Funny Things: Rihanna, Death Comes To Town @10:20 AM
Apart from sexual fetishes and dining choices, is there anything more subjective than humor? I, for instance, think this Rihanna/Andy Samberg bit from this weekend's "Saturday Night Live" is absolutely hysterical, and normally you need to hit me over the head with a shovel several times to even get me to sit on a couch in front of a TV where that show is playing. Choire, on the other hand, is less entranced. But whatever, you can decide yourself! Stick with it, it really builds. Meanwhile, for the kind of humor for which there is no dispuation—kidding, I know someone will be all, "They were NEVER funny"—there is excellent news. READ MORE 28
Of Dogs And Laughter @4:40 PM
"The stuff that happens in early childhood, before you're three years old, you know, that's who you're dealing with when you're dealing with petulant adults, is somebody wasn't smart enough with their three-year-old. And who really knows how to get everything right with a three-year-old? So, you know, that's the history of violence and insanity in the world at large: mothers who can't really comprehend what they're doing to a three-year-old. And why would they be able to? Probably people not getting more sane anytime soon."
—Comedy legend Merrill Markoe talks to Doree Shafrir about movies, dogs, and, uh, comedy. It's very good! 1
New Jay Leno Promo Contains Fred Armisen @3:15 PM
This promo video for Jay Leno's new 10 PM talk show is apparently running in movie theaters nationwide. Now, we've all heard the knocks on Jay Leno: His comedy is trite and sanitized for an audience of doltish viewers who lack refinement and are easily offended. His affable, indistinctive persona is the scrubbed and focus-grouped face put forward by a man so desperate for success that he'll willingly erase any of the characteristics that ever made him at all interesting. His popularity is indicative of the cheap and insulting level of humor that the great mass of Americans considers entertainment, and his eagerness to pander to that risibly low standard is the mark of a man whose contempt for his audience is only surpassed by the contempt he must have for himself for performing such material. That said, Fred Armisen is in this thing, which means it's not terrible. At least until the last thirty seconds. 14
Terror Comedy Closer To Completion @3:20 PM
Chris Morris' Four Lions project is "all but shot" and will be completed "well before the end of the year." What is Four Lions? Morris' feature film debut is a comedy about suicide bombers. READ MORE 4
Laughing To Keep From Crying @3:44 PM
"[W]e are surrounded by nice people telling us that nice things are happening and all is OK. And they are not. So you want to give it to people hard." The Financial Times looks at the state of political satire in Italy, Russia, Israel, the U.S., and the U.K. 2
Funny Women Hate Attention @2:09 PM
Why are there like four women in Mike Sacks' new book, And Here's The Kicker, a Q&A book that has interviews with 21 (largely penis-laden) funny writers? "I asked about 15 top women writers if I could interview them, and all either didn't get back to me or didn't want to do it," he tells Awl pal EA Hanks. Mmm hmm. 3
Bill Maher Driving Me Crazy With Smarmy Correctness @9:38 AM
Cheered by the semi-viral response to his tirade against Barack Obama last week, smarmy fuck Bill Maher goes back to the well, this time taking on the Democratic party as a whole. It is, once again, immensely frustrating: the fucking smarm is off the goddamn charts, and yet… he makes several absolutely correct points. This has got to stop. I cannot be the guy at the end of the bar who goes, "Yeah, but did you see Bill Maher the other night? Smarmy fuck made a lot of sense!" 11
Again With The Jews @10:51 AM
"It used to be unspoken that there was a tough, stinging style of humor that Jewish comedians aimed at Jewish audiences (who, like any ethnic group, loved being tweaked for their own idiosyncrasies when nobody else was around to hear) and another, less rough-edged style you brought out for mixed company. With those distinctions eradicated and Jewish comedy now dominated by a generation that never felt like the embodiment of otherness, is there still a home for old-world comedy?"
Probably! Talk to the Asians, they've been on deck for years now. 0
Can Any Broad Out There Make Hitchens Laugh? @2:31 PM
Christopher Hitchens continues to find women unfunny. 6
