TVSquad

A&E will celebrate the return of Mindfreak (in it's fourth season, God help us) by broadcasting the first ever live episode of the show. The special one-hour episode will feature Angel shackled to a six-story building. He must escape to a helicopter hovering over the rooftop as the building explodes. But wait, there's more. The fourth season kicks off one week before the live show with "Walk on a Lake," the season premiere. In this episode, the magician will attempt to walk on the world's largest man-made lake, Lake Mead in Nevada.

I think all the season premiere will prove is that Criss Angel definitely has a God-complex. He is the biggest megalomanic douchebag I've ever seen on TV. I think the best thing to come of Mindfreak is that parody Mad TV did. I put the video after the jump.

The live Mindfreak will air on July 30th at 10 p.m. ET on A&E. The season premiere will air on July 23rd at 10 p.m. ET. Will you be watching?

Apparently, someone had some free time on his or her hands and used it to post various stills from The Simpsons episodes which mimic various famous movie or television scenes. Considering that the show has been around for almost 20 years, it's certainly had time to get such pastiche correct.

These stills seem to originate from earlier episodes, back when the naysayers would say the show was good. I admit I don't recognize every Simpsons episode in the list (or for that matter every movie still in the list), but it's easy to tell that the writers and animators were trying to reference the original movie or show for satire's sake.

Hey, all you Griffinites out there! I just wanted to remind you that the Family Guy tribute to Star Wars, in reality the sixth season premiere, airs tonight at 9 pm. Yes, I'm just as surprised as you that this show, as well as The Simpsons and King of the Hill, are actually airing during the official fall premiere week. Due to previous seasons chocked with baseball, football and American Idol's Tribute to Randy Johnson's Toenails, we usually didn't get to see the season premieres of these shows until election time. Maybe someone over at FOX finally has their head screwed on correctly.

I had a chance to review the episode ahead of time (you'll see my 'very special' post on it this evening) and all I have to say is this: if you like movie spoofs like Airplane and Spaceballs you'll like this Family Guy episode. While it actually sticks to the plot of Star Wars quite well, there are enough silly jokes in there to make the show quite enjoyable. Plus, it's interesting to see how each of the members of the Family Griffin are cast into Star Wars roles.

While the thirty years of Star Wars panel featured plenty of video game previews and Lucas-approved montages of the fans that have made him one seriously wealthy man, it also featured a special preview of Family Guy's season premiere - a one hour Star Wars tribute starring Stewie as Lord Vader, of course. Who else were you expecting to don Vader's robes?

(S18E21) I suppose that in many respects this episode should have been the 400th one. It was fast-paced, exciting and hysterical. However, it will go down in history as merely episode 399. I'll talk more about that in my review of episode 400.

Seriously, though, how cool was this episode? I knew it was going to be a parody of 24, but I assumed the episode would contain a few clever references, a cameo by Kiefer Sutherland and Mary Lynn Rajkskub, and that's it. But no, the whole damn episode, from the opening title sequence to the end credits was inspired by the look and feel of 24. I don't want to see the Simpsons do this sort of thing all the time, but an occasional drift into parody such as this or the "Behind the Laughter" episode can be quite entertaining.

Somebody is still watching MADtv, because the FOX's late night series of wacky sketches and parodies has been given a thirteenth season.

According to the press release, the series is most popular among teens. That seems to be the best explanation as to why it's still on the air; I don't know anyone my age or older who still watches the series.

Not unlike the magazine it's vaguely based on, MADtv works almost exclusively in parody (I'm thinking of the old Mad I used to read, I haven't picked up a copy in many years), which is one thing that sets it apart from other sketch comedy shows, but also why it probably doesn't attract older viewers more in tune with the sensibilities of satirical shows like South Park and The Daily Show.

Of course, it is possible to enjoy more than one type of show, but it makes perfect sense that younger folks would be drawn to MADtv. It's goofy and a bit over the top, and it's not too difficult for me to think back to a time when that kind of humor was right up my alley.

UPDATE: This event is invite-only. Sorry to burst any bubbles.

Do you live in Los Angeles and have the ability to see and hear? Also, do you like musical comedy? Good, then you should see about getting yourself some tickets to see a live preview of the upcoming HBO series Flight of the Conchords, featuring the comedic musicality of New Zealand's finest folksy music parodists. You can see a preview of the new series here. It kicks off June 17 at 10:30 on HBO.

Oh, wait, they also have live previews coming up in Philly and New York-y. Cool.

Flight of the Conchords (Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement) bill themselves as "New Zealand's fourth most popular folk-parody duo." Their new series will focus on the two men as they try to make it big in New York City.

I've stuck HBO's promo for the series below.

Previously: Flight Of The Conchords Update - VIDEO

[via The Coming]

Well, not the real David Blaine, but these two videos (warning: strong language) via our pals at AOL feature actor Mitch Silpa doing a pretty accurate Blaine impression (right down to the lackadaisical delivery) and scaring the crap out of two young men, who, by the end, just want Blaine to leave them the hell alone. Make sure you watch the second clip first (the YouTube one) and then the one on top.

Also, for another spoof of a popular street magician, you should check out Human Giant's "The Illusionators," over on MTV's site. Paul Scheer and Aziz Ansari do a near-perfect parody of Criss Angel's Mindfreak series, right down to the sexy hair and rock and roll aesthetic.

I wonder when someone is going to do a Penn and Teller spoof? I'd like to see that.

Just when I got the original "Dick in a Box" song out of my head, it's back in a new form. Some fans of Lost have created a parody of the Justin Timberlake/Andy Samburg music video called "Dad in a Box".

Lost fans will get that title immediately and probably even snicker. It refers to a recent episode where Ben tells John Locke all about a "magic box" on the island where you can wish for something and it will suddenly appear.

The "Dad in a Box" music video is after the jump.

The comedy website Stash Wax has declared war on Lorne Michaels and Saturday Night Live. The site accuses Michaels of ripping off its joke about Mel Gibson's anti-semitic tirade over the summer. In fact, it has sent an official cease and desist order to SNL and NBC to take the spoof off its website.

Stash Wax has links to both its NSFW parody and the SNL one. Stash Wax recut Gibson's trailer for Braveheart back in July when he was arrested for drunk driving. They dubbed over the voices to make it look like a war movie against the Jews. The SNL parody of Gibson was a recut of the Apocalypto trailer to make it look like an extermination of the Jews. I have to admit that I laughed harder at the Apocalypto one. Is it a rip-off? I'm not convinced. I think the Apocalypto trailer was an obvious target for comedians at the time.

Watch the two spoofs and sound off in comments.

[Via TV Tattle]

If you missed the Dog the Bounty Hunter special, Year of the Dog on A&E last night, don't worry, because you didn't miss much, especially if you had been watching the last season and keeping up with the news on Duane "Dog" Chapman's recent arrest stemming from his capture of Andrew Luster. The special was pretty much a recap of the last year in the life of the Chapmans: a roller coaster that included deaths, births, Dog's marriage to Beth, and the aforementioned arrest.

The guys from the Lonely Island comedy troupe have been three of the most important additions to the Saturday Night Live family in a very long time. Andy Samberg is now one of the most recognizable faces on the cast, and Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have lent their writing expertise to some of the most famous sketches of the past few seasons. For example, the "SNL Digital Shorts", like the wildly popular "Lazy Sunday", were these boys' doing.

Well, it sounds like the guys are thinking about putting their talents to LP form. Samberg recently said that they'd like to try to create an entire album of their now-famous style of hip-hop knock-offs. I'm not sure if I'd jump at the chance to buy a collection of songs like "Dick in a Box", but I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't think about it.

Weird Al Yankovic's goofy songs was the first music I ever really got into, and his sense of humor pretty much defined my own during my early impressionable years. I've always said that the success of his albums was dependent on the music and pop culture landscape of the time (it seemed that if Michael Jackson was having a good year, so would Al), but this time around I think his new album has also been helped by some great videos that have found a wider audience thanks to YouTube and other video sites.

Weird Al's latest video, a take on Taylor Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud?" titled "Do I Creep You Out?" was animated by the boys at JibJab.com, and you can check it out here. Don't try to find it on television, though, the video is online only. Al plays a lonely stalker who just wants to save a girl's used chewing gum and stick her fingers in his mouth. Personally, I don't think that's too much to ask.

[via AWN]

The thing about sketch comedy is that it's sometimes difficult to judge the show as a whole, because some sketches work while others fall flat. I wouldn't call Robot Chicken a "sketch show" but I think the same idea applies. The writers and animators fire a ton of scenes at you like buckshot, and while some hit their target, others are either not funny at all, or just zip by too fast for you to catch them. In its own weird way I guess it's kind of a stop-motion Laugh-In. One of my favorite scenes from the Adult Swim series is the one where the Emperor gets a phone call from Vader after the first Death Star is destroyed. He would have called sooner but he's been flying around trying to get a signal. I'm pretty sure that's Seth MacFarlane doing the voice of the Emperor. Check it out yourself after the jump. Favorite line: "What the hell's an aluminum falcon?"

We've seen what the cast of Battlestar Galactica would look like as Simpsons characters, and now, thanks to this site, you can see what all your favorite characters from the series Lost would look like if they were residents of South Park. Apparently these images are to be used in a parody called "Lost Park," as opposed to "South Lost," "Park Lost," or "Lost South," I suppose ("Raiders of the Lost Park," maybe?). Check out an image of the characters here. Seeing this makes me wonder if Matt and Trey ever plan to spoof Lost themselves. Between that and spoofing World of Warcraft, they'd have at least two episodes based on popular entertainment I know nothing about.

[via CC Insider]