The Green Room with Paul Provenza, ft. Garry Shandling →

There's obviously a lot of sadness over Garry Shandling's death (although, I have to be honest—am I the only one who watched his recent episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and thought: Jesus, Garry Shandling looks awful.) and there have been a ton of pieces and clips and tributes going around, but this has been the one I enjoyed the most.

My favorite is how empathetic he is towards Bo Burnham, which stands out in a group of guys who are otherwise doing the normal you're-younger-than-me-therefore-eat-my-shit routine.

/via somebody Marc Maron retweeted

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Shitter Was Full! An Oral History of ‘National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation’ →

Rob LeDonne, Rolling Stone:

Galecki: One day John Hughes, Jeremiah, Chevy and I were sitting around waiting for a scene to be set up, and Chevy said, "There's always been kind of a man-to-man scene between Clark and Russ in the previous films — a coming-of-age scene. But there isn't in this one." John mentioned that he had something like that in an initial draft, and Chevy said, "We should consider putting that back in." So they asked what I thought and I said, "I don't think there's any point. Somebody thought it was worth taking out at some point, so even if we shoot it, it'll probably get taken out again." I literally talked myself out of what could have been a classic scene with Chevy Chase. Now that I'm a jaded Hollywood fuck, I realize the error of my ways. I still kick myself in the ass for this everyday.

Chase: Now Galecki's making 100 million a year and I'm sitting here.

A little something to get you in the mood for Christmas Eve.

/via Daring Fireball

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In Conversation: Chris Rock: What’s Killing Comedy. What’s Saving America. →

Frank Rich and Chris Rock:

What has Obama done wrong?

When Obama first got elected, he should have let it all just drop.

Let what drop?

Just let the country flatline. Let the auto industry die. Don’t bail anybody out. In sports, that’s what any new GM does. They make sure that the catastrophe is on the old management and then they clean up. They don’t try to save old management’s mistakes.

That’s clever. You let it all go to hell.

Let it all go to hell knowing good and well this is on them. That way you can implement. You hire your own coach. You get your own players. He could have got way more done. You know, we’ve all been on planes that had tremendous turbulence, but we forget all about it. Now, if you live through a plane crash, you’ll never forget that. Maybe Obama should have let the plane crash. You get credit for bringing somebody back from the dead. You don’t really get credit for helping a sick person by administering antibiotics.

Tremendous interview. Such a smart fucking guy.

/via kottke.org

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Complex Interviews Wale and Jerry Seinfeld—At the Same Time →

Joe La Puma:

Q: Do you read your Twitter mentions and look at hate?

JS: Yeah. It has no substance for me. It’s like when somebody has a cigarette and they blow the smoke in your face. It’s going to be gone in two seconds. I don’t care. [Looks at Wale.] Oh, he’s upset. [Laughs.]

W: I handle it differently. It’s different!

JS: Why do you give these people meaning?

W: I don’t know, Jerry. I don’t know.

JS: You don’t have to! It’s your choice.

W: I try to rationalize with people. Like, “Why do you feel this way?”

JS: Who cares!?

W: I don’t know. Nine times out of 10, when I respond, I just want to find out what’s the root of it. Somebody says, “If I fuck with him, he’s gonna react.” What then? Did you win any money? Did your life become better? Why would you do that? Why is this entertaining to you? I just don’t understand why.

JS: Yeah, well I have a terrace at my apartment and it’s fantastic. You have to come see it sometime. Every time I go out on that terrace I think, Maybe I’ll jump. [Wale laughs.] Because if I jump, the list of things I don’t have to do is so long, the issues I don’t have to deal with. All I have to do is jump and everything is taken care of! Now, I don’t jump. But I don’t care to know why I want to jump. What’s the difference why? The mind is not that great.

Be sure to watch all of the videos as well.

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Now That Every Human Owns a Pair of Nike Free Sneakers… →

Andrew Cushing:

I told you from the start that the humans’ absurd fashion obsessions would be their undoing. You asked, “But what about those who do not exercise? What about those who do not go running?” And I assured you, in my infinite divine wisdom, that even those who do not run would still wear the running sneaker. I told you that whether or not they use the sneaker for its intended purpose does not matter to the humans.

Still, you questioned me.

I own three pairs.

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Robin Williams, Comedian →

Jim Norton:

What struck me the most about Robin was how important it was to him that the other comedians liked him. He was always gracious to the performer he had bumped off the lineup. That first night and during his many subsequent returns over the years, he would always come upstairs and sit with us at the “comedy table” in the back (made famous on Louie).
He easily could have dominated the conversation; we all knew the difference between who he was and who we were. Robin was one of the few larger than life comedians who could have actually gotten a table full of other comics to just shut up and listen. But he didn’t. He joked and laughed with us and went out of his way to not tower above us. He probably never knew how much we loved him for that.
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