comedy news

Morning Debriefing 2/28/12

1) HBO is continuing to intrigue the comedy world with Veep w/ Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Matt Walsh, Tony Hale, and more… 

2) THERE WILL BE MORE BILLY ON THE STREET ON FUSE TV!!! (All Billy on the Street news should be typed in all caps)

3) In “we’re thrilled about!!!” news, Jim Hamilton will be taping an album aside Michelle Biloon for AST Records at Meltdown Comics Fri. April 27th & Moshe Kasher will be releasing his book “Kasher in the Rye” throughout LA at the end of March.

4) Tonight on late night, Ken Marino from the State will be on Conan (TBS 11PM), Stephen Merchant will be the on Daily Show (Comedy Central 11PM), and, we’re well aware this could end up being not funny but we felt compelled to add it, Werner Herzog will chat with Carson Daly on Last Call (NBC 1:35AM)

5) There’s a global film festival/contest going on run by Ridley Scott and Michael Fassbender on YouTube: The Your Film Festival.

6) In a battle of comedic wits, James Urbaniak outwitted Alison Agosti despite her not really participating in Ep. 3 of Urbaniak’s web series Topic A.

7) The Kraft Mac & Cheese-Paul F. Tompkins feud continues!

8) The Sklar Brothers chatted with Jesse Thorn for the A.V. Club.

9) Here’s yet another article (from Sabotage Times) betting on Channel 101 being on the future of comedy, as they should be.

10) This 12th episode of This Better Be Funny (can you believe our podcast isn’t about comedy news???) features yet another attempt at eating and trying to record a podcast with hosts Jake Kroeger, Jeremy Paul, and guest Brandie Posey. Also, after the meal, there’s graphic description of being grossed out by lesbian porn.

11) OK, we were pretty over the “Angelina Jolie Oscars leg meme” as soon as it started, until this happened.

12) Comedian Occupational Hazard #156: You will hate something that you used to love and not know exactly why.

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Morning Debriefing 2/27/12

1) Louis CK just announced that Season 3 of Louie is underway and he apparently fired himself as an editor.

2) Paul F. Tompkins showed that he was a big fan of that Kraft Mac & Cheese commercial while simultaneously announcing the date of his 1-hr Comedy Central Special, Laboring Under Delusions, which is Sat. April 21st like Tompkins only can.

3) Here’s are quick comedy-related Oscars round-up:

CONGRATULATIONS TO:
Woody Allen (Best Original Screenplay, Midnight in Paris)
Christopher Plummer (Best Supporting Actor, Beginners)
Bret McKenzie (Best Original Song, “Man or Muppet”, Muppets)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS:
Meryl Streep saying “but whatever” in her acceptance speech
The Christopher Guest sketch of test screening
Sacha Baron Cohen dumping Kim Jong-Il’s ashes on Ryan Seacrest
Jonah Hill telling Emma Stone to cut off her presenter bit 
Chris Rock bashing how easy doing voice work on animation films is 

(And the moment you’ve all been waiting for…) BEST TWEETS:
Andy Haynes “@ImAndyHaynes This is like that time I went hiking and I found two fossils." 
Shelby Fero ”@cracked I’m watching an episode of Twin Peaks. Did it win any Oscars? What exactly are the Oscars?“ 
Kumail Nanjiani ”@kumailn I wanna go to the factory that Clooney’s girlfriend was made in.“ 
Norm MacDonald ”@NormMacDonald barf" 
Katie Crown “@Katie_Crown My name is Reddkar Peht. Why are people saying they’re walking all over me and I don’t even know them or where they are?”
DC Pierson “@DCPierson THE ARTIST is like CRASH: in a year, no one will remember it, and it’s all about black and white.”

4) Tonight on late night, Ed Helms will be on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM)

5) Jimmy Kimmel’s Movie: The Movie should host the Oscars at some point.

6) We can only imagine what the hell the Eric Andre Show is up to

7) Paul F. Tompkins and Erin Gibson will be on tomorrow’s episode of Key & Peele!

8) Jon Hodgman got “banksy’d”…

9) We can only hope, as comedians, to be as hated as Billy Crystal by a bunch of punk kids on Twitter someday. Also, the Drive has less dialogue than the Artist joke is officially dead. Stop it.

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Morning Debriefing 2/26/12

1) Can you feel it? Comedy Bang Bang is coming to IFC soon. (Sorry for the subtlety, it’s a link for the TV spot for Comedy Bang Bang)

2) Congrats to the Channel 101 Top 5 Finishers from last night’s screening: Intimate Indiscretions, Oh Shit, Coach, The Parent Project, Gumbel. If you weren’t in attendance, all the shows are already up at Channel 101.com. Oh yeah, they have a fancy new site too!

3) No one really live tweeted the Spirit Awards, so we won’t get into that, but another set of congratulations go to Will Reiser for nabbing the Best First Screenplay Award for 50/50 and Christopher Plummer continuing to clean-up the Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance in Beginners.

4) Yes, the Oscars are only in a few hours (ABC 4PM PT/7PM ET).
Things to watch for:
Billy Crystal hosting
Chris Rock, Will Ferrell, and Zach Galifianakis presenting
Sacha Baron Cohen as the Dictator on the red carpet
Tweet Roast
#Oscars on Twitter for several other comedians you’re following
Depending on results, will Bridesmaids spark comedy bias for Oscars
Christopher Plummer possibly confirming that he was the Best Supporting Actor in 2011, end of discussion
Woody Allen possibly nabbing yet another statuette for writing Midnight in Paris

5) Of course, what would this time of year be without the Razzies, of which, Adam Sandler set a record for nominations.

6) OK, basically, the only thing you need to be doing if you’re wondering about the discussion of women in comedy is listen to Jen Kirkman.

7) Just in case none of you have doubts about people watching comedy in a garage, may we present to you the consistent turn-out at the Comedy Car Hole.

8) The Bel Air Film Festival is now accepting submissions…

9) If there were ever an occupational hazard section to any guide to doing comedy professionally, it should include: Will develop propensity to want to stab boring/dumb people talking to you in the throat.

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Morning Debriefing 2/25/12

1) Anyone think that Sacha Baron Cohen did Hugo just to re-establish enough good will with Hollywood so he could get to pull off his Dictator stunt at the Oscars?

2) Once again, let us not forget the nod to “indie film”, so to speak, with the Spirit Awards tonight airing at 10PM ET/PT on IFC. You can have your choice of the live host Seth Rogen or Chris Gethard live chatting while watching for laughs.

3) Woody Allen has set a release date for his next film Nero Fiddled this summer. Let us hope that he keeps the comedies coming.

4) Todd Barry proposes to a Russian prostitute while Eugene Mirman and Amy Schumer egg them on in an episode of Delocated. We’ve said enough, just watch it already.

5) In comedy opportunities news, YouTube sensation Destorm is looking for funny people, ages 18-25, that can take or give advice in regards to self-improvement for a show he’s doing on YouTube. E-mail reachadam@mac.com with picture, if interested. There’s no pay, but you’ll be fed and get exposure to Destorm’s big following. Also, Cleft Clips (the folks responsible for the Super Serious Show, Sad People Talking, and the Plop List) are looking for a kick-ass social media savvy intern.

6) Would anyone be interested in helping make an entire gallery show of Fake Criterions happen?

7) Bill Pullman to play president in the NBC-Josh Gad/Jason Winer/Jon Lovett comedy pilot. Cue at least a million Independence Day jokes on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

8) Will Weldon highlighted the most famous atheist athletes and why it’s a lackluster list.

9) Dave Ross “guest-concocted” his own conversation about a disturbing Christmas light decoration at Ron Babcock’s Concocted Conversations.

10) JUST IN CASE YOU FORGOT, Kenny Powers and Eastbound and Down is back in town and he’s got a new mothefuckin’ shoe for K-Swiss, BLADES.

11) Comedy is at a point where doing puns with conviction is more edgy than making a rape joke.

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Morning Debriefing 2/24/12

1) Jim Gaffigan HAS SET A DATE for Mr. Universe! (meaning his next comedy special coming out Apr. 18th for $5 download, not a weird wedding for you pun-inclined folks)

2) Bill Maher did his special online last night AND gave Obama a cool mil for his re-election campaign. That’s pretty much a normal Bill Maher thing to do, right?

3) In industry happenings, Archer is renewed yet again on FX and Bob Odenkirk’s pilot “Let’s Do This” is soon to air on Adult Swim.

4) Recently on late night-ish TV, Paul Rudd revisited childhood candy on the Daily Show (and will also be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon NBC 12:35AM tonight), The Whitest Kids U Know’s Trevor Moore peddled useless junk to people at the Promenade on Leno, Garfunkel and Oates dropped an f bomb or two while singing about go-karts on Attack of the Show, and JC Coccoli explicated on the thinking behind Sarah Palin’s team about the upcoming Sarah Palin film on Keith Olbermann.

5) Wanderlust is out in theaters today. Maybe, you should go see it?

6) Todd Glass got Rory Scovel to interrupt his interview following his panel interview on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon back stage at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

7) @SteveCarell is now a thing.

8) The Creek and the Cave only has five days left to finish raising their Kickstarter!

10) Based off this video of his Dictator character calling out the Academy, Sacha Baron Cohen needs to live chat/tweet/something throughout the Oscars as Admiral General Aladeen.

11) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone explores REALLY alternate weight-loss methods.

12) If I actually did host/run all the shows/open mics that Google Calendar says I do, people should fear my literal omnipresence a whole bunch more.

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Morning Debriefing 2/23/12

1) The Humor section at your local bookstore just got a shot of life with Steve Martin’s The Ten, Make That Nine, Habits of Very Organized People. Make That Ten: The Tweets of Steve Martin and Sara Benincasa’s Agorafabulous: Dispatches From My Bedroom (that’s gotten quite the reviews at Laughspin and the Spit Take)

2) Last night on late night, Jay Larson educated folks on how to deal with bullies on Conan. Tonight, there’s almost no way that Paul Rudd being on the Daily Show won’t be a whole mess of fun (Comedy Central 11PM)

3) Jonah Raydio. That’s right Jonah Ray has a new podcast all his own…

4) While we are ALL excited for the Oscars this weekend, let us not forget the Spirit Awards on Saturday, especially since you can chat with Chris Gethard during the whole thing.

5) Gaby Dunn is a comedian in NYC and was sexually harassed by a heckler. Not that heckling is really OK at all, but what this guy did is especially not.

6) Two fun/short interviews: DJ Douggpound chatted with Jonas Polsky about DJ’ing and comedy and TJ Miller with Serial Optimist about his latest music video.

7) The Los Angeles Podcast Festival has been officially funded on Kickstarter and will, thusly, happen! However, if you’re still in the donatin’ mood, the Creek and the Cave still needs your donations…

8) After reading and laughing with Amy Dresner’s recounting of trying to get sober in Ashland, OR after trying to get sober in LA, we just want to give her a hug.

9) Another episode of Clip Cup perfectly sums up comedy on the Internet better than anyone ever, especially with having Chris Hardwick.

10) I would love to write jokes here, not because it would be peaceful and serene, but I wouldn’t be distracted by the people obviously looking at me thinking, “Pssh, another loser writing in a cafe. REAL ORIGINAL, KID. Good luck with WHATEVER." 

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Morning Debriefing 2/22/12

1) Conan just got renewed through April 2014. Take that Mayans.

2) Fox is developing an ‘Incredibles-ish’ TV series with Patton Oswalt…

3) Tonight on late night, make sure to catch the hilarious Jay Larson on Conan (TBS 11PM)

4) As you might have heard from everyone you know, Community is back on NBC Thurs. Mar. 15th 8PM. Get your viewing parties ready.

5) The early deadline has passed, but the Bridgetown Comedy Festival is still accepting submissions. Get on that, if you want to perform at one the best comedy festivals in the country that is…

6) While Dylan Brody just did a recording this past Sun., the Spit Take listened to his latest album Chronological Disorder and found that you can still have not peaked in comedy, artistically, though already having a respected act several years in.

7) Ashley Tisdale has been cast in the CBS pilot that Louis CK is developing, which is surprising everyone. Given how poignantly unconventional CK’s projects are, we shouldn’t be surprised by anything by him anymore.

8) In the most recent interview with Kristen Wiig, David Letterman made it awkward when discussing Wiig’s next “all-female” comedy project.

9) You’re watching Nick Turner give the lowdown on temping in King Temp, right?

10) Check out our picks for this week’s 5 Most Intentionally Funny Videos for the Nerdist.

11) Just a reminder that we’ve extended the deadline for our tickets giveaway to Salute to Movie Night to Thurs. (that’s tomorrow) 5PM PST. Get your answers in for most deserving Oscar/Razzie winner to thecomedybureau@gmail.com for a chance to win and have your answer featured here at TCB.

12) Lent would be great if comedians practiced Lent and didn’t write any more Whitney Houston or Jeremy Lin jokes for 46 days.

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Morning Debriefing 2/21/12

1) OK, SXSW has a pretty damn good comedy line-up. James Adomian, Kristen Schaal, Kyle Kinane, Pete Holmes, Jon Hodgman, Reggie Watts, The Super Serious Show, Bob’s Burgers, WTF, Set List, and way WAY more.

2) It’s been awhile, but some worthy comedy albums came out today that might make you think twice about just buying Sleigh Bells’ new album: Garfunkel & Oates’ Slippery When Moist & Billy Wayne Davis (self-titled).

3) Last night on late night, Todd Glass discussed his WTF announcement on Fallon. Tonight, David Wain will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM), Bill Maher on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS 12:35AM), Alec Baldwin on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM), and Rob Riggle on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC 11:35PM). Also, don’t forget about Key & Peele on Comedy Central, 10:30PM.

4) A survey by the NY Times claims that young men find comedy essential when viewing themselves and others. Is that supposed to mean comedy’s winning or something?

5) Executively produced by Judd Apatow and written, directed by star Lena Dunham, Girls shows promise to fill in for the comedies that HBO cancelled.

6) Coming soon: The Marc (Maron) & Tom (Scharpling) Show. Need we say more?

7) Possibly, the most tweeted moment at the Oscars will be when Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, just announced, are presenting.

8) You will be able to buy the book that Stephen Colbert just made up while annoying legendary children’s author Maurice Sendak very soon.

9) The Spit Take wants you to know that you should be watching Ron Funches just like we do.

10) Nick Offerman just joined the Diablo Cody movie that is, unfortunately, not Sweet Valley High.

11) The latest episode of This Better Be Funny (that’s our podcast) found hosts Jake Kroeger and Jeremy Paul in guest Candice Thompson’s car following the comedic thread of cocoa-butter infused vaseline to find that Candice didn’t know who Lando Calrissian was as well as discussing the validity of being an ecdysiast (stripper).

12) We’re moving our ticket giveaway up to this Thurs. at 5PM. Get your answers in for most deserving Oscar/Razzie winner tickets to this Sun. Salute to Movie Night.

13) I once laughed at someone’s resume because they had “having fun” as one of their special skills, thinking that it was stupid. I don’t laugh about that anymore, especially when I bomb on stage, but it’s still stupid to put on your resume.

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Morning Debriefing 2/20/12

1) Not many surprises with comedy at the WGA Awards with: 
Midnight in Paris for Best Original Screenplay 
Modern Family for Best Comedy Series and Best Comedy Episode 
The Colbert Report for Best Comedy/Variety Series Including Talk Shows

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception for Best Video Game? Hmmm….

2) Even in a short, out-of-context clip, Pixar still is able to promise something both funny and endearing in their new short “La Luna” to be release with their upcoming full length feature Brave.

3) Tonight on late night, Todd Glass is sure to cause some sort of hilarious ruckus on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM)

4) Mike Birbiglia on Letterman.

5) TJ Miller’s rapping makes more sense with a music video with a bunch of people that are out of place.

6) There are only 9 days left for the Creek and the Cave’s Kickstarter and they’re barely half-way funded. Give some bucks to some of the best comedy in NYC.

7) Win tickets to “Salute to Movie Night” this Sun. by giving (via e-mail to thecomedybureau@gmail.com by 12PM 2/21) the best answer to this question: As Sandra Bullock has won both an Oscar for her performance in The Blind Side and a Razzie for her role in All About Steve in 2009, who else, in your opinion, has won an Academy Award in any year throughout Oscars history, and also deserved a Razzie for another film they were involved in that same year?

8) Thankfully, The Colbert Report announced that it’s resuming production…

9) According to @TrendsLA on Twitter, a comedian by the name of Patt O. Noswalt trended at the same time Patton Oswalt was live-tweeting Downton Abbey.

10) Today, I read that someone with cerebral palsy did stand-up with the aid of an iPad and my first thought was, “I couldn’t get away with using an iPad on stage. That’s BULLSHIT.” Yep, I’m a comedian.

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Morning Debriefing 2/19/12

1) At 10PM tonight, the eyes of the comedy world, well-the ones that can afford HBO anyway, will be on the return of Eastbound and Down followed by the premiere of Ricky Gervais’ new series Life’s Too Short w/Warwick Davis at 10PM & 10:30PM respectively. If you can afford, your eyes should be too.

2) OK network television, if you want to make another police drama procedural, take a cue from Narc Cop. [via henlips]

3) The Simpsons can check off another thing on their increasingly shorter bucket list with having rejected episode ideas tweeted out.

4) This interview with Doug Stanhope about politics actually reads like a set from Doug on why you shouldn’t vote.

5) How about that? The NY Times gives “China, Il” a nice write-up.

6) At 3PM, we will be doing our very first ticket giveaway via some TBD challenge we’re currently thinking of! Next Sun. Feb. 26th, The Mint LA will be having “Salute to Movie Night”, which will basically be Rob Delaney, Moshe Kasher, Jonah Ray, and more riffing on the Oscars during the Oscars telecast. Sound like fun and you don’t have $10-$12 to spend? You’re answer was, of course, yes, so check back at 3PM…

7) We’ve been wondering what James Pumphrey of the Midnight Show meant when he posted “We sign mad contracts. #tms.” along with the picture below of Michael Busch, producer of the Midnight Show signing, perhaps, a “mad contract”. We hope that means The Midnight Show is going to be somewhere on TV… 

8) As far as shows that have been confirmed, green-lit, etc. that we are all excited for, check out set photos from anticipated upcoming TV comedy series (like Bunk w/Kurt Braunohler and the Eric Andre Show) that will make you have an “ah-ha” moment when you see the set photo match with the sketch/bit.

9) Every person that performs comedy permanently has the pervading fear that they will get a test screening report of their performance similar to this one that David Cronenberg’s Videodrome got.

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Morning Debriefing 2/18/12

1) For those in the know, Mash-Up has been officially green-lit by Comedy Central. For those not in the know, one of the most exciting stand-up series in a while hosted by TJ Miller featuring anyone from Matt Braunger to Kyle Kinane to Hannibal Buress and more has just been given the go-ahead. 

2) Liezl Estipona is delving into a Vol. 2 of Liezl Was Here: Adventures in Comedy Photography…

3) Ricky Gervais gave a better idea of how mean “Life’s Too Short” is going to be on Fallon.

4) Watch Jeffrey Tambor think that he’s doing an Arrested Development movie and not get through his sleep apnea story on Ferguson.

5) Want more details on the upcoming Monty Python film Absolutely Anything? Of course you do.

6) Here’s a brief clip from an upcoming album from Katie Crown and subsequently why we should all be happier after to listening to Crown’s stand-up.

7) All the speculation has been put to rest as the Colbert Report has stopped production due to a serious illness that has stricken Colbert’s 91-year old mother.

8) Check out yet another a lovely episode of Louie v. Rick, the cat and owner who text message each other.

9) I’m so glad that a significant portion of LA’s population was out to see comedy last night. I know this because I couldn’t sneak into several shows.

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Morning Debriefing 2/17/12

1) Joan Rivers and Steve Martin gave us a reminder of their hilarity last night on Letterman and Conan, respectively. Also, Rebecca Romijn had sex fantasies with Steve Martin in the after watching the Jerk. Perhaps, that when the mark where “you’ve made it in comedy”.

2) Tonight on late night, Ricky Gervais will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon not talking about atheism and/or bestiality(?) (NBC 12:35AM) and both Kristen Wiig and Mike Birbiglia will stop by the Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM)

3) Yes, we’re all excited about Louis CK having been on Parks and Recreation again last night, but everyone should watch for the hilarious Kristine Levine making a cameo on Portlandia (IFC 10PM).

4) The Maine Comedy Festival is looking for comedians that want festival exposure.

5) “Reanimator: The Musical leads LA Weekly Theater Awards nominations”…

6) There seems to be something up with the Shorty Awards nominees in regards to the “Comedian category”… 

7) Two interviews of funny people worth your time: Hannibal Buress & Casey Rose Wilson.

8) It’s actually impossible to have an opinion on Lana Del Rey. Check out our “theory” at the Nerdist.

9) If you don’t know Jeremy Paul, his Naked Jeremy’s Declarative Statements will make sure that you do and never ever forget…

10) If you were to make a pie chart of comedians that haven’t been to a form of therapy, would that pie chart even have slices?

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Morning Debriefing 2/16/12

1) Bill Maher perhaps, “one-ups” CK and Gaffigan by announcing that his new special will air on Thurs. Feb. 23rd 7:30PM PST on Yahoo.  

2) The Comic’s Comic has got the lowdown who is taping the upcoming Comedy Central half-hour specials… 

3) Last night on late night, Jon Stewart tried to stop himself in a bit on Letterman and Myq Kaplan crushed on Conan. Tonight on late night, Jeffrey Tambor will hopefully keep our hopes about Arrested Development on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS 12:35AM), and legend Joan Rivers will be on the Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM), as well as legend Steve Martin will be on Conan (TBS 11PM)

4) The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival is on its way to Seattle!

5) A Second City Tokyo? That’s right…

6) Did you guys know that Chris Fairbanks special “Fairly Uncertain” is completely on YouTube?

7) The Colbert Report briefly stopped production, hopefully, for Colbert to further scheme his way in this year’s presidential race.

8) Community’s Gillian Jacobs will be in a magician comedy with Steve Carell, yet there is no report of Pete Holmes (creator of one of the funniest jokes about magic) being involved.

9) In honor of the 1 Year anniversary of Puddin’, we picked 10 of our favorite episodes.

10) I get irked every time a comedian signs off from a set by saying, “I’ve been [their name]” as if they’re returning a far off island of cynical people.

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Morning Debriefing 2/15/12

1) …and everything is going according to plan since Jim Gaffigan just announced he’ll be following the Louis CK model of producing his next special and self-distributing it via his website.

2) Last night on late night, Ricky Gervais DIDN’T talk about atheism on the Daily Show. Tonight on late night, Bill Maher will show off his wit on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC 11:35PM) and Jon Stewart will match wits with David Letterman on the Late Show (CBS 11:35PM)

3) New SNL cast members are being auditioned…

4) If you were having trouble with your significant other yesterday because of Valentine’s Day, you should have listened to Al Sharpton and his romance advice on the Soup.

5) Jeff Ross chatted with Huffington Post Comedy about the necessity of a comedian to go too far.

6) Nick Turner is hilarious as a lot of things. It just so happens that one of them is being temp. (please watch this new web series “King Temp” right now)

7) Upcoming comedy album-ness includes Garfunkel & Oates "Slippery When Moist" (Feb. 21st), Doug Stanhope “Before Turning the Gun On Himself” (listen to a sample on Laughspin’s homepage, and Dylan Brody “Chronological Disorder” also on Feb. 21st.

8) YES! MORE COMEDY IN PRINT! Welcome the Pendulous Breasts Quarterly with contributors from the Onion, the Colbert Report, and more.

9) OK, Niggas in Paris at Midnight is pretty well mashed up.

10) Check out this week’s 5 Most Intentionally Funny Videos on the Nerdist to catch an atypical foreign comedy, Dana Gould as a Dr. Zaius Mark Twain, and more.

11) Really Paramount? As a talking animals video went viral and is now being adapted into a feature length film, it turns out America’s Funniest Home Videos was WAY ahead of it’s time.

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Morning Debriefing 2/14/12

1) There will be a season 2 of Key & Peele!

2) Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Doug Stanhope announces the upcoming release of his new album, “Before Turning the Gun on Himself”.

3) John Hodgman will make a cameo on Community and hopefully he’ll play his “Deranged Millionaire” character that mistakenly making a speech at Greendale.

4) Today marks the 1 Year Anniversary of Puddin’, so you should watch this episode, laugh, then slow clap by yourself for one of the most prolific web series ever.

5) The new Ghostbusters movie may move on without Bill Murray and a whole new Occupy joke may be born.

6) Ricky Gervais vs. Jon Stewart on the Daily Show tonight (Comedy Central 11PM)

7) Aziz Ansari is starting a new tour, “Buried Alive” appropriately started with a neat retro poster.

8) Vimeo is having a Vimeo Festival + Awards that you can submit for!

9) The best Valentine’s Day Cards we’ve seen today come from Ben Kling (via Jackie Kashian).

10) The inimitable Kurt Braunohler was on the latest episode of This American Life talking about, essentially, what was the plot for a romantic comedy, but in real life.

11) Check out the nominees for this year’s INNY Awards (awards for improv from Improvisation News)

12) Nick Offerman really has a woodshop that you can really purchase things from, which include mustache combs.

13) On this episode of This Better Be Funny, Jake Kroeger (the Comedy Bureau Director), Jeremy Paul, and guest David Rosenberg see what you can say that won’t get you kicked out of a Denny’s.

14) “YOU DON’T NEED TO ASK PERMISSION TO DO IMPRESSIONS! YOU HAVE A FUCKING MICROPHONE ALREADY THAT YOU PROBABLY SAID "CUNT” INTO, SO JUST GO AHEAD AND IMPERSONATE A SOMEWHAT SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION OF YOURSELF THAT YOU WERE GOING TO DO WITH OR WITHOUT PERMISSION!“ What I was screaming in my head last night at a show, but didn’t say.

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Morning Debriefing 2/12/12

1) Petition Weird Al Yankovic to play the Super Bowl next year because the Super Bowl Half Time Show is big enough of an event to have itself parodied.

2) Lost Moon Radio released their 2nd album, Ready for Love, just in time for Valentine’s Day, which is will be a perfect remedy to staying inside all day avoiding seeing couples in love.

3) Henry Phillips’ Henry’s Kitchen has gone worldwide! (there’s an episode dubbed in French with Chinese subtitles)

4) Andy Wood found that Bartlett’s Quotations is missing quite a few quotes from the most famous minds throughout history.

5) Next Monday, Feb. 20th, The Hollywood Fringe Festival will be having a mixer at Three Clubs 7PM, which would be a really great opportunity to get more comedy into the Hollywood version of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

6) Want a March Madness for sitcoms throughout the lexicon of television history in Feb.? Splitsider’s got you covered.

7) Check out this dope new Good Neighbor video because HS kids from Huntington Beach trying to make a news show out of their garage is pretty funny.

8) So the limits of comedy will be tested yet again as the Grammys are tonight on CBS 8PM EST (though it seems there will be a delay that won’t make the telecast available at 5PM PST for the West Coast) and Twitter timelines will be filled with bickering over joking about the late Whitney Houston and what everyone is wearing. Just an FYI.

9) An unequivocal mark of success in the entertainment industry is when a bunch of punk ass kids who have the anonymity of the Internet make jokes that are mostly terrible, especially if you’re not a comedian, as soon as you die.

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Morning Debriefing 2/11/12

1) Though Hulu (at the time we posted this) tells you to watch Neil Brennan on Fallon, watch Neal Brennan prove humans are assholes on Fallon.

2) There was a Team Coco live show at the UCB Theatre in LA and Eddie Pepitone performed without being the heckler.

3) Did you have any idea that CMT, Country Music Television, had a stand-up competition and it has the very funny Shane Mauss and Dave Stone (Beards of Comedy) competing?

4) JFL Montreal has job opportunities!

5) While we got live comedy in LA covered, you can check out live stand-up dates around the country at Dead Frog by just typing in your zip code.

6) Study up on the comedic brilliance of Dario Russo, the person responsible for one of our favorite web series Danger 5. We’re sure that there will be a quiz on this at some point.

7) See Lizzy Cooperman as one of the Three’s Company cast on roller skates invading Suzanne Somers air time. Yes, this is real.

8) What happens when well read nymphomaniacs go on a dry spell? They create a web series like Jeremy Paul did.

9) Jim Hamilton tells his version of the “curiosity killed the cat” story, but with more of Catfish twist.

10) Davey Johnson gives Sex Ed’s “Sex Ed” on the latest What’s What.

11) I just recorded a podcast in a Denny’s. That’ll definitely be one of those moments in my comedy career.

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Morning Debriefing 2/10/12

1) Jon Glaser spread his, as @cleftclips put it, “blissful stupidity” all over LA last night both on Conan and at Cinefamily for the Delocated Show.

2) Did you forget how brilliant Dana Gould is for a second? Here he is as “Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius as Hal Holbrook as Mark Twain” just as a reminder.

3) Last night on late night, Carol Burnett recounted how writers’ rooms haven’t changed much in comedy on Conan, Chris Hardwick announced the launching of the Nerdist YouTube channel on April 1st (or will it?) on Fallon. Tonight on late night, catch Neal Brennan on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM) and Portlandia on IFC at 10PM right before that.

5) Whether you’re a nerd or the former bully that has learned the error of their ways, you should definitely check out print (yes, that medium hasn’t died yet) comedy publication THE DEVASTATOR because, as you’ll find out, the world is in jeopardy unless you do so. Also, plenty of hilarious people contribute to it that are from Conan, The Simpsons, Adult Swim, as well as people who are Asterios Kokkinos. 

6) The March Comedy Madness, the stand-up comedy single elimination tournament, is back and is having open auditions today at the Comedy Store from 3PM to 7PM, of which, “we” will be sitting in on the panel. 

7) Check out the trailer for Seeking a Friend for the End of the World with Steve Carell, Keira Knightley, Patton Oswalt, and even TJ Miller as a TGI Friday’s-ish host. It sure reminds us a lot of a Canadian movie with Sandra Oh, Last Night.

8) Speaking of Patton Oswalt, he is currently in talks to be in a Ben Stiller remake of a 1947 Danny Kaye film with Shirley MacLaine and Kristen Wiig.

9) Jake Weisman addresses his last Superbowl op-ed and his identity as a deity and the Lombardi trophy’s identity as a trophy.

10) Speaking of the Superbowl, we gave advertisers and marketing companies a bunch of suggestions to make more effective ads at the Nerdist for the 2013 Superbowl because they didn’t convince anyone to buy anything this year.

11) The LA Weekly, somehow, found out the 5 spots where we’d most likely spend Valentine’s Day daytime drinking.

12) …and now, for an important message from future Paul Cibis.

13) Many in LA poke fun at the people writing their screenplays in the coffee shops of LA as if it’s a metaphor for the pathetic desperation that keeps this city alive enough to have a pulse. I like to point out the fact that too many in LA make metaphors of how they’re doing nothing.

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Morning Debriefing 2/9/12

1) “Absolutely.” Michael Showalter answering question about there being a sequel to Wet Hot American Summer before he’s force fed food on TV.

2) Funny or Die has predicted the career path of Jean Dujardin, star of the Artist, in America as a villain. 

3) Portlandia is being adapted into a book and it’s not being put on MagCloud. What?

4) On late night tonight, Jon Glaser will be on Conan probably wearing Lakers and Clippers apparel right in front of Carol Burnett, who is also a guest (TBS 11PM), Weird Al Yankovic will be on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS 12:35AM), and both Chris Hardwick and Zooey Deschanel will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM). Earlier in the evening, don’t forget about Billy on the Street (Fuse TV 11PM), delocated

5) Foreign comedies have perhaps gotten a bad rap for being the same screwball comedy that involves saving an establishment or trying to reconnect with “the old world”, but The Fairy is anything but that (and it’s also pretty funny).

6) Kelly Carlin, daughter of George Carlin, just got her own Sirius XM show.

7) Bridesmaids has made several millions of dollars in VOD sales and continues to be the most recognizable movie nominated at the Oscars.

8) Kenny Powers wrote an inspirational letter to Tim Tebow and y’all shall straight up read that shit.

9) PHD or stand-up comedy? Read about the very funny Jono Zalay’s dilemma.

10) Though this one guy is admitting to legitimately threatening South Park, there is little doubt in our minds that if he had planned to have a South Park episode made about him, he just succeeded.

11) You wanted a list of the Funniest Late Night TV Guests in This Millennium Thus Far, right? Yeah, you did.

12) Our picks for the 5 Most Intentionally Funny Videos This Week for the Nerdist go all the way from Billy Eichner yelling at the Superbowl to Ryan O’Flanagan yelling about dishes.

13) The look on the faces of the New Orleans Hornets as Will Ferrell is announcing them is priceless.

14) People involved in comedy have to unfortunately realize that the prevailing attitude amongst non-comedy fans are “Why the hell should we pay for comedy?” and “What’s the worst joke?”. Damn it.

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Morning Debriefing 2/8/12

1) Did you know that Matt Walsh’s directorial debut, High Road, with a cavalcade of UCB’s best, has a new trailer and can be purchased from Target.com? Well, now you do.

2) Last night on late night, Jon Glaser makes a straight up fool of himself on Fallon.

3) If you’ve ever wondered why there isn’t a March Madness for comedy, then you haven’t heard about the aptly named March Comedy Madness, a single-elimination comedian tournament, that will be having open call auditions (it doesn’t cost anything to enter) this Fri. at the Comedy Store from 3PM-7PM.

4) Three great comedy Kickstarters to donate to:
The Creek and the Cave
The Los Angeles Podcast Festival
Rick Shapiro

5) Joesph Gordon Levitt will make his directorial debut in an untitled comedy with Scarlett Johannson, which, from the sound of it, sounds like the exact opposite of 500 Days of Summer.

6) Did you know that Mel Brooks and Neil Simon used to write for Sid Caesar? You know who comedian Sid Caesar is right? How about Neil Simon? Mel Brooks? Anything? Why aren’t you answering us? There’s a DVD called Caesar’s Writers where you can learn all about it.

7) …and now for some invaluable life advice from Ron Swanson…

8) The LA Times broke down the shift in what the comedy category at the Grammys has become.

9) Of course, Jimmy Kimmel would challenge America to unplug their TV at a crucial moment during the Superbowl and have a hilarious montage of it.

10) The writing duo behind the Black List hit Chewie, are rewriting the live action adaptation of the Jetsons. Yes, that was a very “industry insider” sentence.

11) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone teaches us the value of a dollar after the world ends.

12) To anyone who says, “Comedy is a dead art form.” You’re a fucking cunt-tard. No elaboration necessary.

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Morning Debriefing 2/7/12

1) Patrice O’Neal’s Mr. P is available today. Pay your respects and laugh.

2) Last night on late night, John Roy brings it on Conan. Tonight on late night, Keegan Michael-Key from Key & Peele will be on Conan (TBS 11PM) and Jon Glaser from Delocated on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM).

3) Who care what you think of Madonna at the Superbowl? Billy Eichner loves her and that’s good enough.

4) Lindsay Ames and Ron Babcock demonstrate How to End a Date in 30 Seconds for MTV!

5) Cameos to watch for, Kristen Wiig will be on Portlandia as a catnapper this Friday (IFC 10PM) and Louis CK will be on Parks and Recreation next Thurs. (NBC 8:30PM)

6) To help get through his cancer treatment, Miles Austrevich is looking for jokes to laugh at…

7) Rob O’Reilly also released his album today “Don’t Sioux Me”!

8) We can’t wait for Nick Turner’s web series, King Temp, coming out next week.

9) The 9th episode of This Better Be Funny is an exercise in futility in trying to not seem not creepy with three guys including guest Jerry Brandt, co-host of the Drinking Buddies, sitting on a bench in Downtown Burbank shouting obscenities and making mulatto not seem like a racist term anymore.

10) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone shows us how we should all eat ravioli out of a can in a break room.

11) So from what I can gather, comedy has collectively said that you can’t have a sincere opinion on Lana Del Rey.

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Morning Debriefing 2/6/12

1) …and now for Everything about the Super Bowl 2012 That’s Comedy Relevant But Weren’t Really Going to Ask

What to Catch Up On:
Watch all the commercials here.
Watch the Will Ferrell Old Milwaukee ad that only aired in Nebraska here.
Watch Dan Harmon celebrate at JD Ryznar’s house the last time the Giants beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl here.

The final touchdown of the game by NY Giants’ Ahmad Bradshaw will go down as the funniest TD ever in Super Bowl history.

Funniest Tweets During the Superbowl about the Superbowl:
“@robdelaney If you tweet about ANYTHING other than the Superbowl for the next 3 hrs you are literally worse than Osama bin Laden.”
“@kurtbraunohler HEY WHEN’S THE LAST TIME SO MUCH IRRELEVANCE TOOK AN ELEVATOR TOGETHER?!?!?!" [RE: ad with Madonna and Jay Leno in elevator]
”@EveryTweet_Ever MADONNA IS ON MY TV AND I HAVE ALL THE OPINIONS THAT MATTER" 
“@GuyEndoreKaiser That’ll do, Madonna… that’ll do." 
”@thesulk Dear Coca Cola, we’re aware of you. Spend money on other stuff.“
@mrseanpatton had a whole series of tweets that deserve a slow clap: 
"That girl in the telaflora commercial, I fucked her.”
“All the actors in that Avengers commercial, I fucked them. The green one is a freak in the sack!”
“Whoa! Saw that angel do a backflip?! Yeah I fucked him. How do you think he learned to backflip?" 
"There were over 100 people involved in this halftime show. I would not fuck any of them. Not again anyway.”

Funniest Tweet During the Superbowl That Had Nothing Whatsoever To Do With The Superbowl or Anything Else on TV:
“@Katie_Crown "I have no eyes!” – president boob"

…and that concludes Everything about the Super Bowl 2012 That’s Comedy Relevant But Weren’t Really Going to Ask. Back to the normal debriefing.

2) SXSW announces their comedy podcast line-up featuring WTF!, Comedy Bang Bang, Smartest Man in the World, You Made It Weird w/Pete Homes, and more.

3) Comedy finally gets some unfiltered respected long form professional criticism with the Spit Take officially launching today.

4) Tonight on late night, watch John Roy do a set on Conan! (TBS 11PM)

5) Improv Everywhere challenges Aspen, CO to meet a black person and white people are still sort of weird about in 2012. 

6) The Unbookables, a documentary about comedy’s dark side i.e. when comedy becomes a battle (sometimes started by the person on stage), is now available on DVD with the likes of Kristine Levine, Brendon Walsh, Sean Rouse, and more.

7) The very funny Wendy Liebman chatted with the very funny Josh Fadem. Oh, comedy nerdom…

8) We got to chat with Susan Burke for Laughspin before she went to Sundance for Smashed, which she co-wrote, and hopefully became all big and famous, especially since Sony Pictures Classics just bought the movie.

9) Watch sketch group Dead Kevin explore the intricacies of assigned dish washing between roommates in a way that you should ever do. 

10) Patton Oswalt touched on this on Finest Hour, but as it has been discovered that law enforcement agencies can remotely activate microphones attached to mobile devices, it’s pretty hilarious how much non-sense they’d have to listen to ESPECIALLY if they listened to any comedian for just one day.

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Morning Debriefing 2/5/12

1) The NY Giants mistakenly updated that they are Super Bowl Champions. Can we all not tweet during the Super Bowl because that’s clearly the funniest thing that will happen today?

2) The NY Times Magazine, apparently, has a co-dependent relationship of sorts with comedy podcasts.

3) You might have heard that Hannibal Buress got in a car accident, but has said, “Thanks for the kind wishes everyone. This was my first hospital visit in about 6 years. My shit is legit smashed up but I’ll be fine.”  Even with a big scar on his face, Hannibal has such a great sense of humor that Chelsea Peretti can run jokes about the whole ordeal via text.

4) Sarah Chalke is moving on up to get top billing in new ABC comedy pilot.

5) In case you haven’t heard, one of the alternative comedy shows in LA back when “alternative comedy” wasn’t such a divisive label, Uncabaret, is back every Sunday.

6) The Humordour chatted with Kurt Braunohler, and, well… found out what happens when you ask Kurt leading questions and more.

7) People getting arrested for trying to be funny is still a thing in 2012. Wow.

8) …and now for a comedy history lesson about alt comedy in San Francisco when Patton Oswalt and his class were coming up by Dan Dion.

9) Prediction: #MoreExcitingThanTheSuperBowl will be a trending topic on Twitter later today. Also, I imagine some comic will start #FuckThePuppyBowl.

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Morning Debriefing 2/4/12

1) If you missed Paul Mooney’s latest Showtime special, “The Godfather of Comedy”, it’s playing throughout this month, that is, if you have Showtime or Showtime 2…

2) Riot LA is officially funded. 

3) The Burbank International Film Festival, which has a couple of comedy categories, is taking submissions.

4) Hey, look who’s playing at the Sasquatch Music Festival that isn’t one of the lauded music acts: Pete Holmes, Todd Barry, Rob Delaney, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Howard Kremer, and more. This comedy thing seems to be catching on.

5) Splitsider rounded up the Ten Most-Hated Comedies Rated 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, which, not surprisingly, doesn’t feature anything that’s objectively terrible like Manos: the Hands of Fate.

6) Forgot what the word diction meant? Here’s 5 comedians who aren’t George Carlin (because you could argue that he had the best diction) that can help you regain that knowledge from HS English.

7) Everyone should be talking about Christopher Plummer in Beginners and how he’s silently cleaning up in the Best Supporting Actor award everywhere. Here’s why.

8) If only more football fans were like Jake Weisman as shown by this piece about the NY Giants, the world would be, well, like… it would be at the least, a much funnier place.

9) If there’s an official profile of the job of comedian in a list of careers somewhere, under occupational hazards should be listed “must be told to be happy.”

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Morning Debriefing 2/3/12

1) The biggest Tenacious D news since Pick of Destiny tanked (which they address): RISE OF THE FENIX, the new Tenacious D album, to come out in May!

2) It’s very hard to not think of the following news item this way, but we wish we could: Chris Rock is writing a romance with Melissa McCarthy in mind that will begin to undo the damage Tyler Perry has done.

3) LA might just have it’s own podcast festival with WTF, Never Not Funny, the Dork Forest, and more (off of donations to their Kickstarter), which hopefully we’ll cure a few very specific agoraphobics that love listening to comedy podcasts, but hate going outside.

4) Last night on late night late night, Jenny Slate creeped Conan out with her Marcel, the Shell with Shoes voice. Tonight, Key & Peele are on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC 1:35AM)

5) Politico calls out Joe Mande for “trolling” politicians on Twitter.

6) Ken Leung and Tig Notaro joins Sarah Silverman’s pilot for NBC!

7) Win a trip to the South Beach Comedy Festival. You wanna go to the South Beach Comedy Festival to see comedy, right?

8) “Dana Gould’s Day” continues as he has just joined Tumblr.

9) Riot LA has 7 hours to go and has raised $21,677 of $20,000. One last push?

10) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone manages to top himself in being creepy.

11) I wonder if other people at other occupations that are not comedy waste people’s time at meetings talking about metaphors for how weird their occupation is like shitty comedians do when they’re wasting time at open mics.

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