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 ›

When Portlandia debuted exactly one year ago with its shoestring budget and home on a specialty cable channel, the show's quick rise to cult-status favorite was pretty predictable. The bigger surprise - evident during the sold out Chicago stop of "Portlandia: The Tour" Wednesday night - was how adeptly the show walks the sometimes-blurry line between satire and cynicism. 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 ›

We like to think of our fellow Chicagoans as big-hearted folks, and we fancy our comedians as some of the best in the business. For their 9th annual holiday benefit, "The Second City That Never Sleeps: Letters to Santa," Second City is corralling big-hearted comedians and other performers for a full 24 hours of music, improv and some sweet looking raffle prizes. more ›

Ah, Paula Deen. We love her and we hate her, all at the same time. The SNL spoof from this weekend was funny, but not quite as good as her actual appearance on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me. She's so good at playing along, spoofs are hardly necessary. On the other hand, if you need to be convinced to eat a salad tonight, give this a watch. more ›

Oak Park native Betty "The Animal" White became the oldest host of SNL last night. And just as we expected, it was quite a bit of fun. Enjoy this clip which features a few other blasts from SNL's (more recent) past. more ›

Clear your calendar or set up your TiVo, because six short days from now Betty White is hosting Saturday Night Live. By now you probably know the backstory: after some hilarious TV appearances and a Super Bowl commercial that went viral, a Facebook campaign to draft White as host caught fire. And the powers that be at NBC actually went for it. more ›

We agree with everything said in the below video. More Thin Mints, please. more ›

SNL has taken on ICP and the Juggalo Nation before so we're not at all shocked they came back for another go-around to send-up ICP's latest (and greatest) video. more ›

Rahm, kicking ass through Andy Samberg. more ›

We're slowly recovering from last night's awesome meet-up at Sheffield's where we collected a great haul for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Thanks to everyone who braved the cold to stop by and have a beer next to the fire. We had a blast and can't wait for the next one. And as we catch our breath and get ready to head full steam through today, enjoy this, one of our favorite Christmas songs of all time. more ›

We've already shared how we feel about Juggalos. This SNL skit parodying that subculture hit our funny bone in the best possible way. If you're unfamiliar with "Juggalos" or just to better appreciate the below parody, we suggest you start by watching this video first (some language NSFW) or at least the first 4 minutes. more ›

Between health care and the failed Chicago 2016 Olympics bid, we knew the honeymoon was probably over for President Obama. Even SNL has turned on Obama as evidenced by last night's opening skit. Politics aside, we couldn't help but chuckle at the Chicago 2016 t-shirt joke. more ›

• Two men were charged with the murder of retired Bartlett attorney Carl Kuhn; the men allegedly suffocated Kuhn to death and stole his extensive gun collection.
• The Sun-Times has the uplifting story of 11-year-old "hero" Adonis Bell.
• A pair of University of Illinois trustees refuse to go gentle into that good night in spite of pressure from Gov. Quinn.

In case you're one of the few folks (like me) who have yet to see Samberg & The Lake's follow-up to the popular "Dick in a Box" video, here it is. And even if you have seen it, it's probably worth another look, especially on a Monday. more ›

Celebrity appearances at iO theater are not uncommon: Tim Meadows in Uncle’s Brother, Stephanie Weir and Bob Dassie in WeirDass to name a few - but there hasn’t been anything of the magnitude of last night's drop-in appearance since iO's 25th Anniversary show a few years back. This one had a twist: they were there to watch, not perform. Eighteen Saturday Night Live cast members and writers including Will Forte, Jason Sudeikis, Casey Wilson, Abby Elliott, John Lutz, and Kristin Wiig popped in to watch teams like 3033, Carl and The Passions, and Bullet Lounge last night in iO's Cabaret Theater. John Lutz (everyone’s favorite, schlubby TGS writer) coordinated the trip. "A lot of ['SNL'] people haven't come to Chicago at all, let alone the Second City or iO. It's part of 'SNL' history as well," explained Lutz. more ›

Sure, SNL took on Blagojevich again, but we much prefer this pretty funny Muppets skit to the tired Blago imitation. Come on, Sudeikis, you can do better! more ›

This clip appeared on the show a month or so ago, but we just now found an embeddable clip online. Phew! The clip takes to task snarky bloggers. While we don't think we're that bad, actress Michaela Watkins does a pretty dead-on impersonation of Chicagoist Editor-in-Chief Marcus Gilmer. [via] more ›

While this skit, from this weekend's episode of SNL, isn't the funniest Obama-themed skit the show has produced, it's worth it just for Andy Samberg's brilliant Rahm Emanuel impression. more ›

And this is another why we love Kristen Wiig. When the sketch first aired, I was in another room and only heard the audio. My first thought was, "My God, they actually landed Bjork for this bit." Whatever you think of SNL these days, this sketch is proof they can still churn out some good stuff. more ›

You knew it was coming. With Blago's story winding down this week, SNL had to get in one last shot. We've always enjoyed the work of one-time Chicago resident and iO member Jason Sudeikis (the Two A-Holes skits are top-notch), but we can only assume his channeling his uncle George Wendt and giving Blago a Bill Swerski-esque accent was to benefit the rest of the nation. Anyway. In this week's appearance - presumably the last for a while - Sudeikivich reads some original poetry and talks with "Brushie." more ›

Last night, Governor Rod Blagojevich continued his march through the media, appearing on CNN's "Larry King Live" and pontificating about his innocence. If you used our drinking game, then you were probably passed out about 15 minutes in. Blago dropped some great lines, like calling Ed Genson "the F. Lee Bailey of our time" (as a reader pointed out - we thought F. Lee Bailey was the F. Lee Bailey of our time) and getting the same, "if I knew they were taping..." spiel. Perhaps the greatest part of the evening? Watching Blago's reaction to the late night comedy clips (video below), including when SNL's Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers went off on his hair. While he seemed to enjoy Jason Sudeikis' impression, there was something in his eyes when hearing all the hair jokes that almost made you feel a little sorry for him, that the producers were forcing him to watch the world ridicule him. Almost. more ›

We got a pretty good laugh out of last night's Neil Patrick Harris-hosted SNL (though we - and by "we" we mean "I" - were disappointed with Taylor Swift's performance). And, of course, we weren't surprised to see the SNL kids give Blago and Burris the standard treatment. While we still don't get Jason Sudeikis' insistence on giving Blago an accent that he doesn't have, we love the way he portrays Blago as a straight-up asshole. Pretty funny stuff. more ›

Watching this clip from last week's episode of Saturday Night Live, we realized that while we totally dig Obama taking his weekly address to the Youtubes, we find this kind of clip far more entertaining. So a note to our President-Elect for future addresses: less speechifying and more Miles Davis. more ›

This made us laugh out loud. Much better than the just kind of weird Obama short. Even without the jokes, the thought of Malkovich reading the classic Christmas poem gives us the creeps. more ›

With a new really good record out (that's right, haters), the next logical stop for Kanye West is Saturday Night Live. Kanye will make another appearance on the show on the December 13th edition, hosted by House star Hugh Laurie. Kanye's been on SNL before as isn't afraid to have some fun, as this clip shows. 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 ›

Are you feeling the jitters? Can you feel the electricity in the air? Election Day is tomorrow and we can't wait. It's always exciting and this historic election should provide plenty to cover, both nationally and locally. As this long, at times very bitter campaign draws to a close, let's look back at two of the Presidential candidates sillier moments. First, is this weekend's appearance on SNL by John McCain, with a little help from Tina Fey and his wife Cindy. And after that is last year's SNL Halloween skit featuring Barack Obama. Want more SNL political tomfoolery? Check out their Presidential Bash special tonight, which will replay some of their best political skits from this election year and features a few Second City alums. more ›

This weekend, SNL gave us their idea of what Barack Obama's upcoming infomercial is going to be like. Andy Samberg as Rahm Emanuel? Rahm's #1 fan, our own former Editor Margaret Lyons, said, "I was like 'ooooh, yay!!!' but then it didn't even matter. more ›

Surprised to tune in to Saturday Night Live and find iO, Second City, and UCB alum Amy Poehler no where to be seen? Though she participated in the show's Thursday night edition and rehearsed all week, Poehler gave birth to son Archie, the first child for Poehler and husband Gob Bluth Will Arnett. more ›