August 28, 2012
Everything We Thought We Knew About the Swedish Chef Is Wrong Boorishly, we just lump everyone into the same “Scandinavian” group, calling him Swedish because, well, that’s his name. Who knew the Swedish Chef would be at the source of so much cultural misunderstanding? But it seems clear from this piece that America needs to try harder. Sweden is not just Ikea, ABBA, Dragon Tattoo books, and meatballs. Sweden is most definitely not a Muppet, even if this particular Muppet has become a thorn in Sweden’s side. Though some say there’s a definite Julia Child quality to the chef, and an actualSwedish chef claims he was the inspiration for the character, it turns out Henson’s inspiration for his chef may have simply been some Berlitz tapes. Read more. [Image: Flickr/Harsh/Light]

Everything We Thought We Knew About the Swedish Chef Is Wrong

Boorishly, we just lump everyone into the same “Scandinavian” group, calling him Swedish because, well, that’s his name. Who knew the Swedish Chef would be at the source of so much cultural misunderstanding? But it seems clear from this piece that America needs to try harder. Sweden is not just Ikea, ABBA, Dragon Tattoo books, and meatballs. Sweden is most definitely not a Muppet, even if this particular Muppet has become a thorn in Sweden’s side. Though some say there’s a definite Julia Child quality to the chef, and an actualSwedish chef claims he was the inspiration for the character, it turns out Henson’s inspiration for his chef may have simply been some Berlitz tapes.

Read more. [Image: Flickr/Harsh/Light]

11:54am
(Notes: 102)
  
Filed under: Muppets Art Entertainment Comedy Culture 
August 24, 2012
Why Do So Many Pretty Female Comedians Pretend They’re Ugly? From Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s impetuousness, gawky dance moves, and all-consuming frizz (early on, at least) as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld to the countless public wedding-party embarrassments Kristen Wiig tackled with gusto as Bridesmaids’ social train wreck, Annie; even Nora Ephron’s self-effacing claim that she was the only White House intern during the Kennedy administration that JFK didn’t bother to hit on Read more. [Image: AP, NBC]

Why Do So Many Pretty Female Comedians Pretend They’re Ugly?

From Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s impetuousness, gawky dance moves, and all-consuming frizz (early on, at least) as Elaine Benes on Seinfeld to the countless public wedding-party embarrassments Kristen Wiig tackled with gusto as Bridesmaids’ social train wreck, Annie; even Nora Ephron’s self-effacing claim that she was the only White House intern during the Kennedy administration that JFK didn’t bother to hit on

Read more. [Image: AP, NBC]

12:27pm
(Notes: 432)
  
Filed under: Comedy Women Celebrity Tina Fey 
August 10, 2012
David Rakoff, Essayist and ‘This American Life’ Contributor Has Died at Age 47 Before devoting himself to writing fulltime, Rakoff worked in publishing. At this time, he befriended Ira Glass, then a producer at NPR’s Morning Edition. When Glass went on to create This American Life, he invited Rakoff to read his deadpan essays on the show. Along with David Sedaris, Rakoff would help establish the show’s distinctive voice. Rakoff also began pursuing a career as a prolific freelance journalist for the publications like New York,The New York Times, and Salon. He wrote three books of essays,Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty, and last year, he was awarded the Thurber Prize for Humor.  Read more. [Image: Pop!Tech via Flickr]

David Rakoff, Essayist and ‘This American Life’ Contributor Has Died at Age 47

Before devoting himself to writing fulltime, Rakoff worked in publishing. At this time, he befriended Ira Glass, then a producer at NPR’s Morning Edition. When Glass went on to create This American Life, he invited Rakoff to read his deadpan essays on the show. Along with David Sedaris, Rakoff would help establish the show’s distinctive voice. Rakoff also began pursuing a career as a prolific freelance journalist for the publications like New York,The New York Times, and Salon. He wrote three books of essays,Fraud, Don’t Get Too Comfortable, and Half Empty, and last year, he was awarded the Thurber Prize for Humor. 

Read more. [Image: Pop!Tech via Flickr]

10:40am
(Notes: 169)
  
Filed under: NPR Radio Art Literature News David Rakoff Comedy 
July 19, 2012
The Ascendancy of Prestige Television The 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced in the wee hours (of PDT, anyway) this morning, and there were actually some surprises reflecting the ascendancy of new “prestige” television, where cable reigns fully supreme. That is a rare occurrence for an awards ceremony that tends to recognize the same people over and over and over again. Read more. [Image: HBO]

The Ascendancy of Prestige Television

The 2012 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations were announced in the wee hours (of PDT, anyway) this morning, and there were actually some surprises reflecting the ascendancy of new “prestige” television, where cable reigns fully supreme. That is a rare occurrence for an awards ceremony that tends to recognize the same people over and over and over again.

Read more. [Image: HBO]

10:43am
(Notes: 80)
  
Filed under: Emmy Award Nominations Girls HBO Prestige TV Comedy Drama 
June 20, 2012

Each Episode of Futurama Takes at Least a Year to Make

As series developer, head writer, and executive producer, Cohen has shepherded Futurama through its many ups and downs since 1999. In advance of the series’ seventh-season premiere, Cohen explains the complex, collaborative creative process that goes into creating each new episode of Futurama, and shares storyboards from tonight’s first episode, “The Bots and the Bees.” […]

“It’s usually somewhere in the vicinity of a year from the beginning of a Futurama episode to the day when you can see it on TV. With ‘The Bots and The Bees,’ we actually started working last March. It’s a very long haul, and most of it is taken up by the animation. It all starts with a general discussion—’What are some stories we haven’t done before?’—which is becoming tricky, now that we’re up to almost 140 episodes.”

— David X. Cohen, executive producer of Futurama 

Read more.

9:35am
(Notes: 244)
  
Filed under: Futurama Comedy Central TV Television Comedy 
May 24, 2012
The ‘7 Dirty Words’ Turn 40, but They’re Still Dirty Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s start from the beginning. On May 27, 1972, George Carlin took to the stage for a show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to record his Class Clown album, which was scheduled to come out that fall. Carlin—a comedic champion of the counterculture with long hair, a thick beard, earrings, and a propensity for recreational drugs—was writing material that was going to upset some people. He didn’t think much of what kind of influence a seven-minute routine on those seven words would have on the culture at large. He was aware, however, that what he was going to say that night could put his career in jeopardy. Read more. [Image: AP]

The ‘7 Dirty Words’ Turn 40, but They’re Still Dirty

Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s start from the beginning. On May 27, 1972, George Carlin took to the stage for a show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to record his Class Clown album, which was scheduled to come out that fall. Carlin—a comedic champion of the counterculture with long hair, a thick beard, earrings, and a propensity for recreational drugs—was writing material that was going to upset some people. He didn’t think much of what kind of influence a seven-minute routine on those seven words would have on the culture at large. He was aware, however, that what he was going to say that night could put his career in jeopardy.

Read more. [Image: AP]

11:17am
(Notes: 185)
  
Filed under: George Carlin Comedy Stand-up Stand-up comedy 
May 22, 2012
SNL Needs to Get Over Television Mick Jagger hosted the finale of Saturday Night Live last weekend, and despite the offbeat paths the show could have followed—maybe an Exile on Main Street parody set in a puke-stained mansion along the French Riviera?—it stuck mostly to satirizing this season’s preferred target: television. Of the 152 live sketches aired this season, a whopping 58 percent (88 sketches) were television parodies of some sort, whether political debates, game shows, or fake newscasts. Of course, SNLhas skewered television since its inception. As “Baba Wawa,” Gilda Radner gleefully lampooned the popular broadcast journalist’s speech impediment; Dana Carvey’s Church Lady hosted aTonight Show for the devout; Wayne’s World poked fun at amateurish cable access fodder; and even dimwitted Hans and Franz somehow landed an exercise show in which they mainly flexed and chastised their girlie-man viewers. But the world has changed since the days of Baba Wawa, and SNL’s present-day devotion to mocking its own medium feels anachronistic, a lazy holdover that prevents the show from fully satirizing society as it exists today. Read more. [Image: NBC]

SNL Needs to Get Over Television

Mick Jagger hosted the finale of Saturday Night Live last weekend, and despite the offbeat paths the show could have followed—maybe an Exile on Main Street parody set in a puke-stained mansion along the French Riviera?—it stuck mostly to satirizing this season’s preferred target: television.

Of the 152 live sketches aired this season, a whopping 58 percent (88 sketches) were television parodies of some sort, whether political debates, game shows, or fake newscasts. Of course, SNLhas skewered television since its inception. As “Baba Wawa,” Gilda Radner gleefully lampooned the popular broadcast journalist’s speech impediment; Dana Carvey’s Church Lady hosted aTonight Show for the devout; Wayne’s World poked fun at amateurish cable access fodder; and even dimwitted Hans and Franz somehow landed an exercise show in which they mainly flexed and chastised their girlie-man viewers. But the world has changed since the days of Baba Wawa, and SNL’s present-day devotion to mocking its own medium feels anachronistic, a lazy holdover that prevents the show from fully satirizing society as it exists today.

Read more. [Image: NBC]

1:09pm
(Notes: 41)
  
Filed under: TV SNL Comedy Saturday Night Live 
April 23, 2012
For Kristen Wiig, an Uncharted Path From SNL to Movie Stardom When reports began circulating that Saturday Night Live scene-stealer Kristen Wiig will likely leave the show for Hollywood at the end of the current season, hardly anyone was surprised. Wiig, the thrice-Emmy-nominated mastermind behind the Target Lady, narcissist extraordinaire Penelope, and uncanny impressions of everyone from Paula Deen to Bjork, is coming off a banner year. She scored an Oscar nod for co-writing Bridesmaids, and already has six major films in the pipeline for the next two years, opposite A-listers like Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller. Just last week, she emerged as a frontrunner, along with It Girls Emma Stone and Emily Blunt, for the female lead in the hotly anticipated The Thin Man remake opposite Johnny Depp. Need more convincing that this is the perfect time for Wiig to leave? New York’s Josh Wolk noticedthat the most successful SNL vets from the last two decades left the show sometime between their sixth and eight seasons, a “sweet spot” window Wiig is in now. Will Ferrell, Mike Myersb and Dana Carvey all left after seven. Amy Poehler and Phil Hartman put in eight. David Spade and Tina Fey departed after six (on-camera) years. Those who stayed beyond that—Darrell Hammond, Tim Meadows—have struggled. So look out, Hollywood, here comes Wiig, right? To quote my favorite SNL creation of hers, the nerve-addled Judy Grimes, “Just kidding!” Though her Hollywood prospects look promising, a survey of history reveals that success is by no means guaranteed. Wiig is entering essentially uncharted territory. The Oscar nominee is, understandably, avoiding another television gig and shooting for the (movie) stars. On the surface, this doesn’t seem all that unusual: Ferrell, Myers, Carvey, Sandler, after all, have all gone on to hugely lucrative film careers. But they’re all men. With the exception of Tina Fey, no former female SNL cast member successfully made the transition to movie star after exiting Studio 8H. But the grosses for Fey’s two major post-SNL films, Baby Mama and Date Night, were nowhere near the stratospheric hauls of Ferrell’s or Sandler’s or Myers’ flicks. Plus, Fey more typically associated with her TV work on 30 Rock than with her film roles. The same is true for Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Molly Shannon. In fact, a survey of the post-Saturday Night Live resumes of the show’s most talented female alumni reveals that almost all of them struggled to achieve a respectable film career, many struggled to find regular work at all, and those who managed to get steady jobs found them most consistently on television. Wiig’s road to movie stardom is rockier than it may seem. Read more. [Image: AP]

For Kristen Wiig, an Uncharted Path From SNL to Movie Stardom

When reports began circulating that Saturday Night Live scene-stealer Kristen Wiig will likely leave the show for Hollywood at the end of the current season, hardly anyone was surprised. Wiig, the thrice-Emmy-nominated mastermind behind the Target Lady, narcissist extraordinaire Penelope, and uncanny impressions of everyone from Paula Deen to Bjork, is coming off a banner year. She scored an Oscar nod for co-writing Bridesmaids, and already has six major films in the pipeline for the next two years, opposite A-listers like Robert DeNiro and Ben Stiller. Just last week, she emerged as a frontrunner, along with It Girls Emma Stone and Emily Blunt, for the female lead in the hotly anticipated The Thin Man remake opposite Johnny Depp.

Need more convincing that this is the perfect time for Wiig to leave? New York’s Josh Wolk noticedthat the most successful SNL vets from the last two decades left the show sometime between their sixth and eight seasons, a “sweet spot” window Wiig is in now. Will Ferrell, Mike Myersb and Dana Carvey all left after seven. Amy Poehler and Phil Hartman put in eight. David Spade and Tina Fey departed after six (on-camera) years. Those who stayed beyond that—Darrell Hammond, Tim Meadows—have struggled. So look out, Hollywood, here comes Wiig, right? To quote my favorite SNL creation of hers, the nerve-addled Judy Grimes, “Just kidding!” Though her Hollywood prospects look promising, a survey of history reveals that success is by no means guaranteed.

Wiig is entering essentially uncharted territory. The Oscar nominee is, understandably, avoiding another television gig and shooting for the (movie) stars. On the surface, this doesn’t seem all that unusual: Ferrell, Myers, Carvey, Sandler, after all, have all gone on to hugely lucrative film careers. But they’re all men. With the exception of Tina Fey, no former female SNL cast member successfully made the transition to movie star after exiting Studio 8H. But the grosses for Fey’s two major post-SNL films, Baby Mama and Date Night, were nowhere near the stratospheric hauls of Ferrell’s or Sandler’s or Myers’ flicks. Plus, Fey more typically associated with her TV work on 30 Rock than with her film roles. The same is true for Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Molly Shannon. In fact, a survey of the post-Saturday Night Live resumes of the show’s most talented female alumni reveals that almost all of them struggled to achieve a respectable film career, many struggled to find regular work at all, and those who managed to get steady jobs found them most consistently on television. Wiig’s road to movie stardom is rockier than it may seem.

Read more. [Image: AP]

2:01pm
(Notes: 90)
  
Filed under: Kristen Wiig SNL Movies Celebs Comedy Saturday Night Live TV 
April 12, 2012
The Filthy Moralist: How Louis C.K. became America’s unlikely conscience Louis—I’ll call him Louis, because I can’t keep typing C.K.—is America’s current masturbator in chief and our most topsy-turvy moralist. “You can figure out how bad a person you are by how soon after September 11 you masturbated,” he riffs. “For me, it was between the two buildings’ going down.” Louis used to be a comic’s comic—hip, the toast of his more successful peers—but now he belongs to the nation. His comedy special Hilarious was nominated for two Emmys last year, and the resulting album won a Grammy. His subsequent special, Live at the Beacon Theater, which he financed, directed, and then distributed online, cleared sales of $1 million within 10 days of its December release. Louis used to write for Dana Carvey, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock; now he is writer/director/star of his own fever-dream semiautobiographical sitcom,Louie, also nominated for two Emmys last year and soon to begin its third season on FX. All of which suggests that Louis—born Louis Szekely on September 12, 1967—has struck a nerve. Or located an absence. “I stick my finger in existence,” wrote Kierkegaard. “It smells of nothing.” Louis sticks his finger in existence and it smells of sad sweats and crispy tissues. It smells of dead spots and quelled rage, the funk of unaccommodated maleness. Here he comes again, with the jokes about jacking off, lurching through his loops of arousal and discharge. Look at him. Check out the pallor, the pudge, the eye-bags. He plods onstage like a diffident bouncer, a small ginger goatee the sole accent on his face. But then he tucks the mic under his chin and it seems to cast a lurid upward glow, refining his features, picking out the Mephistophelian arc of his eyebrows. In Season Two of Louie he is confronted by an anti-masturbation campaigner, an angelic young Christian woman. He argues with her bitterly—argues for his right to masturbate in peace. “That’s what’s so sad,” she says. “That you don’t know the darkness that you live in.” “Oh no,” Louis assures her, “I know the darkness.” Read more. [Image: Getty]

The Filthy Moralist: How Louis C.K. became America’s unlikely conscience

Louis—I’ll call him Louis, because I can’t keep typing C.K.—is America’s current masturbator in chief and our most topsy-turvy moralist. “You can figure out how bad a person you are by how soon after September 11 you masturbated,” he riffs. “For me, it was between the two buildings’ going down.” Louis used to be a comic’s comic—hip, the toast of his more successful peers—but now he belongs to the nation. His comedy special Hilarious was nominated for two Emmys last year, and the resulting album won a Grammy. His subsequent special, Live at the Beacon Theater, which he financed, directed, and then distributed online, cleared sales of $1 million within 10 days of its December release. Louis used to write for Dana Carvey, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock; now he is writer/director/star of his own fever-dream semiautobiographical sitcom,Louie, also nominated for two Emmys last year and soon to begin its third season on FX.

All of which suggests that Louis—born Louis Szekely on September 12, 1967—has struck a nerve. Or located an absence. “I stick my finger in existence,” wrote Kierkegaard. “It smells of nothing.” Louis sticks his finger in existence and it smells of sad sweats and crispy tissues. It smells of dead spots and quelled rage, the funk of unaccommodated maleness. Here he comes again, with the jokes about jacking off, lurching through his loops of arousal and discharge. Look at him. Check out the pallor, the pudge, the eye-bags. He plods onstage like a diffident bouncer, a small ginger goatee the sole accent on his face. But then he tucks the mic under his chin and it seems to cast a lurid upward glow, refining his features, picking out the Mephistophelian arc of his eyebrows. In Season Two of Louie he is confronted by an anti-masturbation campaigner, an angelic young Christian woman. He argues with her bitterly—argues for his right to masturbate in peace. “That’s what’s so sad,” she says. “That you don’t know the darkness that you live in.” “Oh no,” Louis assures her, “I know the darkness.”

Read more. [Image: Getty]

3:00pm
(Notes: 206)
  
Filed under: Comedy TV Stand-up Louis CK 
March 29, 2012
'Anchorman 2' is Happening

10:00am
(Notes: 58)
  
Filed under: Movies Will Ferrell Comedy Anchorman News team ... ASSEMBLE! 
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