Comedy

T he despot in "The Dictator" is a tall, fit, flamboyantly bearded goofball — Admiral General Aladeen (Sacha Baron Cohen) — who lords over a fictitious little North African country called Wadiya. Aladeen's misdeeds are denounced internationally — he's ordered the murder of thousands and is months away from achieving weapons-grade uranium, which, he winkingly announces, will be only for peaceful purposes. These early scenes have an easy whimsy. Cohen turns the character into a conceited ham with a taste for showmanship and a disdain for the competition.

Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris , who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism last month, quizzed Brookline-bred late-night guy Conan O'Brien about comedy at the John F. Kennedy Library on Thursday evening. O'Brien is on the board of directors for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and has signed on to be the honorary chair of the foundation's New Frontier Network, which promotes civic engagement to young people. O'Brien has been in town for much of the week because of "The Cable Show" at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

Is fiction good for us? We spend huge chunks of our lives immersed in novels, films, TV shows, and other forms of fiction. Some see this as a positive thing, arguing that made-up stories cultivate our mental and moral development. But others have argued that fiction is mentally and ethically corrosive. It's an ancient question: Does fiction build the morality of individuals and societies, or does it break it down? This controversy has been flaring up — sometimes literally, in the form of book burnings — ever since Plato tried to ban fiction from his ideal republic.

Late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien visited Boston to talk about the art of comedy and how he got started in it. O'Brien was at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on Thursday, where he was interviewed by Boston Globe film critic, Wesley Morris. O'Brien, a Brookline native, recalled that old movies sparked his interest in show business. But his parents talked him out of it, so he focused on academics and got into Harvard. His future course was set when he became involved with the Harvard Lampoon, the school's comedy publication.

Broadcast television networks are determined to make you laugh. The resurgence of situation comedies is the clearest trend to emerge from TV's helter-skelter week of fall schedule announcements that just concluded. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC will have 30 half-hour comedies on the air at the beginning of next season — 32 by November — compared to 17 at the opening of a new season five years ago. Tuesday alone is a comic festival. The top networks will air eight sitcoms that night alone, with ABC promising two more in January.

Late-night TV talk show host Conan O'Brien is coming home to Boston to discuss his life and work during a special forum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. O'Brien, a Brookline native and Harvard graduate, will also discuss the art of comedy with National Public Radio's Scott Simon. Caroline Kennedy will introduce O'Brien at the forum, to be held Thursday evening. O'Brien is a member of the board of directors of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and the honorary chair of the foundation's "New Frontier Network," which brings...

The National Theatre is providing an encore presentation of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" at 10 a.m. March 18 at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St. Tickets to the high-definition broadcast from London are $20, or $17 for Coolidge Corner members and seniors, and can be purchased in advance at www.coolidge.org. - Andreae Downs

By Brock Parker, Town Correspondent A crew filming a new movie called “I Hate You Dad” starring Adam Sandler is in Brookline today in and around First Parish church on Walnut Street. The Columbia Pictures production is filming a wedding scene at the church at 382 Walnut Street, just south of Boylston Street/Route 9, and will be in town through Wednesday, said Brookline Police Lt. Phil Harrington. The Unitarian Universalist church has been rented out for the comedy and Harrington said Sandler and actor James Caan were at the church Monday for filming.

In a farce, louder and faster can be a very good thing. As situations get more and more preposterous, and characters react with increasing amounts of exasperation and befuddlement, an audience can be reduced to paroxysms of laughter. Playwright George Sauer has an interesting premise with "Heading for Eureka," a new comedy developed through Centastage's Salon Series presented at Boston Center for the Arts. It's built around a family -- bumbling dad George, overbearing mom Martha, troubled son Dick, and nympho daughter Jane -- that's just been...

The brilliance of Alan Ayckbourn’s “My Wonderful Day’’ lies in the playwright’s ability to balance elements of a wildly funny farce with a poignant story of innocence lost. Director David J. Miller understands that nuance and his Zeitgeist Stage Company production delivers a carefully calibrated comedy that finds all the hilarity without missing a moment of melancholy. “My Wonderful Day’’ is the title of an essay 8-year-old Winnie Barnstairs has been assigned for homework.

An Emmy Award-winning comedy writer who spent much of his career working for legendary comic Jack Benny has died in Los Angeles. Al Gordon was 89. His son, Neil, tells Los Angeles Times ( http://lat.ms/JXFWte) that Gordon died Wednesday of age-related causes at a Los Angeles hospital. Gordon began his comedy-writing career after World War II and teamed with Hal Goldman. They shared two Emmys with fellow Benny writers and a third with Sheldon Keller for a Carol Channing special.

Broadcast television networks are determined to make you laugh. The resurgence of situation comedies is the clearest trend to emerge from TV's helter-skelter week of fall schedule announcements that just concluded. ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC will have 30 half-hour comedies on the air at the beginning of next season — 32 by November — compared to 17 at the opening of a new season five years ago. Tuesday alone is a comic festival. The top networks will air eight sitcoms that night alone, with ABC promising two more in January.

Fits him to a T KEN REID'S SHIRT TALES The story of Reid's life could be told through his many collections: videos and DVDs, books, music. For his new one-man show, he has chosen his T-shirt collection, and offers a free T-shirt with the ticket price. May 19, 7:30 p.m. $15. YMCA Cambridge Theatre, 820 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/227449 NICK A. ZAINO III CLUBS & DANCE NIGHTS HIPPIE HOUR Roll into the Midway Cafe every Friday to celebrate the end of another work week with live...

When it comes to a particular brand of silly-smart musical comedy, SpeakEasy Stage Company knows just how and when to pull out all the stops. Consider SpeakEasy's "[title of show]" and "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" from a couple of seasons back, both helmed by producing artistic director Paul Daigneault, or the state of happy delirium induced by "The Drowsy Chaperone" last season. One of the high points of "Chaperone" was McCaela Donovan's performance as a vainglorious follies star who really, no kidding, she meant it, didn't wanna show off no more.

Britney Spears and Demi Lovato are joining the judging panel on "The X Factor" this fall, part of Fox's effort to boost its underperforming music competition shows. The network's executives, in presenting next season's schedule to advertisers on Monday, also promised changes for "American Idol. " While "Idol" remains Fox's centerpiece, as it has been for the past decade, it has lost a quarter of its audience this year. Fox is adding two new comedies and a drama in the fall, pumping new life into "Glee" by moving it to a new night with guest stars Kate Hudson and Sarah...

Ryan Reynolds's makeover continues. The onetime snarkmaster of rude college farces like "Van Wilder" and "Waiting. . . " is hitting 30, and his smooth spray-on tan is beginning to look unbecoming - the mark of an ageless oddity like George Hamilton rather than a smartly shallow frat-boy hero. So the powers that be have been casting the actor as a befuddled daddy-type in romantic comedies like "Definitely, Maybe" and "Chaos Theory," a new film that's actually been sitting on the shelf for well over a year.

"Oedipus at Palm Springs," the centerpiece of this year's Out on the Edge Festival, is appropriately right out there on the edge. It may be the saddest comedy you'll ever see. Now, you may not normally say "Oedipus" and "comedy" in the same breath. But that's the genius of the Five Lesbian Brothers, the New York-based troupe that developed this play with the help of the festival's presenter, the Theater Offensive, and is now giving it a fully staged Boston production after an acclaimed Off-Broadway run. The Brothers have a gift for delivering pungent messages with a...