the comic's comic

"We're Not Gonna Take It," Jimmy Fallon's 6-bee crew sings off against cast of "Parks and Recreation"

Jimmy Fallon and his NBC crew teased that this would be worth watching, and it totally was, for a variety of reasons in addition to the one you're thinking of. For one thing, this is a nine-minute filmed musical production on a late-night talk show, that flew in almost all of the cast of NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation (only missing Aziz Ansari and Paul Schneider?), with additional appearances by SNL's Abby Elliott and Fred Armisen on an active SNL week, plus The Roots, and several writers and staffers of Fallon's, including head writer A.D. Miles. That was more than one thing. Quite an all-star mash-up. Million miles better than the We Are The World remake-that-wasn't.

This certainly explains why Nick Offerman was performing stand-up at various city shows this week. Offerman's Ron Swanson is in it, plus Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Jim O'Heir and Retta. Just another reason why Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is finding its own place in the late-night TV landscape quite nicely in year two. OK. Enough from me. Roll the clip!

A.D. Miles presents "Hot Sluts"

Before A.D. Miles headed up the writing staff for NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, but after he had completed his true-to-its-word online mockery of soap operas, Horrible People, he wrote and produced a second Internet series for you to enjoy. Showing his true understanding of how the Internet works, Miles presents for your pleasure...Hot Sluts. The Atom.com series, co-written with Joe Lo Truglio and starring Alison Brie (stuck in a terrible TV marriage as Trudy Campbell in Mad Men), is set in a seedy nightclub called Scenario's (where anything can happen!), and "sort of borrows from the sexploitation women-in-prison films of the 70s and 80s, but I don't think anyone under 35 will ever get that," Miles told C.J. Arabia earlier this year. "So hopefully super hot girls in skimpy outfits who stab each other for no reason will be enough to get people to tune in." Done, and done.

All five episodes went online yesterday, and you can enjoy them all...after the jump. Did we mention mature content? Alrighty then. You asked for this, Internet, and now you have it: "Hot Sluts."

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon: Debut review

Settle down, everybody. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon debuted on NBC overnight, and we already knew that the show's debut would bring in higher ratings (2.3 rating, 8 share in metered markets, compared to Conan's final season average of 1.7, according to the network -- full ratings info available Thursday), that Jimmy Fallon would be nervous, that the crowd would be excited, and that all late-night shows will evolve into something else over time (see: Conan, Kimmel, Ferguson). So, again I type, settle down, everybody. Your reviews are not helping anyone really. Although, in the name of truth-telling, it should be acknowledged that some casual viewers tune in to the debut of any show and make snap judgments about whether to become regular viewers. For them, and for you, some thoughts.

Cold Open: Perfect. Just perfect. Opening cold (just like SNL), viewers still expecting to see Conan O'Brien indeed saw Conan O'Brien, packing up his things in what is now Fallon's dressing room, to literally hand the show off to him. And they get to make a jab about the fact that Jay Leno is not leaving.

Monologue: Fallon managed to handle the hyper teen audience with some ad-libs, proving Lorne Michaels right for telling Fallon to spend much of 2008 on the road in comedy clubs to prepare for heckling and all sorts of nonsense like this. The jokes themselves had some moments, too (Disclosure: I know of and am a fan of some of Fallon's writers, and could pick out a couple of their selections), but things really got interesting when the monologue segued into...

Watch all of Childrens' Hospital on TheWB.com

Rob Corddry's master online opus, Childrens' Hospital, debuted Monday on The WB's site, and within the first 30 seconds of the first of 10 episodes, you realize this is nowhere near safe for viewing at work. You'll also quickly see that it's ridiculous. And you'll want to watch all 10 episodes in a row. Lake Bell provides the narration. Look for Nick Kroll as a patient in episode four, a "very special" episode six directed by Cutter Spindell (aka Corddry). The hospital staff includes Rob's younger brother, Nate Corddry, Rob Huebel, Erinn Hayes, Ken Marino, Ed Helms, Megan Mullally, Jason Sudeikis, Seth Morris and more. David Wain is listed as an executive producer. This is much sillier than Wainy Days, though, so you really should be watching this already and asking when we can see more! Behold, the healing power of laughter...

Season 3 of Wainy Days

Season three of David Wain's online comedy series, Wainy Days, debuted today on My Damn Channel. A.D. Miles returns as one of Wain's friends to help him out of a jam. Will Wain find love and happiness this season? He already starts out with two dates in one night, so...enjoy the palm trees in New York City!

Horrible People season finale!

Could you imagine an entire 10-episode Web series that began and ended within one very NSFW engagement party? A.D. Miles did, and it was Horrible People, which unveils its season finale tonight. Turds! The End? Speaking of the end: Wow. Nicely done. Did not see that coming. Not so nicely done: Whereas the ironic Horrible People pop-up ads added humor, the actual pop-up ads every minute did not. What's the deal, My Damn Channel? Here's episode #10 of 10.

Online videos and the rebranding of Sony's CSpot

Crackle arrived on the scene during the great online comedy video gold rush of 2007 in which many sites appeared but few managed to grab permanent hold on our collective consciousness. Remember This Just In (HBO/AOL) and Dot Comedy (NBC)? Of course you don't, unless you worked for those sites or knew someone who did. Not your fault. A flood of online comedy videos have arrived, all vying for your short attention spans. When you're looking for a funny video, or merely a distraction from work or study, where do you go? And if you're hoping to attract those viewers, how do you go about it and whom do you have on your team to represent you? The calculated and sometimes mad dash to scoop up talent was on.  (CollegeHumor and The Onion already had built-in readerships they could turn into viewerships.)

The new sites that remain all rely on the comedic weight of their talent rosters.

My Damn Channel found crossover success in Harry Shearer's Found Objects series that shows how big shots can seem rather small when the cameras continue to roll, and carved out a niche with series from David Wain and A.D. Miles. Wainy Days is up for a Webby Award, too.

Funny or Die went the celebrity route and made a big splash with Will Ferrell. Their continued use of celebrities keeps it in daily contention.

Super Deluxe (TBS) hoped that dedicating money and long-term series commitments to up-and-coming comedians would pay off. That big score hasn't quite happened yet, though you can find many performers on the site who certainly deserve the exposure.

What was supposed to make Crackle stand out amid the competition was the backing of Sony Pictures Entertainment, as well as "the hottest emerging talent on the web and beyond" (Where is this beyond? Is it the near the bed and the bath? Oh nose.) Except Crackle didn't quite, well, pop. Snap? The Minisode Network did and does have its merits. Anyhow. Crackle went back to the online drawing board and returned in the past month with a slate of new series and a new channel to showcase them: CSpot. Mondays see Hot Hot Los Angeles (a Southern Californian soap spoof); Tuesdays, The Writers Room (featuring actual TV writers and a weekly conference call from Kevin Pollak discussing his not-so-actual show); Wednesdays, Gaytown (Owen Benjamin's travails in a town ruled by gay people); Thursdays, the animated Roadents; Fridays,  Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (spoofing Asian stereotypes). The Los Angeles Times liked what it saw, and reports that the series get to work with a $10,000 budget per episode. The series all have small viewerships so far, though they're finding more success over on YouTube. There's also channels for Penn Jillette and The Purple Onion. I'm not sure the CSpot is quite as unique as the LAT reporter found it to be, but there are jewels to be found in this rough.

Here is the most recent episode of Owen Benjamin's Gaytown:

From Crackle: Gaytown: Episode 4

Horrible People #9

It's the penultimate episode of this horrible online spoof of horrible soap operas, so why am I linking to it? Because that's what I do. Apparently. Only one more episode remains! Enjoy.

Human Giant: Reenactment

Remember that "Crimetime" sketch that Human Giant has screened for a year now but had trouble getting on the air? You can remember them talking about it at the UCB in December 2007. Well, here it is, as seen in the second season currently airing on MTV.

Coincidentally, the guys from Human Giant talk shop at 6 p.m. today at the Paley Center for Media. A new episode airs at 11 p.m. tonight, and you can see all of their sketches here.

Mon Dieu! Horrible People #8

If it's Monday, it must be time to check in on the satirical, definitely NSFW soap opera, Horrible People. Now with subtitles! Pardon my French, s'il vous plait. Merci. I mean, mercy! With a bilingual bit from Bobby Tisdale, as well.

Horrible People #7

The latest episode of the NSFW soap opera satire Horrible People is available for your viewing pleasure and/or disgust and/or mock outrage:

P.S. Andrea Rosen, nice credit!

Speed Freaks: A.D. Miles on fire for Comedy Central!

Yes, that's comedian A.D. Miles, on fire, running away from an exploding mobile home. The photo comes courtesy of director Michael Blieden, who worked with Miles and Zach Galifianakis
on the pilot "Speed Freaks" for Comedy Central. As Blieden notes on his site, The Claw Productions: "This image has not been photoshopped at all, so yes, A.D. Miles was really on fire. Zach totally kept his cool, and the camera you see in the center of the frame was shooting slow motion. We had only one take to get this right and as you can see there were a lot of elements to coordinate."

For further evidence, here is the description of the pilot episode from Comedy Central's development slate for 2008/2009:
"Speed Freaks"
A scripted show starring Zach Galifianakis and A.D. Miles about two small town losers who are on the run from a redneck mafia hit-man after blowing up a local meth lab. As they fumble around the south trying to find odd jobs and shelter, the faceless hit-man is always hot on their trail.

Let's hope this gets on the air.

Horrible People #6

The completely NSFW soap opera satire continues. Profanity, masturbation, drinking, racism, juggling and more. This week:

Comedy Central's 2008/2009 project list

Comedy Central has revealed its list of upcoming works and pilots under the modest heading: "The Future of Comedy."

Next year, prepare for a fantasy-comedy set in medieval times, "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire," written by Peter Knight.

The pilots include projects by or featuring Snoop Dogg, Andy Richter, Daniel Tosh, David Alan Grier, Nick Swardson, Paul F. Tompkins, Opie & Anthony, Zach Galifianakis and A.D. Miles. Scripted development deals go out to Bobby Lee, Jordan Rubin, Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter.

And there will be specials. John Oliver's "Terrifying Times" debuts April 20. Carlos Mencia's hourlong "Performance Enhanced" debuts May 18. Brian Regan's yet-untitled special will air in the third quarter of 2008.

Horrible People, episode five

My comedy weekend was so big...(how big was it?)...so big that before I can fully decompress and tell you all about it, I'm going to need you to watch this new episode of A.D. Miles' satiric soap opera that's definitely NSFW because it's Horrible People!

Catching up with Horrible People

Here is episode four of the satirical soap opera...

If you need further catching up first, episode three is after the jump.

Episode 2 of Horrible People

The melodrama mockery continues on this second episode of Horrible People, thanks to creator A.D. Miles and a couple of cameos from Bobby Tisdale and Kurt Braunohler. Language NSFW.

Horrible People debuts

The new soap opera satire from A.D. Miles, Horrible People, officially debuted today on My Damn Channel with an episode that lives up to its title. It got a sneak peek screening at last month's ECNY Awards. The Web series also features Kristen Schaal, Mather Zickel and Joe Lo Truglio.