Day: October 26, 2009

Remember how Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein were going to dedicate one of their live variety shows to Microsoft's launch of Windows 7? Yes, of course you do. Before you can call up the "a funny thing happened on the way to" phrase on your predictive-text-blogging-platform (which exists only for the government at this point in beta), Microsoft's people (not Bill Gates nor even Steve Ballmer, but just people) saw the live taping of the Seth-and-Alex show and thought, well, on second thought… Here is the Microsoft spokesrobot quote: "We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of Family Guy, but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand. We continue to have a good partnership with Fox, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein and are working with them in other areas. We continue to believe in the value of brand integrations and partnerships between brands, media companies and talent." (via Variety) Sure. Sure. Good partnership! Other areas! Sounds like everything's coming up Microsoft roses! FOX will air the Almost Live Comedy Show on Nov. 8. But what to do about all of those Windows 7 punchlines and references? Dub in a new sponsor's name? How...

I don't know why Roseanne and Tom Arnold feel the need to yell at each other on the Internets, or in their shows, because we're not laughing. Or is it because you two get roasted about this at every opportunity that you feel you must subject the rest of us to it? Roseanne went online on Friday, and Tom Arnold responded on Sunday. Either way, stop. Please stop. Thank...

So. This weekend. Let's talk about it. Cold and rainy. Warm and sunny. Professional baseball players could not field bunts properly. Men with dark secrets got outed in a fictional version of the 1960s, where someone could die of lung cancer and the director says, "Cut to the guy smoking a cigarette!" Things happened, people. Jimmy Carr even told an offensive one-liner. It was that kind of weekend. Oh, wait. Some of those things happen every weekend? Well, maybe. But it seemed as though society was trying to make us feel sorry, sad or otherwise not very happy about comedy and comedians this weekend, and we had three major examples of such bouncing around the national conversation. 1) Let's start with the most visible transgression. Yes, we're looking at you, David Spade. Spade went on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show on Oct. 22 to make funny and help promote a show he's doing on Oct. 28 to help out the firefighters of Ventura County who have battled massive wildfires in Southern California. We even have the footage right here to show you: What do you mean you haven't heard of this effort? Is it because of THIS?! Yes. Spade cashed in on his dead friend's legacy by appearing in this DirecTV ad with the late Chris Farley, which has been airing quite a bit in the past few days during...