May 12, 2016

I'm catching up on the podcast "Topics."

May I recommend "The Little Things":
In Episode 1 of Season 3, Michael and Michael are back in the saddle to discuss “The Little Things.” Their conversation covers everything from butter on toast, to taking a drive and listening to some classical music, to apple picking in Autumn with your family.

3 comments:

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Do you listen to the Comedy Bang Bang! podcast, Professor? It's a little more "out there" than Topics, but it's part of the same network (Earwolf).
I saw CBB live last night in Atlanta--Auckerman, Lapkus, Paul F. Tompkins--it was great!

Ann Althouse said...

No, can you recommend an episode?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Oh boy, that's tough! There have been a ton of episodes and they carry lots of jokes forward, but if it's your kind of humor it's easy to listen to a lot of 'em.

I recommend any episodes with Paul F. Tompkins (since he's great) but that doesn't narrow it down too much as he's on a lot. CBB has "best of" episodes each year, but the last few years have had best ofs across 4 separate shows! They have a lot of material.

These would probably be good episodes to try out:

2009 Christmas Special
PFT, Nick Kroll, Jon Hamm, Doug Benson, James Adomian, & Scott's now-wife Kulap Vilaysack

Murder Heaven
Robb Cordry & PFT. Extended riff w/a character from "Boardwalk Empire"

Best of 2014 Part 4
Covers 3 shows listeners voted the top of 2014, including 2 with PFT, Daly, and Jason Mantzoukas

Be My Guest, Literally
PFT, Andy Daly, Lauren Lapkus - kind of an all-star show, w/characters Warner Herzog, Santa, and Ho Ho the naughty elf

A Worthy Uhhh
Adam Scott, James Adomian

The War On Surfing
Andy Daly, Jason Mantzoukas Andy Daly is probably the best character improviser around (he and PFT tied for #1) and Mantzoukas & Auckerman riff off each other so quickly it's always funny--Zouks can be a little crude for some people, though.

2013 Holiday Spectacular
Another all star show w/lots of bits

The Calvins Twins
Horse fighting.


It's difficult to recommend just 1 episode but any of those should give you a taste of the show--all of them are almost completely improvised so no 2 shows are ever quite alike and the show's rhythm has definitely evolved over time.

Oh! There's also a TV show (featuring a lot of the same people & characters): Comedy Bang! Bang! TV Show wiki It's on IFC (same network as Portlandia), but the podcast is a lot free-er and chases digressions for humor better than anything else I've heard.