Both the WGA and SAG strikes continue on, with no current end in sight. This has not only left the writers and actors out of work, but also, every late-night talk show host on pause. Hosts that need writers and actors to make their shows happen. So, during this downtime, the five main hosts of the American late-night talk shows—Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver—have come together. Mostly to talk about the complexities of the strikes, and what it means to their employees, to show business overall, and to them. And now, they are releasing these conversations in podcast format. And they’ve chosen to call themselves Strike Force Five. Because deep down, they are all big nerds.

All five hosts have been meeting every week since May, right around the time when the writers strike began. Although they recorded their conversations, they originally didn’t know what to do with them. But someone decided to release all these conversations into a podcast format. Strike Force Five launches on August 30. It’s available across most major podcast platforms. The Strike Force Five podcast will run for at least twelve episodes, with each host serving as a rotating moderator. If the strikes continue, we imagine more episodes will follow.

All proceeds received by the hosts from Strike Force Five will go to out-of-work staff from each of the hosts’ respective shows, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Spotify’s Megaphone will host the series, with Spotify alone as the exclusive sales partner. Mint Mobile and Diageo will support Strike Force Five, as they were the first to come aboard to support the show as co-presenting sponsors. We wish this “Avengers of talk show hosts” was happening under better circumstances of course. However, we are still excited to hear it.

Strike Force Five drops episode one on August 30.

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On more than a few occasions, before we all carried the internet in our pockets, I successfully convinced friends that a sequel to Mel Brooks‘ History of the World, Part I exists. “Why else would it be called ‘Part 1?’ I’d asked. Check. And. Mate. It was one of my favorite bits, but now I must retire it forever. Fortunately, though, it’s for the best reason ever. Because the comedy legend has written and executive produced a follow-up sequel series to his big screen jaunt through the past. After all this time, History of the World is really getting a Part II. And we officially have its first teaser trailer.

Variety first reported that Hulu ordered History of the World, Part II from the legendary comedian in 2021. The show will serve as a sequel to Brooks’ 1981 comedy, which he wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. (What? He was too busy to also cook for the crew?) The film traveled through the ages to look at the funny side of life during famous eras. It began during pre-history and the Stone Age. Then went through Biblical times and the Roman Emperor. And it touched on the Spanish Inquisition and the French Revolution. Two notoriously hilarious periods.

The teaser trailer for History of the World, Part II reveals some names we will soon see on our screens. These include Noah, Princess Anastasia, Sigmund Freud, Rasputin, Amelia Earhart, Marco Polo, and more. Even Jesus Christ makes an appearance in this teaser. We can’t wait to see what these historical figures get up to in an all-new set of parodies.

Some very funny names will join the EGOT winner on the show’s writing staff. Nick Kroll, Wanda Sykes, Ike Barinholtz, David Stassen, and Kevin Salter will also be looking for humor in the past. And Sykes, Kroll, and Barinholtz will also star. In addition, Pamela Adlon, Quinta Brunson, Danny Devito, Josh Gad, Kumail Nanjiani, Seth Rogan, J.B. Smoove, Zazie Beetz, Dove Cameron, Jay Ellis, Johnny Knoxville, Sarah Silverman, Emily Ratajkowski, and Taika Waititi will join in the fun. It’s a star-studded cast, and even in just the teaser for the History of the World, Part II series, they slay in their roles.

Brooksfilm

We might know exactly where in time they will start too. The original movie ended with previews for “coming” historical attractions in Part II. That included teasers for “Hitler on Ice” and a grand Viking funeral. As well as a Star Wars/The Muppet Show parody called Jews in Space. The world’s a lot different now than it was in 1981, though. So whether any of those ideas will make into the show’s eight-episode first season is no guarantee.

What is a guarantee, though, is I will be trying to convince people plans for History of the World, Part III will be all about the future.

History of the World, Part II will air as part of a four-night event that begins streaming on Hulu on March 6.

Originally published on October 18, 2021.

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With Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story hitting theaters this week we wanted to provide a watchlist of some of our favorite murder mysteries and whodunnits. These are the perfect movies to get you in the mood to question the motives of everyone around you right before the family comes over for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Surprise, Bo Burnham just released another hour of Inside material. As expected, it is excellent. The comedian marked the one-year anniversary of his surprise 2021 Netflix special on May 30 by releasing a whole lot of outtakes and additional material that didn’t make it into the final cut. Burnham took to Instagram and Twitter revealing he had bonus Inside material heading to YouTube about an hour before the video dropped. And you can watch it right on YouTube.

The video, which is a little over an hour long, is full of hilarious bits and ridiculously catchy musical tracks full of spot-on commentary on society and life during the pandemic. There’s “Five Years,” during which he has an extended aside on people’s fear of spiders. (Followed up by a short song specifically dedicated to a spider in his house.) Plus, he couldn’t help but poke fun at Marvel blockbusters and also included a hilarious ballad about a chicken crossing the road. He also reflected on his comedy start, which famously started with a series of YouTube videos, and the early material he feels embarrassed by now.

As with the special, Burnham filmed The Inside Outtakes material during the first year of the pandemic—between March 2020 and May 2021. The comedian spent the last two months editing together the axed material for release. The outtakes are an excellent bit of supplementary material to the incredibly introspective special. Inside was Burnham’s first stand-up comedy special in five years after 2016’s Make Happy. And the special was universally acclaimed. It racked up six Emmy nominations, winning three, and two Grammy nominations, winning one for “All Eyes on Me.”

A little more than a week after the special dropped, Burnham released the Inside album. The album featured all the songs in the special. And luckily he’s doing the same with the added material. The Promising Young Woman actor is releasing Inside (Deluxe) featuring all the axed songs—including two more Jeff Bezos bops. The deluxe album drops on June 3. Luckily it’s already available for pre-save on Spotify and Apple Music.

You can watch The Inside Outtakes right here.

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Mystery Science Theater 3000 is maybe the most revived series in history. After seven successful seasons on Comedy Central, the show moved over to Syfy. Then, famously, after 18 years away, a hyper-funded Kickstarter campaign brought it back; Netflix picked up this season as well as a second. But after Netflix gave the series the axe, creator Joel Hodgson turned back to Kickstarter. This gave us the Gizmoplex, a way for the show to go directly to fans. And for more people to get a chance to host. Along with Jonah Ray and Hodgson himself, Emily Marsh has joined the hallowed ranks as main host/riffer for season 13 episodes.

Here’s an exclusive look at Marsh in action in her first episode, Beyond Atlantis. She sits middle chair, along with Kelsey Ann Brady as Crow and Conor McGiffin as Tom Servo.

Marsh began riffing with the bots on the Mystery Science Theater 3000 live tour. However, this will mark her first official episode. Even still, she already has a new generation of fans. The performer told Nerdist the gig is more than a professional dream come true.

“[To] be a part of the show that I grew up watching with my dad and then to now have dads reaching out to say how much it means to watch with their daughters and have a female host, it’s hard to put into words how much that means to me personally. Also just as meaningful is long-time fans reaching out to welcome me to the MST3K family. This series owes so much to its fans and for them to be so welcoming of my inclusion in it, it truly is the highest praise I could hope for. Hands down my favorite MST3K moment so far: getting to see my smirk on a patch. 10 year old Emily would have lost her mind!”

Series creator Joel Hodgson explains how Emily ended up in the show’s weird orbit.

“I think we initially met her as a puppeteer, and I think that’s important because with puppeteers, I’ve noticed over the years, they collaborate in this fantastic way. They’re basically unseen. It’s an invisible art, in that you can’t really see what they’re doing behind the scenes. Emily brings that aesthetic with her, which is really a collaborative way of working and really an ensemble way of working which is very important in MST3K because if you look, even though you’re hosting, you’re really sharing with these other comic performers who are really talented. She brought that.”

“She was very irreverent about MST3K from the start,” Hodgson continued. “She mentioned to me she was telling her mom that she was auditioning for MST3K, and she said that her mom said:  ‘That stupid show has got a live tour?!'” For a self-effacing Midwesterner like Hodgson, that was the moment it all clicked.

“It just really made me like her so much, that she was so honest and so kind of, unattached to worrying about it with me, I just liked her right away. She’s very available and great…I don’t know how else to explain it other than she’s really great on camera, she’s really great on stage, and she’s very willing to bring it. It’s hard work and she’s willing to do it.  She’s really funny, and just fun to hang out with and joke around with, which makes it much easier too.”

Netflix-era host and friend of Nerdist Jonah Ray, who plays Jonah Heston, explained Emily has a style like another longtime MST3K host, Michael J. Nelson.

“Emily brings back that perfect dry delivery to the show. She reminds me of Mike in that way in both her riffing and sketch performing. And much like most of the folks who have ever made MST3k, she’s an old soul. But since she’s young, she lands right in the pocket of where both old fans and new fans reference points are gonna hit. She really is the perfect direction for the show as she’s put in the work night after night on the tours. And her chemistry with Conor’s Tom Servo, Kelsey’s Crow, and Yvonne’s Mega-Synthia is already solid. I’m excited for people to see them. But even more excited for me, as I can finally watch the show again and not have to look at myself!”

Season 13 of Mystery Science Theater 3000 will drop episodes all year long. The first three of which, including Emily’s first episode, Beyond Atlantis, are available beginning May 6. Check out the Gizmoplex site for membership information.

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We are heartbroken to report that stand-up comedy legend, actor, and podcaster Gilbert Gottfried has died. The news came from his family; they announced that the 67-year old actor passed after a long battle with muscular dystrophy. Gottfried had one incredible career. One where adults loved his raunchy brand of humor, but also kids everywhere knew him for his cartoon voices. And no one ever mistook his shrill voice and constantly squinting eyes for anyone else. You can read his family’s statement below:

Born in New York in 1955, Gottfried got his big break on Saturday Night Live in 1980. But his tour of duty on SNL was brief. He only lasted 12 episodes. Luckily, he later found roles in hit movies like Beverly Hills Cop II. A huge career boost for Gottfried came in the late ’80s/early ’90s, as a frequent guest on Howard Stern’s radio show. This was during the peak of Stern’s popularity. Gottfried’s impressions and unfiltered humor made him a household name. With his voice now famous throughout the country, he landed the role of Iago the parrot in Disney’s Aladdin.

The success of Aladdin made Gottfried an in-demand voice actor. You could hear his voice on such shows as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ren & Stimpy, Superman: The Animated Series, Duckman, and more. Also, he reprised the role of the loud parrot Iago in many Disney projects. He also provided the unmistakable voice of the Aflac duck in commercials until 2011. In the last decade, Gottfried focused his attention on his podcast, Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, which ran for eight years. During this time he made several appearances in movies and TV, solidifying himself as an ever-present part of popular culture. His final film role was called Hassle at the Castle, and it will be a posthumous release.

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What’s harder than making a movie during a global pandemic? Uh, lots of stuff. Like, a ton of way more important stuff. But that’s why the premise of Judd Apatow‘s next film is ripe for laughs. Netflix’s The Bubble follows a group of famous, egotistical actors shooting a movie under less than ideal circumstances. They’re all quarantined and working in an attempt to save their studio during a global crisis. And the (actual) movie’s first trailer shows that that nothing can stop a successful franchise from beating a dead horse. Or in this case, from beating a dead Cliff Beast.

Now that is a fantastic trailer. Of course, this is really a trailer for two films. One is the fictional Cliff Beasts 6: The Battle For Everest: Memories of a Requim. (Perfect title. No notes.) Netflix already released a full promo for the sixth installment of that imaginary franchise. The fake film even has its own official logline: “Humankind is threatened once again by a dinosaur species: Cliff Beasts. The team must reunite, after 5 long years, to battle the Cliff Beasts – but this time on Mount Everest.”

We would very much like to see that movie. As well as its previous five entries. (Cliff Beasts in space!)

But this trailer is really for the meta comedy The Bubble. It follows a group of actors, filmmakers, and producers as they try to shoot a big budget, CGI-heavy, action-packed film about flying dinosaurs, all while being quarantined together. And all the absurdity of this trailer shows why it might be the best COVID-related movie premise yet.

The Bubble, directed by Judd Apatow with a script from him and Pam Brady, also boasts a cast worthy of a mega franchise. (Though Cliff Beasts is technically marketed as only the “23rd largest Dino franchise ever.”) It stars Karen Gillan, Fred Armisen, Maria Bakalova, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Leslie Mann, Pedro Pascal, Peter Serafinowicz, Kate McKinnon, and Iris Apatow. As well as Vir Das, Rob Delaney, Galen Hopper, Samson Kayo, Guz Khan, Nick Kocher, Ross Lee, Harry Trevaldwyn, and Danielle Vitalis. (We’re not sure if Benedict Cumberbatch is technically a part of the cast, though.)

Fittingly for a comedy about making an absurd movie, The Bubble debuts on Netflix April 1. At least, we’re pretty sure it will. Considering how Netflix has promoted this it would be a pretty amazing prank if this whole thing is an April Fools’ joke.

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Beloved comedian Louie Anderson, a former host of Family Feud and multi-time Emmy winner, has died at the age of 68. Glenn Schwartz, Anderson’s longtime publicist, told Deadline the performer passed away in Las Vegas after being admitted to a hospital earlier in the week for treatment of diffuse large B cell lymphoma cancer.

Born March 24, 1953 in St. Paul, Minnesota, Anderson was one of eleven children. Before he began his long storied career in show business, he worked as a counselor to troubled children. Anderson made the switch to standup in the early ’80s. He found success immediately, winning the 1981 Midwest Comedy Competition hosted by Henny Youngman. The legendary comedian then hired Anderson as a writer.

In 1984 Anderson made the first of his many late-night appearances when he appeared on The Tonight Show hosted by Johnny Carson. Anderson also starred in countless comedy specials during his career. Including many of his own. And he also appeared in a number of classic movies and TV shows. His credits include roles in Coming to America, its sequel Coming 2 America, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. As well as Grace Under Fire, Touched by an Angel, Scrubs, Ally McBeal, Nash Bridges, Chicago Hope, and Search Party.

A generation of younger fans knew the comedian with the instantly recognizable voice best from his popular animated series Life with Louie. Louie Anderson based the show on own childhood. It ran from 1994 to 1998 and earned the comedian two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program.

Anderson was also a best-selling author. His books included Dear Dad – Letters From An Adult Child, Good­bye Jumbo…Hello Cruel World, The F Word, How To Survive Your Family, and Hey Mom. From 1999 to 2002 he also assumed the mantle of leading the iconic game show Family Feud. And in 2016, he took home another Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for FX’s Baskets. Anderson played Christine Baskets on the show from 2016 to 2019.

Louie Anderson is survived by his sisters Lisa and Shanna Anderson. And by the many fans who loved him.

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We’ve been a fan of Fred Armisen for years now. First for his work on SNL, then on Portlandia. And then too many other projects to count. He also showed us not too long ago how he can mimic just about any accent from any part of the United States. It’s a pretty uncanny talent, we must say. But not only can he mimic regional accents, but he can also apparently mimic musical stylings too.

Via Laughing Squid, we learned that recently Fred Armisen went on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. There, and he picked up a guitar and gave Jimmy a musical lesson in punk rock (and post-punk) music history. It was not only spot-on accurate, it was also as hilarious as one would expect. You can watch the full video right here:

Armisen is clearly a musical expert on the rise of punk rock in the ’70s, and the post-punk influence. From the early days of the Velvet Underground to the Ramones to the Sex Pistols. Fred Armisen knows his history all right. As he was playing for Jimmy, he created lyrics on the spot, each in the style of the band he was interpreting. He took the music lesson through the ’80s, particularly music in the style of the Cure, to the ’90s grunge era, and up until the 2000s heyday of The Strokes and other similar bands.

Armisen didn’t miss a beat, and dovetailed into a very accurate impersonation of Henry Winkler, who he claims as the inspiration for his character on the animated series Big Mouth. Soon, he’ll be joining Chris Pratt in the Super Mario Brothers movie. But we don’t expect him to be doing any punk rock covers in that one. Sadly. Because we’d be all over a Cranky Kong cover of “God Save the Queen.”

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Fineman recently stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in anticipation of SNL season 47’s premiere. Fallon loves doing impression-based games with his particularly equipped guests. So, of course, he couldn’t help but put Fineman to the test in “Interview of Impressions.” SNL‘s Fineman and Fallon chatted about fall’s arrival during the game, as the comedian’s latest roster of celebrities made their appearances.

Throughout the chat, Fineman dropped her impressions of several worthy subjects. These included Jennifer Coolidge, Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Keira Knightley, and the particularly timely Elizabeth Holmes. Hopefully, this is just a tease of some of the celebrity impressions Fineman will bring to the upcoming SNL season. I, for one, am thrilled Coolidge is having another moment thanks to a masterful turn in The White Lotus. (Although, to me, she’s been having her moment for the last 27 years.)

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

SNL returns for season 47 on October 2, with Owen Wilson hosting and Kacey Musgraves as musical guest. Wilson, fresh off his performance as Mobius in Loki, is hosting. Jason Sudeikis, Rami Malek, and Kim Kardashian West are also among the initial season 47 hosts. Luckily, most of the season 46 cast are joining Fineman for another season. However, longtime cast member Beck Bennett left the series, as did featured player Lauren Holt. However, a trio of new featured players, Aristotle Athari, James Austin Johnson, and Sarah Sherman, are debuting in season 47. We can’t wait to see all of them on Saturday Night Live, alongside Chloe Fineman.

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In a turn of events Monty Python could’ve written, a giant, inflatable Moon recently tore loose from a Mid-Autumn Festival in China’s Henan province. It flew down a city street as officials chased it. The Guardian has a glimpse of the hilarious getaway in the video below, which seems to have been wholly harmless. Although if the incident looks familiar, that’s because it’s happened before.

DesignTaxi picked up on news of the Moon escape. It’s unclear how the Moon broke free. But, we’re guessing there were some issues with the cables holding it down. That, or some kind of supervillain decided to steal it to demonstrate their massive powers.

The Mid-Autumn Festival is an important festival in China, according to China Highlights. The festival traditionally falls on the 15th day of the eighth month of the Chinese lunar calendar. And people celebrate it by gathering for dinners, lighting lanterns, and honoring the Moon.

Guardian News

Unfortunately, it’s unclear how officials were able to wrangle the loose Moon. The video The Guardian released ends with the Moon still in mid-roll. We couldn’t find any other clips of the incident online. What is clear, however, is that yet another inflatable Moon from this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival ended up in a river in Hong Kong.

In the video immediately below The South China Morning Post tweeted out, we glimpse another errant inflatable. In this instance, officials confirmed the problem occurred when they were taking it down from its holding position on a tugboat. Apparently, one of the cables holding the faux Moon in place snapped allowing the wind to throw it into the river.

Thankfully, officials have been able to retrieve the inflatable Moon from the river. However! These are now—at least—the second and third incidents of giant, inflatable Moons running free from the Mid-Autumn Festival, as the same thing happened back in 2016. The Moon really just wants to be a part of the party!

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Some truly terrible news today. Deadline reports that comedy legend Norm Macdonald has passed away at the age of only 61 following a “nine-year private battle with cancer.” Macdonald’s longtime friend and producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra said in a statement, “he never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him. Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”

NBC

For a whole generation of comedy fans, Norm Macdonald was the host of Weekend Update. From 1994 to 1997, Macdonald opened every edition of Saturday Night Live‘s ubiquitous mock-the-week-style segment with “I’m Norm Macdonald, and now the fake news.” His dry delivery belied some of the most biting satire on TV, adding some excellent meta commentary proving time and again the comedian thought the whole concept was a bit silly.

During his relatively brief tenure on Weekend Update, he gave us a barrage of hilarious running gags. These include things like “which once again proves my theory: Germans love David Hasselhoff,” and “…you guessed it, Frank Stallone.” He’d also periodically take a small tape recorder out of his jacket and record a “note to self” after a particular joke. These were moments fans lived for. We weren’t watching Update for the news, we watched for Norm making fun of it, and himself, and all of it.

In addition to his work on SNL, Macdonald was a prolific, respected, and influential stand-up comedian who made frequent guest appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and kept popping up on Conan throughout the years. In 1998, after leaving SNL, he co-wrote and starred in the comedy Dirty Work and the following year had his own sitcom The Norm Show, which lasted three seasons and 54 episodes total. He hosted various talk shows, made countless TV guest appearances, and remained one of the sharpest wits of his generation.

Macdonald’s voice and delivery were unique; nobody could deliver a joke like him. Many have tried to replicate this style over the years, but none have been able to capture it. The smoothness, the intricate construction, and the seemingly effortless follow through. He was and remains one of the funniest people to ever live.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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It’s hard to find the time to clean. The work week is long and full of terrors and chores are kryptonite for free nights. You may be able to cut down your cleaning time, however, if you get inventive like YouTuber and weird-machine builder Joseph Herscher. In his newest video the inventor offers a look at some fascinating(?) cleaning contraptions. Ones that would fit right in in Rube Golderg’s house.

Herscher, who’s created all kinds of Rube Goldberg-ian machines in the past—including this Thanksgiving Day meal maker—recently posted the above video to his channel. The builder, who goes by Joseph’s Machines online, has seemingly perfected the art of making mildly useful yet massively entertaining household objects. Although for our money these cleaning contraptions are his most hilarious.

Joseph’s Machines

In the video Herscher shows off a handful cleaning contraptions including the Super Spill Drill and the Bulldozer Mop. Each one of the cleaners has its own specialty, although they’re both fairly useless. The Spill Drill, for example, uses a power drill to spin a roll of paper towel as you clean. Which seems to conserve upper body movement, but also hugely waste paper towels. The Bulldozer mop, likewise, cleans in the most “kinda” sense of the word. Plus with its watering can and dual hair dryers, it looks like a fun little way to start a fire!

Joseph’s Machines

What undoubtedly takes the cake for creativity, however, has got to be the Joseph Cleans 3000. Herscher reveals the cleaning suit (our term) at a minute-and-a-half in and it’s glorious. The suit consists of Edward Scissorhands-like gloves that have both electric toothbrush fingers and sponge fingers. The suit also has hand-vacuum shoes and a watering can that hangs off one’s neck. There’s also a treat dispenser on the rear of the suit for a dog with mops on its legs. The dog does a horrible job cleaning, of course, but at least it cleans up the treats.

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I feel very old reporting that Adult Swim, the after-hours version of Cartoon Network focusing on surreal comedic and violent animated series, is now 20 years old. I still vividly remember 2001 when they launched it. Cowboy Bebop, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, old episodes of Space Ghost, Home Movies. It seems like only yesterday. But it wasn’t. If you remember, it was 20 years ago. In addition to all the weird shows they played, they also began right away with a series of oddball station idents and programming bumpers. Early on, they really played up the “public pool where kids have to get out of the water” aspect.

Here’s a collection of the earliest Adult Swim bumpers for you to enjoy.

Of course, they didn’t keep the footage of swimming-capped old people for long. In fact, they didn’t even keep the announcer guy. Eventually, they transitioned into the kind of bumper for which the mini-network is most famous. Those, of course, are the weird white captions over a black background. It’s fairly genius, actually. Get a writer to write some strange things, broadcast those things in sequence, rinse, repeat. They at once felt like cable access and like a community message board. Those bizarre interstitials were the perfect bitesize encapsulation of the kind of absurdist, surrealist anti-comedy that Williams Street Productions quickly made their own.

Here is a collection of those from 2007. You’ll notice how in only a handful of years, the kinds of programming shifted away from mostly anime with occasional 15-minute comedy toons to a lot of live-action…and the 15-minute comedy toons.

I don’t think it’s too hyperbolic to say Adult Swim changed the way people of an entire generation saw comedy. Tim Robinson, for example, has said he wouldn’t have made I Think You Should Leave had it not been for Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. And Tim and Eric wouldn’t have become the pillars of the comedy world had they not had an outlet on Adult Swim, first with Tom Goes to the Mayor and later more famously Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job.

That entire ethos of comedy seeped through the very pores of Adult Swim. It wasn’t just the shows they showed; it’s the entire brand, the lifeblood of the channel. 20 years of Adult Swim? How about the sense of humor of an entire generation?

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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The actor-writer-weed entrepreneur is best known for his comedy chops. So naturally, you might expect some funny stories. However, in an interview with Vulture, Rogen reveals each story will be a different experience. “I ask them [guests] if they have any incredible stories they think are entertaining or formative or just something they’ve wanted to tell for a long time,” he states. “And my pitch is that I will take that story and turn it into a sort of audio documentary. I make it very clear they’re not all funny, and if it’s not a funny story, then I won’t go out of my way to try to add humor to it, you know?” It looks like Seth Rogen’s podcast will be one interesting experience.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Guests include friends of his like Paul Rudd, but there are also some non-celebrity guests. For example, one of the people in the trailer is a friend of a friend who shares a story about a bear attack. A real-life bear attack is definitely a story you might not hear about every day. Additional guests on Rogen’s podcast will include musician David Crosby and writer-director Ava DuVernay.

“I will try to honor the story and its stakes in your life,” Rogen says about the podcast. “It’s an exercise in distilled storytelling to me, trying to put the audience in the head of the storyteller and make it as cinematic an experience as possible.”

We can’t wait to see what stories Rogen and his friends have in store on Rogen’s podcast! Storytime with Seth Rogen premieres on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and Pandora on October 6.

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“This castle has served me well, but alas, it’s time to sell.” That’s the clarion call from a “knight” who’s just put a castle-like home up for sale in Spokane, Washington. In the video below the knight offers a grand tour of the fortified home and it’s downright hilarious. Also inspiring, as we now wish we too lived in a medieval daydream. Or at least had some very defensive counter-clockwise stairwells.

Digg picked up on the medieval home listing, which recently popped up on the market. Spokane-based real estate company Jonas and Associates listed the property and hired an armorist to play the knight in the video. Incidentally, Digg reports that the day the real estate agency recorded the video the temperature outside was 100°F. Also, the armor weighed a whopping 100 pounds.

Jonas Elber

The challenging production paid off, however, as this home tour is a true Zillow gem. The knight first greets prospective buyers in front of the home’s facade, which consists of tens of thousands of bricks and genuinely looks like a good spot from which to defend against invading armies. The knight then proceeds to work his way through the 4,000-square-foot house; showing off everything from the “daylight dungeon” to the “master bedchamber.”

Jonas Elber

It’s extremely hard to pick the funniest part of the video, but there are certainly some choice moments. The knight wielding dual blades like Ser Arthur Dayne in the downstairs living room is pretty great. The look at the master bathroom is just as ridiculous, with the knight taking a moment to shower. In full armor. In 100-degree heat. Plus there are the straight-up legit medieval aspects of the home. Like its royal courtyards, fortress walls, hidden rooms, and two distinct “living” towers. (In battle, they’d turn into “dying” towers.)

Jonas Elber

Anybody interested in a more complete tour can find all the home’s details on the Jonas Associates’ website. As well as the actual Zillow listing, which pegs the home’s value at $600,000. Which means prospective buyers will need to slay a good amount of dragons (or overtime) to store up enough loot for the purchase.

The post Knight in Full Armor Gives a Tour of a Castle-Like Home for Sale appeared first on Nerdist.

For most people who grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, Michael Keaton is Batman, and Beetlejuice. Since then, he’s appeared in close to 100 films and television shows, ranging from comedies to dramas to action movies. He’s a very versatile actor; one of our favorites. But did you know he used to also do stand-up comedy? It’s true! In the 1980s, there was something of a stand-up comedy boom, where people could make a lot of money doing stand-up. There were television shows devoted to it, including the once-ubiquitous An Evening at the Improv, which ran from 1981 to 1996.

The official YouTube channel for An Evening at the Improv recently uploaded one of Keaton’s sets from the show in ’81. Behold the pre-stardom stand-up of one Michael Keaton.

This whole clip screams the ’80s to me. The Improv, one of Los Angeles’ most famous comedy venues, has a brick wall in front of which the comedians perform. This became so well-known that merely the sight of a brick wall, a microphone, and a spotlight is still the go-to shorthand for stand-up comedy.

Keaton’s set itself isn’t anything too special. Bits about talking to yourself, lunatics on the street (a very common LA phenomenon), family road trips, stuff like that. But what’s immediately evident is his focus was clearly on specificity in character work. He embodies the guys talking to themselves, his sister whining, his dad smacking them while driving the car; it’s all very mannered and clearly based on long observations. That’s a very Michael Keatony thing.

An Evening at the Improv

Not one year after this TV appearance, Keaton began his string of successful movies; Night Shift, Mr. Mom, Johnny Dangerously, and so on. By 1988, he had Beetlejuice, in ’89, Batman. And then it was off to the races. But it’s a lot of fun to see where he got his start, telling jokes for the nightclub folks.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

The post Fun Reminder: Michael Keaton Used to Do Stand-Up Comedy appeared first on Nerdist.

Once you’ve watched season 2 of I Think You Should Leave (which is easy to do at only 100 minutes), why not feast your comedy-hungry eyes on these five other wild, screaming shows? From Mr. Show to The State, here are some of our favorite bombastic sketch comedy series.

The post 5 Sketch Comedy Shows Just As Insane As “I Think You Should Leave” (Nerdist Now w/ Kyle Anderson) appeared first on Nerdist.

We’ve been waiting for the second season of Tim Robinson’s hilarious Netflix sketch series I Think You Should Leave since almost the moment we finished the first season. It was easily the best thing in 2019, and it gave us some of the wildest, most rewatchable comedy in recent memory. Now season two is here and boy does it live up to expectations. Awkward moments, needless embarrassment, and unending shouting abound.

And even though the entire season is only about 100 minutes total, that’s still plenty of time to give us another round of sketches so weird and hilarious we had trouble breathing. Here now are our picks for the 12 best sketches from I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson season two.

Obviously comedy is subjective, but I’m ranking them in order of how much they specifically made me laugh. Your mileage may vary, if you know how to drive a car of course.

12. Detective Crashmore Trailer

The general rule of thumb is any sketch without Tim Robinson in it is 20% less funny than the ones he’s in. However, a few really stood out, and the hyper-violent trailer for the action movie Detective Crashmore is one. Having an old grizzled man (played by an actor whose name, I swear to god, is Biff Wiff) as the lead of an action movie is funny enough, but the kind of lazy, fifth-grade swearing he does while gorily shooting criminals is just so delightfully stupid. “You f***ing suuuuuuuck!” is definitely not as compelling as “Yippee Ki-Yay Mothaf***ah,” but it made us laugh a lot. Oh, and twist ending, the old guy playing Crashmore is actually Santa Claus.

Should be noted, we’re just specifically talking about the trailer. While the follow-up press junket sketch is fine (“Cosmic Gumbo” is a hilariously dumb phrase), it doesn’t pack nearly the punch of the trailer on its own.

11. “I Love My Wife”

Sketches within sketches are an I Think You Should Leave staple, and the cold-open from episode four is one of the best. It stars Paul Walter Hauser as a guy at a poker game with a bunch of other dudes. Each takes in turn to make lazy jokes about their wives. When he does, and his friends all laugh, he immediately feels terrible. We get a flashback to a supremely sweet montage of scenes where he tells his wife he’s auditioned for a play and she’s incredibly loving and supportive. Even when his costar (the inexplicably named Jamie Taco) starts stealing his lines because he can say them faster.

It’s pure I Think You Should Leave logic all the way through, but it also solidifies that the show can do touching and happy sketches amid the embarrassing and devastating.

10. Credit Card Roulette

Another great one-off guest star for this season is comedian John Early as one of 10 people at a fancy restaurant. As they listen to the jet-setting Hal (Danny Nucci)’s stories, it comes time to pay the bill. Rather than split it 10 ways, Hal suggests they play credit card roulette. Everybody tosses a card in a hat, whosever card gets picked, they pay for the whole dinner. As you might expect, despite Early loudly proclaiming how legendary Hal is at fun, when it’s his card that gets picked, he immediately, angrily says he’s not gonna pay. It plays to Early’s strengths as a comedian and is just…so very awkward.

9. “Don’t You Know How to Drive?!?”

Netflix

This cold-open is just so stupid I had to include it. It’s a very relatable scene; an already frustrated man tries to leave a parking lot when the slow driver ahead of him blocks his path and won’t move. As he shouts, “Don’t you know how to drive?!” the other drive happens to be Tim Robinson, who tearily says “No, I don’t know how to drive.” Now how he got into the car, even started in the first place, and got where he is is never addressed. But as the sketch unfolds we learn not only does he apparently not know how to drive, he also doesn’t know basic car things. He’s afraid of the horn honking and the steering wheel hurts him somehow? It’s just so much yelling and it starts episode five on a great note.

8. Courtroom Transcript

Another sketch-within-a-sketch. In this one, two business people are on trial for insider trading. The prosecutor reads lengthy text message exchanges between the defendants very clearly showing their guilt. But the turn comes after the first few minutes when the texts start to be about their co-worker (Robinson)’s increasingly fervent defense of his new hat, which is a fedora with a safari hat cape. It’s not really about the insider trading at that point, as Robinson in the courtroom gets increasingly embarrassed by the reading, and we see just how out of hand this hat situation got at work.

7. Dinner with a Professor

Netflix

One thing I absolutely love about I Think You Should Leave is how often it allows older character actors the chance to be the hilarious one in a scene. In this one, which opens the third episode, we see Robinson as a former business school student who has joined two classmates for dinner with their beloved professor (Bob McDuff Wilson). It starts out very normal—as they always do—but as soon as the food arrives, the professor wishes he’d ordered the burger Robinson ordered instead. He makes strange “jokes” about how he’s going to steal the burger (“Gimme dat. Geeeeemme dat.”) before just deciding he’s going to eat the whole thing. And believe it or not, it gets weirder from there.

6. Dan Flashes

Netflix

This is meat and potatoes ITYSL. A normal work meeting upended by Tim Robinson being the weirdest human alive. A team has gone on a trip to make a deal happen, but Robinson’s character lies on the couch. He says he’s tired, but his work nemesis Doug (William Knight, another amazing bit of casting) tells everyone the real story: he hasn’t spent any of his per diem on food, instead buying expensive shirts with “complicated patterns” from a boutique store called Dan Flashes. But how could he pass them up? They sell shirts in his exact style; everything in the store, he *would* wear. Too bad Doug’s a f***ing skunk!

5. Ghost Tour

NSFW video, contains foul language

One of the saddest and therefore most hilarious sketches is this one, which ends the first episode. A small group head into a haunted house for a ghost tour. But this one is after 10pm, which means it’s for grown-ups only. Swearing IS allowed. Unfortunately, Robinson and the tour guide (Alex Aiono) get their wires crossed. Robinson keeps asking if swearing is allowed, and then asks various lewd and vulgar questions about the ghosts. When the guide gives him a talking to, Robinson seems genuinely hurt and sad; is this or is this not the tour where swearing is allowed? He seems almost compelled to ask these foul-mouthed questions and doesn’t understand why people are mad at him about it. Perfection.

4. Coffin Flop

Netflix

This one has already become the stuff of memes. Robinson talks directly to camera about how Corncob TV, a low-rent cable channel, won’t be available on Spectrum. That means, we loyal Corncob TV watchers won’t be able to watch hit shows like Coffin Flop, which is just a hidden camera show which shows various times when dead bodies fall out of or break through coffins at funerals and fall on the ground. We see so many bodies fall out of coffins while Robinson goes into a rant about how people think it’s not a real show and that he stages all the bodies falling out. “I didn’t do f***in’ s**t! I didn’t rig s**t!”

3. “Did Ya Give?”

I think this might be the longest continued sketch the show’s done to date, and it’s also one of the weirdest and most disturbing. Mike O’Brien comes out of an office restroom with a couple of dots of urine on his khakis. Not a huge deal, right? After a coworker makes fun of him about it, Tim Robinson comes out of nowhere and spews this whole explanation about how that’s actually a new style of expensive pants from CalicoCutPants.com. “It’s got nothin’ to do with piss!” The coworker walks away, willing to accept the weird but substantiated claim.

But that’s not where it ends by a long shot. Robinson then demands O’Brien “give” to the creator of CalicoCutPants.com (Conner O’Malley) because if you use it and you don’t give, it might go away. He’s underwater because of this! He starts harassing O’Brien, sending him loud, un-quietable videos about how he has to give, before eventually it’s clear this is some Kafkaesque nightmare conspiracy from which there is no escape.

2. Karl Havoc

Netflix

As with all the best sketches on the show, they start out normal and get very not normal. It’s a hidden camera prank show and Robinson is about to go under heavy makeup to play the character “Karl Havoc” at a mall food court. Karl is “a lot,” and he’s supposed to go mess with people. But as soon as Robinson enters the mall, in mounds and mounds of makeup and prosthetics, he has a panic attack. It’s too much stuff! He can’t breathe! He’s gonna rip the head off! It’s such an immediately downward plummet that it stops the shoot in its tracks. Then, as these things often do, it takes a precipitous turn toward the abyss. MUAH, we love it.

1. Driver’s Ed Videos

This is the sketch that I’ve laughed to the point of crying every time I watch it. Tim Robinson plays a driver’s education teacher about to show his class a series of instructional videos. He tells the kids not to laugh at the old production values or the acting. He then specifically asks them not to mention the tables. Weird. The video starts and we see a woman (played by returning champion Patti Harrison) loading plastic folding tables into the back of her van. She’s furious that one of her tables is filthy and then calls someone to complain about Eddie Munster before getting in to an off-camera accident.

Netflix

Naturally, this is weird. But there’s more videos, and it’s the same lady, with the same issues with her tables. The students ask what her job is and in one of Robinson’s patented very-loud line reads he says “Tables.” Or, more accurately “TAY BULLS!” How is “tables” a job? Well, we do eventually find out, but the entire thing just escalates as Harrison’s table-owner gets more and more upset about how filthy they are. It’s just madness.

And there you have our list! Even while writing it we thought of like six more sketches that could have, and probably should have, been here. Its a brilliant season. And at like 100 minutes total, it’s easy to rewatch over and over again.

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson season two is streaming now on Netflix.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

The post Top 12 I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE Season Two Sketches appeared first on Nerdist.

Last night, Conan O’Brien paid a tender goodbye to his career as a late night talk show host. He capped the hour with a 15-minute speech articulating his appreciation for the varied longtime members of his crew. Though laden with jokes, it was an earnest and lovely way for Conan to conclude an inimitable 27-year-long stint. This combination of sincerity and silliness is what has enriched Conan’s run as a comedic giant. And for me, the purest distillation of that can be found in a remote segment in 2004.

There is, of course, no one funniest Conan O’Brien sketch. Every fan has a different favorite entry among his decades-spanning catalogue of buffoonery. But this morning, in timing with the conclusion of Conan’s late night talk show run, I’ve decided to treat you to mine. And to get personal about why this abundantly stupid bit has held a place in my heart for so long.

In 2004, Conan spent a week hosting Late Night in Canada. I can’t quite remember why, though the rewards were plentiful. (I recall a lively interview with Jim Carrey among the many highlights.) But topping all other standouts was Conan’s self-appointed gig as a Canadian Mountie. For a remote segment, Conan donned the ill-fitting bright red uniform and posted up at the Canada–United States border. While there, he brought giddy shame to the office, to both nations, and to the very idea of international diplomacy.

Not terribly far south, a 15-year-old me watched all of this unfurl on my bedroom television set. The segment aired amid the nebula between Thursday night and Friday morning; this meant anticipation of a weekend spent harangued by despairing isolation or paralyzing social anxiety. At 15, I was agonizingly depressed and fostered very little love for myself. I was years away from coming out, and even more from developing a sense of self I could sympathize with. Suicide was never far from my mind, and was very much at the helm on this particular night.

When feeling most merciful, I allowed myself to drown out the inner noise with television, or tried to. By this point, Late Night with Conan O’Brien was a go-to for this service. Partially because the show aired at a particularly vulnerable hour. And partially because there was some magic in his particular brand of self-effacing disregard. The humor didn’t disconnect me from my challenges; Conan has never shrugged off his own self-deprecation, and thus never forced me to shrug off mine.

Team Coco

In leaning into the ridiculousness of his very being, Conan didn’t drum up sorrow. Instead, he celebrated what made him ill-fit for this world. (And often, what made this world ill-fit for this world.) But what distinguishes Conan among many comedians is his relationship with the world from which he makes so clear he’s estranged. This comes into play in interviews, when he makes his guests feel like a superior species to him; in man-on-the-street segments, when he disarms his subjects by rendering himself delightfully inscrutable; and, perhaps most significantly, in regard to his viewing public. There’s very little distance between Conan and the viewer. He welcomes you into his mania, his angst, his devotion to silliness. And in turn, he invites you to experience, and revel in, the very same.

During his short tenure a Canadian Mountie, Conan reminded me anew of the depths of his absurdity. What’s more, in how eager and willing he was to accept that he was so absurd. And in turn, he suggested that it might be possible, and acceptable, for me to do the same.

The post The Conan O’Brien Sketch I Will Always Cherish the Most appeared first on Nerdist.

In 2019, the viewing public got a surprise treat in the form of I Think You Should Leave. The menacing and chaotic sketch comedy show sprung from the mind of Tim Robinson; if you knew that name at all beforehand, it was likely from his very brief stint on Saturday Night Live. Those who caught his episode of the Netflix series The Characters were better prepared for Robinson’s brand of humor. But viewers new and familiar alike reveled in the absurdist, shout-heavy shtick lining packing sketch. Season two is fast approaching, as we knew from a recent teaser celebrating the “greatest hits” of the first stretch. Now, a full trailer presents all the mayhem in store for the next batch of episodes.

Some of the clips in the trailer establish clear focal points of parody. We can see that season two will send up crime thrillers, ghost tours, and even funerals. It’s hard to discern context from many of the others. Season one provided a mix of implanting nonsense in everyday situations, and just plain nonsense from the ground up. So we’re very much ready for more of the same.

Most exciting is the slew of guest stars that I Think You Should Leave season two will boast. We’re pleased to see returning power players like Sam Richardson, Patti Harrison, and Tiny Boop Tim Heidecker. But it’s also exciting to welcome Bob Odenkirk, Paul Walter Hauser, John Early, Mike O’Brien, and Julia Butters.

Netflix

Though he’s since become best known for his dramatic work, Odenkirk is a sketch comedy legend in his own right. Meanwhile, Early collaborated with Robinson on The Characters, while O’Brien and Robinson worked together on SNL. As for Butters, you’ll recognize her as Leonardo DiCaprio’s young costar in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

I Think You Should Leave will hit Netflix on July 6.

The post I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE Season Two Trailer Has So Much Yelling appeared first on Nerdist.

What is the funniest joke? Greater minds than I have endeavored fruitlessly to answer such a question. Given the futility of this task, I’ll narrow the lens a bit. What is the funniest running joke? The mind immediately scans memories of gag-laden comedy films and TV shows like Airplane!, Seinfeld, and Arrested Development. But to truly engage with this existential quandary, we must delve further into what we’re really asking. Is the caliber of a running joke determined by its amusement throughout, or by its payoff at the big finish? Either way, the top honor may go to Paul Rudd’s two-decades-spanning prank on Conan O’Brien. And said prank that culminated in a blaze of glory on Monday night’s episode of Conan.

First, for due diligence, if you’re new to the late-night world, here’s the deal. Every time Rudd visits Conan on any of his talk shows, the actor couriers a clip to show the audience. This is, of course, not abnormal; Rudd always introduces the clip as though it represents whatever movie or TV series he’s advertising at the time. But in the cheeky interest of undermining showbiz tradition, the clip is never that. It’s always—always, always, always—the same absurd moment from the oft-derided 1988 movie Mac and Me.

TBS

Now, if you’ve seen any number of Rudd’s appearances on Conan’s shows, you’ve seen him command this ruse before. Thus, you probably knew what was coming when Rudd suggested he’d show the storied clip from a Saturday Night Live dress rehearsal. And you probably knew what was coming when he promised he’d show an alternative goofball clip from the 1999 movie Baby Geniuses.

But even if you did, you most likely laughed at each reveal of that infamous moment from Mac and Me. That, if nothing else, is the sign of a running joke worthy of superlative.

The post Paul Rudd Tricks Conan O’Brien with MAC AND ME One Last Time appeared first on Nerdist.

If you have yet to watch season one of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. As someone who has—many, many times—I think you should. The Netflix series was not just one of 2019’s best shows. It’s one of the best sketch comedies ever. And after too long of a wait, it’s finally set to return. And the series announced its second season release date with a perfect promo featuring a musical medley honoring the show’s “hits.”

Tim Robinson and Sam Richardson sing their way through some of season one’s best bits, in the first teaser for the show’s sophomore year. This soft sweater, folk music performance includes callbacks to a graveside song, “The Baby of the Year” contest, two unfortunate attempts at stardom, and more.

Strangely enough, there’s no mention of “The Night the Skeletons Came to Life.” But in fairness, we already know record executives are cowards. They’re afraid to let the public know that both bones and worms are money. Both the bones and the worms are their money.

Netflix

Our guess is this performance won’t be included in season two. Which is fine by us. We can still watch it a million times. (I’m already up to 17 in an hour.) And they’ll have room for one more new sketch.

But if you insist on looking for any potential meaning from this otherwise hilarious promo, it seems like a joke about how the show won’t be “playing” the proverbial old hits. Plenty of sketch comedy shows fall into the easy trap of recycling old ideas. “No way! Way.” To quote Robinson from the end of this teaser, that’s an easy way to “f*** up.”

Of course, if the series does return to any previous ideas, it’ll probably still be amazing. I Think You Should Leave‘s six-episode first season was perfect. And I know you should watch it before season two debuts on Netflix on July 6.

The post I THINK YOU SHOULD LEAVE Drops Season 2 Teaser, Release Date appeared first on Nerdist.

Renting a large vehicle is a more questionable prospect than it may seem. While almost everyone needs one at some point, the possibility that you may enter a parking garage and spend two minutes eviscerating waterlines while causing thousands of dollars worth of damage is not zero. Really. Just watch this video of two people doing exactly that for proof. And please have a good laugh at their literal expense.

Digg picked up on this comedic tragedy. The YouTube channel, F1, recently uploaded the clip without any context whatsoever. But who needs context when you have what amounts to a two-minute clip from a lost episode of Arrested Development?

In the video, two people inside of a U-Haul truck proceed to enter a parking garage and snag the vehicle’s roof on a waterline. And while they attempt to back out after about 20 seconds of being stuck—and even look like they’re going to succeed to!—the driver just piles right back into the garage. And more waterlines.

F1

At about 50 seconds into the video, things get especially rough for the pair in the U-Haul’s cabin. After jerking back and forth, the truck hits a line that has some kind of brown liquid in it; a brown liquid which quickly proceeds to spill down every side of the truck. (We could speculate on what the liquid is, but your guess is as good, and probably gross, as ours.)

The epic struggle comes to a glorious ending after about two minutes. After hitting more waterlines, which subsequently wash off the brown liquid—yay silver linings—and watching a car pass by, the vehicle’s driver decides to simply punch the gas. This, of course, ends with the truck getting completely stuck, just out of frame. If this were an episode of Arrested Development, that’s when we’d cut back to Buster talking about that time he took the U-Haul out for a spin. And made a huge mistake.

F1

Feature image: F1

The post A U-Haul Truck Wrecking a Parking Garage Is Comedic Gold appeared first on Nerdist.

One of the most exciting things for nerdy comedy fans of the past several years was when Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson announced a Kickstarter for a brand new season of the show. This campaign, in 2015, was so successful it eventually led to a 14-episode season, which premiered on Netflix in April 2017. The following November, a six-episode second season hit the streaming giant. But after that, Netflix ultimately decided to end the series. That seemed like the end, but never count Hodgson out! He’s back with a brand new Kickstarter for more MST3K, this time with a direct-to-fans rollout.

Kickstarter

With the aim of launching media platform “The Gizmoplex,” Hodgson wants to cut out the middleman between the makers of the show and the fans. No more will MSTies have to wait for an entire season to drop all at once, as is Netflix’s model; nor will it need to fit neatly into a network’s release schedule. In Hodgson’s new plan, when an episode is ready, it’ll hit the Gizmoplex for fans to enjoy.

“A year in quarantine gave us a lot of time to think, and we realized two important things,” Hodgson’s statement begins. “First, nobody’s virtual Zoom background is as amusing as they think it is. And second, that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is back because it’s what the fans wanted. So, you know, it doesn’t make sense for a network to decide the show’s fate after each season.  That should be up to the people we’re making the show for. We want our fans to decide how long we keep going, and how many new episodes we make each year.”

Through Kickstarter, Hodgson’s plan triggers once the campaign reaches $2 million. That will pay for three new episodes plus the development of the aforementioned Gizmoplex. That is “a new ‘online theater’ where Hodgson and his team can host live episode premieres, real-time watch parties and special live events year-round.”

As one would expect, the amount of episodes will depend on how much money the campaign raises. At $3.3 million, we’ll get a total of six new episodes and the release of new apps that let fans visit the Gizmoplex using mobile and OTT devices; $4.4. million gives you nine episodes; and $5.5. will be a full season of 12 episodes. The top goal will also bring on 12 new shorts as well. $2 million was the starting goal for the original #BringBackMST3K Kickstarter in 2015. As a reminder, that ended up raising $5,764,229, the most of any production campaign at the time. So it’s definitely nit out of the realm of possibility to get $5.5 million.

In addition to not letting a network or service dictate if there are more episodes, Hodgson also wants to assure fans that they’ll get new episodes faster, without as much hiatus.

“Back in the day, each new episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 was kind of an event to look forward to, and you could discover it with your family or friends,” Hodgson notes. “So, we’re pretty excited by the idea that each new episode can become this kind of ‘communal event’ again. Also, we’ve got a lot of fun ideas to make our virtual theater, The Gizmoplex, feel different from any other place you can watch MST3K online.”

Hodgson will be involved in every aspect of the series and rollout. However, who exactly will be part of the cast is unknown. That said, the creator promises “all major cast members from Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return and Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet will be involved in the new episodes.”

More MST3K?! It’s almost too good to be true. But it’s not!

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Twitter!

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I’m 100% guilty of obsessing over true crime series. Drop a multi-part, binge-worthy murder show on Netflix or Hulu, and I’ll gobble it up in a few hours. (And then log onto Reddit to do my own investigating.) It’s an admittedly macabre hobby, but one so many of us share. What attracts us to grisly shows about horrendous crime events? I wish I could explain it, and many have attempted to. It remains a popular genre, as evidenced by all the recent murder shows, like Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel and Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer.

Always one to poke fun at a trend, this week’s Saturday Night Live featured a sketch that mocks our cultural obsession with true crime. In “Murder Show,” Kate McKinnon, Melissa Villaseñor, Ego Nwodim, and Chloe Fineman play women who watch these shows while they perform other mundane tasks. You know, like folding laundry or FaceTiming mom.

It’s funny because it’s so brutally accurate. I’m sure all of us who fall down true crime spirals are known to do so while performing simple chores or daily activities. I’m guilty of firing up a gruesome podcast while I do the dishes. Or watching a murder show in the bath. The juxtaposition between these things only highlights how bizarre our fixation with true crime is. That we can just casually watch as horrendous details are relayed to us? It’s a weird thing, and this SNL sketch absolutely nails it.

Oh, and the bit about following up a true crime binge watch with a podcast about the exact same subject? Yeah, that’s painfully accurate, too. Murder shows make investigators out of the best of us.

NBC

Near the end of the sketch, this week’s SNL host Nick Jonas shows up as Fineman’s boyfriend. And he reminds us of an even better option. What’s more bizarre and fascinating and watchable than a murder show? A cult show, duh. Why watch Making a Murderer when you can watch Wild, Wild Country? And true crime enthusiast knows that a fascination with one usually leads to the other.

The post SNL’s ‘Murder Show’ Pokes Fun at Our True Crime Obsession appeared first on Nerdist.

FX Networks

The viewers receive an unusual and entertaining insight into the vampires’ life in What We Do In The Shadows. And let me tell you: their lifestyle can be very similar to the human one. Alongside the camera crew, the audience follows Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja, and energy vampire, Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch). The vampires have lived with each other for over a hundred years on Staten Island. In each episode, we observe their night life and unusual adventures. When they don’t attend the “Superb Owl,” they get in troubles and are (more often than not) saved by Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén). 

FX Networks

Demetriou is the perfect choice to play Nadja. Every line from Nadja’s mouth elicits a wave of laughter. This Gothic, emo-ish vampire with ruby red lipstick and impeccable Victorian style is not merely  hilarious. She’s also the only one with a clear(-ish) head. When animal control kidnaps Nandor and Laszlo (yes, after the shapeshifting), Nadja is the one to rescue them. She’s ruthlessly honest, incredibly sarcastic, and caring in her own way. When the male vampires don’t listen, almost everything turns out as she predicted. 

One of the best parts of her gumptious personality is her past, and Nadja isn’t afraid of talking about it. Demetriou’s character is of Romani heritage. Her life wasn’t luxurious at all; on the contrary she was impoverished. The woman openly admitted that she and her relatives “had to burn donkey dong and then donkey, too,” to stay warm. It’s the most ludicrous story you’ve ever heard. But the serious tone of Nadja and her stoic attitude while telling the story has the audience laughing at all times. 

FX Networks

Every scene or monologue she delivers is spot-on and hysterical. In one episode, she looks for the necklace that apparently contains her mothers’ screams. Said jewelry was supposedly stolen from her by older lady Joan. Now Joan now lives next door. During the Super Bowl (Or Superb Owl as the vampires call it), the neighbor instantly recognizes Nadja. The vampire tries to play it off in front of the other guests. Still, when the camera team is alone with Nadja, the truth resurfaces: 

Oh yeah, everything she’s saying is completely true. Sean’s mother, Joannie, grew up right here in this house. We used to have so much fun together. I used to pin her to the ceiling for hours.

Another great part of her character, which makes Nadja one of the best protagonists, is her relationship with Laszlo. As we all know, a lasting marriage needs a little variety from time to time and, if you live with someone a long time, the arguments justhappen. I live for the bitter rows between Laszlo and Nadja. They have a variety of marriage quarrels and then complain about it to the camera. Their bond and uniqueness have a feeling of Santa Clarita Diet‘s Sheila and Joel (zombies, vampires, marriage).

FX Networks

Nadja talks to Laszlo about anything and everything. The topics are various, like babies, for example:

If Laszlo and I were to ever have a child, I wish he’d look like him (points to baby armadillo). Small and hard.

Or sex life:

Do you remember that first time we made love? It was so passionate, I accidentally cut off your head. 

The pair even formed a band together. In the episode “Collaboration,” we discover that the songs we all know were actually written long ago by Nadja and Laszlo. Their repertoire includes “Chum on Irene” (1852), a tribute to Laszlo’s local fishmonger’s wife, which we all know as “Come on Eileen” by Dexys Midnight Runners.

Nadja is an independent, multi-dimensional character. Although called “lady wife” by her spouse, Demetriou’s role is so much more than that. She is an integral part to each episode. Nadja has her own style, own way of life, and unique ventures. She equally stands her ground amongst the male vampires. The undead woman is never diminished or patronized. Her story is as valid as others. And as we have seen many vampire-themed stories, I have never experienced vampires portrayed so humanly. Nadja adds flavor to What We Do In The Shadows. Demetriou is unquestionably remarkable in this role, almost as if she was born to play Nadja.

FX Networks

If you’ve never seen What We Do In The Shadows, and you want to watch the characters’ lives like in The Office, but with fangs, you can’t miss it any more. Especially if you like gothic themes, Victorian style, and vampires. Don’t forget about the vampires.

The post Why WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS Needed Nadja appeared first on Nerdist.

Sandler kicked off the trash talk when he tried to pull off Happy’s running power drive for the first time in 25 years. Although he was “scared,” Sandler still dedicated the drive to his biggest foe. “Shooter McGavin, this one’s for you,” he said, right before crushing a ball. While the video didn’t show where the shot went, it certainly seemed like Sandler nailed it. (Golf fans know what a great drive sounds like.) The actor confirmed as much, saying the ball was “smashed” before laughing at Shooter.

Universal Pictures

That led Shooter himself, Christopher McDonald, to respond on Twitter. However, Shooter knows his strengths and weaknesses as a golfer. He wasn’t going to enter a driving contest he can’t win. We saw in the movie what happened when he tried to emulate Happy’s running tee shot. Instead, he pulled out his putter in response. Because as Happy Gilmore himself learned, you “drive for show, putt for the dough.”

Shooter’s still got it. Both his short game and his trademark smugness. Well, he’s got both so long as a very large man with a nail in his head is not around.

Both actors still have it as well. Even after 25 years they’re still making us laugh with these characters. Which raises a great “what-if” for a sequel. How are Happy and Shooter getting along on the Senior PGA Tour?

The post Happy Gilmore and Shooter McGavin Rematch 25 Years Later appeared first on Nerdist.

Just be prepared to see a big furry Kevin James give birth to a little furry Kevin James.

James stars in a spot-on spoof of Sir David Attenborough’s beloved nature documentary series like Planet Earth and Life. The fictional show, Nature Planet from HEP, takes an “epic look into the endangered species, The Silver-Breasted Montle, as they battle back from the brink of extinction.” The cuddly animals, which resemble koala bears with the bearded face of the The King of Queens star, live a life of peace and tranquility in the Tanana forest of Alaska. There they eat for 16 hours a day. It’s a good life, but one that could be wiped out forever. The Montle’s only known predator, the “Big Bird,” is a threat to the species’ survival. But there is hope. (Unlike in the case of forgetting the sight of Kevin James birthing a baby koala.)

Kevin James

This pitch-perfect parody gets all of the nuances, beats, and camera shots absolutely right. It also nails that circle-of-life-style sense of dread and hope all at once. And Adam Sandler legitimately does a great job narrating. Especially since some of these lines must have been hard to read with a straight face. But what really sells the whole thing is James’ unwavering commitment to the bit. It’s all so, so stupid, and he’s all in on it. Even if that means sitting in a lake in a koala suit. And while that would be funny any year, it’s really what we need in 2020.

Featured Image: Kevin James

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It was a shocking case that had everything: the murder of a wealthy businessman, whispers of a salacious affair, double-crosses, a missing will worth untold wealth, and cartoons living alongside real humans. And after 30 years, this case’s many unanswered questions are getting the (unofficial) Unsolved Mysteries treatment.

The newest edition of “Nerdist Remix,” edited by Matt Caron, invites you to investigate the greatest unsolved mystery in the history of cinema, live-action and animated alike. Who was really responsible for the death of media mogul Marvin Acme? Did Toon Town’s biggest star, driven mad by jealousy and a demeanor only an impossibly gorgeous redhead could love, drop a safe on the businessman’s head? Or was that overly-animated animation also a victim? Was he the target of a conspiracy that threatened all of Hollywood? Was the sinister judge tasked with administering justice really who (or what) he claimed to be?

And what did an anthropomorphic taxi have to do with any of it?

Viewers can join private detective Eddie Valiant as he dives into the darkest rabbit hole any P.I. has ever found himself in. It was the case too big for both Tinsletown and Toon Town. But it’s exactly the type of dark, bizarre, case that was made for Unsolved Mysteries. And for “Nerdist Remix.”

Because there’s never been a more compelling mystery than the question of who framed Roger Rabbit.

For more “Nerdist Remix,” watch the full playlist here.

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Celebs have been using to quarantine to hold virtual reunions. They’ve discussed beloved movies and TV shows with their fellow cast and crew. They’ve also digitally gathered to do table reads of popular films. But now some of our favorite Hollywood performers will get together to give us something original. An all-star cast will hold a live table-read of an un-produced comedy. Ben Stiller, Bob Odenkirk, Michael Cera, Kristen Wiig, and an insane lineup bring to life the lost calamity movie parody The Towering Disaster.

House Seats Live

The virtual theater House Seats is hosting the first-ever public reading of a disaster comedy script written by David Cross and longtime producer Rob Cohen. According to Cross’s Mr. Show co-star Bob Odenkirk, the pair originally wrote the film shortly after The Ben Stiller Show went off the air in 1993. It’s a parody of ’70s disaster movies like The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno, and Earthquake.

The cast, which will perform via Zoom, is anything but a disaster. In addition to Stiller, Odenkirk, Cross, Cera, and Wiig, it will also feature Don Cheadle, Will Forte, Regina Hall, David Koechner, Jack McBrayer, Michael McKean, John Ennis, Sarah Silverman, and Henry Winkler.

That cast is ridiculous. We expect the story will be, too. The poster promises a burning skyscraper, bees, an exploding volcano, and a giant tidal wave. (Maybe this movie was never actually made because it would have cost 400 billion dollars?)

House Seats Live

The show will broadcast live on Saturday, July 25 starting at 5 p.m. ET. Tickets are $12.50 and are already on sale. Even better is that all proceeds will go towards the Equal Justice Initiative and Direct Relief.

A fun quarantine event with a crazy talented cast raising money for good causes? The only thing about this live-read that screams disaster is the premise of the movie. Well, that and the global disaster that made it possible.

Featured Image: House Seats Live

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In 2012, at the ripe age of 90, Carl Reiner joined Twitter. It was a time before the platform fully descended into toxicity. And yet, during his eight very active years online, his Twitter presence was a beacon of light amidst the growing ugliness. 

CBS

A frequent tweeter, Reiner’s use of the social media platform varied widely. He was a proud patriarch, an unabashed liberal, TV and film fanatic, Sandra Bullock fan, and, of course, a legendary comedian. He often tweeted like it was the Google search bar, inquiring about where to watch All That Heaven Allows online or whether Jennifer Lopez was married and had kids (after watching her “multi-layered performance” in 2002 thriller Enough—an oft-tweeted about film for Carl). Amused, his followers obliged, posting links to The Criterion Channel, or providing any tabloid insight they could muster. And of course they would—Carl asked!

The comedian genuinely appeared to value his community of followers. Reiner often tweeted jokes, seemingly, if for nothing else, his own amusement, and expressed a bemused delight at seeing the engagement flood in. A vocal detractor of the Trump Administration, he spent much of his time online tweeting his ire and encouraging voting—occasionally following up with a tweet to note his gratitude for the solidarity. 

Reiner, who famously enjoyed a nightly dinner and a movie (or Jeopardy!) with Mel Brooks, also relished in tweeting about film. From classic Hollywood movies to recent Oscar nominees to middling action films, Reiner saw—and recommended—it all. But none, not even Enough, got as much love as the 1995 cyber thriller film The Net starring Sandra Bullock, which had a whopping 15 tweets dedicated to it. In fact, his affection for the film became such a recurring part of his Twitter presence, it was the subject of a delightful 2019 New York magazine interview.

Conaco

Most importantly, he often tweeted about his love for his family and friends. Whether it was making reference to dinners with Mel or The Dick Van Dyke Show, he was clearly proud of the work he did and the life-long friends he made along the way. He was a very proud dad to his kids, Annie, Lucas, and Rob—occasionally noting that even if he weren’t Rob’s dad, he’d be a fan of his work and activism. Two days before his passing, he posted a brief reflection on his life. 

There was a general earnestness to Carl Reiner’s Twitter account… even when the tweets would have benefitted from a second set of eyes. His presence was like tweets from a grandparent, always well-meaning, no matter how many times they accidentally left the caps lock on.

Twitter is already a little bit dimmer without his presence. But one can imagine, wherever Carl Reiner is, he’s tweeting about The Net.

Featured Image: Conaco

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Carl Reiner was there at the beginning, when television was young and its comedy experimental. With the 1950 variety series Your Show of Shows, creator Sid Caesar and his troupe brought the legacy of the Catskills to viewers nationwide; then-young Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, and Selma Diamond fueled the series as writers, and cast member Reiner enjoyed the spotlight alongside Sid, Imogene Coca, and Howard Morris.

Even among this lot, Reiner distinguished as a comic colossus. Stardom accrued from Your Show of Shows earned him a starring role in a television pilot of his creation… one that’d quickly yield a makeover with him repositioned behind the camera. The result of this experimentation was The Dick Van Dyke Show, a harmonization of slice-of-family-life comedy and a tribute to Reiner’s experiences in a variety series writer’s room.

CBS Enterprises

To look at its cast alone is to recognize the series’ lasting contributions: it gave us Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie, Morey Amsterdam, and, of course, Dick Van Dyke (not to mention writers like Garry Marshall and John Whedon), while Reiner himself appeared occasionally as Van Dyke’s tyrannical boss Alan Brady. Beyond this, The Dick Van Dyke Show could be said to have set the template for sitcoms forthcoming. Though debuting in the wake of powerhouses like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners, The Dick Van Dyke Show brought television something uniquely kind, witty, and—despite the Connecticut goysichness of its central pair Rob and Laura Petrie—formidably Jewish.

This medley would prove inexorable in Reiner’s work on the whole. Contemporaneous with The Dick Van Dyke Show, Reiner and his Your Show of Shows colleague Mel Brooks couriered their united sense of humor across media, rendering now-classic routines like “The 2000 Year Old Man.” In the sketch, which aired on The Steve Allen Show and found form as a Grammy-winning album, straight man Reiner would interview (more accurately, wrangle) Brooks as the eponymous elder, armed with Ashkenazi affection and mad with the powers of improv.

In 1943, Reiner married fellow Bronx native and rising performer Estelle Lebost, perhaps best remembered for her single, scene-stealing line in When Harry Met Sally…: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

Said film was of course directed by Rob Reiner, son of Estelle and Carl, who followed in his father’s footsteps as a television actor (breaking out as Mike Stivic on All in the Family) and filmmaker; he has directed not only the aforementioned romantic comedy, but also This Is Spinal Tap and The Princess Bride, likewise dramatic pictures like A Few Good Men and Misery.

The other Reiner children, Annie and Lucas, also veered artistic; the former has written a series of plays and poems, and the latter finding success as a painter and photographer.

Warner Bros

As a screenwriter and director, Reiner would find partnership with some of the greats of 20th century comedy, namely Steve Martin (The Jerk and All of Me) and George Burns (Oh God!); as an actor, he shared the screen with countless stars by way of ensemble pictures including It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and Steven Soderbergh’s Oceans movies, in which he livened every scene as the cantankerous “character man” Saul Bloom.

But no partnership was more integral to Reiner’s career and life than that with Brooks, with whom he maintained a friendship up until his very final days of life, which—like almost day of Reiner’s latter chapter—were spent in each other’s company.

Those who followed Reiner on Twitter, on which he was a prolific poster up until the day before his passing, were treated consistently to his sense of humor, his love for film and television old and new, his outrage with the Trump presidency. Reiner died on June 29 at age 98, having spent his life giving the world decades of comedy, wit, and humanity.

Featured Image: The Official MEL BROOKS Channel

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Since the murder of George Floyd on May 25, mass protests have waged against police brutality and systemic racism. Such is the subject of a new surprise Netflix special from comedian Dave Chappelle, which is free to watch on YouTube. Titled “8:46,” the half-hour special could be Chappelle’s most powerful release to date.

Like all other comedians, Chappelle had not performed live for close to three months due to the constraints of the coronavirus pandemic. But last week, on June 6, he held a secret performance outdoors in Yellow Springs, Ohio, nearby where he has lived for many years. Attendees had their temperatures checked before entering the venue. They then sat far apart from one another in marked-off spaces. Chappelle, dressed in all black, took the stage with a small notebook for a 27-minute special titled “8:46.” The title refers to the length of time that police officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on the back of George Floyd’s neck, killing him.

Chappelle wrote a note for the special: “Normally I wouldn’t show you something so unrefined, I hope you understand.” That wasn’t just because this was the first time Chappelle performed this live, or because he hadn’t been on stage in 87 days. This was a raw, personal performance that touched on both his own experiences and those of fellow Black Americans in dealing with racism.

Netflix

The special also included footage and images of murdered Black Americans throughout. During the show, Chappelle was at times sad, angry, and hopeful as he discussed the late George Floyd, the protests, and other examples of police brutality. He directed criticism at figures like conservative pundits Candace Owens and Laura Ingraham, and talked about instances when police officers were murdered.

The aforementioned note accompanying the video directs fans to the nonprofit organization Equal Justice Initiative.

Editor’s Note: Dave Chappelle’s past specials have include insensitive and disparaging comments about the trans community. The comedian has continuously defended and downplayed these remarks, which goes against the hopeful message of acceptance he promotes in his latest special. In that spirit we encourage you to donate to both his Equal Justice Initiative and to the Homeless Black Trans Women Fund.

Black Lives Matter and Trans Rights are Human Rights.

Featured Image: Netflix

The post Dave Chappelle Drops New Special “8:46” About George Floyd appeared first on Nerdist.

[ORIGINAL AIR DATE: 4/6/2017]

Every great sci-fi series has great weaponry and Mass Effect is no different! But could its Omni-Tool resemble another iconic Star Wars weapon in real life? Kyle sheds some light on this episode of Because Science. Never before seen on the Because Science Channel!

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Sometimes a celebrity’s passing results in platitudes that would have sounded unearned when they were alive. Death has a way of softening our opinions. Especially for the famous. But the reaction to the loss of Fred Willard has been the same as the reaction to his life and career—universal love and praise. Everyone, from his colleagues, to other comedians and actors, to fans who only knew him from his long career, always agreed he was one of the best. That’s not only because he was incredibly funny. It’s because he made us laugh by imbuing his roles with an earnestness that might have felt goofy in less talented—and less kind—hands. Fred Willard’s characters always felt so real and vulnerable that it was impossible not to love them.

Warner Bros.

It’s no surprise Willard became a prominent part of Christopher Guest’s de facto troupe. The director’s mockumentaries are populated by sincere people completely devoted to whatever ridiculous endeavor they’ve undertaken. They aren’t aware they’re funny. And no one played that type of role better than Willard. He fully committed to his parts in every medium, no matter how big or small the role. Willard never winked at the camera or gave an ironic performance. His characters weren’t in on the joke. He played them all with an a genuineness that made them feel authentic. That made it easier for us to empathize with them, which made them even funnier.

Combined with his innate hilarious sensibilities his full embrace of his character made him a comedic force. Whether doing a short guest spot on late night television or Adult Swim, or starring in a major TV show or film, he was always funny and memorable. No performance captures his ability to steal the screen more than Best in Show.

Christopher Guest’s film about the dog show circuit is one of his best. And it features an insane cast all throwing 99 mph. It’s silly, lovely, and hilarious. Then Fred Willard shows up an hour into the movie and it goes to an even higher level. He plays Buck Laughlin, the entirely uninformed, unaware TV color analyst for the Westminster Abbey-esque dog show. His live television commentary is wholly inappropriate. His questions, insights, and jokes range from unhelpful to downright disruptive. (All of them ad-libbed too.) By any measure Buck should be annoying, especially since Willard plays him with complete sincerity. Buck feels real and annoying co-workers should drive us mad. Instead Willard makes him so lovable and genuine he’s easily the most likable character in the film. Plus he’s the funniest.

Willard is only on screen for few minutes, but it doesn’t feel that way. He’s like Maximus entering the comedy coliseum for the gladiator all-star game and laying out all the other combatants. It’s the mockumentary equivalent of Matthew McConaughey’s Wooderson in Dazed and Confused. Only Fred Willard was giving Wooderson-like performances all the time in everything he did. It’s impossible to name a bad Fred Willard performance, no matter the project. He was incredible if he was working with Tim and Eric or guest starring on Modern Family.

Since his passing those lucky enough to have met him have been sharing their favorite Fred Willard stories. He was such a singular talent and voice that you can hear him as you read them.

What’s also become clear is that he brought the same joy to life as he did his roles. He couldn’t help but be warm and kind.

That’s true even when he was clearly making fun of someone, like when he suggested Bryan Cranston try turning his softball bat around. Coming from someone else that comment would have bite. It would be funny because it was a dig. Coming from Fred Willard it sounds like the nicest thing ever.

Fred Willard is gone. But no one is exaggerating how talented he was, how much he made us laugh, or what a great person he was. Everyone said the same things when he was still with us. All of these remembrances are completely earnest.

That’s only fitting. Being earnest is what made everyone love him.

Featured Image: ABC

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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The MSCHF creative agency has created an all-new, unofficial version of The Office (which we learned about at The Next Web) that moves the entire series to Slack. Users can join the group and “watch” all 201 episodes of the show as they take place entirely on the online business communication platform. For nearly the full month of May, the episodes will “run” every day from 9 am to 5 pm ET, all in text, emoji, and GIF form.

There are numerous channels, but members are directed not to post in show channels. (We’re not adding new “characters” to old episodes.) They can discuss the series and this innovative remake in the #water_cooler and #smoke_break channels.

The Office Slack

The Office Slack is not only clever, it’s genuinely fun. A big reason why is that we already know the characters and situations. How hilarious would this really be if we couldn’t hear Michael Scott’s voice in our head while we’re reading him yell at Toby? And how can anyone even commit a “flagrant personal intentional foul” via a computer? That’s why it remains to be seen if an original take on a modern “workplace” could be funny.

Fortunately, even if it’s not, we can always just rewatch The Office again. The show will always make us laugh even when the idea of having coworkers in the same building feels like a distant memory.

Featured Image: NBC

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Set for a May 26 worldwide launch on Netflix, Gadsby began touring Douglas last year in Melbourne. The North American leg of the tour hit San Francisco in April 2019 with an off-broadway run in New York that summer. Filmed in Los Angeles, Gadsby’s second special is sure to surprise audiences once again. Netflix states, “You can expect your expectations to be set and met by Douglas: a tour from the dog park to the renaissance and back guided by one of comedy’s most sparkling and surprising minds.”

Nanette was a hit with audiences and critics with its half comedy special, half intimate storytelling format. The show won not only a Peabody Award, but the Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special Emmy and the Just For Laughs’ Special of the Year prize.

Netflix

Gadsby originally announced her second special back in May 2019 during the FYSee panel discussing her 2018 Netflix special Nanette. “I’m so excited to announce today that Douglas will be released on Netflix in 2020,” Gadsby said about the special in a press release in April. “I’m really enjoying touring with the live performance, but there will be places in the world that I won’t be able to visit, so it’s wonderful that Netflix will bring the show to every corner of the globe.”

Hannah Gadbsy: Douglas will debut on May 26, 2020.

Featured Image: Netflix

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Schools are closed, parks are shuttered, and responsible people everywhere are social distancing. Which means parents are now “on” 24-hours a day, seven days a week. And they will be for the foreseeable future. Even just thinking about that kind of never-ending responsibility makes us tired, so we have no idea how moms and dads are coping. Our guess? With alcohol. But why should a nice cocktail only help them cope with the stress of dealing with their kids when it could also deal with their children for them? That’s what Saturday Night Live suggested during it’s season 45 finale. Because the song “Let Kids Drink” is the quarantine solution we’re sure at least some people are considering.

Even though it is definitely/absolutely/unquestionably a bad idea. Probably.

“Let Kids Drink” is the SNL cast’s uncommon common sense solution for parents during COVID-19. While we’re all social distancing, they propose a special rule that lowers the legal drinking age to “any.” Just give kids a couple sips to help them relax and sleep. Or like one White Claw. Maybe half a six-pack. Look, we’re not sure how much is the right amount? (Note: ZERO IS THE RIGHT AMOUNT.) But giving kids booze must be safe. Child Services and Olaf both said it was okay.

…..No, wait. No, Child Services did not say it was okay. Uh, Josh Gad is probably going to be hearing from Disney.

NBC

Funny, “Vodka, Soda, Lime” is actually one of our favorite bedtime stories.

But really, what’s the worst that could happen if we let kids drink? Children across America turn into the Beck Bennett depicted in the sketch?

Oh, crap, yeah, that’s exactly the problem. COVID-19 or not, we can’t let children consume alcohol. Sorry parents. But hey! The good news is you can still drink it yourself.

Featured Image: NBC

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It looks like Community fans may be getting their “six seasons and a movie” Abed prophecy after all (via BuzzFeed). Ever since the popular NBC (and Yahoo! Screen, we guess) show ended in 2015, fans have been hoping that a movie could bring the cast back together. They all have some unfinished business at Greendale Community College. We are getting a Community cast reunion via a table read next week, but it’s not the same as a film. Fortunately, series creator Dan Harmon says that much-anticipated movie may finally be in the works.

Speaking to The Wrap recently,Harmon said, “conversations are happening that people would want to be happening” about a possible Community movie. He added that he’s “very, very excited about the coming months.” While this doesn’t exactly give us specifics, it’s still exciting nonetheless. It’s certainly the most encouraging thing we’ve heard about the film in a while.

NBC

The idea of a Community reunion movie floats around every so often. Series star Joel McHale appeared on Conan back in 2015 and said there could be a “big chance for a movie if creator Dan Harmon was willing to write the script.” Then just last month McHale told Variety that, “…for a long time I was like, ‘never gonna happen.’ And now I think with the renewed interest, and I know the cast is interested, that it could happen.” This newfound optimism comes on the heels of Community and its Netflix streaming deal that has garnered love from fans old and new alike.

Let’s hope the original crew are just as excited about this possible movie news as we are. It certainly looks promising. And since Netflix started streaming the cult favorite last month, the hashtag #SixSeasonsandaMovie has gained momentum once again. Here’s hoping Abed’s foreshadowing comes true.

Featured Image: NBC

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Monday morning couriered the news that Jerry Stiller, a seemingly eternal institution in comedy showbusiness, had died at the age of 92. Stiller was born in Brooklyn in 1927. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II and graduating from Syracuse University, Stiller found his rightful spot in the world of entertainment. Beginning in the early 1960s, he and his wife Anne Meara (whom were married in ’54), both veterans of the improv troupe that would go on to beget The Second City, performed as a comedy duo on stage, in radio commercials, and on television programs like The Ed Sullivan Show.

Stiller created memorable characters in dramatic pictures like The Taking of Pelham One Two Three and Airport 1975, though his reputation never strayed far from the realm of comedy; such was cemented by continued work on television alongside his wife, performances in the Tony Award-winning play The Ritz (and its Richard Lester-directed film adaptation), and a career highlight as William Turnblad in John Waters’ 1988 film Hairspray.

New Line Cinema

But Stiller’s most iconic role to modern audiences is likely that of Frank Costanza, the hot-tempered (and borderline deranged) father of George Costanza on the hit sitcom Seinfeld. Some of Stiller’s best regarded moments on the series include overturning a table of latkes during a benefit luncheon for veterans, charging Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine in a fit of rage, and leading a chaotic celebration of the “Christmas counterprogramming” holiday Festivus.

Following the conclusion of Seinfeld’s run, Stiller moved on to the comedy series The King of Queens, and found further work on the big screen. He and Meara starred in the 1999 comedy film A Fish in the Bathtub, written and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, and soon after appeared alongside his son Ben Stiller in the hit screwball film Zoolander—just one of several times the father-son pair would join forces onscreen.

Paramount Pictures

Following the death of Meara in 2015, Stiller wrote a memoir titled Married to Laughter: A Love Story Featuring Anne Meara. He continued to work in his later years, notably appearing again with son Ben in Zoolander 2 in 2016. On May 11, 2020, Ben Stiller announced publicly that his father had died of natural causes at the age of 92.

Featured Image: Sony Pictures Television

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We’re all just doing our best to keep going right now. Revisiting old faves, creating new art, or discovering new loves—anything we can do to distract ourselves. To that end, Valley Girl is one of our go-to comfort watches. And to celebrate the recent musical remake we sat down with the trio at the core of the teen classic, Deborah Foreman, E.G. Daily, and Heidi Holicker!

Martha Coolidge’s super sweet ’83 flick is a comedic twist on Romeo and Juliet. Randy, played by Nicolas Cage, is from Hollywood; Julie, played by Foreman, is from the Valley. Can their unexpected romance survive the scathing stares of their opposing cultural cliques? Silly, thoughtful, and surprisingly subversive, Valley Girl is a great watch. But unlike many teen movies of its time, it’s not just about the romance at the center. The movie also centers on female friendship and the relationships between Julie and her close knit crew.

MGM

With a stellar New Wave soundtrack and brilliant script, it’s no surprise Valley Girl has aged so well. A new musical reimagining has just been released, and it even features cameos from E.G. Daily, Heidi Holicker, and Deborah Foreman! When we chatted with the trio they shared some wonderful anecdotes and memories from shooting the cult flick!

The Girls Are Still Close Friends!

MGM

Valley Girl is the kind of movie that you wish you could have been a part. And the trio confirmed that the experience was one that impacted them forever. “It was a monumental time period.” E.G. Daily explained. “It was like this beautiful time capsule. And we all got to have these connections to each other that have lasted for a long time.” Deborah Foreman agreed. “There was this level that we all kind of took each other to, through our friendships, and our connections, but also for the love of the acting.”

Almost Everyone Got Sick Whilst Shooting!

MGM

When reminiscing about shooting the film, Daily remembered a kinda gross and hilarious anecdote that sparked some memories. “I did a make out scene with that scene that was so painful to shoot. The scene with I’m in the at the party with Tommy. I had a really bad cold that just lingered and I was taking like garlic pills. So I just remember thinking poor guy.” Turns out that Daily wasn’t the only one to fall ill during the Valley Girl shoot! “We all got sick during the movie. I got strep throat one point from the club scene with all that smoke.” Hollicker laughed. “And then Debbie, you got sick when you were shooting.”

E.G. Daily and Deborah Foreman Were Once Roommates!

MGM

That friendship would last the nearly four decades since the film’s release! And Daily revealed that her and Foreman even lived together for a period. “Debbie and I, we ended up being roommates at one point! Can I say that? It was a really special time and we bonded over a really special event as well.”

Deborah Foreman didn’t originally love that iconic montage!

MGM

Foreman has a sequence that she really loves. Surprisingly, that wasn’t something she expected. “I think that whole montage thing that I shot with Randy is extremely special. You know, when I was doing it, it’s not that I poo pooed it, but I didn’t see its value at the time. Because I didn’t see Martha’s vision until I saw the film.”

The iconic sleepover scene was just as fun to film as you’ve imagined!

Thinking back to their favorite scenes Holicker thought of the slumber party fondly. “We had no craft service, so we ate everything! We ate chips. We ate everything we could get our hands on. So there was a lot of bonding that particular that particular day, I think.” her co-star Daily agreed. “I think the slumber party was really sweet. It felt really intimate and silly. It felt like there was a lot of beautiful youth, there was so young thing about it. That was just so precious. It was funny too. Some of the lines are a little bit ad-libbed in that scene.”

Check out our chat above! If it’s been a while since you’ve watched Valley Girl then we’ve got good news! You can check out the original movie on digital now.

 Featured Image: MGM

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Fans worried the popular comedy will change its tone and style to appeal to modern sensibilities can rest easy. It might be set in the present day, but RENO 911! is still as dumb—and funny—as ever.

The first three episodes of the show’s new season would easily pass for classic episodes if not for their subject matter. The “best” of Reno Sheriff’s Department’s deal with timely topics, with all the grace of an elephant at a ballet. It’s a balance that Lennon said the writers’ room dedicated a lot of time to. He said they tried to “stay true to the what the show used to be, which was wildly inappropriate,” while still addressing modern day societal issues. That includes police body cameras, arresting African American kids swimming in a pool, cop-watchers, and second amendment activists.

“Weirdly, we do address a lot of social topics and things, but with the absolute dumbest coating on all of them,” said Lennon. As a result, audiences might not realize just how connected to 2020 the show really is because RENO 911! hasn’t changed its approach to comedy. “We’re still in our own weird little bubble of stupid, but they’re definitely in 2020. We tried to walk on the fence between it being ‘fun and silly,’ and also we can’t ignore it and pretend it’s 2005 still,” Garant said. “[There’s] material about crazy white people calling 911 because they saw a black guy.”

“We do that sketch six or eight times. There’s just endless shitty white people this season,” said Lennon.

Quibi

But just because they aren’t worried about being offensive to a 2020 audience doesn’t mean they were reckless about handling sensitive topics.  “As one of the actors that is a person of color I don’t necessarily worry ‘Are we going to be able to handle a given topic in the right way?'” said Yarbrough. “But I do make sure we’re responsible. And if I felt like anything was ever odd or weird, or is coming at it in a crazy way that I don’t think we can do this at all, I would pipe up and say something.” He said that’s one reason the show is so fun to work on, because Garant, Lennon, and Kerri Kenney-Silver, another creator and writer, are so willing to listen to others’ ideas. And part of that is not making any group off-limits.

“The great thing about this show is everyone ‘gets’ it, whether we’re talking about homosexuality, or race, or women’s issues, everyone gets a chance of being offended if they choose to be.” Those weren’t necessarily concerns the show had to worry about when it debuted in 2003. Society consumed and judged comedy very differently. So why return now?

Quibi

Comedy Central wanted them back in 2009 after a new regime was hired. But Garant said it was “too soon” then for a return. “Everyone’s careers were taking off without the show. It felt like a lateral move,” Garant said. “It didn’t feel like a triumphant return, it felt like, ‘Oh they must have needed work.'”

They’ve performed as their characters over the years at various events, like USO shows or for police groups. But never as a full cast. That changed when Quibi executive Doug Herzog, who the group had worked with before, called. “He said, ‘Come here, it’s this new weird platform, and you will get no notes,’ and we didn’t,” said Garant. “It was something about it being in a new place, a new format.”

“The one thing we knew when we heard about the Quibi format is it’s the ideal RENO 911! format,” said Lennon. “We are the Lays potato chips of programming, Just have a couple.” And all three agreed the series, which Garant accurately describes as a sketch show anyway, has actually benefited from it’s shorter format. The first three episodes were all roughly seven minutes each.

Quibi

“If anything the short format made the shows—this is just my opinion, these episodes are better because of the length. Honestly. They never overstay their welcome. They just get in, hit hard, and get out,” said Lennon. It’s a sentiment Garant and Yarbrough agree with.

“The show’s an adult cartoon,” said Yarbrough. “You don’t want a thirty minute Bugs Bunny.” They also think age and experience has made them better performers. Yarbrough said it was easier and more fun making the show this time.

“By quite a bit,” added Lennon. “It had almost sort of an Avengers-kind of a vibe of improvisation.” (Later they all agreed the silly Super Friends was the better superhero team-up analogy for a show this absurd.)

Having a well-known, well-established comedic voice also makes it easier to plug in new characters. Lennon says all they want to know of any performer auditioning is “are you as batshit crazy-committed as we are?” If so you will fit in with the original characters, which he says are “all absolutely the dumbest people in the world,” but who are “also very, very sincere.”

And now that they’ve reunited, the possibility for more stories from the Reno Sheriff’s Department are back on the table. That includes a sequel to their single big screen foray, RENO 911: Miami. Garant and Lennon have previously released a full outline for a Lord of the Flies-inspired sequel, RENO 911: SOS. But they also an idea for a Die Hard parody that would take place at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas. It would be titled RENO 911: Miami: Paris Las Vegas. They’d very much like to do both.

But after so many years together, including Garant and Lennon’s start together with The State, that might just be the beginning of their future. Lennon points out there are now more children of State members than State members.

“I did think we could do like a Muppet Babies spin-off show called Wards of the State,” said Lennon, only half-joking. “Let them do some of the heavy lifting for a minute. Child labor still works.”

Obviously not really. And definitely not in 2020. Except maybe only on RENO 911!. Pretty much anything goes there, just like it always has.

RENO 911! is now streaming on Quibi. New episodes air every weekday until May 15th.

Featured Image: Quibi

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter at @burgermike, and also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

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Crappy robots are all the craze these days, with YouTube’s greatest engineering minds working on everything from tazer-happy desks to skin-crawling toilet machines. But crappy Rube Goldberg machines, now that’s something that has yet to storm the net. Like this one from Brooklyn-based actor and comedian, Colin Burgess, which is so horrible yet hilarious we hope it starts the next “crappy” trend.

Burgess recently posted the crappy Rube Goldberg machine to Twitter, with very little context. And while this is all obviously a joke, Burgess’s fantastically craptastic attempt at making a Rube Goldberg machine raises some questions. For example, is this actually a Rube Goldberg machine?

According to the one and only ‘pedia, Rube Goldberg machines are those that are “intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.” In the case of Burgess’s RGM, the goal of his “machine” is to turn on a radio (?) playing Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ hit song, “Uptown Funk.” Which would’ve been spectacular had this whole contraption actually worked like a functional RGM.

Goldberg’s Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin. Rube Goldberg

But Burgess needed to help his RGM along at every turn. Which, while a seemingly perfect excuse to nullify this “machine” as nothing more than a joke, doesn’t actually violate the definition of a what a Rube Goldberg machine is. After all, how many machines need human operators?

We can only imagine that Burgess made this ultra-terrible RGM because he’s going a little nutty in quarantine like the rest of us. Which is probably also the reason that discussing the philosophy of what is or isn’t a Rube Gold Machine sounds appealing.

Anyway, here’s “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars. Because you’re probably in the mood to hear it now.

What do you think about Burgess’ crappy Rube Goldberg machine? Does Burgess’s contraption actually count as one of the iconic machines, or is the very idea of applying the term “machine” to this mess just plain ridiculous? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Feature image: SilverTD

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With all of us sequestered at home, we’ve probably been doing our own mini-Mystery Science Theaters with every bad movie we’re marathoning in our living rooms all day. But that’s no substitute for the real Mystery Science Theater 3000. And now, when we need it most, MST3K is coming back. On Sunday, May 3rd at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT, Mystery Science Theater 3000 will give fans a special live broadcast for MSTies everywhere.

Vivendi Entertainment

This special event will be headlined by “Emergency Host” Emily Crenshaw (Emily Marsh), Tom Servo (Conor McGiffin), Crow T. Robot (Nate Begle), and GPC (Yvonne Freese). They’ll  perform live via videoconference, with the Riff-Along of “Experiment 111,” a.k.a. the movie Moon Zero Two. The event will features new additional riffs, with visits from Joel Hodgson, who will answer questions and comments for the loyal MSTies via social media. The two-hour event will also include a brand new riff of the short film Circus Day.

But they’re going to change things up a bit for this special experiment; Mega-Synthia isn’t just subjecting the cast to yet another cheesy movie. This cheesy movie is already part of a classic MST3K episode. So yes, it’s a riff on a riff in the form of a live MST3K Riff-Along! In a declaration from Mega-Synthia, she lets the world know that “as the pundits have foretold, pop culture will indeed eat itself — and the feeding begins May 3rd!”

This special event will be streaming on MST3K Twitch channel, MST3K YouTube channel, MST3K Facebook page, along with the  MST3K linear channels on Pluto TV, Stirr, Xumo, Redbox, and Vizio. Fans will be able to submit their questions for the cast and Joel via MST3K Facebook, MST3K YouTube and MST3K Twitch. And of course, all fans are encouraged to join in the fun and use the hashtags #MST3KLive and #RiffAlong.

Featured Image: Vivendi Entertainment

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The world is under siege by a danger that threatens us all. It’s a time when law enforcement is truly relied on to maintain peace and keep us safe. That includes those in uniform at the Reno Sheriff’s Department. But not to protect us. They’re literally the last cops we’d rely on during any kind of event. Even a church bake sale. But they’re exactly the entertainment we need to get through social distancing. It’s why their upcoming return couldn’t have come at a better time. And based on the latest trailer, before their seventh season premieres on Quibi, the cops of RENO 911 are just as incompetent—and hilarious—as they’ve ever been.

They’re also just as dangerous, because no police department should be responsible for so many explosions.

The final trailer ahead of RENO 911‘s May 4 launch on Quibi is our best look yet at what to expect when the cult classic series returns. It’s everything we love and remember about the show, from absurd emergency calls, exhausting colleague interactions, and ridiculous failures by those in uniform. There will also be lots of crashes, explosions, and property damage. So basically the worst police work you could imagine, which is all we want from the fictional Reno Sheriff’s Department.

Written, created, and starring The State‘s Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney-Silver, and Thomas Lennon, the show will also see the return of original cast members Niecy Nash, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Cedric Yarbrough, and Carlos Alazraqui. Former RENO 911 stars Ian Roberts, Joe LoTruglio, and Mary Birdsong will also be back. The new season will also feature cameos from Dave Holmes, Patton Oswalt, Tim Allen, Ron Perlman, Michael Ian Black, and Weird Al Yankovic.

Quibi

The first three of 12 shortened/Quibi “bite-sized” episodes will premiere on May 4. New episodes will follow on weekdays on the Quibi app.

And that makes us feel better during a time we’re not feeling great. Because when things are going bad we like to know we can depend on local law enforcement. But when we need entertainment we depend on the incompetent people in blue who work at RENO 911.

Featured Image: Quibi

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Even with shelter-in-place orders still in effect in many parts of the U.S., the comedic juggernaut that is Saturday Night Live continues to chug along. In the opening of the latest episode of the series—now being cobbled together by the show’s cast from their respective homes—”Dr. Fauci” makes an appearance, played by none other than Brad Pitt. And if you think the real Dr. Fauci’s raspy yet subdued voice is calming, just wait until you hear Pitt’s version of it.

The interesting casting choice was made based on a tongue-in-cheek response from Fauci during a CNN interview. In the interview (a small portion of which can be found immediately below), Dr. Fauci responded to to the question of whether Ben Stiller or Brad Pitt should play him on SNL by choosing the latter movie star. And somehow the producers of SNL were able to summon the iconic dynamo of charisma for the task.

NBC

For those unfamiliar with Fauci, he is a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and “de facto” public health spokesperson for the office of the President during the pandemic. And, just as is the case in this comedic video, in real life Fauci has been there by the President’s side correcting many of his COVID-19-related remarks. They range from dubious to downright ridiculous—at least according to many medical professionals.

Perhaps the best part of the video is when Pitt removes his Fauci wig and speaks directly to the frontline workers across the nation who are putting themselves at risk in order to support the rest of us. Because without them, we probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to hang out at home and watch TV during the outbreak of a novel coronavirus.

What do you think about Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Dr. Fauci? Do you want to see a recurring “Fauci” played by Pitt on future episodes of SNL? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Feature image: Saturday Night Live 

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We’re all trying to fill these many, many quarantine hours any way we can. Some people are doing puzzles. Others are making sourdough bread as if it will soon be our only currency. Some have decided giant cocktails are the best way to enjoy social distancing. But Adam Sandler has found musical inspiration during COVID-19. He already performed two original coronavirus numbers on The Tonight Show: “The Quarantine Song” and his “Don’t Touch Grandma” duet with Jimmy Fallon. His latest contribution to a growing COVID-19 playlist has brought him back to his Saturday Night Live roots. Sandler joined Pete Davidson for “Stuck in the House,”  the latest musical ode to the current boredom we’re all experiencing.

SNL‘s second “At Home” episode featured another musical number from the abode of Pete Davidson. “Stuck in the House” is a tribute to the monotonous Groundhog Day-like existence that many of us are going through. Davidson’s section hit many of the same issues we’re feeling right now: We’re over Zoom. We already finished Ozark. And our whole family is always around.

NBC

Sandler’s verse reminds us why he’s always and forever the musical king of Saturday Night Live. His line about his crappy bread might be the best gag of this week’s episode. And only he can turn wearing underwear masks and making out with his wife in front of his children into pure comedy gold.

(Also, we got a cameo from Rob Schneider, begging Adam Sandler to let him in the house. It’s unclear if Schneider knew they were making a song for SNL or not.)

NBC

Being stuck inside stinks. We’re tired of puzzles and bread and we’re tired of being asked about puzzles and bread. But we do like the part where Adam Sandler keeps writing new songs, because we”ll never bore of that.

Featured Image: NBC

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The essence of your character at its very core is only truly on display in the immediate aftermath of your notice of a friend’s typo. Do you let such an error slide as a virtual nonissue? Do you point out the mistake as to assert your intellectual superiority? Or do you, a righteous individual, take the opportunity to mine this most fertile of soil for high-grade comedy?

Even most of us who’ve spent our lives toiling tirelessly in the latter camp, manufacturing one elaborate jest after another from countless now-former friends’ hasty misspellings, can’t quite compare to the prodigy that is one Erin Weaver. In the throes of a pandemic-laden April, Weaver breached the stale fog of Twitter with an extended Microsoft PowerPoint presentation ranking their friends’ best (read: most humorous) typographical errors. And if you’re the kind of person who loves to ridicule a close companion’s innocent slip-up, Erin’s work will turn the blood in your veins to rocket fuel.

Note: Some coarse language to follow. (But hey, we all know that the business of making fun of friends’ typos can bring us to some pretty unsavory places.)

Erin’s introductory panels detailed the nature of a good typo, proving that there is in fact an artistry to such work, that we are going about such creative endeavors with tact and forethought, and that were not just insensitive dicks who can’t control ourselves (…I may be projecting). From there, the presentation showcased six of the best typos Erin had taken note of among their extended circle of friends, in ascending order of affirmed quality.

2/3 pic.twitter.com/nq8cdACBbd

— erin (@ByErinWeaver) April 24, 2020

3/3, place of honor for @demogakidis, my typo king pic.twitter.com/XUpmTjDxay

— erin (@ByErinWeaver) April 24, 2020

By now, you’re probably zooming back through the annals of your own memory to recall the best of the best of your hapless chums’ conversational misprints. Lord knows we’ve all got some great ones on the backlog, awaiting just the right occasion for revival. Man oh man, that wedding speech is going to kill…

Featured Image: Sony Pictures Television

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Be honest, how many of you have been binge watching Parks & Rec during this trying time? Us too. It’s such a delightful, funny, and ultimately hopeful series. Which is why we couldn’t quite believe it when Deadline reported the show will be back for a one-off, 30-minute scripted special in aid of Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

NBC

According to Deadline “all of the original characters from the series will return in the Universal TV-produced special, played by original cast members Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Pratt, Adam Scott, Rob Lowe, Jim O’Heir, and Retta. Several guest stars from the Pawnee universe may pop in as well.”

If you’re wondering what you can expect from the show, it sounds like it will center around Leslie Knope trying to stay close to her loved ones during the pandemic whilst of course, respecting social distancing. Executive producer Michael Schur shared how the special came about. “Like a lot of other people, we were looking for ways to help and felt that bringing these characters back for a night could raise some money. I sent a hopeful email to the cast and they all got back to me within 45 minutes. Our old Parks and Rec team has put together one more 30-minute slice of (quarantined) Pawnee life and we hope everyone enjoys it. And donates!”

NBC

Whilst the circumstances are sad ones, we love that the positivity of Pawnee will return to our screens during this strange time. We can’t wait to see how all our faves are responding to the crisis and how their relationships have evolved in the years since the show ended. So, get your waffles at the ready because you’ll be able to watch the special one-off episode when it airs on NBC on Thursday, April 30 at 8:30 pm ET/PT.

Header Image: NBC

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