Feet don’t fail me now.

Elvis Mitchell’s interview with Jason Schwartzman on "The Treatment" is worth a listen. Elvis doesn’t know what to make of Jason so he just lets him ramble. The gems out of Schwartzman’s mouth include how he feels about showing up for work: “feet don’t fail me know” and describing why his character, Jonathan Ames, becomes a Craig’s List private dick as “a deliberator moment.” Priceless.


"Bored to Death" is one of the best new comedies on TV.

Bored to Death

Laugh-out-loud funny, Bored to Death is the sharpest show since, well, another HBO show Flight of the Conchords that I can't get straight so call it Flight of the Condors but that's probably part of the joke. Back to Bored to Death. I was reading creator Jonathan Ames' blog-letter on HBO's site and it's also, not surprisingly, hilarious. There's a certain neurotic Woody Allen humor that Americans (at least coasties) are attuned to. Every thought is twisted into grotesque proportions that turns a scene between our loser hero Jonathan (Jason Schwartzman) and the superhero cartoonist Ray (Zach Galifianakis) where they make cultural references in a coffee bar into a scene about how neither gets the others reference. And doesn't everyone hear a reference and think they get the meaning but do they really? Are they hip enough to get it or do they pretend to know what the hell was just said. Ted Danson hits all the right notes as George Christopher, a publishing mogul so rich that he has two first names. George is a privileged baby and, like most uber-rich people, he pays his friends and is a bottomless pit of need and hubris. If you haven't seen it, do.

We Will Kick Off! We Will Kick Off!

Sunday football, again. At least the Green Bay Packers won, again. What Sunday Football does week after week is remind me of Bill Cosby and the comedy album my sister and I wore out as kids, Bill Cosby Is A Very Funny Fellow Right released in 1963.

"We will kick off! We will kick off! We will receive! We will receive!" from Toss of the Coin mesmerized us.

If you've never heard early Cosby, and this is his first comedy album, you are missing something.

Get the girl

Christopher Hitchens wrote an article in Vanity Fair about why men are funnier than women.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/01/hitchens200701

He says that ordinary guys have to be funny to get the girl. Looking at the hit movies and shows staring regular guys such as Will Farrell, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Jon Stewart, Donal Logue, Seth Rogan to name a few and let's not forget the whip smart but not a looker Christopher Hitchens proves the point. But what of women comedians? With current roaring exceptions like Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin and Samantha Bee, you don't find many women even on the list. And there is a list. Wikipedia's "List of Comedians" page has hundreds of men and dozens of women. And come to think of it, there aren't a ton of hilarious gay male comics. But there are a lot of funny lesbians trying to get the girl along with straight Jews and Catholics.

For the 20 year anniversary of Fresh Air, they replayed Terry's interview with Jerry Seinfeld that happened before the show that sent him into the stratosphere of success. He said that comedy is aggressive because you "force people to see things your way." You control people and make them laugh.

Let's get back to Kathy Griffin. Her comedy is aggressive. Pow! Pow! Pow! But I think she's aggressive in a feminine way. Like when a mother gives birth. There's no stronger aggressive impulse than to push a being out of your body. Or when flowers bloom. It takes an incredible amount of energy to burst that bud. Aggressive energy. It's what made Griffin's last interview on Larry King a knee slapper. Her quick wit and high energy threw Larry off to the point that he was getting pissed off. She wouldn't stick to the script or help him out at all. Pow! Pow! Pow!