With all of the hype about "Snooki"'s new book, you may not have noticed that comedian Roseanne Barr's third book also is on sale this week (sorry, Patton Oswalt, but you're too smart for TV promos this week, apparently).
And Roseanne has been doing press to promote her new tome, "Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm." She was on Good Morning America this morning, and did a separate interview airing tonight for Nightline (you have your hit sitcom on ABC, and ABC still gets the spoils). She also answered questions for USA Today. Interestingly, the reality of Roseanne's life is different depending upon who's asking the questions. For USA Today, Roseanne lives in California, has gained and lost 14,000 pounds, and had 50,000 Facebook friends (which isn't actually a thing you can have on Facebook). For ABC, Roseanne is in "self-imposed exile in Hawaii" and has lost and gained 16,000 pounds. Only a ton of difference there.
While you sort that out, you can see and hear Roseanne get mad at Sarah Palin for ripping off her "domestic goddess" persona for evil.
Wyatt Cenac may not have performed stand-up on last night's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but he did drop some comedy knowledge bombs on Fallon and the audience. Such as: Cenac interned at SNL in the days before Fallon!
He also let it be known that he's taping his own stand-up comedy special this Jan. 22, 2011, at the Skirball Center at NYU. No link available yet for tickets. I'll post it here when it's up. Presumably, this is for Comedy Central, although neither Cenac nor Fallon mentioned the network by name.
What did you do with your time off over the holidays? Looks like SNL new kid Jay Pharoah stepped into a recording studio to lend a few of his impersonations for a Money Making Jam Boys mixtape. How many of Pharoah's voices would you like to hear and see more of on the TV?
However you may have felt about the first season of Funny or Die Presents on HBO, well, get ready to remember and relive those feelings later this month, because the second season is a lot more of the same. And then some.
Getting an early look at the first three episodes of season two (debuting Jan. 14, Jan. 21 and Jan. 28, respectively), I can assure you that the one major problem from season one has been dispensed with -- there does not appear to be any idea that has been cut up and diluted into serial episodes. The recurring ideas all can stand on their own. Not that they all should, mind you.
For instance, starting off the season with Deepak Chopra as Rob Huebel's guest in the first installment of his series, "Do You Want To See A Dead Body?", isn't exactly an inspired decision. Remember how much you laughed along with Chopra in The Love Guru? Exactly. Huebel fares better later in the season when he gets Ben Stiller to tag along. And here Huebel is with former NFL player Warren Sapp.
The second-season premiere hits the mark much better with Ben Schwartz's "Terrible Decisions," as well as the sublime and ridiculously NSFW turns by Seth Morris and June Diane Raphael as Lt. Ducca and Det. Phuk in "United States Police Department" (who appear again in the second episode). The recurring "Re-enactments of Actual Conversations from the Ladies Rooms of Hollywood" featuring Andrea Savage are predictably insufferable, while the voice-over action figure sketch, "Brick Novax's Diary," is, well, what is it?
But that's what you get with Funny or Die Presents. Just as in its first season, each episode includes something that'll make you laugh out loud, something that makes you want to flip the channel, and something else that makes you wonder what in the world is happening.
Episode two (aka Episode #14) pairs Brett Gelman with a parrot in the over-the-top Funny or Die Movie of the Week: "Paco Dances," and ends with Mitch Magee getting his old video series, "Welcome To My Study," on the TV with the first of four new installments.
Tim & Eric fans will delight in knowing the duo makes a cameo in their own short directing Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as wild animals in episode three (aka Episode #15) with "John and Will's Animal Choices."
David and Jennie return, too, with more of their "amazing adventures." And Adam West proves he never was Leslie Nielsen as he gets a short recurring bit reciting classic pick-up lines to the camera.
Oh, and get ready to welcome back Ed Halligan to your TV as the channel's fictional VP of marketing and sales is back as the host, appearing in between the multiple previews and introductory pieces for each episode. But if you were expecting something else, then you were expecting too much. As they have Halligan say at the end of this season's debut: "Well, from Funny or Die, that's all we have tonight. I think you got your money's worth. On the off chance, though, that you think you didn't, well, there's not much you can do about it. That boat sailed a long time ago. And I own that boat. I got it with the money you just wasted."
What do you get if you're the first stand-up comedian to perform on a late-night TV show in 2011? Do you win a prize? If you're Matt Braunger, then you win this clip of your performance last night on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Roll it!
As you may recall, January is stand-up comedy month at Comedy Central, which means it's almost time to start seeing the new season of half-hour Comedy Central Presents, and it's time, like it or not, for your favorite comedians (and some you don't favor) to curry favor with you on Twitter, Facebook and however else you receive pleas for votes for the annual "Stand-Up Showdown."
But wait. There's more.
You read the headline. John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show returns for a second season on March 24, 2011, but Oliver and his friends will tape their episodes over three nights this month -- Jan. 14-16 -- at NYU's Skirball Center. Lineups are still being finalized, but so far, we know that Greg Behrendt, Pete Holmes and Maria Bamford will serve as the three show headliners. If you're 18 or older and will be in the NYC area during those nights, you can ask for tickets to watch the tapings here.
If you were out and about on New Year's Eve, then perhaps you didn't know that MTV had employed several comedians to help end your 2010 with some ha-has. Whitney Cummings did an admirable job hosting the live portions, considering she had to do so alongside the cast of Jersey Shore -- while JWOWW lived up to her name, Mike "The Situation" looked like he would have been better off not showing up (as he had threatened).
Meanwhile, the MTV New Year's Eve broadcast opened big with Bobby Moynihan's impersonation of "Snooki" mirroring and then making out with the little orange demon herself. Roll the clip!
Later on, Nick Kroll inhabited his own Jersey-type character, Bobby Bottleservice, to "summerize" the year that was 2010. How was he not added to the cast in time for season three? Roll it!
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