Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
For summer wedding season, the comedy news is getting hectic and crazy, too
There was so much going on in comedy this past week that I broke off part of it into a separate dispatch earlier this week to go in-depth on the state of stand-up arena tours.
Here’s the rest of what’s weirdly new in comedy right now…
The weirdest comedy news story this week has to go to Jocelyn Chia, a lawyer-turned-comedian from Singapore slinging jokes in New York City, whose bit about how Singapore and Malaysia have followed different paths since becoming different nation-states ended with a tag riffing on the missing 2014 Malaysian Airlines flight, “Some jokes don’t land,” sparking such an uproar that the BBC reported Malaysia had asked Interpol to track the comedian down?!
Chia took down her Instagram and Facebook accounts because of the backlash.
She told CNN this week she’d been using the joke in her act for more than a year and a half, but it only became a problem when social media clipped the bit as told at The Comedy Cellar, removing its context. “I do stand by my joke but with some caveat – I stand by it in its entirety, when viewed in a comedy club. Upon reflection I do see that having this as a clip that gets viewed out of a comedy club context was risky,” she said.
The Political Joke That Won’t Go Away
On a lighter note? Kevin McCaffrey has more than 1.2 million views and counting this past week for an old joke that’s new again, thanks to his being cousins with former Vice President and current GOP presidential candidate Mike Pence. Facebook reminds me that McCaffrey isn’t also just one of my neighbors, but also, it’s his birthday today!
Medieval Jokes Discovered In Heege Manuscript
Newly discovered texts within the so-called Heege Manuscript, kept at the National Library of Scotland, suggest that, much as we imagined, real-life court jesters and minstrels were telling jokes at least as far back as the 1500s. Dr. James Wade at the University of Cambridge, published his findings on May 31. Wade told The Guardian he found jokes, mock sermons, and even the earliest recorded reference of “red herrings” within the text: “Here we have a self-made entertainer with very little education creating really original, ironic material. To get an insight into someone like that from this period is incredibly rare and exciting.”
AI Knows Only Few Jokes
They jokes that conservative right-wing “comedians” only have a couple of jokes, but it turns out Artificial Intelligence doesn’t have a wide sense of humor, either.
Via Ars Technica: German researchers Sophie Jentzsch and Kristian Kersting published a report on OpenAI's ChatGPT’s-3 version that found more than 90 percent of the 1,008 jokes generated by ChatGPT were essentially the same 25 jokes. Essentially, the AI kept referencing old material for bits, rather than creatively coming up with new material. Much like a human hack comic! Moreover, “The system accurately explains valid jokes but also comes up with fictional explanations for invalid jokes.” So, we’ve still got this going for us as human joke-tellers and joke-writers. Unless or until ChatGPT-4 proves us wrong…
Variety’s 10 Comics To Watch 2023
Congrats to this year’s crop of funny people whom the industry expects to break out in a big way this coming year. They’ll be feted by Variety this July at Just For Laughs Montreal.
Hannah Berner
Kurtis Conner
Zarna Garg
Ian Lara
Joanne McNally
Leanne Morgan
Nimesh Patel
Sarah Sherman
Brian Simpson
Sabrina Wu
Industry News and Notes
Closer to home base, here in New York City, Staten Island natives Pete Davidson and Colin Jost both have jokingly reflected this past week on their decision to go in with The Stand comedy club and buy a decommissioned Staten Island ferry to refurbish it into a floating live comedy venue. Truth is, it’s just taking awhile to accomplish. As the owners of The Stand already have experienced, when it took a little over a year for them to reopen their original club on land when moving a few blocks from Gramercy to Union Square. As co-owner Cris Italia told me: “We have no control over (the timing.) We certainly can't rush things along so that we can prove everyone wrong. It'll be ready when it's ready.”
Just For Laughs Toronto released its lineup for September 2023.
What else is new?
Stephen Colbert signed a new three-year deal to remain the top late-night host at CBS. Colbert’s current deal would’ve expired this year.
It feels like 14 years have passed since Kyle Cease’s stand-up boot camp caused a stir, so why not Mad Libs it and find out Adam Carolla and Jay Leno are launching a four-day “Comedy Fantasy Camp” this October in Hollywood, with participation from Alonzo Bodden, Brad Williams, Jeff Astroff, Liz Astroff, Steve Basilone, Kevin Hench, and more to be announced.
Variety reported that the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) will rebrand as Nice Crowd, complete with a new comedy festival for BIPOC funny people this October in D.C. called Because They’re Funny.
David Byrne’s new Broadway musical, Here Lies Love, recently reached an agreement with the local musicians union ahead of its opening this weekend, and announced today that Jo Koy has joined the Broadway producing team (which also includes music from Fatboy Slim) to help tell the story of the rise and fall of former Filipino leader Imelda Marcos.
Bill Cosby may have gotten out of prison thanks to a sweetheart deal from a former district attorney, but nine women have filed a new sexual assault lawsuit against the disgraced comedy legend in Nevada’s U.S. District Court. Just last month, Nevada eliminated the statute of limitations for state civil cases, including sexual abuse cases involving adults. Cosby is now 85.
Game show Person, Place or Thing, hosted by Melissa Peterman, will premiere this fall in syndication via FOX stations following a successful trial run last summer.
Amazon Prime Video has ordered at least 24 episodes of Angry Birds Mystery Island, a new animated series from Eric Rogers and Titmouse, voiced by Harvey Guillén, Kate Micucci, Dominic Monaghan, and Nasim Pedrad.
Melissa Rivers announced on what would’ve been her mom’s 90th birthday that she’s donating the archives of Joan Rivers — including her file cabinet with more than 65,000 jokes — to the National Comedy Center.
RIP to Mike Batayeh, a stand-up comedian whose most prominent TV gig was a supporting role on Breaking Bad. Batayeh was 52.
NBC has ordered mockumentary sitcom St. Denis Medical Center — starring Wendi McClendon-Covey, David Alan Grier, Allison Tolman, Josh Lawson, Mekki Leeper and Kahyun Kim — to series. No word yet on co-creator Justin Spitzer’s other existing NBC sitcom, American Auto. Grand Crew and Young Rock, however, are cancelled.
ABC passed on pilots starring Anthony Anderson and Ellie Kemper, respectively; a renewal for Home Economics remains on the bubble, as they say.
First Time Female Director, Chelsea Peretti directorial debut, got picked up out of the Tribeca Film Festival by Roku.
Canadian comedian Julie Kim has a deal with Pier 21 Films to develop her own half-hour series.
New in podcasts:
Ellie Kemper co-hosts “Born To Love” with writer Scott Eckert on iHeartMedia & Will Ferrell’s Big Money Players Network.
Dave Coulier will host “Full House Rewind with David Coulier” on PodCo.
Sirius XM tonight premieres “After Hours with Zach Noe Towers,” at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on Netflix Is A Joke Radio channel 93.
Lara Beitz has teamed up with J.P. Buck, the former longtime comedy book for Conan O’Brien, to host Unsound Advice with Lara Beitz.
Lemonada Media has launched “Choice Words with Samantha Bee,” interviews discussing the biggest choices guests have made in their lives and the ripple effects those decisions have had.
Broadway Podcast Network will present “Finding Fire Island,” an audio docu-series featuring Joel Kim Booster, Margaret Cho, Matt Rogers, DJ Lina Bradford, Paul Rudnick and more. It premieres July 6.
Kevin Hart's HARTBEAT and SiriusXM will launch “LOVE THANG,” hosted by Punkie Johnson, premiering June 19 on Laugh Out Loud Radio (channel 96) on Monday nights at 7pm ET, released as a podcast everywhere Tuesdays.
New tour dates from Bill Burr and Nimesh Patel.
FOX is developing an animated comedy series with a script commitment based on “Daddy Issues,” the podcast hosted by Oliver Hudson and NFL broadcaster Joe Buck.
Over at Max, their adult animation development slate includes Anything Factory, Uptown Bodega, Keeping Up With the Joneses; Harley Quinn, returning for its fourth season this summer; Velma, Clone High, with season two currently in production for a 2024 debut; Fired on Mars, and the upcoming Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake, Scavengers Reign (in competition at Annecy), and DC’s Harley Quinn spinoff Kite Man: Hell Yeah! (formerly announced with the working title “Noonan’s”) and Creature Commandos, from producers James Gunn and Peter Safran. Season two of Ten Year Old Tom debuts June 29, and Young Love debuts this fall.
Last Week’s Specials
New on Netflix
Amy Schumer: Emergency Contact (my review)
New on Amazon rent/sale
New on Dry Bar
New on YouTube
Andrew Rivers: For The Wrong Reasons (via 800 Pound Gorilla Media)
Will Noonan: 50 TikToks At Once (via Boston Comedy Studios)
Mincu: Amintirile ma chinuiesc ROMANIA
Also releases of old specials from Lisa Alvarado, David Drake.
THIS WEEK: 17
LAST WEEK: 8
THIS MONTH (JUNE): 8+17=25
RUNNING TOTAL for 2023: 319+17=336
Fun Things To Do In NYC
This weekend’s show I plugged in The New York Times: Sam Jay is recording her second hour stand-up special — and first for HBO — this Saturday at Brooklyn Steel!
Also around the city this weekend…
Gary Gulman has sold out QED Astoria tonight as he preps his new hour special.
Marie Faustin hosts a dating game show Saturday at Littlfield.
Roy Wood Jr.’s “Tribulations” show at City Winery this coming Saturday has sold out the early show, but tickets remain for the 10 p.m. showcase where Wood hosts live comedy and impromptu therapy with comedians, a licensed therapist, a live band and celebrities that actually care to return Roy’s phone calls.
If you want to know what Alex Moffat is up to, the former SNL star performs Sunday afternoon at City Winery.
Drunk Black History returns to The Bell House on Sunday.
Wally Baram does Union Hall on Tuesday.
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Thanks for reading!
dear sean,
thanks for sharing all of this, as always!
happy to learn it all!
myq