Boeing 787 Dreamliner Returns: Inside American Airlines Widebody Operation Between Miami & Los AngelesBlues supporters also sang the name of head coach Maresca during the closing stages of an emphatic success sealed by goals from Axel Disasi, Christopher Nkunku, Noni Madueke, Cole Palmer and substitute Jadon Sancho. Bottom club Southampton briefly levelled through Joe Aribo but were a man down from the 39th minute after captain Jack Stephens was sent off for pulling the hair of Marc Cucurella. Chelsea, who have endured an underwhelming period since Todd Boehly’s consortium bought the club in 2022, climbed above Arsenal and into second place on goal difference, seven points behind leaders Liverpool. “It was a very good feeling, especially because you can see that they are happy, that is our target,” Maresca said of the atmosphere in the away end. “We work every day to keep them happy and tonight was a very good feeling, especially the one that they can see that Chelsea’s back. This is an important thing.” Maresca rotated his squad in Hampshire, making seven changes following Sunday’s impressive 3-0 win over Aston Villa. Following a sloppy start, his side, who stretched their unbeaten run to six top-flight games, could easily have won by more as they hit the woodwork three times, in addition to squandering a host of chances. “I’m very happy with the five we scored,” said the Italian. “I’m not happy with the first 15, 20 minutes, where we struggled. The reason why we struggled is because we prepared the game to press them man to man and the first 15, 20 minutes we were not pressing them man to man. “After 15, 20 minutes we adjust that and the game was much better. For sure we could score more but five goals they are enough.” Southampton manager Russell Martin rued a costly “moment of madness” from skipper Stephens. The defender’s ridiculous red card was the headline mistake of a catalogue of errors from the beleaguered south-coast club as they slipped seven points from safety following an 11th defeat of a dismal season. “I don’t think anyone will be as disappointed as Jack,” Martin said of Stephens, who was sent off for the second time this term after tugging the curls of Cucurella as Saints prepared to take a corner. “I haven’t got to sit down and talk with him about that at all. He will be hurt more than anyone and it’s changed the game for us tonight, which is disappointing. “I think they have to describe it as violent conduct; it’s not violent really but there’s no other explanation for that really. It’s a moment of madness that’s really cost us and Jack.” Southampton repeatedly invited pressure with their risky attempts to play out from defence, with goalkeeper Joe Lumley gifting Chelsea their second goal, scored by Nkunku. While Saints were booed off at full-time, Martin, who was missing a host of key players due to injuries and suspensions, praised the effort of his depleted team. “When they see such a big scoreline and a couple of the goals we concede, I understand it (the jeers),” he said. “It’s football, it’s emotive, people feel so much about it, it’s why it’s such a special sport in this country and so big. “I understand it but I feel really proud of the players tonight, some of the football we played at 11 v 11 was amazing. “For an hour with 10 men we’ve dug in so deep, there were some big performances. I’m proud of them for that and I’m grateful for that because that’s not easy in that circumstance.”The Johnstown Tomahawks have won 12 of their past 16 games entering a pivotal stretch in the North American Hockey League East Division schedule. Coach Jared Kersner’s Tomahawks begin a 10-game homestand against the North American Hockey League East Division-leading Rochester Jr. Americans at 7:30 p.m. Friday at 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial. The teams meet again at 7 p.m. Saturday. Trailing the Jr. Americans by five points in the division standings, Johnstown has an opportunity to gain ground and build on the past month’s momentum. “Weekend’s huge,” Kersner said. “Having 10 games at home is really exciting for us. This is an opportunity to try to gather as many points as possible on home ice, but Rochester presents a huge challenge. First place – we’re five points back. We feel like we have been playing well. We have obstacles in our lineup – injuries. We’re short some guys.” Kersner’s team lost some depth on defense. “The biggest one, Dylan Shane, suffered a laceration last Saturday in Maryland, and he’s out,” Kersner said of the team captain. “Jacob Ingstrup is out, too. Michal Capos will leave to join Team Slovakia U-18 (program), and that will leave us with five available defensemen on Saturday. We definitely will have to use an affiliated player in that game.” The Tomahawks are 8-2-0 in their past 10 games and have 28 points at 13-10-2 overall. Rochester is 7-2-1 in its past 10 contests and is 14-6-5 with 33 points. “Rochester is going to bring quite a bit of challenges we need to be prepared for,” Kersner said. Three Jr. Americans have combined to score 32 goals. Hugo Branthsson and Calle Karlsson each have 11 goals and 27 points. Owen King has 10 goals. Adam Gionta, a 19-goal scorer in 2023-24, has nine goals and 25 points. Goaltender Danick Leroux has 10 wins, including two shutouts, a .920 save percentage and 2.20 goals against average. “After all of the success we’ve had lately, we want to see how we stack up against the division’s No. 1 (team),” said Kersner, whose Tomahawks won a pair of one-goal games against Rochester at 1st Summit Arena Oct. 18-19. Since Oct. 12, Johnstown is 12-3-1 with 25 of a possible 32 points. “Our team has been built from the backside out lately – goaltending, defense, defensive play by our forwards,” Kersner said. “The biggest thing is the connectivity – learning how to play together. Learning to play inside the team structure. The guys have put in the hard work and bought into each other.” Both the power play and penalty kill have been assets during the current run. “The biggest change is the special teams,” Kersner said. “In November, our power play clicked at nearly 27% and the penalty kill (success) was 90%. We’ve been able to really take advantage of the special teams. Last week in Maryland, we won 4-1. We scored two power-play goals, had a short- handed goal, and didn’t allow any goals on the penalty kill. Special teams have been a huge part of our success.” Tate Pecknold, Ryan Flaherty and Cullen Emery each have three power-play goals this season. Nick Jarmain, Hank Reed, Nick White and Jack Genovese have been mainstays on the penalty kill. “We only allowed one 5-on-4 goal in the month of November,” Kersner said. “In that game, Nick White and Nick Jarmain were hurt, or our percentage might be even better.” The Tomahawks will be at home Friday through a two-game set against the Maine Nordiques Jan. 10-11. In between, Danbury will visit for four games on back-to-back weekends, and Northeast will be in town for a pair, including New Year’s Eve. “I’m excited to be in front of our home crowds for the next 10 games,” Kersner said. “We’re looking forward to playing hard for them over these next 10 games.” Mike Mastovich is a sports reporter and columnist for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5083. Follow him on Twitter @Masty81. (c)2024 The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.) Visit The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown, Pa.) at www.tribune-democrat.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
The confidential briefing note is part of the tranche of documents made public by the Irish National Archive. Irish civil servants compiled a list of “major leaks” they claimed originated from the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and Special Branch officers in the region, records show. The confidential briefing note is part of the tranche of documents made public in the annual release of State papers from the Irish National Archives. An Irish Department of Foreign Affairs official focusing on justice and security created the list in October 2002. The document starts by referencing a 1999 interview given by George Mitchell, the chairman of the Good Friday Agreement negotiations, in which he claimed the British and Irish governments, as well as Northern Ireland’s political parties, had leaked information to manipulate public opinion. However, he further accused the NIO of attempting to sabotage the process by leaking information on British Government policy to the media. Mr Mitchell, a former US senator, is said to have expressed alarm and anger over the frequency of leaks from the NIO – saying they were uniquely “designed to undermine the policy of the British Government of which they were a part”. The Irish civil servant notes Mr Mitchell himself was subjected to an attempted “smear” when he first arrived in Northern Ireland, as newspaper articles falsely claimed his chief of staff Martha Pope had had a liaison with Sinn Fein representative Gerry Kelly with ulterior motives. The Irish civil servant goes on to list several “leaks”, starting with the publication of a proposed deal in a newspaper while “intense negotiations” for the Downing Street Declaration were under way. Next, the Department lists two “high-profile and damaging leaks issued from the NIO”. A so-called “gameplan” document was leaked in February 1998, showing papers had been prepared weeks before the Drumcree march on July 6, 1997. In the preceding years, there had been standoffs and clashes as nationalists opposed the procession of an Orange parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The gameplan document showed then secretary of state for Northern Ireland Mo Mowlam, who was publicly expressing a desire for a negotiated solution to the 1997 parade, advocated “finding the lowest common denominator for getting some Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road”. In 1997, a large number of security forces were deployed to the area to allow the march to proceed. The incident sparked heightened tension and a wave of rioting. The document further describes the release of a document submitted by the NIO’s director of communications to the secretary of state as a “second major leak”. It claims a publicity strategy was released to the DUP in the aftermath of the Good Friday Agreement and showed how the UK Government would support a yes vote in a referendum following any talks agreement. In addition, it is claimed unionists used leaked sections of the Patten report on policing to invalidate its findings ahead of its publication in 1999. The report recommended the replacement of the Royal Ulster Constabulary with the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the changing of symbols, and a 50-50 recruitment policy for Catholics and Protestants. At the time, UUP leader David Trimble said the recommendations would lead to a corruption of policing in Northern Ireland. Chris Patten, chairman of the independent commission on policing, said some of the assertions were a “total fabrication” and designed to “muddy the waters” to create a difficult political atmosphere. Elsewhere, the author notes it was leaked to the media there was serious disagreement between the governments of the UK and Ireland on the composition of that commission – with not a single name submitted by the Irish side being accepted by the other. The author notes this incident, still under the heading “NIO leaks”, was believed by British officials to have emanated from the Irish side. The report turns to leaks of other origin, claiming “disgruntled Special Branch officers in Northern Ireland” were blamed by the British Government for a series of releases about the IRA which were designed to damage Sinn Fein in the 2001 general election in Northern Ireland. One senior Whitehall source was quoted in the Guardian as complaining that Special Branch was “leaking like a sieve” after details of an IRA intelligence database containing the names of leading Tories – described at the time as a “hit list” – was passed to the BBC in April 2002. The briefing note adds: “This was followed days later by a leak to The Sunday Telegraph which alleged that senior IRA commanders bought Russian special forces rifles in Moscow last year. “The newspaper said it was passed details by military intelligence in London.” The briefing note adds that other Special Branch leaks were associated with the Castlereagh break-in. The final incident in the document notes the Police Ombudsman’s Report on the Omagh bombing was also leaked to the press in December 2001. Then Northern Ireland secretary John Reid said at the time: “Leaks are never helpful and usually malicious – I will not be commenting on this report until I have seen the final version.” The reason for creating the list of leaks, which the Irish National Archives holds in a folder alongside briefing notes for ministers ahead of meetings with officials from the UK Government and NIO, is not outlined in the document itself. – This document is based on material in 2024/130/6.None
(See Langley Christmas Fun for holiday events listing) . Mary Poppins, the Musical: Theatre in the Country staging the show Wednesdays through Saturdays from Nov. 27 to Dec. 14. Dinner theatre or show-only options. Tickets and info: theatreinthecountry.com. . Historical re-enactment: Bicentennial of the James McMillan expedition that ventured north from Oregon to this area for the Hudson's Bay Company will be commemorated by the Living Arts Society with re-enactments at Portage Park, 2964 204 St., between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. followed by talks, an art workshop, an art exhibit, music, costumes, and more at the Timms Community Centre between 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14. Free but must reserve tickets for Timms events. Info: https://tinyurl.com/rjxhj59j. . Weed pulls: Join the Glen Valley Watersheds Society Tuesdays until April from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. for blackberry removal. Dec. 17 at West Creek Wetlands. Blackberry pulls will be cancelled due to high winds, snow, or unfavourable driving conditions. Info: stewardship@leps.bc.ca. . Saturday paddles: Fort Langley Canoe Club invites people to join the voyageurs Saturdays at 9 a.m. to paddle the Fraser River. No previous paddling experience necessary. Teaching provided. Paddles and life jackets (PFDs) are included in the drop-in rate. Info: Judy Fawcett, voyrep@fortlangleycanoeclub.ca. . Probus Club: Langley residents able to join Maple Ridge Probus Club, a social group for semi-retired and retired people 55-plus. Group meets third Thursday of the month except in summer. Info: Dick, 604-467-1590 or www.probusclubofmapleridge.org. . Hope Meets Action: Echoes through the Black Continuum: New display about Black history in B.C. is at Fort Langley National Historic Site until Dec. 12. Created in partnership with the B.C. Black History Awareness Society and the Royal BC Museum. . Senior Pride: Group meets on the third Tuesday of the month from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Langley Senior Resources Society Centre, 20605 51B Ave. Open to all LGBTQ+ people who are 50 or older. Info: Barb, 604-888-7755. . Langley Quilters Guild: Day meeting is 10:30 a.m. while the evening gathering is 7:15 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of the month (except December) at the George Preston Recreation Centre, 20699 42 Ave. Info: langleyquiltersguild.com. . Holding Hope: Peer facilitated support group by Moms Stop the Harm started to support families and individuals whose loves ones use or have used substances. Info: momsstoptheharm.com. . BC Farm Museum: Open for the season from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 9131 King St. in Fort Langley. Museum features a children’s scavenger hunt, murals, interactive storytelling tech, and more than 6,000 items on display. Admission by donation. Info: bcfma.com. . Old-time dance: Dance or just enjoy the music and company at the OAP Heritage Hall, 3015 273 St. Coffee, tea and snacks included in $10 admission. $20 annual membership. New time: 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Info: Angie, 778-836-0270, or Mary, 604-534-4802. Dec. 14 Ukrainian Prairie Band. Resume in 2025. . Music and Friends - A Celidh Celebration: All ages live music event is at the Aldergrove OAP Hall, 3015 273rd St., from 7 to 9 p.m. on Friday. $10 for those 14 and older. Tickets at the door. Tea, coffee and treats available as well as 50/50 draw. . Bertrand Creek Enhancement Society: Monthly Zoom meetings are on the third Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. Info: stewardship@leps.bc.ca. . Valley Bluegrass Music Society: Public invited to Friday bluegrass performances in St. Andrew’s Church, 9025 Glover Rd. $7 for members and $10 for non-members (cash only). Weekly jams happen September through June. Info: valleybluegrassmusic@gmail.com or the society Facebook page. . Aldergrove Swing Club: Open to all levels. No partner required. Friday dances are at the OAP Heritage Hall, 3015 273rd St. Free lesson at 7:30 p.m. with general dancing at 8:15. $10 admission. Info: mrthejackel@gmail.com or aldergrooveswing.com. . Valley Promenaders: No experience necessary for modern square dance sessions. Club meets Thursdays from 6:45 to 8:30 p.m. at the Aldergrove Heritage Hall, 3015 273rd St. Info and reservations: wkrueger@shaw.ca or 778-878-4244. . Langley Camera Club: Group meets regularly at the Langley Lions Society West Langley Hall at 9400 208th St. Info: contact@langleycameraclub.ca. . Steersperson wanted: FORTified, a mixed 55-plus dragonboat team paddling in Fort Langley, is looking for a steersperson. Practices are at 10 a.m. on Sundays for the months of November and January through March. Spring and summer practices are at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, April through September. Info: Terry, 604-340-9108. . Aldergrove drop-in coffee group: Langley Hospice Society adult bereavement support group meets at the Aldergrove Community Station House, 2900 272nd St. on the first and third Thursday of the month from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. To join, book an appointment with the bereavement outreach and peer support worker, 604-530-1115. . Walnut Grove drop-in coffee club: Langley Hospice Society adult bereavement support group meets at the Second Story Treasures thrift shop, 8948 202nd St., every other Tuesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. To join, book an appointment with the bereavement outreach and peer support worker, 604-530-1115. . Walkers and manual wheelchairs: Langley Pos-Abilities Society needs donations to help make life more accessible to people. Charity has a waitlist of people in need. Info: 604-961-0117 or pos-abilities.org. . Learning Farm Garden Club: LEPS garden club meets at the Learning Farm at the Derek Doubleday Arboretum every Monday from 10 a.m. to noon. Learn new gardening skills. Info: agriculture@leps.bc.ca. . Langley Meals on Wheels: volunteers needed two to three hours per week. Roles include meal delivery, cafe support workers, and kitchen help. Training and support provided. Info: lmow.ca, info@lmow.ca, or 604-533-1679. . Langley Community Chorus: Rehearsals are Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the United Churches of Langley (Murrayville). Group is looking for more tenors. Info: membership secretary, lccmembershipsec@gmail.com. . Timms Texas Hold ‘Em Poker Club: Afternoon games played Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Timms Community Centre. Free with City rec pass ($25 annually). Drop-in format. Info: city.langley.bc.ca. . Seniors Gardening Club: Langley Environmental Partners Society invites seniors to take part. Drop-in format Tuesdays 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Langley Learning Farm, Derek Doubleday Arboretum. Info: Amanda, agriculture@leps.bc.ca. . Monday Morning Talk Show: Langley Seniors Resource Society Centre 10 a.m. speaker series is free and open to the public at 20605 51B Ave. Info: 604-530-3020. . Municipal retirees: Municipal Pension Retirees Association Langley chapter quarterly, in-person meetings are at 1:30 p.m. in the Douglas Recreation Centre, 20550 Douglas Cres. Public is welcome. Light refreshments will be provided. Info: langleympra@gmail.com. . Swing Dance Social: Monthly dances hosted by Swing Shift, a non-profit dance group, are offered at the Murrayville Hall on the first Friday of the month. First lesson free for beginners (7:30 to 8:30 p.m.). No partner necessary. Tickets: $10 in advance through eventbrite or $15 at the door. Info: Rock Step Swing Dance on Facebook, or rockstepswing@gmail.com. Next one is Dec. 6. . Aldergrove Legion: Branch 265 supports Rolling Barrage, a national effort to help veterans and first responders with PTSD. Legion does a 50/50 on the first Saturday of the month at 4:30 p.m. Branch also fundraises with meat draws Saturdays 2 to 5 p.m. and Tuesday 5 to 7 p.m. . Men’s Shed: Langley has a chapter of the international group that allows men to get together and socialize, work on projects, or help the community by using their skills. Meetings are at 10:30 a.m. Mondays at the Ricky’s restaurant, 5978 Glover Rd. Info: info@MensShedLangley.ca or MensShedLangley.ca. . Hope after Stroke: Support group for those who have returned home after a stroke meets Fridays 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Info: Marilyn, 604-882-4672 or hopeafterstroke.ca. . Gamblers Anonymous: Non-profit can help adults with problem gambling. Call 1-855-222-5542. . Gamblers Anonymous family groups: Gam-Anon helps people impacted by someone else’s gambling. Welcome whether gambler seeks help or not. Info: vancouvergamanon@shaw.ca or 604-626-9418. . Hub meeting: Langley Seniors in Action monthly meetings allows local seniors to gather virtually, collaborate and network. Open to seniors and those in the senior-serving organizations and businesses. Meetings are third Wednesday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon. Info: langleyseniorsinaction.ca/hub/meetings. . Community Engagement: Langley Community Services Society program for senior immigrants who are permanent residents. Meet people from around the world, learn about topics such as Canadian culture, financial literacy, recipes, gardening and more. Free. In person at LCSS office, 5330 207th St. or online. Info and registration: Yoona Ahn, 604-534-7921 ext. 1204 or yahn@lcss.ca. . Assistance needed: Critter Care Wildlife Society looking for volunteers for various duties (animal capture, transport, painters, builders, gardeners, landscapers, general maintenance and labour. Charity urgently needs dog and cat food, fresh produce, and towels during baby season. Info: Michelle Binnet, crittercare9@shaw.ca. . Langley Newcomers and Friends: Women’s group meets on the first Tuesday of each month for outings and activities, including movie nights, brunch, lunch, socials, walks, and more. Info: langleynewcomers.webs.com. . Meditation: Free session Thursdays 7 to 8 p.m. at the Derek Doubleday Arboretum Rotary Interpretive Centre, 21177 Fraser Hwy. Folding chairs available on site or bring one. Hosted by Melissa Kramer, Low Entropy Foundation. Open to all skill levels and those wanting to learn more. Info: www.lowentropy.org/events. . Heartfulness meditation class: Free. Learn guided relaxation and meditation techniques. Info: Judith, 604-533-1172 or divinetraveller@gmail.com. . Queen Mum’s Jewels: Women’s group meets at various venues for socializing and activities, such as luncheons, brunch, movies, live theatre, games, bus tours, fashion shows, and more. Info: bgfleming@shaw.ca. . Prostate Cancer Support Group: Group meets monthly in the Arbor Room at Valley View Memorial Garden, 14644 72nd Ave. Open to any interested in prostate cancer. Info: 604-594-5257. . Myles of Smiles Open Mic: Thursday gatherings at Veggie Bob’s Kitchen Cafe in Fort Langley are 6 to 9 p.m. Info: creative-compass.com. . CARES: Local no-kill cat shelter needs people to foster kittens. Info: mjhaney@shaw.ca. . Aldergrove Art Club: Everyone welcome Wednesdays from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Heritage OAP hall, 3015 273rd St. to practise, socialize and help each other. Info: Faith, 604-530-2900, or Joan, 604-856-9792. . TOPS open house: Take Off Pounds Sensibly invites public to learn about the support group at 10:30 a.m. Group meets Tuesdays at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, 20955 Old Yale Rd. Info: Marnie, 604-539-8602. . Open mic: Artful Dodger Pub, 2364 200th St., has open mic night Sundays starting at 5 p.m. All ages until 9 p.m. . Fort Langley Farmers Market: Open for the season as of Saturday, April 6, the market runs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday at 9025 Glover Rd. until Dec. 7. . LIBRARIES (programs and events are free unless specified otherwise) . A Sleuth of Bears scavenger hunt: Muriel Arnason Library, 20338 65 Ave., has a scavenger hunt for kids throughout December. Find groups of animals throughout the library. (A group of bears is called a sleuth.) . Reindeer scavenger hunt: Kids can find deer throughout the Brookswood Library, 20045 40 Ave., until Dec. 24. Prizes for finding all of them. . Monday Crafternoon: From 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 16, kids can get creative at a free craft session in the Aldergrove Library, 26770 29 Ave. Register in advance. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Afternoon STEAM Club: Kids ages seven to 12 can learn science, technology, engineering, art, and math through play at a session from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at the Brookswood Library, 20045 40 Ave. Sign up in advance. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Teen Dungeons & Dragons: Ages 12 to 14 can play Saturday, Dec. 14, from noon to 4 p.m. at the Aldergrove Library, 26770 29 Ave. Ages 14 to 19 can play at a session noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 21. No experience nor supplies necessary. Register in advance. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Tween and teen Dungeons & Dragons: Session for kids nine to 18 is from 1 to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 14, at the Murrayville Library, 22071 48 Ave. Registration appreciated. No experience nor supplies needed. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Morning book club: Lively discussions of book is monthly at the Murrayville Library, 22071 48 Ave. Session is 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Books are provided. Next gathering is Tuesday, Dec. 17. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Afternoon book club: Adults can join fellow book enthusiasts at a gathering Thursday, Dec. 19, from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Books provided. Register in advance. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . All ages chess: No registration required to play chess Wednesdays from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Aldergrove Library, 26770 29 Ave. Young children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, but all ages and all skill levels welcome. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Saturday free play: Muriel Arnason Library, 20338 65 Ave., has afternoon fun for children ages three and older Sundays between noon and 2 p.m. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult. Enjoy an assortment of games and toys. Drop-in format. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . "Not Bored" Games Club: All ages can play games at the Brookswood Library, 20045 40 Ave., on Wednesdays from 3 to 5 p.m. No sign up is required. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Sunday free play: Muriel Arnason Library, 20338 65 Ave., has afternoon fun for children ages three and older each Sunday between 2 and 4 p.m. Children under 10 must be accompanied by an adult. Enjoy an assortment of games and toys. Drop-in format. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Scrabble Club: No registration is required for games scrabble at the Murrayville Library, 22071 48 Ave., Sundays from 1 to 2 p.m. No experience necessary. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Book Club: Adults invited to club at Muriel Arnason library. Sign up in advance. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Monday afternoon book club: From 2 to 3 p.m., the club for adults meets at the Aldergrove library. New members welcome. Book provides. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Hooked on Reading: Murrayville library’s book club for adults will meet 6 to 7 p.m. on Monday. Books provided and new members welcome. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Chat and Chill: Described as “adult show and tell” the club is for collectors of things old and new. Meets on the first Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m. in the Murrayville Library, 22071 48 Ave. Free. Info: www.fvrl.bc.ca. . Babytime: Fraser Valley Regional Library 30-minute sessions for babies and caregivers are on Tuesdays at the Dean Drysdale branch (10:30 a.m.) and Murrayville branch (10 a.m.). Thursdays at the Aldergrove branch at 10:30 a.m. and at 1:30 p.m. at Murrayville. Friday sessions are at 9:30 at Muriel Arnason branch, and 10:30 a.m. at Brookswood. Limited space. Register in advance through the website. Info: www.fvrl.bc.ca. . Sensory playtime: Baby (birth to two) sensory playtime with textures, sounds, and colours is Thursdays 2 to 3 p.m. at the Murrayville branch. No registration required. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Storytime: Prepares children to learn to read. Children and caregivers enjoy interactive songs, stories, rhymes, and more. Tuesday 10 a.m. at the Muriel Arnason branch. Wednesday sessions are at Aldergrove (10:30 a.m.), Murrayville (10:30 a.m.) and Brookswood (11 a.m.). Thursday 10 a.m. at the Dean Drysdale branch. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Pyjama Storytime: Children and caregivers can visit the Aldergrove Library Thursdays at 6 p.m. for a 30-minute session of stories, songs, rhymes and more. Kids can wear PJs and bring a stuffie. Info: www.fvrl.bc.ca. Next session: Nov. 19. . Builders’ Club: Monday sessions are 3:30 p.m. at the Muriel Arnason Library, 20338 65 Ave. Tuesday sessions are at the Aldergrove Library, 26770 29 Ave., at 3:30 p.m. Drop-in fun for all ages. Library provides the LEGO, Keva planks and Magformers. Info: www.fvrl.bc.ca. . Knit and crochet: Fraser Valley Regional Library groups open to all skill levels. Group meets Mondays from 9:30 a.m. to noon at the Muriel Arnason branch. Tuesday session is 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Murrayville branch. Thursdays: Aldergrove branch gathering is 1 to 3 p.m. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Tech help for seniors: Aldergrove library, 26770 29 Ave., has one-on-one help for seniors Fridays 1 to 3 p.m. Bring the device (cellphone, tables, ereaders, laptops) and receive up to 60 minutes free help. Register in advance at 604-856-6415, in person, or at www.fvrl.bc.ca. . Teen Night: Stop by the Aldergrove Library from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Mondays for board games, puzzle cubes, LEGO, Keva planks, colouring and more. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . LEGO and KEVA Club: Aldergrove Library provides the playing pieces for anyone who wants to stop by Tuesdays 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Morning Coffee Club: Adults can head to the Murrayville Library Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to relax by the fireplace, and enjoy coffee and conversation. Info: www.fvrl.bc.ca. . Coffee and conversation: Brookswood Library, 20045 40 Ave., invites adults to enjoy a relaxing get-together Wednesdays from 2 to 3 p.m. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Conversation circle: Drop-in format for ages 12 and older for gathering for those wanting to improve their English skills. Meet at the Muriel Arnason Library, 20338 65 Ave., from 2 to 3 p.m. Sundays. Info: fvrl.bc.ca. . Groups are welcome to submit information about upcoming community events in Langley. Publication is at the discretion of the newspaper, and host groups are responsible for keeping their information up to date.The sad decline of the public hangout
BY MATT GLYNN Dec. 9, 2024 Jim Bernecki of Jim’s Java Repair at his workshop in Tonawanda, Dec. 4, 2024. Jim's Java Repair grinds out growth James Bernecki was working as a Starbucks barista when he had a conversation with a technician who came into the store that night to repair a machine. That chance conversation a few years ago would put Bernecki on a new career path. Now, at 26, he is the owner of Jim's Java Repair, a Town of Tonawanda-based business that maintains coffee and espresso machines across the state. He has a staff of five and is looking to expand the business. For budding entrepreneurs thinking about launching their own businesses, Bernecki's story contains lessons to learn from: Seize the moment . The technician Bernecki struck up a conversation with offered him an opportunity to join Overdrive, his employer. On that particular day, Bernecki was working an extra shift and had declined a chance to leave work early. "That's where it really felt like the stars aligned for me," he said. Bernecki accepted the offer, and the company flew him to Ohio for a couple of weeks of training. The company assigned him to New York State to handle its Western New York territory. Thinking bigger . Bernecki decided to leave after a couple of years. He felt like he had learned a skill set from the company, but the company worked on only one type of machine. He returned to Starbucks to work as a manager, while starting to develop his own repair business on the side. "It was always in the back of my mind, and Starbucks has always been one of the places where they encourage doing your own thing once in a while, and sometimes using that as a steppingstone," Bernecki said. Hiring help . For about the first year of his business, Bernecki did everything on his own, driving all over the state to work for customers. "I grinded it out for about a year," he said. Eventually, after repeated trips around the state, he realized he could benefit from some help. Fortunately, he knew some other technicians who were eager to join him in the business. Finding customers. "Everything has been word of mouth and cold calls," Bernecki said. "I took that one out of the Mark Cuban book: Get your boots on, start calling people." It wasn't always easy, but he gradually built a customer base. "I think the biggest thing is preparing for the opportunity that you don't know exists yet," he said. Jim's Java Repair customers have included chain stores, along with mom-and-pop shops. "I also wanted to branch out and start helping all those local shops, because it's incredibly tough to find good technicians," he said. Managing growth . The company serves customers all over New York State. Bernecki has his eye on expanding his geographic reach. "That's the next true step of a service company, is that market expansion," he said. Bernecki is planning to hire another technician to support those growth plans. "The opportunities are endless with this industry," Bernecki said. "We have so many ideas of how we want to help local clients and commercial clients going into the future." Power of specializing . "People are very excited because we're completely dedicated to coffee and espresso," Bernecki said. Some other coffee machine repair businesses also handle repairs for equipment like ovens and fryers. Bernecki believes there is value in specializing. "We found it best to just have that focus on coffee, and I think that shows with the coffee shops," he said. "They can trust us to diagnose and fix deeper issues that you face with these machines." Mentoring. Bernecki is receiving advice from Kevin Schmidle of Chase Bank. As a senior business consultant, Schmidle is delivering Chase's complimentary "Coaching for Impact" program to small businesses in the region. Schmidle said Jim's Java Repair "fits our Coaching for Impact program perfectly − he is growing, in our community and elsewhere, and looking for guidance on how to scale his business." Schmidle credits Bernecki with launching a business that focused on meeting a need, based on an idea that arose from working in a particular industry. "These types of businesses that are 'behind the scenes' are very vital toward growing our community and economy," he said. Bernecki said it's helpful for him to have someone like Schmidle to bounce ideas off, as he looks to scale up. "This is very much the beginning of what we're doing," Bernecki said. Want to know more? Three stories to catch you up: Small businesses tapping into free advice To boost entrepreneurs, SCORE needs more volunteers 'Game on': AOL co-founder urges Buffalo to build on startup gains Welcome to Buffalo Next. This newsletter from The Buffalo News will bring you the latest coverage on the changing Buffalo Niagara economy – from real estate to health care to startups. Read more at BuffaloNext.com . THE LATEST With demise of Braymiller , will downtown Buffalo ever get another grocery store? The snowstorms of the past week have been exactly what local ski areas have been hoping for. Buffalo officials are seeking a $2 million Restore NY grant to repair the downtown hostel buildings A Buffalo housing court judge is losing patience with the owner of the Buffalo Grand Hotel and Wonder Bread building. Sumitomo Rubber USA reached an agreement with its unionized former workers on a severance package. A Clarence plaza is getting a major makeover that will add apartments and townhouses, along with more commercial space. Ingram Micro is cutting 850 jobs across its operations , but isn't specifying the impact on its Western New York workforce. Federal regulators have lifted the consent order that Lake Shore Savings Bank operated under for nearly two years. Work is beginning this week on People Inc.'s latest housing project in Western New York. Hundreds of former Sumitomo Rubber workers flocked to the Lincoln Park Athletic Center in the Town of Tonawanda on Tuesday for a job fair. The City of Niagara Falls is seeking to buy a cluster of Main Street properties to keep them out of the hands of out-of-state investors. Developer Doug Jemal is tweaking the design of his project at Elmwood and Bidwell avenues. The snow put a damper on holiday shopping in the Southtowns. With fewer shoppers going out to stores for their holiday shopping, hiring has dropped sharply for seasonal retail jobs. It's not like the old days, but some hardy souls were out in the darkness to start their Black Friday shopping . Two of Buffalo's top development officials have been ousted . New solar project starts construction in Great Valley. Scanlon, Poloncarz criticize land bank for delays and cost of homes on projects in Buffalo and Cheektowaga. How do the Bills believe they will ever get to the more than 5,000 potential season ticket holder accounts on their waitlist for the new stadium and why advertise for more of them? Developers battle over Tonawanda Island site but sewer capacity may hinder projects. What went wrong at Tonawanda's Sumitomo tire plant ? And why did Sumitomo's Japan-based parent decide to pull the plug now? Work has begun on venture studio built to fill void in Buffalo's entrepreneurial space . Artisans report as much as 50% of their annual revenue comes from the holiday shopping season. ICYMI Five reads from Buffalo Next: Buffalo Niagara Partnership sees new home as a 'hub' . Business group preparing to move to Cobblestone District. Report notes pay gap between men and women has significant economic effects in NY. Women's Foundation of WNY says gap impacts women into retirement. Sumitomo, union reach separation agreement. The deal covers about 1,200 Steelworkers who lost their jobs when the plant closed. Lake Shore Bank freed from order that found 'unsafe and unsound business practices'. Federal regulators announced the consent order nearly two years ago. Ingram Micro not specifying Western New York cuts. The technology company has 1,250 employees in Amherst. The Buffalo Next team gives you the big picture on the region’s economic revitalization. Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com or reach Buffalo Next Editor David Robinson at 716-849-4435. Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to get the latest in your inbox five days a week . Email tips to buffalonext@buffnews.com . Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Reporter {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Regardless of what the Emmys and Golden Globes awarded, comedy in 2024 was actually blossoming, thriving, and everywhere for those with eyes to see. Young upstarts like [ checks notes ] the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers got in on the podcast game , and legacy casts found new bursts of creative energy. Stand-ups self-released specials on YouTube and places like VEEPS, and Dropout proved that independent comedy can thrive directly through fans outside the major studios and social-media platforms. SNL was sharper than a half-century-old sketch show has any right to be, and John Mulaney created a new live, late-night comedy show that managed to hit in the streaming era. An actually funny Joker movie outclassed Joaquin Phoenix’s miserable one , and the biggest theater story of the year was an audacious, bawdy farce from a crazed comic genius . A note about our methodology: This is a roundup of the best moments in comedy, so something unintentionally hilarious, like Raygun’s Olympic break-dance , does not qualify. Also, there are some recurring favorites on this list: What We Do in the Shadows and Girls5eva had too many good moments to be reduced to a single blurb, as was also the case for favorites like Chris Fleming and Conner O’Malley . Now please give an Ellen DeGeneres–length round of clapter for our list of the funniest comedy moments of the year. Skip to : Stand-up / Podcasts / Late Night / The Mulaneyverse / Award-worthy Performers / Great Moments in TV / GirlsNoLonga / Cinema / What?! / Internet Stuff / Funny People Named Conner or Chris / The Giggle Crypt / Saturday Night Live / Line Readings 100 percent material, zero percent crowdwork. Bones and All , November anthony jeselnik on joe rogan: “i like joe... but if you listen to his podcast you’re a fucking loser” pic.twitter.com/z0OXaGUx1t Before every comedian of a certain ilk had a Netflix special entitled Um, Triggered Much? , Anthony Jeselnik loved to tell offensive jokes; it was sort of his thing. In the 2016 Netflix special Thoughts and Prayers , for instance, he tells a long story about nearly losing his Comedy Central show over a joke about the Boston Marathon bombing ... which he tweeted out on the day of the bombing . Considering how intensely the world fixated on “wokeness” in the years since his follow-up special from January 2020, there’s been a lot of interest in what Jeselnik thinks about cancel culture. His latest Netflix special, Bones and All , provides the answer. “I’m against cancel culture,” he says toward the end. The line gets a big reaction from some of the crowd before Jeselnik drops the hammer: “Thank you. That’s my impression of a shit comic trying to get on Rogan .” Far too many comedians are happy to throw marginalized communities under the bus for the sake of “edgy” jokes, so it’s heartening to see one with Jeselnik’s reputation dunk on those other comics to score laughs. But his harshest words aren’t reserved for them. “I like Joe. Joe’s my friend. Joe’s a good guy,” he says in quick succession. Then he waits the perfect amount of time before adding: “But if you listen to his podcast, you’re a fucking loser.” With the sizable overlap between Jeselnik’s fan base and Rogan’s, telling a joke like that in 2024 is nearly as fearless about potential blowback as joking about a tragedy immediately after it happens. — Joe Berkowitz Arizona comedy show, January election year joke pic.twitter.com/BoVcsb5Ac9 In a sea of now-obsolete jokes about the 2024 election featuring such revolutionary premises as “Joe Biden is old” and “Donald Trump looked cool when he got shot,” my favorite election joke was not about the race for the country’s executive branch but a local bid for the office of Arizona mine-safety inspector. “This feels like a skills-based position!” says comedian Anwar Newton, incredulous that the public is qualified to elect a bureaucrat in charge of such a specific and important task. What’s worse is it’s apparently a partisan issue. “They had a Republican and Democratic choice for the mine inspector ,” Newton continues. “What could they possibly have disagreed on?” Newton goes on to tell a few solid jokes speculating about how divisive issues like abortion and DEI quotas could theoretically be litigated within a mine setting, but the jokes’ broader point — that society often leaves crucial problems with unambiguous solutions at the mercy of partisan electoral politics — is worth thinking about. — Hershal Pandya YouTube, September While comedy fans have been lucky to see a lot of James Adomian this year as Mike Lindell on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the voice of befuddled Batman baddie Bane on Harley Quinn , they also got something unprecedented: a stand-up special. In addition to his uncanny impressions — including hilarious takes on Jon Taffer, Tom Selleck, and David Attenborough — Path of Most Resistance is more evidence that Adomian is one of the sharpest joke writers on the planet. There are few specials this year, or any year, this smart, energetic, or jam-packed with jokes. —John Roy Seasoned Professional , February Forget the epidural, that mic stand is on a mission. #JennySlate #SeasonedProfessional #PrimeVideo #SeasonedProfessionalPV By the time a comedian is ready to film a special, their material is often so polished that it can feel devoid of urgency. There are points in Jenny Slate’s Amazon Prime special Seasoned Professional when it falls into this trap, which is why the moment when she intentionally knocks over her microphone stand then panics as she realizes in real time it’s about to roll off the edge of the stage is so refreshing. True spontaneity in stand-up specials is rare — even rarer when it doesn’t take the form of crowdwork . This appears to dawn on Slate in the moment, too, as her initial panic quickly gives way to excited cheering. The moment produces a second payoff at the end of the special when Slate, lacking her usual place to put the microphone, gently places it on the floor and blows it a kiss. —H.P. Love You , August I lost count of how many times Adam Sandler repeats the title of his Josh Safdie–directed Netflix special over the course of its 84 minutes. “Love you,” he tells the audience, the guy who gets him coffee, his keyboard player, and his wife, in between jokes about no-wipe shits, genie hand jobs, and being mistaken for Ben Stiller (actually, those are all the same joke). But it’s clear that what Sandler loves above everything is comedy, and he lays out why in the final song of the special. As clips from comedy history play behind him, Sandler thanks a litany of greats, from Buster Keaton to Maya Rudolph, for helping people get through rough times. By the time he gets to Chris Farley and Norm Macdonald, any lingering cynicism has been thoroughly drained away. Comedy is just so fucking cool! — Emily Palmer Heller Dirt Nap , April If Family Feud polled 100 people on “How many words are in a joke?,” the most common answer would be, like, 30. Well, on Dirt Nap , Kyle Kinane closes his special with a joke that is (based on word counting the copy-and-pasted YouTube transcript) 8,787 words. And every one of those words freaking rules. The joke is a story about moving to the suburbs and adopting a street cat, but that’s like saying Forrest Gump is a movie about sitting on a bench waiting for a bus. It’s so much more! — Jesse David Fox Someday You’ll Die , May If the 2024 Nikki Glaser output you’re most familiar with is her set from The Roast of Tom Brady, you’re not getting the full picture. In her HBO special Someday You’ll Die , Glaser takes the same savant-like joke-writing skill she displayed live on Netflix and applies it to topics far more interesting than Brady and Gronk, including suicide, procreation, and hack stand-up crutches. It all builds toward a masterful closer in which she compares the feeling of being alive to being the woman in a gangbang, because “every day, life is just trying to fuck you from so many angles.” It’s a fine-enough premise on paper, but the examples she cites to prove it — and the grueling act-out she performs to sell it — elevate it from a filthy joke to a deeply profound existential rumination. — H.P. For the Boys , May Dan Licata packs so many bizarre details into one single joke set-up, any one of them could be an entire pause-for-laughter punch line in some other project — a surrealist sitcom, maybe. He transferred to “Jesus Christ High School,” which is a Staten Island public school, because his dad “got a job cleaning the breastfeeding pods at JFK airport,” pods he uses to watch “ Paranormal Activity on a VR headset” while drinking two iced coffees before a flight, because you don’t actually need a baby to use those suckers. Then, he describes “edging, but with piss,” which is when he took “one-third of a piss, wrapped a couple rubber bands around the head, started shotgunning Dasanis,” which is extra difficult because he put a gauge earring in his pee-hole. He demonstrates what it sounds like when he pees now by dumping a glass of water on the floor. All of this takes place in the first three minutes after Licata gets onstage, and he keeps going on like this for the rest of the special. It’s called For the Boys because he shot it at his Buffalo high school in front of a room of teenage boys who, I’ll be honest, don’t seem like they’re totally getting it. Watching this special possibly has the brain-damage equivalent of doing ten canisters of whippets back to back. Licata also had an excellent set on Late Night With Seth Meyers to promote the special, if you want a smaller dose. I’ve been thinking about how he says his wife was deployed but “already used up all her PTO so she could be home for Halloween” all year. It tickles me so! — Rebecca Alter Good Grief , June Good Grief is a special about Marlon Wayans losing both his parents, but even Sigmund Freud, author of The Interpretation of Dreams and Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious , couldn’t have dreamed what such a thing would look like. Specifically, Wayans dedicates an unbelievable amount of time describing his elderly parents’ respective genitalia. But the image that is burned in my brain and will soon be burned into yours comes when he imagines what his mother’s vagina would look like late in life. Wayans is a comedian known for act-outs, so when he says “The lips would be stretched out and the hair would be coming out, and it would be like an old camel chewing straw,” the audience expects him to act it out, but the result defies any expectation. It is vivid, grotesque, pained, and weirdly sentimental. — J.D.F. GRL/LATNX/DEF , September Netherlands-based comedian Lara Ricote’s GRL/LATNX/DEF , which won the 2022 Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, is a solo show about the idea of doing a show about identity. Each time it seems like it’s going to fall into a dissection of the various groups she belongs to, it morphs into something else. This approach is best exemplified in a stand-out joke about Ricote’s “degenerative hearing loss.” Ricote’s not getting ahead of it by learning sign language, she explains, because doctors have assured her that medical science is advancing quickly enough that it’ll address the deterioration before it goes too far. She then conducts an informal audience survey. “I just want to know: Is there anyone here tonight who happens to be working on it?” she asks to silence. “And nobody knows anybody?” Finally, the twist: “Now’s the time where I tell you where that whole ‘degenerative hearing loss’ thing is actually a metaphor for the climate crisis.” —H.P. Netflix, December Throughout Hecklers Welcome , James Acaster walks around holding the entire mic stand like he’s in the tech crew and has wandered onstage accidentally. It looks a bit like he’s about to play an air guitar, or maybe like he’s hauling around a little step stool for reaching a high shelf? The general impact of it is “How do mics even work?” with a large dash of “I’ve picked this up because I’m in the middle of doing something, but now I can’t remember what it was I meant to do, so I’m just going to carry it around until something comes to me.” — Kathryn VanArendonk On and On and On , December Look, for all the critical rubrics people use to judge stand-up, sometimes enjoying a special is as simple as a comedian being roughly the same age as you and referencing things that make you reenact the “Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV” meme. This was my experience watching Rose Matafeo’s Max special On and On and On , specifically during the moments when she swiftly disabuses Gen Zers of the notion that their age group invented the concept of whimsy (“My child, have you ever worn a top hat at the height of summer to a Panic! at the Disco concert?”) and refers to getting dumped over the phone as “the reverse Soulja Boy.” The latter joke, she adds, is “a good litmus test to see how many people my age are in the crowd,” which, yes. — H.P. Ends , September the family whatsapp going crazy #AhirShah #standup #netflix #netflixisajoke #parents #family #relatable In 2019, British comedian Ahir Shah concluded an uneven stand-up set at a festival in Melbourne by speculating aloud about the crowd’s perception of him. “You might think that I’ve been a relatively unfunny stand-up comedian,” he said. “But I think we can all agree I would’ve made an extremely funny lecturer. Let’s just acknowledge that we could reassess these ten minutes in the light of that and realize we’ve all witnessed something breathtaking that’s been horrifically missold.” Such is the feeling one might walk away with after watching Shah’s Netflix special Ends , a filmed adaption of his show that won the comedy award for Best Show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023. In it, Shah uses the story of his family’s emigration from India to the U.K. to make the case that even political progressives who ardently disagree with Rishi Sunak’s policies should see it as a sign of progress that he was elected the country’s first Indian prime minister in 2022. Superficial ethnic representation is the type of thing that inspires eye rolls in 2024, especially when it’s not followed by material change, but Shah’s “funny lecture” is so persuasive that he successfully calls that reflex into question. — H.P. Basic Lee , July Liking the U.K. comedy legend Stewart Lee is sort of the comedy-fan equivalent of being really into wellness, in the sense that people who do it cannot and will not stop talking about it. In his new special, Basic Lee , the comedian hits out at these (mostly male) obsessives who he says drive women away from his shows with their overenthusiastic fandom. “You have my sympathy, ladies,” he says, sketching out a scenario he imagines they’re all too familiar with. “You’re trying to get ready for bed at night, aren’t you? You’re trying to get in the shower, or have a talk about the gas bill or something, and he’s lying in bed on his back, he’s got a laptop on his chest, and he’s watching little clips of me on YouTube. And he’s going [ Ten seconds of obnoxious laughter ] Oh God, he’s a genius. And so am I, because I like him.’” That I personally happened to watch this special for the first time in bed with my laptop on my chest, I’m sure, was just a coincidence. — H.P. Did podcasts make the election? Maybe. Did they make this list? Yes! Club Shay Shay , January No list of notable 2024 comedy moments could be credible without including Katt Williams’s internet-stopping interview on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast Club Shay Shay . Had it just been that Williams’s insults of his comedy peers started going viral before the interview finished livestreaming on YouTube, that alone would merit recognition. (Perhaps you heard that Cedric the Entertainer’s four specials are “so bad” that they’re not available to watch on “Netflix or Tubi.”) But its ripple effects were far wider. It prophesized cultural reckonings (the fall of Diddy), set the tone for a year heavy in public feuds (sorry, Drake), led to follow-up interviews where Williams said offensive things that were much less fun, and coronated Club Shay Shay as a platform so influential that none other than Kamala Harris stopped by during election season . It also spawned this breathlessly funny video of Williams sprinting shirtless to authenticate his eyebrow-raising claim that he’s able to run a 40-yard dash in a little over four seconds. It’s an interview for the history books — one Williams will no doubt read one day as part of his stated yearly quota of 3,000. — H.P. Comedy Bang! Bang! , May Modern-era CBB GOAT Lisa Gilroy takes a page from Nephew Todd and finds a great game in just playing a relative of host Scott Aukerman, saying kooky shit about him that he has to “yes, and” as truths. As Nana Aukerman, Gilroy takes this 15th-anniversary episode to mean that it’s Scott’s 15th birthday and proceeds to give him a silly sex talk. Because this is a supersize anniversary episode, the whole bit is bolstered by a peanut gallery of seven other guests cracking up at her moto-scootoo-quick improvising. What truly makes the mind reel is this was the second half of a two-week streak for Gilroy; she ran away with the episode the week before playing God. — R.A. Doughboys , November Next year will be the tenth anniversary of the Doughboys podcast, which is basically a medical miracle of longevity for a podcast centered around eating fast food. Over hundreds of episodes, hosts Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger have played plenty of games with guests, but maybe none have ever performed so well as first-time guest Kate Berlant, who shocks and surprises everyone, most of all herself, as she correctly guesses the exact year that a series of obscure Long John Silver’s commercials aired, based solely off aesthetic signifiers. (Has Berlant ever even eaten at Long John Silver’s? Extremely unlikely.) When someone fails horribly at a task like this, it can be funny. But when they succeed so impossibly, in a way that feels almost like they’re being guided by the hand of God, at a task so difficult yet so stupid? Hilarious. — R.A. Comedy Bang! Bang! , October A post shared by Earwolf (@earwolf) It has been seven years since the last time Scott Aukerman found himself at Suicide House for one of Comedy Bang! Bang! ’s formerly annual Halloween episodes. It’s tragic imaging Bueford LeBaron (Jon Daly) working in the lab late one night for nothing. Well, apparently all Aukerman needed to do was change up the lineup slightly (not getting into it right now) and we had a perfect episode of Comedy Fang! Fang! And if you can believe it, there was a brand, totally new song from Leo Carpazzi (Nick Wiger) that was nothing like “The Monster Fuck.” — J.D.F. Stavvy’s World , August A post shared by Stavvy’s World Podcast (@stavvysworld) Like a good hot sauce, a great podcast guest doesn’t change the flavor entirely but pushes things in new, unexpected directions. Mandal, a 2024 Comedian You Should and Will Know , is new to the podcast-guest game, but he’s already proven himself a must-listen. His brand of deadpan whimsy puts the listener on the edge of their seat, wondering if he’s going to respond with a flight of fancy or something surprisingly understated. So when Stavvy’s World host Stavros Halkias brings up the secret of making it as a white guy in a largely Black high school, Mandal has a perfect “Yeah, but nah” response: “We only had one white dude, and I’m going to be honest with you ... They was beating the mess out that boy.” He adds, “If that cat didn’t end up racist, he hated himself.” For that moment, we were all living in Mandal’s World. — J.D.F. Threedom , February through December Every now and then on their podcast, Threedom , Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins, or Lauren Lapkus will respond to something the other is saying or answer a question with a heightened, hostile condescension, tacking a weaponized “sweetie,” “honey,” or “dear” onto the end of their sentence. They have such an ease with each other, and clearly so much friendship and respect, that the words cut through like comedy daggers. It’s hard to explain to the non-pisspig community, but it makes us fans laugh every time. Sorry if you don’t get it, dear. — R.A. A.k.a. "Next Morning on YouTube." Comedy Central, February But only on Mondays; the kids are still trying to feed themselves Tuesday through Thursday. It’s been nice having Jon Stewart back, even if it is only once a week. His elder-statesman status lets him pop off a little more than the rest of the late-night hosts on touchier subjects. He was pretty much the only host, for example, to talk shit about the McDonald’s narc that fingered Luigi Mangione. — Bethy Squires CBS, January January saw the premiere of After Midnight , the reboot/revival of @midnight and the successor to The Late Late Show With James Corden . Host Taylor Tomlinson guides guests through a very different internet than the one @midnight left behind in 2017. A meaner one, for starters. But the show still serves an important function in the comedy world: It helps touring comedians get a little more famous and sell a few more tickets for their shows. In the 12 months since its premiere, After Midnight has settled into a truly stupid little show. Panelists play games like Does This Lamp Work? and Which Guy Named Nick Is Taller? It’s also become a welcome space for certain recurring panelists’ little bits. Chris Fleming’s staged readings are always a delight, for example. — B.S. Late Night With Seth Meyers , March When Joe Biden gave one of his most detailed statements on a cease-fire in Gaza, he did it while eating an ice-cream cone with Seth Meyers. That week, Meyers used “A Closer Look” to really wallow in the absurdity of having ice cream with a world leader while they actually do some world-leading. It was a real master class in how to handle a scandal, especially a deeply stupid one. — B.S. Jimmy Kimmel Live! , June You often hear how great comedians don’t lose potency with age, but witnessing it in real time can still seem miraculous. Martin Short brought beloved, belligerent, and be-fat-suited celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick back to guest host Jimmy Kimmel Live! over the summer , and the results were explosive. Still perhaps the most courageous improviser on the planet, Short threw himself into physical gags that seem impossible for a man his age. Watch as he unleashes pure comedy chaos on guest Nick Kroll, reducing the usually unflappable pro to a giggling wreck. — J. Roy The Tonight Show , April So many leftists I know were radicalized in 2010 — not by the recession, but by Conan O’Brien losing The Tonight Show. For those who weren’t there, it’s impossible to explain the fervor with which people pledged their allegiance to Team Coco. There were honest-to-God marches! About The Tonight Show ! O’Brien got fucked over by Jay Leno and NBC, had The Tonight Show yoinked from his hands after seven months, and the world trembled. But this year, a peace was brokered between NBCUniversal and Team Coco, and O’Brien returned to 30 Rock to plug his new travel show. What a beautiful, but fragile, peace we have found. — B.S. Jimmy Kimmel Live! , September When we were all still coconut-pilled and the election seemed almost fun, Jimmy Kimmel assembled a murderers’ row of impressions to play various nut bars across the political spectrum. James Adomian’s MyPillow Guy (he probably has a name, but that’s not important right now) has been on the show for years, as has Josh Meyers’s eerily accurate and slimy Gavin Newsom. But nabbing Haley Joel Osment to play Vice-President-elect J.D. Vance? Inspired. Getting all three of these freaks out on the same night? Gorgeous, gorgeous TV. — B.S. Late Night With Seth Meyers, February Years ago, when Larry David appeared on Late Night With Seth Meyers , he told Meyers that he should do an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm . It never happened. This year, David appeared on Late Night to promote Curb ’s final season , and Meyers used it as an opportunity to uncomfortably confront the famous uncomfortable confronter. The top YouTube comment on the segment says it all: “What’s great about this is Seth complaining that he was never in an episode of Curb , only for the interview to turn into one.” It even ends with multiple unrelated narratives uniting in a way that is both surprising but inevitable. — J.D.F. Two highlights from 'Everybody's in L.A.' John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A ., May It would have been enough to have brought back Gil Faizon (Nick Kroll) and George St. Geegland (John Mulaney). But, like everything about John Mulaney’s brilliant experiment in Making Late Night Good Again, Everybody’s in L.A. , he went above and beyond, figuring out the funniest possible setting to plunk the “two legendary bachelors” in Los Angeles: a Hollywood mansion tour. The crotchety, idiosyncratic Upper West Siders quickly reveal that they thought it was a Hollywood Manson tour. Why? “The reason we are here is because we’re visiting,” George clarifies, helpfully. Their ulterior motive, however, is they’d like to scatter an unreasonably huge bag of ashes belonging to their late friend Art Simpson (lol) who was a young pledge in the Manson family with them in the ’60s. “ So many people were, honey,” George tells their poor tour guide, Robert. There are approximately one thousand jokes in this under-ten-minute segment, like how a wheel of Art’s gaming chair is in the bag (along with some unburned bones), Gil saying “We couldn’t get into the Robert Blake tour because it doesn’t exist,” and Mulaney’s amazing quip when noticing the tram is for a mansion tour: “There’s no i in Manson .” This is such an incredible bit of lore-building for everyone’s favorite modern amoral Statler and Waldorf. Of course they did helter-skelter in the ’60s. Of course they were draft dodgers who “applied hard to the North Vietnamese Army.” And of course the characters are only getting better with age. — R.A. John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A. , May Two of the stand-out pre-taped segments featured in John Mulaney’s live talk show, Everybody’s in L.A. , starred writers Rajat Suresh and Jeremy Levick , who, between their appearances on this show, guest spots on the final season of What We Do in the Shadows , and cameos in the movies Let’s Start a Cult and Rap World , had a big 2024 as performers as well. In this segment, the pair try to help a group of devoted Tina Fey and Amy Poehler fans realize a lifelong dream by participating in a special surprise for them. Unfortunately, the fans, fresh off delivering emotional speeches about Fey and Poehler’s significance in their lives, appear underwhelmed when Levick and Suresh come strolling out from behind a curtain expectantly. “We thought you might be excited to meet us, because we’re comedy writers like Tina and Amy,” Levick deadpans as the participants look on in confusion. Evidently, one thing they didn’t learn from their repeat viewings of Mean Girls was gratitude. —H.P. The MVPs. YouTube and The Daily Show , all year Josh Johnson went from Daily Show writer to correspondent this year, but it’s the internet that has made him a star. Eschewing the quick crowdwork clips so beloved of his TikTok peers, Johnson dropped lengthy, informative, razor-sharp monologues unpacking current events so frequently and so quick on the heels of the news throughout the year that it’s easy to believe his claim to only sleeping four hours a night. Watch this extended take on the Drake-Kendrick beef, which racked up 1.2 million views in its first five days on YouTube, and you’ll see why Johnson’s is a fresh and vital voice in stand-up. — J. Roy Hot Ones , April We’re well past the point of incredulity that an escalating series of hot-sauce challenges on YouTube has become one of our best talk shows and an essential stop on promotional tours (Kamala would’ve won if she’d talked inflation policy through Da Bomb sweats, etc.). Hot Ones is quite simply the new Tonight Show , which made this the perfect moment for a comedy legend like Conan O’Brien to fuck with the formula, as he did on the April 11 episode. “I don’t fear your wings, man!” Conan boasted, taking regular breaks to stash chicken-wing bones in his pockets and consult his dubious physician Dr. Arroyo (José Arroyo). On a baseline level, this is absurd, because O’Brien looks like (and admits as much) he’s never eaten anything spicier than corned beef. At around the 14-minute mark, he speeds past his last exit ramp, taking a heedless swig from a bottle of hot sauce, working himself into a Howard Beale–esque frenzy, lips stained orange, his face sickly sweaty in a way only true Irish heritage can produce. After taking a perfectly on-target shot at the parent company of the show he was promoting (“They used to call it HBO, but people found that too popular!”), our final image is of O’Brien — eyes crazed with a mania that’s no longer quite as exaggerated as it was six wings ago; his chin dripping a revolting combination of milk, drool, and maybe snot — having defeated Hot Ones , but at what cost? — Joe Reid Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson’s improv marathon, October Dicks: The Musical creators Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson did six straight hours of gay improv this October at the Bell House, with hourly changing guests that included Ilana Glazer, Julio Torres, and Pat Regan. The whole thing was a glorious salute to increasingly deranged improv energy, and the best guest was drag artist Kiko Soirée. She walked onstage with a completely done-up face including bright-blue eye shadow, but was otherwise only wearing skin-tone heels, nude pasties, and tights, the combination of which she claimed would help the audience be able to imagine her as any character. She then changed out of her nude heels into white sneakers and became a child in anaphylaxis. It’s these moments that make you want to claim that improv is back. — Jason P. Frank Oh, Mary! , February 2024 was the year that Cole Escola became someone your grandma might text you about. The comedian’s play Oh, Mary! , in which they play a demonic version of Mary Todd Lincoln, became one of the biggest hits on Broadway, after beginning the year Off Broadway at the Lucille Lortel. In the show’s grand finale (spoiler ahead!), Mary Todd is finally able to return to cabaret after her bitch husband’s been shot, and, in a moment of pure theatrical bliss, performs a full cabaret number with a multiplicity of songs. My favorite moment? When Escola drags a chair out from one side of the stage and, instead of pausing to use the chair for any form of performance à la Chicago , simply drags it to the other side. Perfection! — J.P.F. Still got it, baby! Netflix, September Great British Bake Off - quite enjoying this season for reasons #gbbo #dylanbachelet Oh, Dylan. The standout contestant of this season of The Great British Bake-Off would have been easy to hate. He was just 20 years old, gorgeous, a little pretentious, and preternaturally good at baking. The show’s producers were in a quandary. They knew this Little Mister Perfect was destined to go all the way to the final. How to get viewers on his side? By taking him down a peg right off the bat. In week one, as he explained his concept for a sticky mango rice loaf cake (inspired by a trip to Thailand during his gap year — ugh, but also: sounds delicious), the editors cut to a ten-second clip of Dylan completely sucking at skateboarding. “He’s a bit rusty,” host Alison Hammond murmured apologetically. The message was clear: We could love Dylan, because we had permission to laugh at him, too. — Nate Jones The Simpsons , September Ah, 2024. I’m going to miss this place. There’s a sort of “Too Many Cooks” effect that happens over the course of The Simpsons season 36 premiere, in which the internal reality of The Simpsons begins to subtly fold in on itself, all using sitcom series finale tropes. They zoom past the rule of threes and do the joke nine times. — R.A. Shōgun , March Yes, Sh ō gun is a series mostly defined by court intrigue, human loss on a devastating scale, honor, betrayal, scheming, and the naked pursuit of power. If it had only those things, it would be a solid show. What makes it a great show is that it also has a scene where its idiot himbo Englishman gets extremely excited about cooking a pheasant, and demands that his household of Japanese aristocrats let him age the pheasant for days and days by hanging it near the front door of their house. “Yes, yes!” he tells them, cheerfully, when they ask about it rotting. “It will be a terrible stench.” Then, in typical Sh ō gun fashion, an elderly gardener gets killed because he messed with the pheasant, and the whole thing is exactly awful enough that the gruesome rotting pheasant is painfully, perfectly absurd. — K.V.A. Hacks , May Work that #2 pencil girl!! #Hacks #AvaDaniels #HannahEinbinder #Max #FeelYourPride #Pride2024 @Max In the great 2024 comedy-television wars, Hacks emerged as not the hero we deserved but the one we needed. As we wrote, it isn’t a good comedy , but it beat The Bear for Best Comedy at the Emmys, vanquishing the mighty beast that grew to be the symbol for gag-writer resentment toward the post-comedy genre of sitcom-making. But this is not a time for negativity but to focus on, for my money, the one scene in the most recent season of Hacks that really had me going. Ava (Hannah Einbinder) is promised the head-writer job on Deborah’s new late-night show, so she needs new headshots. Which means she must take a photo holding a pencil. This was written by writers who have had to be photographed as writers, and they nailed this one.— J.D.F. Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show , March Jerrod Carmichael’s reality show wanted us to cringe at him, right? Like, the whole point was that you kind of just felt bad for him, because the choice to make this thing at all could only ever amount to deep wells of pity in his audience. Well, he won, and in the process made the best cringe comedy of the year. While the show broadened its focus eventually, the foundation of it all was in its pilot, in which Carmichael tried to get Tyler, the Creator, who he had a crush on, to come to the Emmys with him. While nervous about Tyler’s answer, he tried to ask a 20-year-old Grindr hookup to go instead. The accompanying “yes” by the hookup and immediate rudeness of Carmichael in response (“Would you mind being a backup date?” he asks. “I have to see if someone that I genuinely love wants to go”) made for a shocking, horrible, embarrassing, and, yes, hilarious moment. — J.P.F. Bluey , July The Bluey minisodes range from unobjectionable to transcendent, but “Muffin Unboxing” is the only one that manages to produce a gut-level laugh. Muffin, the show’s resident chaos-causing cousin, has been wheedled into filming an unboxing-style video by her father, Stripe, who has once again reached for the parenting stars but landed somewhere significantly south of his goal. Everything goes wrong, beginning with Muffin’s distaste for the unboxed toy and continuing through battery mishaps, a jelly bean frenzy, and a final sibling-rivalry-fueled collapse. Sometimes Bluey sneaks up from behind in an emotional ambush , but there’s no need to worry about that here. It’s Schadenfreude all the way down. — K.V.A. Smiling Friends , May Smiling friends - President Jimble Screws up #smilingfriends pic.twitter.com/MePnXcL1MC Adult Swim’s Smiling Friends delivered the boldest piece of satire of the 2024 presidential election with its second episode of season two, which imagines an election between incompetent incumbent President Jimble, played by a human actor in cartoon surroundings, and populist favorite (and Smiling Friends fan favorite) Mr. Frog, returning from his cancellation in season one. The face-off, which aired two months before Biden backed down, captures the feelings of dread at the time and heightens them to psychotic proportions. Mr. Frog is a rich-as-filth TV star who enjoys widespread popularity despite his history of inappropriate behavior, total lack of moral compass, and seeming disdain for his voter base. But sitting President Jimble is a useless idiot of a man who accidentally cozies up to war criminals leading to the bombing of children, can’t string three words together, and pretty consistently throws up on himself and shits his pants as he toddles around. No piece of comedy trying to get a handle on the “rock and a hard place” nature of national politics in 2024 was quite so crass, or quite so cathartic. — R.A. NBC, September In the new NBC procedural Brilliant Minds , Zachary Quinto plays not-quite Oliver Sacks (Oliver Wolf , thank you very much), a doctor with face blindness, a desperate need to treat his patients via unconventional methods like kidnapping them and throwing them on the back of a motorcycle, and an all-consuming passion for ferns. He loves ferns. There are ferns all over his house. There are ferns in his windowsill. There are ferns on the counters, on his desk, and on his bookshelves and on the floor. And when he opens the fridge to get some water, there is water, and there are also ferns. This is what repetitive, underbaked medical procedurals should be: overserious acting and a goofy fridge full of ferns. — K.V.A. NFL draft, April Every year I am allowed to sneak one funny wrestling moment onto this otherwise totally normal list, and this year the winner is All Elite Wrestling owner Tony Khan wearing a neck brace during the NFL draft and his subsequent TV interviews. Wrestling is at its funniest when it bleeds into the straight world, confusing well-meaning normie interviewers who do not understand they are actually now in an improv scene against their will. Khan was injured when his company’s EVPs, the Young Bucks, attacked him on live television in front of his own perfectly mustachioed father . He then went around for days in a neck brace — the funniest of all medical devices — like a guy trying to garner sympathy during a court hearing . The coup de grâce was when he caused two NFL Network interviewers to completely panic by calling WWE the “Harvey Weinstein of pro wrestling.” If only all billionaires could be this funny. — Anne Victoria Clark English Teacher , September Rick Santana, Businessman Extraordinaire @CarmChristopher #EnglishTeacherFX pic.twitter.com/qFiu7dvt3R Carmen Christopher may not have the biggest role on FX’s English Teacher, but he eats every moment he’s onscreen as Rick Santana, the high school’s guidance counselor whose whole character game is to say and do things that suggest he just might be the world’s least qualified person to be giving guidance. He’s a mildly dumb guy in a very 2024 way, falling for online business-opportunity scams, avoiding the students who bully him, and saying things like “My cousin created his own version of ChatGPT to write a more fucked-up version of Breaking Bad , dude!” Whatever the fate of this show ends up being (creator and star Brian Jordan Alvarez is currently facing allegations of misconduct on the set of his 2016 web series), future TV series should be leaping at the chance to get Christopher in their ensembles. — R.A. Matlock , October The premise of the Matlock reboot is that Kathy Bates plays Madeline Matlock, which, she explains, is like the guy on the TV show Matlock , except he’s a fake lawyer on TV and she’s a real lawyer (on TV!). But also her Matlock identity is a ruse! It’s a cover-up for her own secret plan to bring down the law firm that helped the evil pharmaceutical company that profited from opioid abuse. And now she’s so deeply entrenched in her identity that she’s having dreams about the original TV Matlock, in which she is Andy Griffith, wearing the Matlock suit. It’s so delightful. She’s so annoyed! — K.V.A. Saying good-bye to 'Girls5eva.' March While Girls5eva is an embarrassment of comedic riches overall, Renée Elise Goldsberry is a rare talent who can truly do it all. She sings! She dances! She acts! But she can also sell the hell out of a joke. Here, she tells her ex-beau Torque that she doesn’t want to hear about the time she puked at Benihana and it started cooking and the guy tried to flip it into his hat. It’s the kind of joke you’d have heard on 30 Rock in its heyday: an entire story — nay, a tableau — laid bare in a single run-on sentence that escalates from simple embarrassment to absurd devastation. While the joke is strong enough on paper, Goldsberry punctuates it with a “no” delivered with such seductive flair it made me laugh for 15 minutes straight. That’s more than some Emmy-winning comedies (ahem) make me laugh in a whole season. — A.V.C. March Grotesque, fantastic. A scream at an instantly iconic and horrifying set of jagged vulpine teeth transplanted into a hot man’s forever-altered mouth is kind of like a laugh, right? — Roxana Hadadi March @Cathleen is a treasure. #girls5eva #catcohen #peacock What the night sky was to van Gogh, vowel sounds are to Catherine Cohen: a landscape for expansive, impressionistic, kaleidoscopic exploration. In her season-three guest appearance, of Girls5eva in which she plays Taffy, a sugar baby celebrating her birthday, the show’s writers gave Cohen the perfect canvas to do her thing. In response to WNBA legend Rebecca Lobo asking if it would be cute if she makes as many baskets as Taffy’s age, the line as scripted is “So cute, Rebecca Lobo.” Cohen read the line as “Sooo kewt, Rebecca l-O-b-O” with an earworm musicality. The line played in my head like the chorus of a song: So cute, Rebecca Lobo / So cute, Rebecca Lobo / So cute, Rebecca Lobo / So cute, Rebecca Lobo. — J.D.F. We come to this place for slapstick. The People’s Joker, April Vera Drew’s Gotham Award–winning debut feature, The People’s Joker , uses a lot of classic Batman characters to transformative effect in its autobiographical story of coming out as a woman (awesome!) and a comedian (YIKES!), but it also introduced a new villain into the Rogue’s Gallery in the form of lo-res CGI Lorne Michaels The ultimate big-bad of this Joker origin story is the head honcho of a UCB- SNL dystopian hybrid that exerts authority, control, and sexism over comedy in Gotham, and Maria Bamford voices him like a little cartoon weasel. What makes it great is she’s not trying to do a Lorne; she’s doing her own thing. So not only did People’s Joker out-Joker Joker: Folie à Deux , it out-Lorned Saturday Night. — R.A. Stress Positions , January POV: You’re John Early and you slipped on chicken. STRESS POSITIONS opens in theaters April 19th. #johnearly #nyccomedy #filmtok Theda Hammel’s debut feature Stress Positions is full of smart satire about millennials, COVID, brain worms, and queer Brooklynites, but it also has a couple of good, old-fashioned pratfalls courtesy of John Early as neurotic loser Terry Goon. Watching him in this starring role, throwing his back out on raw chicken, just confirms that he’s our best physical comedian since maybe Jim Carrey. Get this guy a franchise! — R.A. The Gutter , November A problem common to silly comedy movies, even as they’ve grown increasingly extinct, is that their marketing teams often release trailers ahead of time that spoil all of their best jokes. Watching The Gutter , Yassir Lester and Isaiah Lester’s movie about a bowling prodigy named Walt (Shameik Moore), the script feels like it was written with the explicit intention of making this impossible. An editor could conceivably cut together a 15-minute-long teaser without scratching the surface. It’s not just the movie’s joke density that impresses, either — it’s the joke assortment. There’s wordplay, roasts, physical gags, callbacks, and visual jokes littering the backgrounds of scenes to reward eagle-eyed viewers. It’s a movie in which the main character types out his résumé in a font called Buffalo Wingdings and tries to seek a pro-sports endorsement from a local business called Booty Clappin’ Jermaine, Attorney at Law. If only it’d been released 20 years earlier, its DVD would be a staple of college dorms everywhere. — H.P. Conclave , October #CONCLAVE Cardinal Tedesco and his vape is brat pic.twitter.com/hRrYUeBbml No movie captured the hearts of the meming public this awards season quite like Conclave , a film about the Catholic clergy choosing a new pope. Something about the messiness, the Gossip Girl –like maneuvering, and the pure heart of one particular cardinal made for perfect X.com fodder . The most meme-able part of the movie was the occasional cut to the villainously traditionalist Cardinal Tedesco inconspicuously vaping . It captured the old-new dichotomy of the film perfectly while still being legitimately surprising. Plus, the vaping was cool enough to turn the racist, homophobic, misogynist Tedesco into a Charli XCX–scored queer icon . Slay. — J.P.F. Megalopolis , September Apart from its Randian contention that a visionary individual could get humanity back on track by inventing Hudson Yards , Megalopolis is not the Movie of Big Ideas that Francis Ford Coppola billed it as. It is, however, one of the year’s funniest movies — a fact sometimes obfuscated by the clunkiness of its stylized dialogue and its general incoherence. But rest assured that the maestro who wrote “What do you think of this boner I got?” knew he was making a comedy. The film’s comedic apex arguably arrives when Coppola tosses in a quick shot of the villainous Clodio Pulcher (Shia LaBeouf) power walking across marble floors, three henchmen in tow. Without breaking stride, Clodio removes his fedora and throws it on the ground, barking “Pick up my hat!” Unfazed, the goon behind him picks up the hat and throws his own fedora on the ground, yelling “Pick up my hat!” This continues down the line, until the goon in the back is presumably forced to reckon with the fact that he’s last in the pecking order. Supposedly inspired by an improv exercise, the scene manages to say more about man’s relationship to power than any of the drivel that spills out of Cesar Catalina’s Emersonian mind. And it’s funny! Pick up my hat, Francis. —Chris Stanton Anora , October It’s not often that a prestigious, Palme d’Or–winning film’s best scene is when it becomes a Three Stooges –like farce. Anora is that movie. Watching Ani kick and bite the Russian bodyguards invading her newfound home while they fall on top of glass tables could be terrifying. Instead, director Sean Baker opts to make the scene madcap fun, leaving the deep well of fear and sadness for later, and allowing for 28 full minutes of Looney Tunes –esque pratfalling. And at the center of it is a star turn by Mikey Madison as Ani, with oodles of charisma and comic timing, plus a fearsome determination that makes it the funniest home invasion since Kevin McCallister grabbed both sides of his face. — J.P.F. Let’s Start a Cult , October Imagine you’re on the lam, and you’re trying to disguise your getaway car from the police. Would your first thought be to swap the license plate or spontaneously and haphazardly repaint the car using house paint? In Let’s Start a Cult , Stavros Halkias and Wes Haney’s old-school comedy about a ragtag group in search of a chosen family, the crew chooses the latter. In doing so, they successfully give birth to the spiritual sequel to Zoolander’s gasoline-fight scene you didn’t know you needed. — H.P. DìDi , August Sean Wang’s feature-directorial debut, DìDi , was another under-the-radar gem this year, a comedy-drama about a 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy navigating the summer before high school. It features a heartwarming performance from Wang’s own grandmother Chang Li Hua, who seems to be invoking every grandmother I’ve ever met with this monologue about how the main character’s life is already ruined, because he got a black eye, of course. — A.V.C. Love Lies Bleeding , March Ed Harris never half-asses anything — not even the final episodes of Westworld , when it was clear that he had no idea what the Man in Black was up to. (Same, Ed. Same.) But he spouted off all that nonsense dialogue like a true professional, and he brings the same degree of commitment to the grimy and vulgar Love Lies Bleeding . As Lou Sr., the estranged father of Kristen Stewart’s same-named gym manager, he’s a leathered raisin of a criminal mastermind, the man haunting his daughter’s memories and ruling their crummy little town’s underworld with an iron fist. All that seriousness is what helps make his breaking-bad moment so wonderfully ludicrous. The man keeps pet beetles. And in a moment of particular fury, he chomps into one of those with zero hesitation — no abandon, all crunch. Like Penélope Cruz throwing vegetables around in Ferrari , it’s so intensely dramatic that it bounds into camp; hopefully it’s part of why John Waters named Love Lies Bleeding his top film of 2024 . — R.H. Problemista , March Julio Torres’s movie Problemista takes various silly things very seriously. That’s perhaps no better represented by The Eggs , a series of paintings that RZA’s painter character created and nobody but Tilda Swinton understands. They provide the fulcrum around which the entire movie turns but are ultimately just eggs. The 13 Eggs are not particularly amazing works, nor do they have a deeper meaning beyond “eggs,” but, by the end of the movie, you find yourself completely invested in their futures, because the characters take them so seriously. You want the world to understand the Eggs , even as you don’t. — J.P.F. Deadpool & Wolverine , July The funniest part of Deadpool & Wolverine was not any of Ryan Reynolds’s many, many jokes about anal. It was Channing Tatum’s locked-in commitment to his terrible attempt at Cajun English as the New Orleans–based Gambit. It could have been awful and offensive. Instead, it was the funniest thing in the most-watched comedy of the year. — J.P.F. Thelma , June This comedic double-hander between June Squibb and Fred Hechinger is one of the most delightful films of the year, and Squibb’s performance has been tragically overlooked come year-end lists and discussions. One of the worst Golden Globe snubs of the year. Her performance as a nonagenarian tracking down a scammer is brave and so, so silly, culminating in a high-octane “hacking” scene where she has to pull off the greatest technological feat this side of Mission: Impossible : logging in to an online banking account. — R.A. Your Monster , January Your Monster is a horror rom-com that flew quietly under the radar this year, but please be aware that this movie exists and is a total treat for fans of both horror rom-coms and heavy comedic weeping. Deep sobs are hysterically funny in the correct hands, and Melissa Barrera proves she’s up to this specific task in the film’s opening montage. Having been dumped by her Broadway director boyfriend while in the hospital with cancer , Barrera’s weeps are both righteous and pathetic. They also happen regardless of how much pie she’s crammed into her mouth. The Amazon guy delivering boxes of tissues and serving as her only sympathetic ear adds a straight man to the scene at exactly the correct rhythmic intervals. All-around A-plus shtick. — A.V.C. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice , September Tim Burton says the death of “Bob” was necessary in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” “You know what he deserved it, there you go, kiss ass. (Via: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Commentary) pic.twitter.com/Tv7A9wdBcs Tim Burton’s best movie in a good long while is simply just okay. It bounces along on a sort of sketch-comedy rhythm without actually containing too much that can be considered actually funny. More often, the comedic set pieces are nifty, or cute, or gross, or impressive; you appreciate the fun of the underworld’s Soul Train bit more than you actually laugh at it. But Bob, the film’s preeminent shrunken-head guy, is funny just to look at. His worried murmurs, his big eyes with tiny pupils on his tiny head on his huge body, the way he pilots that huge body around — all of these traits make him a great scene partner for an extremely on-one Michael Keaton. — R.A. Fantasmas , June Look, if you don’t understand why it’s funny to watch actual hamsters with the voices of John Early, Josh Sharp, and Aaron Jackson pretend to do cocaine in a teeny-tiny nightclub that’s “like Studio 54 meets Berghain, but for gay hamsters” and has a teeny-tiny coat check that costs $5, I certainly can’t explain it to you. — Jen Chaney This was weird! Rome, June The pope is an inherently funny figure: He’s very powerful but only to those who believe in him, like Santa or the Rock. Comedians meeting the pope , then, is double funny, because we’re watching people who make a living being totally unserious be completely earnestly emotional about meeting this adult version of Santa. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who isn’t even Catholic, fully looked like a Disney adult about to meet Mickey Mouse. Also, I cannot stress this enough: Someone brought him a bottle of olive oil. — A.V.C. The best of TikTok, Instagram, and yes, still X somehow. Your move, Bluesky. TikTok, all year I’m a total disoriented middle-aged man girlie. #GRWM #makeup #makeuptutorial To quote TikTok user River__Betty in the comments section of Zach Woods’s March 4 TikTok , “Gangster Jazz,” “Zach Woods understands content creation on a deep level.” The comment has over 15 thousand likes because it’s true. The actor and comedian had a strong start to the year with his tragically overlooked stop-motion NPR parody In the Know , but maybe the show didn’t make the impact it should have because audiences couldn’t see his beautiful punim behind the puppet-man he voiced. Enter TikTok, which Woods posted to for the first time on January 5 (it was an unsolicited product recommendation for cinnamon brooms and Enron), and from there has been the highlight of followers’ FYPs anytime he graces us with a front-facing video. Woods posts like someone who watches a lot of TikTok, which is surprising and rare coming from a 40-year-old master improviser. Sometimes he uses his powers for good, like in July when he tried to get a dog adopted by staring down the barrel of the camera with his baby blues and saying “You thought I was a one-and-done hit-it-and-quit-it charitable fuckboy slut!” He experiments with existing TikTok genres, like making a keenly observed GRWM makeup tutorial or rattling off an inspirational stream-of-consciousness story time . Most recently, he offered some beautiful tips about how to have the perfect Christmas (kiss someone under the mistletoe, but also insult them near drywall). He’s setting the bar for TikTok posting at six-foot-four. — R.A. Instagram, June A post shared by Paula Pell (@pellpix) This season of Girls5eva, Gloria (Paula Pell) made it her mission to sleep with 178 types of women. In June, she recited the entire list on Instagram, including “a Siri or Alexa-type,” “femme Mr. Peanut,” and “lumberjackess.” Women can truly be anything! — R.A. Make Some Noise , August A post shared by makesomenoise (@makesomenoise) So much of the appeal of Dropout programming is that it feels like hanging out with dear old friends. Even when the performers are new or unfamiliar, their dynamics encourage viewers to let go of their inhibitions and laugh along with them. That’s the draw of this clip from Make Some Noise , in which Pete Holmes relentlessly roasts the show’s host and Dropout CEO Sam Reich. As much as Holmes’s jokes about Reich’s outfit — “You look like you just got back from the Wild West selling a remedy that doesn’t work” and “How is it defending an innocent man in the South?,” to cite a few — are well-crafted and build momentum as he doubles down, it’s the way everyone around him absolutely loses their shit that makes this so rewatchable. — H.P. Hotel Art Thief on X, March I used AI to recreate my grandpa's dead wife and something amazing happened pic.twitter.com/oFdkTMVHRq When they’re not onstage at Union Hall, Brooklyn-based sketch duo Hotel Art Thief are doing haunting, amazing things with digital animation. This year they had a viral hit with “The bear video game actually looks pretty cool,” which imagines a hack video-game adaptation of the hit unfunny comedy , complete with cigarette-smoking side quests and NPCs trauma dumping and yelling “Yes, chef!” But this is slightly edged out on a laugh-per-second basis by this zany, sci-fi dystopian short, which uses sentimental clickbait as a diving board for its damning AI use case. In this short tragi-parody, an old guy in a sexy ascot is horny for a janky CG face (“Holy moly, I frigging love my computer wife!”), but when Anonymous sucks her into the dark web (“They stole my wife! I have to hack to get her!”), he has to enter the Matrix to track her down. If Michael Kandel and Joe Miciak are already reaching heights not seen since Conner O’Malley’s Hudson Yards simulator , just imagine what they could do if a network gave them a budget. — R.A. X, July our new king has been chosen pic.twitter.com/ap9annFrT0 It’s possible that the best joke spawned by the Drake and Kendrick Lamar beef came courtesy of Kendrick himself (“trying to strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor”), but the back-and-forth was nevertheless a goldmine of inspiration for comedians everywhere. It gave us pitch-perfect RDCWorld1 sketches , a great Niles Abston joke about wishing rap music was “recorded at a frequency where only n- - - - -s can hear it,” and this Sahib Singh sketch about a group of South Asian Drake stans being thrust into an existential tailspin after their GOAT’s downfall. It hits harder if you’re familiar with the archetype of South Asian male Singh is parodying, but even if you aren’t, the out-of-left-field punch line at the end is extremely gratifying. — H.P. TikTok, August This did NOT go as planned. Wishing we had some more Pixie Dust on our side today 😞❤️ #disneyadult #disney #dnc #d23 #mistake #psa “Name a more iconic duo than a twink and a redhead.” So goes the comedy-pop song by Grand Gibbs and Ashley Gill, who are merely the latest in a proud comedic tradition of gay guys and redheads committing joint slays (see also: Will & Grace, Difficult People, Team Rocket). The Gen-Z comedy duo have had a prolific year on TikTok, where they did some crucial reporting from the Democratic National Convention ... in character as their married Disney Adult swinger couple, thinking the “D” in DNC stood for Disney. While they were there, they also got Fox News’s ass . — R.A. YouTube, February A lot of comedians hosted shows on Zoom over the pandemic, but almost none of them turned them into full-fledged TV shows. Enter New Zealander comedian Guy Montgomery, whose virtual spelling bees in 2020 and 2021 were such a convincing proof of concept that he now hosts television adaptations in both New Zealand and Australia . The official version, Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont-Spelling Bee , has all the elements of a good panel show, but February’s one-off virtual revival had the added draw of featuring comedians from all over the world. When else would performers from America, the U.K., New Zealand, and Australia like Paul F. Tompkins, Lolly Adefope, Rose Matafeo, and Aaron Chen ever be in the same place? It’s comedy’s Multiverse of Madness but with spelling. (For those new to Montgomery’s comedy, he also released a very good stand-up special this year titled My Brain Is Blowing Me Crazy that is very much worth your time.) — H.P. @Keeple_AI on X, February Meet Keeple AI #SuperBowl #AI pic.twitter.com/gj4emBZLkJ Not enough comics are putting their powers toward the noble use of exposing AI for the garbage it is. But Nick Corirossi never misses an opportunity to satirize whatever VC-backed aesthetic rot is currently being pushed on the masses by pushing it to a degree only slightly more absurd than the real thing. Enter keeple.ai, a fake Sora-style artificial-intelligence graphics engine that aims to upload “life-challenged celebrities” into their “library of recognizables” for use in soulless ads. Co-written and directed by Corirossi and Charles Ingram, the ad-parodies-within-an-ad-parody for things like John Lennon endorsing eczema medicine, or James Gandolfini doing a food-delivery app spot, are just shitty and creepy enough to seem like actual AI companies. — R.A. And also Corey. Instagram, September A post shared by Chris Fleming (@chrisflemingfleming) This was the year to make fun of The Bear , a show that Emmy voters love and fans of Matt Berry have sworn a vow of vengeance against. I didn’t expect Chris Fleming to be the person to do this, but this was the year he established himself as the entertainment industry’s Joker (Good). Here, he dunks firmly on the FX dramedy, while also doing a perfect Jeremy Allen White impression by simply taking off his glasses and making a face. In any other century, this is witchcraft. But we’re lucky enough to live in an age of science and reason, where this can be rightfully recognized as a zenith of physical comedy. That’s right, a zenith!! — A.V.C. Stand Up Solutions , May Conner O’Malley understands the American male in an utterly terrifying way. In his special Stand Up Solutions , he portrays a suburban dad from Illinois who pitches the audience on his AI start-up. Over the course of the presentation, he takes the audience on a guided meditation he does regularly in which his entire family is killed by big fat Italian guys, forcing him to become their avenger. It’s a darkly hilarious unpacking of a male fantasy catered to in so many classic action films, one in which they have every excuse to clean guns all day and also a scenario in which, yes, they are single. — A.V.C. Instagram, August A post shared by Chris Fleming (@chrisflemingfleming) A roast typically works best when there’s a clear affection between the roaster and the roastee. Not so for Chris Fleming, master of the most precisely worded burn you’ve ever heard. Nestled into a joke about how SNL is too boring if the rumor is true that everyone is on cocaine, Fleming hones in on Jost’s particular brand of bland mundanity. It’s a beautiful joke — “He is the final pebble before the estuary of not knowing” — made all the more awe-inspiring by the realization that Fleming is burning every possible bridge that could lead to working for Lorne Michaels. Jost could never. — E.P.H. Coreys , July There’s a temptation to label Conner O’Malley as something like the “bard of the manosphere,” as The New Yorker put it. In a year when everyone’s rushing to understand what young white guys are getting up to on the internet, O’Malley has cranked out one film project after the next in which he plays a delusional midwestern striver liable to tumble down any rabbit hole. But his best stuff never seems reverse-engineered for maximum satire — instead, it feels like he stewed his brain in ungodly corners of YouTube, then bottled the results. In his short film Coreys , what emerges from that stew is a demonic, hard-partying, masculine id named Corey who exists “outside of space and time” and inexplicably absorbs a timid midwestern dad who looks just like him. His grand plan? To make everything Corey. “No kings, no presidents, no senators. Just Corey.” —C.S. Chris Fleming’s YouTube, August Chris Fleming’s capitalist meditation on the hallucinatory qualities of the Trader Joe’s snack aisle is also an exquisite deconstruction of exactly how gender, time, and quantum physics work, beginning with Fleming’s assessment of their own gender, the nature of donkeys, the quality of a particular audience member’s laugh, the physicality of how women glide through store aisles, and the fourth-dimensional Dune- prophetess-esque experience of snack shopping. It is Donnie Darko for suburban Lean In moms. It is a fever dream. It is perfect. — K.V.A. Vampire-related content only. What We Do in the Shadows , October In its final outing, What We Do in the Shadows played to its strengths. Natasia Demetriou has quietly been the funniest person on earth for years, and season six of the FX comedy let her off the leash by giving Nadja, the ancient vampire who grew up a peasant on an island in Greece, a corporate job at a private-equity firm. You see, Nadja is obsessed with regular people, but her obsession reads as ironic, making her every move a roast of us. She wears power suits that make the movie Working Girl look like a low-budget web series, and she engages with modern office life by doing things like pouring coffee all over the break room while moaning “Mmmm, mama’s gogo juice.” Again I say to you, this was peak TV. TGIFMLNGL-LOL! — A.V.C. What We Do in the Shadows , December In its sixth and final season, What We Do in the Shadows rejected the kind of “We’re wrapping it up” sentimentality you’d expect from a long-running series making its exit. Instead, the FX comedy went all-in on goofy, with an array of pranks that pick up long-running gags (Colin and Laszlo taking their neighbor Sean to the railroad where they’ve claimed to work for years, Guillermo sharing with his cousin Miguel that their family is descended from vampire killer Van Helsing) or rely on one-off cameos for episodic silliness (Steve Coogan as Laszlo’s selfish father, Jon Glaser as a March Madness–obsessed demon). “Come Out and Play” combines both those approaches and the series’ customary wordplay into a Warriors homage that sees the gang running around New York avoiding other vampires intent on killing them. That gave writers Shana Gohd and Paul Simms the opportunity to unleash increasingly absurd vampire-gang names upon us: Lower East Side Vampire Punks, Manhattan All-Girls Private-School Vampires, Coney Island Carny Vampires, JFK TSA Vampires, a riverboat-gambler vampire, even a guy in an MTV astronaut suit from the ’80s. “We’re artist and writer vampires who happen to currently be working as baristas” is a line worthy of 30 Rock ! There’s a rhythm to the listing that’s pleasantly like that time Simon the Devious identified all his hangers-on, and coupled with Laszlo for the second time quoting the Democracy Manifest viral video , it’s a reminder that WWDITS often sounded like no other show on TV. — R.H. What We Do in the Shadows , November What We Do in the Shadows is over, but its final season was a feast — particularly so during the season’s eighth episode, in which Guillermo totally fanboys out over his favorite show filming in their neighborhood, while Laszlo and Nandor react to this like it’s a very real military invasion. The episode hits right in that Shadows sweet spot of putting our favorite silly vampires in a distinctly modern situation, then letting them react accordingly. In the episode’s B plot, Colin and Nadja (who recently learned about girl talk from watching the “‘Sexy City’ show”) attend a dinner party where they valiantly attempt to seem normal, only to find their host Joel (Zach Woods, a real ringer of a guest star) secretly wants Colin to copulate with his very angry wife. There’s also a scene where their neighbor Sean (Anthony Atamanuik) is yelling about “Mike Burbooglio’s piss”; television will simply never be this good again. Pack it up! — A.V.C. Nosferatu , December Bill Skarsgård does not get to be hot, nor does he get that much screen time, in Nosferatu . How often his villainous Count Orlok is kept unfocused in the background means he’s more a creation of our imagined fears than a distinctly presented one. That’s also why his obsessive huffing on a locket holding a lock of hair from Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen, the woman he’s been obsessed with since her youth, is so unexpectedly funny. It’s the most recognizably human thing this centuries-old vampire, hunched over and shuffling around his decrepit mansion (sometimes with no underwear on!), does, and it’s also a bit of outsize physical acting that wouldn’t seem unusual in an old Mr. Bean episode. Sorry to everyone whose lingering Pennywise crush was dampened by all the prosthetics Skarsgård is under as Orlok, but hopefully that giggle-inducing lusty sniffing is enough for your sicko-mode fantasizing. — R.H. Ever heard of it? April This sketch established itself as an instant SNL classic before it was even over. Written by Streeter Seidell, this depiction of a NewsNation town hall about AI that gets derailed by Beavis and Butt-head look-alikes contains all the elements that make an SNL clip forever rewatchable: a brilliantly random premise, a perfect kicker (the King of the Hill reference: genius), and multiple performers cracking up so badly they can barely say their lines. Mikey Day, who plays Jeff, the Butt-head doppelgänger, rarely loses it during sketches, but totally loses it here. Host Ryan Gosling — Dean, the pompadoured Beavis double — always loses it during sketches, but loses it extra hard in this one. Then there’s the normally unbreakable Heidi Gardner , who breaks so freaking hard at the sight of Day’s fake exposed gums that you can actually hear her funny bone crack. But the best thing about this sketch is that it’s a reminder of how vital it is to actually watch this show live. “Beavis and Butt-head” is definitely funny after the fact, something I can personally attest to after revisiting it approximately 87 times. But it was really something to witness the reveals of Gosling and Day in real time, with zero warning that this news program was about to devolve into a Beavis and Butt-head revival. “I just couldn’t prepare for what I saw,” Gardner told us in an interview after the episode. Neither could we, Heidi. Neither could we. — J.C. October Because Wicked was not Ariana Grande’s best comedic tour de force this year — really, it was her completely dead eyes as she played a castrated teen male opera singer in Renaissance Italy on Saturday Night Live . — J.P.F. October Domingo was not universally beloved at the Vulture offices, but I am willing to take a stand here and say what needs to be said: Domingo is good! A catchy tune? Ariana Grande singing off-key? An ultra-confident nice-guy horndog who shows up to sexually taunt another woman’s husband? What’s not to like? The best SNL sketches find a way to turn an otherwise throwaway idea into something that hits a cultural nerve. Domingo did this rapidly, fusing Marcello Hernandez’s raw charm with this year’s biggest pop hits to create a Lingua Franca used among friends and on TikTok over and over again for weeks. This is what comedy should do: make everyone feel connected, like we could be buddies no matter what, because we understand each other at least enough to laugh together at Domingo showing up to a Sabrina Carpenter concert. — A.V.C. All year #snl #michaelche #weekendupdate #snlsketch For those not in the know, Weekend Update is currently going through somewhat of a Golden Age. It might not be cool or fashionable to say this, but pretty much every week, the hardest I’ll laugh at any episode is when Colin Jost and Michael Che deliver a joke or two that’s just a little too naughty . Che’s “Ain’t I a stinker?” energy is especially infectious and makes it easy to laugh at jokes that would sound genuinely offensive, instead of clearly ironically so, in the hands of a lesser or meaner comic. Often, the audience sounds like they don’t know what the fuck is going on or are too stunned to laugh when Che makes a topical joke about something like abortion or abuse, leading to a self-deprecating shake of the head. But this season, he’s taken on a new catchphrase for when a joke prompts pearl-clutching. “It’s the ’90s, Colin!” he says, trying to justify it, suggesting we’re all modern men and women, able to handle an edgy joke about a touchy topic. It’s a scary world out there, and whether it’s political cold opens or internet-trend sketches, SNL is often ill-equipped to handle it. But on Weekend Update, it’s the ’90s, baby . Get with the times. — R.A. March Ego Nwodim, as Charlotte the Stingray, saying “I’ve been near males, but none of them been men. None of them been, Mr. MICHAEL CHE” was my favorite song of the year. — J.D.F. September As much as Donald Trump has fumed about his portrayal on SNL , he should be grateful none of the show’s many impressions of him have ever been quite as devastating as Dana Carvey’s geriatric take on Joe Biden. The impression went through many iterations over the years — Jason Sudeikis , Woody Harrelson , Jim Carrey , and James Austin Johnson have all played him — before Carvey got to him back in October, and from his halting first steps, looking down at his feet to make sure he doesn’t fall (again), the SNL veteran’s squinty Biden felt like a major event of an impression. His face is a roiling bouillabaisse of tics that swing from confused to scared to overconfident so rapidly, it might as well be all happening at once. By the second time he trots out his catchphrase — the dueling non sequiturs, “Guess what” and “by the way” — the audience is in hysterics well before he gets out the last syllable. Never has a political impression been so scathing with such little exaggeration. While Kamala Harris’s campaign was still ongoing, Carvey’s Biden was a comic harbinger of why the newly buoyant Dems might actually win. Now, it’s a bitter but still comic reminder of why they lost. — J.B. October Since Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone left SNL in 2012 (Akiva Schaffer left a year earlier), musical sketches on SNL have ranged in quality, but they’ve all tended to be straightforward. There are parodies and pastiche executions of one comedic idea, but nothing nearly as layered and dense as what the audience came to expect from the Lonely Island’s Digital Shorts. Then, as a by-product of Samberg playing Doug Emhoff (remember Doug Emhoff!) early in season 50, we got some dang Digital Shorts. Both were exceptional (if not Criterion Collection worthy), but “Sushi Glory Hole,” a song about sushi being fed through a hole in the wall, should be studied in musical-sketch-writing classes for its instant premise introduction, having multiple games that heighten, the amount of moves in less than three minutes, and the ending. Hear us out: It was very good. — J.D.F. It's all about delivery. StraightioLab , February There was no greater success in the “unintentional comedy” category this year than Sony’s box-office murder victim Madame Web , and no greater chroniclers of its flop-dom than George Civeris and Sam Taggart over at StraightioLab . Discussions of the film — including the way the villain’s lines were all dubbed, the hyper-sexualizing of Sydney Sweeney, and the blind Dakota Johnson at the end who acts like Bob Odenkirk in Little Women — took over the podcast entirely. But their obsession peaked in the episode “Museums With Slides in Them,” in which they brought up the film’s tagline “Her web connects them all” to guest Esther Fallick (who had not yet seen the film) so many times that she grew to share their obsession. That led to the greatest single phrase of the year, when a confused but enthusiastic Fallick said, when describing how much she loves her niece: “Her web connects me all.” What a compliment! Hear Fallick say it once, and the phrase will somehow never leave your brain. — J.P.F. Challengers , April A racket and a d- #challengers #challengersmovie #zendaya #joshoconnor #exboyfriend #cheating #peakedinhighschool #fyp #fypage #filmclips #fypシ゚viral #funny #CapCut #relationships #toxic The shocked laughter this elicited in the theater! If only they gave an Oscar for Sickest Burn. — R.A. Joel Golby on X, May sabrina carpenter: so what's the joker? barry keoghan: he's sart of like an evil porson Barry Keoghan’s relationship with Sabrina Carpenter is dead as a bog body. His turn as the Joker won’t come until The Batman Part II in 2026. But this tweet, a 15-word sketch by writer Joel Golby, captures a beautiful, more optimistic moment in the year, when “Please Please, Please” was on the radio and Joker: Folie à Deux still had a shot at being maybe actually good. “___’s sart of like a ___ porson” is a useful, silly-sounding tool to describe literally anyone. It is linguistically perfect and a sign that, for better or for worse, Twitter’s still where the jokes are at. (And if you go along with calling it “X” you’re a narc, a loser, and sart of like an evil porson.) — R.A. RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars , June RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars was awful this year, but you can’t deny a great lip-sync’s power, and while she may not have won the season (for some reason), at least Roxxxy Andrews gave us that. During the spoken-word bridge in her lip-sync to “No One Gets the Prize,” by Diana Ross, Roxxxy filed her nails, seemed utterly bored by the idea that you could “run behind” her back, and thrust her shoulders forward on the words “back off” in a way that made me, the first time I watched, legitimately jump. It was precise, it was fully in character, and it was funny. Thank you for your service, Roxxxy! — J.P.F. The Substance , September The grossest part of The Substance had nothing to do with the body horror Elisabeth (Demi Moore) put herself through in order to regain her youth; it was the opening scene of Dennis Quaid’s smarmy TV executive scarfing down shrimp. He also gets the funniest line reading of the movie. As he unceremoniously kicks Elisabeth out of the studio where she’s hosted an exercise show for decades, he hands her a gift that comes highly recommended by his wife. Then, almost as an offhanded comment to himself, he practically squeals “Oh, I love my wife!” The glee in his voice is so genuine, you actually believe he doesn’t realize how cruel he’s being. The Substance didn’t get enough credit for how funny it is, probably because the comedy comes in these small, throwaway moments that keep things light even as things get grimmer and grimmer for our heroine(s). — E.P.H. Hard Truths , September The omnidirectional sense of grievance that Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) projects into every single social interaction in her daily London life immediately announces Hard Truths as one of Mike Leigh’s more prickly comedies. She’s furious with everyone, from checkout cashiers to the doctors who try to administer a check-up to (especially) her own family. Leigh eventually steers Pansy’s story into a more dramatic direction, as Hard Truths becomes a story about family, frustration, and a kind of pain you can’t even account for, much less heal from. But before that happens, Pansy lets rip the funniest line in this or any movie this year, as she complains about a neighbor who doesn’t dress their fat baby appropriately for the weather, just an outfit with pockets. “What’s a baby need pockets for?! What’s it gonna keep in its pockets — a knife?” That line elicited the biggest burst of laughter in a night full of them at the film’s Toronto International Film Festival world premiere, an early sign that Jean-Baptiste had locked into a performance that would be raved about through the end of the year and hopefully deep into awards season. If only so her line about babies with knives in their pockets becomes the Oscar clip it deserves to be. — J. ReidManmohan Singh No More: PM Modi, President Murmu, Gautam Adani Lead Nation In Paying Tributes
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Titans coach says WR Treylon Burks recently had surgery to fix partially torn ACLSAN DIEGO, Dec. 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Robbins LLP reminds investors that a class action was filed on behalf of persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Symbotic Inc. SYM securities between February 8, 2024 and November 26, 2024. Symbotic is an automation technology company that engages in the production of a robotics and automation-based product movement technology platform. For more information, submit a form , email attorney Aaron Dumas, Jr., or give us a call at (800) 350-6003. The Allegations: Robbins LLP is Investigating Allegations that Symbotic Inc. (SYM) Failed to Disclose Material Weaknesses in its Internal Control Over Financial Reporting According to the complaint, on November 27, 2024, the Company filed with the SEC a Form 8-K/A, in which the Company revealed it had "identified errors in its revenue recognition related to cost overruns on certain deployments that will not be billable, which additionally impacted system revenue, income (loss) before income tax, net income (loss) and gross margin recognized in the second, third, and fourth quarters of fiscal year 2024." Further, the Company indicated that its previously issued financial statements for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 and the Company's supplemental presentation, should no longer be relied upon. On this news, the price of Symbotic stock fell over 35%, to close at $24 per share on November 27, 2024. What Now : You may be eligible to participate in the class action against Symbotic Inc. Shareholders who want to serve as lead plaintiff for the class must submit their application to the court by February 3, 2025. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member. For more information, click here . All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses. About Robbins LLP : Some law firms issuing releases about this matter do not actually litigate securities class actions; Robbins LLP does. A recognized leader in shareholder rights litigation, the attorneys and staff of Robbins LLP have been dedicated to helping shareholders recover losses, improve corporate governance structures, and hold company executives accountable for their wrongdoing since 2002. Since our inception, we have obtained over $1 billion for shareholders. To be notified if a class action against Symbotic Inc. settles or to receive free alerts when corporate executives engage in wrongdoing, sign up for Stock Watch today. Attorney Advertising. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact: Aaron Dumas, Jr. Robbins LLP 5060 Shoreham Pl., Ste. 300 San Diego, CA 92122 adumas@robbinsllp.com (800) 350-6003 www.robbinsllp.com https://www.facebook.com/RobbinsLLP/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/robbins-llp/ A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3edbf291-c5a4-45f0-a769-259266b2c15b © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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