What to Watch...On The Internet

Jason Sudeikis in Crackle.com's "The Line"

Yes, there is good comedy on the internet. Fresh baked, ready for the clicking kind of sketch comedy/talks shows, slickly produced and cast with the funny and the famous who've by passed the fundamental television path and did a Sarah Palin by going rogue. Thanks to the advent of Funnyordie, Crackle and MyDamnChannel, familiar comedy talent is cranking out ideas and baking up new comedy for the taking. Whether you're taking a break from work, or need a diversion from network television, which is eroding due to distractions that include viewers turning more to the internet for entertainment, you will always find something hilarious to hang your hat on.

Here are my top favorite online comedy selections found in recent weeks:

TheWB.com's "Children's Hospital" on thewb.com

"Children's Hospital" TheWB.com, already reviewed in a previous entry (just below) here at TVblogster, is a hilarious hospital parody written, directed and co-produced by Rob Corddry, with the help of David Wain and Jonathan Stein. A parade of familiar faces from comedy abound: Megan Mullally, SNL's Jason Sudeikis, The Office's Ed Helms, Desperate Housewives' Eva Longoria-Parker partake in the satire. It's raunchy fun, and worth viewing all ten episodes, now available at thewb.com.

Joe Lo Truglio and Bill Hader in "The Line" on Crackle.com

"The Line", Produced by Broadway Video and directed by Seth Meyers, was originally filmed and released on Crackle.com last summer. Bill Hader (another SNL-er) and The State's Joe Lo Tuglio play die hard SciFi geeks who camp out two weeks before a long awaited movie release, only to be met with the trials and tribulations of sidewalk treachery. See our heroes as they swelter in the heat, don't shower, tackle a trio of shape shifting creepy guys, placate a pissed off theater manager, and out smart an annoying party crasher called "The Spoiler" (played by Paul Scheer) who threatens to spill the movie's highly secretive twist. But most of all, see them try to keep their place in line. Catch it on crackle.com.

Paul Rudd in "Wainy Days: The Pickup" on mydamnchannel.com

My Damn Channel harbors one of my favorite series of comedies from one of eccentric talents of The State - David Wain. Wainy Days is the ongoing saga of Wain trying to get a date. The episode near and dear to my heart is The Pickup. It co-stars Paul Rudd as the master of picking up chicks. He is too beautiful and funny to be real. Watch it on mydamnchannel.com.

Jon Hamm guests on "Between Two Ferns" on FunnyorDie.com

The masterminds behind FunnyorDie have created a goldmine of original, funny and highly silly comedy shorts online. Of course, The Landlord starring the two year old Pearl and Will Farrell is now infamous. There is so much to explore on this site; however, my personal favorite lately is Between Two Ferns, a three part chat show starring host Zack Galifianakis who interviews Mad Men's Jon Hamm (who appears to be a true comedian at heart), Jimmy Kimmell and Michael Cera. Galifianakis is a frightening interviewer whose questions are uncomfortable and insanely funny. Find all three parts at FunnyorDie. Click on following links: (Michael Cera), (Jon Hamm), (Jimmy Kimmel).

The spectrum of good quality comedy that is comparable to television fare is out there for the plucking. Not all online comedy content is pitch perfect, but if one searches enough, there is plenty to enjoy.

Comedy Online on The WB: "Children's Hospital"

If you could take the sex antics of "Private Practice, the melodrama of "E.R.", mixed with the shark jumping of "Grey's Anatomy" (having sex with an dead lover anyone?), stir in the writing of Rob Corddry, add a cast of hellaciously funny comedians who know how to provide good comedy punch, and you have the new online mini-sitcom "Children's Hospital", exclusively created for and streaming on The WB's new media site. (http://www.thewb.com/video/507a47889e/childrens-hospital/episode-1)

Written and directed by former Daily Show correspondent Rob Corddry, who also holds co-producing credits with David Wain and Jonathan Stern, "Children's Hospital" takes place at, yes, Children's Doctor Hospital, located somewhere in a surreal comedy world known as "Brazil" because who really cares? It's not the location but the action within the walls.

Doctors swap partners in broom closets, gratuitous lesbian interaction is teased, medics puff on Marlboro's in the nurse's station, and one of the head doctors (played by Cordrry himself) tries to out-Patch Patch Adams by walking around in clownface, defying scalpels and sutures by trying to heal with the gift of laughter. Megan Mullally does a cringe worthingly funny take on E.R's Dr. Kerry Weaver as the Chief of Surgery who does more damage with her crutches and off color comments than good. A bevvy of familiar faces play the clueless doctors of Children's Hospital. Ed Helms, Ken Marino, Rob Huebel, Nathan Corddry, Erin Hayes and Jason Sudeikis add to the parade of cameos. A personal favorite is the story of Nicky, a six year old boy brought into the facility due to his rare case of rapid growing disease, whose freakish growth into a cute young man grabs the eye of the introspective and easily romanced Dr. Cat Black who claps eyes on the man child as he joyously mentions he has gout.

The humor here is deliberately (and deliciously) broad, using ironic farce to place the biggest digs on medical dramas that take themselves too seriously, before and behind the cameras, and promoted with eye glaring drama and manipulative soundtracks pandering to the saps in all of us. "Children's Hospital" provides a hilarious take on this age old and tired format.




Photos courtesy of www.thewb.com