TVSquad

It's summer time and I can see you sketch comedy nerds are starting to get the shakes from Saturday Night Live withdrawal. No worries, I've got some goodness to feed your short attention span and sketch comedy needs.

Here's a program that every self-proclaimed comedy fan should know. From 1998 to 2000, the Upright Citizens Brigade television series ran for three seasons on Comedy Central, developing a solid cult following. The four stars, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser and Amy Poehler wrote and starred in the series, playing just about all the characters and giving us gems like Ass Pennies, Spaghetti Jesus and little Girl Scout Cassie.

One of your television's least-appreciated funnymen is getting a second wind on cable again.

The Upright Citizens Brigade's Matt Walsh and fellow founding member Trotter, er, Ian Roberts have landed their first starring roles in a show he created for Spike.

It's called Players, names after a sports bar his character runs with his brother as part of his eternal life fantasy to hit on hot waitresses and spend his days yelling at an HD television. Think of it as Cheers, but with more penis jokes and a Carla that doesn't make your eyes bleed.

The four original members of the Upright Citizens Brigade - Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Besser and Matt Walsh - are reuniting to tape their signature ASSSSCAT improv show for a DVD release by Shout! Factory. Other early UCB-ers are expected to participate, including Chad Carter, Sean Conroy, Andrew Daly and Horatio Sanz. If you live outside of New York or Los Angeles, you may remember Comedy Central's televised version of UCB from their 1998 to 2000 run. Maybe this will jog your memory:

Fiona Apple is known for her moody, haunting, and often angry lyrics. A few months ago, I saw her video for "Not About Love", which featured comedian Zach Galifianakis lip-synching to her lyrics. It completely surprised me because "funny" is not something that I'd normally associate with Fiona's music. I thought this might have been just a sort of one-time thing, but it looks like Galifianakis and Apple have done it again!

They did a duet called "Come On And Get It (Up In 'Dem Guts)" and it's absolutely ridiculous (in a funny sort of way). Zach -- sorry, his last name is exhausting -- used it in the latest episode of Dog Bites Man (although Apple didn't make an appearance). Anyway, I was completely shocked when I heard the full song because I never, in a million years, would have thought it was Apple. As for Zach... well, it's pretty much the craziness I've come to expect from him.

(S01E03) This episode was mostly hilarious with a few moments that didn't quite click. The KHBX newsteam decides to head down to Panama City, Florida to expose the excesses and debauchery of spring break, but soon find themselves getting caught up in the festivities themselves, especially Tillie, who enters a wet T-shirt contest and announces to a crowd of drunken screaming college students that she just refinanced her house, bitches.

Dog Bites Man humor comes from the comedians playing it straight in order to trick regular people into interviews and then saying incredibly bizarre things. Reporter Kevin Beekin (Matt Walsh) first interviews a resident of Panama City and tells her about a new game the kids take part in called "shark jacking" which involves tying meat to their ankles to lure a shark and then holding the shark down while someone else masturbates it. Beekin's disgust with this activity isn't so much that it's dangerous, but that it's rude for the shark to bite someone after such a kind act: "That's literally biting the hand that jacks you off." Later on, Beekin tries to get in good with the kids by telling them about a young rocker named Kurt Cobain who was once the lead singer of the Spin Doctors and took his own life. Of course, none of the kids know what the hell is going on, and most of them are drunk, which doesn't seem to make for the best improvised moments. A clear-headed and sober person will listen to the insane things coming from the mouths of these comedians and try to find some kind of reason in it, as they have no idea they're being pranked. Drunk kids, however, are just drunk kids, so there reaction is simply to mumble incoherently and yell, which can be kind of amusing, but as comedy it doesn't quite work.

My home state of Oregon is awfully pissed off at Comedy Central's new mockumentary, Dog Bites Man. The show stars former The Daily Show correspondent Matt Walsh and comedian Zach Galifianakis, among others, as a morning news team. Apparently, the 'team' told the state it was making a documentary when it filmed at Portland State University earlier this year (why didn't anyone ask what Comedy Central is doing making a documentary?). At one point during filming, a student recognized Matt Walsh from Old School, but he and the crew lied and said he's always mistaken for that guy. The University says it's fine with the humor, but not the deception. The state of Oregon is asking that Comedy Central not air any of the footage filmed at PSU.

Already, Comedy Central pulled footage from another episode of Dog Bites Man where a professor at Chapman University in Texas thought he was part of a panel discussion on media, but ended up being the butt of a joke.

[Via Lost Remote]

And you thought there wasn't anything to watch on television this summer. Well, I thought that anyway. But, Comedy Central kindly reminds us that it is still around and is premiering all sorts of promising (and proven) comedy this summer. Dog Bites Man premieres on June 7th and looks promising. It stars Matt Walsh, formerly a correspondent for The Daily Show, and comedian Zach Galifianakis, and parodies local news. A whole bunch of returning programs premiere on July 9th, starting with Chappelle's Show: The Lost Episodes, where writers from the show will introduce sketches that never aired. It's also coming to DVD on July 25. Reno 911! and Mind of Mencia premiere on July 9th. What's missing? Stella. *sigh*

Comedy Central also announced the premiere date for season 10 of South Park: October 4th. The network also will launch Scrubs into syndication in September.

As soon as I started seeing the commercials for this new Comedy Central series, I was thrilled. First of all, the series will spoof local news, which is ripe for spoofing, I must say. Most spoofable is the local news, that's what I'm getting at. Also, the new series will feature Matt Walsh (the reporter) of Upright Citizens Brigade, and one of my favorite funny people of the moment, Zach Galifianakis (who will play the director). Andrea Savage and A. D. Miles will round out the cast. The series is produced and written by Dan Mazer of Da Ali G Show. I can't believe this show won't be hilarious with this crew behind it. The series debuts June 7 at 10:30 p.m.