“It’s the American view that everything has to keep climbing: productivity, profits, even comedy. No time for reflection. No time to contract before another expansion. No time to grow up. No time to fuck up. No time to learn from your mistakes. But that notion goes against nature, which is cyclical.”
A profile of Garry Shandling.
A profile of Paul Reubens and his subversive alter ego.
After 25 years as a road comic, Leslie Jones becomes a star.
The history of professional flatulence.
“I faced death and all that shit. It’s my responsibility to come back and come back strong. It’s going to take more than a Walmart truck to take that gift away. I can’t wait to make you all laugh. Especially you, Mike. And I already did that today. So all is good.”
A year after her death, a tribute to the Saturday Night Live star who didn’t want to be on TV.
Fuzzy memories of a house overlooking the Sunset Strip that played host to a generation of comics—including Sam Kinison, Andrew Dice Clay, and Robin Williams—launching dozens of careers and about as many drug problems.
“I love stand-ups, and I feel it’s the one thing I know about that I could actually judge, besides people’s morals.”
Scenes of grief, from the sister of comedian Harris Wittels.
A roundtable on sexism in Hollywood and comedy.
The culturally-bound mechanics of comedy.
“Russian humor is slapstick, only you actually die.”
On Brent White, the joke whisperer who edits the largely improvisational comedies of Paul Feig, Judd Apatow and Adam McKay.
A portrait of a comedian in the moment just before he becomes huge.
Long a cult favorite in comedy, Bob Odenkirk has finally found wider recognition—and respect—through a shady character named Saul.
On the appeal of Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer.
A profile of pre-Late Night David Letterman.
On Ferguson, Cosby, and what ‘racial progress’ really means.
A profile of Mike Nichols.
The comedian on his show business bucket list, Donald Sterling, and whether he ever feels guilty for being funny.
"I just know that sometimes the things that scare you the most or make you want to cry the most or are the most tragic are the things you just gravitate to or address in a comedic context, partially because you shouldn't."
Previously: Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah's "If He Hollers Let Him Go," a Best of 2013 pick.
A profile of Chris Rock as he makes one last attempt to jump from standup to leading man.
Sam Simon made a fortune from The Simpsons. Now, diagnosed with terminal cancer, he is racing to spend it.
On Bill Cosby’s complicated family life.
“People always ask Rivers why she doesn’t just retire, enjoy her old age. ‘But they don’t get that I love it,’ she says. ‘All I ever wanted was this. I’m lucky, you idiots.’”
