The official SXSW Comedy events got started Saturday night at Esther's Follies, kicking off with a "Doug Loves Movies" podcast double-header. Guests included Kid in the Hall Dave Foley, actors Kevin Pollak, Rainn Wilson, and Simon Pegg, writer Anthony Jeselnik, and filmmaker James Gunn. Later in the evening, two packed performances of Scott Aukerman's Comedy Death Ray show featured stand up sets by Foley and Pollak along with Michael Ian Black, Brett Gelman, Howard Kremer and Chris Hardwick. more ›

Doug Benson’s having a busy month. He’ll be performing both of his signature shows at SXSW Comedy this year. He kicked off the South Beach Comedy Festival last week. And, for four glorious days, he’s performing on the 311 Cruise for a boatload of mellow rock fans floating around the Turks and Caicos islands. Pretty rough, right? A veteran of NBC’s Last Comic Standing and a former regular contributor to Best Week Ever, Benson’s perhaps best known for Super High Me, a 2007 semi-mockumentary that uncovers exactly what happens when you and smoke weed every day. He’s also the creator of The Marijuana-Logues, a stage show and book that helped earn him High Times’ Stoner of the Year award in 2006. Aaaand, in 2009, he spearheaded the Medical Marijuana Tour. Seeing a theme? We caught up with Doug to discuss Oscar picks, TSA awkwardness and more. more ›

Comedian Doug Benson has spent the past several years working hard to lay claim to the title of America's top pot comic. His 6th place finish on NBC's Last Comic Standing in 2007, his regular appearances on VH1's Best Week Ever, and the documentary Super High Me, where Benson smoked pot continuously for 30 days, have all helped him stake that claim. In addition, Benson's also done his work on the ground, touring constantly over the last several years. (Last fall's "Medical Marijuana Tour" saw him perform in all 13 states with medical marijuana laws in as many days.) And if that's not enough to earn him the distinction of being America's hardest-working stoner, Benson also co-created the live show The MarijuanaLogues, which has played in clubs and theaters across the country. more ›

The complete schedule for the 14th annual Austin Film Festival has been announced, and it looks pretty amazing. 79 feature films and 98 shorts will screen over the course of eight days at various locations in Austin, beginning on October 11th with Brett Morgen’s much hyped docudrama Chicago 10, starring Hank Azaria, Dylan Baker, Nick Nolte, Mark Ruffalo, Roy Scheider, Liev Schreiber and Jeffrey Wright. Jason Reitman's brilliant new comedy Juno (starring Ellen Page, Michael... more ›

So, okay. Maybe you don’t have plans tonight. Or maybe you were thinking of spending a ridiculous sum of money on overpriced food, marked-up roses, and drugstore chocolates only to pass out from all the cheap champagne before you even . Well, we’ve got a better idea, and here it is: Laugh it off, man. Laugh it off. more ›