More in ‘comedy’

Jean Carroll, one of the first women to make it as a solo stand-up comedian, died last Friday. Born Celine Zeigman in 1911, Carroll began her career in vaudeville, performing as a duo with her husband, Buddy Howe. But it was as a solo performer in the 1940s that she came into her own, flouting ...

Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner have been doing their “2,000 Year Old Man” routine for a meager 50 years, but apparently that’s long enough for their creation of minor genius—a Yiddish-accented schlub who’s been around for the crucifixion, the inquisition, and the French Revolution, and still his 42,000 children don’t call—to get his own four-disc ...

• A new film to be directed by Darren Aronofsky features Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis engaging in “ecstasy-induced hungry aggressive angry sex.” But, of course, the real question is: “Does the story that surrounds the sex”—a psychologically probing tale of a Russian ballerina and her doppelganger—“disappoint or excel?” [ScriptShadow]
• The Nation’s blog speaks ...

Roast of Joan Rivers
Sun, Aug 9 10pm / 9c

Joan Rivers – Disgusted, Disappointed and Appalled

www.comedycentral.com

Live Twitter Roast
Roast Master Kathy Griffin
Zombie Paparazzi Game

The Comedy Central Roast of Joan Rivers, which aired last night, was a bomb filled with deadly gay jokes and Madoff references, except for Carl Reiner, who “was adorable trotting out curse words he’d ...

Filmmaker Judd Apatow’s new movie, Funny People, is primarily about, well, funny people, but as New Yorker film blogger Richard Brody puts it, “a subtitle might be ‘And They’re Mostly Jewish.’” What’s more, Brody—who, like New Yorker film critic David Denby, considers the film a “masterpiece”—perceives the Judaism of the film’s characters as well as ...

They’re both opening this Friday, but, otherwise, Aviva Kempner’s documentary Yoo Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg and Sacha Baron Cohen’s mockumentary Brüno have little in common. One’s a reverent tribute to Gertrude Berg, who the filmmaker argues was the inventor of the sitcom; the other is—well, you know. But an essay in the New York Press contends ...

He may be one of France’s most popular comedians, but when it comes to Hezbollah, Gad Elmaleh is anything but good-humored. After the terrorist group’s television station began spreading rumors that the Jewish Elmaleh, who was born in Morocco and emigrated to France, had served in the Israel Defense Forces, the comedian canceled an upcoming ...

Harold Ramis’s film Year One opens today, and most critics seem to agree with MTV that the teaming of Ramis, co-producer Judd Apatow, and a bevy of comedic stars including leads Jack Black and Michael Cera, “might seem a match made in comedy heaven, and you might expect the picture to kill. But it overkills, ...

Profoundly disturbing moment of the morning: leafing through The New York Post on the train to work this morning, we found ourselves, remarkably, in agreement with Andrea Peyser. Peyser, who is employed by the Post to be indignant, is today indignant with Conan O’Brien, who on Thursday night’s Tonight Show made this joke: “Political experts ...

Cory Kahaney
As a Jewish woman comedian, Cory Kahaney knows she’s in good company—think Roseanne Barr, Sandra Bernhard, Gilda Radner, Jackie Hoffman, Sarah Silverman. But it was a revelation when, a few years ago, she discovered the work of Jean Carroll, a master of deadpan wisecracks, and Totie Fields, a zaftig entertainer who expertly ridiculed ...