Not necessarily a funny man in and of himself, but a great comic foil to Johnny Carson. Some info on McMahon's life: New York Times Obituary, Los Angeles Times Obituary and here's video of the one time McMahon lived up to all those jokes Carson told about him.

Ricky Gervais, along with Tracy Morgan and Bill Maher, will be among the headliners for this years New York Comedy Festival. Comedy Central will also shoot their 2010 season of Comedy Central Presents during the event as well. The fest will run for November 4th to the 8th and tickets begin going on sale August 5th.

To celebrate its 35th year, New York comedy club The Comic Strip will be the subject of a documentary entitled "Eat, Drink, Laugh" from Letterbox Pictures. Besides interviews with the comics who've performed there, there's promise of never-before-seen footage of the club. The doc will see release next summer.

Judah Friedlander writing a book about being the World Champion. Of what? Of everything. In fact, the unpublished book is already a bestseller. It's coming from IT Books in Spring 2010.

The 30 second Emmy clips announcing the Emmy-nominated writing staff of talk shows are created by the Emmy-nominated writing staffs of talk shows, and thus have become highly competitive to top what they did last year. I get why. I hate, hate, hate award shows but this is the only thing that makes me exit my seclusion to watch live.

Dana Carvey's approach to political humor: " if you have a political punchline, then the audience is rooting you on, because you’re reinforcing what they want you to say... Robert [Smigel] and I would generally want to abstract stuff to some other place... Just wanting to create madness, wanting it to be ridiculous, wanting it to be so silly that it has this great bite to it..." (AV Club)

Sacha Baron Cohen collaborator Dan Mazer: "There are two things I would say are the key to comedy. One is character. All good comedy comes from character. In my mind, jokes are one thing, but without a convincing protagonist and somebody you care about, your comedy is on a path to nothing." Number 2 can be found here. This is taken from my friend Mike Sacks's upcoming book "And Here's the Kicker" - an amazing book of interviews with comedian. If you aspire to hone your funny, it's a must buy.

iTunes is selling "Great TV Comedies"    for a song. Literally. Some episodes are 99¢. And the first episodes of five shows - Reno 911!, Arrested Development, The State, Human Giant and The IT Crowd - are free.

TBS pursuing reviving the NBC-cancelled "My Name is Earl." If they did it, it'd likely be at a lower budget. Though the network is pushing stand-up in the upcoming weeks with the new Just For Laughs Chicago festival, it's interesting that they've focused on keeping the sitcom (in general) alive too. They don't really do the odd sketch/stand-up hybrids that are Comedy Central's stock and trade.

First came the rumors that Futurama was coming back for 13 episodes, but now the truth is even better. Comedy Central has ordered 26 episodes of Futurama. The entire creative team - voice cast and writers - are on board. New episodes debut in the not-too-distant future of mid 2010.

R-rated comedy "Hangover" bested Pixar's "Up" as well as PG-13 rated Will Ferrell comedy "Land of the Lost" this weekend. Loves me that Pixar animation, but great to see an unapologetic comedy do great at the box office. Special bonus: watching people learning to spell Galifianakis as it becomes a household name.

Ed Helms on his film The Hangover: "none of the comedy comes from the characters being clever, like you see in a lot of sitcoms or movies, where the characters actually have a funny sense of humor. That’s not the case in this movie. So as an actor, you can really play the intensity and gravity and seriousness of the moment, and just rely on the circumstances being funny." (AV Club)

Demetri Martin will continue his comical investigation into both the a priori and a posterori natures of "Things" with Comedy Central renewing his series "Important Things with Demetri Martin" for a second season. The show's moving to Los Angeles, as Martin's becoming pretty in demand in the movie biz.

Lots of stand-up, both classic and new:

• First, the classics. Steven Wright's I Have a Pony (CD/DVD) which includes both his first CD plus a DVD of his first HBO special.
• The 25th anniversary of Eddie Murphy: Delirious brings a rerelease on DVD, with the addition of a documentary on the making of Delirious with comics like Chris Rock, Katt Williams, Cedric the Entertainer and Chris Tucker paying tribute.
• And the new, Sebastian Live from Sebastian Maniscalco.

Conflicting reports on whether they got the Sasquatch Festival's comedy tent right. One reporter couldn't make it into Aziz Ansari and stated the venue was "skin-to-skin" with folks packed all the way to the tent exits. A second confirms the lines, but says the sightlines to the stage actually worked this year. Both find Zach Galifianakis funny.

Nick Swardson announces on his MySpace blog that his sketch show has been picked up for six episodes and will include an animated segment featuring his character Gay Robot. Swardson claims the sensibility will be close to Mr. Show and Human Giant, but doesn't mention what network the show will be on. Comedy Central? TBS? IFC?

Starz gives the great "Party Down" a second season before they even finish off their first. The renewal of "Party Down" does not come without some bad news: perpetual scene stealer Jane Lynch is committed to another sitcom (Fox's "Glee"). It's still a Party without Jane, but not nearly as fun.

Fox's pulls the animated "Sit Down, Shut Up" before it's final episode. So the "Arrested Development" reunion is over rather quickly, which is kind of apropo. But this time, I'm on Fox's side. Still want that "Arrested Development" movie however.

• On DVD, the short-lived sketch series The Dana Carvey Show which gained a mythic status after its sponsor-scaring run.
• "Au Contraire", the 1st hour special from the likely long-lived Christian Finnegan comes to DVD and CD. Lots to smart, relatable stuff here. The small dog material was eerily familiar to me.

"I don't understand the macho comic. The comic with the tight T-shirt and the delts... When did stand-up comedy become the thing that cool guys did? To me, it goes against the whole point. And I'm not saying they're not funny. I'm saying I don't get it. Comedy comes from vulnerability, being the guy who talks his way out of a fight. Comedians don't do reps." - Dana Gould (AV Club)

Ben Stiller's comedy "Used Guys" appears to be back on. Set in the future run by woman where cloned men are sold and traded, the story previously revolved around two (Stiller and Jim Carrey) past their prime hunting for a male paradise. Now it looks to be tilting more romantic comedy with Reese Witherspoon.

Fox previously balked at "Used Guys" $110 million budget. (Although when I attended a 2007 Tribeca film event, previously-attached director Jay Roach suggested Fox was uncertain of the female appeal of a futuristic comedy.) Fox didn't treat the futuristic comedy "Idiocracy" very well, so I'm not sure I have much hope for this either.

Independent Film Channel, perhaps sensing that there's more than funny than twee, is growing their comedy offerings. One will be a three-part mockumentary with Chris Kataan as himself moving to India for a role in a Bollywood movie. Another will be a six-part documentary on Monty Python entitled "Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)." (I love the Pythons, but is there new ground to cover?) A compliment to all this is "Details are Sketchy", a comedy blog loosely about sketch by stand-up Jeff Kreisler. Welcome, Jeff...

SNL's Thursday Night Weekend Update gains a spot on NBC's fall schedule. The network is ordering at least six episodes, and possibly as many as 13. The fake-news segments did pretty well during an election year when SNL became politically relevant, but in an off-year will they hit as hard?

Before audiences even see it, Fox gives a renewal to "Family Guy" spinoff "Cleveland." Never been a fan, but it's interesting to note that Fox didn't even get "Family Guy" years ago until Adult Swim, and now they're giving them almost all of Sunday night. Those comedy-writing manatees are going to be busy.

Because of "Behavioral Problems", Ron White is getting his own show on Comedy Central. As always, the description of a Comedy Central show featuring a solo comedian sounds nebulous. The formula - "branded segments, remotes and storytelling" through White's "opinionated persona" - sounds like anything between "Mind of Mencia" to "Important Things with Demetri Martin." 'Cept, y'know, with Ron White. Still... I like Ron White, so hopes are high.

Talent manager Naomi Odenkirk and Literary manager Marc Provissiero join forces to form the comedy-targeted Odenkirk Provissiero Entertainment. Between the two they handle Jenna Fischer, Jerry Minor, Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader and a lot of writers (At one point Provissiero handled nearly half "The Office" writing staff). Lots of great potential here for comedy nerds.

SNL writer / performers Seth Myers and Bill Hader have penned a one shot Spider Man comic called "The Short Halloween"the preview pages suggest a few jokes about both Hunter S. Thompson and "Shaun of the Dead" are in the offing. The comic hits stores May 13th.

After two performances in Michigan, Jay Leno continues his free show tour. Next stop: Wilmington, Ohio on May 10th. The town has what Leno describes as "80% unemployment" after DHL closed a shipping facility. Tickets are available for free starting April 27th at the Roberts Centre Conference Center, limit two per person. Again, it's on the honor system on whether your unemployed or not. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

NBC is now taking ticket requests for the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. All tickets are free and there's a limit of 4. Full details on site. Shows start production June 1st. For some, it's a sign that their long late-nightmare is almost over.

Maria Bamford: "...there is something beautiful about comedy where it’s like, you’ll see somebody go up, and you’ll be like, 'Uh-oh, oookay.' And just a month later, a year later, it’s like, 'Oh. My. God. They just blossomed!' I mean, it is sort of a humbling profession..." (AV Club)