The Definitive Guide to Comedy
My expectations aren't exactly high for this week's episode of Saturday Night Live, even though Ashton Kutcher has hosted the program before. I don't know. Maybe it's all of his Twitter "fame" and his camera commercials that makes me suspicious that something has gone awry in his sense of humor …
Jon Hamm hosted one of the best episodes of the 34th season, so why wouldn't he host one of the best this season? Well, er, um, hmmm. As this week's episode of Saturday Night Live got underway, I found myself thinking we were living the exact opposite of the popular …
Andy Samberg and his fellow comedians from The Lonely Island made their mark as new Saturday Night Live cast members by reinvigorating the SNL Digital Short for the digital video-sharing age (that's the brand-nonspecific alternative to saying YouTube age, right?). Their "Lazy Sunday" rap earned SNL a new generation of …
If you're wondering why Tom Hanks was on the final edition of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, well, perhaps you thought, maybe it's because Hanks nicknamed Conan "Coco" on his second Tonight Show. Close. But not quite. As Hanks explained in last night's show, he and Conan go way, …
After a full week of NBC-bashing by the various late-night TV talk-show hosts, how would the reigning big daddy of late-night TV comedy handle its own mockery? Not quite the way you'd think, or hope, even when it looked like they might just surprise you with something magically great. Not …
As more people become more Internet savvy, I've often wondered how TV shows that rely on topical humor deal with the fact that so many would-be jokesters are making the same jokes about big topics so fast. Case in point: When Kanye West stormed the stage at the MTV awards …
Would you like to play a game? And I don't mean global thermonuclear war. I mean, how'd you like to guess a few things that happened last night on Saturday Night Live? Such as…how many SNL writers who aren't part of the on-air cast got to appear either live or …
It's the most wonderful time of the year for Saturday Night Live, or so you might think. End of the calendar year. Christmas on the brains. The combination sometimes makes for some comedy magic. I remember a few years ago, attending a friend of a friend's Christmas party, when everyone …
Tonight on NBC, Saturday Night Live went primetime with "A Very Gilly Christmas," with Kristen Wiig's Gilly character introducing clip packages and performing in small sketches with Will Forte as her principal foil. Some funny highlights from the vault. But here are two blasts from the past that really take …
Last week was great, wasn't it? Why are you starting like that? Trying to lower our expectations are you? Although, for the second week in a row, Kristen Wiig isn't so much front and center, giving the other ladies a chance to shine. Interesting development, don't you think? Alrighty then… …