Vanity Fair’s January 2013 installment will be the magazine’s first-ever comedy issue, and three different star-studded covers as well as the table of contents for the issue just dropped today. Judd Apatow guest-edited the issue. He’s only the third guest editor Vanity Fair has had in the past 20 years, so it’s quite an accomplishment on his part. The issue’s comedy portfolio features Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Melissa McCarthy, Megan Fox, Jim Carrey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien, Lena Dunham, Zach Galifianakis, Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner, while Louis C.K. fills out The Proust Questionnaire and Jimmy Fallon is the subject of the regular “Out to Lunch†column. A piece from the issue by Judd Apatow is viewable online now.
Additionally, Vanity Fair and 60 Minutes conducted a series of comedy-related polls, with Seinfeld winning for “greatest sitcom,†Jay Leno somehow topping the funniest late night host poll (only slightly beating “none of the aboveâ€), and 86% of Americans not knowing who Judd Apatow is. Hit the jump for the three star-studded January issue covers, a list of what else to expect from the issue, and the Vanity Fair/60 Minutes poll results:
Here are all three comedy issue covers:
Here are the other features in the magazine:
- Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner conducts an unprecedented joint interview with Mike Nichols and Elaine May, who recapture their pioneering improv act and wonder why they ever stopped.
- Writer, director, and actor Albert Brooks talks about his neuroses, his marriage, his Twitter feed, John Lennon, death, and integrity with Apatow, who directed him in This Is 40. More than a decade after Freaks and Geeks got cancelled, the show’s creator, Paul Feig, producer Judd Apatow, and the cast—including Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and James Franco—tell how they pulled off one of the finest failures in TV history.
- Ned Zeman chronicles the making of The Blues Brothers,from Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s 1973 meeting in a Toronto bar to the madcap film that defied genre, studio execs, and sanity to become an epic hit.
- David Kamp profiles Martin Short’s eccentric brand of greatness and learns that nice guys don’t have to finish last. Even in the wake of private tragedy, one of Hollywood’s most beloved entertainers makes life funnier for everyone he knows, and millions he doesn’t.
And here are the results of those kooky Vanity Fair/60 Minutes comedy polls:
Which host is most likely to make you laugh?Jay Leno: 24%David Letterman: 13%Jimmy Fallon: 12%Conan O’Brien: 12%Jimmy Kimmel: 8%Craig Ferguson: 4%None of them: 23%Which of these is the greatest sitcom?Seinfeld: 22%The Honeymooners: 20%Friends: 16%Cheers: 14%Arrested Development: 7%Mary Tyler Moore: 6%30 Rock: 5%The Simpsons vs. Family GuyThe Simpsons: 36%Family Guy: 30%Don’t know: 35%Who is Judd Apatow?Former Clinton speech writer: 15%Director, writer and producer: 14%A creator of South Park: 5%70s country music star: 3%Don’t know: 64%