Director and former stand-up Judd Apatow will be answering questions live on Funny or Die at 3:30 EST / 12:30 PST today, all in advance of the DVD release of "Funny People" next week. So go ahead, ask him anything.

Steve Martin: "It’s strange, I just don’t have a reason to do standup... It would always be a blend of banjo at this point, I think." (Rooftop Comedy) If you want to see Steve Martin perform mostly banjo, you can check out his tour dates here.

A script for an "Arrested Development" movie is in the works and will be penned by creator Mitch Hurwitz and former show co-producer James Vallely. Everybody probably suspected this, but the announcement of the trades makes this little comedy nerd fantasy seem just a little closer to reality. Fingers crossed that work on the movie itself can begin in Spring 2010. (Hollywood Reporter)

During last night's Daily Show, David Cross announced a stand-up comedy tour to support his upcoming book "I Drink for a Reason." It gives me as good as reason as any to pull back the veil on a project I'm working on for the Stand-Up Comedy Database that will aggregate comedians live performance dates. Check out David Cross' Upcoming Tour Schedule, as of today. More to come.

The producers of The Goode Family are resolved to find a new network after ABC aired their last episode this weekend. It took a while for them (or me) to get the show's voice. The characters stopped being targets along the way and it's finding that right balance of sympathy/send-up that marked King of the Hill. I'm glad they're not letting this one go. Onward to Adult Swim hopefully, where Comedy Central can poach it a year later. (via TV Squad)

John Hughes died of a heart attack during his morning walk in Manhattan yesterday. The filmmaker had a pretty solid lock on film comedy for much of the time, writing and directing "Ferris Bueler's Day Off", "Sixteen Candles", "The Breakfast Club" and "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." His humor roots began with the National Lampoon, where he penned the story "Vacation '58", which became the basis for the film "National Lampoon's Vacation", which he also wrote. You can read the original "Vacation '58" here. The New York Times obituary is here.

Comedy Death Ray's Scott Aukerman will bring stand-ups together for a Comedy Death-Ray anthology comic book under the brand new American Original imprint. Among the writers: Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, B.J. Novak, David Cross, Zach Galifianakis (finally succumbing after riding around with "nerds" during Comedians of Comedy). Premises with promise may get produced as movies/TV for the less nerdy (but probably, considering the talent, culty).

A new CD from Doug Stanhope is coming this Autumn from Stand-Up Records. Tentative title: "Live from Cape Fear" He's recording it August 11 in Wilmington, NC at Level 5 at City Stage. Tickets available here.

If you're going to San Diego for Comic Con, here's a couple of panel if you're looking to explore the other meaning of the word "comic." Here's some of the Humor and Satire Panels of Comic Con.

• Friday:
  The most unlikely pilot preview in Comic-Con history: Patricia Heaton's family sitcom "The Middle."
  Plus: Two Funny Frebergs - featuring satirist Stan Freberg and partner in crime (and life) Hunter Freberg
• Saturday:
  Panels on Family Guy and a "first look" at the spinoff "The Cleveland Show." Seth MacFarlane will be a part of both.
• Sunday:
  Seth MacFarlane finishes his hat trick with nerds with a panel on American Dad.
  More promising are panels on Indie comedies "Paper Heart" (with Charlyne Yi) and "Mystery Team."

Comedy Central producing a movie for it's canceled animated series "Drawn Together." The characters of the reality show realize they've been canceled and go on a road trip to win their place back on the airwaves. They're having a panel for "The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie!" at Comic-Con in San Diego tomorrow, so during Q&A go for a spoiler and ask if they'll succeed! (Nope. It's going straight to DVD and the "Secret Stash")

Ayman Abu Aita, who was interviewed and labelled a terrorist in the Brüno movie, is considering legal action. Some of his complaints seems to be more pulled from comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's description of meeting him on Letterman, particularly about him carrying a weapon or having a bodyguard. If he does sue, he'll join Richelle Olson, who just

Comedy Central's not dipping, but diving into traditional three camera sitcoms by ordering a untitled effort from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay that will star Jon Heder. The setup sounds a little standard: Heder is an IT guy who returns home to his small town, moving in with his parents and younger brother. The prove will be in the execution of the 10 episodes order. And if it's executed well, like the brilliant "Eastbound and Down", Comedy Central has committed to order 90 more episodes, setting it up for syndication. It's the kind of deal Tyler Perry has made twice with TBS. That's borrowing from Black artists in the age of Obama.

Robin Williams will shoot his 5th HBO Special in Washington in November. It'll share the title of his current tour - "Weapons of Self Destruction." HBO has got a quick turnaround on this one - it should air in December of this year. The tour itself is set to resume in September, making up for lost dates after Williams' emergency bypass in March. It'll be interesting to see what new material will spring from that obviously scary event. (Variety)

Kathy Griffin has been tapped to be the roastmaster for the upcoming Comedy Central roast of Joan Rivers. Here's hoping this is the beginning of a mostly female dais. Not for equality sake, but because Roasts are celebratory. Rivers should be hailed/destroyed by those she blazed a trail for. The Roast will tape June 26 and air on Sunday, August 9th.

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?