The 2021 “Catty Everyone is Gossiping About You Behind Your Back” Awards
For those of you sick of all this celebration of great accomplishments, we present our annual gossip rag in review. The “Catty Everyone is Gossiping About You Behind Your Back” Awards count down every story you gossiped about this year, from surprising trysts and romances, to the biggest and baddest scandals and controversies that rocked, slammed, or gently nudged the comedy world this year. And there were SO many to choose from. We obviously could have done a top 50.
They’re listed backward, countdown style; add your own imaginary ‘countdown’ sound effects.
And remember, it doesn’t make you a bad person. Well….. sometimes it does.
Did we get it wrong? Tell us which scandal you think should be this year’s #1 by voting below.
Don’t forget you can also vote now for Comedian of the Year! Vote forComedy Movie of the Year! Vote for Comedy TV Series of the Year! Vote for Comedy Special of the Year! Vote for Best Comedy Book of the Year! Vote for the Best Comedy Album of the Year!
Jo Koy and Chelsea Handler have had a long professional relationship and friendship. They go back 20 years. Koy, after all, got his television break on Chelsea Lately, and now he’s a giant superstar selling out stadiums, with more projects than you can count. This fall, we found out that Jo and Chelsea have added a surprising romance to their story. First they dropped a few hints, Chelsea said she had a special someone in her life. There was a picture of them kissing, but a lot of people thought Handler was teasing, and baiting with that post. By October it was official and now they’re hot and heavy most recently appearing on the red carpet at the Peoples Choice Awards. Congratulations you two! Lets get some comedy kids!
Lorne Michaels Invites Elon Musk to Host SNL. The scandal that never was. Looking back this really seem like no big deal, but back in the spring, when Saturday Night Live announced that Elon Musk would host an episode of the show, people were up in arms, upset, freaking out about the decision. Why? Some thought it would be impossible for Musk to be funny. Others think he’s a bad guy. And still others don’t like when rich boys get invited to the table. But when the smoke cleared all that was left was a pretty funny episode of SNL, that won’t become a classic, but it also didn’t go down in flames.
Vir Das “Two Indias” Monologue. Late in November, international comedian Vir Das posted a monologue he performed at a show at the Kennedy Center about “two Indias.” The 7 minute bit which satirized “the duality of two very separate Indias” provoked intense debate, so much that at least one prominent politician in India brought charges against him for vilifying India on foreign soil and demanding his arrest. The material addressed some hypocrisy he has witnessed in his country. For example, he said, “I come from an India where we take pride in being vegetarian, and yet run over the farmers who grow our vegetables.” That referred to an event which left 8 people dead at a protest. You can watch the video which currently has over 5 million views, on his YouTube channel.
Ted Alexandro Accuses SNL of Stealing A digital short aired on Saturday Night Live last spring about young people using the Zillow real estate listings as a form of fantasy/porn. Pretty funny bit. The problem was, it was suspiciously similar to material Ted Alexandro performs and has been doing long enough that a lot of comedians immediately recognized it. They started texting him about it right after it aired. A clip of Alexandro’s stand up revealed it to be incredibly similar. Ted says he and his wife don’t sext- they send each other “dirty” Zillow listings instead. You know you’ve made it when others steal your material and then ignore your tweet accusing them. Ted’s still waiting for a Venmo, Lorne!
Internet Finds Ellie Kemper Racist’s Debutante Ball Appearance. Ellie Kemper apologized for attending a St. Louis debutante ball more than two decades ago, that had racist origins. The Veiled Prophet Ball was hosted by a 100 year old organization with a racist and sexist history. The event historically banned black people and jewish people from joining in order to help preserve white power in the city. Ellie says she did not know, but should have known about the organization’s history and denounces all white supremacy. The furor welled up and became the top news of the day last spring, but disappeared as quickly.
Jessica Kirson Calls Out Bethenny Frankel. Back in March Bethenny Frankel slammed Meghan Markle on Twitter, suggesting Markle was whining too much. Jessica Kirson to the rescue- calling out Frankel on Twitter for her own shitty behavior. “I was the warm up comic on your failed morning talk show and you were a total bitch to me. For months you never said hello and you ordered me around like a dog. One day I walked off set because I had enough of your shit. Have a great day!” Sick burn. Don’t fuck with a comic particularly a killer like Kirson. You never know when it will come back to hurt you.
Melissa Rivers Mad about MaiselJoan Rivers daughter is sick and tired of her mom being used as inspiration for television shows without show creators acknowledging that they leaned on Joan’s life in creating their shows. She said she refuses to watch even a single episode, and felt violated and hurt that the executives won’t admit Joan inspired the show. “I wish I had gotten a note saying, ‘Your mother was one of the inspirations for this and we hope you enjoy it. Here’s a t-shirt. Here’s a link to the first episode, to the pilot.’ You know?” she said on David Yontef’s podcast. Still waiting on that tshirt. We knew this was all about Rivers when the pilot came out a year ahead of the series. Come on guys.
Seth Simons: Comedy Has a Huge Alt Right Problem. Poet and birdwatcher Seth Simons tried to rock the comedy world by claiming that a toxic asshole anonymous Reddit User was actually well known comedy club owner Cris Italia, owner of The Stand Comedy Club. The article also attacks The Stand and many of the clubs comedians as having an alt right problem, but he also alleges all of the clubs have been infiltrated. The article has since been discredited- most notably by the actual anonymous source for his initial attack. Simons has a long history of trying to discredit any comedians whose acts make jokes that don’t live up to his standards, and the clubs that give those comedians stage time.
John Mulaney’s Divorce. Last year everyone was talking about Mulaney’s sudden trip to rehab, but this year the Mulaney gossip hasn’t abated. After returning from rehab, and getting back on stage, the talk has switched to the timeline of his separation and divorce, which some say sounds fishy. Particularly after Mulaney also revealed Olivia Munn was pregnant. When did Mulaney leave his wife? When did he start seeing Olivia Munn? How long had she been pregnant? This gossip is the kind that keeps on giving. But does it matter? Of course not. Munn gave birth to a beautiful baby and the proud papa is beaming.
Pete Davidson’s Wild Dating Life If you think John Mulaney’s love life had people talking, he’s got nothing on Pete Davidson. In the spring, there were rumors Pete Davidson was dating Bridgerton breakout star Phoebe Dynevor, but they said they were just friends, at first. Later they admitted they were in love, but they broke up in August after five months. Soon rumors that he was seeing his Meet Cute co star Kelly Cuoco started. Again, we were told they were just friends. But before that could go anywhere, Davidson was spotted with billionaire celebrity Kim Kardashian soon after she hosted Saturday Night Live. They also said they were just friends but just one month later it was official- they’re an item. With Kanye pursuing his ex hardcore, will it last? Or will Pete move on with Miley Cyrus, now that we know they’re ringing in the New Year together for NBC. Stay tuned….
Andrew Schulz Banned from Toronto Theater Toronto’s historic Massey Hall will not be inviting Andrew Schulz to perform anytime soon, in fact, they pulled a date he was scheduled to appear. The board for the venue said his Netflix special was too controversial and they pulled the plug on his show. Schulz posted a video on Twitter captioned “Here’s a story about venues that are afraid of jokes…” and explained that they determined his jokes were too inappropriate to be performed there. In other news, Schulz will be just fine. He’s one of the most in demand headliners working today.
Jeff Singer Quits JFL After Accusations Influential Just for Laughs talent booker Jeff Singer resigned from his position with the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival earlier this year after being accused by comedian Mehran Khagani of throwing around the N word. Other comedians joined in sharing experiences of sexism, bias, homophobia and racism. Singer apologized for a huge error in judgement. Claiming no malice he said he acknowledged that it was wrong and insensitive regarding the N word incident.
Alleged Thomas Middleditch Misconduct at Club This year it was revealed that Silicon Valley star Thomas Middleditch was accused of sexual misconduct towards a young woman on the dance floor of a private Goth Club. The alleged conduct took place in 2019. The LA Times broke the story that he was accused of lewd sexual overtures that club management dismissed after complaints were filed. The night club, Cloak and Dagger has since closed for unrelated reasons. Middleditch wasn’t the only celeb accused of bad conduct. He responded to the woman who complained personally, saying “I had no idea my actions were that weird for you” and “I am so ashamed I made you uncomfortable.”
Jim Breuer Cancels Shows Over Mandates. This fall, Jim Breuer announced in a 22 minute Facebook video that he was refusing to perform at certain theaters, “due to the segregation of forcing people to show up with vaccinations.” He said he refused to be enslaved to the system and did not want to force his fans to choose between him and their principals. Since then, clips of Breuer’s stand up have been going viral on TikTok, for his hard anti-vax stance, calling people sheep and seals and parakeets if they “listen to the science.”
Katt Fight with Cedric the Entertainer. Over the summer, Katt Williams accused Cedric the Entertainer of stealing Katt’s closing joke from over 20 years ago. He says Cedric took the joke, and used it in his set during The Original Kings of Comedy in 1999, and Katt says it crushed him because he was a fan, and was in the audience the night it happened. Cedric denied it, saying he’s been telling the joke at issue for over 30 years, at least for 6 or 7 years before that show, and probably longer than Katts been doing comedy. The joke at issue was about white people wanting to go to space to get away from black people.
Spotify Removed Comedy Albums Tracks from John Mulaney, Mike Birbiglia, Kevin Hart, Jim Gaffigan Jeff Dunham, Jeff Foxworthy, Tom Segura, Liz Miele, and Lisa Lampanelli mysteriously vanished from Spotify over Thanksgiving Weekend. It soon came to light that the artists were fighting with Spotify over royalties. Generally comedians and other spoken word artists receive performance royalties but not writer royalties (when music airs, the performer and writer both get paid). A new spoken word rights organization sent Spotify notice that the artists are owed these writers royalties, and until the dispute is worked out, the platform simply switched those artists off without warning. Expect this dispute to grow throughout other platforms as its likely to get more complicated before it gets fixed.
Louis CK Returns Louis C.K. announced a new tour this year, and then only a week ago dropped a surprise new hour special on his website. But when his dates were listed, the media was not kind in its coverage of the new dates. Articles referred to the disgraced comedian and sexual misconduct was mentioned in every headline or first sentence. Social media had plenty of complaints about the tour too, but what really shocked the nation was that CK’s last special got a grammy nomination. Twitter flooded with comments saying that cancel culture can’t possibly be real if the Grammys were willing to acknowledge C.K. Weeks later, Louis dropped his new special, “Sorry” on his website. This didn’t generate much backlash, but an ad for the special appearing on Saturday Night Live this week stirring everything up. Twitter was furious that NBC allowed the comedian to pay them to promote his material.
Michael Che’s Bold Weekend Update Jokes. Often whats funny to Che, is something that isn’t polite or correct to say. He showcased that frequently in 2021 on SNL and on Instagram got big laughs, but got called out as frequently for jokes that offended. The top 3 complained about jokes included a “don’t ask don’t tuck” joke that was called transphobic, a quip about Israel announcing they had vaccinated half the country, where the joke was that they only vaxxed the Jewish half, upsetting Jewish viewers, and a series of jokes about Simone Biles on Instagram that he knew would offend, but he just couldn’t help himself. “Who said black don’t crack”, & “Larry Nasser understands Simone Biles better than anyone. He too had to quit doing what he loved at the pinnacle of his career because of mounting pressure.” None of the complaints amounted to much, as they were obviously just jokes.
Big Jay vs Book Author (and briefly vs The Comedy Cellar) Big Jay Oakerson was a bit annoyed when a new book came out detailing a private encounter between him and owner of the Comedy Cellar, Noam Dworman. The encounter at issue happened years ago when Noam approached Jay about a letter from an audience member, and a perceived pattern of complaints. Noam related the story to the author of the book, and although the author asked Jay about the incident, he had declined to talk about it. When the book came out, including a passage about Noam sharing the story, Jay was upset. He talked about his anger on his SiriusXM show, The Bonfire. The next day Noam called the show, said the author had misrepresented his perspective and the controversy was quickly dissipated, but for one hot moment, it was a big scandal, talked about by everyone in comedy.
Bill Burr TWOfer. Burr Gets Complaints About His Grammy Presentation & Later Defends a Fired Friend. Bill Burr is no stranger to this list or controversy in general, so it’s fitting that he has two stories making the top ten this year. Burr first caused some kerfuffle standing up for Gina Carano, a costar from The Mandalorian, after she was fired for controversial tweets. Carano was trashed for saying that conservatives in Hollywood were treated like Jews in Germany during WW2, causing massive backlash. Burr said Carano is a “Super nice f – – king person, adding, “I’m on that fucking show. Now, I gotta watch what the fuck k I say,” That made headlines because social media doesn’t like it when someone disagrees with them.
A week later, prior to last year’s Grammy ceremony, Burr was a presenter at the secondary awards. He presented multiple Latin awards that night and during one, joked about not being able to pronounce the winners name, and in the other, said “Was I the only one who wanted to kill himself during that piano solo?” Burr said while making his way onstage. “I bought a suit for this. I thought it was gonna be on TV. I’m such a moron, I’m losing so much money right now.” Needless to say, social media was unappreciative of his commentary.
Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan’s i-dont-give-a-fuck-what-you-think attitude makes him a frequent visitor on our annual Catty Gossip countdown and his views this year seemed to be far more controversial than prior years. His deal with Spotify put him in an even bigger spotlight, and headlines that include the words “Rogan” and “controversial” are so frequent that it’s kind of hard to take them too seriously. But Rogan’s commentary on Covid, vaccines and surrounding topics have become a huge target of conversation, parody, ribbing and sometimes mockery, that he lands at #5 on the list. Rogan’s defense of ivermectin and dismissal of the importance of vaccines are a frequent punchline, particularly after Aaron Rodgers said he checked in with Rogan for advice after testing positive for Covid. Just 24 hours ago it was announced that a Joe Rogan arena show scheduled for April in Vancouver was cancelled. Rogan insinuated that the show was cancelled because he is not vaccinated but at least once source said that vaccinations are not required for performers, and that it is more likely that the event was cancelled due to capacity restrictions currently in place.
Tim Dillon vs Michael Che vs Tim Dillon Tim Dillon called out SNL for being lazy in a sketch making fun of Joe Rogan in November. “There were a hundred ways to do this sketch and have it be funny. The show is now just lazy mediocre hacks.” Michael Che proceeded to totally trash Tim Dillon, even implying that Dillon is a nobody who shouldn’t be criticizing the adults. TIM DILLON?!?!? Che wrote. Tim Fucking Dillon?! Che then called Tim out as a sweet guy who “really tried” at standup and got nowhere, then became a media personality cause its easier. “We’re all very happy for him but don’t get fresh, tim.” Che wrote. Dillon struck back fiercely saying “Here’s the reality. I sell more tickets than Michael Che ever has…and I’ve built something on my own that he could never do. Che has done well for a drunk who can barely read. But his show sucks and he knows it.” Che ended it saying, “all fair points and i’m very proud of tim. But in the words of a prodigy, seriously folks, what’s this world coming to.”
Cosby Conviction Overturned. The only thing more shocking than finding out that America’s dad had sexually abused a ridiculous number of women was seeing him get convicted. And the only thing more shocking than seeing him get convicted, was finding out this summer that an appeals court reversed the conviction, and sent Mr. Cosby home. Cosby left prison feeling vindicated and talked about planning a tour but we’ve yet to see any evidence of that. Good luck Bill.
Chappelle: The Closer. Anyone could spend pages writing about this (and many media outlets have), but everyone knows the full story here. Before releasing “The Closer”, Chappelle predicted his latest Netflix special would get him cancelled, and indeed it has received a huge amount of backlash, maybe more than he expected. Chappelle’s commentary on the trans community offended a lot of people, started a walkout by Netflix employees, and even caused backlash at his own high school where he is planning to build a theater in his own name. Dave has declared that he has been cancelled, claiming that nobody would touch the documentary he made about himself for distribution, but nobody is completely clear on exactly what happened. This controversy is as fresh as wet paint…to be continued. But #2? How could this be controversy #2? It was the biggest story in comedy all year. Or was it?
Tony Hinchcliffe vs Peng Deng. The Tony Hinchcliffe incident was the Atom Bomb of controversy in 2021 with many elements coming together to form the perfect media storm. In a period marked by violence and hate targeted against Asian-Americans, a young comic named Peng Deng captured on video what appeared to the general public be a hate-inspired tirade by Hinchcliffe on stage at an Austin club. The reality was a bit less explosive, Hinchcliffe likes to be shocking and often says things he doesn’t mean personally because the shock of saying something so outrageous can be funny. But even many people who got the intention thought that it was tone deaf and inappropriate and indefensible, so Hinchcliffe lost a number of gigs, and his representation over the incident. He’s back to work, albeit maybe a little more quietly, and people have largely forgotten the incident, but at the time it was the most discussed comedy set of the yea, and maybe the most divisive, making his set our choice for the #1 controversy in comedy in 2021.
