Third Beat

Could the rally become reality? There’s now officially some hope the grassroots campaign to hold a “Restore Truthiness” rally in Washington may just happen, based on Tuesday night’s editions of the Daily Show and Colbert Report.

It started when Jon Stewart teased a huge announcement on tonight’s Daily Show – droning on and on about something Earth-shattering that would happen in the future.

Scratch that. Actually, it started days earlier, as Colbert then explained on tonight’s Colbert Report. The viral support of a Colbert Rally to answer Glenn Beck’s Washington event started on Reddit, moved to Facebook, and now has its own site.

He made a big to-do about how as of today, “restoring truthiness” was the #1 search topic on Google. Suck it, “Venus Williams us open outfit” and “Rosh Hashanah”! Which sounds like Miley Cyrus’s Jewish alter-ego, he observed. When a photo manip of a Jewish Miley Cyrus promptly appeared, Colbert improvised a little hello wave to former Executive Producer Allison Silverman, whose hair looks suspiciously like the Photoshop job.

But should he hold the rally? This would require some introspection. He looked for answers from a real live goose dubbed “Geese Witherspoon”, then a bottle of Grey Goose, and then the clip of Jon teasing the announcement.

So after all this, what IS the announcement? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. Colbert promises an announcement to follow, which will be “BYOG” (bring your own goose).

Let’s face it, though – the Report doesn’t start things it can’t finish, and the synergy between the two shows rivals that of the Huckabee/Conan saga during the writer’s strike. You can be sure this is going somewhere… and that somewhere is most likely Washington.

Anyone who follows Louis CK online by any means – his blog, Twitter, posts on AST, etc. – knows that he puts a lot of thought into his communication with his fans, whether it be for informative purposes or for entertainment.

What gives, HuffPo?

The last to get this memo? The Huffington Post.

Louis tweeted up a storm yesterday, during one of his “drunken” twitter rants. He’s done this before, and it always involves cracks about Sarah Palin’s nether-regions that are so straightforwardly douchey that you have to lol.

The “angry drunk tweeting” shtick is entertaining. He knows it’s entertaining. And he knows that because he’s not actually a crazy drunk person.

But the Huffington Post, trying to hold onto what dignity it once had as a legitimate news source, has decided to frame this scandalous drunken twitter rage as an actual scandalous drunken twitter rage. They’ve posted screencaps of the offending tweets, along with a concise play-by-play of the events.

“The rant was pretty offensive and contained plenty of slurs, but we have to say Palin took the most blows. Later, C.K. even tweeted a confusing and offensive rant directly to her by using her Twitter handle.”

Huffington Post, you sweet little thing. *pat* *pat* I’m going to let you in on a secret: sometimes, comedians say things known as “jokes”. It’s what they make their living doing. And sometimes, these jokes aren’t real. I know, I know, it’s shocking! Imagine my horror when I learned that Jerry Seinfeld didn’t lose a sock in the dryer EVERY time he did laundry.

(And at the risk of completely robbing you of ALL your innocence, I’ll tell you that Louis and Todd Barry don’t actually hate each other. I’ll give you a minute to digest that.)

I think the lesson here is obvious: comics, just stick to pimping out your tour dates and nothing else. Because according to the HuffPo, tweeting is serious business.

Louis CK does Carnegie Hall Nov. 4

Big names include Joel McHale, Brian Regan, Gabriel Iglesias, Aziz Ansari, and Louis CK’s much anticipated Carnegie Hall debut.

For the full up-to-date lineup, visit their website.

Still to be announced? Shows at Caroline’s, and perhaps a few panels at the Paley Centre.

And if you’re in the mood for counterprogramming, I hear Comix is bringing Greg Proops in that weekend. I have a feeling I’ll have some tough scheduling choices to make again this year!

Much like last year’s list, Variety’s annual 10 Comics to Watch list contains a lot of “tell me something I don’t know” names — at least for the comedy-savvy. They are:

• Hannibal Buress
• Deon Cole
• Lucas Cruikshank
• Garfunkel & Oates
• Brett Gelman
• Chris Gethard
• The Imponderables
• Kyle Kinane
• Chelsea Peretti
• Jack Whitehall

The list is always released in tight conjunction with Just For Laughs, and many names on the list will take part in a panel discussion Friday afternoon at the JFL Comedy Conference. For an idea of what that’s like, check out my recap of last year’s.

A reliable little birdie has told me that for those wanting to see a Just For Laughs show on the cheap tonight can head over to Comedy Bar, and with the password “OPRAH” score themselves a 2-for-1 deal on Daniel Packard’s 7:30 pm show Live Group Sex Therapy.

It’s not as good as everybody getting a car, but not too shabby either!

If you happen to be Canadian, and you don’t generally read the Toronto edition of this blog, you might want to head over to www.third-beat.ca to check out yesterday’s post about Conan’s TBS deal and what it means for Canadian viewers. We no longer get TBS up in these parts, and the post breaks down why and what the alternatives will be.

Early reviews of Conan’s live tour are coming in. The Hollywood Reporter wasn’t impressed. The Associated Press was much more forgiving. And as pointed out on Twitter early this morning, there’s been a second show added in Atlantic City, which still has awesome seats available.