Welcome to the latest installment of Tragedy Plus Time. Each segment will focus on a particular ‘life crisis’ — sometimes globally tragic, sometimes more of a personal affair — and we’ll explore how many of the comedians we know and love have dealt with it.
If you were following any social media during the Boston bombings last month, you would have observed the global dialogue quickly shift from mundane chatter to the somber details of the attack. Concerns for safety, information about what had transpired, and speculation on the culprits behind it dominated the national conversation. Remarks about any other topic were deemed callous and inappropriate. Especially jokes, on [...]
Whenever I am asked what my favorite television show of all-time is, I try to change the subject. To insult the many comedies and dramas that could make a strong case for the singular honor by not evoking its name would be tragic, and I may make a fool out of myself to the individual I'm having a conversation with by uttering the "wrong" answer and unknowingly conveying that I am a gigantic moron (human interaction is the worst.) When pressed, I used to say Community, the comedy that managed to lovingly comment on seventy years of television with clever satire and great silliness in a respectful manner while simultaneously [...]
"When any television show is lionized for being 'smart,' someone's laughing all the way to the bank — some company … That there's a difference between any of this shit is the greatest joke that television ever told. I mean, as the creator of Community, I'm telling you: It's all garbage. And the idea that my garbage, y'know, needed a better time slot or deserved an Emmy or didn't deserve an Emmy, the idea that it was better or worse than 30 Rock or Arrested Development or Freaks and Geeks and all that shit — you only have to take a couple steps back before you realize that you're looking at a bunch of goddamn baby [...]
Community creator Dan Harmon's whirlwind tour across America with his live show Harmontown is in progress, and at a show in Brooklyn last night, Harmon and guest Jason Sudeikis prank called Chevy Chase, who, like Harmon recently parted ways with the NBC sitcom that brought them together. Harmon had invited Chase to appear at the Harmontown show, explaining to the audience, "I texted him, 'I'm doing my show in Brooklyn tomorrow night; are you in New York?' and three hours later, he texted back the word country." Dan Harmon then proceeded to call Chevy Chase on speakerphone, holding his phone up to the mic. When Chase [...]
Community creator Dan Harmon is taking his live show/podcast Harmontown on a nationwide tour beginning January 10th, and it was just announced via Facebook that the entire tour will be filmed for a documentary by director Neil Berkeley. For the uninitiated, Harmontown is a live show in which Harmon and sidekick Jeff Davis talk about whatever they want for an hour, with the conversation ranging from absurdly dumb to brilliant. Click this link for tickets to the tour, and you could end up in the background of what's sure to be the Gimme Shelter of comedy podcast tour documentaries (minus the tragedy).
