When Seth Meyers reported on the story of a local strip club doing a Christmas toy drive (“give a gift to charity and we’ll give it to the manager!”), Jimmy Fallon just had to stop by his old “Weekend Update” post to hear more. Looking sharp in a navy suit and purple tie, he challenged Meyers to a “good old-fashioned ‘Weekend Update’ Joke-Off.” And, just to make things more exciting, former co-anchors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler also threw their hats into the ring.

It’s fitting that Jimmy Fallon would return to Saturday Night Live to host a Christmas episode, and also fitting that he was joined by fellow alum Rachel Dratch to reprise his Pat Sullivan character, with Dratch playing his girlfriend Denise. They were trying to crash their old high school’s winter formal, which was difficult as their student IDs put Fallon at fourteen and Dratch at…whatever age you have to be to work as an assistant high school principal.

“I love you.” “I want to be like you.” “You’re awesome,” is how nearly every woman prefaced their question (and it was mainly women doing the asking) for Amy Poehler’s conversation with Ariel Levy this past weekend at the New Yorker Festival.

Poehler is smart, funny, warm, confident, and knows what she wants. The child of two public school teachers, Poehler grew up loving school and was a self-proclaimed “good kid.” It might sound like I’m describing your best friend, your sister, or even you — and perhaps that’s the best part of Amy Poehler. What sets her apart from the rest of us is one thing: her main goal is to make us laugh.

Handsome funny person Will Arnett visited Jimmy Fallon Tuesday to discuss, among other things, how he is rooting for his wife Amy Poehler‘s show to do well at this year’s Emmy Awards. As it turns out, Arnett has quite a bit of experience losing at the Emmys.

The Beastie Boys are releasing a new “unit of musical expression” (albums, records, and CDs seem to be dated terms) called Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2 on May 3rd, and as part of the promotion they’ve created a 30 minute video short that features Beastie Boys of old meeting the Beastie Boys from the future in an short film. The list of cameos is legion, including Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogan as the Fight For Your Right era version of the group, and Will Farrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly as the futuristic version. There are also countless other cameos, but its more fun to watch and see than read them listed here.

Last week, the Internet delighted at the discovery of some old stock photos featuring none other than Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler. “How could this be?” we wondered. Well, Poehler may be one of the most successful women in comedy, starring in multiple beloved series, becoming an SNL cast member and anchoring Weekend Update while there, and co-founding two of the biggest comedy theaters and schools in New York and Los Angeles, however, that stuff doesn’t happen over night. She explained her Getty Image past last night to Jimmy Kimmel.

New York Governor David Paterson may have proved last night that laughter is the best revenge. Paterson make a surprise appearance during last night’s Weekend Update to confront fake David Paterson (played by Fred Armisen). When Armisen debuted his Paterson last year he came under fire from many, including Paterson, for mocking the disabled. Paterson, however, had the last laugh last night while also proving he could take a joke.

Who doesn’t love Amy Poehler? The sly blonde pixie is amongst the favorite SNL alums these days, universally liked with her adorable grin, great comic presence and fabulous half-Canadian family (Will Arnett, yo). Last night marked her triumphant return to SNL as host, wherein she not only showed herself to be both capable of a fabulous star turn in addition to her natural ensemble-player flair, but also a team player.

Last night was the Webbys. Speeches are only five words. So is our write-up, kinda. Plus videos of Internet people!

The returning cast members and Betty White sing pretty on The Lawrence Welk Show, and try not to be repulsed by Kristen Wiig.

One of the best things about bringing back beloved SNL alums is the potential return of their beloved characters — and last night did not disappoint, unless you were hoping to see them all on air. Alas, some of the favorites were left on the cutting-room floor — but in this Internet era, all that means is that they go viral the next morning. Last night’s web-only classics featured the return of Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph in “Bronx Beat” plus the much-beloved “Debbie Downer” — plus a riff on the bumbling Times Square Bomber. Those who watch SNL on Hulu probably won’t know the difference.

Tonight’s all-star SNL featured a favorite “Weekend Update” staple — and reunited three of Update’s favorite anchors. “‘Really!’ with Seth & Amy” morphed into “‘Really! With Seth, Amy & Tina,’” bringing together the Update anchors who have manned the desk for the last decade: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers.

Tonight is Saturday Night Live’s second-last show of its 35th season, and also, hands down, its biggest: Newly-recelebrated old-school superstar Betty White is hosting what has become the Mother’s Day show featuring SNL’s history of funny, funny ladies, which means the return of some top alumnae like Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, and Molly Shannon. And of course Tina Fey. The “women aren’t funny” meme is pretty dead by now, killed by the relentless dominance of Fey in pretty much every comedic endeavor she tries, plus people like Poehler, and Sarah Silverman, and Chelsea Handler, and Jenna Fischer, and Wanda Sykes, and Kristen Wiig, etc. etc. etc. — but the wildly-unequal ratio in the biz still lives on.

While The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will be cross-airing on the Sarah Palin Network, the other NBC late night comedy show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has been thriving in another arena as well – on the web.

Thursday night’s show was a perfect example – jam-packed with viral videos rarely seen among the current crop of late night shows.

The rumors are true, and yes, Facebook had something to do with it. USA Today is reporting that Betty White will be hosting the May 8 broadcast of Saturday Night Live after refusing the spot for years. White, whose legendary status has persisted to a younger generation through her role in The Proposal, playing beer pong with Jimmy Fallon, and, yes, those Golden Girls reruns on Lifetime, became the center of a Facebook campaign to get her to host after the debut of her new Snickers ad during the Super Bowl. And Lorne Michaels couldn’t sound happier about it.

When Game Change authors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann joined Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough in discussing their best-selling and oft blogged about book, Halperin mentioned that the authors are in discussions with HBO about making a film version. Their dreamcast? Meryl Streep playing Hillary Clinton and Will Smith playing Barack Obama. Mediaite’s ideal cast is after the jump!

So! “Ronna & Beverly” aired last night. Did you watch? Did anyone? Did the army of Twitter followers of comedy tastemakers like Rainn Wilson, Mindy Kaling, Joel Stein, Paul Feig, Rob Corddry, Rob Riggle, Paul Scheer and Diablo Cody — remember to set their DVRs? Anyone subscribing to the theory of Twitter as a cross-platform [...]

What do you do if your TV pilot finally gets made — in the middle of a media meltdown and the worst recession in years? And what do you do if it isn’t picked up, but at the last minute, randomly, gets scheduled to air? In the olden days (read: a few years ago), you [...]

This week, Barney’s unveiled their annual holiday windows, this year celebrating Saturday Night Live. The displays are heavy on allusion to various characters, scenes and personalities from the series’ 35 years – but deciphering each of those references is hindered by the primary mode of presentation, papier-mâché. I can’t help but suspect that this medium was chosen primarily to evoke sympathy – after all, it’s possible, if not probable, that they were actually made by a class of fourth graders.

Hillary Clinton remained mum on Sarah Palin for much of the remainder of last year’s campaign (as did Obama). But now that the media is about to once again take a ride on the Palin express courtesy of this week’s release of Going Rogue, the topic of the two meeting has been raised once again, this time by Meet the Press‘ David Gregory, who asked the Secretary of State whether or not she’d have a coffee with Palin. The answer? A very gracious ‘yes.’ Sort of. Video after the jump.

I remember when Christopher Hitchens wrote that ridiculous Vanity Fair piece about how women aren’t funny. I wrote a screed about it and got in a public scrap with Graydon Carter after at a very awkward luncheon. What can I say, this line of reasoning has always irritated me. Women aren’t funny? Really?

Oh, leave me alone. SNL’s 34th season kicks off this Saturday night, and Megan Fox is hosting. Even Obama is talking about her. This is news.

“I’m so heartbroken that the Internet, for the first time, was wrong about something. How are we ever going to trust the Internet again?” Who said it?

NBC’s Thursday night line-up used to be called “Must See TV,” and in recent years they’ve beefed up their comedy offerings and edged back toward that heyday (although not in the ratings yet). There are the big stars – Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock and Steve Carell of The Office.

But, come September, none will have as much face time as Amy Poehler.