January 15, 2010Friday Comedy Roundup
M*A*S*H-Up?
NBC's comedy block is back and I'm thrilled to wish it a happy new year -- even if Jack Black momentarily messed up the chemistry on my beloved Community. On the positive side, Black's ebullient presence really highlighted Danny Pudi's talent. Many people think that physical comedy is about losing control of your body, but it's exactly the opposite. Pudi is an exquisite physical comedian, showing a deftness and subtlety that hearkens back to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton (if that's not blasphemy).
And yay for the M*A*S*H subplot! Abed decided that Jeff was the gang's Hawkeye, even going so far as to build him a still. But when Jeff admitted he'd never seen a M*A*S*H episode, Abed schooled him on Hawkeye's true nature. "He barked orders when the choppers came in," quoth Abed. "People died if he didn't. He was a leader, Jeff." YES! It makes me ridiculously happy to know that someone, somewhere truly understands the zen of M*A*S*H. And the M*A*S*H-themed ending and Owen Wilson cameo were pretty damned good, too.
I was happy to see Parks and Rec return to its first-season roots, making brutal fun of citizen stupidity. Due to a "stupid, useless" accessibility initiative, Ron (who I love anyway) had to waste the taxpayers' money to save himself from the taxpayers. I was meh on the Leslie date, but the Ann-Mark-Justin thing had some nice moments. And I love the possibilities of the April-Ron alliance.
If I was bummed that P & R wasn't doing any gender comedy this week, 30 Rock more than made up for it. A Danny-Liz hookup? Aw, yeah. Also loved how Liz turned Jack's own words (about bosses being sexy) against him. Right on, Liz, and more sassy sex for the dirty thirties! I was also geeking out about Jack's references to ancient history and German terms of endearment. And (I'll show my age here) I dug the vicious little digs at Gossip Girl's youth-obsessed ridiculousness. 30 Rock is hit or miss for me, but this week was definitely a hit.
On Tuesday Colbert had the best use of Morgan Freeman ever, while Jon Stewart seemed genuinely disappointed in himself for failing to nail John Yoo, confessing that it was "like interviewing sand" and vowing to give the next guest hell. But behold the righteous rage of Stewart and Colbert on the bailout issue! By Wednesday, both shows were little goofy, perhaps because this week's stories hardly needed comment to be funny (Trend forecasting? MacGwire claiming his steroid use didn't affect his performance?) Same went for Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, until it got creepy enough for a highly accurate joke about the Lecter/Starling dynamic. Meanwhile, Wyatt Cenac and Jason Jones did some outstanding reporting on gay marriage and divorce.
I thought the Haiti issue brought out the best in both shows, however. Pat Robertson's stupid Devil remark had Jon Stewart reading from the Bible, which was kind of moving. Colbert's persona is always serious, but he was seriously serious in the first segment with Kathleen Sebelius, waiting until after the break to pelt her with snarky questions. What do we call it it when comedy gets effectively serious? Paratragedy? Paracomedy? I don't know, but it's powerful stuff.
Finally, the Leno/Conan thing is still going strong, and inspiring vicious commentary from Jimmy Kimmel and Rosie O'Donnell. It seems to me that everyone is dancing around the real issue, namely who is the funnier comedian. Granted this is highly subjective, and if you're a comedian, I guess it would be pretty low to say one of your fellow humorists wasn't funny. But if 83% of people want to see Conan in the earlier slot, I think it's fair ot say he's generally perceived as funnier. Personally, I have no strong feelings on the issue. Late-night humor just isn't my thing.
That's all for now. Looking forward to tonight installment of John Oliver's series, as as well as Aziz Ansari on Sunday. Just have to find a way to fit in the Golden Globes -- I hear Ricky Gervais is going totally off-script.
