The FX animated series Archer, created by Adam Reed, revolves around ISIS, a private espionage company populated exclusively by venal, self-centered sociopaths and degenerates.  On any other series, the character of Cyril Figgis would be the butt of every joke, nothing more than a sweater-vest-wearing do-gooder.  Even in the comedy's first season, the unadventurous accountant and comptroller showed himself to be in their league as a betrayal-prone sex addict with serious Freudian issues.  With the series in its third season, Cryil, voiced by Chris Parnell, has been promoted to Field Agent, allowing Parnell to play whole new levels of awkwardness. 

Even if you don't know Parnell by name, it's almost guaranteed that he has made you laugh repeatedly over the years. A veteran of the improv institution The Groundlings, Parnell was a castmember on Saturday Night Live from 1998 to 2006, where he threw down regular recurring characters and notable impressions.  At the show, he became inextricably associated with the emergence of the viral video thanks to "Lazy Sunday," the insanely-popular SNL Digital Short starring Parnell and Andy Samberg.  In addition to Archer and Saturday Night Live, Parnell's extensive television credits include series such as Suburgatory, Big Lake, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and 30 Rock, on which he appears as the beloved Dr. Leo Spaceman.  On the cinematic side, he has appeared in films such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Hot Rod, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. 

As Cyril on Archer, though, Parnell is now an indispensable part of television's most delightfully deranged series.  IAR and a number of other outlets were lucky enough to participate in an interview with Chris Parnell, who discussed his relationship to the character, SNL, table reads, Funny or Die, screenwriting, and what's coming up on Archer.

Valentine's Day and New Year's Eve.  For two consecutive years, director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Katherine Fugate served up holiday-themed ensembles unreasonably packed with bankable movie stars and romantic comedy cliches.  Had New Year's Eve been a bigger hit, you can only imagine that we have spent the next several years besieged by these novelty offerings until the holidays were finally exhausted.  That could still happen, actually.  But even if it does, we'll always have MLK Day, a parody trailer for a fictitious romantic comedy that expertly eviscerates the cloying, manipulative style of those films.

Somewhere between 'Lazy Sunday' and 'I Just Had Sex', you no doubt became familiar with The Lonely Island, the trio who create the frequently inescapable digital shorts on Saturday Night Live.  Former head writer Tina Fey hosted the latest episode, and in their short, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone team up with Michael Bolton for their latest sure-to-be-ubiquitous jam.  The adult contemporary crooner turns out to be something of a cinephile, with an unsettling fixation on Captain Jack Sparrow, played by Johnny Depp in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.  Check out the video, not only for the sight of Bolton in Sparrow costume, but also to see him channeling Tony Montana.

When Tina Fey's Saturday Night Live-inspired series 30 Rock debuted in 2006, it was the underdog of two SNL-themed shows premiering on NBC that season.  The other was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, created by Aaron Sorkin, who also created The West Wing and Sports Night, and wrote the films A Few Good Men, An American President, and Charlie Wilson's War.  His hour long drama/comedy starring Matthew Perry proved to be the less popular series, finishing its run in just one season, while 30 Rock  is currently in its fifth season.  Fresh from winning a Best Screenplay Oscar for The Social Network, Sorkin made a cameo appearance on last night's 30 Rock, spouting off his usual rapid-fire dialogue in one of his trademark walk & talks.  Watch the clip right here.

Tiny Fey's Saturday Night Live interpretation of 2008 vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is the most recognizable take on the former mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, but the 30 Rock star is about to be in good company, as Oscar nominated actress Julianne Moore has signed on to portray Palin in the HBO movie Game Change, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

This is a truly monumental occasion, as Viacom siblings MTV and Comedy Central announced the nominees for the first annual Comedy Awards.  If their list of nominees is any indication, it'll definitely be an awards show worth watching.  The awards encompass film, television, and even stand-up specials.  Get Him to the Greek, Kick-Ass, The Other Guys, Easy A, and Cyrus are all in the running for Best Movie, while the television categories are dominated by 30 Rock and Modern Family, but it's good to see less widely appreciated shows like Community and Eastbound and Down getting a little love as well.  Other nominees include Alec Baldwin, Ricky Gervais, Helen Mirren, Edgar Wright, Chloe Moretz, Kristen Wiig, Louis CK, David Letterman, and Aziz Ansari.  Check out the full list of nominees right here.

The latest in Dreamworks Animation is a little something called Megamind. It’s in 3D, and much of that particular aspect of the film looks good. This tale revolves around a super villain named Megamind (Will Ferrell) who really isn’t very good at what he does. Sure he has a fish named Minion (David Cross), his friend/sidekick, and he is sort of helpful. He even has several little robots that can handle evil doing at his bidding. The trouble is he just doesn’t seem to have it in him. His attempts to stop egocentric superhero Metro Man (Brad Pitt) never end well. It has sort of a Wile E. Coyote vs. the Road Runner vibe to it.

Do you want to go have a Date Night with Steve Carell and Tina Fey? Or if you are not into that, you could always hang around The Joneses and find out about all the appliances, gadgets and gizmos that you don’t have.

That’s it folks. Not a big day for DVD and Blu-ray release. First up is the hit comedy about a couple looking for some quality time together in Date Night. The film scored some decent critical praise and even found an audience making it a modest hit. Fey, Carell and the scene with the gun pointed the kill way? I’m up for it.

I've given the fanboys enough to salivate over with the James Cameron/Guillermo del Toro and Damon Lindelof/Ridley Scott news, now it's time to move on to something for just about everyone else. Another dream team, this one consisting of Meryl Streep and Tina Fey...

The lady heavyweights have agreed to star as mother and daughter in Mommy & Me, which will be directed by Stanley Tucci (who of course starred alongside Streep in The Devil Wears Prada and Julie & Julia). The project has been floating around for a little while, but it's finally been picked up, by Sony, which will distribute.

Synopsis: From the studio that brought you "Shrek," "Madagascar" and "Kung Fu Panda." "Megamind" is the most brilliant supervillain the world has ever known. And the least successful. Over the years, he has tried to conquer Metro City in every imaginable way. Each attempt, a colossal failure thanks to the caped superhero known as "Metro Man," an invincible hero until the day Megamind actually kills him in the throes of one of his botched evil plans. Suddenly, Megamind has no purpose. A supervillain without a superhero. He realizes that achieving his life's ambition is the worst thing that ever happened to him. Megamind decides that the only way out of his rut is to create a new hero opponent called "Titan", who promises to be bigger, better and stronger than Metro Man ever was. Pretty quickly Titan starts to think it's much more fun to be a villain than a good guy . Except Titan doesn't just want to rule the world, he wants to destroy it. Now, Megamind must decide: can he defeat his own diabolical creation? Can the world's smartest man make the smart decision for once? Can the evil genius become the unlikely hero of his own story?