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Macaulay Culkin recalls John Candy flagging his dad's 'monster' behavior before anyone else

"I remember John caring when not a lot of people did."

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Macaulay Culkin and John Candy in 'Uncle Buck'

Comedy legend John Candy was honored in the emotional new documentary John Candy: I Like Me, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday.

In it, a slew of famous folks that once shared the screen with Candy—including Dan Aykroyd, Tom Hanks, Macaulay Culkin, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Catherine O’Hara, and Andrea Martin—shared touching memories that further solidify the late actor as not only a once-in-a-generation talent, but a truly good human being as well.

One standout story comes from Culkin, who recalled Candy having a “paternal” instinct for the former child actor while working together on John Hughes’ Uncle Buck in 1989—especially when it came to protecting Culkin from his estranged father, Christopher "Kit" Culkin.

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"I think [Candy] always had that really great instinct. I think he saw. Listen, even before the wave crested and the Home Alone stuff was happening, it was not hard to see how difficult my father was. It was no secret. He was already a monster," Culkin said in the documentary, as reported by People.

"All of a sudden, the fame and the money came, and he became an infamous monster," Culkin said. "He was already not a good guy. I think John was looking a little side-eyed, like, 'Is everything alright over there? You doing good? Good day? Everything's alright? Everything good at home? Alright.'"

Culkin commended that behavior as "a testament to the kind of man he was," noting that “it doesn't happen that often. It actually happened less as time went on.”

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"I wish I got more of that in my life. It's important that I remember that," Culkin said. "I remember John caring when not a lot of people did.”

Culkin also recalled that Candy displayed a lot of respect for the former child star and his on-screen sister, Gaby Hoffmann.

“When you're eight years old, you don't really get respect, whether it's in a workplace or just from adults and grown-ups in general. You felt invited in [by Candy]," he shared.

While Uncle Buck didn’t go on to achieve great critical acclaim, Candy's portrayal of the titular character is beloved by fans and is often celebrated for its comedic and heartwarming elements—helping turn him into a bona fide star of the 80s.

Colin Hanks, who created the documentary, met Candy as a kid. In 1984, his father, Tom Hanks, starred with Candy in the romantic comedy Splash. Similar to Culkin, Colin recalled Candy having a special way with kids.

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“He just really made you feel unique,” he told People. “He made you feel heard and that's a special thing for a little kid to feel like you actually matter and your opinion matters.”

John Candy: I Like Me debuts Friday, Oct. 10 on Prime Video.

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Comedian artfully explains what 'shock comics' get wrong about edgy humor

Anthony Jeselnik says there's a difference between being an artist and being a troll.

Anthony Jeselnik/TikTok

There's something weird going on with comedians.

Comic and writer Marc Maron recently wrote that it's comedians, of all people — a special new breed of them — who are spearheading the "anti-woke" movement, whether it's by paling around with Donald Trump and his supporters, or just going out of their way to offend as many people as possible.

Not to name any names, but you see this type of comic in the news A LOT these days. Comedians have always pushed the boundaries of what is acceptable to say in public. That's part of the job. But the newer generation of 'shock comics' has forgotten one very important ingredient in the timeless recipe. You have to be funny.

Comedian Anthony Jeselnik recently called out comedians who don't bother actually trying to be funny in their edginess. "You're just a troll," he says.

No one would ever accuse Jeselnik of being a clean-cut, PG entertainer. He's known for being ruthless and shocking in his stand-up sets. It's a character he plays, which he describes as the most vile and evil person you could ever imagine.

- YouTube(Original Airdate: 03/06/13) Anthony loves sharks so much that he would prefer if people didn't survive shark attacks. Subscribe to ...


Here's a taste from one of his specials:

“When I was a kid, my parents had a gun. My parents said we had to have a gun. Gotta have a gun to protect their five children. Of course, they eventually got rid of it… to protect their four children."

Jeselnik says his brand of extreme humor is not as easy to pull off as it looks.

In a resurfaced clip — which Jeselnik himself just happened to repost to his own TikTok account — the comedian goes off on the types of comedians that he considers to be trolls.

@anthonyjeselnik

Four weeks until Anthony Jeselnik: Bones and All comes to Netflix.

"People think like, oh as a comic, your job is to get in trouble. But they don't wanna get yelled at. It's like, it's okay to make people mad, but they don't want any pushback."

"As a comedian, you want to make people laugh," he says.

Which should be obvious, but it's something that's missing far too often in the name of pushing the envelope, or even being flat-out hateful. Jeselnik then invokes a quote from Andy Warhol: "Art is getting away with it."

"If you put out a special, and everyone's pissed," he says, "You didn't get away with it. ... You know, you need to make everyone laugh. .. That's art."

The key word there being 'everyone'. You need to make everyone laugh. A room full of white people laughing at the expense of Hispanics, or a room full of straight people laughing at gay jokes — that's not comedy, it's just punching down.

A joke about cancer that cancer patients can't help but laugh at? Jokes about blind people that blind people actually think are funny? That is art. That is comedy.

And that's what the great comedians have always aspired to. (Warning: NSFW humor)

- YouTubeIf you're wondering what Anthony Jeselnik thinks of his parents, abortion, guns, or Twitter, this is for you. Watch Anthony Jeselnik: ...

Of course, everyone misses the mark sometimes, or unintentionally goes too far. But Jeselnik says getting criticized when you miss is just part of the job. He's famously said he has no sympathy for "cancelled" comedians like Dave Chappelle.

“He makes so much money. Your job should be a little hard. I don’t have sympathy for you in that. He says whatever he wants to, great, but when there’s pushback I don’t know why it bothers him,” Jeselnik said in an interview with Talib Kwelli for Uproxx.

George Carlin was another great who understood the art in bringing people together to laugh at touchy subjects. He once said it was a comedian's job to take the audience to a place they don't want to go, but that if you could make them laugh along the way, they'd thank you for it.

Just remember next time a famous person says "you can't make comedy anymore, people are too sensitive!" that there are comics like Jeselnik making jokes about burn victims and necrophilia — and they seem to be doing just fine.

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Comedian's masterful 'corporate accent' is so on-point that people call it triggering

We've all worked with 'Corporate Erin.'

via LisaBeEvolving/TikTok

Lisa Beasley as Corporate Erin

Comedian Lisa Beasley is making people squirm on TikTok with her character, Corporate Erin. Erin is a parody of the typical corporate employee in America, complete with her corporate accent, corporate gulp and mastery of corporate jargon.

She even has the perfect corporate job title: The manager for the managerial logistics of management at McManagement.

In her videos, Erin talks at you in your “one-on-one” meeting while clutching her coffee cup for dear life, uncomfortably gyrating in her chair and adjusting her glasses. Erin has the unique ability to talk at length using corporate word salad while saying absolutely nothing. But she definitely wants to circle back with you to be sure you have the deliverables for the rollout. Okayyyyyy?

In this video with over 9 million views, Erin explains how she has taken over her creator’s feed because she doesn’t have the “bandwidth.”

@lisabevolving

Hi, #CorporateErin here taking over social media for Lis. If you have any questions regarding my new position, please follow up with me in the comments. Im only here to do whats best for the business.

Beasley described the thrust of the Erin character to the Huffington Post. “There’s also just kind of a layer of passive aggressiveness as well, and defensiveness and just kind of always making sure that I’m drilling home my points or my objectives,” Beasley said.

The videos are all too real for many people who follow Beasley on TikTok.

“This is SPOT ON. The corporate accent, the nonsense, the talking for 30 min and saying nothing,” one commenter said. “You encounter a version of me in every workplace,” Beasley, as the Erin character, told 13 News.

It looks like we’ve finished this a bit early, so we’ll give you your minute back.

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Comedian's video of her acting out the weird things in life we consider normal is a viral sensation

You'll never look at birthday parties the same way again.

Sophie Craig/Facebook

Why do we do the things we do?

Humaning is a strange thing. Like, if aliens really were to come down and ask us to explain some of our everyday activities, they would probably shake their heads in disbelief. All seven of them.

If there’s any doubt to this, just take a look at comedian Sophie Craig’s hilarious video making the rounds on social media, where she brilliantly points out the utter absurdity of things humanity considered completely ‘normal’…all by candidly narrating the bizarre thought process behind them.

No mundane activity is spared—from lighting candles (aka starting “lots of little fires around my house because that will make it look very pretty”) to watching television (otherwise known as “that time of the day again where we watch the big square thing in our living room and watch people pretending to be other people”).

Nothing is spared, from beauty rituals to parties, home decor, pets, social media, even singing. Suddenly, it becomes glaringly obvious how so much of what we do in society is completely arbitrary. And if you look at this closely, definitely NOT normal.

Plus, the comedy is heightened ten fold by Craig’s charming accent and unending smile.

Watch:

100 percent accurate, right? And funny to boot.

Craig’s video has been viewed a whopping 7.4 million times, with literally thousands of comments from folks who couldn't’ help but agree that many normal human things actually make zero sense.

Many even chimed in with their own examples:

“I’m just going to press this little heart here to show that I liked this video, and also a comment saying the same thing.”

“When doing makeup: 'I'm just going to use this liquid that vaguely looks like my skin colour to cover up any natural redness in my cheeks so I can then put red powder over the top of the liquid so it looks like my cheeks are red.'”

“I’m going to plant green plants known as grass, but then I don’t want it to grow too tall so I’ll cut it every week, but also water it to help it grow because it must be bright green, not brown and definitely not yellow. I will apply fertilizer if is not growing well, but also still cut it every week. And of course, it must be only plants I’ve decided to call grass…not other very similar plants that I’ve chosen to call weeds, even if they are bright green.”

Moral of the story: existence is absurd. And maybe the best thing we can do as a society is to remind ourselves of that once in a while. Or have funny people do it for us.

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