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Tag: comedy

  • Watching Theo Von Process a Very Long Week—and Year

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    “I think it’s been a lot of nerves this year, week.”

    After a couple of false starts at Manhattan’s Beacon Theater during a taping for an upcoming Netflix special, his first of two recordings on Saturday night, the comedian Theo Von was starting to find his rhythm. As a podcaster, Von has become in the last year a sought-out interviewer for A-list actors and musicians, and so recognizable as a political entity that the Department of Homeland Security momentarily made him the face of its immigration crackdown this week.

    “Heard you got deported dude, bye,” Von says in a clip included in a sizzle reel that the agency posted on X.

    “Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check,” Von wrote in response. “And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos. When it comes to immigration my thoughts and heart are alot more nuanced than this video allows. Bye!” (DHS soon removed the post.)

    Such are the complications of Von’s unusual and somewhat headspinning role in a new media mainstream. As the host of This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von, he had already established himself as a leading voice in the space when Donald Trump appeared on his show during his campaign last year. Soon, Von was attending the inauguration, having dinner with Jared Kushner and Ivanka in Miami and accompanying the president to Qatar to perform for U.S. servicemembers. (“I’m on TMZ right now having a bar fight in Nashville,” Von told the audience. “So I think you guys caught me on a tough week for peace, man.”)

    The searching, mystic quality of Von’s interview style brought something new out of Trump—a startled and seemingly genuine inquiry into the potency of cocaine. In his standup, though, Von is tasked with filling space rather than creating it. On stage, he was comparatively punchy, and aware that the crowd likely knew him first from his hours-long conversations on YouTube.

    “Most of y’all never seen me walk before,” Von said.

    He seemed jittery in a mullet, baggy camouflage pants, and Yeezy sneakers. After briefly taking the stage once, he abandoned the set and started over—only to pick a member of the audience to be kicked out and start over again. (It wasn’t clear from my seat nor from the heated discussion that played out afterwards in the r/TheoVon Reddit forum why this had happened. A representative for Von didn’t return a request for comment.) The crowd, populated by recurring pockets of backwards hats and golf polos and a sprinkling of tattooed interlopers, was predominantly but not exclusively male and not particularly raucous.

    “A lot of white people in here,” Von observed.

    As he settled in, he worked in his go-to veins: race, his childhood. Von grew up outside New Orleans and has said he was legally emancipated at 14 years old. “We didn’t have any Jews growing up,” he said on Saturday. “Couldn’t afford a Jew.” His comedy typically punches sideways, less moralistic or aggressive than personal. A Cold Stone Creamery where he worked as a teenager amid a band of misfits, he said, was the “Underground Railroad for autism.”

    Still, for all the hours of podcasting and stand-up, Von has maintained an elusiveness. It was difficult to imagine him processing on stage the influence and soft power he has acquired. Instead, as he approached the end of his set, he returned to a now-familiar mode of troubled vulnerability. Lacking love in both his childhood and adult life, Von said, “sometimes the only way I can feel is in front of other people.”

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    Dan Adler

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  • Pete Davidson Says Social Media “Can’t Wait” to Turn On Celebs Like Pedro Pascal

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    Pete Davidson knows a thing or two about the fickle nature of celebrity. While appearing on Theo Von’s podcast This Past Weekend, the SNL vet opened up about the negative side of being famous, using Eddington star Pedro Pascal as a prime example of the unpredictable nature of fame and how people “can’t wait” to turn on their favorite stars.

    Davidson highlighted Pascal’s journey from struggling actor to internet heartthrob, and the public’s subsequent reaction. “Fucking two years ago, he’s a hardworking, great actor,” Davidson said of Pascal. “Everyone was, like, ‘He’s worked so hard and has been a struggling actor.’ Fucking blows up so fucking hard. Everyone’s, like, ‘Daddy, daddy! Yeah, daddy, daddy.’ Then a year later, he’s in everything now because he’s hot and big—and everyone’s, like, ‘Go the fuck away, dude.’”

    “You got to give someone time to adjust to that new level of fame,” Davidson continued. “He’s been banging at it for 30 years, and now he’s learning how to go get a cup of coffee or, like, deal with someone that taps you on the shoulder while you have your earbuds in and freaks you out. You got to give that guy a fucking second to, like, adjust.”

    It sounds like Davidson is speaking from personal experience. The actor went from unknown comedian to overnight celebrity after being cast on Saturday Night Live and engaging in high-profile relationships with stars like Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale, and Kim Kardashian. Now, the 31-year-old is expecting his first child with his partner, model Elsie Hewitt.

    “It’s, like, we build everybody up. It’s, like, so fast to turn [on the celebrity],” Davidson said. Von concurred, adding: “The turn is crazy.” The comedian also has an idea of which beloved actor will be next to be put through the gauntlet of the internet. “They’re going to do it with Walton Goggins next,” Davidson said. “It’s, like, within months.”

    The story originally appeared in Vanity Fair España.

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    Marita Alonso

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  • 2026 Denver concert season taking shape: My Chemical Romance, Ed Sheeran and more

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    It’s not too early to start planning for 2026 concerts, given that tickets for some of these just-announced shows are already on sale as of this week. Here are seven big shows coming to metro Denver next year.

    Chris Pizzello, Invision/AP

    Cardi B performs at the BET Awards on Sunday, June 23, 2019, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

    Cardi B

    Bronx hip hop queen Cardi B is taking to the road for her new album “Am I the Drama?” with a March 9, 2026, concert scheduled for Ball Arena. Tickets for that Little Miss Drama tour stop are available as of Monday, Sept. 22 via ticketmaster.com.

    Yonder Mountain String Band

    Colorado bluegrass favorites Yonder Mountain String Band are set to play Frisco’s 10 Mile Music Hall (Jan. 8, 2026), followed by a two-night run in Denver at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, Jan. 9-10, 2026, as part of a winter tour that extends through March. Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 26, at etix.com. Prices are not yet available.

    Ed Sheeran

    British singer-songwriter Sheeran returns to Empower Field at Mile High on July 4, 2026, as part of his seemingly never-ending tour over the past three years (also part of the North American leg of his Loop Tour). The public on-sale period begins at 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 26, via promoter AEG Presents’ axs.com. Ticket prices were not immediately available.

    Ray LaMontagne

    The 20th anniversary of this singer-songwriter’s album, “Trouble,” arrived back in 2024, but LaMontagne is still plotting his “Trouble” shows with a sentimental Red Rocks Amphitheatre concert on Aug. 26, 2026, with opener Weather Station. Tickets, $80-$272, are on sale at axs.com.

    My Chemical Romance

    This pop-punk act is joining dozens of other big names in playing one of its classic albums all the way through on tour — in this case, the moody 2006 chart-topper “The Black Parade.” The band’s nostalgia run has a wide canvas, with an Aug. 27, 2026, concert already set for the 50,000-seat Coors Field, including opening act and ’90s trailblazers The Breeders, which is enjoying its own comeback in recent years. Tickets are on sale at noon on Friday, Sept. 26 via ticketmaster.com. Prices are not yet available.

    Wil Baptiste, left, and Kev Marcus are the classical/hip hop duo Black Violin. (Colin Brennan, provided by Gold Mountain Entertainment)
    Wil Baptiste, left, and Kev Marcus are the classical/hip hop duo Black Violin. (Colin Brennan, provided by Gold Mountain Entertainment)

    Black Violin

    Downtown Denver’s historic Paramount Theatre already has an impressive 20 comedy, touring-celeb and music shows (including ABBA and Bee Gees tribute acts) booked for 2026. But our current favorite is Black Violin, the classical-meets-hip-hop duo of Lauderdale, Fla.’s Kev Marcus and Wil B. The act plays on April 21, 2026; tickets, $48.70, are on sale at ticketmaster.com.

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    John Wenzel

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  • Best Bets: The Lehman Trilogy, Fiesta Sinfónica, and Manhattan Short Film Festival

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    It’s the last Best Bets of September, and the arts are in full swing around Houston. To close out the month, we’ve got an epic of a stage production, a celebration of Latin American and Hispanic composers, and a collection of the best short films you can find. Keep reading for these and everything else that makes our picks for the best of the week.


    On Friday, September 26, at 7 p.m. at Stages, you can see The Lehman Trilogy, which, adapted by Ben Power from Stefano Massini’s epic novel and play about the rise and fall of Lehman Brothers, covers 160 years and features over 70 characters. Orlando Arriaga, one of three actors in the production, told BroadwayWorld Houston, “There were a lot of characters to create but for most of them I came to an immediate decision on who they were and how I was going to present them. I didn’t bother with time periods because human beings deal with family, love and money pretty much the same since the beginning of time.” Performances will continue at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 7 p.m. Fridays, 1 and 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 1 p.m. Sundays through October 12. Tickets are available here for $25 to $109.

    When Alex Thompson’s short film Em & Selma Go Griffin Hunting screened at Sundance, the first frame, with its “so-real-you-can-touch-it CG image” of two griffins, “elicited gasps of amazement.” You can join film lovers from around the world to view and vote on the shorts featured in the 28th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival – including Thompson’s – at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on Thursday, September 25, at 7 p.m. Audience ballots will determine the winners of Best Film and Best Actor from the ten curated films, which come from seven different countries. The films will screen again at 7 p.m. Friday, September 26, and 2 p.m. Saturday, September 27, and Sunday, September 28. Tickets can be purchased here for $8 to $10, and get your tickets in advance; some screenings are likely to sell out.

    A string arrangement of Benjamin Britten’s 1932 Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, the sketch of which was only discovered more than 20 years after his death in 1976, will be the centerpiece of Kinetic’s season-opening concert, Notes Unspoken, at the MATCH on Friday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. The conductor-less ensemble will tackle Britten alongside Michael Torke‘s December, Libby Larsen’s String Symphony, and the world premiere of Rice University graduate Alex Berko’s Unstrung for string orchestration. Berko, who originally composed Unstrung for the Louisville Orchestra in 2024, has said the piece, “a deconstructed bluegrass tune,” was his attempt “as a new Kentucky resident and admirer of” the genre “to pay homage to the art form.” Tickets to the performance can be purchased here for $15 to $35.

    click to enlarge

    ROCO returns to Miller Outdoor Theatre to open their season on Friday.

    Photo by Rolando Ramon

    Four world premieres and a not-oft-heard symphony make up ROCO’s season-opening program, Feels Like Home, which you can hear on Friday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. when the chamber orchestra visits Miller Outdoor Theatre. The premieres, which will be performed alongside Emilie Mayer’s 1847 Symphony No. 4 in B minor, draw from various sources of inspiration, including husky rescues and a ROCO member’s work in hospice care. The performance is free, and you can reserve a ticket here starting at 10 a.m. today, September 25. Or, as always, you can sit on the Hill – no ticket required. The concert will be performed a second time at The Church of St. John the Divine on Saturday, September 27, at 5 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-wish here with a suggested price of $35 and a minimum of $0.

    “A percussive pulse drives the lover’s declarations in ‘And now you’re mine,’” one of five sonnets written by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda and set to music by American composer Peter Lieberson in Neruda Songs, which you can hear at Jones Hall on Friday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. during the Fiesta Sinfónica. Conductor Gonzalo Farias will lead the Houston Symphony and special guest mezzo-soprano Josefina Maldonado in the orchestra’s annual celebration of Latin American and Hispanic composers. This year, audiences can expect musical selections like “I Feel Pretty” and “Somewhere” from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, the Habanera from Georges Bizet’s Carmen, Albert Gonzales’s arrangements of Rafael Hernández Marín’s “El Cumbanchero” and Daniel Alomía Robles’s “El cóndor pasa,” and more. This concert is free, but ticket reservations are required here.

    click to enlarge

    6 Degrees Dance company members Michelle Reyes, Shelby Craze, and Mia Pham in Testimony with steel sculptures by Craze.

    Photo by Adri Richey Photography

    Inspired by Shahzia Sikander’s vandalized sculpture “Witness,” choreographer Toni Valle of 6 Degrees Dance, composer George Heathco, and singer-composer Misha Penton created Testimony, an aerial dance and visual art installation that will premiere at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, September 25, at the MATCH. Valle recently told the Houston Press that though “Witness” is their “point of reference, Testimony is also about the much larger picture of how women in general have been silenced,” adding that the beheading of the statue is “such a metaphor for how violence is often used to silence artists, to silence women, to silence people.” Testimony will be performed again at 7:30 p.m. Friday, September 26, and Saturday, September 27, and 5 p.m. Sunday, September 28. Tickets can be purchased here for $20-$35, with a pay-what-you-can option on September 26.

    After going from viral on TikTok to selling out comedy clubs around the country, Jiaoying Summers will return to Punchline Houston on Friday, September 26, at 7:30 p.m. with her latest hour of comedy, What Specie Are You? Summers recently told the Houston Press the show will be her “origin story,” saying, “We laugh about all the things that have happened and what I’ve been a victim of…I think that is the best place to find good comedy, to say things you are embarrassed of and ashamed of and make it funny. People can connect with me, I think.” Additional shows are set for 9:45 p.m. Friday, September 26, and 7 and 9:15 p.m. Saturday, September 27. Tickets to the show can be purchased here for $32 to $69.


    Arthouse Houston    ’s Mobile Movie Palace is once again setting up shop at the MATCH, this time on Sunday, September 28, at 7 p.m. to screen the Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin-Dolly Parton comedy 9 to 5, “a feminist lark with laughs, crude comedy, wafts of pot smoke and a catchy anthem written by Parton.” Doors open at 7 p.m. for a set from Houston singer-songwriter Allison Holmes, who will perform live country music from artists like Parton and Loretta Lynn prior to the start of the revenge comedy, which “hit No. 2 at the box office in 1980, beaten only by The Empire Strikes Back.” The film, about three office workers who kidnap their horrible boss, will then begin at 7:40 p.m. General admission tickets are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested price of $20, here.

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    Natalie de la Garza

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  • Comedian Guy Branum claims passenger elbowed him on Delta flight for being ‘too fat’ to sit next to

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    Comedian Guy Branum claimed he was left with bruises after an alleged altercation with a fellow passenger during a recent flight on Delta Air Lines.

    On Sept. 14, the 49-year-old actor shared a video on Instagram in which he said he was sitting in the middle seat when a man sat down next to him and complained about not having enough space. Branum alleged the man then elbowed him and told him that he was “too fat” to fly.

    “I had an exciting adventure on my plane flight today,” the “No Strings Attached” actor began his video, which he labeled “Flying While Fat.”

    Comedian Guy Branum claimed a fellow passenger elbowed him and called him “too fat” to fly on a recent Delta flight.  ( Jason Mendez/WireImage)

    “Normally when I [have] more money, I’ll fly business class because I’m a big guy and I don’t want to be in anybody else’s space,” he continued. “And this time, I got a Comfort Plus ticket.” According to Delta’s website, Comfort+ seats are the same width as standard economy but provide more legroom.

    COMEDIANS TURN ‘FAT SHAMING’ JOKE ON JOE ROGAN’S PODCAST INTO ANNUAL 5K THAT IS CHANGING LIVES

    Branum said he often worried about flying since he has had “people freak out at me before.”

    “And today, it was a middle seat, not great,” he said. “A guy came down, a White man in his sixties.

    “And first, he freaked out at a woman because she was putting something in the overhead compartment near his seat,” Branum continued. “Then he sat down next to me, and he immediately was just p—– off at me and asked me if I could move over. And I was like, ‘No, I can’t.’ Then he just elbowed me as hard as he could.”

    In the video, Branum displayed an image of bruises on his side that he allegedly sustained after the incident. 

    “And then I took this video,” he said as the clip cut to another video in which he was seen seated on the plane next to the man.

    “Elbowed me because he believes that I’m too fat to be sitting next to him,” Branum claimed to the camera as the man remarked, “Well, who wouldn’t believe that?” 

    “Would you be happy if I elbowed you back?” Branum asked the man.

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    “Well, there’s not a lot of room here for me,” the man replied. “I paid for this seat too.”

    Guy Branum smiles while standing on TIFF red carpet.

    The actor said he was left with bruises after the incident.  (Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

    “I paid for this seat as well,” Branum pointed out. 

    “Think you’d want to at least share the armrest?” the man asked. Branum responded, “Yes, we’re not sharing the armrest right now. Right now, you are using the armrest because you elbowed me to get out.”

    “I’m not even on the armrest,” the man said before Branum told him, “I’m not on the armrest either.”

    The two continued to argue as the man appeared to imply that Branum should lose weight. After Branum told the man, “You are hardly svelte yourself,” the man said he was a member of WeightWatchers.”

    “And that is how I lost the weight,” the man told him. 

    Branum then asked the man if he expected him to lose weight in the “next 20 minutes or so.”

    “No, have you ever,” the man said as Branum interjected, “Do you think I have ever tried to lose weight, Sir?” 

    “I don’t know,” the man said.

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    “Do you really think that I’m a fat person in this country, and I’ve never tried to lose weight?” Branum asked.

    “I don’t know,” the man repeated. 

    “OK,” Branum said. 

    Guy Branum holds a microphone on stage.

    Braham said the man eventually switched seats with another woman.  (Rick Kern/Getty Images)

    The video cut to Branum as he addressed the camera, explaining that he told a flight attendant that the man had “hit” him but “I was OK to stay in the seat if necessary.” 

    Branum claimed the man complained to the airline staff that he was “too fat.” 

    The comedian said multiple Delta staffers came to observe “if I was too fat,” including a senior crew member who told the man that Branum would not be removed. Eventually, the man switched seats with a woman across the aisle, and Delta offered her frequent flyer miles for the inconvenience. Branum said he also requested miles.

    Branum noted that the woman who eventually sat next to him was “so nice.” However, he went on to say that “fat people shouldn’t be waiting for some future moment when we’ll be worthy of traveling and living our lives.” 

    The Emmy Award winner alleged a staff member asked him to delete his video, but he refused. He said other passengers then backed him up, telling staff the man had been difficult with others on the flight.

    He said the woman who eventually sat beside him was “so nice,” but added that “fat people shouldn’t be waiting for some future moment when we’ll be worthy of traveling and living our lives.”

    Fox News Digital has reached out to Delta Air Lines for comment.

    Guy Branum waves while appearing on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

    Branum told TMZ he would be filing a police report and a lawsuit against the man.  (Weiss Eubanks/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

    In an interview with TMZ on Saturday, Branum said he plans to file a police report and a civil lawsuit against the man. “You can’t hit somebody because you think they’re fat,” he told the outlet.

    Branum also alleged that the man was not removed from the flight because of his status as a frequent flyer. He told TMZ he has been in contact with Delta representatives about the issue.

    Fox News Digital has also reached out to representatives for Branum for comment.

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    Ashley Hume is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to ashley.hume@fox.com and on Twitter: @ashleyhume

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  • In Defense of Jimmy Kimmel’s Stupid Words | Opinion

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    Jimmy Kimmel said something dumb. He joked that the gunman who tried to assassinate Charlie Kirk was “one of them,” meaning a conservative.

    That remark was stupid, careless, and offensive to at least half the country, myself included. But the shooter’s politics are as relevant as Charlie Kirk’s politics—in that they are not. Yes, the shooter was comfortable with guns and in a relationship with a trans person in the middle of transitioning. None of these facts are relevant. Like many ordinary Americans, he probably holds ideas that contradict the doctrine of either political party. To blame the Left or the Right for this lone-wolf act is total surface-level mentality. You are just phoning it in, missing the complex dynamics for what they really are.

    That goes for Jimmy Kimmel and for anybody who flaps their gums for a living. Jimmy knows better and should apologize. But pulling the show? That is where the real story begins.

    Kimmel made his remark. Then FCC chair Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, publicly warned local ABC affiliates that they could face investigations and even license trouble if they kept airing Jimmy Kimmel Live! Many of these affiliates are mom-and-pop operations held together with shoestring budgets and minimum-wage reporters. Carr basically put those tiny, vulnerable outlets in the crosshairs. Nexstar, the biggest ABC affiliate owner, caught the signal and yanked the show. Within hours ABC and Disney announced an indefinite suspension. From the outside it reads like the nation’s top broadcast cop leaning on the smallest, poorest stations first, triggering a chain reaction that made ABC fold.

    This is where things get dark, and where we should all be worried. The FCC chair crossed the line from free speech into government coercion on behalf of Donald Trump. The U.S. government, at the direction of a president with a long record of punishing critics, has been setting this up for years. It is not a far leap to believe Trump called this shot personally. That is not free speech. That is the president crossing the line into dictatorship.

    Protesters leave their signs on a ledge during a protest against ABC removing Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air in front of the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sept. 18, 2025.

    Benjamin Hanson / Middle East Images via AFP/Getty Images

    While it is unfortunate that ABC and its affiliates do not show more backbone, Trump’s FCC went after the local station owners threatening to pull their licenses. They have no legal firepower to fight back and it is not even remotely a fair fight. This is a third-world country shakedown, all because someone who talks for a living said something stupid.

    Free speech has become a major liability in a disgustingly litigious society. Say something offensive and the Left might cancel you, and now the Right might cancel you too—unless you are Brian Kilmeade of Fox News suggesting that homeless people be euthanized.

    Kilmeade quickly apologized, so it’s all good now. But if Kimmel is going down for saying that Charlie Kirk’s shooter was a conservative, then Kilmeade should definitely have gone down for suggesting we murder homeless people. Or we can realize, like adults, that people who talk all day are bound to say stupid things sometimes. Own the moment, apologize, move on, and do not do it again. Only a clear pattern should cost someone their job.

    Meanwhile Trump has sued The New York Times for $15 billion for daring to question his propaganda, and demanded up to $20 billion from CBS before settling for a tiny fraction. This is not about money. It is about using the full force of the executive branch and Trump’s personal lawyers as a battering ram to intimidate institutions. Conservatives who cheer now will regret it when the pendulum swings. A future left-wing president could use the same precedent to target Fox News, Newsmax, or Sinclair under the guise of a revived fairness doctrine.

    All of this points toward a dystopian future where late-night comedians are banned because no one is allowed to poke fun at the president, regardless of who is in office. Trump does it to soothe his ego. Democrats will do it because they see he got away with it. And then there are no more funny talk shows at all.

    Thinking out loud is precisely what free speech is supposed to protect. If we do not defend the rights of people we disagree with, we do not really believe in free speech. Jimmy Kimmel said something stupid and should apologize. That is where this should end. Instead it looks like it is just getting started.

    Jesse Edwards is director of Newsweek Radio & Podcasting, and the host of Newsweek Radio.

    The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.

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  • We’re All Guilty One Way or Another

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    Guilt doesn’t always mean something heavy, it’s often the small, silly stuff we all do without thinking… like buying things from Target that we absolutely don’t need.

    Maybe you pretended not to hear someone calling your name, left a near-empty carton in the fridge, or hit snooze one too many times. These little moments of universal guilt connect us more than we admit. Nobody’s perfect, and honestly, nobody’s trying to be.

    This gallery is a playful nod to the harmless habits, white lies, and guilty pleasures that make us human – even the funny excuses we use to get out of the sticky situations.

    So before you start feeling bad about the cookie you stole or the text you ignored, remember this: we are all guilty in our own way, and that’s what makes life funny.

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    Ryder

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  • The Grave Threat Posed by Donald Trump’s Attack on Jimmy Kimmel

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    On Wednesday evening, ABC indefinitely suspended Jimmy Kimmel, the host of its late-night show, after Kimmel discussed in his opening monologue the Trump Administration and the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was murdered last week. Some viewers accused Kimmel of erroneously suggesting that Kirk’s alleged shooter was MAGA, which Brendan Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, called “some of the sickest conduct possible.” Hours before the suspension was announced, Carr raised the idea of punishing local television stations that continued to air Kimmel’s show. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said. Kimmel’s suspension was the latest in a string of attacks by the Trump Administration on media outlets, and especially on broadcast television networks. Disney, which owns ABC, and Paramount, which owns CBS, had already settled two frivolous lawsuits (for defamation and deceptive editing, respectively) that Trump brought against them. CBS News, now under new ownership, has taken a number of steps—such as hiring a conservative ombudsman—that were pushed by Carr. On Thursday, Trump explicitly stated that networks employing late-night hosts critical of him should potentially have their broadcast licenses revoked.

    To talk about Kimmel’s suspension, and more broadly about authoritarian leaders and their response to comedy, I called Michael Idov, a novelist and filmmaker who ran GQ Russia between 2012 and 2014, and wrote and directed the 2019 film “The Humorist,” about a fictional comedian in the late Soviet era. (Idov’s most recent novel is “The Collaborators.”) During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the similarities and differences between Trump’s and Putin’s approaches to cracking down on comedy and culture, the speed of Trump’s attack on institutions in his second term, and Russian comedy under Putin’s rule.

    What did you think when you first heard this news about Jimmy Kimmel? What did it recall for you?

    Slightly more than a decade ago, there was a spate of firings in the Russian media of more or less independent editors and producers who were one by one replaced by Putin loyalists. And an acquaintance of mine, in reference to several of these firings, coined a phrase that became a Russian meme at the time: “Links in a fucking chain.” Every time somebody would get fired and replaced, somebody would write “links in a fucking chain.” Honestly, that was my reaction. Last month, I saw that the Trump Administration declared that the National Endowment for the Arts’ creative-writing fellowships are going to be cancelled, and grants will now be contingent on writing on such topics as “Make America Healthy Again.” That to me was even more reminiscent of things I’d seen during my time in Russia.

    It took more than a decade of Putin’s rule for the Russian Ministry of Culture to even start suggesting preferred themes to filmmakers and TV creators. And when they started suggesting themes, it was a scandal. Vladimir Medinsky, the Minister of Culture at the time, would say things like, “Oh, we want to see more films about heroic cosmonauts or the Olympics and the Second World War,” et cetera. People would say, “How dare he suggest topics like that?”

    Can you step back and discuss the time line for the different changes in Russia? It seems like you are saying that they went after journalism before culture, to some degree.

    Right. The first attacks on the news media came very early, within a year of Putin coming to power. In 2001, the network that was owned by an oligarch named Vladimir Gusinsky was taken over. And that was part of Putin’s first wave of consolidating power—in this case, getting out from under the oligarchs that helped put him in power. I would argue that the second wave came after 2004, in the wake of the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Putin and his people realized that they have to start paying attention to the internet and youth culture, and start creating these sort of AstroTurf movements, as well as generally keeping tabs on what’s going on in the online space. It had not occurred to them before.

    But the overarching tendency here is that every time this happened, it was a reaction to an external event. Until the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, repression of the media was always in response to something, and they took what they felt they needed and left the rest alone. Every time there was something that they wouldn’t touch. For example, glossy magazines were exempted for many years because the thinking went that, Well, the glossy-magazine culture is basically the urban élites talking to themselves, and we don’t really need to get into that space as long as we control TV news and daily newspapers. As time went on, the government felt it needed to control more aspects of the media and just the general informational space in order to stay in power.

    Does the idea that these restrictions were often prompted by external factors fit with your answer that the early moves against the media were Putin trying to take power from the oligarchs who helped get him in power?

    Well, I think that was the external factor. Putin saw firsthand, in 1996, under Boris Yeltsin, that a media strategy, which back then meant TV ads and skewed reporting, could swing an election. The first move was to close that loophole and to make sure that an independently held TV network with a robust news operation can never create a popular challenger to him. So that was the need. My long-held view on Putin is that he lacks anything resembling a master plan or a strategy. He is, however, a brilliant tactician with the sole purpose of surviving and keeping himself and his friends in power. And, basically, he will espouse any ideology or hold up or hoist any flag in order to make that happen. When, in the two-thousands, for example, it seemed more advantageous to present himself as a liberal reformer, he was a liberal reformer. When, in 2012, it was temporarily expedient to have Russia become almost like a religious state and really, really empower the Patriarch as one of the main decision-makers in the country, he did that.

    This is the head of the Russian Orthodox Church?

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    Isaac Chotiner

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  • Caleb Hearon’s Still Laughing About His Feud With MrBeast

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    You have a talent for getting under people’s skin, even when you aren’t trying to. We have to talk about you skewering the Beast.

    [Cackling] I’m missing public beef. It feels like in the social circles of the young entertainment industry right now, everything’s very like, “You’re amazing, girl!” “God, I love you!” “I would do fucking anything to hang out with you!” And in the group chat, it’s like, “Why the fuck were they on this list with me?” I’m like, “Put it on main.” [Laughs]

    I loved it. Also, he wasn’t wrong. He has 990 million followers. I just was like, “Whatever, dude.” I thought it was funny. No ill will toward him. Shout out to MrBeast, for real. Go nuts, brother.

    What was the hardest joke for you to figure out?

    It was the Holocaust material. Oh my God. Honey, I worked so hard on that fucking joke. I workshopped that for a long time, because there’s so many pieces. When you first start doing it, you’re trying to figure out, How much can I get out of this? Should I keep it short? Do I go longer? Is sequential the best way to tell the story? You also have to build a lot of credibility with the audience to prove that it’s okay that I’m even doing this. It really, really, really was tricky to craft. I never bombed with it, but I definitely lost the audience many times working on it. I would just get maybe 6 out of 10 components into the joke and be like, they don’t like this, and we are not going to get them back.

    Comedy seems to be at a bit of a fork in the road. On one side you have alternative, inclusive left-leaning comedians like yourself, and on the other side you have right-leaning anti-woke comedians, like the Kill Tony crew. How do you feel about the broader comedy scene?

    Well, it’s totally fractured. But I think I’ve always felt very in the middle of everything. I’m gay, but then I’m fat. So that creates a distance between me and a lot of gay guys. I love trans people and I’m very leftist, but I’m from small-town Missouri. And plenty of people who love Kill Tony for some reason also love me. I don’t like Tony Hinchcliffe at all; I don’t think he’s funny. I have very little respect for many of the people on that side of things. But then there’s some people that I do love. I love [new SNL hire and Kill Tony regular] Kam Patterson.

    Those guys, some of them don’t have it. Then in the same circle, you’ve got Shane Gillis, who’s one of the most technically talented stand-ups living. He’s really fucking good. I like Shane a lot. You’ve got Theo Von, who will randomly exhibit so much heart and character, and then in the next moment won’t. It’s very confusing.

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    Chris Murphy

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  • Did you ask the FCC if you can make that joke?

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    Jimmy Kimmel pulled off the air: Yesterday evening, ABC News (a subsidiary of Disney) announced it was suspending comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show “indefinitely” following factually inaccurate comments he made about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

    Of course, comedians have no obligation to be factually correct. Kimmel’s show is intended as a hybrid between comedy and news, though, so it’s fair to wonder whether he does. “The MAGA Gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” said Kimmel during his Monday night monologue. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.” A montage of President Donald Trump followed, making fun of how, though people have claimed Kirk was like a son to the president, he’s moved on rather quickly.

    It wasn’t especially good or funny. It also was somewhat anodyne. To overly psychologize for a moment, I wonder whether Trump pivoted to talking about construction at the White House when reporters asked him about Kirk’s death because he is, in fact, distraught about it but didn’t feel up to going there. We can’t know. Kimmel’s shot felt cheap. But Kimmel is allowed to be bad—he’s been bad for a while.

    The issue is that Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair Brendan Carr suggested the agency might punish ABC, pulling its broadcast license in retribution. On conservative Benny Johnson’s podcast, Carr suggested Kimmel’s comments were part of a “concerted effort to lie to the American people,” and that the FCC was “going to have remedies that we can look at.”

    “We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” said Carr, ominously. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the F.C.C. ahead.”

    “Just before ABC’s announcement, Nexstar Media Group said that its stations that are affiliated with ABC would pre-empt Kimmel’s show ‘for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight’s show,’” reports CNBC. Nexstar, which owns 10 percent of ABC’s affiliate stations, is in the process of securing FCC approval for a $6.2 billion merger with Tegna, which owns roughly 5 percent of the affiliate stations.

    “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED,” wrote the president on Truth Social. “Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible. That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!”

    Courage sure is an interesting word choice, given that Trump’s own agency threatened them with consequences (though he’s not wrong if we’re solely judging him as a media critic).

    “I don’t think this is a legal issue,” said former federal prosecutor Joseph Moreno on CNN. “I don’t think this can be pointed to the FCC or the Trump administration and say, well, this is about them going after Kimmel because of what he said. Personally, I think it’s more of a cultural issue. And I got to tell you. I’m about as moderate a Republican as you can get. I’m from New York. I have not been comfortable watching late-night television for 15 years because when you have conservative leanings and you’re constantly mocked and you’re constantly feel like you’re doing something wrong, you shut it off. You don’t watch it anymore.”

    Some people have made the point that the FCC might have given Disney/ABC cover to do something they already wanted to do, and do it in a way that makes the Trump administration look like the bad guys:

    I also think this point is very fair, which is that this didn’t start yesterday. If you haven’t noticed the extraordinary media jawboning—indirect censorial pressure directed at private companies from the federal government—over the last few years, you haven’t been paying much attention:

    “The government pressured ABC—and ABC caved,” wrote Ari Cohn of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “The timing of ABC’s decision, on the heels of the FCC chairman’s pledge to the network to ‘do this the easy way or the hard way,’ tells the whole story. Another media outlet withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it. We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country we are.”

    Cohn makes a good point, both that this is the direct result of government coercion that is wrong and disturbing, and that these institutions should not be in the business of caving. It’s disturbing to see massive law firms, media outlets, and organizations that should have some amount of fuck-you money choose the path of cowardice. But given that Disney has been interested in fighting the government before (albeit in a different context), the fact that they weren’t willing to do so this time makes me think maybe Kimmel was already a goner.

    Jawboning done so explicitly, so publicly, serves to intimidate other networks and generate compliance. But jawboning done by the Biden administration, during the COVID-19 pandemic (both to suppress public health information and to promote Democratic candidates and bury scandals), possibly disturbs me more, because it was covert, hard to uncover and to see the full extent of. I can’t decide; both are horrible. No matter which party’s in power, you get government coercion—you just get the privilege of deciding which flavor.

    Scenes from New York: “A Long Island cop swindled a sick fellow officer out of $200,000 with claims of business investment—but instead blew the cash on OnlyFans, gambling and luxury living like a new car, prosecutors said,” reports The New York Post. “Nassau County police officer Leonard Cagno, 39, allegedly duped his colleague out of the cash as he recovered from an unnamed serious illness then blew it all within two months, cops said Wednesday as he was slapped with a grand larceny charge.”

    QUICK HITS

    • For a contrast in how comedy can be dealt with, consider Charlie Kirk’s reaction to being parodied on South Park.
    • The right-wing take on all this, from Lomez, which I don’t agree is aspirational but I think identifies the problem and describes the MAGA mindset quite well:

    “We are finally seeing the first real consequences of major institutions having spent the last decade undermining the facade of liberal neutrality they at least used to claim as an ideal. This facade actually mattered quite a lot, and even though it was obviously never entirely sincere and even though conservatives were always out numbered and often poorly represented, they at least felt like participants and stakeholders in these institutions. During the Trump years this all went away. Conservatives were aggressively ousted, even as token voices, and the facade came down to reveal a perverse and illiberal set of political and cultural directives underneath it that were explicitly antagonistic to more than half of the country and denied them as legitimate participants in public life. Despite this, MAGA won (again), and, surprise, surprise, do not intend on preserving the institutions that declared them illegitimate political actors. This is, in fact, MAGA’s core promise.”

    • “An immigration judge in Louisiana has ordered pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent resident of the U.S., deported to Syria or Algeria for failing to disclose certain information on his green card application, according to documents filed in federal court Wednesday by his lawyers,” reports Politico. “Khalil’s lawyers suggested in a filing that they intend to appeal the deportation order, but expressed concern that the appeal process will likely be swift and unfavorable.”
    • “America loves cocaine again,” by The Wall Street Journal. “Cocaine sold in the U.S. is cheaper and as pure as ever for retail buyers. Consumption in the western U.S. has increased 154% since 2019 and is up 19% during the same period in the eastern part of the country, according to the drug-testing company Millennium Health. In contrast, fentanyl use in the U.S. began to drop in mid-2023 and has been declining since, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

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    Liz Wolfe

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  • Gavin Newsom, Ben Stiller, and More Come to Jimmy Kimmel’s Defense

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    Photo: ZZHollywood To You/Star Max/GC Images

    On Wednesday, ABC announced that it would be pulling new episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! “indefinitely” after remarks about Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin sparked right-wing rage and comments from FCC Chair Brendan Carr. Kimmel is getting canceled for the set-up to a joke, not even the punchline. In Monday night’s monologue, Kimmel said “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” Carr told YouTuber Benny Johnson that he was considering pulling ABC’s affiliate licenses because Kimmel characterized Charlie Robinson as MAGA-affiliated. “[This] appears to be an action by Jimmy Kimmel to play into the narrative that this was somehow a MAGA or Republican-motivated person,” Carr said. “What people don’t understand is that the broadcasters … have a license granted by us at the FCC, and that comes with it an obligation to operate in the public interest. When we see stuff like this, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, on Kimmel, or there’s going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.” ABC and media company Nexstar have apparently decided to take the easy way. Nexstar said it would be preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! on its affiliate stations, and shortly thereafter ABC said it was pulling new episodes of the show.

    President Trump did a victory lap on Truth Social. “Great News for America: The ratings challenged Jimmy Kimmel Show is CANCELLED. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done. Kimmel has ZERO talent, and worse ratings than even Colbert, if that’s possible,” he wrote. “That leaves Jimmy and Seth, two total losers, on Fake News NBC. Their ratings are also horrible. Do it NBC!!!” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes called the move “the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close.” On the pro-Kimmel side, we have Ben Stiller, California Senator Adam Schiff and California Governor Gavin Newsom decrying Carr’s remarks and ABC’s decision to take Kimmel off the air.

    Hayes focused primarily on Carr’s remarks, laying blame for Kimmel’s enforced hiatus at “state actors.” He tweeted “This is the most straightforward attack on free speech from state actors I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s not even close.”

    Stiller was concise, reposting a report from the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Flint and captioning it “This isn’t right.”

    Newsom seemed to link Kimmel going off the air to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’s cancelation, as well as with the firing of MSNBC commentator Matthew Dowd and Trump buddies taking control of TikTok. “Buying and controlling media platforms. Firing commentators. Canceling shows. These aren’t coincidences,” he wrote. “It’s coordinated. And it’s dangerous. The @GOP does not believe in free speech. They are censoring you in real time.”

    Adam Schiff also compared what’s happening to Kimmel with what’s already happened to Colbert. He also mentioned Trump’s lawsuits against the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and 60 Minutes. “This administration is responsible for the most blatant attacks on the free press in American history,” he wrote. “What will be left of the First Amendment when he’s done?”

    Illinois Governor JB Pritzker called Kimmel’s cancelation “an attack off free speech” on Bluesky. He urged elected officials to speak up in defense of the First Amendment: “A free and democratic society cannot silence comedians because the President doesn’t like what they say. This is an attack on free speech and cannot be allowed to stand.”

    Oates came to Kimmel’s defense despite not being a late-night enjoyer. “as one who avoids nearly all late-night comics & has never seen Jimmy Kimmell [sic] or his rivals still it seems sad that anyone is so abruptly fired for anything he says however awkward or inappropriate,” she wrote. “much of humor is edgy, surreal, exaggerated, & can’t be fact-checked. if a joke is in poor taste or falls flat the audience’s silence is punishment enough for the comic.”

    Speaking from experience, Griffin said it was imperative Kimmel have support in this moment. “Please, take it from me, it is very important to have Jimmy Kimmel‘s back right now,” she wrote on Bluesky. “Be vocal. Be an ideological consumer. Money is all their crowd cares about.”

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    Bethy Squires

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  • Vegas Comic Hit Up Audiences to Fund His Gambling Addiction for 20 Years – Casino.org

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    Posted on: September 16, 2025, 01:41h. 

    Last updated on: September 16, 2025, 03:08h.

    • Vinnie Favorito was once touted in Las Vegas as the next Don Rickles
    • In addition to being a hard-working comic, Favorito was also a hardcore gambler known for hitting up his audience members for money
    • A new documentary shines a spotlight on Favorito’s career and gambling addiction 

    In the days of the Rat Pack, if a cocktail server needed financial help for a family emergency, Frank Sinatra would gladly tip her a hundy. In the early 2000s, it was the reverse — at least for some who attended the thousands of Las Vegas Strip performances by comic Vinnie Favorito.

    Vinnie Favorito poses in 2006, when he was at the top of his career game and the bottom of his craps one. (Image: Getty)

    The former Strip headliner would ask pretty much anyone he perceived as having money to loan him some of it.

    “Vinnie Plays Vegas: The Con Man of Comedy,” now streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV, is a documentary exploring the rise and downfall of an entertainer who preyed on gullible audience members to fund his gambling addiction.

    “I wanted to pay everybody back,” Favorito came clean to director Brian Burkhardt, his friend and fellow comedian, in the film, “but you get deeper and deeper and deeper like a drug, and you’re lying. You’re lying all the time.”

    The promotional art for a new Amazon Prime documentary about Favorito. (Image: Amazon Prime)

    An insult comic once touted as the next Don Rickles, Favorito has always leaned heavily into crowd work. That’s when you ask audience members where they’re from and what they do for a living before crafting appropriate zingers.

    But unlike Rickles, Favorito was fishing for marks as well as comedy material.

    After his shows, he approached the audience members who identified themselves as having six-figure jobs and hit them up. They were usually good for $1,000 to $15K each.

    “It’s kind of [the] same skill,” said Mike Weatherford, a co-writer of the film, who documented Favorito’s exploits during his time as the entertainment reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “The guy who was a doctor was the one he’d made sure to shake hands with after the show and, say, ‘Hey, why don’t we play golf?’”

    Favorito performed this act (and con) at venues including Binion’s, O’Shea’s, the Flamingo, and the Westgate for nearly 20 years.

    Even after the Flamingo fired him for borrowing from one of their waitresses, he continued. Some of the victims who spoke in the documentary recalled giving him money on multiple occasions.

    “I’m not trying to make an excuse,” Favorito added. “But when you’re trying to chase the money and make that easy shortcut, everything goes south, and you don’t realize how deep you get. Now I’m so behind with people, and you’re trying to keep track of your own story … I’ve got to play the carnival game that you can hit a jackpot hand on. But the dream never came.”

    Comic Relief

    In September 2016, Favorito declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy to give himself a fresh start. More than 60 creditors jockeyed for pennies on the more than a million dollars he officially owed. There’s no telling how much more he owed to friends, co-workers, and fans unofficially.

    How many people out there have a credit card that they couldn’t pay, years ago or now?” Favorito asked. “It’s kind of the same thing. You’re borrowing money, you know you don’t have the money to pay it, and later on, you’re going to end up trying to get out of the card.”

    Weatherford told Casino.org that he doesn’t feel that merely coming clean about his addiction will be adequate to restore Favorito’s reputation — “unless he’s doing an apology tour and raising money for Gamblers Anonymous.”

    And Favorito doesn’t seem to disagree.

    “I’m the biggest piece of shit in the world for what I did,” he told Burkhardt. “I’ll always be looked at as the gambler. Don’t lend Vinnie money. You can’t escape that.”

    Favorito still performs in Vegas. His show is at the 170-seat Robin Leach Lounge at the Notoriety Live theater downtown.

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    Corey Levitan

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  • ‘The Studio’ and Seth Rogen have record-setting Emmys as Noah Wyle and ‘The Pitt’ get top drama wins

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    LOS ANGELES — Seth Rogen and “The Studio” turned the Emmys into a wrap party, winning best comedy series Sunday and breaking a comedy record for victories in a season with 13, while Noah Wyle and “The Pitt” took the top drama prize.

    The evening also brought meaningful wins for Jean Smart, Stephen Colbert and 15-year-old Owen Cooper, whose Netflix series “Adolescence” dominated the limited series categories.

    “I’m legitimately embarrassed by how happy this makes me,” “The Studio” co-creator Rogen said with his signature giggle, surrounded by cast and crew from the Apple TV+ movie-business romp after it won best comedy at the Peacock Theater in a show hosted by Nate Bargatze that aired on CBS. Rogen personally won four, including best actor.

    “The Pitt” from HBO Max completed a sentimental journey with its win for best drama series. The character-driven medical drama won over viewers and gained emotional momentum during a season whose biggest drama prizes once seemed destined to be swept by “Severance.”

    Wyle won best actor in a drama for playing a grizzled, warm-but-worn-down supervising doctor, getting his first Emmy after five nominations with no victories in the 1990s for playing a scrubbed young cub doctor on “ER.”

    “What a dream this has been,” Wyle said. “Oh my goodness.”

    Katherine LaNasa, whose nurse is perhaps the show’s most beloved character, was a surprise winner of best supporting actress in a drama over three women of “The White Lotus” on a night when every acting Emmy but one went to a first-time victor.

    The first-timers included Britt Lower, who won best actress in a drama, and Tramell Tillman, who won best supporting actor, in the night’s two biggest moments for “Severance.”

    Along with its creative arts wins, the Orwellian workplace satire ended up with eight for its acclaimed second season. Star Adam Scott lost out to Wyle for best actor.

    The show’s losses kept the evening from being a total triumph for Apple TV+, which has still never won a best drama prize, though it has now won best comedy three times between “The Studio” and “Ted Lasso.”

    Lower’s win was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”

    Cristin Milioti won best actress in a limited series for “The Penguin.”

    Jean Smart bucked the rookie trend, winning her fourth Emmy for best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” and her seventh Emmy overall. At 73, she extended her record for oldest winner in the category.

    Netflix’s widely acclaimed “Adolescence,” the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing, won six times, including the Emmy for best limited series. Co-creator Stephen Graham won for lead acting and writing while Cooper won best supporting actor and became the youngest Emmy winner in over 40 years.

    Cooper said in his acceptance that he was “nothing three years ago.”

    “It’s just so surreal,” Cooper said. “Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here.”

    Best supporting actress went to Erin Doherty, who played a therapist opposite Cooper in a riveting episode that like all four “Adolescence” episodes was filmed in a single shot.

    “The Studio” came into the evening having won nine Emmys already during last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremony. On Sunday night, it added four more, which all went to Rogen. Along with the comedy series award, he won best directing with his co-creator and longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg, and best writing with Goldberg and others.

    The show brought blockbuster buzz for its first season from the start and the Emmys ate it up, whether because of Hollywood’s love for stories about itself (with A-list guest stars) or the television industry’s love for stories that mock the self-importance of movie people.

    Backstage, Rogen clumsily tried to hold up all four Emmys at once. Asked whether the night will be fodder for season two, he said no.

    “This is, like, far too good a thing to have happen on our show,” he said. “Our show is generally based on stress and disappointment and right now, we’re all very happy.”

    Smart’s castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons of “Hacks” but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.

    She said she had become committed to a long-term bit where “it was cooler to lose.”

    “But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!” Political sentiments from the stage were otherwise rare.

    In perhaps the night’s biggest upset, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.

    Colbert may have been the night’s most popular winner, taking best talk series for “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” for the first time. He got huge ovations both when he took the stage to present the first award and when he won.

    The win may have been the result of a protest vote and a desire to pay tribute to its host, weeks after its cancellation by CBS. Jimmy Kimmel, who was among his competitors, campaigned for Colbert to win.

    “Sometimes you only truly know how much you love something when you get a sense that you might be losing it,” Colbert said in his acceptance.

    Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media. Executives called the decision strictly financial.

    Colbert showed no bitterness to CBS, thanking the network, which telecast the Emmys and aired a commercial celebrating his win, for letting him be part of the late-night tradition.

    Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.

    The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.

    Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will one day be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”

    ___

    For more coverage of this year’s Emmy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/emmy-awards

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  • A list of the top winners at the 2025 Emmy Awards

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    LOS ANGELES — LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Studio” made history at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards by winning 13 awards, becoming the most awarded comedy series in a single season. It beat the previous record of 11 set by “The Bear” last year.

    “The Pitt” won best drama and delivered Noah Wylie the best drama actor award for his performance as a wise but weary emergency room doctor.

    “Adolescence” won six awards in the limited series categories, including best supporting actor for 15-year-old Owen Cooper.

    “Severance” entered the ceremony as the top overall nominee and ended up taking two acting trophies.

    Here’s a list of winners at Sunday’s Emmys:

    “The Pitt”

    Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”

    Britt Lower, “Severance”

    Tramell Tillman, “Severance”

    Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt”

    Adam Randall, “Slow Horses”

    Dan Gilroy, “Andor”

    “The Studio”

    Seth Rogen, “The Studio”

    Jean Smart, “Hacks”

    Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”

    Jeff Hiller, “Somebody Somewhere”

    Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, “The Studio”

    Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory and Frida Perez, “The Studio”

    “Adolescence”

    Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”

    Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”

    Owen Cooper, “Adolescence”

    Erin Doherty, “Adolescence”

    Philip Barantini, “Adolescence”

    Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”

    “SNL 50: The Anniversary Special”

    “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

    “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver”

    “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”

    “The Traitors”

    Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen

    ___

    For more on this year’s Emmy Awards, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/emmy-awards

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  • 2025 Emmy Awards: See the full list of winners

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    Discover the full list of Emmy 2025 winners, highlighting outstanding achievements in drama, comedy, limited series, reality, and talk shows. See below for a full list of nominees, with the winners in bold.Outstanding lead actor in a drama seriesSterling K. Brown, “Paradise”Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”Adam Scott, “Severance”Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”Outstanding comedy series”Abbott Elementary””The Bear””Hacks””Nobody Wants This””Only Murders in the Building””Shrinking””The Studio””What We Do in the Shadows”Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movieColin Farrell, “The Penguin”Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”Jake Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent”Bryan Tyree Henry, “Dope Thief”Cooper Koch, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”Outstanding talk series”Jimmy Kimmel Live!””The Daily Show””The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movieCate Blanchett, “Disclaimer”Meghann Fahy, “Sirens”Rashia Jones, “Black Mirror”Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”Michelle Williams, “Dying for Sex” Outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or TV movieErin Doherty, “Adolescence”Ruth Negga, “Presumed Innocent”Deirdre O’Connell, “The Penguin”Chloë Sevigny, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”Jenny Slate, “Dying for Sex”Christine Tremarco, “Adolescence”Outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or TV movieJavier Bardem, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”Bill Camp, “Presumed Innocent”Owen Cooper, “Adolescence”Rob Delaney, “Dying for Sex”Peter Sarsgaard, “Presumed Innocent”Ashley Walters, “Adolescent”Outstanding reality/competition series”The Traitors””RuPaul’s Drag Race””The Amazing Race””Survivor””Top Chef”Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy seriesIke Barinholtz, “The Sudio”Colman Domingo, “The Four Seasons”Harrison Ford, “Shrinking”Jeff Hiller, “Somebody Somewhere”Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”Michael Urie, “Shrinking”Bowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live”Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy seriesLiza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”Kathryn Hahn, “The Studio”Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”Catherine O’Hara, “The Studio”Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”Jessica Williams, “Shrinking”Outstanding lead actress in a drama seriesKathy Bates, “Matlock”Sharon Horgan, “Bad Sisters”Britt Lower, “Severance “Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”Outstanding supporting actor in a drama seriesZach Cherry, “Severance”Walton Goggins, “The White Lotus”Jason Isaacs, “The White Lotus”James Marsden, “Paradise”Sam Rockwell, “The White Lotus”Tramell Tillman, “Severance”John Turturro, “Severance”Outstanding supporting actress in a drama seriesPatricia Arquette, “Severance”Carrie Coon, “The White Lotus”Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt”Julianne Nicholson, “Paradise”Parker Posey, “The White Lotus”Natasha Rothwell, “The White Lotus”Aimee Lou Wood, “The White Lotus”Outstanding lead actress in a comedy seriesUzo Aduba, “The Residence”Kristin Bell, “Nobody Wants This”Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”Jean Smart, “Hacks”Outstanding lead actor in a comedy seriesAdam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”Seth Rogen, “The Studio”Jason Segel, “Shrinking”Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”Outstanding drama series“Andor”“The Diplomat”“The Last of Us”“Paradise”“The Pitt”“Severance”“Slow Horses”“The White Lotus”Outstanding limited series”Adolescence””Black Mirror””Dying for Sex””Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story””The Penguin”

    Discover the full list of Emmy 2025 winners, highlighting outstanding achievements in drama, comedy, limited series, reality, and talk shows.

    See below for a full list of nominees, with the winners in bold.

    Outstanding lead actor in a drama series

    Sterling K. Brown, “Paradise”

    Pedro Pascal, “The Last of Us”

    Adam Scott, “Severance”

    Noah Wyle, “The Pitt”

    Gary Oldman, “Slow Horses”

    Outstanding comedy series

    “Abbott Elementary”

    “The Bear”

    “Hacks”

    “Nobody Wants This”

    “Only Murders in the Building”

    “Shrinking”

    “The Studio”

    “What We Do in the Shadows”

    Outstanding lead actor in a limited series or TV movie

    Colin Farrell, “The Penguin”

    Stephen Graham, “Adolescence”

    Jake Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent”

    Bryan Tyree Henry, “Dope Thief”

    Cooper Koch, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”

    Outstanding talk series

    “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
    “The Daily Show”
    “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”

    Outstanding lead actress in a limited series or TV movie

    Cate Blanchett, “Disclaimer”

    Meghann Fahy, “Sirens”

    Rashia Jones, “Black Mirror”

    Cristin Milioti, “The Penguin”

    Michelle Williams, “Dying for Sex”

    Outstanding supporting actress in a limited series or TV movie

    Erin Doherty, “Adolescence”

    Ruth Negga, “Presumed Innocent”

    Deirdre O’Connell, “The Penguin”

    Chloë Sevigny, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”

    Jenny Slate, “Dying for Sex”

    Christine Tremarco, “Adolescence”

    Outstanding supporting actor in a limited series or TV movie

    Javier Bardem, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”

    Bill Camp, “Presumed Innocent”

    Owen Cooper, “Adolescence”

    Rob Delaney, “Dying for Sex”

    Peter Sarsgaard, “Presumed Innocent”

    Ashley Walters, “Adolescent”

    Outstanding reality/competition series

    “The Traitors”
    “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
    “The Amazing Race”
    “Survivor”
    “Top Chef”

    Outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series

    Ike Barinholtz, “The Sudio”

    Colman Domingo, “The Four Seasons”

    Harrison Ford, “Shrinking”

    Jeff Hiller, “Somebody Somewhere”

    Ebon Moss-Bachrach, “The Bear”

    Michael Urie, “Shrinking”

    Bowen Yang, “Saturday Night Live”

    Outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series

    Liza Colón-Zayas, “The Bear”

    Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”

    Kathryn Hahn, “The Studio”

    Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”
    Catherine O’Hara, “The Studio”

    Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”

    Jessica Williams, “Shrinking”

    Outstanding lead actress in a drama series

    Kathy Bates, “Matlock”

    Sharon Horgan, “Bad Sisters”

    Britt Lower, “Severance “

    Bella Ramsey, “The Last of Us”

    Keri Russell, “The Diplomat”

    Outstanding supporting actor in a drama series

    Zach Cherry, “Severance”

    Walton Goggins, “The White Lotus”

    Jason Isaacs, “The White Lotus”

    James Marsden, “Paradise”

    Sam Rockwell, “The White Lotus”

    Tramell Tillman, “Severance”

    John Turturro, “Severance”

    Outstanding supporting actress in a drama series

    Patricia Arquette, “Severance”

    Carrie Coon, “The White Lotus”

    Katherine LaNasa, “The Pitt”

    Julianne Nicholson, “Paradise”

    Parker Posey, “The White Lotus”

    Natasha Rothwell, “The White Lotus”

    Aimee Lou Wood, “The White Lotus”

    Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

    Uzo Aduba, “The Residence”

    Kristin Bell, “Nobody Wants This”

    Quinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”

    Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

    Jean Smart, “Hacks”

    Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

    Adam Brody, “Nobody Wants This”

    Seth Rogen, “The Studio”

    Jason Segel, “Shrinking”

    Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”

    Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

    Outstanding drama series

    “Andor”

    “The Diplomat”

    “The Last of Us”

    “Paradise”

    “The Pitt”

    “Severance”

    “Slow Horses”

    “The White Lotus”

    Outstanding limited series

    “Adolescence”

    “Black Mirror”

    “Dying for Sex”

    “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”

    “The Penguin”

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  • ‘The Studio’ breaks record for comedy Emmys as ‘Adolescence’ and ‘Severance’ also score big wins

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    “The Studio” made Emmy history Sunday night with its 12th trophy as the AppleTV+ movie-business romp became the winningest comedy series ever in a season.“Studio” co-creator Seth Rogen won for acting, directing and writing. Along with nine wins claimed at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, it broke a record set last year by “The Bear” with 11.“I could not wrap my head around this happening,” said Rogen after winning best comedy actor at the beginning of the CBS telecast. “I’ve never won anything in my life.”Rogen shared the directing Emmy with longtime collaborator and “Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, shared the writing Emmy with Goldberg and others. He’ll get his fourth if “The Studio” wins best comedy. The show rode blockbuster buzz into the Emmys for its breakout first season.Netflix’s acclaimed “Adolescence,” the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing, won four Emmys in the limited series categories. Owen Cooper, who played the teen, became the youngest Emmy winner in more than 40 years with a win for best supporting actor.Cooper said in his acceptance that he was “nothing three years ago.”“It’s just so surreal,” Cooper said. “Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here. So I think tonight proves that if you, if you listen and you focus and you step out your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life.”Best supporting actress went to Erin Doherty, who played a therapist opposite Cooper in a riveting episode that like all four “Adolescence” episodes was filmed in a single shot.Cristin Milioti won best actress in a limited series for “The Penguin.” It was the first win of the night for the HBO series from the Batman universe after it won eight at the Creative Arts ceremony.Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman each won their first Emmy for “Severance,” the Apple TV+ Orwellian workplace satire that is considered the favorite for best drama. Lower won best actress in a drama and Tillman won best supporting actor in a drama.“My first acting coach was tough, y’all,” Tillman, wearing an all-white tuxedo, said from the stage. “But all great mothers are.”He looked out to his mother in the audience and told her, “You were there for me where no one else was, and no one else would show up.”His win had been widely expected but Lower’s was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” for the fourth time, at 73 extending her own record for the oldest woman ever to win the category.Every acting winner other than Smart was a first timer.A night of surprise winnersSmart’s castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose.”“But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”Katherine LaNasa won best supporting actress in a drama for the “The Pitt,” a surprise in a category where most expected one of the three nominees from “The White Lotus” to win.“I am so proud and honored,” LaNasa, looking emotional and shocked, said.In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.How the 2025 Emmys openedStephen Colbert was the first person to take the stage to present the award during the CBS telecast at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles despite the recent controversial cancellation of his show by the network. He was greeted by a rousing and lengthy standing ovation.“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert said.In an unusual show order, host Nate Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”

    “The Studio” made Emmy history Sunday night with its 12th trophy, becoming the winningest comedy series ever in a season.

    With victories for comedy acting, directing and writing Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ movie-business romp eclipses the record of 11 set last year by “The Bear.”

    “The Studio” came into the night with nine Emmys from last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremony, making it a virtual lock to break the record. And it could keep adding to its total before the evening’s done.

    It was the third straight year the record was broken. Last year, “The Bear” – whose dramatic presence in the comedy category irked some competitors – broke its own record of 10 set the year before.

    “I could not wrap my head around this happening,” said Rogen after his win for best comedy actor, the first award of the night. “I’ve never won anything in my life.”

    Rogen shared the directing Emmy with his longtime collaborator and “Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, and he can still win two more before the night’s done.

    Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman took trophies for “Severance.” Lower won best actress in a drama for “Severance” and Tillman won best supporting actor in a drama. It was the first career Emmy for each.

    “My first acting coach was tough, y’all,” Tillman, wearing an all-white tuxedo, said from the stage. “But all great mothers are.”

    He looked out to his mother in the audience and told her, “You were there for me where no one else was, and no one else would show up.”

    His win had been widely expected but Lower’s was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”

    A night of surprise winners

    Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” for the fourth time, at 73 extending her own record for the oldest woman ever to win the category.

    Her castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.

    She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose.”

    “But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”

    Katherine LaNasa won best supporting actress in a drama for the “The Pitt,” a surprise in a category where most expected one of the three nominees from “The White Lotus” to win.

    “I am so proud and honored,” LaNasa, looking emotional and shocked, said.

    In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.

    How the 2025 Emmys opened

    Stephen Colbert was the first person to take the stage to present the award during the CBS telecast at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles despite the recent controversial cancellation of his show by the network. He was greeted by a rousing and lengthy standing ovation.

    “While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert said.

    In an unusual show order, host Nate Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.

    The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.

    Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”

    Apple TV+ is poised to have a breakout Emmy year with the two most nominated shows, “Severance” and “The Studio,” which are the favorites to win the two biggest awards.

    What to expect from the 2025 Emmy Awards

    “The Studio,” with co-creator Rogen starring as the new head of a movie studio, came into the evening the top comedy nominee with 23 and blockbuster buzz for its breakout first season.

    “Severance,” the Orwellian office drama about people who surgically split their psyches into workplace “innies” and home “outies,” was the top overall nominee with 27 nominations for its second season. It won six at the Creative Arts ceremony and now stands at eight.

    Along with best drama — which would be a first for Apple — star Adam Scott could win his first Emmy, for best actor.

    Its top competition for best drama could be “The Pitt,” HBO’s acclaimed drama about one shift in the life of an emergency room.

    Its star Noah Wyle could be both the sentimental favorite and the actual favorite for best actor. He was nominated five times without a win for playing a young doctor on “ER” in the 1990s, and now could finally take his trophy for what is in many ways a reprise of the role.

    Later in the show, could give “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” the Emmy for best talk series for the first time as a sort of protest vote and tribute to its host.

    Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media. Executives called the decision strictly financial.

    How to watch and stream the Emmys and its red carpet

    The Emmys are airing live on CBS at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific time.

    Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers may stream the show live. Standard Paramount+ subscribers can stream it Monday through Sept. 21.

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  • Alice Murphy from ‘Workaholics’ Might Be the Greatest Boss Ever

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    Listen, I don’t make the rules. All I know is Alice Murphy is one of the greatest supporting characters to ever grace our TV screens.

    The fearless leader of TelAmeriCorp has a no nonsense policy – unless it’s on her own terms. Over the course of 7 seasons we saw actress Maribeth Monroe take complete control of the character.

    Alice is like if Michael Scott from The Office was actually good at his job. She’s driven, determined, and doesn’t f*ck around. Let’s just call her watch she is; a boss bitch. Here are some of Alice Murphy’s funniest moments.

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    Zach

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  • Why is ‘The Bear’ considered a comedy show at the Emmy Awards?

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    With the 2025 Emmy Awards airing on Sunday, many television shows are being talked about and rewatched as people prepare for the big night.“The Bear” has been widely discussed recently because, while it has little to no comedic elements, it is in the comedy category at the Emmys. Why?Simply put, “The Bear” is labeled as a comedy at the Emmys simply because it can be. The Emmys and Television Academy have no rules about how shows are chosen and placed into each category. In fact, the Television Academy does not even pick which categories they believe each television show should compete in. Instead, the network picks the category for each show. In the case of “The Bear,” FX decided they wanted to submit it to the comedy category, and since there are no rules against it, it will be considered a comedy. FX could have decided to put “The Bear” in a comedy category for a few reasons. The first reason is that comedy categories are often less competitive than the drama categories when it comes to Emmy Awards. When FX first nominated “The Bear,” if it were in the drama category, it would have been up against “Succession” in its final season. Knowing that “Succession” would potentially sweep, the network gave “The Bear” a better chance in the comedy category.The second reason pertains to the 2024 Emmy Awards. This year, FX also nominated its show, “Shōgun,” for the Emmys’ drama category. If “The Bear” was also in the drama category, it would be competing with another FX show. To maximize the network’s hopeful wins, FX can put both shows in separate categories.

    With the 2025 Emmy Awards airing on Sunday, many television shows are being talked about and rewatched as people prepare for the big night.

    “The Bear” has been widely discussed recently because, while it has little to no comedic elements, it is in the comedy category at the Emmys.

    Why?

    Simply put, “The Bear” is labeled as a comedy at the Emmys simply because it can be. The Emmys and Television Academy have no rules about how shows are chosen and placed into each category.

    In fact, the Television Academy does not even pick which categories they believe each television show should compete in. Instead, the network picks the category for each show.

    In the case of “The Bear,” FX decided they wanted to submit it to the comedy category, and since there are no rules against it, it will be considered a comedy.

    FX could have decided to put “The Bear” in a comedy category for a few reasons.

    The first reason is that comedy categories are often less competitive than the drama categories when it comes to Emmy Awards. When FX first nominated “The Bear,” if it were in the drama category, it would have been up against “Succession” in its final season. Knowing that “Succession” would potentially sweep, the network gave “The Bear” a better chance in the comedy category.

    The second reason pertains to the 2024 Emmy Awards. In 2024, FX also nominated its show, “Shōgun,” for the Emmys’ drama category. If “The Bear” was also in the drama category, it would be competing with another FX show. To maximize the network’s hopeful wins, FX can put both shows in separate categories.

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  • Tokin’ Jew founders on using comedy and cannabis to build connection and fight antisemitism | amNewYork

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    What started as a meme page has since grown into a full-fledged cannabis brand connected to Judaism.

    Tokin’ Jew was created by Brooklyn residents Will Cohen and Ben Kraim in 2020, with the duo using the Tokin’ Jew name for a meme account on Instagram. What he didn’t expect was how the page would grow into a full cannabis community.

    “There was no kind of intention behind creating this kind of cannabis brand or this intersection of cannabis and Judaism. It was a way of connecting to my Judaism in a little bit of a different way,” said Cohen. “Judaism gets thrown upon you when you’re young, as does all religion, and people want to find their own identity within the religion as they grow up and different life experiences mold them. What we’ve tapped into with Tokin’ Jew is like being able to really find your way in the religion through a different lens, which is through comedy and through culture, and then, obviously, with cannabis as well.”

    “I think a lot of this comes from a happy accident in the beginning and turned into, ‘Whoa, there’s actually something here.’ A lot of it came from the audience,” said Kraim. 

    The brand started with one product that Cohen created: the J Menorah, which holds nine joints. 

    “By no means do I recommend smoking all 9 joints at once, but it’s just a funny way to connect back to my Judaism,” said Cohen. “We rolled out the Instagram and started releasing this product and funny content.”

    Tokin’ Jew has since grown into a full-scale cannabis brand, with products leaning into Jewish culture. Among their products, you can find a Menorah Bong, pipes shaped like pickles and dreidels, a joint scroller, and themed grinders. You can also find a selection of edibles called Tokin’ Chews.

    As the Jewish community gears up for the high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, Tokin’ Jew has launched new products to celebrate, including their “High Honey,” a THC-infused honey and a new Challah pipe. The crew is also gearing up for an infused Shabbat dinner ahead of Rosh Hashanah and more new products on the horizon.

    “We also have some collaborations coming up on the product side as well, with our edibles, we’re gonna be partnering up with a couple of chefs and food icons to do some cool collabs,” said Cohen.

    Tokin’ Jew’s new High Honey and Challah pipe.Photos courtesy of Tokin’ Jew

    Finding common ground with ritualistic practices

    Both Cohen and Kraim agree that the connection between cannabis and Judaism is deeper than expected, with both cultures being bridged through rituals. Much like Judaism, Cohen and Kraim noted that cannabis has rituals that they can poke fun at with their products.

    “This is kind of all religions, but cannabis is so ritualistic. There’s so many rituals as part of it, right? You pass to the left, you can’t have a white lighter, you do it at a certain time, you love your certain bong,” said Kraim. “I think Judaism, at least the way I grew up, was very reform, very traditional, like that’s what was passed down. It wasn’t like deep historical texts that were like so important to me. It was having family dinner or your cousins go on a walk before family dinner and smoke a joint. It’s like these traditions get passed down, so there’s just like a deep association between those things.”

    Many of Tokin’ Jew’s products poke fun at Jewish foods, something that they acknowledge has deep meaning for Jewish culture as well.

    “Food is so deeply a part of Jewish culture, and it ain’t nothing that makes food better than a little cannabis. I think there’s this element too, from like a mental health perspective of just like generational trauma and cannabis is just known to kind of ease anxiety and just chill people out. I think that Jews definitely use it as a tool for that,” said Kraim.

    Fighting antisemitism with comedy

    From the beginning, comedy was at the forefront of Tokin’ Jew. 

    “Jews have furiously used comedy to just deal with whatever. I think that cannabis and comedy and just laughter go hand in hand, it brings people together,” said Kraim.

    For Cohen and Kraim, the comedy is important for building a community and combating antisemitism. 

    “It’s interesting that the pushback comes. It can come from internal to the Jewish religion, or it can come from ultra orthodox people who see a shofar pipe and they’re like, ‘I can’t believe I see this on my screen’ to then people outside,” said Cohen. “There’s always people who hide behind a keyboard and spread hate and that’s what happens in our DMs, that’s what happens in our comment section.”

    While speaking to amNewYork, Cohen noted that cannabis is already connected to Judaism and comedy, particularly through comedians like Seth Rogen and Chelsea Handler. Through Tokin’ Jew, Cohen and Kraim are trying to help shift the perspective by bringing some levity to Judaism.

    Tokin' Jew promotional images.
    Tokin’ Jew promotional images.Photos courtesy of Tokin’ Jew

    “We’re trying to spread this message of being proud to be Jewish through a little bit of a different lens. When you’re scrolling on Instagram and you see a rabbi, and your stereotypes of a rabbi are like thinking all the bad things about Jews that the media has maybe taught you, and then you see them rip a bong,” said Cohen. “Now your perspective on Jews has just slightly shifted. We’re humanizing Jews by cutting it with weed.”

    “We just want people to smile and just have a good time because life is hard. But in the world of like Jew hate, we’ve gotten a lot of comments where it’s just like, ‘Whoa, this has got me curious, I have questions about Judaism,’ and you could just see them opening up a little bit,” said Kraim. 

    The community that Tokin’ Jew has built has also brought out people within the Jewish community who were looking to reconnect with their culture.

    “We’ve gotten thousands of messages from Jews all over the world who [say], ‘I disconnected from my Judaism as soon as I moved out of my parents’ house where I was never connected to Judaism’ and ‘Current events have made me want to connect more with other Jews, and I didn’t really know where I belonged or fit in, and then I came across Tokin’ Jew, and it basically just innately screamed Jews who are chill and light and like me,’” said Kraim. That ultra orthodox rabbi who was mad at us about the shofar pipe would probably hear that and [say], ‘It’s a little unconventional, but you are achieving things that we would like to achieve, which is to bring Jews together.’”

    For more information, visit tokinjew.com.

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    Emily Davenport

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  • Michael Yo Talks Taking His Comedy Clean and Living His Game Show Dreams

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    It’s really all coming together for stand-up Michael Yo as he hits the big 5-0.

    “I released a special [Snack Daddy], I just shot another Dry Bar special that’s gonna come out and I’m 50 – yes, I’m 50!” the Houston-born comedian says with zeal. “People can’t tell ‘cause I’m half black and Asian – Black don’t crack, and Asian don’t raisin! I tell people I’m 137 years old.”

    “But yeah, the 5-0,” Yo says wistfully ahead of Friday September 13 date at House of Blues. “Not to get too deep, but it’s a weird thing, because I am 50 but if we were to hang out, you would never think I’m 50. I don’t feel it! Literally I feel like I’m in my 20s. It’s a weird thing where I don’t even feel my age. I think when we were growing up, when you say someone who is 50 – they LOOKED 50. Even go back to look at old sitcoms, where the parents are supposed to be 35 but they look like 60? Now we know how to take care of ourselves, we eat healthy and all this. But I feel the best I’ve ever felt in my life: mentally, physically, in material and family. It’s all clicking together.”
    Despite his rapid fire recording pace, Yo promises new stories and jokes for his Issa Truuue! Tour. “100 percent new material,” he affirms. “and that’s the stress of it. Stand up is just part of me. I tell me I can’t live without my family, or stand up. Like literally it is my right arm. No matter how tired I am, if there is a comedy club around, I will go to it. Me and my wife will go on vacation, and if the kids go to sleep early, I will look for the closest comedy club. Just to go up – which annoys my wife a lot! It is just part of me. There is no pressure because I love it. If you love what you do.”

    “Now I will admit, unlike a singer who can sing a couple of hit songs for the rest of their life – [with comedy] after they see it once live, they don’t want to see it again. That’s what makes it so hard to be a stand up comedian. But since I talk about my life so much, it has become so easy to find my voice and different angles on things. Crazy things happen every single day – between my kids, my wife, my parents are ridiculous, you know? I talk to them all the time, so I always got material coming in.”

    Speaking of family, Yo’s young family is growing up – and the lingering thought remains: what happens when his kids are old enough to watch the jokes he’s told about them? “Now more than I ever, I have to be more careful because they actually understand what I am saying,” he explains, charting his thinking on the looming subject and explaining an announcement for his upcoming material. “I’m more of a family comedian now, I’m going the clean route and not cursing and all that, because I want my kids to be able to watch my comedy. But at the same time – you still gotta be able to make jokes about them.

    “So how do you do that where if they see it, but don’t totally understand it yet? So you kinda make a choice that they’ll understand it later in life, and get over it. It’s that weird things because I talk about the balance between my daughter and son, and the different things they do. But I don’t want them to ever see it and say, ‘aw, my dad thinks I’m this’ because it is just jokes. So even though I don’t curse in my stand up, I still don’t really let them watch anything I do because they won’t understand it – but probably when they’re teenagers like 15 and 16 is the first time they’ll see my stand up.”
    Some may call it re-branding, other may merely observe it as a natural evolution: but Yo pivoting to a clean-only perspective may not surprise longtime followers of his work. “The thing is – I’ve never cursed that much.”

    “[Not to say] this is a religious moment in my life, but eight months ago I was just like: I’m gonna dedicate my stand up, and really everything I do, because I’ve always been a believer in God, but I just said that I don’t need to curse. I’m just gonna make this change that going forward, all my comedy is gonna be clean. Right now, I have people who are 40 or 50 years old, bring their 21 or 22 year old kids to my shows. And it’s always been like that because I don’t really curse, but man, I want to be open to everybody coming.”

    As if the universe desired to affirm his shift in direction, Yo says it was nearly instant when a new door opened that led to the realization of a life-long dream. “Right when I started doing [clean material] 8 months ago, literally 3 months later, I got the call for Scrambled Up, a game show. I’ve been wanting to host a game show all my life! They told me, and I was so excited I hung up and told my wife and started crying. But then he called back and said I forgot to tell you, but you’re shooting 160 episodes! In 4 weeks! So I’ve been shooting 8-9 episodes per day. [And] after doing that for 12 hours, to still go up onstage and practice has been a lot. But great things are happening.”

    “They say it’s really not on your time, it’s on God’s time. I really believe that. I’ve worked so hard, like I was the person who would shoot all the pilots and be told that you’re not famous enough – you may be great or the best host, but you’re not famous enough. But now I’ve got my shot and I feel like everything is happening for a reason. 5-6 years ago, when I had the opportunity, I wasn’t as good as I was now.”
    Dreams fulfilled begat more dreams it seems, as Yo is forthcoming about another bucket list item for his career: the classic American sitcom. “My dream, since my stand up is so successful right now, I would love to do my own sitcom about my life. People know that. I see the reaction live, they love the stories and I would love to bring that to a sitcom.

    “But it’s a thing where I’m really trying to break more into acting but also balance it with family. On this game show, I’ve been away from my family for like 6 weeks. I’ll fly from Atlanta to Las Vegas every weekend to see them. It’s a lot, but it’s also, you have to do what you have to do. So I have to balance everything with family first and those opportunities go around them. Because even if your kids say they understand, all they’re going to remember the times you were gone. Not the time you’re there. I try to limit that as much as a possible.”

    While other passions come and go, Yo stands strong with his true professional love: stand-up. “My friend told me the greatest thing,” he says. “If you tell a joke about your family and they laugh, that means they’ve identified with it because they’ve got through exactly what you’ve gone through. If you say a joke nobody laughs to, you’ve not related to anybody. That’s why I love comedy, man. It’s a superpower! Just you on stage making somebody laugh for an hour. It’s the best job. If I had to rank it, it would be comedy, by far. Above acting, above hosting a game show, because without comedy, professionally I would be so miserable. I love it that much.”
    With this tour, Yo says he aims to honor his parents – and even gave his mother the title quote. “My mom is ruthless and so blunt and will just say the most cruel things to people, then say ‘Issa true!’ I remember I was hanging out with my mom, and this was like two weeks ago, and she was looking at a person and she said ‘Wow, they have nice teeth and a long face.’ And I just said, ‘Oh my God mom – you can’t say that!’ And she says, ‘Why? Issa true.’ So that’s my mom, she keeps saying things she should not be saying and this whole tour is dedicated to my parents and my mom especially.”

    “But the great things is everybody has a person in their family, whether they’re white, Asian, black, Hispanic, that talks like that. I think that’s why my comedy relates – because yes, my mom is Asian and my dad is black, but so many people after the show go: my Dad is like your dad, or my Mom is like your mom? When it comes down to it, we all got crazy people in our family.”

    Fans of Yo should be eating well for the foreseeable future. Between his tour, his game show, and his most recent specials dropped on YouTube, there is plenty of content to fill the hours. “People can watch Snack Daddy and my last one (I Never Thought) now. I never thought I’d self-produce it, but I got tired of waiting for people to say yes, and to give me a platform, so I did it myself.

    On the trend of comedians turning to self-distribution over waiting for Netflix money, Yo has powerful insights. “Why wait for someone to give you an opportunity when you can make it yourself? Now with cameras and stuff – before it would take $200,000 or $300,000 to shoot a special. You can shoot a special now that is the same quality for 15 grand. And you own it! And you license it! And you make money from everything. So yeah, I think it’s great comedians can control their own destinies. When it comes down to it, there will always be people that will say no. But what got me through the tough times were those 300 or 400 people in the audience who laughed and said yes.”

    Yo’s performance is scheduled for 7 p.m. on September 13 at House of Blues, 1204 Caroline. For information, call 888-402-5837 or visit houseofblues.com/houston. $29-49.

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    Vic Shuttee

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