triumph the insult comic dog

No, not the TV Funhouse from Saturday Night Live (that's already on DVD, a best of). I'm talking about the short-lived Comedy Central series that that Robert Smigel did in 2000-2001. Paramount has announced that the DVD is coming in December.

If you've never seen the show, it was truly one of the more bizarre TV shows we've ever seen on television. It took the form of a kids shows hosted by Doug Dale and his "Anipals," really crass, creepy puppets. Each show had a "theme," such as "Western Day" or "Christmas Day" or "Astronaut Day."

Like Paul, I don't watch the Tonys, which isn't saying much because I don't watch the Oscars or the Emmys, either. The only award show I'll watch is the People's Choice Awards, and only because I didn't figure out until recently that the winners aren't all chosen by Nia Peeples. I just have a lot of respect for her opinion, I'm not sure why.

Anyway, Late Night with Conan O'Brien's resident insult dog puppet, Triumph, was as the Tony Awards (equipped with his Gaydar 4000), and as usual when Triumph crashes an event, the results are freaking hysterical. I want so badly to list all of my favorite lines from the bit, but since I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't seen it, check out the video below.

Late Night with Conan O'Brien's resident funny dog Triumph was inducted into the Las Vegas Police Department's K-9 Unit at this week's Las Vegas Comedy Festival. The cigar-chomping insult comedian accepted the honor with gratitude, "This is really an honor for me because my brother was a bomb-sniffing dog. In fact, that's how he was able to find Ben Affleck's last three movies." Fortunately, Triumph refrained from sniffing any of his K-9 colleagues' butts and, as of yet, has not pooped on any unsuspecting officers.

The week-long comedy festival was sponsored by HBO and AEG. Most of the performances were taped for later broadcast on TBS including the Jim Henson Company's improv performance Puppet Up! and Comic Relief 2006. The festival also played host to Dave Chappelle's latest no-show.

There hasn't been much talk about NBC's broadband video site DotComedy, and I've only poked around it a little bit myself, but before the end of this year, NBC plans to kick the site into high gear with clips of old shows, including Late Night with David Letterman, Coach and Dream On, and classic TV shows like Leave it to Beaver and The Munsters.

In an effort to woo viewers, the site will take on an aesthetic more akin to Comedy Central's Motherload site and feature both original and viewer-submitted content. The original series include "Hot Tub in Space," about a group of friends, in a hot tub, in space; "Untitled Comedy News Show," a parody of news programs that will actually pay viewers for jokes; "Easter Bunny Begins," a prequel to "The Easter Bunny Hates You" (video after the jump); "Triumph the Insult Comic Dog: Live In Las Vegas;" and "Kyle's in a Coma," about a guy named Kyle, who, funny enough, is in a coma.

The improved DotComedy will also feature clips from The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live. What, they can show classic Letterman, but not Carson?

[via Market My Monkey]

Hey, that would make a great title for a Smigel-hosted talk show, but it's actually the title of this Entertainment Weekly interview with the comic, writer, and puppet master.

He talks about several things, including his appearance at San Diego's Comic-Con, his new Best of TV Funhouse DVD, picking on nerds in high school, Borat, and why he wants to get Triumph The Insult Comic Dog on the Home Shopping Network.

He also talks about something I didn't even know was in the works: a big-screen Ambiguously Gay Duo movie. He says that a couple of A-list comedy stars might play Ace and Gary, but he can't talk about who they are right now. Hopefully it's the actual people who do the voices, Stephen Colbet and Steve Carell.

Conan O'Brien is once again taking his show on the road... all the way to windy Chicago. For the week of May 9-12, Conan will broadcast from the Chicago Theater. It's not something he does every year. In 1999, Conan went to Los Angeles, but his all-time best trip was to Toronto, Canada in 2003 where Jim Carrey and the Barenaked Ladies made the audiences go nuts. And Triumph the Insult Comic Dog famously became a topic of discussion in the Canadian Parliament when he targeted French-Canadians in a legendary sketch.

When he visits Chicago, what does Conan need to see?