January 8, 2010Comedy Roundup
Rekindling The Comedy Central Flame
A lazy week. No new NBC block, though I did enjoy seeing the Community rerun, especially since Joel McHale took off his shirt. I meant to see Youth in Revolt but it's too cold. I also meant to see It's Complicated (love me that Alec Baldwin) but I'm too tired from the whole Nine v. 8½ fiasco anyway. Instead I've holed up in the house, working on my many projects and catching up on All in the Family reruns, the better to serve my current humor class.
Apart from Vince Vaughn getting married and Rusell Brand getting engaged, the only comedy news of note was Arianna Huffington's admission that she's an FG fan -- not surprising since she's the voice of Arianna the Bear on The Cleveland Show. But still kind of amusing. Oh, and Jason Alexander, in what could be a Seinfeld plot or late-night joke, has stepped up as the latest Jenny Craig spokesperson.
Meanwhile, I've been busy rekindling my love affair with the men of Comedy Central. I admit, I've strayed. The health care business was just too awful, and even my beloved CC team couldn't make it OK. But they're back for the new year, and they've got the goods to keep me coming back for more -- (singing) I just can't help it.
The Daily Show continues to be awesome, and Jon Stewart goes from strength to strength. Aasif Mandvi is doing more to better Muslim relations than anyone else, IMHO, and John Oliver's nostalgia segment was freakin' sweet. Seing him pose with that little kid made my week.
Colbert really got going on Tuesday; it was either the best or the worst idea ever to give him a magic touchscreen. And is it just me or was that MIT dude totally dishy? Probably just me. The Colbert jokewriting ran strong all week, at any rate. From silly ('Yemen, which I previously thought was the plural of "yam"') to raunchy (exploding shorts jokes) to punny ('getting their flying buttresses kicked by Dubai'), there was a fantastic cornucopia of funny to choose from.
Both shows went out with a bang on Thursday night, The DS writers were going nuts with the Peter Orszag scandal. It's pretty laughable anyway, but the 'boo-tay' and 'badonkadonk' acronym jokes had me ROFL. They even turned their patented spot-the-hypocrite video splices on Obama -- now, that's how you do non-partisan -- and reveled in their ability to scoop the other real news networks. (They scooped the Tiger Woods/Buddhism brouhaha, too, sending it up fantastically on Monday. Seeing John Oliver in Na'vi makeup made my week.) Finally, the pre-interview segment brought Samantha Bee back, which I'm always happy about.
Thursday's Colbert had a nice run of nerdly jokes about the Supreme Court -- e.g. using the language of a 1972 ruling to make a joke: 'If we outlawed everything that was "wanton and freakish", what would we do with Lady Gaga?' Then some potshots at Scalia, some Leviticus quotes, and the claim that Avatar's billion-dollar mark proved its excellence: 'Suck it, Citizen Kane!'
Oh, Stephen, why did I ever stray? Looks like I'll be spending this weekend revising the list of men I'd consider keeping in the house. In my 8½-inspired fantasy, I would have a house of comedians much in the way Guido had a house of women. They would entertain me handsomely, in a style to which I would like to become accustomed, then I could send them away when I got bored. A girl can dream, anyway.
