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Netflix tours the world with 47 comedy specials
With recent and upcoming specials from Dave Chapelle, Ellen Degeneres, Patton Oswalt and others, Netflix has discovered that nothing is as binge-able as standup comedy. It's now taking that philosophy farther and wider with 47 half-hour episodes featuring comedians from the US, UK, France, Australia, Canada, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Many of the episodes will be taped at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal (with others shot at São Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai and Amsterdam), and all will be released simultaneously in 2019.
Netflix lands political comedy with Jennifer Aniston and Tig Notaro
Netflix is continuing its recent string of big comedy coups. The service has acquired First Ladies, a political comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and comedienne Tig Notaro. The movie (penned by Notaro and wife Stephanie Allynne) will chronicle the escapades of the first woman US President (Aniston) and her wife (Notaro) soon after they move to the White House. There's no premiere date yet, but the title stands out as a collaboration between two of the streaming service's more familiar faces.
Twitch's 48-hour 'Saturday Night Live' marathon begins May 17th
Twitch is no stranger to TV show marathons, but it's venturing into uncharted territory this week. The livestreaming service is partnering with NBC on a 48-hour Saturday Night Live marathon starting May 17th at 6PM Eastern. The wall-to-wall run on the TwitchPresents channel will include a mix of classic and recent sketches going back to the series' very beginning, including a few from SNL season finale host Tina Fey. Twitch hasn't provided the full list of sketches as we write this, but it's guaranteed that Bruce Dickinson (yes, the Bruce Dickinson) will make an appearance.
We're listening to: 'MCU in Review'
Welcome back to IRL, our series dedicated to the things that Engadget writers play, use, watch and listen to. With 'Avengers: Infinity War' already the most popular comic book movie of all time, reviews editor Cherlynn Low takes a timely trip through the Marvel back catalog with Kinda Funny's latest podcast series.
Elon Musk is poaching 'The Onion' staff for a comedy project
The one certainty about Elon Musk is that no two startups will be closely related: he has been responsible for city guides, online payments, electric cars, spacecraft, open AI and transportation tunnels. And that trend isn't about to stop any time soon, it appears. Daily Beast sources has learned that Musk has lured several workers from satire site The Onion to work on a comedy project. Reportedly, former editor in chief Cole Bolton and former executive editor Ben Berkley have been working on the project ever since they left The Onion in 2017, and have poached both three writers and an editor in the meantime.
Apple nabs 'Bob's Burgers' creator for new animated comedy
Apple has been moving pretty aggressively into the entertainment business lately. With a reported $1 billion budget for original programming, the tech company can afford to acquire high-value projects like the Kevin Durant childhood drama, a Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon-led dramatic project and Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories reboot. According to a report over at Variety, Apple has just ordered a new musical animated comedy, Central Park, from the creator of Bob's Burgers, Loren Bouchard.
Joel McHale's weekly Netflix show premieres this weekend
As promised, Joel McHale's weekly Netflix show is premiering on February 18th -- and you now have a better idea of what to expect going in. The streaming service has posted a preview of The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale that gives a feel for what the commentary series will involve. It doesn't include the signature green screen (a carryover from The Soup), but it's clear that the show will play on McHale's Community days -- fellow alumni and initial guests Alison Brie and Jim Rash show up to keep the star in check.
Chris Rock’s first Netflix special debuts February 14th
Chris Rock signed a deal with Netflix in 2016, agreeing to two comedy specials for a reported sum of $40 million. Well the wait for Rock's comedy special return is finally over as Netflix has announced that the first of those two specials will air on February 14th. Chris Rock: Tamborine is Rock's first special since 2008's Kill the Messenger and Variety reports that it will cover topics that span from relationships to race.
Recommended Reading: The excess of the Olympics
How the Olympics got Disneyfied Michael Weinreb, The Atlantic No matter which country hosts the Olympics, the Opening Ceremony is always jam-packed with over-the-top futuristic visuals and tons of culture. It's a display "financial and cultural excess," as The Atlantic's Michael Weinreb describes it, and it all got started in the US during the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley.
Netflix to spotlight up-and-coming comedians with 15-minute specials
Netflix has been streaming comedy specials for a while now. Seinfeld got his first show on the streaming platform last September and released a couple more events starring Patton Oswalt and Dave Chappelle before the New Year. Now, according to Deadline, Netflix is set to debut a series of 15-minute stand-up specials starring new comedic talents this year.
Apple lands Kristen Wiig comedy series produced by Reese Witherspoon
Apple has now landed its fifth scripted TV series and its third produced by Reese Witherspoon's company Hello Sunshine, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The latest addition is a comedy starring SNL alum Kristen Wiig and is said to be inspired by a Curtis Sittenfeld short story collection called You Think It, I'll Say It.
Dave Chappelle’s third Netflix special will premiere December 31st
Dave Chappelle's third Netflix special, Dave Chappelle: Equanimity, will debut on the streaming service December 31st, Variety reports. It's the first comedy special Chappelle has made exclusively for Netflix. Last year, the service announced that three specials from the performer were on the way and the first two -- previously unreleased material from shows performed at Austin City Limits and the Hollywood Palladium -- were released in March.
CBS previews its All Access-exclusive cop comedy 'No Activity'
CBS wants to remind you that All Access doesn't just revolve around Star Trek: Discovery. It just premiered the trailer for its third All Access original series, the police comedy No Activity, ahead of its November 12th debut. The adaptation of an Australian TV show is produced by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Funny or Die, and it's very much in keeping with their sophomoric style of humor. It centers on two cops (Tim Meadows and Patrick Brammall) involved in an agonizingly mundane drug bust and the hijinks that ensue. There are plenty of other odd couples roped into events, including police dispatchers, tunnel diggers and clueless crooks, while there are promises of big-name guest stars that include Will Ferrell himself.
Kevin Hart made a family-friendly mobile game
Kevin Hart cultivates a brand of relentless positivity. The comedian and actor makes motivational Snapchats from the gym at 5:30AM, trumpets his Laugh Out Loud streaming network as a place for upcoming, multicultural performers and repeats the mantra "live, love, laugh" without any irony. Like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, he's created a tirelessly optimistic public image that cuts across race, class and mediums, and it's taken Hart straight to the Forbes list of highest paid comedians.
Patton Oswalt returns to Netflix this October with a new special
Patton Oswalt's honest, story-based stand-up and everyman persona has brought him quite a bit of success. He's active and loved on Twitter and won an Emmy for his 2016 Netflix special, Talking for Clapping. His wife Michelle McNamara died last February, and Oswalt is just starting to get back to work with projects like his role on the MST3K reboot with Felicia Day. Now he's landed another Netflix special, which is set to air October 17th.
Netflix snags ‘Def Comedy Jam’ 25th anniversary special
Netflix is adding to its growing comedy slate with a 25th anniversary special honoring Def Comedy Jam. The lineup will include Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan and Katt Williams. Def Comedy Jam ran on HBO from 1992 to 1996 and a was revived for two years in 2006. An HBO reboot is also currently in the works that would rebrand the series as All Def Comedy. It's slated to premiere in November.
Seinfeld’s first Netflix stand-up special premieres September 19th
Earlier this year, Netflix announced that Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee series would be moving to it over from Crackle and that Seinfeld would have two stand-up specials appear on the streaming service as well. The first of those specials is now slated to premiere September 19th.
NBC will shut down its Seeso comedy streaming service this year
NBC's experiment in a comedy streaming service, Seeso, wasn't long for this world -- the outfit is shutting down later this year. There's no explanation as to why, but it notes that its original series There's... Johnny! won't premiere later in August as a result. Thankfully, this and other shows will live on. Some of them already have new homes, NBC says. It doesn't take too much work to divine why Seeso called it quits mere months after its January debut. As a niche streaming service, it just didn't capture attention in the same way as all-encompassing alternatives like Amazon, Hulu or Netflix. There were layoffs in June, and the relatively thin selection of originals didn't help matters, either. This doesn't mean that specialty streaming can't work, but it faces an uphill battle when you can spend just a few dollars more per month to access a much larger video catalog.
Hulu is the new home of old TGIF sitcoms
Hulu's collection of classic sitcoms already includes Seinfeld and The Golden Girls. Now, its library is getting even bigger with the addition of several shows from ABC's TGIF comedy line-up. The likes of Perfect Strangers, Full House, and Family Matters were Friday night staples for viewers across America in the nineties -- and soon, they'll be available for you to (legally) binge online. Hulu's latest deal with Warner Bros. Television also includes Step by Step and Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. All five shows (totaling 800 episodes) will hit the streaming service on September 29th.
Kevin Hart’s comedy streaming service launches August 3rd
Last year, Lionsgate announced it would be launching a comedy streaming service helmed by Kevin Hart and today it gets a launch date. Laugh Out Loud will be available August 3rd with a slew of comedy shows lined up to air.
