News

Three years ago, the world of comedy lost a true original. Gilbert Gottfried may have been best known for playing the parrot Iago in Aladdin — and for the dirty jokes he spouted in the last two decades of his career — but his style of comedy was entirely his own. His stand-up material, which he began performing at age 15, was a surreal experience filled with obscure — often, even, unknowable — pop-culture references combined with bizarre rants about aliens and Nazis.

He hit the mainstream with a one-year stint on Saturday Night Live before appearing in films like Problem Child and Beverly Hills Cop II as well lending his voice to hundreds of cartoons. He never stopped doing stand-up either, as he was a fixture in comedy clubs and a frequent panelist at Friars Club and Comedy Central roasts. Just weeks after the terrorist attacks in 2001, he famously bombed with a 9/11 joke at a Hugh Hefner roast,...

Prior to about 1987, American sitcoms were — generally speaking — very different. No matter the premise or intended demographic, most sitcoms focused on a reliable comedic structure of set-ups and payoffs. From "I Love Lucy" all the way to "Diff'rent Strokes," sitcom writers were careful to explore a recognizable domestic/workplace/common setting environment through sharply recognized, very funny characters. The same writers were typically also careful to lay out gags and jokes very clearly. Every setup usually led to some kind of punchline or payoff.

In the late 1980s, however, sitcoms underwent a reckoning. It seems that audiences and many longtime writers became tired of the decades of well-worm tropes and structures, and they began to deconstruct. 1987 saw the debut of "Married... With Children," a sitcom that followed an aggressively dysfunctional family who all kind of hated each other. Their causticness was the joke. Then, in 1989, "The Simpsons" debuted, handily satirizing...

One of the earlier running gags on Matt Stone's and Trey Parker's animated sitcom "South Park" was the repeated, comedic death of Kenny McCormick. Kenny (Stone) was the best friend of Stan (Parker), Kyle (also Stone), and Cartman (also Parker), and he seemed to be the most ... worldly of the four. Kenny's face was usually covered mostly by an outsize orange coat, and all of his dialogue was muffled and incomprehensible. Later, it would be established that Kenny was incredibly impoverished and that he seemed to know a lot more about sex, drugs, and crime than an eight-year-old ought to.

For the first six seasons of the series, from 1997 to 2002, Kenny died in almost every single episode. Kenny's deaths were usually very demonstrative, with the young boy being impaled on a flagpole or cut in half by a chainsaw. When Kenny died, one of his friends would briefly respond,...

Gilbert Gottfried began doing stand-up at 15 and continued performing until he died in 2022 at the age of 67. Throughout all that time, though, he never released a comedy album of original material. As his widow, Dara Gottfried, explains to me, “I nagged Gilbert for 20 years to put out an album of his original material, but Gilbert never updated his act — he was still doing jokes about Molly Ringwald, O.J. Simpson and Gary Coleman. He was afraid that, if people could hear an album of his material, they wouldn’t go see his live shows.”

But after Gilbert’s untimely passing from myotonic dystrophy type 2, a rare disease that causes muscle weakness and dysfunction, Dara decided the moment was finally right for that album. With the help of Gottfried’s friends Penn Jillette, Jeff Ross and several others, she released Still Screaming earlier this month, the profits from which go to the...

To the joy of comedy fans, and the horror of families who were just looking for a nice cartoon about jazz-playing felines, the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats delved into the history of the notoriously filthy joke about a family pitching a vulgar stage show to a talent agent. While we all know the punchline — “The Aristocrats!” — it’s the uniquely grotesque nuances of each comedian’s version that makes the movie so interesting.

The Aristocrats featured interviews with some of the biggest names in comedy — from Chris Rock, to Sarah Silverman, to George Carlin. Also Carrot Top. But the most memorable version of the joke was probably the one told by the late Gilbert Gottfried. Note: The clip is not safe for work, unless you work in the talent agency from the joke.

One celebrity you won’t see in the movie is Chevy Chase, which is odd because Chase is...

Pat Cooper, an acerbic stand-up comedian who later had a career acting in films and TV series including Analyze This, Seinfeld and the original Charlie’s Angels and was a favorite of Howard Stern, died Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 93.

His wife, Emily Connor, announced the news.

Born Pasquale Caputo on July 31, 1929, in Brooklyn, he tried to join multiple branches of the U.S. Armed Forces but was rejected and turned to comedy. He adopted his stage name during an early-’60s stint doing stand-up, which further angered the Italian family he often roasted in his act.

Cooper became estranged from his parents while focusing on his insult-heavy comedy career. His angry onstage persona led to multiple firings from stints opening for the likes of Frank Sinatra and Paul Anka. By the mid-’60s, he was being booked on many of the era’s most popular variety...

In the third episode of "What We Do in the Shadows" season 2, entitled "Brain Scramblies", the show's vampire characters Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Nadja (Natasia Dimitriou), and Laszlo (Matt Berry) have been invited to what they assume is a Superb Owl party. Being ancient vampires with no knowledge of modern-day human foibles, they aren't savvy enough to understand that it will be a Super Bowl party. 

They arrive at the home of their neighbor, Sean (Anthony Atamanuik), and only then does Sean realize that he never sees Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo during the daytime, so he jokingly says they must be vampires. Fearing that their (barely-disguised) vampirism has actually been discovered by their neighbor, Nandor and Laszlo decide to hypnotize him and erase his memories. When Sean is showing off his room of "Ocean's Twelve" memorabilia, they strike.

One of the central jokes of the episode is that the vampires accidentally go too far,...

Stars from across Hollywood are paying their respects to Gilbert Gottfried, the legendary comedian and actor who died Tuesday following a long illness. He was 67. “He was a unique voice in comedy on so many levels,” wrote Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.”Unpredictable, one-of-a-kind, hilarious & irreplaceable! Thank you for the lifetime of laughs, sir.” He was a unique voice in comedy on so many levels. Unpredictable, one-of-a-kind, hilarious & irreplaceable! Thank you for the lifetime of laughs, sir.#RIP_GilbertGottfried https://t.co/5tUbQBdnn6 — Mark Hamill (@MarkHamill) April 12, 2022 Gottfried was an iconic voice in comedy, perhaps best known for voicing the cocky, wise-talking macaw Iago in Disney’s 1992 animated film Aladdin. He also appeared in films such as Problem Child, Look Who’s Talking Too, Beverly Hills Cop II, and The Aristocrats. His family confirmed the passing on Tuesday, with Gottfried’s representative Glenn Schwartz later sharing that the actor died due...

Beloved comedian Gilbert Gottfried, who died Tuesday, was as well known for his edgy and irreverent comedy routines as he was for lending his distinctive voice to family films like “Aladdin.” Some would call his humor tasteless, others wildly offensive but that was just the way his mind worked, the comedian said in “The Aristocrats” documentary.

His most famous joke was undoubtedly the Aristocrats, and his priceless rendition of the joke was included in documentary of the same name in which 100 comedians told the same filthy tale. He didn’t write the joke, but his version, which he first told after bombing a 9/11 joke at Hugh Hefner’s roast, is known as one of the “grossest and most wide-reaching” renditions, wrote Vulture.

Here are some of the funniest and filthiest routines from Gottfried’s career.

Hollywood Squares

His appearance on the “Hollywood Squares” gameshow, since it was on broadcast TV,...

Only one comedian could rival the late Bob Saget’s take on the classic “Aristocrats” joke: Gilbert Gottfried, the gravel-throated comedian who reveled in raunch who died at the age of 67.

The 2005 film The Aristocrats documented the history of the joke, which was so filthy that comedians traditionally told it backstage at clubs rather than in the spotlight. The joke has a simple setup: A family visits a talent agent to pitch him on a new act. They perform sexual acts on each other that are so depraved anyone with...

Gilbert Gottfried, a legendary voice in the comedy world, has died at 67.

His family posted a statement on Gottfried’s personal Twitter page that reads: “We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness. In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor. Love, the Gottfried family.”

NBC News reported earlier that Gottfried died at 2:35 p.m. Et of recurrent ventricular tachycardia — an abnormal heart rhythm — due to myotonic dystrophy type II. The cause was attributed to Glenn Schwartz, Gottfried’s longtime friend and publicist.

Gottfried was known for trademark shrill, nasally and instantly recognizable voice, squinted eyes, faux anger and a comic delivery that melded...

Gilbert Gottfried, the controversial and one-of-a-kind comedian and actor with a voice as unique as his comedy, died today after a lengthy illness, his family announced. He was 67.

A statement posted on Gottfried’s Twitter page reads: “We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness. In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert’s honor. Love, the Gottfried family.”

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

NBC News reported that Gottfried died at 2:35 p.m. Et of recurrent ventricular tachycardia — an abnormal heart rhythm — due to myotonic dystrophy type II. The cause was attributed to Glenn Schwartz, Gottfried’s longtime friend and publicist.

Gottfried was known for trademark shrill,...

The Amazing Johnathan, the veteran magician and comic who headlined in Las Vegas for more than a decade and appeared often on television including stand-up specials and David Letterman’s shows, died late Tuesday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 63 and had been struggling with health problems including cardiomyopathy for several years.

His wife, sideshow stunt artist Anastasia Synn, confirmed the news to the Las Vegas Journal-Review today. “I’m losing my beautiful, brilliant husband,” she’d said Tuesday on social media.

Born John Edward Szeles on September 9, 1958, in Detroit, he began doing street comedy in San Francisco as in the early 1980s and starting landing guest spots on TV including Thicke of the Night, Up All Night and Late Night with David Letterman. He would go on to appear many times on Letterman’s show on NBC and later CBS.

As stand-up comedy boomed in the late ’80s and early 1990s,...

The sudden passing of Bob Saget in January of 2022 caused sorrow for those raised on "Full House" and saw Saget as America's dad, as well as for those in the standup comedy world, who thought of Saget as a boldly foulmouthed provocateur. Seeing him interact with his fictional daughters on "Full House" revealed his warmth, and his tirade of creative obscenities in the 2005 documentary "The Aristocrats" revealed his propensity for comedic filth. The wonder of Bob Saget was that he was both of these things. He was capable of being a funny, nerdy dad, but was just as capable of creating hilarious scenes...

The post The Horror Movie You Never Knew Bob Saget Was In appeared first on /Film.

Chicago – There are a couple directions to the long career of Bob Saget, who passed away unexpectedly at age 65 on January 9th, 2022. The first of course was his role as Danny Tanner, the Dad he portrayed in the 1980s sitcom “Full House” and later in the Netflix revival “Fuller House.” The second is his stand-up comedy, whose reputation for filthy jokes had no boundaries. He embraced both sides to the very end.

Robert Lane “Bob” Saget was born in Philadelphia, and was encouraged by a high school teacher to get into the arts. After a stint at Temple University’s film school, Saget moved to Los Angeles to pursue on-air opportunities, and landed with “The Morning Show” on CBS-tv in 1987. That same year he got the role as Danny Tanner, the affable Dad on the “Full House,” a family sitcom on ABC-tv that was part of the Thomas Miller and...

Bob Saget died over the weekend at the way-too-young age of 65. Saget was an unapologetically dirty stand-up comedian who became the face of safe wholesomeness thanks to his role as a widowed dad on "Full House" and his hosting duties on "America's Funniest Home Videos." Week after week, audiences invited Saget into their homes, and he was so good at playing a square that his perceived boringness clung to him. In the latter half of his career, where he would perform blue stand-up or pop-up to deliver a filthy monologue in the documentary "The Aristocrats," some people were shocked. How could this...

The post Dirty Work, Bob Saget's Hilarious Feature Directorial Debut, is Now Streaming on HBO Max appeared first on /Film.

Bob Saget, who died on Sunday at 65, had two distinct sides to his career, both of which deeply impacted Millennials: First as America’s dorky dad on “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and then as an X-rated standup who hit comedy clubs and college campuses to shake his family-friendly image. Variety has collected some of Saget’s funniest moments to watch and remember the comedy legend.

Performing at Dangerfield’s in 1984

Before his TV fame, Saget was a hungry young comedian who wowed Rodney Dangerfield at his club.

Funny ‘Full House’ moments

Any episode of “Full House” is filled with quality Saget bits, as his neat-freak character Danny Tanner was constantly running around with Windex and a heartwarming clip. But the show was a true ensemble, and he was amazing at bouncing off all of his co-stars.

Great ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ jokes

Saget’s squeaky-clean persona...

Bob Saget, a stand-up comedian and actor beloved for his role as Danny Tanner on the 1990s sitcom “Full House,” died Sunday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Orlando, Fla., police confirmed to Variety. He was 65.

Shortly after 4 p.m., police officers responded to a man-down call at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes hotel and discovered Saget unresponsive in a hotel room, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office told Variety. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The sheriff’s office did not have any information on a cause of death, and detectives did not find any signs of foul play or drug use in the case. The Medical Examiner’s Office will determine a cause and manner of death at a later date.

Read more: “Full House” stars John Stamos, Candace Cameron Bure and more pay tribute to Bob Saget.

Saget had recently kicked off a nationwide stand-up tour in September,...

The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1970 Edition arrives in three weeks (we've moved the date to May 13th) so as we approach and you vote (hint hint), let's talk context in movies and entertainment... 

Great Big Box Office Hits: When it comes to box office, there are a lot of competing sources about what films were massive hits prior to the internet era when tracking success became such a cultural activity. But all sources basically agree that there were five true behemoths at the movies in 1970. The top four were the tearjerker Love Story, the all-star disaster flick Airport, the Altman comedy Mash, and the war drama Patton (remarkably they made up 80% of the Best Picture list... though prior to the 1980s it's always worth reiterating that the public had much more Oscary taste in their movies -- it was public taste that changed, not really the Oscar aesthetic... contrary to much...

Stand-up comedian and actor Shelley Berman died this morning due to complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 92. Berman played Larry David’s dad on “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” for which he received an Emmy nomination in 2008. Berman’s most recent acting credit was a guest spot on CBS’ “Hawaii Five-o,” per IMDb. He appeared as himself in 2005’s “The Aristocrats,” and played scripted roles in comedies like “Meet the Fockers” and “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan. Also Read: Jerry Lewis, Legendary Comedian, Dies at 91 Here’s a post announcing the news on Berman’s official Facebook fan page:...

Features: Gilbert Gottfried, Whoopi Goldberg, Artie Lange, Arsenio Hall, Bill Burr, Richard Kind, Howie Mandel, Jay Leno, Penn Jillette | Written by Neil Berkeley, James Leche | Directed by Neil Berkeley

If you don’t know his face, you’ll definitely know his voice. But what about his personality?

Gilbert Gottfried has seen the typical comedian’s rise to fame, from his small start working clubs as a teen to making big breaks like voicing Disney characters, and the grand kahuna of all, lending your voice to commercials. But there’s one question we all have about the mysterious man: is that really his voice?

Turns out that isn’t the only question we should have for him. Gilbert, a film directed, written, and produced by Neil Berkeley, follows the side of Gottfried that no one sees: his personal, non-decibel-provoking one. A personal life? Gilbert’s? Does he even have one? It...

You probably recognize Gilbert Gottfried’s name (after all, he’s the most famous Gilbert who’s ever lived), and you definitely recognize his voice, but other than his career-defining performance as Iago in “Aladdin,” how much of his work can you remember off the top of your head?

Mileage will vary, of course, but even Gottfried devotees could agree that the guy’s persona has outsized his resumé. That’s not to knock his stand-up comedy or his appearances in the likes of “Beverly Hills Cop II” and “Saved By the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas,” but rather to say that he’s become an ambient part of our culture, less of a celebrity than the human embodiment of a modern court jester. He’s not a man, but a squint and an aggressive whine; he’s the joke you shouldn’t tell in public, the furniture at a Friar’s Club roast.

Keep up with the glitzy awards world with our weekly Awards Roundup column.

– Robert De Niro will receive the Chaplin Award at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 44th Chaplin Award Gala on May 8, 2017. The event will celebrate De Niro’s more than 40-year career in cinema and his championing of independent film through the Tribeca Film Festival and Tribeca Film Institute.

Read More: Awards Roundup: Annette Bening to Receive AFI Tribute, Shirley MacLaine Honored With Lafca Award and More

“De Niro has long been such a legendary presence that one can overlook the remarkably fine-tuned craft and quality he has brought to his roles over his multi-decade career,” Lesli Klainberg, Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, said in a statement. “If you watch his performances, from ‘Mean Streets’ and ‘The Godfather Part II’ to ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘Awakenings’ and on to his more recent work...

Carolines on Broadway announces its line-up for the month of September, highlighted by headliners Shawn Wayans, from Fox's In Living Color and the movie White Chicks, Labor Day Weekend, September 1 - 4 Gary Owen, from the Think Like a Man films and his new Bet series The Gary Owen Show, September 8 - 11 Artie Lange, from his Comedy Central special The Stench of Failure and 'Artie Lange's Uncensored Podcast,' September 15 - 17 David Alan Grier, from NBC's The Carmichael Show and Fox's In Living Color, September 22 - 24 Iliza Shlesinger, from ABC.com's Forever 31, on September 27 Gilbert Gottfried, from the film The Aristocrats, on September 29 and Donnell Rawlings, 'Ashy Larry' from Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show, September 29 - October 2.

Ferne Pearlstein: "Renee [Firestone] and Steven Spielberg became very close." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

A highlight of the Tribeca Film Festival, Ferne Pearlstein's stunning The Last Laugh has Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Robert Clary, Rob Reiner, Harry Shearer, Jeffrey Ross, Alan Zweibel, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Gold, Larry Charles, David Steinberg, Susie Essman, Lisa Lampanelli and Hanala Sagal reflect on questions of free speech, taboos and time limits. Holocaust survivor Renee Firestone is the film's responsive centre.

Jerry Lewis's The Day The Clown Cried, James Moll's The Last Days and Paul Provenza's The Aristocrats open up the discussion and Brooks's comment on Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful leads me to Son Of Saul star Géza Röhrig's response to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in my conversation with Ferne and her co-writer/co-producer Robert Edwards.

Mel Brooks who never included a swastika in his material until The Producers, makes an important distinction between jokes about Nazis and jokes about the Holocaust....

Full House exists in the same nostalgia bubble as Saved by the Bell and The Brady Bunch for me: I wouldn't call myself a superfan or even a fan, but I have definitely seen every episode. So they did something right.  In these new stills from Fuller House, the Netflix series reuniting us with DJ Tanner (Candace Cameron), Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin), Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), and in recurring roles Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), Uncle Jesse (John Stamos), Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier), and Aunt Becky (Lori Laughlin), we see that everybody grew up to be wheaten-haired and well-dressed. I will tune into this surreal 13-episode smilethon.  Now, our questions: 1) Is the show secretly all about Kimmy? Everyone's looking at her in these photos expectantly. "Charm us, Kimmy," they beg. I feel like she will. 2) Is it wrong that I don't miss the presence of Michelle at all? We have these...

Disney Pixar's Inside Out is coming to Blu-ray and DVD on November 3!

Disney-Pixar's smash hit Inside Out is coming home on Digital HD and Disney Movies Anywhere October 13th and on Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray Combo Pack and On-Demand November 3rd! It will include an extensive line-up of bonus features including deleted scenes, including the theatrical short film Lava, “Paths to Pixar: The Women of Inside Out,” and the all-new animated short “Riley’s First Date?”

Inside Out takes an exciting and hilarious journey into the mind to find the answer. Based in Headquarters, the control center of 11-year-old Riley’s mind, five emotions are hard at work, led by lighthearted optimist Joy. She strives to make sure Riley stays happy as she operates alongside fellow emotions Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness.

The cast includes Amy Poehler (“Freebirds,” TV’s “Parks and Recreation”) as Joy; Bill Hader (Monsters University,...

The world lost two famous supporting screen talents this weekend. Firstly, comedian and famed character actor Taylor Negron died at the age of 57 after a long battle with cancer. You may not recognise the name, but his deadpan delivery and complete lack of fear about tackling all sorts of topics will long be remembered.

Negron is best known for numerous bit roles in various films and TV shows including "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "The Last Boy Scout," "Easy Money," "River's Edge," "Punchline," "Angels in the Outfield," "Spy Hard," "Bio-Dome," Chairman of the Board," "The Thin Pink Line," "Stuart Little," "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas ," "The In Crowd," "Loser," "The Hughleys," "So Little Time," "Funky Monkey," "The Aristocrats," "Three Days to Vegas," "Vamps" and more.

Sadly he isn't the only one to have passed on though as screen actress Anita Ekberg also died over the weekend at the age...

Exclusive: Missi Pyle (The Artist, Gone Girl) has boarded Director’s Cut, a dark satire with an unusual twist directed by Detroit Rock City‘s Adam Rifkin. Pyle will play herself opposite Penn Jillette (Tim’s Vermeer, The Aristocrats) in the Being John Malkovich-style tale about a psycho superfan (Jillette) who buys a walk-on role to Pyle’s latest movie via a crowdfunding site, then kidnaps her and forces her to re-shoot the film in his own dungeon studio.

The meta-levels don’t stop there. Director’s Cut is itself a successfully crowdfunded project that raised $1,164,928 last year from 4,736 donors on crowdsourcing platform FundMe. Neil Patrick Harris, Ben Stiller, Carrot Top, Dee Snider, Ron Jeremy, and Joan Rivers are some of the names that pitched in to lend their support to the crowdfunding campaign. Jillette, Rifkin, and Penn & Teller manager/producer Peter Adam Golden are producing the film which is now underway in L.

Wendy Liebman is my favorite standup comedian. She has been ever since I saw her first HBO special, and then her first Comedy Central special, and then her appearances on "Letterman" and "The Larry Sanders Show," and even her cameos as a star on the '90s "Hollywood Squares" with Whoopi Goldberg. She also had a Showtime special a couple years ago called "Taller on TV," and it's clear her style hasn't changed and shouldn't change: Liebman sticks to subliminal punchlines delivered with the wide smile of a kindergarten teacher. My favorite Liebman one-liner: "I'm going to my 30-year preschool reunion and I'm really nervous... because I've put on like a hundred pounds." Her style allows her to be both pithy and wicked, and she even won the American Comedy Award for Best Female Standup of 1997.  That's why it was so weird to see her audition for "America's Got Talent" last night.

Chicago – There are a couple directions to the long career of Bob Saget. The first is of Danny Tanner, the Dad he portrayed in the 1980s sitcom “Full House,” and the second is his stand-up act, with a reputation for filthy jokes that has no boundaries.

Both sides are revealed in his memoir “Dirty Daddy: Chronicle of a Family Man Turned Filthy Comedian.”

Saget came through Chicago in April of 2014 on a very special night at The Museum of Broadcast Communications here. “An Evening with Bob Saget” brought the comedian to the museum, and he sat down with Roe Conn of Wls-am for a Q&A session and banter with the audience.

Bob Saget at The Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, April 16th, 2014

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

Robert Lane “Bob” Saget was born in Philadelphia, and was encouraged by a high school...

Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars films, has shared dozens of on-set photos on Twitter from the hit sci-fi franchise over the last week.

Mayhew’s snapshots feature himself in and out of character, as well as Harrison Ford (Hans Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Anthony Daniels (C-3Po), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) and David Prowse (Darth Vadar).

Ford, Daniels, Fisher and Mayhew:

#nostalgic so Im going to post some pics tonight. Like this 1 of Harrison, Anthony, Carrie & I sharing a laugh... pic.twitter.com/FblggUaU5e

— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) January 8, 2014

Princess Leia kissing Chewbacca:

Quality time with my one and only! pic.twitter.com/doxX505XXH

— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) January 10, 2014

C-3Po catching some shade:

Anthony getting relief from the blazing sun. pic.twitter.com/JLQDdjicCx

— Peter Mayhew (@TheWookieeRoars) January 10, 2014

A kiss for Darth Vadar:

Whose a cute little Sith Lord?...

Entertainment Geekly is a weekly column that examines contemporary pop culture through a geek lens and simultaneously examines contemporary geek culture through a pop lens. So many lenses! Click here for past columns.

Last week I wrote a long and rant-y column about the Disney Myth, as constructed in Saving Mr. Banks and deconstructed in Escape From Tomorrow. In an effort to prove I’m not the world’s biggest grouch — and because I spent the past week in the metaphorical Disneyland known as “being back home with my family for the holidays” — I decided to try an experiment that...

We're happy to welcome Paul Provenza as host of the 29th Annual Ida Documentary Awards. Provenza is a stand-up comedian, award-winning actor on stage and screen, producer, author, and director of The Aristocrats, a 2005 official Sundance entry. He is the host and creator of Showtime's The Green Room with Paul Provenza, where he invites the biggest names in stand-up comedy to discuss serious current issues. He is a frequent panelist on NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and has been caricatured by Al Hirschfeld. He continues to ...

The premise behind Set List, the uniquely innovative comedy show created and hosted by Paul Provenza (director of "The Aristocrats"), is simple: Words are projected on a screen, and stand-up comedians have to improvise jokes based on the words. It's a thrilling and exhilarating way to see a comedian test his or her chops without a safety net.

Dropping into the show recently was Robin Williams. It's easy to forget that although he's become a wildly successful actor, Williams got his start as a stand-up comedian, and it's clearly an art form he still loves. His appearance on Set List could be his funniest performance in years -- watching the flashes of inspiration appear on his face as he builds a new character or joke right in front of the audience's eyes is mesmerizing.

Check out the clip above to see Williams make up a stand-up set on the fly at NerdMelt in Los Angeles.

Standup built her career on persona of a corner-cutting housewife and was an influential figure for women in comedy

Phyllis Diller, the pioneering Us comedian who aimed some of her sharpest barbs at herself, has died aged 95.

Diller, who broke into comedy in the 1950s, created an indelible persona with her distinctive braying laugh, cigarette holder, teased hair, outlandish costumes and a fictional lout of a husband nicknamed Fang.

A friend and fellow comic, Joan Rivers, said Diller cleared a path for a younger generation of female standup artists to trade on their jokes alone.

"The only tragedy is that Phyllis Diller was the last from an era that insisted a woman had to look funny in order to be funny," Rivers said on Twitter.

"If she had started today, Phyllis could have stood there in Dior and Harry Winston and become the major star that she was. I adored her!

Superstar comedienne Phyllis Diller died today in Los Angeles, California. She was 95. Diller was not the first female stand-up comic ( ‘Moms’ Mabely had been performing since the 40′s ), but her outrageous fashions and irreverent sense of humor established her as a media comedy sensation in the 1960′s. Before Rosanne Barr, Diller joked about the drudgery of housework ( and a clueless husband named ” Fang ” ) and her self-depreciating gags no doubt inspired Totie Fields and Joan Rivers. Ms. Diller ( born Phyllis Ada Driver ) was writing radio copy in the San Francisco area in the 50′s when she decided to enter the world of stand-up comedy. After success at clubs, she soon branched into television with an appearance on Groucho Marx’s quiz show ” You Bet Your Life “. After nightclubs she perhaps had her biggest successes in TV as a fixture of talk shows, variety shows and game shows, although she had little...

Actress and comedienne Phyllis Diller, a groundbreaking performer who paved the way for female comedians everywhere, passed away in her sleep this morning, at her Los Angeles home. She was 95 years old at the time of her death. Here is what her agent Fred Wostbrock had to say about her iconic career.

"She was a true pioneer. She was the first lady of stand up comedy. She paved the way for everybody. And she conquered television, movies, Broadway, record albums, nightclubs, books, and radio. She did it all. A true pioneer."

The comedy legend was born Phyllis Ada Driver in Lima, Ohio in 1917. After a stint as an advertising copywriter, Phyllis Diller got her big break at the age of 37, when she first performed stand-up comedy at the San Francisco nightclub Purple Onion. Her act often revolved around her fictional husband named "Fang" and self-depricating humor about her looks. In the 1960s and 1970s,...

Comedian Phyllis Diller passed away today at her Los Angeles home at the age of 95. Diller's agent Fred Wostbrock , who called her the first lady of stand up comedy, said Diller died in her sleep.

Diller broke into the comedy scene in 1955 at San Francisco's famed Purple Onion nightclub. Diller, who was 37 and a housewife at the time, won the crowd over when the owner gave her a substitute stand-up spot.

Diller found success in television, movies, Broadway, and as a recording artist. In the '60s and '70s Diller found an audience as she became a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, The Flip Wilson Show, and Laugh-In. Younger audiences discovered her from her stints on shows like Family Guy, 7th Heaven, and The Drew Carey Show. She lent her voice to the Pixar movie A Bug's Life. She also appeared in the raunchy documentary The Aristocrats.

Throughout her career,...

Phyllis Diller, the wild-haired, eccentrically-dressed performer credited with opening the doors of stand-up comedy to women, passed away at her home in Los Angeles. She was 95 years old.

She was born Phyllis Ada Driver on July 17, 1917 in Lima, Ohio to Perry Marcus and Frances Ada (Romshe) Driver. After graduating from Central High School, she headed to Chicago's Sherwood Music Conservatory, where she continued to study piano, with dreams of one day becoming a concert pianist. From the Conservatory, she transferred to Bluffton College in Ohio, where she became the school's newspaper editor and oversaw the publication of humor pieces.

In November 1939, at the age of 22, she married Sherwood Anderson Diller and gave birth to a son, Peter, in 1940. She would have five more children: Sally (1944), a son who died two weeks after being born (1945), Suzanne (1946), Stephanie (1948), and Perry (1950). Perry would later manage his mother's business affairs. Contrary to popular belief, she is no relation to Susan Lucci.

During WWII, the fledgling Diller clan moved to Michigan, where she began to mine her home-making experiences for jokes. She also worked as an advertising copywriter at this time. After the war, the Dillers moved to San Francisco, where she found work as a secretary at the radio station KROW. Later that year, she was in front of the camera for the first time with a program titled "Phyllis Dillis, the Homely Friendmaker" for Bay Area Radio-Television. She continued working in Bay Area television, this time at KGO-TV, where she was invited to participate in the station's show "Belfast Pop Club", co-hosted by Willard Anderson and Don Sherwood.

Both Anderson and Sherwood encouraged her to pursue her stand-up comedy ambitions, and in 1955, she landed a two-week gig at the venerable San Francisco nightclub, The Purple Onion, where her self-deprecating wit and unique laugh kept her on the stage for the better part of two years. The buzz created by her act reached Hollywood, and she made her first rounds on talk and variety shows with the likes of Jack Benny and Red Skelton.

Her appearance on "The Tonight Show" with Jack Parr was her breakthrough, and led to recurring gigs as a contestant on "You Bet Your Life" with host Groucho Marx, "What's My Line?", "I've Got a Secret", and "Hollywood Squares". She appeared on the silver screen as well, making her debut in William Inge's drama, Splendor in the Grass. In 1961, she made her stage debut in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs. Appearances in films with Bob Hope -- Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell, and Eight on the Lam -- began a lifelong bond between the two performers, who would co-star in numerous TV specials; in fact, Diller would be featured in every Bob Hope Christmas Special from 1965 through 1994. At the height of the Vietnam war in 1966, Diller joined Hope's USO troupe overseas.

As her star rose, husband Sherwood managed her career, though the relationship broke down and the couple divorced in 1965. By this point, however, Sherwood had become a staple of her act, as she made jokes about a husband named "Fang," while she smoked from a exaggerated cigarette holder -- which would become the comedienne's signature prop, paried with her increasingly outlandish wardrobe and hairstyles. Soon after her divorce, she married Ward Donovan, whom she met while appearing on stage in "Wonderful Town". Worth noting is the fact that Joan Rivers was one of her writers at this period in her career.

In the late 1960s, she starred in a pair of short-lived series, "The Pruitts of Southampton" and variety show "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show", though she found her greatest success elsewhere, from her continued guest appearances on talk, variety, and game shows. Toward the end of the decade, she began a successful string of guest spots on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In". Harkening back to her film debut, she gained notices for her work in the drama The Adding Machine with Milo O'Shea.

For three months, at the start of the 1970s, she appeared on Broadway in "Hello, Dolly!", stepping in for Carol Channing. On TV, she frequented on Dean Martin's celebrity roast specials and "the Mike Douglas Show". She cut hit comedy records, published her first books, and continued working the stand-up circuit. A new source of laughs -- her own plastic surgery -- stood in humorous contrast with other Hollywood performers.

Her on-screen career began to wane in late in the decade and into the 1980s, with guest appearances on "The Love Boat", "Celebrity Hot Potato", and a revamped version of "Hollywood Squares".

In the 1990s, roles in B movies Dr. Hackenstein and Silence of the Hams were minor cultural blips, but in 1998 she regained the spotlight for her voice role as the Queen ant in the second Pixar movie, A Bug's Life. She also had a recurring role on "The Bold and the Beautiful". A year later, she suffered a heart attack and was fitted with a pacemaker.

By 2002 she mostly retired from the stage and screen, though she appeared in the 2005 documentary The Aristocrats, notable because Diller, who steered clear of graphic material, did not recite the content of the famous dirty joke. An autobiography, Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse, was published that same year; in 2006, a DVD version of the project was released, and she voiced several roles for "Robot Chicken" and, later, "Family Guy". She cameoed in 2007 on "Boston Legal" as a supposed lover of William Shatner's Denny Crane. A planned appearance later in the year for her 90th birthday on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" was canceled when she fractured her back.

Diller was a long-time member of the Society of Singers, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping singers in need. Two cities proclaimed "Phyllis Diller Day"s: Philadelphia (2001) and San Francisco (2006).

She is survived by daughters Sally and Suzanne and son Perry.

Comedian, actress, artist, and author Phyllis Diller died Monday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 95.

“She was a true pioneer,” Diller’s longtime agent Fred Wostbrock told EW. “She was the first lady of stand up comedy. She paved the way for everybody. And she conquered television, movies, Broadway, record albums, nightclubs, books, and radio. She did it all. A true pioneer.”

The housewife-turned-advertising copywriter and mother of six got her big showbiz break in 1955 at the age of 37 when the owner of San Francisco’s now-defunct Purple Onion nightclub gave her a substitute stand-up spot one night.

Another sad Hollywood obituary today: TMZ is reporting that legendary comedienne Phyllis Diller has passed away. Diller broke new ground for women in comedy when her spunky, self-deprecating stand-up career (complete with a contagious cackle of a laugh) took off in the sixties; she also appeared in films like Splendor in the Grass, A Bug's Life, and The Aristocrats and, in addition to starring in two TV shows of her own and several Bob Hope specials, she frequently made cameos in TV series such as Boston Legal, Robot Chicken, and Family Guy. Diller was 95 years old.

Comedian Phyllis Diller -- who paved the way for today's female comics -- died this morning, TMZ has learned.Sources close to Diller tell us the comedian died in her sleep at her L.A. home, surrounded by family. She was 95.We're told Diller had recently fallen, hurting her wrist and hip -- but her rep says the injury had nothing to do with her death.Diller suffered a heart attack in 1999 and was later fitted with a pacemaker.

Legendary comedian Phyllis Diller passed away this morning at her home in Los Angeles, TMZ reports. She was 95 years old and spent the last six decades working in Hollywood. One of the first female standup comedians, Diller's work has graced both the big and small screens. Her theatrical appearances include her debut in Elia Kazan's Splendor in the Grass , work opposite longtime friend and collaborator Bob Hope in Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number , as the voice of the ant Queen in Disney/Pixar's A Bug's Life and, recently, as herself in the documentary The Aristocrats . Diller's television work includes her own series, "The Pruitts of Southampton" and "The Beautiful Phyllis Diller Show" as well as roles in series like "The Bold and the...

Stanhope claims he's come to roast our pieties on a spit, and delights in his own nasty truths – but there are ideas behind the offensiveness

Title: Deadbeat Hero

Date: 2004

The set-up: What is standup comedy for? Doug Stanhope has prowled around that question for over 20 years. Certainly he's funny, sometimes, but he also brings a mission to the stage – maybe to promote his politics (individualist anarchism, roughly), or maybe just to make himself feel better. If it's the latter, it clearly doesn't work.

Despite his boyish manner, he has the reputation of a transgressive preacher-man, come to roast our pieties on spits. He drinks, he smokes, he belches on stage – he has even taken ecstasy on stage – and he delights in introducing audiences to truths so nasty they must either have their minds expanded, or walk away. "When I go on stage, it's like I'm leading you into battle," he...

The last announcement for films screening at the upcoming Fantasia International Film Festival was so huge you may have missed that Teller's Play Dead will be making its world premiere at the Fest. In honor of the occasion, a trailer for the film has arrived.

From the Press Release:

Teller, the smaller, quieter half of Penn & Teller, will have the world premiere of his performance film of Play Dead, the Off-Broadway horror hit starring Todd Robbins, on Friday, July 27th, at Montreal’s 2012 Fantasia International Festival. Teller and Robbins will both attend.

In this “wild, wicked… gleefully grotesque orgy of death and fright” (New York Times), Robbins talks to the dead, murders audience members, evokes the ghosts of psycho-killers, and plunges the screaming, laughing theater audience into total darkness among glowing ghouls and howling demons (“the perfect excuse to grope your date...” – actor Neil Patrick Harris).

This feature film...

It's not easy to put together a top 100 of just about anything, but the folks over at Yahoo! Movies have really thrown down the gauntlet this time with a list of the 100 Funniest Movies to See Before You Die. In describing the list, they maintain that their goal was to choose the "funniest" movies out there, not necessarily the "best" comedies. With that in mind, you might think they'd stay away from critically acclaimed classics and lean more toward low brow, quick and easy laughfests. But you'd be wrong. There are a lot of classics on this list, everything from The Apartment to Dr. Strangelove to Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and Buster Keaton's The General. There are also movies on here that aren't really "comedies" per se, such as Pulp Fiction and Martin Scorsese's After Hours. More than anything, this serves as a reminder that what is...

Looking for Lenny

Directed by Elan Gale

2011, USA, 70 mins.

Director Elan Gale has a point to make, and it is this: the reason people like me are allowed to write ‘fuck’ in a social context without fear of repercussion is because people like Lenny Bruce did it first and suffered the repercussions for us. Gale isn’t alone. His film, Looking for Lenny, is filled with comedians (like Lewis Black, Robin Williams, and Phyllis Diller) and, for lack of a better phrase, social ne’er-do-wells (like Hugh Hefner and Ron Jeremy) who make the same point. They are compelling, and I am convinced – but the film is much more than a biography. Looking for Lenny expounds on the subject of political correctness and censorship, and discusses Michael Richard’s racist rant and Don Imus’s firing. Through it all, Lenny Bruce himself remains something of an elusive figure in his own documentary.

Roadrunner Comedy is excited to announce that premiere comedian Doug Stanhope will be releasing new live CD/DVD package Oslo: Burning The Bridge To Nowhere on May 3rd, 2011. This is Roadrunner Comedy.s first release.

Recorded in an abandoned factory in the Grünerløkka suburb of Oslo, Norway, the performance is as spontaneous and unhinged as anything Stanhope has ever done. Originally a sewing machine factory converted to a German WWII bunker, the setting forOslo is anything but conventional. Whereas most comedy specials are filmed on an elaborate stage, Stanhope and Nikon Norway filled a dilapidated industrial space with lights and folding chairs, ultimately allowing the material be the focus of this release.

Oslo.s madcap backdrop mimics the process that led to the recording: Bjorn Opsahl, one of Norway.s most notorious photographers, planned only to do a portrait session with Stanhope in Long Beach. The shoot went so well...

With a new documentary about the life of Bill Hicks opening in New York City this weekend, it seemed like a good time to dig deeper into the world of documentaries about stand-up comedians. And, pending an thorough examination, this is what we found: there aren't a lot of good ones. Obviously there are plenty of concert films of stand-ups, just not a ton of docs about stand-ups, and most of the ones that do exist aren't very good. "American," which is smartly edited and constructed, is a fine exception. Here are five more:

"The Comedians of Comedy" (2005)

Directed by Michael Blieden

As "The Comedians of Comedy" opens, Patton Oswalt talks about one of the worst gigs of his life: Yuk-a-Buck Night, six comedians, six bucks, one comedy club. Places like that Yuk-a-Buck joint, with their lowest common denominator expectations and two drink minimums, are the reason Oswalt gathered together Brian Posehn,...