Downey Wrote That (2025)

 

I mentioned earlier that I was interested in seeing "Downey Wrote That" and now I have.

"Downey Wrote That" is a documentary about the comedy writer Jim Downey, who is most famous for being a long-time writer for SNL - including specifically writing for Norm Macdonald's Weekend Update - but was also head writer for Late Night with David Letterman in the early 80's. He's also particularly responsible for the most famous political sketches - the 2000 Presidential Debate is probably most noteworthy.

In short, you don't need my review. If you're interested in comedy writing and/or SNL, you'll enjoy this documentary. If not, you probably still will enjoy it but you probably have better things to do.

There is some of the regular "writing for SNL, is so stressful" blah blah blah, we get it. Fortunately, that's kept to a minimum. The movie impressively includes interviews with David Letterman, Lorne Michaels, Conan O'Brien, Adam Sandler, John Mulaney, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Smigel and the list goes on... it's crazy.

A small complaint is that in the "he played small parts in movies" section, they don't show his part in "Dirty Work" - a masterful performance. His part in "Billy Madison" is more iconic, of course, but show both.

My main complaint is that there are a number of montages where we see quick clips or shots of SNL sketches and I think the implication is that Downey wrote all of them but I can't be sure if it's that or they're just giving a flavor of the era. I would have loved to have a more comprehensive understanding of all the skits he wrote. Would I have been happy if this documentary was replaced by an Excel Spreadsheet? Yes, basically, but that's probably just me.

Continuing The Worst Stand-Up Special

Blind Mike continues trudging through GD Fenderson's "worst stand-up special in history." Getting toward the end now but I think I'm looking for a full compilation so I can catch up on what I missed.

The Blind Mike Project - The Worst Comedy Special

I don't believe I've mentioned GD Fenderson already. GD is a stand-up comedian who's alledgedly made the worst stand-up special of all-time. Blind Mike is watching/reacting to the entire special in installments - every week or so, they're trudging through a few more minutes.

In this episode, they find a fun way to treat the added captions. It really elevates the material.

The official designations from Blind Mike are: Tom Myers is the worst stand-up comedian of all-time but GD Fenderson has the worst special of all-time. I haven't looked into it in-depth but I find these terms to be reasonable.

The Mitch Hedberg Project

 

In 2001, Mitch Hedberg filmed a pilot for MTV which would document the comedy tour of himself and his friends.

The show was not picked up and never aired. The footage has recently re-surfaced and is presented above.

It's quite rare to hear a new Mitch Hedberg joke, these days.

Peter Schickele?

 The credit to this discovery goes to the "Why Are You Laughing" podcast, which you can listen to here.

In 1990, the nominees for the Grammy for Best Comedy Album were:

• Sandra Bernhard - Without You I'm Nothing
• Erma Bombeck - Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession
• Andrew Dice Clay - Dice
• Sam Kinison - "Wild Thing"
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults

Winner: Peter Schickele

In 1991, the nominees for the Best Comedy Album Grammy were:

• Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding - The Best of Bob and Ray: Selections from a Career, Vol. 4
• Garrison Keillor - More News from Lake Wobegon
• Various artists - The Best of Comic Relief '90
• Jonathan Winters - Jonathan Winters into the '90s
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: Oedipus Tex and Other Choral Calamities

Winner: Peter Schickele

1992, Best Comedy Album:

• Erma Bombeck - When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home
• George Carlin - Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics
• Garrison Keillor - Local Man Moves to the City
• Jackie Mason - Brand New
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: WTWP Classical Talkity-Talk Radio

Winner: Peter Schickele

1993:

• George Burns - An Evening with George Burns
• Rita Rudner - Naked Beneath My Clothes
• Jonathan Winters - Jonathan Winters is Terminator 3
• "Weird Al" Yankovic - Off the Deep End
• Peter Schickele - P.D.Q. Bach: Music for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion

Winner: Peter Schickele

Peter Schickele won 4 times in 4 straight years, against a murderer's row of talent: George Burns, Jonathan Winters, Weird Al, Jackie Mason, George Carlin, Sam Kinison, Various Artists... this guy beat them all.

Have you ever heard of him? Have you ever heard of someone who's heard of him? Isn't this guy on the Mt. Rushmore of comedy? How did this happen? Is this guy the most critically acclaimed yet underrated comedian in history? Well, let's take a look at his act.

Okay, well that's not great. But it's also pretty visual and he got his awards from his "P.D.Q. Bach" albums. We need to examine those.

Wikipedia:

Schickele developed an elaborate parody around his studies of P.D.Q. Bach, the fictional "youngest and the oddest of the twenty-odd children" of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Okay, well I can't find his albums on youtube directly but here's one of the songs on an album:

Comedy?! Man, awards mean nothing. People still venerate them and I used to do that myself but they are literally meaningless.

A Joe Matarese Roast Retrospective

 

You're probably aware of Joe Materese from the time he tried to do a TV show and got roasted - I posted it on this blog last year. Here's a podcast re-visiting the event and adding in some context and analysis.

WATP - Tom Myers' New Monologue

 

Yo, a new Tom Myers monologue just dropped. The WATP crowd is known for being a bit critical, it's what they do, but in this case I think they went too easy with this. This is not comedy, these are not even jokes, this is just words strung together into sentences and nothing else. Absolutely incredible.

More Tom Myers

 More of the comedy stylings of Master Comedian Tom Myers.

Fat Families

 Link to video on Twitter.

Think you're going to enjoy a big Labor's Day barbecue? Think again.

"Fat Families" was a British reality show from 2010 which intended to help a different family to lose weight each week. The above is a supercut of some of the episode intros and highlights. Incredible.

The Story of Windy City Heat

A History of Comedy Podcast tells the story of "Windy City Heat" a real documentary about the making of a fake movie where the star didn't know that it was all an elaborate prank.

The full movie is on youtube:

3 Comedians Roast a Dude

 

Artie Lange, Anthony Cumia and Jim Norton roast appear on a podcast. The host wants to get introspective and talk about himself, he probably wants to be "deep," but that doesn't matter. The jokes come rapid-fire and hit hard.

Start at 5:10.

Mitch Hedberg Deals With a Heckler

 

Had never heard this before, had never even heard of any hecklers ever at a Hedberg show. Amazing how his improvisation is seamless with his written act.

Comedy is an Endangered Species

This video is depressing. I thought a long time for a better disclaimer but couldn't do better than to say this video is depressing.

You've been warned.