The Vagina Gonzalogues

The Louis C.K./Nick DiPaolo Fight Was Staged...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:58:25 -0500

It wasn’t necessarily meant as a publicity stunt. It was filmed in a closed set (that restaurant that is part of The Comedy Cellar). An extra just posted it and passed it off as real. Here’s the info, straight from C.K.

Here’s what happened. Nick and I were shooting scenes for my FX show yesterday. The episode we were shooting involves Nick and I getting in a political argument that gets ugly. We shot this scene in the Olive Tree Cafe, upstairs from the Comedy Cellar. The Olive Tree was closed at the time and only serving as our set. It’s interesting because my idea was to make this feel real. The lines were scripted but Nick and I tried to make it feel harsh and upsetting.

Anyway, there were some extras on the set. I know they like to be called “background” but in light of this event, I don’t give a shit what they want to be called. So there was one extra on the set, a person who we hired and paid to be part of the show, who recorded our dialogue on some kind of device and posted it on his twitter, saying it was a real fight. He even took a picture of me while I was napping during lunch and said it was me after the fight. Again, this was not a fan who recorded a show of mine or a person who stole a moment of real life and posted it. Both of those things happen. This was a guy who is a professional actor, who was under our employ and supposedly helping us with our project in exchange for pay, who took some of our creative property, copywritten unfinished material, and put it out into the world before the show itself airs. Obviously, I’m pissed off.

So he posted it, then another guy, who took it as real, because he said it was, posted it on youtube. The youtube poster was contacted by me and the show staff and took it down immediately, but not before Howard Stern had played the clip this morning.

Anyway, I’m happy that we played the scene real enough for folks to believe it, but it’s a drag to have this contamination of the project. Everything in the show should be unexpected and certainly this was supposed to be. It also is irritating because Nick and I both went to extreme political sides to make the argument work. Nick has a lot of admiration for Obama but has some realistically conservative concerns about him. He hates drippy liberals, and who doesn’t, and he’s not a republican. He’s Liberaterian and proabably knows how to spell it. For my part, I think that there are too many jews in America. Otherwise I’m politically neutral. No. Kidding. In the clip, I said that republicans are nazis. I don’t believe that for a second. But I do think Republicans are all faggots and piss-bananas. whatever. Nick and I have been friends for about twenty three years. We have never agreed politically but we are able to hear each other and be friends. This episode is sort of about that, and other things. And it’s about your mother’s cunt. That’s right, you, whoever you are, reading this, my show is all about your mother’s cunt. But it’s totally positive. It’s like an homage to your mother’s cunt.

LCK

"…for anyone who loves television, who adores it with the possessive and defensive eyes of a fan,..."

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:31:10 -0500

“…for anyone who loves television, who adores it with the possessive and defensive eyes of a fan, this was most centrally and importantly the first decade when television became recognizable as art, great art: collectible and life-changing and transformative and lasting. As the sixties are to music and the seventies to movies, the aughts—which produced the best and worst shows in history—were to TV. It was a period of exhilarating craftsmanship and formal experimentation, accompanied by spurts of anxious grandiosity…”

- Emily Nussbaum in this NY Mag article. (via gonzaloisgod)

This is the thing that everybody has been saying ad nauseum (seriously, stop now) but it is still very much true. The only thing Emily Nussbaum gets wrong is that she ought to be calling this last decade “the Naughties” like all the cool kids are doing.

(via bryanmckay)

Would you say the argument is being repeated ad nussbeum? (Because the writer of that piece is named Emily Nussbaum and it is a pun I made up. I’ll be in the corner now, sorry).

Also, I think within blogging circles it has been said a lot, but not really outside of the internet. Also, it has been said a handful of times, but I don’t think very many people have written intelligently and analytically yet. It’s mostly just observatory. Either way, this article is worth a read. As they say in New Hampshire, “READ FREE OR DIE!”

"…for anyone who loves television, who adores it with the possessive and defensive eyes of a..."

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:51:42 -0500

I'm so angry at myself for not seeing Louis C.K. last night...

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:41:00 -0500

He was taping the stand-up segments of his upcoming show on FX and I decided to skip it because tapings can be pretty tough. But now I hear he got into a fistfight with Nick DiPaolo. I would have loved to have seen that.

UPDATE: If anyone can track down the audio that is circulating online, I will kiss you if you direct me to it. YouTube took it down.

[via AST]

This cats worst than my ex-wife, right guys?! RIGHT?!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:02:59 -0500

This cats worst than my ex-wife, right guys?! RIGHT?!

whatevs: Ever since seeing him bomb in spectacular fashion at...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:14:36 -0500

whatevs:

Ever since seeing him bomb in spectacular fashion at Bonnaroo this year, I have been obsessed with Kumail Nanjiani. Despite his meltdown in the Tennessee heat that day, he’s easily one of my favorite comedians of the moment. Last night, a crew of us (Keanesian, Lindsayism, ConnieNYC, GabeGum, Edith) caught his set at Sara Schaefer’s GET OFF YOUR KNEES night at the Bell House in which he told an epic and hilarious story about how John Mayer interrupted his set and heckled him with semi-racist taunts at the Slipper Room recently. I don’t think that I quite captured how hilarious his story was (a friend just told me that “this entire post is you blowing undeserving people”), but either way, here’s my writeup of comedy’s hottest beef over on Vulture.

He’s told that story a few times since the incident I believe. It is definitely worth trying to catch him now while he’s still doing it becasue it’s fucking hilarious.

I just coined the phrase 'mindblogging..."

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:21:01 -0500

As in, “This video of a cat riding a skateboard while lipsynching to ‘Tonight’s Going to Be a Good Night,’ is mindbloggingly good.”

You are welcome.

joemande: nickkroll: Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 10:37:50 -0500

joemande:

nickkroll:

Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby Bottleservice’s audition tape for “The Jersey Shore”.

Come on, MTV. At least let The Service host the inevitable Jersey Shore live after-show specials.

Patient: Hello, hilarity, I want ten cc’s of LOLs.

Doctor: Here is that LOL injection you ordered, officer chuckles.

comedycentral: For no good reason, here’s Louis CK in 1993....

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:56:36 -0500

comedycentral:

For no good reason, here’s Louis CK in 1993. More hair, in a suit, just as funny. And he’s only 26!

Another.

I think you mean, for all the good reasons.

David Letterman tackles his first affair jokes after his own...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:49:56 -0500

David Letterman tackles his first affair jokes after his own scandal with the Tiger Woods debacle. At least he’s not relying on old tired jokes and puns now that he has to find a new angle.

Please stop calling other people "bennies"

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:13:52 -0500

rachelstein:

Why would a person choose to live in a place that notoriously has a high population of tourists if they hate tourists? And why are people so upset about how other tourists choose to vacation? A bunch of my Facebook friends are joining Dear MTV, This is the REAL Jersey Shore (A Social Movement), a group where people post pictures of their lives at the beach and use crappy image editing software to write “This is the real Jersey Shore” on photos of themselves in bikinis, “naturally” tanning. I just don’t understand what these people are defending or why everyone is so upset about a stupid, over-produced, (and most importantly) self-aware reality show about a subculture of people who also like to vacation at the beach.

These sorts of groups are so strangely high-and-mighty and their argument is not unlike Sarah Palin’s “real America” concept:

“We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these wonderful little pockets of what I call the “real America,” being here with all of you hard working very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation.

Give me a break. We all visit other places and support their economies through tourism. I think it’s also interesting to note that New Jersey beaches (including Seaside) are not wonderful public space that guidos are destroying. Instead, they are private institutions (yes, you have to pay $5 for entry) that have historically been polluted by medical waste, fecal bacteria and stormwater runoff, not young people on vacation.

My friend Rachel is smart with her smart words.

Canon? I just met her.

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:58:58 -0500

skybarn:

I’m more interested in the “best of the decade” lists than I thought I would be. I have a theory, and I’m not sure it’s playing out, that critical consensus broke down some time around 2005-when the taste-making (mmmm tastymakes) industry fell apart because websites and what the kids call “blogs” (pronounced “johgging”) started to break down the critical power structure. When I was growing up, you actually had to pay attention to whatever vaunted publication or critic thought were the best movies, books, plays… because it established what was worthy and what wasn’t. It didn’t matter if it was right or wrong. I think my own disgust at Richard Brody’s “Best of The Decade List” was not just that I found it limited and precious, but that it was from The New Yorker and that used to mean more than it does now. But really, that was just a list of movies that a guy liked and it’s no different than anyone else with a blog who just wants to be honest about what he liked, which is the whole point of art anyway. Pauline Kael, who was hated by a lot of New Yorker readers and other critics because she did just that, once asked “If art isn’t entertainment, what is it? Punishment?”. I think we’ve (especially the olds) have been trained way too long to masochistic readers/watchers. Hopefully, this will be the last decade that’s true.

Amen.

So, can I share with you guys...

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:33:42 -0500

Some nights are about staying in and watching a movie, but tonight was not.

I can’t tell you about my night, because my eyes and ears still haven’t told my brain, but I had a very surreal night.

Indeed, a very surreal night…

Louis C.K.'s Concert Film 'Hilarious' Is Premiering At Sundance

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:56:56 -0500

Louis C.K.'s Concert Film 'Hilarious' Is Premiering At Sundance:

Is this the first stand-up film to do so?

Yes, it is. AMAZING!

I hope hope hope it gets a theatrical release.

Friendster has rebranded itself as a new teen show on The N.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:17:35 -0500

Friendster has rebranded itself as a new teen show on The N.

This is amazing. These guys got that B-Roll!

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:00:38 -0500

This is amazing. These guys got that B-Roll!

"Right from the beginning, I wanted the laughs. I wasn’t going to waste a minute setting things up...."

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:42:58 -0500

“Right from the beginning, I wanted the laughs. I wasn’t going to waste a minute setting things up. But Carl loved that job. I think today, Stephen Colbert does that beautifully. He plays this kind of naïve far-right Republican, and he plays it so earnestly and so naïvely, just the way Carl would play it with me and the 2,000-Year-Old Man.”

- Mel Brooks, in his interview with the AV Club, heaped some praise on Stephen Colbert.

SNL's Current Writing Staff

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:01:15 -0500

Some of the people up top aren’t really part of the day-to-day writing staff (Michaels, Downey, Smigel, Higgens, and Pell. Is that right?), but I believe they are credited, so I included them. I compiled this from IMDB for something I was working on:

Lorne Michaels         (574 episodes, 1975-2009)
James Downey         (494 episodes, 1977-2009)
Robert Smigel         (442 episodes, 1985-2009)
Steve Higgins         (273 episodes, 1995-2009)
Paula Pell         (260 episodes, 1995-2009)
James Anderson         (177 episodes, 2000-2009)
Erik Kenward         (176 episodes, 2000-2009)
Doug Abeles         (157 episodes, 2001-2009)
Emily Spivey         (157 episodes, 2001-2009)
John Lutz         (117 episodes, 2003-2009)
Perry Sachs         (90 episodes, 2004-2009)
Colin Jost         (77 episodes, 2005-2009)
Seth Meyers         (77 episodes, 2005-2009)
Bryan H. Tucker         (76 episodes, 2005-2009)
Akiva Schaffer         (74 episodes, 2005-2009)
Jorma Taccone         (73 episodes, 2005-2009)
Marika Sawyer         (58 episodes, 2006-2009)
John Solomon         (58 episodes, 2006-2009)
Kent Sublette         (40 episodes, 2007-2009)
Simon Rich         (38 episodes, 2007-2009)
Jessica Conrad         (26 episodes, 2008-2009)
John Mulaney         (26 episodes, 2008-2009)
Rob Klein         (14 episodes, 2007-2009)
Jillian Bell         (4 episodes, 2009)
Hannibal Buress         (4 episodes, 2009)
Christine Nangle         (4 episodes, 2009)
Michael Patrick O’Brien         (4 episodes, 2009)
Ryan Perez         (4 episodes, 2009)
Danielle Kasen         (3 episodes, 2009)

I realized there was no place online where all the current writing staff was compiled into one list, so I went to the trouble.

Also, add Jessi Klein to the list as of this week.

I am not sure if I am impressed or worried that a human being...

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:35:42 -0500

I am not sure if I am impressed or worried that a human being spent time making this.

I Review Old Dogs Without Seeing Even A Bit Of It

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:45:53 -0500

Woof! Old Dogs is a doggone mess.

This barker should be put to sleep.

They really should have let sleeping dogs lie.

Some dogs eat poop, this dog projects it onto a theater screen and forces us to watch it.

This dog is broken.

This pooch has cancer and should be taken to a vet.

Give a dog a bone, but don’t give it Old Dogs, guys!

This movie made me think, “Cat’s rule, dogs drool!”

It’s a dog eat dog world, and I wish a dog would eat all the prints of Old Dogs.

Shoot this Old Yeller in the neck please!

This dog isn’t rabid, it’s fucking boring.

I wish Atticus Finch would put this movie out of it’s misery.