Not Roseanne! TV Personalities People Are Hoping Will Die in 2012

01.26.12 Written by Josh

This past weekend, Dick Tufeld, who provided the voice of the robot on “Lost in Space,” passed away at the age of 85. It was one of the first big TV personality deaths of 2012, and obviously won’t be the last. *Cash register opening noise* If you’re a betting (wo)man who has an inside tip that, say, Emeril Lagasse or Danny DeVito is going to croak this year, then you might want to join the Lee Atwater Invitational Dead Pool on Stiffs.com.

It’s one of the Internet’s most popular death pools, and the rules are as such:

Pick ten famous people you think might die between January 1st and December 31st. Each entry costs you 15 bucks, and at the end of the year, the list with the most dead celebs wins a sh*tload of cash. This year, First Prize is $3000 in cold, hard, American currency.

The highest TV person on the list is a surprising choice: 68-year-old Penny Marshall at #9 with 311 votes. Some very old people come after her, including 94-year-old Phyllis Diller at #29, 82-year-old Dick Clark at #31, and 91-year-old Mickey Rooney at #36. Jiminy jillikers! The further down the list you go, however, is when you start to see the WILD CARD selections, the celebrities with only single-digits votes, like Artie Lange (9), Andy Dick (7), and Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart (6). Then there are the single-VOTE selections, who could win someone a good chunk of change should they fall off a tall building or something. Here are but a few.

(Also: not that you’d ever, EVER wish death upon anyone, but: who do you think will die in 2012?)

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Tina Fey and ?uestlove Ate a Peace Hoagie

01.11.12 Written by Danger Guerrero

Last night on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” Tina Fey settled a beef with Roots’ drummer ?uestlove by eating a giant hoagie. As much as I want leave this post at that and hit publish, I will explain. The other night on the Bravo talk show “Watch What Happens Live,” ?uestlove had called out Fey, saying she was “never nice to The Roots” even though they’re both from Philadelphia. When she appeared on “Fallon,” she brought this up, saying her initial reaction as a Philly girl was to “key his car, drag him behind the Wawa” and kick his ass. Instead, they made up in the traditional Philadelphia way: they shared a huge hoagie.

As Uproxx’s resident Philadelphian, my official analysis of the whole situation is this: Wawa is the best. You don’t even know. It’s like the Wonka factory of convenience stores. (NOTE: If you try to come at me with some “So, what, it’s like a 7-Eleven?” bullsh-t, I swear to God I will cut you with a broken Yuengling bottle. Same for any of my fellow Eastern PA residents who bring up Turkey Hill or Sheetz. You would be unwise to test me.) They have delicious hoagies and coffee, as well as their own line of ice cream and ice teas. Without exaggeration, I would estimate that I went to Wawa for one thing or another no less than four times a week during college. It’s a little less frequent now, but BARELY. Usually, I get my standard order of one (1) foot-long chicken salad hoagie and one (1) half-gallon of ice tea. Sometimes I get chocolate ice cream, too. Seriously, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW. Good Lord, now I’m getting hungry.

In conclusion, all you Californians with your In-N-Out Burgers can go jump in a lake. Wawa, son. Philly stand up.

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The Fifteen Greatest ’30 Rock’ Pop Culture References

01.11.12 Written by Josh


What would you say is the toughest sitcom to have an encyclopedic knowledge of? “The Simpsons” is likely the first show that came to mind, considering it’s been on for 23 seasons and will soon air its 500th episode. Maybe “Seinfeld” or “Friends,” too. But a dark horse – possibly one ridden from Heaven by Thomas Jefferson – candidate is “30 Rock.” Unlike “The Simpsons,” “30 Rock” rarely has a coherent plot; the show’s nothing more than a string of time-spanning jokes and pop culture references (everything from a porn parody of Amadeus called I’m-a-Do-Us to Liz getting mad at her mom for not marrying Buzz Aldrin because she could have been played by Laura Linney in HBO’s Moon Wives), with dialogue so rapid fire that you remember individual lines more than actual scenes – and that’s why it’s so great.

To celebrate the beginning of the show’s sixth season, which airs tomorrow on NBC at 8 p.m., here are the 15 Greatest “30 Rock” Pop Culture References. And if you’ve ever participated in a “30 Rock” Trivia Night: props.

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New ‘Justified’ and ’30 Rock’ Trailers Should Make Everyone in the World Happy

12.14.11 Written by Josh

For years, HBO was the king of the promo. Their between-seasons trailers for “The Sopranos” and, in particular, “Six Feet Under” were a thing of beauty. I still occasionally watch the Nina Simone-scored promo for season four of “SFU”; it said everything you needed to know about the show in less than three minutes. Namely, DEATH IS EVERYWHERE.

But call 911, because someone’s committed regicide: FX has slain the king. Their promos have become increasingly awesome over the past couple of years, and they’ve outdone themselves with the teasers for season three of “Justified,” which premieres on January 17, 2012. The newest one’s got angry Boyd! Angrier Raylan! People crashing through glass! Um, Subway! It’s pretty great. View it after the jump, as well as the trailer for season six of “30 Rock,” featuring a WNBA booty-shaking Liz and Kelsey Grammer.

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‘SNL’ Cut Its Funniest Skit

05.10.11 Written by Matt

Here’s a skit that was cut from this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live” hosted by Tina Fey. A supposed tribute to great women writers, it takes a simple turn and produces more laughs in two and a half minutes than any other sketch that made it to air.

Now, I don’t pretend to know all the inner workings for “SNL.” It’s entirely possible another sketch ran long and this got cut not because it wasn’t good enough, but because it’s so short. Nevertheless, it’s emblematic of one of “SNL’s” biggest flaws: a tendency toward big, six-minutes sketches that draw out and repeat jokes. In contrast, the economy of “Great Women Writers” is remarkable: simple premise, no costumes, just Tina Fey talking to the camera and a Bill Hader voiceover that fires off a series of punch lines. By the time that one angle is exhausted, the skit’s over.

Memo to “SNL” writers: keep things short and sharp like this, and people won’t complain about how the show used to be better.

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