the comic's comic

Jon Stewart, Louis CK doing their part for NYC public schools; something in it for you, too!

Famous funny people, they're just like us! When they have kids, they want to make sure they end up in nice schools, and if the public schools aren't cutting it, they send them to prep school! Or they try to make the public schools better. Witness Jon Stewart and Louis CK. Right now. Witness them!

Exhibit A: Jon Stewart. He and his wife, Tracey, are big on Story Pirates, an organization that promotes literacy in some of our neediest schools (sad but true spoiler alert: many of our schools are neediest schools). Through comedy. Watch Stewart give Larry King a testimonial about Story Pirates:

Now he's lending a hand -- and his very name -- to an upcoming Story Pirates fund-raiser called After School Special, taking place March 21 in NYC at Dixon Place, with Daily Show correspondent John Oliver hosting. Lots of fun things up for bidding in online auctions, including for comedy fans, tickets to SNL, The Colbert Report, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and the Ellen DeGeneres Show -- which in itself, is usually a double prize, seeing how often Ellen hands out goodies to her audiences. Oh, and also one other bid -- You could get Jon Stewart himself to perform with the Story Pirates for your kid's story at the March 21 benefit. This package includes 4 VIP tickets to the event, the performance of your kid's story, and a meet-and-greet with Stewart. Bidding for this package closes at 11:59 a.m. on March 16 (current bid at this posting is $1,150). How high will you go? For your kid?

Exhibit B: Louis CK. He's not only one of our funniest current stand-up comedians, but also a staunch supporter of NYC public schools, volunteering at the school his daughters attend. He has a second fund-raising performance coming up this Sunday, March 14, at Carolines. Get tickets here. As he said, in part: "Public school is, to me, the most important thing in the whole world that actually exists. I seriously mean that. I think it's the solution to almost everything. Obviously, public schools are in big trouble all over the country, and in 'this economy' it's getting much worse. I don't want PS3 to lose more than it has to."

Letterman gets big laughs out of NBC's late-night plight, but who'll get the last laugh?

Because David Letterman tapes his Friday shows early, he didn't have a chance to weigh in on NBC's late-night TV reshuffling -- or as Bill Carter of The New York Times thinks of it, his new book that'll someday make a miniseries sequel of The Late Shift -- until Monday. Don't worry. Letterman wasn't going to keep quiet. And he didn't. In fact, if he didn't already have guests lined up, you almost think he might have spent the full hour taking jabs at the Peacock Network and Jay Leno. From his opening line, when Letterman deadpanned that once again, he had been passed up for The Tonight Show, through the monologue, then to the desk for a full history lesson on NBC's late-night history, it seemed, to his advice suggesting that Jay and Conan share hosting duties so Jay can "tell his little jokes" and still have time to tinker on his old truck or whatever. And of course, Letterman's staff also put together a special Top 10 List There's Signs of Trouble at NBC.

You could tell that Letterman has fondness for Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon, the two guys who have followed him on NBC's Late Night franchise at 12:30 a.m., but no such good will for Leno even after all these years. Here are three segments just from last night's Late Show with David Letterman. Roll 'em! First up, Letterman's monologue:

Letterman reminds us all what happened in previous years at NBC, and offers a couple of suggestions for what to do in 2010 and wicked impersonations of Leno as a guy who just wants to tell his little jokes and tinker on his old truck, or something:

And here's the Top Ten:

Letterman will continue to get great laughs out of this situation in the short-term. But what about the longer term? What will the late-night talk-show landscape look like for the NBC lineup after the Winter Olympics conclude in March?

Let's start with the easiest guy: Jimmy Fallon. Well, actually, Carson Daly's fate is even easier to describe -- the affiliates own the 2 a.m. hour, so he cannot air then, and even if his show did stick around, it has been an odd duck ever since he ditched the semi-live studio audience format (though that was an oddity, too), and Daly always has seemed out of place whenever he strays from being the Dick Clark of our time (even if Ryan Seacrest wants to take that title from Daly). NBC still can have Daly host New Year's Eve specials and let him focus on his strength as a music guy.

Who could replace Jon Stewart on The Daily Show? Here are 14 possibilities

Jon Stewart is back at work on The Daily Show for Comedy Central after three weeks of vacation. But what if he didn't come back? After all, one of these days, he won't. And with all of the talk over on NBC about talk show hosts (as well as the recent announcement that Charles Gibson would retire from the real TV news anchor desk at ABC), well. It got some people, myself included, to thinking. And you now what they say, thinking leads to blogging. Here's a post about 14 potential replacements for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show to get you thinking.

The hidden link between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer?

When Jon Stewart tore into CNBC's business reporting last week on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, and CNBC's Mad Money man Jim Cramer sat there hopelessly acknowledging his mistakes, there was one guy who watched it go down having an insider's perspective from both sides of the conversation. As comedian Jeff Kreisler pointed out to me via email over the weekend: "My guess is I'm the only person that even remotely bridges the gap between Cramer and Stewart."

Here's how: For three years, Kreisler wrote a weekly humor column and video blog, "Funny Money," for Cramer's TheStreet.com (and the person who hired Kreisler, he noted wryly, was Aaron Task -- the guy shown interviewing Cramer in the video in which Cramer says how easy it is to manipulate the markets). He left that gig in 2008, and wrote last year for Comedy Central's Indecision2008 blog. Kreisler, who has been honored with the Bill Hicks Spirit Award and been received well both here in America and over in Edinburgh, acknowledged that in his time working for Cramer, he "never really had much, or any interaction with Cramer himself. I worked remotely, only popping in to occasionally record a video -- yes I've been in that hideous orange studio -- though I did ask him to read my book for a blurb. He refused (perhaps because I mention him as a cheater?). That's fine."

Kreisler has a book coming out in May called Get Rich Cheating (Facebook group), and he quickly points out that he talks about Cramer's manipulation of the markets for his own personal gain on page 249! Of course, there is a part of Kreisler who wishes his book could be bought and read now to take advantage of this hubbub -- but then again, the book's delay came about because his editors wanted him to expand his satire to all of the other real-life cheaters in sports and entertainment, so perhaps it'll have an even easier sell by May. Here, for example, is a video Kreisler shot in February about Alex Rodriguez fessing up about steroid use:

This Week In Cheating: A-Rod - watch more funny videos

Kreisler also is part of a NYC-based group called Shoot The Messenger that has put on a weekly live show spoofing TV's morning news/entertainment programs. Anchored by Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead and stand-up Baron Vaughn, they're filming their live shows tonight and tomorrow (March 17-18) at the Steve Allen Theater in Los Angeles for a possible pilot (info).

All of which made Kreisler view the Stewart-Cramer exchange a little differently. As he explained to me via e-mail yesterday: 

Back to the "showdown," one of the great subtexts was the continuing blurring of the line between news & entertainment. "Infotainment" as we call it on "Shoot The Messenger." Just the fact that I've written comedy for both Cramer & Stewart shows that there's a (dangerous?) overlap. When the comedy show becomes a trusted source for news and the news network provides entertainment, where does one turn? Hell, throw Rush Limbaugh, Coulter, Bill Maher all into the mix of infotainers/opinionsters, too. Cramer has been a wildly successful speaker on college campuses, drawing huge crowds who want to see his shenanigans and hear how easy it is to make money. You know who else built up a huge following on college campuses? Dane Cook. Plenty of people will criticize both for the substance of their "acts," but guess what? They're both really successful, and you cannot deny their savvy for recognizing their market and exploiting it. Yes, the news should be austere and serious and informative, but it's not, and I'm not sure we can blame Cramer for being a fantastically vibrant example of that. We could just stop listening to him and hope he goes away. Which he won't.

Jon Stewart gives Jim Cramer the "Crossfire" treatment

For the past decade, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart has mocked playfully at the conventions of news and politics in a way that has allowed us to see how the world's metaphorical emperors have no clothes when the mainstream media failed to do so. Every so often, though, Stewart himself has gotten so riled up by the failings of the media that he has taken them to task...in their faces. Remember in 2004 when he went on CNN's Crossfire and effectively killed the show? Alas, while Stewart won that battle, he fell far short of removing political hot air from the cable news networks -- in fact, that virus had seemed to spread far and wide during the 2008 election campaign. Last night, Stewart lambasted the financial news networks for turning our collective wealth and now poverty into a sport, with CNBC and Mad Money's Jim Cramer in the hot seat for the full half-hour. In fact, Stewart let Cramer have it for more than a half-hour, so during last night's show, Comedy Central superimposed promos telling you to watch the whole exchange on the Internets. Which we shall allow you to watch in its entireity after the jump.

Do you think this will have a lasting impact on how financial reporters cover our economy? Or will it be a short-term blip on the radar, a la Stewart's Crossfire appearance?

The Daily Show's live inauguration coverage

When I saw The Daily Show with Jon Stewart was going live last night on Comedy Central, at first I lowered my expectations, because their live editions in the past on election nights have been, well, not so funny. And this was the inauguration of President Barack Obama. How would they make us laugh last night? Turns out they did more than just fine. They had help, of course. Dick Cheney in a wheelchair?! The show had Wyatt Cenac reporting live from the Youth Ball, telling us we finally had a cool president, and not merely just the first black president. The rest seemed just like a regular standard funny edition of the show that happened to air live. Jason Jones, after a segment showing Obama's address was more similar to Bush's address than you might think, wailing: "Why is cheese delicious on Italian food, but when you melt it on Chinese food, it's disgusting!?" Bishop Gene Robinson getting in a zinger about queens, and he didn't mean royalty. Watch the full episode here.

Related: Yesterday, Variety also published a full section celebrating Jon Stewart's 10th anniversary with the show.

Why they ask: Can The Daily Show, comedy survive Obama?

On the same day that many mainstream media outlets, and even the new media mainstreamers, were asking if The Daily Show and comedy could survive an Obama administration, they also reported on what kind of puppy the Obamas would bring with them to the White House. Irony is alive and well, people! The old adage says there is no such thing as a stupid question, but this week proves once again that the media is quite apt at asking the lazy and idiotic questions.

Here is a roundup of some reports from Thursday, in which New York magazine and Politico both asked if The Daily Show could continue bringing the funny now that Barack Obama is replacing George W. Bush. The Hollywood Reporter also brings a similar report from the Wednesday night political humor panel at the New York Comedy Festival. The questions are moot. Anyone who watches The Daily Show and The Colbert Report know that their main focus is, and always has been, on mocking the media. Colbert's alter-ego exists as long as Bill O'Reilly and self-centered broadcasters like him continue to exist. And Jon Stewart's show and correspondents only ceded some ground to Bush/Cheney in recent years because their propaganda machine had become a must-mock. So. Why does the media overlook this, even when they reported on the Obama puppy question as if it was an issue of equal importance to, oh, say, our rising unemployment crisis and the recession and our ongoing wars? Because it's easy. Because it's lazy. Because an editor's knees jerk in reaction to eight years of nonsense and wonders what do we do now that we have elected a leader who actually inspires confidence?

Similarly, a Boston Globe story last month tried to posit that comedy as a whole is liberal, going to college professors for proof of such. Right. As if it's an academic question. The fact that right-wing attempts at comedy (see: FOX News 1/2 Hour News Hour or the recent box-office flop, An American Carol) fail is not because they are conservatives, but because they fail at one of the basic tenants of humor -- making sure the audience likes you and is on your side, which is tougher to do when you are the haves making fun of the have-nots. It's something Chris Rock talks about onstage this past year, and in his HBO special, Kill the Messenger. Fat people can joke about skinny bitches, the poor can take down the rich, but if it's the other way around, that's just what a bully does. Are bullies funny? Would you like to see the King and Queen put on a show about how silly the oppressed villagers are? That's not how it was in the olden times. Rather, the Jester made fun of the privileged as well as the masses (particularly if they were from another kingdom), in front of the royal court.

Related: Gawker turns to comedian Jordan Carlos for tips on making fun of Obama.

After the jump, a couple of post-election clips from Comedy Central...

EW covers New Yorker cover with Colbert, Stewart

This is supposed to be funny, right? Of course, they forgot to put the flag in the fireplace. They forgot, right? (side-by-side courtesy of goldenfiddle)

Wyatt Cenac joins The Daily Show

They say when one door closes, another door opens. Usually they say this to console someone. Wyatt Cenac needs not your consolations but instead your congratulations. He probably has gotten over getting passed over by SNL now that he started his new job last night as the newest correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In his first report, he explains why the Democratic primaries actually could have been more exciting. I need a polar bear, too!

Daily Show's "Indecision 2008" to visit Denver, Minneapolis/St. Paul for convention coverage

Comedy Central has announced that The Daily Show with Jon Stewart will hit the road this summer to cover both the Democratic and Republican national conventions as part of its Indecision 2008 coverage.

Shows during Democratic National Convention will tape at The Byron Theatre in the Newman Center for the Performing Arts at The University of Denver (airing Aug. 26-Aug. 29). The following week, the shows will tape from The History Theatre at McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minn. (airing Sept. 2-5). Ticket requests for Denver or for St. Paul.

The show previously covered the national conventions in 2000 and 2004.

Will Ferrell as George Bush, one last time?

Here is Will Ferrell channeling President George W. Bush for a live interview with Jon Stewart during last night's Night of Too Many Stars benefit on Comedy Central.

Watching the Oscars at Comix

The Academy Awards happened last night and much comedy ensued. Or not exactly. But Kambri Crews was nice enough to throw a viewing party at Comix for the night, with her hubby Christian Finnegan hosting. Finnegan noted that the Academy Awards writing staff reached out to several comedians, asking them to submit potential jokes for host Jon Stewart to use in his monologue or later during the ceremony. Here, he reads from a few of his suggestions:

Rejected Oscars jokes
Uploaded by thecomicscomic

Leo Allen made an appearance just before the Oscars got rolling, but Allen didn't stay long after Jon Stewart's monologue, long enough to see none of his jokes got selected but not long enough to see the cameras cut to Allen's comedy partner, Eric Slovin, who had a choice seat behind Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard. How'd he get that seat? As the New York Times might report, anonymous aides thought Slovin's relationship with Best Supporting Actress nominee Amy Ryan might be appropriate. Todd Barry stuck around for the entire ceremony, thought Stewart did a good hosting job, and thoughtfully offered to let me finish his order of Chicken Tender is the Night. That's right. Kambri Crews and the Comix crew had a special menu with new movie names. Among the nods to 2008 nominees: I Eat Your Flank Steak, Banana Cake Blanchett, Juno & Tonic, There Will Be Bloody Marys, No Cosmo For Old Men.

Stewart did well enough, I suppose. A few lame jokes (Harrison Ford, a car dealership?). A few really solid ones -- really enjoyed the line about the Vanity Fair post-Oscar bash. "If you really wanted to show respect for the writers, you could try inviting a few of them to the Vanity Fair Oscar party," or something to that effect. I could look it up for the verbatim (and may well do that). Stewart's nicest touch of the night: Bringing the co-winner for Best Original Song from Once back onstage after a commercial break to let her give her acceptance speech, and then delivering a speech that was worth it.

By the way, here's a fun fact, at least for me and the Oscars: My tenure at the New York Daily News may have been brief, but it did allow me the opportunity to cover the "red carpet" (actually, indoors and hardwood floors) for the New York Film Festival screening of No Country For Old Men, since all of the gossips were out of town or off the clock that night. Which meant I got a few minutes with Javier Bardem, the Coen brothers, Josh Brolin and Kelly MacDonald. All very nice. The Coens really didn't want to talk (surprise!), even when I asked them about the film they were currently shooting in my neighborhood with George Clooney and Brad Pitt.

The Daily Show, back with writers

First of multiple reports from the late-night TV landscape, post WGA strike.

Jon Stewart mentioned the writers first thing, and the show reverted back from "A" Daily Show to The Daily Show..."I believe the finest writing staff in the business," he said. "It's like Christmas morning. From what I've been told." And they opened with...the Westminster dog show. And a quip on the "war on terrier." Stewart moaned. "Really, you've been gone 100 days. This is the s--t you're going to pull?" He then cut to John Oliver in black tie and a monocle for the ultra-Brit caricature. And. Then. We're back to election coverage, what with Tuesday primary election coverage to cover. Larry Wilmore shows up as "senior black correspondent" to process Obama's winning streak as directly related to Black History Month. After the break, "Torture Talk with Jon Stewart," in which he compared Sen. Arlen Specter's opinion on destruction of torture tapes vs. the destruction of New England Patriots tapes. After the break, a guest. No writing involved.

Will update with video when available.

Writers back on Leno, Conan, Stewart, Colbert

The WGA strike officially over, writers expected to report back to work today. So tune in tonight to see how Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert all address their respective returns. Will the writers have anything to say on-air about their hosts trying to go on without them? Hmmm.

Wasting time with Conan, Colbert and Stewart

Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert wasted everyone's viewing time last night with a pre-arranged sketch of sorts that didn't really go anywhere but did manage to 1) get yelps of approval from the audiences at all three shows, and more importantly, 2) sucked a lot of time out of all three late-night shows Monday night and into Tuesday morning. And no, I'm not linking to any of the clips.

Late-night strikewatch

If you haven't already forgotten, the WGA strike continues without a resolution. So count this as a reminder that the late-night chat shows are all on the air.

David Letterman and Craig Ferguson remain the only WGA-approved shows. Comedians on the lineup for Letterman this week? Bill Cosby on Tuesday, Artie Lange on Friday. On Ferguson's show? Denis Leary on Monday, Ryan Sickler on Wednesday, Sebastian Maniscalco on Thursday, Al Madrigal on Friday.

Conan clearly needed last week off (they replayed his visit to Chicago) as he's really tried harder than the others to do a show without writers.

Leno? Ack. Jon Stewart seems to have all of his correspondents back on the air, sometimes with pre-taped segments that may or may not have been in the can pre-strike, but also in the studio and not always improvising. Er. Um. Stephen Colbert has been doubling up on guests to fill time.

The fact that you can watch full episodes of Leno, Conan, "A" Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report online only heighten the tension, because online plays and revenues are part of the heart of the matter in the WGA writers' negotiations with the producers at the AMPTP.

Daily Show correspondents

While NBC openly battles with the WGA over late-night writing duties, Comedy Central has taken a slightly more subtle tack with A Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Although, of course, even while Stewart says he's simply reacting to the photos and videos that pop up onscreen, someone is writing for the show. And in the past couple of days, the correspondents have crept back into the picture. I can understand John Oliver's excuse. On Tuesday, he said he had to show up to keep his work visa valid else he'd get deported back to Britain. Last night, we saw correspondents Aasif Mandvi, Rob Riggle and Jason Jones, too. If they're truly improvising and showing up as actors, not writers, that's allowable, I suppose, though still tricky. There's also a full-fledged segment report from Oliver.

Examine for yourself...

Stewart, Colbert return, strike or no strike

Jon Stewart returned with a unibrow and a title change: A Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He had a Cornell professor in labor relations on as his guest to talk about the WGA strike. Twas all about the strike.

Stephen Colbert had no intro for his intro and no words for his Word.

As these two Comedy Central stalwarts relied the most on writers of any of the late-night chatters, having them come back during the WGA strike undoubtedly created the most awkwardness. Stewart and Colbert managed to maintain their comedic characters while focusing on the awkwardness for these first half-hours back on the air. How long can they keep this up, though? I suppose the same can be said for the strike.

Quotes from Jon Stewart, live in concert

More words and wisdom from Jon Stewart, dispensed onstage Friday night at the Wang Theatre in Boston. On the Wang Center…
"This is, by far, the nicest Wang I've ever seen."
"It sounds like a holistic healing center for your d—…we'll wrap it in kelp."

On gays wanting to be in the St. Patrick's Day parade: "You don't want anything to take away from the dignity of that parade." On gays wanting to be in the Boy Scouts: "Already the gayest organization ever." On gays being an abomination in the Bible: "You what else is an abomination? Shellfish. Where's that sign?!"

Acknowledging his sex talk onstage: "Wha? You're not the nice man from the television show. This s— gets weird when it's live."

On science? "They're working on cloning? We have six billion people…f—ing is working!" "Billions of dollars to make a sheep that looks exactly like another sheep." That's the whole point of sheep, he said. That's why you count them to fall asleep.

On man ruining the planet: "As far as the Earth is concerned, we're a mild case of eczema."

On how Bush gets away with so much: "He doesn't care. Clinton cared, but he cared too much. In a creepy way."

On Vice President Cheney: "The guy hasn't done one thing right yet." But Bush still trusts him. Why? The only thing Stewart would trust Cheney with? "Dead hooker in a hotel room."

When he lost his place, someone from the crowd shouted "Jews and Blacks!" "I love hearing a crowd in Boston just shouting out Jews and Blacks! There's a hint of danger in it!"

The media briefly turns on Jon Stewart

I've been away from blogging for a few days -- take one road trip, add interviews and save all remaining time to concentrate on watching my beloved Boston Red Sox -- but have noted with interest the media's take on Jon Stewart's "Crossfire" appearance last Friday. Initial stories played up the on-air "debate." Follow-ups from the TV critics played up either the blog commentaries or pointed out that Stewart might actually have a valid point. Funny, it took a fake news guy to tell the real news people about the failings of another supposedly real news program. For now, it has derailed the usual media cycle, which upon anointing Stewart as the IT guy, then goes about bringing him back down. As they did with Howard Dean, Paris Hilton and everyone else who captures the public's attention. Pump them up, then blow them up. That's the media way.

Watch the "Crossfire" footage here.