[The following column, printed in the Monday, May 5th edition of Synthesis Weekly, is an installment from our literature columnist, Emilie Clark.]

Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me
Edited by Ben Karlin
Grand Central Publishing

In an interesting turn on the book cover theme: Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me, an anthology of essays penned exclusively by men, has a very blue cover. I think it is cornflower blue, but not being an interior design major, I might be wrong about that. Anyway, it seems that sometimes men also get stereotyped and gendered through the use of infantilizing color schemes. But I will say that this blue is a much nicer color than the pink of last week, and I was not embarrassed at all to be seen reading this book. My manly boyfriend says the color wouldn’t embarrass him either. So there you have it.
The premise of this book is pretty obvious. A number of famous and semi-famous male authors and comedians tackle some break-ups and the lessons learned from them. Andy Richter talks about how hard it was for a teenager of his girth to find a girlfriend; Stephen Colbert writes about an old girlfriend, but lets his wife redact the naughty bits; and Neal Pollack tells an especially hilarious cautionary tale about midnight emissions and pets.
Most of the stories are pretty funny, some of the laugh out loud variety, and some of them even have a bit of heart. But I was surprisingly underwhelmed. As I read the list of contributors, my anticipation grew strong, but a lot of the big names seem to have just phoned it in. Standouts include “A Dog is No Reason to Say Together” by Damian Kulash Jr., singer of OK Go, who tells an intriguingly honest story about a relationship that could have been mine or anyone else I know. It’s about that kind of pre-marriage long-term relationship where the terms and contracts are really hard to define and you’re not sure how or when it should end. Another standout is Barbara Karlin’s forward, “I Think My Son is a Catch.” I’m sure you can guess what it’s about.
(more…)

The Dana Carvey Show had a very brief run in the early nineties. And by brief, we’re talking weeks. But the show was actually pretty funny at times, and featured Steve Carell in a right-hand man type of roll. Here’s one particular sketch featuring the pair in a “drive-off” video sketch. It’s worth the minute and a half.

Apparently it’s YouTube Day for Ms. Nickels. Anyway, remember little Charlie and the finger biting incident? People LOVE that Charlie! What an effortless lil comedian! He’s got 20something MILLION EFFING VIEWS and has our Video Matt steaming from jealousy.

And here’s the semi-decent Charlie Bit Me song that the talented Ainslie Henderson wrote just for him. It has almost 40,000 views. See, kids, putting effort into shit makes it not as funny.

Someone caught this slightly aggro moment on tape.

Let’s have a beach party!!!!

Oh, The Onion, your daring ventures into internet television have not gone unnoticed!

Army Holds Annual ‘Bring Your Daughter To War’ Day