Friday, December 21, 2007

News of the Day

+ Former Park Bench Nerd Men of the Month Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert will be returning to the airwaves on Jan. 7, following other late night hosts like Letterman, Leno and Conan. I have no idea what they're going to do without their writers -- read the real news? I've got my Wolf Blitzer action figure for that. Apparently, Stewart and Colbert aren't quite sure what they're going to do either, judging by the joint statement they released on Thursday: "We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence."

+ Wow, I totally call bullshit on this news story from the BBC citing recent research that says "men are naturally more comedic than women because of the male hormone testosterone." My penchant for comfortable shoes already makes me feel manish enough, and now I've got this hanging over my head?

+ And finally, manishly funny Tina Fey has been named one of the most influential women of 2007 by MSN. Yeah, suck on that, science. Why don't you go play with your glow in the dark cats while we turn our backs on evolution to spite you?

+ The Judd Apatow backlash has begun! Of course, this backlash is a guffaw-worthy backlash because Apatow conjured it himself. And yes, it's pretty much just an ad for "Walk Hard," but it's worth it just to see Paul Rudd and Justin Long playing Rock Band. (Not safe for work.)



+ The Aaron Sorkin/Mike Nichols/Tom Hanks flick, "Charlie Wilson's War" opens today. My love for Sorkin took a slight tumble after "Studio 60" but I'm prepared to love him all over if this movie lives up to my unreasonable expectations. I'm thinking it has to be good, though, considering this preview features music from both Scissor Sisters and Jimi Hendrix.

4 comments:

The Modern Gal said...

Men are more likely to find themselves funny because of testosterone. Not to mention I'm sure it was a man who did the research.

Anonymous said...

Well, there are female comedians (Judy Gold, Janeane Garofalo, etc.). I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of men learn to become funny to compensate for a lack of athletic ability, as a way to get girls. There isn't the same impetus for women.

Plus a lot of humor is displaced aggression. Ever watch a comic poke fun at the front row of the audience?

Liz said...

I agree with you SFG. That's my complaint with the research. I don't think you can say that testosterone accounts for humor. I think humor comes from, as you say, compensating and displaced aggression and insecurity, which is to say it's a learned skill, not necessarily a chemical one.

I guess I just want my insecurity to mean something! :-)

Anonymous said...

You want to become funny? You might just watch lots and lots of late-night comedians. Comedy Central standup, not just guys like Colbert and Stewart who have writers.

It's also possible they quoted the research out of context. The media likes to do that. Remember when they found a few hydrocarbons on that Martian rock and everyone said they had found life on Mars?