iO veteran and former Chicago-based funny-man Paul Brittain is reportedly leaving Saturday Night Live—right now. He just became a feature player this season, but now he won't even appear in this week's episode with Channing Tatum. more ›

While most artists spend years or decades working towards an American TV debut on the level of SNL, Del Rey seems to have been prematurely catapulted into it based on the overnight success of a few YouTube videos. more ›

How many SNL: Weekend Update commentators does it take to properly mock a Chicago strip club's charity toy drive? more ›

The tour only makes seven stops, including a Jan. 18, 2012 stop at Hideout. Armisen and Brownstein will perform sketches, live music, offer a sneak peek at the second season of the series and explain the inspiration of characters like the Sanitation Twins. more ›

Emmy Award winner and Plainfield native Melissa McCarthy hosted Saturday Night Live last night, and as an alumna of the LA improv group The Groundlings, McCarthy looked more like a cast member. more ›

Everything’s coming up roses for Rahm this week. He poured on the star power with a President, pop star and comedian all stumping for his campaign, he avoided tough questions from Chicago environmentalists at yet another skipped forum, some polls say he can win the February election straight up, and he has an insurmountable fundraising lead. more ›

Long before Damon Locks and Wayne Montana went on to form the Eternals and Fred Armisen moved to New York to create Ferecito and a bad Barack Obama impersonation, they and Chris DeZutter formed one of the more chaotic local bands around in Trenchmouth. They weren't punk, jazz, no-wave, funk or ska, but at the same time they were all that. Simply put, Trenchmouth was one of a kind. more ›

Kanye Stopped by SNL over the weekend to drop a little Chicago "Power" on the NYC set, providing a forceful performance both musically entrancing and visually stunning. more ›

Saturday night saw a solid episode of "Saturday Night Live" with its opening skit skewering Rahm Emanuel, musical guest Kanye West and a spirited turn as host from "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston, who seemed to be channeling at times the desperation of his Walter White character from that show and his idiot dad character from "Malcolm in the Middle." more ›

Kanye West was the musical guest on last weekend's "Saturday Night Live," where — besides dressing like "Delirious"-era Eddie Murphy — the Louis Vuitton Don also decided not to incur the wrath of "SNL" Executive Producer/Original Gangsta Lorne Michaels. more ›

In case you haven't heard, Rahm Emanuel has left his position as White House Chief of Staff to run for mayor of Chicago in light of Mayor Daley's retirement next year. picked up on that obscure news story as well, and gave Emanuel a proper send off in the opening of last night's show: more ›

Rad comedy events around town this week we think you should consider checking out. Let's get with the ha-ha! more ›

The new season of SNL got underway over the weekend with some new cast members, including two Chicagoans. Paul Brittain and Vanessa Bayer both hailed from iO, which celebrated with a viewing party. Second City alums Tom Flanigan and Shelly Gossman had also been hired to join the writing staff. more ›

We can't understand how we've overlooked this for this long given our in-depth and long-term coverage of the Juggalo Nation. Last year we helped kick off the Juggalo Renaissance by featuring last year's Gathering of the Juggalos photos and video by Derek Erdman. Since then, Juggalos have gone viral, spawning websites galore and even parodied on SNL. more ›

Just a few short days ago, Hannibal Buress got the news that he had been hired as a writer for the new season of Saturday Night Live. Just a few short hours ago, he found a few minutes to speak with the Chicagoist Podcast - probably in between counting his lucky stars and shrieking with glee. more ›

While we still got some laughs out of this one - we don't think the Lincoln hand gag is that far-fetched at this point - we were confused about the Chicago accent that the usually pretty stellar Jason Sudekis gave Blago. First, Blagojevich doesn't have a Chicago accent and second, it wasn't even a good Chicago accent. But the hair was fantastic. Fucking fantastic, as Patti would say... more ›

At this point we're sure that Blago doesn't find this embarrassing but rather immensely flattering that he would be recognized by Saturday Night Live. And Amy, it's not Fisher Price people, it's Lego people. more ›

SNL, which has had record ratings this fall by regurgitating Palin’s interviews virtually verbatim is continuing the political story lines by focusing on the transition. Last night, they portrayed Rahm Emanuel and his infamous mouth. Funny stuff. more ›

Bill Zwecker has been following the story of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin possibly popping up on SNL one of these days to have a little fun with former Second City star Tina Fey and Fey's Palin impression. Says the Z-Man, "I'm hearing some sort of Palin tweak of Fey's American Express commercials is in the works. While next weekend's 'Saturday Night Live' will be a rerun, it is possible Palin could appear Thursday on the first of NBC's 'Weekend Update' specials in prime time." Well, that'll be interesting, as Fey has no love for Palin, saying at the Emmy Awards, “I want to be done playing this lady November 5th." more ›

Hey kids, gather round -- it's time for our obligatory Sunday morning SNL clip filler post! This week, we could have gone with the shooting fish in a barrel opening sketch of the Palin/Couric interview, or the rather predictable presidential debate sketch, but our favorite moment of the night (well, until we bailed out at 11:15) was Bill Clinton on "Weekend Update" giving a rousing "endorsement" of our own Barack Obama: more ›

Last night's season premier of SNL was lackluster and sluggish ... except for the opening sketch, which was sheer genius. Second City-alum Tina Fey lived up to the hype and gave a stinging impersonation of VP wannabe Sarah Palin. Fey looked so much like Palin, in her blazing red jacket and stacked hairdo, that the perfectly flat accent (shades of Fargo?) and the smarmy smiles were like icing on the cake. more ›

Naperville is getting a special off-year census because the Census Bureau thinks there might have been significant population growth in the area. Only certain neighborhoods (Naperhoods?) will be surveyed, and answering questions should only take a few minutes. And now, the reason we're posting this story: This 2000 SNL clip! Yay! I can't think about the census without thinking about this sketch. Today's video day around here, so what the hay, let's keep it going. more ›

Cartoon for Chicagoist by Tim Daly more ›

After weeks of speculation among dozens of people, last night's edition of Saturday Night Live revealed their choice to play Barack Obama for potentially the next four years -- Chicago's Fred Armisen. While the sketch was a somewhat amusing take on the press infatuation with Obama, if Illinois' favorite son locks up the nomination Armisen needs to work on his impersonation. It makes Will Forte's GWB look Will Farrell-esque in quality. more ›

Kanye just completely ganked his second performance on Saturday Night Live. He started "freestyling" on "Everything I Am," and boy was it not pretty. Time to start trolling for video. Thoughts? more ›

The best excuse to see TV stars sans makeup, The Tenth Annual Chicago Improv Festival continues through Sunday at The Athenaeum, Park West, and sites all over the north side. (Yes, south siders, they do hate you, get over it…) Chicagoist attended the opening show Monday night at the Cultural Center, featuring the only three performers dedicated (or crazy) enough to perform at all 10 festivals: Joe Bill, Susan Messing, and Mark Sutton. They brought... more ›

We’ll admit it, we haven’t watched "Saturday Night Live" in … well … let’s just say that the last time we watched "SNL" we thought it was about time for Kevin Nealon to finish up. more ›

See enough sketch comedy and you’re bound to experience a head shaking, teeth gritting night when you’re questioning why you abandoned the warm, comforting glow of your Magnavox. At last weekend’s Chicago Sketchfest, we eavesdropped on a few patrons in that predicament, discussing what they’d like to see abolished in sketch comedy: "Casting a woman in your group for the sole purpose of being 'the girlfriend', 'the spouse', or the object of lust." "Mistaking 'zany'... more ›

Sure, a comedy festival provides exposure and an excuse to get out of town for a weekend. But as the Sixth Annual Chicago Sketchfest gets underway, we’ve learned that comedy troupes also come here to nourish their inner fanboy (or girl) and to network. We contacted three veteran troupes to see how they make the most of these weekends. more ›

We’ve done a little improv in our day, and we know just how challenging it can be to chock-full of humor and energy for an hour or two. But being the improv giants they are, Second City will be hosting a 24-hour marathon of comedy and music beginning this evening at 7 p.m. as part of their benefit event, “The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa.” Tickets are $10 for the entire day... more ›