Comedy

THE FRONT PAGE (1974)

December 4, 2020

(DVD) I love adaptations. Give me an adaptation of a work I’ve previously seen or read, and I’ll always glean something interesting from it. Consequently, I was curious about Billy Wilder’s THE FRONT PAGE, which has its roots in the 1928 stage play of the same name about a Chicago newspaper writer trying to escape the business and get married and the boss who tries to thwart him, all under the umbrella of a hanging. THE FRONT PAGE became a reasonably successful film in 1931, but then Howard Hawks and Charles Lederer gender-swapped newspaper writer Hildy Johnson, threw away half of the script and let the cast riff, and created the classic screwball rom-com HIS GIRL FRIDAY.

Wilder’s FRONT PAGE is a glossier, overtly bluer, more expansive Cinemascope version of the original 1931 film — as you can immediately tell from the gorgeously crafted title sequence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwuo9NjflGs — and that is not a compliment. The tightly-wound anarchic feeling of both the original FRONT PAGE and HIS GIRL FRIDAY is what made them feel vibrant, and that’s missing from this production due to its over-produced adherence to the initial film.

While there are a few grander comedic moments and set-pieces, Wilder’s version often feels hum-drum and sluggish, completely antithetical to what one should expect from a FRONT PAGE adaptation. However, it includes one notable bit of interplay between boss Walter Matheu and writer/Wilder regular Jack Lemmon: Lemmon says ‘Cigarette me!’ and Matthau obliges by popping a cigarette into his own mouth and lighting it for his favored employee. He then slips it into Lemmon’s mouth, all while Susan Sarandon — Lemmon’s fiancée — watches. It’s is a cute Hays Code callback back to when swapping cigarettes was shorthand for fucking, but it doesn’t resonate nearly as much as Wilder thinks it does.

While I wish Wilder had extended himself further, he’s never wasted my time. Sure, it’s the lesser of the three major versions, but it has its moments and worth a watch if you’re into scrutinizing the machinations of adaptations.

THE FRONT PAGE’s (1931) opening scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlsW0qbbcjs

HIS GIRL FRIDAY trailer:

THE FRONT PAGE (1974) trailer:

NATE: A ONE MAN SHOW (2020)

December 3, 2020

(Netflix) Natalie Palamides’ comedy special is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Plenty will compare it to Hannah Gadsby’s NANETTE or the original theatrical production of FLEABAG, but it’s completely different; it’s extraordinarily audacious, often puerile, but always surprising and challenging. I’ll mention that it’s EXTREMELY NSFW, both aurally and visually, but if you’re okay with that, do yourself a favor and go in cold and watch to the end.

If you’ve watched it, she was recently interviewed by uber-comedy nerd Jesse David Fox on his exceptional weekly deep dive into a comedian’s joke, GOOD ONES: https://www.vulture.com/2020/12/good-one-podcast-natalie-palamides-talks-nate.html

Helen Shaw also has an insightful interview with her in Vulture, which digs deeper into clown comedy than FX’s BASKETS: https://www.vulture.com/2020/09/natalie-palamides-nate-netflix-comedy-special.html

DR. KATZ, PROFESSIONAL THERAPIST (1995-2002)

November 28, 2020

(DVD) ‘Improvised animation’ from Tom Snyder (no, not THE LATE LATE SHOW’s Tom Snyder — a completely unrelated Tom Snyder) featuring Jonathan Katz as a therapist to a litany of stand-up comedians, and father to man-child H. Jon Benjamin. While I think DR. KATZ is probably best known for the controversial SQUIGGLEVISION animation process (I’ve personally never had any issue with SQUIGGLEVISION) it still lasted seven years, and even had a syndicated cartoon strip, which was oddly antithetical to the premise of the show. I remember upon first moving to Chicago, I cracked open my first copy of the Sun-Times and was shocked to see it in print.

While the show’s built around extraordinarily deadpan jokes from some of the best era’s best stand-ups (Ray Romano, Joan Rivers, Steven Wright, Emo Philips, Andy Kindler, Mitch Hedberg, to name just a few), the animators always managed to insert more than a few amusing visual flourishes and gags, a stylistic tic that’s worked its way to future Snyder and Snyder-inspired shows, such as HOME MOVIES and BOB’S BURGERS. Additionally, while most of the characters — guests and otherwise — are stunted in many ways, there’s a warmth and acceptance that underlies the show.

The show’s endlessly re-watchable and perfect fodder to work or fold laundry to, especially if you love word play and stand-up.

No trailer, obviously, but in the spirit of the season, here’s their Thanksgiving ep:

DIFFICULT PEOPLE (2015-2017)

November 24, 2020

(Hulu/VOD) DIFFICULT PEOPLE is for everyone who watched SEINFELD and realized those four friends were garbage people, but still loved the jokes (and loved the series finale).

It features Julie (Julie Klauser) as an aspirational comedian/writer stuck recapping TV (this is back in the days of -Television Without Pity-), her best friend Billy (Billy Eichner) as an aspiring comedian/actor, and a long list of brilliant supporting talent such as James Urbaniak (HENRY FOOL, VENTURE BROS) as Julie’s long-suffering boyfriend and NPR stooge, Andrea Martin (SCTV, BLACK CHRISTMAS, GREAT NEWS) as Julie’s mother, and Cole Escola and Gabourey Sidibe as co-workers at the coffee shop Billy works at.

The eps are mostly self-contained and normally feature Julie & Billy scheming to advance their writing and acting careers, but often fail miserably because they’re terrible people that can’t go two seconds without (wittily) tearing into someone, and you kind of love them for it. They know who they are, they know they aren’t going to change, and they know the world will never accept them, but they know they’re goddamn funny and smart so they’ll never stop trying or shut the fuck up. While their jokes are absolutely filthy and hurtful, they always punch up.

Somehow, despite being one of the first Hulu original shows, and despite neither Klausner or Eichner being terribly well-known names at the time, they managed to get the most ridiculous guest stars -and- make proper use of them! Deborah Harry! John Mulaney, in the part he was born to play: an eccentric rich young man into Edwardian clothing, technology, and vernacular! Stockard Channing! Victor Garber! Jessica Walter! Nathan Lane! Martin Short! Micky Dolenz! Mink Stole! John Cho! Even goddamn Lin-Manual Miranda:

Also, DIFFICULT PEOPLE had the best goddamn cold opens, partially because they always had the perfect quip and then smash-cut to WHITE REAPER’s -She Wants To- (captioned solely as DRIVING PUNK MUSIC), which is the perfect punctuation. (Similarly, just about every ep manages a perfect kiss-of before launching into WHITE REAPER’s -Half Bad-.)

Here’s a montage of the best/worst lines and insults, including some cold open jokes:

S2 Trailer (because the S1/S3 trailers? Very misleading.)

It’s not for everyone. Hell, it’s not for most well-adjusted people. However, it’s a show I routinely re-watch — and I rarely re-watch TV, apart from single scenes or sole episodes for research — because it’s so gleefully over-stuffed with jokes and gags, and the pacing is perfection. I know it’ll probably never happen, but I do hope that they’re able to find an outlet that’ll bring the show back five years from now, even if it’s just for a special.

SUPERSTORE (2015-2021)

November 22, 2020

(fubo/Hulu/peacock/VOD) SUPERSTORE has always flown under the rader. Often marketed as a big-box retail version of THE OFFICE (US) because it’s comprised of eccentrics and weirdos all trying to get by in their humdrum work environment, it has more in common with the warmness of PARKS & RECREATION, in that the characters are often trying to help one another through each day. It’s also a show that subverts how we imagine work-based sitcoms, how the audience is supposed to suspend disbelief that every employee is treated equal, that each one of them goes home at night to live in a place they can easily afford, and none of them ever have to worry about how they’re going to pay for an unexpected car repair.

While the show would be entertaining enough if these characters were placed in their own universe and the writers blissfully ignored everything happening in the real world, SUPERSTORE often tackles heavier topics, such as unionizing, immigration, and natural disasters. Few sitcoms are able to manage the delicate balance of real-world problems and humor — usually coming across as either overly glib, or as a Very Special Episode — but SUPERSTORE not only manages it, it excels at it.

The season six opener, which aired a handful of weeks ago, deals quite frankly with COVID and we watch as the show barrels through months of COVID prep and paranoia in the expert way only a five-year-old show could juggle. They don’t rely on title cards to relay the day or month, they let you figure it out through visual indicators and character dialogue because they realize you’ll pick up on the major touchstones. Sure, it won’t play the same to viewers in 10 years, but few shows do.

In the second episode of season six, the novelty of safety precautions have faded into the background but still linger as a threatening presence, and the show depicts several characters struggling with their fear and stress. Despite that, they still make it funny without defusing the importance of these characters’ struggles.

I know folks are pretty reluctant to invest in old-school 22-ep season shows — I get it! — but this one is worth it. It’s the full package: heart, humor, and hope. Feel free to skip over the first season, as it’s a bit rocky! If you don’t want to deal with COVID in your TV shows, steer clear of season six! (I know I get a bit squicked out when the show has characters talking close-up and unmasked, just for the sake of trying to wring the most out of a scene.) I don’t know what the future holds for SUPERSTORE — perhaps one more season, at best — but if that’s the case? It’s been a good run.

Season 1 trailer:

Season 4 mid-season trailer:

(The actual tone is really an odd mixture of the two: not as much spectacle as S1 promises, not as preachy as S4 appears.)

ANDY BARKER, P.I. (2007)

November 21, 2020

(VOD/DVD) A comedic neo-noir from Jonathan Groff (LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O’BRIEN, SCRUBS, HAPPY ENDINGS) where most of the major players are fools, out-of-touch with reality, or a combination of both.

Andy (Andy Richter) is a wide-eyed suburban accountant who, within five minutes of opening his private practice in a mall court, is duped into the world of investigating underground crime. Joining him is Simon (perfectly annoyingly played by Tony Hale) as Andy’s partner/video store owner whose store resides a floor under Andy’s practice, Wally (Marshall Manesh), as the tech guy/the middle-eastern restauranteur in the same mall court, and grizzled ex-private investigator Lew Staziak (Harve Presnell), who often drags Andy into as many cases as he drags him out of.

While it pokes fun at the genre (it was naming each episode after a noir film a decade before RIVERDALE was), it’s shot with the luster of a Barry Sonnefeld film, and the plotting is as tight as a drum. While the show is silly, the jokes are either sneakily smart, or the stupidity of them are so well-crafted that you don’t care. Also, it never goes as broad as say other genre parodies, like POLICE STORY! or ANGIE TRIBECA.

The series was unceremonious cancelled after four episodes — despite only having a six-ep order — which I’m oddly okay with. While I’m sure they could have sustained this level of quality for another six episodes, what we have here is more than enough.

One caveat: while the pilot is about as perfect of an initial episode of a comedy — this show hit the ground running — the second episode, despite being co-written by BUFFY alum Jane Espenson, leans far too heavily on the premise that folks can find a larger person attractive. I don’t mean there are a few jokes here and there — the episode starts with them and fires off about one or two gags a minute until the ep closes with one more joke. Maybe circle back to it, because it’s one of the rare misfires for the show.

A few out-of-context jokes for you:

“The man’s crazy! He’s throwing babies at us!”

“Gene Kelly’s 50th was a big night. Buddy Hackett took off his pants and sat down on the cake! That was comedy back then: it wasn’t funny, but they committed.”

“Someone’s moving in! I wonder who… said the owl.”

“What do you known about the chicken business?” “Oh, that’s bad news. Like the pork business without the conscience.”

(I swear, the show’s better than this trailer makes it look.)

STRANGERS WITH CANDY (1999-2000)

November 17, 2020

(Paramount+/VOD) The late 90s/early naughts was a great time to be a comedy TV nerd living in Chicago. ImprovOlympic (RIP, IO) was thriving, you had Chicago alums UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE on the air, and it was followed by STRANGERS WITH CANDY, which was chock-full of entertainers who cut their teeth at Chicago’s Second City, including a little-known comedian named Stephen Colbert. Also, Paul Dinello, aka Geoffrey Jellineck? His uncle, Dan Dinello, taught at Columbia College when I attended. Sadly, I never had him as a prof, but I felt a certain amount of weird pride whenever I walked by his office because I loved this show so goddamn much.

(All three were also in Comedy Central’s under-watched, but CableACE-award winning EXIT 57 sketch comedy show.)

STRANGERS WITH CANDY can be simply explained as: ‘What if we had a SCARED STRAIGHT TV show where the junkie goes back to high school after being in jail for 30 years?’ Amy Sedaris played ‘junkie whore’ Jerry Blank (who consists of an array of endless ticks), Colbert was a recurring teacher as was Dinello, and Greg Hollimon played the straight-man/school principal.

For a show whose premise was paper-thin, they managed to wring a surprising amount from it. It lasted for three seasons -and a movie-, and the show was never less than hilarious. (The less said about the movie, the better. It’s not awful, but the premise and writing could never sustain itself for more than ~24 minutes at a time.)

I hesitate to call STRANGERS WITH CANDY a dark comedy, because while it exacts a lot of humor out of bleak and cruel topics, its characters are rather ebullient and resilient, despite hvaing everything thrown at them in every episode. That said, it’s definitely twisted in a very Gen-X way.

I could elaborate on the strange and straight-laced characters, the colors, the awkward editing, but it’s best you find out for yourself.

The following is not a trailer — just part of the first episode:

HAPPY ENDINGS (2011-2013)

November 15, 2020

(HBO MAX/Hulu/Netflix/VOD) Yes, I know the title is terrible, and it’s exactly why I didn’t watch this show until several years ago. Sure, it’s supposed to reflect how you can still be friends with your ex, despite her leaving you at the altar, but 1) that’s not what anyone thinks of when they hear that term and 2) that’s hardly what this show is about. It’s a hangout show that’s best described as a filthy Z-grade FRIENDS. (Okay, so maybe the title is slightly representative of the show.)

The worst part of the title is its poor use of phrasing, because this show -loved- twisting phrases. If you love the Marx Bros., you will love this show. Take, for instance, the rom-com-con cold open. (Yes, I’m skipping over the racist parrot bit because no one needs that.)

Or the following what-if joke regarding Mary Tyler Moore:

However, wordplay won’t get you very far if you lack a cast that can convincingly deliver quips, and HAPPY ENDINGS had one of the great ensembles; they wrangled a melange of brilliant comedic and improv actors (Adam Pally, Eliza Coupe, Damon Wayans Jr., Casey Wilson) and straight-laced performers (Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton), all of whom brilliantly handle their ‘so smart it’s dumb/so dumb it’s smart’ banter.

Not all of the humor has aged well, like uh, the racist parrot, the ‘Dave is 1/16th Navajo’ bit, and all of the fat jokes made at Max’s (Adam Pally) expense, but it holds up better than, oh say, 30 ROCK. Also, as a resident of Chicago, I’d be remiss to note that it severely misrepresents the city layout, almost to a hilarious degree, where many of the streets and addresses simply don’t exist. (One address cited would land them in the squarely in the middle of Lake Michigan.)

Those qualifiers aside, HAPPY ENDINGS is perhaps better than any other modern sitcom at what the show calls ‘pile-ons’. Taken out of context, none of the jokes are rarely amazing, but when unfurled over a scene they build on each other, and while the first or second gag maybe elicited a slight chuckle from you, by the time the scene has ended you’re doubled-over gasping for breath and have to rewind because you couldn’t hear the final quips over the sound of your own laughter.

HE & SHE (1967)

November 12, 2020

(YouTube/DVD) A whip-smart, tightly-wound gag machine that was well-ahead of its time.. A precursor to THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (1972) in that it allowed autonomy for the childless couple (Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss), and also encouraged them to pursue their own interests and, at the end of the day, they respected each other for doing so, often in bed.

It’s also a direct inspiration for THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, especially Jack Cassidy’s blowhard performance portraying the superhero that Richard Benjamin’s character created.

If you want to pick up a copy for yourself, you can do so via the excellent preservation site modcinema.com (I’ve ordered more than a few items from them — they’re doing fantastic work.):

https://www.modcinema.com/categories/3-made-for-tv/197-he-she-tv-series-3-disc-1967-dvd

CHILDRENS HOSPITAL (2008-2016)

November 11, 2020

(Hulu/VOD)? One of the first adult swim live-action shows, this is a wall-to-wall neo-vaudevillian gag machine riffing on the daily soap opera genre that just about no one watching adult swim have actually consumed.

Despite the fact that it ran for eight years, it never quite received the recognition it deserved, being wedged in-between SQUIDBILLIES and adult swim’s anime block, but it was clearly a labor of love from all involved, and holy crap there were a ton of brilliant people involved: David Wain, Henry Winkler, Megan Mullany (clearly having the time of her life), Ken Marino, Lake Bell, Jordan Peele, Jon Hamm, and several Robs and Corddrys.

It also featured brilliantly cyclical jokes like the following exchange, delivered by the under-appreciated Erinn Hayes to Rob Heubel:

“I’m breaking up with you.”

“What? Why?”

“I uh, have a brain tumor.”

“Oh, bleep How long have you known?”

“…how long have I known? Ugh, I can’t lie! I don’t have a brain tumor. I just couldn’t think of a reason to break up with you.”

“Break up? Not with you sick like this! I’m going to take care of you!”

“No, no, no. I said I -don’t- have a brain tumor.”

“That’s just the brain tumor talking!”

While there isn’t a bad episode in the bunch, Megan Amram (who contributed the best storefront puns in THE GOOD PLACE and is the mastermind behind AN EMMY FOR MEGAN) penned one of my absolute favorite episodes of TV ever by taking CHILDRENS HOSPITAL pitch-perfectly into the past with -The Show You Watch-. (Unfortunately, the episode labeled as -The Show You Watch- on YouTube is actually the episode -Through the Eyes of a Falcon- and definitely not a great episode to start with.)