For The Daily Beast’s membership drive, we’re asking our reporters and editors to tell the stories behind some of their biggest stories. When I decided to start a comedy interview podcast in early 2019, there was only one comedian I wanted to have on as my first guest. The previous […]
Comedy
16 posts
In April last year, opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim President Juan Guaido attempted to stage a coup in Venezuela and overthrow democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro, purportedly with support from the US government. However, the attempt was botched due to the military refusing to support Guaido. What could be worse […]
As Seth Rogen and his production company, Point Grey, feel their way through the novel coronavirus pandemic, one thing is certain: They won’t be taking their cues from Christopher Nolan. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Rogen quipped, “I’m waiting to see what Chris Nolan does… ‘WWCND’ is basically what we’re […]
When John Cleese tells people that he has a new show called Why There Is No Hope, they assume the title is a joke. “A lot of people think that I mean it humorously,” he tells me on an upcoming episode of The Last Laugh podcast, “but of course I […]
Paul Feig will not let a once-in-a-century pandemic slow him down. He’s balancing far too many plates. There’s the two features in pre-production that he’s planning to direct—This Country, a U.S. remake of the famed U.K. mockumentary about rural life at the margins, and an adaptation of the bestselling novel […]
After years of doubling down on racist jokes and choosing to “opt out” of critical conversations about her portrayals of people of color, Tina Fey’s work has finally caught up with her. Last Tuesday, the Saturday Night Live alum joined a chorus of Hollywood comedians and showrunners trying to rectify […]
In a moment of divine comedy, a potential vandal took a major fall while attempting to climb the statue of St. Louis IX. The leftist criminal mobs have been targeting the statue of King Louis IX of France which is located in front of the Saint Louis Art Museum in […]
For the past decade, Chris D’Elia, one of the country’s top club comedians who packs theatres hundreds of times a year, has enjoyed the special status afforded to a few middle-aged comics who grasp and expertly deploy devices of the Gen-Z internet. The 40-year-old stand-up, who has three Netflix specials […]
When I ask Michaela Watkins how she’s doing towards the end of one of the darkest weeks in modern American history, she replies, “Oh, thanks for asking, I’m terrible.” The night before our conversation for this week’s episode of The Last Laugh podcast, the comedian and actress “forced” herself to […]
When we connected with Yvonne Orji to talk about her role as Molly on HBO’s Insecure and her first hour-long stand-up special Momma, I Made It!, airing Saturday night on the cable network, it was two days after George Floyd had been killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. Interviews […]
If Nanette was Hannah Gadsby’s attempt to, as the Tasmanain comedian put it in the show itself, “tell her story properly,” her new set, Douglas, finds her processing its aftereffects—and expanding it even further. It’s also, perhaps, her best troll yet. In the special, which premiered on Netflix Tuesday, Gadsby […]
Few people made Jimmy Kimmel laugh harder than Fred Willard. So on Monday night, the late-night host dedicated his entire show to the legendary comedic actor, who died over the weekend at 86. “Tonight’s show will be a special show,” he began. “It will be a sad show. But we […]
What’s immediately striking is the tone of his voice. No “Hey, What-the-fuckers!” No “How’s everybody doing?” No jangly guitar theme song. Just a halting, “Hey, OK, it’s Marc.” On Monday morning, less than 48 hours after his partner, the celebrated director Lynn Shelton suddenly passed away from a previously undiagnosed […]
With a record six Emmy awards for playing the same role—and record-tying eight acting Emmys overall—Julia Louis-Dreyfus has been the funniest woman on TV for more than 30 years. But there is one man who perhaps made her laugh harder than anyone else. The man was Jerry Stiller, who died […]
Is comedy still funny if there’s no one there to laugh? That’s the question that many comedians have been struggling to answer over these past two months—and one that was put to the test on Sunday night during the Feeding America Comedy Festival, a two-hour tour-de-force telethon to benefit that […]
Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong was portraying Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as an out-of-control drunk long before the real Jeanine Pirro appeared to actually be drunk during a live broadcast from home during the coronavirus pandemic. So the season finale of SNL at Home was the perfect time for […]