Eddie Murphy might be better known these days for his work on the screen, but it was on the stage that he got his start. His stand-up specials Delirious and Raw are often ranked among the best ever, and Murphy has been open in recent years about want...
In the last year, the time spent watching Shows on Snapchat has tripled. The company wants to take advantage of that. Today, it announced Creator Shows, a new format that will deliver regularly published content from some of Snapchat's most popular s...
Netflix packed May with new movies like Wine Country, the animated series Tuca and Bertie, a Ted Bundy biopic and more. Now, it's bringing just as much new content and star power to June. In just the first half of the month, Netflix will release seas...
Mindy Kaling is bringing "relatable, awkward teen moments" to Netflix. She announced on Twitter that she and screenwriter Lang Fisher are working on a 10-episode comedy. Loosely based on Kaling's own childhood, it will portray the modern-day life of...
AIchan and GONta are the world’s latest comedy duo. These two funny robots were created by a lab at Japan’s Konan University and use an AI program to respond to one another and tell jokes. They do Japanese stand-up comedy routines, which usually involves a “straight man” and a “funny man” who trade jokes back and forth based on misunderstandings, puns, gags, and wordplay. You know, like Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, and other classic acts who bring the funny.
One is even tall while the other is short and fat. Classic comedy formula there. The robots use an AI program to search for information on topics and spontaneously put together their show. That AI also no doubt will make them divas as their stardom grows. Now, all we need is a robot agent that will take 10% of their power for every gig it books.
Are they funny? I have no idea since I don’t speak Japanese. Perhaps one of our readers can tell us. They don’t look all that funny to me. I hope they can at least clean the floor like a Roomba while they are doing their show. Funny or not, my floors need to be cleaned. And that ain’t no joke.
This is your brain off Facebook
Benedict Carey,
The New York Times
The decision to quit Facebook is all the rage these days, especially following an ever-growing number of data and privacy revelations. The New York Times offers a detailed look at...
In this month's installment of our audio IRL, we discover an amazingly talented guitar player from Chicago and a podcast where comedians, musicians and more open up about struggles with depression.
It was 7:55 p.m. on a Saturday night, and I had just arrived at a small improv workshop and stage space in San Francisco's Mission district. Mere moments after I sat down, someone placed a stool in front of the stage, draped a red cloth over it and p...
For such a benign business, the language of comedy is violent, with acts describing their efforts to kill their audience on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, unless they're an A-list act with a huge following, that's likely to be the only killing that...
Ellen DeGeneres hinted over a year ago that she'd return to stand-up specials through Netflix, and that revival is now close at hand. Netflix has announced that DeGeneres' comedy one-off Relatable will premiere on the streaming service December 18th...
Eddie Murphy might be better known these days for his work on the screen, but it was on the stage that he got his start. His stand-up specials Delirious and Raw are often ranked among the best ever, and Murphy has been open in recent years about want...
In the last year, the time spent watching Shows on Snapchat has tripled. The company wants to take advantage of that. Today, it announced Creator Shows, a new format that will deliver regularly published content from some of Snapchat's most popular s...
Netflix packed May with new movies like Wine Country, the animated series Tuca and Bertie, a Ted Bundy biopic and more. Now, it's bringing just as much new content and star power to June. In just the first half of the month, Netflix will release seas...
Mindy Kaling is bringing "relatable, awkward teen moments" to Netflix. She announced on Twitter that she and screenwriter Lang Fisher are working on a 10-episode comedy. Loosely based on Kaling's own childhood, it will portray the modern-day life of...
This is your brain off Facebook
Benedict Carey,
The New York Times
The decision to quit Facebook is all the rage these days, especially following an ever-growing number of data and privacy revelations. The New York Times offers a detailed look at...
In this month's installment of our audio IRL, we discover an amazingly talented guitar player from Chicago and a podcast where comedians, musicians and more open up about struggles with depression.
It was 7:55 p.m. on a Saturday night, and I had just arrived at a small improv workshop and stage space in San Francisco's Mission district. Mere moments after I sat down, someone placed a stool in front of the stage, draped a red cloth over it and p...
For such a benign business, the language of comedy is violent, with acts describing their efforts to kill their audience on a nightly basis. Unfortunately, unless they're an A-list act with a huge following, that's likely to be the only killing that...
Ellen DeGeneres hinted over a year ago that she'd return to stand-up specials through Netflix, and that revival is now close at hand. Netflix has announced that DeGeneres' comedy one-off Relatable will premiere on the streaming service December 18th...