The videos are both funny and self aware. One shows The Office-stars Ellie Kemper and BJ Novak giving an onscreen countdown till they ask for money while complimenting the viewer as being a good person for continuing to watch. It’s not just comedians standing in a studio however as a few feature the likes of Nick Kroll and Ed Helms travelling around Africa. The clips are funny as well though, as Kroll plays his Bobby Bottleservice character who helpfully explains that mosquitos carry malaria just like his ex-girlfriend carried gonorrhea. Obviously, it’s not all laughs, but there’s a high enough ratio to keep people watching watching more than their typical amount of PSAs.

From a press release:

“While the videos are funny and entertaining, Comedy Fights Malaria shows that the disease is no laughing matter – every 45 seconds, a child in Africa dies from malaria, but humor can keep malaria in the spotlight and in the conversation. Visit the links below for PSA’s featuring Orlando Bloom, John Mayer, Ted Danson, Jeremy Piven, Ellie Kemper, BJ Novak and Ed Helms among others and let me know if you would like further information on the campaign. Please feel free to embed the links on your site or link to us on Facebook.

Fans and supporters are asked to “Like” Malaria No More on Facebook www.Facebook.com/MalariaNoMore and learn about how the world is working to end malaria deaths in Africa by 2015 while also checking out exclusive content from the campaign and seeing how they can be a part of the victory against the disease.”

Comedy for a good cause is nothing new (see: Comic Relief in England and this Thursday’s Night of Too Many Stars on Comedy Central) but that doesn’t make the Comedy Fights Malaria campaign any less fun. Check out some of the videos below:

As you’ll remember, Beck’s comments that people should “run” if they see the words “social justice” in any of their church’s literature got him in a bit of hot water (recording of Beck’s original comments can be found here). Many religious groups complained and Beck was forced to backtrack a little. However, that wasn’t enough for Jewish Funds for Justice, a group whose official website states that they were formed to help “people in the United States achieve social and economic security and opportunity by investing in healthy neighborhoods, vibrant Jewish communities, and skillful leaders.”

Their Haiku Twitterstorm has been a big hit. In the past week, they have received more than 1500 poems, which is quite a lot of 17-syllable anger to send Beck’s way. They even had a few celebrity contributors, like comedian Nick Kroll who wrote “glenn beck is awesome/he makes hitler and stalin/seem totally sane”. The campaign has even gained the attention of the Fox News host himself, who mentioned it on his radio show. The group sent a press release to media outlets to increase the public attention.

From the press release:

“We are doing this because our organization’s purpose has been to increase the very work Beck disdains, because we believe social justice can bring faiths together, because do-gooders and Nazis don’t mix,” said Mik Moore, chief strategy officer of the Jewish Funds for Justice. “While faith traditions may be different, the thread of social justice cuts across lines of faith. In a country increasingly torn apart by fundamentalism, undermining this thread that ties us together is dangerous.”

The campaign is going on all day and readers who want to check out the Haikus can either go on Twitter and look up the hash tag topic #becku or by going to the campaign’s website where readers can rank the Haikus. The top rated right now is by the user “HipsterJew” who writes “Beckstein reminds me/of the kid in my Jew school/who ate the glue stick”.

We fully encourage any readers who agree with the cause to write their own Haikus. And we fully encourage readers who disagree to write their own…I don’t know…limericks? That way the whole thing can keep escalating until one side has to write a Beowulf-style epic poem about Glenn Beck. Preferably with dragons in it. Either way, this is probably the most interested in poetry that Americans have been in years.

Beck may be crazy
But look at all the page hits
This post will get soon!

I IM’d the intrepid Mr. McCarthy and he explained all: Greer Barnes was on Comedy Central at 10, an old Mitch Hedberg special at 10:30 (the much-loved Hedberg died in 2005), “John Oliver and Friends” on at 11, opposite Mulaney on TBS. Fabrice Fabrice was one of the “Friends” on the Oliver special and Smacky is a Hedberg joke. “People must have stayed in because it’s so cold everywhere and watched comedy on TV!” said McCarthy (whose earlier tweet agonized over having to choose between Oliver and Mullaney). Based on Google Hot Trends, it sounds like he’s right; related searches included Eugene Mirman (who came after Oliver, along with helpful instructions about how to repel a bear attack) as well as for Greg Fitzsimmons.And also for Morgan Christie, who is apparently dating Jon Gosselin, but there is humor in that, surely.

Anyhow — far be it from us to just go through Google Trends to make a post! If you’re still searching, here’s some tidbits to enjoy.

Update: Now Aziz Ansari is trending.

Greer Barnes

Fabrice Fabrice
“No more carrot sticks for you, Robert Guillame!”

John Mulaney

Mitch Hedberg

But more to the point, this gives me a terrific segue to introduce this: Nick Kroll on Funny or Die as “Bobby Bottleservice” in his audition tape for Jersey Shore. I don’t watch the show but I will watch Kroll do anything, because he is hi-larious — and I’m not alone, because the video, which was highlighted yesterday in the FOD weekly newsletter and was only posted shortly before that, has already racked up 91,654 views. That’s almost 100,000 on a video that was shot in someone’s office. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: Funny or Die is on to something. So who are you to buck the trend? Here’s Krolls take on all things Joisey, below:

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Or would we? Turns out Mediaite has obtained the video, and three weeks later it’s still pretty damn funny, and shocking. Said Donald: “My trained eye tells me that since 1982 you’ve been condemned from the waist down – and like most dilapidated structures, you haven’t been entered in decades!” And it only got worse from there. Viewer discretion advised!

>>>NEXT PAGE: Clips of Griffin, Rivers, Whitney Cumming, Carl Reiner, Jeffrey Ross, Nick Kroll and more!