Columbia Professor Eric Foner appeared on The Colbert Report last night to lay down the gauntlet against some down-home history-rewriting conservatives. (The Texas School Board recently axed apparently-too-liberal Thomas Jefferson from their textbooks.) Colbert had Foner “answer for his liberal crimes,” and in so doing, provide a lot of food for thought on the politicization of the classroom. Watch and laugh your Wednesday away:

Everyone’s favorite Freddy Got Fingered star made a special appearance at Penn this past week for his comedy tour and ended up partying with Penn students. On his website, the actor — and famous ex-husband of Drew Barrymore — posted a video of himself tapping a keg in some unidentified coven of Penn students, all of whom look either ecstatic or bemused.

Where has Green’s career gone? The man used to make big[-ish] movies — now he’s partying at the most oppressively horrible party scene in the Ivy League [well, except for all the others]. With eighteen-year-olds. In the video, he looks quite old… but happy. Maybe the Ivy League is more fun than we think it is — or maybe he’s just collecting material.

I was blissfully zoned out in front of the TV last summer when an ad came on for reruns of a popular show. “If you haven’t seen them,� the ad smugly pointed out, “then they’re new to you.�

Following this thought, I humbly present these “new to you� short videos from this summer’s Rooftop Comedy National College Comedy Competition (where students tried to not suck at stand up, and the ones who were actually funny advanced to regional finals, and then nationals). Representin’ on the Ivy front we have Harvard, Brown and Columbia. Get ready, some truly epic entertainment awaits:

Harrison Greenbaum, Harvard ’08 (regional semi-finalist) is freakin’ hilarious. For real, someone buy this kid a beer–in the middle of his stand up comedy routine, he busts out a magic trick.

More stand-up comedy after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

A particularly detail-oriented tipster noticed that, during a bit about forms of identification on last Thursday’s Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert brandished a PennCard.

John T. Lowey, are you out there sans ID?

Perhaps Colbert brought it back as a souvenir from filming on campus when the show relocated to Philly during the Democratic primaries. Refresher video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

A team of Brooklyn-based Yalies and other miscellaneous Ivy-types have started what may well be the world’s first online sitcom: Duder. Although the terrible name is probably setting off alarm bells of lameness for some of you, judge not too quickly! The three episodes posted so far are actually pretty hilarious. Plots: sturdy. Production values: impressive. Comic timing: competent to inspired. We’ve come to appreciate the show’s Seinfeld 2.0 themes and delightful awkwardness — the show’s take on interracial dating in episode one, shown below, is guaranteed to have you squirming.

So here’s to you, Duder. You’re proof that we don’t all have to become stunningly mediocre tools after we graduate.

More solid clips after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »