The late, great Chris Farley playing the angry victim of a hidden camera commercial in what may be the greatest SNL skit of all time. Hey some people really love their coffee.

In honor of Kenan finally hitting his comedic stride on Saturday Night Live, we bring you this vintage treat from Nickelodeon's kids-centric sketch comedy show that thrived in the mid 1990s.

• Time Inc. is expected to announce plans to slash $100 million in costs next week; naturally, lots of layoffs will be involved in making that happen. [NYT]
• The Wall Street Journal is closing its Boston bureau. Also in Beantown: The Boston Globe's publisher has announced he's stepping down. [BW, NYT]
• The war between the White House and Fox News is over. For now. [DF]
• Esquire's latest bid for relevance: Its December issue will be tricked out with "an emerging technology called augmented reality." Sounds hot. [WSJ]
• Lou Dobbs says someone fired a shot at his New Jersey home/horse farm. He's yet to blame the population of Mexico. But just give it time. [CNN]

David Spade had his sniveling say about the DirecTV commercial he did with Chris Farley's ghost. Now, one of the guys who wrote the commercial writes a fair, reasonable blog post about his intentions. Okay. But he ends with this:

David Spade, a real human with a real human heart, is so wounded by the criticism of his new ad "starring" his dead pal Chris Farley that he's come forth with a heartfelt statement from his flack.

The trustees of the estate of Chris Farley agree: The deceased beloved portly comedian would really enjoy DirecTV, were he not dead and all. Also, David Spade is available for kids' birthday parties and cheap blowjobs. Sleazebags.

The trades are alight with hellfire today as the End of Ideas train has derailed once again, exploding and settling a fine, acrid dust on the surfaces of morning lattes all over town. And as you sip yours, know that you're not hallucinating, despite what you've read: Sony really does plan a sequel to the late Chris Farley's non-essential Beverly Hills Ninja, summoning a script from the original film's screenwriter and conceiving it as the first mainstream American film to be shot entirely in South Korea. We're sure the nation is thrilled — more excited, anyhow, than it would be if it faced the prospect of a contemporary Snow White revision tentatively titled Georgia and the Seven Associates. Right. As in "lawyers":

The new season of Saturday Night Live begins tonight and it may be one of the most anticipated debuts the show has had in a long while. The host is human-dolphin hybrid Michael Phelps and athletes often make surprisingly good hosts, because they (generally) aren't afraid to go along with anything. (That's the secret weapon all great hosts understand.) More importantly, it will (hopefully!) mark the return of Tina Fey to the ensemble, taking on the temporary role of You Know Who. (Or maybe it'll be Kristen Wiig and her Target lady voice? Also promising.) The show definitely lost something when Fey left as a writer, and while a recurring bit role can't recapture all the magic, she will mine that part for every comedic possibility there is. And there are a lot. The last great era that show saw was the fall of 2000, when their political humor was at its peak. Will Ferrell and Darryl Hammond were the dynamic duo of that election season, because Al Gore and George Bush were such perfect foils for each other. The comedic possibilities for Obama/McCain are not nearly as great, but ... whoo-boy do those VPs bring a lot to the table. I would post my favorite sketch from that era here, but NBC has stupidly not provided any clips of it on Hulu. Way to seize the moment, guys! So I'll just throw this one up there, because it's hilarious and then leave you to your own devices. By the way, Barack Obama himself was actually supposed to appear on SNL tonight, but canceled to due to Hurricane Ike. Which brings us full circle. Yay! I'm out for the evening and someone else will walk in the sun with you tomorrow. It was fun! Thanks for having me and thanks for reading! [Hulu; HuffPo, ABC News]

As we learned recently, SNL's Chris Farley was far from coddled or loved during his final years by fellow cast members. And now, a new biography on Chris Farley titled The Chris Farley Show will divulge more depressing tales from friends of Farley and how exactly they went about attempting to help the struggling addict get better (hint: they didn't). From former co-stars dishing on his desperate attempts to be loved using prostitutes to anecdotes involving his habit of licking everything from his shoelaces to his wallet, one revelation made by Chris Rock stands out:

I was surprised to read this at the end of a lengthy profile of Ford's chief marketing officer, Jim Farley: "Mr. Farley sometimes seems like a kid in a candy store at Ford, as though Jimmy Car-Car has found the ultimate playground. In those moments, his resemblance to his late cousin, the comedian Chris Farley, emerges in the twinkle in his eye." [Times]

As much as we'd like to believe that Chris Farley's time on earth was a shouting, dancing laugh fest until its too-soon end, his brother Tom's new book, The Chris Farley Show: A Biography in Three Acts, shatters our (admittedly quite flimsy) illusions about his life. Excerpts from the book will run in May's Playboy — finally, you can say "I bought it for the articles!" and truly mean it — but Page Six has two distressing quotes this morning from his fellow Not Ready For Prime Time Players. Particularly sad — Farley BFF David Spade recalls a time when his pal's heckling went well beyond "fat guy in a little coat:"

Some AP photographer was roaming around Yankee stadium during the rain delay, and who did he stumble upon but overweight deceased SNL comedic maniac Chris Farley! Farley, who passed away in 1997, apparently assumed human form once again in order to take in the historic final opening day in the classic ballpark. The identity of his female companion remains unknown. Click to enlarge the pic, via the WSJ.

Find a funnier Chris Farley moment than this one. I dare you. I double-dog dare you. [Hulu]

Chris Farley lives! Or at least that what some are claiming, having returned to us in the form of a baby girl whose first words could very well end up being, "Well, la-dee-freakin-da!" [openedgemedia.com]

The LAT's targeted online advertising software appears to be extremely well-calibrated, pairing a story about the founder of Barry's Bootcamp having been a massive drug addict for years with a banner ad featuring an obese, smiling Chris Farley encouraging you to "overcome addiction," part of a campaign that has also seen his giant mug plastered on billboards around town. There are multiple lessons to be learned here: not just about the dangers of drug abuse, but also in the value of regular exercise—except when supervised by a cracked-out cardio instructor.

Saturday's LAT story about the billboard (pictured above) featuring Chris Farley's image to advertise a new addiction treatment at first struck us as an April Fool's Day gag, but then we realized that the Times' lawyers would probably burn down their headquarters before exposing themselves to a lawsuit over a joke. The mastermind behind the billboard, which is going up over Sunset Boulevard at Crescent Heights today, explains their innovative marketing strategy: