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Tony Award-winning comedian Barry Humphries, internationally renowned for his garish stage persona Dame Edna Everage, a condescending and imperfectly-veiled snob whose evolving character has delighted audiences over seven decades, has died. He was 89.
His death in the Sydney hospital, where he spent several days with complications following hip surgery, was confirmed by his family.
“He was completely himself until the very end, never losing his brilliant mind, his unique wit and generosity of spirit,” a family statement said.
”With over 70 years on the stage, he was an entertainer to his core, touring up until the last year of his life and planning more shows that will sadly never be,” they added.
Humphries had lived in London for decades and returned to native Australia in December for Christmas.
He told The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper last month that his physiotherapy had been “agony” following his fall and hip replacement.
“It was the most ridiculous thing, like all domestic incidents are. I was reaching for a book, my foot got caught on a rug or something, and down I went,” Humphries said of his fall.
Humphries has remained an active entertainer, touring Britain last year with his one-man show The Man Behind the Mask.
The character of Dame Edna began as a dowdy Mrs. Norm Everage, who first took to the stage in Humphries’ hometown of Melbourne in the mid-1950s. She reflected a postwar suburban inertia and cultural blandness that Humphries found stifling.
Edna is one of Humphries’ several enduring characters. The next most famous is Sir Les Patterson, an ever-drunk, disheveled and lecherous Australian cultural attache.
Patterson reflected a perception of Australia as a Western cultural wasteland that drove Humphries along with many leading Australian intellectuals to London.
Humphries, a law school dropout, found major success as an actor, writer and entertainer in Britain in the 1970s, but the United States was an ambition that he found stubbornly elusive.
A high point in the United States was a Tony Award in 2000 for his Broadway show Dame Edna: The Royal Tour.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to the celebrated comedian.
“For 89 years, Barry Humphries entertained us through a galaxy of personas, from Dame Edna to Sandy Stone,” Albanese tweeted, referring to the melancholic and rambling Stone, one of Humphries most enduring characters. “But the brightest star in that galaxy was always Barry. A great wit, satirist, writer and an absolute one-of-kind, he was both gifted and a gift.”
British comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted: “Farewell, Barry Humphries, you comedy genius.”
Piers Morgan, British television personality, tweeted: “One of the funniest people I’ve ever met.”
“A wondrously intelligent, entertaining, daring, provocative, mischievous comedy Genius,” Morgan added.
The multi-talented Humphries was also a respected character actor with many stage and screen credits, an author of novels and an autobiography, and an accomplished landscape painter.
John Barry Humphries was born in Melbourne on Feb. 17, 1934. His parents were comfortable, loving and strait-laced, and must have wondered about their eldest son, whom they called Sunny Sam. His mother used to tell him to stop drawing attention to himself.
Before he’d finished at the prestigious Melbourne Grammar School, Humphries was more interested in art and secondhand bookshops than football. At 16, his favorite author was Kafka and later said he “felt a little foreign.”
He spent two years at Melbourne University, where he embraced Dadaism — the subversive, anarchic and absurdist European art movement.
His contributions included “Pus In Boots,” waterproof rubber boots filled with custard, and, on the performance art side, getting on a tram with an apparently blind accomplice whom Humphries would kick in the shins while yelling “Get out of my way, you disgusting blind person.”
In 1959, he settled in London and was soon working in Peter Cook’s comedy venue The Establishment. He played Sowerberry in the original London production of Oliver! in 1960 and repeated the role on Broadway. He appeared with Spike Milligan and William Rushton in Treasure Island.
Humphries, with New Zealand artist Nicholas Garland, created the Barry McKenzie comic strip for the satirical magazine Private Eye in 1964.
When the strips came out as a book, the Australian government banned it because it “relied on indecency for its humor.” Humphries professed delight at the publicity and implored authorities not to lift the ban.
By then Humphries’ drinking was out of control. In Melbourne in late 1970, he was charged with being drunk and disorderly. He finally admitted himself to a hospital specialising in alcoholism for the treatment that would turn him into a lifelong abstainer.
In 1972 came the first Barry McKenzie film — financially supported by the Australian government, despite the earlier ban. It was savaged by the critics, largely because they trembled at what the world’s first film to feature beer induced vomiting would do to Australia’s image overseas.
But it was a popular success and a sequel two years later included then Prime Minister Gough Whitlam knighting Edna, who was McKenzie’s aunt.
Married four times, he is survived by his wife Lizzie Spender, four children and 10 grandchildren.
Comedian Bert Kreischer is ready to go back out with a blackout, pulling himself up to the bar for round two of his party-driven Fully Loaded Comedy Festival beginning June 14 and hitting 16 ballparks and arenas across the country.
Aside from Kreischer, this year’s lineup includes Mark Normand, Shane Gillis, Tiffany Haddish, Stavros Halkias, Fortune Feimster, Dave Attell, Lewis Black, Jim Norton, Andrew Santino, Big Jay Oakerson, Jay Pharoah, Dan Soder, Chad Daniels, Ralph Barbosa, Rosebud Baker and Tammy Pescatelli.
“Fully Loaded is the best ticket you can buy in entertainment this summer – Indoors, outdoors, baseball stadiums, arenas, and The Gorge,” Kreischer says, calling the traveling festival “an absolute no-brainer for any comedy fan.”
The concept for the Fully Loaded Comedy Festival, promoted by Outback Presents, was conceived during Bert’s 2020 Hot Summer Nights Tour while performing outdoor shows at drive-in venues (a pandemic consideration). The idea was to created a traveling comedy festival inspired by the original Lollapalooza touring festival and encompass everything he loves: “comedy, the outdoors, good times, and drinking with friends to give fans an experience they will be talking about for years to come,” a release announcing the festival explains.
This year the festival will partner with the charity Comedy Gives Back, an organization founded as a safety net for comics by providing them with financial crisis relief, mental health support and more.
On March 14, he will release his highly anticipated fifth stand-up special, Razzle Dazzle on Netflix and will star in the Legendary/Sony Picture film, The Machine, premiering May 26.
“Set 23 years after the study abroad experience he chronicled in his 2016 Showtime stand-up special, the movie follows Kreischer as the Russian mafia finally catches up with him after all these years and seeks retribution for the crimes that he committed in their country as a rowdy, drunken college student,” according to a press release.
Kreischer is also a popular podcast host with several top comedy podcasts including Bertcast and Two Bears One Cave that he co-hosts with Tom Segura. He also hosts the popular YouTube cooking show, Something’s Burning.
Presale passes are now on sale with a public on-sale scheduled for March at 10 AM. FULLY LOADED COMEDY FESTIVAL 2023:06/14/23 – Forest Hills, NY – Forest Hills Stadium06/15/23 – Baltimore, MD – CFG Bank Arena06/16/23 – Moosic, PA – PNC Field06/17/23 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion 06/22/23 – Traverse City, MI – Turtle Creek Stadium06/23/23 – Fort Wayne, IN – Parkview Field06/24/23 – St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center06/25/23 – Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena 07/06/23 – Huntsville, AL – The Orion Amphitheater07/07/23 – New Orleans, LA – Smoothie King Center07/08/23 – Memphis, TN – AutoZone Park07/09/23 – Oklahoma City, OK – Paycom Center 07/12/23 – Las Vegas, NV – T-Mobile Arena07/13/23 – Salt Lake City, UT – Vivint Arena07/14/23 – Boise, ID – ExtraMile Arena07/15/23 – George, WA – Gorge Amphitheatre
It was the moment many had been waiting nearly a year for — a chance to hear just how Chris Rock would finally address Will Smith’s Oscar night smackdown of the comedian on the Academy stage with a slap that will live in infamy.
Perhaps because Rock knew much of the audience who tuned in were waiting for just that moment, he saved it toward near the end of his set Saturday night (March 4) during Netflix’s much hyped first live special Chris Rock: Selective Outrage!
But when the moment finally came, Rock didn’t hold back — taking down Smith, dragging his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, and targeting the couple’s marital issues (in which Pinkett Smith acknowledged a relationship with singer August Alsina as the couple addressed their marriage on an episode of Red Table Talk).
“Will Smith practices selective outrage,” Rock told the audience. “Outrage because everybody knows what the f— happened. Everybody that really knows, knows that I have nothing to do with that s—. I didn’t have any entanglements.”
He continued, “His wife was f—ing her son’s friend. OK, now, I normally would not talk about this s—, but for some reason, these n—-s put that s— on the internet. I have no idea why two talented people would do something that lowdown. What the f—? And we’ve all been cheated on. Everybody in here has been cheated on. None of us have ever been interviewed by the person that cheated on us on television.”
“She hurt him way more than he hurt me. Everybody in the world called him a b—-. I tried to call the motherf—er, I tried to call that man and give him my condolences, he didn’t pick up for me.” He continued by listing all the people who called Smith a “b—-” after that interview on Red Table Talk, including Charlamagne Tha God and The View. “Everybody called him a b—-, and who did he hit? Me — a n—a he knows he could beat. That is some b—- ass shit.”
While this is not the first time Rock addressed Smith’s slap — much of Saturday’s material was present in his shows as he toured the country over the past year — they were the first comments before a wide audience as Rock headlined Netflix’s first foray into live programming, a global event that featured a pre-show and post show with guests that included Arsenio Hall, Amy Schumer, J.B. Smoove, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Dana Carvey and others.
“I’m gonna try to do a show tonight without offending nobody,” Rock said, kicking off his stand-up special from Baltimore. “I’m gonna try my best because you never know who’s going to get triggered.”
He added he didn’t mind “wokeness” but isn’t a fan of the “selective outrage,” the kind of people who will listen to Michael Jackson but not R. Kelly: “same crime — one of them just got better songs.”
Among the topics Rock covered included the Capitol Riots: “White men trying to overthrow the government that they run?” Rock said. “They’re like, ‘Damn, we gotta get them out of office.’ Who? Us?”
Later, he touched on the idea that white men felt they were being edged out of power, and joked whether commercials featuring interracial couples were part of their ire.
“There’s no Black couples either,” he said. “Every commercial has a mixed-race couple,” adding that he saw a commercial the other day where a Japanese woman was married to a caterpillar.
“By the way, speaking of commercials, when did Snoop Dogg become Morgan Freeman?” Rock joked. “I saw a commercial the other day where Snoop was selling reverse mortgages.” But he made it a purpose to note that he loves Snoop Dogg. “I’m not dissing Snoop. The last thing I need is another mad rapper,” he added, to cheers from the crowd.
But of course, the rapper who was the main target of the night was Smith, though a good deal of his ire was directed toward Pinkett Smith. Rock recalled when Pinkett Smith had called for Blacks to boycott the Oscars amid the #OscarsSoWhite controversy in 2016; Rock went on to host that year’s show.
“She started this s—. She said that me, a f—ing grown ass man, should quit his job because ‘My husband didn’t get nominated for Concussion,‘ and then this n—a gives me a f—ing concussion.”
Toward the end of the special, Rock changed his tone a bit, saying, “I loved Will Smith. My whole life, I loved Will Smith. I saw him open up for Run-D.M.C. … He makes great movies. I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life,” Rock said. “And now I watch Emancipation just to see him get whooped.”
Rock used the last minute of Selective Outrage to answer the question he’s gotten a lot since the Slap: Why didn’t you do anything back? “‘Cause I got parents,” Rock said. “‘Cause I was raised. And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”
The pre-show featured appearances from fellow comics and Rock’s friends, including Schumer and Jerry Seinfeld. The Daily Show‘s Ronny Chieng hosted the special, with Hall, Deon Cole and Leslie Jones also appearing.
Chieng kicked off the night live at Los Angeles’ Comedy Store.
“I cannot emphasize how live things are today,” The Daily Show correspondent said. “We are live from two different locations simultaneously, Los Angeles and Baltimore. Why? For absolutely no reason. This is extremely expensive and difficult and irritating.”
The comedian also poked fun at how they’re doing a live comedy show on a Saturday night, a concept that has existed for decades, aka Saturday Night Live.
Chieng then introduced Hall, who shared how Rock got him back into stand-up. Toward the end of his brief set at the Comedy Store, Hall said that he hopes everyone enjoys the night “because I know somewhere Will Smith will not.”
“Trust me. We won’t know this, but I bet you Will Smith slaps the f— out of a TV tonight,” he joked. “He gon’ knock that motherf—er off the wall.”
Matthew McConaughey, Ali Wong, Woody Harrelson, Paul McCartney, Rosie Perez, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart, Sarah Silverman, Ice-T, Adam Sandler and many others wished Rock luck ahead of his live event.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
“Well, s—!”
It was a refrain that reverberated often throughout the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville on Sunday evening (Feb. 19), as a cavalcade of musicians, actors and comedians gathered “reported for duty” to celebrate the life and career of the late Leslie Jordan, who died Oct. 24, 2022, at age 67.
Jordan was known for his acting roles including his Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Beverly Leslie on Will & Grace, as well as work in the American Horror Story series and most recently on the series Call Me Kat.
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But it was the COVID-19 pandemic that brought Jordan greater acclaim, as his hilarious, witty Instagram videos went viral — filled with signature sayings like “Hello, fellow hunker downers!” and “Well, s—!” — providing both comedic relief and an emotional balm to during the uncertain, anxiety-ridden early days of the pandemic. In 2020, Jordan amassed nearly six million social media followers (though Jordan would adamantly call them friends, not “followers”), and the following year, he released his debut gospel album, Company’s Comin’, which saw him team with country artists including Dolly Parton, Katie Pruitt, Tanya Tucker, T.J. Osborne, Ashley McBryde and Charlie Worsham, as well as rock music icon, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.
Many of the artists featured on Company’s Comin’ were on hand to perform and share memories of Jordan during the event, dubbed “Reportin’ For Duty: A Tribute to Leslie Jordan,” which packed the 4,000-seat Opry House Sunday evening.
The love in the room for Jordan was palpable, whether performers and speakers had known Jordan for years or only hours.
Comedian Leanne Morgan hosted the evening, telling the audience that Jordan’s biggest accomplishment was “being unapologetically himself.”
“I’m sure he is all smiles knowing he brought together the most eclectic group of people to ever grace the Opry stage,” Morgan added. The evening was filmed for an upcoming special on Opry Entertainment Group’s Circle Network.
Tanya Tucker launched the show with renditions of “Amazing Grace” and her 1972 signature hit “Delta Dawn.”
“He was a light in my life,” Tucker told the audience. “I’ll always remember his laughter.”
Performances followed from Travis Howard (a medley of “I’ll Fly Away,” “I Saw the Light” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”), McBryde (“Girl Goin’ Nowhere”), Maren Morris with Ryan Hurd (“What Would This World Do”), Fancy Haygood with John Osborne (“Go Rest High on That Mountain”), HARDY (“Give Heaven Some Hell”), ERNEST (“Songs We Used to Sing”), Brittney Spencer (“Sober and Skinny”), Ruby Amanfu (“How Beautiful You Are”), Katie Pruitt (“This Little Light of Mine”) and Jake Wesley Rogers, who turned in one of the evening’s strongest performances with a rendering of his song “Jacob From the Bible.”
Jelly Roll performed his No. 1 Country Airplay hit “Son of a Sinner,” and told the crowd, “[Jordan] gave love and he looked for love.”
Many of Jordan’s friends and television co-workers were also on hand, including Mayim Bialik, Margaret Cho, Max Greenfield, Cheyenne Jackson, Anthony Mason, Jim Parsons and Robyn Schall.
Following her solo performance, Pruitt teamed with Jackson for a song they created to pay tribute to Jordan’s well-known, “Well s—” saying. Lainey Wilson teamed with Lukas Nelson for a stirring rendition of the Parton/Kenny Rogers classic “You Can’t Make Old Friends,” with Wilson following with a rendition of her current top 10 Billboard Country Airplay hit “Heart Like a Truck.”
“I feel so honored to be here tonight,” Wilson said. “I never got to meet him, but he felt like one of those guys you just knew.”
Parton sent in a video tribute, in which she told Jordan, “Everybody loves you, but I doubt that many of them loved you more than I did.”
Worsham performed “Believe in Love,” and said of Jordan, “He only performed at the Opry a couple of times. But in that short time, he did what country music does at its best, which is to expand this circle to include everyone.”
The evening’s most powerful moments came as the evening celebrated not only Jordan’s light and laughter, but his journey as a gay man who was raised in the conservative South and went on to become a beloved celebrity, known not only for his humor, but for his love for everyone around him.
Brothers Osborne took the stage to perform “I’m Not For Everyone” (Jordan had appeared in the official video for the song), and followed with “Younger Me,” a song T.J. Osborne wrote after coming out as gay in 2021. He dedicated the evening’s performance to a gay couple in the audience who were celebrating 20 years together.
It was noted that as serious as Jordan was about his acting and comedy, he was dedicated to serving others — particularly those battling AIDS, as he took part in Project Angel Food in the 1990s, giving meals to those impacted by AIDS. It was also noted that Jordan also sat with those who were dying of AIDS, when their own families would not be present. The proceeds from the event also went to another cause close to Jordan’s heart, the EB Research Partnership, the largest global organization dedicated to funding research to treat and cure Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB).
Vedder closed the evening, teaming with Lukas Nelson for “Maybe It’s Time,” followed by the Pearl Jam classic “Just Breathe” and “The One Who Hideth Me,” Vedder’s collaboration with Jordan on the Company’s Comin’ album. For the final song, the evening’s entertainers gathered onstage for a rendition of “I Shall Be Released.”
It was comedian Schall who summed up the evening’s essence best, relaying to the crowd Jordan’s relentless support and encouragement, even when it came to making Instagram videos.
“We’d make a video, and he would call me and say, ‘Hey, Robyn, we’re gonna post this. What’s the best time to do it, so you shine the best?’ I think it’s so fitting [how] a tribute night to Leslie Jordan is just all of his friends, shining so bright.”
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler announced Monday (Feb. 13) that they are headed out on their first joint comedy tour.
The besties broke the news to Rolling Stone. Produced by Live Nation, Tina Fey & Amy Poehler: Restless Leg Tour will start its four-city run April 28 at Washington, D.C.’s DAR Constitution Hall before heading to Chicago, Boston and Atlantic City through June 10.
In a bicoastal video, recorded with the 30 Rock star in New York City and the Parks and Recreation lead in Los Angeles, the two pals shared just how excited they are to be hitting the road together. “It’s gonna be an evening of comedy, conversation, improv, maybe a little slow-dancing between us… we don’t know yet! But it’s gonna be awesome,” Fey promised while Poehler added, “We cannot wait to see you. I cannot wait to see you in person, buddy! And yeah, let’s do it!”
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday (Feb. 17) at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster, though a presale begins two days prior on Wednesday, also at 10 a.m., using the code “RESTLESS.”
The Restless Leg Tour will be the first time the two Saturday Night Live legends have appeared together on stage since they last hosted the Golden Globes together back in Feb. 2021. That ceremony marked the fourth time they had MC’d the now-embattled awards show following a three-year stint in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Most recently, Poehler popped back into SNL late last month to support her former Parks and Rec co-star Aubrey Plaza for the one-time NBC page’s hosting debut. Fey’s latest projects include Only Murders in the Building, Girls5eva and the upcoming Netflix series Mulligan.
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State Farm’s “like a good neighbor” tagline got the SNL treatment last weekend when host Michael B. Jordan put on the signature red polo shirt and took over a family.
In the sketch, Michael B. Jordan shows up when a set of parents were looking to file a claim after their daughter clogged a toilet with her stuffed animals.
Mikey Day plays the confused dad who comes home to discover that Jake from State Farm really was “here for you 24/7” in fact, playing with his kids. Jake also takes the kids and their mom, played by Heidi Gardner, to church on Sunday morning — sparking a fight between the couple.
As Jake continues to take over the family, teaching the little girl piano and playing catch with the son, Day’s character becomes more and more perplexed. He even looks up rates of other insurance when Jake shows up in the shadows, whispering that it won’t help because State Farm matches rates. Jake then taunts Day with a sinister voice saying, “Save more when you bundle home and auto.”
Left with nothing, Day mourns losing his family to handsome insurance pitchman Jake, drunkenly singing “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” as he plans to jump off a bridge. “He took everything,” he roars.
The whole sketch takes another turn when it’s revealed that the entire scene is a commercial for Liberty Mutual insurance.
The hilarious sketch isn’t the first time Jake from State Farm has been the subject of satire. In a commercial during Super Bowl LV, the company hired Drake to don the red shirt as “Drake from State Farm.”
The actor who plays Jake is actually Kevin Miles from Chicago, in 2021 he told Forbes about his experience with the notoriety that comes with the role.
“They never say Kevin, which is okay (laughs). They’ll say ‘Jake.’ Even on-set, they just say ‘Hey Jake!’ and I just answer. It definitely started with the mask a little bit. I’d walk my dog and people would be like Hey, you’re ‘Jake from State Farm.’ They could still tell! One time I was at the store and I had my glasses on with a hat, deep incognito mode. Someone was just like Man, your voice is just so recognizable. That felt cool and weird.”
As for Michael B. Jordan, he will make his directorial debut with Creed III in theaters March 3, 2023.
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Comedian Larry Wilmore will host this year’s Podcast Academy Awards, known as the Ambies.
The awards show will take place March 7 in Las Vegas at the International Theater, with the ceremony and awards pre-show being livestreamed on Twitch beginning at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Wilmore is currently the host of Black on the Air, a show on The Ringer Podcast Network that has featured guests like Kerry Washington, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Regina Hall, B.J. Novak, Wanda Sykes and Judd Apatow, among others. He is the co-creator of Insecure, with Issa Rae, and Grown-ish, with Kenya Barris.
“Larry’s prolific body of work and unique humor spans the stage, screen and podcasting. To say that we are lucky to have him host this year’s Ambies is an understatement,” said Donald Albright, chairperson of The Podcast Academy and CEO of Tenderfoot TV. “He’s an icon in his own right. We cannot wait to see — and hear — what he will bring to the ceremony.”
At the 2022 Ambie Awards, the podcast 9/12 (Pineapple Street Studios, Amazon Music and Wondery) took home the top prize for podcast of the year. Other winners included Rosamund Pike for her performance in QCode’s Edith and former NPR host Sam Sanders for his work as a host on It’s Been a Minute. The ceremony was hosted at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Reporter is a sponsor of The Podcast Academy alongside Wondery, Sonoro, Audible, The Podcast Show, Stitcher, PRX, Tenderfoot TV, Castbox, Loeb & Loeb and Paramount.
This article was originally published by The Hollywood Reporter.
It’s been over two weeks since Kevin McCarthy was (finally) elected speaker of the house after the longest contest to a speaker election in more than 150 years — and Internet sensation Randy Rainbow isn’t quite ready to move on from that bit of news.
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On Monday (Jan. 23), Rainbow posted his latest parody video “Speaker of the House,” in which the star lampoons the embattled GOP leader for his repeated failures to get elected — and the concessions he had to make to finally get the job done.
Starting off as many of Rainbow’s parodies do, the video opens with Rainbow conducting a fake interview with the leader, introducing him as “barely elected Speaker of the House, Kevin McF—head.” As the comedian begins to simultaneously question and roast McCarthy (including drinking from a mug with a piece of paper reading “you’re a dumba–” taped to it), the music begins to kick in, leading us to another song from the viral star.
Performing to the tune of “Master of the House” from the seminal Broadway musical Les Miserables, Rainbow holds nothing back when referring to McCarthy as a “slimy, climby man-boy” and a “power-hungry whore,” while making sure to rub the politician’s nose in his recent pyrrhic victory. “Speaker of the house/ Cunning little chap/ Covetous, conservative and full of crap,” he sings. “Thirsty as a fish/ Quick to compromise/ Only took the motherf—er 15 tries.”
But Rainbow’s barbs are not only reserved for McCarthy — the singer also takes time to go after some of McCarthy’s opponents, his allies and other much-discussed members of the GOP. “[Lauren] Boebert doesn’t even know what state she’s from/ Marjorie [Taylor Green]’s a mess/ Matt [Gaetz]’s a ticking bomb/ [George] Santos says he’s Ariana Grande’s mom,” he sings.
Finally bringing the song to its exacerbated conclusion, Rainbow delivers a final “toast” to McCarthy: “Girl, I give you one more week/ Everybody lift a cheek to the speaker of the house.”
The video comes just ahead of the 2023 Grammy Awards on Feb. 5, where Rainbow’s debut studio album A Little Brains, A Little Talent is nominated for best comedy album against huge competitors like Dave Chappelle, Patton Oswalt, Jim Gaffigan and Louis C.K.
Check out Randy Rainbow’s full video for “Speaker of the House” above.
It’s Aubrey Plaza is finally making her debut on Saturday Night Live, and she wants to make sure she’s perfect.
In a new promo for this weekend’s episode of the long-running comedy sketch show, the White Lotus star appeared alongside SNL cast member Chloe Fineman to reveal that she’s more than ready to grace the stage at studio 8H.
“I’m excited,” Plaza tells Fineman in the promo. “And oh my God, I love your impressions. Drew Barrymore is my favorite.”
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Plaza then launches into a dramatic impression of Marcia Gay Harden in the 2000 film Pollock, which did not impress the SNL star. Trying to be polite, Fineman asked Plaza if she could do an impression that’s “a little more fun.”
At the suggestion, the 38-year-old begins crying on cue and slapping herself in the face in an impersonation of Annette Bening in American Beauty, which startles Fineman. “Why are you like this?” she asks Plaza, who replies, “Because I’m insane, and I’ve been waiting to do this show since I was 12 years old,” before leaning in for a kiss. A janitor at the studio spots the two women making out, but ignores it and continues to do his job.
Saturday will mark Plaza’s hosting debut on SNL, but not for a lack of trying — she previously was an intern on the show and revealed during a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that she did a “preliminary first-round showcase,” but didn’t make it to an audition with creator-producer Lorne Michaels.
Sam Smith will be Saturday’s musical guest. Watch the new promo in the video above.
Leslie Jones took over The Daily Show as guest host on Tuesday night (Jan. 17), and she took some time to share her characteristically hilarious thoughts on the new Martin Luther King Jr. statue in Boston.
The statue, which was inspired by a photo of the legendary civil rights leader hugging his wife after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, features the couple’s arms embracing without their heads — which sparked criticism as some believe that it accidentally ended up looking quite erotic.
Jones wasted no time getting right to the point. “Has anyone in here ever been eaten out?” she asked the audience, who promptly broke out into cheers and laughter. “I’m serious! Has anyone in here ever participated in the munchy, munch, munch, munch? Because they are celebrating you in Boston right now.”
The comedian then turned to the camera with a message for the white viewers at home. “White people, you don’t need to be saying sh– about this statue. Do you understand? Black hands only. You need to sit your a– in the back of the bus for this one. You need to honor this statue. This is our civil rights icon going down on his wife.”
After more roaring cheers, Jones continued, “OK, black people. What the f— are we going to do? We got to talk about this, because you know it’s messed up when black people and the Proud Boys hate the same statue.”
To conclude, Jones compared the statue to other famous ones, such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, noting that people probably didn’t love them at first. “Maybe it’s a matter of time,” she joked about the newly unveiled MLK statue. “In time, we will see the statue for what it truly is. Martin Luther King going down on his wife. I can’t unsee it!”
Jones will guest-host three episodes of The Daily Show this week, followed by fellow comedians Wanda Sykes, D.L. Hughley, Chelsea Handler and Sarah Silverman with weekly stints through Feb. 16. Following the exit of host Trevor Noah, the show will keep up this guest-hosting rotation until the fall.
Watch the full clip below.
