TCB Debriefing 1/19/24-1/24/24: Jon Stewart, Oscars, Paul Danke, Ramy, Steven Wright, SNL 1975, Jean Claude Van Damme, Richard Pryor
1. Jon Stewart is returning to the role that made him the voice of a generation, kind of. Stewart will resume hosting duties at The Daily Show on Mondays and then serving as an EP all the other days, leaving the rest of the correspondents to switch off hosting duties (NPR). There’s a lot to hope for here as Stewart is returning in an election year when he, somewhat infamously, left during the 2016 election cycle with a potential to have to deal with Trump running under the GOP banner. Also, we’re to assume that he’ll be able to talk freely about China and AI, seemingly two topics that seemed to be dicey while he was at AppleTV+ with The Problem with Jon Stewart.
2. This year’s Oscars might be the most comedy highlighted one in history with American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers, and Poor Things all garnering Best Picture nominations and accompanying noms in Best Acting, Writing, and Directing categories. Perhaps, a tip of the cap is deserved to last year’s Best Picture winner Everything Everywhere All at Once taking home all the awards to make high art comedies be taken seriously.
Also, Greta and Margot getting snubbed in their respective categories for Barbie is pretty objectively wrong.
See the full list of Oscar nominations, announced this morning, here.
3. Paul Danke has been one of the most reliable fixtures in LA’s vast, decentralized stand-up scene. For several years, Danke has only refined what was already an exacting comedy sensibility that finesses rhythm, specificity, attitude, and self-awareness that he has taken to stages DIY and pristine all over LA county (and CA and, well, the country). He has a knack for making specificity in observation accessible whether it be regarding the fate of the Dodger Dog or Jimmy Buffet’s legacy because of his unassailable cool even if he is taping an hour at a place as “out there” as Humboldt, CA. You can hear all of that and some 70’s soaked tunes on his brand new album, Mad River, fresh off the AST presses. Please enjoy Mad River right now right here.
4. Ramy Youssef will have “more feelings” (on a new A24/HBO special) that will (probably) not have a solid British accent from the acclaimed Poor Things actor (and celebrated 21st century comedian).
5. Steven vs. Stephen is quite the fun time and a reminder that Steven Wright is one of the best last night guests. Feel free to go down a YouTube rabbit hole to watch Steven Wright on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson after watching his Late Show interview here.
6. Rachel Sennott will be one of the stars of an SNL origin film from Jason Reitman, SNL 1975 (Deadline). If one of the cast of this movie ends up hosting SNL to promote this movie, it should stand to reason that they just redo 1970s SNL sketches for today.
7. The Muscles from Brussels, Jean Claude Van Damme is seemingly sticking with comedy (after his lauded, self-reflexive movie JCVD) with Le jardinier (Variety). Possible crossover with Le jardinier and The Beekeeper in the not so distant future?
8. After decades of trying to get some sort of biographical adaptation of comedy icon Richard Pryor’s life on screen, it looks like Kenya Barris might be the one to do with it an upcoming 10 part series (Variety). At this point, an entire doc could be made on trying to doing some sort of biopic on Pryor’s life.
9. We’ll leave you with this: Kids heckling clowns, the serious kind, is priceless.