The Hangover Part II: One Nightmare in Bangkok?

From the synopsis on the Apple's trailer page:

After the unforgettable bachelor party in Las Vegas, Stu is taking no chances and has opted for a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch.

Spoiler alert: Things fall apart.

Watch the teaser trailer.

Aflac Claptrap: Amy Phillips Makes a Good Impression

Now that Gilbert Gottfried is out, how many celebrities does it take to say Aflac annoyingly? Six. Or maybe just one. Amy Phillips. The impersonations are good, and she gets extra points for including Rita Rudner.

Seriously, who had the foresight to tell her to work up a Rita Rudner impression? Nicely done.



via @Satiristas

SNL Commercial Parody: Corn Syrup

This is the first SNL commercial parody in a while to make me laugh. Short. Tight. A clear premise that doesn't get pounded to death.

Now, how much would you say final turn/reveal was added as a tag to strengthen the bit structurally as a punchline, versus being added to keep critics from accusing the writers of being one-sided on the issue?

Online Petition to Save Gottfried's VO Job

Eric Hansen wants Aflac to rehire Gilbert Gottfried. His argument, according to the online petition he has started, is pretty easy to improve on.

• "Gottfried was simply enacting his first amendment rights"

So is Aflac. They're a company that can hire and fire celebrity voices for whatever reason they want. They didn't fire him for breaking the law. They fired him for saying something they didn't like AND, most likely, that they believed would bring them bad press and hurt business.

• He has "a well-established reputation as a filthy, tasteless comedian."

They hired him for his grating voice, not for his reputation. When his reputation suddenly became more problematic than his voice, they re-evaluated the balance. Whether you judge him or not, with these jokes and the attention they got, his reputation changed for a lot of people.

• "[B]y joking about this tragedy, he could have brightened the days of the victims of it."

This is almost as hard to swallow as the argument that his jokes could have made their suffering worse. So maybe it brightened the days of a few victims with a great sense of humor. That's not the point tho. This defense of humor, as a way to "brighten a day," is too easy to flip around and use to attack every comedian who makes anyone uncomfortable.

• "In short, if you didn't want to associate yourself with a tasteless comedian who makes inappropriate jokes, you had no business hiring Gilbert Gottfried in the first place."

Worst closing statement ever. You used to say you loved him! So now you have to keep him! You've basically told them they were right to fire him. As I write, 14 people have signed the petition. Aflac has not yet changed its mind.

via Punchline Magazine

Tom Myers: Comedy Mentor

If you haven't read the last post or the editorial that it was written in response to, please do so before watching this video.

Comic Disapproves of Reading Notes Onstage.

Baltimore comedian Tom Myers has written a very important editorial for Punchline Magazine about something that is tearing at the core of the stand-up comedy artform: reading from your notes.

Really, Tom? Why is this an important issue?

In order to make it to the top, it is beneficial for every comedian to follow this piece of advice that I am offering. It is something that can help all comedians and is the reason why I have invested so much time and energy into writing this piece.

Yep. This is what comedians need to do to make it. In fact, just a week and a half ago I saw Marc Maron start his set with about 15 minutes of reading and commenting on his notes. It was hilarious. But you're telling me it could have been better? I'll be sure to forward your editorial to him so that he can benefit from your advice.

If patrons had attended a showing of Hamlet where Sir John Gielgud read off of his script for the duration of the performance, then the audience collectively would have (rightfully so) walked out and demanded their money back. This principle should apply to professional comedy shows as well as showcases. The comedian should be able to commit certain concepts to memory, with limited chances to be prompted.

If patrons had attended a Kentucky Derby where the Thoroughbreds all wandered around the track aimlessly, I'm sure the audience would angrily sashay out of Churchill Downs and demand their money back. This principle should apply to Andy Kindler's act. He should run as fast as he can in a circle.

I often use a cheat sheet, which contains a list of my newest bits that are more than likely not yet planted into my memory.

Seriously? You use a cheat sheet? There's nothing wrong with that I guess. But what's more important to you? Would you rather people remember your shows saying "that was so hilarious" or "that was so well memorized"?

…this technique can be helpful because it does not create an awkward sense in the audience because they are witnessing this performer that they have paid money to see literally reading off a sheet of paper and not paying attention to them.

They paid money to be entertained. Not to be tricked into thinking you studied carefully for the test.

The newer comics figure if a comedy great like Mitch Hedberg did it, then they can get away with it, as well. The difference between the two is that Mitch Hedberg could get laughs and be funny.

So as long as they're doing well on stage, note or no notes really doesn't matter? As long as a comedian is funny, they can completely ignore your advice? I think many of them will.

Aflac Fires Gilbert Gottfried for Jokes about Japan

Gilbert Gottfried is taking some of the attention away from Alec Sulkin for tweets about Japan that offended people. And he's one-upping the story: Gottfried's jokes got him fired from his quacking gig.

Aflac released a statement, saying

Gilbert’s recent comments about the crisis in Japan were lacking in humor and certainly do not represent the thoughts and feelings of anyone at Aflac.

Some of the jokes:

Japan called me. They said ‘maybe those jokes are a hit in the U.S., but over here, they’re all sinking.

I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent. I said ‘is there a school in this area.’ She said ‘not now, but just wait.

Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them.

Gottfried made jokes about 9/11 just a few weeks after the attack. It was at the Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner. He started to lose the crowd, but he won them back by telling a joke about sodomy, incest, pedophilia, scat, and showbusiness. And the punchline wasn't even that great. But the crowd loved it.

link to a story about the firing.

another link to a story about the firing.

another link to yet another story about the firing.

The Sulk vs Your Feelings. And Japan, Too.

The second biggest meltdown to come from the Japan earthquake was the reaction to Alec Sulkin's joke on twitter.

Some people, of course, were offended. If you look over his history of tweets and the stuff he's written for Family Guy, it's a pretty safe bet that people are offended by his stuff all the time. The criticism of this tweet can't just be that it's the "most" offensive thing he's written, because who cares if it's his most offensive work? Think about it: do we make a big deal when anyone does something worse than anything they've ever done before? No. We only care when people do things worse than anyone has done before.

So is this the most offensive joke every told? The most offensive tweet ever tweeted? No. Is it the earliest joke about Japan that got this much attention? Yes. And that reaction—whether you defend it or dismiss^† it—is the doing of the people who were offended. Offended by this joke being too early. And probably more specifically, offended that Sulkin said he was willing to laugh in their temple. The temple of feeling bad.

Some of Sulkin's critics have been calm, and tried to analyze humor. Like this thought from The Comedy Bureau:

Lesson: don’t make jokes in the “never too early” spirit of trying to be as controversial as possible just for the sake of being as controversial as possible, thinking the shock itself is what’s funny. Make jokes because the accepted inconsistency or overlooked false assumption is legitimately funny.

Decent advice, but unnecessary if you're OK with offending people. And sure, the shock is part of what's funny, but that's not the only way Sulkin's joke works.

Some responses have been less analytical and have just tried to express judgement. Like this contribution from from Kasey Anderson:

Always good when stuff like this weeds out the assholes of the world.

Using Anderson's comment as a springboard, Danforth France mixes some analysis with some judgement:

It fails as a joke because it doesn’t say anything true. It makes no point. It shines a light on nothing. If it’s meant to be taken humorously, it reveals a basic ignorance of the subject he’s joking about and THAT is offensive all by itself.

France makes some key claims that—for me—explain the difference in our reactions. He doesn't believe Sulkin said anything true. I disagree. I don't want to get too heavy into an analysis of the nature and structure of humor, but I do see that Sulkin's quote makes a statement about national memory, the history of nations, the nature of pity, the sins of the father, and the size of the world. Yes. Seriously. I'm not saying whether or not he thought all that, but at the very least his instinctual comic ear was picking up those tones.

France also wonders if the tweet was "meant to be taken humorously." Really? Does he think it's at all likely that Sulkin was serious? His argument continues with an attempt at statistical proof that the premise of the joke is flawed and he tries to take down Sulkin based on a logical claim about what numbers should make us feel bad for who.

Let's back up and repeat: It's ridiculous to believe that Sulkin is really claiming that this tragedy is payback for Pearl Harbor, or that the number of people killed in the attack 70 years ago is actually a mitigation on the toll of the earthquake. France is putting a lot of energy into making a point that nobody has actually disputed, unless you take the joke as a straightforward claim, meant to be taken seriously.^†

He claims not to be interested in a discussion of "offensiveness or sensitivity or free speech or comedy theory," and he says he disregards the humor simply because "it’s a piece of shit joke." That's disingenuous. Is he out there calling out every joke he thinks is poorly written? It's no coincidence that the joke he's judging most harshly is also being called offensive.^† And his very next post he claims a position of "Moral rectitude." He clearly believes this is more than just about the quality of a joke. Unless he believes the quality of a joke is a moral issue.^†

Nobody has brought up the issue of harm done by Sulkin's joke, because nobody would be stupid enough to claim there is any. This isn't an issue that society is struggling with more urgently than all other evils. There's no current campaign of bigotry directed at the Japanese that this humor is making worse. There's no tinderbox of Japanese relations that inflammatory speech might set ablaze. There's no risk that jokes like this will make people afraid to help. There's really no risk.

Sulkin has made jokes about child abduction, D-Day, AIDS, rape, rape, incest (of the rape kind)… And people have laughed at them like they're meant to. The only stance that can claim this is now a moral issue, or that this simple joke is more contemptible than any other joke Sulkin has made, is one born almost entirely of the audience's demand that he not make light of their current emotional state. That's a fair (if silly) request. But it's no basis for a claim about his character or humor that you were never driven to make before.

Update:
Sulkin has apologized for the tweet and deleted it from his timeline, posting

Yesterday death toll = 200. Today = 10 thousand. I am sorry for my insensitive tweet. It's gone.

---

†I have done some minor editing of this post to make some claims more precise and specific. The emended passages are marked.

Gallagher Collapses During MN Show

Comedian Leo Anthony Gallagher collapsed on stage and was taken to a hospital Thursday night, according to the Associated Press.

Chris Blade, who was at the show, told a local reporter that Gallagher was complaining of pain and shortness of breath. Others in attendance confirm the appearance of a stroke or heart attack. No confirmations have come from doctors or the hospital.

No one reported hearing "Aw C'mon Gallagher!" as he was wheeled away.

Marc Maron tweeted: "I heard about Gallagher. I hope he is all right"

Steven Wright Joins Twitter.

Steven Wright, the master of one-liners, is now on twitter. The 140 character limit is a good test of someone's ability to whittle the elements of a joke down to the tightest form. And if a good one-liner is like a molecule of funny, Wright is the Enrico Fermi of jokes.

But the master of the short joke has been telling a story for about a week, with a series of to-be-continued tweets including one (so far) that is goes beyond 140 characters. He's being surreal and unpredictable as usual.

Comedy Central: "Give It Up for Greg Giraldo" to Air March 18

Comedy Central has announced "Give It Up for Greg Giraldo," a tribute that will feature "never-before-aired, behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the late comedian himself." Also featured will be interviews with several guests, including Jon Stewart, Conan O’Brien, Dave Attell, Sarah Silverman, Colin Quinn and more. The special airs March 18 at 11:30PM ET/PT.

Giraldo, who died last September of a drug overdose, was an important part of Comedy Central's voice, doing stand-up specials, appearing on panel programs, killing at roasts, and providing much of the most reliably intelligent and funny comedy on the network. His death was deeply felt in the comedy community.

Giraldo's absence was noted more than once at the very recently filmed Roast of Donald Trump. Before the event, his writing partner and friend Jesse Joyce reportedly had a joke so "evil" that he believed only Giraldo could have made it work.

Mike DeStefano: "It's a Laugh That's Riddled With Shame."

Reflecting now on the work Cringe Humor did with Mike DeStefano, Patrick Milligan writes:

You were the epitome of Cringe Humor. The definiton of this brand of entertainment that I have dedicated myself to.

I will never forget how honest you were.

DeStefano did an interview with Cringe Humor in 2006. He says early in the conversation "One of the things that is important to me is to make comedy out of shit that's not funny already." It's a good mission they shared. And that's one of the best definitions of not being a hack.

The half-hour phone conversation is posted on YouTube.

David Koechner's New Series Premieres on College Humor

David Koechner's new series “Always Open with David Koechner” is now open, with David Koechner. A series of short interview/interactions with what looks like a promising list of guests: Sarah Silverman, Will Forte, Amy Poehler, and more (watch the trailer). The first episode is out, and Jason Bateman joins in with his usual charm and amazing timing. Thank goodness Silver Spoons didn't break him.

Mike DeStefano Dies

(mikedestefano.com)

Mike DeStefano died March 6 from a heart attack. His management confirmed the news with a statement sent to Punchline Magazine.

We are indeed incredibly saddened by the loss of this amazing man. He had touched the lives of many with his unique brand of comedy and was looking forward to sharing the same with so many more. Mostly, we will all miss his huge heart and incredibly loving and selfless passion for people.

At Cringe Humor, Chris Italia writes

Mike had become a brother to us, the shock and the sadness that comes from this will be felt forever. Mike was the epitome of what Cringe Humor stands for. Always real. Always True. Always Funny. We’ll be updating the site with any information.

The bulk of DeStefano's fame came just last year after his exposure on Last Comic Standing. His act was dark, blunt, and hilarious. Much of his material came from his experience of dealing drug addiction, losing his wife, and living with HIV. He recently finished a successful run of his show Drugs, Disease and Death: A Comedy.

Alien Fudge Hits the Airwaves

Joff Thompson, whom I wrote about a while ago, shares the first episode of Alien Fudge, broadcast on BBC Radio Oxford.

It's a nice mix of short pieces of radio theatre. Some good low-key absurdist bits. I hope to hear a lot more.

How great is it that the radio broadcast radius is no longer a barrier to hearing the programming? I think this internet thing has a future.



Link to Part 2 of 3

Link to Part 3 of 3

MC Mr Napkins: The Trouble with Bees.

MC Mr. Napkins, known to his cousins as Zach Sherwin, released The Album last November, eliciting critical acclaim for his rap-style music-songs. (Available on iTunes)

He's gaining a lot of good attention lately, and the college circuit seems to be treating him well. A little over a week ago I caught his show at a small college halfway between Chicago and Indianapolis: right at the center of nowhere. The tiny Catholic school of maybe a thousand students struggled to eke together an audience for the remote ballroom on the edge of campus. But when Sherwin hopped up on stage, he showed not only full enthusiasm and dedication to doing a good show, but an added specific interest in the people who came.

And he did hop. He's got the energy to show commitment and confidence. He's goofy with skills. Animated but calm. There's a meek aggression in his material. He's created a character that is at one point scared by a stinging bee, and at another, driven to a violent madness by a spelling bee. He's self-deprecating with the assurance that it works for him. And that translates well both on stage and off.

It takes a tiny bit of nudging to get him to admit that he's a musician. When asked about his musical background he says he had none, then he deflects the question by telling me that the music tracks are all layed down by Upryz (or as his cousins call him, Dan Fox). But when pushed to acknowledge that his rapping is a musical ability, Sherwin admits having taken some mediocre guitar lessons: "He just showed me the shape of the blues scale then said, 'Now play a solo.'" And he adds "But I guess I've just always loved hip-hop." He obviously respects the form and does good job pushing a lot of internal rhyme, consonance, off-rhyme, slant rhyme, and other free rhyme types combined with lots of ambitious syncopation.

In his interview with Lucas Lewis of Punchline Magazine (link above), he explains

You can take on weird topics and my hope is that the flow and rhyme schemes will be really rewarding to listen to and will establish, I hope, my bonafides as not just a guy who figured out how to do like, “buh-buh-buh, cat / buh-buh-buh, hat” — and then wrote songs about dicks.

From what I know about Zach Napkins, I'm guessing he pronounced bonafides with the traditional 4 syllables. And if he reads this, even tho it's pretty obvious, I kinda hope he uses it someday in a rhyme with with "on a fetus."

Language play is a big part of his act, and it should be no surprise to learn that he's a good friend of Myq Kaplan, the two of them even collaborating on a "twofer" twitter-account/joke-structure/word-puzzle. Kaplan got his masters in Linguistics, and I can't help but wonder if he's the one that introduced Sherwin to the word "Antepenultimate." Linguists use that word all the time. That's just how we roll. Word-stress to your mother.

More than anything tho, the quality of Sherwin's comedy comes from the likelihood that if you listen to it repeatedly, you'll keep noticing something new. He puts a lot of comedy of different styles in there, so you can't predict what angle he'll attack from. Kinda like that bee.

Here's his video for Krav Maga. Directed by Jay Karas.

Bob Saget Live at Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa

Hey Florida friends, Bob Saget's gonna be at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa, Sunday March 13. The show starts at 8PM, but you can get in at 7.*

Saget's well past the stage where people who see his act are surprised that he says dirty words. To a lot of people, he's still the guy that was on that show, but his audiences all pretty much expect him to swear and tell filthy stories and be the type of comic that doesn't belong on ABC Family.

If you want to see the depths of his depravity, go rent The Aristocrats. If you don't know the joke, google it first, then decide if you can put up with an hour and a half of "that." If you decide you're into it, Saget's contribution won't disappoint. And to hear one of my favorite stories about him, listen to the commentary track with Paul Provenza and Penn Jillette.

Of the three Comedy Central Roasts currently available on Netflix instant, Saget's is probably the best. He's a very good sport about it, and the jokes push all sorts of boundaries. The best set of the roast is Norm MacDonald's, and in my mind, Saget earns a lot of points for being one of the few people who apparently genuinely enjoyed it from the start.

Tickets for the Tampa show are $40 for general admission (plus a fee, you know… for the sake of convenience) and are available from Ticketmaster. No one under 18 allowed. Saget can't be trusted with them.

---

*Having trouble reading the small print on the poster? Well here's the important stuff:

Player’s Club Members who have been banned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida or opted into the self-exclusion program are prohibited from attending.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, please call 1.888.ADMIT.IT.

…but maybe not until after the show.

Craig Ferguson Swears Off Sheen Jokes

I worked hard to avoid watching any coverage of the OJ trial. I know. That's a timely reference. And I haven't worked that hard to avoid any media blitz since then, until the last week or so. Now I'm avoiding the Charlie Sheen thing. So far, I only know that he does a lot of drugs and porn stars (or strippers or hookers). And I guess "winning" is important. I've seen that word all over the place. But that's it. I don't know what "winning" means. I haven't heard or read or seen the quote.

And it's not because Sheen deserves a break. It's not out of respect for him. It's not out of a moral stance. It's not because I'm above that. I'm really not. Instead of watching Charlie Sheen interviews, I'm watching Netflix and Hulu and trying to come up with one-liners for one of my three Twitter accounts. I'm not above anything.

The whole story just looks really boring. Repetitive. Contrived. Irrelevant. It wouldn't be funny. It wouldn't be entertaining. It would feel like wasted of time. So I avoid it. I feel exactly about the story as I do about his sitcom. Except that he gets paid millions to do his sitcom, so I believe that's a far greater sin.

I don't watch Craig Ferguson regularly, but a friend recently mentioned his statement about choosing not to ogle at Sheen's meltdown. I respect Ferguson's take on this because I believe he's avoiding the jokes out of a certain integrity that he has expressed before, regarding Britney Spears' meltdown. He wants his comedy to help. To take-down the powerful. To drill at real problems that affect everyone. To make useful statements.

And as respectable as all that is: what I respect most about his embargo is that he's emptying his quiver of an exploding-tip arrow. That doesn't make him a good marksman (not while he's using those hand-puppets to open the show) but it is a move in the right direction.



But I don't feel sorry for Sheen. He's a big boy and he's going after what he wants right now. And he's getting it. Easily. In large amounts.

Some people might want to argue that he's not really happy. Like that means anything. Is this sustainable? Nothing is. Is he going to burn out? Everyone does. Will he make it to heaven? Only Oprah knows.