Good news: April showers bring May podcasts. Or something about podcasts going in your ears like lambs, because they are soft and nice, and out of your ears like lions, because if you stop listening to podcasts, your dad will be killed by stampeding wildebeasts. Well, now I'm sad remembering that scene – thanks, previous sentence. You know what makes me happy, though? Podcasts! Here are our picks for this week's best:
Marc Maron is releasing a special edition box-set of the first 100 episodes of his podcast, WTF. Included are many of the interviews that really defined the show, like Carlos Mencia, Dane Cook, and Robin Williams. The compilation goes on pre-sale tomorrow, April 17th, at AST Records.
Last Sunday night, I bet the happiest person in California was Bijou Phillips, who was spoon-fed the perfect theme song for her new podcast about going to the zoo. In a week or two, expect “Zoo Bijou Bijou” to start reverberating in your Dr. Andre “Dre” Young prescribed headphones, before Ms. Philips starts her thirty minutes of riffing on elephants (“What’s the deal with elephants? They’re never supposed to forget but they always smell like they forgot to shower!”). Guys, I’m just kidding like Jason (miss u, Nelly) but remember three days ago when jokes about that song from Mad Men were the only jokes anyone was able to [...]
Last week the AV Club asked, “Are we nearing comedy podcast overload?” To which the writer not surprisingly asserted we were. I both entirely agree and totally disagree. Sure, there are more well-produced comedy podcasts than one would ever have imagined. The fact that there are many sustainable podcast networks (Earwolf, Nerdist, ACE, etc.) is particularly astounding. There is no shortage of good podcasts but there is a shortage of great podcasts. Just like television or movies or whatever, there is plenty of worthy content out there but the amount that is transcendent is always lacking. The same podcast overabundance argument could have been made six months ago [...]
It’s TV sweeps season, ya’ll. It’s the time when networks do their best to woo our eyeballs and earholes. What have you been watching? Nothing?! So, you are saying that you’ve completely abandoned all visual mediums for all podcasts all the time? High five! Here are our picks for this week’s notable TV substitutes.
Who let the pods out? Casts, casts, casts casts casts! Is that the worst one yet? Probably but it did make you wonder why the original song's lyrics weren't "Who let the dogs out? Cats, cats, cats cats cats." Because cats don't really like dogs, you know? You know. Seriously though, lots of people let the podcasts out and we are so so so (your boat) thankful. If they didn't, what would we write about each week in this column? It's called "This Week in Comedy Podcasts" what other choice do we have? Ok, I guess we could critique the casting styles of the fisherman who use funny looking [...]
Jim Gaffigan was sure on a lot podcasts this week – hot podcast. (That flawlessish joke was in reference to Gaffigan’s famous hot pockets bit. It's legit super famous, the type of bit that anyone who reads this site would probably know, so if you didn't get it, you must not be reading this site, which begs the questions then, where are you? What are you reading? Why has this parenthetical lasted so long?) He was on them all to promote his released directly online comedy special, which speaks to podcasts’ ascension as a valuable place for promotion (see also: Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair). It [...]
“Backstreet’s back, alright!” And by that I mean me, I’m back, alright. I’m sorry I missed last week’s column but I was on the frontlines of South by Southwest covering the war on people not listening to podcasts. This year there were so many live podcasts at SXSW – Comedy Bang! Bang!, Doug Loves Movies, Risk, Who Charted?, Kevin Pollack Chat Show, etc. x1000 – that locals started referring to the festival as Pod by Podcast (which, come to think of it, didn’t and still doesn’t make any sense). Nonetheless, I had to leave Austin (more like South BYE Southwest, amirite? yesiam – oknoiamnot) to report back on all [...]
In response to a couple comments we got last week, we scoured the nation to find contributors to make our podcast crew more motley. And you know what, we nailed it. The hope is this column will grow to reflect the entire wacky wide world that is the American comedy podcast landscape. If you feel like we missed something, let us hear it — nearly as many people will read the comments as will the text. Was Bobbing for Johns with Jonathan Roberts your absolute fave this week? Let us/the world know. (Please don’t mention Bobbing for Johns this week, we feature it too often, also I made it [...]
This very column started nine months ago with these immortal words by Mr. Joe Berkowitz: “Every week, it seems, the known galaxy of headphone-hilarity expands further, taking up even more storage space on iPhones the world over. In fact, it’s entirely possible that while you were reading that last sentence, Dana Gould conceived of and began recording a show of his own.” The timeline was a bit off but like a human baby, nine months later, Dana Gould has started a podcast. Was Joe the butterfly wing flap whose winds set in motion what became The Dana Gould Show? Maybe! It can be argued (and it will be, [...]
The Pulitzer Prizes were announced this past week and everyone was in a huff (the Huff-ington Post, especially) about how there was no winner for fiction but I was wondering why there wasn't a winner for podcasts this year, OR ANY YEAR. I know what you are thinking, "Generally, the Pulitzer is a writing award and podcasts are an aural medium." Well, I'm thinking, "Oh, I guess I didn't really know that, ooops. Nevermind." And now you're thinking, "That's ok, Jesse. We decided that you deserve the Pulitzer for Criticism. And that is a thing. Here you go." So now I'm thinking, "Wow, no way! Thanks for the Pulitzer [...]
What's up, podcast fans? Jesse Fox, who normally runs Splitsider's weekly podcast roundup, is on assignment at SXSW this week, so he's left me in charge of the column just like the time my parents left me their house for a weekend as a teenager while they went on vacation. Will I violate the trust Jesse Fox has placed in me by turning this into the blog post equivalent of a debaucherous, out-of-control house party? Or will I err on the side of nerdy caution like I did on that weekend in high school when I kept it a complete secret from my friends that my parents were out-of-town, refusing to [...]
Did you see the announcement of the South By Southwest Comedy Lineup? They might as well call it “Pod By Podcast,” amiright? Nope? Fair enough. I’m just saying there is a lot of podcasting going down. I like to imagine there is one podcast diehard who is going to SXSW just to see those live taping, oblivious to the music festival swirling around him or her. If you’re out there Mister or Miss (it’s probably Mister), godspeed noble podcast fan, let me know what it’s like to see Greg Proops beautifully ramble for an hour, surrounded by the smell of smoked cow and spilled tequila.
