>> if you're doing a jonbenet routine in in boulder, colorado. you better be nailing it. everything i needed to learn about comedy, i learned from warner brother cartoons. >> there is a part of us that is 12 years old. >> i am a man sbrnch. >> they killed kenny. >> comedians make great voice actors. >> there are tremendously funny lines in "toy story". >> you get so many chances to be funny in animation. >> the writing, the voice talent, animation, boom. ♪

there's something about moving cartoons that really delights us. a cartoon is comedy coming to life. that's kind of interesting and magical. >> that's it. i have had enough of your tom foolery. >> the wildest thing you can think of is accomplished just by drawing it. so whether it's the simpsons, family guy, your imagination is unlimited in animation. >> in animation, you can like have people ripping apart each other's guts. >> yeah, yeah, yeah. >> one thing that i like to say is that live action is low budget animation.

>> it can be taught. >> the visual jokes, the best of them are often in animated cartoons. >> is to be being nervous, kid. >> he's the most gentle dentist in the whole wide world. >> it's just the drill that hurts. >> comedy has been to move more and more towards animation. >> cartoons, if they're done right, can convey comedy very precisely. and if you think of it and it's funny, you can make it happen. >> animation and comedy goes right back to the extreme beginning of film. >> at the end of the '20s, start of the '30s, comedy shorts were very popular in cinema. so the big stars were people like charlie chaplin, buster keaton, cartoons were film shorts shown in theaters. >> early cartoons are loaded with starring characters like cocoa the clown and felix the

cat. but then mickey mouse comes along and is considered the first sound cartoon character. ♪ >> not only did walt disney add sound with the first mickey mouse cartoon, but they were funny sounds. >> at the time there's no animation to look at because no one was doing animation. so they looked at chaplin or buster keaton or laurel and hardy. it was all about physical performance. it was about silence. that was a good way for them to hone up animation skills. >> chaplin said mickey mouse is going to put me out of work. the mouse could do, magically, almost anything. >> meanwhile, the studio was their rival. they're grittier and dirtier and a lot of weird characters. that you only find in the subway.

>> it had a tendency to feel more adult than the other studios. betty boop had this garter that fell down and slipped up. there was a sex component to her. when popeye and bluto fought, it was very violent. >> popeye, as far as art goes, it's a funny drawing. it makes you laugh. >> i'll squish your brains out, you bet. >> and he wasn't nasty or violent or anything, it was just he got put upon. he was not looking for trouble. meanwhile, he could kick anybody's butt. >> popeye cartoons had a beat to them. you can almost tell they're made with a metronome going back and forth. all moving with the same beat. it was fantastic. this is fleischer in the '30s. >> i'm popeye the sailor man. >> walt disney was the only one

who was genuinely interested in pushing the entire medium forward. >> there's a reason disney became famous. the quality of their animation was unparalleled. it was unbelievable. >> by the late 1930s, disney was now doing "snow white," these elaborate fairy tales, beautifully done, spectacular, the rest of the industry is trying to keep up with disney. but some studios looked at that and said we're going to make people laugh. >> looney tunes was all about gags making you laugh, when they showed those cartoons in movie theaters before a warner bros. movie, they would kill for an audience of adults in the theater. >> shoot it now. you keep out of this. he doesn't have to shoot you now. >> he does have to shoot me now.

i demand that you shoot me now. >> the duck season, rabbit season exchange to this day, if i watch it, i laugh hysterically because you know it's coming, but watching daffy duck step into it every single time is absolutely brilliant. >> not again. >> the timing in those cartoons is so great. and it was universal comedy. you don't need to know much to understand why bugs bunny and elmer fudd are funny. >> kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit. >> kill the rabbit? >> bugs bunny is one of the most influential comedians of all time. i don't think there's anyone from my generation of comedy who didn't learn how to time a joke from bugs bunny. >> of course you realize this means war. >> warner bros. cartoons, i

think they got personalities right. you had so many different stars, you had bugs and you had daffy and you had elmer fudd, yosemite sam. twitty and sylvester. fog horn leg horn. the roadrunner, the coyote. that's quite a lot. they did pretty good. >> the animated stars were as big as any movie star, certainly, that we knew, and as children they were much bigger. >> audiences could relate to these characters. >> we saw ourselves in mickey. he was us. he was the small guy fighting against the system. bugs bunny who was kind of a brooklyn street fighter, they represented us. and usually the bad guys were the landlords, the boss, the hunter, the person who was taking away something from us. and we could laugh at their antics. what they're doing to get back. it made us feel better. it empowered us. >> bugs bunny, daffy duck, wile e. coyote, those guys to me were

the best executors of comedy ever, if you're still laughing 60 years later at a joke, that's brilliant. >> history of comedy brought to you by -- ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪

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but, with more exercise and a change in diet, it can be reversed. i've tried exercising. it just makes me hungry. for bacon. i love bacon, too. and who really likes to exercise? not me. me neither! nobody! [both laugh] so, we're good? what? oh, you still have prediabetes. big time. television becomes a major competitor for movies starting

in 1950, because of the tv, film studios starting to slash their budgets. every major film studio had an animation division. suddenly by the late '50s almost none of them do. >> you've got people like bill hanna and joe barbara winning oscars for tom & jerry cartoons, they're out of work, what are they going to do? they pitched the idea of a primetime adult-oriented sitcom. >> the flintstones, looking for something different on tv? well, here it is. >> the flintstones, that's a kids cartoon, that's not family guy. but it was in 1960. look at the first two seasons of the flintstones, they're all adult situations. the show itself is a parody of sitcoms at the time. >> don't you get it? this place is a gold mine, if we could buy it, we could get rich and be our own bosses.

some of my past ideas are not so hot. but this one is different. it's sure fire. >> many people say did you copy the honeymooners. that's the biggest compliment you can give me. but they didn't have all the gags in there which were the window dressing. >> oh, boy, we would have had to walk. >> the way to sell a tv show in those days was to make it as cheap as possible. >> in limited animation you're not going to animate the full body of the character. you've got more levels on each character. there's background, and then there's the head and the body. and we're just going to animate the lips on his mouth. >> hanna barbera cartoons were no bones, low budget, but it didn't matter because the dialogue was so snappy and clever. >> did you get your paper, dear? >> yeah, and i'm lucky, it only comes once a week.

>> once again, you'll know it's time for the adventures of rocky and bullwinkle. >> the jay ward studio did rocky and bullwinkle because it was popular as adults. it kept winking at itself saying this is a kids cartoon. >> i wonder why they're shooting at us. >> must be from a rival network. >> the end of the theatrical cartoon era is kind of sad because the money went away and the enthusiasm went away with it and tv animation was more of a factory business than an inspired business. >> here come the bears. >> by the 1970s, the idea of a creator driven animated series was pretty much gone in general. there was much more of an emphasis on advertising. there was a big gap on saturday

mornings. people said, well, who's watching tv at that time? the answer was kids. >> it was television that put cartoons into the arena or ghetto, if you will, of saturday morning. before tv, cartoons were for everybody. there's a straitjacket put on animation that you couldn't be as funny as you wanted to be, oh, it's for kids and it can't be this interesting. >> didn't anyone ever tell you it's not polite to grab? >> by the '80s, we were into pound puppies, strawberry shortcake, a lot of merchandising opportunities, but they were sort of ways to sell product rather than ways to entertain or amuse kids. >> eddy? >> yeah. >> bring in the guys. >> ralph bakshi was a mentor, and together with a lot of other animators, they conspired to create cartoons as a vehicle for comedy and have them reflect an animator sensibility, make them

funny and whacky for the sake of funny and whacky. >> can mighty mouse save the day for network television? >> here i come to save the day. >> oh, no, not this show. >> the new adventures of mighty mouse came on and it was totally disregarding the things that you're not supposed to do, and it was like, oh, there's something new happening in animation, there's something going on here. >> the mighty mouse show was fast paced, funny, silly, it had weird characters in it, little segments that almost made no sense, the non sequitur kind of humor, no one was doing that kind of stuff at the time. >> i haven't seen this much hair since brook shields trimmed her eyebrows. >> the series had controversial elements, one of the best known being the supposed sniffing of cocaine. >> i know someone else like

that. >> there was a famous episode where mighty mouse sniffed a flower, and became strong and flies away. this preacher led a protest saying that this was a metaphor for cocaine use and that this cartoon show should be cancelled. and the pressure campaign succeeded. so the network listened to this group rather than the animators themselves who said that was never on our minds to begin with. >> the artist were pushing, but they'd get shut down because they had what they called outrageous ideas of subversion. that's the meat of any cartoon. >> the new adventures of mighty mouse inspired a new generation and contingent of animators who made cartoons they wanted to make, that they thought were funny. >> spike & mike was a touring film festival. they collected animated shorts and they had this one collection for grown ups.

>> it would feature early mike judge cartoons. >> okay, but i'm going to set the building on fire. >> lupo, the butcher, a gory cartoon. spike & mike had taboo things you wouldn't see in normal cartoons, like gore, lie violence, like sex. >> before the internet, they were critical, they were connecting people with an audience that they just otherwise wouldn't have had. >> all of us who are working in that business, we would try to slip something in that's funny or pitch a show that was funny. so when new opportunities came along to work on something that we thought could blossom into actually a funny animated show we were always eager to jump at that. >> there we are. >> it may be an -- channel, but the simpsons are on tv. y weathe

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and i will tell you where i was. and i was watching that episode of the flintstones or the jetsons. i always thought that those tv shows could have been better. they were disappointing to me. i said some day if i have my own tv show i'm going to do it different. >> in the '80s there was a young crew of animators and a young crew of writers who didn't have preconceived notions of what animation should or should not do. so there was a lot of breaking out of the three camera sitcom that you could do in animation, to quote monty python, make it up as you go along. >> are there any jive talking robots in this play? >> i don't think so. >> bart, don't ask stupid questions. is there any frontal nudity? >> no, homer. >> the lines on the simpsons are so sharp and i'm so impressed the volume of good jokes and the quality of the jokes. it was a legendary writer's room, long before i got there. >> this subverted the family sitcom. in fact, it was the most realistic portrayal of the family, which is crazy because

it was a cartoon. >> the simpsons is the hottest new series on television. if you haven't seen the animated series, it's about a family just like yours. >> we had kids back talking to their parents. maybe it was because in animated format you didn't expect to see that. >> here's bart simpson the most popular character on television right now and we talked to the school principal who is banning bart simpson t-shirts. because he celebrating being an under achiever. >> there's always somebody lying in bed awake at night seething because kids find something really fun. it's a controversy of the week. >> all she needed was for that big slob to show her some respect. at least that's what i thought. i have a history of missing a point at stuff like this. >> homer, you got it just right. >> the reason that show holds together is that it's a family. it sounds corny, but it is a family. they do love each other and they're trying to maintain the

family unit. that's the oldest story there is. >> is your mother there? no? >> good, welcome to our secret headquarters. deep inside the lower intestine of a sperm whale. >> oh, god, god -- >> animation is most successful when it is fully creator driven. you then have john kay making ren & stimpy, putting an adult cartoon on a mild kids network. animation had never been that gross, the boogers. the close upshots on the nose. it was disgusting. animation wasn't the same after that. >> i picked them myself. >> it was really different, the gags were different, drinking from a toilet bowl. they broke all these rules and

you wonder why were those rules in place? >> ren & stimpy had this grew of great artists and animators, the more they could do it all themselves the better the cartoon would be, they were adding funny animated touches and twitches. >> ren & stimpy created a renaissance of new animation with dialogue and visual gags and characters and voice actors that we still experience today. >> this new era of animation, creator driven animation is exploding in the early '90s. and mtv sees this and goes, we need some way to harness this. >> maybe you should stick your wiener in the bug zapper. >> yeah, yeah. that's a really good idea, butt head. >> let's get this down here. there we go. >> beavis and butthead was amazing because adults didn't get it.

>> what is it? >> it's part of the dumbing down of television. so what they do is they celebrate underachievement. >> yeah, and he keeps saying he needs tp for his bung hole. what the hell is a bung hole? >> those same forces that had harassed john and ralph with the new adventures of mighty mouse were now harassing mtv and mike judge saying it's a bad influence on kids, not realizing it wasn't an influence on the generation, but a reflection of the generation. >> it was great for exactly what it was, two imbeciles that had nothing to do all day. you can write a lot about that. >> hey, butthead, can i set this down, my hands are getting tired. >> no way, beavis. when the chicks walk in, they need to see it in your hands so they know you're cool. >> they're all succeeding. it's all happening at the same

time that cable is taking off. and now the studios were wising up. well, if we get one great nut to run a show, and they really know what they're doing, it could work out. >> we got out of school. no more school today. we got out of school. >> oh, you guys, my eyes. >> if you haven't yet heard about south park, you're about to. critics have praised the show as brilliantly funny, but many see only a lewd, offensive cartoon unsuitable for children. >> it was the next step in the evolution of animation. the simpsons opened the door, and south park kicked the door down. >> children, i'm glad you're here. i call them chef's salty ch chocolate balls. >> these are good. i love your salted chocolate balls. >> they pushed the culture,

challenged the culture. i think adults connected to it because of that reason. they appreciated the satire and how it attacked certain institutions. >> oh, yeah, because it was a cartoon. you put your defenses down. >> it's very disrespectful, and animation is a great way to really turn the disrespect into a whole world. >> don't bother with new ghost busters, not funny, chicks ruined it. can we get ice cream now? i want to get the taste of ass out of my mouth. they're fearless. they don't have boundaries. if they cross it they are find the joke. >> they address so many things so smartly, and there's a lot of poo, poo, fart jokes in there, but people don't consider it when they consider smart animation comedy. or even comedy animation. >> this week "south park" has gone out on syndication. it's amazing. look how much they have to cut out. to watch the first season, they don't cut anything out. >> it's very interesting to me how enduring some of those shows are. that's unusual for tv shows to be on this long, guys, especially comedies.

>> i'm just a little boy. that's just a cartoon. millions of people watch it. how would you feel if there's a cartoon on television that makes fun of jews all the time? huh? ign for this? yeah. hey, uh.. what's in that one? that's a shark. new and only with at&t, you can get unlimited data, 30+ channels of live tv, and your choice of things like hbo or amazon music. more for your thing. that's our thing. visit att dot com. ♪ ♪ if you have recurring constipation and belly pain, talk to your doctor and say yesss! to linzess. yesss! linzess treats adults with ibs with constipation or chronic constipation. linzess can help relieve your belly pain, and lets you have more frequent and complete bowel movements. see if you're eligible to get 90 days

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>> animation is often driven by distinctive great voices, and those voices contributed as much as anything to the personalities and the success of those characters. >> i have to create a voice for each character. they show me the character, and bugs i could see was a tough little stinker, and i thought, which is the toughest voice in this country, either brooklyn or the bronx? >> so i put the two of them together, doc. what's up, doc? >> mel blank was an unbelievable actor. every one of those characters had a soul and a personality and a history. he wasn't like a witty collection of voices. >> voice acting isn't as easy as we think it is. you don't have your face now so you have to use your voice to convey the comedy. >> once you create a voice you never forget it. pepe le pew. porky pig will come along,

suffering succotash. i saw a putty cat. >> he led the way for guys like me. >> seal of approval, only find it on products which meet the high personal standards of crusty the clown. >> the voice talent on the simpsons is a point of inspiration, there's always something great from the voice acting that you can mine for performances, how you're going to direct the shots, and overall the look of the characters get inspired by the vocal choices. >> you almost start drawing characters for the voice person you have in mind. people like tress mcneil and billy west. >> i got to do voice on futurama. and i looked at the characters and i thought long and hard before i opened my mouth. phillip jay frye. >> shut up and take my money. >> dr. zoidberg had all this cool meat hanging on his face. i thought he would have an

impediment. >> here i come. you didn't invite me to eat? >> from the simpsons, i loved doing agnes skinner, it's a voice easy for me to do, i'm going to be her one day very soon. and dot, of course is the one sister, she's the cute one. >> that makes me feel all kind of warm and squishy. either that or i need to wear diapers. >> brilliant voices carry the cartoons. all you have to do is sit back and let them do their thing. had. >> impressive. >> but never duplicated. duplicated. duplicated. genie of the lamp! >> that's robin williams, of course, as the voice and inspiration of the genie in the bottle in aladdin, he's the real star of the movie, an extraordinary performance, the

perfect melding of a talent and art form. robin williams is an animated character. >> robin williams wasn't just reading the script with his funny voices. he was winging it. they were improvising and they knew they were going to do that. >> conclude look at those fangs. i could have been a contender. >> i can't imagine what robin williams was like as that genie. he would do it again differently. it is definitely robin's deal to ad lib. >> this opened up a door for putting actors in animation. >> you weren't the real buzz light year, you're an action figure. you are a child's play thing. >> you are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity. farewell. >> they tried a disk jockey voice.

buzz light year here! very self-aware, and he was also very confident, and i went a little dumber. it's filled with bravado, he's got nothing but heart, but he is also oblivious. that's fine, woody. we'll do it your way. >> voice acting, the value on it has changed completely. it used to be about a guy like mel blank who could do multiple voices, now you hire an actor to do one voice, and it's usually theirs. >> now my evil power will be unlimited, you feel me? >> i can feel you. >> comedians have an inherent understanding of timing and they understand improv more so than a traditional actor. >> the joke delivers. when you put them in a booth, they know how to hit the punchline. >> with somebody like mike myers, he always did characters. and so he was born to do animation. >> i'd like you to meet my husband, "shrek."

>> well, it's easy to see where fiona gets her good looks from. >> working without props is something i was very, very used to. i never saw eddie murphy or antonio banderas the whole time. you're used to making something out of nothing. >> we can stay up late, swapping manly stories and in the morning i'm making waffles. >> eddie murphy's voice itself sounds funny, but he can also do voices. but eddie can also do voices. >> keep our people down, but we can use it to keep those same people from stealing your go-cart. >> and voiceover for animated comedy, you need people who can emote through their voice. and standups are some of the best voice emoters. >> comedians are very in touch with how they come across. that skill lends itself to voice acting. >> the manatee is endangered,

and i think it's because it's out of shape. doesn't a manatee look like a guest on the rickie lake show. >> what you've got to do is get yourself an education and a job. you're fat. you have do weight watches. whatever, talk to my hand. >> he created a show, dr. katz, professional therapist. >> he would interview comedians in squigle vision. >> i thought the manatee was such a weird animal, and so i came up with some jokes and i had this voice that went with it. it lent itself to this dr. katz bit. >> there was some bits that were visual, in fact, i thought the animation was competing with jokes. it took me a while to realize that we were a team. >> people asked, how do you get

into voice acting. he says do 15 years of standup comedy. they're the greatest voice actors in the world if they're willing to lone us their voice and all the years of wisdom contained in that voice, you're going to get the great voice almost by definition. >> channel 6 news, they'll finger anything with a pulse. >> the slogan is their finger is on the pulse, gene. >> history of comedy brought to >> no, it's right. sometimes a day at the ballpark is more than just a day at the ballpark. stadium pa : all military members stand and be recognized.

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tonight, we're going to present a special feature taking you inside the world of the artists and the funny men who create the modern tv cartoon. >> a truly great animated show is everything coming together perfectly. the voices, music and animation, timing, the directing, editing, everything. >> we, as students of the masters, always want to emulate these great animators of the past. >> once we have a drawing, we put down the drawing, talk to the animator, then we have to decide how the characters differ in terms of their postures, by the way they stand, who are they? ♪ >> chuck jones' character animations, the facial

expressions in cartoons like feed the kitty where the big bulldog is protecting the little kitten. the facial expressions, that's all chuck, literally his drawings on the screen. chuck jones, who is a great master, timer of the held -- you know, the eyes that go -- which i just learn a lot from that. we knew we were in a cartoon when you watched a tex avery cartoon. because he pointed you towards it constantly. >> visually, and verbally, i would play to the audience an awful lot. >> that wasn't in the script. >> i wanted them aware that they were out there, that i knew they were out there. >> tex avery is known mostly for his outrageous or zany types of animation. his sensibility is to push the boundaries of that as much as possible. >> i've always liked extra

jokes, i guess you could say, and cartoon world is a land of extra jokes. classic tex avery joke i'm sure you've seen was based on how people viewed movies in the theaters. there was always something wrong with the film. hey, you out there, get that hair out of here. >> that's the beauty of animation. that's really what you want animation to be used for, to do and see things that you've never seen before. and can't be shown in live action. >> the tape you're watching is just a taste of the cartoon network, an appetizer, a mere morsel of what you can expect from the first and only 24 hour cartoon network. >> cartoon network was owned by turner broadcasting who now owned the hannabarbera library. they owned the rights to all these characters. whether it was yogi bear or space ghost. >> basically, you have a group of people that are working in programming on air making commercials, clearly very

inspired by all of that warner brothers library. we're like, wouldn't it be fun if we made something like ourselves. >> wow, space ghost man, crack a window, will you? >> i would be violently sucked into space. >> how many people would tune in? >> space ghost is the turning point. it's a surreal, late night tv show that is unapologetically adult, using kids cartoons. >> now, a lot of the people that worked on that show today are the movers and shakers of adult swim. >> all kids out of the pool for adult swim. >> they branded a block of time on the network that would just be for programs aimed at adults. >> they satirized truly terrible cartoons and made it sea lab

2021, dubbed over the old animation, and had them saying ridiculous weird and preposterous things. >> it's like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain. >> the whole thing was keep it as absolutely cheap as possible. if you have to keep it clean because you're on a kids network, what can you do? just get weird. >> smokey. >> yeah, kid. >> how did you get your name? >> well -- >> smokey, you always got the best weed. >> hello, little paw. >> adult swim provided that vision. but the most pure vision of it. >> oh, man, why didn't we think to bring no guns? >> adult swim is fearless. they find voices that are normally marginalized on the major met yorks. they're finding these countercultural voices and giving them a platform.

doing things traditional networks are afraid to do. >> i appreciate you. >> cool. all right. >> you son of a -- are you a simulation? are you a simulation? >> no, no. oh, oh. >> i'm sorry, morty. you're a good kid, morty. >> geez. >> you're a good kid. >> oh, my god. >> with animation you can do any joke you want. you can have the characters be meaner. it's already not real. it's animation. so there's more wiggle room. >> sorry, honey. >> yeah, we'll bring you a present. >> oh, blow me. >> why? you couldn't feel it. >> what and imation allows you to do is to be anonymous in pur assault on other people. into i can't believe this. two weeks in prison on trumped up charges. that trial was a total sham. >> i know we were in trouble the minute i saw the jury. at least they're a jury of our

peers. >> i don't think they see it that way, peter. >> if you cast family guy, the simple sons with real people, they probe capital get away with as much. people say you can never make "all in the family" now. seth mcfarland is making it every week. peter is archie bunker. we will take it from an animated character. >> not every jewish person is good with money. >> i guess not the retarded ones? why would you say that? there's edgy and offensive. good day, sir. ny one else. why accept it from your allergy pills? most pills don't finish the job because they don't relieve nasal congestion. flonase sensimist is different. it relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. it's more complete allergy relief. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist helps block six key inflammatory substances. most pills only block one. and six is greater than one.

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history of comedy gone too soon tomorrow at 10:00 on cnn. some botch office goad for you now. unmistakable minions overran the box office this weekend raking in more than 150 maryland in the u.s. and canada. that is one of the biggest openings ever for an animated movie. >> you look at the full roster of feature films that are put out each year by the major studios. if you're really paying attention, you see the big money's going to these animated features. >> be cool. this wave's got to crash into i can't. you're all alive and looking at me with your gloves and your little shoes. >> seeing the movies coming out now. i am in awe. the level of the craft seems so high. >> the brightest comedy i've seen this year, last ten years

are in animated movies. >> i think we're about to crash into the sun. >> yeah, but it's going to look cool. >> animated comedy couldn't be more popular than today with the lego movie, all the cable cartoons. it's an explosion. >> the reason animation is a huge deal is even if you only made 30 episodes you can rewatch those 1,000 types. >> oh. >>. >> it's only going to keep going and there are only going to be more big shows. >> you have a lot of animation now coming online which is another avenue for it. it can be produced with greater speed than it was. the fact that there are 700 different outlegs and youtube, you can realize your dream precisely. if it's a good one, people are going to pay attention.

>> i'll make short work of that grime or my name is senor cleanness. >> and it is. >> hey, what the hell, man? >> we're going to continue to see the kind of fruit that ha bears because you want to attract unique minds to animation to keep it flush with new ideas. >> there's a lot young people are inspired by that ren and stimpy generation and they heard about the passion for animation that the creators of shows like that had. they would hear them talk about bob clampett and tex avery. for that reason now, there's a whole generation of animator who are inspired by both generations and in doing so have emulated what is sort of a combination of retro and contemporary design and it's beautiful. >> one should take great care in unpacking the fragile components.

items can shift slightly during shipping. >> with the new version of mickey mouse, it's a combination of the old classic disney style that we love and a modern sensibility. >> whoa. whoa! >> finally, people are allowed to like animation even if they're not under 10. there are teenagers and young adults and even old adults that are really enjoying cartoon network, adult swim. >> dub dub. >> one of the biggest shows on television right now is rick and morty. the landscape is so fractured now that people can really make these amazing had nish interesting shows that do well enough to be abe to make more of them. so we're really seeing some fascinating stuff right now. >> the possibilities are

endless. the technology is improving. i think we're getting quicker turn arounds. it can be incredible. >> you ready, keith? >> i'm ready, kenny. >> hey, look at us. believing in our selves. >> the think the future of animation is very bright. kids love cartoons and adults love cartoons. animation can make anybody laugh. >> i'm going to tell my dad you swore at me. he's a dad. >> then you can solve your murder you nosey little. >> frank, no. >> there's going to be more talent out there and giving us a show we haven't seen before and i look forward to that. >> what should we watch next? what about this? >> yoo-hoo, olive oil. i brung you some flowers. >> i think i still probably do the homer simpson like, ah. >> sunsets. thank god there's only one of these a day. >> we've been looking into a project together for a long

time. >> hello, nurse. >> yogi, why don't you eat nuts and berries like all the other bears? >> nuts and barrys, sheesh, what a grouch. >> ranger isn't going to like this, yogi. that's all folks. \s >> ranger isn't going to like this, yogi. that's all folks. \s a grouch. >> ranger isn't going to like this, yogi. that's all folks. \s is there a difference between parody and satire? obviously, parody is, man, i don't know. >> well, you know, jerry, my brother, and jim abrams always have an answer for that. >> and i think of -- i don't know. i got to look it up in the dictionary. i'm sure they have wonderful, better descriptions of what the word is. >> parody is essentially a takeoff. >> parody is like what weird al yankovic does. >> i think we're done here.

>> hold on. satire is hard. >> sa tire is a more serious and intensive form of comedy derision. >> it's making fun of things so they might get better. >> you are trying to make a social point. >> to me good satire is -- >> the greatest weapon against [ bleep ]. and the world is full of [ bleep ]. ♪ this is captain james t. kirk of the starship enterprise. ufd yourself. >> "snl" does parody all the time.

name a cartoon, they trade in it. name a light night talk show, they trade in it. why? because it's common reference. like we all know the thing they're parodying. >> parody is very much taking something that we recognize, a song that everybody knows, a movie that everybody knows. it's a very grand tradition of taking known forms and skewing them just enough to make a comment about them. >> in your show of shows in the 1950s, they were parody dg things that people knew like the famous kissing scene in "from here to eternity." everybody in america had seen that movie. it was something that everyone could relate to. and then everyone feels like, yes, we're all in this together. >> we did a takeoff on "gone with the wind," the younger audience didn't know the original movie. those who did know the movie, it was a double whammy. >> the gown is gorgeous. >> thank you. i saw it in the window and i

just couldn't resist it. >> parody tends to make me laugh harder, but satire tends to make me go, oh, that's good. >> that's 11 votes for amy schumer, not hot enough for television. anybody vote in the other way? >> amy schumer did a piece about "12 angry men." that's a great gem piece of satire. you look at people who just get it. they get what it is. they don't try to make it too big. they don't try to go too broad with it. they stay close to the bone and twist it a little bit. >> it's an undisputed fact that a woman's value is mostly determined by her looks. >> as it should be. >> the verdict is in. the jury agreed they would bang you. >> yes. >> you're hot enough for basic cable television. >> thank you, your honor. thank you so much. >> you earn the right to be transgressive by being funny really funny, and making sure you're not making fun of the victims. satire is comedy aimed at the powerful. >> is that who i think it is? >> yes, it's adolf hitler in a

home movie. >> looks like mel brooks. >> in terms of parody and satire, there really is mel brooks and then there's everybody else. when i was a kid, vhs tapes were invented so we had "the godfather" and then we had every mel brooks movie and he was the funniest. >> i would like to get back to your television days because, i mean, you were in television for something like 20 years writing with sid caesar. >> it was very good to be part of the writing staff of the show of shows, "the sid cedar show." >> you talk about it as a training ground. is that how you see it? >> comedy university, it really was. >> mel brooks was one of the highest paid comedy writers in the history of show business when he worked for "your show of shows" so by the time of "the producers" he was one of the most critically acclaimed people in comedy. >> joseph, you are smoking in the presence of the fuhrer. >> i'm sorry, big daddy.

>> "the producers" was not the first attempt to parody hitler. earns lubich had done it. the three stooges had done it in a couple of film shorts. but it really was the embodiment of a lot of what mel brooks was about. he does have this hitler obsession. >> there's only one way to get even. you have to bring him down with ridicule. it's been one of my life-long jobs, been to make the world laugh at adolf hitler. ♪ >> you don't have the aspiration to be serious. >> [ bleep ]. all my films are serious. you examine any one of them, they're serious because they're passionate and they depict human behavior at given points in the history of humanity. >> mel brooks grew up loving westerns. as he got older, still loved

them from his childhood but you look back on them and go, wow, that's really racist. some of this stuff is really messed up. that's where "blazing saddles" comes from. >> "blazing saddles" was very satirical but it did it by making you [ bleep ] your pants laughing. >> what he manages to do with the high and the low is astonishing. you can have one scene where a horse is knocked out with a punch and then deal with race relations about an african-american sheriff. that's pretty heady stuff. >> as chairman of the welcoming committee, it is my privilege to extend the laurel and hardy handshake to our new -- >> mel brooks tells a story about saying to the head of the studio, can i do this? and the head of the studio is saying, well, if you're going to walk up to the bell, you got to ring it.

and mel brooks rings it. >> you can't make a successful comedy that doesn't say something about the system. about the social structure. about prejudice. about people, about behavior. "blazing saddles" is all about racial prejudice. it's about the hypocritical west [ bleep ] over a black sheriff and wanting him dead. >> and now for my next impression, jesse owens. >> seize them. >> satire is something that touches the heart of everyone. we can go, this is a problem that our society has. >> "blazing saddles" is an indictment of racism. >> they're darker than us. >> and showing its absurdity in this great parody of american genre. >> life. life, do you hear me? >> there is a certain grammar to those old movies and mel brooks stuck to the form of them. he just twisted it a little bit here and there and it's brilliant. >> you see his love of cinema in

all of his parodies. "high anxiety" is satire of all hitchcock films and silent movie and "space balls" is a satire of george lucas. >> may the schwartz -- >> what i love about him is lots of times people say, oh, that is very funny, but we can't say that. mel would go, that's very funny. we're going to say that. >> it's good to be the king. ♪ ♪ ♪ raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens ♪ ♪ bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens ♪ ♪ brown paper packages tied up with strings ♪ ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ ♪ ♪

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the magazine "m.a.d. magazine," edition number 1.

the date, 1952. >> in the '40s there were things you should never joke about. religion, politics, things were still sacred. "m.a.d. magazine" changed that. it was very, very influential. it was embraced by the comedy community and it was sort of like a precursor to underground comics in the late '60s. >> i never had been exposed to that kind of humor before. it was like shaking your fist at authority in a clever and funny way. >> in case you're not familiar with "m.a.d." it's a magazine of broad satire aimed at practically everything americans hold dear, sex, success, beauty, patriotism, anti-patriotism, war groups, anti-war groups, you name it. in one issue or another, "m.a.d." has aimed its blunt instrument at it. >> i remember begging my father to buy the issue of king kong "m.a.d." magazine because it was network was parodying.

it's called nut work. i was trying to sell him on it. you would enjoy it too, if you ever read "m.a.d. magazine." >> "m.a.d. magazine" was aggressive but they always pulled your punches. it was nothing to get you thrown out of school. "national lampoon" put nothing in there that wouldn't get you kicked out of school. here was a magazine to hide from your parents and your wife. >> it had nasty pictures in it. these are not magazines you can open in this office now. that's all i can say. they are so politically incorrect. >> to see people using humor as a weapon the way that the kids that started "national lampoon" did was just, i thought, this is great. >> it's often the only magazine that a lot of younger people today read. why that is, i think, they trust us. >> another clue to the success of the magazine was that unlike "m.a.d. magazine," all the artwork was done very

intentionally to replicate whatever was being parodied. and that was a big difference from what had been in the counterculture prior to that. >> the 1970s were a fertile time for humor and you people were bitter, caustic, smutty, dirty, funny and -- >> drunk. >> drunk. and largely outrageous. >> the hopes of the '60s had given way to the frustrations of the '70s. the vietnam war was obviously lost. the civil rights movement had won and the argument was over, but of course it wasn't. >> the craziness of that period is what made "national lampoon" a success, people needed to laugh. >> we did a very interesting parody of "the joy of sex," "the job of sex." >> we called the book the job of sex and divided it into punching down type, overtime, on the job injuries and workers compensation. >> at the "national lampoon," there was certainly an enjoyment of being edgy and shocking. >> you're listening to the

national lampoon radio hour. >> the national lampoon radio hour was a syndicated radio show written and produced by "the national lampoon" which was the magazine in audio form. that's where i was first exposed to people that went on to much bigger fame, people like bill murray. a lot of the "saturday night live" people started out as national lampoon people. >> let's do 20 face laps. >> gilda and john did this show in this sort of weird space under the time life building. >> they're the cast of the new "national lampoon" show which opens this friday at the new palladium cabaret. >> and then lorne michaels came in and poped all these people. >> gilda radner, john bellucci and -- >> lorraine new man. >> lorne michaels pitched it as a cross between "monty python" and "60 minutes." he said, it's going to work. >> for outstanding comedy, variety or music series, nbc's saturday night".

>> i'd like to thank the city of new york for the correct combination of rejection and "s. >> i'd like to thank the city of new york for the correct combination of rejection and alienation which keeps the comedy spirit alive. >> when something really revolutionary happens, when you first see it, it should look wrong. "saturday night live" when you first saw it, what is this? >> rule number one, if you do parody, you better have somebody who can deliver it, both in the writers' room and on stage. >> hey, norton? >> hey. >> what made "saturday night live" different is this phenomenon that happened in the '60s was this youth culture and the youth market. our show was the first one to really have a voice for a younger generation. >> land shark. still the cleverest species of them all. >> it was the first time our generation was allowed to do tv and be on tv and write tv. so, we were parodying things that carol burnett show didn't

parody. >> your momma eats kitty litter. >> nobody talk about my momma. >> i got put in charge of producing the commercial parodies because i had worked in advertising. you have to establish the product, say why people need it and also allow for the comedy. i have a certain fondness for royal deluxe ii where the rabbi circumsizes a baby in the back seat of a car to show how smooth the ride was. commercial parities became a trademark of "saturday night live." >> just for you. just one whiff does the trick. >> some of their parodies were really speaking to the times. the sexual awakenings of '60s and '70s, there was a connection to reality. >> hey, you. for that special someone you never expect to see again. >> when you have 18 minutes of commercials in your time period, then to not comment on

commercials would be ridiculous. >> who am i? why am i here? when i'm done rolling up this booger, should i eat it or throw it out the window? >> the commercial parodies endure because they reflected not only the culture at the time -- >> super colon blow -- >> -- but also the way that madison avenue tried to sell things. >> we're out of crackling oat flakes. >> how about new crackling oat flakes now with ecstasy. >> we get to talk back to the corporate monoluths. everywhere we go there's bill boars. every time you turn on the tv, it's commercials. it's the one time "snl" has figured it out where you can strike back. >> i can't hear you, dude. what? piece of crap! hey, i think that phone you bought me is busted.

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madison, wisconsin. in 1972 moved the show to l.a. >> quiet. hold still! >> we wanted to make that show into a movie. >> poisonous fish. >> "kentucky fried movie" was doing individual bits without a story. >> i'm not wearing any pants. film at 11:00. >> what we were trying to do with "kentucky fried movie" was get into the movie business. there's a certain z.a.z. sense of humor, whatever that is. for me the most fun was making david and jim laugh. we each trusted the other two as arbiters whether our ideas were funny or not. something about the three of us, we had a common vision. >> sound your alarm bell now. >> all right. now, everybody. get in crash position. >> "airplane!" had that anything can happen quality. that to me is a seminal movie,

that to me is a movie that changed my perspective on comedy. >> okay, boys. let's get some pictures. >> these brilliant people had collected 100,000 of the funniest jokes and crammed them into a movie and they were so relentlessly funny. >> what the hell's going on up there? >> every moment of it, it transports you to the land of magic mushrooms. if you're wondering what magic mushrooms feels like, it feels like you are "airplane!" >> was this idea for this motion picture a well-planned vehicle or more accidental in nature? >> we were all watched movie on late night television called "zero hour" and it was lucky because it was essentially -- well, at least a very similar plot to what "airplane!" is. >> we have never found a movie since that was as perfect for satire or parody. it worked great but not a joke in the whole thing, but we thought it was hilarious. >> you better tell the captain. we have to land as soon as we can.

this woman has to be gotten to a hospital. >> what do you think it is? >> i don't know but i know it's serious enough to get to the city with nearest hospital abilities. tell the captain i want to talk to him. >> certainly. >> it's really film noir acting. >> please help me. >> not only does it fit the style of acting we love, but also because we had the film to look at, there were a lot of shots that we just took. we said, hey, this is great. we wanted to go shot for shot so it really would look like an old movie. in fact, scene for scene. we just copied it. >> because of my mistake, six men didn't return from that raid. >> because of my mistake, six men didn't return from that raid. >> we have visitors. >> hello. >> hi. >> we have a visitor. >> hello. >> hi. >> basically what we do is set up familiar situations and then we reverse the audience's expectation of the outcome. >> would you like to have it? >> thank you. thanks a lot. >> sure. you ever been in a cockpit before? >> no, sir. i've never been up in a plane before.

>> you ever seen a grown man naked? >> the acting style and the committing to the absolutely serious dramatic portrayal of the roles is the essence of the film and why we insisted on directing it. >> you better tell the captain, we have to land as soon as we can. this woman has to be gotten to a hospital. >> a hospital. what is it? >> it's a big building with patients but that's not important right now. tell the captain i must speak to him. >> certainly. >> leslie was such a character actor unknown at the time. i'm amazed he could have done all those serious movies all those years because he's really a closet comedian. well, out of the closet after we got through with him. >> when i see five weirdos dressed in togas stabbing a guy in the middle of the park in full view of 100 people, i shoot the bastard, that's my policy. >> that was a production of "julius cesar," you moron. >> even the zainiest, craziest comedy needs a good story.

by the time we got to "the naked gun" we knew how to do the plot and character. >> everywhere i look, something reminds me of her. >> we love doing visual puns. >> you have to stay ahead of the audience. a lot of people see the joke developing. it's always a contest to beat them to the punch. >> bingo. >> the audience can't be expecting it, otherwise, i mean, it won't be funny. >> nice beaver. >> thank you. i just had it stuffed. >> let me help you with that. >> there are certain kinds of jokes that the sexual content is in the eye of the beholder. we're just talking about this stuffed beaver up there. we don't mean anything sexual, you know. so, that's -- that's your fault if you -- if you think that. >> the zhuk ker brothers proved this time and time again. it's somehow not as funny to have some kind of goofy guy being goofy, but it works when you have serious people doing

outrageous things. >> if we had anything to do with all the great satires that came after us, i'm thrilled if we encouraged people. >> that smells like pure gasoline. >> they've done studies, you know. 60% of the time it works. every time. >> that doesn't make sense. >> maybe people said, oh, gee, i could do that. that doesn't look that difficult. >> oh, behave. yeah. yeah, baby!

ladies and gentlemen, i would like to reaffirm the art of ventriloquism is not dead. would you welcome the very funny mr. albert brooks. >> i was around a lot of comedians in my group. i mean, i was with billy crystal, robin williams. whenever albert was in the group, everybody recognized that there was nobody like that. it was like a challenge dance. you just step back and let him go. >> well, good evening, everybody. yes, hello, everybody! i'm dave. and i'm danny. >> when you see early albert brooks footage he's often parodying old-school show business. that's what he knew. his father was a comedian. his brother is a comedian. >> albert was very meta. and all of his stuff was about the conventions of the trade. danny and dave was about the lameness of ventriloquism. >> i'm a little nervous being on television and everything.

why don't you have a cigarette? that always calms you down. >> great. >> there was content, funniness, but the target of the comedy was the standard form of show business. >> hello. i'm albert brooks. and i'm speaking to you on behalf of the famous school for comedians. >> one of the first things i ever saw him do was the school for comedians. >> let's see how these kids are doing. >> he was walking past the spit take class. >> i just walked into the room. now, start to drink. good. now, i speak. guess what? i just heard from a bank and not only don't you have any money, but your sister is dead. that was funny. >> what was special was his singular vision, his style. this was alternative comedy, for sure. >> during the next hour you will see the first in a series of programs entitled "an american family." >> albert had been watching "an

american family," which was the first reality show. it was on pbs. they spent a year filming a real family, the loud family. >> you got all the boys, i got all the girls. you can't beat it. >> both of us shared the sense that there was a lie at the heart of this, which is that the camera can be there without changing things. when we did "real life," the movie together, the underlying notion was to poke fun at that idea. >> welcome home. aloha! look at this. >> albert brooks plays himself, a filmmaker and i play the head of this american family that has been chosen to be filmed for a year. >> honey, do you think it's safe for you to be eating with your heating pad in your lap? >> i have terrible cramps. i am bleeding profusely and i want to vomit on the table. [ laughs ] what are you doing? >> i just want to let them know this is not the way we usually talk, especially at the dinner

table. >> "real life" is about reality tv. this was years before it even existed. so, albert brooks is dealing on a whole different level. whereas with "spinal tap" you're making fun of a group of idiots who are likeable but not the smartest people in the world. >> hi, i'm rob reiner and i just directed my first film "spinal tap." it's a comedy, about a british rock 'n' roll band. >> "spinal tap" was improvised but it was shot like a documentary. >> during the flower people period, who was yourself drummer? >> it was tragic, really. he exploded on stage. just like that. >> he just went up. >> he was just like a flash of green light and that was it. nothing was left. >> you know, dozens of people spontaneously combust each year. it's just not widely reported. >> right. >> yes. >> movies kept getting rock 'n'

roll wrong. so the real drive of the project was, it's not that hard. let's get it right. ♪ my baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo ♪ ♪ i like to sink her with my pink torpedo ♪ ♪ big bottom >> it helps to like something enough to pay close attention so when it comes time to parodize it comes naturally. >> that's not parodize lost. >> is that in the film? >> no. it will be in the sequel. >> how much more black can it be? and the answer is, none. none. >> is that good? >> rock 'n' roll! >> we made this movie and the guy who was shooting it, i hired him because he shot all these rock 'n' roll documentaries and i thought, he'll be perfect. >> hello, cleveland! hello, cleveland! >> he's watching this and he says, what's funny about this? this isn't funny. this is exactly what goes on. but to me that was a great compliment because it was saying, we're capturing real life, what people actually

experience in that rock 'n' roll world, and that to me is the best comedy. the comedy that connects with real experience. >> people said, oh, this is so new and then you say, well, no, you could take that back to woody allen's "take the money and run." . >> woody allen was a precursor but "spinal tap" was the one that really became a huge, critical success. now mchugh mentory is a style that has infiltrated not just cinema but television. that herky-jerky camera motion on "modern family." christopher guest's whoa trajectory has been mocumentary. >> hey, judge. look at me. >> his stuff is very specific. >> it's in the crate. >> where is it? >> it's in the crate. >> the fact it was improvised, that became a style of story telling. ♪ midnight at the oasis >> any time you introduce something that is effective and nothing like everything else --

>> really good. >> -- that's where you get something that's revolutionary. ♪ like a surgeon cutting for the very first time ♪ >> i've just always thought rock 'n' roll should be fun, which is why its healthy for me to sometimes prick the bubble of pretentiousness that sometimes pervades the industry. ♪ i love rocky road why don't you go have a gallon baby ♪ ♪ i love rocky road have another dip with me ♪ >> i give myself several guidelines and parameters when i'm writing my parody songs. it needs to be funny even if people aren't familiar with the original source material. but i would say 90% of the time i'm just dealing with what is a very current, popular mainstream song and how can i somehow make that strange? ♪ eat it, eat it open up your mouth and feed it ♪ ♪ have some more yogurt have some more spam ♪

♪ it doesn't matter if it's fresh or canned ♪ ♪ eat it eat it >> "eat it" is weird al's most successful parody to date. as you can see, it is a have you hadio southwest a musical parody of michael jackson's work. >> i did a parody of every single shot of that video because people were so familiar with it. they knew every little detail. all i had to do was tweak everything a little bit and it became funny. ♪ most of our lives living in an amish paradise ♪ >> weird al yan yankovic when he does a parody did, it's a song he has to admit on one level, it is a good song but i can have some fun with it. when he did the song "perform this way" he asked lady gaga and she said, that song is very important. i'd rather you not. her fans said, you let weird al do -- like, they got -- oh, sorry, didn't know. never mind, go ahead. ♪ i'm sure my granny will say it's a grotesque display ♪ ♪ they can fight me, baby, i perform this way ♪

♪ i'll be covered with these ♪ it doesn't mean i'm crazy ♪ i perform this way >> what i like about my job is a pop culture cuisnart. i get all this input from everywhere, and i mix it all up and spew it out. i'm providing cultural commentary. and hope flu it's amazing to people. ♪ i'm not insane i just perform this way ♪

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♪ that's dandy. ho, ho, that's rich, i'll say. now, how about some color, stupid? hey! >> my big influence when i was a kid was warner bros. cartoons. the timing on those is brilliant. they were parodying things i didn't understand but it was still really funny. ♪ >> heil hitler. >> one of the things animation has that gives it certain advantages is that on the surface it has the appearance of being very safe. so, animators can be more satirical. it just feels a little more

benign because it's animated. >> well, dave, i have a hilarious new movie coming out on hbo next month. it's all about 9/11. the movie is called september 11th, 2000 fun. >> anybody that's going to do parody or satire can say so many things. you could go so many places. just the practicality of not having to build these things in the real world and having an actor do them. you can have hoper roll out the door, roll down the hill and roll back into the car as it plummets off the cliff. >> "the simpsons" can cram 650 pop culture references quietly into an episode and you either pick it up or you don't. but it's there. so, they're just these little parody easter eggs all over the place. ♪ >> "the simpsons" to pretty much all comedy writers, they're the cathedral you walk 800 miles to go see. i mean, they are definitive. >> i always had a little bit of a cartoon sensibility. and then, lo and behold, all these years later i get a job at "the simpsons."

♪ there was an episode when i worked there that was a "cape fear" parody. it was all about sideshow bob coming to get his revenge against bart. what's great is you don't need to have seen "cape fear." the beauty of "the simpsons" is you don't need to know the reference in order to still think that something funny is happening. ♪ how's it going, guys >> when "south park" happened the vessel of animation, it could look like [ bleep ], it could look luke your kid did it. it's doesn't matter how the car got there. it's the content that's traveling. >> ramadan. >> hey, look, an infidel. >> don't let the fact it's animated and don't let the fact that it's about a bunch of children fool you. it is about satire. >> this year we're taking the

boys on a weekend boat trip to discuss jesus' role as the navigator of our lives. >> catholic boat trip? ♪ the catholic boat is going to be heading on out today ♪ >> people who hate religion have glommed on to our show because we make fun of religion. we make fun of everything. >> i have, in my possession, an and you shept book written on gold plates that tells of jesus christ second coming here in america. >> in america? really? that sounds kind of -- ♪ dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb >> "south park" guys clearly live in a bunker or they're sociopaths. they do not care who they offend. they burn every bridge and they have absolutely no fear. >> category is people who annoy you. audience, keep quiet. >> i know it but i don't think i should say it. >> five seconds, mr. marsh. >> i would like to solve the

puzzle. huh? >> i don't think we've come up with something and been like, that's going too far because you can't do that. the groups that come and get angry at us and then we say okay, we'd better not make fun of them anymore, it has to be all okay or none of it is okay. >> there was just one thing you didn't count on, that more people besides me hate "family guy." >> yeah. >> tonight, "family guy" creator seth macfarlane offender. he's an qua opportunity offender. sarah palin, christians, gays, no one off limits. >> i live in a crummy neighborhood. >> the bradies? >> yeah, they got robbers, thugs, drug deal's, you name it. >> you folks want some pancakes? >> no, thank you. >> we have gee my ma witnesses. >> where is the line for you? is there a line? >> the jfk pez dispenser i wish we had never done. that was over the line.

>> take him out. >> check it out. it's a john f. kennedy pez dispenser. good thing i still have my bobby kennedy pez dispenser. >> seth macfarlane pushes the envelope more than i've ever seen anyone else do. >> screw this. i just came up here to buy some fireworks. >> it's a little bit hateful, a little bit hurtful because, my god, it's so [ bleep ] funny. >> sorry, wonder woman. i got three kings. now let's see your pair. all right. robin, what are you looking at me for? look at her. >> animation allows you to do whatever you want. it's probably the freest form of your manning nation there is. >> down in front. >> in that sense, it's a comedy writer's dream. if i were 23 again and starting over, i would beeline towards animation. >> you may not be old enough to drive, but if you are a safe passenger, you have a job to do. gary is checking to make sure that the parking brake is in the proper release position. all clear, gary?

>> the bought to tell outlandish stories and very small jokes at the very same time is yours if you mastered animation. >> i'm han solo, captain of the millennium falcon and the only actor whose career isn't destroyed by this movie. ♪ when i received the diagnoses, i knew at that exact moment ... i'm beating this. my main focus was to find a team of doctors. it's not just picking a surgeon, it's picking the care team and feeling secure in where you are. visit cancercenter.com/breast

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♪ oklahoma state university. >> exquisite team, university of nebraska. >> i don't know that the internet has changed comedy itself that much. there's a lot more of it. still, when you look at the individual pieces, it's still comedy. it's the way we experience it that's changed. >> the reason that parody is even stronger now is because we are in this viral internet culture where most stuff is now watched online in little bits and it's presented in a oh, you got to see this. click on this and you're not going to believe this. >> don't call me bitch, i'm a grown man! >> bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. >> god, you're mean. >> the idea was everything. the idea was parody. >> why are there newspapers all over the place?

>> political satire. crazy characters. sketches. it was anything that was fun that you wanted to try that a network would never put on. >> i would like to welcome my first guest, jessica chastain. >> you had a program that's a sendup of talk shows so it's a satire of talk shows. >> real interested in the work you've been doing down in haiti. tell us a little bit about that. is there a six flags down there? >> there's not, no. >> we can move on. >> the new medium, especially sites just for comedy, i think they're a good thing for the business. especially "funny or die" which is great because there is a democratization there. >> hey, dude, you want to play madden? >> the things that succeed on the internet is happening organically. i'm seeing a hilarious video, it's largely because somebody shared it. ♪

>> it all began with this, a comedy rap video pirated from "saturday night live" turned up on the website youtube, the suits at nbc took notice. they didn't like the piracy but they sure loved the buzz. >> it spread like wildfire. 6 million streams. >> baby boomers who grew up with "snl," they stopped watching at a certain point. and if you're going to be on network television for 40 years, you adapt or die. lonely island and the digital shorts gave a whole new port of entry for younger viewers who maybe hadn't even seen the show. ♪ should have ran for the president ♪ ♪ i ran we ran together to a tropical island ♪ >> digital shorts are obviously how you made your name. my favorite is blank in a box. >> blank in a box. that's what we can say in the morning. ♪ one cut a hole in a box ♪ two put your junk in that box ♪ ♪ three make her open the box ♪ and that's the way you do it ♪ put my [ bleep ] in a box

>> what they do isn't direct parodies like i'm famous for. but they'll take various memes and make it more ridiculous than it is already. it's a caricature. nobody care? moving on? let's check income with baby prudence, the 14th day home and she's still safe and sound. >> new media and youtube and the internet in regard to the success of our show is the success of our show. for example, i was stopped one day on the street by a girl. and she said to me, i've been with you guys since the beginning when you guys were making videos. she had no idea that we had a television show. could be worse. >> not that bad. >> their show was mostly online. their show was mostly youtube clips. >> i watched one of their sketches on youtube, then at the end jordan and keating come on they're basically like, look, we appreciate you watching, would you please watch the broadcast show? they're like begging. that's the way networks make

money. that's where the profit is, is on the network, is broadcasting. >> we didn't know this was going to happen. you'd have told me substitute teacher was going to have 98 million hits online, i'm like, what? >> uh, do you mean jacqueline? >> okay. so that's how it's gonna be. y'all wanna play. okay, then. i got my eye on you. >> in the aggregate we're approaching 1 billion hits. >> ski and peel. a billion? like what, what? >> [ bleep ] get out, you're off the show. sorry, chef. >> because you should be working in the finest restaurant in the world. >> thank you, chef. >> just not any world that i live in. >> one of the things humor and comedy does is it gets your attention. it comes in the form of a joke, it comes in the form of satire, if it has an entertainment value, people will listen to it.

>> working off of something that's in pop culture is very satisfying because it gives everyone a sense that we're all in on it. in a fractured age where people feel very alone i think a lot of mankind's desire is to feel like we're together. >> i know y'all do these parodies on your show. >> oh, thank you. >> no, thank you. no. don't do one of "empire." >> i wouldn't. >> do that. >> okay. >> [ bleep ] [ bleep ] is up with me, man? >> what if -- we may be there already but what if as a nation or as a world, too many of us are spending too much time parodying and satiring culture? no one's going to be growing crops. no one's going to be trucking them into cities. no one's going to be canning goods. we're all just going to be -- look what i just made. i made this funny thing. and future aliens will come to

this earth and find our skeletons holding our devices. they'll realize that the romans collapsed because there was lead in the water. we might be killed by too much parody and satire. >> drones armed with explosives target the venezuelan president. it's called an assassination attempt by the far right. >> plus he's lashing out in public but in private he is concerned about his children getting tangled up in the russia investigation. >> also a mother's pain. a police commissioner pledge and attorney's vow. a closer look at the dangerous street gang ms-13. it's all ahead here this hour. welcome to our viewers here in the u.s. and all around the world. i'm natalie allen live from atlanta and this is cnn newsroom.