What it’s like to be an unfunny girl.

Wendy Molyneux tried to write something funny, but couldn’t because she’s just a woman.

I tried on all my clothes, and I felt better until I tried on one pair of pants that didn’t fit me anymore. And then I totally started to cry again, because I am so fat. I cried for a little while on the floor while my cats crawled all over me, purring and being symbols of how lonely I am. My cats love to be symbols of my loneliness. Sometimes, I have to be like, “Stop signifying so loudly guys, I’m watching Grey’s Anatomy!”

Aw man, so embarassing for her, it is really not funny at all. Read it here.

TV Scientist compares 30-Rock to Shit My Dad Says

Eric Voss, annoyed that SMDS has better ratings than 30-Rock, has counted and catalogued the numbers and types of jokes in episodes of each. The results: 30-Rock has more complex story lines, more types of jokes, and relies on insults for far fewer laughs. On the other hand, one 21-minute episode of SMDS used a laugh track for a total of 4 minutes. Analysis here.

Muppets’ improvised camera tests

Here’s Jim Henson as Kermit and Frank Oz as Fozzie and Miss Piggy. Hilarious improvised banter during camera tests for the 1979 Muppets movie.

Via MeFi.

Michelle Obama

Had a little sketch comedy thing to do, so I put together a costume.

Barack here.

The Doo Wops do “Ahead by a Century”

Here is a funny Canadian comedy band called The Doo Wops. You may have seen them on TV’s television. This is my favourite of their songs: a cover of the Tragically Hip’s Ahead by a Century. Ay yi yi yi yow.

(If you’re not Canadian and don’t know the Hip, here’s the video of the actual song, which will make the parody 200% funnier and also help you understand white people in Canada; the Hip are legendary up here.)

Zach Galifianakis profiled by NYT

Comic Zach Galifianakis, as profiled by the NYT.

“This advertising firm from Sweden called me out of the blue and asked me to do an ad,” Galifianakis said. “The one request they had was to not make it look too ’80s, since Absolut is perceived as kind of an ’80s brand.” He paused there for a moment, clearly savoring the memory. “That’s what gave us the idea to make the skits a kind of homage to ‘The Golden Girls.’ ”

Also, clips of Zach as his own twin brother, Seth, are pretty awesome.

Thanks to Charles for the tip.

But did he wear pants to that Temple?

Jane Espenson, Battlestar Galactica and Buffy writer, on a joke she once wrote that failed:

Sometimes you think you’re being perfectly clear, and you’re not. I once wrote a line for an episode of Buffy: Xander, using whimsical phrasing to convey that he thought someone was crazy:

XANDER
Spike may have gone to the land of the twirly hand gesture next to the temple, but he was right…

No, really. I thought it was clear… And then we were on stage, shooting the scene, and it suddenly became clear to me that no one had the slightest clue what I was going for.

In the end, they made the joke work in a different way:

…in the moment we ended up playing the incomprehensibility of the line. Xander says it, everyone stares at him, and he makes the gesture. It’s not exactly the joke I intended, which was supposed to be swift and smooth, but it works fine.

The point of the story is that moment of realization: I’d written a joke that was totally opaque, and no one pointed it out because they had no reason to even think there was a disconnect.