The thought of country singer Brad Paisley having his own Netflix standup special — even one with several actual comics on the bill — naturally brings about mixed feelings. On one hand, Paisley’s music has always employed a fair amount of humor; on “The Cigar Song,” he tells the tale of a criminal who is […]
Continue ReadingThe bad doctor trope is one we’ve seen in TV and movies for decades. Airplane, Family Guy, SNL (Will Ferrell’s “…quick call to Beverly”), the list goes on…and on. But have we seen it on the web? Probably, yes. Probably an equally large number of times. What makes Whale Thief’s Doctor Forgets What Bones Are Called feel unique […]
Continue ReadingAlthough Ken Marino says he learned nothing about how to be a Latin lover while directing How to Be a Latin Lover, he enjoyed collaborating on the development of such an outlandish character. The movie follows Maximo (Eugenio Derbez), an aging playboy suddenly dumped by the older woman he married for money. With nowhere else […]
Continue Reading“What’s your biggest emotional wound?” That question, posed to our anti-heroine Ingrid Thorburn roughly 30 minutes into Ingrid Goes West, should carry the weight of the world. It’s the type of question that demands self-interrogation — one that requires an emotional honesty and a cognitive courage to confront. Instead the characters treat it like a […]
Continue Reading“What’s your biggest emotional wound?” That question, posed to our anti-heroine Ingrid Thorburn roughly 30 minutes into Ingrid Goes West, should carry the weight of the world. It’s the type of question that demands self-interrogation — one that requires an emotional honesty and a cognitive courage to confront. Instead the characters treat it like a […]
Continue ReadingJerry Seinfeld hates talk shows, so he instead set out to do the anti-talk show and Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee — a series that lets Seinfeld take his friends on drives in slick cars to get some joe and grub — was born. For viewers, the lack of fanfare and production makes us voyeurs […]
Continue ReadingJulie Klausner’s fantastic series Difficult People returned to Hulu for its third season last week, and the timing couldn’t be better. Now that the news is filled every day with so much corruption, incompetence, and steady updates on our current president’s ties to Russia, planning out momentary self-care escapes with Klausner and Billy Eichner’s Difficult People […]
Continue ReadingPod-Canon is an ongoing tribute to the greatest individual comedy-related podcast episodes of all time. There are certain incontrovertible milestones in podcasting. These include landmarks for the medium like President Obama’s appearance on WTF, Comedy Bang Bang’s 500th episode, Harris Wittels’s final podcast appearances, and that one episode of The Nerdist where Chris Hardwick got way […]
Continue ReadingShowtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, which ended its first season last night, is the newest unfunny drama about the world of comedy. Based in part on the book by the same name by William Knoedelseder, it’s a fairly unambitious show. This actually makes it work better than the late, sarcastically lamented Studio 60 on the […]
Continue ReadingShowtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, which ended its first season last night, is the newest unfunny drama about the world of comedy. Based in part on the book by the same name by William Knoedelseder, it’s a fairly unambitious show. This actually makes it work better than the late, sarcastically lamented Studio 60 on the […]
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