TVSquad

"Rogan Vs. Ant" sounds like a Japanese monster movie.

In this instance, though, I'm not talking about mutated monsters battling over Tokoyo, I'm talking about comedian Joe Rogan's recent accusation that comedian Ant, the openly gay judge on Last Comic Standing, steals jokes.

If that sounds familiar, it's because Rogan made the same accusations against Carlos Mencia not too long ago (and others have accused Mencia of stealing, as well).

I'm not going to comment on whether Rogan's allegations against either of these men are true, but I will say that no idea exists in a vacuum. If you're a comedian and you've come up with a funny joke or concept, it's likely someone else has thought of it, too. I'm not a comedian, but even I've had funny ideas that I later see pop up on The Onion, or Comedy Central, or any number of places. It's probably a comfortable delusion to think everything your brain concocts was pulled from some realm no one else's mind can touch, but that's just not how it works.

This link is NOT SAFE FOR WORK. Notice I didn't use the standard internet abbreviation "NSFW," because I didn't want some benighted person in an office thinking, "'Not Suitable For Winger?' That has nothing to do with me, I was never in that band, and I don't even like the song 'Seventeen.' Everything about that acronym tells me to click that link."

I think it can be universally agreed that the fifth season of NewsRadio - the final season - was by far the worst season of the series. Not only was Phil Hartman killed during the hiatus, but another cast member (Jon Lovitz) came on board and just didn't fit in to what the rest of the group had built over the previous four seasons.

The season kicks off with the "Bill Moves On" episode, where the gang has just returned from Bill's funeral (he died of a heart attack), and everyone mocks Dave's 2 hour eulogy. Matthew doesn't really believe Bill is dead, everyone thinks Lisa is drunk, and Catherine (Khandi Alexander) returns to the show for one episode. This is one of the better episodes of the last season, because it's important to the show's history and (as is revealed on one of the commentaries), they didn't really rehearse it or do any run throughs. It was hard enough getting through it once on tape night. The tears you see are real. It ends with everyone taking an item off Bill's desk to remember him. Jimmy takes the whole desk. A nice tribute.

• Hiccup girl goes on The Today Show, so Good Morning America calls her 57 times for an interview.
• I can't tell if Time's James Poniewozik likes Heroes or not.
• Ken Levine was once on The Dating Game?!
• Irwin Handleman gives his opinion on the whole Joe Rogan/Carlos Mencia controversy.
• The original Jill Abbott on The Young and the Restless is in an Hawaiian jail.
• In case you missed it, here's George Takei's answer to Tim Hardaway's rant against gays, from Jimmy Kimmel Live.
• BuddyTV is having an Oscars contest.
• I think Tom Shales is on a wild goose chase here.

Here's an epilogue to my post about the tiff between Joe Rogan and Carlos Mencia that took place on stage at The Comedy Store a few days ago.

In a nutshell: Rogan and other comedians have been accusing Mencia of stealing material for some time, and the two men had a battle of words on stage with Rogan (and a couple other comedians) accusing Mencia of stealing material, and Mencia denying it.

On his Web site, Rogan wrote that he received a call from Comedy Store owner Mitzi Shore (mother of Pauly Shore), asking him to explain what had happened. Later, he received a call from the club's manager telling him he might want to take a break from the club because of the tension between him and Mencia. He also told Rogan they weren't happy about him putting the video of the fight on the internet. Bottom line: Rogan has been banned from The Comedy Store, and Mencia will continue to perform there.

Carlos Mencia is not the first comedian to be accused of stealing material from other comedians --Denis Leary was accused of stealing from the late Bill Hicks, Dane Cook has been accused of swiping material from Louis C.K.-- but if all allegations are true, Mencia may be the one with the most evidence stacked against him.

I often wonder if "stealing" isn't sometimes confused with comics sharing a similar worldview. I'm not a stand-up comedian, but even I've seen funny ideas that have popped into my head appear on television shows, or in The Onion, or any other number of places. It seems that if you've thought of something, there's a good chance someone else has also thought of it.

I'm not part of the zany world of stand up comedy, but Joe Rogan is, and he's vehemently convinced that the majority of Mencia's material is stolen, and if the video below is any indication, comedians George Lopez and Bobby Lee also agree. Check out the clip to see Rogan and Mencia engage in a battle of words on stage at the Comedy Store. VIDEO CONTAINS FOUL LANGUAGE.

UPDATE: The YouTube video has been removed, so check it out here instead.

[via Digg]

For two reasons. The obvious reason is because Phil Hartman isn't in the picture. Instead, we get Jon Lovitz, who pretty much made the last season of the show unwatchable (except for a couple of episodes). He was really out of place as a regular cast member on the show (though he was great in the guest roles he had earlier in the series), and his character was completely unlikable.

But the second reason I'm not thrilled with the pic is that the original artwork on the box actually had Phil Hartman on it (you can see it here). The cast was standing in front of a picture of Hartman. In the new version, the cast is standing in front of a picture of New York City. Yeah, Hartman wasn't in the last season, but wouldn't that have been a nice nod to Hartman in the final set? The first episode of the season is about Bill McNeal's death, after all.

The fifth season set will be released on March 20.

Good news: your chances of seeing men pound the living crap out of one another on television have just increased. The Ultimate Fighting Championship will be syndicated in late 2007 as UFC Wired, hosted by Joe Rogan, who has already appeared on UFC pay-per-view events and on UFC coverage on Spike TV.

UFC Wired will pit the top UFC champs against one another. This isn't really my cup of tea, but then I've always been missing whatever male gene makes one drink heavily, pick fights, slap puppies and fix tractor engines. Oh why did I have to be born handsome instead of strong?

Anyway, the new series will run for twenty-two episodes, so keep an eye out to see if it plays in your neck o' the woods.

(S01E07) Along with Mary Tyler Moore and Amy Sedaris, I've always had a crush on Janeane Garofalo. I remember being happy when this episode came on, since I had loved her standup and her work on The Ben Stiller Show (with Andy Dick). She plays Nancy, Dave's ex-girlfriend who seems nice on the outside but is really kind of a nut. She comes to New York City to be with Dave, who never quite told her that they were officially broken up.

Meanwhile, Jimmy meets a business and technology "visionary" named Tom at a conference and arranges for him to be interviewed by Bill, but that doesn't turn out quite as Jimmy or Dave had hoped...