Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera Launch JASH Comedy Channel on YouTube

Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera Launch JASH Comedy Channel on YouTubeComics team with Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Reggie Watts $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Sarah Silverman and Michael Cera have launched a YouTube comedy channel called JASH, teaming with Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim and Reggie Watts for what Wareheim promises will be a "bullshit-free experience."

The group teamed up after YouTube parent Google proposed they produce humor material for the web, and offered them a free hand to create the kind of content they wanted, according to The Hollywood Reporter.   

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"We each have pages within JASH and we each can curate those pages," Silverman said. "This is what we think is funny. It may not be your cup of tea, but there's no testing involved, there's no second-guessing of what a 14-year-old boy would like. It's just a place to do stuff and fail or not fail."

The new channel, which officially launched yesterday at SXSW Interactive, is still a work in progress, though the creators say Silverman is working on a "French film-noir trailer," Cera has a 25-minute short film on the way and Wareheim . . . well, he's busy, too.

"I've got a lot of personal, bizarre stuff that I do in my home and my bedroom, and I'm going to put it out on YouTube through JASH.com," he says in the channel's first video.

Cera, who has just finished taping new episodes of Arrested Development, acknowledges that creating online content is an unexpected move for him. "Is doing work for the Internet a step down for me? Yes," he says, deadpan. "But, you know, sometimes you have to step down, get your feet wet, your feet learn, 'OK, this is the new arrangement. We'd better get real comfortable.'"

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Lena Dunham Writing New Comedy Pilot for HBO

Lena Dunham in Beverly Hills, California.

Lena Dunham and Girls collaborator Jenni Konner are planning a new comedy series for HBO based on a memoir by a longtime personal shopper in New York, Deadline Hollywood reports. Dunham, the star and creator of Girls, and co-showrunner Konner are writing a pilot together based on an upcoming memoir by Betty Halbreich, who has run a personal shopping service at Bergdorf Goodman since 1976.

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Halbreich, 85, dresses stars and socialites including Meryl Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker and Katie Couric. She has also consulted on movies and TV shows, including Sex and the City and some of Woody Allen's early films. She's publishing the upcoming memoir All Dressed Up and Everywhere to Go, which HBO has optioned.

Girls, now in its second season, recently won a Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical, and Dunham won for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. She's also writing a book of essays, Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's Learned.

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Michael J. Fox Comedy Gets Green Light From NBC

NBC has picked up 22 episodes of Michael J. Fox's new TV show, a single-camera sitcom inspired by the actor's real life, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The show, which is still untitled, stars Fox as a husband and father of three in New York juggling family, career and various challenges, including Parkinson's disease. Filming begins this year, with a series debut expected for fall 2013.

"I'm extremely pleased to be back at NBC with a great creative team and a great show," Fox said in a statement. NBC Entertainment chairman "Bob Greenblatt and all the folks at the network have given me a warm welcome home, and I'm excited to get to work."

Also on board is writer Sam Laybourne, who's penned scripts for Arrested Development and Cougar Town, while Easy A director Will Gluck will executive produce and direct (including the pilot) from his own Olive Bridge Entertainment.

"To bring Michael J. Fox back to NBC is a supreme honor, and we are thrilled that one of the great comedic television stars is coming home again," said Greenblatt. "From the moment we met with Michael to hear his unique point of view about this new show, we were completely captivated and on board. He is utterly relatable, optimistic and in a class by himself, and I have no doubt that the character he will create – and the vivid family characters surrounding him – will be both instantly recognizable and hilarious. Being in business with him is a pleasure of the highest order."

Fox has had a lengthy television career with memorable turns on NBC's Family Ties, ABC's Spin City and FX's Rescue Me. Most recently he scored Emmy nominations for his roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Good Wife.

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Death Cab's Ben Gibbard Provides 'Emo Relief' at Comedy Festival

Ben Gibbard tapes an episode of fuse Top Twenty Countdown at fuse Studios in New York.

One of America’s most respected comedy festivals, SF Sketchfest, kicked off its annual run in San Francisco this weekend with, among other offerings, a live presentation of Eugene Mirman’s Pretty Good Friends. Joining Mirman for the show was an all-star cast that included The State co-stars Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter (both of whom "have issues") and 1980s comedian Bobcat Goldthwait. Saturday night’s edition also featured a solo performance from Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, who provided emo relief between all the funny guys. "I’m just going to be performing a couple songs," Gibbard told Rolling Stone, before the show. “I think it’s to give people a break from funny.”

Gibbard broke out "When the Sun Goes Down," which he originally debuted at a solo show in San Francisco a year earlier. He then unveiled a more lighthearted and geographically relevant ditty, with the chorus, "You’ll always have a place to stay in Oakland."

Gibbard emerged again during Goldthwait’s set, for a truly comedic duo performance of the Village People’s "YMCA," sung to the tune of U2’s "With or Without You." And while Gibbard did a fine job of portraying himself, Goldthwait imitated Bono, complete with a guitar strapped to his back, just for show.

"If people only knew me by the songs that I write, I think people wouldn’t assume that I have a sense of humor," Gibbard told Rolling Stone. "But I think most people would be surprised how a lot of musicians that you would not think were really funny – and I’m not including myself in this, I’m just saying in general – are really fucking funny. Especially people who tend to write songs that, on the surface, are a lot more serious ... Conor Oberst is one of the funniest people I know, but if you only knew him by his lyrics, you wouldn’t necessarily get that."

SF Sketchfest continues over the next two weeks with performances by Reggie Watts, David Cross, Bruce McCulloch, Paul F. Tompkins and many others. In addition to Gibbard, other participating indy rockers hoping for a crossover include Zach Rogue (Rogue Wave) and Ted Leo.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Death Cab's Ben Gibbard Provides 'Emo Relief' at Comedy Festival

Ben Gibbard tapes an episode of fuse Top Twenty Countdown at fuse Studios in New York.

One of America’s most respected comedy festivals, SF Sketchfest, kicked off its annual run in San Francisco this weekend with, among other offerings, a live presentation of Eugene Mirman’s Pretty Good Friends. Joining Mirman for the show was an all-star cast that included The State co-stars Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter (both of whom "have issues") and 1980s comedian Bobcat Goldthwait. Saturday night’s edition also featured a solo performance from Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, who provided emo relief between all the funny guys. "I’m just going to be performing a couple songs," Gibbard told Rolling Stone, before the show. “I think it’s to give people a break from funny.”

Gibbard broke out "When the Sun Goes Down," which he originally debuted at a solo show in San Francisco a year earlier. He then unveiled a more lighthearted and geographically relevant ditty, with the chorus, "You’ll always have a place to stay in Oakland."

Gibbard emerged again during Goldthwait’s set, for a truly comedic duo performance of the Village People’s "YMCA," sung to the tune of U2’s "With or Without You." And while Gibbard did a fine job of portraying himself, Goldthwait imitated Bono, complete with a guitar strapped to his back, just for show.

"If people only knew me by the songs that I write, I think people wouldn’t assume that I have a sense of humor," Gibbard told Rolling Stone. "But I think most people would be surprised how a lot of musicians that you would not think were really funny – and I’m not including myself in this, I’m just saying in general – are really fucking funny. Especially people who tend to write songs that, on the surface, are a lot more serious ... Conor Oberst is one of the funniest people I know, but if you only knew him by his lyrics, you wouldn’t necessarily get that."

SF Sketchfest continues over the next two weeks with performances by Reggie Watts, David Cross, Bruce McCulloch, Paul F. Tompkins and many others. In addition to Gibbard, other participating indy rockers hoping for a crossover include Zach Rogue (Rogue Wave) and Ted Leo.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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