Judging by the first two episodes of the second season of “Flight of the Conchords,” there will be no sophomore slump from the New Zealand folk duo struggling to make it big in New York City. In the second-season premiere, “A Good Opportunity,” Bret and Jemaine fire their manager, Murray, because he’s too busy dealing with another (more successful) band. They immediately get a gig writing a jingle for a commercial and hilarity ensues. Literally.

The second episode — “New Cup” — might have been the best yet. It focuses on all the repercussions of Bret’s decision to purchase a $2.79 mug so that the duo could both have a cup of tea at the same time.

Thus far, it appears that there is a bigger focus on the writing and less of a focus on the music in the second season. The humor was always there, but the writing seems sharper and more directed. While in the first season the musical interludes were quite memorable, they’ve been sort of an afterthought this season. Murray seems to be getting more screen time, and given the hilarious dynamic between he and the duo, it’s definitely not a bad thing. Hell, I chuckle whenever he says the word “Bret.”

If you haven’t checked out “Flight of the Conchords,” the first season is available on DVD. To me, it just may be creeping up on “The Office” as the best comedy on TV.

Joaquin Phoenix has decided to quit acting in order to start a career in music. Big mistake.

“This is me saying this is who I am. This is my story,” the actor-turned-aspiring rapper told PEOPLE before taking the stage at Las Vegas club LAVO.

The video speaks for itself. It’s an amateur video so the sound quality sucks. One can’t expect Phoenix to sound good. But he looks like a drunk college kid who went onstage on a dare. It’s almost as bad as Dee Dee Ramone’s ill-advised stab at rap stardom.

It’s a whole new year, and what better way to celebrate than by honoring five of the funniest mofos ever to walk the planet?

Yes, that’s right, it’s time to induct a new class into Bullz-Eye’s Stand-Up Comics Hall of Fame! The inaugural class included notable funnymen Richard Pryor, Rodney Dangerfield, Bill Cosby, Lenny Bruce, and Bill Hicks — tough acts to follow, to be sure, but if anyone can stand up to the pressure, it’s the five comedy legends in the class of ‘09.

Like Don Rickles, for instance. The curmudgeonly insult comic has been gracing talk show couches for decades, tossing off cutting one-liners and turning the phrase “hockey puck” into something more than sports terminology. His routines may seem quaint today, but catch him on a good night, and he’ll put any younger comic to shame — even a new insult legend like, say, a certain canine puppet.

Another oldie-but-goodie on this year’s list is Bob Newhart, the film and sitcom star whose deadpan stare and trademark stammer has always masked an unexpectedly subversive sense of humor — remember the way he ended Newhart by turning the entire series into a bad dream suffered by the character he played on The Bob Newhart Show? Though surely the most old-fashioned humorist in this year’s class, Newhart was also one of the most groundbreaking comics of his era — and his routines have aged better than most.

Speaking of groundbreaking, how about Steve Martin? The silver-haired stand-up has kept a fairly low profile for the last 10 years or so, periodically emerging to star in one poorly reviewed film or another, but during his heyday, Martin was a platinum-selling, SNL-hosting pioneer of absurdist humor. Who else could have snuck a ditty about King Tut onto Top 40 radio, then gone on to a career as a critically respected novelist and playwright? Even now, Martin remains as nuttily prolific as ever; 2009 will see him reprising his role as the nouveau Inspector Clouseau in Pink Panther 2 and releasing an album of original banjo music.

The one member of this year’s class who won’t be releasing anything new is Sam Kinison, the screeching ex-reverend who perished after his car was hit by a teenage drunk driver in 1992. He’s remembered today chiefly as the beret-wearing little screaming dude whose Jessica Hahn-led video for “Wild Thing” sparked a tidal wave of nocturnal emissions in the ’80s, but Kinison’s humor was smarter — and more tender — than he was given credit for.

“Tender” is not a word often used to describe our fifth inductee. Actually, these days, “funny” isn’t often used either, but Eddie Murphy’s incendiary early run was so incredible that no amount of Meet Dave-level “comedies” can wipe away his legacy. Forget about The Adventures of Pluto Nash — no comedy collection is complete without Murphy’s Delirious, not to mention most of his movie and television appearances from 1980-87.

So, like we said — the first HOF class was a tough act to follow, but we think you’ll agree that this year’s set of honorees is up to the standard. So what are you waiting for? Read all about them here!

This should have been explosive. Bob Saget, who made nine figures pimping some of the blandest television ever created, is in fact one of the filthiest comics on the planet. Comedy Central lines up nothing but comedians - and Cloris Leachman, who steals the show - to roast him, which means there are theoretically no dead spots in the lineup, right? Wrong. The comedians on the dais are the weakest batch that Comedy Central has ever assembled for a roast, to the point where Carrot Top’s bit during Flavor Flav’s roast looks better and better in retrospect. Jon Lovitz tanked, Brian Posehn just isn’t wired to roast, and Norm McDonald, arguably the funniest guy on the dais, deliberately tanked his routine, going old-school clean to counter Saget’s inherent foulness. Lastly, the grand roastmaster Lisa Lampanelli is not present, and she is sorely missed. John Stamos actually does a great job as host, and Saget’s rebuttal is second only to Leachman (to Brian Posehn: “Man, look at you. Did any lesbians survive the fire?”). Still, this had the potential to be much funnier than it is. Pity.

Click here to buy “Comedy Central Roast of Bob Saget”

Okay, so it’s no “Dick in a Box,” but Andy Samberg’s latest Digital Short - which finds him teaming up with fellow Lonely Islander Jorma Tacone - is still pretty damn funny. The expression on Samberg’s face sells the whole joke for me, and a cameo by Justin Timberlake never hurts. Check out the video below, and be sure to watch for the groups’ debut album, Incredibad, out early next year. With “Flight of the Conchords” possibly leaving the airwaves after their second season, The Lonely Island might be a worthy replacement.

In nature, the weaker members of a species are often ostracized so they cannot reproduce and dilute the gene pool. Lions, for example, do not keep an omega male around to be the butt of the joke for the rest of the pride, like we humans tend to do. And while that makes sense in a Darwinian way, our way is a lot more fun. It may be cruel, but imagine how boring life would be if we lived in a world without the human equivalent of a punching bag. Admit it: you all know someone who fills this role in your life, and you relish it. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t.

The world of television has a near-inverse proportion of punching bags as there are in nature, and this makes sense; it is much easier – and fun – for the writing staff to designate one character as the target for random acts of misfortune and malice, though not necessarily in that order. If you ever wondered why every show features at least one character that the other characters would likely never associate with in real life, now you know.

So bring us your sad, your weak, your insecure; your clueless, your obnoxious, your desperate, your slow-witted, and we will celebrate them for their inherent loserness. Get your boxing gloves on as we present to you Bullz-Eye’s all time favorite TV punching bags.

Lewis Black is a very funny guy, Patton Oswalt has been known to elicit a chortle or two, and Greg Giraldo…well, it really depends on who’s being roasted. Why then is “Root of All Evil” such an embarrassingly unfunny program? The concept of the series revolves around taking two subjects that may be considered social cancers and pitting them against one another in a mock courtroom setting. Black is judge, jury and prosecutor, while a revolving guest cast of two comedians per episode mount the cases for defense. (It goes without saying that anything even remotely resembling a legal reality is left at the door.) Of the eight episodes showcased here, titles include such mind-numbingly stupid topics as “Weed vs. Beer,” “Oprah vs. Catholic Church” and “Paris Hilton vs. Dick Cheney.” The half hour episodes are sleep-inducing affairs and you’ll be doing well if you mildly chuckle even once an installment. The defense attorneys occasionally present material from outside of the courtroom – these pre-taped bits that appear to at least have had some thought put into them are episode highlights (if one was searching for such bright spots), but the painful courtroom antics that dominate the screen amount to little more than bad improvisation. If this series were to return for a second season, it either needs to seriously rethink its game, or put the show itself on trial in an episode titled “Root of All Evil vs. The Moment of Truth.” Now that might be funny.

Click to buy “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil”

While we’re philosophically opposed to the idea of the Minisode Network for reducing our already short attention spans, we must admit that their bunny-filled horror movie parodies are hilariously good. Their newest, a re-enactment of “The Ring,” is arguably their best yet. Try not to laugh when you hear the ding!

Comedy Central’s roastmaster extraordinaire headlines his first show in his home state of New Jersey, and on “No Offense,” the audience provides almost as many laughs as the comic they’re paying to see. Ross is easily at his best when dissecting the audience, and the audience gives him plenty of ammo with their choice of dress alone. (Word of advice: don’t wear flip flops to a Ross show.) The rehearsed material is cute but predictable; the roast-like bits, naturally, are much better, but the show’s highlight is when Ross invites two members of the audience to accompany him on piano while he reads “poetry.” Each of them lets loose with a zinger that produces as big a laugh as anything in Ross’ act. Being an insult comic is a slippery slope – ask Lisa Lampanelli, whose last album veered dangerously close to Andrew Dice Clay-ish desperation – and while Ross hasn’t quite figured out the right balance of stand-up and put-down, he’s close.

Click to buy “Jeffrey Ross: No Offense: Live from New Jersey”

The next installment in the “Saw” series is only 10 days away, and what better way to prepare for the latest round of death traps than with a 30-second round-up of the first movie as enacted by bunnies? Enjoy!

Their movements seem simple enough, but snakes are hard to animate well. Heck, even the snakes in “Snakes on a Plane” looked dodgy, and they presumably had ten times the budget that the makers of “Vipers” had. Needless to say, any straight-to-video release about genetically altered vipers (who have super-potent venom and crave human flesh, dunt dunt duuuhhhhhh) has no choice but to look cheesy, and the snakes in “Vipers,” well, don’t look much better than this one.

That’s a far cry from the DVD cover, which shows vipers the size of anacondas, their mouths agape like the snakes in the old-school video game “Dragon’s Lair.” Tara Reid is the top-billed actor, and thankfully they don’t have her miscast as a doctor or scientist; in fact, she runs a greenhouse and is found to be growing weed, yuk yuk. After two early kill scenes, the movie plunges us head-first into some Eden Island melodrama. Teenaged daughter hates parents, parents hate each other, woman blames Tara Reid for breaking it off with her fiancé who ultimately signed up for the military and died, etc. None of it really matters after the halfway mark, because most of these characters are dead. Corbin Bernsen pops up here and there as a different kind of viper, the corporate exec who is tight with Homeland Security and willing to bomb the island in order to save his company’s bottom line. It’s all very Sci-Fi Channel (and makes it debut on that channel this Sunday), though the DVD release features some ramped up gore, language and boobies. If you need a snakes-run-amok movie, seriously, go rent “Snakes on a Plane.” It’s not great, but it’s better than this.

Click to buy “Vipers”

Like we didn’t know this was inevitable from the moment Sarah Palin was announced as McCain’s running mate, but that didn’t make it any less funny…

In the farewell season of MTV’s reality series, “Rob & Big,” the guys make the most of their final months living together as Christopher “Big Black” Boykin prepares for fatherhood. Though it’s kind of sad to see them leave the air (the show is, after all, one of the better reality-themed guilty pleasures on TV), season three features some of the duo’s best moments to date. Rob and Big would be lying if they said the show wasn’t scripted, but despite its “Jackass”-like setup, there’s still some sincerity that shines through – like when the pair give away a truckload of clothing to the homeless, or the look on Rob’s face when he holds Big’s baby for the first time. The rest of the season is made up of the usual high jinks – from racing turtles to terrorizing Rob’s cousin, Drama – but there are some especially cool episodes as well, including one in which Rob breaks 21 Guinness World Records for skateboarding in one day, and another where he buys a net gun. You have to see it to fully appreciate its awesomeness, but let me say this: watching Hollywood Spider-Man get shot with the net gun is the single greatest moment in the entire series.

Click to buy “Rob & Big: The Complete Third Season”

In the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly, there’s a great article about “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and his new $100 million, five-year deal with FOX. If that sounds like a lot of money for a guy in charge of an animated series, you’d be wise to hold your tongue. In addition to writing, producing and voicing roughly half of the characters on the show, MacFarlane is also in charge of similar duties on his companion series, “American Dad,” as well as the new “Family Guy” spin-off, “The Cleveland Show,” set for debut in early 2009. Let’s just say the guy is definitely earning his paycheck.

If that wasn’t enough, the animation wunderkind has officially launched his new series of web shorts entitled “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy.” I had previously heard about his plans for the web series before, but it was sheer luck that I happened to stumble upon it on the day of its official launch. For those wondering what to expect on the site, it’s pretty simple: you know those fun cutaways that appear throughout the course of an episode of “Family Guy”? You know, the ones that were so infamously lampooned on “South Park” for being completely random? Well, picture those minus the actual story.

There are currently only two up on the site (one involving a contestant on “$25,000 Pyramid” who is partnered with a dog, and another spoofing “Super Mario Bros.”), but they’re both excellent examples as to why MacFarlane is making the big bucks. It’s exactly these types of shorts that separate “Family Guy” from everything else on TV, and the fact that MacFarlane is creating even more on his own is great news for fans.

His “Daily Show” appearances tend to miss the mark more often than not, but as a stand-up comic, Lewis Black is at the peak of his powers: hot on the heels of last year’s Grammy-winning The Carnegie Hall Performance comes “Anticipation,” another collection of rants from the most well-known self-proclaimed socialist in the comedy world. You’d think listening to Black come up with reasons to sputter and yell would start to get old after a while – and you’d be right, especially during those “Daily Show” segments, when he often seems to be straining for the crowd’s amusement – but he hits his targets more often than not on this set. Per its title, this collection is geared toward anticipation – specifically, how foolish it is, whether you’re a golfer hitting the course in search of a good game, a gambler looking for a big win, or a kid looking forward to opening his Chanukah presents. (This last bit includes one of the album’s best lines: “Ooh, a pen and a pencil! Good thing I have two eyes!”) If you’ve already got a Black album in your collection, you probably don’t need this one to go with it – but it’s still pretty damn funny. Long may he roar.

Click to buy “Lewis Black: Anticipation”

Bill Burr’s brand of humor, for lack of a better word, could be called the inner workings of the mind of the angry white man. He’s not angry, of course, but he hits on topics that could be perceived that way, like when he talks about ‘white people are evil’ movies (inspired by the swimming drama “Pride”), the overexposure of pedophiles on TV, and not being allowed to hit women. One of his best bits involves the hypocrisy of humans controlling the animal population while we procreate without consequence (“Don’t you think, after three loser kids, that you don’t have the DNA to make somebody special?”), and we dare you to not think of Burr the next time your girlfriend wants to buy jewelry at a flea market. He may not have much in the way of crossover appeal, but we doubt that matters much to him, nor should it.

Click to buy “Bill Burr: Why Do I Do This?”

…I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer you the opportunity to check out Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s experiences at Comic-Con 2008, which prove at least as hilarious as the shots he’s taken at sci-fi geeks in the past.

As mentioned near the start of this panel, “The Simpsons” has pretty much beat every other prime-time television show in terms of longevity, number of episodes, etc. — except for “Gunsmoke” and “Lassie,” which also makes it the all-time king of sitcoms with a reservoir of goodwill able to withstand more than one below-par season. This appearance by the show’s main creative team was a predictably relaxed and mirthful affair in which creator Matt Groening and writers Al Jean and Matt Selman did most of the talking — quieter panelists included director David Silverman, who helmed “The Simpsons Movie,” and writer Carolyn Omine.

Before the official start of the panel, Groening introduced some clips from next Fall’s “Treehouse of Horror” episode, including a brief segment involving Homer Simpson and a particularly violent form of vote rigging that goes well beyond the worst imagingings of Diebold-fearing liberals, as well as a spot on parody of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” with a Linus-like Milhouse accidentally tricking the supernatural pumpkin into a form of vegetarian cannibalism. (It’s complicated.)

Wasting no time, the event was immediately thrown open to questions. The first young questioner asked if the long-suffering Marge Simpson, tiring from her numerous attempts to get the permanently obese Homer to lose weight, would start gaining weight herself. The writers’
response was they would promptly steal the idea and that it would likely show up in Simpsons comic book, if not the actual show.

Another question referred to a recent episode parodying the comic book world featuring an appearance by mad comic writing genius Alan Moore (”Watchmen,” “V for Vendetta,” “From Hell”) and a joke about an animated “Watchmen Babies” series. Writer Matt Selman expressed his own intimidation at working with the artistically and personally imposing Moore, who apparently got the joke but also stipulated that the gag itself was also an example of an evil corporation (this is Fox, after all) debasing one of Moore’s creations.

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The filmmakers involved in the final part of Entertainment Weekly’s three-part series of panels may not all be visionaries, but they are responsible for some of the most highly-anticipated films of the next six months. That is, except for Frank Miller, whose upcoming adaptation of “The Spirit” looks so stupid that it might just kill his career as a filmmaker before it even begins. Of course, since this panel was staged a little differently than others (essentially, it was just an open forum for fans to grill Kevin Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder and Miller about all things geek), and my recorder was unable to capture most of the sound over all the laughing, I’ve done my best to compile a few of the more memorable moments from the night. Enjoy, and be sure to check back later for a similar deconstruction of Smith’s annual 90-minute talkfest that followed.

Moderator: Comedy is such a subjective art. How much do you rely on audience testing, or do you just follow your gut?

Kevin Smith: You stole all my cock jokes. Well, I tend to go with the gut, but my gut is prodigious, so that’s good. But my gut has lied to me many times in the past, cause my gut was like “’Jersey Girl’ is a good idea.”

Audience Member: In terms of mainstream Hollywood, do you think they allow for more creative freedom now as opposed to ten years ago, or do all the studios have all you guys by the balls?

Kevin Smith: Me? You’ve gotta have balls to grab, and I don’t.

Audience Member: Because of your experience with Superman, I was wondering how you felt about the current situation and if you think a reboot would be a good idea?

Kevin Smith: Alright. I like Bryan Singer a lot… The Superman movie I was just hoping would be a little more gayer than it was. Um, I just thought there was ample opportunity… I’m all for the reboot. I’m all for giving it another take, or another shot. I don’t think Superman’s dead by any stretch of the imagination. I know they weren’t very happy with how it grossed… but it was a Year One story, and I always thought that “Superman Returns” was like “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which is just a bunch of shots of the fucking Enterprise – like 45 minutes of it. But for people that were into the Enterprise, it was like porn.

Here’s a little piece of nostalgia that’s got a small but rabid cult following, due mostly to repeated airings on “Night Flight,” an ‘80s variety show responsible for unleashing all manner of depravity on late night TV viewers back in the day. “Jekyll and Hyde…Together Again” is not your typical retelling of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic. No, instead it’s basically one big cocaine joke. Dr. Jekyll (Mark Blankfield) is so devoted to the world of science and surgery that he barely even notices his society girlfriend Mary (Bess Armstrong). One wonders if they’ve ever even had sex. Late one night in his lab, as he tries in vain to perfect a miracle drug that will benefit mankind, two of his powders inadvertently mix together. In a sequence that must be seen to be believed, he falls asleep and accidentally snorts the new chemical (through a straw, no less), Mr. Hyde is unleashed, and Blankfield gives his real performance in the film. He sprouts hair in new places, a leisure suit, gaudy jewelry and even grows a coke nail. Instant swinger! Hyde goes out on the town to find Ivy (Krista Errickson), a hooker and former patient who briefly transfixed Jekyll earlier in the film. They have an insane night before he reverts back to the good doctor, and of course the cycle repeats itself several times before it’s all over. The third act, set in England and featuring an extensive sequence shot in black and white, is far more inventive than it probably needed to be. But the same can be said for much of the film: It’s a one-joke movie with dozens of priceless gags. Before the final credits roll, the camera pans down into Stevenson’s grave to catch his corpse spinning round and round.

“Jekyll and Hyde…Together Again” is by no means great cinema, but it is a hell of a tasteless good time, and I laughed out loud more times than I can count on two hands. It’s a relic of another era, and much of its success is due to Blankfield’s dual (dueling?) performances. Here’s a guy who’s all but fallen off the map, although his last IMDB credit is as Dr. Miller in the first season “Arrested Development” episode, “My Mother the Car.” A subtle nod to his doctor in this underground classic? If so, props to Mitch Hurwitz and Co. There’s a place for Blankfield in the movies of today, it just hasn’t yet been carved. The movie is an easy recommendation to anyone looking for laughs off the beaten path. If it still seems like a backhanded compliment, then there’s the added bonus of Tim Thomerson playing a closeted homosexual…in a totally non-P.C. manner, of course. Those wacky ‘80s!

Click to buy “Jekyll and Hyde…Together Again”