The 84th Academy Awards will air on ABC on February 26th (insert obligatory circle-jerk joke here) and will be hosted by Billy Crystal because, why not? He has experience; he probably won’t ruffle any feathers; and who cares? The Academy Awards are the second most watched telecast of the year, behind the Super Bowl, no matter who the host is. As last minute replacements go, you could do worse. It would be difficult, but I’m sure it’s possible.

The first “trailer” for the Academy Awards is up on YouTube now, and it features the non-existent talents of Josh Duhamel (the poor man’s Johnny Knoxville), Megan Fox (who is way too young to have had so much plastic surgery), Vinnie Jones, and Robin Williams. The trailer (after the jump) is perfect for lulling you into the kind of apathetic slumber that will prepare you for the ceremony itself.

I hope you bailed before the end because the punchline wasn’t worth the minute it took to get there.

HBO has long produced some of the best televised stand-up comedy specials, and even if that sweeping general statement isn’t true, I think I should get a pass because of Eddie Murphy’s “Delirious.”  But that’s all going to end in December when HBO airs “Robin Williams: Weapons of Self-Destruction.”  I’ve included a clip from his current tour below so you can see how hilarious it is.  (Get it?  “Bomb” and “bong” are similar-sounding words!)

Williams has done four solo specials on HBO. The most recent, which aired in 2002, received five Emmy nominations. His relationship with HBO dates back to his appearance on a “Young Comedians” show in 1977.

Williams co-stars with John Travolta in the upcoming Disney comedy “Old Dogs.” [AP]

This is just sad.  I used to love Williams’s unhinged manic energy when he was coked out of his mind.  I laughed my ass off when he pretended to be a Shakespearean actor and said, “The moon like a testicle hangs low in the sky.”  Now it’s just a bunch of jokes told in rapid succession, which is unfortunate because crappy jokes told fast are still just crappy jokes.  He’s just telling more of them than most bad comics.