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God Bless you, Jon Stewart and writers of The Daily Show. A day after the most watched convention speech in history, it doesn't matter which side of the Obama fence you come down, it's hard not to laugh at another pretty genius piece.......

Well, it's finally happened: the Writer's Guild of America declared a strike early this morning after midnight negotiations stalled. Naturally there's been plenty of finger-pointing, with writers claiming that the producers broke off talks while producers say that the writers were the ones who walked out. Regardless, the strike will have some very immediate effects, which the Trib has handily put in chart form. Daily shows will suffer the most at first, with programs like......

What's Carl's Itinerary?...

The nicer the weather gets, the busier we get across the Ist-A-Verse. But we like being busy. Here's a peek at what we've been up to since last week! Chicagoist had an interview with Audrey Niffenegger, whose popular book, The Time Traveler's Wife, was based in their fine city. They also had a heated discussion about Rush Limbaugh's controversial Barack Obama parody, talked about whether Uncle Julio's Hacienda is a good place to get......

You know what Chicago needs? More news programs. We just can’t get enough of morning news, along with news at 4, 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6, 9 and 10 p.m. And that’s just the networks. You cable and satellite-lovers must be in headline heaven! To rectify this absolute dearth of news progs, Fox Chicago, WFLD-32, is throwing their hat into the ring. Starting April 9, “Fox Chicago News at Ten” will debut right after their “Fox......

It's easy to watch a lot of crappy comedy on TV. "The Daily Show" is always reliable for some laughs, and "30 Rock" and SNL have their moments. But by and large contemporary TV comedy is a wasteland of retreads, anemia and laughless vulgarity. We're becoming increasingly convinced that the future of television isn't television at all. It's the internet. Because there's plenty of really funny stuff online, and most of it is even free.......

Ratings books are out for Chicago radio stations, but there are few surprises for those who’ve been paying attention. The usual suspects are still on top: WGN, WBBM and WGCI. Feder and Rosenthal have the full breakdown. The two big radio stories of the summer had more to do with who was off the air than on it. Q101 booted Mancow early in the summer (though he’s still syndicated around the country), and WCKG gave......

Chicagoist can sympathize with a man burdened by “complete world knowledge” since we share such an affliction. We are wowed when such a man actually tries to transcribe that “complete world knowledge” into an easily navigable almanac as author John Hodgman has done in his excellent tome, The Areas of My Expertise. You might recognize Mr. Hodgman from his appearances as a “square” PC in those Apple ads recently, or as the “resident expert” on......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

We like highlights, we like getting them, doing them and giving them. There’s a ton of cool stuff going on this week, check out the quick highlights, and let us know which author is going to get your attention. First off, it’s the closing night party for the Literary Gangs. They’ll finish up with a finale including Andy Ross and Jonathan Messinger. You can see the Literary Gangs on Tues., May 16th, 6:30PM, at the......

The Chicago Improv Festival kicks off tonight at the Gallery Cabaret in Bucktown with Schadenfreude’s first Chicago stage performance since…probably last year’s fest. The “Schadenfreude Rent Party” is an evening of all new material from a group that routinely packed the house at past CIFs, their late night revues, and the national college circuit until Chicago Public Radio got a hold of them. Then they were too busy hobnobbing with, and making fun of,......

In an annual standard of living report, Chicago came in (tied with Washington DC) at 41st place. The study ranks the quality of life in the world's major cities. Zurich came in first, Baghdad last. The top US city is Honolulu. It's nice out and everyone's pulling out their bikes, but who needs a bike when you've got the LimoJet? The Bean is finally finished. Junk food in schools is still ok for now.......

If you’re willing to hit the road, Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival has some gems worth seeing. This year’s festival at the Virginia Theater in stately Champaign, IL runs from April 26th through the 30th. Though all the festival passes are sold out, you can still purchase tickets to individual screenings of some of Ebert’s favorite films including My Fair Lady and the criminally ignored David Mamet film Spartan as well as recent fare like......

In the spirit of last night’s Oscars, we present this montage of thoughts: * Forget pimps: it was hard out there for Jon Stewart. Stewart is and was frequently hilarious, but what works on the Daily Show doesn't work for the Oscars. Like most unconventional hosts (Letterman, Chris Rock), Stewart was done in because he was expected to bring his sharp, cutting wit to a venue that doesn't appreciate it. An organization that rolls three......

Ah, February. You went by so fast, yet you left us with so much political discord. As usual, County Board President John Stroger and Commissioner Forrest Claypool were all up in each other’s business. Maybe we could solve the county’s financial woes by having these two battle it out in a pay-per-view cage match. For a day or so it looked like Senators John McCain and Barack Obama might engage in a full out war......

Rarely do we get the chance, or feel the need, to redeem ourselves around here. Most of the time our readers point out our mistakes, second guess us, and basically call us idiots and we have to take it because, well, most of the time we are. But Chicagoist will indulge ourselves this one time. Ha! We were right: Gov. Blagojevich admits he had no clue what he was getting into on the Daily Show......

Roger Ebert is going to be a guest tonight on the Daily Show. How’s that for a slice of fried gold*? Mr. Ebert posted his Oscar predictions Saturday, and we’re but ten days from the Oscar ceremony itself, which is hosted by – wait for it – Jon Stewart. Chicagoist is a big fan of the Daily Show what with the high and low humor, so we’re looking forward to an intelligent discussion of how......

"I loved Jon Stewart in 'It's a Wonderful Life.'"After a few slow weeks for stupid news, we hit the jackpot this week. Special thanks to Gov. Blagojevich for not watching TV for the past two years: On Tuesday, a Chicago man was sentenced to 18 months probation for leaving his 82-year old, wheelchair-bound mother outside in the cold while he gambled for 15 hours at the Majestic Star Casino in Hammond. A suburban policeman lost......

Governor Blagojevich was featured in a Daily Show segment last night entitled “Pill of Rights” concerning his order to require pharmacists fill prescriptions for emergency contraception regardless of whether or not pharmacists feel that doing so goes against their moral beliefs. Daily Show correspondent Jason Jones introduced Blago by saying, “I sat down with Gov. Blago, Blagaaaa . . . Gov. Smith.” We are still surprised by Illinois residents who manage to mess up......

Governor Blagojevich will appear in a segment about emergency contraception on The Daily Show tonight. The segment was originally scheduled to run on Tuesday night. So if you stayed up past your bedtime to watch earlier this week, don't blame us. Last year Blago signed a bill requiring pharmacists to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception even if they feel doing so goes against the beliefs. The bill angered several pharmacists, including State Representative Ron......

Comcast and two other local cable providers are raising rates again this year. Comcast raised its prices 4.5 percent; RCN 8 percent; and Wide Open West, 5 percent. This is the third year in a row Comcast has upped their prices. Their rates went up 6 percent in both 2004 and 2005. For their part, Comcast can maybe justify a little increase. Their service has vastly improved over the last few years, with better on-screen......

Set your TiVo or tune into The Daily Show with Jon Stewart tonight at 10 PM on Comedy Central to catch Stewart interview Senator Barack Obama. The Daily Show first asked the busy Obama to be on the show over a year ago, but this will be his first appearance. This morning it looked like Obama would miss the appearance in New York, as he wanted to stay in Washington to take part in......

Chicago’s very own Dan Bakkedahl, formerly of Second City and Wrigleyville's IO Theater, has gone to the Big Apple to be the Daily Show’s newest correspondent. Dan made a name for himself here in Chicago with the comedy duo Zumpf (with Miles Stroth). He also brought the house down at Second City in the 2003-04 show “Doors Open on the Right.” The story has it that he left Second City over artistic differences; that is,......

Saturday night was the 25th anniversary celebration of the Improv Olympic, we mean, the IO theater. Held at the Chicago Theater and hyped for months, the bill was rife with comedic talent. IO has schooled some of television and film's biggest stars, and they were all coming home to wish IO and its living founder, Charna Halpern, a happy birthday. (Del Close -- who helped Charna found IO when she split from Second City --......

It might be too much to ask you to switch away from The Simpsons or The Daily Show at 10pm, but DO IT ANYWAY. Chicagoist is going to be featured in a segment called "Entering the Blogosphere" on ABC7 tonight. The interviews were done a few weeks ago in the Loop and feature about 7 of us. The crew even visited a couple of our "real job" offices. It will be interesting to see how......

Chicago is funny. Everyone knows that. We've got Second City, the Improv Olympic, and we lay claim to Dan Aykroyd, Alan Alda, Tina Fey, Dan Castellaneta, Bill Murray as well as many other famous comedians and writers. To commemorate our funniness, head over to the 8th Annual Chicago Improv Festival. It starts tomorrow and has guest performers from SNL, MADtv, The Daily Show and Anchorman, to name a few. In all, there will be about......

For a brief moment, Chicagoist contemplated not going to the Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings show on Friday night (beer-fueled inertia is a powerful force). Thank God we rose to the occasion as our collective mind was freed with our ass following right behind. Then we woke up this morning (thanks for the day off, Messrs. Presidents!) and flipped on Comedy Central for our Daily Show fix and found ourselves smack dab in the......

(Note: Most of the links for this post might take you to pages whose material may lean towards the Not Safe For Work side. You’ve been warned.) Has anyone else ever seen the Daily Show segment on Asian-American studies professor Darrell Y. Hamamoto? Seems that Dr. Hamamoto had just about enough of seeing the world of porn (isn’t that the name of a place just over the Illinois-Wisconsin border on I-94?) dominated by White folks......

OK, we're not dealing all that well with…y'know…so we're going to start the morning off right with a few digs at Alan Keyes. How do you know you've been watching too much local news coverage? When Alan Keyes shows up in your dream. Looks like Chicagoist and Blagojevich have something in common. Worst. Dream. Ever. Anyway, Carol Marin thinks Barack Obama is the new Paul Simon, which sounds like a downgrade to us because everyone......