On Wednesday night, a record 2.4 million people tuned into Tosh.0, Daniel Tosh’s weekly roast of all things dumb on the Internet. Why is this important? Well, as Deadline.com points out, the show Tosh.0 fills Comedy Central’s 10:30 p.m. Wednesday slot right after South Park, and this is the highest number of viewers the slot has seen since the era of Chappelle’s Show.

On the news of this success, we thought we’d take this opportunity to show you a clip from Tosh.0, because it’s fun. You like fun things, right?

Tosh.0
Web Redemption – Looking For A Girlfriend
www.comedycentral.com

This is big news! Get it– because the pair of comedians named in the headline are big? Oh, dear.

Anyway, it seems that wildly popular comedian Ralphie May and former Last Comic Standing favorite Lavell Crawford have struck a deal with Comedy Central to develop a buddy sitcom of sorts.

The Hollywood Reporter says the show, Brother From Another Mother, centers around the two comics, playing best friends who come to find they’re brothers after their dad dies and leaves them his barbecue joint.

We guess May wasn’t messing around late last month when he said in an interview he was looking to break into television. Looks like it’s going to happen.

What do you think? If the show makes it to air, will you watch?

Comedy Central’s British arm has formed their own DVD label, which will continue to expand Comedy Central’s relatively new presence overseas by signing and promoting UK comedians.

The first two DVDs, Jim Jefferies’ Alcoholocaust and Stewart Lee’s If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask for One will be released in the fall, Chortle reports. Jefferies has already made a sizable dent on the stateside comedy scene, having toured the country as well as repeatedly appearing on Sirius XM’s Opie and Anthony Show. Lee, a long-respected British act, has not yet made a big name for himself here.

Comedy Central’s UK label plans on signing three more comedians in the next year.

After the jump, get a taste of Lee’s comedy. Enjoy!

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Late last month, feminist pop culture blog Jezebel posted a lengthy piece describing the work environment of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as sexist toward women, even calling out the host himself – thought of as ever-embracing and progressive – as disrespectful to female staffers.

One passage read:

Overall, The Daily Show’s environment was such that many women felt marginalized. “It was a place of just business,” says one show veteran. “The business happened to be hilarious comedy, but you weren’t allowed to enjoy it…Any sort of emotional vulnerability is like blood to a shark. And that is not great for women.”

Though it took longer than one would expect, The Daily Show’s female staff members have fired back with a “special message” posted today on the Daily Show’s official page, housed on Comedy Central’s site. A taste of that is below.

The Daily Show isn’t a place where women quietly suffer on the sidelines as barely tolerated tokens. On the contrary: just like the men here, we’re indispensable. We generate a significant portion of the show’s creative content and the fact is, it wouldn’t be the show that you love without us.

We’re not going analyze either of the pieces further. That’s up to you, comedy fans. We highly suggest you check out both Jezebel and Daily Show posts and leave your feelings in the comments section here.

Just this week, comedian Joe DeRosa released his debut album, The Depression Auction, on Comedy Central Records. At this point it’s available digitally only. I know some of Comedy Central’s digital-only releases have gone on to be released traditionally with packaging (if the album sold a enough units online). Not sure if that’s the case with DeRosa’s. Regardless, it’s an album you need to get.

Our writer Rob Turbovsky put it a lot more elegantly in his review of the album here (with sample track). But I’ll say this: If you like you’re comedy honest — that is, owning a full range of emotion — you’re going to love DeRosa’s comedy. As the title of the album suggests, he’s prone to bouts of depression; however he’s clearly passionate about his craft, thankful for the things he has, dare I say, even sensitive to others (when he deems it appropriate) and happy to make us laugh. He’s also angry, misanthropic, struggling to quit drinking, admittedly weak in many ways and yet enormously confident in his life philosophies.

I guess what I’m saying is that he’s human. And he has the skill to roll out all those human qualities and maintain a ridiculously high level of funny and likability. What I’m also saying is that I wanted a good excuse to post this video of DeRosa from our friends at Atom.com. We’ll file this under DeRosa’s sense of self-efficacy. Warning: almost complete nudity.

It’s been a topsy turvy few years for Futurama. After being sucked into a wormhole, Fry, Leelah, Bender, and the rest of the gang over at Planet Express had to suffer through the humiliation of not only being cancelled, but then being re-ran for late night stoners on Adult Swim—being forced to show themselves off to lonely guys at 3 in the morning like some cheap whore.

But the show never lost sight of the light at the end of the bong-smoke-filled tunnel as it managed to score a four straight-to-DVD movie deal and eventually got sold to Comedy Central for syndication (and some normal air time). After just barely holding on to television existence for the past seven years, it seems the shows tenacity has finally paid off as Comedy Central has decided to renew the show for another 26 episode season. That’s right, Futurama is back! But don’t take my word for it, check out the new promo.

Futurama	Thursdays 10pm / 9c
Preview – Interstellar Fugitives
www.comedycentral.com

Didn’t get into Futurama the first time around? Afraid you’ll be lost throughout the whole new season? Well fear not! It’s a cartoon sitcom… the story isn’t that complicated–but for those of you who would still like to have at least a little background (or maybe a refresher course for those of us who haven’t seen it in a while) before jumping into the brand new 6th season, you can watch as Zapp Brannigan summarizes all five of the show’s previous seasons in a mere seven minutes. The new season premiers tonight at 10 pm EST on Comedy Central—don’t miss out!

Futurama	Thursdays 10pm / 9c
Recap-O-Rama: 5 Seasons in 7 Minutes
www.comedycentral.com

On Monday, I went to Upright Citizens Brigade in New York to see a screening of Big Lake, an upcoming Comedy Central sitcom set to premiere later this summer. Produced by Gary Sanchez, a production company led by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, and Chris Henchy, Big Lake boasts a lineup of Chris Gethard (Crossballs), Horatio Sanz (SNL), and Chris Parnell (30 Rock, SNL).

Gethard plays the character of Josh, a young man who ends up being forced to move back in with his parents due to trouble at work. He spends much of his time with his two friends Glenn (Sanz), who was recently released from prison, and Chris (Parnell), their inappropriate, burned out high school teacher.

Gethard and Sanz were there at the screening to introduce three episodes from the series, including one episode, “Lee Harvey Osworld,” that Gethard and Sanz joked was going to be their Emmy episode. In true sitcom fashion, the characters fixate over certain schemes in each episode, like Josh’s ideas to expand his dad’s restaurant or Glenn and Chris’s idea to make Glenn’s house a historic landmark.

Although the plot kept me interested, the characters were what made the episodes especially entertaining. Gethard is the perfect choice to play earnest, sometimes awkward Josh (not a huge departure from Gethard’s demeanor on stage), and Parnell’s familiar authoritative tone makes his character’s terrible teaching ethics even more hilarious. Another character to watch for is Josh’s mobster-like younger brother, Jeremy, played by Dylan Blue.

Gethard, Sanz, and Parnell all use their comedic timing and improv training to put their mark on many of the scenes, making the show more interesting to watch than a run of the mill sitcom. The cast is too funny to miss, so here’s my official recommendation: Watch this show! Check out the premiere of Big Lake on Tuesday, Aug. 17th at 10 pm on Comedy Central.

Back in March we wrote about the lawsuit between Viacom (Comedy Central’s parent company) and YouTube over video copyright infringement. Today, though, Viacom’s $1 billion suit was dismissed. The courts declared YouTube is protected under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) against claims of copyright infringement.

In short, Viacom alleged YouTube did nothing to protect unlawful videos of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and others being posted on their site. As a result any Comedy Central-related videos were pulled years ago, but Viacom still wanted to be repaid for damages they claim they sustained.

The war isn’t over, though, because Viacom has announced that it will appeal the judge’s decision. As always, we’ll keep you posted if anything interesting happens, but for now it looks like round one of what appears to be a long battle is over.

This morning, Comedy Central announced the launch of a new online venture—a show called Comedy Central’s Portable Lounge. The basic premise is this: it’s a talk show, but it travels across the country, popping up and settling down at strange locations, like a comic book shop, a butcher shop and a chocolate factory.

What’s more, is that Portable Lounge will feature a rotating host interviewing well-known folks in the comedy world. The first episode – you can watch a clip below – features Chris Gethard, who you’ll see in the upcoming Comedy Central series Big Lake, interviewing Saturday Night Live’s Bobby Moynihan. The full episodes will be housed right here.

Sounds fun, right?

The premise of the show sounds similar to a show New York City-based comedian Jessica Kirson had been developing with Scrubs star Zach Braff producing. Hers is called the Jessy K Show. The main difference, it seems, is that Kirson remains the host in each episode.

Regardless of the possible success of Portable Lounge, we’d still like to see Kirson’s traveling show see the light of day. There’s room for two crazy traveling talk shows, right? We’ll see what happens. For now, check out a clip from the first episode of Portable Lounge, followed by the trailer for the Jessy K. Show.

Portable Lounge
Chris Gethard and Bobby Moynihan – Whodja Rather?
www.comedycentral.com

Just in time for Father’s Day (this Sunday) comedian Juston McKinney dropped a hot new track.

In more professional terms McKinney has made a great parody of Jay-Z’s “New York State Of Mind” by turning it into a song about being a new dad. Throughout the song, McKinney goes through the usual motions about how single guys have it better, but in the end the love for his kid shows through. After all, who wouldn’t love chasing their naked little son around the house trying to get clothes on him?

I’d like to dedicate this song to the wonderful Editor in Chief of Punchline Magazine, Dylan Gadino. His life is now likely similar to what’s depicted in McKinney’s video, so best of luck, sir. Be sure to check out McKinney’s new Comedy Central special – Juston McKinney: A Middle-Class Hole – out on June 26th.

And Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers out there.