This past week kicked off with, while maybe not the last word on the South Park censorship ordeal, definitely the most succinct and to-the-point reaction from fellow cartoons The Simpsons:
"SOUTH PARK - WE'D STAND BESIDE YOU IF WE WEREN'T SO SCARED"
The Daily Show, having moved on from South Park and generally telling people to "go fuck themselves" with the help of mini-gospel choir, expertly took on three big issues of the week. Jon Stewart examined Arizona's new "show-me-your-papers" immigration law, the Senate hearing with Goldman Sachs (including Carl Levin's "Shitty Deal" soundbite), and the Apple/Gizmodo fight. For that last piece, Stewart backed Gizmodo despite his unabashed love for all thing Apple (including his iPad, which he referred to as an iPhone that doesn't make calls). My favorite Colbert Report moment of the week was probably the surprise appearance of Eugene Mirman as Colbert's Native American spirit guide.
Meanwhile, we got our first taste of Aziz Ansari in his new role as host of next month's MTV Movie Awards. The combination of his famous friends and ridiculous photos from his childhood was the perfect introduction of Ansari to a larger audience of people who may not be familiar with Human Giant, Raaaaaaaandy or Parks & Rec. I'm hoping that he can continue to make the often disappointing MTV award show funny and relevant.
Speaking of awards, my viral video of the week honor goes to the hilarious
for "George," a tear-jerker version of the Susan's death story set to the score of
The Shawshank Redemption
. Typically, for a video to take off like this one did it has to have something relevant about it. It could reference a
,
, or at least relate to something that's been on TV in the last ten years. But the power of
Seinfeld
(and the fact that the video is very well done) trumps all. Created by seeming YouTube newcomer
, the
has over 400,000 views after four days. And since it's not topical, it will most likely have a longer shelf life than a lot of other viral videos.
After Bill Maher got his somewhat belated (and remarkably xenophobic) reaction to South Park in on Friday night, Obama and Jay Leno got a chance to share the stage at last night's White House Correspondents Dinner. The big takeaway from last night's annual event (besides the question of whether it's OK for the President to make jokes about predator drones) is that Obama killed and Leno bombed. After Stephen Colbert and Wanda Sykes, I didn't expect much from Leno, who currently holds the title of most-hated comedian by most people who know comedy (as well as Bernie Goldberg). But in the end it just seemed like a big missed opportunity. This was a chance for Leno to get in front of his peers in the Media and show that he could still be funny, cutting and maybe even have a sense of humor about himself. But he proved himself to be incapable of all three. The joke of the night undoubtedly came not from Leno, but from Obama, who said:
"I'm also glad that I'm speaking first, because we've all seen what happens when somebody takes the timeslot after Leno's."
To finish off the weekend, we finally got to see Conan O'Brien open up on 60 Minutes. Conan expressed his feelings about Jay Leno and NBC as much as he could without violating his contract. Here's the takeaway, in his own words:
"It's crucial to me that anyone seeing this, that they take anything away from this, it's I'm fine. I'm doing great. I hope people still find me comedically absurd and ridiculous. And I don't regret anything."
Until next week, make sure to visit Gotcha Media for the latest hilarious web videos.
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