In comedy you need a good punch line.

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But audiences are always clamouring for a good true story, as evidenced by live comedy, the memoir glut and so-called reality television.

BBC: New York stories

This feel-good comedy, directed by Ron Underwood from a script by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, is a depressingly efficient piece of Hollywood product.

NEWYORKER: City Slickers

The writer, Michael Arndt, and the husband-and-wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, narrowly avoid the family-comedy pitfalls of whimsy and mush, but Arndt has a good ear for domestic irritations and the acting is just tough enough to keep us off balance.

NEWYORKER: Little Miss Sunshine

While it's a bit of a wait, the good news for fans is that the community college-set comedy will be airing in its traditional home of Thursdays (in the slot occupied by the departing "30 Rock") instead of Fridays, where it had been slotted for this season.

CNN: 'Community': Season 4 gets premiere date

And the pervading feel-good factor of humour suggests that stand-up comedy may well survive in a global climate that provides so little else to laugh at.

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He described the finished product as being a "sci-fi, comedy, romance, father-son relationship, superhero, good over evil fight to save the world".

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They thought it would make a good companion show to run with another series they were producing called Head Case, another grossly LA comedy about the soul-gutting series of disallusions that surround us.

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