This week's Saturday Night Live marked both its annual holiday episode and the final episode of the decade (depending on how you mark a decade). That was more pressure than this uneven, repeat-heavy episode could live up to, but it wasn't a total wash. James Franco returned to host for the second time in two seasons, and this show was clearly better than his episode last season. It may not have been the strongest way to close out the year, but these days we take Saturday Night laughs where we can Saturday Night get them...(Continue reading "Saturday Night Live Recap: James Franco/Muse")

Daniel Tosh has reason to celebrate.

The stand-up comic and sarcastic host of the web clip show Tosh.0 on Comedy Central has been signed for his own one-hour stand-up special, to air on the network sometime in 2010. As is typically the case with hourlong Comedy Central specials, it will subsequently be released on DVD. This will be Tosh's second hour-long special; his first, Completely Serious, debuted in 2007.

But there's more! Not only has Comedy Central booked Tosh.0 for an unprecedented 25-episode second season -- the most for any show in the network's history -- but he'll also be embarking on his own Comedy Central Live stand-up tour next year as well. This is a big platform for the comedian, and shows tremendous faith on the part of Comedy Central. Here's hoping he gets the career of Jeff Dunham (Tosh is way funnier, for the record) and not, say, Carlos Mencia -- both comics the network has backed in the past.

Photo by Mattias Claimer/Courtesy Comedy Central

The fifth season of Saturday Night Live found the late-night sketch comedy mainstay at an interesting crossroads: original cast members Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi had departed, leaving most of the heavy lifting to the great Bill Murray. It would also be the final season for almost all of the original cast, including creator and producer Lorne Michaels; he would leave after Season Five, ushering in the controversial and legendarily weak Jean Doumanian/Dick Ebersol years. With the conclusion of the fifth season, Saturday Night Live's original dynasty had come to and end, and the show as everyone had known it would never be the same again. It was the end of an era...(Continue reading Saturday Night Live Season Five DVD Review)

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I thought things might slow down in the run up to the holidays, but this is actually a big week for new comedy releases. We've got a few big summer comedy releases hitting DVD (including The Hangover, which you should see if you haven't already done so, even if it's the kind of movie that got over-hyped and overrated pretty quickly), plus the new Grammy-nominated stand-up album from George Lopez and more. Oh, and let's not forget the stand-up DVD from Dat Phan! You know, Dat Phan? The guy who beat Ralphie May to become the winner of the first season of Last Comic Standing? The world opened up to him after that, didn't it? Ralphie May may not like me, but he can at least take solace in the fact that he's not Dat Phan. Coming in second place may be the best thing that ever happened to him. And not being Dat Phan.

CD

• George Carlin - Toledo Window Box
• George Lopez - Tall, Dark and Chicano
• Rob Cantrell - Keep on the Grass

DVD

• The Hangover (Read the review)
• Taking Woodstock (starring Demetri Martin)
• The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (Read the review)
• George Lopez: Tall, Dark and Chicano
• Dat Phan Live

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