By Drew Grant 3/07 1:23pm

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?

Main: Will Ferrell and Adam McKay/ Insert: Bob Odenkirk and Ben Stiller (Getty Images/The Ben Stiller Show

Will Ferrell, Bob Odenkirk and Ben Stiller All Get New IFC Shows (Video)

IFC clearly knows what it is doing. The network that brought you Portlandia (and also Comedy Bang Bang!, if that is your sort of thing), has just announced its green-lighting of two new shows; Spoils of Babylon and The Birthday Boys. The former will be written by and star Will Ferrell alongside long-time writing partner and former head SNL writer Adam McKay, while the latter will be executive produced by The Ben Stiller Show buddies Ben Stiller and Bob Odenkirk. Er, we mean, Saul.

And whoa my gosh, do they look great. Read More

By Drew Grant 8/14/12 5:17pm

movie reviews

'The Campaign' (Warner Bros.)

Red State, Blue State: The Campaign Finds Comfortable Seat As a Cut-and-Dried Will Ferrell Vehicle

Game Change director Jay Roach’s new political comedy, The Campaign, is a good film, though it might disappoint viewers who came to see a scathing satire of our current political climate. The Will Ferrell vehicle has less to do with the upcoming election cycle—or even politics in general—than it does with paying homage to the Aesop’s Fables films of the ’80s, in which the hapless tortoise was plucked from relative obscurity by the nefarious powers that be to replace the cocky, no-longer-cooperative hare.

Primary Colors, this is not. Read More

By Drew Grant 1/06/12 1:27pm

Academy Awards

Keep it classy, Oscars

No Joke: Funny or Die Presents the Academy Awards (Video)

It’s been a rocky year for the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Not only did Brett Ratner resign from producing the show, but the ballots were so confusing! Plus, no more appealing to the youngsters with hotties James Franco and Anne Hathaway; this year the Academy is going with their old hosting standby, Billy Crystal. (That’s after Eddie Murphy and a bunch of others turned down the duty.)

So how will the awards show get that critical 18-35 demo to tune in? By marketing “funny” commercials for the most venerable and respected film event of the year, obviously. And having said commercials directed by a viral comedy site. Your parents are not going to understand this Oscar commercial (or why there is a commercial for the Oscars this year), so get ready to explain the Internet to them again. Read More

By Drew Grant 9/13/11 12:15pm

Brackets and ennui

14 Photos

Anna Wintour is still using her Fashion Week face to watch the games.

Celebrities Are Miserable At US Open [Pics]

Despite what our neighbors might be screaming about next door, the US Open isn’t the Superbowl.Tennis, for all its excitement, is not our national past time– still baseball, with a tie for second between hoarding and waiting for an early onset diabetes– and it fails to arouse the fierce patriotic pride. At least at the Read More

By Matt Sullivan 4/06/11 1:53pm

Nomenclature

Will Ferrell: Gary Sanchez Is Legitimately Gary Sanchez!

New York Yankees minor league prospect Gary Sanchez hasn’t been called up to the show yet (he’s 18), but he’s already fielding big-league offers from Hollywood players. “We have to go hang out with him!” Will Ferrell, cofounder of Gary Sanchez Productions, told the Transom at Comedy Central’s Comedy Awards at Hammerstein Ballroom, explaining that Read More