From humble beginnings as a participant in season 3 of The CW’s Beauty and the Geek to becoming the artistic director of UCB’s New York theater to his current position as senior writer at Funny or Die, Nate Dern has had quite the media journey. As a writer, his work has appeared in McSweeney’s, Vice, […]
Continue ReadingMy first exposure to what would become branded as Blue Collar Comedy was when I was a little kid attending a church talent show in Moundsville, West Virginia. There was a guy who donned a tucked-in flannel and just went up and read a bunch of Jeff Foxworthy’s “You might be a redneck” jokes off […]
Continue ReadingI’m not a big fan of comedy classes. I think anybody who is starting out and wants to learn should save their money and just watch one of Brian Regan’s specials. Each one — including Nunchucks and Flamethrowers, which dropped today on Netflix — is a near perfect blueprint on how to tell jokes. He […]
Continue ReadingWhen Johnny Carson took over as host of The Tonight Show in 1962, there was no sense that he would last 30 years in the job. Television talk shows were in their infancy, and The Tonight Show’s previous two hosts (Steve Allen and Jack Paar) had done such different jobs there was no real standard format […]
Continue ReadingIf you’re a Splitsider reader, I probably don’t have to sell you on the idea of Lauren Lapkus and Jon Gabrus starting their own podcast. The Comedy Bang! Bang! regulars and individual hosts of With Special Guest, High and Mighty, Action Boyz, and The Layman have finally teamed up for the ’90s TV themed Raised […]
Continue ReadingIn 2012, Hari Kondabolu — then a writer for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell — went on a rant that had been long overdue. In a clip that quickly became viral, he expressed his anger at Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, The Simpsons’ Indian convenience store clerk voiced by Hank Azaria. Kondabolu spoke of the bullying he […]
Continue ReadingPod-Canon is an ongoing tribute to the greatest individual comedy-related podcast episodes of all time. Earwolf’s political talk spoof Hard Nation has emerged as one of the most consistently funny and inspired podcasts around. Hard Nation debuted in the oppressive heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, when it seemed like national politics could not get crazier […]
Continue ReadingChance the Rapper’s SNL episode could never have happened without the show’s recent, much needed diversity push. Chance could have hosted before, but he wouldn’t have starred in four sketches where the majority of players were black. These sketches varied greatly in style and content and wigs: there was a straight sketch, a mockumentary, a […]
Continue ReadingTaylor Garron (@casualafro) is a standup comedian, comedy writer, and actress based in Brooklyn, NY. She is an in-house writer at Reductress, but she peaked at age 12 as a cast member on the PBS Kids shows Zoom and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman. Garron wrote and produced a web series about her experience as a […]
Continue ReadingIt is a rare From the Archives article that covers something that not only was made in the last fifteen years, but something that was released within this year. However, when a documentary is released that digs deep into 1996’s subversive and hilarious Dana Carvey Show I must do my duty and spread the word. […]
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