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At Least The Roast Of Mr. Peanut Was On Brand?

Recapping the comedians of this year’s Super Bowl commercials and the rest of the news for the week ending Feb. 12, 2023

This week’s top story, right after this important commercial for my own dang business!

Also: I’ll be in LA later this week — I know The Ice House is conveniently re-opening the day after I arrive in Pasadena — but if you want me to see your show or if you want me to interview you for my podcast, please let me know!

Super Bowl Ads…Roasted

There were plenty of comedians and comedic actors shilling all sorts of things during this year’s Super Bowl telecast on FOX.

The most underwhelming, for me, anyhow, came from Dunkin with Ben Affleck manning the drive-thru and a cameo from J-Lo at the end. Would much rather re-watch Ben’s bro Casey’s SNL Dunkin spoof, or even better, David Letterman’s past pranks at fast-food drive-thru windows.

My favorite surprise (non-comedian edition) came upon learning an actual friend of mine from my neighborhood provided the voice-over at the end of that is-it-Coors-Light-or-Lite-nope-it’s-Blue-Moon commercial. Congrats, Emily!

My favorite actual surprise (comedian edition) came from E*Trade, not only catching up with their trademark baby, who somehow has only grown to toddler size, but still is voiced by Pete Holmes — now joined by another toddler voiced by Roy Wood Jr., as well as grown-up DC Pierson.

The full Roast of Mr. Peanut runs almost 12 minutes, which makes me wonder how much they actually filmed in the room. An hour? Two hours? Either way, spare me the QR codes, and just watch the “extended cut” via YouTube now if you like! With nutty zingers from Atsuko Okatsuka, David Lucas, Yamaneika Saunders, Sarah Tiana, Natasha Leggero and Frank Castillo, too.

Other funny people in this year’s Super Bowl ads included: Ben Stiller, Rachel Dratch and Steve Martin for Pepsi Zero; Kevin Hart in whatever he’s selling at this point, because they all blur together now; Will Ferrell shilling electric for GMC but also Netflix; Jason Jones shilling electric for Dodge Ram; Amy Schumer for Google Pixel 7; Maya Rudolph for M&Ms; Danny McBride for Downy; Pete Davidson eating Brie (Larson) and (Jon) Hamm for Hellman’s; and a sweet Lenny Clarke cameo in a Sam Adam’s ad during halftime.

Super Serious News For Comedians

Zeinab Mousavi, an Iranian comedian with almost a half-million Instagram followers, was still hoping for a last-minute pardon over the weekend — Iranian authorities had arrested Mousavi back in October, held her in solitary for 25 days before releasing her, then handed down a two-year prison sentence in December. All because she criticized the Islamic Republic’s rules for mandatory hijab wear for girls and women. Unless we do something, she’ll be forced to surrender later this month.

Back here in the United States, Olivia Grace hopes you’ll support her as she struggles to deal with endometriosis. Her GoFundMe page is here.

Niccole Thurman got into a bad car wreck last week, breaking her back and keeping her laid up in the hospital over the weekend (she can catch you up via Instagram Stories). Thurman, a former guest on my podcast, writer for such series as Sherman’s Showcase and Baking It, correspondent on The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, and voice on Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out the News and Jellystone, should recover, but she definitely could use some of your love and support!

And finally, Maria Bamford has launched a new Kickstarter to see if she can crowdfund her next video series. She explains: “Noooo-CD is a 3 episode (and in the future up to 12 episode series, dependent on audience interest) semi-autobiographical comedy series about a my journey through Intrusive Thoughts OCD. The series will be made very slowly, over a period of a year as VSC (Very Slow Content AKA Slow Business). What’s it like? Well, the pilot is COMPLETED and you can watch it now at mariabamford.com/nocd!”

This Week’s Viral Video

This guy may or may not be an actual comedian, but his “social experiments” are designed to be uplifting, and he fell into a priceless gem with this stunt in which he pretended to be scared of an escalator — only to be saved by a man and his son, who just so happens to be Batman! xoxo 45.7 million views in week on TikTok!

Breaking News! Tina and Amy going on tour!?!?

Live Nation just announced it: Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will embark on their first-ever live tour together — Tina Fey & Amy Poehler: Restless Leg Tour. The limited run of East Coast shows happens this spring, “where fans will see the duo celebrate their thirty years of friendship with an evening of jokes, iconic stories and conversational entertainment.” Pre-sales begin Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 10 a.m. local time, including an artist pre-sale with code RESTLESS. General sale begins Friday, Feb. 17 at 10 a.m. local time on ticketmaster.com. For more info: tinaamytour.com.

AMY POEHLER & TINA FEY: RESTLESS LEG TOUR DATES:

  • Fri Apr 28 – Washington, DC – DAR Constitution Hall

  • Sat May 20 – Chicago, IL – The Chicago Theatre

  • Fri Jun 09 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway

  • Sat Jun 10 – Atlantic City, NJ – Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena

Louisiana Offers Comedy Prize?

The Prize Foundation is offering a $2,500 “Comedy Prize” and you’ve got some time to mull it over before deciding whether to enter to win.

TDS FYI

Sarah Silverman is guest-hosting this week on The Daily Show, but coming up after a break, Comedy Central has announced the following folks in rotation: Hasan Minhaj (week of Feb. 27); Marlon Wayans (week of March 6); Kal Penn (week of March 13); Al Franken (week of March 20); and John Leguizamo (week of March 27).

Industry News and Notes

  • CBS reportedly plans on rebooting the former Comedy Central late-night show @Midnight but without Chris Hardwick, and to replace The Late Late Show when James Corden leaves this summer, so it won’t be at midnight, either. STAY TUNED?!?!?!

  • TMZ waded into a beef of George Lopez’s making against Ralph Barbosa for some reason? 

  • Does Hollywood have its own “Transfer Window” now? Uncoupled, cancelled by Netflix, gets a second season on Showtime; while Ripley, axed by Showtime, will now debut on Netflix? Armando Iannucci’s Avenue 5, however, will be going nowhere after two seasons on HBO, and Reboot won’t get rebooted after getting the boot from Hulu. Hulu has picked up the U.S. rights to air British horror-comedy Wreck.

  • Stephen Colbert Presents Tooning Out The News has received a 12-episode extension on its third season into May, which now airs on Comedy Central after The Daily Show. It previously aired only on Paramount+.

  • Colin Hanks is directing, with Ryan Reynolds producing, a documentary for Amazon Prime Video about the late great John Candy!

  • Craig Ferguson has a deal with iHeartRadio to launch a new podcast called Joy.

  • CBS ordered a multi-cam pilot for Damon Wayans and his son Damon Wayans Jr. in which “legendary talk radio host and happily divorced “Poppa” (Damon Sr.) has his point of view challenged at work when a new female co-host is hired, and at home where he finds himself still parenting his adult son (Damon Jr.), a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.”

  • NBC ordered a pilot for St. Denis, “a mockumentary about an underfunded, understaffed Oregon hospital where the dedicated doctors and nurses try their best to treat patients while maintaining their own sanity.” From Justin Spitzer and Eric Ledgin.

  • John Cleese and his daughter Camilla are rebooting Fawlty Towers, only it won’t be on the BBC and will relocate to a boutique hotel in the Caribbean. The Cleeses are developing the new spin with Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock.

  • RIP Scott Satin. Scott Satin, a television producer with credits on “Funny You Should Ask” and “Most Outrageous Moments,” died Thursday after a years-long battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). He was 64 years old.

    Satin created the NBC clip show “Most Outrageous Moments.” Narrated by John Cramer, the series ran for four seasons from 2005 to 2009.

    In more recent years, Satin partnered with Byron Allen on the comedy series “The First Family” and “Mr. Box Office,” on which he served as both writer and executive producer. Satin also earned credits on “World’s Funniest Weather” and “Funny You Should Ask,” which remains in syndication with over 200 episodes.

    Satin first collaborated with Allen on “The Byron Allen Show” in the 1990s. After beginning his career with “Square One Television” and “Mathnet,” Satin rounded into form with his work with Allen, along with credits on programs such as “Hollywood Squares,” “Big Deal,” “The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show” and the Game Show Network’s revival of “The Gong Show,” titled “Extreme Gong.”

Last Week’s Specials

New on Netflix

New on HBO Max

New on Moment

New on YouTube (self-released unless otherwise noted; excluding old specials released on the platform, and anything under a half-hour)

New on Amazon (for rent/sale)

THIS WEEK: 10 (Previous subtotal: 45) Running total for 2023: 55 stand-up specials!

*not counting specials released elsewhere before 2023

Late-Night Roundup

Fun Things To Do In NYC

This week’s show(s) I plugged in The New York Times: For Valentine’s Day, Tess Tregellas, a video producer at Betches hosted “My Life as a Rom-Com,” a variety show at Caveat on Saturday that makes light of societal pressures to meet-cute. And if you missed the latest installment of “Tinder Live With Lane Moore” on Saturday at Littlefield, but want to swipe at singles on Tuesday night, Moore will also do a Valentine’s Day livestream of “Tinder Live” on the Moment platform.

Would you like to promote your comedy show or album or special or whatnot on this newsletter???

You can plug your projects in the comments if you’re a PAID SUBSCRIBER of Piffany! Or, if you’d rather have me include your project in the body of the weekly From The Comic’s Comic roundup, please let me know and we can work out the details.

Thanks for reading!

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