Comments on: Comedy I can jog to. Should I decide to jog.

Question: Comedy I can jog to. Should I decide to jog.

the christopher hundreds — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:20:45 -0800

Please help me find good radio comedy, sitcoms and sketch shows in particular. Podcast suggestions are kosher.

I have a wild notion that someday I should try to write a comedy podcast/radio program. I'd like to establish a little collection of successful examples of the form. I don't want to immitate, I just want to get a feel for the possibilities/limitations/conventions/etc as they currently exist. I'd like to stick to relatively modern (say, post 1980) shows and to stay the hell away from A Prairie Home Companion.

Plumbing the askme depths came up with a couple helpful comments from YoungAmerican (and I subscribed to his podcast). Though I like many of them, I'm not interested in stand-up, panel shows, or Daily Show/Colbert-esque programs for the purpose of this question.

By: the christopher hundreds

the christopher hundreds — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:26:31 -0800

And for what it's worth, I've listened to the Hitchhikers Guide radio show many times and have already secured The Flight of the Concords, Mighty Boosh, and Little Britain radio series.

By: fluffy battle kitten

fluffy battle kitten — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:29:53 -0800

Stephen Fry, all the way. Young American also nailed it by suggesting NEVER NOT FUNNY.

I've listened to the Stephen Fry podcasts over and over. It's not fall down funny but his off the cuff remarks are hilarious.

By: MadamM

MadamM — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:32:06 -0800

I like You Look Nice Today. Basically three funny guys talking about whatever seems to come up. Maybe not what you're looking for, but I like it.

By: Gyan

Gyan — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:42:40 -0800

I'm listening to Absolute Power from here.

By: Mael Oui

Mael Oui — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 22:47:00 -0800

I was just coming to mention the Boosh and Little Britain! Definitely seconding Stephen Fry, and I'll add David Mitchell and Robert Webb (of Peep Show, etc.)'s That Mitchell and Webb Sound. I'm not 100% sure if there are other Mitchell & Webb radio shows. If you like Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant, and Karl Pilkington.. here's a question about the podcast, and there's also Pilkipedia (a link directly to the XFM shows - click on which series you want for downloads). Oh! For Stephen Fry, I enjoyed his show, Saturday Night Fry, which was chock full of his friends, including Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Jim Broadbent.

Also, are you interested in classic (American) humorous old time radio (OTR) shows? Archive.org is a good starting place for that, but there are LOADS of sites that have old radio shows. Okay, you're probably not interested, but everything in the first paragraph is post 1980.

By: w0mbat

w0mbat — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:01:23 -0800

Well ">BBC Radio 4's comedy page is the standard source: A current favorite of mine is Cabin Pressure.

By: bunnytricks

bunnytricks — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 23:35:54 -0800

The Best Show on WFMU sets the gold standard for modern long-form radio comedy.

By: Dan Brilliant

Dan Brilliant — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:23:13 -0800

The Bugle.

By: beniamino

beniamino — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 01:46:34 -0800

Chris Morris's ambient/surreal/taboo-busting radio sketch show Blue Jam is available on CD. And he was also involved in On The Hour, a surreal parody of radio news.

By: bunnytricks

bunnytricks — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:05:59 -0800

Someone finally put together an index for the Best Show segments.

By: Gratishades

Gratishades — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 03:31:05 -0800

w0mbat's Radio 4 link is good. You can find more on the BBC iPlayer (which opens when you click any of the links on the Radio 4 page) and filtering by comedy (this gives you a view of all the comedy on BBC radio that week that you can listen to to).

Armando Iannuci has been involved in a number of ground breaking radio shows (ie worked as producer on On The Hour mentioned above and Alan Partridge). Anything that involves him is worth a listen.

99p Challenge back catalogue can be listened to here.

By: singingfish

singingfish — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:18:41 -0800

See if you can rustle up some old recordings of I'm Sorry I haven't a clue (currently getting some air time on real audio).

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:23:54 -0800

In the old days you had comedy for comedy's sake: the Bickersons (not to be missed), Bob Newhart, Jack Benny, on and on. For the most part there was not much of a set-up, just straight comedy. Now it seems you have more often have some sort of an excuse folded in the act, ala Click and Clack, at least here in the States. WFMU is a bit of an exception with several comedy/music bits. One of my favorites from there was Professor Dumb Dumb exploring social class and power structure through nursery rhymes such as Humpty Dumpty. I wish I could get my hands on a copy of that. I practically had to pull the car over I was laughing so hard.

By: edd

edd — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:14:52 -0800

Talking and Not Talking (R4, as suggested by bunnytricks)

By: yclipse

yclipse — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:25:25 -0800

Although most of their titles are more like outlandish drama with strong comedic accents, there is a wealth of stuff to be found at ZBS Media, including podcasts and (of interest to some but somewhat hard to find) apparently the only place where old Firesign Theater titles can be purchased on CD.

By: sambosambo

sambosambo — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:35:09 -0800

I used to listen to "Adventures In Odyssey" when I was younger. It's got biblical themes and values, but it's also full of comedy, drama and mystery and has been running for 20 years, so if you're looking for good examples of the form, then it might just have what you're looking for.

You can listen online or find episodes at iTunes Store.

By: jonty

jonty — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:35:48 -0800

Give Adam and Joe a listen. You can download a weekly podcast of their BBC 6music show, and some of their older ones from XFM.

By: pmann

pmann — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:45:11 -0800

Phil Hendrie has a pretty funny radio show, IMO. His current incarnation is about 50/50 news commentary/comedy bits, but even the news delivery is usually pretty entertaining. He's on overnight, so I usually download mp3s from archive.org.

By: Ponderance

Ponderance — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 07:45:18 -0800

I second the Best Show on WFMU. And not just because my voice is in the intro montage. It is a spectacular program, they have a complete archive online, and a podcast

By: YoungAmerican

YoungAmerican — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:31:08 -0800

I see a lot of suggests (like NNF or TBSOWFMU) which are awesome but not really what you're asking for.

Saturday Night Fry comes to mind as a possibility. It was a radio sketch show featuring Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (and Emma Thompson). If you've seen my other suggestions, then Will Franken's show, Things We Did Before Reality was probably in there, and Kasper Hauser are another great sketch group with a mostly audio podcast (I produce this show).

There are lots of UK series, but they're generally available in the US only through illegal means... I know Mitchell & Webb did a radio sketch series called That Mitchell & Webb Sound, for example. It's pretty common in the UK to develop TV shows on radio.

Staying away from APHC should be no problem, since you're looking for comedy programs.

By: YoungAmerican

YoungAmerican — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:33:52 -0800

I had previously downloaded Saturday Night Fry from this link, but now when I visit it Avast is giving me a Trojan warning, so take care with it. I didn't have any problems after visiting it before.

By: subclub

subclub — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:42:54 -0800

I wouldn't link to The Ben & Joey Show (I'm Joey) if I didn't think it was called for!

By: the christopher hundreds

the christopher hundreds — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:25:20 -0800

Thanks for all the great suggestions. Maybe I'll blog my way through them all...

By: HotPatatta

HotPatatta — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:54:49 -0800

I download Howard Stern a few times a week. The guy has a knack for making anyone he speaks with more interesting than they actually are.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:10:51 -0800

The Bugle, definitely, but it definitely falls into the Daily Show category, as it's news-based and features that program's John Oliver. Still, highly recommended.

Sitcoms? The audio of Blackadder is actually surprisingly good. (One might assume a heavy reliance on sight gags, but not so!) I believe BBC Radio released it on CD, although I hear it's also available via other means.

If you're willing to venture into the medium of Comedy Album, Norm MacDonald's Ridiculous is all sketch-based. It's mostly quite tasteless, but a couple of the sketches are gold. There are also plenty of Monty Python audio sketches on their numerous albums, and so on. All of these are probably available via iTunes.

By: lunchbox

lunchbox — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:31:23 -0800

If you're not easily offended:
Opie & Anthony, Adam Carolla, Red Bar Radio.