IFC adds new shows from Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, and Bob Odenkirk to its comedy lineup

Now that the “independent film” fad has finally been killed off and replaced with all cop and robot movies, IFC has increasingly turned to original comedy programming to fill its schedule. Now Portlandia, Comedy Bang! Bang!, and Marc Maron's WTF, et al. will be joined by two new shows—one from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, and another from Ben Stiller and Bob Odenkirk. The first , The Spoils Of Babylon, is a parody soap opera described as a “blowsy century-spanning saga” adapted from the fake best-selling novel by fake author Eric Jonrosh, to be really played by Ferrell, chronicling the lives and loves of a wealthy oil magnate’s family. The latter is the previously reported show Odenkirk was working up with L.A. sketch comedy troupe The Birthday Boys, described as in “the classic vein of absurd/silly/smart/funny variety shows like Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” and featuring a producing partnership reunion between Odenkirk and Stiller—who did this sort of thing before with The Ben Stiller Show, and hopefully it’ll last longer this time.

And with such details out of the way, it was time for an old-fashioned, comically self-deprecating-quote-off! “The Birthday Boys are a super funny and fresh new comic voice. I will try not to slow them down,” Odenkirk said. “This is a crazy and maybe even a stupid idea. IFC is either really courageous or really stupid,” Ferrell said. Oh, you guys.