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How the sad but silly ‘BoJack Horseman’ became one of TV’s very best shows

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Netflix

It's difficult to describe Netflix's “BoJack Horseman” – and, more importantly, the show's genius – without sounding high at best, insane at worst. It's a surreal cartoon series set in a universe where humans mingle with (and frequently date and marry) anthropomorphized animals like the title character, voiced by Will Arnett, who's still living off the fame and fortune from his stint as a '90s family sitcom star. It's an absurd Hollywood satire, but also a deep character study of a profoundly depressed (horse)man, and it may be one of the saddest shows in all of television.

And also one of the very best.

Like many of this era's most striking series, “BoJack” is so fundamentally different from anything that's come before it that its brilliance took a while to become fully clear. The opening episodes of its first season (season 2 debuts Friday at 12:01 a.m. Pacific) had their amusing moments, particularly in the deployment of the animal characters – say, the harried Penguin Publishing editor of BoJack's memoir being an actual penguin, voice by Patton Oswalt – but felt largely like a familiar blend of Seth MacFarlane and Adult Swim takes on showbiz.

But the initial references to BoJack's depression at the state of his life and career weren't throwaways, or attempts to ground the show's odd sense of humor: they were the whole point of the story. “BoJack Horseman” is a comedy, but it's also an unblinking, incredibly empathetic portrait of middle-aged melancholy – not just for BoJack, but for all the people in his circle, no matter how ridiculous they may seem at first.

The new season, for instance, works wonders with BoJack's rival, the gregarious dog Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins), who late in season 1 married BoJack's ghostwriter and crush Diane (Alison Brie). Underneath all his boundless yellow Lab enthusiasm, Mr. Peanutbutter is revealed to have his own fears and neuroses about his life, career, and marriage. Similarly, the show takes seriously the overwhelming loneliness of BoJack's ex Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) even as she's dating Vincent Adultman (Brie again), whom only BoJack seems to recognize is three little kids standing on each other's shoulders inside a trench coat. This season's fourth episode presents a quartet of time-fractured stories about the harsh realities of love – for a few minutes, it's practically a Vincent Adultman spotlight – while not letting go of the show's usual strange comic touches.

“BoJack” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg has clearly thought through the rules of this strange world, including the ways in which the hybrid characters so often let their animal natures take over. When Diane tries to assure Mr. Peanutbutter that she loves him, she tells him he's a good dog, and then repeats “yes you are” three times in a cutesie-poo voice to make sure the message filters through. The season's fifth episode, meanwhile, addresses the tricky question of where  poultry and pork come from in a world where all the animals wear clothes and drive cars. (Like “Hannibal,” it may make you pause a moment the next time you're served meat. Also, it breathes new life into the “Why did the chicken cross the road?” joke.) And there continue to be amusing references to animalized celebrities from our world, like Goose Van Sant(*) and Maggot Gyllenhaal, along with smart pieces of guest casting, like Alan Arkin as J.D. Salinger or a “SportsCenter” reunion between Craig Kilborn and Keith Olbermann (who has a recurring role as a whale of a TV news anchor).

(*) Princess Carolyn, upon learning that Goose may be backing out of a project with Emily VanCamp: “Are you saying the Van Sant camp wants to recant on VanCamp?”

Bob-Waksberg never loses sight of his central character, whose unhappiness runs much deeper, and older, than his status as a Hollywood has-been. Season 2 finds him theoretically at the top of his game: starring in a biopic about his beloved Secretariat, famous and celebrated for the memoir Diane wrote, and even dating Wanda (Lisa Kudrow, warm and slyly funny), an owl who emerged from a 30-year coma to run a broadcast network. (It says something about the show's view of the TV business that Wanda is so good at her job despite having missed three decades of pop culture.) But none of these things, nor a brief reunion with the grown-but-damaged co-stars from his sitcom “Horsing Around,” seem to do anything to pull his spirits out of the dark pit where they usually reside. The second season premiere brings back Wendie Malick as BoJack's cruelly candid mother, who even when she's trying to apologize to her son can't help but hurt him.

“You were born broken,” she tells him, her voice tinged with regret. “You're BoJack Horseman. There's no cure for that.”

These are crushing words for the main character of any show to hear, let alone on an animated comedy about a washed-up horse/man. But where the show's sadness and silliness shouldn't work together, instead they make each other stronger. The sadness hits harder because it's coming right from a cartoon horse's mouth, while the preposterous nature of the comedy – particularly anything involving Aaron Paul as BoJack's dim but sweet housemate Todd – feels even more welcome as a relief from the crippling despair of so many of the characters.

Even Todd's not immune from the heartache that grips so many of his friends. In one episode, he confesses to Diane, “Sometimes, I feel like my whole life is just a series of loosely related, wacky misadventures.”

“BoJack Horseman” is funny enough that it could get away with being exactly what Todd describes. But it wants to be so much more than that, and succeeds.

No show this ludicrous has any business being this poignant, and vice versa. The show's earworm of a closing theme has BoJack wondering if he's “more horse than a man” or “more man than a horse.” He's both those things, just as “BoJack Horseman” is somehow one of TV's funniest comedies and most affecting dramas all in one weird, addictive little package.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com


‘Battlefield Earth’ is no longer the funniest thing to result from Scientology

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826 Project

Living in LA is enormous fun. Or at least, the potential for enormous fun is always there, provided you actually pay attention and go to things and get out of the house and actually take advantage of the various amazing opportunities that are around.

The UCB Theater is a place I should spend more time. No two ways about it. There are all sorts of things that happen there that I would love to see. Some of those, I hear later or see later, and thank god they make the effort to record so much of it, because I just listened to two of the funniest hours I've heard this year, and it is well worth your time to seek it out.

Here's something from the official website of “The Dead Authors Podcast”:

826 National is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to ensure the success of its network of eight writing and tutoring centers. 826 centers offer a variety of inventive programs that provide under-resourced students, ages 6-18, with opportunities to explore their creativity and improve their writing skills. We also aim to help teachers get their classes excited about writing. Our mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. Last year our tutoring centers – located in Ann Arbor, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, DC – served over 29,000 students.

The podcast is both incredibly smart and funny, and a chance to direct attention to that organization's work. Paul F. Tompkins hosts the podcast as H.G. Wells, and each episode, he has on another dead author to have a conversation about their career and their lives. He's had great guests on, and inspired combinations of author and actor, like Ron Funches showing up as Iceberg Slim or Lennon Parham as Flannery O'Connor or Kristen Schaal as Tennessee Williams. Matt Gourley and Andy Daly have both been repeat performers, and if you know about Gourley's love of James Bond, it is particularly apt that he played Ian Fleming.

But the two-parter that I played this weekend while driving around LA may be the show's finest effort so far. Andy Daly plays L. Ron Hubbard, and he did his homework. It is an impeccably researched performance, and yet it is never anything less than screamingly funny. He is committed to the bullshit in the exact same way the real Hubbard was committed to the bullshit, and it's glorious.

I don't want to quote it or offer up bits out of context. It's not that kind of comedy. Instead, it's very smart stuff, and I love the way Tompkins is aware of the weirdness of the concept of one dead author interviewing another dead author with both of them fully aware of not only their own demise, but everything that's happened in culture since then. They both play it perfectly, though, and it wasn't supposed to be a two-parter. It's just that they reached the end of the first segment and it was clear that Daly wasn't even slightly out of steam yet.

Podcasting is still a fairly young media, all things considered, but I'm prepared to say that Daly, Tompkins, and Gourley are sort of winning it so far. Every single episode of “Superego” is packed with more jokes than can be digested on one listen, and “The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project” is so wildly dense that I've replayed the episodes three or four times so far. They work together over and over, disappearing into these glorious comedy sonicscapes they've created. These are are performers who are liberated by the freedom of what podcasting can be, and they are experimenting with abandon in a way that is just delightful.

Start with this L. Ron Hubbard interview (here's part one and here's part two) if you're unfamiliar with their work. You can find both parts of it on iTunes as well as at this website, and if that does not positively ruin you, then we may have very different ideas about what is funny.

12 reasons to love ‘BoJack Horseman’ season 2

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Netflix

It's been a week since Netflix released season 2 of “BoJack Horseman.” After watching the season's first six episodes, I raved about how the show continues to maintain an improbable balance of surreal comedy and unflinching melancholy, and that balance remained steady throughout the season's second half.

(Spoilers following, for those of you who have watched the whole season.)

It was at times ridiculous, at times tragic, and the show remained unflinching in its commitment to portraying BoJack himself as a character we can feel sorry for while also being aware – as he eventually becomes – of how awful he is to those around him. That the show could pivot from BoJack making out with the teenage daughter of an old unrequited crush to BoJack and Todd having an improv comedy battle at sea with Todd's kidnappers, and have both episodes feel like part of the same show, and story, is remarkable.

As is always the case with a pre-season review, I couldn't go into too much detail about some of the things I loved, so for the benefit of everyone who's finished the season, here are 12 jokes, scenes, or story ideas from “BoJack” season 2 that made me very happy, even amidst all the sadness of the lives of BoJack, Diane, and everyone else:

Review: The ‘Mr. Show’ gang reunites for Netflix’s ‘W/ Bob & David’

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Netflix

Even before the days of Peak TV in America, it was impossible for everyone to watch everything on television. We all have pop culture gaps. One of mine is “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” the HBO sketch comedy show, created by and starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, that aired from 1995-98, and that employed Jack Black, Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Scott Aukerman and more as actors and/or writers.

I was in college when “Mr. Show” debuted, then didn't have an HBO subscription for the next couple of years, and by the time I started hearing comedy nerd friends singing its praises, it was virtually over, and though the series had an afterlife on DVD(*), other shows kept getting in the way. I've seen, and laughed heartily at, a handful of sketches over the years on YouTube, but that's it.

(*) Like many of HBO's original series pre-“Oz” and “Sopranos,” the channel doesn't own streaming or On Demand rights to “Mr. Show.”

All of which is my long-winded way of explaining why I can't compare “W/ Bob & David,” a new four-part Netflix series (it debuts Friday) reuniting Odenkirk, Cross, and many of their former collaborators, to the original “Mr. Show.” Does it stack up to the work these guys were doing 20 years ago? Is it, as Odenkirk has suggested, different enough to warrant the title change? I have no idea.

What I can tell you, based on the two episodes Netflix made available to critics, is that “W/ Bob & David” is terrific sketch comedy: absurd, inventive, surprising, and just damn funny.

A lot of “Mr. Show” alums (including Tompkins, Rajskub, Aukerman, Jill Talley, Jay Johnston, Brian Posehn, and John Ennis) turn up, along with guest stars like Keegan-Michael Key, Paget Brewster, and Jeffrey Tambor. It's a blend of live sketchwork and more elaborate filmed pieces. Sometimes, the individual sketches stand alone, while concepts bleed across entire episodes, like a running gag in the debut about Tompkins as a man who's been told he'll die if he doesn't stop eating meat. There's a lot of of pop culture satire, but rarely do those rest on a single joke. At one point, Cross plays a director being interviewed by Brewster's talk show host about “Better Roots,” a “Roots” remake where the masters are always nice to the slaves – now redubbed “helpers.” The premise is durable enough that the sketch doesn't need anything more, but on top of that, it layers confusion between Cross and Brewster over where each “Better Roots” clip (all of which feature a “The End” title card) fits into the context of the movie.

And even when a sketch sticks to one idea, it exhausts every iteration of it, like a riff on “The Most Dangerous Game” where Odenkirk plays an accountant who keeps finding new ways to convince Cross' big-game hunter to make their competition more even, or a filmed piece that takes the tired “She's right behind me, isn't she?” trope to ridiculous extremes.

Most of those involved have day jobs (Odenkirk on “Better Call Saul,” for instance), and it's a testament to their love of the original collaboration that they all came back for this, as well as a sign of the new flexibility in the business that they'd be able to reunite for these four Netflix episodes, then go back to other gigs.

Early in the premiere, Cross and Odenkirk emerge from a time machine that they entered right after finishing the last episode of “Mr. Show,” but something's gone awry that's caused them to age in real time, despite the trip. It's a comment on the difficulty of recapturing the magic of an old series years later – which fans of another series featuring Cross and Tambor that had a belated Netflix sequel unfortunately know too well –  but one that, like so much of “W/ Bob & David,” isn't satisfied with being the only joke in the scene.

The new series is a great advertisement for me to finally catch up on the old one, but it's damn funny in its own right.

Alan Sepinwall may be reached at sepinwall@hitfix.com

John Mulaney Talks ‘SNL’ and Sitcoms with Paul F. Tompkins

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Paul F. Tompkins' show “Speakeasy” is a great interview show that's featured folks like Marc Maron, Busy Philipps, Lizzy Caplan, and Bob Saget. You know, celebrities who can actually speak well. It's nice.

This week Tompkins invited on John Mulaney, the “SNL” writer and new “Mulaney” star who apparently wanted to be Desi Arnaz growing up. I owned a copy of Vivian Vance's biography by the age of 16 so I can't protest this. 

“Mulaney” premieres October 5 on Fox.

(Via SplitSider)

TMR: Sean Penn’s still a Stooge and are there really two cuts of ‘The Wolf Man’?

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Universal Pictures

Welcome to The Morning Read.

As I was working yesterday on some articles, I was inspired by the “10 best man-in-gorilla-suit movies” list by Mr. Beaks at AICN to throw on some Three Stooges shorts.  Those guys knew the value of a good man-in-a-gorilla-suit gag, and sure enough, about two shorts into the disc I randomly picked, there was an entire bit about a mad scientist who wanted to put Curly’s brain in a gorilla’s body.  Good stuff.

And obviously there’s something about the simple vulgarity of the Three Stooges that endures.  As long as I’ve known the Farrelly Brothers, they’ve been interested in making a movie about the Stooges.  It’s not a biopic, though.  It’s more of an anthology film, with several Stooges shorts in succession.  The film seemed to hit a development wall just as it was getting ready to move in front of the camera when Sean Penn dropped out last year so he could focus on his family.  According to a report in yesterday’s Boston Herald, Penn is now back onboard.  We did a little checking around on our own, and it sounds to me like the Farrellys are planning for a very busy next year and a half, as they get ready to shoot one film for Fox and then shoot “The Three Stooges” right afterwards.  That, of course, depends on MGM’s financial restructuring, just as “Bond 23” does, but I’m guessing Jim Carrey hasn’t been packing on pounds for nothing.

Y’know, I appreciate all the concern on the part of authorities about kiddie porn, but what makes it okay for random TSA dudes to stare at my junk at the airport?  Are we all really going to just sit back as, little by little, air travel becomes worse than the process you go through while getting processed into a new prison?

Are you still having trouble with the idea that it’s the New Year?  Still writing the wrong dates on checks?  Still wrestling with some New Year’s Resolutions?  Well, enjoy Woody Allen welcoming in the New Year in 1966 with Johnny Carson.  God, Woody was an amazing comic in his prime:

No fair, PETA.  No fair at all.

One of the most e-mailed links over the holiday was that 70-minutes video review for “The Phantom Menace,” and while I just can’t imagine spending 70 more minutes of my life listening to someone bitch about that film again, it’s touched a nerve with a lot of folks, and the guys over at Heeb decided to track him down and ask him about the review.

And speaking of George Lucas

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
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Daily Show
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Political Humor Health Care Crisis

When my parents were here for the holidays, one of the things they wanted to do was track down some of the new gourmet food trucks they’ve been hearing about.  It’s crazy that LA food trucks have become a national story, but then again, Kogi BBQ and the Grilled Cheese Truck are crazy delicious, so maybe I shouldn’t be shocked.  I loved the idea of all of the trucks coming together in one spot in Santa Monica, since by the time I’ve eaten at all of them, I’ll be too large to walk more than 30 feet at a time, but it looks like that experiment failed in a single day.  Damn youse, zoning laws!

I’ll console myself by dreaming of visiting all the delicious fake restaurants that have appeared in films, thanks to the fine folks at Cinematical, who pointed out a comprehensive list of said fictional restaurants. For fifteen years now, I’ve had a craving for a Big Kahuna Burger.  Is that wrong?

Moises at Hollywood Elsewhere is busy picking the best BluRay transfers of the year.  I considered writing a list, but I don’t watch everything, and I feel like any list I run would just be “the best transfers of the films I like and saw.”  Nice effort, though, and worth a conversation, especially in light of the sheer madness of Dave Kehr essentially saying that BluRay looks too good.  I get the larger points Kehr is making, and I agree with him to a large extent.  I think digital distribution is the way we’ll start to actually get access to the majority of the titles in the libraries of the studios, and I look forward to the day you just hook up the gravy pipe to your house and you can surf all of Universal or all of Disney or all of Fox or all of Warner Bros at your leisure for a monthly fee.  Those days will come, and sooner than we all think.  In the meantime, more BluRay, please.

I quite enjoyed “Avatar,” but I am willing to agree that these people are terrifying.

Paul F. Tompkins is a funny, funny man, so it should come as no surprise that he gives great interview.

As does Patton Oswalt.  Always.

Oh, god, “Thor” is going to be awesome, isn’t it?  DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME.  IT IS, ISN’T IT?!

Finally today, there’s a piece over on The Playlist about how there are two cuts of “The Wolf Man” in progress at the moment, with two different editorial teams working.  It’s got a lot of people agitated, and I just wanted to chime in with what I’ve heard.  I think The Playlist has their timeline wrong.  Back before the film got its R rating, there were two different cuts of the film that were prepared for test screening, one of which was much shorter, and one of which was longer and more in-depth.  The thinking was that if the long one tanked, they could put the short one out and cut their losses.  Evidently, though, the longer one did very well in the last round of screenings, and that’s the cut that was submitted to the MPAA.  After you’ve done that, you can’t keep cutting your film, unless you plan to resubmit for a new rating, and at this point, that ain’t happening.  So the story isn’t wrong… it’s just very, very late.

And speaking of late, I’ve got other stuff to get to today, so the rest of these links are going to have to wait for Friday’s Morning Read, when I’ll see you back here again.

The Morning Read appears here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Except when it doesn’t.

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You can e-mail me at drew@hitfix.com or follow me on Twitter, where I’m DrewAtHitFix.

The Pod. F Tompkast

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(*Sigh*)  People.  PEOPLE.  What am I going to do with you?  Last time Uproxx did a Buyers Guide, I did America a favor and recommended the hilarious Comedy Death Ray Radio Podcast.  This was supposed to enlighten the masses, and trigger a popular comedy revolution that would lead the pandering, cut rate hacks of the world on a path to irrelevance.  Yet here we are, three months later, and I’m still see being ruthlessly assaulted news to the contrary.  For example, did you know that the kid from “Two and a Half Men” makes $300,000 AN  EPISODE? That is so unsettling that it almost justifies my hyper-dramatic usage of bold, italics, underline, and all caps to point it out.  Almost.  So, I feel it is my duty to try this again.  To right the wayward ship of American humor.  I am the hero the Internet needs.

This time I come to you humbly (as humbly as one can come literally one sentence after calling himself a hero) to recommend the Pod F. Tompkast, the monthly podcast released by veteran comedian Paul F. Tompkins.  A mixture of scripted bits, stream of conscience monologues, discussions with guests, and recorded material from his live performances, the podcast features a much higher production value than most.  Tompkins uses this wide array of formats to bring together his eclectic mix of talents: everything from a conversation between Ice T and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber (with Tompkins portraying both characters), to hilarious phone calls with his friend, and fellow comedian, Jen Kirkman.  It ends up being more like a play than a traditional podcast, albeit one you can attend at your desk.  In your underpants.

To give you a little taste of what the Tompkast brings to the table, I’ve pulled out of one my favorite moments from Episode One.  In the clip, taken from a live performance, Tompkins discusses one of his favorite new topics: Google Voice’s horrific transcripts of voice mail messages.  To drive the failure home, he reads the transcript of messages left as a result of accidental calls his manager’s phone made.  Hilarity ensues (Audio NSFW).

Note: The full segment is here. Another highlight is at the 9:00 mark, where he brings Tim Meadows on stage to recite Google Voice’s attempted transcription of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, which includes the moderately inaccurate sentence, “Thank you for oppression.”

So there you go, America and other English-speaking parts of the world.  I’ve helped you out again.  By listening to the Pod F. Tompkast (and other fantastic podcasts like Doug Benson’s “Doug Loves Movies,” and Marc Maron’s “WTF Podcast”), we can begin to stem the tide of hacky, lazy comedy permeating the entertainment landscape. Yes, that last sentence described a “tide” that “permeates a landscape,” which is a horribly mixed metaphor unless there has been a tsunami.  If there has been, consider these podcasts a star-studded relief effort headed by George Clooney.

The Pod F. Tompkast is available the first of every month.  It can be found via iTunes, RSS feed, or through updates on “its” Twitter.

Flashdance Cat, Disapproving Cat, and Paul F. Tompkins

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She’s a maniac, a maniac on the floor

Lost And Found: 50 Of The Internet’s Greatest Missing Posters [Uproxx]

This Week In Review: Let Us Take You On A Warm And Fuzzy Internet Journey [Uproxx]

50 Examples Of Very Interesting, Unusual Athlete Fan Art [WithLeather]

On Princeton University, “Hip-Hop 2.0” & Dr. Cornel West [TSS]

Ten Seriously Disturbing Pieces of TV Fan Fiction [WarmingGlow]

Awesome Picture: Hunter Thompson, John Cusack, Johnny Depp & a Blow-Up Doll [Filmdrunk]

Crazy Movie Posters From Africa [Filmdrunk]

A Guide To Recognizing Your Mascots [WithLeather]

Charlie Sheen is suing for $100,000,000 [WWTDD]

When A Bunny Loves A Bunny [EgoTV]

10 Truly Twisted Movie Couples [Gunaxin]

36 Hitchcock Deaths In Unison [Buzzfeed]

Call of Duty: Black Ops Top Selling Game In History [G4TV]

Please Support The Digitour 2011 YouTube All-Stars [Digitour]

Ultimate SXSW Guide: Everything You Need to Know About the Film Venues [Moviefone]

VIDEO BELOW: This clip of Paul F. Tompkins introducing Jimmy Pardo (taped by Micheal J. Fox possibly?) is from last year but I somehow missed it. [via theduty]

[Pictures via catasters and fyeahdementia]


Paul F. Tompkins developing ‘Evil Genius’ for Comedy Central

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Comedy Central

Funnyman Paul F. Tompkins is developing a scripted comedy series entitled “Evil Genius” for Comedy Central, according to Deadline.com. Tompkins will star and co-write the series with “Monk” veteran Tom Scharpling.

Tompkins will play Professor Tiberius Lynch, an arch-criminal who conquers the world, and then has to deal with all the mundane bureaucratic tasks that come with that responsibility.

The comedian served as host for VH1’s popular “Best Week Ever” and has had several comedy specials air on HBO and Comedy Central.

Check out this recent stand-up clip:

The 'Comedy Bang! Bang!' TV Show Sneak Peek Blew Our Minds (With Lasers)

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IFC released the first footage from their upcoming “Comedy Bang! Bang!” TV show based on the podcast of the same name. The show premiers in June and is hosted by Scott Aukerman (Between Two Ferns, Mr. Show). It includes a mix of interviews and sketches with improvised elements and plenty of surreal humor. We’re looking forward to the possibility of more Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler rap battles.

Each of the ten episodes features sit-downs with some of the biggest names in comedy, taking them beyond Aukerman’s couch and engaging them with the off-beat world of the series. With the help of bandleader and one-man musical mastermind Reggie Watts (Conan), Comedy Bang! Bang! reinvents the celebrity interview with unfiltered and improvisational lines of questioning, punctuated by banter and beats. Also packed with sketches, character cameos, filmic shorts and games, Comedy Bang! Bang! turns the traditional talk show on its head, delivering thirty minutes of absurd fun. [IFC]

The clip below includes guest appearances by Adam Scott, Paul F. Tompkins, Andy Samberg, Patton Oswalt, and Bob Odenkirk. All they were missing was Andy Daly jumping out of a window as various characters.

 

“I am the best!” — Dr. Reginald Watts

[Sources: Danger Guerrero, IFC, Earwolf, Micusficus]

Weekend Preview: The Premiere of ‘Veep’

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Veep/Girls (HBO, Sunday) – “Veep,” the new political comedy created by Armando Iannucci and starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus, is getting great reviews. I’m definitely looking forward to it. Also, I am pleased to announce that the prestigious Danger Guerrero’s Least Favorite Internet Person of the Week Award has been given to Angry Dude Who Hates Everything About Hipster Culture but Watched “Girls” Anyway for Some Reason and then Declared That It Sucked Because the Characters Were Unlikable Hipsters and Used the C-Word a Bunch While Doing It. Riveting analysis, dingus.

Mad Men/Game of Thrones (AMC/HBO, Sunday) – Great shows. Watch them. We’ll talk on Monday.

FOX 25th Anniversary Special (FOX, Sunday) – From TV Guide: “A retrospective marking FOX’s quarter century on the air.” You know what that means, right? FAUSTINO!

The Making of Planet Earth (BBC, Sunday) – A two-hour behind-the-scenes look at the making of the “Planet Earth” series? I hope all you potters and weedheads save a little of today’s stash for Sunday night and find a giant HD TV to park yourself in front of for this one.

The Ricky Gervais Show (HBO, Friday) – Season premiere. Karl Pilkington says funny stuff and then Ricky Gervais’ laugh makes blood gush from your ears and spill all over your clothes. I recommend wearing a smock.

Magic City (Starz, Friday) – This show had a really cool trailer, and the first episode was pretty good, but then I completely forgot about it last week. And I’m the one who writes the listings. That is not exactly a ringing recommendation for the show, or me as an employee.

The Good Wife/NYC 22 (CBS, Sunday) – I had no interest in “NYC 22” until I saw Alan Sepinwall call it “an incredibly generic, cliché-ridden series about rookie beat cops in the NYPD that too often feels like its main inspiration was other cop shows.” Now I’m in. If one of the cops is a loose cannon who refuses to work his beat by the book no matter how many times the chief takes his badge and gun, I will pre-order the DVDs on Blu-Ray.

Patton Oswalt: Finest Hour/Paul F. Tompkins: Laboring Under Delusions (Comedy Central, Saturday) – Two of my favorite comedians have back-to-back specials airing Saturday night. I am unreasonably excited about this. (NOTE: This is the network premiere of Oswalt’s special, which aired on Showtime last year. Tompkins’ special is brand new. Clip after the jump.)

Zach Galifianakis Should Be Interviewed By Paul F. Tompkins More Often

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It’s time to snuggle with one of the best Zach Galifianakis interviews since his Between Two Ferns days: Galifianakis recently spoke with Paul F. Tompkins for the Speakeasy web series from Made Man. He was there to promote The Campaign, but things veered far off the typical press junket canned answers, to hilarious results. There’s something magical about two stand-up comics who are old friends just winging it in front of some cameras.

In the two-part interview, Galifianakis and Tompkins delve into such topics as being Shrek on Broadway, Shakespeare in the dark, encouraging a friend to do absurdly offensive jokes as his first stand-up set, albino polar bears, dealing with fame, recent open mic disasters, and platonic sleepovers. By the end of it, they get decidedly jaunty . . .

And yet, Galifianakis still hasn’t accomplished the third step in his life’s plan:

Oh well, there’s always Hangover 3.

 

 

[Sources: Paul F. Tompkins, Pleated-Jeans, Andrea Streeter, The High Definite]

Paul F. Tompkins Live-Tweeted The Skymall Catalog From A Plane Because Comedy

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Around midnight last night, comedian Paul F. Tompkins tweeted that he was on a plane with wi-fi, so he’d be live-tweeting the Skymall catalog. As a Paul F. Tompkins fan who has a love-hate relationship with the Skymall catalog, this made for a great evening. Especially when read while listening to his recent cover of Adele’s Skyfall at a Largo show.

Here’s just a quick summary of the pictures and tweets:

“Hey, Mister Tompkins, would this life-changing Skymall product be a savvy acquisition?”

We’ve placed our favorite pictures and comments from Paul F. Tompkins’ live tweeted Skymall catalog below. Each comment under the pictures is from Paul F. Tompkins, with a few editorial comments added when necessary.

“FINALLY! The solution to unbroken wrists and ’rounded nose’!” [via]

“Loved ‘The Aviator’? Let everyone know with this stick-on Howard Hughes Tramp Stamp!” [via]

“Being chased? Run into the Country Music Hall of Fame bathroom & slip on this Garth Brooks disguise!” [via]

“FINALLY, a futuristic accordion you can rip apart with your bare hands & mash into the ground!” [via]

“Into Steampunk? Hate dogs? Wooden Dog Prisons! Wooden Dog Prisons! WOODEN DOG PRISONS!!!!” [via]

“Fool yourself that you’re fooling others and drink an entire bottle of wine in ‘peace!’ Happy blackouting!” [via]

“Why travel all the way to Costa Rica to watch your children break their necks, when you can do it at home?” [via]

“Just inflate the screen, press play & start talking! SO LONG UNWANTED FRIENDSHIPS AND MARRIAGES!” [via]

“What if your child DIDN’T grow up to be a meth-dealing sociopath? Don’t take that chance.” [via]

Ed. – If owning a Sons of Anarchy playset is wrong, right ain’t sh-t.

“The logs roll onto you & your skin ‘pulsates’* with delight! * #skymall *In this context, ‘pulsate’ = ‘burn.'” [via]

“Why should praying mantises have all the exoskeletons around here? Put this on, you bug freak!” [via]

“Pit the kids against each other w/a fake future-chess-looking game with no rules & find out who’s the keeper!” [via]

“This beautiful gemstones on this ring have been specially cut to make you look almost like Jennifer Aniston.” [via]

“Let your child experience the guilt and regret of Robert Oppenheimer with our ‘House-Burner-Downer’!” [via]

“Old-school Catholic? Hate dogs? Banish them to Home Limbo for Dogs! Home Limbo for Dogs! HOME LIMBO FOR DOGS!” [via]

“No sense of humor? Love explaining things? Hate being understood? Here’s a shirt for you! You make me sad!” [via]

Ed. – Fake Bret needs one of these.

“Clinically proven! Put this money belt on your head and be transformed into Debbie Gibson!” [via]

“Soon our consciousnesses will all live online, overseen by Kate Hudson. Maybe buy her a mug of something!” [via]

“WILL SOMEONE PLEASE BUY ONE OF THESE F*CKING THINGS ALREADY I MEAN GODDAMMIT” [via]

Ed.- Nope, this item is going to be in the Skymall catalog for-ev-er.

Final Track: 7 Must-Hear Songs Of The Week

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It’s impossible to cover each bit of new music that comes out during the week, so every Friday, we’ll be doing an end of the week music roundup. It’s called Final Track, and we’ll count off a few songs released during the week that are worth giving a listen to. (Banner via)

Today, we’ve got selections from Free Energy, Fuzz, Paul F. Tompkins, and more.


“Skyfall” by Paul F. Tompkins

The Cake Boss himself one-ups Adele with an extra dramatic rendition of the title track from the latest James Bond movie, while wearing an outfit straight out of a 1940s barbershop. But why is the crowd laughing??? It’s actually all kinds of great and played totally straight, as it should.

“Shut the F*ck Up” by Angel Haze

Yup, still mad.

Driver’s Ed by Joe Cool

For more on the spacey mixtape, check out the Smoking Section.

“This Time I Got A Reason” by Fuzz

It’s apparently Ty Segall’s mission in life to form 20 bands and release 45 albums in 2012 and 2013, which is fine with us, if it all sounds like “This Time I Got a Reason” (it will), the first piece of new music from his latest fittingly named group, Fuzz.

“Go Slow” by Haim

Sister trio Haim are the prestigious winner of the Sound of 2013, according to the BBC, tasked to lead the “Music Revolution.” (Previous Sound winners include Michael Kiwanuka, Keane, 50 Cent, and Ellie Goulding.) The vulnerable “Go Slow” has been out for a few months now, but it’s worth a listen, if only because you’ll likely be hearing a lot about the group this year, especially since they’re opening for Mumford & Sons on their arena tour.

“Honey” by Torres

A slow, soft burn…right up the moment where the 22-year-old explodes into a wall of feedback. Suddenly, January 22, when Torres’ self-titled debut comes out, is a date worth circling.

“Girls Want Rock” by Free Energy

Energy drinks: the band.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Winning Beyonce/Super Bowl Tweets, Assorted ‘Star Wars’ Stuff, And Afternoon Links

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The Internet’s 10 Best Tributes To Bill Murray’s ‘Groundhog Day’ |UPROXX|

Tumblr Hero Has Been Leaking Pages From The ‘Entourage’ Movie Script |Warming Glow|

Rampage Jackson Is Acting Like Rampage Jackson With The Ladies Again |With Leather|

Gas Up the Van: Spring Breakers has a restricted trailer |Film Drunk|

“Bi-Racial” Is The Best Pop-Locking Ode To Mixed-Race Women You’ll Hear Today |Smoking Section|

Go Sports Team! |Kissing Suzy Kolber|

8 brilliant true stories about Bill Murray |Fark|

The Sexiest (Or Creepiest?) Beverage Commercial Ever |Gorilla Mask|

Whale Vomit Could Pay off Your Mortgage |Technabob|

Top 5 Suspects In The Rick Ross Drive-By |Urban Daily|

10 of the Best Boobs Gifs You’ll See Today |College Humor|

Five of the Most Magical “True” Multiplayer Games |Unreality|

Presidential Monster Action Figures. The End. |HuffPost Comedy|

11 Common Words You’re Probably Mispronouncing |Mental Floss|

A Porn Star Is Training to Be the First Porn Star in Space |Brobible|

Get Bent: 47 Of Hollywood’s Loveliest Leading Ladies in Drag |Pajiba|

14 Ways To Guarantee A Life Of Loneliness According To “Seinfeld” |Buzzfeed|

Billy Joel & Vanderbilt Student Michael Pollack – New York State of Mind |High Definite|

VIDEO BELOW: “Some video of me and Scott Aukerman working with the London Symphony Orchestra, as director J.J. Abrams looks on.” — Paul F. Tompkins (The audio is from Comedy Bang Bang Best of 2012 part two.)

Like us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter | Giggity.

 

[Pictures via Reddit and Mike Mitchell.]


Alison Brie Imitates Popular Internet Memes

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The Mad Men and Community star imitates Grumpy Cat, Overly Attached Girlfriend, and other memes for Paul F. Tompkins.

12 comedians known for wearing outrageous outfits

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Fashion and comedy: it goes together like peanut butter and whatever else you happen to have leftover in the fridge. Whether a component of an onstage persona or just a touch of personal flair, there is a long tradition of comedians performing in wild and sometimes eye-searing costumes. Here are 12 comics from stand-up history who have brought grand sartorialism to the stage.

What Would Zack Morris Do In 2013?

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How would Zack Morris deal with modern day problems involving Facebook, Cross-Fit, iPhone apps, and gluten-free pizza? Mark-Paul Gosselaar himself delves deep into his character for Paul F. Tompkins to come up with solutions.

Watch Mark-Paul Gosselaar Wear A Fake Mustache, Rip On Justin Bieber And Play ‘Zack Morris In 2013′

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zackmorris

Let me begin by disclosing my biases here: I am an unabashed lover of fake mustaches. I have seen every episode of Saved by the Bell multiple times and have written thousands and thousands of words about it. I started watching Franklin & Bash semi-ironically and it has somehow ended up becoming a part of my soul. I enjoy the comedy of Paul F. Tompkins, particularly his appearances on the Comedy Bang Bang podcast. And I would very much like to drink Manhattans with Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

So I am, shall we say, not impartial in regards to these videos from Paul F. Tompkins’ web series “Speakeasy,” which feature the comedian sitting down with the man behind Zack Morris and Peter Bash to knock a few back and discuss his career.

The second video I posted below is getting the most play so far, because it features Gosselaar playing a few rounds of Zack Morris In 2013 and that is some pretty damn strong Internet bait, but the more straightforward interview in the first clip is really interesting, too. For example, did you know that Gosselaar attended a regular high school 30 miles outside of Los Angeles for a solid chunk of Saved by the Bell’s run? How weird must that have been for the other students? Like, you’re just sitting at your lunch table poking at your Salisbury steak with your spork and all of a sudden Zack Morris himself asks if he can join you? I would have thrown up.

But I think my favorite part of the clip is when Gosselaar discusses the differences between being a teen star today and when he was on the cover of every third edition of Tiger Beat. He makes some solid points about how technology has changed the way we consume this sliver of pop culture, and, in the process, he sort of defends Justin Bieber. He also repeatedly calls him “annoying,” so it’s not the strongest defense you’ll ever hear, but still, it’s interesting to get a perspective on that situation from someone who lived through it and came out the other end a healthy, seemingly well-adjusted adult. A healthy, seemingly well-adjusted adult who owns at least one fake mustache. Let’s not forget that part.

(via Gawker)

Jonathan Banks Reads Obscene Fairy Tales (As Mike From ‘Breaking Bad’)

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Jonathan Banks reads fairy tales as his notoriously gruff Breaking Bad character, Mike Ehrmantraut. (NSFW language.)

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