A super-scientific way to gauge your ‘Lasso’ love

I feel like our guide to L.A. ice cream arrived a bit late in the summer, but then my waistline may disagree. I am puzzled that the best ice cream shop in the Southland somehow didn’t make the cut ... but its lines are too long already. Better to keep it a secret.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope’s Friday newsletter. Can you believe Emmy voting is still going on? Mark your ballots already. And then go reward yourself with some soft serve.

Did you vote for ‘Ted Lasso’?

“Ted Lasso” won the Emmy for comedy series for each of its first two seasons. The third (and final?) season, however, produced some wildly different reactions. Did the show, like Willie Nelson, go out on a high? I devised a super-scientific quiz to help you discover if you’re still fully Team Richmond.

Here’s a sample question:

You are going through a difficult time and must make some hard choices. You confide in a friend, asking for advice and they respond, “You say ‘impossible,’ but all I hear is ‘I’m possible.’” You:
Pause. Reflect. Thank them for their support. (10)
End the friendship immediately. (0)

What was your answer? And, after reading it, are we still friends? Do you need more questions? Here ... take the “Ted Lasso” Emmy quiz!

Two-time comedy series winner “Ted Lasso” has been nominated again. Will you be voting for it?

(Photo illustration by Susana Sanchez / Los Angeles Times. Images: Apple TV+ and Getty Images)

Or maybe you voted for ‘Abbott Elementary’ ...

In which case, I don’t have a quiz, but instead a conversation with “Abbott Elementary” star and creator Quinta Brunson, who won the comedy series writing Emmy last year and is nominated again for writing, producing and acting in the hit ABC series.

“Abbott” is the only broadcast series this year to receive a show nomination — and its actors (Brunson, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Janelle James and Tyler James Williams) the only broadcast series actors to be nominated in lead or supporting roles for comedy, drama or limited series. Obviously, that’s a sign of where prestige television resides these days, though Brunson doesn’t argue for “Abbott” being any kind of standard-bearer. But she does believe that it’s harder to do the whole “prestige” thing when you have to crank out a season order of 22 episodes.

“There are shows that are doing incredible work on broadcast, especially in comedy,” Brunson says. “You have to hit that sweet spot of being interesting, in the zeitgeist, and a show that people want to write about, talk about and commune over. I think that is harder on broadcast. But it can be done: ‘Abbott’ is testament to that.”

Quinta Brunson, creator and star of “Abbott Elementary.”

(Rosaline Shahnavaz / For The Times)

Is ‘Anchorman’ the comedy of the century?

Sticking to comedy — and with the headlines these days, that focus kind of feels like a necessary escape — a new book argues that Adam McKay’s “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” is the “most iconic movie of the 21st century.” Times contributor Chris Vognar interviewed the book’s author, Saul Austerlitz, who began the project after encouraging his New York University writing students to think hard and deep on the 2004 comedy.

“I got to the point of a ‘Teacher, teach thyself’ moment,” says Austerlitz, who has also written books about “Friends” and (the wild card in the bunch) the disastrous 1969 Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway. “I’m trying to push the students to write about ‘Anchorman,’ to think about ‘Anchorman,’ and I realized there’s a lot to be said about ‘Anchorman.’ And that was the moment where I started thinking about writing this book and tackling this era of comedy.”

The story — and, I’m guessing, the book — makes a number of interesting points about how “Anchorman” set the template for later (and, I’d argue, better) comedies like “Step Brothers” and “Talladega Nights” and “The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” but also acts as something of an elegy for a time when movie studios made mainstream comedies.

“Comedy has essentially died as a genre,” Austerlitz says. “This feels a little bit like a lost era, where comedies could still be blockbusters, where comedy stars were megastars and where many of these films were legitimately excellent movies and really funny comedies. It already feels like a bygone era, even though it wasn’t all that long ago.”

A scene from the 2004 comedy “Anchorman,” starring Will Ferrell and an ensemble of comedy giants.

(Debra McGuire)