The Santaland Diaries.

Heard a snippet of this on NPR Saturday. Listen here. Sedaris spent some time as a department store elf. This is his account of "that incident".

I had two people say that to me today: 'I'm going to have you fired.' Go ahead, be my guest. I'm wearing a green velvet costume. It doesn't get any worse than this. Who do these people think they are? 'I'm going to have you fired'...I want to lean over and say, 'I'm going to have you killed.'

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TGIF! presents...At home with John Cleese!

At home with John Cleese. Didn't I just say that? Are you ignorant or just plain stupid? God, I hate Americans. Stupid, stupid people. Anyway, John Cleese from the famed Monty Python comedy troupe takes us on a tour of his home. Enjoy.

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Separated at Birth? Bo Johnson & Eric Idle.

Bo Johnson, Milwaukee actor, director, musician, tech head (what else does this man do? - oh, he's directing me in FOOL FOR LOVE at The Alchemist Theatre...opening next week...click right here for tickets)...where was I? Oh, Bo Johnson with longer hair (top) and a younger Eric Idle from Monty Python. Don't be blind. It's uncanny. Eric Idle's directing me! I mean, Bo Johnson is directing me!

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Russell Brand.

I don't like him.

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Happy Birthday, Mr. Chaplin!

Charlie would've been 122 today. Listen - the song is, "Smile", sung by Nat King Cole, which Chaplin wrote.

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TGIF! presents...Lewis Back on Writing.

A favorite comedian of mine. Black discusses writing, blogging...and at the 1:40 mark, Black talks about his dabblings in playwriting - you'll wanna listen to that (or maybe I should heed Black's words).

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TGIF! presents...Comedian Brian Regan's "Dinner Party".

My favorite comedian. To "get" Regan, you have to "watch" Regan. So watch him.

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Ring in 2010 with The Stooges!

My father's favorite comedy team. Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk.

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Happy 40th Birthday, Monty Python's Flying Circus!

This groundbreaking, silly, television series, broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974, was conceived, written and performed by the late Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin.

The above video is my favorite sketch. Click here for more info on Monty Python. Here are the CBC's 10 favorite Python moments.

Damn, silly show.

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I believe that Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, James Brown and Lucille Ball are overrated.

I swear I'm gonna catch shit from my sis in Cedar Rapids, Janelle. She's not really my sister but as I don't have a sister and she doesn't have a brother, we call each other "sis" and "bro". She's an actor/singer as well. I think she's a fan of all four of the above - but I KNOW she loves Janis. Her mother, too.

I'm not taking anything away from their talents, persona's or "celebrity". I'm just saying that nothing about their talent floats my boat. Not even my bobber. I simply don't get the hubbub, bub. Never did. Zzzzzz....limp.

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Congrats, Jerry, on your Oscar! And your detractors can bugger off!

Comedian, actor, producer, writer, director and humanitarian, Jerry Lewis received his first Oscar Sunday evening - the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. I've been a big fan of Jerry's - as part of Martin (Dean) and Lewis and as a solo act.

Two things you might not know about Lewis: 1) In 1968, he screened Steven Spielberg's early film, Amblin' and told his students, "That's what filmmaking is all about." 2) As a film innovator, Lewis is credited with inventing the video assist system. That's the monitor directors look into while a scene is being shot.

If you enjoy Jerry's work, take a look at this clip from The Ladies Man (1961). If you don't wanna watch the entire thing, watch the beginning to the 1:30 mark, than jump ahead to to the 3:30 mark - it's his famous "Fix My Hat" scene. It's hilarious.

Oh...that "detractor comment" in the post title above? I didn't wanna make this post too long for people who might not be Jerry Lewis fans. So...if you appreciate Jerry and don't wanna miss my rant on the disabled, click on READ MORE!

I wasn't surprised when I heard there were a handful of people outside the Kodak protesting Jerry getting this honor. It's old news that Lewis has received flack from those in the disabled community over his work with MD, a passion of his for over 40 years. The common gripe is that Jerry paints disabled people as "pitiable victims who want and need nothing more than a big charity to take care of or cure them."

Mike Ervin, of The Progressive Media Project, is a Chicago-based writer and disabled rights activist who is disabled himself. In his article, "Jerry Lewis didn't deserve a humanitarian award at the Oscars", Ervin refers to a 1993 Vanity Fair interview where Jerry commented about Ervin, "This one kid in Chicago would have passed through this life and never had the opportunity to be acknowledged by anybody, but he found out that by being a dissident he gets picked up in a limo by a television station."

Now I really don't think Jerry meant anything bad by the comment. I don't KNOW that, I just THINK that. And I honestly feel that if someone who has MD feels "pitied" or feels their persona is thwarted or shortchanged because of Jerry's methods of raising money for MD, then those people would feel pitied or thwarted whether Jerry was associated with MD or not. I have a cosmetic handicap that I cover up. And I have my moments - there are days when life is a sonofabitch and I'd rather be dead than wake up in the morning. But I get off my ass every day and try not to let it affect me. Jerry or no Jerry. I wrote Ervin and told him if he had a problem with Jerry and his work for MD, he should figure out a way to return the $2 billion+ that Jerry has helped raise for MD over that last 40 years.

I realize Jerry's made some off-the-cuff comments in the past. He's apologized for some. And many just fly out of his mouth for no particular reason and they're forgotten. If you have some sort of understanding about Jerry's personality (from things I've read, interviews I've watched and being a fan), you combat his detractor's digs by arguing that, yeh...Jerry's cocky, unabashedly irreverent and can be a dick sometimes. So can I - doesn't make me a bad person. First of all, the guy's a comedian and often times comedians let whatever flies out of their mouths because they don't censor themselves - they don't always have the opportunity to do that. They're irreverent. They're crude. Comedians have to be quick. You work on the fly. You have to deal with hecklers. You have to react in a SNAP! and that reaction can be in the form of a knee-jerk comment or one-liner you might not have said had you the opportunity to think about it first. Think Don Rickles. Second-guessing isn't always an option.

Dean Martin and Jerry (above). For instance, in February 2000, Lewis stunned an audience gathered to honor his work at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival by saying he doesn't like female comics. Lewis said, "I don't like any female comedians. A woman doing comedy doesn't offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world."

Now I probably wouldn't have made the comment about "producing machine", but maybe he was just being funny and figured the audience would go along with it. You've heard of the Dean Martin Roasts, haven't you? That generation of comedians ripped you a new asshole when they had the chance. So what. And to be perfectly honest, I agree with Jerry 100% about female comedians. I can barely think of 2 or 3 who make me laugh. Don't like'em and never have. I think Lucille Ball was overrated.

Jerry ain't perfect. But if a guy is going to be the torch bearer, in a way, for a cause like muscular dystrophy and shoulder the responsibility of helping to raise money for research to fight that awful disease, ya gotta cut him some slack. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Besides, if Deano loved Jerry, they Jeff loves Jerry.

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Separated at Birth? Comedian Gilbert Gottfried and Artist Jeff Koons.

Gilbert Gottfried's on the right. These two look so similar in these photos that you may not have known Gottfried was on the right had he not that "comedic expression" on his face. Come on, you think Gottfried reads "La Gazette"?

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Tim Meadows is the antithesis of funny. He is anti-funny. And he's not from Wisconsin.

I watched "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" last night. Great flick. I laughed a ton. John C. Reiley's funny. But I stopped laughing whenever Tim Meadows was on the screen. I always do. I thought he sucked on SNL and couldn't figure out why he lasted 10 years on the show (he wrote as well - and that even sucked).

Seriously...I have feces funnier than this guy. Inappropriate comment? Possibly. But so is Tim Meadows practicing comedy and charging people to see him be funny.

I know - it's a picture of the late Chris Farley, who was a contemporary of Meadow's. He was funny. His left testicle was funnier than Meadows. But whose isn't? I just couldn't rationalize putting a picture of Meadows on my blog. He makes me cry and get angry. Farley makes me laugh. And Farley's from Wisconsin. So is Gene Wilder. Funny guys. Spencer Tracy was from Wisconsin and he wasn't even a comedian and he was funnier than Meadows.

Perhaps if Tim had been born in Wisconsin....no, can't do anything about that now. He could move there - I mean, if he wanted to be funnier, right?

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