TVSquad

There's news about CBS's Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal, and from the sounds of it, this may be a real sleeper -- that's if you believe in the quality of the casting. Joining Mike in the show are comic Bob Odenkirk, actress Rachel Blanchard and former deejay Phil Hendrie.

Mike Birbiglia's Secret Public Journal, based on his stand up comedy, includes Blanchard (7th Heaven) as his significant other, an aspiring doctor and the sensible one of the couple. Phil Hendrie, best known as a popular radio talker but was also on The Unit in a supporting role, has been cast as Mike's abrasive doctor. But perhaps the best news for this CBS project is adding Bob O to the company as Mike's big brother. In everything I've ever seen him do, Odenkirk is a riot. He's a two-time Emmy winner for his comedy writing.

As the first Futurama straight-to-DVD movie, Bender's Big Score, begins airing on Comedy Central (they'll air the movie as a four-episode blok on Sunday night), Fox has announced the name and release date of the second straight-to-DVD epic.

AnimationMagazine.net reports that Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs will be released on June 24, and they note that Fox calls it "the most tentacle-packed Futurama epic." Since it's a continuation of Bender's Big Score, I'll talk about the plot of the new movie after the jump, for the benefit of those who haven't seen the first movie yet.

If you've seen Blue Collar TV or any of the Blue Collar movies, you know the comedians always end the night by getting on stage together and riffing.

At Bonaroo, comedians David Cross (Mr. Show, Arrested Development), Aziz Ansari (Human Giant) and Nick Kroll (Cavemen, Human Giant, Best Week Ever) did their own version of the "old pals sitting on stools and shootin' the breeze" act with their list of criteria to determine whether or not you're a "deadneck" -- which, as far as I can tell, means a racist hippie of some sort.

Who will come out the victor when you pit actor David Cross (Mr. Show, Arrested Development) against Dinosaur Jr frontman J. Mascis in a Guitar Hero II challenge? The answer is in the video below.

Of course, I really didn't care who won, it was just fun to watch Cross riff and read the TelePrompter along with the host. Also, his comments about AOL at the end of the video almost had me on the floor (the video was made for AOL's The DL, and AOL also owns TV Squad). He should like, tell jokes in front of people for a living. Mascis seemed a little uncomfortable, but give the guy a break, he wasn't exactly in his element, being an actual muscian and all.

Considering the popularity of Guitar Hero, will they eventually make similar games for other instruments? Because I think I could totally kick ass on Clarinet Hero. Trombone Hero, not so much, but give me a woodwind and I'll rock the freakin' house down (or up, I can rock in all kinds of directions).

[via The Apiary]

(S05E06) The story for this week's episode was more involved, which is a good thing. A little plot goes a long way. When the plot gets too thin everything rides on the gags, and it is hard to pull off an episode with just gags. While the sex-ed story has been told many times, I liked the Family Guy take on it.

It gave them a good reason to bring out slutty Lois, and slutty Lois is usually pretty funny, like when she was trying to explain the wonders of sex to Meg. Or showing up for role-playing night dressed as Grimace? Good stuff.

David Cross, brilliant (and sometimes extremely foul) comedian and former co-star of Arrested Development is giving a special performance for charity in Portland, Oregon. I'm not sure my reasons for posting this: either I'm really excited about it or I'm gloating. Either way, he's opening for Pearl Jam at this event in Portland on Thursday, July 20th.

Tickets are $75 a piece. They go on sale at 10 am PT in case you're in the neighborhood. No, I'm not involved. I just think it'll be a terrific show.

No, seriously, he's playing an actual piece of crap in this hilarious short film featuring himself and director Michael Gondry. In this short, titled "One Day," Gondry tries to leave David the giant poo in a public toilet, but the giant poo wants nothing to do with that. Instead, he chases Gondry down and accuses him of trying to commit murder via toilet flush. Defeated, Gondry lets the poo follow him around, which leads to a hilarious scene in a restaurant where David wipes food on other patrons and asks a fat man where it is he buys his candy, cause Gondry would really like some. The whole thing ends with a rather odd non sequitur, but I'll let you check it out for yourselves.