Splitsider

May 17th, 2013
Tweetin

Today's Funniest Tweets

by | May 17th, 2013

MORE

Roundup

This Week in Comedy: Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, and Maybe Jason Sudeikis Leaving 'SNL'

by | May 17th, 2013

-Bill Hader is leaving SNL after eight years, and we made a videolist of his best sketches. Fred Armisen is leaving, too (and Jason Sudeikis "probably") so we made a list for Armisen as well.

-Seth Meyers is officially taking over Late Night in 2014.

-USA ordered Jessica St. Clair and Lennon Parham's pilot to series.

-In honor of The Office ending, we remembered our favorite moments from the show.

-Netflix unveiled the first trailer for the new Arrested Development and a Tobias-themed website.

-Adam Scott's next Greatest Event in Television History will be Hart to Hart with Amy Poehler.

-ABC canceled Happy Endings, and USA is in negotiations to pick it up. READ MORE

Trailer

Trailer: Robert De Niro and Morgan Freeman in 'Last Vegas,' a Geriatric Version of 'The Hangover'

by | May 17th, 2013


Here's the trailer for Last Vegas, a new comedy due out in November. Starring Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, and Kevin Kline as a bunch of old dudes who head to Las Vegas for a bachelor party, it's basically an elderly version of The Hangover. It's shocking that the trailer is completely devoid of Viagra jokes.

stand-up

Watch Jen Kirkman Do Stand-Up on 'Conan'

by | May 17th, 2013


Here's Jen Kirkman doing her second-ever stand-up set on Conan last night and finally giving married people the intervention they deserve.

Not TV

Larry David Is Almost Unrecognizable in His New HBO Movie

by | May 17th, 2013

Here's the first official image from Larry David's new HBO movie Clear History, in which Larry David looks to be pretty much unrecognizable next to a normal-looking Jon Hamm. Entertainment Weekly has a teaser trailer and reports that the film, written by and starring David, will be premiering on HBO sometime this August. David plays a former marketing exec whose life falls apart after his boss makes millions off of their electric car company, and he's backed up by an eclectic supporting cast that includes Jon Hamm, Bill Hader, Philip Baker Hall, Kate Hudson, Michael Keaton, Danny McBride, Eva Mendes, Amy Ryan, and J.B. Smoove. If Clear History is half as good as Larry David's wig and beard, it'll be worth your time.

International Relations

The 'Peep Show' Creators Turned Down 'Flight of the Conchords'

by | May 17th, 2013

UK comedy writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, who co-created Peep Show and Fresh Meat, were forced to say no to the opportunity to create another well-known comedy series. Speaking to Ken Plume on his delightful longform conversation podcast A Bit of Chat this week, Sam Bain revealed that the duo had agreed to co-create Flight of the Conchords with Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie but had to turn the job down because of their commitment to Peep Show. Here's Bain recalling what happened:

"I remember Series Four, we had a horrible decision to make because we were about a week away from flying to LA to co-create Flight of the Conchords, and then Peep Show got recommissioned and we couldn't go … [It was difficult] especially when we saw the show and how good it was. At that point, we had no idea. Obviously, we wanted to do it, but we didn't know it was gonna be as good as it was. That was quite painful … Obviously, it's a luxurious position to be in to choose between Peep Show and Flight of the Conchords. It wasn't like 'Oh my God, we made the wrong decision.' The sad thing is you can't have it all."

The Flight of the Conchords guys ended up going with another UK comedy person, James Bobin (Da Ali G Show, The Muppets) to co-create their show, and the rest is history.

Web Videos

Olde English Looks Back at 'One Picture Every Day'

by | May 17th, 2013


Splitsider is thrilled to offer our first digital download, The Exquisite Corpse Project, a fantastic film from the former members of legendary sketch group Olde English. I recently sat down with the guys to look through some of their classic Olde English sketches. Here, the group looked back at one of their biggest viral hits.

Ben: I think playing around with format was always the defining characteristic of our group. That's what we were most interested in, was experimenting with new ways to make comedy. So in 2006, there was a really popular video called "Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years". And I got really obsessed with pausing his video and seeing what was on his monitor or seeing what the girl in the background looked like, Oh now, he's got a new girlfriend. Just really pausing it and kind of creeping on this guy. And we came up with the idea that we could take that same sort of phenomenon and play it with in a comedy format. So we intentionally built in a lot of jokes that you only get if you pause it and go through frame by frame. If you don't pause it, there's levels of jokes that you do understand, but if you do go frame by frame, there's a whole other layer. That's fascinating to me.

Adam: That sketch was also a big turning point for us because, we had like a couple of videos that were different stages of viral hits, but that was the first one that was a hit on YouTube. And actually it was a hit because I remember they put it on the YouTube front page, which was a big deal at the time.

Ben: I remember calling our agent when we put that up and being like, "Hey dude, can you try and get this on the YouTube front page?" And he said, "I have no idea how to do that but I'll try." And then six hours later it was on the front page.

Adam: Coincidentally. He didn't do it.

Ben: Conicidentally. No, I called him and I was like, "You did it! You did it!" And he was like, "What did I do?" [They all laugh.] "It's on the front page!" He's like, "Yeah, I haven't done anything."

Adam: And it got like two million hits, which at the time was an enormous number, and right now is like a failure of a video.

Ben: In 2006, that was probably like 40 billion hits. READ MORE

Arrested Development Development

Watch 'Arrested Development's Alia Shawkat Reveal the Plot to a New Episode

by | May 17th, 2013


Netflix puts out this video today of Arrested Development cast member Alia Shawkat revealing the plot to a new episode of the show. Too bad they had to censor out most of it. At least you can just mad libs your own Arrested Development episode off of this clip if you're really desperate.

Tweetin

Follow Friday: Jeff Lyons (@usedwigs)

by | May 17th, 2013

Everybody fancies themselves as some sort of wizard that can conjure up laughter by a few strokes of a keyboard, but only a few tweeters are truly 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 that you might not know about who consistently makes us laugh and momentarily forget that other days of the week exist.

(If you're reading this from an RSS feed, jump on over to the website where you can actually view the tweets for an optimal level of enjoyment.)

Jeff Lyons (@usedwigs) is the funny man proprietor of usedwigs.com, and the host of the UsedWigs Radio podcast. Most relevant to Follow Friday, Jeff is a funny tweeter who was enough of a gentleman to elaborate on a few of his classic tweets.

When Facebook friends post about their kids' sports victories, I always comment "He cheated. I was there. Very disappointed in your family."
August 11, 2012 4:14 pm via Favstar.FMReplyRetweetFavorite
@usedwigs
Jeff Lyons

"The feedback from my 'you cheated' comments has been 100% positive, most parents fess up and thank me profusely like, 'Thank you Jeff, we had a sneaking suspicion that our little Colby and Pepper Jack were cheating and playing dirty and maiming other children during their pee wee lacrosse games. It took great courage for you to call us out on a public platform and we no longer allow the boys to play organized sports, in fact, we’ve completely disowned them. They now live with their karate instructor, Keith. Thanks again!' It feels good to help." READ MORE

guest stars

Watch Amy Poehler Predict People's Futures on 'The Chris Gethard Show'

by | May 17th, 2013


Here's this week's episode of comedian Chris Gethard's nutty public access/web show The Chris Gethard Show with super special guest Amy Poehler joining the gang for the full hour in a show that involves them predicting strangers' futures because that's what public access TV is for.

Interviews

Talking to Colin Quinn About His New One-Man Show, 'Tough Crowd', and Being the King of Twitter

by | May 17th, 2013

There have been many chapters in Colin Quinn's career since he first appeared on MTV's Remote Control in 1987. The former SNL castmember went on to host the short-lived but brilliant Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central; more recently, his unique Twitter persona caught the eye of the New York Times. Following on the success of his Broadway one-man show Colin Quinn: Long Story Short, his "history of the world in 75 minutes," Colin Quinn's new show, Unconstitutional, aims to tackle "226 years of American Constitutional calamities." I caught up with after a preview performance of his show to talk about constitutional conventions, comedy nerds, and how sincerity infuriates people.

What was it about the Constitution that made you want to do a show?

Well, it's because it annoys me [that] all this time, everyone's always talking about how brilliant the Constitution was, and I didn't get what was brilliant about it. How can I be so stupid that I don't get the Constitution? So I said I'm going to write a show about it. I wanted to do another show anyway, but I wasn't going to make it, like, "Oh I did world history, now I'm doing American history." Of course, that's what I did, but I wasn't planning that. I was planning to not do that, so people wouldn't go, “Look at this idiot, what a loser. Now he's gonna do a American history.” But that's what I am, and that's what I did.

I think that’s fair. It’s like a high school curriculum — you do world history for a year and American history for a year.

There you go. What's next?

Well I went to an all-girls school, so we did, like, world literature, American literature, and women's literature.

Ah. That would be good, right? That would be wild. Because, among the subjects that I've never had a grip on — no guy understands women. Or some guys do, but very few. So that really would be good. A whole show on women. But then, can you imagine if it really became popular and suddenly all the horrible bachelorette parties came to the show? I'd kill myself. The worst standup people, crowd-wise, are usually bachelorette parties, strippers and the men who love them, when they come to shows, and bachelor parties. Bachelor and bachelorette parties are the worst. Either one, because you can't have that many people at a club together. They know each other, they want to talk to each other and get drunk. It's unnatural. They shouldn’t be in comedy clubs. Look, here we are talking about standup, instead of the Constitution. READ MORE

stand-up

Tig Notaro Is Releasing an Expanded Version of Her Largo 'LIVE' Set

by | May 17th, 2013

Record label Secretly Canadian announced today that they're releasing an expanded CD version of Tig Notaro's acclaimed Largo performance from last year, during which she discussed her cancer diagnosis and a number of personal tragedies that had befallen her during that year in an emotional, raw, and funny set. The performance achieved acclaim from Notaro's peers Ed Helms (who called it "One of the most amazing stand-up sets I've ever seen"), Bill Burr ("made me feel like I was an open miker. Absolute genius!"), and Louis C.K. ("in 27 years doing this, I've seen a handful of truly great, masterful standup sets. One was Tig Notaro last night at Largo").

C.K. released Notaro's set under the name LIVE for $5 via his website last year, but it's no longer available there. The upcoming CD release is set for July 16th and will feature a bonus disc called "Tig Notaro Live at The Moth," consisting of a 15-minute story she told at storytelling show The Moth about how her mother's death redefined her relationship with her stepfather. The story will also be broadcast on The Moth Radio Hour that week for all you cheapskates who don't want to pay for the new album. You can preorder Tig Notaro's CD release here and download a four-minute preview of the Moth story below: READ MORE

Reviews

'The Office' Series Finale Review: Goodbye, Dunder Mifflin

by | May 17th, 2013

After 201 episodes of Dunder Mifflin adventures, The Office — which set the trend for dry, music-free, single-camera American mockumentary sitcoms for years to come and spawned a countless trail of recaps, spoilers, reviews, thinkpieces, and GIFs — waved its final goodbye last night. While the past two episodes "Livin' the Dream" and "A.A.R.M." felt more like caps to this season's storylines, "Finale" served as a celebration of the show that went from the struggling underdog it was back in 2005 to the powerhouse NBC Thursday night leader of nearly a decade. The episode — which included some weirdly awesome cameos by Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Eric Wareheim, Greg Daniels, Allison Silverman, and more — picks up a year after last week's events: Stanley has become Florida Stanley permanently, Ryan and Kelly run off together (leaving a baby and fiancé behind), Mose and his scarecrow share glances, Erin reunites with her Joan Cusack/Ed Begley Jr. parents, Dwight and Angela get married, Jim and Pam sell their house to live the happy Austin dream together, and after much speculation and denial, Michael Scott returns for his final glorious That's What She Said. READ MORE

things that will never happen

Bill Hader Doesn't Want a Stefon Movie

by | May 17th, 2013

With Bill Hader poised to leave Saturday Night Live after tomorrow's season finale, don't expect him to try to turn his most popular character from the show into a movie. Hader tells GQ, "There's no emotional through line. Sometimes people say to me 'I want a Stefon movie' and I'm like, you think you want a Stefon movie but then you'll see the poster for it and think, 'Wait, I don't want this.'" If only Bill Hader had been on the show during the '90s, when all of SNL's most popular characters got turned into movies, then he probably could have been pressured into making a Stefon movie and satisfying you weirdos who want to see that.

Older posts »
-->