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We’ve got some sad news this morning, with it revealed that the legendary R&b singer Roberta Flack has passed away at 88 years old. The singer fought a long battle with Als and has been retired since 2022. Flack had a series of number-one hits on the Billboard Top 40, with “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and the iconic “Killing Me Softy With His Song.” That last song received new life in the nineties when it was covered by The Fugees.

Flack was seen as one of the pioneers of the “quiet storm” genre of R&b which dominated radio throughout much of the seventies. Basically, the genre mixed smooth, jazz-flavoured grooves with R&B, and Flack was among it’s most prolific stars. The genre fell out of favor in the mid-eighties, but Flack remained much in demand. In the mid-eighties, she...

The Wayans Family were inducted into the NAACP Hall of Fame at the 56th Image Awards on Saturday night.

The Wayanses — siblings Keenen Ivory Wayans, Damon Wayans Sr., Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Kim Wayans and the second generation of talent, Damon Wayans Jr., Damien Dante Wayans, Craig Wayans and Chaunté Wayans — joined previous inductees including New Edition, Eddie Murphy, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Spike Lee and Earth Wind and Fire.

The NAACP Hall of Fame Award is presented to “individuals or groups who have been pioneers in their respective fields and whose influence continues to shape their industry for generations.” And as one of the most influential families in comedy and entertainment — collectively behind such culture-defining hits as “In Living Color” (which also launched the careers of Jennifer Lopez and Rosie Perez), “My Wife and Kids,” “Hollywood Shuffle,” the “Scary Movie” franchise, “White Chicks” and the hit CBS...

When Tom Hanks took the stage late during last night's 50th anniversary celebration of "Saturday Night Live," he appeared to be headed into somber territory. The lights were dimmed to blue, his tone was reverent and, as he worked into his prepared comments, the subject one that hits so very close to home for the show's alumni and friends. "As we celebrate the achievements of the past 50 years," he said, "We must also take a moment to honor those we've lost. Countless members of the 'SNL' community taken too soon." Hanks paused briefly for effect, then continued. "I'm speaking, of course, about 'SNL' characters that have aged horribly."

No comedic institution can last 50 years without finding the third rail on occasion. For "SNL," a sketch comedy series both emerged from and tore apart 1960s counterculture humor, jolting viewers with gasp-inducing gags that seemed to fly under...

On its 50th anniversary special, Saturday Night Live wanted to have its nostalgic cake and eat it, too, owning up to the stereotypes it has perpetuated while also coaxing laughs out of the passage of time.

In a send-up of awards-show “in memoriam” segments, a tuxedoed Tom Hanks soberly took the darkly lit stage during Sunday’s SNL50: The Anniversary Special. “As we celebrate the achievements of the past 50 years,” he intoned, “we must also take a moment to remember those who we’ve lost. Countless members of the SNL family taken from us way too soon. I’m speaking, of course, about SNL characters and sketches that have aged horribly.”

As the audience chuckled, he went on, “Even though these accents and characters and … let’s just call them ethnic wigs … were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them. So, if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you,...

During a time when people can’t stop talking about cancellation in comedy, “Saturday Night Live” took a bold stance during its 50th anniversary special. The three-hour broadcast included an “in memoriam” for all of the questionable characters the NBC behemoth has broadcast over its five decades.

Tom Hanks introduced the segment, teeing it up as a moment to “honor those we’ve lost.” “I’m speaking, of course, about ‘SNL’ characters and sketches that have aged horribly,” Hanks added, earning a launch from the studio audience. “But even though these characters, accents and let’s just call them ‘ethnic’ wigs were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them. So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience? Something to think about.”

Watch the full clip below:

In Memoriam #SNL50 pic.twitter.com/8aUmE6nHgy

— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) February 17, 2025

The segment started...

Since 1975 nearly a thousand hosts have graced the stage at Studio 8H at Rockefeller Center for “Saturday Night Live.”

Actors, comedians, musicians and even politicians have taken the stage to make America laugh on Saturday night for 50 seasons. Twenty five of these hosts have been inducted into the “Five Timers Club.” The club was first introduced during Tom Hanks’ 1990 monologue, featuring Steve Martin, Elliott Gould and Paul Simon.

During Martin Short’s December 2024 appearance, several Five Timers Club members popped up on the show to welcome him into the club, including Emma Stone, Tina Fey, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig and more, to give him the ceremonial robe.

Alec Baldwin has hosted the show 17 times, the most in the series’ history, with Martin, Hanks, Buck Henry and John Goodman following close behind.

As the show celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, we have rounded up every person who has hosted the sketch show.

It’s a new year and there are already a host of incredible physical media releases from some of our favorite labels. It really is an embarrassment of riches and given what has been previewed for the next few months, we’ll be eating very well indeed.

But let’s get into the very best home video releases of January 2025!

New Line Cinema “Seven” 4K

2025 is finally the year that some of David Fincher’s masterpieces make their way to 4K. “Fight Club” is in the works for later this year and “Panic Room” and “The Social Network” (which had previously only been available in one of the ultra-expensive Columbia Pictures box sets) are hitting in February. “Seven,” whose new 4K transfer was previewed at the TCM Festival last year, finally makes its way to home video. And while some have taken issue with the new image, which saw Fincher...

We’re celebrating 50 years of “Saturday Night Live”! All this week, we’re digging into the late-night comedy institution with new stories, including lists, essays, interviews, and more.

We know what you’re thinking. Why choose to highlight only the later seasons of “Saturday Night Live” as opposed to the full 50 years? It is the 50th Anniversary after all, right? Being perfectly honest, most of the people involved in making this list were not born before 1990, meaning we really couldn’t even appreciate “SNL” until after the turn of the 21st Century. That being said, we’re also all TV obsessives who have certainly seen “Word Association” with Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor, as well as Phil Hartman’s Bill Clinton, and even the sketch that got Damon Wayans fired. Our reasoning for sticking to just the sketches that aired between 2001 and today — outside of the standard generational divides in...

“He’s the best ever,” Eddie Murphy once told Playboy about his idol, Richard Pryor. “There’s no one who’s ever brought the theatrics that Richard brings to his comedy. Anyone who tells you he’s into comedy and doesn’t think Richard is the best comedian who ever existed doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Pryor is better than anyone who ever picked up the microphone and started telling jokes. Nobody can fuck with him.”

Growing up, there was no one Murphy looked up to more. And while they say you shouldn’t meet your idols, it was all love the first time Murphy met Pryor. “When I was on a fucking plane coming from Georgia, Richard Pryor was on the plane. That’s when I first met him,” Murphy told The New York Times last year. The young comic gave Pryor a copy of his...

Dave Chappelle has been nominated six times for Best Comedy Album at the Grammys and now has won six times, continuing his undefeated streak in the category with his Feb. 2 victory for The Dreamer. He now stands alone as the Grammys’ second-most-awarded comedian, breaking his tie with George Carlin and Richard Pryor and just one trophy shy of seven-time champ Bill Cosby. His previous five victories were for The Age of Spin and Deep in the Heart of Texas (2018), Equanimity and The Bird Revelation (2019), Sticks and Stones (2020), The Closer (2023), and What’s in a Name? (2024).

This year Chappelle defeated first-time nominees Ricky Gervais (Armageddon) and Nikki Glaser (Someday You’ll Die), three-time nominee and fifth-year Grammy host Trevor Noah (Where Was I?), and eight-time nominee Jim Gaffigan (The Prisoner). All four are awaiting their first Grammy.

Chappelle is clearly still loved by his peers in the industry, undiminished since his satirical...

Physical media culture is alive and thriving thanks to the home video tastemakers hailing everywhere from The Criterion Collection to Kino Lorber and the Warner Archive Collection. Each month, IndieWire highlights the best recent and upcoming Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K releases for cinephiles to own now — and to bring ballast and permanence to your moviegoing at a time when streaming windows on classic movies close just as soon as they open.

2025 is starting off strong, with an abundance of new releases both popular and obscure. Contemporary auteurs like Robert Zemeckis and Quentin Tarantino are represented with releases both new (“Here”) and from their catalog (“Inglourious Basterds”), while a pair of masters from Hollywood’s past — Anthony Mann and George Stevens — have gorgeous new editions of two of their most idiosyncratic works arriving on physical media.

January also sees Criterion giving Richard Pryor’s “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling” a long overdue Blu-ray release,...

The late, great David Lynch obviously gave us so many wonderful films over the course of his career. I mean, the guy literally turned a failed ABC TV pilot with no surviving costumes or sets into a movie that some have hailed as the greatest film of the 21st century.

Probably one of his more underrated works was 1997’s Lost Highway, the film that dared to ask: what if O.J. Simpson was a saxophone-playing Bill Pullman, and he briefly had the ability to shape-shift? At the very least, it’s the only movie in history to use “Two Thumbs Down” from Siskel and Ebert as a selling point in its marketing campaign.

Lost Highway is especially notable for comedy fans, because it featured Richard Pryor’s final screen performance. Pryor plays Arnie, who owns the auto shop that employs Pete – the young man who may or may not be some...

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling, spine #1247, is now available on 4K in the Criterion Collection.

Known for his edgy stand-up comedy and his over-the-top film performances in movies like Stir Crazy, Superman III and See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Richard Pryor took on his most daring and personal work with the semi-autobiographic Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling. Mixing comedy and drama, Pryor wrote, produced, directed and starred in the story that held a mirror to his life, highlighting his struggles with addiction and his womanizing lifestyle.

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling plot

Following a near-death experience, successful comedian Jo Jo Dancer has an out-of-body experience that allows his to watch and experience the highs and lows of his life. From childhood to fame, Jo Jo watches, helpless to intervene as he makes poor choice after poor choice.

The review

Pryor’s directorial debut...

Gold Derby’s top news stories for Jan. 16, 2025 Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga among stars to perform at FireAid benefit concert for L.A. wildfire victims

Some of music’s biggest stars are joining forces to support victims of the recent L.A. wildfires. Oscar winners Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga are just two of the headliners set to perform at the FireAid benefit concert on Jan. 30, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Other performers taking the stage at the Intuit Dome include Jelly Roll, Lil Baby, Tate McRae, Gwen Stefani, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and U2.

Proceeds from the concert will go toward a 501(c)(3) created for the event that will focus on rebuilding infrastructure, supporting displaced families and advancing fire prevention technologies and strategies to ensure L.A. is better prepared for fire emergencies. Legendary rock band The Eagles have donated $2.5 million to the cause, but it has...

Conan O'Brien's comedy resume can be stacked up against just about anyone in the entertainment industry. Now, the late-night TV legend is finally getting a long-overdue honor in recognition of his achievements.

O'Brien will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the John F, Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on March 23. Netflix will stream the event, although not live.

The award is given to individuals who have impacted society in a way similar to Mark Twain. The 19th-century American author was noted for his social commentary and witticisms.

“I am honored to be the first winner of the Mark Twain Prize recognized not for humor, but for my work as a riverboat pilot,” O'Brien said, showcasing his signature sense of humor.

"For four decades, Conan O’Brien, has brought his unique blend of the smart, silly, insightful, and hilarious into our homes,” said Deborah F. Rutter,...

Back in 1993, Conan O’Brien’s career seemed like it might end before it really even began when NBC nearly canceled his fledging 12:30 am talk show, convinced they’d made a mistake by handing over David Letterman’s desk to an unknown comedy writer barely out of his twenties. But they kept him on the air and O’Brien found his comedic voice along with a mass audience. Today, he’s a beloved elder statesman with a hit podcast, a brilliant new travel show, and an upcoming stint as the host of the Academy Awards.

Conan O’Brien will be the next recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

O’Brien will be honored at the annual gala for the Mark Twain Prize on March 23 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. (Netflix will stream the event sometime later in the year.) The comedian, podcaster and erstwhile late-night host — who is also set to host the Oscars on March 2 — will be the 26th person to receive the award, joining a list of honorees that includes Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Whoopi Goldberg, Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, and his late-night predecessors Jay Leno and David Letterman, among others.

“For four decades, Conan O’Brien, has brought his unique blend of the smart, silly, insightful, and hilarious into our homes,” said Deborah F. Rutter, president of the Kennedy Center. “From Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons — including the unbelievably funny monorail episode — to late night,...

Conan O’Brien is the latest comedian to be feted at the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

The former host of Conan and The Tonight Show will receive the award on March 23 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The ceremony will air on Netflix, although the streamer, which took on the event last year, didn’t air it live.

Kevin Hart was last year’s recipient and previous honorees include Dave Chappelle, Adam Sandler, Jon Stewart, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Steve Martin, George Carlin, Tina Fey, Carol Burnett and Richard Pryor.

Last year, Netflix struck a multi-year deal with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to air the event. The event previously aired on CNN and before that PBS aired it for over 20 years. Comedy Central hosted it before PBS.

The 26th Mark Twain Prize will be produced by David Jammy and the team at Done+Dusted.

With its fractured narrative, complete with a gimmicky spectral figure guiding us through the proceedings, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is Richard Pryor’s All That Jazz. Playing like a greatest hits collection of Pryor’s stand-up routines, it begins with the titular character freebasing his way into a hospital burn unit, features him pulling a starter pistol on the mafia, and shows him destroying his wife’s car when she threatens to leave him.

Jo Jo Dancer’s profession mirrors Pryor’s own, as does his backstory: The film was shot in Peoria, Illinois, Pryor’s hometown and the location of the brothel where both he and Jo Jo grew up. Columbia Pictures wouldn’t grant Bob Fosse’s wish to play All That Jazz’s Joe Gideon, but they let Pryor play himself, or “himself” as it were, creating a meta experience before meta was cool.

Anxiety, depression, addiction, suicidal ideations, cancer diagnoses — we’re not exactly in “take my wife, please” territory with some of today’s more adventurous comedians, who mine their occasionally harrowing personal experience for material. “Group Therapy” gathers half a dozen of them for a free-ranging discussion in front of cameras and a live audience, “hosted” by Neil Patrick Harris. This is not exactly the most profound forum for probing mental health, or comedy’s relationship to it for that matter. Still, Neil Berkeley’s slick feature offers considerable entertainment value in mixing ingratiating personalities, stand-up excerpts and serious issues … even if the result ultimately plays more like a high-concept TV special than a “documentary.”

While their personas run a gamut from Tig Notaro’s lower-than-low-key deadpan to London Hughes’ boisterous style, the comics here share a penchant for using potentially discomfiting autobiographical truths in their act. For some, like Nicole Byer or Atsuko Okatsuka,...

Silence, all you "You couldn't make 'Blazing Saddles' today" fools: it just so happens that Mel Brooks almost wasn't able to make "Blazing Saddles" in 1974. To be fair, Brooks knew going into making the film that he was looking to push buttons and boundaries, extrapolating from the anything-goes ethos of his prior comedy ventures. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly from 2014, Brooks confessed that his primary interest in making his brand of cinematic anarchy was that he "just wanted to exorcise both my angels and demons." Brooks encouraged his writers to "go nuts," on the assumption that Warner Bros. Pictures would see the finished film and refuse to release it.

Although "Blazing Saddles" was eventually released to great acclaim, becoming one of the most beloved comedy films of all time, Brooks' assumption did prove well-founded at one point. Surprisingly, WB didn't take issue with multiple aspects of the movie — and...

Internet! Stand-by! It’s the trailer for a Superman film, as we head to Milton Keynes for Superman IV: The Quest For Peace.

You can’t beat the flurry of excitement for a new Superman film, and here’s the trailer many of you have been waiting to see. Directed by Sidney J Furie and penned by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace stars Christopher Reeve in the title role. He’s joined by Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor once again, along with Jackie Coooper, Margot Kidder and Marc McClure. Plus, introducing Mark Pillow as Nuclear Man, the latest foe to go up against Superman. It’s set to be quite a battle.

Gone from its immediate forerunner is Richard Pryor, and instead, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace resets the saga a little, putting the emphasis firmly back onto the Man Of Steel (Reeve...

T.G. Sheppard knows exactly how people at home may have felt when they were watching Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, the landmark 1983 TV special honoring one of the most enduring record companies ever. The singer was feeling the same way backstage at the Pasadena Civic Center in California, marveling at moments like Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” moonwalk, Marvin Gaye’s otherworldly “What’s Going On,” and the reunions of the Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and the Supremes.

He knows audiences were probably confused when comedian and host...

Tj and Molly are headed for Splitsville on General Hospital. But while this iteration of Tj navigates the troubling emotions caused by the death of their surrogate baby, his original portrayer, Tequan Richmond, has been navigating an entirely different path. From 2012 to 2018, he played Tj Ashford, and he left because he got a starring role in Boomerang, a TV show sequel/reboot to Eddie Murphy’s 1992 comedy film of the same name. Now, he’s appearing in another sequel of sorts to a film by another famous comedian.

Millions Are at Stake

1985’s Brewster’s Millions starred iconic comedian Richard Pryor and the late comic John Candy. The film was based on the 1902 novel by George Barr McCutcheon and was a remake of the 1945 film starring Dennis O’Keefe. In it, Pryor plays Montgomery Brewster, a baseball player who stands to inherit $300 million if he can spend $30 million in a month, but...

There have been near countless retellings of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, including the classic 1951 film starring Alaistar Sim and the other classic film that exclusively stars Rich Little. But for comedy fans in the ‘80s, the best onscreen Scrooge wasn’t even named “Scrooge,” he was Frank Cross, as played by Bill Murray in Scrooged.

Scrooged hit theaters back in 1988, so obviously not every aspect of it holds up today. For example, in one scene, Frank’s brother James receives a VHS player for Christmas and amazingly doesn’t just toss it in the garbage. Also, several jokes seem more than a little iffy from today’s standpoint — like the racist running gag about Chinese restaurants serving up cat meat. Why didn’t three ghosts show up and convince the filmmakers to cut that material?

Another joke that doesn’t seem so great comes when Frank is about to...

Money matters. Financial ambitions and pecuniary disappointment is common fuel for Hollywood and beyond. In an industry so reliant on the box office takings, vast riches are lost and won every opening weekend, thus it’s no surprise that the world of finance plays a consistent role in the drama on the big screen.

The common currency here is hope, and much is staked on the good fortune of our cinematic protagonists. Through the decades it has always been so. Money, and the necessity of it, is an abundant source of tension. As we’re close to Christmas many will turn to the mighty glow of Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life to warm their spirits, to witness the great returns when human kindness is in rude supply.

The moment the film when James Stewart discover the loss of $8000 from the Bailey Buildings, and the run on the bank is heart-breaking.

In the mid-1980s, Whoopi Goldberg exploded onto the entertainment scene via her self-titled, one-woman Broadway show, which was considered so electric and essential that HBO filmed a performance and aired it within a year of its stage premiere. At this point, Goldberg was a force of nature, a comedic dynamo capable of zipping from one deep-tissue character study to another with the ease of Richard Pryor. Meanwhile, her big, brilliant brain seemed to run a mile a minute, like the one possessed by her friend and colleague Robin Williams. Whoopi, it seemed, could do anything. Movie stardom seemed a cinch.

It was. Kind of. After making her dramatic debut in Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple," she scored a smallish hit with Penny Marshall's comedy thriller "Jumpin' Jack Flash." That led to two more star vehicles in the 1987 duo of "Burglar" and "Fatal Beauty," but they didn't take.

In the pantheon of comedy history, few bits are as polarizing as Gallagher’s Sledge-o-Matic. The late prop comedian, whose legal name was Leo Gallagher, filled his stand-up performances with wordplay and demonstrations of his elaborate homemade gadgets. But he closed every show with a tried-and-true crowd pleaser that came to define his entire life. He placed a watermelon on a stool, performed a monologue that mocked infomercials for kitchen products, and then smashed the melon with a sledgehammer.

The audiences who willingly bought tickets (and donned the required plastic ponchos to sit in the front row) were always amused by the gag. But to outsiders, it was the height of hackery. Stand-up comedy is a time honored art form that can be used to package eloquent thoughts about human society in a way that entertains audiences and relieved cultural tension. In the eyes of its purists, relying on props...

This article contains spoilers for "Wicked."

L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" stands as one of the most adapted novels ever published. As early as 1908 — practically the dawn of cinema — "Oz" was being translated to the screen, and the titular character of the Wizard of Oz has appeared in each of those adaptations. As such, the Wizard is a character who's been interpreted in a variety of ways, given that he's been portrayed by actors ranging from Richard Pryor, Jeffrey Tambor, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent D'Onofrio, and James Franco. When it comes to the portrayal of the Wizard in the new film version of "Wicked," two actors in particular leap to mind: Frank Morgan, who played the Wizard in 1939's "The Wizard of Oz," and Joel Grey, who played him in the original stage production of "Wicked."

When Jeff Goldblum was announced to be taking over the...

“We should write dangerously,” Mel Brooks told the writers he assembled to create his classic comedy, Blazing Saddles. “That’s what this is all about.”

The writers, including Brooks, Richard Pryor and Andrew Bergman, tried to push the envelope as far as it would stretch. Brooks’ only rule was posted on a wall in large print: First, We Laugh. In his memoir, All About Me!, Brooks recalled the only other guidance he gave to his scribes: “Write anything you want. We will never be heard from again. We will all be in jail for making this movie.” If a joke was bizarre or dirty or socially unacceptable, Brooks was all for it — up to a point.

There was one gag he cut from the final version of Blazing Saddles, deeming it “too far,” according to Far Out Magazine. In a movie full of edgy racial jokes and gross-out scatological humor,...

On Tuesday November 19 2024, Vice broadcasts Black Comedy in America!

Richard Pryor Season 1 Episode 5 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Black Comedy in America,” titled “Richard Pryor,” promises to be a compelling exploration of one of the most influential figures in comedy. Richard Pryor’s journey is marked by significant achievements, personal struggles, and a unique ability to blend humor with deep emotional experiences. This episode will delve into how Pryor’s groundbreaking performances changed the landscape of comedy.

Viewers can expect to see a mix of transformational moments from Pryor’s career. His ability to tackle serious topics with humor made him a trailblazer in the industry. The episode will highlight key appearances that showcased his talent and charisma, making audiences laugh while also making them think. It will explore how Pryor’s comedic style paved the way for future generations of comedians.

However, the episode will not shy away...

Pauline Kael once called the gulf between E.T. and Poltergeist a testament to the confounding ability for one man, Steven Spielberg, to produce one enduring masterpiece and one miserable failure in the space of a year—and God forever damn her for not realizing that Poltergeist is, if anything, a more harrowing portrait of the nuclear family on the verge of dissipation, but I digress. Apparently, she hadn’t seen Mel Brooks’s 1974 one-two punch.

Young Frankenstein is so loving and charmingly goofy in spoofing one of Hollywood’s most successful early genres (the Universal monster movies of the 1930s) that it winds up as much a tribute as it is a parody. But Blazing Saddles, a burlesque about a western town standing in the way of the railroad expansion and the Black sheriff sent to discourage its citizens from deserting, is a limp, shapeless mess of a film...

Vice TV’s Black Comedy in America turns its lens on the complicated legacy of Richard Pryor. This week’s episode is a look at the comedian’s influential yet turbulent journey, from his transformational stage presence to the personal struggles that both fueled and threatened his career. Pryor’s impact on stand-up is undeniable. He brought a raw, […]

Black Comedy in America: Richard Pryor...

“When Vir Das hears an American comedian talk about being “canceled,” he can only laugh.

“Every time an American comedian complains about getting canceled, I’m like: ‘Grab a flight to India, just let me show you something,’ ” says the Indian stand-up comedian and actor.

Three years ago, Das got a taste of cancel culture, Indian style. His “Two Indias” routine, performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington on Nov. 12, 2021, in which he pointed to the absurd contrasts in his home country — “I come from an India where we worship women during the day and gang rape them at night” — triggered a furious backlash. Politicians from India’s ruling Bjp party accused him of defaming the nation and filed criminal charges. He got bombarded with death threats.

“I had seven criminal complaints filed against me, was being charged with sedition and defaming India on foreign soil,” Das recounts in his latest Netflix special,...

On Monday November 18 2024, ABC broadcasts Tamron Hall!

Unforgettable Legacy Season 6 Episode 51 Episode Summary

The upcoming episode of “Tamron Hall,” titled “Unforgettable Legacy,” promises to be an engaging hour of conversation and storytelling. Set to air on ABC, this episode features special guests Jaleel White and Rain and Richard Pryor Jr.

Jaleel White, best known for his role as Steve Urkel on the classic sitcom “Family Matters,” will share insights from his life and career. He has recently published a memoir titled “Growing Up Urkel,” which explores his experiences in Hollywood and the impact of his iconic character. Viewers can expect a candid discussion about his journey in the entertainment industry and the lessons he has learned along the way.

Joining Jaleel White are Rain and Richard Pryor Jr., who will discuss their own experiences and the legacy of their famous father, comedian Richard Pryor. Their perspectives on growing up in...

In 1949, Alec Guinness dazzled critics and paying audiences alike by playing eight members, male and female, of the D'Ascoyne family in the deliciously dark comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets." There weren't many actors alive cocky enough to attempt such a thing, let alone pull it off, so you'd think the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would go gaga for the actor's brazen feat and hand him the Best Actor Oscar before the ceremony began. Amazingly, he didn't even receive a nomination (though John Wayne snared his first for basically playing John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima").

How did Guinness not even earn the honor of an Oscar nod? He made one critical mistake: he gave his bravura performance in a comedy.

Of the 96 films that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, only 15 could be called comedies (and I'm being super charitable with movies like "Green Book...

In season 1, episode 5 of Black Comedy in America titled “Richard Pryor,” the groundbreaking life and career of one of the most influential comedians in history are explored in depth. Richard Pryor’s trailblazing journey in the world of comedy is a story of transformation, blending moments of joy and laughter with deep personal struggles. The episode shines a light on how Pryor’s raw, unapologetic humor broke barriers and changed the way comedy was approached, especially for Black performers in America.

Viewers will get an intimate look at Pryor’s journey through addiction, tragedy, and the triumphs that came from his vulnerability on stage. The episode reflects on how he managed to mix pain with humor, creating a legacy that resonates to this day. Pryor’s comedy, at once honest and bold, continues to inspire and shape modern entertainment. Don’t miss this compelling look at the life of a...

Amanda Bynes had always been a natural performer. She began acting as a child, appearing in several TV commercials, demonstratively oohing and ahhing over the Cut N' Style Barbie or snacking on Buncha Crunch to a variation of the "Addams Family" theme music. At school, she appeared in the musicals "Annie," "The Sound of Music," and "The Music Man." She was bitten by the theater bug early on.

Bynes experienced her big break in 1996 when she joined the cast of the hit sketch comedy series "All That" on Nickelodeon. She was 10. "All That" ran for a whopping 11 seasons from 1994 to 2005 and proved to be a stamping ground for up-and-coming talents, serving sort-of as a junior version of "Saturday Night Live." Keenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Jamie Lynn Spears, and Nick Cannon also broke out thanks to the popularity of "All That." Bynes was a regular cast member for the show's third through sixth seasons,...

Five decades ago, a rip-roaring spoof Western came to town, with a six-shooter full of gags, a handful of ultra-catchy songs, and a roster of stellar performances to boot. It rode a blazing saddle, it wore a shining star – and it became one of the greatest cinematic comedies of all time. Yes, Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles has turned 50, holding on to its status as one of the funniest films ever made, with sharp satire to complement its pitch-perfect homage to the Western genre. Now, it looks even better than ever, thanks to a new 4K restoration – available to own on 4K Ultra-hd Blu-ray. Gentlemen, please rest your sphincters.

Blazing Saddles arrived in a period of major creativity for Brooks – it landed in February 1974, followed-up before the year was out by his Universal monster spoof Young Frankenstein. And it connected with audiences for all kinds of reasons – not just the barrage...

Quincy Jones, the musical giant who did it all as a record producer, film composer, multi-genre artist, entertainment executive and humanitarian, has died. He was 91.

Jones’ publicist, Arnold Robinson, said that he died Sunday night at his Bel-Air home surrounded by his family.

“Tonight, with full but broken hearts, we must share the news of our father and brother Quincy Jones’ passing,” his family said in a statement. “And although this is an incredible loss for our family, we celebrate the great life that he lived and know there will never be another like him.”

Jones received the Motion Picture Academy’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1995, the Grammy Legend Award in 1991 and 28 Grammys from an all-time best 80 nominations. He was to be presented with an honorary Oscar at the Governors Awards on Nov. 17.

Survivors include one of his seven children, actress Rashida Jones.

In a phenomenal career that spanned more than 60 years,...

Comic and podcaster Marc Maron is calling out his peers who use their positions to drive what he terms “the new fascism” just a day after right-wing comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made racist and sexist jokes at Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.

Other comics also slammed Hinchcliffe who, among other things, called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.”

Tweeted Michael Ian Black, “I think America just found its next Jim Breuer!”

Maron’s statement, posted in full on his Wtf With Marc Maron website and shared in part on social media, did not specifically name Hinchcliffe, but the message seems clear.

Writes Maron: “The anti-woke flank of the new fascism is being driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers. Whether or not they are self-serving or true believers in the new fascism is unimportant. They are of the movement. Whether they see themselves as acolytes or just comics doesn’t matter.

Comedy nerds were probably hoping that Hasan Minhaj would use his new Netflix special to address the New Yorker hit job that cost him a job headlining The Daily Show. Like John Mulaney sharing his rehab trials in Baby J or Richard Pryor talking about his near-death experience in Live on the Sunset Strip, real-life travails often make for scintillating comedy. The good news: Minhaj does devote a segment of Off With His Head to venting his comedic outrage. The bad news: He lets everyone off easy before quickly moving on to less interesting subjects.

The elephant in the room doesn’t even get acknowledged for the first quarter of the special, but 17 minutes in, Minhaj finally gives the people what they want. “I don’t know if you saw last year,” he begins with a grin. “The New Yorker fact-checked my stand-up comedy. They were just like, ‘Ho ho ho!

Movie stars are still very much a factor in Hollywood, but they seem a little less special in our social media age. Even those that don't have active accounts on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, and the like seem a little more human now that anyone can whip out their smartphone and record, say, Timothée Chalamet popping into a coffee shop for an espresso. We just don't get awestruck by stars the way we used to.

Those of us born before the proliferation of the internet remember a time when stars felt larger than life. Warren Beatty, Barbra Streisand, and Burt Reynolds were like American royalty. When you went to the movies and saw them in a trailer for a new motion picture, you knew you'd be right back in that theater (or one close by) to see that sucker in a few months. And if you were promised two big stars for the price of one,...

As movie fans are likely well aware, the Criterion Collection is the home video company that distributes prestige editions of some of the greatest films ever made, plus Armageddon. Cinephiles love Criterion so much that they’ll even wait for several hours in the rain just to climb into the back of a van that resembles one of their office’s storage closets.

Criterion recently announced their latest batch of additions to the collection, and it includes a fairly surprising title: a 4K restoration of 1986’s Jo Jo Dancer Your Life Is Calling.

As we’ve discussed before, Jo Jo Dancer is essentially an experimental Richard Pryor biopic that was co-written and directed by Pryor. He also stars as his fictional surrogate who, in the film’s opening moments, nearly burns to death, not unlike Pryor, after freebasing cocaine.

Jo Jo’s soul departs his burned body as it struggles to survive,...

Recently, I wrote an article about movies that were surprisingly hard to find on streaming or Blu-ray, and one of the movies I mentioned was a little-remembered 1988 thriller called Shoot to Kill (aka Deadly Pursuit in the UK). The film was a decent box office hit in its day, but outside of a DVD release many years ago, it has sunk into obscurity.

This is a shame, as Shoot to Kill is a nifty little movie. After a few comments praised the film, I decided to revisit it for myself, as I honestly hadn’t seen it since the nineties and had no idea if it would hold up. To my surprise, not only did it hold up, but Shoot to Kill is a bit of a lost 80s action classic.

The film stars Sidney Poitier as a veteran FBI agent investigating a strange robbery where the owner of a...

It’s October, which means Criterion’s already thinking about 2025. Their new year auspiciously starts with a 4K Uhd release of Jean Eustache’s magnum opus The Mother and the Whore, featuring a new interview with Françoise Lebrun and a new conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner.

Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and Sanjuro get 4K Uhd upgrades in a two-film set, while Anthony Mann’s Jimmy Stewart-led western Winchester ’73 also gets a 4K Uhd release alongside Stephen Frears’ The Grifters and Richard Pryor’s Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling.

Find cover art in the slideshow below and more details at Criterion.

The post The Criterion Collection’s January Lineup Includes The Mother and the Whore, Akira Kurosawa, and Anthony Mann on 4K first appeared on The Film Stage.

Saturday Night Live wasn’t Saturday Night Live, both literally and spiritually, when it premiered on Oct. 11, 1975. Weeks earlier, ABC had debuted a prime-time variety show called Saturday Night Live With Howard Cosell. So Lorne Michaels’ late-night creation had to go by, simply, Saturday Night — the same title of the Jason Reitman film (out now) about the sketch-comedy institution’s very first telecast. But that inaugural season was different from what we think of as Saturday Night Live in ways that go much further and deeper than the name. In that first year,...

What can we say about Chevy Chase on his 81st birthday that we haven’t already said before?

Here’s the good news: We don’t have to say it. After decades of burning down every bridge in sight, it was no problem to find 81 burns to light the candles on his cake. Below is a birthday portrait of the man of the hour, courtesy of the co-workers, directors and other unfortunates who’ve worked with Chase over the years.

1 Will Ferrell

“The worst (SNL) host was Chevy Chase.”

(Live From New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live)

2 Buck Henry

“I thought Chevy shouldn’t have left (SNL). I thought it was really stupid.”

(Live From New York: The Complete Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live)

3 John Carpenter 4 Director Kevin Smith

“Chevy went on to claim he invented every funny thing that ever happened in the history of not just comedy,...

Quick Links The Wizard Of Oz Remake Is Confirmed Who Is Making The Wizard Of Oz Remake? The Wizard Of Oz Remake Story The Wizard of Oz Remake: Further News & Info

Writer and director Kenya Barris is remaking the Hollywood classic The Wizard of Oz and plans to put his own modern and inclusive spin on the beloved story. Based on the book series by author L. Frank Baum, 1939's The Wizard of Oz is considered one of the greatest achievements in American cinema, and is still watched by audiences around the globe nearly 90 years after its debut. The film stars Judy Garland as young Dorothy who is whisked away by a tornado from her drab Great Depression-stricken Kansas to the magical land of Oz.

Besides its accessible fairy tale story and whimsical music, The Wizard of Oz also pushed the boundaries of visual effects for the era and was...

Late-night talk shows have done away with one custom of Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show — the tradition of guests sticking around on the couch to steal attention from whoever’s being interviewed. Makes sense, but we lost the uncomfortable interactions that happen when two comics like Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase share the same stage.

It was Pryor’s turn for the spotlight when he came out to promote a comedy special. But Chase, sitting next to him after plugging his own special airing on the same night, couldn’t keep to himself. When Pryor did a bit about bringing slides to view with Carson, Chase kept sticking his head into the frame — and into the joke.

As for Pryor’s special? He was in the middle of telling Carson all about it when Chase interrupted him mid-joke.

“May I say that I have seen Richard’s special?” he asked.