Splitsider

Come one, come all, to the tour of the glamorous accomodations at Esther's Follies comedy show at SXSW. A vegetarian option will be provided. John Hodgman is your tour guide, and there may be run-ins with Kyle Kinane, Kumail Nanjiani, Todd Barry, Gabe Liedman and a male bartender named Dana. You'll feel like you're right there in Austin, even though you are at home staring at an electronic screen and tricking your mind into simulated experiences. Admission is free!

John Hodgman will guest star on an episode of Community this season, though the show is being very mysterious about the role he'll play. History professor? Study group saboteur? Hallucinated god?

Bored to Death, may it rest in peace, was given a lovely send-off to the great underworld (overworld? What happens to TV shows when they die?) when creator Jonathan Ames bought fans $1,600 worth of drinks at the Brooklyn Inn on Wednesday night. John Hodgman was in attendance, too, and noted that "we've seen now in history that shows can be saved" – so maybe the show is only Bored to the brink of death. Anyway, Bored to Death's fan base was likely more easily localized than most, since the show is so Brooklyn-centric. But the example it (along with certain flash mobs) sets of television [...]

There are so many comedy books coming out today! Our deeply scientific analysis has concluded that it's probably because November is, according to the crazies over in Corporate America, the beginning of the holiday gift-buying season. If you are responsible and love your friends and family, read through this list to figure out which book to buy each of them for the holidays. (Or you could do what I'm going to do, which is BUY ALL OF THEM FOR MYSELF and then get my family members like, a scarf that I buy on the street.)

John Hodgman's That Is All

You've probably seen the promo video for this [...]

Last night, John Hodgman and his moustache were on The Daily Show to discuss the recent spate of high-profile hackings. He gives advice on how to protect your online identity (or Etsy store), and then "ziplines into the infocloud" to fight cybercriminals on their own turf. It's a turf that looks a whole lot like the original Tron's turf, but that's how you know it's authentic!

The SXSW comedy lineup is here, and incidentally, it's almost exactly the same as the invitation list for my dream wedding! (It's only missing Jughead from Archie Comics and Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's characters from Wedding Crashers, because what's a dream wedding without crashers?) In addition to standup and improv galore, the schedule features live episodes of WTF, Comedy Bang Bang, Doug Loves Movies, You Made It Weird, and The Chris Gethard Show. As for the comedians themselves, there are almost too many great comics to name (for a start: Marc Maron, John Hodgman, Kristen Schaal, Mike Birbiglia, Amy Schumer, Eugene Mirman, TJ Miller, Reggie Watts, Kumail Nanjiani), [...]

"We’re all kind of using the same guests," said Jimmy Pardo of comedy podcast hosts, before announcing an upcoming Never Not Funny with guests Marc Maron, Todd Glass, Adam Carolla and Chris Hardwick. Just kidding! Further opinions are aired in this article about the seriousness of comedy podcasts, from John Hodgman's notion that podcasts can't rightfully be called comedy "when you’re weeping” to Pete Holmes' point that the vast array of content means that listeners can expect podcasts to suit their ever more specific needs. Now there's a fun thought experiment: what is your specific, personal dream podcast? Mine would be the male trio of Stella plus [...]

Here's John Hodgman on his relationship with poor curmudgeonly Elliot Kalan on the set of The Daily Show:

…I thought it would be funny to bully him in a sort of meta-commentary of nerd-on-nerd bullying. I started walking up to his desk and looking at the Iron Man action figures that he had there and just going, “Nice action figure, nerd, this is mine now,” and then walk away with it. Then I would shove him in the hallways. [Laughs.] He took all with very good humor. Things really turned, though, when I was walking to the studio, and I had changed from my sneakers into my [...]

Hey, I have a ferret skeleton room too! Granted it also doubles as my bedroom, but you wouldn't be wrong if you called it that either! John Hodgman's new book That Is All will be released November 1, giving you over a year to read it before the End Times begin, and about a week for Hodgman to successfully make his way out of his grotesquely opulent mansion. I'm very interested in the void where he keeps Justin Long, but truly, only a deranged millionaire would keep Dick Cavett waiting around with only a belly full of chips.

Well this is exciting news! The beloved author, comical spokesperson and Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman is shooting a pilot for HBO in New York a week from tomorrow. It will be titled Good Evening, My Name Is John Hodgman. To be shot and directed by Spike Jonze and Lance Bangs, it will be a talk/variety show, and it sounds wonderful: THE THEME OF THIS PARTICULAR PROGRAM is “JOCKS vs. NERDS,” the culture war of our time, and a subject that you know I have been thinking about for some time now, and also talking about with the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

IN THIS CASE, the “NERD” [...]

Jim Norton took to the red carpet of the Grammys to ask stars from Steve Martin to Adele to hold up his non-nominated 2011 standup album Despicable and related merchandise onstage. It's a pretty funny idea, and it highlights the fact that you rarely see successful album or book releases from comedians these days without a high-profile promotional stunt behind them. It seems that it's barely even worth writing and releasing a funny book if you don't also have a great, original idea to promote it virally online.

The cast of Wet Hot American Summer teamed up with some guest stars at San Francisco Sketchfest this week to perform the film as a live radio play and make everyone who wasn't there about as jealous as we were back when we read the oral history of the making of the film.

Most of the cast played their original roles, with the additions of David Wain as the narrator, Busy Phillips and David Cross in the parts originated by Janeane Garofalo and David Hyde Pierce, Bobcat Goldthwait as the can of vegetables, and Andy Richter, Gillian Jacobs, Jessi Klein and John Hodgman filling out various [...]

John Hodgman went on The Daily Show last night to speak out against the "last acceptable prejudice in this country": the hatred of the wealthy. No one appreciates everything they do for this country – paying luxury taxes, paying for street repairs, advancing to the nearest railroad without passing Go. And if class warriors continue to antagonize Hodgman, he may be forced to…fire the Whiffenpoofs. Even though their name is so fun to say. He must really be serious about this.

Oh fame, you are fickle temptress! While the Bill Hickses of the world receive your clammy embrace only after death, you mount yourself on a Dane Cook like a teenager after her first taste of Peach Schnapps! But there are no guarantees in this life. And there are no sure paths to becoming famous. Hundreds of top-notch stand-ups and sketch/improv performers are toiling away in obscurity at this very second (okay, maybe not this very second, but you get the gist).

So, how the hell do you become the next comedy sensation?

While most of our most renowned comedy performers have come up either through stand-up or sketch/improv (the two [...]