Samantha Bee is back! And she is certainly one of the more hilarious people on television right now. Need proof?

Just watch the video below about another silly Kansas politician and his proposed dress code.

Related on EcoSalon

Judd Apatow Wants You to Love ‘Love’ Come February 19th [Video]

This Stuffed Tiger Almost Won a Real Cat Fight [Video]

Lady Parts Nails the Whole ‘Rape as Character Development’ Problem [Video]

The post Samantha Bee is Our New Fave [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

Yeah, I think we’re all guilty of wearing activewear to do totally inactive things…

In the video below, the ladies from Skit Box get together to remind us of all the inactive things we do in activewear. (I recognize the being hungover in my activewear part a bit too well.) Thanks to Bust for posting the video.

Related on EcoSalon

Sayonara Skimpy Undies: Boxer Briefs for Women Are Where It’s At

Are Healthy Foods Good for Us or Just Big Business? Foodie Underground

U.S. Cities Embrace Transportation Alternatives, Imagine Fewer Cars in the Future

The post Activewear is More For the Inactive, Really [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

The “Key & Peele” show doesn’t disappoint. And while I’ve always chuckled at the duo’s bits, this one about menstruation is so on point.

In the bit “Menstruation Orientation,” Key & Peele tell a room full of men about women’s periods. And I’ve got to admit — it very well may be better than any info guys get in sex ed. While the whole damn thing is hilarious, I’m a fan of this particular part: “We know you don’t want to hear about it, but they don’t want to have it!”

Word.

Related on EcoSalon

Chelsea Handler Will do Drugs, Mingle With Racists on Her Netflix Series

Amy Schumer Nails It On ‘Fading Sexuality’ of Actresses [Video]

5 Conscious Stand Up Comedians Redefining Comedy

The post ‘Key & Peele’ Set the Record Straight About Menstruation [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

Chelsea Handler is best known for her boozy, tell-it-like-it-is, #freethenipple comedy. It looks like Handler’s new show will mostly stay true to her original form —  this time around, Handler’s trading her booze for drugs. So, samesies, basically.

According to Vulture, Handler’s new Netflix show will be a docu-comedy series. You may remember that Handler previously had a show on E! that she wasn’t the biggest fan of. Vulture reports that at the Wednesday Forbes Women’s Summit, Handler said that she “could have gotten paid $10 million a year for the next five years” but she was dissatisfied.

“I thought, ‘this show isn’t as smart as me. I want to do a show that’s smarter than me,’” reports Vulture.

Handler’s hoping her new docu-comedy will be that smart show. “It’ll be like a younger, hipper, cooler 60 minutes… I want to immerse myself in things I know nothing about,” she told The Wrap.

So far, it looks like her show will, at the very least, be entertaining.

Handler’s new Netflix series will allow the comedian to focus on experiencing and reporting four specific experiences:

– “Chelsea Does Racism:” According to Vulture, Handler just returned from filming in Alabama. In this segment, Handler “told the story of a man who thought that the biggest misconception about the South was that slavery wasn’t all bad.” Charming.

– “Chelsea Does Silicon Valley:” Not a lot of information about this segment, except that Handler has already visited Twitter offices topless. Sounds about right.

– “Chelsea Does Marriage:” In this segment, Handler explores the topic of marriage now that’s she’s 40 and not married.

– “Chelsea Does Ayahuasca:” This is the segment that’s getting all the press. Ayahuasca is a psychoactive drink made from a South American vine and herbs. In this piece, Handler will visit Peru “and drink the traditional hallucinogenic brew with a shaman while on medical supervision,” reports Vulture. Anyone waiting to see Handler high will be sorely disappointed because she won’t be on camera during the ceremony. In addition to drinking ayahuasca, Handler also will try and report the effects of her brain on things like Xanax and psilocybin mushrooms.

Related on EcoSalon

The Top 9 Strong Female Characters Ever to Grace a Television Series

Amy Schumer of Comedy Central: Are Offensive Female Performers Ever Really Good?

The Chelsea Handler Show Moves to Netflix: Late Night Doesn’t Need the Networks (or Does It?)

Image: David Shankbone

The post Chelsea Handler Will do Drugs, Mingle With Racists on Her Netflix Series appeared first on EcoSalon.

“The Daily Show” and other fake news programs seem more real than real news these days. When did comedy become so serious?

These are interesting times we’re living in. The 24-hour news channels are inundating us with urgent breaking news stories. Sometimes, they do so accurately, but often times they’re just using urgency for the sake of ratings – which, I guess, are urgent in their own way.

Thank goodness we can find reprieve from the oh-so-serious news agencies with programs like “The Daily Show”, “The Colbert Report” and John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight.” But why do these shows feel like a lot more than just satire?

Jon Stewart and his team (including Colbert and Oliver) cut through the bureaucratic bullshit, and expose the heart of issues many of us unfunny regular people feel intuitively while reading/watching the parade of “real” news stories that are so absurd. Three recent stellar examples of this include “The Daily Show” correspondent Jason Jones’ exposé on the issue surrounding NFL football team the Washington Redskins, and Stewart on both global warming and the real threat to Americans (which, no, is not Ebola).

The Redskins’ piece was reductive because it had to be, and hilarious because what Jones exposed is unbelievably true and awful and sad in every conceivable way. It made some Redskins fans look like completely insensitive jerks for wanting to keep the team’s offensive name. This is sad not just for the people it offends, but because it exposes how lonely and unfulfilled many people like these fans are without their sports teams – even if it means cheering on an offensive slur. One fan went so far as to question what he will be able to “leave his family” if the name of the team changes. It will make his excessive memorabilia collection moot for his children, he suggested. Never mind the ethnic slur the Native Americans have to explain to their children. It was so disturbing, we couldn’t help but laugh at it all.

When Stewart took on global warming recently, using a kindergarten-level demonstration for congressmen who simply don’t understand why melting ice caps mean rising sea levels, he broke through the layers of party-line denial with exacting lucidity. How can you argue with water flowing all over his desk? (And perhaps more pressing is the question of why so many conservative politicians continue to refuse to accept that these changes are occurring.) But when Stewart elucidated America on the real threat to our safety—which is not Ebola or ISIS, but heart disease—he made millions of viewers question why the ‘real’ news is so obnoxiously void of focus (on the real threats to our borders/arteries) and steadfast in its commitment to instilling unnecessary fear and panic. All. The. Time.

Over at HBO, Oliver has been taking things even further with “60 Minutes”-worthy investigative pieces on issues including the unbelievable legal practice of civil forfeiture, and shocking immigration issues for translators who’ve helped the U.S. armed forces in regions including Iraq and Afghanistan. His latest rant on sugar is melt-in-your-mouth worthy goodness pointing the finger not at Americans who lack self-restraint from junk food, but at the industry pushing this unhealthy ingredient at us in absurd ways (spoiler: the Clamato juice reference is laugh out loud hilarious).

Then there’s Russell Brand, an EcoSalon favorite. I’m currently halfway through his latest book, “Revolution”, which is part spiritual memoir, part call to overthrow the current system, and a totally candid glimpse of his commitment to expose corruption and usher in a radical new approach to, well, everything. Brand also hosts “The Trews”, his YouTube channel’s “true news” take on daily issues. The segments ring true with intelligible clarity, even despite his heavy British accent.

So why is it that comedians are moving front and center as trusted sources for serious issues? Comedy is so funny because it’s often so true; that’s been the case forever. George Carlin was a master of eye-opening observations that were capable of flipping the script on what we’ve been told by authorities and news agencies. Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, even Jerry Seinfeld all illuminate the dark corners of human nature that can no longer be unseen after they’ve been exposed. (What’s the deal with that?)

Technology is certainly a factor in why these programs are becoming so successful and going viral, but it feels like there’s something else making them feel so prescient right now. Every time Stephen Colbert makes a ludicrous statement in his conservative pundit character, he brilliantly exposes the reason why it’s so ludicrous in the first place. It’s almost like he’s giving us a tool to use when watching the “real” news – like a magic decoder ring (that actually works). Which, of course, we’ll actually need now that he’ll be leaving at the end of the year to take over the helm at “The Late Show,” not as his pseudo-pundit self, but as just another funny late night host. Is that a sign of the End Times?

Shortly after the news of Colbert leaving for CBS, it was revealed that Stewart turned down a job at “Meet the Press,” NBC’s Sunday news program that he could have taken to a whole new realm of news reporting. But he declined, even though he was reportedly offered as much money as he wanted, opting instead to stick with comedy, and for good reason. Comedy as the medium of choice offers the brilliant Stewart (and the rest) the safety of not being taken too seriously, even when they’re tackling sobering issues. It’s immunity from the strange unsmiling delivery of mainstream news, and they can take it in any direction to get a point across, shining a light onto the glaring cracks and holes in our news and political systems. And most times, they do a better job with comedy as a tool than most “objective” news agencies do, save for a very few.

So what’s next? Can we nudge these comedians into politics, for real? Can we get them work for the actual news industries? If Stewart won’t take a position like “Meet the Press”, is there any hope that our news system will change? In Brand’s case, he says he’s giving up on acting and comedy and focusing on making the world a better place, presumably through his books, “The Trews”, and as he said at his recent visit to #OccupyWallStreet, contributing funding to organizations that are doing good for the planet. That’s certainly a beautiful start, but if we’re to willfully evolve away from the precipitous mainstream news and rigidity of our capitalism-influenced politics, we need radical changes, judicious news reporting, and most definitely, a few good laughs.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Related on EcoSalon

OMG! Russell Brand’s Rant About the iWatch is Priceless [Video]

What Was Russell Brand Really Talking About on ‘Morning Joe?’ (Hint: Wake Up)

Stephen Colbert is Probably Not, Definitely Maybe, Almost the Best Replacement Ever for David Letterman

The post ‘The Daily Show’ Effect: Why We Love (and Trust) Fake News appeared first on EcoSalon.

Laugh and learn by digging deep into these five stand up comedians who address serious issues through comedy.

“What’s the deal with airline food?”

Now that we’ve gotten the heavy-hitting stuff out of the way, let’s talk about other things.

Comedy serves as a natural distraction and relief from the trials and tribulations of everyday life. However, it doesn’t always have to be light one-liners, and can instead serve as a powerful medium for addressing heavy, hard-to-digest dialogue in a different, more understandable context.

Check out these five stand up comedians who don’t always keep things comfortable and instead use part of their artform for social consciousness.

Disclaimer: Some clips below are NSFW, so view at your own discretion.

Maria Bamford

I won’t mince words: Maria Bamford is one of my favorite stand up comedians on the planet and has been so since I first watched her on Comedy Central Presents as a kid. As an unorthodox, quirky female comedian with bipolar disorder — “the new gladiator sandal,” as she calls it — she addresses issues such as gender inequality, mental illness, and suicide in ways that bring about an”Aha!” kind of perspective, clarity, and laughter. The spaces into which she pushes the medium are often uncomfortable, but wildly important.

Tig Notaro

Imagine for a moment that you’re hospitalized with a life-threatening disease. Then, on top of that, your mother passes away a few days after you’re discharged. Now on TOP of that, your relationship ends. Now on TOP of that, you’re diagnosed with breast cancer and require a double mastectomy. Meet Tig Notaro.

“Hello. Good evening, hello. I have cancer, how are you? Hi, how are you? Is everybody having a good time? I have cancer, how are you?”

Notaro experienced what seems like a lifetime of tragic events in the span of four months, and her stand up special, “Tig Notaro: Live!” — recorded just days after she was diagnosed with cancer — is unlike any other comedy album you’ll ever hear as it intimately addresses all of the above with humor, emotion, and an impact that cannot be understated.

Patton Oswalt

If you don’t recognize Oswalt’s name from his illustrious stand up comedy career, you may recognize him from his enormous social media presence that has been the subject of many articles, tweets, and other discussions, which have collectively made Oswalt into one of culture’s biggest critics and satirists.

Though he’s currently on a much-needed break from social media, he utilizes his Twitter following of 1.8 million as a significant off-stage platform to offer challenging perspectives both in support of liberal causes and as critique of the leftist PC police who seem eager to judge and sensationalize nearly anything.

Danielle K.L. Grégoire

While a wonderful stand up herself, Danielle’s biggest social impact comes from her founding and management of The Comedy Womb, a “female-focused-but-not-female-exclusive” stand up comedy space in Seattle. In the boy’s club that is the greater comedy world, Grégoire has successfully created a place where female stand up comedians can feel safe and supported as the Womb reserves half of its open mic spots for self-identifying women comedians. Adding in the room’s well-understood content policy against misogyny, racism, homophobia or hate-ridden material, Grégoire has created a place for everyone to laugh together.

Margaret Cho

Loud. Crass. Cho.

Maragaret Cho is an undeniably unique figure in the stand up comedy world, and as a bisexual, female, Asian-American comedian, she is a subcultural reservoir from which many perspectives may be drawn. The subject matter of her comedy focuses at length on LGBT issues — helping create her large following in this community — while also covering race, eating disorders, substance abuse, gender, and more.

Follow Garth on Twitter @garthinkingcap

Related on EcoSalon

Amy Schumer of Comedy Central: Are Offensive Female Performers Ever Really Good?

From ‘Chapelle’s Show’ to ‘Girls’: 7 Streaming TV Comedies For When You’re Feeling Blue

Women On Film: Tina Fey Makes the Screams Go Away

Photo by Paul Hocksenar

The post 5 Conscious Stand Up Comedians Redefining Comedy appeared first on EcoSalon.

Just stop talking about how gay gay people are. Comedian Daniel-Ryan Spaulding turns the tables and talks to a straight guy the way straight people talk to gay people. It’s hilarious in the oh-my-god-I’ve-actually-been-that-obnoxious-and-clueless kind of way.

Find Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Related on EcoSalon

Gay Stuff: That Happened

Is the NFL Really that Homophobic? Because Michael Sam and Being Gay are not the Issues

Strangers Kissing is So Last Week: How About Homophobes Hugging Gay People? [Video]

The post This is How You Sound When You Talk to Gay People [Video] appeared first on EcoSalon.

If you need a laugh, check out the hilariously edited ‘cat massage’ video below.

There’s really not much else to say about it, other than that I have always been afraid to end up as a crazy cat lady, but after seeing this, I’m totally not worried. Because there’s this woman.

Related on Ecosalon:

Geena Davis is a Total Badass: Proof that Women Over 50 Are Awesome (video)

Facing Fear: National Geographic Photographer Teaches Us How in Scary Encounter with Leopard Seal (video) 

The post Cat Massage: As Ridiculously Funny As It Sounds (Video) appeared first on EcoSalon.

Tina Fey’s memoir is funny and sage.

Tina Fey’s memoir, Bossypants, grabbed me from the minute she entered kindergarten and had her first encounter with a little boy she just met. She held up her carefully finished drawing for him to admire, and he promptly grabbed it and ripped it in half. She was speechless as a little girl, but as an adult, she clarified her thoughts at the time as, “Oh, it’s like that, motherfucker? Got it.”

That reaction says a lot. It sets the stage for her future interactions with both men and women in the workplace, which is a compelling element of the book. As she worked her way up in a very tough business, she saw other people, and herself, through an unvarnished lens. She doesn’t sugarcoat anything to make herself look better, so you feel that her narratives and assessments of other people are just as honest.

Fey has been lauded as a role model for aspiring writers, comedians, and mothers balancing careers and families, and she is clearly that, but she is also a strong leader. “Ever since I became an executive producer of 30 Rock, people have asked me, ‘Is is hard for you being the boss?’…You know, in that same way they say, ‘Gosh Mr. Trump, is it awkward for you to be the boss of all these people?’ I can’t answer for Mr. Trump, but in my case, it is not.”

Fey’s story also reveals how improvisation helped her to learn how to work with people. Comedy can teach a person a lot about finding success.

For example, the first rule of improvisation is to agree. “Always agree and SAY YES.” When working with a partner and that person says something, you need to agree with their premise and move it forward to advance the scene. Disagreement grinds everything to a halt.

“Now obviously in real life you’re not always going to agree with everything everyone says. But the Rule of Agreement reminds you to ‘respect what your partner has created’ and to at least start from an open-minded place. Start with a YES and see where that takes you. As an improviser, I always find it jarring when I meet someone in real life whose first answer is no.”

The second rule is not only to say yes, but YES, AND… Agree, and add something of your own. “To me, YES, AND means don’t be afraid to contribute. It’s your responsibility to contribute. Always make sure you’re adding something to the discussion. Your initiations are worthwhile.”

Make statements. “Whatever the problem, be a part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles. We’ve all worked with that person. That person is a drag.”

Lately there has been a trend where women and men both accuse women and girls of speaking in apologetic questions and Fey points it out as well. “No one wants to go to a doctor who says, ‘I’m going to be your surgeon? I’m here to talk to you about your procedure?…Make statements with your actions and your voice.”

The last rule? “THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, only opportunities. If I start a scene as what I think is very clearly a cop riding a bicycle, but you think I am a hamster in a hamster wheel, guess what? Now I’m a hamster in a hamster wheel. I’m not going to stop everything to explain that it was really supposed to be a bike…In improv there are no mistakes, only beautiful, happy accidents.”

As she was rising to the top of a then-man’s world of comedy, she saw the balance shift from male-dominated companies at Second City to gender-equal scenes. She wrote about how one director justified cutting a scene by saying, “The audience doesn’t want to see a scene between two women.” At the suggestion that the companies be gender-equal, there was initial panic that there would not be enough parts for the extra women.

“This made no sense to me, probably because I speak English and have never had a head injury. We weren’t doing Death of a Salesman. We were making up the show ourselves. How could there not be enough parts? Where was the ‘Yes, and’? If everyone had something to contribute, there would be enough. The insulting implication, of course, was that the women wouldn’t have any ideas.”

Fey saw many changes at Second City and, later, Saturday Night Live. Women contributed and Fey became one of the head writers. One of the most memorable skits during the 2008 election was between Fey and Amy Poehler, playing Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton.

“This is what I tell young women who ask me for career advice. People are going to try to trick you. To make you feel that you are in competition with one another. ‘You’re up for a promotion. If they go with a woman, it’ll be between you and Barbara.’ Don’t be fooled. You’re not in competition with other women. You’re in competition with everyone. Also, I encourage them to always wear a bra. Even if you don’t think you’ll need it, just…you know what? You’re never going to regret it.”

Image: Gage Skidmore

The post Why I Want Tina Fey to Be My Boss(ypants) appeared first on EcoSalon.

The 365 days of 2010 are seeping through the hourglass and fading into the past. The last week of the year is universally begging for comic relief. The knitted sweaters laced with holiday propaganda, stale fruit cakes, and handfuls of extra pounds nestling in from the excess of sugar cookies and eggnog are just yearning for a laugh. Multiple laughs.

Lucky for us, Craig Damrauer offers up a dose of hilarity in the form of simple mathematical equations arranged with wit on a pale blue background. According to Mr. Damrauer’s 20 x 200 Profile, he was raised by a pack of wild scientists – which, combined with social sentiment, probably gives him ample ammunition to build his equations of sums and quotients.

Giggle your way through heaps of Craig Demrauer’s New Math (I took the liberty of cropping wildly for the sake of sharing maximum amounts of Craig’s creative comedy, so be sure to peruse the collection in the original sublime composition). You can also catch a dose of Mr. Demrauer’s mathematics on The New York Times Freakonomics.

If no amount of math can induce a smile, soak in the comedy of Molly Erdman’s Catalog Living. How can you not love a woman who finds satirical stories laced in the (ridiculous) styling of product photography shots in glossy catalogs? Here’s a taste of Molly’s bits of wisdom and quips of farce to tickle your sense of humor.

“We just left Eva in her crib with some twigs, and look what she came up with! We have to admit though, we’re a little disappointed it’s in French.”

“Gary decided to officially test Elaine’s claim that the couch was just a hop, skip, and a jump to the kitchen.”

“Gary Regretted telling Elaine last night’s lobster could have been fresher, but he had to admire her creativity in this most recent display of passive aggression.”

And there you have it; mathematics and musings to help you laugh your way out of 2010.

Go ahead. Laugh with reckless abandon. Chuckle loudly. Snicker with glee and laugh audibly.

The post Hysterical Algebra & Glossy Musings appeared first on EcoSalon.