The Comedyblog

Human Giant Hijacks MTV

2007-05-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

We don't know how something as original, subversive, and hysterical as The Human Giant can be so successful, but apparently it is, because MTV is letting the group take over their network (and its sequel channel) for 24 hours this weekend starting Friday at noon. This sounds as crazy on MTV's part as parents leaving their six-year-old twins in charge of the house for the weekend, but you the viewer get to reap the rewards. Aziz Ansari assures that they have free reign to do whatever they want to do for 24 hours, including airing any show they want and inviting any guest they want, so of course they've invited a superteam of comic heroes like Bob Odenkirk, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Showalter, Jon Benjamin, Bill Hader, Fred Armisen, Jon Glaser, Eugene Mirman, Andy Blitz, and Rob Riggle, many of whom have already appeared on the sketch show. There will also be musical guests and, presumably, some Human Giant episodes or something. The Crazy Police will be on call in case, you know, things get too crazy.

Join them live at your television set for the full extravaganza if you can, because there's not a whole lot of 24-hour torrents out there.

Slow News Day: Eli Roth Fakes It, Berkley Breathed Makes New Opuses, Gary Cole Takes a Road Trip, and Bruce Plays the Piano

2007-05-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Eli Roth is talking about following Grindhouse with a full movie of fake trailers, which he would call Trailer Trash. He tells Collider magazine that he wants to make something as ridiculous and over-the-top as Borat, and he wants to bring along Grindhouse buddies Robert Rodriguez and Edgar Wright. But he can say all he wants, and it will still be hard to get a studio to sign on after Grindhouse's sad, unfortunate B.O. numbers.

ITEM: Bloom County and Opus creator Berkley Breathed has had an Opus film gestating in animation development hell for many years now, but Gore Verbinski and Robert Zemeckis aren't waiting any longer. This website claims the directors are interested in bringing, respectively, his misfit animal tribute picture book Flawed Dogs and his sci-fi parenthood epic Mars Needs Moms to the big screen as CGI kiddie blockbusters. That sounds great and all, but whatever happened with that rumor about Bill Watterson hand-animating his own independent Calvin and Hobbes feature?

ITEM: The great Gary Cole and Jennifer Coolidge have signed on to join indie scream queen Agnes Bruckner playing a broken family trio in David Moreton's game show slash road trip comedy Say Hello to Stan Talmadge. Moreton worked with Coolidge before on an obscure gay-interest comedy called Testosterone, but pairing her with a cult character actor like Cole should easily open this up to a bigger audience.

ITEM: Speaking of cult actors, surely you haven't forgotten Bruce Campbell's recent stint as the suave new spokesman for Old Spice, and you'll be glad to know that the manly fragrance is airing a second chapter, which is even better than the first. Enjoy...

Night of 1000 Pilots

2007-05-11T12:09:00.000-07:00

If you've like us, you've probably been wondering what the hell's going on with the multitude of long-gestating new Adult Swim shows, some of which were announced over a year ago. This weekend, they solve the problem once and for all by simply throwing up the whole batch. Six premiere episodes are online now, and will hit Cartoon Network in the upcoming regular Sunday night block. Make sure to cast your vote online to help along your favorites, or to put your enemies out of a job.

Included this adult-friendly baby shower are the superbly drawn Superjail, featuring the voice of David Wain as a Wonka-like warden of an unofficial, malevolent fantasy prison, Tony Millionaire's gloriously pessimistic comic-strip spin-off The Drinky Crow Show, featuring Mad TV and Office Space star David Herman and voice-over extraordinaire Billy West, David Banner's rap-happy tribute to Southern Gothic weirdness That Crook'd Sipp, the ripped-from-the-web Reboot knock-off Fat Guy Stuck in the Internet, and the iffy live/animation hybrid Let's Fish, starring 30 Rock's Scott Adsit and Brendon "Dethklok" Small. There's also a painstaking, sepiatoned short documentary about the voice of Space Ghost, George Lowe, which seems to only be included to hit an even six.

Fat Guy and Superjail have supposedly already been picked up for series, along with the upcoming Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, which aired its pilot early last year. Korgoth of Barbaria is still hanging in limbo. The non-inclusion of other rumored pilots like Western Times and Evan Dorkin's Tyrone's Inferno probably means they're dead and buried. Pour a little out for them, Drinky.

Slow News Day: Professor Jables, Weeklong Swim, No-Name Nowhere Director

2007-04-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Jack Black and the Acceptable TV crew have added more hilarious amateur filmmaking tutorials to their website, concluding with a depressing guide to rejection, complete with Heat Vision and Jack reference. By the way, if you haven't been watching Acceptable TV, you should really get started.

ITEM: Adult Swim is expanding to a full week of 11-6 programming, which will make room for more new shows like the previously reported Fat Guy Stuck in Internet (formerly known as Gemberling), a full season of Lucy, Daughter of the Devil, and the long-developing Superjail. Meanwhile, the second seasons of The Boondocks and Metalocalypse are coming this summer, and new episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, and (if finished in time) Venture Bros. this fall.

ITEM: Karey Kirkpatrick has signed on to direct Eddie Murphy in the promising-without-Eddie-Murphy Ed Solomon/Chris Matheson script NowhereLand. Kirkpatrick is probably best known for butchering the script to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but he also penned the super-affable Chicken Run, and his offbeat cereal-themed directorial debut Flakes is getting pretty good notices in its current festival run, so let's say his involvement pushes NowhereLand further towards the "yes" end of "maybe."

Slow News Day: The Award for Best Girlfriend Goes to Detective Robot

2007-04-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

ITEM: The MTV Movie Awards have snagged Sarah Silverman to host the June 3rd event, which will surely give Stomp the Yard the Best Booty-Shakin' Award it so richly deserves. Meanwhile, the ceremony has jumped on the viral video scene (who hasn't?) by letting viewers contribute their own short comedy films for the Best Movie Spoof category.

ITEM: Rainn Wilson will star in The Girlfriend Experience, based on his own idea about a lovelorn nerd who hires a hooker to play his girlfriend, an idea hundreds of respectable comedy writers have surely thought up and rejected. Nevertheless, there's some very small hope in the fact that Ivan Reitman is producing the film, and screenwriters Mark and Brian Gunn created the moderately amusing boy band spoof 2gether and were deemed worthy enough to write the upcoming juvey comedy Juvenile for Steve Carell (as well as the less promising Mighty Mouse revamp). In case you were wondering, they're cousins of James "Mrs. Jenna Fischer" Gunn.

ITEM: Broken Lizard's Paul Soter recently branched off to make Watching the Detectives, a noirish anti-rom-com starring Cillian Murphy and Lucy Liu, and also featuring Jason Sudeikis, Human Giant's Paul Scheer, and Josh "the only good part of Year of the Dog not named Reilly" Pais. The movie premieres next week at the Tribeca Film Festival, and ComingSoon.net grabbed an interview and a trio of awkwardly funny clips.

ITEM: Seth Green and his Stoopid Monkey pals have managed to coerce Lucasfilm into letting them to a half-hour Star Wars special, which will still feature an array of short, hit-and-miss clips, only all under the umbrella of the sci-fi universe. They've even got George Lucas on board to drop some nasal voiceover action, as well as the less surprising Mark Hamill, who already works on Metalocalypse and has always been quick to mock himself. Plus you've got some Conan O'Brien, Robert Smigel, Seth Macfarlane, Malcolm McDowell, and even Hulk Hogan. Robot Chicken: Star Wars airs June 17.

Spinal Tap Reheated

2007-04-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

There's an unexpected late addition to Al Gore's predictable Live Earth lineup, and thy name is Tap. They'll perform a set on July 7, including the performance a new, enviro-friendly single "Warmer Than Hell." There's been Spinal Tap reunions before, and even new songs before (remember the exclusive Internet download "Back from the Dead" from the Tapster parody a few years back?), but this merits some extra attention since director and co-creator Rob Reiner will also be in attendance, and the reunion led to a new 15-minute short film premiering at the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival. The short is a "Where Are They Now?" sort of deal, which finds Nigel breeding miniature race horses, David a hip-hop mogul, and other bittersweet improv goodness. Sure, the whole thing reeks of alterior motives and phoned-in pointlessness, but isn't that what being an aging rock band is all about?

Fortunately, the real-life band members are not doing quite as pathetically as their fictional counterparts. Michael McKean is one of many, many great comics in the upcoming improv-poker feature The Grand, and he's currently filming the indie music-themed spoof Adventures of Power with frequent collaborator Jane Lynch and director Ari Gold. He's also signed on to star in Mitchell Hurwitz's Arrested Development follow-up The Thick of It, whose pilot episode will be directed by Christopher Guest. And Harry Shearer will be voicing half of Springfield in this summer's most anticipated TV movie, and recently released a new comedy book, CD, and DVD, all available on his site.

Rob Reiner is directing The Bucket List, a dark comedy starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two dying men carrying out their final wishes, which could be the first decent film he's made in well over a decade (but will probably just be another dull cookie-cutter shitfest).

Interview Roundup

2007-04-24T14:24:00.000-07:00

The last few news days have been too slow even for our Slow News Day department. The Coen Bros. and George Clooney have announced new dark comedies with little in the way of plot or cast, Les Claypool's Electric Apricot, Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show, and a few other long-wrapped features were picked up for distribution, the Simpsons are getting their own damn ride, and that's been about it. All the comedy mainstays must be out promoting their current projects instead of making new ones, so why not check out this bevy of recent interviews?

The AV Club talks to Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost, keepers of last weekend's biggest per-screen box office numbers, about 138 different cop movies and how to act like a monkey.

Michael Showalter has an awkward phone call with Human Giant.

CHUD talks to Paul Rudd and Ken Marino about those pesky State DVDs and imaginary comedy battles.

The AV Club talks to Master Shake, Frylock, Meatwad, and Carl about peanut butter, mimes, and condoms.

People asks Adam McKay how to get your daughter to curse like a sailor, and then has a brief e-mail dialogue with the Landlord herself.

Gothamist talks to Jon Benjamin about his new Super Deluxe cartoon, his formative years, and "fuck powder."

Slow News Day: Reno-ers Down Under, Ferrell or Die, Chasing Chevy, Wet Hot Karaoke

2007-04-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

ITEM: In a new interview with Moviehole, Tom Lennon only-half-jokingly explains his vision for a Reno 911!: Miami sequel, which would send the team to Australia to pull a horny koala off Steven Seagal’s face, among other things. He also reveals that he and Ben Garant are now writing the Mike Myers vehicle How to Survive a Robot Uprising, and are in the early stages of development on a Night at the Museum sequel too, but who gives a shit?

ITEM: With a million views so far, you’ve probably already seen Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s exclusive Internet short The Landlord, but just in case, here it is in all its youthful, foul-mouthed glory. So far, no word on where the hell this thing came from and how start-up video site Funny or Die managed to get a lock on it.

ITEM: Chevy Chase attempts to clear up every rumor he’s ever been attached to in a new Q&A with Time. Among the more interesting revelations: His long-term absence, peppered with phoned-in supporting roles, may be coming to a close now that his daughters have grown up, he only left SNL for a girl, and he claims the damaging gossip about his backstage gay-bashing is 100% fabricated, and that he has the testimony from Will Ferrell to prove it. A far less interesting revelation: he thinks Vegas Vacation was “just OK.”

ITEM: This weekend at a Michael Showalter-hosted magazine premiere party, Paul Rudd and David Wain belted out a no-holds-barred Boston karaoke classic to live accompaniment by champion weirdsters Of Montreal. Fortunately (or maybe not), someone captured it via shitty cell phone camera, and now here it be:

Slow News Day: If You Hate Edgar Wright, Ed Helms, Todd Phillips, and Matthew Broderick...DON'T Read This. DON'T.

2007-04-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Edgar Wright, currently touring the country with his so-called "secret" Hot Fuzz Q&As, has revealed that Fuzz is the second film in a planned trilogy of genre exercises, and that he and Simon Pegg are already in the early stages of the final entry. Now he's telling Rotten Tomatoes that he might be interested in developing his hysterical Don't faux-trailer into a feature film that would maintain the same level of European-style horror confusion for 90 minutes. Could Don't be the elusive third film? Probably not, if Grindhouse's numbers don't pick up this week...

ITEM: Speaking of poor numbers... yes, the rumors are sadly true. Andy Barker, P.I. has not only been unceremoniously canned, but the remaining episodes have been immediately ripped from the schedule, and the final two, arguably the best of the series, will air instead this Saturday night while no one's watching (but remember, you can watch all six episodes on NBC's website at any time). Meanwhile, Raines is still at large.

ITEM: Time for the Daily Apatow News Break. Ed Helms, of The Daily Show and The Office, will co-write and star in A Whole New Hugh for producer Judd Apatow, based on an original pitch by Helms and TV writers Jake Fleisher and Ian Berger. It's the story of a depressed failure who gets a much needed ego boost when his friends pitch in to give him a fake success story. Helms just finished off a small role in another of Judd's films (Walk Hard), which seems to be the only prerequisite to getting your own Apatow Production these days. He'll also appear (as previously reported) in Starship Dave and Evan Almighty. Meanwhile, the long-delayed sci-fi comedy First Time Caller, now known as I'll Believe You, is finally due to release this September, and features Helms as well as Patrick Warburton, Fred Willard, Chris Elliott, and Helms' former co-correspondent Mo Rocca.

ITEM: Todd Phillips, probably still kicking himself for leaving Borat, is producing The Chadster, and is all but confirmed to direct as well. If so, he'll be working for the first time on someone else's screenplay, instead of with his own writing partner Scot Armstrong. Chadster is written by British filmmaker Michael Samonek, and involves a Best Man whose position is challenged when the groom's long-lost former best friend shows up with a bag full of wacky hijinx. No word on the stars, but if it isn't Owen Wilson, Jon Heder, or Seann William Scott, we'll be damn surprised. Meanwhile, word on the street is that there's a new draft of Old School Dos floating around...

ITEM: Sherwood Kiraly will adapt his own quirky novel Diminished Capacity into a family dramedy, to be directed by Oz's Terry Kinney. It's the story of a brain-damaged man, the high school sweetheart he can't remember, and his Alzheimer's-impaired uncle, all traveling to a Cubs game in hope of getting some quick cash off a rare baseball card. Doesn't sound too shabby, actually, especially when Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, and Virginia Madsen have just signed on board. See if you can guess who plays who... (hint: Alan Alda is old.)

Where Are They Now: Freaks and Geeks Edition, Part Two

2007-04-07T02:58:00.000-07:00

Read Part One here.

Joe Flaherty (Harold Weir): Comedy legend Joe Flaherty quickly jumped onto a recurring role on The King of Queens, and is now apparently hosting an Adult Swim-style animation showcase called Uncle Joe’s Cartoon Playhouse for some obscure Canadian station called Bite TV (you can watch a promo here) . The pilot has already been picked up for series, and may be imported to the States soon. He’s also currently filming a wacky kiddie camp flick called Summerhood with Christopher McDonald. Meanwhile, the latest edition of Shout Factory’s SCTV discs is a best-of compilationfeaturing new commentary from Flaherty.

Becky Ann Baker (Jean Weir): Becky is a longtime character actor who’s had no problem racking lots of dramatic roles since playing Sam and Linday’s pleasant, rosy, and frequently embarrassing mother, from multiple Law & Order appearances to a starring role in last year’s controversial Death of a President. She does however appear in the low-budget teen comedy Gretchen, also starring Stephen Root, which made the festival rounds recently and will hopefully land on DVD soon.

Sarah Hagan (Millie Kentner): Playing the uber-geek on Freaks paved the way for Hagan to play a recurring, D&D-loving uber-geek on Buffy the Vampire Slayer's final season, until she was eaten by a mega-vamp. Since then, she landed a juicy role on a (probably angst-filled) episode of Grey’s Anatomy, and now she’ll be appearing in a small supporting role with Amy Poehler, Parker Posey, and Rachel Dratch in the middle-aged dance party Spring Breakdown, which is set for release early next year.

Dave “Gruber” Allen (Jeff Rosso): Dave was belting out comedy classics semi-professionally long before he treated our boys to his smoking acoustic Alice Cooper covers, as the naked half of the LA live staple Naked Trucker and T-Bones, which has now of course blossomed into an over-advertised, cameo-plastered cable variety show. He’ll also team up with Zach Galifianakis in a new concert film by Jon Brion, another mainstay of Hollywood’s live music (and sometimes comedy) scene. No word yet on whether his minor cult classic Comedy Central series Higgins Boys and Gruber will ever see the light of day on DVD.

Steve Bannos (Frank Kowchevski): Kowchevski, who also wrote for the show, continued roaming high school halls in the Nickelodeon series Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide (Declassified to its true fans), but recently left for a role in the amusing but quickly cancelled Ted Danson group-therapy sitcom Help Me Help You. Meanwhile, his good buddies Paul Feig and Judd Apatow have been keeping him more than busy with quick and easy film roles in 40-Year-Old Virgin, Unaccompanied Minors, and the upcoming Drillbit Taylor, and he’ll also appear with Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Will Arnett, Rob Corddry, Andy Richter, Andy Daly, and a ton of other hilarious people in next year’s anticipated Semi-Pro.

Stephen Lea Sheppard (Harris Trinsky): After scoring a major (and friggin’ hysterical) role in The Royal Tenenbaums, this king-of-the-geeks seems to have willfully withdrawn from acting to focus instead on writing werewolf-themed role-playing games, meaning he’s closed the gap more than anyone here on the difference between his character and his real life activities. (EDIT: Oops, Sheppard himself just informed us that he actually works on Exalted, which is a mythical fantasy RPG. No werewolves. Sorry to misinform, and our thanks to Stephen!)

Tom Wilson (Coach Ben Fredricks): Known a million times better for shouting at Marty McFly than for wooing Haverchuck’s mom, Wilson’s had no trouble keeping hella busy maintaining a hella bizarre resume, from providing all manner of voices for Spongebob to nabbing supporting roles in grating Hollywood shitfests Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector and Zoom. He also joined Steve Bannos on the short-lived Help Me Help You. But more importantly (to him, anyway), he’s been pushing himself as a live comedian with his own…special brand of…musical…er, comedy… which you can watch at his personal web site, and even buy his new CD Tom Wilson is Funny!, although we’re a bit more partial toward his other hobby, painting pop art.

Jake Kasdan (Director/Consulting Producer): Kasdan, who directed the pilot and most other key episodes, has continued to follow his famous father’s footsteps, directing Orange County and The TV Set, the latter of which opened in limited theaters today, and whose lead character is openly based on Judd Apatow. The film follows the trials and tribulations of working with network heads on a labor-of-love TV show, which is based heavily on real-life experiences behind the scenes of Freaks, and also possibly from Kasdan’s failed Alan Cumming pilot based on his fantastic debut film, The Zero Effect. Now Kasdan is filming his next movie, the absolutely delicious sounding musical bio-pic spoof Walk Hard, co-written and produced by Apatow.

Judd Apatow (Director/Writer/Executive Producer): Apatow has gone on to become literally the biggest name in contemporary comedy. Maybe you’ve heard of him. After following up Freaks with the similarly themed, similarly beloved, and similarly cancelled Undeclared, Apatow tried to get two other series off the ground, Life on Parole and Sick in the Head (working with Freaks creator Paul Feig on the latter), before giving up on TV altogether and instead making The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which made about a trillion dollars and is frequently called the best comedy of the century so far. Meanwhile, he continued exerting the producing muscle he exerted on Freaks, the Larry Sanders Show, and the Ben Stiller Show into film, producing all of the Adam McKay/Will Ferrell vehicles and fleshing out his Apatow Productions company into a machine gun of comic quality. He has now set up no less than seven upcoming projects, including all the ones we’ve already mentioned in other sections of this feature, plus the Adam Sandler vehicle You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which Apatow wrote with Sandler and Robert Smigel. His next project as writer/director, Knocked Up, comes out this summer, and will surely blow you away.

Paul Feig (Writer/Producer/Series Creator): Feig quickly fell into directing after the end of the series, with the indie melodrama I Am David, as well as many episodes of Arrested Development and the American Office. Last Christmas saw the release of his critically panned family holiday flick Unaccompanied Minors, filled with several friendly faces to F&G fans and comedy fans in general. Next he’ll direct Stargirl, based on a teen-friendly novel about a popular high school boy and the quirky underdog girl who loves him. If that’s not familiar territory, what is?

Next week: Arrested Development

Do You Superbad?

2007-04-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

Superbad, somehow only the second most anticipated Judd Apatow related comedy of the year, has gone and got itself an official movie site. Right now you can download a screensaver and stare at a countdown clock, but word on the street is that the place will soon become as happening as the high school keg parties depicted in the film. And oh yeah, there's also the first trailer. Nothing super bad about that, provided you have a functioning US driver's license to get through Sony's creepy childproof digi-lock.

The film, directed by Undeclared vet Gregg Mottola and written by the great Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, releases August 17. Star Michael Cera also has Jason Reitman's Juno and the sketch film Parental Guidance Suggested coming later this year, and his new web series, Clark and Michael, premieres this month at CBS.com. The latter is a mockumentary following Cera and best friend Clark Duke living the high life based on an indefinite pilot greenlight, and features everyone under the sun, including Arrested Development pals David Cross and Tony Hale, plus Andy Richter, Patton Oswalt, Tim and Eric, and Superbad co-star Jonah Hill, who will match Cera's gusto with appearances in the surefire hit Evan Almighty and the Danny DeVito comedy One Part Sugar, as well as lending his voice to the star-studded CGI Seussage fest Horton Hears a Who. You also may have caught him in the premiere episode of Human Giant, and you'll see him the aforementioned other Apatow production, Knocked Up. Hey, who needs college?

Where Are They Now?: Freaks and Geeks Edition, Part One

2007-04-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a new feature at the Comedyblog where we track all the members of certain circles to see what they're up to. We'll start, appropriately, with Freaks and Geeks, the infamous starting point for a new generation of actors, and the point where Judd Apatow started his climb to becoming arguably the biggest name in contemporary comedy. It also happens to be one of the greatest and most lamentably cancelled shows in history. Part Two comes tomorrow.

John Francis Daley (Sam Weir): After starring with Ryan Reynolds in the box office bomb Waiting… and the quickly cancelled culinary comedy series Kitchen Confidential, John is getting back on the horse with The Call, a recently announced pilot about a group of paramedics who “save other people’s lives while screwing up each other’s.” Meanwhile, 5-25-77, the long-delayed autobiographical story of a bunch of nerds seeing Star Wars for the first time, is finally due to be released “as close to 5-25-07 as possible,” according to Patrick Read Johnson, the writer and director portrayed by Daley in the film. Daley will also appear in an episode of Michael Cera’s web series Clark and Michael, premiering on CBS Innertube later this year.

Linda Cardellini (Lindsay Weir): Her dramatic turn in Brokeback Mountain has sent her over to the other side, becoming a regular on ER and starring in a new chapter of the long-running Lonesome Dove series. But comedy fans surely recognized her in the premiere episode of the fantastic new sketch show Human Giant. Oh, and she also shows up on Robot Chicken from time to time, probably getting dry-clay-humped by Scooby Doo.

Samm Levine (Neal Schweiber): Levine has become the king of quick and hilarious TV cameos, from Undeclared to Entourage to Family Guy to Veronica Mars, and occasionally dips his toes into the film scene as well, whether it’s being the creepy pool kid in Club Dread or providing geeky tech explanations in the less-than-well-received horror flop Pulse, a film for which he was the only actor who bothered to show up for the commentary track, a fact he’s more than ready to be self-effacing about. Levine also stars with Seth Macfarlane and Alexis Bledel in the short film Life is Short, hitting festivals around the country starting this month, and has supporting appearances in two upcoming features, the Amanda Bynes tweener laffer Sydney White, and the gay-themed dramedy Anderson’s Cross.

Martin Starr (Bill Haverchuck): Starr has kept relatively busy basically taking extra work in all manner of TV and movies, almost exclusively playing characters with numbers after their names. But this summer, he’ll join Segel and Rogen in Knocked Up, playing a nappily bearded roommate which leads to the funniest beard jokes you’ll ever hear in cinemas. Then he’ll join Tom Arnold in the questionably titled Good Dick, and then it’s back to numbers playing Dude #5 in Seth Rogen’s Superbad. Superbad’s Michael Cera has also thrown Starr a guest spot on his new web series Clark and Michael, which also features John Daley.

Jason Segel (Nick Andopolis): Several years after FOX decided he was too wild and subversive to topline Apatow’s original vision for Undeclared, Segel is now making a good living out of starring in the blandly enjoyable traditional CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, with the bonus privilege of getting to pretend to fuck Buffy babe Alyson Hannigan. He also has an occasional recurring character on CSI, so take that, FOX. Segel is also one of the already legendary Roommates in Apatow’s upcoming masterpiece Knocked Up, and he’ll work with Apatow yet again when he stars in his own script for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, playing a jilted ex-lover who tries to escape his depression through a Hawaiian vacation, only to discover his ex visiting the same island with her new boyfriend. Apatow will produce with first-time director Nicholas Stoller, a Strangers with Candy writer who also worked with the pair on Undeclared. And the girlfriend’s played by Lake Bell, whose Veronica Mars featured Samm Levine! Small world!

James Franco (Daniel Desario): Now much better known for his superhero vendetta than for sharing porn with clueless geeks, Franco is keeping more than busy with a multitude of overblown melodrama projects in the works. However, he still shows his proud comedy roots here and there, writing, directing, and starring in the wholly bizarre-looking direct-to-video chimp flick The Ape, and also recently sighted at Sundance in the Bruce Lee send-up Finishing the Game, starring alongside MC Hammer (multiple exclamation points and question marks). He recently finished filming Camille, a darkly comic adventure about a thief and his deadly sham marriage, also starring Sienna Miller and David Carradine. And now, most exciting of all, he’s filming The Pineapple Express, his return to both producer Judd Apatow and co-star Seth Rogen, in a stoner action buddy comedy written by Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg, and directed by indie hero David Gordon Green.

Seth Rogen (Ken Miller): Where to start? The monotone schlub who arguably got the biggest laughs on the series went on to getting the biggest laughs of Undeclared as well, and even picked up writing a few of the show’s best episodes. That talent got him a gig on Da Ali G Show, and then Apatow cast him as one of the leads in the gargantuan-mega-hit 40-Year-Old Virgin, where he was so funny that studio heads quickly cast him as the only mildly amusing character in You, Me, and Dupree, and now he’s on his way to becoming an A-list headliner with his critically lauded performance in Knocked Up. Apatow is also turning his writing career with high school chum Evan Goldberg into a second career, producing their scripts for the autobiographical Superbad, John Hughes’ kid-comedy Drillbit Taylor with Owen Wilson, and The Pineapple Express, which will star Rogen and Franco. That’s three Rogen scripts within a year of each other. He’ll also have smaller acting roles in Fanboys and the family fantasy The Spiderwick Chronicles, as well as lending his voice to Horton Hears a Who along with Jim Carrey, Steve Carell, and Superbad star Jonah Hill. That’s almost as busy as Green Goblin Jr. up there!

Busy Philipps (Kim Kelly): Joining the cast of insanely popular teen soap Dawson’s Creek has made Busy a constant mainstay of various television, lending voices, like many of these guys, to Seth Macfarlane’s various animated projects, and headlining the girly UPN sitcom Love, Inc., which wasn’t nearly as bad as it should have been due to the involvement of several Upright Citizens Brigade favorites. Now that it’s been cancelled, she’s joined Cardellini at ER. Strangely enough, Philipps actually developed the story line for Blades of Glory, currently the #1 movie in the country. Yes, it was Kim Kelly who thought of two dudes skating together. These freaks pop up everywhere.

Slow News Day: Apatow Appoints M.C. D.A., Ferrell Orders HBO, Starship Lands Friedlander, Birdman Takes a Bow

2007-04-05T11:12:00.000-07:00

ITEM: David Krumholtz, a nice-guy character actor frequently utilized by Ed Burns and Judd Apatow, is following Jason Segel's plan and writing himself his own movie for generous Judd's Apatow Productions. Attorneys at Raw follows two lawyers who decide to become rappers. Here's hoping Judd keeps a close watch on that dumb-ass plot. Meanwhile, Krumholtz has been cast in the other, more foolproof musical Apatow comedy Walk Hard.

ITEM: Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's previously announced pilot, P.E., has been picked up for series by HBO, and simultaneously stripped down to untitled status. The show follows a former athlete lowered to coaching high school gym. Ferrell is expected to make frequent guest appearances, but the show is otherwise officially uncast.

ITEM: Judah Friedlander, best known for nerding it up in American Splendor and 30 Rock, has joined the cast of the still dubious Starship Dave, joining Eddie Murphy, Elizabeth Banks, and Ed Helms in the sci-fi comedy written by MST3K's Bill Corbett and directed by the man who brought you Norbit (and refuses to take it back).

ITEM: The third and final season of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law will hit DVD shelves on July 24, featuring deleted scenes and a digital comic book. We're not sure what a digital comic book is, either. If you're keeping score, this show's cancellation brings Adult Swim's surviving original lineup down to one.

Cross Paths With the Devil

2007-04-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

David Cross will join perpetual pie fucker Jason Biggs and Undeclared slacker Timm Sharp in a new CBS pilot titled I'm in Hell. If picked up for series, it will follow Biggs as a dead mover-shaker forced to return to Earth, jobless and penniless, now that Hell runneth over with sinners. Cross will play an agent from Below. The pilot was written by Gregory Thompson and Aron Abrams, who've worked together previously on King of the Hill and Everybody Hates Chris, and will be directed by Sandler standby Frank Coraci, a man well versed in creating Hell on Earth via his most recent film Click.

Coraci is also attached to direct Johnny Knoxville in the comic book film Hawaiian Dick, while Cross is part of the star-studded ensembles for the improv poker comedy The Grand and Todd Haynes' oddball Dylan biopic I'm Not There. He'll also appear in his former Arrested Development co-star Michael Cera's web series Clark and Michael.

Biggs will be back in theaters later this year with Isla Fisher in Michael Ian Black's "Worst Title of the Year" award winner Wedding Daze, formerly known as The Pleasure of Your Company, and with Paul Rudd in the psychic ghost rom-com How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiancée.

Slow News Day: Giant Falls Early, Mystery Men II, Paul and Patton's Pilot, Just Not That Promising

2007-04-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Great news for premature ejaculators and non-cable owners: The entire first episode of Human Giant is now on iTunes for the price of no dollars. Yay.

ITEM: NBC has graciously allowed Tracy Morgan to continue being hilarious on a second season of 30 Rock. Whew.

ITEM: Ben Stiller is producing a new animated superhero satire for Dreamworks called Mind Master, which follows the empty life of a supervillain after he accidentally kills his nemesis. Meh.

ITEM: Comedy Central is taping a new pilot this week for a courtroom game show called Root of All Evil, featuring Paul F. Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, Andrew Daly, and Greg Giraldo, from Simpsons producer David Sacks. Go here if you'd like to attend. Whee.

ITEM: From the "Cancels Itself Out" News Department comes the announcement that Ken Kwapis will direct the film version of Greg Behrendt's non-fiction man-guide He's Just Not That Into You. Kwapis is a mainstay of contemporary classic television including Freaks and Geeks, The Larry Sanders Show, and The Office, cancelled out by the fact that he directed The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. And Behdrendt is a hilarious live comedian and David Cross associate, cancelled out by also hosting his own shitty daytime talk show. The final score, if you haven't been paying attention, is zero. Blah.

What About Jim?

2007-03-29T09:46:00.000-07:00

Fresh off the lowest point of his career since his Rubberface days, Jim Carrey is poised for a massive late-career comedic breakthrough. He's back on board for the on-and-off Ripley's Believe it or Not, he's joining Steve Carell, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Isla Fisher, and Jonah Hill voicing Horton Hears a Who, and most exciting of all, he's now attached to star in a new script from Upright Citizen Ian Roberts and writing partner Jay Martel, and surprise, it sounds pretty effin' funny. Me Time would star Carrey as a writer working on a biography for his great-great-grandmother, whose tough-as-nails frontier lifestyle makes him take a hard look at his less-than-masculine lifestyle. The spec script has been picked up by Fox, which doesn't necessarily mean anything, but Carrey's involvement should be enough to propel it into it theaters.

Roberts and Martel have been keeping insanely busy, seemingly sending spec scripts to every studio in America, including Dad Can't Lose for Will Arnett, Worst Friends, and Air Guitar. So far, they've had lots of pick-ups, but there's been no solid production news.

Meanwhile, the second season of Upright Citizens Brigade is finally on its way to stores, and Roberts will join Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, and Matt Walsh at their LA theater this Saturday to record a live commentary for two of the episodes.

LINK

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Returns!...Sort Of

2007-03-27T14:13:00.000-07:00

Satellite News, possibly the most active news site ever built around a cancelled series, has arguably the biggest MST3K scoop since its cancellation. Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo), Bill Corbett (post-Comedy Central Crow), and Mike Nelson (uh...Mike Nelson) will release the first in a series of new DVDs on July 10. The Film Crew series will follow three men who are forced to record a commentary track for every movie ever made, thanks to their slave-driver boss Bob Honcho, who keeps their noses to the grindstone in a deep, dark basement while he tracks their progress via speakerphone. Sound ridiculously familiar? Of course it does. Does anyone care? Not really. The Shout! Factory, the wonderful independent DVD archivists responsible for bringing SCTV, Home Movies, and the upcoming Upright Citizens Brigade live discs to the masses, will first drop 1968's Hollywood After Dark on the aforementioned release date, followed later this year by Killers from Space, Giant of Marathon, and The Wild Women of Wongo.

The Film Crew got started recording commentaries for obscure Three Stooges releases in order to increase fan interest, and Mike has spent the last year or so steadily recording MP3-downloadable commentaries for all sort of new and classic films at Rifftrax. Corbett recently sold his script for the major Eddie Murphy vehicle Starship Dave. Volume 11 in Rhino's long-running and messy attempt to release Mystery Science on DVD will hit stores on June 26.

UPDATED: torgosPizza informed us that the Film Crew discs are actually three years old, and are hold-overs from an aborted project with Rhino. All future riffage will be under the Rifftrax umbrella. Thanks Torgo!

Ricky Ghostvais and Ghost Kinnear

2007-03-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Greg Kinnear will grab a familiar plotline from his frequent screen partner Bruce Willis when he plays a dentist who sees dead people in DreamWorks' romantic comedy (?) Ghost Town. Ricky Gervais is also attached to star in an unknown role. Superhero scribe David Koepp, who wrote the screenplay with his Zathura collaborator John Kamps, will also direct, his first trip back to the chair since 2004's abysmal Secret Window.

Gervais recently announced the end of Extras, and appeared with Stephen Merchant and a half-dozen surprise guests in a new spot for the UK's Red Nose Day.

Koepp recently, uh, wrote a draft of the most anticipated fourquel of all time.

Slow News Day: The Onion Gets Bigger, the Networks Go Small

2007-03-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

ITEM: The funny-news vets at The Onion have given up on their long-struggling motion picture (they're "no longer associated with that project"), but that hasn't kept them from going live. New streaming segments are continuously added throughout the day, so start tuning in.

ITEM: Chris Kattan has signed on to host a game show in his head. No, wait...it's a real life show on CBS called Game Show in My Head.

ITEM: Jennifer Coolidge, best known for stealing scenes in Chris Guest movies, and for being the original MILF, has signed on to ABC's Family of the Year, which also features Alan Ruck, best known for accidentally breaking his overbearing father's Ferrari.

ITEM: Rob Huebel will play a con man in NBC's new comedy Zip, which hopefully won't distract him much from the fucking-hilarious-looking The Human Giant show for MTV.

Slow News Day: Zombies, Ninjas, Aliens, Yada Yada Yada

2007-03-22T14:41:00.000-07:00

ITEM: The fine folks at Toonzone report that Aqua Teen Hunger Force Zombie Ninja Pro-Am will hit PS2s this fall. Not much else is known, except that it involves Master Shake and Meatwad wreaking havoc on Frylock's distinguished golf course, and that it will be a character-packed racing game akin to Mario Kart.

ITEM: Ed Helms will play one of the tiny alien commanders who overtake Eddie Murphy's body in the upcoming Starship Dave. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Banks will play Murphy's human love interest. You should probably hedge your bets on this one since it's coming from the infamously obnoxious Norbit director Brian Robbins, but keep in mind that Mystery Science Theater 3000 vet Bill Corbett wrote the script.

ITEM: TV Shows on DVD is "99% sure" that the eighth season of Seinfeld will be released on June 5. It's the first season without Larry David, but don't let that stop you; it features man hands, yada yada, Kenny Rogers' Chicken Roaster, the muffin tops, and more.

Three Cheers for Three Moderately Amusing Trailers!

2007-03-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Up first is what seems like the one millionth Simpsons Movie trailer, and the first one that seems to really hammer the real movie clips instead of all the previous teasers, which mostly seemed more like standalone pre-movie short films.

Next we have Jamie Kennedy's Kickin' it Old Skool, which tells the story of a young champion breakdancer who knocks himself into a coma and wakes up in present day and has to come to terms with the fact that he grew up in the 80s, a decade already more outdated than the one that preceded it. It's unknown if the archaic trailer narration is trying to replicate that particular era, or if it's just that bad. As for the movie itself, it seems to just be harvesting joke ideas from Big, Austin Powers, and everything in between, but it still manages to squeeze in some half-decent jokes, like the fact that the hero's main regret about being in a coma for 15 years is that he missed the sequels to his favorite childhood films. Further hope for the film lies in the more-than-capable supporting cast which includes Christopher McDonald and Ferris Bueller's Alan Ruck.

Speaking of rip-offs, we wrap up with Eagle vs. Shark, the hyped-up New Zealand comedy starring one half of the popular musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. Nearly every notice for the movie makes comparisons to Napoleon Dynamite, which makes all too much sense now that this new trailer is out, which features gawky absurdist characters, bright retro colors, wacky doodles, and even nunchucks. The blatant similarities are pretty unfortunate, since on its own terms it looks like it has some pretty damn funny stuff, mainly coming from a subplot where the NZ Napoleon takes his new girlfriend with him to try to murder his former high school bullyer.

Slow News Day: Whitest Kids, MST3K, Milonakis, Michael Ian Black, Catherine Keener, and Jane Curtin

2007-03-20T14:21:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Remember when we talked to you about the new Whitest Kids U’Know show a while back? Well, don’t forget to watch the premiere tonight, unless of course you already caught in when it randomly aired a week ago unscheduled. Of course, if you’re like us and the rest of the world, you’ve barely even heard of Fuse TV, so you might have to settle for this mess of funny clips instead.

ITEM: According to Satellite News, the eleventh volume in the large, random, confusing, and unwieldy Mystery Science Theater 3000 DVD collection will be released on May 15, with the episodes The Ring of Terror, The Indestructible Man, Tormented, and Horrors of Spider Island, plus several shorts and features. Meanwhile, Mike Nelson and company continue their audio-riffage project Rifftrax, most recently taking on Terminator 3.

ITEM: The third season of The Andy Milonakis Show will premiere on iTunes and every other wacky new digital download service in the world on March 20, a full month before the premiere airs on MTV2. New episodes and exclusive shorts will continue to release digitally throughout the new season, which unfortunately hasn’t yet announced what hot new guest stars will be out-weirding each other this time around.

ITEM: Apparently Michaels Ian Black and Showalter are returning to Comedy Central with a new show called Michael Ian Black Doesn’t Understand. Somewhat ironically, there’s no more information on it at this time.

ITEM: Catherine Keener has joined Robert DeNiro, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Sean Penn, and Stanley Tucci in Barry Levinson’s potential late-career-booster What Just Happened?, a reflexive comedy based on the life of legendary producer Art Linson.

ITEM: Famed ignorant slut Jane Curtin has signed on to producer Brian Grazer’s sitcom adaptation of the popular “work is hard!” memoir, Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office.

Ex-Extras

2007-03-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant have decided to turn down BBC's offer for a third season of their beloved, award-winning Extras. This comes as no big surprise, a few weeks after Gervais joked with the AV Club about not ever being able to do more than two seasons of anything. Just like The Office, everything will be wrapped up neatly with an extra-long Extras special, which is now in the early stages of development. It will almost definitely feature more real-life celebrities making fools of themselves, but there's no word on whether they'll be pulled from Gervais' recently announced dream team, which includes Mel Gibson and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Gervais has also stopped doing his interview series Ricky Gervais Meets..., reportedly because of his bizarre chat with Garry Shandling, which was either a complete disaster or an amusing tribute to the awkward conversation seen on both men's shows. There's no word on ehether his already-taped discussions with Jerry Seinfeld and pre-meltdown Michael Richards will ever air.

Meanwhile, there seem to be no set plans for the duo's future, but Gervais is continuing to perform his live stand-up show Fame, recently adding a mess of dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in London, after selling out three shows at the Royal Albert Hall.

Slow News Day: Fatty Black, Pregnant Poehler, Hawaiian Freak, Preview Pie

2007-03-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

ITEM: Jack Black is the latest actor to join Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, playing an overweight comedian named "Fats." One can only hope the movie's other jokes play on a slightly higher level.

ITEM: Austin Powers scribe Michael McCullens will make his directing debut with Baby Mama, in which Tina Fey hires Amy Poehler as a baby surrogate to avoid taking maternity leave. Hopefully that promising casting can eclipse the dumb-ass title, not to mention the plot, which is not only bland and predictable, but also strangely similar to SNL co-star Will Forte's recently wrapped script for The Brothers Solomon.

ITEM: Jason Segel, still best known as the lovelorn drummer of Freaks and Geeks, has lined up his first leading film role in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a romantic comedy about a guy who decides to get over his break-up blues with a Hawaiian vacation, only to find his ex traveling to the same island with her new beau. Kristin Bell of Veronica Mars will play the titular role. How did Segel land the gig after years of wacky sidekick background acting? Well, he wrote it himself.

ITEM: The anticipated dramedy Waitress, written and directed by the late Hal Hartley protege Adrienne Shelly, finally has a trailer up. Unfortunately, it looks like an obnoxious, cutesy retread of every other uber-Southern indie flick you've ever seen, but will hopefully be saved by the comic talents of Nathan Fillion and Cheryl Hines.

Larry David Roundup

2007-03-09T08:18:00.000-08:00

It's hard to decide which is the more bizarre Larry David news item this week: the fact that he inadvertently saved a man from the electric chair or the fact that he and his daughters will be playing themselves on a Disney Channel kiddie sitcom starring Billy Ray Cyrus' daughter.

In Exhibit A, we have a man who spent five months in prison for the murder of a 16-year-old girl before he uncovered outtake footage from the beloved "Carpool Lane" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm which clearly show him looking on and eating a Dodger dog at the time of the crime, 20 miles away from the victim. The man wandered over to the set to watch as soon as he heard they were filming one of his favorite shows at the game he was attending, proving that good taste in comedy can save your life.

And in Exhibit B, David has signed on to appear in the live-action pop-star fantasy Hannah Montana, starring the non-legendary "Achy Break Heart" singer cum PAX TV doctor Cyrus and his daughter. David's daughters are apparently big fans of the show, and will appear with him on the episode.

In less strange but much more potentially awesome news, Steve Coogan has signed on to play David's psychiatrist in at least one episode of the upcoming Curb season, which also stars Vivica A. Fox as a hurrican refugee living with Larry and Cheryl. The new season is expected to start some time this fall, and may very well be the last (though he seems to say this every season).

And finally, as Spiderman 3's release date draws nearer, it seems fairly clear that reports of David's remark about filming a cameo was, as suspected, a great big joke.

While we're on the subject, have you seen Larry's appearance from last year's Earth to America special, produced by his real-life wife? Judging from its ratings, you probably didn't, so why not check it out now?

Matt Besser Walks With Me

2007-03-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

Fellow comedy reporters The Coming have posted an info-packed interview with Matt Besser, who has been keeping himself so busy that we can't stop posting features about him. Among the major revelations is that he'll be playing the guitarist in John C. Reilly's faux hit band in Jake Kasdan and Judd Apatow's biopic spoof Walk Hard, and that he's Kanye West's official improv coach for his upcoming untitled HBO mockumentary created by Larry Charles. Futhermore, he's writing a new film called Safety First for pal Amy Poehler.

Meanwhile, the Upright Citizens Brigade just finished a weekend of filming for a new Shout! Factory DVD release of ASSSSCAT 3000, which previously failed to catch on as a Bravo series. The four taped specials featured all four UCBers, as well as Horatio Sanz, Chad Carter, Sean Conroy, and Andrew Daly, plus improv-launching monologues from Will Arnett, Tom Lennon, Ed Helms, Paul F. Tompkins, and Jen Kirkman. Besser hopes the DVD will do well enough to kick off a sort of UCB/Shout! Factory imprint label where they can release even more footage from their various live output. He also announces that they're working on a new UCB website to feature daily videos and more.

All in all, a pretty good way to stick it to Comedy Central for canceling one of the best sketch comedy shows of all time, don't you think?

Slow News Day: Larry Charles and Bruce McCulloch Go to ABC, Norm Goes to Earl, Various Dumb Cavemen Go to Hollywood

2007-03-06T14:08:00.000-08:00

ITEM: ABC, who is reportedly looking to beef up their weak comedy selection, has signed Larry Charles to a 2 and a half year development deal in which he will likely write, direct, and produce a series of original projects, if he can find enough time between shooting an anti-religion documentary with Bill Maher, working with Kanye West on an HBO reality series, and making the Motley Crue biopic.

ITEM: The aforementioned network is also developing Carpoolers, starring Fred Goss, Jerry O'Connell, and Jerry Minor as three guys who...can you guess it?...carpool to work together. Sounds pretty bland, but Kid in the Hall Bruce McCulloch wrote the script for the pilot, which will be directed by the Russo brothers, who helmed many of the best episodes of Arrested Development (+5 points) and the recent film You, Me, and Dupree (-10 points.)

ITEM: According to Norm News, Norm Macdonald will be reprising his deliciously awesome Burt Reynolds impression on an upcoming guest spot for My Name is Earl. Unfortunately, he's also announced that his Court Appointed Lawyer script he wrote for himself and Will Ferrell is dead in the water.

ITEM: Hit-and-miss oddball Adam Rifkin has posted a mess of clips from his new prehistoric comedy Homo Erectus, including the official trailer. Mosey over to his YouTube channel if you like to see guys getting conked in the head a lot, or you want to see David Carradine and Gary Busey continue to drive nails into the coffins of their careers.

ITEM: At the recent WonderCon, Sergio Aragonés revealed that writer Mark Evanier has completed a screenplay for a CGI movie version of Sergio's popular Groo the Wanderer comics, and the rights are currently being negotiated. Please take note that this is the second caveman story in this particular article alone, and the third this week if you count the new ABC show based on those Geico commercials, which we didn't even bother to report on. Either way, we have to reluctantly declare this Comedy Caveman Week at the Comedyblog. Please dress accordingly.

This Week in Funny 3/5/07-3/11/07

2007-03-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, March 6:

New on DVD: Borat - Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Zach Galifianakis - Live at the Purple Onion (click here to buy)
New on DVD: South Park - The Complete Ninth Season (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Fast Food Nation (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Let's Go to Prison (click here to buy)
New on DVD: The Loop - Season 1 (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Confetti (click here to buy)
Ken Davitian on The View (ABC)

Wednesday, March 7:

Season Premiere South Park: "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" (Comedy Central)
New The Sarah Silverman Program: “Batteries” (Comedy Central)
Rob Corddry on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)
Chris Rock on Tavis Smiley (PBS)

Thursday, March 8:

New Scrubs: “My Fishbowl” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “The Fighting Irish” (NBC)

Friday, March 9:

New in Theaters: The Host

Sunday, March 11:

New The Simpsons: “Rome-Old and Julie-Eh” (FOX)
New The Winner: “Broken Home” (FOX)
New Family Guy: “Bill and Peter’s Bogus Journey” (FOX)
New The Winner: “What Happens in Albany, Stays in Albany” (FOX)
New Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!: “Chunky” (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)
New Saul of the Molemen: “Work” (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)

Live Comedy Watch:

3/5: Maria Bamford at Dennison College in Dennison, OH
3/6: Zach Galifianakis at University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL
3/6: Doug Benson’s I Love Movies with guest Mary Lynn Rajskub at UCB Theatre in LA
3/6: Doug Benson, Andy Kindler, and Andrew Daly in Comedy Death-Ray at UCB Theatre in LA
3/6: Ron Lynch and Craig Anton in The Idiots at Steve Allen Theater in LA
3/7: Bob Odenkirk, Paul F. Tompkins, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Greg Fitzsimmons, Jen Kirkman, Derek Waters, Mike Phirman of Hard ‘n Phirm, and Jimmy Pardo at You’re Welcome at Mbar in LA
3/7: Todd Barry at Opolis in Norman, OK
3/7: Eugene Mirman, Bobby Tisdale, and Reggie Watts in Invite Them Up at Rififi in NYC
3/7: Stephen Lynch at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NE
3/7: Tig at University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI
3/8: Todd Barry at the Cavern in Dallas, TX
3/8-3/11: Marc Maron at the Improv in Chicago
3/8: Stephen Lynch at Moore Theater in Seattle, WA
3/9: Jerry Seinfeld at Murat Theater in Indianapolis, IN
3/9: Zach Galifianakis at Crystal Ballroom in Portland, OR
3/9: Todd Barry at Emo’s Lounge in Austin, TX
3/9: Stephen Lynch at Aladdin Theater in Portland, OR
3/10: Bill Cosby at L.J. Willians Theater in Visalia, CA
3/10: Zach Galifianakis at Moore Theater in Seattle, WA
3/10: Todd Barry at Walter’s on Washington in Houston, TX
3/10: Paul F. Tompkins in the Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour at Mbar in LA
3/11: Stephen Lynch at the Warfield in San Francisco, CA
3/11: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in NYC
3/11: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in LA
3/11: The Whitest Kids U’Know at Pianos in NYC

Slow News Day: Ken From KAOS, South Park: Smaller, Streaming, and Uncut, Plympton Draws High, Rajskub Lets the Sunshine In, Surely Not Theatrical

2007-03-05T08:48:00.000-08:00

ITEM: The Get Smart movie continues to rack up major casting brownie points as they sign Borat's chubby co-star Ken Davitian as an agent of KAOS, Maxwell Smart's evil foil.

ITEM: The 11th season of South Park starts March 7, and as a new bonus, the uncut versions of the episodes will be available from iTunes six days after the television broadcast, begging the question of what could possibly not make the air on a show that has already been allowed to say "shit" 162 times, and to show Jesus shitting all over the place, and a lot of other...shit.

ITEM: There's a trailer up for Bill Plympton's latest animated feature, Hair High, a high school zombie comedy with a crazy awesome voice cast that includes Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Silverman, David and Keith Carradine, Beverly D'Angelo, Ed Begley Jr., Michael Showalter, Justin Long, and fellow 'tooners Matt Groening and Don Hertzfeldt.

ITEM: Mary Lynn Rajskub has joined Alan Arkin and Steve Zahn in the dark comedy Sunshine Cleaning, which will probably use the phrase "indie sleeper" in its marketing.

ITEM: Paramount is thinking of doing some rush-job DTV sequels to The Naked Gun and Airplane! Zucker, Zucker, and Abraham aren't officially on board, but it's a fairly safe bet since they've announced their interest in the past, and it's an even safer bet that Leslie Nielsen would return, since he's been toiling in Videoland for years already.

Will Mike Judge Ever Work in This Town Again?

2007-03-01T10:38:00.000-08:00

The infamous Britney-baiting tabloid site TMZ.com claims to have insider information that Mike Judge has set up his next film project at HBO Films after tearing it away from Fox due to the horrible way they treated his cult non-hit Idiocracy. This is obviously great news, except that the story is filled with so many inconsistencies, oddities, and factual errors that it's hard to know if they just got some wires crossed. First off, they call the film Meet in the Freezer, when it's long been known to be Meat in the Freezer, and they claim that Judge co-wrote it with Got Milk? ad director Clay Tarver, when it's long been known that it was written with frequent collaborator Etan Cohen and actor Steve Zahn. And most surprisingly, they claim that Judge is only producing the film for Tarver to direct, which just seems highly unlikely after statements from Judge that he plans on becoming a full-time feature director, not to mention his vast passion for the "hunting porn" the project is based on.

Meat follows two former department store gun salesmen who begin a quest for a large albino buck in order to rescue their reputations during hunting season. Unfortunately, the woods are filled with dozens of amateurs who would love to bag the game for themselves, plus there's a gang of protestors moping around, one of whom one of the heroes has a crush on.

TMZ claims Anna Faris has done a table read for the hippie chick and is the favorite for the role, but you should probably take that and everything else in this article with a healthy grain of salt.

One thing we can tell you for sure is that Judge's King of the Hill will resume its eleventh season on March 25.

Slow News Day: Would You Believe Alan Arkin?, Venture III, Andy's Bar, Animania Strikes Again

2007-02-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

ITEM: Fresh off his Oscar win, Alan Arkin has signed on to play the Chief in the film update of Get Smart with Steve Carell. He'll be joining Anne Hathaway, the Rock, and Terence Stamp in the 2008 release, which is unfortunately brought to you by the writers of Failure to Launch and the director of Anger Management.

ITEM: Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer have announced that The Venture Bros. has been greenlit for a third season, and a fourth is almost definite. (Hell yeh!) But...the third season probably won't begin until next spring, due to the enormous amount of time the show takes to animate. (Hell naw...)

ITEM: The usually reliable Andy Ackerman (Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) is working with the usually shitty Scott Silveri (Friends, Joey) on an untitled new sitcom for CBS, about a group of late-night bar regulars. Meh...

ITEM: The third volumes of the beloved Saturday morning relics Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain will hit DVD on June 19, which will finally complete your Pinky collection and push you over the halfway mark on the other.

Jack Black Wants You to Watch Him, Control Him, and Create For Him

2007-02-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago, we announced that Jack Black, Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon, and VH1 were teaming up to create a multimedia program called Acceptable TV, based on Schrab and Harmon's popular Channel 101 website. We now have a date for the premiere: March 23. We could either explain how the whole thing works again, or we could let Jables himself tell you in these amusing promo spots.

Schrab and Harmon, who recently wrote the Oscar-nominated Monster House and are now pulling various strings behind The Sarah Silverman Program, previously worked with Black on the popular unaired pilot Heat Vision and Jack (check your favorite illegal video site), and will work with him again in the CGI Kung Fu Panda. Black also has Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind and Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding in post-production.

Down with the Thunder

2007-02-28T08:41:00.000-08:00

Tropic Thunder, already one of the most exciting comedies in development due to Stiller's return to directing and the involvement of Etan Cohen and Justin Theroux, has just gotten an extra kick of thunder with its latest casting news. Robert Downey Jr. will play Kirk Lazarus, a multiple-Oscar-winning acting legend who gets caught up with several other performers in a real-life war scenario armed only with the fleeting, oversimplified training skills taught to them in a Hollywood boot camp to prepare for film. Undeclared's Jay Baruchel has also come on board as a rookie actor on the team. Filming is schedule to start in July.

RDJ, as we like to call him, will be bringing his lizard-like quirks to all manner of major upcoming thrillers and superhero flicks, but for the purposes of this particular news channel, his next relevant project will see him playing a high school principal and foil to the Ferris-Bueller-esque title character in Charlie Bartlett. Baruchel will be seen this fall in Knocked Up, which could likely set him up with Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, and Martin Starr as a new generation of Frat Packers called "The Roommates." He'll also headline the dark comedy Pushing Up Daisies and the fanboy comedy... Fanboys, and his titular role in I'm Reed Fish is playing at U.S. Comedy Arts Festival this week.

Slow News Day: Kimmel Forever, AndyRichter.com, God's Debut, Coogan's Doo Doo, 1 Trailer for the Price of 10

2007-02-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

ITEM: Quickly stunting rumors of his impending doom, ABC has signed a deal with Jimmy Kimmel to keep him on through 2010, which may include bumping up his start time to compete with Conan after Leno's departure in 2009.

ITEM: NBC will post the entire first season (a half-order six-episode run) of producer/co-writer Conan O'Brien's anticipated Andy Barker P.I. on its website before the TV premiere next month, following a similar move by FOX for The Winner. The sixth episode will be exclusive to web viewers.

ITEM: The previously reported improv game show Thank God You're Here will premiere on April 18, taking the Friday Night Lights spot, and they've added Fred Willard, Jason Alexander, Tom Green, Fran Drescher, and Tom Arnold to the already impressive guest list.

ITEM: Variety reveals that Steve Coogan is working with up-and-comer Charlyne Yi on adapting her Kaufmanesque, kid-friendly variety show The Doo Doo Show, but they have no details on what exactly that means. Will it be a movie, a series, or another live incarnation? We have many more questions than answers.

ITEM: There's a strange-ass new trailer for The Ten (#7 on our 30 Most Anticipated Comedies of 2007) that takes the well-worn comedy teaser concept of "pretend you're dead serious, and just when the audience is fooled, reveal the big stupid comedy" to an almost dangerously ambiguous level...if that's even what they're going for. You can check it out right here:

Asspen!

2007-02-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, HBO kicks off its week-long annual U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, generally considered to be the largest and most anticipated venue for established and upcoming stand-up, writer's panels, and comedy film screenings. You'll have to visit the website for the full, massive schedule, but here are some of the highlights.

Stand-Up:

George Carlin
Steven Wright
Michael Showalter
Marc Maron
Mary Lynn Rajskub
Nora Dunn
Alan Zwiebel
Andy Milonakis
John Oliver
Josh Blue
Dave Hill
Daniel Tosh
Charlyne Yi

Films:

The Don Rickles Project, a new documentary on the comedian directed by John Landis.

The Host, the beloved Korean monster dramedy, which opens in theaters March 30.

Severance, a slasher comedy set in the world of office team-building retreats.

Selected scenes from The Comebacks, a football spoof from the producers of Wedding Crashers, starring David Koechner.

Colour Me Kubrick, starring John Malkovich as a Stanley Kubrick impostor.

Certifiably Jonathan, a new documentary about Jonathan Winters, featuring Robin Williams, Jeffrey Tambor, Sarah Silverman, Tim Conway, Nora Dunn, Rob Reiner, and Ryan Stiles.

Eagle vs. Shark, an oddball New Zealand romance that won over many a Sundance fan.

Rocket Science, another Sundance favorite about a stutterer who becomes a debate team champ, from the director of the Spellbound documentary.

A screening of Buster Keaton's The General with a live orchestra.

I'm Reed Fish, starring Apatow favorite Jay Baruchel as a radio advice guru, also starring Schuyler Fisk, Alexis Bledel, DJ Qualls, and Chris Parnell.

Death at a Funeral, Franz Oz's new dark comedy about a dysfunctional British family, starring Alan Tudyk and Peter Dinklage.

Delirious, starring Steve Buscemi as a shameless paparazzi, also starring Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman, Gina Gershon, and Elvis Costello, from writer-director Tom DiCillo (Living in Oblivion).

Heckler, Jamie Kennedy's new documentary on handling hecklers and critics, featuring Dave Attell, Bill Maher, Patton Oswalt, Judah Friedlander, Mike White, Carrie Fisher, George Lucas, Rob Zombie, and Ron Jeremy.

Cook-Off!, an improvised mockumentary about a chef competition, starring the Reno 911! trio of Wendi McLendon-Covey, Cedric Yarbrough, and Niecy Nash, plus Stephen Root, Diedrich Bader, Phil LaMarr, Mo Collins, Louie Anderson, and Sam Pancake. McLendon-Covey worked on the "scriptment" as well.

Closing Escrow, a real estate satire featuring Wendi McLendon-Covey and Cedric Yarbrough (again.)

Goodnight, Vagina, a short film with Cheryl Hines as a woman getting a...new vagina?

Starter for 10, starring James McAvoy as a British university student who dreams of being on the institution's TV quiz show team, from producer Tom Hanks.

American Fork, about an obese bag boy who dreams of becoming an actor, starring William Baldwin and Mary Lynn Rajskub.

The Valet, from the writer of La Cage Aux Folles, about a parking attendant who has to live with a beautiful supermodel in order to keep her adultering boyfriend's wife unsuspicious.

The festival will also feature Q&As with the creators and stars of Entourage and the new The Winner, as well as the presentation of HBO's Man of the Year award to Stephen Colbert. As always, if you get to attend any of these events, and have videos, pictures, or comments to share, drop 'em by the office. Or the comments section. Whatever's closer.

This Week in Funny 2/26/07-3/4/07

2007-02-27T00:03:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 26:

Jim Gaffigan on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)

Tuesday, February 27:

New on DVD: Stranger Than Fiction (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (click here to buy)
Steven Wright and Tracy Morgan on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Wednesday, February 28:

New The Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show: “T-Bones TV” (Comedy Central)
Billy Connolly on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)

Thursday, March 1:

New Scrubs: “My Night to Remember” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “The Source Awards” (NBC)
New The Sarah Silverman Program: “Muffin’ Man” (Comedy Central)
Seth Macfarlane on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)
Rob Corddry on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)

Friday, March 2:

New Monk: “Mr. Monk Goes to the Hospital” (USA)
New Psych: “Scary Sherry 2: Bianca’s Toast” (USA)
Charles Grodin and Dan Naturman on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Patrick Warburton on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Sunday, March 4:

New The Simpsons: “Yokel Chords” (FOX)
Series Premiere The Winner: “Pilot” (FOX)
New Family Guy: “Airport ‘07” (FOX)
New The Winner: “The Single Dates” (FOX)
New Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!: “Salame” (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)
New Saul of the Molemen: “Fun King” (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)

Live Comedy Watch:

2/26: Zach Galifianakis at Juanita’s in Little Rock, AR
2/26: Todd Barry at Lolita Bar in NYC
2/26: Demetri Martin at Ohio State in Columbus, OH
2/26: Maria Bamford at Tigerlily in Los Feliz, CA
2/27: Ricky Gervais at Portsmouth Guildhall in Portsmouth, UK
2/27: Zach Galifianakis at University of Arkansas Alltell Ballroom in Fayetteville, AR
2/27: Comedy Death-Ray with Bob Odenkirk, Andy Blitz, and Todd Glass at UCB Theatre in LA
2/27: Emo Philips at 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, CA
2/28: Ricky Gervais at Colston Hall in Bristol, UK
2/28-3/3: Emo Philips at Punch Line in San Francisco, CA
3/1-3/2: Ricky Gervais at International Centre in Bournemouth, UK
3/1-3/4: Harland Williams at the Improv in Chicago
3/1-3/3: Louis CK at Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia, PA
3/1: America’s Best Comic with Matt Besser and Andrew Daly at UCB Theatre in LA
3/1: Tig at University of N. Iowa in Cedar Rapids, IA
3/2: Jerry Seinfeld at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk, VA
3/2: Zach Galifianakis at Theatre of Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA
3/2: The Benson Interruption with Doug Benson, Todd Barry, Aziz Ansari, Graham Elwood, and Arj Barker at UCB Theatre in NYC
3/2: Stephen Lynch at Shriver Hall in Baltimore, MD
3/2: Billy the Mime at UCB Theatre in LA
3/3: Zach Galifianakis at Lisner Auditorium in Washington DC
3/3-3/4: ASSSSCAT 3000 DVD Taping with Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser, Horatio Sanz, Sean Conroy, Chad Carter, and Andrew Daley at UCB Theatre in LA
3/3: Stephen Lynch at SUNY in Albany, NY
3/4: The Whitest Kids U’Know at Pianos in NYC

For more live dates this week, watch for our Aspen U.S. Comedy Festival breakdown tomorrow!

Slow News Day: Obscure Apocalyptic Comedies, Dilbert Movies, and Megabitches

2007-02-25T19:09:00.000-08:00

ITEM: Ain't it Cool News is spreading the word on a new film called Santos, a Chilean superhero comedy about the end of the world, which happens to look absolutely incredible.

ITEM: Divisive director Chris Columbus has announced his plans to make a live-action feature based on Scott Adams' long-running Dilbert strip, which was previously made into a short-lived animated series featuring Daniel Stern and Chris Elliott. Wasn't The Drew Carey Show already a live-action Dilbert?

ITEM: The great Rob Schrab has posted a new video on his website called Megabitch Meltdown. It was written and directed by his significant other but his name is all over the whacked-out editing. Best wishes to Schrab at the Oscars tonight...

Tim and Eric's Bogus Journey

2007-02-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

Tim and Eric, creators and stars of Tom Goes to the Mayor and the new Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!, are taking their act to the streets with an 8-date American tour, which will include "a 70-minute mix of live segments and video clips pulled mainly from their two Cartoon Network shows, video podcasts, and website." Check 'em out:

New York (February 26) – Knitting Factory
Philadelphia (February 27) – Franklin Institute
Chapel Hill (February 28) – Local 506
Atlanta (March 1) – Earl
Seattle (March 3) – Crocodile Café
Portland (March 4) - Someday Lounge
San Francisco (March 5) – Rickshaw Stop
Los Angeles (March 6) – Echo

The duo will also be appearing at the South by Southwest festival on March 17. If you don't live in any of these fine cities, do not start crying. The Atlanta show will be webcasted live on the Adult Swim site for all to enjoy.

Meanwhile, their new show is currently airing new episodes each Friday on adultswim.com and on Sunday on Cartoon Network. So far, the episodes have featured appearances John C. Reilly, Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, and co-producer Bob Odenkirk, and future episodes have already tapes with the likes of David Cross, Fred Willard, Neil Hamburger, and "Weird Al" Yankovic. If you're not familiar with the program, allow this incoherant promo to explain it to you:

TBS Gives New Web Shows to Every Comedian Ever

2007-02-23T09:12:00.000-08:00

TBS has launched a new broadband channel called Super Deluxe, which aims to be the largest website of its kind and will surely provide our ongoing Battle of the Cheap-Ass Web Shows with some stiff competition.

"Cheap-ass" couldn't apply enough here, as nearly every webisode we took time to watch couldn't possibly have cost more than a good toothbrush. But TBS may have finally found the secret to web-TV success. They've taken all the money they could have spent on expensive sets, costumes, special effects, or even writers, and they've just called up a fucking laundry list of alternative and underground comedians and let them do whatever they want.

The lineup already features Dave Foley, Eugene Mirman, Maria Bamford, and dozens of rising performers and sketch troupes. The comics seem to be able to upload whatever they want, however often they want, and they've already fallen into semi-regular programming such as Foley's Can't Sleep, a show he seems to literally film in his bedroom after his wife falls asleep. Meanwhile, Mirman hosts a talk show from the moon in Space Talk from the Planet Eugene. Clicking around the many, many offerings, we couldn't exactly find anything hilarious yet, although Bamford's one-woman camera-mugging "my mother freaks me out" routine is far better than it sounds on paper.

But this is just the beginning, and TBS has high hopes for the future, continuing to add even bigger (funnier?) celebrities to their roster, including David Cross and Bob Odenkirk (separately, not reunited), Horatio Sanz, Dave Attell, Jay Johnston, and even Wayne Brady. We'll safely bet that the recent rumor about UCB's Matt Besser working on a TBS project had something to do with this too.

It's cheap, it's messy, and it's not even on real TV, but let that all sink in for a minute. Key members of Mr. Show, Kids in the Hall, and Upright Citizens Brigade have brand new recurring shows for you. There's bound to be something funny in there somewhere, right?

The so-called professional clips will mix in with viewer-submitted content, all of which is subject to the same user rating system, putting everyone on an equal playing field, which is actually kind of cool. Expect CBS' Innervision, Comedy Central's Motherload, and all the other billions of online stations popping up all over the place, to attempt to match TBS' gusto.

Slow News Day: Bateman Joins Juno, Reno Cops Speak Out, Stewie's New Show, Fatboy Trailer, Zahn Cleans Up, Aqua Teen Poster

2007-02-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

ITEM: Jason Bateman has joined fellow Arrested Development refugee Michael Cera in Juno, Jason Reitman's follow-up to Thank You For Smoking. The film stars Ellen Page as a the titular character, a teenage girl whose life becomes endlessly complicated when she finds herself pregnant with Cera's child. Bateman will play the husband of Jennifer Garner, who is interested in adopting the bastard child. Allison Janney (of The West Wing, Strangers with Candy, and Drop Dead Gorgeous) has signed on to play Juno's stepmother.

ITEM: Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant, who have been only appearing in character as Jim Dangle and Travis Junior to promote Reno 911!: Miami, recently dropped the act to talk to The Onion AV Club about the final days of The State, their improv methods, and how to keep Comedy Central from harrassing you. Most interestingly, they finally speak out (for the first time?) about their non-illustrious side careers doctoring screenplays for major shitfests such as Taxi and The Pacifier, revealing that somewhere, there exists a totally hilarious first draft of Herbie: Fully Loaded.

ITEM: Variety reports that FOX is developing an online Flash series for MySpace featuring Family Guy's Stewie and Brian as talk show hosts interviewing real celebrities. What a novel idea. The first show will premiere on Oscar night with guest Rob Corddry, promoting his new sitcom The Winner, also written and developed by Guy scribe Seth Macfarlane.

ITEM: Ain't it Cool has posted a bizarre and not especially funny trailer (if that's even what it's supposed to be) for Run, Fatboy, Run, a new comedy starring Simon Pegg, written by Michael Ian Black, and directed by David Schwimmer.

ITEM: Steve Zahn will join Alan Arkin, Amy Adams, and Emily Blunt in Sunshine Cleaning, a dark comedy about a crime scene clean-up company.

ITEM: We think the new poster for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is pretty fucking awesome.

Tenacious D Announce D-VD, Launch Lamest Viral Video Site Yet

2007-02-22T08:15:00.000-08:00

The less-than-well-received Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny comes to DVD on February 27, and will include commentary from the band and Liam Lynch, as well as some of the ample unused footage from the film, including the cut "The Goverment Totally Sucks" sequence, starring David Koechner as a surplus army store clerk. The disc will also feature music videos and a behind-the-scenes documentary, which is probably just going to be recycled from the amusing Hell O'Clock News segments on the official site.

In celebration, Sony has set up a pointless "video mixer" that allows users to sign up for an account and string together random clips of the "Pick of Destiny" and "Classico" music videos. If we're wrong, and this actually has some useful or even mildly entertaining purpose, please let us know what we're missing.

In other news, KG side project Trainwreck has a new EP out, simply entitled The EP, featuring the tracks "TV Theme," "Rock Boulder Mountain," and "John Bartholomew Shredder," which can all be heard for free on their MySpace page. If you haven't yet made their acquaintance, Trainwreck features Jason Reed (best known as Lee to D fans) as the cowbell-smacking lead singer of a parody 80s M.O.R. Southern rock band. They put on a pretty damn funny live show, if you get the chance. The EP is a warm-up for a full-length debut album that will come out later this year, produced by Kyle and frequent collaborators the Dust Brothers.

This Week in Funny 2/19/07-2/25/07

2007-02-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 19:

Jim Carrey on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
David Steinberg on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)

Tuesday, February 20:

New on DVD: For Your Consideration (click her to buy)
New on DVD: Fuck (click here to buy) (documentary featuring George Carlin, Bill Plympton, Hunter S. Thompson, Billy Connolly, Drew Carey, Bill Maher, Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Murphy, Kevin Smith, and more)
New on DVD: The Second City - First Family of Comedy (click here to buy)
Bill Maher on Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)
Lewis Black on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)
Richard Lewis on The View (ABC)

Wednesday, February 21:

Jim Carrey on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)
Harland Williams on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC)

Thursday, February 22:

New My Name is Earl: “Guess Who’s Coming Out of Joy” (NBC)
New The Office: “Cocktails” (NBC)
New Scrubs: “My Therapeutic Month” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “Hard Ball” (NBC)
New The Sarah Silverman Program: “Not Without My Daughter” (Comedy Central)
Tom Lennon and Ben Garant on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)

Friday, February 23:

New in Theaters: Reno 911!: Miami
New Monk: “Mr. Monk and the Really, Really Dead Guy” (USA)
New Psych: “Poker? I Barely Know Her” (USA)
Tom Green on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC)
Jim Gaffigan on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
William H. Macy on Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)
Ken Davitian (fake Borat producer) on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Sunday, February 25:

New Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)
New Saul of the Molemen (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)

Live Comedy Watch:

2/20: Tenacious D at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancoucer, BC
2/20-2/21: Ricky Gervais at City Hall in Newcastle, UK
2/20: Todd Barry in Here’s the Thing at the Pit in NYC
2/20: Paul F. Tompkins and Dana Gould in Comedy Death-Ray at UCB Theatre in LA
2/21-2/24: Emo Philips at Dr. Grins in Grand Rapids, MI
2/21: Michael Showalter at UCB Theatre in NYC
2/21-2/25: Marc Maron at Cap City Comedy Club in Austin, TX
2/22-2/23: Ricky Gervais at City Hall in Sheffield, UK
2/22-2/23: Kevin McDonald’s Hammy and the Kids at UCB Theatre in LA
2/22-2/25: Mike Birbiglia at the Improv in Brea, CA
2/22: Doug Benson, Paul F. Tompkins, and Andy Kindler in the Benson Interruption at UCB Theatre in LA
2/23-2/24: Todd Barry at Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse in Arlington, VA
2/23: Michael Showalter at UCB Theatre in NYC
2/24: Zach Galifianakis at Irving Plaza in NYC
2/25: Michael Showalter and Eugene Mirman in Tearing the Veil of Maya at Union Hall in NYC
2/25: The Whitest Kids U’Know at Pianos in NYC
2/25: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in NYC
2/25: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in LA

A Little More Crow Info

2007-02-16T12:02:00.000-08:00

One of the more promising out of many recent pilots ordered by Adult Swim was Drinky Crow, based on a character from underground comic-book hero Tony Millionaire's Maakies strip, who also showed up in a series of Saturday Night Live shorts, and all over merchandise for They Might Be Giants. Millionaire recently updated his fans on the show's progress, saying the pilot is complete and may air as early as March, at which point Adult Swim will guage the public reaction with their own feelings, and decide whether or not to order a full run. The aforementioned Giants have recorded the theme song, and voice cast is rather excellent, featuring V.O. favorite Billy West in the titular role, plus Dave Herman (best known as Michael Bolton in Office Space and for his work on Mad TV) and Tom Kenny (best known from Mr. Show and...well, he's Spongebob). Not shabby, Mr. Millionaire! Not shabby at all.

Adult Swim has no new pilots or premieres listed on the schedule for now, but they presumably have That Crook'd Sip, Super Jail, I Know - Let's Blow Up the Moon, Gemberling, Western Times, and Let's Fish waiting in the wings, and possibly full-season pickups for the previously aired pilots Korgoth of Barbaria and Lucy: Daughter of the Devil.

Will Arnett Invades Last Week's Top Story

2007-02-15T09:35:00.000-08:00

Will Arnett will produce and star in Space Invader for the fledgling young-adult-friendly Fox Atomic company. The story is being kept somewhat under wraps, but it is known to involve an astronaut love triangle. Writers Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger began work on the screenplay months before the recent crazy-diaper-stalker-bitch story that swept through America last week, but it must have still been quite a coup for the project, which went through a brief bidding war on Monday before landing on six figures.

Reger and Lisbe have a healthy decade of TV writing experience behind them, working on Just Shoot Me, Norm Macdonald's A Minute with Stan Hooper, and the vastly underseen comic gem Manhattan, AZ. Variety mentions that they also have two features, The Wrong Nine Year Old and Little Orphan Anthony, but a little digging shows that the former, about a man whose life is suddenly intruded on by a slighted fourth grade classmate, was sold in 2002 and doesn't appear to have moved forward since, while the latter, about a couple who mistakenly adopts the world's oldest orphan, as played by Anthony Anderson, seems to be only one year younger and just as dead.

Arnett has a lot of projects of questionable existence of his own, including The Ambassador, Jeff the Demon, Get 'Em Wet, Dad Can't Lose, and Most Likely to Succeed, but he will definitely be appearing in The Brothers Solomon, Blades of Glory, Spring Breakdown, Semi-Pro, Hot Rod, and On Broadway. And we're getting tired of posting that massive list every time he signs on to something else, which is every couple of days.

LINK

This Week in Funny 2/12/07-2/18/07

2007-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 12:

Bill Maher on Tavis Smiley (PBS)

Tuesday, February 13:

New on DVD: Mutual Appreciation (click here to buy)
New on DVD: School for Scoundrels (Unrated Widescreen Edition) (click here to buy)
Harry Shearer on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)

Wednesday, February 14:

New The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show: “Salute to America” (Comedy Central)
Marc Maron on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)

Thursday, February 15:

New My Name is Earl: “The Birthday Party” (NBC)
New The Office: “Business School” (NBC)
New Scrubs: “My Perspective” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “The C Word” (NBC)
New The Sarah Silverman Program: “Positively Negative” (Comedy Central)
Jim Carrey on Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)

Friday, February 16:

New Psych: “Game, Set, Muuurder?” (USA)
Tracy Morgan on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant on Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC)
Barry Levinson on Tavis Smiley (PBS)

Sunday, February 18:

New Extras: “Episode 12” with Jonathan Ross (HBO)
New The Simpsons: “Springfield Up” (with guest star Eric Idle) (FOX)
New King of the Hill: “Blood and Sauce” (FOX)
New Family Guy: “The Tan Aquatic with Steve Zissou” (FOX)
New American Dad: “Black Mystery Month” (FOX)
New Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! (Cartoon Network/Adult Swim)
New Saul of the Molemen (Cartoon Network/Adult Swim)

Live Comedy Watch:

2/13/07: Ricky Gervais at Carling Apollo in Manchester, UK
2/13/07: Tenacious D at Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, CA
2/13/07: Mike Birbiglia at Mo Pitkins House of Satisfaction in NYC
2/13/07: Doug Benson at UCB Theatre in LA
2/13/07: Comedy Death-Ray with Human Giant, Andy Kindler, and Chris Hardwick at UCB Theatre in LA
2/13/07: Marc Maron at Comix in NYC
2/14/07: Paul F. Tompkins and Marc Maron at You’re Welcome at the Meta Theater in LA
2/14/07: Invite Them Up with Eugene Mirman at Rififi in NYC
2/15/07: Ricky Gervais at Opera House in Blackpool, UK
2/15/07-2/18/07: Nick Swardson and Tig at the Improv in Houston, TX
2/15/07: Eugene Mirman at PA’s Lounge in Somerville, MA
2/15/07: Human Giant at UCB Theatre in LA
2/16/07: Tenacious D at Paramount Theater in Seattle, WA
2/16/07-2/17/07: Emo Philips at Historic University Theater in Seattle, WA
2/16/07-2/17/07: Eugene Mirman at the Comedy Studio in Cambridge, MA
2/16/07-2/17/07: Paul F. Tompkins and Morgan Murphy at Aimee Mann’s Valentine’s Day Revenge at Largo in LA
2/17/07: Sarah Silverman at House of Blues in Las Vegas, NV
2/18/07: Tearing the Veil of Maya with Michael Showalter and Eugene Mirman at Union Hall in NYC
2/18/07: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in NYC
2/18/07: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in LA

Ghostbusters News Roundup

2007-02-07T10:36:00.000-08:00

Ghostbusters is inarguably one of the funniest films ever made, so a comedy-themed news site can't possibly ignore the strange flux of recent news about the property, no matter how dubious and shaky it all sounds.

Many reputable movie news sites have been reporting that Ghostbusters 3 is all but in the can, based on something Dan Aykroyd said on some random country music station. But no one seems to have actually listened to the interview, so we transcribed exactly what was said.

"Well, I wrote a script called Hellbent, uh, Ghostbusters go to Hell, basically. The premise is that it's Manhelltan. There's Manhattan and there's Manhellton, and if you can basically build an interdimensional phase system so you can go from one dimension to another - we've succeeded in doing that, and we go to the Hell side of Manhattan. It's downtown, Foley Square, it's where the cops are, they're all blue Minotaurs. Uh, Central Park has these green demons with black Onyx thousand-foot-high apartment buildings with classic red devils, you know, very wealthy. We go and visit a Donald Trump-like character, who's Mr. Siffler. You know, Luke Siffler, Lucifer, Luke Siffler. So we meet the devil in it. Now it won't happen as a live-action, because Billy will not come on in a live-action stage anymore for it. But he will voice his part, and we're looking to do it as a CGI animated project. It lives. It loves today. Last year too. With CGI animation and the way cartoons are done, we can just do everything I ever wrote in that script for much less money."

While all his information matches up completely with previous reports of the third script, there's nothing else solid in this entire block of text. Aykroyd says he's "looking to do it," which he's been saying for years. The key moment is where he says it lives, and it lived last year too. In other words, nothing is different this year than last year, or any other year. It's still the same script being touted around Hollywood, and Aykroyd doesn't drop any studio names or any budget numbers to suggest that it's had any sort of forward movement, except that he's ridiculously reconvieved it as a CGI project to try and fix the main problem they've always faced, which is that Bill Murray thinks a sequel is a terrible idea, and no one in the world wants to watch a Ghostbusters movie without Bill Murray.

Still, it's good to hear Aykroyd is still excited about it all. His work on the script most likely accounts for a huge portion of what makes the original film so great, because of his ridiculous commitment and belief in the supernatural world. Listening to him rattle off "blue Minotaurs" as if everyone knows they exist is pretty good evidence that Aykroyd is still crazy enough to make this work. But we're just sayin' - don't get your hopes up.

In only slightly less impossible news, Ain't it Cool ran two stories on a series of clips posted on YouTube from an independently developed Ghostbusters video game, which featured impressive graphic representations of the original characters, complete with movie soundbites. The creators, ZootFly, were ordered to remove all the clips and to stop development on the game, but they're "working actively on resolving the conflict." So look for that in stores...about...probably never.

About the only solid news on the boys in grey is that you can definitely, 100% buy the fucking Ecto-1, if you're definitely, 100% filthy rich.

More on all this news as it doesn't develop.

Adam Sandler Returns to Funny After 10-Year Absence

2007-02-07T10:19:00.000-08:00

When you hear that Adam Sandler is working on a movie about an Israeli spy who fakes his own death to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a hairstylist, it doesn't exactly merit excitement. Fantastic, a film that will allow Sandler to ham up both a gay accent and an Arab accent in one big sloppy run.

But when you hear that Sandler wrote the screenplay with Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel...well, that changes things entirely. That's cause for a celebration.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan starts filming this summer, after Smigel finishes a quick rewrite, and Columbia Pictures hopes to have it ready for next summer.

LINK

Fanboy Scourge Defaces Dream Detective Project

2007-02-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

While the rest of the film community is up in arms over Shawn Levy signing on to direct The Flash, he's fucking up the Comedyblog's week for a different reason. The humorless, family-friendly cut-and-paster behind Steve Martin's Pink Panther and the unfortunate blockbuster Night at the Museum is in serious talks to hold the clipboards on The Hardy Men, the second of Ben Stiller's long-time dream projects to be resurrected this year.

Stiller is hoping to star with Tom Cruise (?!) as the grown-up versions of popular paperback heroes the Hardy Boys. It's the sort of story that writes itself, and perfectly matches Stiller's frequently squandered gifts. Who doesn't want to see these kids still living in their police chief father's house and leeching off his cases? And although Cruise seems like a strange choice at first, since he's such a giant tool and all, remember that the two did some pretty amusing work together at the MTV Movie Awards a few years back, and besides, it could be a hell of a good time watching Cruise play up his persona as an overzealous, naive goofbox. Throw in any standard alt-goddess (say, Amy Poehler, Sarah Silverman, Jenna Fischer, or Kristen Wiig) as Nancy Drew, and you've got yourself an amusing little movie.

So why is FOX predestinating it to suck by considering throwing the worst director in Hollywood on board?

LINK

This Week in Funny 2/5/07-2/11/07

2007-02-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Monday, February 5:

Tom Lennon and Ben Garant on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)
P.J. O’Rourke on Tavis Smiley (PBS)

Tuesday, February 6:

New on DVD: The Science of Sleep (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Running With Scissors (click here to buy)
New Campus Ladies: “Foreign Exchange” (Oxygen)
Naked Trucker on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)

Wednesday, February 7:

New The Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show: “Gold Watch” (Comedy Central)
Chris Elliott on Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Jonathan Katz on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)
Bob Saget on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)

Thursday, February 8:

New My Name is Earl: “Blow” (NBC)
New The Office: “Phyllis’ Wedding” (NBC)
New Scrubs: “My Road to Nowhere” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “Up All Night” (NBC)
New The Sarah Silverman Program: “Humanitarian of the Year” with guest star Zach Galifianakis (Comedy Central)
Steve Martin on The Ellen Degeneres Show (Syndicated)

Friday, February 9:

New Monk: “Mr. Monk Visits a Farm” (USA)
New Psych: “Cloudy Chance of Murder” (USA)
Tenacious D on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Sunday, February 11:

New The Simpsons: “Little Big Girl” (FOX)
New King of the Hill: “SerPunt” (FOX)
New Extras: "Episode 11" with Ian McKellen (HBO)
Series Premiere Saul of the Mole Men (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)
Series Premiere Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! (Adult Swim/Cartoon Network)

Live Comedy Watch:

2/5/07-2/6/07: Ricky Gervais at Brighton Centre in Brighton, UK
2/5/07: Matt Besser and Andrew Daly host America’s Best Comic at UCB Theatre in LA
2/5/07: Paul F. Tompkins, Dana Gould, and Andy Kindler at Largo in LA
2/6/07: Laugh Don’t Destroy with Michael Showalter, Eugene Mirman, and Jon Benjamin at Union Hall in Brooklyn
2/6/07: Comedy Death-Ray with Patton Oswalt, Greg Proops, and Aziz Ansari at UCB Theatre in LA
2/6/07: See You Next Tuesday with Paul F. Tompkins and Morgan Murphy at UCB Theatre in LA
2/7/07: Ricky Gervais at New Theatre in Oxford, UK
2/7/07: Invite Them Up with Eugene Mirman at Rififi in NYC
2/7/07: Show & Tell with Andrew Daly and Hard ‘N Phirm at UCB Theatre in LA
2/7/07-2/8/07: Maria Bamford at Irvine Improv in Irvine, CA
2/8/07-2/9/07: Jerry Seinfeld at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, MN
2/8/07-2/9/07: Ricky Gervais at Cardiff International Arena in Cardiff, UK
2/8/07: Human Giant, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Andy Blitz at UCB Theatre in LA
2/9/07-2/10/07: Sarah Silverman at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco, CA
2/10/07: Nick Swardson at Spreckles Theater in San Diego, CA
2/10/07: The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour with Paul F. Tompkins and Dave “Gruber” Allen at Mbar in LA
2/11/07: Tearing the Veil of Maya with Michael Showalter, Eugene Mirman, and Tig at Union Hall in Brooklyn
2/11/07: Sarah Silverman at the Showbox in Seattle, WA
2/11/07: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in LA
2/11/07: Free ASSSSCAT at UCB Theatre in NYC

Richter Finally Barks Up Right Tree

2007-02-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

You may remember Andy Barker P.I. from last year's pilot season announcements, where it was being developed as a mid-season replacement for NBC and subsequently never spoken of again. Fortunately, it's been thrust back into being, premiering on March 15 while 30 Rock takes a short hiatus until April 19, at which point Barker will either jump to a new timeslot, or be tossed in the trash like the much-lamented Andy Richter Controls the Universe and the not-so-lamented Quintuplets.

Richter plays an accountant who moves into a mall office formerly occupied by a private investigator, and decides to indulge himself by taking on cases from the detective's belated customers. It also stars Arrested Development's Tony Hale, and most excitingly reunites Richter with former staring contest partner Conan O'Brien, who will serve as executive producer, and co-wrote the pilot episode with Jonathan Groff.

The show's website used to feature a clip, but it's been removed. We tried to do some detective work of our own to track it down, but the search was fruitless, so you'll just have to wait until March.

There's still no news on Conan's other pilot, Haskett's Chance, which would follow a seedy, dishonest politician who gets a second chance on life when he's killed and reincarnated as a homeless man. The (unproduced?) pilot features Cary Elwes, Dylan Baker, and Missi Pyle, with Tim Blake Nelson directing. It's also been announced as a drama, but between O'Brien involvement and Elwes' terrible acting, there's bound to be a few laughs in there.

LINK

Sit Down, Stand-Up, Ha, Ha, Ha

2007-02-02T11:19:00.000-08:00

The new season of Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg will premiere on TV Land's website on February 19, with guest Jerry Seinfeld, landing on the regular network two days later. You may have caught the popular director and golden-year comedian's chats with Larry David, Martin Short, or Bob Newhart. The show is largely family-friendly and nearly as mellow as Charlie Rose, but it does have the advantage of featuring only one, frequently legendary guest for Steinberg to spend a healthy chunk of time drilling to their core.

Other guests this season include Garry Shandling, Robin Williams, Jon Stewart, Roseanne Barr, and Ray Romano, so...you know...grab a seat.

Make It a Bud.TV

2007-02-02T11:02:00.000-08:00

Anheuser-Busch has launched a new web channel that will feature a parade of frat-boy-friendly exclusive webisodes. Right now, Bud.TV only has previews up for ridiculous chimp-themed reality shows and hoaky CGI sci-fi soaps, but it will be full-blast right after the Super Bowl this Sunday, with at least two potentially interesting premieres.

One is Finish Our Movie, a new concept from the creators of Project Greenlight, which allows viewers to submit the middle section to an incomplete short film written and directed by veterans of Saturday Night Live, Da Ali G Show, Everybody Hates Chris, The Man Show, and Mad TV.

The other is the insipidly titled Happy Hour, a sketch show from another SNL writer, which has already lined up guest spots from the likes of Chris Parnell and Tim Meadows.

The service will also feature the requisite "fake news" program, as well as various comedy clips, including footage from Vince Vaughn's recent Wild West Comedy Show tour.

Drink up.

LINK

The Mooninite in the Room

2007-02-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

The Comedyblog tries to make a habit of not reporting news that you'll also see on any other website, but it feels a little strange to not mention today's top news story since it involves our 5th most antipated comedy of 2007, and one of our most frequently discussed topics, the Aqua Teen movie.

So to compromise, we'll throw up the funniest but least-known aspect so far, which is the off-topic press conference given by guerilla advertisers Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens.

Somehow, we're guessing this movie might be bumped up from a limited release. You can't buy this kind of publicity.

Matt Besser Explains UCB Delays, Wants Your Songs

2007-01-29T11:32:00.000-08:00

The Upright Citizens Brigade's Matt Besser has a new MySpace page, which he promises to pack full of new exclusive videos such as the Catching Friends webisodes, where MySpace Tom explains how to attract friends to your profile by lying about your interests. More importantly, he's provided information on the status of the second season of the UCB's sketch comedy show, and the entirely improvised UCB movie, Wild Girls Gone. Both of these projects have been in limbo for a long, long time, so this should cause a giant sigh of relief for fans of the alternative comedy troupe.

Comedy Central will release Upright Citizens Brigade: The Complete Second Season this fall, and Besser has put out an APB for fan-created music to be part of the DVD extras. The new collection comes not a moment too soon, since the first season has been out for over three years. Presumably the third and final season won't take nearly as long.

He also explains that Wild Girls Gone, which was filmed about a billion years ago, has been in a long, painful editing process to whittle down the enormous amounts of footage they shot, and could finally see a release as early as this summer. The film stars Besser, Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, and Amy Poehler in a story of a small-town dance contest that gets mixed up with a start-up amateur porn video. It also features a laundry list of up-and-comers that UCB Theatre visitors should be more than familiar with, including Rob Riggle, Andrew Daly, Rob Huebel, Danielle Schneider, John Ross Bowie, and Jamie Denbo. There's no word on theatrical distribution, but Besser says they're prepared to sell the DVD directly through their website.

Besser will also be seen alongside Chris Kattan and Brian Posehn later this year in Undead or Alive, playing the sheriff in an Old West town plagued by zombies.

This Week in Funny 1/29/07-2/4/07

2007-01-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 29:

Bill Cosby and Mary Lynn Rajskub on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)
Sarah Silverman on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)

Tuesday, January 30:

New on DVD: Lucky Louie - The Complete First Season (click here to buy)
New on DVD: The Comedians of Comedy: Live at the El Rey (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Farce of the Penguins (click here to buy)
New Campus Ladies: “We Are Family” (Oxygen)
Patton Oswalt on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Wednesday, January 31:

New The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show: “Vision Quest” (Comedy Central)

Thursday, February 1:

Series Premiere: The Sarah Silverman Program: “Officer Jay” (Comedy Central)
New My Name is Earl: “Foreign Exchange Student” (NBC)
New The Office: “Ben Franklin” (NBC)
New Scrubs: “The Story IV” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “Black Tie” (with guest star Paul Reubens) (NBC)
Bill Murray on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Sarah Silverman on The View (ABC)

Friday, February 2:

New Monk: “Mr. Monk is On the Air” (with guest star Steven Weber) (USA)
New Psych: “He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not, He Loves Me, Oops He’s Dead” (USA)

Saturday, February 3:

New Saturday Night Live with host Drew Barrymore

Sunday, February 4:

New Extras: Episode 10 with Coldplay's Chris Martin

Live Comedy Watch:

1/30/07: Sarah Silverman and Todd Barry at Caroline’s in NYC
1/30/07: Zach Galifianakis and Hard ‘N Phirm at the UCB Theatre in LA
1/31/07: Invite Them Up with Eugene Mirman at RiFiFi in NYC
1/31/07: Todd Barry at Studio A in Miami, FL
2/1/07-2/3/07: Nick Swardson at the Improv Comedy Club in Orlando, FL
2/1/07-2/3/07: Emo Philips at Funny Farm in Roswell, GA
2/1/07-2/4/07: Drew Carey at MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, NV
2/1/07-2/3/07: John Heffron at Zanies in Nashville, TN
2/1/07: Human Giant at the UCB Theatre in LA
2/2/07: Jerry Seinfeld at the State Theater in Cleveland, OH
2/3/07: The Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen Theater in LA
2/4/07: Free ASSSSCAT at the UCB Theatre in NYC
2/4/07: Free ASSSSCAT at the UCB Theatre in LA

Larry Sanders' Awkward Farewell

2007-01-29T01:06:00.000-08:00

The New York Times has posted an extensive piece on Garry Shandling, including details of an upcoming box set called Not Just the Best of the Larry Sanders Show, which will contain 24 episodes pulled from all six seasons of the seminal HBO series. While it's disappointing and messy to see the first season DVD followed up by a hits collection instead of further complete releases, fans can be partially consoled by Shandling's intense involvement in tricking out the four-disc collection, namely with a series of hand-held interviews with many of the show's stars and guests, including Jeffrey Tambor, Rip Torn, Jerry Seinfeld, Alec Baldwin, Jon Stewart, David Duchovny, Carol Burnett, Sharon Stone, and Tom Petty. But don't expect a lot of dull trips down memory lane... Instead, Shandling uses the tool as a peace offering for many of the actors, since he's withdrawn from social life since the end of the show and feels he owes an apology to the folks he's been ignoring. Many are former close friends he's meeting, on camera, for the first time in years, and the footage sounds strange and fascinating, from a semi-vindictive boxing match with Baldwin, to an awkward conversation with his violently estranged fiancée Linda Doucett.

There's also a new documentary on the set, which brings the total feature count to eight hours.

The Sanders Show, which followed the behind-the-scenes foibles of a late-night talk show of the same name, paved the way for single-camera, laugh-track-free comedies, and practically invented the "meta" style later seen in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Extras, allowing actors to play blown-up versions of their public image. It also launched Tambor and writer/producer Judd Apatow to new levels of notoriety.

Arnett and Fischer Answer Casting Call

2007-01-28T23:55:00.000-08:00

Will Arnett and Jenna Fischer have signed on for supporting roles in two hotly antipated comedies, Semi-Pro and Walk Hard. Arnett will play a sports announcer for Will Ferrell's ill-fated basketball team, while Fischer will play a June Carter type to John C. Reilly's pseudo-Cash in Judd Apatow and Jake and Kasdan's musical biopic spoof. Both films are set for release in 2008.

Arnett has been keeping mad busy since the unfortunate Arrested Development termination, with The Brothers Solomon, Hot Rod, Blades of Glory, and Spring Breakdown all in post-production for release this year. He's also attached to star in Dax Shepard's epic hot-tub-salesmen tale Get 'Em Wet, and as the titular role in Ali G Show writer James Bobin's Jeff the Demon. Last April, it was also announced that he had sold a pitch to DreamWorks for The Ambassador, in which he would star as the son of the Vice President, who makes an ass of himself overseas as an American representative. That one's to be written by Michael Schur, currently writing for the American Office.

Which brings us brack to Office star Fischer, who's currently in the midst of that show's third season, as well as starring in another Reilly vehicle, Quebec, as Seann William Scott's character's wife. She also has small roles in, um, The Brothers Solomon and Blades of Glory. Small world.

LINK
LINK

Mythical Ancient Aqua Teen Trailer Tomb

2007-01-28T13:28:00.000-08:00

The official teaser trailer for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters is now online. Between the title and the marketing materials, it's safe to say that someone at First Look Pictures is either extremely tolerant, or wants to lose their job, because this shit is beyond weird.

Check it out over at Worst Previews.

Look for Theaters in theaters this March.

Ricky Loves Guesty

2007-01-26T09:45:00.000-08:00

The short interview doc Ricky Gervais Meets...Christopher Guest is now online. It's the latest in what will apparently be a series of Gervais pieces, which started off with Larry David.

For most of the hour, Guest runs a series of dry improv laps that rarely stay on the subject, while Gervais lobs almost uncomfortable fanboy praise across the desk and laughs like a hyena. Nevertheless, they do shed some interesting light on each of Guest's films and his aresenal of actors, his creative process, and their shared influences and objectives.

Check it out:

Thanks to the great Film Junk for the heads up.

Olivia Goes Nowhere

2007-01-25T12:59:00.000-08:00

According to Variety, Eddie Murphy has signed on as the lead in NowhereLand, a new comedy from Paramount Pictures about a man who solves a career crisis by visiting an imaginary world thought up by his daydreaming daughter. Before you shrug it off as another goofy diet-gross-out family comedy in the vein of Doctor Dolittle and Daddy Day Care, keep in mind that the producers specifically chose Murphy based on his late-breakthrough performance in Dreamgirls, and more importantly, keep in mind that it's from the offbeat writing duo of Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson, best known as the creators and writers of the Bill and Ted series.

Variety doesn't mention it, but we're pretty damn sure this is the same project as the previously announced Me and Olivia, which was inspired by Solomon's own kid. Solomon was also attached to direct at that point (he previously directed Billy Bob Thornton in 2003's Levity), but there's no mention of a director in this new development. Matheson has also taken a stab at the chair before, with the underseen sci-fi comedy Evil Alien Conquerors, starring Diedrich Bader and Chris Parnell.

It's great news to see the pair working together again, but it's a poor substitute for any new information on Automatons, their dream project which was in the early stages of development a few years ago but died out without studio support. That little treasure involves two robots who were long ago programmed to kill Adolf Hitler, but got chucked into the ocean after he killed himself, where they continue to this day searching for their target on the sea floor, until Hitler is cloned and put back in action, causing the U.S. government to seek out the droids and let them finish their job. Supposedly, voice over was already recorded, with John C. Reilly and Jack Black as the titular characters, and John Cleese as the Great Dictator. Yes please?

This Week in Funny 1/22/07 - 1/28/07

2007-01-22T10:37:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, January 23:

New on DVD: The Puffy Chair (click here to buy)
New on DVD: Relative Strangers with Ron Livingston (click here to buy)
New Campus Ladies: "The Last Supper" (Oxygen)
Ricky Gervais on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Louis CK on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (Repeat) (CBS)

Wednesday, January 24:

New The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show: "Key to the City" (Comedy Central)
Stephen Colbert and Rainn Wilson on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (Repeat) (NBC)

Thursday, January 25:

Tina Fey guest-hosts The View (ABC)
Wanda Sykes on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)
Kevin Smith on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (Repeat) (NBC)

Friday, January 26:

New in Theaters: Smokin' Aces
New Monk: "Mr. Monk Is At Your Service" (USA)
New Psych: "From the Earth to the Starbucks" (USA)
Bob Saget on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (NBC)
Will Ferrell on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (Repeat) (NBC)

Sunday, January 28:

New Extras: Episode 2.3 with Daniel Radcliffe (HBO)
New The Simpsons: "Revenge is a Dish Best Served Three Times" (FOX)
Season Premiere King of the Hill: "The Peggy Horror Picture Show" (FOX)
New Family Guy: "Road to Rupert" (FOX)
New American Dad: "American Dream Factory" (FOX)

Live Comedy Watch:

1/22: Michael Showalter at the UCB Theater in NYC
1/22: Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, and Doug Benson at the UCB Theater in LA
1/23: Patton Oswalt and Sarah Silverman at the UCB Theater in LA
1/24: Zach Galfianakis at the UCB Theater in LA
1/25: Nick Swardson, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Marc Maron at the UCB Theater in LA
1/25: Jim Gaffigan at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington, IN
1/26: Jerry Seinfeld at the Wharton Center in East Lansing, MI
1/26: Jim Gaffigan at the Victory Theatre in Evansville, IN
1/27: Fred Armisen at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, VA
1/27: Jim Gaffigan at the Lied Center of Kansas in Lawrence, KS
1/28: Jim Gaffigan at the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids, IA
1/28: Free ASSSSCAT at the UCB Theater in NYC
1/28: Free ASSSSCAT at the UCB Theater in LA

What the Hell is a Wholphin?

2007-01-22T09:42:00.000-08:00

The popular literary journal McSweeney's is best known for their regular volumes of frequently hilarious and usually bizarre writings by underground authors and comedians, as well as for their live "happenings" around America that feature readings and performances by popular comedians and musicians. The magazine recently started a new venture, a DVD subscription service called Wholphin. So far, the series has presented original material from the likes of Bob Odenkirk and Alexander Payne. The third disc is out now, and it's filled with interesting oddities, including a Japanese episode of I Dream of Genie, set to new dialogue by Daniel "Lemony Snicket" Handler and others, and a short film by Miguel Arteta of Chuck and Buck and The Good Girl, written by Me and You and Everyone We Know's Miranda July, and starring July, John C. Reilly, and Mike White. And finally, it apparently features Patton Oswalt "staring into the camera for five minutes." You can't find that at Blockbuster.

Wholphin will release a new disc each quarter, and can only be gotten here.

And if you were wondering, a wholphin is totally real and happens when a dolphin and a whale get Biblical.

Homestar Brothers Visit Montreal...and It's A Strange Trip

2007-01-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

Mike and Matt Chapman, best known as the creators, writers, directors, animators, and 98% of the voice talent for the web phenomenon Homestar Runner, have branched out into live action with a new music video for fellow North Carolinians Of Montreal. It's pretty damn awesome, pretty damn funny, and exactly as weird as you would expect from a collaboration between the strangest psychedelic band working today and the people who created Sweet Cuppin' Cakes. Check it out below.

Who Will Be The American Comedy Idol?

2007-01-18T09:27:00.000-08:00

The producers of American Idol are kicking off a new weekly talent show for NBC, only this one is a battle of improv wits instead of musical talent. While it's hard to get excited about any form of comedy coming from the people that bring you the most overrated, sickly-sweet, hard-to-swallow show on TV, keep in mind that they're aligning themselves with some funny-ass people, namely host David Alan Grier and head judge Dave Foley. Add in the fact that the pilot features movie improv queen Jennifer Coolidge, Malcolm in the Middle standout Bryan Cranston, Seinfeld's Wayne Knight, and The Soup's Joel McHale, and hey, you've got yourself a nice looking show.

Six episodes of Thank God You're Here are in production, and will presumably start airing this fall.

LINK

Battle of the Cheap-Ass Web Shows: Round One

2007-01-17T14:39:00.000-08:00

With video streaming technology at an all-time high, the Internet has become the ultimate testing ground for new comedy shows. But did these webisodes come online because they were too strange and brilliant for TV, or because they just aren’t good enough? The Comedyblog is here to sort it out for you. If your favorite regular web series isn’t on this list, leave a comment about it and we’ll include it in the next batch.

CBS Innertube

BBQ Bill

What Is It?: A husky Blue Collar Comedy reject tours the countryside meeting so-called interesting people, attempting to somehow relate every human hobby to BBQ.

Should It Be On TV?: Definitely not, but at the same time, it’s no worse than most time-filler segments on the Travel Channel.

Animate This!

What Is It?: Boring non-celebrities like George Takei and Jennifer Love Hewitt tell incredibly useless stories, which are set to unfunny animations.

Should It Be On TV?: Seeing as how it’s a complete rip-off of Comedy Central’s Shorties Watchin’ Shorties, it already has been. But no, neither show belongs on TV.

Comedy Central Motherload

All Access: Middle Ages

What Is It?: A brash, overdone TV-magazine spoof set in the Middle Ages.

Should It Be On TV?: The costume and makeup budget gives it a higher production quality than most web shows, but the jokes are either poorly improvised or poorly written, making it nigh-unwatchable even on broadband.

Baxter & McGuire

What Is It?: The uncannily stupid adventures of two poorly rendered CGI testicles.

Should It Be On TV?: The idea is too skimpy to even work in one-minute segments. A half hour of talking nuts would send ratings to a new low. But it would still probably be funnier than Drawn Together.

Guacamole

What Is It?: Some lazy filmmakers place food items in front of a hand-held camera and then totally pretend the groceries are talking.

Should It Be On TV?: Maybe. It isn’t great, but when Lettuce makes a war documentary starring hot dog buns as the soldiers, it gets dangerously close to being stupid enough to work.

Balloon Heads

What Is It?: Some lazy filmmakers put cut-outs of celebrities’ faces on balloons attached to action figures, and then force them through horrible sketches that always end with the balloons bursting.

Should It Be On TV?: It’s so bad that it makes you pine for the hit-and-miss mediocrity of Robot Chicken. So no.

Moonwalk 1986

What Is It?: An unimaginatively shot series of conversations between two astronauts on the moon. In 1986. We guess.

Should It Be On TV?: The creators are attempting to give the Colonel the sort of sinister humor that made Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Tom Goes to the Mayor successful, except that their idea of sinister is using an unlicensed vacuum cleaner and other boring misdemeanors. If it were on TV, people would tune out faster than they would at their kid neighbor’s DV home movies.

Monsters

What Is It?: Badly drawn monsters have pointless adventures.

Should It Be On TV?: In addition to featuring animation that makes South Park look like Pixar, it’s also pretty much the dumbest thing we’ve ever seen. The latest installment features brilliant monster quips such as “You suck like a White House intern,” before quickly topping itself with “You suck worse than a Pauly Shore movie.” Edgy!

Good God

What Is It?: A workplace sitcom set in God’s office.

Should It Be On TV?: There are certainly worse shows on. The see-through attempts to borrow the “awkward humor” of The Office get old fast, but it does have its share of laughs, like when God’s assistant walks in on him attempting to lift objects while pretending to have paws, ultimately deciding that he “gave raccoons a raw deal.” Also, the Angel of Death as played by a shameless black grandpa is a pretty fantastic character.

Zero TV

Mark and Mike

What Is It?: A documentary series following Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank of American Movie fame as they promote their new movie and generally hang out and do nothing.

Should It Be On TV?: These guys can be great fun, but the filmmakers throw in every bit of footage they have, and there’s very little to get excited about. With a bigger budget, though, Mark and Mike could possibly work.

Heavy.Com

Superficial Friends

What Is It?: Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, and the Olsen Twins get into all sorts of animated hijinks.

Should It Be On TV?: A show that makes fun of such easy targets is an easy target itself, so the Comedyblog will spare you a rant about just how unfunny this is. But no, it should definitely not be on TV.

Behind the Music That Sucks

What Is It?: Obviously, it’s a Behind the Music spoof profiling bands that supposedly suck, using animated photographs of the band members.

Should It Be On TV?: MTV has aired worse, but the attempts at media satire are wafer-thin, and it tends to try to get laughs by talking very fast and loud in silly Robin Williams voices.

Independent (DotComedy, YouTube, Etc.)

Untitled News Comedy Show

What Is It?: A fake news show that features viewer-submitted jokes.

Should It Be On TV?: The Daily Show and Weekend Update pretty much have the market cornered on the comedy news format, and the viewer-submitted jokes are an excellent argument for why viewers should stay just that.

Nobody’s Watching

What Is It?: Two comedians perform short, pop-culture-savvy sketches.

Should It Be On TV?: Apparently, it almost was, after its Internet popularity convinced NBC to take a closer look at it. They decided no, and surely you’ll agree once you watch the skits, which use the same concept as the Scary Movie series, which is that merely reminding audiences of a movie or TV show they’ve seen equals comedy.

Gay Robot Seeks Friends, Relationships, Networking

2007-01-16T09:57:00.000-08:00

Recently, Comedy Central gave the green light to Nick Swardson to develop a series based on the Gay Robot character he created for Adam Sandler's Shh...Don't Tell album. Apparently, they changed their mind, but the full pilot is now available at Gay Robot's official MySpace profile. Swardson stars as the voice of Gay Robot, and also in person as Gay Robot's roommate, who's stuck with the task of explaining GR's situation to uncomfortable frat boys, and trying to help the android find true love. The pilot also features Jon Glaser as the professor who created the robot (and accidentally spilled a wine cooler into its gears, causing its condition), and Dave Sheridan as a creepy robophile MySpace date. The show was developed through Sandler's Happy Madison Productions, and may possibly continue as a web series. Check it out below.

It's, uh, pretty fucking ridiculous.

Borat Thanks Globes, Non-Litigious Americans

2007-01-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

Sacha Baron Cohen took home a somewhat unexpected Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy statue last night, as part of the unbearably dull Golden Globe Awards. Dick Clark Productions seems to be working around the clock to keep video from the proceedings off the Internet, but Variety has posted a full transcript of Cohen's acceptance speech. No, it's not in character.

"I want to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press. And I just want to say that this movie was a life-changing experience. I saw some amazing, beautiful, invigorating parts of America. But I saw some dark parts of America, an ugly side of America. A side of America that rarely sees the light of day.

I refer, of course, to the anus and testicles of my co-star, Ken Davitian. Ken, when I was in that scene and I stared down and saw your two wrinkled golden globes on my chin, I thought to myself, 'I better win a bloody award for this.'

And then when my 300-pound co-star decided to sit on my face and squeeze the oxygen from my lungs, I was faced with a choice: Death or to breathe in the air that had been trapped in a small pocket between his buttocks for 30 years.

Kenneth, if it was not for that rancid bubble, I would not be here today.

Thank you to Larry Charles, thank you to Jay Roach, thank you to Isla Fisher, my fiancee. Thank you to Peter Baynham, Anthony Hines and Dan Mazer; thank you to Ari Emanuel; Matt Labov; Erran Baron Cohen, my brother who did the music; and to Jason Alper and (unintelligible due to swelling music). And thank you to every American who has not sued me so far. Thank you."

LINK

Ewan McGregor Action Figure!

2007-01-16T09:25:00.000-08:00

Ewan McGregor will provide the lead voice in Jackboots on Whitehall, a "What If..." comedy about an alternate, post-WWII world where the Germans won, which will be shot entirely with action figures. McGregor will play a farm boy leading the anti-Nazi revolution, and will be joined in the recording studio with Richard E. Grant, Tom Wilkinson, Richard Griffiths, and Alan Cumming as Hitler. The project is from the first-time feature-makers the McHenry Brothers, who have a lot of work on their hands to make it amount to more than a glorified Robot Chicken skit. Edward McHenry scored the gig by showing producers his short film, Baptism of Fire, which uses the same stop-motion technique. A quick YouTube search garners no results.

McGregor is signed on to play a London man inhabited by Satan as part of a redemption deal with God in an adaptation of the comedic novel I, Lucifer, and will also star in The Great Pretender, playing both a well-known actor and his lookalike extra in the filmmaking comedy.

LINK

This Week in Funny - 1/15/07 - 1/21/07

2007-01-15T23:06:00.000-08:00

Monday, January 15:

The cast of Little Miss Sunshine on The Ellen Degeneres Show
Amy Sedaris on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)

Tuesday, January 16:

New on DVD: Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt’s The Animation Show 1&2 Box Set (click here to buy)
New Campus Ladies: “Safety First” (Oxygen)
Tracy Morgan and Jim Gaffigan on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC)

Wednesday, January 17:

Series Premiere The Naked Trucker & T-Bones Show: “Demo Tape” (Comedy Central)
Tina Fey on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Naked Trucker & T-Bones on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Thursday, January 18:

New My Name is Earl: “Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck” (NBC)
New The Office: “The Return” (NBC)
New Scrubs: “My Musical” (NBC)
New 30 Rock: “The Head and the Hair” (NBC)
Harry Shearer on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
Chevy Chase on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS)
Tony Shalhoub on Live With Regis and Kelly

Friday, January 19:

Season Premiere Monk: “Mr. Monk Meets a Friend” w/ guest star Andy Richter (USA)
Season Premiere Psych: “Forget Me Not” (USA)
Sarah Silverman on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC)

Sunday, January 21:

New Extras: Episode 2.2 with David Bowie (HBO)

Live Comedy Watch:

1/15: Rob Corddry at the UCB Theater in LA
1/16: Zach Galifianakis and Matt Besser at the UCB Theater in LA
1/16-1/19: Tenacious D in Australia
1/17-1/19: Ricky Gervais at Festival Theater in Edinburgh, UK
1/17 Fred Armisen at the UCB Theater in NYC
1/18 Human Giant at the UCB Theater in LA
1/19 Jim Gaffigan at Lyric Opera House in Baltimore
1/20 Jim Gaffigan at Taft Theater in Cincinnati
1/20 The Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen Theater in LA
1/21 Free ASSSSCAT show at the UCB Theater in LA
1/21 Free ASSSSCAT show at the UCB Theater in NYC

Larry Charles Takes on God, Tommy Lee

2007-01-14T15:01:00.000-08:00

Rotten Tomatoes has a new interview with Borat director Larry Charles, where he talks about the film's Oscar chances and the lawsuit parade. More importantly, he talks about his upcoming projects, including the first announcement of a new Bill Maher documentary that he describes as a "non-fiction comedy about religion," which will feature interviews with people of all beliefs from all corners of the world.

He also spills some more details about The Dirt, based on the revealing autobiography of Motley Crue. Charles just handed in a draft of the script, and explains that the band is in no way involved, and all of their parts are yet to be cast. He doesn't confirm the rumors started by Crue frontman Vince Neil, that Christopher Walken and Val Kilmer will appear as Ozzy Osbourne and David Lee Roth, respectively.

You can read the full interview here.

In other Charles-related news, Curb Your Enthusiasm is expected to start its sixth season this fall, with Vivica A. Fox signed on to play a recurring character who moves in to Larry David's guest room. Charles serves as an executive producer and frequent director on Curb.

Fast Track: Expect Delay

2007-01-14T14:39:00.000-08:00

The Zach Braff/Jason Bateman/Amanda Peet vehicle Fast Track, which was pulled from the December 2006 release schedule with no explanation, is now back on track for a March release. According to Braff's blog, the move is motivated only by all three actors' inability to promote the film during their busy schedules (Braff is doing Scrubs, Peet is doing the still-not-cancelled Studio 60, and Bateman has Smokin' Aces and Arthur and the Invisibles coming out). This sounds suspiciously like a cover-up operation for a shitty movie, but as you know, celebrities never lie.

The film stars Braff as a man who has to take a job for his father-in-law after his pregnant wife (Peet) steps away from her breadwinning job. He immediately falls into a competition with another of her father's employees, a wheelchair-bound over-achiever who happens to be his wife's ex (Bateman).

Check out the moderately amusing trailer below, if only for its handful of golden Batemanisms, and the Comedyblog will let you know when a release date is finally set in stone.

Stiller's War

2007-01-13T18:44:00.000-08:00

Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, which has been in rumored development for over a decade and has long ago been mistaken for dead, is set to start filming this July, according to Production Weekly. Stiller will star and direct from a script he wrote with Etan Cohen (Idiocracy) and actor Justin Theroux. The story follows a group of actors who go through a simplified, Hollywood-style boot camp to prepare for a big-budget war movie, and then end up having to use their miniscule combat knowledge when they're dropped into the middle of a real-life war. Stiller hasn't written or directed anything since the 2001 cult hit Zoolander. Presumably, he's been too busy making oodles of cash.

Recently, Stiller announced his interest in filming a sequel to Zoolander. He's also set to direct and star in a TV project for his wife Christine Taylor, and he recently finished shooting a remake of The Heartbreak Kid for the Farrelly Bros.

LINK

TV Gets A Little Whiter

2007-01-12T10:54:00.000-08:00

Underground sketch group The Whitest Kids U'Know are getting their own show on the Fuse network, starting March 20. The troupe, featuring Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, Zach Creggor, Timmy Williams, and Darren Trumeter, have gained a small cult following from their live performances and online videos, and recently won the Best Sketch Award at this year's Aspen Comedy Fest. The self-titled sketch show is executive produced by Jim Biederman, whose track record includes Kids in the Hall, The Tom Green Show, and The Howard Stern Show.

If you're in the LA area, you can see the WKUK live tonight at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.

In the meantime, watch these clips from YouTube.

LINK

A Trailer in Glorious HD

2007-01-12T10:29:00.000-08:00

IGN has posted the first trailer for Blades of Glory, starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder as two solo figure skaters who are banned from the game after fighting, but return to competition through a loophole that allows them to perform as a couple, pitting them against champion skating couple Will Arnett and Amy Poehler. So...go watch that.

No, you're not losing it, that was indeed William "Mr. Feeny" Daniels as the figure skating commissioner, and Craig T. "Coach Fox" Nelson as the skating coach.

Also, Ain't it Cool News has posted a positive but enormously vague review of an early screening of the movie, which hits theaters March 30.

All Nude Prevue

2007-01-11T10:53:00.000-08:00

The long-in-the-works Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show is coming to Comedy Central next Wednesday. The show is based on the live musical comedy act of the same name created and performed by Dave "Gruber" Allen (of Freaks and Geeks) and David Koechner, and will feature mix filmed segments and live performances. Comedy Central has posted a new clip, which the Comedyblog presents here for your enjoyment.

And while you're in the spirit, here's a mess of other Naked Trucker crap.

Sketchfest Fever!

2007-01-09T15:15:00.000-08:00

If you're in the San Francisco area, and have a cushy job that allows you to afford the exorbidant ticket prices, you'll definitely want to check out the 2007 SF Sketchfest, kicking off this Thursday and going through the end of January.

The festival features performances, sketch games, workshops, interviews, and more, with appearances by Stella, Rob Corddry, Todd Barry and Jon Benjamin, Eugene Mirman, A.D. Miles, David Cross, Maria Bamford, Doug Benson, Paul F. Tompkins, Todd Barry, Hard n' Phirm, Todd Glass, Michael J. Nelson, Bill Corbett, Kevin Murphy, Paul Reubens, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Sean Conroy, Bob Odenkirk, and Bruce McCulloch, plus a tribute to Mitch Hedberg. In other words, "Damn!"

For the full schedule, look here.

If you attend the Sketchfest, please drop the Comedyblog an e-mail with your write-up and we'll run it as a special eye-witness bulletin. And yeah, we can put a link to your dumb MySpace profile if you want.

Borat Escapes Unharmed

2007-01-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

Fox has set a March 6 release date for the highly anticipated Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan DVD, and confirmed that nothing will be cut from the theatrical version, despite much whining and many frivolous lawsuits from the film's "victims." In addition, the disc will include deleted scenes (many of which have already premiered on YouTube), as well as some of Sacha Baron Cohen's in-character promotional appearances at the Toronto International Film Festival, the San Diego Comic-Con, and Cannes.

Borat is currently kicking unexpected ass at several online Oscar polls, with Cohen looking more and more likely to grab a nomination for Best Actor. Meanwhile, analysts estimate that over 10,000 of Sean Penn's tears have landed on his All the King's Men DVD this month alone.

Cohen is currently filming Sweeney Todd with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, and will next film Dinner for Schmucks, a remake of a French film about a man who ruins the life of anyone he meets. Why don't you ask this guy if Cohen fits the part?

LINK

Bruce Campbell Gets Old

2007-01-09T11:17:00.000-08:00

Bruce Campbell's official website has announced that Bruce is the new official spokesman for Old Spice deodorant, which is a brilliant enough combo that it should pretty much silence any cries of "sell-out." The ads began airing this past weekend during CBS Football, but don't worry, sportsophobes, because Ain't it Cool News has already dredged up the first ad from YouTube. Enjoy.

Campbell recently wrapped production on the Comedyblog's 3rd most anticipated comedy of 2007, My Name is Bruce, which is supposedly due out some time next month. He's also planning to star with Paul Giamatti in the prequel to Bubba Ho-tep, entitled Bubba Nosferatu and the Curse of the She-Vampires, as long as Don Coscarelli can get the money together (cross your fingers). He will also be making an appearance of unknown size in Spiderman 3, and he voices a box of nuggets in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie.

And how does he keep dry during this parade of fine acting work? You tell us.

This Week in Funny 1/8/07 - 1/14/07

2007-01-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a new weekly Comedyblog feature to help you stay on top of new TV episodes, new theatrical and DVD releases, and notable guest appearances in the world of comedy. This will be ironed out through the weeks, and expanded to include live comedy, books, web shows, and more. Please drop a line with suggestions if you have any.

Monday, January 8:

Louis CK on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

Tuesday, January 9:

New Campus Ladies: Psych 101 (Oxygen)
New on DVD: Idiocracy (click to buy)
New on DVD: Extras - The Complete First Season (click to buy)

Wednesday, January 10:

Marc Maron on The Late Show With David Letterman (CBS)

Thursday, January 11:

New My Name is Earl: Buried Treasure (NBC)
New The Office: Traveling Salesman (NBC)
New Scrubs: My Friend With Money (NBC)
New 30 Rock: The Rural Juror (NBC)
Artie Lange on Late Night With Conan O’Brien (NBC)
Rob Corddry on Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC)

Friday, January 12:

New Comedy Central Presents: Marc Maron and John Heffron (Comedy Central)
Louis CK on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (CBS)
Adam Carolla on Last Call With Carson Daly (NBC)

Saturday, January 13:

New Saturday Night Live with host Jake Gyllenhaal (NBC)
New Louis CK Special: Shameless (HBO)

Sunday, January 14:

New The Simpsons: Please, Homer, Don’t Hammer ‘Em (FOX)
New Extras: Episode 2.1 with Orlando Bloom (HBO)
New Demetri Martin Special: Demetri Martin. Person. (Comedy Central)
New Moral Orel: Lord’s Prayer (Cartoon Network/Adult Swim)
New Frisky Dingo: Twelve (Cartoon Network/Adult Swim)

Rainn Wilson Is Unkillable

2007-01-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

Rainn Wilson, from the Americanized version of The Office, has signed on to star as the titular character in Kanan Rhodes: Unkillable Servant of Justice, from a screenplay by B.J. Porter, Scott Aukerman, and Bob Odenkirk, who will direct. Odenkirk says the script, about a ruthless subpoena server, has been sitting on the shelf for years, waiting for the right actor to come along. Which could easily be showbiz speak for "We decided we love money enough that we'll pull any old rejected script out of the recycling bin to jam it into theaters as quickly as possible." Regardless, Odenkirk thinks Wilson has just the right demeanor to make the character as despicable as necessary without "coming off as a dick."

The film will go into production through MTV Films this May, during Wilson's hiatus from The Office.

This will be the fourth feature directorial effort from Odenkirk, who claims to have mostly retired from acting. His Brothers Solomon will be in theaters next year, and acts as executive producer and frequent co-writer on Adult Swim's Tom Goes to the Mayor, as well as its upcoming semi-spinoff Tim and Eric, Awesome Show, Great Job!

Wilson was also recently announced as the writer and star of Bonzai Shadowhands, the story of a "once-great ninja now living in mediocrity," which will be directed by Thank You For Smoking's Jason Reitman.

LINK
LINK

HBO Gives Something Extra

2007-01-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

The new season of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's award-winning Extras is coming to America on January 14th at 10pm EST. The second season, which has already had its full run in the UK, features a staggering number of big guest stars playing themselves to full comic effect, including Orlando Bloom, David Bowie, Daniel Radcliffe, and Ian McKellen.

An extra-long clip of the season premiere with Bloom can be seen here.

It was recently reported that Gervais was going after some massive names for the upcoming third season of the show, including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep, and his Night at the Museum co-star Dick Van Dyke.

The first season will be released on DVD this coming Tuesday and can be pre-ordered here. That one features Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart.

The first season will be released on DVD this coming Tuesday and can be pre-ordered here. That one features Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson, and Patrick Stewart.

Outsourced is Outsourced to Azaria

2007-01-03T10:17:00.000-08:00

Comedyblog readers might remember a recent story about screenwriter Tim Dowling, who has several anticipated scripts in various levels of non-production right now. His most prominent unproduced screenplay is Outsourced, which was once touted as a reunion vehicle for Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn, but was essentially scrapped altogether when those actors became too prominent and expensive. Apparently Columbia still plans to make it happen though, because they've pegged popular actor and voice impressionist Hank Azaria to make his feature directing debut. Now if they could only find a cast... Hey, why not downgrade to Luke Wilson and Jon Favreau?

The film will follow two factory workers who lose their jobs due to outsourcing. The pair travels to Mexico to take back their old positions, and presumably have some wacky times getting mixed up in rich Latino culture or something.

LINK

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Finally Assembled

2007-01-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Just days after rounding out the top five in the Comedyblog's 30 most anticipated comedies of 2007, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie has finally set a definite release through First Look Pictures, after many months of uncertainty and bogus announcements. The film will open this March in around 800 theaters, pretty standard for a limited release, and will obviously expand from there depending on its success. As previously announced, the film is written, directed, and produced by its long-time showrunners Dave Willis and Matt Maiellaro, features all the show's regular voice talent, guest stars Bruce Campbell and Rush drummer Neil Peart, and involves the origin of the anthropomorphized food items and their involvement with an dangerous, immortal piece of exercise equipment.

The only thing still in need of clearing up is the film's title, which was originally announced as The Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie Film For Theaters, later shorted to Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie, and now seems to be completely up in the air.

LINK

A Look Into the Future

2006-12-29T16:18:00.000-08:00

It’s the end of another shitty year, but instead of drinking yourself into a thick depression and jumping out your office window as the ball drops this New Year’s Eve, why not titillate yourself with the Comedyblog’s look at the 30 most anticipated comedies of 2007? Many of these potential laugh riots have already been completed, and the rest have been greenlit and approved for mass consumption. In other words, the Comedyblog ultimately decided to leave out possible dream projects such as the wham-bam duo of the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse movie and the adults-only Pee-Wee Herman Story, Tina Fey’s musical comedy Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill with Sacha Baron Cohen, and the based-on-the-comic-strip Harvey Richards, Lawyer for Children, from Sky High director Mike Mitchell and King of the Hill and Idiocracy co-writer Etan Cohen. Hopefully these and many other great stories will find their studio backing and reach you next year, but here’s what you can already count on.

30. Dan in Real Life

What It Is: Writer-director Peter Hedges tells the story of Dan Burns (Steve Carell), who accidentally falls in love with the girlfriend of his brother (Dane Cook).

Why You Should Care: Hedges has always done lukewarm work (Pieces of April) and Dane Cook is a giant red warning light, but Carell should fit nicely into Hedges’ gentle, quirky style.

29. How I Met My Brother’s Dead Fiancée

What It Is: When Paul Rudd begins dating psychic Lake Bell, his dead ex-girlfriend’s ghost (Eva Longoria) starts interfering.

Why You Should Care: The writer/director previously wrote John Tucker Must Die, but if you can ignore that, the early buzz on this script has been really great, and Paul Rudd tends to pick them well. Plus Jason Biggs, Stephen Root, and Reno 911’s Wendi McLendon-Covey are in the supporting cast.

28. Quebec

What It Is: The directorial debut of Steve Conrad, the writer of the dark dramedy The Weather Man and the charming Pursuit of Happyness, features Seann William Scott and John C. Reilly as two assistant grocery store managers competing for a promotion.

Why You Should Care: The similarities to Employee of the Month are immediately disconcerting, but Conrad has been doing some smart work and Reilly is especially lovable in comedic roles. Fred Armisen and Jenna Fischer have signed on as well.

27. I Could Never Be Your Woman

What It Is: Amy Heckerling (writer of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and writer/director of Clueless) writes and directs this romantic comedy about Rosie (Michelle Pfeiffer), a woman who falls in love with a younger man (Paul Rudd), while Mother Nature (Tracey Ullman) meddles with their fate.

Why You Should Care: Heckerling has only made a few films, but they’ve mostly been pretty decent, plus Paul Rudd is always fantastic. It could easily slip up on all the familiar rom-com clichés, but hopefully supporting performances from Ullman, Fred Willard, and Henry Wrinkler will at least keep it funny.

26. The TV Set

What It Is: Jake Kasdan tells the complete story of a TV pilot, from beginning to end, with David Duchovny as the show’s producer and Sigourney Weaver as one of the network execs trying to ruin his baby.

Why You Should Care: Jake Kasdan has done a lot of great work, especially on Freaks and Geeks and his debut film The Zero Effect. Some have described this as Network Lite, but the online clips are appealing and there’s a lot of interesting casting choices.

25. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry

What It Is: Adam Sandler and Kevin James play two fireman who pose as homosexuals to receive partner benefits.

Why You Should Care: The silly, archaic plot and stupid title don’t instill a lot of confidence, and neither does Dennis Dugan, a director of whom the best thing can be said about is that he directed Happy Gilmore. But Sandler and James have proven themselves to be at least occasionally funny, and the main draw is the script, which seems to have gone through a lot of rewrites, which is usually a bad sign, but the draftsmen have included indie heroes Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, and comedy idol Robert Smigel. Also, Dan Aykroyd and Steve Buscemi are on board as supporting performers, and that can’t be bad. (Well, unless you count Blues Brothers 2000, Celtic Pride, Crossroads, Christmas with the Kranks, Armageddon, Home on the Range, or 28 Days.)

24. Balls of Fury

What It Is: Dan Fogler plays Randy Daytona, a professional ping-pong player recruited by an FBI agent (George Lopez) to infiltrate the dangerous underground ping-pong championships put on by the nefarious Feng (Christopher Walken).

Why You Should Care: The script by Thomas Lennon and director Ben Garant could easily turn out a sophomoric rip-off of Dodgeball, which wasn’t even a great movie to begin with. After all, they did write this year’s highly disappointing Let’s Go to Prison, as well as Night at the Museum, the Pacifier, and Taxi. But hey, they’re still the guys from The State and Reno 911!, and the Comedyblog is still rooting for them to succeed, which will be a lot easier with the help of the always enjoyable Walken, the promising newcomer Fogler, and a supporting cast that includes fantastic comic talent such as Diedrich Bader, Terry Crews, David Koechner, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Lennon himself, and Garant and Lennon’s Reno partner Kerri Kenney.

23. Diggers

What It Is: The story of four men (Paul Rudd, Ken Marino, Josh Hamilton, and Ron Eldard) who are the youngest in a long generation of Long Island clam diggers, who have to come to terms with the changing times.

Why You Should Care: As far as the Comedyblog knows, no one’s ever made a movie about clam digging before, and the presence of The State's Ken Marino, who also wrote the script, and of course Paul Rudd make this sound pretty tasty. Also, the director worked on The Adventures of Pete & Pete.

22. Evan Almighty

What It Is: Steve Carell reprises his small but star-making role in that shitty Jim Carrey movie about God. Morgan Freeman tells Steve to build an ark and fill it with animals, which puts a lot of stress on his social life.

Why You Should Care: Maybe you shouldn’t. It’s an obvious cash-in, but the story is slightly funnier this time around (building a boat filled with every kind of animal is a much funnier task than just having generic God powers), and Carell has had a good enough track record so far to give him the benefit of the doubt.

21. The Haunted World of El Superbeasto

What It Is: Based on Rob Zombie’s explicit comic El Superbeasto, which follows the sexual exploits of a Mexican wrestler slash crimefighter.

Why You Should Care: Because a collaboration between Zombie and the creative team behind Rocko’s Modern Life and Spongebob Squarepants could be really damn weird in a groovy way, and the voice cast so far includes Brian Posehn, Danny Trejo, Sherri Moon, veteran voice-over genius Rob Paulsen, and most importantly, Paul Giamatti as “Dr. Satan.”

20. Fido

What It Is: Dylan Baker and Carrie-Anne Moss play a suburban couple who adopt a zombie manservant named FIDO (Billy Connolly), which has become as common as owning a computer. When FIDO eats the neighbor, the couple’s son has to fight to keep his “pet.”

Why You Should Care: Zombie movies, and even zombie comedies, are quickly becoming played out…but come on! Billy Connolly as a subservient corpse, with underrated character actors like Baker and Tim Blake Nelson on board as well? You must be at least a little interested.

19. Drillbit Taylor

What It Is: Beavis and Butt-head vet Kristofer Brown and rising superstar Seth Rogen write the script from a story by John Hughes, about two picked-on schoolkids who hire a low-rent bodyguard (Owen Wilson) to protect them from the school bully.

Why You Should Care: This sounds like producer Judd Apatow’s first attempt to make a family-friendly movie, but he and Rogen have been batting a thousand so far, and it’s about time for one-time comedy king Hughes to make a comeback. Wilson could use one too after the disaster that was You, Me, and Dupree. Plus, look for Leslie Mann, Ian Roberts, Robert Musgrave, and Cedric Yarbrough in the supporting cast.

18. The Brothers Solomon

What It Is: Will Forte’s writing debut casts himself and Will Arnett as socially inept brothers who race to give their father a grandchild before he passes on. Bob Odenkirk directs.

Why You Should Care: This has already been showing around Los Angeles, and word on the street is that it’s much funnier than Odenkirk and Arnett’s work on Let’s Go to Prison, and is just as whacked out as a Will Forte script seems like it would be. Also, Chi McBride is getting credit for sole-handedly earning the film a hard R rating.

17. Hot Rod

What It Is: The first feature from the increasingly popular Lonely Island team follows Andy Samberg as a moped stuntman.

Why You Should Care: The Lonely Island shorts aren’t necessarily anything to write home about, but they’re consistently amusing enough, and might work better in long form, especially with script work by South Park and Team America writer Pam Brady, and a great cast including Will Arnett, Isla Fisher, Sissy Spacek, Ian McShane, Chris Parnell, and Bill Hader.

16. Bee Movie

What It Is: Jerry Seinfeld makes a long-awaited return to non-live comedy with an animated family film about a bee who sues humanity after discovering we’ve been eating the honey he and his friends and family work so hard to make.

Why You Should Care: CGI talking-animal movies are getting pretty damn irksome by now, but it’s doubtful that Seinfeld would phone in his big return, and he worked on the script with at least one other Seinfeld writer, which could potentially lead to some of the funniest G-rated dialogue on screens in years. Plus, the teaser trailer is delightfully bizarre, and the voice cast includes Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Alan Arkin, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard, Larry Miller, Rip Torn, Colin Quinn, and Patrick Warburton. Of course, there’s also a few less exciting names like Renee Zellweger, Oprah Winfrey, and Megan Mullally…

15. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

What It Is: The directing debut of Stranger than Fiction screenwriter Zach Helm stars Natalie Portman as the manager of a strange and possibly dangerous toy store owned by the eccentric Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman).

Why You Should Care: Stranger than Fiction had a refreshingly original script, and this sounds just as entertaining. Hoffman is almost always a pleasure to have around, and even better, Jason Bateman rounds out the cast.

14. Reno 911!: Miami

What It Is: The feature film version of the popular Comedy Central COPS spoof has the whole team in Miami, where they accidentally become the only police force in the city after the other, more skilled officers are quarantined inside a convention.

Why You Should Care: Early reviews were lukewarm, but the pushed-back release date suggests that some reshoots have been done, since the improvised digital footage is quick to come by. If it ends up half as funny as the show, then it will probably find a lot of success with the 18-25 crowd. If you’re not a fan of the show, you still might want to go and check out Paul Rudd as a Cuban gangster.

13. Long River 7

What It Is: The latest from Stephen Chow, writer-director-star of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, involves a Chinese-launched satellite, and apparently aliens and dinosaurs.

Why You Should Care: Chow’s recent comedies have been more original and hilarious than most of Hollywood’s output. He’s keeping this big-budget movie’s story under wraps, but if his name in conjunction with outer space dinosaurs doesn’t get you excited, than what does?

12. Fred Claus

What It Is: Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin reteams with star Vince Vaughn, who plays Fred Claus, the less successful brother of Santa Claus, played by Paul Giamatti. Somehow, an angry elf played by Ludacris and a villainous Kevin Spacey factor in.

Why You Should Care: Not a lot is known about this one yet, but there’s already a lot to be concerned about. It’s a stupid idea, based on a story by the crappy writer of insipid melodramas like I Am Sam and Stepmom, and written by Dan Fogelman, whose only credit is the mediocre Cars. But hell, who are we kidding? A Vince Vaughn Christmas movie with Paul fucking Giamatti as Santa? You know you’ll be there.

11. Sicko

What It Is: In director Michael Moore’s own words, “a comedy about 45 million people with no health care in the richest country in the world.”

Why You Should Care: The health care system is a significantly less sensitive and divisive subject than oil and terrorism, so this could easily be a return to the more comedy-oriented filmmaking seen in The Big One and Bowling for Columbine, as opposed to the occasionally amusing but mostly terrifying Fahrenheit 9/11.

10. Ratatouille

What It Is: The newest from Pixar and Incredibles creator Brad Bird, who wrote the script and took over directing duties from Jan Pinkava, follows Ratatouille (voiced by Patton Oswalt), a rat with expensive taste, who holes up in a French bistro and dreams of becoming a chef.

Why You Should Care: Even Pixar’s worst movies are still pretty fun, and Brad Bird is probably the most exciting talent on their roster. The trailer gives off a fun Looney Tunes vibe as opposed to the magical Disney quality of earlier Pixar productions.

9. Hot Fuzz

What It Is: Shaun of the Dead creators Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright take the same semi-spoof style to the buddy cop genre popularized by Shane Black.

Why You Should Care: Shaun of the Dead was a lot of fun, and the same dark humor should work just as well using the gritty crime film template.

8. Super Bad

What It Is: Jonah Hill and Michael Cera play best friends in their senior year of high school, who attempt to have a blow-out party to drown our their separation anxiety.

Why You Should Care: Jonah Hill and Michael Cera are the two funniest young actors on the market right now, and the script by real-life high school friends Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will not likely disappoint, since Rogen has done great work already writing on Undeclared and Da Ali G Show, plus he’s bringing Undeclared and Arrested Development vet Greg Mottola along to direct, and the whole thing is under the Judd Apatow production umbrella, naturally.

7. The Ten

What It Is: David Wain of The State, Wet Hot American Summer, and Stella directs from a script by fellow troupe member Ken Marino and himself, which spins ten different tales based on each of the Ten Commandments, starring an awful lot of funny people.

Why You Should Care: Wain’s work is always a good time, religion has sparked some of the funniest movies of all time, and the aforementioned funny people include all the members of the State plus Paul Rudd, Rob Corddry, Jon Benjamin, Oliver Platt, and many more.

6. The Simpsons Movie

What It Is: It’s the Simpsons movie.

Why You Should Care: The Simpsons may have slipped over the years, but it’s always worth at least a couple chuckles, and Matt Groening and his writing staff surely know how much pressure they’re under to create something big enough to merit moving to the big screen after nearly twenty years.

5. Aqua Teen Hunger Force: The Movie

What It Is: The feature film version of the popular Adult Swim series, explaining the origins of a milkshake, fries, and wad of raw meat who occasionally solve crimes, but usually just throw shit at each other and set things on fire.

Why You Should Care: Early reviews from even the most eager Aqua Teen fans has been intensely negative, but the show’s humor is sometimes too weird for its enormous fan base, so we’re still hoping for the best. Plus, Bruce Campbell plays a box of chicken nuggets. Come on.

4. Be Kind Rewind

What It Is: Michel Gondry writes and directs a story of two men (Jack Black and Mos Def) who recreate the popular movies in their old-school video store after Black accidentally erases every tape.

Why You Should Care: Gondry is possibly the most innovative and exciting director working right now, so it’s going to be very interesting to see how he handles what sounds like a fun and goofy but mainstream comedy, and to see how he works with hit-and-miss funnyman Black. Seeing the two of them work together to do low-budget remakes of Ghostbusters, Robocop, and King Kong could easily turn this into the funniest movie of the year.

3. My Name is Bruce

What It Is: Directed by the man himself, Bruce Campbell stars as Bruce Campbell, who is expected to defeat a monster who’s attacking a small town in Oregon when the townspeople assume he has experience from his Evil Dead films.

Why You Should Care: Self-aware, meta plots like this are getting stale and annoying…but only for those other actors. Bruce can do what Bruce wants.

2. Blades of Glory

What It Is: Will Ferrell and Jon Heder play two athletes in the men’s single ice skating competition are banned from the sport forever, but return to the Olympics through a loophole by performing as a couple.

Why You Should Care: What originally sounded like a quickie cash-in on sports comedies and Napoleon Dynamite has evolved over the last few months to look a lot more interesting. Most importantly, the heroes’ rivals will be played by hilarious real-life couple Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, and the cast also includes Craig T. Nelson, Jenna Fischer, Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, 40-Year-Old Virgin and Weeds standout Romany Malco, and Nick Swardson, best known as being the only funny part of most Adam Sandler productions.

1. Knocked Up

What It Is: Judd Apatow’s follow-up to 40-Year-Old Virgin stars Seth Rogen as an unambitious slacker who unintentionally impregnates an unlikely one-night stand (Katherine Heigl.)

Why You Should Care: The early buzz is already calling this the funniest movie of 2007, much like Borat was tagged early on as the funniest of 2006. There’s not even enough space to mention all the talented and hilarious people who appear in this movie, but if you’ve followed Apatow’s career, there will be many, many familiar faces. There were so many improv scenes and alternate jokes filmed for the movie that the DVD will include a “Randomizer” function that will insert different gags at different moments each time you watch it, meaning you’ll never watch the same movie twice, and each time it will be funniest thing you’ve ever seen.

Almost Made the Cut: Barry Munday, Bill, Brand Hauser: Stuff Happens, the Bucket List, Charlie Bartlett, the Comebacks, Coxblocker, Fanboys, Go Go Tales, Gary the Tennis Coach, Igor, I Think I Love My Wife, Lars and the Real Girl, Meet the Robinsons, Mr. Woodcock, Neanderthals, No Reservations, Parental Guidance Suggested, Sex and Death 101, Smiley Face, Spring Breakdown, Surf’s Up

The King Shall Return to His Throne

2006-12-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

Mike Judge's King of the Hill will kick off its 11th season on January 28th at 8:30 (note the new time slot). The season premiere is titled "The Peggy Horror Picture Show," and involves Peggy unknowingly befriending a cross-dresser. The 11th season can be seen as a bit of a Christmas miracle for Hank Hill fanatics, since the series was only renewed at the last possible second by FOX, causing Judge and his crew to scramble back together and start work from scratch, since they had long ago packed their bags.

Speaking of FOX treating Mike Judge unfairly, his highly mistreated minor cult classic Idiocracy will see an unceremonious DVD release on January 9th, including exclusive deleted scenes.

Hey, the Comedyblog has an idea... why don't you pre-order that fucker?

Ken Marino Outed

2006-12-17T22:02:00.000-08:00

The State's Ken Marino will join his fellow troupe members Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, Kerri Kenney, and Michael Patrick Jann of Reno 911!, as well as David Wain, Michael Showalter, and Michael Ian Black of Stella, by creating his own series on Comedy Central. Out of Bounds will feature Marino as the host of a sports talk radio show "Ball Talk." The pilot will shoot early next year.

Marino will have his share of big screen time in 2007 as well, starring in Diggers with Paul Rudd, from Marino's script, as well as the anticipated Ten Commandments comedy The Ten, which he wrote with director Wain.

LINK

Comedy Gift Guide

2006-12-12T22:36:00.000-08:00

…because the Comedyblog wants to help you check your favorite comedy-lover off your list, and also because no non-profit infoblog is complete without a shameless barrage of rewards-based Amazon links masquerading as a friendly shopping list. Here's some brand-new items that any self respecting fan of laughter should be asking for this year.

Saturday Night Live - The Complete First Season

Fuck best of's, now you can start collecting the whole thing, at least until it turns god awful. All the episodes are completely uncut, with many skits and musical guests that haven't been shown on TV for years.

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

Talladega Nights was amusing in theaters, but Ferrell and McKay have complained about what they had to cut to get a PG-13, so the Comedyblog pretty much guarantees you that there's a lot of gold left to mine.

Get Smart: The Complete Collection

It's only available from Time-Life in a massive $200 set, but if you have the cash, who wouldn't want this 25-disc collection of the original spy spoof from Mel Brooks and Buck Henry? Plus it comes in a phone booth collector's box that will make your other DVD boxes look like shit. Get it now, before it gets all "reimagined" by Warner Bros. and Steve Carell in 2008.

Police Squad! The Complete Series

All six episodes of the inspiration for the Naked Gun series. Also six times as funny?

Da Ali G Show - Da Compleet Seereez

If you didn’t already have the individual seasons, you can now have this boxed collection, which is just like the original DVDs except with extra cardboard.

Extras - The Complete First Season

The release date just barely misses Christmas, but if you like to be fashionably late, you can buy someone all 10 episodes of Ricky Gervais’ fantastic new series.

That's My Bush! The Definitive Collection

DVD is probably the only place you’ll ever see Trey Parker’s misunderstood sitcom parody, and it’s a Christmas miracle that it even got one. All 8 episodes!

Seinfeld - Season 7

If you like great sitcoms, or sitcoms starring recently outed racists, then this would be for you.

The Kids in the Hall Megaset

The perfect gift choice if you have $150 burning a hole in your pocket and know someone that doesn’t already have any Kids in the Hall episodes.

The Dog Dialed 911: A Book of Lists from The Smoking Gun

The ballsy and hilarious Smoking Gun team has a new crime book, featuring infotaintastic lists such as 7 Things You Should Never Tell a Cop and 3 Ineffective Ways to Kill Your Spouse.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

One deadpan book about zombies wasn’t enough for author Max Brooks, so now there’s this one too. Word on the street is that it’s even better.

Live In: Nerd Rage

Is Brian Posehn the funniest Comedian of Comedians? The Comedyblog thinks maybe.

These Are Jokes

The unique and hilarious Demetri Martin is now a “Daily Show” regular, and has multiple movies in the pipeline. But this CD/DVD before it’s too late to be in the “I heard him first” crowd.

En Garde, Society!

Eugene Mirman is the sort of comedian that works very well in album form…whatever the fuck that means.

Har-Larious

Harland Williams: What a Treat

Harland Williams is probably the weirdest person alive right now, and the Comedyblog doesn’t throw around “alive right now” lightly.

Tenacious D The Pick of Destiny

Yeah, the movie was (arguably) pretty disappointing, but it’s hard not to want this smoking collector’s item that includes the lovable soundtrack, the movie tie-in book, 8 tarot cards, and a poster.

Homestar Runner: Everything Else, Volume 2

The second collection of Homestar Runner shorts of the non-Strong Bad Email variety.

Flaming Carrot Volume 1 (Flaming Carrot Comics)

Did you know there was an all-new Flaming Carrot series by Bob Burden? The Comedyblog didn’t, and thought you should know.

The Future of Futurama

2006-12-12T22:20:00.000-08:00

Producer David X. Cohen recently chatted with Toyfare about the upcoming new season of Futurama, rescued by Comedy Central. You can read it here. Among his revelations, Cohen announces that the entire cast and most of the crew are all back on board, that the show will pick up two years after the last episode, that it will feature more continuity between episodes, and that Al Gore has already recorded a guest appearance (which is a freebie for them since his daughter is a writer on the show). The show is slated to return some time in 2008.

Judd Apatow and Dan Mazer's Secret

2006-12-12T21:59:00.000-08:00

Judd Apatow, a man who apparently can't fry his morning bacon without attaching his name to three features, has signed on to produce the directorial debut of Dan Mazer, best known for his writing on Borat and its father TV series, as well as on Comedy Central's Dog Bites Man.

Both are being tight-lipped about the project, only explaining that it's a "broad, out-there comedy.

Untitled Out There Project will probably start filming after Mazer finishes work on Borat's follow-up, Bruno. He's also doing a rewrite on New Year's Steve, about a family who tries to outdo each other with the most ridiculous New Year's resolutions they can think of.

LINK

Spongepoehler

2006-12-12T21:41:00.000-08:00

Nickelodeon is reportedly upping the ante on original productions, thanks to the continuing financial and critical success of Spongebob Squarepants, and comedy fans get to reap the benefits, since Amy Poehler is among their new recruits. Mighty B, which will premiere in 2007, features Poehler as Bessie Higgenbottom, the most zealous of all her Girl Scout troop, who call themselves the Honeybees, in a reference that goes all the way back to the first episode of Upright Citizens Brigade.

Chances that her UCB partners or her funny-ass husband will show up in repeated guest spots? Very good to certain.

Poehler will soon be seen on screens in Spring Breakdown, Blades of Glory, and the troubled Southland Tales.

LINK

Two-Lander

2006-12-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

Ben Stiller is hoping to make a sequel to his moderate cult classic Zoolander, and is on the lookout for a studio to get involved. Stiller and co-star Owen Wilson used to talk frequently about doing a follow-up, but the project was temporarily derailed by the suicide of co-creator and co-writer Drake Sather in 2004, but Stiller has decided he and writing partner John Hamburg might go forward with it after all.

Sather was a veteran draftsman of Saturday Night Live and Larry Sanders Show, and his death also cut short a modernization of Mr. Ed for FOX, which might not have been as horrible as it sounds due to the involvement of Sather and fellow SNLer Jack Handey.

LINK

Mitch Hedberg's True Hollywood Stories

2006-12-12T21:07:00.000-08:00

Reuters reports that tragic comedian Mitch Hedberg will be honored in an episode of a new E! TV series from the creators of the opportunistic and sleazy True Hollywood Story. Boulevard of Broken Dreams will tell tales of "foul play, heartbreak, and untimely death in Hollywood," and will feature interviews, home videos, and hopefully some slick reenactments featuring Norm Macdonald's supposedly dead-on Hedberg impression. The series premieres on January 22, and the Comedyblog will let you know when the episode in question airs.

At the very least, it might get the ball rolling in putting Los Enchiladas on DVD.

LINK

Demetri Martin Likes it Handtossed

2006-12-12T20:37:00.000-08:00

Demetri Martin is currently working with Microsoft on the Internet ad campaign Clearification, to promote the new platform Windows Vista. The web series has three episodes online now, with two more on the way this month, and then a final episode in January. The shorts feature Martin as an overly competitive douchebag who discovers he has a rare condition called HANDTOSS (Hyper-Achiever with No Direction and Tendency to Overcomplicate Situations Syndrome), and seeks help at the Institution for Advanced Personhood. It seems like an obvious ploy for Microsoft to match the underground comic talent found in Apple's horribly obnoxious campaign featuring Justin Long and John Hodgman, but it's still pretty amusing, as is the interactive Flash website featuring running commentary by Martin.

Demetri has been keeping busy lately, releasing a new CD/DVD (These Are Jokes), popping up as a "Trendspotter" on The Daily Show occasionally, and recently selling film pitches for Will and Moon People.

Rudd and Scott Want a New Brother

2006-12-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott will star in Big Brother, playing a pair of "perpetual aging frat boys" who are court-ordered to participate in the Big Brother program, where they will probably do a lot of inappropriate things with their assigned kids before finally learning a valuable life lesson. George Lucas in Love co-creator Timothy Dowling wrote the script for Girl Next Door director Luke Greenfield. The film is slated to begin filming in April.

Dowling has several other screenplays in various stages of development, including his long-struggling Outsourced project, which was originally set to be Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson's follow-up to Wedding Crashers before that movie blew them up to a new pay grade. However, his Coxblocker script is currently moving forward with Scott and Topher Grace and Employee of the Month director Greg Coolidge (yikes). He also has Born to Rock in the works, a book adaptation about a young Republican Harvard student who goes on tour with his legendary punk-rocker dad.

The very busy Rudd will be on screens soon in Night at the Museum, the clam digger comedy Diggers, David Wain's religious comedy The Ten, Reno 911!: Miami, Amy Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman, Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, and How I Met My Boyfriend's Dead Fiance with Jason Biggs.

LINK

Hard Times Ahead for John C. Reilly

2006-12-05T23:55:00.000-08:00

Jake Kasdan's previously announced Walk Hard will begin filming in January. Kasdan and his former Freaks and Geeks collaborator Judd Apatow co-wrote the script, which will star John C. Reilly as folk star Dewey Cox. Reilly will sing himself, as he did in Chicago and A Prairie Home Companion.

Kasdan recently finished The TV Set, which is slated for theaters next April. Apatow has more projects in the works than the Comedyblog has room to name.

LINK

Fake Jam with Fake Bands

2006-12-05T19:25:00.000-08:00

The follow-up to the axe-fantasy sensation Guitar Hero II is now in stores, and includes two bonus tracks that might be of interest to Comedyblog readers. The first is Strong Bad's "Trogdor," which can be seen in action here, here, and here.

The second is Metalocalypse stars Dethklok's "Thunderhorse," which can be seen here.

No word on whether Guitar Hero III will feature appearances by Spinal Tap, the Blues Brothers, the Rutles, Tenacious D, Wyld Stalyns, Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, Bad News, the Beets, the Folksmen, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the Fabulous Stains, Scäb, the Blowholes, 2gether, the Be Sharps, Gemini's Twin, Fingerbang, the Lone Rangers, the Original Way Outs, the Pinheads, Big Mountain Fudgecake, Creation, Foregone Conclusion, CB4, Dudez-a-Plenti, Shasta McNasty, the Horndogs, the Suburbans, Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld, Scrambled Debutante, the School of Rock or other fake bands.

Metalocalypse is now airing new episodes on Adult Swim, and creator Brendon Small has announced the band's plans to release an album next year.

Stiller and Schwartzman Give Louiso's Pease a Chance

2006-12-01T18:56:00.000-08:00

According to Production Weekly, Jason Schwartzman and Ben Stiller have signed on to Todd Louiso's Marc Pease Experience. Louiso is best known for being in front of the camera in films like High Fidelity and Snakes on a Plane, but in 2002 he directed Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the gas-huffing dramedy Love Liza. This will be his second time in the director's chair, and his first time in the writer's desk, with co-writer Jacob Koskoff. Schwartzman will play the title character. There is absolutely no other information at this time. The Comedyblog has looked.

LINK

The V in DVD

2006-12-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

Creator and co-writer Jackson Publick has announced on his blog that the second season of Adult Swim's The Venture Bros. is tentatively scheduled to hit stores on April 17. The set will feature full episode commentary, exclusive live action material, and in the neighborhood of 30 (!) deleted scenes.

There has yet to be any official announcement from Cartoon Network on either this DVD or whether or not a third season will be greenlit, but fans can probably take it easy since the first season hit #1 on Amazon's sales chart when it was released earlier this year.

If you haven't been watching this show, then get the hell on the ball: The Venture Bros. - Season One

Underrated Ladies

2006-12-01T07:44:00.000-08:00

The little-seen Oxygen network gem Campus Ladies is coming back for a second season, which kicks off this coming Tuesday with a guest appearance by Jeff Garlin. The single camera comedy, produced by Cheryl Hines, features Christen Sussin and Carrie Aizley as two women who enroll in college as part of a mid-life crisis, and try to involve themselves with the hot and heavy party lifestyle of their much younger peers, but instead end up with a group of social misfits, including Jonah Hill, who's been put on the fast track to success since the end of last season.

The show has a definite knack for utilizing guest talent, and has produced some pretty damn memorable roles from comic talent such as Will Forte, Kevin Nealon, Paul Reubens, Fred Willard, Justin Long, and Rob Riggle. Upcoming guest stars this season include Janeane Garofalo and Chris Kattan.

Unfortunately, there's no first season DVD set currently scheduled, so keep in mind that TV might be your only chance to watch.

Jack Black and Michael Cera Latest on Web TV Bandwagon

2006-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

Today there are two new pieces of news from the "you can pretty much cancel your cable and Tivo" department. Michael Cera, best known as George Michael Bluth on the lamented Arrested Development, has signed on with CBS to bring a new Web series called The Good Life to their online station Innertube. Cera and writing/acting partner Clark Duke, who also perform in the band The Long Goodbye, have been posting low-budget videos via YouTube on their MySpace Film page, which apparently grabbed the attention of the network, who has ordered eight episodes of the mockumentary about two TV producers who begin prematurely living it up like fat cats before they've actually sold their TV show, or to paraphrase Cera's ex-narrator Ron Howard, spending money they haven't yet earned from jobs they don't yet have.

Meanwhile, Jack Black is teaming up with Rob Schrab and Dan Harmon, creators of Scud: The Disposable Assassin and Monster House, to bring a new viewer's choice show to VH1 and VH1.com, based on Schrab and Harmon's innovative Channel 101. Just like that "channel," The Department of Acceptable Media Presents: Acceptable TV will feature an ever-expanding array of short TV pilots created by Black, Schrab, and Harmon, and amateur Internet filmmakers. The best pilots will be compiled on each Acceptable episode, and viewers can vote online for which shows should get followup episodes. All of the pilots, accepted or not, will be on display at VH1.com.