Category: Jokes - Dan Fiorella: Writer @ large

Dan Fiorella

TMI: Daily-Week of June 29, 2021

7/7/2021

These are my final jokes from the final week of TMI: Daily. The group is taking the summer off and then plans to relaunch the show under a different title and/or format, adjusting for post-pandemic life. And hopefully the group will be back onstage in their sketch-comedy format, too.

I am glad to be a part of it, in the background. Writing for this day after day kept the pandemic at bay and let my vent a lot of my fears, anger and frustration. I was one of the lucky ones, I was able to work from home the whole time and didn't have money woes or eviction fears. But many of the cast members did. They got to share and vent and make the pandemic person for us. And hopefully brought some laughter with the insights.

It was a short week, 3 shows. I missed the first show because I was away. Nothing got in the Wednesday show, but then I managed to score 2 jokes in the season finale, which underwent the usual re-wording. So, take it away, TMI: Daily...

TMI: Daily-Week of June 8, 2021

6/12/2021

As the crew settles into its summer schedule for June, I had a pretty good week for them just doing 3 shows a week. Some of the jokes got a little extra padding here and there but some were as written. It's funny how a couple of jokes I wrote I just knew that it would get picked. The cruise ship joke was one. The Christine remake joke too, to the point that when the punchline was said, they should show a photo of the female car from "Cars." But I forgot to write that in...and they did exactly that anyway! Sometimes we're all the same page creatively. It feels so good. Maybe why that's why I get bummed out when a joke doesn't make it or gets rewritten, I miss that rush.

So, TMI: Daily is going into summer hours for now, 3 days a week, on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays for June, so check the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page for details. And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of May 17, 2021

5/21/2021

A light week for me, all in all.

Frankly, I wasn't feeling it much this week. I hit the usual places for news to mock, but much nothing was inspiring me. And my tweets have been mostly lecture-y rather than funn-y.

I included the one joke as a example of some comedic re-writing. Okay, so idiot Congressman comes out and says "For the most part the insurrection was peaceful. Immediately, I thought of comparing it to the Titanic, "for the most part the cruise was great." But when I submitted it I changed it to the Hindenburg, because my logic was its trip was just about finished, up until the last few minutes, it was fine. TMI changed it back to Titanic. Did I over think it? I just found that an odd/interesting choice. But mostly odd.

There are going to be changes to the show come summer, especially as things open up in L.A. and the troupe gets the theater up and running again. But, until that time, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time), if you want to see the jokes that got away. And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of May 10, 2021

5/14/2021

It was an odd week. The show from May 10 dropped off the web. No video, no audio from the podcast. It just doesn't exist, I didn't see the show when it was webcast and I don't know if they used anything and no one has gotten back to me about what happened. We had Emma Lieberman and Cameron Weir alternating the anchor chair for Tonya Harris, so each tried to make the spot their own with the jokes selected.

Wednesday's show, I'm taking credit for the Chik-fa-A. My punchline was simply "Thanks, Joe Biden," a throw back to the old "Thanks, Obama" trope. It got re-worked into a much longer punchline that nonetheless references Joe Biden. And, oddly, my Rock and Rock Hall of Fame tag went from "better luck next year" to a longer punchline about an office pool. Got nothing in Thursday's show, and got one last joke in Friday.
There may be changes to the show in the coming weeks, especially as things open up in L.A. and the troupe gets the theater up and running again. But, until that time, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time), if you want to see the jokes that got away. And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of May 3, 2021

5/9/2021

Had a solid week on TMI: Daily, Getting in several jokes this week. Few tweaks. So me reasonable editing but a good bunch of jokes with a wide range of topics. Which is rewarding, considering everyone involved with the show is doing it all on spec.

There may be changes to the show in the coming weeks, especially as things open up in L.A. and the troupe gets the theater up and running again. But, until that time, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time), if you want to see the jokes that got away. And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of April 5, 2021

4/10/2021

A lot of venting this week. It was a strong start to the week, with 2 jokes and one set up. The spring break was used as-is. The COVID vaccination joke, well, after telling us to cut down on the Trump jokes, they took my line "don't want the rich catching COVID from the landscapers" and turned it into a Trump joke. I wrote a joke about Putin being selected the sexiest man alive and after coming up with 2 punchlines where I was desperate to avoid a "falling out of a window" gag, they went with a "falling out of a window" gag. Then Thursday...Thursday. I wrote a "Masked Singer" joke. While I wrote they were changing the name to "The Double-Masked Singer" it got changed it to this "cast doesn't have to worry, since they are all masked." To me, that was the obvious line, and one I feel we've used before. Something about a furry convention, I think. Anyway I wanted to avoid that, so I thought I'd reference the recent issue of "double masking." They reworded the Pence book joke. Then the MacGyver joke. I mean, I wrote that the show was going to be cancelled unless he could get a paper clip, double A batteries and a roll of aluminum foil. For some reason they decided they had to go straight on-the-nose by saying "unless they could MacGyver a way out" and a different list of items. Why??? Comedy is so subjective. And Friday, frankly similar set-ups were used; Prince Phillip's death, ancient Egyptian city discovered, but there was so much reworking the punchline to where despite some words being repeated or inferred (Meaghan Markel, Indiana Jones) they ended with a totally different punchline and intent. But two jokes they used verbatim again, even though I felt they were my sillier, weaker lines. Oh, well.

Anyway, just to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time), if you want to see the jokes that got away. And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of March 29, 2021

4/2/2021

Rough week for me. Only 3 jokes. Granted it was a short week with no show on Good Friday, but Monday and Tuesday I got shut out. I managed to spring back with one on Wednesday's show and 2 on Thursday's. But many of the premises were my submissions where the punchline went in a totally different direction. For example, there was a joke about a disease that effects bears so that they are unafraid of humans. I wrote "So, be careful out there, Mr. Ranger!" So that Yogi Bear reference gets changed into "It's call Yogi Bear-itis." Which, okay, but if you're going to make that joke, why not go for Yogi Berri-berri? My other line was "It's called Colt-45," which in retrospect should have been "Cub-45." Joke writing is not for the thin-skinned.

Anyway, just to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time). And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of March 8, 2021

3/14/2021

So, the gang took the first week of March off, which was a much needed break for all. The day job was going nuts the last few weeks and squeezing in time to write up the jokes before the deadline has been getting tough. But I managed. Got at least one joke in everyday, except Wednesday. And I really thought I had some solid ones, too. Hey, if you want to see what they didn't use, you can check out my Twitter feed, @danfiorella, because that's where I road test my humor. It was busy week for the troupe as well, they had to use 3 hosts this week, our main host, Tonya Harris, the usual fill-in, Cameron Weir and the newbie, Emma Lieberman.

Again, some rewording, some context added, some sentences grafted on, but it's my stuff. Once again, just to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time). And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of Feb. 22, 2021

2/28/2021

Writing is such a weird life. I thought it was going to be a lean week. I had one joke in Monday. Then nothing on Tuesday or Wednesday. I have to admit that my jokes were pretty weak those days, and the creative juices felt dried up. Then I got 4 jokes in Thursday, and another 2 on Friday, so, all in all, a very respectable week for my material. The I liked the cocaine joke, or the performance of it. As a joke it's okay and pretty obvious, but I ginning it up by taking the obvious line "They're great" and going overboard with the repetition, which Tonya sold BIG TIME. I like how the Ted Cruz joke played out as well.

Anyway, to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time). And here's my contributions for last week:

TMI: Daily-Week of Feb. 15, 2021

2/20/2021

It was a solid week for me and my jokes. But again, things that could have been reworked better weren't ("They secede" should have been "Texas secedes.") and punchlines that were fine were extended (adding "Deutsche Bank" or "for no reason." Or reworking the donut gag from "I'm starting to understand why they think Trump won" to "who wants to bet she thinks 74 million votes beats 81 million." It's the same internal joke logic, but repainted. The Atlantic City punchline is a line I've been using constantly has the news reported over the last four years how different buildings were removing the Trump name. The Prince Phillip line had "Script changes" added for something I thought was implied my my version. As for the FEMA joke, I'm expecting to here the topper, "2021, am I right?" be pushed into catchphrase territory for any "Biden is doing the actual job" related jokes. And using the actual Spanish pronunciation of "nada" kinda screws up the whole Wanda/Nada wordplay I'm so fonda. But, as I said, a pretty solid week of jokes.

Anyway, to remind everyone, TMI: Daily is on the TMI: Hollywood Facebook Page weeknights at 6pm on (Hollywood time). And here's my contributions for last week:

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