Comedy
Mel Brooks Revisits The Twelve Chairs for Its 50th Anniversary: “It’s One of My Top Favorites”
Comedy and music go hand in hand. Always. Mel Brooks knows how essential this is. He used to be a drummer, after all. Back in his teenage years, he was a student of the great drummer Buddy Rich. There’s a fundamental rhythm to comedy that oftentimes gets overlooked. If the timing of the musicality is off, then the comedy falls flat. That’s why, in so many of Brooks’ films, you will see elements of music. Whether the characters themselves are breaking out into song, or he has composed a title song, or the dialogue itself is particularly snappy and hits you over the head before you even realize what the hell just happened, it’s all in the same family. You cannot have good comedy without some form of music being present. That’s why Mel Brooks is, in some ways, as much a musician as he is a co...
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm Lampoons an America Almost Too Ugly for Laughs: Review
The Pitch: Sacha Baron Cohen’s trojan horse/folk hero Borat Sagdiyev returns to America. Is nice. After disgracing his native Kazakhstan as the result of his successful 2006 motion picture, the once-famous journalist is asked to curry favor with President McDonald Trump’s good friend, United States Vice President Mike Pence (“Michael Pennis”) in the form of a gift: an animal. Borat must give Johnny the Monkey, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Culture and No. 1 porn star, to Pence. But there’s a snag. Inside Johnny’s crate is a stowaway named Tutar (Maria Bakalova), Borat’s 15-year-old daughter. Borat decides to offer his daughter to Pennis instead, a notorious “pussy hound” who can’t even be in the same room as women. When the plan fails — and we can explain why in a moment — Borat and Tutar, with...
Borat Puts Jimmy Kimmel and His “Rear Hole” Through the Ringer: Watch
Famed Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev presents his latest moviefilm this Friday, October 23rd. In anticipation, Borat appeared alongside his daughter, Sandra Jessica Parker Sagdiyev, on Monday night’s edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live. However, before Borat could proceed with the interview, he first needed to ensure that the “coward” virus had not already infected Kimmel’s studio. After smashing the virus with a large cooking plan, Borat then turned his focus to Kimmel himself. “I do not feel comfortable starting this interview until I have done basic questionnaire to make sure you are safe.” Questions included: “In the last week, have you been in the presence for more than 15 minutes of any Jews?”, “As member of Hollywood elite, have you recently drunk any unpasteurized children’s blood?”, Wh...
Should SNL Replace Jim Carrey as Joe Biden?
What was big, exciting entertainment news just a month or so ago has already become routine tedium: Jim Carrey played presidential candidate Joe Biden on Saturday Night Live. For the third week in a row, the blockbuster comic returned to Studio 8H, where Issa-Rae hosted the festivities. Three sketches into his run, however, and it’s hard to find anyone who appears to be enjoying his antics. (Then again, social media presents a comically skewed demographic of people who more or less despise Saturday Night Live, but feel compelled to provide running commentary anyway. Come to think of it, that’s likely how a lot of SNL writers probably feel about the presidential election.) This week’s endless cold open–under 15 minutes, but, as with last week’s, feeling closer to a full hour–toggled between...
Eddie Murphy’s Coming 2 America Emigrates to Amazon Prime for Christmas Release
Perhaps movie theaters in the Kingdom of Zamunda are open, but here in the States things are looking bleak. The lack of cinematic release options is the main reason why Eddie Murphy‘s new film Coming 2 America is emigrating from Paramount Pictures to Amazon Studios. The sequel to 1988’s Coming to America was originally slated to drop on August 7th, 2020, before going on standby until Christmas. Then the coronavirus happened, and blockbusters such as James Bond’s No Time to Die and Dune were pushed back to 2021. But Crown Prince Akeem Joffer won’t have to wait that long; as Variety reports, Amazon ponied up $125 million for the streaming rights. Now, Coming 2 America is expected to premiere on December 18th. Some details are still bein...
R.I.P. Conchata Ferrell, Two and a Half Men Co-Star Dies at 77
Conchata Ferrell, the veteran actress best known for her Emmy Award-nominated roles in Two and a Half Men and L.A. Law, has died at the age of 77. According to Deadline, Ferrell passed away Monday (October 12th) due to complications from a cardiac arrest. Ferrell portrayed Berta the Housekeeper on Two and a Half Men, appearing in a total of 212 episodes between 2003 and 2015. She was twice nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Support Actress — Comedy category. Prior to that, Ferrell received recognition for her recurring role as Attorney Susan Bloom on the sixth season of L.A. Law, which earned her an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Drama. Ferrell’s other notable television credits included Good Times, E/R, Grace and Frankie, and Buffy the Vampi...
SNL Still Isn’t Sure How to Satirize Wokeness
When Saturday Night Live has a genuine stand-up comedian as a host, it can shift the whole structure of the show, which is what happened last week, with Chris Rock, and this week, with less famous comedian Bill Burr. Combined with the season’s endless debate sketches, a longer stand-up-based monologue can reduce the amount of airtime available for actual sketches. Unlike Rock’s gig, the Burr-hosted episode seemed to take some of its cues from Burr’s stand-up material — and with so few sketches making it to air, it only takes a few with common ground to make an episode feel more thematically unified than usual. In his monologue, Burr poked fun at notions of wokeness and allyship, making his case that white women have hijacked national conversations about equality and that a longer, warmer g...
The Jerky Boys Share Prank Call from First New Album in Over 20 Years: Stream
Way back in March of last year, Johnny Brennan confirmed he was working on the first new album from The Jerky Boys in two decades. Now, he’s confirmed its imminent release and shared the first prank call from the comedy collection. The self-titled LP is set for release on November 27th, Black Friday, via Comedy Dynamics. Available exclusively on streaming services, the album will see the return of many of Brennan’s classic characters, including Frank Rizzo, Jack Tors, Mike Derucki, and Sol Rosenberg. In the first clip from the effort (via Rolling Stone), good ol’ Sol dials up the iRobot customer service line with a uniquely deadly issue. “I duct-taped a very sharp knife to the iRobot and he’s outside the bathroom door now,” complains Sol (the basis for the Family Guy character Mort Goldman...
Father of the Bride Cast to Reunite for Netflix “Sequel”
Get ready to spend the weekend with the Banks. On Friday, Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube will host a reunion with the cast of Father of the Bride for a special charity event to benefit World Central Kitchen. In anticipation, they’ve dropped two teaser trailers that suggest we’re in for a very fun and very crowded video call. How crowded? Well, according to the credits in the second trailer, we’ll be seeing Steve Martin, aka George Banks; Diane Keaton, aka Nina Banks; Kimberly Williams-Paisley, aka Annie Banks-MacKenzie; Kieran Culkin, aka Matty Banks; George Newbern, aka Bryan MacKenzie; and, yes, Martin Short, aka Franck Eggelhoffer. As for the occasion, it’s possible we’ll be seeing Father of the Groom. In the first teaser, we see George (Martin) sorting through his e-mail — gotta love t...
The Title to Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat Sequel is Absolutely Glorious
The title to Sacha Baron Cohen’s upcoming Borat sequel has been unveiled, and it’s as glorious as you’d expect. The follow-up to 2006’s Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan is called Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan. As The Film Stage points out, the title was revealed in filing with the Writers Guild of America. Cohen is credited with writing the screenplay alongside collaborators Anthony Hines, Dan Swimer, Peter Baynham, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Mazer, Jena Friedman, and Lee Kern. It’s still unclear when or where the Borat 2 will premiere — though a streaming service seems like a pretty good guess. Rumors of a Borat sequel first emerged earlier this year, af...
US Republican senators confront Netflix over Chinese sci-fi show
Five Republican US senators have confronted Netflix over the streaming giant’s plan to adapt a Chinese sci-fi book trilogy, expressing concern over the original author’s comments about claims of forced labor in Xinjiang. Liu Cixin’s bestselling “The Three-Body Problem,” which tells the story of humanity’s first contact with aliens, is set to become a major Netflix series co-written by the creators of “Game of Thrones.” In a letter to content boss Ted Sarandos, the senators accused Liu of “parroting dangerous [Communist Party] propaganda” and suggested Netflix was “providing a platform to Mr Liu in producing this project.” They highlighted a New Yorker article from last year in which Liu is quoted defending mass internment in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where activists say more th...
Chris Rock to Host SNL’s First Live Episode Since Pandemic
Saturday Night Live will return on October 3rd with its first new live episode since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last March. Such a momentous occasion calls for an equally momentous host, so Lorne Michaels has called upon former SNL cast member Chris Rock. Since departing the show in 1993, Rock has only hosted SNL twice — once in 1996, and again in 2014. In recent years, however, he’s made several notable cameos as a guest on episodes hosted by Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, and Dave Chappelle. Now, Rock will get once again his own turn at hosting. He’ll be joined by Megan Thee Stallion, who will serve as the evening’s musical guest. The “Savage” rapper will be making her SNL debut. As previously reported, SNL’s entire cast from last season is returning for Season 47. Additionally, ...
