Funny MP3s?

January 12, 2009 4:16 AM

Can you recommend any funny podcasts? The topic of podcasts has come up before and I've found many inspiring/thought-provoking/informative/entertaining MP3s, but for variety's sake, what are some funny ones?

The answer could be an ongoing podcast or a one-shot MP3; an act from a standup comedian, a particularly funny hour from an ancient radio show, a silly piece of music... I really need MP3s of funny stuff.

posted by twoleftfeet to media & arts (41 comments total)

The title alone should tell you what this podcast has to offer.

I realize it's sort of a faux pas in the podcasting world, but Never Not Funny is a subscription based podcast. It is 20 dollars a season (24 episodes) or 25 with full length videos of every episode. It is more then worth it however. Like any good drug pusher, he started out free. The first two "seasons" (about 2 years, 100 episodes) were free, and then he switched to a pay format. Good for him, Jimmy Pardo is one of the greatest and unknown comedians in the industry. He is someone that somehow has worked on countless (seriously, COUNTLESS) pilots that ultimately went unaired or short lived game shows.

Also, there is Comedy And Everything Else., which admittedly isn't as funny.. and can be downright trying sometimes with its raw production and tendancy towards stoned experimenting and repetitive topics/babbling.. but the people involved are very funny, and the show is great as long as Todd Glass doesn't get on a tangent about child rearing..
posted by mediocre at 4:31 AM on January 12

I really have to stress here, Never Not Funny is the greatest podcast on the internet and Jimmy Pardo the most criminally underrated host/comedian in the industry today. I can't even say this enough, I feel like it's a damn crime against humanity that Pardo isn't internationally famous. I can't tell whether I am appreciating a cult comic, am on the ground floor appreciating a comic who will eventually be a legend, or just shouting at the dark about someone that only I find funny.. but if he has somehow turned a modest 90 minute podcast into a living, supporting himself and his family on its proceeds, he must be doing SOMETHING right..
posted by mediocre at 4:35 AM on January 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

Jonathan Katz (of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist) has a podcast called Hey we're back. It's unfortunately not updated very often.
posted by bjrn at 4:42 AM on January 12

I usually get some good laffs out of Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! and Car Talk.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:57 AM on January 12

I rely on BBC Radio 4 for much of my comedy needs. Unfortunately, the only show currently available as a podcast is the excellent News Quiz. If you're willing to schedule recordings of the stream (there is various software available to do so) or simply to listen on line there there is much more accessible on both Radio 4 and BBC Radio 7. Obviously this is all a little British, but funny is funny is funny.
posted by NailsTheCat at 5:06 AM on January 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Intended link for the News Quiz.
posted by NailsTheCat at 5:07 AM on January 12

The Bugle is downright hilarious.
posted by SemiSophos at 5:08 AM on January 12 [3 favorites has favorites]

In case mediocre didn't convince you: Never Not Funny. Dig deep and come up with the cash. Listen to the free 20 minute version if you want, but ultimately just man up and subscribe.

Mediocre is also correct about Comedy and Everything Else. The Comedy is generally great. The Everything Else can be taxing. Actually, Jimmy Pardo nailed it on Never Not Funny when he said Jimmy Dore on Comedy and Everything Else rants like a junior high student who just discovered USA Today and now thinks he knows everything. They are good friends, so it was said in good humor, but it's true.

You Look Nice Today is great as well. It's much more odd and absurd, and almost an experiment in the "yes, and..." school of improv comedy.

Jordan Jesse Go! is not to be missed. Jesse Thorn, America's Radio Sweetheart (and MeFi's own Young American) and Jordan Morris, Boy Detective talk about everything and anything, with hilarious results.

Jesse's other podcast (and radio show) The Sound of Young America is worth a listen as well. It's not strictly comedy, but is often funny and always interesting.

Dennis Miller has a podcast of his radio show. Bill Burr has a podcast as well.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:22 AM on January 12 [3 favorites has favorites]

SemiSophos just beat me to recommending the Bugle. I never miss it.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 5:22 AM on January 12

This huge collection of old Loveline radio shows has kept me busy and laughing lately. (Via this post.)
posted by nitsuj at 5:35 AM on January 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

How could I forget: Doug Benson's I Love Movies.

Real Time with Bill Maher (funny when not stridently political).

Popcorn Mafia. (Movie talk, but often funny.)

Battleship Pretension (Again, mostly movie talk with 2 guys and a guest, but amusing/humorous, and sometimes really funny, like when the guest is Jimmy Pardo. Did anyone mention how funny and fantastic Jimmy Pardo is? Oh... ok.)
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:40 AM on January 12

Seconding You Look Nice Today. It's the only podcast that I listen to repeatedly. I mean each episode. I mean it's the only podcast that I listen to each episode more than once. That is what I mean.
posted by jessenoonan at 5:46 AM on January 12 [3 favorites has favorites]

Seconding Jordan, Jesse Go!, definitely.
posted by veggieboy at 5:50 AM on January 12 [2 favorites has favorites]

Tim and Eric The Podcast

Yes, this is the same Tim and Eric of Tim and Eric's Awesome Show Great Job! on Adult Swim.
posted by ezekieldas at 6:03 AM on January 12

I mean it's the only podcast that I listen to each episode more than once.

According to iTunes, I have listened to every episode of Never Not Funny at least 3 times. That's 3 times, all the way through. I have listened to a few episodes as many as 37 times.
posted by mediocre at 6:15 AM on January 12

Keith and The Girl, hilarious and irreverent. They have such a following that upwards of twenty-plus fans have tattooed the simple KaTG logo onto there bodies.
posted by geekyguy at 6:32 AM on January 12

WFMU has a long running show called Seven Second Delay co-hosted by the creator of Monk, that can be pretty funny in a discombobulated way.
posted by StickyCarpet at 6:37 AM on January 12

Asinine Poetry is pretty good, but only if you like stuff like that.
posted by spamguy at 6:38 AM on January 12

Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me always makes me laugh. Then there's, of course, This American Life.
posted by booth at 6:52 AM on January 12

The Basement Show - It's a little vulgar at times, but it's pretty good. You can listen to the most recent show here.
posted by Brettus at 6:53 AM on January 12

Mike Schmdit's 40 Year Old Boy is my new favorite funny thing. nthing everything that MeFi's own YoungAmerican produces as well as Never Not Funny. For very, very short bits of audio, it is hard to beat The Onion Radio News.
posted by mmascolino at 7:02 AM on January 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

I know it hasn't been updated in years but Tracks Up the Tree was one of the first and funniest of the genre. Everything I needed to know about sensitivity I stole from them.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:24 AM on January 12

I find Downloadable Content: The Penny Arcade Podcast to be very funny, but it might only be funny if you're a gamer and/or a Penny Arcade reader. It's basically an audio recording of Mike & Jerry brainstorming ideas for their webcomic.
posted by kidbritish at 7:26 AM on January 12

Stop Podcasting Yourself is very low key and often very funny.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:46 AM on January 12

Smodcast, by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier (writer/producers of Clerks and Clerks 2, Dogma, Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, Jersey Girl, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, and most recently Zack & Miri). A little off colour at times, and they often go off on bizarre tangents, but they regularly have me doubled over in laughter. I look forward to them every week.
posted by cgg at 7:49 AM on January 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Most of my faves have been mentioned: Never Not Funny, You Look Nice Today, SModcast, and 40 Year Old Boy, but I've recently discovered another one that kills: Uhh Yeah Dude.
Brit faves include Jonathan Ross & Ricky Gervais (neither is updated very often) and best of the Chris Moyles show.
posted by kattyann at 8:30 AM on January 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

I almost always laugh with The Moth.
posted by yeti at 8:33 AM on January 12 [1 favorite has favorites]

Seconding Smodcast, The Moth and YLNT. All excellent, make me laugh come in pretty reliable weekly installments and are FREE!
posted by DrDreidel at 8:39 AM on January 12

The Best Show on WFMU. Podcast of the radio show hosted by Tom Scharpling. Nearly 3 hours of greatness each week, featuring the best long-form comedy bits you'll ever hear (see the AV Club writeup). Frequent guests include Paul F Tompkins, Patton Oswalt, Zack Galifianakis, to give you an idea of the comedic tastes of the show. Past few weeks have brought in John Hodgman and Andy Daly (whose Nine Sweaters was my favorite comedy album of 2008). As with any radio show, it'll take you a couple episodes to figure out who's who (the first 20 minutes or so is a gauntlet of regular caller cretins that I'm sure is a tough listen for the uninitiated but, with time, you'll come to cherish it. Patton Oswalt is the president of the Spike fanclub.) but it's really, really worth it.

Never Not Funny, as noted passionately above, is worth every penny of the 20 bucks they're charging. Seriously.

Doug Benson's I Love Movies is the quickest listen of all of these and the most infrequent, but it's just as funny as the others. The link doesn't go to the current shows, check iTunes for those, but the past ones are a great listen. If only to learn why Willem Dafoe is a shithead.

Jordan Jesse Go! is so funny that my wife and I were going to plan a trip out west to attend their MaxFunCon but, alas, it sold out rather quickly. Listening to it now you too will regret your lack of attendance.

You Look Nice Today. Yes, it's supposed to start like that. You'll catch on.

Comedy and Everything Else. The roughness of this one is part of its many charms. Another show that'll generally clock in at the 2+ hour mark, it's all over the place and better for it.

The 40 Year Old Boy. Stream of conscious monologues from a man who has done some truly (hilariously) awful things in his life. Start from the beginning on this one and work your way forward. It's the equivalent of those youtube videos you watch through a slit in fingers covering your eyes. Except it's worth it.

And if you haven't heard The Ricky Gervais show, spend the money. It's one of the funniest things I've ever heard.
posted by unsupervised at 8:44 AM on January 12

For the love of god catch up on The Ricky Gervais show. You can also find a torrent of their old XFM shows floating around.

And may I humbly submit The Ben & Joey Show, which includes an original (funny) song at the end of each episode.
posted by subclub at 8:50 AM on January 12

Hi! I make Jordan, Jesse Go! and The Sound of Young America, and am very proud of both of them. I also help produce (but do not write) The Kasper Hauser Comedy Podcast, which is mostly a sketch series, and The Coyle & Sharpe Podcast, which is street put-ons from the early 1960s. Obviously, I love both of them.

I also concur regarding some of the shows folks have mentioned already: I'm a huge fan of Jimmy Pardo's Never Not Funny, and have been a subscriber quite literally since day one. You can find a free, 20-minute version of the show on iTunes, and the cost is very modest for the full version.

I also am just about the world's biggest fan of You Look Nice Today, which is a surreal conversation podcast, and one of my favorite things in any medium. They are also (like Jimmy Pardo and Matt Belknap) my friends, and we are performing together later this month in San Francisco as The Monsters of Podcasting.

I also really like The Bugle, and the funny-though-not-comedy Savage Lovecast, the sex and relationship advice podcast hosted by Dan Savage. I've also listened to the aformentioned Stop Podcasting Yourself and enjoyed it.

If your taste in comedy is a bit more adventurous, I'd recommend the CBC's Wiretap, which is hosted and created by former This American Life producer Jonathan Goldstein. It's a series of telephone conversations between Goldstein and guests, which are sort of narrative, a little Larry David-ish, and often very funny. The podcast is unnofficial, but while the CBC may be bothered with it, JG is not.

I also really like Will Franken's efforts in the podcasting area. He's a standup / solo sketch guy from San Francisco (now based in NYC) who does stream-of-consciousnessy one man sketch comedy. It's really remarkable, and often fantastically funny.

I'm also a huge fan of Seven Second Delay from WFMU, which is a live radio program recorded for podcast, which typically features extremely high concept radio dares, almost, and is wonderful. I already did my fair share of self-linking, but I think my interview with the Seven Second Delay hosts explains the show quite well, especially because it is very uneven, almost by design.

Also from WFMU is maybe the most rewarding acquired taste in the world of audio entertainment, The Best Show on WFMU. Host Tom Scharpling conducts a strange kind of call-in talk show. He's sometimes very sincere, but other times insincere, pushing callers this way and that, and half the game is trying to figure out Tom's real feelings on anything. The centerpiece of the shows is his calls with Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, who calls in in-character as a variety of fictional figures who interact in a fictional New Jersey town called Newbridge. The show is three hours a week (though Tom's putting together a sort of "digest" podcast that'll start soonish), and runs 2 hours plus on the podcast, with music cut out, but it is, imo, well worth the time investment if you have the time. An amazing world. Conan O'Brien once told a friend of mine who writes for his show that it's the only comedy on his iPod. Nate Rabin of The Onion's AV Club wrote a very comprehensive intro/feature on the show and Scharpling & Wurster for that paper a few months ago.
posted by YoungAmerican at 8:51 AM on January 12

Forgotten: the 40 Year Old Boy is pretty remarkable and quite funny, if you can handle Mike talking for 45 minutes straight. And The Moth is indeed often very funny and great.
posted by YoungAmerican at 8:52 AM on January 12

Another vote for You Look Nice Today.
posted by SansPoint at 8:58 AM on January 12

If you want some music & comedy, and you like the Ricky Gervais podcast, Stephen Merchant has a show on BBC 6 Music, along with a crew, very Sunday for two hours. You can stream the latest show, or listen live Sundays 15:30–17:30.
posted by limeswirltart at 10:05 AM on January 12

On the non-podcast front, I want to echo that Andy Daly's Nine Sweaters is one of my absolute favorite things in the world. I just love it so so so much.
posted by YoungAmerican at 11:11 AM on January 12

Wow! These are great suggestions! I hadn't heard of many of these (and almost none of them show up if you, say, search Google for "funny podcast"). I will be listening to these. Thanks!
posted by twoleftfeet at 1:21 PM on January 12

I realise I'm a little late to the show, but the Adam and Joe podcast is amazingly good. Nothing else comes close.
posted by SamuelBowman at 2:06 PM on January 12

almost none of them show up if you, say, search Google for "funny podcast"

Use iTunes to search the iTunes store for the podcasts you want. I think you'll get a lot more results that way, and you'll see reviews and related items.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 3:04 PM on January 12

Another vote for the Moth. My family is big on storytelling, and the Moth is right in my wheelhouse.
posted by craven_morhead at 3:17 PM on January 13

I'll third (or fourth?) Jordan Jesse Go. That and the Savage Lovecast are the two must-listen "funny" podcasts I listen to every week.
posted by skechada at 8:18 AM on January 14

Ricky Gervais Show - one of the best things ever. Most laugh out loud thing on the list.

On The Hour with Chris Morris - 90s british satire, came out before the classic tv version.

Smodcast - can be brilliant, but also gross.

Seven Second Delay - It's funny, but more than that, it's a goofy side project of two people who are really talented and driven. (one's the WFMU station manager, the other's a comedy writer). I've gotten to know them over the years and really enjoy the show.

The best show on WFMU - it has its moments. Lately he's been having comedians on for a couple hours, just joking around with them, which is great. The normal show takes more to get into, but is also good. It's best when he's fighting with the callers.
posted by Earnesto at 12:02 AM on February 12