Sunburned on the Fourth...

Odenkirk. Weird. Amazing. Not Independence Day related. Just because.

Boys and Girls Who Do Comedy

Dawn French hosted a fascinating series of interviews for the BBC a few years back with some of the most beloved comedians from both sides of the Atlantic.

There are familiar faces such as Tracy Ullman, Joan Rivers, Sarah Silverman, Russell Brand, Bob Newhart and John Cleese in addition to local British talent whose faces might not ring a bell on this side.

U.S. TV cult comedy fans may know Jimmy Carr, David Walliams, Matt Lucas and Noel Fielding who discuss the highs and lows of their work. French also interviews her husband Lenny Henry and her comedy partner Jennifer Saunders. It's a profound look into the emotional and social issues both men and women in comedy struggle with each day.

Here are excerpts from both series. (Double click on the video and see the rest of the series on YouTube's site.)


Boys Who Do Comedy




Girls Who Do Comedy

Mollie Sudgen

What a week for deaths. This site is turning into an obituary page. Mollie Sugden, star of the British series Are You Being Served passed away yesterday at the age of 86. Yes, the show was silly British kitsch, and is used as PBS's money maker during pledge drives. It's pretty antiquated and leans on farce and whoopsa-daisy antics, but I loved it and adored Sugden and her multicolored wigs.



Rest in peace, Mrs. Slocombe.

Mr. Show: Glory Be the Hole

I've been bidding my time until Michael and Michael Have Issues starts airing on Comedy Central July 15th (10:30pm ET/9:30pm CT). Summer reruns and original programming on cable haven't been floating my boat lately, so I've been turning to comedy that has long since left the TV airwaves and made its way onto DVD (or YouTube). This week I've been dabbling in the brilliance of Mr. Show, Bob Odenkirk's and David Cross's insanely funny HBO sketch series that ran from 1995 - 1998. Absurd, outrageous, surreal and imaginative, Bob and David wrote and performed bits with an intelligent flair, lending itself to Python, yet forging new directions. It's cool to see Brian Posehn, Jay Johnston, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Paul F. Thomkins, Tom Kenny and Jack Black providing some funny way back then.

Here's "The Farm House Musical", a heartfelt romp about a leather pants salesman who is led to glory hole temptation by satan. Seriously, it's so well done and absolutely hilarious. Listen to the golden rocking chops of Jack Black. When Odenkirk comes out as the milk pump, it brings it to a whole other level - which very sadly, gets cut off in this video. Damn. Still the five minutes on there are pretty good.

Rent Mr. Show: The Complete First and Second (Third and Fourth season too) on Netflix, or buy it at Amazon to watch all their work. It's worth it.



Another favorite:

Michael Jackson Tribute on BET

Janet Jackson pays tribute to her brother. Ne-Yo and Jamie Foxx sing a beautiful rendition of "I'll Be There". Very moving.

Sid and Marty Krofft: My 1970's Childhood in LSD Color

The death of Michael Jackson got me all teary eyed for the Jackson Five. Then, it made me think of their 1970's animated Saturday morning kids show, which in turn got me all nostalgic for the television of my kiddie-hood.There was no Nickelodeon and Disney Channel back then. My generation was raised on good, wholesome drug induced dreams, peyote visions born out of a VW bus, and images inspired by living on the bong. No producer captured this state of mind better than Sid and Marty Krofft, who turned it over for the kids to enjoy. Thank you!

Time to cruise YouTube.

The Banana Splits. There was a lot of psychedelia leaking over from the 60's. It must have taken a pound of cocaine just to muster the will to get into those costumes. Sid and Marty gave us an explosion of every drug dream they've ever had...although they've denied ever being on drugs.



Sigmund and the Sea Monster. The Krofft brothers were on a roll. I mean, what the hell was this? A sea monster with actor Billy Barty sweating it up in that costume, and the kid from Family Affair? This clip shows the opening and closing credits, noting that Rip Taylor was a guest star. My quest is to find this episode in its entirety because Rip Taylor in a green fairy suit + throwing green sparkly confetti on a weird children's show = MUST SEE THIS NOW.



Land of the Lost: The REAL one. Just look at those effects. That earthquake is so realistic, and you can feel the anger of the dinosaurs and the weight of those Styrofoam rocks falling on the Marshall family as the wall to the past sucks them in. Yeah, the effects were crap. The Sleestaks were my favorite though. I love Will Farrell, but TV wins out here.



I was going to post a clip from HR Puffnstuff, another show from the Krofft brothers, but it's so horribly bad...I'd rather show this parody from Mr. Show. Now when I close my eyes, I can see Bob Odenkirk's yellow body suit behind of my eye lids. Freaking hilarious.

Michael Jackson: 1958-2009

They do come in threes.

I love Off the Wall and Thriller, but I like to remember the Michael Jackson of my early childhood.

Here's a clip from an old Jackson Five special (Going Back to Indiana) with Bill Cosby in the intro (and there's Tommy Smothers again looking as confused as he did last week at LAX.):



In my PJ's, in front of our old color TV set with bowl of Apple Jacks on my lap: Saturday morning kiddie memories. And they were much more cooler and awesome than the boring Osmonds.

Steve Martin Proves that Funny Guys Always Get the Girl

Farrah Fawcett 1947-2009

RIP.

Ghost Hunters: Like Ghostbusters Without the Marshmellow Guy

You know what would make the viewing public collectively poop their pants? If producers of Ghost Hunters kill the music and sound effects while the team from TAPS do their investigations. Silence, pure ear sucking silence, is more chilling than the "ker-chung" sound drops and weird musical ambient flow you hear while ghost detectives Jason Hawkes, Grant Wilson and their crack team of investigators tip toe their way through creepy light houses, abandoned hospitals and closed down prisons. Walking through darkness, as their faces glow under the night camera lenses, suddenly one will ask "Did you hear that?" "Yeah! I did!" Umm, well I didn't. I heard a musical sting, then you guys, then a sound that resembled the opening one second theme from Law and Order, not a ghost looking for the light.

I love this show nonetheless. Both Jason and Grant are extremely likable every day guys from Rhode Island who work for Roter-Rooters by day, and kick ghost butt by night. Taken by their own life changing experiences with ghosts, and so fascinated by the paranormal, they established The Atlantic Paranormal Society (TAPS) as a hobby, and set out to not only find ghostly beings, but to debunk any false rumors about haunted locations. Whether TAPS is actually truthful in their findings is anyone's guess. The ghost lovers on the web have debated their veracity, and sometimes I wonder what the team is truly seeing since the TLC cameras never happen to capture what the ghost hunters are reacting to, and the aforementioned M&E track drowns out the noises they hear. Yet, the last several minutes of audio and visual findings turn up interesting images and floating voices proving a haunt, or nothing at all.

My favorite moments are when the TAPS crew get the crap scared out of them. Watching these these guys get mowed down by a heat sinking orb, or freaked by a cob web touching their neck, causing them to flee, screaming like girls running from a co-ed pantie raid - well, it's pretty priceless. On the sister show Ghost Hunters International, a TAPS affiliated team from Florida went to the Philippines to investigate an old air base hospital that had some ghostly activity, and discovered the voices and movements people reported was just a homeless guy living in the basement. This turn up is sublime in its debunkery. Hope the creepy music didn't wake him up.

Ghost Hunters and Ghost Hunters International air on the SciFi Channel (Soon to be known as SyFy).

Ed McMahon 1923-2009

When Johnny Carson said goodnight for the last time on The Tonight Show in 1993, it was the end of an era. When he passed away in 2005, it was the end of a life well lived, a class act shuffling off the old mortal coil. Ed McMahon passed away today at the age of 86. He was a fine pitchman and well suited second banana to the king of late night. May he find a comfy spot on Johnny's couch upstairs.

Triumph at Bonnaroo

I don't think The Decemberists suck, but this is HI-larious.

Funny or Die and HBO Spawn New Content

In June of 2008, Funny or Die and HBO entered into a multi-million dollar deal commissioning the website to produce ten original half hour programs for the cable network. HBO also claimed a small stake in ownership of the comedy site. Production has been underway for some notable comedians involved in the project. (Notable for me, because I am obsessed with Human Giant and the comedians therein).

Paul Scheer (Human Giant) began production last March on Designated Driver. It also stars Rob Riggle (The Daily Show). It promises to be hilarious because Scheer is amazing and Riggle defines awesome.

Brett Gelman, otherwise known as the little bit of luck dude in those Lottery ads (which I'm sure he's tired of being defined by...sorry), taped his UCB show 1,000 Cats for HBO last March as well. Yeah, I know it's summer. All those episodes of 30 Rock and The Office back then made me a little late on this.

Rob Huebel 's Holdup was filmed several weeks ago, and stars himself, Reno 911's Thomas Lennon, The Office's Creed Bratton and Ed Helms (who is now super famous for The Hangover), Malin Akerman (27 Dresses), Rachael Harris (also The Hangover), and Weird Al Yankovic (every geek song parody known to mankind).

Funny Girls

Dare I say, comedy has its boy's club? Well, it kind of does. I love the boys, but the girls have some funny chops as well.

One of my favorite female comedy mavens is French and Saunders, a comedy duo that has been producing a sketch/movie parody show of the same name on the BBC for over twenty years now. It can run the gamut of film spoofs, celebrity imitations and random skits that satirize everyday life, or even themselves. Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders are also the creators (and in Saunders' case, star) of the BBC hit Absolutely Fabulous. I worship them.

Here's a bit - which of course, doesn't fit in this blog. Thanks for widening the video, YouTube.



Liz Cackowski stars in The Jeannie Tate Show, available online. Not sure if she's doing more, but this series of a obnoxious Soccer Mom who conducts a talk show from her van, with her boys and pissy teenage step daughter in the back seat, is really funny. She's had guests such as Bill Hader and Rashida Jones. Here's the incredible Rob Riggle.




Also from the UK, here's Catherine Tate who stars in The Catherine Tate Show. She's truly an amazing performer who loses herself with each character. You can watch an array of her characters on YouTube, but this is my favorite. Here's Nan.

Paging Tommy Smothers...Perfectly Strange

LAX. PA announcement. "Paging passenger Tommy Smothers. Tommy Smothers, please come to security to collect your lost baggage. Paging passenger Tommy Smothers." Could it be THAT Tommy Smothers? Comedian, musician, political satirist with brother Dick? Before I could ponder the question further, THAT Tommy Smothers came walking by, white haired, handsome, looking around as confused to hear his name as I was. "Hello! Nice to meet you" he said kindly to the man a few folks before me. Yes. THAT Tommy Smothers.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour aired from 1967 through 1969. It was infused with folk songs and funny social commentary that stimulated controversy and bent boundaries of television entertainment. The show would feature comedians such as George Carlin, bands such as The Doors. The writing team included a very young Steve Martin, Don Novello and Rob Reiner, to name a few - talent that would soar in their own careers.

Tommy did find his baggage, and walked happily away. Nice soul he seemed to be.

I don't remember the show itself, since it goes way beyond my memory bank, but it's pretty cool to see how the cultural revolution of the hippy sixties was reflected in the satire of two straight laced white guys who could visually be mistaken for the establishment of the day.

You can check out The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour here.

In other news, Mark Linn Baker is on my plane . The last time I saw him he was being tackled by Jason O'Mara, also on an airplane, in Life on Mars. He's behind me. Hope he doesn't see me post this, but hello Perfect Strangers opening theme.

British TV Redux: Ripping Yarns

This past weekend, the NY Mets got shattered by the NY Yankees 15-0. A Mets fan friend of mine decided to take out his frustration by watching an episode of Ripping Yarns, a BBC comedy series written by Monty Python's Michael Palin and Terry Jones back in 1976. It was a funny take off of old schoolboy "Boys Life" stories. During my Monty Python obsessed days, I coveted old VHS tapes (yes, tapes!) of this series, and relished every episode. Here's one of my favorites entitled "Golden Gordon" (Part I.) Gordon is a Barnstoneworth United football fan, who takes losing to a whole new level.

Bottle Blondes Take Over Manhattan

While the Lakers championship riots are dieing down here in L.A., back home in New York, another form of asshat has overtaken my fair city: The Hills' Heidi and Spencer, now failed stars of I Think I'm a Celebrity, But I'm Not. Now Get Me Out Of Here have been cab hopping from The Today Show (where Al Roker pissed them off) to The View (and God knows where else) to promote the fact they are sell outs who have no talent. Or maybe it's damage control for having quit the reality show that proves End of Days are near. What further damage can two fame whores quell? Their so-called careers are based on selfish, petty horribleness that's damaging to human intelligence.

I'm back home in New York tomorrow. Those two better be gone-zo.

Lakers Win and Los Angeles Under Lock Down..Sort of..

Los Angeles. City of Angels. Home of the stars. Town of the Lakers, now champions in some big, fancy basketball competition my baseball brain can't absorb. I've been spending an extended weekend in West Hollywood, a trip that seems to have coincided with a massive Laker win that has set the town on its side. Screams and honking horns from Sunset leaked through my windows. My television set to non-stop television reporters going nuts with delight over being in the midst of a possible war zone in east L.A and the Staples Center. Funny how snagging a championship seems to flip the asshole switch in rabid fans from 0 to 20. Not all fans. Most celebrated like adults happy to see their team win it all, but some other factions of fandom have gone nuts, where celebration spiraled into inexplicable, vicious tribal anger. Is it bravado? Maybe it's the bad economy. What else do people have to cling to these days? Besides, those buses and cars aren't going to get turned over and set fire to themselves.

Here's a clip from KTLA.

And Conan Hits Him Right Back...

After surging in the ratings the past few days, Late Show with David Letterman was usurped in the ratings department by The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, who regained his treasured demographic. Source: THR

Yes, I am still too lazy and too busy to write this myself.