- Dan Harmon will no longer be involved Community and we looked at what that means.
- Christopher Guest is working on a television show.
- Charlie Kaufman is creating an HBO show for Catherine Keener to star in.
- Zach Galifianakis is set to star in a film adaptation of Confederacy of Dunces.
- Patton Oswalt and Marc Maron had a Twitter battle on a plane.
- We made the case that either 30 Rock, Parks & Recreation, Happy Endings, Portlandia, or Community was the best comedy of the 2011-2012 TV season.
- We asked you to make the final decision of what was best comedy of the 2011-2012 TV season.
- We determined the best of SNL Season 37. READ MORE
“Forty is the line of demarcation that says you’re an adult now. You’re an adult, so don’t pretend you’re a kid anymore. Here’s what you don’t want to do (and this is just how to be me, which I don’t recommend): You don’t want to get older than you should be, and you don’t want to be younger than you should be… Keep up with things just to have an appreciation of them — knowing full well that it will horrify some younger people. Because the last thing they want is their dad coming in going, ‘Hey, what’re you listening to?’ and dancing around the room going, ‘This is pretty groovy!’”
- One of Paul Feig's four tips for turning 40 gracefully. Because no one wants to be that old dude wearing a backwards "ball cap", singing along to Selena Gomez.
New York, comedy jungle where jokes are made of
There's nothin' you can't do
Now you're in New York
These jokes will make you feel brand new
Big jokes will inspire you
Laugh hear it for New York, New York, New York
New York has a lot of great weekly comedy shows and thankfully BlackBook made it slightly easier to navigate by highlighting five of the very best. Besides the above video about Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler's Hot Tub, there are videos below covering John Gemberling and Anthony Atamanuik's Tony & Johnny Show, Max Silvestri and Gabe Liedman's Big Terrific, Joe Mande and Noah Garfinkel's Totally J/K, and The Stepfathers. First person to get their ticket punched at all five gets a free comedy mask – the second person to do so gets a tragedy mask. Good luck. READ MORE
Everybody is a comedian on Twitter, but only a select few are worthy enough to have all of their witticisms transmitted to you, the ever busy comedy fan trying to navigate through an increasingly congested internet. Every Friday we'll make your life a little bit easier by introducing you to an individual who consistently makes us laugh. You're welcome.
(If you're reading this from an RSS feed, jump on over to the website where you can actually view the tweets.)
You know Damien Fahey as the dude who hosted TRL after Carson Daly left.
But after years of having to pretend to care about Taylor Swift, @DamienFahey has entered adulthood writing for someecards.com and consistently banging out funny tweets, making himself a regular on the daily WitStream Top Tweets of the Day. READ MORE
For the New York Times, Jason Zinoman writes about the post-Bossypants world of comedian memoirs, which I assume is in honor of the recently launched Splitsider Comedy Book Club. Mentioned are the new-ish books by Mindy Kaling, Rachel Dratch, Lizz Winstead, and Michael Ian Black. Zinoman argues they very in their balance of humor and candidness, but generally everyone loves Amy Poehler. Yeah, Amy Poehler-love is a must for every book.
We've been running a poll all this week allowing you to vote on which comedies you thought were the best of the year. And the results are in! And not terribly surprising!
Parks and Rec and Community were the clear favorites, with Happy Endings taking a strong third place. Following them were a number of worthy shows. Some notable tidbits from the results:
-There's not much love for The Office these days; it received a paltry 3 votes.
-The quickly cancelled BFFs beat out a number of heavy hitters, including How I Met Your Mother, Portlandia and South Park.
-Animated shows ranked in order: Archer, Bob's Burgers, American Dad, South Park, The Simpsons, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show.
-The only show to not receive a single vote was The Cleveland Show. Sorry, Cleveland!
Of course, this poll was far from scientific, so take it as you will. The real takeaway: TV comedy is great, and we're lucky to have so many shows to enjoy and argue about the worth of. Except for The Cleveland Show — nobody likes that.
Wrapping up this season, we asked some of our contributors to write about some of their favorite comedies that have aired since the fall. Instead of handing out accolades to just one show, we're looking at a number of shows that all deserve to be called the best comedy of the season.
The comments on last week's 30 Rock recap were different for 30 Rock comments. Instead of rattling off bits and punchlines, there was a discussion of whether Criss was the right guy for Liz. Whether he is or isn't is hard to say but the fact that the debate is even happening suggests a shift in the show. This season of 30 Rock asked the audience to care about the personal lives of these characters in a more real way than ever before and it made all the difference. The thing is, if you never thought 30 Rock was the best comedy on television, then this season wouldn't be any different, as it stayed true to what always made the show what it was, but if you have, then this slight shift of focus was enough to bring a spark back to show and make it the best show of the 2011-2012 season. READ MORE
Wrapping up this season, we asked some of our contributors to write about some of their favorite comedies that have aired since the fall. Instead of handing out accolades to just one show, we're looking at a number of shows that all deserve to be called the best comedy of the season.
Watching Parks and Recreation's fourth season finale earlier this month, I was struck by a series of poignant moments — bits of genuine, hearfelt emotion — sprinkled throughout the episode. It takes a lot of confidence for a comedy to put laughs aside for a few minutes to work in some serious stuff, but doing it well is a whole other thing entirely. In the Apatow Age, blending comedy and drama is something a lot of comedies try to do, but “try” is the key word. There are so many ways this can go wrong — emotional beats feeling too syrupy or forced — but Parks and Rec manages to avoid these pitfalls completely and balances multiple tones ably, much in the way The Simpsons could during its 90s heyday. In fact, Parks and Rec is perhaps the closest thing to a real-life Simpsons yet. READ MORE
Wrapping up this season, we asked some of our contributors to write about some of their favorite comedies that have aired since the fall. Instead of handing out accolades to just one show, we're looking at a number of shows that all deserve to be called the best comedy of the season.
Happy Endings was not the best comedic show on television this season. But it was the funniest.
The show's premise is nothing special: A couple break up on their wedding day, forcing their four mutual friends to navigate their way through the subsequent mess. And hilarity ensues? Describing what happens during an average episode in one sentence doesn't help either: six friends hang out and say funny things and get into funny situations and it is not called Friends. Being able to write a few more sentences helps: Brad is a black, somewhat effeminate lawyer who is married to Jane, a control freak sex addict. Jane's sister Alex is kind of dumb but energetic, Penny constantly fails at dating men and Max is a sloven gay guy who does things like try to sell "certified" pre-owned food. Alex was supposed to marry Dave, a guy who owns his own steak truck and always thinks he's cool but isn't. And hilarity ensues. READ MORE
Wrapping up this season, we asked some of our contributors to write about some of their favorite comedies that have aired since the fall. Instead of handing out accolades to just one show, we're looking at a number of shows that all deserve to be called the best comedy of the season.
So many shows try to be quirky and offbeat, but Portlandia does it right by looking deeply into the desperate need people have to think they're different, slightly better, ever-striving to stay contemporary, and gradually losing it the harder they try. When it comes to naming the best show this season, I can't resist rooting for this IFC underdog. Season two brought back favorites like the Feminist Bookstore ladies, hardcore "so over" bicycle rider Spyke, and Portland mayor Kyle MacLachan, but it also introduced a whole new set of weird, adorable, and pretentious couples and characters. Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein's friendship translates into all of their scenes so well that even their most biting parodies still come with a side of love, and their mix of rock and comedy star sensibilities results in sketches that are as cynical as they are admiring of their targets. Here are four reasons why I think Portlandia rocked it this year: READ MORE
Wrapping up this season, we asked some of our contributors to write about some of their favorite comedies that have aired since the fall. Instead of handing out accolades to just one show, we're looking at a number of shows that all deserve to be called the best comedy of the season.
Thanks to the Internet, I both love and hate Community far more than when I started watching the show. On one hand, the rabid online fan base has reassured me that I am not alone in my appreciation for the show’s playful storytelling, unearthing wonderful little gems like background story arcs and jokes three seasons in the making. And I understand the need for a deafening marching band when the team is getting demolished on the field.
But when you live on the sidelines as I do, the Community martyrdom becomes a little exhausting. I feel like my tastes have aged. As a longtime fan of Donald Glover from his days with DERRICK, I cheered his getting cast and enjoyed the evolution of Troy from ex-jock into Calvin to Abed’s Hobbes. But excitement turned into cynicism when Childish Gambino took off and Community-philes took pitchforks to Pitchfork for its (rightfully) negative review of his Camp album. Then there was the ugliness in March, when this site’s readers voted “Remedial Chaos Theory” (which I loved) as the Best Sitcom Episode of All Time, beating The Simpsons’ “Marge vs. the Monorail” with a whopping 73 percent of the vote. READ MORE
The Last Picture Show Director/Co-Writer Peter Bogdanovich wears bandanas as ascots, has a really fun name to say out loud, and hasn't made a film in over ten years. He has written and will direct Squirrels to the Nuts, an indie comedy about a hooker turned Broadway actress (Brie Larson) and Broadway director (Owen Wilson). Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach are producing and likely Brooklynizing this very Manhattan film. Seriously, I hope there's a long portion of the film where Wilson just says the name "Bogdanovich" over and over for like 12 minutes. Picture it in your mind's ears. Silly, right? Right. Glad we can agree on this.
Bill Murray has always kept the media and Hollywood at a distance. Besides, regularly losing roles because he doesn’t return phone calls, he also isn't the most talkative interview. In the recent Esquire, writer Scott Raab found a trick to get him to talk: ask him about Del Close. Murray studied with Del back in Chicago and the man obviously had a huge impact on him. Murray explained:
He was incredibly gracious to your talent and always tried to further it. He got people to perform beyond their expectations. He really believed that anyone could do it if they were present and showed respect. There was a whole lot of respect… He taught lots and lots of people very effectively. He taught people to commit. Like: "Don't walk out there with one hand in your pocket unless there's somethin' in there you're going to bring out." You gotta commit. You've gotta go out there and improvise and you've gotta be completely unafraid to die. You've got to be able to take a chance to die. And you have to die lots. You have to die all the time. You're goin' out there with just a whisper of an idea. The fear will make you clench up. That's the fear of dying. When you start and the first few lines don't grab and people are going like, "What's this? I'm not laughing and I'm not interested," then you just put your arms out like this and open way up and that allows your stuff to go out. Otherwise it's just stuck inside you.
The rest of the interview wavers between a discussion of Murray's career and Murray just being a dad to his sons that pop in and out. One fun story is when he talks about the first time he met Bruce Willis: READ MORE
An Open Letter to Jay Leno About Stealing My Video and Then Getting It Removed From YouTube
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