Storytelling Series This is Not Happening Finally Gets a Return Date and a Trailer, With New Host, Roy Wood Jr.

Ari Shaffir’s former storytelling series, This is Not Happening, was the talk of the comedy world last summer when word leaked out that Shaffir was no longer the host, or the producer of the series he created. The news soon followed that Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. was taking over the host post for the brand new season, but with so much time passing without a date for the series we began to wonder if Comedy Central was bailing on Season 4.

Today the network announced that Season Four returns with a double length premiere episode on Friday, February 2nd at midnight. Each episode of This is Not Happening will continue to center around a theme. The theme of the double episode is “filth” and will include stories from Roy Wood Jr., as well as Howie Mandel and Scott Thompson.

Nine episodes will follow the debut, every Friday. Some of the most promising looking stories include a “Shame” story from Big Jay Oakerson, Lil Rel Howery talking about “Combat”, Tom Rhodes in an episode titled “Wasted”, Kevin Smith talking “Romance”, Kathleen Madigan and Dan Soder on the subject of “Moms” and Brad Williams covering “Famous.” A list of guests and topics appears below, but we saw a few names in the trailer that aren’t on these lists, like Doug Smith.

February 2: “Filth” – Howie Mandel, Scott Thompson
February 9: “Romance” – Kevin Smith, Louis Katz
February 16: “Famous” – Tom Green, Michael McDonald, Brad Williams
February 23: “Nightmare” – Dan Soder, Shane Mauss
March 2: “Moms” – Roy Wood Jr., Kathleen Madigan, Bret Ernst
March 9: “Dads” – Louie Anderson, Byron Bowers, DeRay Davis
March 16: “Wasted” – Theo Von, Chris Porter, Dave Landau, Tom Rhodes (One-Hour Episode)
March 23: “Combat” – Chris Redd, Martha Kelly, Lil Rel Howery
March 30: “Strangelands” – Rob Christensen, Talib Kweli, Harland Williams
April 6: “Shame” – Big Jay Oakerson, Michael Kosta, Tom Arnold

Wood Jr. will also provide fans with tips on effective storytelling via @ccstandup’s Instagram story on February 2.

In 2015, Wood Jr. became a part of “The World’s Fakest News Team” as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. He has been described by The Hollywood Reporter as “a standout,” and Entertainment Weekly called his brand of thought provoking comedy “charismatic crankiness.” In 2016, Variety named him one of “10 Comics to Watch.” He filmed his first one-hour stand-up special, Roy Wood Jr.: Father Figure, at Center Stage in Atlanta, which premiered on Comedy Central last year. This Is Not Happening was created by Ari Shaffir, Eric Abrams and Avalon’s Sam Saifer. Jeff Tomsic, Saifer, and Abrams (who serves as showrunner and director) are Executive Producers. Mark Palansky also directs.

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