It’s been a good week for The Grizz. Not only was he awarded with Central Michigan University’s inaugural “Young Journalist Of The Year” award (an event your Uncle Grambo was fortunate enough to attend), but now — and perhaps more importantly — his righteous praise of “The Brothers Solomon” in The DetNews will forever be immortalized in the form of a pull quote on the DVD’s cover! SO BEST! Don’t believe the 14% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, “T.B.S.” is running neck and neck with “Superbad” as this year’s best comedy. Seriously. It was so good, The Grizz bought a bootleg copy off a street vendor during an NYC run a few weeks ago to give to Nummer as a post-wedding gift during a sneak preview of “Saw IV”!!! If that doesn’t speak volumes about its Overall Greatness™, I don’t know what will. Except, perhaps, this formula…

Forte + Arnett + Grizz Pullquote = 2007′S MUST PURCHASE OF THE YEAR!

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Why don’t people respect Will Forte’s genius? Really. The first time we all saw MacGruber (back in the Piven episode last January), did anyone even DREAM that one day we would eventually see him morph into a plastic surgery addict with a “taste for brow lifts”? Your Uncle Grambo would argue the neg on that one — everyone thought it was a toss off skit that satisfied Lorne’s penchant for pushing the envelope with what can and can’t be said on TV (“Hand me that bucket of bum sperm!”). However, with the benefit of hindsight, it seems crystal clear that Forte always had this sort of endgame in mind for MacGruber, which to me only reinforces his twisted brilliance.

Sure, Andy Samberg gets all the geek (and the girl) love for being the face of SNL’s digital shorts and Kristen Wiig is thisclose to breaking out as one of the first TRUE female comediennes accepted by the mainstream since the Roseanne Barr train got derailed in the mid `90s, but neither one of them can hold a candle to Forte’s unparalleled genius in developing characters and then pushing them beyond one-trick pony status to the outer limits of awesomeness (case in point, “The Falconer”). If anyone other than myself, The Grizz and Nummer actually saw “The Brothers Solomon” when it was in theaters for four days back in September, they too would be singing his praises on high. But for now (and perhaps for always), Forte remains an underappreciated enigma. Here’s hoping more people come around to his Overall Greatness™. Now quick, round up all the pubic hair you can find!

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Baron Davis. Some say donning the Bullet Fedora this weekend makes him the best Baron since The Beer Baron. Rex Banner and Mark Cuban, be damned!

• Michael Bublé wants us to call him irresponsible. Too bad we already call him dildo.

• Hey History Channel. I know that you’re coming to grips with the fact that your audience isn’t getting any younger, but shouldn’t you be thinking of ways to diversify your programming without taking a dump on the Greatest Generation? Band Of Bloggers my ASS!

• Is there a more useless continent than Australia? Seriously, can’t think of a SINGLE redeeming quality that Australia brings to the table (save maybe Naomi Watts). The fact that they imported Kristin Cavallari to spice up their MTV Music Awards just proves that the entire nation is devoid of any buzz whatsoevs.

• Oh, New York Times. Sometimes I think you do stupid things just so bloggers like your Uncle Grambo will link to you. At least that’s what I’m hoping. I couldn’t come up with any other reasons to justify the existence of a headline like “DJ AM: His Life, Times, Shoes” running in their Styles section yesterday. That said, propers are due for going to Nick Catchdubs for a choice quote.

• Ever since Acceptable debuted, I’ve kinda been crushing on Jen Kirkman. Let’s just say that I’m buying whatever it is that she’s selling.

• Jeffrey Wells. Read him, know him, love him. This recap of an encounter with Owen Wilson and Kate Hudson is worth the price of admission in and of itself. Even better? There’s no admission price!

• Welcome back, Herbert Kornfeld! It’s been two long years since we last heard from you. Please don’t make it another two years, Zweibel!

Lastly, your Uncle Grambo would like to award a special Medal Of Brilltascity to Ken Paves (pictured below) for convincing Jessica Simpson to dye her hair brown. As Steven Tyler would say, J. Simpson has been lookin’ F-I-N-E Fine ever since discovering what brown can do for her. Burrito supreme! [pics via Egotastic]

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Those in-the-know are already hip to the fact that comedy is the new indie rock¹. Which, now that I think about it, is probably why they were turning people away at the door @ last night’s re-introduction of the famed Ritalin Readings series. Emceed by the impossibly apple-cheeked Lindsay Lindsayism and the dreamy Gawker pinup Worker #3116, the show successfully accomplished its stated goal of providing bite-sized morsels of high-grade entertainment goodness for the short attention span set. That is to say, it was fun, not boring.

Despite the fact that not a single one of last night’s performers stuck to the 4-minute rule that was supposed to govern the evening’s preceedings, each of the readers managed to make the most of their extra time by maintaining an admirable laugh:minute ratio. Personal faves included sets by Heather Lawless (her confessional delivery style manages to trigger both awkwardness and laughter from her audience), Jon Friedman (highest laugh:minute ratio of the bunch) and These Modern Socks (in which old school FOW Matt Tobey and Darci Kittenpants traded off-kilter “Yo Momma” jokes). All in all, good times were had by all. With one notable exception, that is.

You see, the Official Ritalin Readings After-Party was held in the bar immediately adjacent to the “performance” room. After having succesfully outmanuevered a surprisingly douche-y Vincent Victor Garber for position at the bar, your Uncle Grambo tossed back a few celebratory root beers with the crew. Everyone seemed to be having a good time when, all of a sudden, there was a Close Encounter Of The Durst Kind with some Z-List TV D-Bags who somehow managed to usurp OUR reign over the bar. But rather than retell a tale that Gabe has already exquisitely recanted, your Uncle Grambo will throw out a few selected pics from the evening … after the jump. Natch.

Read the entire entry …

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From L to R: Jessi Klein, Jonathan Ames, Catie Lazarus, David Rakoff, Annabelle Gurwitch, Elizabeth Spiers [pic by Brian Van]

The other night, when The Senator and I were talking about why we’ve been to more comedy shows in the two months since we moved to New York (8) than I have been to in my entire life (maybe 4), she made a very prescient observation. Namely, that comedy is the new indie rock. And you know what? She’s right. Let me explain.

Now, your Uncle Grambo isn’t exactly breaking any new journalistic ground when I tell you that shit is EXPENSIVE here in NYC. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it’s impossible to leave the apartment without dropping a Hamilton. Considering that I’m just an Average Joe making an Average Salary, let’s just say that I’ve been forced to become WAY more fiscally responsible over the last few months. At the same time, this city presents you with a bazillion amazing things to do every single night of the week, most of which cost money. Irresistable force, meet immovable object. This is where comedy comes into play.

Much like indie rock in the late 90s, where you could hit The Shelter or St. Andrews or The Blind Pig and catch a killer three-band bill for like $12, the same thing exists in NYC today with comedy. Not only is the talent top-notch, but the bang-for-yer-buck ratio is off the charts. For instance, last night I caught all of the talented comedians/humourists pictured above for the low, low price of $10! When The Grizz was in town back in November, we saw Amy Poehler, Jack McBrayer, Rob Huebel and a handful of others improv at the UCB for eight American dollars! Even with a couple of drinks (PBRs are like $2 at UCB) thrown into the mix, there’s no competition when it comes to getting the most out of your disposable income.

RELATED: Gawker has a good review of the show. And, for the record, Spiers KILLED!

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