Season 38 of Sesame Street will premiere on August 13th with a focus on literacy. All sorts of celebrity guests will participate in a new opening segment called "What's the Word on the Street?" Each episode, a celebrity such as Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres or Brian Williams will answer the question by giving a word and its definition. The goal is to expand early literacy skills such as vocabulary and rhyming. Other celebrity guests next season include Tina Fey, Anderson Cooper, and the New York Jets (sorry, Joel).
Of course, Sesame Street also plans spoofs on popular television shows with skits such as A's Anatomy, The Amazing Alphabet Race and Meal or No Meal (I'm totally looking forward to that one).
Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane has been given the greenlight from George Lucas to do his own take on Star Wars, using the characters from Family Guy. The Star Wars "spoof" will open next season, but MacFarlane previewed some of the episode for the Star Wars fans at last month's convention.
The clip is a whopping ten minutes long (the episode will be one hour) and the very beginning of it either borrows a joke from or gives a nod to Spaceballs, with a bumper sticker on the back of Darth Vader's ship. Unfortunately, it's a little hard to hear all of the jokes over the audience, but what you can hear is pretty funny. It looks well thought-out, like something MacFarlane has been thinking about doing for a long time.
It hasn't even been a week since Family Guy wrapped for the season, but already there's buzz about next season's premiere. The cartoon has received George Lucas' blessing to spoof Star Wars. The episode will be an hour-long and use the Family Guy characters to recreate Star Wars. So, Peter Griffin will be Han Solo, Lois will be Leia, Stewie will be Darth Vader, Brian will be Chewbacca, Chris will be Luke. Etc, etc.
This is interesting because we're already going to see a Star Wars spoof from Robot Chicken next month, which not only has Lucas' blessing but also his cooperation. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane often voices characters on Robot Chicken and Seth Green produces Robot Chicken but also voices 'Chris' on Family Guy. Not sure if this all came together by coincidence or what.
MacFarlane will premiere some of the Family Guy/Star Wars spoof at this weekend's Star Wars convention in LA.
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.
There will be a few changes made to the ceremony this year with reality show creator Mark Burnett at the wheel: the entire show will be broadcast live for the first time, allowing a more interactive experience for younger viewers, not to mention the chance to win the Best Movie Spoof award, part of a contest set up by MTV and Yahoo.
Mrs. Garrison:Kids, I need to tell you something that you might find a little shocking: I'm gay.
Stan:Again?
Longtime fans of South Park know that Mr./Ms. Garrison is a mercurial sexual beast. S/he's now been both straight and gay as a man and as a woman, but the one constant that remains is that whatever her preference happens to be that week, she takes it very seriously.
Did you see the Heroes spoof on YouTube? It's called Zeroes, and it features a familiar voice talking about regular people with "Pointless Abilities". For example, one guy can ripple his stomach and a girl can put her entire fist in her mouth. You get the idea. It's worth a chuckle or two.
It turns out, the 2-minute spoof was an NBC creation. Marketing guru Vince Manze admitted to Variety that he created the spoof without any fanfare or even a tease to the real series, just as an experiment. He didn't even tell Heroes creator Tim Kring about it. The video short got more than 1.5 million views on YouTube. Minze seems to be one of the few marketing guys who "get it". He knows that people aren't going to YouTube to watch advertisements or promos (unless they're exceptionally creative).
How do you guys feel about this? The network is getting buzz for its show by spoofing it. Is it sneaky or is it creative marketing?
Here's one way to score an internship with an Emmy Award-winning comedy. Buffalo Grove High School senior Josh Golden wrote and directed a spoof of The Office set in his high school. He shot over 14 hours of footage in order to meticulously recreate the show's mockumentary-cam angles and talking head interviews. Golden sent the finished product to The Office's producers, who were, in turn, so impressed by the spoof that they invited Golden and his cast to the set. Once there, Golden managed to snag himself an internship with the show. (You can watch the spoof, entitled "The Tech Lab," here.)
Screw the Science Fair and the Yale Book Award. This kid clearly knows where it's at. Start blogging about it now, Josh. Pretty soon you'll have yourself a deal with UTA and a mini-media empire. Take the time to smell the multi-platform development deals. College isn't going anywhere.
Several of our favorite actors from Lost were kind enough to do a spoof on their "final episode" for the fans at CES earlier this month. Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), and Michael Emerson (Ben/Henry Gale) all played out the two big questions that we will be left with at the end: 1) Who will Kate choose?, and 2) What the hell is going on?!? It's actually quite amusing.
The video I've embedded in this post was shot by someone in the audience at CES, so it's from an angle and the auto-focus keeps kicking in. There's one scene where some text pops up on the screen that you cannot read, but I don't think it's that important. The audio quality is good and so is the humor.
This is an old clip from MadTV, but I just found it, so it's new to me, and probably to many of you too. The clip, called "Since We Were On," spoofs the first three seasons of American Idol winners (Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino) and runner-ups (Justin Guarini, Clay Aiken, Diana DeGarmo), as well as Simon Cowell, and the unforgettably-bad William Hung.
The other night I was visited by God. At least, I think it was God. It might have been someone just dressed as God. When I asked him to prove he was God, he just said, "dude, look how I'm dressed." I had to take his word for it because I don't know what God looks like. Apparently he favors earmuffs and no pants.
Anyway, God told me to stop posting stories about OJ Simpson, but since I'm feeling defiant I'm going to direct you to an animated short that mixes OJ with The Simpsons. It's just okay, nothing great, but some of you might get a kick out of it. The only part I really didn't like was the end, which wasn't very funny. Plus, there's the "To Be Continued" at the end, which didn't excite me too much because I think this idea really only works as a one-shot cartoon. At any rate, you can check it out by clicking here.
As if you needed a reason to watch Scrubs... tonight's new episode is a spoof on the popular Fox series, House. Without giving too much away, Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) channels Dr. House to figure out two medical mysteries: why a man's skin has turned orange and why a woman without heart problems is suffering from heart failure. He also has a personal mystery to solve involving Elliot Reed's strange behavior. It's called "My House" and I'm not sure whether Dr. Cox will be walking with a cane or not- but I'd surely expect it.
This all makes me wish that I've seen House more than once because there will probably be a lot of great inside jokes that will totally fly over my head.
House, by the way, returns with new episodes next Tuesday.
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.
If you've been sitting around all day waiting to see footage of someone from an unfunny sketch show make fun of an unfunny comedian, your wait is over. In the clip after the jump you can watch Ike Berenholtz of Mad TV throw down on the comedy stage as he does his impression of comedian Dane Cook.
I've never been a fan of Dane Cook, and I think the best description I've ever heard of him came from comedian Michael Schmidt on Jimmy Pardo's "Never Not Funny" podcast: "Dane Cook is KISS. He's the KISS of comedy. Just like, crazy, wild, bombastic phenomenon with the most pedantic, pedestrian content ever."
Berenholtz's Cook impression isn't too bad, and heck, I give him credit for trying to make people laugh by being unfunny on purpose, but I only laughed maybe once during the whole thing, which is still more than I've ever laughed at Dane Cook.
VH1 has created its own syndicated video player, which it will use to distribute a new, original comedy series on its broadband channel, VSPOT. The new series is called Home Purchasing Club-- a spoof on the Home Shopping Network and similar cable channels. VSPOT will release eight episodes of HPC. The series was created by Sean Masterson, a former improv-er with Second City, and is being co-written by Jonathan Mangum, a writer for Reno 911! The program is going to be presented in sketch comedy style, and includes SNL actor Kristen Wiig and Diedrich Bader, who played Oswald on The Drew Carey Show. The series launches on VSPOT in two weeks on Monday, November 27th.
On a side note, VH1's new player doesn't work on Macs.
Season 38 of Sesame Street will premiere on August 13th with a focus on literacy. All sorts of celebrity guests will participate in a new opening segment called "What's the Word on the Street?" Each episode, a celebrity such as Jon Stewart, Ellen DeGeneres or Brian Williams will answer the question by giving a word and its definition. The goal is to expand early literacy skills such as vocabulary and rhyming. Other celebrity guests next season include Tina Fey, Anderson Cooper, and the New York Jets (sorry, Joel).
It hasn't even been a week since Family Guy wrapped for the season, but already there's buzz about next season's premiere. The cartoon 
Well, not the real David Blaine, but 
Comedian Sarah Silverman will be 
(S11E06)
Did you see the 
Here's one way to score an internship with an Emmy Award-winning comedy. 
Several of our favorite actors from Lost were kind enough to do a spoof on their "final episode" for the fans at CES earlier this month. Evangeline Lilly (Kate), Josh Holloway (Sawyer), Naveen Andrews (Sayid), and Michael Emerson (Ben/Henry Gale) all played out the two big questions that we will be left with at the end: 1) Who will Kate choose?, and 2) What the hell is going on?!? It's actually quite amusing.
The other night I was visited by God. At least, I think it was God. It might have been someone just dressed as God. When I asked him to prove he was God, he just said, "dude, look how I'm dressed." I had to take his word for it because I don't know what God looks like. Apparently he favors earmuffs and no pants.
As if you needed a reason to watch Scrubs... tonight's new episode is a spoof on the popular Fox series, House. Without giving too much away, Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) channels Dr. House to figure out two medical mysteries: why a man's skin has turned orange and why a woman without heart problems is suffering from heart failure. He also has a personal mystery to solve involving Elliot Reed's strange behavior. It's called "My House" and I'm not sure whether Dr. Cox will be walking with a cane or not- but I'd surely expect it.
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 
If you've been sitting around all day waiting to see footage of someone from an unfunny sketch show make fun of an unfunny comedian, your wait is over. In the clip after the jump you can watch Ike Berenholtz of Mad TV throw down on the comedy stage as he does his impression of comedian Dane Cook. 
VH1 has created its own syndicated video player, which it will use to distribute a new, original comedy series on its broadband channel, VSPOT. The new series is called Home Purchasing Club-- a spoof on the Home Shopping Network and similar cable channels. VSPOT will release eight episodes of HPC. The series was created by Sean Masterson, a former improv-er with Second City, and is being co-written by Jonathan Mangum, a writer for Reno 911! The program is going to be presented in sketch comedy style, and includes SNL actor Kristen Wiig and Diedrich Bader, who played Oswald on The Drew Carey Show. The series launches 
Five other TV shows where Sarah Palin should appear
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Giveaway Monday: How I Met Your Mother season three DVD
