Just when you think awards season is about over — whether that be good or bad — a new award show crops up. Sunday night, Comedy Central presented the first-ever Comedy Awards to a house jam-packed with stars: Everyone from Will Ferrell and Ty Burrell to Alex Baldwin and Stephen Colbert were all there to commemorate the night’s festivities.
The awards were divvied out fairly evenly — among some of the more notable: “Modern Family” picked up Best Comedy Series; Kristin Wiig won Best Comedy Actress on TV for SNL; Best Stand-Up Special went to Louis C.K.; Best Comedy Film was for “The Other Guys” starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg; “South Park” won Best Animated Series; and Daniel Tosh won Best Breakthrough Performer.
Some speeches were funny: “It’s almost like being student of the month, and your mom’s the teacher,” said Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of Comedy Central’s “South Park,” when accepting their Best Animated Series award.
Others overdid it, such as when Will Ferrell and director Adam McKay of “The Other Guys” accepted their Best Comedic Film award, along with over 50 other writers, directors, etc, who “supposedly” worked on the film. A little over the top, and not at all amusing. Ferrell can do better than that.
There was no host for the show — which could have been for better or worse — yet Andy Richter held his own backstage as he announced the presenters throughout the night.
What worked best were the performances sandwiched in between the awards. Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — members of the comedic group The Lonely Island — along with rapper Akon, filled the room with energy while performing their SNL digital short “I Just Had Sex” live onstage. The Lonely Island is a group known for their ridiculous songs/videos that go viral online in a matter of minutes — such as the Grammy-nominated “I’m on a Boat,” and “Lazy Sunday,” among other somewhat foul-mouthed- but-all-in-good-fun songs that get stuck in your head, no matter how hard you try.
Stephen Colbert took over the stage for a bit when Jon Stewart won the award for Best Late-Night Comedy Series. Colbert pretty much tossed Stewart offstage, stole his award and announced he was accepting the award in honor of “every person whose soul has been crushed by Jon Stewart over the past eight years” — this comment in reference to Stewart’s eight consecutive Emmy wins.
Jon Cryer worked out his “Two and Half Men” stress in a subtle jab at Charlie Sheen by showcasing how he now uses all of his free time — by practicing to be a rapper. His crew came on stage and performed his new single “Jon Cryer Will [explicet] You Up.”
All kidding aside, two major awards were given out during the night. One to Eddie Murphy, who received the Legendary Comedian Award, and another to David Letterman, who received the Johnny Carson Award for Comedic Excellence.
Murphy, not exactly overly-enthused with the award, it seemed, made a short and sweet speech after a montage of his most memorable work was shown. He thanked his inspirations — Richard Pryor, Charlie Chaplin, Bill Cosby and George Carlin — and also revealed that he was about to turn 50 and has been trying to make people laugh for 35 years. Rightfully so, but the last 10 years or so have only been filled with “Shrek” laughs, or “Nutty Professor” reincarnations — so I’m not sure if this was the right time for him to be receiving this award.
Lettermen, more lively than Murphy, accepted his award from the one-and-only Bill Murray, who as Lettermen said himself, deserved the award more than the guy who actually got it. I agree. Lettermen has done a fine job with his “Late Night” show, delving into politics and issues more so than other late night hosts — but I must say, Murray is a lot funnier, no matter how you put it.
Comedy only gets better with time, and let’s hope for the sake of laughter, that the Comedy Awards return for another year.
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