Bernie Mac: standup, actor and the only person brave enough to ever hit Samuel L. Jackson with a golf ball. Chris Rock is right when he says "there's only one Bernie." Luckily, we'll get to look back on his early and previously unreleased performances in the upcoming documentary, I Ain't Scared of You: A Tribute to Bernie Mac. Comedy Central is airing the documentary on Feb. 19 (with the DVD out Feb. 21). Save the date.
What do you do when you're in the middle of promoting a movie about a selfish, egomaniacal dictator, and then a real-life selfish, egomaniacal dictator dies? Release an in-character statement eulogizing your friend, doy. Here's what General Aladeen of The Dictator has to say about Kim Jong Il's death:
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM HIS EXCELLENCY ADMIRAL GENERAL ALADEEN – SUPREME LEADER, ALL TRIUMPHANT GENERAL AND CHIEF OPTHAMOLOGIST OF PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF WADIYA
I am saddened to learn of the passing of my dear friend Kim Jong-Il. Our thoughts go out to his wife and 813 children. “K-Jo” was a great leader, good friend and average double’s badminton partner. He [...]
During my basement era — those years from age 8 to 17, 1990 to 1999 — I watched constant comedy. I memorized NBC's jingles (“If you want to be happy on Tuesday night, Wings'll raise your spirits with a brand new flight”), and called my off-at-college brother after episodes of Seinfeld to do post-mortems of Nothing. At that point my critical capacity only allowed me comments like, “Another thing that was really funny was when George screamed 'Seven.' Wasn't that funny?” I still needed him to tell me for sure.
By the time I was 14, television producers and writers had become my heroes. They were like baseball players [...]
Jackass first aired over ten years ago in October of 2000, before 9/11, before the iPhone and before Facebook. There's something about those early episodes that harken back to a simpler time. Perhaps it's the sheer and raw excitement of seeing someone risking getting injured for our amusement. Perhaps it's the fact they used a Minutemen song (the excellent "Corona") as their theme. Perhaps I'm a little too hungover right now to write a "list of three" punchline here. Perhaps it's a combination of all these things.
It wasn't so much a show as it was a spectacle; an America's Funniest Home Videos for people that weren't dead [...]
David Zucker, who, along with his brother Jerry and Jim Abrahams, cast Leslie Nielsen in his first comedic role in Airplane!, penned a great tribute to the late actor for the Hollywood Reporter. Arguably the best role was that of Dr. Rumack, played by the guy no one wanted or ever suspected would be funny, much less go on to have a second career starring in feature films as a goofball comic. Leslie was great in the role because he never "winked" — let on that he knew he was in a comedy. This was essential to the style, and Leslie had a natural instinct for it.
Every day is Bill Cosby Day in spirit, but today is one of the few that we're treated to full articles about his best moments on TV. From his early comedy specials to appearances on Sesame Street to guest spots on Letterman just last year, this piece covers the full range of – wait, where is Kids Say the Darndest Things? Where is it?? I can only assuming the omission is a grave oversight and not the SLAP IN THE FACE it appears to be. Penning my reproachful letter to the editor now.
Patrice O'Neal's friends paid tribute to him over the weekend on Opie and Anthony along with guest host Jim Norton. You can listen to Louis C.K., Chris Rock, and Dane Cook's memories of Patrice here. Opie and Anthony also explain how to help out his family by buying Mr. P, which got its name because that's what his stepdaughter used to call him.
It's weird and touching to see a performer as polished as a late night host start to lose it, so as you can imagine how verklempt you're about to get watching Jimmy Kimmel's tribute to Uncle Frank, his trusty sidekick/in-law who passed away at the end of last month. It's also hard to not remember a man fondly after watching him accidentally hit on Kermit the Frog, chase his wife around with cow vagina-covered gloves, and educate the audience on what part of monkeys are safe for human consumption (answer: no parts of them). "I wanna say thanks to my co-workers who talked to him and visited [...]
How do you say goodbye to someone special? Someone who's been a part of your life for many years? If you're Jimmy Kimmel, you do it with a smooth jam with a little help from Boyz II Men. You don't have access to Boyz II Men, I assume, so you can just pay tribute to Oprah's last show like most other people: with hot, mournful tears.
Alan Sepinwall is writing up a new reason why he'll miss Community every week until it returns. This week: Britta, and her legendary mispronunciation of the word "bagel."
Almost 100 comic strip artists used their Sunday strips this week to commemorate the tenth anniversary of 9/11. They range from simple visual tributes to full narratives that find humor in the way we remember tragedy. The strips are collected here and definitely worth a look.
While the funniest part of this video is that incredibly blase host (you know she's just finishing her sudoku up there), the rest of Louis CK's George Carlin tribute will having you tearing up like Louis CK giving a George Carlin tribute. In a video from NYPL's "A Tribute To George Carlin" from March 2010 (which was just uploaded to YouTube), CK credits Carlin with making him seriously laugh for the first time (what do dogs do on their day off?), as well as teaching him the value of systematically throwing away your material. "When you're done telling jokes about airplanes and dogs, and you throw those [...]
The community pays homage to a great stand-up tonight in Give It Up For Greg Giraldo, premiering on Comedy Central at 11:30pm. Dave Attell, Conan O'Brien, Sarah Silverman and a cadre of other comedians recall fondly the man's "brain like a super-computer that wouldn't shut off," intermixed with clips of his performances. Proceeding an encore airing of the conspicuously Giraldo-free Roast of Donald Trump, Comedy Central has some great promo clips of the special, and the peers who admired the comedian for being "the real thing" with "mommy issues." Since almost all of us have the latter, any comedian should be so lucky as to attain the former.
