Before They Get Stale: Tracy Morgan, Jim Carrey and Wanda Sykes

Both Patton Oswalt and Tracy Morgan talk about their New York Comedy Festival shows. Morgan says, “People get it twisted… It’s not about material; it’s about you as a person – are you a funny person.” [NY Times]

Jim Carrey’s new website makes me feel like I’m tripping balls. [Jim Carrey]

Aziz Ansari talks about the standing ovations in his upcoming special, "some people might say, ‘Wait a second, it looks like it was edited to look like there were 53 standing ovations,’ but that’s not the case.” [Entertainment Weekly]

Kumail Nanjiani talks to The Sound of Young America. [Maximum Fun]

Elizabeth Beckwith has a new book coming out called Raising The Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation. Click on the links for an excerpt and the book trailer respectively. [Vanity Fair, YouTube]

Wanda Sykes talks about the diversity of the writing staff on The Wanda Sykes Show, "It’s 50/50 on men/women, and also African-American/white writers, it’s the same thing." [AV Club]

Mental health groups are offended by a mock hanging in an episode of The Office. Is it weird that a lot of people are essentially paid to get offended by things on TV? [E! Online]

Derrick Comedy has a new original short up. It's been so long, guys! Also, Mystery Team is slowly expanding to theaters across the country. Support it, so it can get a national release! [/film]

Julianne Moore is going to guest star on 30 Rock, because it's her turn now. [Entertainment Weekly]

Ricky Gervais At The New York Comedy Festival

As part of the New York Comedy Festival coverage, I had the distinct privilege of sitting down with one of my personal heroes, Ricky Gervais. Yeah. That's right. This Ricky Gervais.

Even though it'd only been two nights of coverage so far, I was already feeling a little haggard. Slight patches of hair were blossoming over my face like weeds on a dying field of grass. And I had to go meet with Ricky Gervais in those conditions, wearing the same underwear I'd had on for a million days straight (TMI!)

Considering the fact that he's a super genius at TV, and he should be in charge of all the TV shows, I decided to play a game with him where I gave him fake titles for TV shows and he'd pitch me the concept. Here are the ones he came up with:

My Sack of Kids

"I think it's set in the future. It's a sitcom, but set in the future, where they tax – there could be overcrowding- but they tax you if you get a kid, like in China. So what people do is they secretly have them, but if they're not exactly how they want, they throw them away. So someone comes around and collects them all and they leave them outside the hospital. It's a weird sitcom. It's on late. I'll give you that. Tim Allen would be perfect. He's the investigator who knows what's going on."

Catholic Rodeo

"They train choir boys to be really flexible and the Catholic priests try to enter them. It's a late night reality show."

Cake Subordinate

"[Laughter] I don't even wanna mess with that. That's just a great title." (Ed Note: I just included this one to brag about making Ricky Gervais laugh)

That Fucking Cat!

"That's a drama series. It's about something else, but every day, when the guy gets home, he's a cop who had to give up his badge because the drinking got to him. He goes without a badge. He doesn't need a badge. It's sort of hardcore. He comes home every night. He sits down and has a drink and he looks around and his cat has shat everywhere. And he just goes, 'That fucking cat.'"

(more…)

Web Redemption: Trampled Cheerleader

From the Tosh.0 blog…

The trampled cheerleader gets another chance to "work it, hey hey, yeah, work it" without getting run over by a football team.

Want more redemption? Head over to our Web Redemptions category to catch all the redeeming moments you may have missed.

And don't forget to check in tomorrow at noon when we'll post the Trampled Cheerleader's extended interview, featuring even more insight into how it feels to get bowled over by a football team!

Live-Action Futurama Poster

A live-action Futurama movie has about as much chance of becoming a reality as a Lucy Liubot, but it still makes for an awesome fan-made poster. It's almost as cool as this artist's rendering of a real-life Futurama from last year.

[Via The Daily What]

Futurama airs weeknights at 1am / 12c.

Jon Stewart's Pitch-Perfect Glenn Beck Impression

From Indecision…

When I heard Glenn Beck had appendicitis, I thought there were only a few reasonable culprits. A vengeful God certainly came to mind. It could have also been the last dying act of the tattered remnants of Beck's conscience. But what if it's bigger than that? What if it's bigger than all of us? Fortunately, Jon Stewart was willing to ask the tough questions last night.

The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday at 11pm / 10c.

Greg Behrendt Is That Guy From That Thing

You probably know Greg Behrendt as the author of the best-selling He's Just Not That Into You, but did you also know he's a popular stand-up? You did? What are you, Greg Behrendt's official biographer? Oh, you are? I feel so silly now. Why, no, I didn't know Greg Behrendt used to be roommates with David Cross. That's fascinating. Well, I'm sure you've already seen this, but here's a clip from Greg Behrendt: The Guy From That Thing, premiering tonight at 12am / 11c.

Another clip from the special can be seen after the jump.

(more…)

Colbert Puts Canadian Iceholes On Notice

Canada is sneaky. That's a fact. They sit up there quietly minding their own business, almost never even bombing the shit out of any third-world countries. Half the time I mistake them for Minnesota's big backyard. But that's just what they want. After all, if we forget they exist, we'll never suspect them of sabotaging our speedskaters.

Click here to donate to the US Speedskating team.

The Colbert Report airs Monday through Thursday at 11:30pm / 10:30c.

Video Reporting From The New York Comedy Festival's Stand Up For Heroes Event

Do you guys know those Smirnoff Ice commercials where all those hipsters fill that pool with foam and cardboard and then are all like, "We were there. Be there." That's what I felt like backstage at the New York Comedy Festival's Stand Up For Heroes event, like a corporately co-opted hipster awash in a pool of Lisa Lampanelli and Stephen Colbert. I was there. But now you too can be there, through the magic of this three minute video I made for you guys.

As promised, I'm going to keep the New York Comedy Festival reporting coming, so stay tuned for more interviews and junk!

Before They Get Stale: Zach Galifianakis, Aziz Ansari and Kristen Wiig

Zach Galifianakis is attached to a Shrek sequel in which he'll play Humpty Dumpty. It's all part of Hollywood's plan to have Galifianakis appear in every movie ever. [In The News]

Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie on their U.S. tour, "It was overwhelming. Really, really ecstatic audiences and some really crazy moments – like some slightly Beatles moments with people chasing the bus" [Independent]

As the decade winds down, some wonderful nerds are making some wonderful lists of their favorite shows of the decade. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report both made it onto this one! [Paste]

Aziz Ansari on his early years, "I was the only minority in my whole school… if you're a funny kid, that makes you a little more accepted. I pretty much became the class clown." [National Post]

Just as the news of the Onion/Comedy Central show hit your ears and brains, I discovered this New York Times profile of America's finest news source. [NY Times]

Doug Stanhope talks about being difficult to manage, "Things I think are fantastically funny and things to do at night are reprehensible to people the next day." [Comic's Comic]

Kristen Wiig read from Suzanne Somers's poetry. If the beautiful words coming through your headphones are too much for you, put the video on pause for a second and take a breath. You know, take it step by step. [Best Week Ever]

John Hodgman: Master of In-Car Martial Arts

Now, I know you've seen a lot of videos of guys kicking Fresca bottles off other guys' heads in 2006 Hyundais. Videos of guys kicking Fresca bottles off other guys' heads in 2006 Hyundais are the Keyboard Cat of Q4 2009. But trust me when I say, before you declare videos of guys kicking Fresca bottles off other guys' heads in 2006 Hyundais to be completely played out, you owe it to yourself to take a look at this video of John Hodgman kicking a Fresca bottle off a guy's head in a 2006 Hyundai.

Why did he do that? Well, as with everything John Hodgman has ever done, it turns out this was an attempt to outdo The RZA.

The other half of this interview can be found after the jump. Meanwhile, John Hodgman's book More Information Than You Require is now in paperback.

(more…)