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(S02E20) Up to this point, we've seen how his upbringing, home life, and troubles at school helped to shape Chris' worldview, but this is the first episode where we caught a glimpse of what made Chris want to be a comedian.

Since this series is a somewhat fictional take on Chris' life as a kid, we don't know if the real Chris Rock sneaked downstairs to eavesdrop on his parents listening to Redd Foxx albums, but one assumes young Chris was probably exposed to the legendary comedian at some point, not to mention the likes of Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and George Carlin.

(S11E01) What's this? A new season of King of the Hill has begun and they're actually going to air the episodes in a decent timeslot? It's not going to be buried early in the evening where it will be easy to forget about? What hath we done to appease the Gods of TV that they have favored us with this gift? I don't know, but I'm glad to see this series get the timeslot it deserves.

The second season of Everybody Hates Chris kicks off on October 1 at 7pm. Here's a brief look at what you can expect in the season opener, "Everybody Hates Rejection," and no worries, I'm not going to give anything away.

First of all, Whoopi Goldberg guest stars as the family's new nosy next door neighbor, Louise, but you already knew that. Louise and Chris' mom Rochelle are at odds over how to deal with the escalating crime in the neighborhood while Chris finds himself attracted to Evette, a new girl at school who turns out not to be the angel he imagined her to be.

Jeff Whitty, a gay playwright whose show Avenue Q is currently on Broadway, has some issues with the way Jay Leno depicts gays on his program, and how he uses gay stereotypes on his show. He penned an open letter to the late night comedian, which you can read here. Now, I don't watch Leno much anymore, but if he does rely on gay stereotypes on his show I would opine that is has more to do with lazy comedy writing than any kind of malicious intent. Of course, one could argue that the means don't justify the end, and Whitty clearly feels that way, pointing out in his letter that gays aren't all Richard Simmons types who dress in leather, and many of them still face prejudice. So what do you guys think? Is Leno a closet homophobe or just some guy who tells crappy, easy jokes?

Thanks to zack, who mentioned the letter here.

Emo Philips, one of my favorite comedians of all time, turns 50 today.

Emo has been doing stand-up since 1976, and while he's beloved by many, he's not a comedian who will meet his audience half way. His dutch boy haircut and high-pitched warble were enough to make you want to heave heavy objects at him when you first saw his act, but once you got over the initial annoyance you discovered why Jay Leno once referred to him as one of the best joke writers in the business. Emo took a very basic comedy styling, the one-liner, and put his own weird twist on it. He twitches and stumbles on stage, running his fingers through his hair nervously as he tosses out such lines as, "People come up to me and say, 'Emo, do people really come up to you?'"