huge fans of the Office. Hidden in the game is a email from Brent encouraging "Finchy" to bone up for Quiz Night, a reference to an episode from Season 1. You can see screens of the easter egg here.

Sitcom, Schmitcom. Louis CK Got a HBO Special!

Louis CK's getting a chance to helm his own sitcom on HBO. Louis' focus is a little different, at least for now. As he describes it, along with the development deal, he's definitely getting a new half-hour comedy special for the network. Which is what he's really looking forward to, as it's "concrete" and his last appearance in an 90's era HBO Young Comedians special "left a lot to be desired." Hard core training coming up for Louie, so expect to see him a club near you. Hopefully the sitcom will suffer a better fate than "Saint Louie", a pilot for CBS that never made it to air. Though it revolved around a couple and their new baby, it sounded like an antidote for audiences who hate cloying stuff about children. In this Onion interview, Louis CK described his first line in the show as "Honey, this baby sucks." Ah well, another show for the Other Network. (For more of Louis CK's baby stuff, check out this clip from Conan.)

No Pride in Father (Or This Headline)

Caught Father of the Pride. Nothing really funny about it, sad to say. Father looks amazing. Dazzling animation doesn't make for good jokes. The camera and animators often get in the way of the humor. One joke where an overly-cute panda takes a seat on the lead's lap rather than a chair is shot as a close-up, making it impossible to tell what just happened, killing the gag. Sure the fur effects look fantastic, but if the show was funny, I wouldn't be noticing how nice everything looked. I'd be laughing. Much has been made about it being an "adult" show, with references to virgins, bestiality and the like. I could care less if kids get corrupted by the show, because jokes like "It may be 9 o'clock in New York but here it's Mountain time" aren't "adult," they're immature. Kids already make jokes like these, with only slightly less wit. You can usually determine the trailblazing shows from the followers by what they consider adult humor. Sex jokes are great, but without the social and political satire that other highly sexual shows like South Park, Seinfeld and The Office (among many) also aspire to, you look like a giggling adolescent. (To Father's credit there's one New Yorker reference, reflecting a well-read giggling adolescent.) Sex isn't everything about being an adult and definitely not the only way to appeal to them. The animation, the sex jokes and setting are just camoflague for the same old shit: bumbling husband, put-upon wife, cranky father-in-law, rebellious cubs. When you're working in territory this well-tread, you're not allowed to make fun of Billy Joel being bland. I can't imagine Father of the Pride will last long. At it's core, we've already seen it before several times on Nick at Nite. And done better.

Gone 'til Sept. 2

More updates on the funny when I get back. Honest.

Jonathan Swift's Intellectual descendents for Truth

On Sunday, The New York Times described why jokes about George Bush have become far more aggressive and political. For the most part, all the reasons they point out (the unpopularity of his policies and the harshness of all comedy these days) are fairly accurate. The most interesting points occur at the end of the article: 1) The initial joke that George Bush is a bumbler has helped him. Absolutely true. It's been ingrained in western civilization since Aristophanes: the smart aren't so smart and the fools among us are the wisest of us all. Think about the end of Animal House... the characterization of an idiotic George W. Bush could have easily been one of the frat brothers who end up heading on to ambitious destinies. We don't get angry at the clowns who make mistakes, we have sympathy for them. If the left wants to change minds, it should supplant the dumb jokes with ones that emphasize craftiness. (BTW, who was our last President who was portrayed as a little out of it? Reagan.) 2) Satirical humor plays only the converted. My head says this is true. My heart wishes it wasn't. Naturally the most vitriolic of comedic rants really doesn't change minds, but one of the things that always attracted me to comedy was the idea that my getting a laugh, you could sneak an idea in there. I don't know if anybody ever walked out of a comedy show and said, "that totally changed my stance on abortion." (In fact, I can't think of any piece of art that has ever really done that.) On the opposite side, everyone loves to criticize media for driving people, particularly kids, to commit some antisocial act. But we can't have any positive effects? I don't think you can have it both ways. I imagine some would prefer to say art, and by extension comedy, has no effect one way or the other because they don't want the responsibility. But I think exactly the opposite is true. Jokes can both help and harm society, but I think you and I will always be ill-equipped to judge which do which until a couple of decades have past. I mean, who'd ever thought Lenny Bruce would lead to Andrew "Dice" Clay?

LCS Slam Just For Laughs Insists Houston

Comic Sharon Houston popped up on The Special Thing Comedy Boards to explain her intentions behind the Fahrenheit: LCS2 video she made. She seems genuinely shocked that it's gotten the attention it has. From her description, the screed wasn't so much a rant against reality TV editing as much as an opportunity to tell a few jokes at LCS's expense. Though this is comedian defense #1 when a joke of yours ends up having more backlash than you expected, she doesn't seem to have any axes to grind. (The host of the video, cringehumor.net does. It revels in exposing flaws in LCS and particularly Dat Phan.) In fact, she's quite willing again to admit her own faults. She openly embraces producing another video where two version of her act appear, one the NBC-edited version and the other a full version (as I suggested here). She's also refreshingly honest about why her bit did fail, citing "rookie" mistakes like: doing a long difficult-to-edit bit, using material even she was tired of and the perennial nerves. I agree with another point in her posts, if she hadn't said anything negative herself, NBC probably wouldn't have edited her bit to reflect that. It would have just glossed past without being a highlight (or lowlight) at all.

If you're comparing 9/11 and LCS2 haven't you lost your sense of scale?

Last Comic Standing 2 is all over. But some comics still have axes to grind about it. Over at cringehumor.net you can watch Fahrenheit LCS2 (third item down), where comic Sharon Houston overlays comments that slam reality TV editing onto show footage. Also included are some unnecessary barbs at two other female comics. What does someone else's age or accent have to do with your act. Particularly when, by your own admission during the show, your set bombed. All of the protesting functions on the conceit that people actually believe LCS is the absolute authority on who's funny or not, when everyone really knows it just a gussied-up game show. With all the griping about featuring midgets and strippers instead of her, Sharon Houston still does have one good point. She claims the producers' editing took out all the punchlines from her act, which if true, might make her look less funny than she was and, I suppose, affect her career. A far better video would have been to show her act as shown on LCS2 and then show the same set intact from another performance so audiences can judge for themselves about reality TV editing. All the rest of the sniping makes this legitimate complaint sound like sour grapes.

Armed with a +4 Vorpal Smirk

Daily Show correspondent Stephen Colbert reinforces the stereotype of comedians as popular, bullying jocks in high school... in an alternate universe! Gamespy reminisces about 30 years of Dungeons and Dragons and guess who's a fan! (Confession: so were we.)

An Interview with a 2,000 Year Old Man (Minus 1920 years or so)

NPR has an interview with Carl Reiner where he talks about his long career. Check it out, if you got the time.

Last Comic Standing Breaks Glass' Ceiling

Todd Glass has begun to sell out comedy clubs as a result of the appearances on Last Comic Standing. The Los Angeles times article refers to how Todd tweaks the stand-up profession too. His act was my favorite in the LCS Wild Card shows with his magician-secret-revealing set-ups. "You know what guys do that's a little cartoonish? Or maybe guys don't do this. I think I might have made it up for my act..." It's a strange kind of meta-comedy that works for me.

Don't Blame the Messenger. Blame the Guy Who Makes Fun of the Messenger

A University of Michigan study has linked voter apathy to late night TV. The report links lack of voting with viewership of Letterman, Leno, etc. There's also the corollary that watching programs like Oprah makes young adults more politically optimistic as well as more likely to vote. I have to say I can see why this would be true. Seeing things like a crowd of country music fans willingly join in a chorus of the anti-Semitic "Throw the Jew down the well" on Da Ali G Show doesn't make me excited for America's future. But I don't think watching Oprah would make me any more excited about the political process. I had a pessimistic viewpoint on politics beforehand and don't really believe in easy, weepy solutions. With satire at least I know what's wrong with the country. And I can choose my candidates accordingly. One of the things I wonder is what results you would get if you fragmented the survey out further, dividing it between shows like Letterman and Leno and shows like The Daily Show and Real Time with Bill Maher. I imagine that the former set, where comedy that addresses politics rarely dives into specifics of policies, gives the impression "they're all crooks!" Whereas comedic shows like The Daily Show and others, which focus a bit more on politics, actually motivate voting. Syracuse professor of being quoted in magazines and newspapers about TV Robert Thompson described comedy in a recent article as the "fifth estate." I definitely see these shows in that light, where they keep our journalists and politicians honest. If some voters get disillusioned... well, maybe if we could have kept our estates to four in the first place, maybe we wouldn't need satire as much as we do.

Hey Craig, Would Lizz Blow You Now?

Late night underwent a sudden shift last week when Craig Kilborn announced he was leaving The Late Late Show. I've never been a big fan of the man... the smugness always wore on me. He did seem perfect for the first incarnation of the Daily Show which was more news parody than news satire. He was a modern Ron Burgundy, your local news anchor transported to basic cable. But I never really saw the point of having him host The Late Late Show. Talk shows at their core are about the person behnd the desk. There never seemed to be much to Kilborn other than some good hair and a desire for a good time. He just never did much for me (or anybody else, if ratings are to be believed). I never really saw him moving on to 11:30 and I imagine CBS didn't either. Of course now there's lots o' handicapping about who's taking the spot. The Post puts forth the inspired notion of Amy Sedaris. As a huge fan of Strangers With Candy, I can't even fathom what an Amy Sedaris talk show would be. She's an incredible interesting person, but her appearances on Letterman, though charming, play so wacky I have a hard time seeing CBS brass embracing the idea. I'd love to see it if they did. The Daily News throws out five contenders... some more crazy than the next. Chris Rock? Please. The guy's been there and done that with talk shows. And he's bigger than 12:30 AM. If he wanted to do it, he would have gone to Fox a long time ago. Vince Vaughn is a very interesting idea. But I most like the suggestion of Sarah Silverman. She's incredibly engaging and funny and deserves a bigger forum. I don't know if her style of comedy would play anywhere but HBO. But again, I'd love to see CBS give it a shot. With Conan's contract up at the end of the year, there seems like there could be room for a lot of new late night chatfests. Whoever's the number two choice for The Late Late Show will likely get Conan's spot if he bolts for someplace like Fox (or rather bolts for an earlier time, like 11PM). The whole field is completely unpredictable, particularly when you remember that despite all these mechanations, Jay Leno will still probably have the highest late night ratings. Kinda sad, huh?

I'm Not Chevy Chase and I'm Pretty OK With That.

You know how people complain when comedians try serious roles? All kinds of bitchin' and moanin' that demands comics to "just be funny." Well, there one guy who never waivered from the comedy path. Chevy Chase. Sorta proof you can't win with audiences, huh? Granted, calling most of Chevy's movies from '85 on comedies is being charitable to the order of Mother Teresa. Entertainment Weekly profiles Chase, alternatively claiming that he's loved and hated every paragraph or so. The article concludes that the man is just one good hit from a comeback. (Hmmm, maybe he should try, I don't know, a drama?) Scanning his imdb entry, I was surprised to see he recently did a film directed by former Onion Editor-in-Chief Scott Dikkers called Bad Meat. I don't think that'll be his comeback hit, but I enjoyed Dikkers' Spaceman and like the idea of Chase doing a black comedy featuring people who live out their days in dangerous, finger-severing meat-packing plants. Check the trailer. Though the EW article focuses on Chase's movie career, the two moments that appear to be most embarrassing to Chase were on TV. The first being his quickly-cancelled talk show, which was apparently meant to be a sketch show in the tradition of Ernie Kovacs with "spitting nastiness." Never seen the actual program, but Chase was completely lost inside the talk-show format. Venomous former SNL Head Writer Michael O'Donoghue, in wicked glee, kept a tape of it by his bedsite. Trio, you have your first program if you want to do another failures month. (BTW could someone start a Classic Comedy Channel, where we'd see Kovacs, Sid Caesar, You Bet Your Life, Flip Wilson, old Carson eps... well, that'd just be swell.) The second was Comedy Central's 2002 Roast where none of Chase's friends showed up and he had to hear cruel slams from relative unknowns who had grown up laughing at the holy trinity of Caddyshack, Vacation and Fletch. Apparently, Chevy turned to the camera and stated "That hurt." Too bad that roast wasn't broadcast live, huh? Considering we got few original SNLers left, I'd love to see Chevy do a role that wasn't Chuck Griswold or Fletch that reclaimed his comedy legacy. And then, it might be fun to see if he could fuck it up again, like Travolta did.

Red States Need to Laugh Too, Y'know

Last night, I came home to catch The Daily Show and discovered that Blue Collar TV now reruns on Comedy Central. As a former Atlantan and Southerner, I felt the need to rewind the TiVo to see what I missed. (I should clarify that I'm technically more of a son of carbetbaggers, as my folks are Yankees and we didn't move there 'til I was six.) Blue Collar TV isn't exactly my mason jar of moonshine as far as humor goes. But it's interesting to watch because believe it or not, Jeff Foxworthy has the all-time best selling comedy album ever. And his buddies Bill Engvall and Larry the Cable Guy are huge themselves. Comedy Central got it's best ratings ever featuring these guys during a "Redneck Weekend." With networks always chasing the young male demo, it's kind of easy to forget what the rest of America finds funny. Sure we'll make a Joe Dirt or a Ronnie Dobbs, but there's a sense that to laugh at unsophisticated white folks, the people making it need to be unsophisticated white folk (at least in persona... Larry the Cable Guy probably loves a good Chateau Lafite after doing his Elton John Impression. "He's queer! That's my impression of him.") Another bizarre fact: Blue Collar TV apparently draws more women to Comedy Central than it's regular programming. Sure with The Man Show, South Park and others, Comedy Central isn't always the most appealing choice for women. But I don't really see how these three guys are. Engvall and Foxworthy are pretty forward about being family men in their comedy... is that all there is to it? For the show itself, I felt the absence of Ron White (who joined the trio for the Blue Collar Comedy Movie) , who I always found the funniest of them all. It makes sense when I think about it... White's a bit more Texas renegade to Foxworthy and Co's southern rebels. He seems to be doing lots of guest shots so I won't miss him too much (if I watch again, which I might). Foxworthy started an episode I saw with a stand-up routine that quoted the bible to begin a riff about being "nekkid." Never seen that before. I found it ingenious in a way. So many people in these country love God (or profess to), having someone a bible verse as a base for some racy comedy (a blurred out naked Grandma and a "risqué" cheerleader routine) seems almost subversive. Almost. It makes me wonder which side of the Parents TV Council's Best and Worst Shows list Blue Collar TV will ultimately fall.

Network News is what Closes on Saturday Night

There's been talk about the July 28th Nightline, which featured an exchange between Ted Koppel and Jon Stewart that some say outlines the gulf between old and new TV journalism. The description of The Daily Show as journalism gives insight into how low journalism has fallen. Not because The Daily Show is bad journalism, but because journalism isn't doing it's job and satire is having to pick up the slack. Stewart and Koppel debate on what a News Anchor's role should be. There's a sense that there needs to be objectivity in news, presenting all sides to a story fairly and honestly. Stewart argues that the political spin machines take advantage of this and that TV news needs to adapt, not only to keep viewers, but to be effective. The audience doesn't want them to stand idly by when each side presents contradictory facts. The comedy presentation of news does give interpretations. Stewart rightly states that no one in his audience is coming for news, but they are coming for what they see is the truth behind the news. The real behind the measured coldness of just coverage. At one point Stewart tells Koppel:

"...you CAN say that's BS. You don't need humor to do that because you have what I wish I had which is credibility and gravitas."

News worries about presenting the truth and thus presents all sides of a story, penetrating none. Satire, while not necessarily giving truth, takes the elements of a story and uses them to illuminate something at their core. Stewart is pushing for Koppel to give more perspective. To bring more of a frame to stories and to call lies when he sees them. The fact Koppel seems to dispute the idea that he could call BS is bizarre when you read a speech Koppel delivered at a dinner of TV News directors that Jon Stewart himself introuduced him at. At Koppel's request! Koppel talks about the need to give news context... well isn't that just a fancy way of saying "calling BS"?

Chappelle Coming Back... I ain't typing "Biatches!" It's not funny unless Dave says it.

Despite recent ungrateful stand-up audiences, Dave Chappelle's signed for two more seasons of Chappelle's Show. Chappelle has mentioned the show's a success because he writes it as if people aren't watching. Now that he know they are, let's hope he can forget. Let's hope idiotic requests for Tyrone or Rick James aren't heard on his Showtime special.

Team America: An Act of Terror?

Well, no. But a nice inflammatory headline, huh? In the trailer to their new marionette movie Team America, Trey Parker and Matt Stone promise that George Bush, among others, won't be happy when he sees the flick. Well, one down and ten or so to go. W. hasn't even seen it yet and already his handlers are expressing their displeasure. Though not the first time Trey and Matt have satirized a president, the Bush administration may want to "wait and see it" as Parker suggests. "That's My Bush" was targeted more at the lameness of sitcom conventions rather than the policies of a President. Though much of the film references the current war on terror, the inspiration for it was action movies, specifically "The Day After Tomorrow" (which they wanted to shoot themselves perfectly straight, using puppets for all the parts). And Bush isn't even the flick according to Parker, despite how the website shows a similar looking marionette from the back (he may be added Parker admitted). Instead the main villains (if you can call them that) are the misguided legions of Hollywood liberals, who interfere with the terrorist fighting Team America group in an unspecified way. With a release date of October 15, three weeks before the election, it sounds almost eerily on message with the "heart and soul of America" speeches W.'s been delivering in battleground states (side note: with red and blue states, why aren't these states called purple states? C'mon, America loves color coding.) However, judging from "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut," the satire will be anything but toothless. The actual villain implies a certain critique by his selection: Korean dictator Kim Jong II. (Of course, the duo may be done with Saddam Hussein jokes.) And the initial sequence set in Paris sets up parallels with go-it-along cowboy militarism and action movies that are very uncomfortable. Though at times rumored to be Republican, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are apparently more libertarians. But they both claim people will leave the film wondering where they stand. I'm definitely looking forward to the film, and with the election thisclose, both sides are bound to be inflating their positions. I hope Trey and Matt not only don't have any sacred cows, but no sacred donkeys or elephants either.

Sitcom's Great White Hope Gets Some Hype

"The sitcom is in trouble" story is both true and in nearly as much trouble as the sitcom itself for one reason: it's been written for the past five years. There are no more fresh angles. The articles are taking on a last gasp quality. Sunday's New York Times paints Arrested Development as writers' best hope at reviving the moribund genre. (And the reporter should know, being a sitcom writer himself.) I think Arrested Development, though it hasn't "found an audience" yet (except for highly educated people in a very important young demo like myself... but I guess I don't count, do I?), has a lot going for it. Number one they seem to understand the comedy is pretty much the art of surprise. Take this quote from creator Mitchell Hurwitz, when he talks about the Sopranos as an influence:

"I love how sprawling it is. And how they can totally surprise you by, say, killing off a character. I want that freedom. We felt: `Wouldn't it be great if we did a show that actually does change? Where people could die?'"

So many sitcoms rely on stories we've seen before. We know from the beginning how they're going to end. You've seen this show before and you've seen it done better on Nick at Night. If sitcoms are going to survive, you need to have a sense that anything can happen. Anything. The article also touches on how Arrested Development, much like BBC's The Office, is shot and paced to look like a reality show. All excellent stuff. But the article also mentions one more item that gave me insight into why the show works as well as it does. All of it's writers came from multi-camera shows originally (the traditional style used from I Love Lucy to Friends). Yes breaking the genre is great, but only if you know how to build it again. If you know how to tell a story well and pace the funny faster. (Though Hurwitz asserts that multicamera shows get more jokes in every episode than single camera shows, I don't entirely see it. Maybe he says that because some single camera shows tend to waver off into filmic territory, rather than using the multiple set-ups to create a frenetic gag pace). Fox is doing right by a good show for once (rest in peace, Tick, Greg the Bunny and Andy Richter Controls the Universe). Putting it on after the Simpsons (something Futurama never even got). Promoting it heavily. Getting out a Season 1 DVD right before the start of the second. Now people, do us all a favor and just watch the damn thing?

This Land Is Our Land

I'm sure you've seen the very funny cartoon done by the folks at JibJab that uses a parody of "This Land is Your Land" as a vehicle to have some fun with both candidates and, poignantly enough, imply a desire for bipartisianship in this election year. And naturally, somebody had to come along and try to spoil it. The copyright holders of "This Land is Your Land", Ludlow Music, Inc. (apparently a tentacle of The Richmond Organization) have threatened a lawsuit, claiming damage to the original song. JibJab has consulted the Electronic Freedom Foundation and their own lawyer. The obvious defense of this is fair use, particularly for satire and parody. One of the first cases to set this standard was from Mad Magazine's "Sing Along with Mad" songbook, which published sheet music with new lyrics to songs such as "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "If You Knew Susie" (remade into "If You Knew Hitler" - the UGOI aren't subtle). Lawyers for the Music Publishers Protective Association claimed that only copyright owners had the right to make parodies of their songs, suing publisher Bill Gaines, Mad and much of it's editorial staff to the tune of $25 million in 1961, a dollar for each infringing song in the million copies that sold. In the first trial before US District Court, the Judge found for Mad in all but two of the songs, the aforementioned "There's No Business..." and "Always", believing that those two were too similar in theme to the originals to be fair use. This wasn't good enough for the music publishers who appealed and quickly lost their case entirely with the US Court of Appeals finding:

"We believe that parody and satire are deserving of substantial freedom - both as entertainment and as a form of social and literary criticism."

The MPPA continued to push the case, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal. The case made the satire and parody of song lyrics protected fair use. In my admittedly biased layman opinion, JibJab should have no trouble actually wining this case if it went to trial. But in some ways the damage has been done because of the need to retain lawyers to handle such a silly suit. Though I don't think Weird Al is nervous about his next parody album, it could make some people blink before creating funny works of all kinds... simply because they may not have the funds to retain the lawyers they would need to protect their rights. And even in corporations, there are few maverick publishers like Bill Gaines who would fight back to protect the right to parody or satire anything. The lawsuits they might draw just makes it too prohibitive.

Pilot Season: Brilliant and Airing

Comedy nerds will rejoice to hear about Trio's first original comedy series Pilot Season (read the release here). Pilot Season will be about the people who struggle to try and get something of quality on TV every Spring. And fail. Though I'm over TV about TV, with talent the calibre of Sarah Silverman and David Cross involved, I'm interested. Plus I enjoyed the original movie the show's based on, Who's the Caboose. And they're shooting it mockumentary-style, so hopefully we'll get some Office-influenced uncomfortable moments in it. Trio's pairing the show up with its next "Brilliant but Cancelled" month (something Pilot producer Sam Seder creator knows about with perennial Other Network fave Beat Cops). Mark your calendar or TiVo for September 6.

UnFriendly Work Conditions or Creative Necessity?

To write comedy, do you have to have an uncensored environment? That's essentially the question that's being put before the California Supreme Court in a harassment case involving some of the Friends writers. I absolutely fall into the idea that it's a creative necessity to be able to say anything, because that's how you find laughs. What makes funny stuff is usually inappropriate stuff that makes people feel uncomfortable. Saying them out loud, creates laughs. And a show like Friends, which is so focused on the sexual behavior of the characters, it seems impossible to work in an environment where talking about sex would be verboten. But reading the description of what the plaintiff says went on (via The Smoking Gun), it sounds like a lot of it crossed over into the personal, and rather pedestrian, fantasies of the writers on staff (sex with cheerleaders, C'mon?). Although arguably, talking about turning Joey into a serial rapist is a creative process decision (and might explain the sudden move of the character to LA in Joey). This document, of course, only shows her side of the story. What really happened is probably someplace in-between. It'll be interesting to see how this shakes out. I imagine a plaintiff win could mean a lot of repression in writing rooms. For a rather amusing anecdote about an uncensored environment, one that doesn't cross over into the personal and done purely to relieve creative tension, check out this Louis CK description of a late night writing session at Conan (4th Item down).

Audiences: Necessary Evil or Just Evil?

Another thing I wonder while watching Crossballs: was the audience told what they'd be seeing? Do they know the show is a satire? It seems like it can take a while for the audience to laugh (that may just be because something wasn't all that funny). But that might also be because they don't know they are allowed to laugh. (The decision to have an audience is also curious... is it a variation on the laughtrack idea, i.e. those at home won't know it's funny unless we have people laughing?) Are they buying this as a cross between Jerry Springer and Hardball? Or are they in on the joke from the getgo? It seems like it wouldn't be hard to inform the audience what's going on... it was done for Superstar USA if I recall. I'd love to hear from anybody who's been to a live taping of Crossballs.

Crossballs: Over the Top? Or is "The Top" over? Discuss.

Despite complaints from the left and the right, I have a hard time seeing anyone who appears on the show Crossballs getting all that upset. Mainly because I can't believe they would still buy the show as real after seeing some of the exaggerated positions the fake guests take. On a show about vegetarians/animals, Matt Besser appeared as a German concerned about the purity of the German Shepherd breed. Incredibly funny and completely over the top. Though I saw a couple of smiles from the real experts, it appeared to be more from disbelief in the person rather than the context. They'd continue to debate despite this and other rather obviously demented positions. I think Crossballs gets away with this because the host Chris Tallman is so willing to play the straight man to all of this. Any time one of the other players on the show makes an extreme statement, he'll pipe right in with a "You're wrong" or an "Are you serious?" that assures the real guests that they have another reasonable person in the room. Suckers.

I Love 2001!

Announcer:

So you think you're an aughties - a zeroties - the ohties - oh, whatever - fan? OK, Osama but are you ready for this jelly? It's "I Love the 2000s" and this is 2001! The terror! The TV! The Taliban! The flicks! The fundamentalist Muslims! A totally scarring year that gave us these burning questions: Why do other countries hate us so much?

Mo Rocca:

Could be decades of exporting a culture full of values our foreign policy doesn't even come close to emulating. Or maybe they just didn't like Rush Hour 2.

Announcer:

How did Saddam Hussein found Al Qaida?

Hal Sparks:

He planned 9/11 with the help of the WWE's Iron Sheik and Jafar from the movie Aladdin.

Announcer:

and... How newsworthy is it if it only makes the crawl?

Michael Ian Black:

Those tickers are very effective. When I am trembling in fear on my couch, I need to know that sales of American flags are up 85%. (pause) I need to. (pause) Desperately.

Announcer:

The answers to those questions, plus Who sent the tabloids anthrax if it wasn't J. Lo? and... Did irony really die or was it just cryogenically frozen until the nostalgia clip show could be invented? Because you love the 2000s. Because you're still having sex with firemen, this is 2001!

I hate how "Gen W" tries to label us.

Great piece on NPR about Demetri Martin, despite the reference to him as "the voice of generation Y." Though the comparison isn't made in the piece, I've always seen Demetri Martin as kind of a successor to Steven Wright. They both have similar rhythms to their jokes - one-liners that have "a-ha" moments where the sudden perspective shifts are combustible. Of course this was before, I caught his new one-person show "Spiral Bound" in June. Spiral Bound features a journey of Demetri into his notebook. (You can take kind of a similar journey at Demetri's website.) The show describes the decisions and situations that led Demetri to performing stand-up instead of being a lawyer, and the effects it has on his highly-driven medical student fiancee. It's surprisingly confessional and quite a bit removed from one-liners. The NPR interview confirms Demetri is kinda undergoing a focus shift in his comedy. He mentions how he feels audiences don't really know much about you if you're just throwing out jokes. And he's right. How much does anyone know about someone like Steven Wright, who seems to cultivate a sense of removal from human behavior (something Demetri never had with his one-liners.) Someone who can write the joke, "I got some pajamas with pockets in them. Which is great because before that I used to have to hold stuff when I slept" has definitely got a very interesting internal life that audiences would love to be brought into.

Fractured Update

Big Ups to Sacha, Ite?

Great (and apparently rare) interview with Ali G alter-ego Sacha Cohen (or rather, vice versa... or not) in the New York Times today. Particularly interesting is the distinction Sacha makes about his interview subjects and other targets being good sports. He says:

I think the term "sports" is wrong because that implies that they are playing along and they realize they're part of the game. As far as I've seen, they're not.

So there's a sense with him that just playing along with the character isn't being a good sport, it's realizing your being had and playing along anyway. To use the language of improv, the target of the joke would "Yes, And" with Ali G, Borat or Bruno. I'm looking forward to the new season of the Da Ali G Show... there's too little comedy featuring pranking white fat cats.

Insert Never Forgets Joke Here

Caught the sketch group Elephant Larry this past weekend in their new show "The Crime Machine." The troupe of five guys put on a really energetic show, with some sketches working simply because of the players' complete commitment to a premise such as "Fightman and Puncher," featuring two superheroes who only catch bad guys incidentally because they're too busy hitting each other. A lot. The video was nicely mixed in, culminating in a tandem bit where all five dance along to a imagined ubiquitous Will Smith tie-in rap for the film "I, Robot." There's some clunkers in there, but the highs outweighed the lows. My favorite performer was Geoff Haggerty, who lent a bizarre innocence to a scream of "bloody murder!"

Comedy is Timing. And this is far too late.

Saw this in the bookstore today. The Sitcom Career Book. I see this easily edged out in sales by Reality Casting for Congenital Morons.

iTuned Out

While ordering Patton Oswalt's album over iTunes, I noticed that a search for Genre:Comedy does not work on the store. Currently it just takes you to back to the main iTunes page. Don't know if it's always been this way or not, but it's rather frustrating. The return of the comedy album has been pursued heavily by people like Uproar Comedy, Laugh.com and, most notably, Comedy Central Records. The absence of a main comedy landing page on iTunes probably impedes online distribution of comedy records. With comedy such a spontaneous buy, the ability to have the "celestial jukebox" featuring a wide range of comedy may be exactly what the comedy album needs. Of course, iTunes has brought a lot of changes to the music industry itself, including returning emphasis on the single. Is there an equivalent to the single for comedy albums? Maybe having the first few tracks of Feelin' Kinda Patton seeming isolated from the whole is a good thing in the new online distribution model?

Felt Patton and It was Good

Out o' curiousity, I ended up on iTunes looking for Patton Oswalt's Feelin' Kinda Patton and lo and behold, there it was. I gave it a listen and found it incredibly entertaining. Apparently the 80 or so minutes of the CD were taken from a two and a half hour set at Athens' 40 Watt Club. So it feels a little choppy at first and thus a little setup/punch, setup/punch initially. To me, I like getting inside comics' minds and finding how they arrive at stuff... the tangents are sometimes much better than the jokes themselves, so I was a little disappointed at first. But soon the tracks begin to connect together and create that sense you're inside another mind. A highlight for me was Oswalt's near verbatim description of a Stella D'oro Breakfast Treat commercial from the 70s that renders a marriage so vile and vicious, you wonder why anyone would imagine it would sell cookies. All very funny stuff. I read Patton's taking some time off to make new material. Hopefully, this CD is building an audience ready for more.

I'm actually feeling a little Posehn, but he doesn't have an album

Neglected to mention I listened to David Cross's It's Not Funny while on vacation too. There's nothing like driving through the deep woods in Larry the Cable Guy country and listening to a commie-terrorist like David Cross spew his filthy joo mouth at decent God-fearing people. Thank Beelzebub! I seriously loved how David Cross imagined the journey of exploitation it took to make the gold shavings for his fancy restaurant dessert. I imagine some would take David Cross to task for being in such a restaurant in the first place. I just find it amazing they could fit both their head and a stick in their rectum. Though I do loves me a good comedy record, I ain't so fond of listening to them over and over and over again. Even new masterpieces like Cross's. That said, I'm planning on getting myself Patton Oswalt's Feelin' Kinda Patton as soon as possible. The man has been a fave of mine for a while. He does stand-up for stand-up's sake and, unlike a lot of comedians, unironically loves lots of pop culture ephemera. (And make it too, the guy wrote a well-regarded JLA comic last year.) One of my favorite things about Patton has been how communicative he is with fans... particularly on what's becoming alternative (for lack of a better name) comedy's biggest message board, Mr. Show and Other Comedy on the Tenacious D "A Special Thing" Board. Check out this thread and see Patton be unfailingly honest not only about why MADtv doesn't work but why he doesn't work for MADtv, among other stuff.

Space for rent: bar, exposed brick walls, microphone included

Been a little too long. Won't space these out so much. The New York Daily News ran a perennial reporter-tries-comedy story today. I don't know why editors accept such stories (or why a writer would even pitch one... ugh). I promise to try and spare you too many observations when I take some more improv class later this month. One of the reason I think we're seeing stories like this one might be because we're heading for another stand-up comedy boom. Yeah, I said it. Not withstanding the fact that comedy does better when times are bad anyway (or at least seems to), New York City has in the past few months seen the opening of three stand-up comedy clubs. Laugh Lounge, The Laugh Factory and, most recently, the return of the New York Improv. (I haven't been to all these clubs yet, but I'll try and do a comparison in a future entry.) This doesn't count the relatively new PIT Improv theater and the HA Comedy Club, which is a little over a year old. (For a full run down of NYC Clubs, check this out. Damn!) On top of that, the success of Last Comic Standing this summer (one of the few highlights in the newly-anointed year-round schedule expoused by the networks these days), stand-up comedy hasn't been this visible since the 80s. I imagine the phenomenon of more comedy clubs is not (or will not be) a New York thing for long. Of course new clubs will require well, acts. And though lots of people wanna be funny, The number of people pursuing stand-up, particularly in a nation filled with attention-seeking young people raised on the Real World, must be skyrocketing. (I have no evidence for this, no figures... just hunches, notions and a need for an entry today.) We got millions of Buck Stars out there, looking for the 15 and thinking stand-up is the way. And who can blame them? After all, Ant can do it, right? (Last cheap shot, promise)

Saturday Night Beaten To Death

More on SNL, God help us all: One of the things I remember from that New York Magazine 1995 piece was an irate Al Franken yelling at Janeane Garofalo during a rehearsal for attempting to remember her lines, rather than reading the cue cards. At the time, I bought it, because I'd never seen Janeane do stand-up live, where she's constantly referring to her notes (at least for what she wants to talk about). Her memory doesn't seem the best. Her work-ethic may be different because she was an ensemble, but I wonder. Since they both work for Air America now, I imagine any animosity is gone. Common enemies kinda do that. Also, is it just me, or has SNL sometimes just the biggest Vegas celebrity-impersonator show not performed in Vegas? Original characters happen sure, but so much of the cast repertoire plays with celebrity and political culture that has been beaten to death over the week by Leno, Letterman, Conan, Kimmel and Kilborn that by the time you see in on Saturday, who gives a rat's ass? With the humor already gone, all you have to admire is the quality of the make-up and if the mimic nails his target's vocal and facial tics. SNL may be, like Mad Magazine, a victim of its own success.

Mohr Gasping...

Those seeking the ultimate skeletons-in-the-closet tell-all about SNL will be a little disappointed with Gasping for Airtime. The book does have some candid details about some cast members and writers. But usually, Jay Mohr will couch a criticism or abusive behavior with some kind of praise. Take this note onJaneane Garofalo: "Though Janeane's very funny and a talented actress, she was a drag when she worked at SNL." Similar stuff is said about Rob Schneider, Al Franken and, of course, Lorne Michaels. The only cast member Jay entirely dismisses is Ellen Cleghorne, and even then he at least gives her credit for hating him to his face. More interesting then is his focus on the show's insane pitching and writing schedule. Monday has everyone throwing spitballs at the host, which often involves lying about not having an idea or having ideas you have no intention of actually writing. Tuesday is an insane all nighter for anyone who wants to get a sketch on the show that week. A bleary-eyed Wednesday read through of 40 sketches leads to a another til-dawn rewriting session for the sketches that survive. And even then, during rehearsal, your sketch might go. The politics of what sketches get picked, with unfunny hosts (who Jay happily trashes) providing resistance at bizarre intervals, seems to have worked against Jay Mohr. One of the things I always hear when discussing SNL with somebody is, "Why don't they just cut a half hour out of the show?" The last half hour of the program is kind of a waste, but you still get the competition to be seen that Jay describes (and that would be even if you cut the cast in half... there's sometimes 16 people including featured players). If there is a flaw in the show, this book has convinced me it's not the length.

My Summer Vacation Book Report

Back from Maine, having had my fill of lobster meat and bargain clothing. Also read Gasping for Airtime by Jay Mohr. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, Jay Mohr talks candidly about his two years on Saturday Night Live. Or rather, not on. Jay didn't really make much of an impact on the show, though it's not from a lack of trying on his part. Jay's short tenure fell, pretty indisputably, in a nadir for SNL. Numerous magazine stories abounded in 1993-1995 with the zombie-like headline "Saturday Night Dead." Most notable was a way-pre-Bonnie-Fuller "US Magazine" piece about the treatment of women on the show and a general piece from Kurt Andersen era "New York Magazine" that just slammed the show. (Here's a funny thread showing Kurt Andersen's attempt to publicize the piece on the Internet, with a response by yours-truly circa 1995.) For a while there, it looked like SNL was going to get cancelled or Lorne Michaels was going to get fired. Even though the show is still wildly uneven (the only can't miss part of it is Tina Fey's Weekend Update), the show's fate being that dire is a little hard to believe now. Heck, Lorne's wining the Mark Twain Prize for Humor this year. One of the most interesting parts about the book is Jay's confession that he stole material from Rick Shapiro to create one of the few sketches of, er, his that saw the light of day. Rick, who's kinda the patron saint/cautionary tale for downtown comics, apparently threatened to sue and according to this account proved the bit was his own. And presumably got a big check that prevented him from sucking dick for heroin for a while. Jay feels pretty horrible about the whole affair (and by the time you get to this point with him in the book, you have some sympathy). Stealing someone else's act is one of things that'll get you loathed by half the comedians out there. (Though it seems a pretty typical way to start out... I recall numerous comic profiles I've read which state "For the first year or so, I just did (Richard Pryor/Woody Allen)'s act.") The fact that Jay Mohr brings it up shows a little bit of guts and makes the criticisms in the rest of the book more interesting. More on Gasping For Airtime and other SNL books this week. Maybe I'll even go dig up that old NY Mag article and we'll see if any of those criticisms still stand.

Friday Ha Ha: How Do You Like Them Apples?

I'm in Maine next week, so Dead Frog will be on hiatus until June 28th. Meanwhile, here's some funny for you nerds. --- HOW DO YOU LIKE THEM APPLES? An adventure for characters level 8-12 The following is an adventure for 2-5 Player Characters with another player acting as Dungeon Master. The party should consist of two fighters who always hog the Atari, two clerics who won't shut up about your mom and a magic user who screwed you on a comic book trade (Rom 1 for X-Men 137! How could you be so dumb!). At the beginning of the adventure, read the following to the PCs: You are traveling in the hills south of Zaquotch, returning from a recent raid on an orc village. The gentle swaying of the dragon willows in the southeastern breeze spawns a sense of deep relaxation amongst you. You are certain that today will be uneventful. Nope, nothing wrong here. This passage will lull the party into a false sense of security. For the next hour of so, let the PCs role-play. At first the players will embrace the opportunity to act out their characters' quirks, but eventually they'll get bored and ask you to roll for wandering monsters. Roll, but have no wandering monsters arrive, even if it's a really good one, like a fire giant with a sword of A-hole slaying. When the PCs start threatening to go home, read the following passage: In a clearing on the stump of a long dead oak, you discover three golden apples. They not only appear quite valuable, but they seem to beckon, physically urging you to remove them from their perch. Being greedy pigs, of course the PCs will immediately pick up the apples. But if the PCs are suspicious, they might be stubborn about it. Reassure them you are being fair. If they still won't pick up the apples, have them jump into the PCs hands. As soon as the PCs have the apples, bellow out in your best angry god voice "Who dares disturb my golden apples!" Do it just loud enough so that later in the evening the PCs will be able to put their fingers on the exact moment they were completely screwed. Have the Greek God Zeus fly down out of the sky, ridding a red dragon. Though it's tempting to wipe out the whole party with a single fireball, it is better to role-play this situation to the max, so the PCs believe they have a chance to talk or fight their way out of this. Anyway, Zeus will ask the PCs why they disturbed the apples. At this point, the magic user will frantically scour the Player's Handbook for a spell. Encourage him to do so. Whatever spell he comes up with, allow it to be successful. Let the PCs revel in that success for a short moment. Then turn the magic user into hemorrhoid on the ass of a hobgoblin. In fact, turn them all into hemorrhoids on a hobgoblin's ass. Collect their character sheets as quick as possible. Tear them up in the PC's faces. That'll show 'em for convincing you to dress up as Muffit for Halloween.

He's Dave Chappelle, Assholes!

Dave Chappelle walks off stage after "fans" relentlessly yell "I'm Rick James, Bitch!" Not only are these people killing Chappelle's stand-up, they're destroying the narrow window of getting a third season of Chappelle's Show from the man. Please people, if you go to a live comedy show, shut the fuck up! More complaints of ambushing by a political themed comedy show - this time, The Daily Show. I saw the episode where Jill LaVine and State Senator John Vasconcellos appeared. I didn't think either one of these officials came off bad on the show. Lowering the voting age to 14 sounds completely preposterous, so Vasconcellos looks pretty silly for making the prosposal in the first place. But his logic about people taking up the responsibility given to them came through the piece. The man just looked a little out of touch but with his heart in the right place, that's it. Which is more than I can say for the anti-Philadelphia-gay-tourism man on Wednesday's Daily Show, who really hung himself with his own bizarre obsession with men's buttocks. L.A. Weekly asks a great question: why doesn't radio genius Phil Hendrie have a TV show yet? Might just be that his talent for holding conversations with himself that sound like two entirely different people talking is just not a skill that translates the TV. And there are much worse fates, TV isn't everything. Just ask Dave Chappelle. But damn, an animated show with him and Sarah Silverman? Other Network are you listening? (Not familiar with the genius that is Phil Hendrie? Listen.)

There's Really Funny and there's Reality Funny.

TiVo forsook me again with Last Comic Standing. Part two of the Vegas finals aired tonight and TiVo didn't know it, even know it was on the schedule. Weird. Hopefully, I'll catch the Comedy Central rerun. That said, I'm all caught up with the episodes TiVo did record. First, a thought on getting to the Semi-40: Lots of comics had gimmicks (wearing jock straps on their head, pretending to be a Nazi or, in desperate "me! me! me!" fashion, following the auditions to EVERY city) that get you on blooper reels. But the real way to get to the 40 is have a different type of gimmick... the compelling story for the producers to latch onto, like: ♦ being a stripper ♦ being 19 and having nine months of stage experience ♦ being a part of a comedian couple with two children. Not that these people weren't funny (two and a half of them were...). They're good stories to tell on the way of getting to the Final 10. LCS is a "reality" show, not a comedy. Thus the tenets of reality trump funny. The winner is not the funniest person, it's the comic who's "story" was the most interesting. Of the finalists, my fave right now is Bonnie Macfarlane who had the audacity to go for broke with the "c word" in her Las Vegas set. Not only is she funny, but she's got a great "story" for the reality producers to hang on... finalist and future Gap employee Ant seems to hate her. She doesn't get along well with other female comics (or they don't get along with her... not really clear on that so far). I'm sure she won't win, but it'll be great watching someone who takes risks. I think Gary Gulman has got what it takes to win the whole show. I caught him as an opener for Dane Cook and he was amazing. He seems nice enough for America to like/sympathize with (and a genuine nice too, he was talking to people in line pre the show I saw as well... it ain't just a I-need-a-cheering-section-in-Vegas thang) and he's really funny. His jokes on food, while not exactly the freshest target, killed. Non-finalist guys who I hope to see more of: Dan Ahdoot (who's solid, just needs more material), Chris Voth ("I've never heard of you either"), Monty Hoffman and, apparently, the robbed Dan Naturman from the synopsis I've read about tonight's show. Though I hate wishing ill will of 1/4 of NBC's sitcoms next year, but have you seen the ads for Father of the Pride? The animation is dazzling movie quality stuff, but I've yet to see a joke that justifies transplanting the family sitcom in this setting. Not to mention the bad taste of the whole enterprise! Sure you have Siegfried and Roy's approval. But they're insane. It's part of the premise of the show! Well, soon, onto other things beside LCS. I'm already sick of it and we have hours of housemate-snipping to go apparently.

I Don't Think I've Seen Enough...

Way behind in the TiVo viewing. Not only have I watched just one of the eps of Last Comic Standing, I have 43 episodes of Comedy Central Presents on my addictive little box. Again, 43. Good thing I like comedy, huh? Anyway, seems like we'll have ten finalists. Don't know who they are, but I had some thoughts on why Dat Phan won, even in the face of guys like Dave Mordal, Rich Vos and Ralphie May. Thoughts that might help out the "angry/edgy" comics who get through the casting directors. (Judges? Please.) This is enirely a "theory", since honestly, I hate reality shows and didn't put up with watching much of the last one. So, take the following with a whole beach. When you go to the circus, you see clowns. And there's always one clown, the victim clown, who's the innocent clown... who gets picked on by all the other clowns. And though, really, those other clowns are the funny ones, that victim clown is the star of the show... because he's got the audience's sympathy. Just like Curly of the Three Stooges. Curly's not the funny one. Moe is. Curly is the one who gets hit the most and the audience loves him for it. Dat Phan is a victim clown. So if you get in the mansion, let the other comics hate you. They're doing YOU a favor. You won't be funny, but you'll win.

Friday HA-HA: Channel 7 Not On Your Side?

Since I'm just getting started, didn't have time to do a new piece here. But here's something I did for comedycentral.com's newsletter a while back. Enjoy. Channel 7 may NOT be on your side? The special report... here on Channel 7! You've seen their ads on television. (A quick clip of an attractive but not beautiful woman in a business suit. She radiates sincerity as she states, "It's about the stories. That effect us all. That effect you." A logo and legend appear on screen: "7 on your side.") The ads for Channel 7 promise a lot – to bring you the news in a way that makes sense, along with traffic, weather and sports. And all of these services are promised to be only performed with the best interests of the viewer in mind. That viewer being you. And in the course of a 22-minute broadcast, Channel 7 seems to satisfy many of these claims, giving accurate if somewhat cursory looks at the day's events along with a semi-reliable weather forecast and a presentation of the statistics for the local teams and their games. But it is in the other eight minutes of the broadcast where things take a different turn... a turn to greedy self-interest. These eight minutes are sold – that's right, sold – to local and national businesses who wish to reach an audience – a trusting audience that believes that 7 is on their side. These businesses which to take advantage of this trust by persuading them to buy a good or service that they don't need. Lulled into a false sense of security by 7's slogan, the viewers have no choice but to trust these "commercials." And there are several of these commercials within these eight minutes, some of them only 30 seconds long. That means nearly sixteen unnecessary goods or services could be foisted off on unsuspecting Channel 7 News viewers. Sixteen attempts that may cost you and your family money. And how much does Channel 7 gets for selling time – your time? Several thousands of dollars for each segment. When we confronted Channel 7 News Director Charles Brendon about the existence of these commercials, he refused to speak on camera. However he did make vague threats about how these commercials pay "our salaryies" and that if we didn't like it we could "quit." Though we didn't find anything out from Mr. Brendon, a quick scan of his office did reveal that 7 was far from its viewer sides in other ways. You see, the number of viewer a newscast can attract helps create the rates Channel 7 can charge for its commercial. The more viewers, the more money. To ensure that ratings stay high, Mr. Brendon actively develops Special Reports - like this one - designed to create fear and concern in viewers rather than help them in their daily lives. Come back tomorrow, when we'll continue our five-part investigation. Right now, we're going to explore "Video Games: Are They Prejudiced to Aliens?" But first, some messages from our sponsors.

Harried

Got comments coming on Last Comic Standing, but waiting for the Comedy Central re-airing of the second episode because my TiVo only caught the first half due to somebody's funeral coverage. Ack, the nerve. Very impressed by Reno 911! second season opener (though I felt the "It was all a dream" resolution to the cliffhanger was rather done and weak). The great thing about Reno 911! is the unlike traditional sitcoms, if a character says something mean or rude to another character, you actually feel some sense of pain. One of the reasons traditional sitcoms have been failing is that too often a character will call another some network-safe version of "fuckface" and the victim will respond in kind. Reality TV has shown us one thing: people carry grudges. If someone calls someone else "fuckface", they don't forget it. The characters on Reno 911! feel each others slights without it become cloying or unfunny. Amazing stuff. The comedy has consequence.

Compassionate Brain Eating

HA HA HA

My Liberal Bias Already Rears Its Filthy, Ugly Head.

The #1 tenet of comedy: If you're not pissing someone off, you're not doing your job. Corollary: Try to aim for Republicans... they're pretty easy targets. Apparently, being had on a TV Show is fine for celebrities, aspiring celebrities and Joe and Jane public. But do it to one conservative commentator and there is hell to pay. HELL! Apparently Comedy Central's upcoming show faux debate show "Crossballs" is the latest example of Viacom's left wing bias (other shows include apparently "The Daily Show", which did a recent piece making fun of Kerry VP candidates and regularly features Jon Stewart being deferential to guests from conservative groups and causes.) The fantastic thing about this editorial/call for arms is that it proves exactly why conservative are great targets. She's complaining about a show that hasn't even aired yet. Insanity! The best 20 pages I ever read on comedy were in a psychology book co-authored by John Cleese. In it, he describes how "inflexible behavior" is inevitably funny. Conservative commentators, almost by definition (even with a modifier like "compassionate"), are inflexible. You're gonna be a target when you take a stand on something and not give any ground. If conservatives would be better sports about a culture that takes satirical jabs at them, the jabs would happen less. But that would be flexible behavior... not gonna happen. --- Heartening News Apparently, the very late-airing season finale for Arrested Development did well in that 18-34 year old potential-soap-buying audience. Love the audacity of the Sorpranos, but to me the surprise of the night was how much Arrested's first season tied up with the "light treason" of building tract housing in Iraq. God bless the spot after Simpsons.

Hilarity Sues...

I suppose I should just jump right in. But I have too much Charles Foster Kane in me to not start up with some variation of a Declaration of Principles. But I draw the line at making the final entry in this blog, "Rosebud." This is about comedy. I'll aggregate any of the comedy news and give some commentary, along with news/reviews on funny ha-ha movies, TV shows, CDs, DVDs, books, mags and video games (I consider Grand Theft Auto to be a work of satire... a very good work of satire). I'll cover some comedy history - like the long lost zine Army Man created by George Meyer during the writer's strike -- kinda like my favorite column on comic books (see I'm not just a comedy nerd. I'm a regular nerd too.) Every Friday I hope to throw up a little humor piece of my own for your amusement and to provide fodder for people who think I have no idea what I'm talking about. All this kids and much, much more. Or less. I haven't decided yet. A little note on the quote from the initial entry... I originally though Mark Twain said it. See the benefits of a good Google search. I picked it to acknowledge to you, gentle reader (or more likely - abusive skimmer), that I understand that looking too closely at comedy, like an eclipse, can burn out your retinas. So I'll try to not be pedantic when talking about humor, but if not, I'll be humorously pedantic (but not in a Ben Stein way).

Why this blog is a bad idea.

"Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it."

-E. B. White

But I'm going to do it anyway.