The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is going to Carol Burnett this year, the Kennedy Center announced today. The lifetime achievement award, given out annually by the Kennedy Center, is the most prestigious accolade in comedy, and this is the 15th anniversary of the prize. Past recipients have included Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Steve Martin, and, more recently, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey. Burnett, who turned 80 this year, is best known for her long-running TV variety show, which aired for 11 years on CBS from 1967 to 1978. In addition to the show, she has had an eclectic career that has seen her working as an author [...]
The Critics' Choice Movie Awards were held last night, and Judd Apatow was honored with the "Louis XIII Genius Award," which is sponsored by the cognac brand Louis XIII and not the famed French king. It's an absurdly-lofty name for this particular award, but there are a hell of a lot people who are fewer qualified for it than Apatow. Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids star Rebel Wilson presented Apatow with the statue, introducing him by reading the following speech off a piece of paper:
Critics' Choice Louis the XIII Genius Award speech, written by Judd Apatow. But don't say it's written by Judd …. OK. Maybe I wrote this. World [...]
Recent SNL departee Andy Samberg has just been announced as the host of the 2013 Independent Spirits Awards, the awards show that recognizes the best in independent films. The event will be held during the day on Saturday, February 23rd (the day before the Oscars), and will air on IFC at 10pm that evening. This year's most-nominated films at the Spirit Awards are Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook, with five nominations each. This is Andy Samberg's first time hosting a trivial movie awards show since the MTV Movie Awards in 2009.
"You could argue that Sean Penn didn't deserve the Oscar for that movie [Mystic River], but he probably did for a couple of others that he didn't get. [Laughs]. That’s the way it goes. He did some amazing jobs, like Dead Man Walking, and he didn't get the notice. So then he got it that time, and it’s like, I didn't get it, so what are you going to do? Someone said, 'What do you think about this,' and I said, 'Well, I think it's going to be a regular thing. I think I'm going to get nominated every 25 years so.' [Laughs]. I can yuk about it a little bit."
The Creative Arts Emmys were this Saturday. Though mostly it was awards like "Best Light Mixing in a Reality Program," there were also some odds and ends of note. Childrens Hospital – yep, Childrens Hospital will now be known as "The Emmy Award-winning Childrens Hospital" – won for Outstanding Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Program. The Daily Show won for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series because they always win. Jimmy Fallon won the award for Outstanding Guest Star in a Comedy Series for his turn hosting SNL. SNL also won for the direction and camerawork on the Mick Jagger episode, and hairstyling for the Zooey Deschanel episode. (I guess [...]
The winners of the 2013 Peabody Awards, given for excellence in radio and TV were just announced, and Lorne Michaels, Louie, Girls, and D.L. Hughley's Comedy Central special The Endangered List all scored prizes. Lorne Michaels's award is a rare achievement in that the Peabody Awards rarely recognize individuals and give the majority of their accolades to TV shows or specials, but if anyone deserves it, it's the guy who simultaneously produces SNL, 30 Rock, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Portlandia. Portlandia was one of last year's Peabody winners alongside Parks and Recreation and The Colbert Report, two rare top-notch TV comedies that Lorne Michaels doesn't [...]
The British Comedy Awards were held in, um, Britain last night, and Ben Kingsley presented his The Dictator co-star Sacha Baron Cohen with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Cohen came out as Ali G to accept the award, marking his first public appearance as the character since HBO's Da Ali G Show in 2004. Hit the jump for more acceptance speeches from last night's awards, which went out to shows that you'll probably start hearing about here in the States two years from now, such as Julia Davis's melodramatic 19th century shipwreck comedy Hunderby, which took home two prizes.
Look, the Grammys have always been sort of out of touch when it comes to comedy, often choosing safe, unchallenging stand-up albums over cutting edge great ones. Occasionally, outstanding stuff seeps through (like Louis C.K.'s Hilarious, which won the prize last year), but it's pretty rare. The 2013 Grammy nominees were announced today, and in the category of Best Comedy Album, voters played it pretty safe and proved to be woefully ignorant of some amazing work done by comedians this past year. Here are this year's nominees for Best Comedy Album:
The Wrap reports that The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has announced its list of contenders for its Animated Short Oscar, and amongst the 10 films is "Maggie Simpson in 'The Longest Daycare,'" a 3D animated Simpsons short that was shown prior to screenings of Ice Age 4 this summer. The four-and-a-half minute short was written by Simpsons masterminds Matt Groening, James L. Brooks, Al Jean, David Mirkin, Joel H. Cohen, and Michael Price, directed by David Silverman, and involves Maggie in conflict with her nemesis, unibrowed baby Gerald, at a daycare. This is a chance for Oscar redemption for The Simpsons. The Simpsons Movie was shut out of the Best Animated Feature category in 2008, [...]
GLAAD (or the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, for those of you who don't know your acronyms) just released its list of nominees today for the annual GLAAD Media Awards, recognizing TV shows, movies, music, news, and other forms of entertainment that positively portray LGBTers. The nominees for Outstanding Comedy Series were Happy Endings, Modern Family, Glee, and newcomers The New Normal and Go On. The New Normal is centered around a gay couple and a surrogate mother bearing their child, and Go On features a lesbian lawyer character who is a part of Matthew Perry's grief support group. The only other comedy shows to receive nominations this [...]
The 2013 Golden Globe nominations came in this morning, and, as usual, they snubbed a bunch of TV's best comedies. Community and Happy Endings didn't receive a single nomination (and never have, from the Globes), whereas Parks and Recreation and Louie only got one nomination each for acting and not for Best TV Comedy. To put things into perspective, the Matt LeBlanc Showtime series Episodes got a Best TV Comedy nomination, an honor that was not bestowed upon 30 Rock, Community, Happy Endings, Parks and Recreation, and Louie. And most important of all, Parks and Recreation's Nick Offerman has never been nominated for a Golden Globe (or an [...]
The Oscars have historically been an awards show that doesn't give comedy its proper due, but last year, things looked like they were starting to change, with Bridesmaids receiving two nominations (Best Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy and Best Original Screenplay for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo), Jonah Hill scoring a Best Supporting Actor nom for his turn in the drama Moneyball, Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie winning an Academy Award for his song "Man or Muppet" from Jason Segel's Muppets movie, and Nat Faxon and Jim Rash winning a screenwriting Oscar for The Descendants. This time around, it doesn't look like comedies and comedians will do quite as well [...]
Stand-up and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor from the Kennedy Center last night in a ceremony that saw folks like Jane Lynch, Jimmy Kimmel, John Krasinski, Sean Hayes, and Lily Tomlin paying tribute to DeGeneres and her long, groundbreaking career. Ellen DeGeneres holds a historic place in the comedy community and the gay and lesbian community, as well, having been the first female comedian to ever be invited to Johnny Carson’s desk after a Tonight Show stand-up set and the first person to play a gay lead character on a network series. DeGeneres can add a 15th to that list [...]
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