AP is reporting on a study by a former SCOTUS law clerk that gauged how funny the members of the nation's highest court were based on how many laughs they got during oral arguments.

"I don't pretend that this is a very serious study. I just thought it would be fun and perhaps a bit enlightening," said Wexler, a law clerk in 1998-1999 for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who got four laughs in the 2004-2005 term.

We listened to the historical broadcasts of the oral arguments of the SCOTUS in the tussle after the 2000 presidential election. It was fascinating. And, much to our surprise, it wasn't without its lighter moments.

Associated Press is reporting that Spin magazine is saying that the NJ medical examiner determined that Mitch Hedberg died of "multiple drug toxicity," including cocaine and heroin.

Spin being what it is, they can't help but run quotes from various people who will say anything to get quoted in a magazine that caters to the young:

In the Spin article, Maureen Taran, a comedy manager who knew Hedberg, is quoted as saying that life on the road is difficult for a struggling comedian.

"It's a very lonely existence," Taran says. "If you aren't born with manic-depression, you will have it after being in this business."

Taran also said that if you eat too much sugar, you'll get diabetes. And if you masturbate too much, you'll go blind. Taran's receptionist at the Mayo Clinic said that she was unavailable for any further comments.

SHECKYmagazine.com asks why, when an over-indulging rock star/rock band is depicted on Behind The Music, their drug use/overuse is always attributed to "giving into temptation," or "having too much fun," yet when a comic takes drugs, he is "laughing on the outside, grindingly depressed on the inside?" Why are we always depicted as one of those Red Skelton clown paintings with a tear running down his cheek? Why does a comic, who was packing them in at theaters across America, on a tour with the blessing and promotional muscle of Clear Channel and Comedy Central, depicted as "struggling" and why is a comic who was, more often than not, accompanied on his tour by his wife (and fellow comic) and/or other friends and comics depicted as "lonely?"

Because it makes for better copy.

Doug Stanhope's website stands out as one of a small number of comics' sites that accurately captures the author's spirit, uses the medium of the WWW well and offers interesting and often harsh commentary on himself and those who glance up against him. He has recently posted an update, "The Ghost of Christmas Future," dated Dec. 12, that is particularly stinging. (And it's a devastating characterization of a fellow comic.) The posting-- part confessional, part warning, part commentary on the business of show (not unlike a lot of what Stanhope does onstage) is also a cautionary tale for every comic, on the way in or on the way out of the biz.

For every comic that dies in his so-called prime and you say "It's too bad we will never see how much greater they could have become," remember that they may just as easily become bitter, unfunny, shitty, sell-out, addict wastes or just fucking quit in the face of the pointlessness of it all.

Ouch! Read the rest.

"Group sex club patrons swinging free" reads the title of an article that's burning up the WWW about how the Supreme Court of Canada lifted a ban on swingers' clubs, ruling that group sex among consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society.

The "echangistes" (French for "swingers!") are all atwitter because now they can go to their favorite swing clubs and engage in consensual sex in a group with one or more other people without having to worry about Jean Law poking his billy club into the pile! (We were particularly amused by one of the story's subheads, "Gang Bang Tuesdays!" We fear that a wavelet of comedy club owners will arrive earlier in the week for this year's JFL, forsaking the strip clubs for Gang Bang Tuesdays!)

Our attention was also snagged by this bit of scene-setting, a description of one of Montreal's more popular swing clubs:

The club is housed in an elegant but aging two-story house on a busy street. The ground floor has mismatched sofas and chairs, scant lighting and framed photographs on the walls depicting scenes of mild sexual bondage.

Substitute "the Bud Light Girls" for "scenes of mild sexual bondage" and you've perfectly captured half the comedy condos in America! Now, if you'll pardon us, we must go shower.

An item from Nov. 23 on El Paso's KFOX-TV's website says that Freddie Soto combined Xanax with booze and fentanyl.

Doctors use fentanyl to help patients either during anesthesiology or to control pain for serious illnesses like cancer.

However, the report does not say if Soto was prescribed fentanyl or if he used the drug recreationally. And while comedian Patrick Candelaria says drug use is common in the comedy business, he hopes Soto will not be remembered by how he died.

Thanks a lot for that "drug use is common in the comedy business" sound bite, Mr. Candelaria!

FOS Larry-bob sends us word of an L.A. Times article about how those Craig Ferguson (Late Late Show) monologues are hatched.

About half the time, Ferguson walks into the writers' room with an idea. The other half, he'll say, "I got nothing" and turn to Armstrong, who keeps a running list of topics. Guilty pleasures. Anger management. What's cool and what's not. Something as simple as having a friend flop on your couch for a few days can jump-start a monologue that ventures into how any interloper who stays too long—a guest, a spouse, a child—can be annoying. And why Ferguson himself is annoying.

We've been marvelling at the Ferguson monologues for months now, wondering exactly how they're created. This article provides the answer and a glimpse into the writers' room.

Check out the small item on the WCCO-TV website. Louie Anderson hands out cash and turkeys. Giving back to the 'hood.

We're entertaining some folks tonight. A Christmas Adam party, we call it. (Christmas Adam, comes before Christmas Eve, get it?) We'll probably swing the monitor over and back and tuck the computer away for a day or three. If anything monumental happens, we'll let you all know about it, but if not, have a swell holiday of some sort and we'll all meet back here in a few days. Deal?

Before we go, we want to thank all of our readers for their loyalty, their assistance and their continued reading. Part of what makes this the WWW's most beloved magazine about standup is our worldwide army of readers! We aim to continue this in 2006 and make it even better. Thank you all again!

A sharp-eyed reader sends along the following:

"THE BETTER MAN" Feature Film
UNIVERSAL PICTURES
100 Universal City Plaza Universal City, CA 91608
PHONE - 818-777-1000
STATUS - Development
PRODUCER: Scott Stuber - Mary Parent - Charles Castaldi
DIRECTOR: Malcolm D. Lee

Follows the story of a successful Los Angeles comedian who reluctantly heads back to the South with his wife and son to reunite with his family. There, old rivalries heat up.

Hmmm... All we can wonder is why the screenwriter isn't listed. Perhaps the script isn't written yet. That there would be what "development" means, we suppose. We just hope the comics don't have lockers.

Gotham owner Chris Mazzilli is the subject of a mini interview in the Dec. 19 New York Post.

The last time Dave Chappelle was here, I had no idea that he was coming. In fact, most people didn't have a clue where he was. It was at a time when he was kind of hidden from the world - and then he just popped up here and did a couple of shows for us.

Thanks to FOS Sharilyn, who also sends along word that Andy Kindler will be on Letterman tonight. (We're not sure if it's a new one or a rerun of his recent panel appearance. NBC.com keeps timing out, so we can't verify one way or the other.)

This just in from FOS Paul Ogata: "It appears to be a new episode."

Note:A sharp-eyed reader writes that Letterman has been on the CBS network for a decade. This is true. It is also true that The Male Half of the Staff has been horribly confused for at least that long, with regard to the affiliations of the NBC and CBS affiliates in the PHL market. Back when Inifinity was forced by the FCC to divest some of its holdings, Channels 3 (then NBC, now CBS) and 10 (then CBS, now NBC) swapped facilities! And affiliations! Oh, it's a horrible mess! Not an excuse, but as close as we'll come.

E! Pulls Red Carpet Out from Under Griffin (Subscribers only!)

E! is dropping Kathy Griffin from its red-carpet coverage, the network confirmed today. The red-headed comedienne provided color commentary for awards shows for the network after Joan and Melissa Rivers left E! for TV Guide.

BTW: The exclamation point at the end of the head of this post is involuntary... forced upon us by the inclusion of the unwitting punctuation mark's inclusion into the Entertainment Television's official name!

We have smoked out the creators of Chappelle Theory... sort of. Either that, or we've been manipulated like one of those puppets on Thunderball XL5!

Not sure if they have bumped the whole enterprise out into the public arena earlier than expected, but it seems that the people behind the Chappelle Theory website were merely promoting a film project by Chappelle's Show producer Neil Brennan.

We theorized that it sounded like a sketch that might have made the cut on Chappelle's Show (admittedly, not much of a stretch), well, it now appears that it's a promo for a longform, theatrical release of such a sketch.

It stars Charlie Murphy. If it's nothing more than Murphy spinning the tale from the Chappelle Theory website with cheesy re-enactments, a la the show's Rick James sketch, it will be a huge hit. We say this because we're of the opinion that no other sketch on that show had more of an effect on the culture, had no more "viral" power than that segment and it's catchphrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" We stil get hits on our site because of it. From Belgium, Togo, India, Columbus, Berkeley, London, Capetown, you name it.
For some reason that sketch, the irresistable appeal of Murphy and the subsequent tragic death of Rick James himself, contributed to a WWW Perfect Storm.

We're just sorta surprised (given the success of Blair Witch!) that the Chappelle Theory people went wobbly and didn't milk this thing a little further!

State District Judge Daniel Sanchez has issued a restraining order against David Letterman on behalf of one Colleen Nestler, who "requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least 3 yards away and not 'think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering.' "

Wait a minute... isn't it Dave who is constantly hounded by crazy people who break into his house, invade his personal space, plot to kidnap his baby and generally make him question why he ever pursued fame and fortune in the first place?

Well, yes, it is. And that still applies.

Ms. Nester, in her application for the order, "began sending Letterman 'thoughts of love' after his Late Show began in 1993, and that he responded in code words and gestures, asking her to come East."

Well, we here at SHECKYmagazine are readying our applications for restraining orders! First order: The Male Half of the Staff will get an order requesting that Britney Spears stay "at least 300 yards away from my crotchal area," and that Ms Spears stop sending messages professing an undying love for the MHotS via her many videos. And the Female Half of the Staff is considering applying to a local court for an order restraining Mel Gibson from "approaching, contacting or leering at" her or any photos of her. (She's been convinced that Gibson has been telegraphing vague confessions of yearning since his appearance as the retarded guy in the small film "Tim." I mean, look at those tight shorts, wouldja?!)

Now, all we hafta do is find a judge stupid enough to issue the order and we'll be bathing in the spotlight!

Sure enough. There's a convenient icon just after the "s" in "Comments" at the end of each and every post. Oddly, though, it's invisible! (At least it is on our browser!) But that's no problem-- just roll your cursor next to that "s" and you should see a small box with the words "email post" appear near your cursor. (And/or, for you techie types, the URL containing the words "email post" should appear in your status line at the bottom of your browser window.)

Just click on that empty space (where the little email icon should be!), and you'll be taken to a browser window that contains a simple form which enables you to fill in a friend's email, your email and comments. Then you hit a button and BOOM-- you can tell a friend of the latest posting on SHECKYmagazine.com!

BET will air a tribute to Richard Pryor tonight. Check your local listings for showtimes. Says Jesse Jackson:

"He would curse not because he had limited material but because it was a form of punctuation and it's the kind of stuff that people would cringe at in public and then go buy the record. It was the Redd Foxx tradition... He was on the edge and I can not tell you the risk he took as a comedian. All great comedians for the most part, take those risks pushing the envelope.

Adam Gropman's latest column, "Name Groppin'--From The A-List to the F-List With a Guy Who's Unlisted," is a riotous account of our intrepid L.A.-dwelling columnist's close encounters with, among others, celebs like... Leonardo DiCaprio:

But here I was standing in the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and I was FREAKING OUT. I mean, I was beyond trembling. My head felt as if I'd snorted PCP cut with borax. I was an inch away from catatonic.

At that time, Leo was arguably the most famous human being in the world. Titanic-mania was still sweeping the land like an emotional black plague. He was on the cover of every glossy publication in the newsstands. He was in every TV news show and every gossip column-- an inescapable icon that could command a chorus line of agents and producers to dance at the snap of his finger and a Beatles-size army of girls to squeal and faint with one ten second live appearance. As unassuming, regular and almost goofy he looked standing there slightly disheveled in T-shirt and sweat pants that afternoon, this guy was by far the most famous person I'd stood within spitting distance of in my entire life. And I'd be damned if I was going to pass up the opportunity to mentally implode and experience an irrational momentary breakdown!

Read the rest here.

Allen told the BBC that he's dumb and he sucks as a director.

In London for the world premiere of his new film "Match Point," set in the British capital, Allen said: "People think I'm an intellectual because I wear glasses and they think I'm an artist because my films lose money."

Of course, Allen was once a standup comic, so he's... kidding! Right? When you've led the charmed life that Allen has-- Oscars, critical acclaim, a nice gig with no boss breathing down your neck, enough money to live in Manhattan for 40 or 50 years-- ain't nobody buying this self-deprecating thing.

In all fairness, it is important to point out that the review cited below of Albert Brooks' new film, "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World," appeared on TEN Movies, "The Movie Resource of the Middle East (Member of The Emirates Network)". The folks who are being chided by Brooks can't be expected to look favorably upon his tongue-in-cheek investigation into what tickles the funny bone of folks in India and Pakistan.

The method used by Albert Brooks to understand what is considered funny to these people is putting on a standup comedy show in both India and Pakistan, but this doesn't work too well. Was it ever considered by him that perhaps it isn't the understanding of the English language that prevents the Indian audience from finding him funny, but that all the gags are soaked in cultural references completely alien to them (Halloween, 'The Exorcist' etc.)?

To answer that last question, uh... yes, it probably was. He is Albert Brooks, after all.

Brooks has never been easy to get. At least not for some people. And he's never gone the easy route. So, if Brooks finds himself on a stage in front of a bunch of people who don't get his cultural references, the motivation behind the gag is probably that Albert Brooks is dying an agonizing comedy death in front of a bunch of people from India! Only he doesn't know it! (Of course, he absolutely does know it. He Albert Brooks, for God's sake! That's also part of the gag! He's unaware, but we all know he's totally aware!)

It's a two-and-a-half, double-reverse, flip of a comedy conceit. And the result will be hilarious to non-Muslims (for the most part). And for the Muslims without a sense of humor? Not so much. Therein lies the gag... we're guessing. Check out the film's website.

An email from XM Comedy programmer Joel Haas:

FREE XM RADIOS FROM XM COMEDY

Hello comedy fans...listen up. XM Comedy is giving away free XM Radios for a limited time for the holiday season. If you've been thinking about getting one, now is the time. The only catch is, you have to pay for three month's service ($12.95 per month) and keep the service active for six months.

Get the new XT receiver free, or get the portables for $99.00

Just go to http://espromotions.xmradio.com/xm/emaillogin.aspx


And use my email address, joel.haas@xmradio.com, where it says "sponsors name" (Don't forget the dot between "joel" and "haas")

Read the rules and click on "I accept" (Don't worry, it won't cost anything until you fill out your credit card number) THEN GO SHOPPING!

(If you know someone who wants an XM radio, forward this email to them)

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM XM COMEDY!

All right. What's going on here?

A reader hipped us to the URL for a website called The Chappelle Theory which purports to tell the real story behind the abrupt shutdown of Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show.

He knew that at the same time he was signing his record-setting deal, there was a secret cabal of powerful African-American leaders from the business, political, and entertainment industries working together to ensure that the third season of Chappelle's Show would never happen.

What follows is a wild tale that has secret dinner meetings between Oprah and The Cos, Al Sharpton weilding a pistol, Louis Farrakhan planting Nation of Islam members as cameramen on the set of the show and voodoo dolls.

The site is registered to a Philadelphia firm by the name of Weblinc. (Whose website says they "challenge (their) clients to justify the investment that (they) are asking them to make and establish success metrics by which the investment will be measured." To put it otherwise, they build websites... for Calvin Klein Underwear, Crayola and Speedo.) Either somebody spent a lot of jack to create a website that spins a bizarre (and ultimately unbelievable-- as in not believable) story about Chappelle's recent troubles.

Or... the boys at Weblinc have a lot of downtime and they figured they'd try their hand at comedy writing. (Crank out the copy during your idle hours, cough up $75 to register a couple of domain names, get the boys in the design department to kick in some groovy code-- Boom, a buzz website, with viral potential, is born!)

For a few pages, their chronology of Chappelle's rise and fall makes for some entertaining reading. And it's kinda plausible. (And, if presented as fiction, it might have even passed for a decent sketch on Chappelle's now-defunct show.) But then it descends into outlandish parody. Kinda like a first draft of a Charlie Kaufman script. It's Dave Chappelle meets Charlie Kaufman meets The Hamster Dance. What it might also be is an elaborate (and rather ingenious) campaign to pump up anticipation of the future release of a Chappelle's Show DVD Boxed Set! Enjoy.

The Female Half of the Staff spotted the following in her most recent issue of Shape magazine ("It's the holiday issue-- this month's featured shape was 'round,' " says she.)

Tour America's natural beauty for free all year after investing in a National Parks Pass. About 80 percent of the Pass proceeds benefit vital Parks programs, including prarie restoration in South Dakota's Badlands National Park and grounds maintenance of Washington, D.C.'s National Mall.

The perfect gift for the comic on your list... who has a Tribble Tour on the books. They're $50 and they can be purchased here. Consider this our Christmas Gift Buying Guide.

The Male Half of the Staff has written "2005: The Year in Comedy," one of those year-end wrapup articles that we always see in the MSM, usually devoted to sports or entertainment. Well, this is a magazine about standup, so this one's devoted to standup comedy.

Standup comedy has become a large component of the entertainment industry and the practitioners of standup have unprecedented influence on our popular culture. Many of the stories that have standup as a component also connect with larger issues such as censorship, race, crime, life, death, success, commerce and art. With this in mind, we present "2005, The Year In Standup!"

This list is not necessarily a list of the most important events in standup as much as it is a list of things that happened in standup that had an impact on society at large. A subtle difference, but one that readers of this magazine can easily grasp.

NOTE TO MSM: Feel free to excerpt this column, edit it, re-print it, augment it with quotes, etc. It might make a nice, fluffy piece for your entertainment section near the end of the year (easily augmented with photos of Carson, Pryor, Rock, Hedberg, etc.) and we will gladly take the bump in traffic that would naturally follow. Just make sure you include the URL-- and spell it right! Thanks!

Ya think we'd figure these things out, now wouldn'tcha?

We'd been listening to our XMRadio for some time and they were pumping their XM Nation Awards, where they give out awards for this and that. But the promos weren't mentioning comedy. We hopped onto the site, but we didn't see any categories for comedy. We figured, oh well, standup is screwed again.

But what's this? Waaay down at the bottom of the (first) page of nominees for various music categories was a tiny drop down menu that enabled visitors to "Select another neighborhood." These kids and their web design! What the bloody hell does "select another neighborhood" mean?!?!

Oh, well. Had we known, we mighta been able to hip our readers to the fact that Dane Cook, Lewis Black and Mitch Hedberg were slugging it out for XM Comic of the Year and Mitch Fatel, Gary Gulman and Tom Hester were vying for Best New Comic.

Oh... Gulman won for Best New and Dane Cook is the Comic of the Year.

Ghost Whisperer, the CBS drama starring Jennifer Love Hewitt (recently ranked the sixth sexiest woman in HDTV), will feature a plot on this Friday night's episode based on a dead comedian, entitled "Dead Comedian." Says the synopsis:

Melinda, out for an evening of comedy and to support Andrea at open mike night, encounters a dead comic who makes it clear: nothing is spookier than the twisted humor of ghosts who refuse to cross over. If you love comedy and terror this is the night of your life!

Indeed! The Female Half of the Staff speculates that the ghost comic terrifies his victims by muttering "I normally headline!" We may have to set the VCR.

An AP story tells of a Mustafa Abeulhija who claims that nine months ago, Chappelle told him that he could be his manager. Only trouble is, gee whiz, he hasn't paid him a cent. Mr. Abuelhija says that Chappelle even "spread the word" to his "financial aides." (Hint: The dudes who cut the checks know about me... so... WHERE'S MY CHECK?)

There's nothing in writing. That doesn't mean that Mr. A doesn't have a fat check coming to him. This will probably be settled out of court. There's a big chunk of change at stake-- according to the AP account, Chappelle "had earned $2.2 million from personal appearances and about $6 million in entertainment deals including the contract for his show" during the period in question.

Mark Gauvreau Judge, writing in Spectator.org, compares his recent viewing of "Margaret Cho: Assassin" to Robert Klein's special and the book upon which it was based.

Klein, who has a new HBO special (his 8th) coming up, is no conservative, but he's a vanished breed: the common sense liberal. His recent memoir "The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue" proves this. While in his early 20s he dated a German woman, and describes one night in the late 1960s where his leftist pals were touting the glories of socialism in front of her. Klein was proud as she demurred: "I felt a certain pride as she charmed them and parried their ideology at the same time. It so happened that she lived in a country that was divided by electronic fences and machine guns. These middle-class City College Trotskyites seemed oblivious to the pragmatic side of the issue, the fact that this woman risked death to visit relatives in the eastern sector of her country."

It kicks off with a devastating indictment of Cho's methods and segues into an analysis of what might or might not make for satisfying political humor. Read the rest here.

From "Pryor's Flawed Legacy" by Stanley Crouch, New York Daily News:

What is so unfortunate is that the heaviest of Pryor's gifts was largely ignored by so many of those who praised the man when he was alive and are now in the middle of deifying him.

The pathos and the frailty of the human soul alone in the world or insecure or looking for something of meaning in a chaotic environment was a bit too deep for all of the simpleminded clowns like Andrew Dice Clay or those who thought that mere ethnicity was enough to define one as funny, like the painfully square work of Paul Rodriguez.

Ouch! One of the more nuanced "appreciations" of Pryor we've read. Crouch's NYDN bio says he is "co-founder of the department known as Jazz at Lincoln Center. In 1993, he received both the Jean Stein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a MacArthur Foundation grant. He is now working on a biography of Charlie Parker." Read the rest here.

From Jamy Ian Swiss, magician and comedy fan, comes this essay on the impact of Richard Pryor:

Richard Pryor is gone.

Some fool might say he's been gone for years, due to his failing health and the progression of the multiple sclerosis he was diagnosed with in 1986. But most-- and this fan, for one-- would say he has always been present, and indeed will always be present, thanks to his pervasive and profound influence as an artist.

I believe Richard Pryor was the greatest comedian of my lifetime. I say this on due consideration-- decades of consideration-- and without hyperbole. I am a passionate fan of George Carlin-- I saw him on the original Seven Dirty Words tour when I was 19 years old, I saw him at the live HBO broadcast a few weeks ago, and I've seen him on other occasions in between-- I think he is now far and way our greatest living comic-- but I can't help but suspect that even Carlin himself would be quick to rate Pryor ahead of himself on the scale of impact, influence, and profound originality.

I say this not to take anything away from Carlin, but I cannot seem to discuss Pryor without thinking of Carlin as well. These were the great comic models I grew up with-- along with a man who helped make them all famous, Johnny Carson, a king of a different breed, but comic royalty just the same. I learned about comedy by watching Carson's show, learned from him about a generation of comics that had influenced him, learned from him by dissecting his monologues the morning after with fellow comedy students. And I learned from him by his open-hearted embrace of new comics-- as when I saw Albert Brooks pour a glass of water down the mouth of a vent dummy and eventually kick the crap out of it-- including the likes of George Carlin and Richard Pryor.

(Read the rest here, continued in the "Comments" to this post).

An email from author/comedian Larry Getlen:

One aspect of Pryor's influence that seems less frequently mentioned, in general, is his eventual influence on what has, over the past decade, been called "alternative" comedy. Pryor amazed for many reasons, the honesty of his portrayal of black life primary among them. But it also seems you could draw a straight line from Pryor's story-telling to the jokeless style of many alternative comedic performers, as well as the increasingly popular trend of storytelling (including one-person shows) as an comedic event.

It's also interesting to note the amazing similarities between the life stories of Pryor and George Carlin from about 1959-1971. Both served in the military with horrid results (Pryor stabbed a guy; Carlin was court-martialed three times). Both went to New York to try to make it in comedy, and performed in the clubs in the Village (sometimes together, improv-ing on stage) and within a few years found their way to TV via the shows of Merv Griffin, Ed Sullivan and others. Both wore suits and performed mainstream, middle-of-the-road material despite natural inclinations the other way based on their blue collar backgrounds, anti-establishment views, and sympathies with the downtrodden aspects of society. Both evolved from TV to Vegas around the same time, both did quite well there but felt out of place, and both wound up hating Vegas audiences so much that they wound up cursing them out from the stage. Both finally quit Vegas in frustration-- taking incredible risks in doing so, as they were both turning their backs on the kind of success most comics would kill for-- took about a year off at the end of the decade, grew their hair, ditched the suits, and returned with material that suited who they were in real life, making them the two most popular and influential comedians of the seventies. (And that's without even going into the similarities later on with rising popularity and album successes, then drugs, career downturns and heart attacks, leading to Carlin's classic joke-- slight paraphrasing here-- "Here's the latest score in the Carlin-Pryor sweepstakes-- I lead Richard in heart attacks by a score of 3-2, but he leads 1-0 in setting yourself on fire!")

Pryor died today of a heart attack at a Los Angeles hospital. He had been suffering from multiple sclerosis for nearly two decades.

Readers of this publication, in a 2000 poll, named him to be "The Comic of the Millennium," by a wide margin.

He is cited by many of today's professional standup comics as an influence.

Read the AP obit.

TVLand is premiering December 14 a new show hosted by David Steinberg, in which he interviews comics. Some of the featured guests will be Bob Newhart, Jon Lovitz and George Lopez. Other guests, not exactly standup comics, will be Mike Meyers and Martin Short. (In all fairness, the show is merely called Sit Down Comedy, so there should be no expectation that the show will exclusively feature pure standup comics.)

If you go to the TVLand site, be prepared for browser freeze-ups and rough sledding. Too many bells and whistles! You can also download a preview and download podcasts of upcoming shows.

On the occasion of his guest shot on ER, Jack Carter is interviewed by TVGuide.com. In it, the comedian explains, among other things, how his feud with Woody Allen started:

He was one of the top writers on The Gary Moore Show, where I was a regular. One day I was on a panel with Mickey Rooney and some other people, and Woody was picking on Mickey unmercifully. I came to Mickey's defense and attacked Woody Allen, and when we got back to Gary Moore he wrote me out of it quickly. We've been enemies ever since. He's never thought of me for a role in any picture.

Mickey Rooney? Beverly Sills? Houdini's dog bit his sister? How old is Jack Carter? Read the whole thing.

Anyone notice that last night's episode of My Name Is Earl was stocked with standup comics? Brett Butler, Blake Clarke played Earl's ex's parents and Harland Williams also guested.

Earl will anchor the NBC's new Thursday night comedy lineup when they switch it and The Office to the new night at the first opportunity next month. NBC suits are hoping to usher in a new era of Must-See TV. Of course, it might just kill any buzz that either show managed to gather. Programming executives are a lot like mad scientists in that regard-- "When I flip this switch, cancer will disappear, hurricanes will no longer plague us and peace will reign forever more... or... the entire world will be reduced to fine dust. Here goes..."

The Female Half witnessed an interesting episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show in which a mobster forces Dick, Buddy and Sally to write a routine for his nephew Kenny Dexter who wants to be a comedian. The guy is a real life-of-the-party type who does a lot of impressions. He makes his debut at a fancy nightclub and bombs. Everyone concludes that he just doesn't have any talent so he decides to go to college.

Jack Larson played "Kenny Dexter" in the episode, which was titled "Big Max Calvada" (Episode # 3.9), which aired November 20, 1963, just two days before the assassination of President Kennedy!

If anyone has the deluxe boxed set of the D.V.D.S. DVD's, dub us a copy of Episode #3,9 will ya? It would be good to have for the archives!

This just in: AP is reporting that the first four episodes of Chappelle's Show, shot before the host flaked out, will air "in April, May or June." (That's quite a wide window of opportunity. Perhaps Doug Herzog hasn't purchased his 2006 calendar yet! You know, Doug, you can get 'em for a buck at those dollar stores. Sure, they have puppies and kitties on the cover, but they function fine as calendars!)

(Note: An earlier version of this post identified the publication in question as NY Monthly, instead of NJ Monthly. We apologize for any confusion!)

In yet another incident that might lead one to believe that standup comedy is back on the cultural radar, New Jersey Monthly has put out a Comedy Issue. While we appreciate that a publication of NJM's stature went to the trouble, we found the issue to be an series of uninspired articles on standup comedy. Oh, sure, we're mildly annoyed that they never contacted us, but we chalk that up to their North Jersey bias. (If you're not from Jersey, it's a given that North Jersey and South Jersey are two different states. In fact, SoJo threatens to "secede" every once in a while and make Vineland the capitol of the new state. Secessionists ultimately lose interest and just go down the shore until the urge goes away.)

Perhaps most distressing was the main piece, by Peter Golden that profiles Rascals partner Ed Rodriguez. Leaving aside the fact that the main article in a Comedy Issue is on someone who toils not on the stage but in the boardroom, it was mainly about the publicly-traded company's success, not in actual live comedy, but in the peddling through cyberspace of their hours and hours of the Rascals Good Time Comedy Hour." The show aired on cable up north back in the first golden period of standup and is now being offered to the public via number of platforms.

The grand prize for the most annoying quote was from one Gary DeLena in an article called "Tough Crowd," a brief (modern) history of the standup comedy as it relates to the Garden State.

Gary DeLena, a Point Pleasant comedian who has performed stand-up for 22 years, says that many clubs didn't last because they were mismanaged or they cut corners by booking weak acts. "Once it caught on, everybody and their brother wanted to try comedy," DeLena says. "Did you ever hear the expression, 'Dying is easy but comedy is hard?' A lot of the comics sucked."

While there is a nugget of truth in DeLena's statement, it utterly fails to convey any of the subtlety of the collapse. We shouldn't be surprised, though, that the reporter seized upon this particularly negative, vicious and ultimately unenlightening quote. The MSM gets a woody any time they get anyone to say that comedy (or comedians) are somehow inept or boorish. All the better if they get one of our own to utter the remark.

Buried in a recent email from the organizers of an upcoming comedy festival:

I am looking for everyone to come out and give their best performance on stage. More importantly, I'm watching how everyone is off stage as well. What you do while you're here reflects directly on the festival, and our sponsors.

Everyone brush up on your etiquette! It would be so sad to have a killer showcase set then blow a sitcom deal because you're an insufferable boor offstage! ("I don't get it! I killed but I got nothing! Maybe I went too far when I belched loudly in front of Budd Friedman on the elevator!")

For our part, we'll be doing features on how to distinguish that pesky salad fork, from the... other... fork.

Just got this terse announcement over the cyber-transom:

The Laugh Factory NY is proud to announce George Sarris has come on board to help run the number one comedy clubs in the country ("USA Today"). Mr. Sarris is the Executive Producer of The NYC Underground Comedy Festival

Hmmm... Sarris will "help run" the Factory. Stay tuned.

And one more thing: The Factory persists in saying that USAToday proclaimed the Factory in Hollywood "the number one comedy club in the country." This is, of course, a reference to the April 1 article in which the editors of this publication supplied USAToday with ten suggestions for "Ten great places to sit down and watch standup comedy." Which we did. The Factory was listed first randomly. (There is some hope, though: The release refers to "the number one comedy clubs" with an "s" on the end of club... perhaps they had a twinge of honesty mid-sentence and almost typed the sentence using a far more honest qualifier "one of the..." We can only hope.)

The best kept secret of the recent HBO comedy festival in Vegas was who won that Wendy's Comedy Challenge. That was the contest that our own Bill Bunker was in the running for. (Mr. Bunker failed to scare up the necessary cyber-hysteria to make it to the Vegas leg of the competition.)

Buried on the website of the Warner Bros.-produced Ellen Degeneres Show is the answer: Dean Lewis (website), a standup comic from Dallas.

From today's Washington Times comes an article ("Now, there's proof: Men, women different" free reg. req.) that recaps the results of a Canadian brain study and a few other stateside studies on the differences between male and female brain function. Our favorite quote:

"The comedians are right. The science proves it. A man's brain and a woman's brain really do work differently," a research team from the University of Alberta in Canada announced yesterday.

Hardly a week goes by that comedians aren't proven to be sage observers of human nature.

Considering that the subtitle of the Nuvo website is "Arts, Entertainment & Social Justice," we should expect ridiculous drivel in a review of Robert Klein's latest HBO special. Observe the review's lede:

Robert Klein is one of the funniest people alive, and he achieved that status without trying terribly hard.

Say what? It's gets better:

Look at his career choices-- his movies (try to name a good one), his TV shows (The Stones and Bob Patterson, most recently) and even his standup-- and it’s obvious he doesn’t put forth that much effort.

Perhaps the byline, Marc D. Allan, is a nom de plume for Klein's mother. Allan heaps on more abuse in his big finish paragraph:

And he absolutely should have expended more effort honing his jokes and writing transitions between subjects.

Absolutely.

We haven't seen the new special, but we doubt very much that Klein is guilty of all the above charges. He's Robert Klein, after all. Nobody works (or worked) harder at standup than Robert Klein. His voice, his writing style, his approach has shaped generations of standup comics. His influence is so pervasive as to be inivisible to even the folks who've been influenced.

Klein has achieved what so many comics strive for-- he's made it look easy. This only becomes a problem when your work is reviewed by dullards. Good news for Mr. Allan: he has made it just under the wire and is in the running for the SHECKYmagazine Dumbass of the Year award.