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Franken Gets Funny Again
 Franken Gets 
 Funny Again 



Sep 14, 2009 8:30 AM CDT

Franken Gets Funny Again

Senator has crowd chuckling at Iowa fundraiser

(Newser) - As a latecomer to the Senate this year, Al Franken’s been playing it straight—but he loosened up enough to venture a few jokes at an Iowa fundraiser yesterday, CNN reports. Discussing Sen. Tom Harkin’s new post as head of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee,...

For Fake Presidents, Competition Is Fierce

Race is on for top Obama impersonator

(Newser) - Think impersonating the president is a joke? For the professional actors trying to scratch their way to the top—to become First Impersonator—it's serious business, Slate reports. "I see this as a chance to grow as a dramatic actor," says one faux Obama. "Besides, it can...

This Extract Lacks Flavor
 This Extract Lacks Flavor 
movie review
Sep 4, 2009 10:02 AM CDT

This Extract Lacks Flavor

Mike Judge effort offers a few laughs

(Newser) - Mike Judge's Extract is a view of modern stupidity, the story of a regular guy among idiots, running a bottling plant and having trouble with his marriage. While it offers some chuckles, the Jason Bateman vehicle is no comic masterpiece:
  • “What’s most striking about Extract, beyond the scarcity
...

Real Colbert: 'I Embody the Bullshit'

Earnest Colbert calls himself unambitious, religious

(Newser) - It wasn't Stephen Colbert's on-screen persona who turned up for a recent Rolling Stone interview, but the real Stephen Colbert—a man as "preppy, earnest, and gentle" as Ned Flanders. In the interview, Colbert dishes on his style of deconstructing the news: "I take the sausage backwards, and...

Comic's Mother-in-Law Sues Over Jokes

Sunda Croonquist's mother-in-law seeks damages for Jew jokes

(Newser) - The situation faced by comedian Sunda Croonquist sounds like it’s from one of her routines: mother-in-law sues comedian after being the butt of one too many jokes. But Croonquist’s mother-in-law is serious—she says her daughter-in-law makes her sound like a racist. She’s seeking unspecified damages and...

Bikini-Clad Britney Reads Dave's Top 10 List

(Newser) - Britney Spears reads Letterman's top 10 list on tonight's show, ticking off the ways the world would be different if she were president, reports People. "We'd only invade fun places, like Cabo," she says in the pre-taped segment, in which she's clad in a black bikini. Other samples:...

Nobody's Sold on The Goods
 Nobody's Sold on The Goods  
Movie Review
Aug 14, 2009 11:26 AM CDT

Nobody's Sold on The Goods

(Newser) - On paper, The Goods ought to be—well, good, given that it has plenty of funny people on both sides of the camera. Didn’t turn out that way. Here’s what critics are saying:
  • Seemingly pulled “straight out of Will Ferrell's discard pile,” the flick is a
...

Oprah's Mag Puts New Twist on Power List

(Newser) - Nobody’s No. 1 on O, the Oprah Magazine’s inaugural “Power List.” Indeed, no one’s any other number either.  “Power can be so many things,” the editors reason, so they’re honoring women who are powerful in different ways. A sampling:
  • The Power
...

Tina Talks Emmys, Jay, and Sarah...Sorta

(Newser) - As if its record 22 Emmy nominations weren’t enough, 30 Rock also recently landed a syndication deal. Tina Fey talks success—and Sarah Palin—with Broadcasting & Cable:
  • On possibly hosting the Emmys: "No, I think it's a hard job and a thankless one. I think maybe it's
...

Giamatti Hot in Cold Souls
 Giamatti Hot in Cold Souls 
movie review
Aug 7, 2009 10:04 AM CDT

Giamatti Hot in Cold Souls

Soul-searching film leaves critics mixed

(Newser) - Paul Giamatti—who plays an actor named...Paul Giamatti—wows critics in Cold Souls, but some say the comedy as a whole, in which a man has his soul removed, leaves something to be desired.
  • "Cold Souls has its flaws, and it threatens to sag into a Paul-like morbidity,
...

Get Ready for Massive Leno PR Blitz
 Get Ready for 
 Massive Leno PR Blitz 
ANALYSIS
Aug 5, 2009 11:28 AM CDT

Get Ready for Massive Leno PR Blitz

Get ready for Leno to be everywhere you look

(Newser) - Get ready for Jay—lots and lots of Jay. Though nearly 80% of viewers are aware that the Jay Leno Show is on the horizon, NBC is going to beat you over the head until you're drooling for its 10pm venture, the New York Times reports. A 24-hour webcam has...

Funny People Puts Serious Pressure on Sandler

Box office performance for latest flick a mystery

(Newser) - Though it’s called Funny People, Adam Sandler’s latest film is a bit more serious than his fans are used to—and its opening-weekend performance is a mystery, Variety reports. Forecasts range from just over $20 million to more like $35 million, Audiences loved director Judd Apatow’s prior...

Apatow's Funny People: Insightful, Smug, Too Long

(Newser) - Judd Apatow doesn't dispense entirely with his raunchy humor in Funny People, but his venture into more serious themes meets mixed success with critics. Most, however, love Adam Sandler as a gravely ill comedian confronting the emptiness of his life.
  • Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: "Apatow scores by crafting the
...

Beck Wins It All in Stewart's Jackass Derby

Beck crowned king in new segment

(Newser) - “Apparently, any jackass in a suit willing to go on television and criticize the president can make a pretty hefty living,” Jon Stewart said last night on The Daily Show. To crown the biggest jackass of all, Stewart trotted out a new segment: "So You Think You...

Shatner Graces Conan With More Palin 'Poetry'

This time, drawn from her Twitter feed

(Newser) - After realizing Sarah Palin’s incoherent resignation address was not actually a speech but rather poetry, Conan O’Brien started investigating her Twitter feed. “Some people have found her tweets to be a little rambling, confusing, and off-topic,” O’Brien said on last night’s Tonight Show, but...

Leno Website Previews 'Terrible Jokes'

Staffers are dour, jokes are just plain bad

(Newser) - The days of thejaylenoshow.com being a funny site—back when it was owned by a stubborn realtor refusing “to budge in the face of increasingly desperate corporate pressure” from NBC—are over. Sadly, the URL now belongs to The Jay Leno Show, writes Seth Abramovitch for Movieline. Though...

Family Guy Scores Nod; 30 Rock Leads With 22 Noms

Mad Men also rakes them in

(Newser) - The list of Emmy nominations, out today, is full of familiar names. One surprise: Family Guy is nominated for best comedy series—it's only the second animated show to get a nod in the category, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Fox stalwart is up against Entourage, 30 Rock, The ...

Twitter Makes Brüno a 1-Day Wonder

(Newser) - Brüno came out on top at the box office this weekend, but the way he did it didn’t inspire confidence. The shockumentary did spectacular business on Friday, only to plummet on Saturday, Time reports, leading some to wonder if it’s the first victim of the “Twitter...

Bruno : Prepare to Cringe, Laugh
 Bruno: 
 Prepare to Cringe, Laugh 
MOVIE REVIEW
Jul 10, 2009 8:24 AM CDT

Bruno: Prepare to Cringe, Laugh

(Newser) - Critics generally give solid marks to Sasha Baron Cohen's cringe-inducing Bruno. It may not outrank Borat, but Cohen remains the master of crude, cruel laughs and uncomfortable insights.
  • Nathan Rabin, Onion AV Club: "Cohen no longer has freshness and novelty on his side, but he’s retained the power
...

Franken Plays It So Straight It's Funny

But doggone it, people like him

(Newser) - Al Franken the comedian is finally becoming Al Franken the senator, and his Senate colleagues were quick to demonstrate yesterday that, doggone it, they like him, writes Dana Milbank in the Washington Post. The only humor at a welcoming press conference was (apparently) unintentional, as Majority Leader Harry Reid intoned,...

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