Williams Needs Heart Surgery

Akihito has suffered from variety of health problems in recent years

(AP) - Japanese Emperor Akihito will have heart bypass surgery later this month, his palace said today after the 78-year-old monarch was hospitalized for tests over the weekend. Akihito returned to the palace today after the tests and has scheduled the surgery for Feb. 18, the Imperial Household Agency said. More»

Comedians assess Santorum, Romney, Gingrich's techniques

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum have all had their share of hecklers this election season (Ron Paul has largely emerged unscathed)—but who's the best at shutting them down? At Slate , David Weigel asked two stand-up comedians to evaluate each candidate's strategy:

• Santorum tends to launch into lengthy debates with hecklers (his are typically gay-rights supporters) when he believes he can beat them. But he "blows it by staying out there long enough to get booed," says comic Paul F. Tompkins. In the video at left, "he should have thrown the mic down and walked off."

And comedian is giving more than half of that to charities, employees

(NEWSER) - The wild success story of Louis CK and his self-produced comedy album gets even wilder : The album, available via his website for just $5, sold 200,000 copies as of Tuesday, grossing the comedian a cool million ... in just 12 days. A quarter of that money will go to the video's production costs, and $220,000 will go to CK himself (he says he will spend it on rent, his kids, and "terrible, horrible things" that are "none of your business"). But more than half will go to his employees and charity. Specifically, his employees will get bonuses totaling $250,000, and another $280,000 will go to five charities (click to see which ones ). More»

Comic bypasses studio and sells concert from his website

(NEWSER) - Comedian Louis CK has scored nice profits by taping, producing, and distributing his stand-up special by himself and without the help of a network or studio. In what he calls an "experiment" to cut out the middlemen and keep prices low, CK hired a camera team to tape two of his stand-up performances at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan. He then began selling the video for $5 a pop on a newly built website , and after merely four days had racked up 110,000 downloads and $200,000 in profits, reports Mashable . More»

He had a stroke in October

(NEWSER) - A big man of comedy is gone: Patrice O'Neal died this morning from complications of a stroke he had in October, reports TMZ . The 41-year-old, who was 6-foot-5 and more than 300 pounds, had long battled diabetes. Among other things, he had been a regular in the New York City comedy scene as well as on the Opie and Anthony radio show on SiriusXM. "Yes it's true that our pal Patrice O'Neal has passed away," tweeted Opie. "The funniest and best thinker I've ever known PERIOD." More»