Charles Barkley Hosts ‘SNL’ “for No Reason”

Hey, we’re adults. We can talk about big issues directly and frankly. I need to know why Charles Barkley hosted SNL this week. He was promoting nothing, he didn’t have a hit indie movie last summer. What gives? Was it because all the movie actors are in Hollywood for the Oscars? Does Charles Barkley live […]

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‘Living Biblically’: Biblically Bad

Living Biblically, which premiered Monday night, is the newest multi-cam CBS sitcom that reinforces all of the worst stereotypes about CBS sitcoms. It centers around a white guy (Chip, played by Jay R. Ferguson) with a cushy media job (where he hangs out with his Black best friend Vince, played by Tony Rock) married to […]

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‘In Living Color’ Gets Its Own History Book with ‘Homey Don’t Play That’

When In Living Color premiered on Fox in 1990, the sketch series represented the beginning of a wave of Black network programming unlike any seen on television in decades (arguably ever). In 1994, In Living Color ended along with four other Black series on Fox alone (the syndicated talk show The Arsenio Hall Show ended […]

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‘The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale’ Reimagines ‘The Soup’ for Netflix

Before Joel McHale starred as Jeff Winger on the much-beloved Community, he became a household name as the host of The Soup, the E! series where he would give us grade-A snark about the latest round of reality TV schlock. McHale’s wit spared no one, and the show familiarized itself with audiences with recurring segments […]

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Not My ‘Cartoon President’

The first satirical portrayal of Hitler on film was in 1940, when Moe Howard lampooned Hitler in the Three Stooges short You Nazty Spy! Later that year, Charlie Chaplin played Adenoid Hynkel in his classic The Great Dictator. At the end of The Great Dictator, Chaplin’s Jewish barber-masquerading-as-Hynkel directly addresses the nation and the movie […]

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Andy Kaufman Gets Illustrated in ‘Is This Guy for Real?’

Around 2010, I worked at a coffee shop for a man who believed Andy Kaufman was still alive. It had been a generation since Kaufman’s apparent death, in 1984, from lung cancer. My old manager isn’t alone, either; Kaufman’s career onstage included comedy, songs, impersonations, wrestling, sitcom stardom, and elaborate pranks that still have audiences […]

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‘SNL’s Only February Episode Featured Natalie Portman and Lots of Fart Jokes

Natalie Portman mentioned in her monologue that she hasn’t hosted since 2006, and the entire cast from that season came by to honor the occasion. Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Andy Samberg, and the Brain that Wouldn’t Die—Alec Baldwin. Perhaps it was a big deal because this was apparently the only SNL episode of February. Seriously, […]

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NBC’s ‘A.P. Bio’ Falls Short of Its Potential

Mike O’Brien’s new show A.P. Bio, whose pilot previewed on NBC last night in advance of the official series premiere on March 1st, is Glenn Howerton’s first starring role since his sort-of leaving It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Coincidentally, like Kaitlin Olson on The Mick, A.P. Bio casts Howerton playing a callow jerk playing off a […]

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‘A Futile and Stupid Gesture’ Takes an Honest Look at ’70s Comedy History

Doug Kenney flamed out early. A child of the 1950s, he produced comedy in print, radio, and film from the late ‘60s through his death in 1980 that has become classic, either through its enormous influence on the comedy that followed or as works in their own right (“People really like Caddyshack,” Martin Mull intones, […]

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Will Ferrell, the Consummate ‘SNL’ Pro

Was it ever in question that a Will Ferrell episode of Saturday Night Live was going to be good? Ferrell was good on SNL for seven years, then was a good host. Three times. This was good TV done by competent people who are good at their jobs. Even the animal actor seemed like a […]

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