trow125

The third panelist with the Sklars will be Kerri Kenney-Silver. I usually post the upcoming panelists over in the other thread, but I don't think I've updated it since she was announced.

There was a new development in the podcast patent troll case last week. (I thought Oliver might bring it up, since he's a longtime podcaster himself!) "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) invalidated key claims in the so-called “podcasting patent” today after a petition for review from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)—a decision that significantly curtails the ability of a patent troll to threaten podcasters big and small." My favorite detail from the report is that EFF Staff Attorney Daniel Nazer holds "The Mark Cuban Chair to Eliminate Stupid Patents."

I find him super annoying -- I wish they'd book him on the same episode as the Sklars so I could skip it entirely. It is a bit strange that @Midnight has a coordinating producer named Christopher D'Elia who is a a different guy than the comedian. It's not such a common name, after all. I wonder if the two of them are related?

A great think piece by the wonderful writer Wesley Morris, focused on Trevor Noah but also touching on John Oliver, Larry Wilmore and the general late night landscape.

I posted these listings on Twitter, and shortly thereafter received this ominous message: "Dana Perino (@DanaPerino) is now following you on Twitter!" I'd much rather it would have been Neil... Personally, I would love to see Jon's old "pal" John McCain come back for one last round. I'm sure we'll see Bill O'Reilly.

One last visit from Neil deGrasse Tyson... good times. 4/20: Gayle Lemmon (author – promoting book “Ashley's War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield”) 4/21: Jeff Garlin (actor – promoting TV Show “The Goldbergs”) 4/22: Dana Perino (former White House Press Secretary & author – promoting book “And the Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice from the Bright Side”) 4/23: Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist & host of TV show “StarTalk”)

Chris Hardwick mentioned a few days ago that Doug would indeed make an appearance on 4/20, albeit in pretaped segments that would be incorporated into a game.

Mo 4/13: Arden Myrin, Mike Lawrence, Guy Branum Tu 4/14: Kurt Braunohler, Megan Neuringer, Adam Cayton-Holland We 4/15: Chris D'Elia, Ian Edwards, Fahim Anwar Th 4/16: Tim Minchin, Rhys Darby, Rich Fulcher Mo 4/20: Ron Funches, TJ Miller Tu 4/21: Maria Bamford, Jimmy Pardo We 4/22: Jason Sklar, Randy Sklar, Rove McManus Th 4/23: Timothy Simons, Randall Park, Sam Richardson Mo 4/27: Tom Rhodes, Blaine Capatch Tu 4/28: TBA We 4/29: Eugene Mirman, Max Silvestri Th 4/30: Nate Bargatze, Nikki Glaser, Steve Rannazzisi Mo 5/4: Paul F. Tompkins, Grace Helbig, Janet Varney Tu 5/5: TBA We 5/6: TBA Th 5/7: Jen Kirkman Mo 5/11: Kathryn Hahn Tu 5/12: Jim Jefferies We 5/13: TBA Th 5/14: Mamrie Hart, Rove McManus Mo 5/18-Mo 5/25: Dark Tu 5/26: Marc Maron We 5/27: TBA Th 5/28: Nick Swardson

A web exclusive outtake from the Snowden interview:

Yeah, even the NYT writer agrees that Noah should quit defending himself on Twitter: I just read the story and think the joke stealing allegations seem thin. The example given ("the joke pokes fun at African-Americans who, in an effort to get in touch with their roots, give their children African names") is one that I imagine numerous comics have done over the years. The comics' punch lines were different. There are several clips on YouTube that show late night comics telling essentially the exact same joke on the same night (which proves that there's no way one could have stolen it from the other). With Mencia I think he was essentially doing a whole Bill Cosby routine wholesale and the proof was pretty iron-clad.

4/13: Adam Horovitz (musician & actor – promoting movie “While We’re Young”) 4/14: Fareed Zakaria (author – promoting book “In Defense of a Liberal Education”) 4/15: Billy Crystal (promoting FX show “The Comedians”) 4/16: Eric Greitens (founder of The Mission Continues & author – promoting book “Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life”)

Yes, this is an ad for HBO Now, but since it's John Oliver, it's amusing and worth a watch:

The episode is available on YouTube on what looks like an official Welcome to Sweden channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbyhGohZVnU (It's been up for 3 days now, so I'm hoping it'll stay up. Non-Swedish speakers should be advised, however, that there are no subtitles.) I had extremely high hopes for season 1 (I was born in Sweden, grew up in America, but I have spent a great deal of time in Sweden) and was too often disappointed, as my comments in this forum will attest. However, I thought 201 was delightful. I laughed out loud at least a few times, and thought Bruce's character was much less of an annoying asshole than he was in S1. Is it possible that the show's new writers (I remember there was an announcement at the end of last season that they had hired some new ones) are sharper and funnier than those who wrote S1? I'm not totally convinced this trend will continue, but I am definitely looking forward to ep #202.

Themed shows: on Wednesday, both Kristen and Will are on "Last Man Alive" - I think the only other person on that show is January Jones, so it might be difficult to fill out a whole panel. And I'm curious if Funches on 4/20 is going to be part of a, well, 4/20-themed panel. (I would say Doug Benson would be on then, but I suspect he'll be busy that day... 4/20's probably his biggest stand-up show of the year!) Mo 4/6: Justin Willman, Doug Benson, Jade Catta-Preta Tu 4/7: Andrew Santino, Jessimae Peluso, Adam Ray We 4/8: Kristen Schaal, Will Forte Th 4/9: TBA Mo 4/13: Arden Myrin, Mike Lawrence, Guy Branum Tu 4/14: Kurt Braunohler, Megan Neuringer, Adam Cayton-Holland We 4/15: Chris D'Elia Th 4/16: Tim Minchin Mo 4/20: Ron Funches Tu 4/21: Maria Bamford, Jimmy Pardo We 4/22: Jason Sklar, Randy Sklar

ooh, look what it says on LWT's Twitter feed:

Sadly, the forums were not saved. This was a bit of a hot topic around the time TWoP shut down (I'm not sure why Archive.org was not able to do so, or chose not to do so). It's unfortunate... it occurred to me too late that I'd lost all of my taping write-ups as well.

Patton Oswalt Tweets In Defense Of Comedy — And Trevor Noah (NPR.org) Fast Company:

I'm sure there were thousands of Tweets in Noah's defense today and the one he chooses to retweet is by Seth MacFarlane, who has his own history of misogyny. Ugh.

Is anyone else on Comedy Central's online focus group mailing list? I just got this (I responded that I was disturbed by the content of some of his Tweets and hoped that TDS would retain a strong group of female writers & correspondents when he takes over):

I've been following Noah on Twitter for several months now (I followed him right after he was announced as a new correspondent) and I haven't been offended by anything he's said. Some of the jokes aren't that great, but that's true of most comedians on Twitter. Someone like Conan O'Brien, who Tweets one no-doubt carefully-thought-out Tweet a day (probably written by his writing staff) are the exception. Noah's response (on Twitter): "To reduce my views to a handful of jokes that didn’t land is not a true reflection of my character, nor my evolution as a comedian." BTW, on his episode of "The Daily Show Podcast without Jon Stewart," Noah talked about casually mentioning a friend of his named Hitler to a Jewish TDS writer. That discussion is around the 22-minute-mark. "This is not a nickname... his name is Hitler... I tried to explain, Hitler's mom clearly didn't see Hitler the same way you or even the Western world saw Hitler. I didn't question this in my world... People would name their child after great leaders. 'Great' doesn't mean 'good.' They really changed the world." I'm not trying to be a Noah apologist -- it's very likely that I'll drop both TDS and TNS from my DVR lineup if Stephen Colbert's "Late Show" is at all decent -- but IMO this kind of helps explain where he's coming from. Living in New York and working with the diverse TDS writers and crew will, I'm sure, change his world view.

Comedy Central has issued a statement: “Like many comedians, Trevor Noah pushes boundaries; he is provocative and spares no one, himself included. To judge him or his comedy based on a handful of jokes is unfair. Trevor is a talented comedian with a bright future at Comedy Central.”

Prediction: if CC sticks with Noah, the Fox News crowd will feign outrage at his offensive Tweets. If Noah gets the boot, they will hail him as a martyr who fell victim to the left's punishing insistence on political correctness.

It would look a tad hypocritical for Comedy Central to dump Noah after this controversy considering what aired in TDS' time slot last night (the roast of Justin Bieber). I'll bet a lot of comics are busy scrubbing their Twitter histories today, though.

Just looked him up on Wikipedia, and Noah has a LOT of hosting experience; I suspect there was a lot for the powers that be to look through when they were making their choice.

One thing I'm really going to miss: Jon's impressions, like his New Jersey mook or the "Ah do declare" Lindsey Graham. Noah will definitely bring a different sensibility to the show. I'm cautiously optimistic, but since I was super jazzed about Larry Wilmore taking over the 11:30 slot and TNS has turned out to be something of a disappointment, I will choose not to speculate on what Noah will be like as a host. It's interesting that CC apparently did not have Noah do any test shows, though; sounds like it was kind of a go-with-your-gut decision.