TVSquad

When I was younger, people I knew had various ways of smoking weed. One guy even made a bong out of an apple once. I didn't know it at the time, but now I look back and he seems like the MacGyver of pot smokers. Though he's not the only one who did such a thing, of course.

Case in point: the cover of the new Comedy Central Home Grown DVD. It's a DVD that showcases various episodes of Comedy Central shows, including Chappelle's Show, Reno 911, TV Funhouse, The Sarah Silverman Program, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, and Strangers with Candy. This is the cover that Paramount released to media outlets back in March. Now they've changed the cover to this, a closeup of a giant mushroom. Looks like they had second thoughts about having a bong on the cover of a DVD and decided to change it. Of course, I'm not sure if a mushroom connection is something they thought about all the way (and also having some people think of a penis when they see the cover, ahem).

The DVD comes out on June 10.

Robert Goulet, who passed away this past week at the age of 73, had a lot of great credits on his resume: singing and acting on stage in Camelot and Man Of La Mancha, movies like Toy Story 2, and Grammy and Tony Awards. He also got drunk with a bunch of raunchy animal puppets.

But that was part of his sense of humor, the guy who do Broadway but also make fun of himself (I like this odd Emerald Nuts commercial.) After the jump are clips from TV Funhouse, the episode where the Anipals go to Atlantic City to see their successful friend Triumph The Insult Dog. Please note that the clips show animal puppets drinking, using bad language, and one real dog giving fake oral sex to a puppet dog. Thank you.

No, not the TV Funhouse from Saturday Night Live (that's already on DVD, a best of). I'm talking about the short-lived Comedy Central series that that Robert Smigel did in 2000-2001. Paramount has announced that the DVD is coming in December.

If you've never seen the show, it was truly one of the more bizarre TV shows we've ever seen on television. It took the form of a kids shows hosted by Doug Dale and his "Anipals," really crass, creepy puppets. Each show had a "theme," such as "Western Day" or "Christmas Day" or "Astronaut Day."

(Left to right: Scott Adsit, Jay Johnston and Dino Stamatopoulos)

Dino Stamatopoulos has written for some of the funniest cult comedy series in the last ten years, including Mr. Show, TV Funhouse, Tom Goes to the Mayor, and most recently Moral Orel, an oft-misunderstood stop-animated cartoon created by Stamatopoulos himself. He's also written for other series, including Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Mad TV.

With the new second season of Moral Orel starting November 12, Stamatopoulos and I spoke on the phone about what fans could expect in the new season, and about TV comedy in general.

Hey, that would make a great title for a Smigel-hosted talk show, but it's actually the title of this Entertainment Weekly interview with the comic, writer, and puppet master.

He talks about several things, including his appearance at San Diego's Comic-Con, his new Best of TV Funhouse DVD, picking on nerds in high school, Borat, and why he wants to get Triumph The Insult Comic Dog on the Home Shopping Network.

He also talks about something I didn't even know was in the works: a big-screen Ambiguously Gay Duo movie. He says that a couple of A-list comedy stars might play Ace and Gary, but he can't talk about who they are right now. Hopefully it's the actual people who do the voices, Stephen Colbet and Steve Carell.

I was a big fan of Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse, which lasted for only one season on Comedy Central, though I have to admit I thought some of the animated segments were funny more in theory than in execution. One of my favorite segments from the show featured Bob Odenkirk as the host of a program on the extent of human knowledge and how much we actually know, or don't know. It's typical Odenkirk in that it's incredibly funny and makes you wonder just what part of your brain you need to whack with a hammer in order see the world the way he does. Scott Adsit, a fellow cast member on Mr. Show, makes an appearance as a scientist. More clips from the series and some full episodes can be found here. Enjoy Bobby after the jump:

I don't know what Jimmy Fallon did to anger Robert Smigel (or maybe Smigel knows Fallon can take a joke), but I totally appreciated the long-running joke about Ace and Gary thinking he was the best actor ever on SNL. Later on, when they're looking for Jimmy Fallon, they get into a fight with Andy Samburg and Jason Sudeikis and Gary's butt ends up in Andy's face. They also end up wrestling, bringing Jason and Andy's... ahem... relationship into question. And it all ends with Jimmy Fallon (!) pretending to cry as Ace and Gary fly off in their penis-mobile with a naked Jason and Andy. That was a great bit.

There were so many animated shorts in this episode, that I'm only going to write about my favorite ones:

Robert Smigel started airing his animated "TV Funhouse" segements on Saturday Night Live back in 1996. In 1998, he created a short called "Conspiracy Theory Rock" which poked fun at corporate ownership of television networks, and was especially scathing when it came to NBC and its parent company, General Electric. The segment aired only once and was never seen again. According to NBC, however, it wasn't pulled due to content, but to allow for a second Backstreet Boys performance when the episode was re-aired. Well, it is hard to say no to the Backstreet Boys, that's for sure. Anyway, you can check out the short here. Or alternatively, watch this Backstreet Boys video. Like NBC, I know it's often difficult to choose between the two.

Update: I left the link, but as of right now it appears to be broken. Sorry, guys.

[via Cartoon Brew]

I haven't watched many of SNL's "Best of" specials, mainly because I don't particularly want to see sketches that I've already seen a number of times (although Chris Farley dancing at Chippendales never gets old). But the next "Best of" special I'm going to want to record. Why? Because on April 29, NBC will air The Best of TV Funhouse, hosted by Ace and Gary, otherwise known as the Ambiguously Gay Duo (voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, by the way). Not only will the show air the best of Robert Smigel's shorts from the last 10 years -- a period where often the Funhouse segment was the only thing funny about SNL -- but there will also be a new AG Duo short.

I'm especially looking forward to the Charlie Brown Christmas parody, because Smigel so accurately apes the odd speaking patterns of the Peanuts kids-- and the ultra-cheap 1960's animation -- it's scary. If I had a TiVo, I'd probably put this on one "Save until I delete" status.

[via The Futon Critic]