photo by Michelle Watt In celebration of their 40th anniversary, Sesame Street’s most popular monster, Elmo, ruined Ricky Gervais’ sold out New York Comedy Festival show at Carnegie Hall by appearing with him in a musical finale. Oh, we’re kidding. That little red terror didn’t ruin anything; it was simply adorable! Decked out in tuxes, the pair sang “New York, New York,” while traditional New York City images flashed behind them. Now, you might think this in an odd pairing, but it turns out... Read Full Story

It’s about time. Comedy Central has just announced that they’ve ordered a pilot from The Onion for a half hour series based on their Onion Sports Network web videos. According to the lovely press release, “The as-yet untitled series will take on the whole universe of modern sports – teams, players, leagues, sycophantic fans, ridiculous products and over-hyped sports coverage – with an eye towards appealing to sports fanatics and more casual fans, as well as long-time followers of The Onion a... Read Full Story

Warm up your iTunes and iPods for next week, comedy fans! Or just go to wtfpod.com. Marc Maron will welcome a stellar lineup of guests next week on his incredibly popular new podcast WTF. Get this: Janeane Garofalo, Zach Galifianakis and Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac will all join Maron in his quest to find hope and truth. And failing that, we promise many laughs will be had. If you haven’t been checking out the podcast, we strongly encourage you to do so. If you need to catch u... Read Full Story

Eddie Izzard says there's nothing wrong with performing stand-up comedy in arenas. In a new interview on WalesOnline, Eddie Izzard, in addition to asking us in the States to please believe that he’s a transvestite – despite his many manly roles in Hollywood the last few years – defends his decision to perform stand-up comedy in large arenas, as opposed to more intimate venues. Many comedy purists believe that stand-up comedy should always be presented in a room with no more than 300 to 3... Read Full Story

You can catch Mike Epps’ new stand-up comedy special Under Rated & Never Faded: Live From Detroit three more times on Showtime, if you keep incredibly late hours, or if you have one of those newfangled DVR devices. Or you can just try to win one of two copies Punchline Magazine is giving away. Simply send us an email at contest [at] punchlinemagazine [dot] com with the subject line EPPS and include your full name and address. The first readers to send us this message will win a cop... Read Full Story

Happy 50th anniversary, Second City, the comedic birthplace of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell and the best comedy troupe evah: John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O’Hara, Harold Ramis, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, and Eugene Levy, here spoofing Perry Como, the apparently chloroformed crooner, so he probably didn’t even feel the needling. Recently named one of the best 20 comedians in Chicago by Comedy.com, Cameron E... Read Full Story

Authorities are trying to track down Salt Lake City stand-up comedian Scotty Lee, who’s wanted on child pornography charges. According to a report on the city’s local news site, police planned on arresting him Friday but Lee – real name: Scott Lee Russell – has so far eluded them. KSL.com reports: Layton police Lt. James Petre said, “We have a warrant issued for Mr. Lee in May of this year. We had a case come in last year in which we learned he was involved in a relationship when he wa... Read Full Story

This morning on Sirius XM’s Opie and Anthony radio show, comedian Bill Burr examined the Yankees’ Word Series victory last night– the franchise’s 27th in history. And by “examined,” we, of course, mean “shit all over.” Two warnings before you listen: First, it’s not safe for work. Second, if you don’t follow sports, you may not get all the player references. Enjoy. And, in the event, you haven’t seen Burr’s now legendar... Read Full Story

It’s that time of year again when 32 of the world’s top ranked comics compete in the Seattle International Comedy Competition. Now in its 30th year, the SICC kicks off tonight at the Columbia City Theater where the first round of 16 comics will vie for 5 spots in the semi-finals; the rest will go home. “I have been producing this event for 15 of its 30 years,” says SICC producer, Ron Reid. “The most rewarding part about it for me is seeing how it has developed f... Read Full Story

WitStream, the new Twitter-like site that focuses on the tweets of comedians, enjoyed a festive launch on Monday night at Comix in New York City. Michael Ian Black, who co-founded the site, hosted the show. He was also on-hand throughout, critiquing the live feed of his peers’ WitSream one-liners from a laptop at the side of the stage. He also gave the best explanation of WitStream I’ve heard so far: “It’s like Twitter, but without most of the people.” The show featured stand-up from some of... Read Full Story