Conan regular Triumph the Insult Comic Dog used the show last night as a platform to announce he's suing Carnival Cruise Lines for stealing his name for their ship, the Carnival Triumph. Hopefully, this will be the last lawsuit Carnival receives from a Conan character. I'm assuming they don't have a cruise ship called the Carnival Preparation H Raymond.
Robert Smigel has a supporting role in Judd Apatow's new movie This Is 40, and while on the set one day, he slapped on his Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hand puppet and filmed this video for Funny or Die, slinging slams and burns at Apatow and the cast. Can you guess who has a better sense of humor about themselves, Judd Apatow or Megan Fox?
Marc Maron just Tweeted the link to this video, a Robert Smigel-written TV Funhouse segment in which the educational program Conspiracy Theory Rock presents a catchy little ditty called "Media-opoly." The animation depicts the total control of the media by a few unregulated corporations – especially, yep, good old GE – who are also dumping nuclear waste directly onto playground woodchips. Big surprise, this clip was cut out from all but the first airing of its SNL episode. It's interesting to think about how far we've come in the last decade and a half, though, with 30 Rock casting GE's fictional parent company Sheinhardt Wigs as a [...]
Those of us wondering what Larry David’s youth was like were given a rare glimpse of his childhood on this week’s Curb, which involved a traumatic incident in Larry’s past causing him to frustrate SNL alums Robert Smigel and Ana Gasteyer.
Still in New York, Larry David spends this episode haunted by an adolescent exploration of sexuality gone wrong, in which he was disrobing in the back of a Mister Softee ice cream truck with the daughter of an ice cream man. The girl’s father catches his daughter with a naked Larry David, who rushes out of the van, only to be laughed at for his nudity by a [...]
Since its short run 15 years ago, quite a bit of myth and mystique has developed around the Dana Carvey Show. For years the show has been lamented as a work of comedic genius shot down before it could find an audience or establish itself. Because only seven episodes of the show ever aired, I speculate that much of this mythmaking has been based upon the show's impressive cast and writing staff, rather than the show itself. Some of the most respected comedy minds in the world can be found in the show's credits, including Robert Smigel, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Charlie Kaufman, and Dino [...]
Robert Smigel's creation Triumph the Insult Comic Dog returned to Conan last night in this clip of Triumph officiating a dog wedding that was specifically designed to win the Guinness World Record for "Most Expensive Dog Wedding." I don't know what's more insane, the fact that someone was trying to hold the world's most expensive dog wedding or that they booked Triumph the Insult Comic Dog as the priest.
NBC just announced that Louis C.K. will be hosting Saturday Night Live on November 3rd. It’ll mark C.K.’s first appearance on the long-running sketch show, but he’s had a history with SNL dating all the way back to auditioning for a spot as a cast member in 1993. Louis C.K. has also worked closely with a number of key players in the show’s history, including Amy Poehler, Conan O’Brien, Dana Carvey, Chris Rock, Adam McKay, and Robert Smigel, and he's written for the SNL’s animated segment “TV Funhouse” and for SNL-adjacent comedies like Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Dana Carvey Show. Let’s take a look back [...]
The Paley Center for Media, which has locations in both New York and LA, dedicates itself to the preservation of television and radio history. Inside their vast archives of more than 120,000 television shows, commercials and radio programs, there are thousands of important and funny programs waiting to be rediscovered by comedy nerds like you and me. Each week, this column will highlight a new gem waiting for you at the Paley Library to quietly laugh at. (Seriously, it’s a library, so keep it down.)
In addition to their giant archive of stuff, the Paley Center frequently conducts a number of panels and programs, which are generally recorded, and [...]
No longer able to hide behind their laptops and filthy dog puppets respectively, Annie Mumolo and Robert Smigel join Judd Apatow's newest film, rumored to be titled This Is Forty. The two will play best friends to leads Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd, offering them comical advice about how to survive the crushing nightmare prison that is monogamous married life (I'm infering).
Rob Riggle, formerly of The Daily Show and SNL, is attached to a new show for CBS written by legendary SNL and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog writer Robert Smigel. Star/writer combos don't get much more promising than that.
The show, which is still untitled, "centers on a gregarious guy (Riggle) who winds up as a real estate agent working for the nerd he made fun of in high school." If there's anything Riggle plays well, its big, gregarious guys. Here's hoping this one makes it to air and can help counterbalance the Chuck Lorre juggernauts of mediocrity currently dominating the CBS comedy lineup.
Normally, Brilliantly Canceled brings you the worst in TV, but with the spirit of giving quickly escaping the earth, only to lay dormant for the next 351 days, we decided to bring you something to get your 2013 off on the right foot.
With the New Year’s baby pushing the withered remains of 2012 into the annals of time, it’s important to reflect on how hopeless it’s always been for us, the TV-obsessed. The short-lived victories of returning favorites, like Arrested Development and seven seasons of the poorly-rated 30 Rock, keep droves of television viewers assuming that maybe, just maybe, there’s someone in TV land fighting the good [...]
One of the most popular SNL cast members of all time, Dana Carvey became one of only three people to win an Emmy for his tenure on the show in 1993 (joining Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner, who received the award in 1976 and 1978, respectively). Carvey was at the forefront of an eclectic group of cast members and writers (including Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Conan O’Brien, Greg Daniels, Bob Odenkirk, and Sen. Al Franken, amongst others) who saved the show from its most tumultuous decade ever – the 1980s – and rang in what was then the most fertile period in SNL’s history since its 70s Glory Era. [...]
Ever since the first Wayne's World movie became a surprise hit, making $183 million from of a scant $20 million budget, releasing a sea of catchphrases into the public consciousness and turning Mike Myers and Dana Carvey into actors in high demand, Lorne Michaels and his producing partners have been searching for the next big SNL movie. In the three years that followed, Hollywood released a string of SNL spin-offs that failed to reach Wayne's World's level of success, including Coneheads, It's Pat, Stuart Saves His Family, and a second Wayne's World film. In 1995, because of the underperformance of these titles and SNL hitting a creative slump, several [...]
Did you know that before moving forward with the Ryan Reynolds/underperforming version of The Green Lantern, Warner Bros. hired SNL/Triumph the Insult Comic Dog/many other great things writer Robert Smigel to write a comedic version? His take on the hero would have had a hapless Jack Black getting the ring and becoming a pretty schlubby and lazy Green Lantern. It all fell apart when nerds on the internet got wind of the project and got all mad about their precious hero not being taken seriously. Well, they decided to go the serious route, and now look what you've got. I hope you're happy, nerds.
Anyways, here's a bit [...]
