featuring Dan Perrault, Sam Clarke, Ian Cardoni, and Phil Hamilton.

A former comic who first met Carlin back at the old Café Au Go Go in Manhattan, Hendra assembled the book as “Last Words,” and it’s a fascinating closing statement from the influential comedian openly revered by the likes of Bill Maher and Jerry Seinfeld. This is not a collection of setups and punch lines, but a candid, fearless accounting of his life and art. As much as anything Carlin created, the book should become a central text for any serious student of comedy and pop culture of the 20th century.

Roger Ebert wrote about The Joke; Lebanon’s Charbel Khalil appeared in the New York Times; The Dana Carvey Show got written up; Amy Poehler appeared on Charlie Rose; the New York Times Magazine followed Conan around before The Tonight Show launched; a mammoth article appeared on Galifianakis; Christopher Lloyd paid a fantastic compliment to a tremendously talented friend of mine; Gaby attended the first taping of “Michael and Michael Have Issues”; the Metro offers a take on comedy and the Recession; we stumbled across this interview with “the women of comedy”; we found a Buster Keaton interview from 1964; we finally saw Don Rickles perform at Reagan’s inaugeral; Bill Scheft dropped by the 92nd Street Y; the Guardian had a non-Edinburgh comedy splurge; Jimmy Carr appears on Conan; Bill Scheft appears on Salon’s “Big Ideas”; the Edinburgh articles arrive; the videos from Edinburgh arrive; Horst Schlammer appears; Patton Oswalt debuts on Letterman; we learn about Ebrahim Nabavi; The Kids in the Hall return; Scott and Amy are here to help; we learn about laughter, humor, and reduced pain perception; we read about Canadian comics with mental health problems; NY Mag writes about Letterman triumphing over Leno by growing up; comics discuss their favorite places with National Geographic; Larry Gelbart talks about ‘comedy today’; we read about ‘Humor in Hard Times’; we are Gaga for Gags; Comedy and the Death of God; we read a bio of “Ho Ho” Hoffnung; the Beeb wonders if it’s okay for gays to joke about lesbians; the L.A. Times writes more about Larry Gelbart; the Wall Street Journal writes about Boom Chicago; Boing Boing discovers Lord Aberdeen; Jack Benny appears on Dick Cavett; Craig Ferguson gets into the NYTimes; we post our three favorite bits from “I’m Dying Up Here”; we stumbled upon a repository of Classic Late-Night with David Letterman bits, including an entire episode on an airplane; Neil Cameron debuts hashtag funnies;  David Chappelle goes on Inside the Actor’s Studio; Michael Palin, George Carlin, and Dick Cavett go on Charlie Rose; Ricky Gervais and Elmo share a moment; Gonzolo Cordova interviewed Patton Oswalt; Senators talk about their favorite jokes (or why they don’t tell them); the New York Times interviews Robin Williams after his heart surgery; Zach Galifuhfufuhfuh sits down with Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter; Chocolate Cake City rocks it with That Didst She Say; and a camera crew catches up with SNL backstage at the Peabody Awards.

We look at humor around the world with a joke about Arafat from The Clinton Tapes, a popular Liberian joke, Stephane Guillome on Sarkozy and Villepin, a popular Russian narrative joke, Horst Schlammer, the great Cantinflas, Kenyan puppets taking on politics, decoding Chinese humor, U.S.O./Colbert/troop morale, jokes in Auschwitz, and ethnic jokes in Iran.

We started a segment called “Video Tuesday,” featuring Retrobites (and other Miscellany), The Frost Report on Class, Richard Pryor - First Black President, Monsterpiece Theater, Micha Wertheim, Tiernan Douieb, Jonathan Winters, Cantinflas, Last Episode of Late Night With David Letterman, Bill Cosby, Spike Milligan, and Harpo Marx on the Today Show in 1961.

We have performed at Tufts (twice), Yale, Improv Boston, the Regent Theatre, Clum Passim, and in the middle of somebody’s basement when they weren’t home.

We have over 47 videos online, including Sterling: Behind the Eyeshadow, Evan Does Stand-Up on a Swan-Boat Full of Pirates, Chaz rocking the crowd at Tufts (as well as John, Ed, Bernard, and Sam,) Dan calling out a stand-up comic we picked at random when we found ourselves at NYU one afternoon, Harrison Grimley doing stand-up immediately after committing a murder, Pool Date, Gaby Rocks Her Some Yale, Blake Wexler Brings the Noise, and more!

Previously: Retrobites (and other Miscellany), The Frost Report on Class, Richard Pryor - First Black President, Monsterpiece Theater, Micha Wertheim, Tiernan Douieb, Jonathan Winters, Cantinflas, Last Episode of Late Night With David Letterman, Bill Cosby, Spike Milligan.