Paper magazine, the recently redesigned New York-based art-culture-fashion-lifestyle bi-monthly, is featuring Japanese pop supa' dupa' stars Puffy on the cover of its June-July issue. The J-pop duo are better known Stateside as Puffy Amiyumi because, as the profile by Jonathan Durbin notes, hip-hop mogul P. Diddy, formerly Puffy, and his legal team might object to the use of the name. The Amiyumi appendage is a compound of the first names of the members of this Japanese female pop duo -- Ami and Yumiko.

Though the Japanese Puffy have spent the better part of the past decade churning out J-pop hits in their homeland, it's only recently that they've started getting attention here in the US, which is in and of itself unusual for a mainstream Japanese pop group that sings almost exclusively in Japanese.

But the American fanfare has little to do with Puffy's music and is largely a result of a surpise hit half-hour animated program on Cartoon Network. The show is called Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi and is based on the singing duo and their real-life manager Kaz. It's standard Saturday-morning type of cartoon fare, though with a stylized animated aesthetic that could appeal to the mature Adult Swim crowd. The show's plotlines have little if anything to do with the real lives of either Ami or Yumi or even their collective musical persona Puffy other than the names and the fact that the duo are a pop group.

But who cares, really? Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi has been Cartoon Network's highest-rated original series program debut to date. Its successful two-season run has led to the program getting the greenlight for a third season. The CN suits are hoping that the audience for the show will grow beyond the admitted core "otaku" audience of anime and manga fans. So one way or another expect to see more of Ami and Yumi when you channel surf your basic cable package.

By the way, Danielle Levitt's photographs of Puffy Amiyumi on the cover and within the feature layout are gorgeous -- especially the photo of Ami and Yumiko backstage at Club 251 in Tokyo. Ah ... to be young and Japanese.

Related Links

Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi [Paper Mag]

Official Puffy Amiyumi Website

Hi, Hi Puffy Amiyumi Video Clip [Cartoon Network]

Cartoon Network Website

Oh, Dave! Oh, Dave! Where for art thou, Dave Chappelle? We mean, damn, you're Dave Chappelle, bitch!! And we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for the third season of Chappelle's Show for so long now that those re-runs are starting to get real tired.

We mean, Prince whipping Charlie Murphy in a game of basketball and then serving pancakes -- that was funny the first time, and even the second and third and fourth time, too. But the 21st time? Dang C-dawg! That shit just isn't that funny anymore. Same goes for all those amazing comedy sketches -- Samuel Jackson Beer, Rick James, the Racial Draft. After a dozen airings of the reruns, that shit is tired, not wired.

Okay, so maybe we're being a little harsh on Dave right there. But it just demonstrates how much we love Chappelle's Show.

Needless to say, we were surprised when we heard the news last week that production had been halted on the third season of Chappelle's Show. We were even more surprised when we showed up at our Soho office this Monday morning and found the cover of the complimentary copy of Newsweek we get at our firm every week had a little blurb about Dave Chappelle that said: "Wassup Dave?" It pointed to a feature article about said halting of production of the Chappelle's Show and the delay of the season premiere on Comedy Central.

That mainstream media (MSM) such as Newsweek is really paying attention to the nation's pop culture pulse so closely is a plus and a bit of a surprise. Kudos to the Newsweek journo who wrote the piece and successfully pitched it right into the center of the mag editors' radar.

What's more, this kind of MSM coverage is evidence that Dave Chappelle and his groundbreaking sketch comedy program have registered on the public's cultural seismograph in a big, profound way.

The Newsweek article itself, titled "Fears of a Clown" and written by Devin Gordon, speculates that the production problems plaguing the show and the show's sudden hiatus are due to Chappelle's own meteoric rise to major player in American comedy and the intense pressures and resultant over-indulgence in unnamed party substances that have followed. In short, the media is suggesting that Dave is cracking under the pressure of his own success and possibly has a drug problem severe enough to affect his ability to produce, write and perform on his own show.

Chappelle's Show's success is two-fold. One, it very quickly garnered both high ratings for Comedy Central and a certain kind of important street cred and critical acclaim. And it built up its enormous popularity by striking a chord across a wide, diverse audience that immediately understood the show's cutting edge and exacting -- if often bawdy and offensive -- brand of comedy.

Chappelle's sketch material largely plays on America's unspoken racial discomfort and social dysfunctionality in a way rarely seen in comedy or on television. Its comedy that is socially ice-breaking and artistically ground-breaking. The Comedy Central ratings were enough to force the Viacom-owned cable channel to ante up a $50 million payout to Chappelle for two more seasons of his show, lest it be bought up by rivals at Fox and other networks.

The second part of Chappelle's success has to do with the relatively young but hugely successful business of DVD sales and rentals. The DVD for Chappelle's Show is the biggest-selling DVD title ever. (Did you hear us? We said "EVER"!!!) That's right, kids -- KA-CHING!!!

Suddenly not only is Chappelle a big star, but he's a performer who went from being a struggling B-list stand-up comedian (albeit one who had carved out a nice, small living in film, TV and stand-up), to suddenly a serious, independently successful and influential star in a very, very short time.

So if Dave is having issues dealing with this new-found level of success, attention and pressure, well, so what? That's a lot to bear, especially when you're not looking to be that big in the first place.

That doesn't mean we're not still jonesing badly for season three of Chappelle's Show nor not sore that we're still left enduring the same reruns. It's just that as folks who make our living sitting right smack dab in the middle of the New York media-marketing-hype machine and responsible for producing some of the PR sizzle, we know just how tremendously fierce and perilous the whirlwind of fame can be. Dave, come and get us when you're ready. We'll be waiting and ready to tune in. And remember, "Konnichiwa, Bitches!"

Related Links

Fears of a Clown [Newsweek]

Comedy Central Website

Chappelle Show Homepage [Comedy Central]

Biography of Dave Chappelle [IMDB]

Podcasting has been receiving tons of attention in 2005 -- and rightly so -- though the media paradigm for on-demand MP3-based programming is still nascent. So we were a little surprised when Adam Curry announced in his Daily Source Code podcast last week (which we listen to religiously) that Paris Hilton would have her own podcast called, naturally, The Paris Hilton Podcast.

The Hilton podcast would be part of Paris's efforts to promote the new movie House of Wax, in which the celebutant co-stars in what is largely seen as her first true film-acting role to date. (Paris has appeared in other films and on television shows, but those appearances have been mostly cameos or her appearing as herself.)

We were surpised by the news of her podcast not so much because it's Paris Hilton, but because the people who "handle" her and the marketing folks working on House of Wax -- a stew of corporate suits and MSM marketing "creatives" -- jumped on the podcast idea so quickly and for such a highly visible mainstream media product, er, ya' know, big Hollywood studio movie with a mega-huge marketing budget. The very appearance of the Paris Hilton podcast link on the House of Wax website and the hype ensures positive exposure for the podcast meme in general. And as ex-con Martha would say, it's a good thing.

So what's the Paris Hilton podcast really like? We're mixed on it. But that said, you've got ot hear it at least once (which may be all that it takes to make this a hit in its own small, movie-marketing niche way). In the first episode, Paris records her podcast intro while sitting in the green room of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City just minutes prior to her apearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

The bulk of the podcast is closer to what might be called a "sound-scene tour." It's basically audio-verite of Paris and her handlers making their way out of the Ed Sullivan theater after her appearance with Dave. We get to hear her as she talks about the plan to work a crowd of adoring fans and paparazzi waiting outside the theater. She poses for the mass of screaming photographers and signs autographs for hysterical fans before ducking into a car to head out for dinner at fabulous downtown Manhattan restaurant Cipriani.

Prediction: Paris and the podcast will be a limited thing for now. That is, its just for the movie and won't have a life of its own beyond the first week of release. Which is shame, because a regluar Paris Hilton podcast could be a very good thing for podcasting. On the other hand, the first Hilton podcast suggests that beyond focused promotion and the aural voyeurism of backstage sound scenes, a Paris Hilton podcast would have little to offer listeners in so far as sustainable, compelling and engaging content. But ya' never know, kids.

Related Links

Paris Hilton Podcast [House of Wax Movie]

http://houseofwaxpodcast.com/rss.xml[URL for Podcast RSS Feed]

House of Wax Movie Reviews [MetaCritic]

Paris Hilton Biography [Wikipedia]