Who Wants To Be My Online Comedy Partner?

TSOYA has done it again with another amazing link, this one to Stylus magazine’s list of comedy duos. Which gave me the idea: who wants to be my blogging comedy partner? I post funny comments on my partner’s blog, my partner posts bon mots on mine. Who’s gayme?

I’m the one on the right

Who’s The Suge Knight Of Alt-Comedy?

TSOYA linked to this splendid SF Gate article on SF alt-scene when I found this little nugget:

Along with playing indie clubs, comedians have been signing with indie labels. Major independent labels such as Subpop and Drag City have comedians on their rosters, a trend that Rian Murphy of Drag City says is very much in the tradition of his label, although the practice has "a lot of room to grow."
Drag City's flagship comedian is the droll and often disgusting Hamburger, who works a lounge-lizard persona and is one of the few comics to make a career out of touring nonconventional venues.
Record labels have also, logically, signed acts that fuse music and comedy. There are numerous examples, including Subpop's Australian duo Flight of the Conchords (who also have a show on HBO) and "SNL's" Fred Armisen, who has recorded under numerous musical pseudonyms and has teamed with Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein as ThunderAnt on Drag City.
"Tenacious D signaled a turning point in musical comedy," Murphy says of the faux metal band consisting of actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass. "It brought the two things together. You didn't have to choose between being a musical act or a comedy act."
It's hard to say what makes for good chemistry between a label, a band and a comedian, but it somehow makes aesthetic sense for hip, sarcastic nerds like David Cross and Eugene Mirman to tour with indie groups.

So who is the Suge Knight of the alt-comedy labels?

Tony Kiewel, obviously. Why else can’t you find a good picture of him online?

Harvard Comedy

Just read this article on Shecky envisioning a future in which stand-ups are all from Harvard.


"But sir, I went to Oxford. Please listen to my Facebook joke."

"No dear lad, only Harvard grads. Give it up for your next comic, Poindexter Rutherford."

"Thanks. So who here has worked on a game theory problem, huh? This guy's like 'Shut up, my wife is here!'"

Redefining Comedy On The Web

Think Radiohead is the first to suggest you name your own price to listen to music? There is a service named SongSlide that allows users to do this. Comedic musician Jonathan Coulton is prolly the biggest musician on SongSlide.

In addition to letting fans name their own price, they also use Eventful, which lets fans alert their favorite artists of venues in their towns that are open for the artist to perform in. That way, the artist can perform in your town.




So Coulton has forged a new path for comedians; in the future, you can theoretically pay 2 dollars for David Cross’s new album and have him perform at the Yellow Star Revue in Central Bumplefuck.

Speaking of Bumplefuck, the mindset of said town needs to change its perceptions of black comedy. Tired of token black guys leaving work to continue mining the differences between blacks and whites, The Black Comedy Project aims to forge a new African-American comedy movement on the web in which comedians can nurture their own voices. Without making up a fear of swimming or a love of fat women.

I am especially moved by this. As a North African-American, I would like to be considered a comedian first, an artist second and an Egyptian third. Even if I decide to talk about the Arab-American experience, I prefer to steer clear of the “terrorist/hairy back” paradigm that seems all but obligatory in Arab-American comedy shows. I do not wish to be in the Hack-sis of Evil.

Punch Lines Take A Beating In The Press

SHECKYmagazine shines when it tackles the media’s apparent bias against punch lines. In January, they called out the LA Times’ bias against mainstream comedy and now they caught this article in Philly.com attacking punch lines in television shows.

From the article:

Comedy isn't dead, it's just been outsourced - to shows more like Weeds than Everybody Loves Raymond. Shows that are not so much sitcoms as sitcomish, single-camera conceits that are slick and dramatic (but not quite so dramatic to be considered dramedies) - but also consistently funny. Like 30 Rock or The Office. Shows that do not pause for three seconds after the joke, shows that don't acknowledge there's been a joke at all. Shows that on paper might not be funny at all.

Now I appreciate awkward comedy, anti-humor, avant garde comedy, etc. as much as the next bitter, media-obsessed scribe. But do we really have to choose? Is it so wrong to have punch lines? Must everything be subtle and dry? Must everybody be a disciple of the Del Close/Andy Kaufman School of What The Fuck?

Consider the great comedians who use punch lines (Demetri Martin, Patton Oswalt, Doug Benson, Chris Rock). Are these comedians wrong for entertaining us with written jokes that have set-ups and resolutions?

Of course, critics have a built-in postmodern, academic bias against resolutions. Everything must be open-ended. No resolutions or statements allowed.


Ironically, I can’t find a satisfying resolution for this blog post. Happy now, you joke-hating fucktards?

Quirk Off

According to this Atlantic Monthly article (via BuzzFeed), the quirky hipster sensibility behind Miranda July, Wes Anderson and This American Life is passe. Though I'm not sure I agree with all his examples (Flight of the Conchords transcends trendiness), I had tried to express a similar sentiment when I was interviewed by Time Out New York, saying that hipsters might ruin comedy. Like I say in the interview, they haven’t necessarily done so, but there is a great danger they might. Two things to add to what I said in TONY:

a) Quirk might not be such a problem, but the prejudice against non-quirk is a bit much. Heaven forbid anyone make anything close to a statement about anything. One of the few things that mainstream comedy can still do better than alternative comedy is put what’s wrong with the world (war, bigotry, etc.) into perspective. Irony has its place, but it seems like outrage against the war doesn’t play well in the alt rooms. I haven’t seen it anyway. In fairness, comedians are rarely able to pull off anti-establishment screeds as well as Hicks or Carlin did, but, like Michael Hirschorn says in the Atlantic Monthly article, irony is easy, which means that it often comes across cheap.

b) Irony is cheap because it is far from a scarce resource. But, just like too many cheap Dollar Menu burgers make you sick, too much irony—especially the nerdy, “robot vs. ninja” hipster/nerd variety, can be cloying. I guess it’s like indie rock—after a while, the clichés wear on you, but the mainstream is far worse.

Schedules: Future Of Viral Vids

This article on online comedy initiatives in the latest issue of TONY has an interesting detail in the print edition: it gives the release date of the Bill Murray viral video, which was released today.



So is this the future of viral video? Will we have Fall Viral Video Previews? A summer viral season? Will Star Wars Kid fans be skeptical of upcoming sequels? Like Star Wars Kids?

Call me old-fashioned, but I don't look forward to a future of Chocolate Rain forecasts.

Why Should You Buy Spin Magazine?

To see who Patton Oswalt calls "punk rock." Seriously, I would link to the article for free but it's not online. So quit rolling your eyes at Spin Magazine's And The Academy Is... coverage and pick up a copy you trust-fund hippy! Worth it for Patton Oswalt's essay alone (though an Amy Winehouse cover would make it a collector's item -- an issue is already being auctioned off on eBay).

This week on the gag reel...

As reported last week, Sean Crespo has just gotten a gig for a Domino's commercial AND a McDonald's voice-over. No word on whether the pizza commercial...

Lucas Held Is Funny Silly

Shsrper Image Founder Awakens,...,ahh, he says it funnier,...,

Potential Seinfeld Scandals

First Kramer gives a racist rant.

Then Jerry tells a creepy rape joke.

Guess birds of a feather rape bees with forks up their asses together.




Here are some other potential scandals that are bound to put Seinfeld in a negative light:

George Costanza calls for genocide on tall people, or a tall-ocaust.

Elaine pushes Cubans off a raft, screaming "Get out!"

Newman mails "anthrax" to the cast of Thank God You're Here as a prank

The Soup Nazi stops serving matzo ball soup -- and Jews.

Babu is seen pouring hot nacho cheese on Malaysian servants.

J. Peterman bounces a check.

On This Week's Gag Reel...

The abhorrent Last Comic Standing may be a divining rod that taps into all that comedy fans and comedians despise about mainstream comedy, but some decent comedians made it to the next round in last week's episode: Arj Barker;
Amy Schumer; Joe DeVito.

Unfortunately, LCS also makes good comics look dumb. Matt Skkye was shown doing some kind of bobcat beatbox...

Summer Comedy Trailer Music

You know how trailers for summer film comedies seem to have that one ubiquitous song? I predict that song will be OK Go's "Here It Goes Again."



dadadadadadadadada
"Meet Chad Buchman"
DADA-DA-DA-DA-DA
"Never made it with the ladies"dadadadadadadada
"But now he is a mongoose cop"
DADA-DADA-DA-DADA-DA-DA

(record scratch) Jessica Alba: "Where's my girdle?"

Buchman: "Gulp."

"Uh here it goes here it goes..."
Jon Reep. Jessica Alba. Mongoose Patrol.
DAAAAAAA!

Here's a list of ubiquitous summer comedy trailer anthems from summers past:

Smash Mouth, "Can't Get Enough of You Baby"
Third Eye Blind, "Semi-Charmed Life"
Pussycat Dolls, "Don'cha"
House of Pain, "Jump Around"

Add any anthems I missed in the comments.

New Gag Reel

Click on this link and read it please. Just check out the DVD pick at least.

Drink At Work Vlogs

I would try to bring the funny myself but dammit I just got over a scratch on my fucking cornea. So let me outsource the giggles to Carol and Sean from Drink at Work, who are both vlogging on NBC's DotComedy.

Doug Benson on LCS

I usually watch Last Comic Standing as a guilty pleasure but here are the top ten according to Shecky (via AST):
Gerry Dee
Deb DiGiovanni
Amy Schumer
Dante
Jon Reep
Ralph Harris
Matt Kirshen
Doug Benson
Lavelle Crawford
Gina Yashere

Benson was also on last year but he was in the online competition. Congrats Mr. Benson. Here's a sample of his work from the High Times Comedy Show.

Amir/Human Giant Prank War

Mind Blowing Reggie Watts Interview in Apiary

You describe the current format with which you've found recent success as "disinformation." Can you explain what that is?
Sure. I started calling myself a "disinformationist" because I was kind of inspired by situationism, which was studied by a French guy called Guy Debord in the fifties or sixties, if I'm not mistaken. It was this artistic movement that turned quasi-political, but their whole thing was, in a nutshell, that they were practical jokers. Their whole mission was to provoke to the edge of violence, but just before violence occurred.

Bitergate: Mencia Steals From Russel Peters

Supermaneesh gives us the scoop (via Digg)

Jessica Alba: Comedy Nerd Cocktease

Alt comedy nerds love that she's gracing "The Ten" with her lovely, pan-ethnic presence.



Dane Cook fanboys daydream about Alba sucking their magical sex scepter so she can find Mr. Right.



Who's it gonna be: Paul Rudd or Dane Cook? Those who saw "Wet Hot American Summer" know the answer.