Hans Holsen, who's getting to be a pro at this "pitching to the networks" thing, asks on his i.O. blog that you remember and revere the Seven Stock Sitcom Characters, including "The Ornery Dad, The Long-Suffering Wife, The Delinquent Son, The Comatose Daughter, The Hobgoblin, and The Talking Clothes Hanger that Sprinkles Sugar on Floor Mats." Everything really does boil down to a simple formula involving talking clothes hangers, doesn't it?

James Fritz is tired of the old Chicago pub crawl, especially the St. Paddy's Day variety. It's fun and all, but it so often ends with him being punched. "And because I'm a drunk retard and forgot my Harold training from six years ago and how comedy, apparently, like shots of Jameson, still comes in threes, I get sucker ball punched." Might as well do stand-up, if you're going to put yourself through that.

Second City's Seth Weitburg shares some thoughts on the dangers of overwriting the funny right out of a good sketch, the importance of editing, editing, editing, and why aspiring comedy writers should always keep a little notebook in their back pocket: "...If you have any interest in writing comedy, keep a notepad with you at all times. I like the little pocket ones from CVS or Walgreens. Any time you have a thought or an idea, or something strikes you as funny, compelling or interesting, write it down. When you go back to this pad days, weeks or months later, most of it will be nonsensical horse dung, but there will be nuggets of resounding clarity in there that you will thank the dead spirit of Robert Frost that you hung on to, because otherwise they would have been gone – mental driftwood in an ephemeral sea of passing thoughts."

Has Dennis Rodman been shopping at the Brown Elephant in Lakeview? Wearing a Michael Jordan jacket? Stranger things have happened.

Mike Palascak is still musing over his crush on Clarissa herself. Some things are forever.

The Scene's Jon and Molly explain explaining improv to the uninitiated. According to Jon, one condenses one's summary as the years go by: "If you’ve actually made all of these points in a single conversation, you’re probably a young improviser who’s really, really into improv. When you’ve been doing long-form improv for a few years, you don’t really want to talk about improv all the time. I myself just use a one sentence answer: it’s improvised comedic theater. If they want to know more, they’ll ask; and then I’ll give another vague answer, because I’ve already decided I don’t like this person and want them to go away so I can get back to doing this crossword puzzle."

i.O.'s Bill Arnett addresses the very popular topic of gender disparity in comedy while tipping his hat to Madeline Kahn. Did he love her as Lili Von Shtupp as much as we did?