comedy news

Morning Debriefing 2/2/12

1) Dana Gould and Dave Grohl are making a rock band comedy for FX! Dana Gould and Dave Grohl are making a rock band comedy for FX! Dana Gould and Dave Grohl are making a rock band comedy for FX! Three times should be enough, right? No? OK… Dana Gould and Dave Grohl are making a rock band comedy for FX!

2) Also, Dana Gould now has a podcast, the Dana Gould Hour! Forget groundhogs, it’s Dana Gould’s day.

3) Last night on late night, Howard Stern was just as confused as the rest of us to whether the late night “war” between Letterman and Leno is still on. Tonight on late night, Jenny Slate will be on Conan (TBS 11PM) and Tim & Eric will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC 12AM)

4) You can watch why Comedy Central’s new sketch series Key & Peele killed it in the ratings because their first episode is online.

5) In things you can submit to news, you could win $100,000 by making a short documentary on innovation that’s had a positive impact for Focus Forward. We’re sure making it funny in some way helps.

6) Here’s our reasons why you should pick up and listen to John Mulaney’s New In Town.

7) Our picks for the 5 Most Intentionally Funny Videos at the Nerdist this week range from interviews with a children’s author to sexy revisionist history.

8) Riot LA’s Kickstarter totals: $21,162 of $20,000 with 1 day to go.

9) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone found the best way to pick your cell phone service provider.

10) Perhaps, if any of the significant Republican candidates went to an open mic and saw the jokes that were made about them and how outlandish they are, they’d have a brief moment of clarity.

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Morning Debriefing 2/1/12

1) Last night on late night, Jack McBrayer revealed his excitement about “football sports” on Fallon and Bill Murray nearly sets Letterman’s desk on fire. Tonight, Howard Stern will have to maybe censor himself on the Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM) and Glenn Howerton will be on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC 1:35AM).

2) Judy Greer gets another shot in being the lead in a pilot with ABC and Showtime renews Californication, House of Lies, and more. Still, there’s been no word on the Green Room with Paul Provenza, though.

3) The Moontower Comedy Festival that will be in Austin, TX has run out of their “introductory badges” and are moving on to “You Betcha” badges.

4) Another fantastic edition of an owner and his cat instant messaging back and forth in Louis vs. Rick.

5) Zach Sherwin AKA MC Mr. Napkins pretty much has the lock on the word prefix game on lock with his music video “Pro/Con”.

6) Bryan Cranston will be directing an episode of Modern Family that probably won’t be nearly as dark as everyone thinks it will be.

7) We made a “Shit Comedians Say When They Bomb” yesterday, which explores an intense fascination with comparing not performing well to eating dicks and suicide.

8) Riot LA’s Kickstarter totals: $21,134 of $20,000 with just over 2 days to go.

9) I guess it’s taking comics a little time to come up with a new joke about Tyler Perry since the billboards for his new movie don’t feature misspelled words and him in drag.

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Morning Debriefing 1/31/12

1) Raise your fist and give a hell yeah for the trailer for Season 3 of Eastbound and Down. 

2) Last night on late night, Chris Gethard read his best fanmail ever on Conan and Marc Maron discussed fans of WTF that are more concerned about his personal well-being than his comedy on Kimmel. Tonight on late night, the venerable Bill Murray will be on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS 11:35PM) and Jack McBrayer on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM)

3) Also tonight, the world premiere of Comedy Central’s new sketch show, Key & Peele, is tonight at 10:30PM. If you’re still on the fence, read this endorsement from Rob Delaney and also get free gas at Fairfax and Beverly thanks to the show.

4) John Mulaney’s New In Town is now available! Also, on DVD so you can see the wonderful opening that starts like this…

5) So, it will now be the commercials, Billy Eichner on the field, then the halftime show, and then the actual game in terms of what are the most to least interesting things at the Superbowl.

6) You do know that Brian Regan just grossed over a million by just doing ten shows, right?

7) Old school goofy chases are never old as proven by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

8) Many of you know that Matt Knudsen is a very talented comedian, but did you know that he can play several instruments, thanks to video effects, at the same time? That means you now know and should watch him do so.

9) We reviewed Sean Green’s “Whiskey Dick” in 5 sentences because who has time for six? Also, you should listen to the album, it’s really funny.

10) The This Better Be Funny Podcast is back with even fewer explanations than ever! We walk down Sunset Blvd. from an open mic to the Comedy Store in the most accurate depiction of two frustrated comedians walking around Hollywood with no show to do that night.

11) Riot LA’s totals for their Kickstarter: $20,924 of $20,000 with 3 days to go.

12) On today’s Puddin’, there’s snazzy new VFX and blasphemy!

13) Just a note to comics claiming they’re self-deprecating: if you say that you’re self-deprecating out loud on stage, you’re not self-deprecating.

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Morning Debriefing 1/30/12

1) We’re pretty sure that someone thinks that Louis CK was thinking, “I bet no one will expect that I’m developing a multi-cam sitcom for CBS with the writer of the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld, Spike Feresten,” when really, we’re pretty sure that he just thought, “This will be very interesting.”

It’ll be different this time around, right?

2) Despite the worries of David Cross, everything is a-go for new episodes of Arrested Development just the way we remember it, apparently.

3) SAG Awards for comedy: 
Best Cast, TV Comedy: Modern Family
Best Actress, TV Comedy: Betty White, Hot in Cleveland
Best Actor, TV Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock 
Best Supporting Actor, Motion Picture: Christopher Plummer, Beginners 

4) Tonight on late night, Marc Maron will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC 12AM) and Chris Gethard will be on Conan (TBS 11PM). We know it won’t happen, but it would be amazing if Maron and Gethard had a late night talk show guest crossover tonight.

5) Rather than the Year of the Dragon, doesn’t “Year of Rick Shapiro” sound better? Help his Kickstarter out to make that happen.

6) While waiting to buy/download/get in some way John Mulaney’s New in Town, you can read his interview with Black Book about it.

7) This “Our Least Favorite [Music] Genre Names” on the All Things Considered Blog makes us want to find these music genre placards at Amoeba Records. 

8) Riot LA’s totals for their Kickstarter: $20,909 of $20,000 with 4 days to go.

9) The top finisher of this weekend’s Channel 101 screening, the new episode of Intimate Indiscretions is absolutely required watching if you want to laugh and love alternative history. Also, it’s awesomely NSFW.

10) In realizing that several comedians live-tweeted the SAG Awards, it’s truly sad that the Razzies aren’t broadcasted because that would be worth live-tweeting.

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Morning Debriefing 1/29/12

1) At the Sundance Film Festival Jury Awards, Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me walked aways with the Best of NEXT Audience Award and Derek Conolly, writer of Safety Not Guaranteed with Aubrey Plaza, Kristen Bell, and more walked away with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. 

2) In other comedy recognition news, Curb Your Enthusiasm was awarded Best Comedy Series at the DGA Awards.

3) In other other comedy recognition news, here are the results for the Channel 101 January Screening. Congrats to Intimate Indiscretions keeping “sexy back”, if that makes any sense.

4) Comic faces jail if he jokes about dad/Why not to do comedy in Malawi if your dad is a high ranking member of the Malawi government…

5) Now that Riot LA is at $20,847 of their $20,000 on their Kickstarter and will happen, it asks “@RiotLA Alright! What/who do you guys wanna see at this thing?” Let’s start with Eddie & Freddie Pepitone and go from there.

6) Robin Williams did Set List at SF Sketchfest and there’s proof! Yes, that’s Robin Williams doing improvised stand-up. We’ll try to find a clip of this if one arises.

7) Doug Stanhope was interviewed by Esquire Magazine and there’s no link to it online, so Stanhope took a picture of it and posted it.

8) I came to the realization last night that people yelling at bill collectors on the phone is pretty much white noise at an open mic.

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Morning Debriefing 1/28/12

1) So, it’s official. Riot LA reached their goal and LA will have a comedy festival worthy of the city’s amazing comedy later this year. If you’re still feeling generous, they are still taking donations until Fri. Feb. 3rd 9:30PM PST.

2) Bobcat Goldthwait has shown how dark a comedy in go with every movie he makes, and, from the trailer, his latest film, God Bless America, is certainly no exception.

3) Now the world knows what we’ve been having to keep mum about since last year, The Eric Andre Show will be on Adult Swim with co-host Hannibal Buress.

4) John Mulaney’s hour long special “New In Town” is tonight at 10PM on Comedy Central. Simply, watch.

5) The Ferris Bueller Superbowl ad teaser was just a hoax by Honda.

6) In industry news news, NBC greenlights a comedy from Ryan Murphy and Allison Adler, ABC gets three more comedy pilots, and the Charlie Kaufman meta comedy musical, Frank or Francis, adds Elizabeth Banks and Paul Reubens to the cast.

7) Also, the cast of Monty Python is joining forces yet again to not go to Camelot.

8) It would seem as though Us Weekly Magazine does not only understand jokes on Twitter even when Sean Green added the hashtag #nitrous.

9) This should definitely not be a Fake Criterion…

10) Davey Johnson, apparently, at least in this What’s What, has just drank an entire cup of Jack Daniels for the first time.

11) As a comedian, some times, it must be a horrible realization that you will have to make people laugh that religiously read Us Weekly, non-ironically.

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Morning Debriefing 1/27/12

1) Ferris Bueller, apparently, will keep all of us waiting until the Super Bowl to find out that he’s not making a sequel?

2) We didn’t know that you could fit a billion dollar movie on VOD, but Tim & Eric found a way.

3) There will be ½ priced gas from Key & Peele next Tues. (when they premiere)/pile up of frugal comedy nerds at Fairfax & Beverly, an already crowded intersection because of the Grove.

4) Pete Holmes chatted with the A.V. Club Chicago!

5) The Compatish gang got down with a classic Nerf whistling football throwing challenge complete with sarcastic distance markers.

6) This write up of “The Buried Secret of M. Night Shymalan”, which is a egomaniacal, autobiographical prank, is not only pretty funny in just objectively describing the movie, but simultaneously pulls off trashing the movie AND making it “a must see”.

7) The 5 Most Intentionally Funny Videos This Week on the Nerdist ranges from one of the weirdest things you’ll see at Hollywood and Highland to Bill Cosby teaching Jimmy Fallon a lesson about.

8) Truly, Riot LA is almost to their proposed goal on Kickstarter at $18,863 of $20,000 with only 7 days to go. 

9) On today’s Puddin’, the guy eating pudding finally… well… just watch it.

10) I bet someone is making a family tree of “Shit [ ] Says” videos because everyone on the Internet has way too much free time.

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Morning Debriefing 1/26/12

1) In John Mulaney news, he was just on Conan, there’s a funny interview with him by Dan Mintz, and the NY Times Magazine just did a profile on him.

2) And now for Nazis in space with Iron Sky. That’s all that needs to be said.

3) Garfunkel & Oates have a promo for their new album Slippery When Moist with the dancing talents of the Doorknockers.

4) The early deadline for applications for the 10 Annual iO West Improv Comedy Festival is less than a week away.

5) Austin, TX gets a comedy fest!

6) In industry news news, Rebel Wilson and Conan O’Brien are trying to bring a Super Fun Night to CBS, IFC picks up Liberal Arts at Sundance, and Kate Winslet & Catherine Keener join Charlie Kaufman’s “meta musical comedy” Frank or Francis w/Jack Black, Steve Carell, and more.

7) How Aubrey Plaza is handling Sundance in an interview with Vulture…

9) More t-shirts for the How Did Get This Made? podcast!

10) We can only hope we can be as curmudgeon-y and funny as Maurice Sendak opposite of Stephen Colbert.

11) Ever need a compilation of comedians dancing? Of course, you do.

12) Riot LA’s totals for their Kickstarter: $18,506 of $20,000 with 8 days to go.

13) For any real people curious about watching open mics, I highly suggest going to at least one. You never know when you’ll see a baseball player do spoken word poetry or a portion of an “Irish wake” from former members of the CRA. That was just this week, if you were wondering.

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Morning Debriefing 1/25/12

1) Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock touring together is still just as much a rumor as it was last year.

2) Tonight on late night, John Mulaney stops by Conan (TBS 11PM) to no doubt promote New in Town, his 1-hour special for Comedy Central that we’ll all be watching next week.

3) TJ Miller responds on Pete Holmes’ You Made It Weird to Dane Cook’s response on Joe Rogan’s podcast to his response on Twitter about his set at the Laugh Factory last Wednesday.

4) A live interview with Rick Shapiro at Cafe Muse where we find out he’s in Project X and how he currently can’t release his special? YES.

5) The new Humblebrag rankings are out!

6) Riot LA’s Abbey Londer got interviewed by Serial Optimist, has new videos with Matt Braunger and Dana Gould & Patton Oswalt, and only has less than $2,500 to raise for their Kickstarter with 9 days to go. It’s really all happening. (Can you tell that we’re excited?)

7) Joel McHale and Zooey Deschanel throw their, most likely, really cool hats in the awards hosting ring with the WGA Awards.

8) Of course, what Patton Oswalt would do in lieu of being snubbed by the Oscars is way more interesting than the actual Oscars.

9) On today’s Puddin’, learn from Eddie Pepitone, the pick-up artist.

10) Last night, we saw Josh Adam Meyers perform a short set at Performance Anxiety and not only is he recovering after the tragic car accident quite well, he’s still quite damn funny. 

11) Finally, Starbucks is going to make good on their announcement of selling beer and wine at limited locations in LA. Hopefully, they’ll be prepared to have comics asking them to have an open mic.

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Morning Debriefing 1/24/12

1) The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences Academy Awards nods to comedy include:

Midnight in Paris: Best Picture, Woody Allen for Best Director & Best Original Screenplay, Art Direction
Beginners: Christopher Plummer for Best Supporting Actor  
Bridesmaids: Melissa McCarthy for Best Supporting Actress, Annie Mumulo & Kristen Wiig for Best Original Screenplay 
Best Animated Film: The Adventures of Tintin, A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots, Rango  
Original Song: “Man or Muppet” from the Muppets by Bret McKenzie 

2) In other industry news news:
Stop motion feature Hell & Back with TJ Miller gets Brian Posehn, Kumail Nanjiani, and Rob Riggle
NBC picks up a bunch of pilots including ones from Greg Daniels, Stephen Falk, Jimmy Fallon, Roseanne Barr, and more
Ben Stiller plans to do a HBO comedy pilot with Scott Rudin
Sony Pictures Classics acquires the Rashida Jones co-written Sundance film Celeste & Jesse Forever

3) Sleepwalk With Me, the film adaptation, asks you if want to see it so big wigs will give it some distribution.

4) Casey Wilson takes a look into the “charmed” life of Callista Gingrich for Funny or Die.

5) Erin Gibson, Funny or Die’s go-to Michele Bachmann, gets private messages from guys and then she publicly responds to them and they’re pretty hilarious. Take a read or two.

6) Here’s a funny music video with plenty of comedy folks NOT directed by Tom Scharpling. (Hospitality’s “Friends of Friends” directed by Scott Jacobson).

7) Speaking of Schapling, did you know his Low Times podcast is having a tournament of the worst lyrics ever, March madness style?

8) So, it’s advisable to not have breast feeding videos uploaded to Funny or Die.

9) With its new series Unsupervised, FX’s venturing into animated comedy territory with some of the guys from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

10) There will be no new episode of our podcast This Better Be Funny this week. Want an explanation? So do we. So do we.

11) Riot LA’s totals for their Kickstarter: $16,929 of $20,000 with 10 days to go. Check out their new clip with Megan Mullally, Kumail Nanjiani, and Martin Starr. 

12) Can’t believe comics are still opening their sets with “So I was fucking this chick, right?” unironically. That’s still happening.

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Morning Debriefing 1/23/12

1) Nathan Barnatt’s got another dancing video. There’s no skittles, but TJ Miller, Josh Fadem, Brandon Johnson, Martin Starr (featured not dancing), and more dancing should make up for that.

2) There’s now a Comedy Central India…

3) Retro action comedy series Danger 5 is now an on-air TV series in Australia. This clip of all their explosions alone shows why and also why we should bring Danger 5 to the States.

4) How could you not vote for Knope? [via THR]

5) Here’s a completely out of context, but still funny clip from the film adaptation of Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk with Me.

6) Brian Eugene Abrahamson/Michael Ethan Jacob tries to explain his side of not being able to pay comedians.

7) You wanted more Mike Tyson as Herman Cain, Funny or Die got your message!

8) Riot LA’s totals for Kickstarter: $15,236 of $20,000 with 11 days to go.

9) On today’s Puddin’, Eddie Pepitone will change the way you think of avocados FOREVER.

10) Let’s stop focusing on whether there are enough women in comedy or enough minorities in comedy. There aren’t enough funny people in comedy. Let’s solve that problem.

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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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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 1/19/12

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 1/18/12

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 1/17/12

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 1/16/12

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 1/15/12

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 1/14/12

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 1/13/12

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 1/12/12

1) A meltdown scene from a Hitler movie + Duncan Trussell redoing the subtitles as a hysterical PSA about comedians performing completely for free at SXSW = What you will be watching right now.

2) Crash Test’s Paul Scheer and Rob Hubel are hosting the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards on VH1 at 8PM. With Billy Crystal back hosting the Oscars, maybe their should be an awards for awards show hosting that could have a race…

3) If you’re a comedian and dream of proposing to your significant other at a show you just killed at it, watch the hilarious Tyler Greene do exactly that at Nerdist Theater.

(via @MikeRosenstein)

4) In late night talk show news, both Dwayne Perkins & Tom Papa stay sharp on Conan while, tonight, Stephen Merchant on will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC 12AM) and his counterpart Ricky Gervais will be on Conan (TBS 11PM) and not not apologizing for something at least for 10 minutes. 

5) College Humor is going to make its first film with Ben Schwartz, Glenn Howerton, Steve Little, directed by Brad Copeland who has worked on Arrested Development. Again, we say, “Arrested Development movie rumors… your move.”

6) Articles on comedy by big time publications round-up: The NY Times reported that Eddie Brill is a comedy gatekeeper for Letterman and likes to female comedians that are assertive and Bill Cosby gets appreciated at the Paley Center while The Hollywood Reporter does a big feature piece on Funny or Die. I mean, when are they going to run a story about Twitter fights between comedians?

7) Our picks for the 5 Most Intentionally Funny Videos this week for the Nerdist feature hot dog puppets and Indiana Jones going meta, so watch please.

8) KCET keeps finding the funniest people in Los Angeles and places they love to eat with Dave Ross and Jake Weisman at the Astro Family Restaurant.

9) Riot LA totals on their Kickstarter: $11,997 of $20,000 with 22 days to go.

10) Perhaps, if comedy was promoted as a “funny people talking while people watching do not talk and just laugh”, there wouldn’t be less problems with watching live comedy. Anyone have a catchy way to say that?

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Morning Debriefing 1/11/12

1) Last night, Billy Eichner gave a subtle PSA about why you should hate Johnny Depp on Conan and Tina Fey has to outwit own her kid because of her show on Fallon. Tonight, Conan has the goods with both Jack McBrayer & Dwayne Perkins (TBS 11PM).

2) Tomorrow, The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards will roll the dice on incredibly funny people who host their own hilarious live show every two weeks with Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel (VH1 8PM). If the Crash Test duo do as they’re known to do, they’d probably take those dice and throw it aggressively at each other.

3) Congrats to Esther Povitsky for just being passed as a paid regular at the Comedy Store.

4) We’re not a big fan of recaps, but you’ll be entertaining yourself as well as not giving ABC’s Work It ratings by following Jake Fogelnest’s hate recaps of the show.

5) Justine Barron wrote a hilarious story of how she had to sell her sex to get existence. We don’t need to say more other than read it and enjoy.

6) Improv Everywhere’s 11th Annual No Pants Subway Ride appears more pants-less than ever…

7) Remember that NYTVF/Comedy Central Short Pilot Contest? Whether you do or don’t, this is just a friendly reminder that the deadline is at 12PM EST Jan. 27th, 2012.

8) YouTube.com/AzizAnsari just became official.

9) If you’re looking to move to NYC or already live there (and, we take it, interested in working in comedy as you’re reading this) College Humor is looking for an Assistant Editor for Jest.com. 

10) Riot LA totals for their Kickstarter: $10,850 of $20,000 with 23 days to go.

11) Today’s Puddin’ features jar opening as jar opening has never seen before with Eddie Pepitone, Weird Al Yankovic, and more.

12) Just hearing the phrase “happy checks” from Pete Holmes makes all self-help books, tapes, etc. seem like a complete and total waste.

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Morning Debriefing 1/10/12

1) Tom Scharpling does it again (meaning make music videos worth watching again) with Real Estate’s “Easy” that features Chris Gethard roughing up Jake Fogelnest.

2) Last night, we found that no one will ever intro a clip on a talk show better than David Cross did on Conan. Tonight that claim will probably stay true (watch the clip to see what we’re talking about) Tina Fey will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:35AM) and Billy Eichner will be on Conan (TBS 11PM).

3) The Bridgetown Comedy Festival is open for submissions and if you’re a comedian, you’ll want to spend your gas money for the next few days on this instead of drinks, unnecessary nostalgia, or anything else.

4) The bi-weekly stand-up show in Echo Park, Brunch at the Park Restaurant, sadly came to an end last night. Still, there are worst ways to end a show than have Sean Patton close it out.

5) Another thing to submit to that you’ll enjoy: The LA Film Festival.

6) Never seen the late Angelo Bowers do a set to see what everyone was talking about? Laughspin fixed that. 

7) Two of comedy’s most prolific photographers Robyn Von Swank and Liezl Estipona are selling prints of their work here and here, respectively.

8) On Episode 6 of This Better Be Funny, the podcast we chose to not be about comedy news because we got that covered here, hosts Jake Kroeger and Jeremy Paul try to have comedian Joe Braza as a guest, but get (thankfully) interrupted by other comedians, car sales, and other comedians leaving.

9) Riot LA: $10,438 of $20,000 with 24 days to go. They even got mentioned in the Nerdist!

10) Every Coachella joke ever: COACHELLA! WHY DO I FORGET THAT YOU HAPPEN AROUND THE SAME TIME EVERY YEAR AND PLAN SOMETHING I CAN’T GET OUT OF?

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Morning Debriefing 1/9/12

1) “FOX FORGES NEW UNIT TO CREATE ALTERNATIVE ANIMATED CONTENT” and many are interested in how this move is such a blatant copy of the development, production, and programming of Adult Swim. Well, we say, good for Fox because we like what Adult Swim is doing.

2) According to Megan Mullally, the Party Down movie is really happening. Your move Arrested Development.

3) Tonight, the late night talk show circuit will feature Seth Green and David Cross on Conan (TBS 11PM) and, this should be really interesting, George Lucas on The Daily Show (Comedy Central 11PM). If only there was a talk show crossover where Green and Lucas debate the fate of the Star Wars franchise in stop motion animation form.

4) Welcome your new favorite podcast that’s barely over 8 minutes long: The Songs We Sing from Greg Heller and Mike Henry. 

5) The finale of the absurdly brilliant Tommy-Wi Show is here and has a cliff-hanger (with guest iJustine) that doesn’t have to do with TW being stuck on a Start Menu. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

6) The Shorty Awards, awards exclusively for Twitter, are open for nominations. FYI, they do not accept #FF as votes..

7) BuzzFeed names 10 Hilarious Comedians You (Probably) Haven’t Heard Of and while we certainly have heard of every one of these indeed very funny people, we understand that there are several people that still know Patton Oswalt from Ratatouille before his stand-up, so check it out. 

9) Speaking of Patton Oswalt, want to see his tweets done up Star Wars style? Wait, did you think we’re kidding? Follow @PattonOswars and see exactly what we’re talking about.

10) On today’s Puddin’, keep Redi-whip away from Eddie Pepitone.

11) As Pabst Blue Ribbon and Dunkin’ Donuts are both coming to LA, there will be a whole new set of references that plenty of comics will use to bash hipsters that are completely baseless.

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Morning Debriefing 1/8/12

1) The Final(?) episode of Henry Phillips’ fantastic web series “Henry’s Kitchen” is finally here. Apparently there might be “lost episodes”…

2) Today is the Annual Improv Everywhere No Pants Subway Ride. Just a reminder to Los Angelenos, we do have a subway to partake in this great tradition. In fact, Charlie Todd, founder of Improv Everywhere has captured the attention of so many with large scale pranks that a race driver wanted sponsorship from Improv Everywhere.

3) In case you were wondering why the LA Times was so excited about 50 First Jokes, here’s some fantastic pictures from Megan Baker, the Comedy Hipster.

4) Josh Adam Meyers, while still in recovery in Cedars Sinai, is standing and, finally, live Angelo Bowers’ performances are being uploaded such as this one at the Comedy Store.

5) In Parks and Recreation news, Carl Reiner will guest star and Amy Poehler will direct an episode.

6) Did you know Elizabeth Laime from the Totally Laime podcast on Earwolf writes poetry that’s pretty damn funny? We’re glad we know now.

7) Riot LA Kickstarter Total: $7,699 of $20,000 with 26 days to go.

8) Where are both the Comedy Crawl and Open Mic Run? Not to worry, here, now called the LA Comedy Rundown, they are. Seriously, calm down and click that hyperlink.

9) If I hear someone else tell me, “Hey, stand-up is hard. Keep it at.” I AM ABSOLUTELY GOING TO ponder for several more days than I should and tell the blogosphere about it, but never really resolving the issue at hand because that’s what comics usually do.

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