Recent News

Morning Debriefing 1/13/12

1) Having Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer host the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards is already a win for comedy as they had Jon Daly play the Tree of Life/Sappity Tappity on TV, but some of comedy’s best in film last year got recognized:

Best Comedy–Bridesmaids
Best Supporting Actor-Christopher Plummer-Beginners
Best Original Screenplay-Woody Allen-Midnight in Paris

Also, Bridesmaids producer Judd Apatow righteously burned Jerry Lewis for saying women aren’t funny.

2) The Gentlemen Scumbags Podcast with Mike Bridenstine and Mike Burns has just come out with the Best of Gentemen Scumbags Vol. 1. Bridenstine and Burns are funny and this is the first attempt, to our knowledge, of a podcast releasing an album of their “best of”, so you should just buy it and be part of comedy history already.

3) Many of you’ve already seen this and have apologized for how much of hipster you feel like for wanting to see this movie even though you kind of hate hipsters, but it’s going to be OK. Liking Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom from just the trailer is OK, in case no one told you.

4) The Nerdist is having another special on BBCA this weekend (Sat. 10:15PM)!

5) Last night, Stephen Merchant was so excited to go to Vegas because he was in the Tooth Fairy with the Rock on Jimmy Kimmel Live. 

6) Julieanne Smolinkski/@boobsradley wins on the Colbert Report via decision by Mike D. This really happened.

7) Splitsider makes it really easy to stalk the comedy writers, performers, and more of various TV programs on Twitter.

8) The book of Portroids for the Never Not Funny Pardcast-a-thon is now available!

9) Riot LA’s totals for their Kickstarter: $12,536 of $20,000 with 21 days to go.

10) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone shows why dental history is best discovered through x-rays.

11) Who knew that saying “No, this is good. I’m feeling really good right now,” as a comedian at any time on stage is a dead giveaway that you’re feeling like you want to stage dive into the floor? It’s kind of like when someone says your comedy is interesting when they don’t want to hurt your feelings.

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Morning Debriefing 1/14/12

1) John Mulaney was on Fallon last night. Simply put, just watch and enjoy.

2) Also last night, Josh Adam Meyers took the stage at the Downtown Comedy Club and The Comedy Store for the first time since the tragic accident involving both him and Angelo Bowers. Donations for his medical expenses are still being taken at DonateForJosh.com.

(via @thecomedystore)

3) ABC’s Work It was just cancelled, effective immediately. Jake Fogelnest couldn’t be happier to stop recapping something.

4) In case you’re either a) not getting excited about Key & Peele premiering on Comedy Central Tues. Jan 31st 10:30PM or b) haven’t seen any of their great sketches thus far, then now’s a perfect time to watch: Obama’s Anger Translator.

5) Did you know that Wendy Liebman is a sidekick for terrestrial radio show? Maybe we should check out 88.5FM KCSN from 6PM to 8PM tonight.

6) The Guardian wrote an interesting article regarding the prevalence of rape jokes, then claim while they have been successfully written and told, they’re no longer “terribly funny either”. The Guardian obviously has no idea who Anthony Jeselnik, Ryan Stout, or Steve Schneider are.

7) Just in case you were wondering what you were missing at the Gallery 1988 x Adult Swim show at Gallery 1988 Melrose, there’s a tribal mask of Brak from Space Ghost…

8) Riot LA totals for their Kickstarter: $12,708 of $20,000 raised with 20 days to go.

9) I’m all for supporting comedians exploring the depths of any topic for material, bits, etc., testing the limits of what can and can’t be comedy, but I have yet to hear an actually funny joke about Tim Tebow. Feel free to prove me wrong by e-mailing thecomedybureau@gmail.com or tweeting @thecomedybureau.

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Morning Debriefing 1/15/12

1) Just as an FYI, Twitter will break at 5PM PST/8PM EST tonight. Oh yeah, Ricky Gervais is hosting the Golden Globes on NBC at that time too.

2) Another round of Chris Lilley’s Angry Boys is on tonight (HBO 10PM) to calm us all down after Twitter crashes.

3) Not only is Diablo Cody’s adaptation of Sweet Valley High going to be a “hard R”, but it’s also going to be a musical.

4) So for all the hardcore comedy nerds, Pete Holmes painted Kyle Kinane for his upcoming episode of Holmes’ “You Made It Weird”. This will be worth a whole lot of money in the future when comedy is as popular as baseball. 

5) OK, we’ve been all watching Home Movie Commentaries, which is both exactly what it sounds like and is as awesome as it sounds, right?

6) Following Paul F. Tompkins, John Mulaney, and The Super Serious Show, we’re glad to hear that Judah Friedlander is now on Tumblr.

7) Let’s keep Erin Judge’s meme on “genuine jokes from a genuine lady” going.

 

8) Poetry can be really funny. Evidence regularly posted by Eilzabeth Laime at ElizabethWritesPoems.Tumblr.com like this one.

9) So, for the first time ever, I found a comedy fan who hates callbacks or, as he put it, “fuckin’ bending it all back around like ‘You know when you’re having a mac and cheese sandwich,’ then ending with ‘So I had a mac and cheese sandwich.’ I fucking hate that shit.” I mean, that was a pretty great callback he did. I don’t understand all the hatred.

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Morning Debriefing 1/16/12

Here’s Everything You Wanted to Know About the 2012 Golden Globes In Regards to Comedy But Were Too Apathetic to Click On

1) Notable Winners:
Best Screenplay-Woody Allen-Midnight in Paris 
Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture-Christopher Plummer-Beginners
Best TV Series Comedy or Musical-“Modern Family”
Best Actor on TV Series Comedy or Musical-Matt LeBlanc-“Episodes”
Best Actress on TV Series Comedy or Musical-Laura Dern-“Enlightened" 
*Also, though not a comedy, several comedians are happy Downtown Abbey won best Mini-Series.

2) Best Tweets during the 2012 Golden Globes Telecast
@EveryTweet_Ever "Except for Modern Family, they pretty much got everything wrong.”
@SeanOConnz “Is "Homeland” a show about nerds?“ 
@Gibblertron "Jessica Alba should be a professional speaker because she’s so good at using words to make sentences.”
@LouisPietzman “Third-best joke of the night: American Horror Story is nominated for Best Drama.”
@Scharpling “Fun fact: Chrisopher Plummer has murdered thirteen people in his life." 

3) Best Tweets during the 2012 Golden Globes Telecast That Weren’t Really About the Golden Globes
@BabsGray "I didn’t win any awards tonight but I did eat 10 pieces of sourdough bread for dinner. Your move, Hollywood.”
@AlexBlagg “IT’S BEEN SUNNY EVERY DAY IN L.A. FOR LIKE TWO WEEKS STRAIGHT. GO OUTSIDE, YOU GUYS!”
@Boopityba “I auditioned for that AT&T commercial.”
@BenKronberg “The bed is the safest and funnest place to fart, but the scariest and most dangerous place to poop.”
@AlexKoll “Audience member drinks water." 

4) As some might have expected, Ricky Gervais withheld his wrath as host to the delight of NBC brass, but that doesn’t matter because one of the best .gifs ever was made at the Golden Globes.

This concludes Everything You Wanted to Know About the 2012 Golden Globes In Regards to Comedy But Were Too Apathetic to Click On

6) The greatest joke David Copperfield ever pulled was being in Bec Benit and Nick Rutherford’s web series Theatre of Life.

7) On late night, Stephen Merchant will be on Conan (TBS 11PM) and based off his last appearance on Kimmel, it seems he’ll be possibly telling another story of debauchery possibly involving Vegas.

8) The world got to know him as the drunken rollerblading incarnation of the Tree of Life on the Critics Choice Movie Awards, but know the world will know his real name Sappity Tappity.

9) The Creek and Cave, one of the homes of independent NYC comedy, needs help via Kickstarter.

10) The next issue of RE:COM is here and aside from being a fantastic look into what’s happening in comedy right now with comedy at Occupy LA, Eddie Pepitone, Best Show on WFMU, a piece by us, and more, all of you should buy it because James Adomian graces the cover. 

11) Edna (Jamie Lee), the Norwegian vlogger, talks about her favorite stand-up comedy that is only sort of stand-up comedy.

12) Eddie Brill clears his name in regards to out-of-context quotes in recent NY Times column about him.

13) Riot LA totals for their Kickstarter: $13,299 of $20,000 with 18 days to go.

14) "Anyone dare going to get more meta by hating on the people that hate the "Shit [insert demographic] Say” trend?“-Shit Snarky Comedy Journalists Say

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Morning Debriefing 1/17/12

1) Eddie Brill has now become the former comedy booker of the Late Show with David Letterman as a result of his now-infamous interview with the NY Times. However, along with Brill trying to explain the quote that was taken out of context about female comics, Bonnie McFarlane who is making a film called Women Aren’t Funny has since defended Brill in regards to women being funny.

2) Seasons 1 & 2 of Adult Swim’s Delocated just got released on DVD!

3) On late night tonight, Fred Armisen will be on Conan (TBS 11PM) and Ricky Gervais will be on the Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM). Sure Portlandia and the Golden Globes will be discussed, but what about SOPA?

4) With their comedy powers combined, Scott Aukerman, Paul Rust, Harris Wittels, Kulap Vilaysack, Michael Cassady, and Neil Campbell wrote a script called Rocky vs. Rambo. 

5) One of the coolest, funniest uses of Photoshop has got to be these “Movies from Alternate Universe” where movies from today were made in “the world of yesterday”…

6) This edition of Louie vs. Rick, the transcripts of text conversations between a cat and his owner, shows Hollywood all the rich humor it’s missing out on when it anthropomorphizes animals.

7) If you’re reading this, you have most certainly been on a never ending quest to find the funniest anything. Well, this essay we wrote for the Nerdist tells you why your efforts are in vain.

8) Our trailblazing-ly popular podcast, This Better Be Funny, decides to have a mystery guest for Ep. 7 because our huge following demands suprises. Also, as you’re already listening to a wonderful podcast, be sure to check out the latest episode of WTF! featuring Todd Glass announcing he’s gay because humanity and comedy come together.

9) Riot LA totals for their Kickstarter: $14,128 of $20,000 with 17 days to go. Also, they made the front page of Kickstarter today as the “Project of the Day”.

10) I’m not sure how that’ll work, but live comedy should be thankful that the NBA still really hasn’t made it up to its fans this season.

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Morning Debriefing 1/18/12

1) Nick Offerman asking Will Ferrell “Do you speak American?” makes the full length trailer for Casa De Mi Padre totally worth it.

2) Riot LA, the proposed LA alternative comedy festival, is coming out with new promo videos! Check out this one with Kumail Nanjiani then donate (they’re at $14,274 of $20,000 with 16 days to go) so we can see something amazing later this year.

3) On Late Night Tonight, it will be a run through comedy history of sorts, Jordan Peele from Key & Peele will be on Conan (TBS 11PM), Dana Gould and Will Arnett will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC 12AM), and Bill Cosby will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM). 

4) Yesterday, we posted “How To Absolutely Not Do Stand-Up Comedy” featuring a video of “comedian” California Thunder getting hit over the head with a beer bottle after engaging with an audience member. Turns out, that, in our haste of writing and posting, we failed to acknowledge that the “witness” Jon Mishner (who runs JohnnyBiceps.com) who tipped the story off to us is actually the infamous California Thunder. There’s a very unfunny comedy short/doc following the life of the psuedo-sideshow comic, which is around 13 minutes long, all of which painfully sat through to find something that would hopefully be even tangentially funny. Rest assured, our efforts were in vain. Still, whether one is actually attempting stand-up or a parody of it, getting a beer bottle broken over your head at the Hollywood Hotel open mic is a pretty great red flag that you’re doing comedy very wrong.

5) Smashed, written by James Ponsoldt and Susan Burke, is one of Sundance’s most anticipated films according to Vulture. Take that foreign dramas.

6) Awesome and half comedy show Holy Fuck! wants to have T-shirts. You’d pay $10 for this, right?

7) So, viral sensation, the Honey Badger, is being developed into it’s own comedy series. Yes, you read that right. You really did. 

8) In Things We Did On Other Comedy Sites News, we brought great comedy and poetry together at Laughspin, reviewed Showtime’s upcoming behind-the-curtain comedy series Inside Comedy also for Laughspin, and also pointed out 5 of the funniest intentionally funny videos we saw last week for the Nerdist.

9) Today’s Puddin’ has Eddie Pepitone finding a new uglier subtext in which to say the word ‘ugly’.

10) Anyone think that the legislators behind SOPA and PIPA are going to use those clips of the Office where Michael defends the use of e-mail forwards to show how ridiculous “us artists” are being to further not understand their point?

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Morning Debriefing 1/19/12

1) On late night last night, Bill Cosby gave Jimmy Fallon a comedy pointer, Will Arnett revealed that he speaks Japanese to Jimmy Kimmel while Dana Gould is still funny as ever also on Kimmel. Tonight on late night, Stephen Wright will matches wits again with Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show (CBS 12:35AM)

2) In developing comedy projects news, Sarah Silverman added Harris Wittels and June Diane Raphael to her pilot and Nick Stoller (director of the Muppets) got his own pilot from CBS.

3) Rob Delaney was on LA’s KROQ with Kevin and Bean on Wed. morning, no doubt, to promote his already sold out show at the Hollywood Improv this Friday.

4) Stephen Colbert with Herman Cain? Yes, Colbert with Cain.

5) Two comedy movie posters to be really excited for from the Duplass Bros. and Bobcat Goldthwait respectively:

6) Also on a morning talk show promoting shows, but in India while doing it, Hari Kondabolu!

7) So now, there’s a Shit New Yorkers Say and we have no doubt that will be a Shit Los Angelenos Say made, if it hasn’t been already made. We just ask that it be as good if not better than this NYC version.

8) Riot LA totals for their Kickstarter: $14,706 of $20,000 with 15 days to go.

9) Yes, there was a cursing bit on Modern Family last night, but we’re more concerned with people that can’t let go of taboo on words. Read our wrath at them on Laughspin here.

10) Mark Wahlberg has indeed stopped one thing: LA comics telling jokes about the Clippers being good. I seriously have not heard a single Clippers joke and at least 5 about Wahlberg stopping 9/11 in one night alone.

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Morning Debriefing 1/20/12

1) Yep, that’s David Cross on Cat Soup on the Soup. 

2) On late night tonight, the one and only Joan Rivers will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM).

3) Nice “semi-longreads”: Jen Kirkman–“What I Would Have Said About Eddie Brill on NPR” Steve Heisler on Dane Cook and comedy criticism, and Alison Agosti “The Art of Getting Really Dumped”.

4) So the discourse in comedy on what demographic is or isn’t funny has been completely misguided as, clearly, people, in general, aren’t funny as we explain in this persuasive essay on the Nerdist. However, Barbara Gray is funny as written up in the SF Weekly.

5) Improv Everywhere has less than 10 hours to meet their goal for their documentary DVD. Make this happen

6) Also, Riot LA, having $14,866 of $20,000 just put out a new promo video with Todd Glass and Marc Maron…. and why are you not donating right now?

7) So there was a joke theivery dispute on People’s Court…

8) KCET Food just knows where food and comedy intersect in LA by continuing their where comedians eat series with Matt Braunger at Izakaya Honda-ya.

9) This is what should be studied in poetry classes: Elizabeth Laime’s Poem of the Day

10) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone finds a way out of this life via ¡Rob!.

11) TJ Miller killed at the Super Serious Show last night riffing on the trippy lighting. Look at that: we just pointed out a reason to go see live comedy. I wish more people would do the same more often.

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Morning Debriefing 1/21/12

1) The Duplass Brothers latest film, Jeff Who Lives At Home with Jason Segel and Ed Helms, isn’t perhaps as “Duplass Brothers-y” as Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom is “Wes Anderson-y”, but, if you ask us, it’s still pretty Duplass.

2) Jon Fisch, in making his network TV debut, becomes the first comedian to perform on Letterman following the Eddie Brill-NY Times debacle.

3) The Vans Should Sponsor Comedian Dave Ross saga continues with this video… (meaning, yeah Vans, you should sponsor Dave Ross)

4) In to submit to soon news, The NY Television Festival’s Comedy Central Short Pilot Contest is closing acceptance of submissions in less than a week while the Bridgetown Comedy Festival has over a month before they do the same.

5) Riot LA’s totals for their Kickstarter: $14,903 of $20,000 with 13 days to go.

6) Wonder what Eddie Pepitone doing therapy in his car is like? Wonder no more. (You were wondering that, right?)

7) Thanks to Katie Crown and Nathan Fielder, you can find a person dressed up as “Pixar” at Hollywood & Highland.

8) In case you’re being hunted by Nazi spies, Davey Johnson gives you the 411 on what everyday weapons to use to foil their plans on What’s What.

9) Most comedians won’t be live-tweeting the SAG Awards not because of it sort of being pointless to do so. They won’t live tweet the SAG Awards because it’s on TNT and TBS and most comedians don’t have cable.

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