Give A Gift
MOST RECENT ARTICLES BY:

Mike Drucker

See all their articles from across New York Magazine
  1. appreciations
    The Street Fighter Movie Is Good, ActuallyIt’s a class on everything that can go wrong with a film, and how all of that failure adds up to something truly special.
  2. The 20 Specials of Christmas: CommunityAnd here we are at the end of my Christmas death march. I’ve watched — and rewatched — a lot of Christmas episodes this month. A […]
  3. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Garfield Splitsider just featured an article about the history of Garfield’s mediocrity. And generally, I agree. Garfield The Comic Strip has a long […]
  4. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Mystery Science Theater 3000: Santa Claus […]Let’s first talk about Santa Claus Conquers The Martians. It’s a bad movie. The acting’s bad. The story’s bad. The effects are bad. Even the […]
  5. The 20 Specials of Christmas: The Bob Newhart Show Like Newhart’s comedy, this special takes a little time to ramp up to greatness. The first few scenes are your regular Christmas special […]
  6. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Studio 60 on the Sunset StripI had to. I know that Studio 60 isn’t a comedy, it’s a drama about a comedy. But this is every reason that basic premise failed. It’s an […]
  7. The 20 Specials of Christmas: The Mary Tyler Moore Show Mary loves Christmas. But with Mary’s big fancy job, there comes sacrificies. Such as Christmas. And it’s really, really depressing. While […]
  8. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Tiny Toons Adventures From the start, you know the Tiny Toons Adventures Christmas special is as harmless as it is cute. They even reedited the opening to be […]
  9. The 20 Specials of Christmas: 30 Rock30 Rock has always been good at playing through old sitcom tropes and reforming them into something new. Here, of course, we have the old […]
  10. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Parks and RecOn the sad side, “Christmas Scandal” is the last appearance of Louis C.K. as Leslie’s boyfriend, Dave (for this storyline, at least). Boo! On […]
  11. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Saturday Night LiveExcluding compilation episodes and DVD releases, Saturday Night Live has never done a proper just-Christmas-material special. It can’t, really; […]
  12. The 20 Specials of Christmas: The SimpsonsI already wrote about this special here. But, because it’s Christmas, why don’t I plagiarize my own ideas? The first episode of The Simpsons […]
  13. The 20 Specials Of Christmas: Father Knows Best Dad is upset that Christmas has become too commercial (in 1954), so he decides his family is going to participate in some good old-fashioned […]
  14. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Moral OrelHoly Baby Jesus this Christmas special is dark. By itself, Adult Swim’s Moral Orel was a spot-on parody of the Sunday school propaganda many […]
  15. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Futurama Any Christmas special that starts with Conan O’Brien’s head doing stand-up is going to be fine. Even outside of its holiday trappings, “Xmas […]
  16. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Mork & MindyBaby Jesus, this is a weird Christmas special. “Mork’s First Christmas” is exactly what it sounds like. Being an alien, Robin Williams’ Mork […]
  17. The 20 Specials of Christmas: Family GuyAnother day, another Christmas special Hulu Plus has locked in its pay wall prison. Released towards the end of the show’s original […]
  18. The 20 Specials of Christmas: South ParkYesterday I said that South Park often used the preaching technique invented in A Charlie Brown Christmas. This special seemed like a good […]
  19. The 20 Specials of Christmas: A Charlie Brown Christmas You know A Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Why recap it? Even if you haven’t watched it beginning to end, almost everyone has culturally […]
  20. The 20 Specials of Christmas: The Dick Van Dyke Show Christmas is a wonderful time of the year. A time of brutal avarice and stunning generosity. When mothers trample each other so they can see […]
  21. What Is ‘Too Soon"?Casey Anthony is fun to hate. She’s a relatively attractive woman. She’s a compulsive liar. She leads the kind of small town party life that is […]
  22. The Accidental Comedy Masterpiece Mark Twain Called ‘Perfect’In his introduction to the 1883 American edition of English As She Is Spoke, Mark Twain wrote some of the most glowing praise he’s ever laid on […]
  23. How To Write Jokes For People Who Don’t Want To Be FunnyA lot of comedians complain about being asked to “say something funny.” Comedians take “say something funny” as a threat. It’s sort of the same […]
  24. Comedy’s New Year’s ResolutionsAs we close out the powerhouse year that was 2010, now is as good a time as any for the comedy community to look back at the year that was. […]
  25. The Five Types Of Christmas ComediesChristmas comedies are a weird sub-genre. More than even romantic comedies, they require severe emotional hooks and traditional plot lines to […]
  26. The Bart Show: When ‘The Simpsons’ Were Almost Much WorseWith all this jibber-jabber about The Simpsons not being as good as it was when the writer was 12 (see: The Saturday Night Live Effect), it’s […]
  27. Why Do We Suck The Humor Out Of Education?Abraham Lincoln was funny. Dante’s Inferno was funny. Chaucer was funnier than that one story involving a poker in the dude’s butt which your […]
  28. M*A*S*H*: The Video Game on the Atari 2600I write video games and I write and perform comedy. Both keep the lights on and I love both very, very much. Therefore, the ultimate […]
  29. The Sorrows Of Young Werther and The Rise of ParodyHere’s a story for the ages: emo kid falls in love with hot girl with a boyfriend. He confronts her and she loses it. Maybe she’s his? But she […]
  30. A Form Letter To Your Friends Regarding Their New TV ShowsDear [Friend Name], Hey, [Buddy/Dude/You]. I know we haven’t seen much of each other since you began working on [Show Name], and [Bar Show […]
  31. The Terrible Advice Of Comedy How-To BooksSo you want to start doing funny. Do you know where to start? Maybe with some open-mics? Where are they? What time do they start? Will the […]