TVSquad

B.J. Porter and Scott Aukerman of Mr. Show and the weekly Comedy Death Ray showcase in Los Angeles are developing a new late night comedy series for FOX. The new sketch comedy series, according to Aukerman, is based somewhat on the Comedy Death Ray shows and is called The Right Now! Show.

Variety Shac, an all-women comedy troupe consisting of Shonali Bhowmik, Heather Lawless, Chelsea Peretti and Andrea Rosen, are developing a sketch comedy series for Adult Swim. At least, this interview with Peretti in the NY Observer alludes to such.

You can watch some of Variety Shac's short films here, or check out Peretti's stuff on Super Deluxe. I like what I've seen, but I'm not sure how it would play to an Adult Swim audience, which I would guess is mostly male. And yes, I'm perfectly aware of how closed-minded that makes me sound, but I think Variety Shac's perverse brand of lady-centric comedy would work better on Comedy Central. I'm not saying it would crash and burn on Adult Swim, but I think it would struggle to find an audience.

Of course, all we have to go one is that one tiny snippet from the Observer, we don't know what stage of development the series is in, or if it's been officially picked up by Adult Swim. I'll keep you guys posted as I find out more.

[via The Apiary]

I love checking out NBC and CBS' channels over on YouTube, and it's not because I'm necessarily a big fan of the programming on either of those networks. Sure, they have quality programming just like anyone else, but when it comes to their late night programming, I don't pay much attention (except for Conan, he gets Tivoed every night).

So I told you that on May 18 Human Giant would be taking the reins of MTV and MTV2 for 24 hours starting at noon on May 18.

A rather amusing press release has it that MTV will give the series --which features actors Paul Scheer, Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel-- a second season if they get one million hits on their MTV site. A snippet from the release:

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.

Fuse has given its musical sketch comedy series The Whitest Kids You Know a second season. The series, which originated as a series of Web videos back in 2000, first hit Fuse last March. Before coming to Fuse, the team of Trevor Moore, Sam Brown, Zach Cregger, Timmy Williams, and Darren Trumeter made a name for themselves around New York City's various comedy venues.

Variety does not specify when the second season will begin, although it does mention the possibility of a DVD release.

If you're like me and don't have Fuse on your cable lineup, you can watch some of the sketches on YouTube, which has a collection of some of their old Web stuff and possibly a few clips from the actual series. The Fuse site used to have clips, too, but those are gone. I watched a few of them not too long ago and found them amusing, but right now I have to say MTV's Human Giant is the better sketch comedy series.

Here's how it all went down:

Paris Hilton taped a "funny" sketch on MTV (the article doesn't specify which show it was for) that showed her wearing a "What Would Paris Do" bracelet and taking the bracelet's advice by dancing with a cop to get out of a ticket. The segment was taped in January. The following month, Hilton was arrested for driving on a suspended license, and now she's threatening to sue MTV if they air the clip, which was meant to mock her drunk driving arrest from last September.

To summarize: Paris felt it was okay to mock her own drunk driving, but now that she's been arrested again the sketch is no longer funny but embarrassing. I would think she'd be more embarrassed by endangering the lives of other motorists by getting behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated, but what the heck do I know?

Last October Anna mentioned that MTV had picked up another new comedy series from Nick Cannon called Nick Cannon Presents: Short Circuitz. You know the show is going to be all urban and edgy because they used a "Z" instead of an "S." That's how all the cool kidz do it, you know. Since I'm actually cooler than anyone, I've stopped using the letter S completely in my daily life:

Me: Excuze me, I want to order a zandwich, and I want plenty of muztard and mayonnaize, pleaze. And a zausage patty, but not too zpicy, becauze my tongue is zenzitive.

You can watch a trailer for the new series here, which premieres on MTV April 5 at 9:30 p.m. Apparently, they decided to make a trailer using only the unfunny bits from the show, or maybe those were the funny parts. I don't pretend to know everything about comedy, especially the painfully unfunny kind.

I think The Onion had it right: The Dana Carvey Show, which was canceled in 1996 after a whopping six episodes, was ahead of its time and too surreal for folks used to Saturday Night Live, but it also offered, for many, a first glance at writers and actors who eventually helped define today's reigning style of comedy: Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Louis C.K., Dino Stamatopoulos, Dave Chappelle and Charlie Kaufman.

I've been yelling at myself a lot lately for never watching The Dana Carvey Show when it aired back in 1996. Seriously, I sit alone in my apartment screaming at myself. Sometimes I even throw myself down the stairs. My apartment doesn't actually have stairs so I fling myself from my couch several times. I do this because every time I find a clip of that show I can't believe how hysterical it is. What in the world was I doing back then? I was in college for crying out loud, I had all the time in the world to watch TV. It's not like I was studying.

If you click here, you can watch a clip from The Dana Carvey Show called "Skinheads from Maine" featuring Dana himself and Stephen Colbert. I think it proves that the show had a little something for everyone, even racist New Englanders.

I hope this information won't make you think any less of me, but I'm a bass player. My parents didn't plan on having a bass player, it was my father's hope that I would follow in his footsteps and become a trumpet player, but low lung capacity and an inability to remember which end of the trumpet to blow into resulted in the inevitable: I turned to the electric bass (and later the upright bass).

Kittenpants over at CC Insider found a video on YouTube of one of my favorite sketches from MTV's The State, a gritty drama edited for television that kind of loses something without all the cursing. There's just nothing especially menacing about the word "poop," no matter how much anger and passion you put into it.