“You love your children. It’s your one redeeming quality. That and your cheekbones.”
Game Of Thrones is back, with an amazing insult we must start using in conversation. If you’ve read the books, we have this review for you. If you haven’t read the books and want no spoilers, you can go here.
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 30
Howard Kremer: I love the summertime, the way it makes me feel. I think the sun makes me feel good-
Dismissive Jimmy Stewart: Aaauuuh, WHO CARES?
Howard: Well, I care-
Jimmy: Who gives a SHIT?
Howard: Well, Mr. Stewart, I-
Jimmy: Euuuuuhhhh….I don’t give a flying FUCK!
Howard: I feel passionate and strongly about-
Jimmy: Shut your whore mouth!
Howard: I feel like you’re not listening-
Jimmy: Shut it! You’ve got to shut up!
Howard: I respect you very much as an actor but I feel you’re not listening-
Jimmy: I’m gonna fucking kill you and put you in my crawl space.
Howard: You have a crawl space?
Jimmy: I have a crawl space. In my basement. That I need people to dig for me and I put people into it. Dead bodies.
Dave Holmes: I would call this Jimmy Stewart more than dismissive.
This is a fun episode, but for me the highlight is Dismissive Jimmy Stewart. Scott’s characters tend to be built around one joke and don’t last too long (and are sadly few and far between), and Dismissive Jimmy Stewart is definitely the best example. Maybe it’s something about the way he says “crawl-space.” Maybe because he’s the only one willing to take Howard Kremer about his controversial love of the summertime, I don’t know.
Otherwise Episode 30 is a generally pleasant time sandwiched between two epic episodes. Apart from Dismissive Jimmy Stewart, the only character appearing is Howard Kremer’s Disney star Timmy Slotsman, who is part of an elaborate bit with multiple deceptions that could only really work on a podcast. Matt Walsh comes on to talk about how much he hates eggheads in one of those bits that gets a little slow then comes back around as he drives it into the ground.
Dave Holmes is probably my favorite past of the episode with his elaborate build-up to his new character Shonquayqay, some sort of Madea-esque lady who tells it like it is and takes no guff. The last third of the episode is everyone talking about Shonquayquay and making the impression sound increasingly racist, before, of course, we’re out of time and we never get to hear her. Holmes is a funny dude; it’s too bad he’s never popped up on the podcast again, although he was on a very funny Who Charted? recently.
It’s also sad that this marks the second-to-last appearance of Kremer, who is definitely a standout guest from the podcast’s early days. It’s not like Kremer’s disappeared — I love Who Charted more than anything — but I wish he’d pop back on to the flagship someday.
Episode 30 (“Yerr an Egghead!”)
Guests: Matt Walsh, Howard Kremer (also as Sloppy Timmy Slotsman), Dave Holmes, Scott as Dismissive Jimmy Stewart
Games/Segments: None.
Songs: Hard N Phirm, “Pi”
The Mighty Regis, “Me Mother Became a Werewolf”
Dragon Boy Suede, “I’m Not Paying $500 To Watch Douchebags Eat Turkey”
The Rutles, “I Must Be In Love”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 29
Huell Howser: You wanna suck on this right now? Turn that fucking camera off, you spic!
Ben Schwartz: You have such tiny genitals! Your genitals are so tiny!
Huell: What have you done to me? You pressed the wrong button! You fucking…what did you do? I remember everything and I remember my mission here in California is to kill!
Scott: He’s turning into a robot!
CDR/CBB is essentially an improv show, in a loose format, so it’s always doubly exciting and brilliant when it comes up with a twist ending out of nowhere like Huell Howser’s masterpiece of a freakout that concludes episode 29. In fact, James Adomian, making his second of many appearances on the show, is often responsible for such twists. He seems to have a great handle on the narratives of his characters, although for all I know he’s making it up on the spot.
Huell Howser might be his best character, although he’s got a deep roster. He’s spoofing a personality that people outside of California haven’t heard of (I certainly hadn’t) — a California-centric travel show host on public television. I can’t really judge the work as an impression, since to me this is the real Huell — if I ever came across an episode of California’s Gold, I’m sure I’d be disappointed.
The Huell we know from the show is California-obsessed, to the extent that he doesn’t seem to realize there’s a world outside of the state. He’s unaware of his own past, or pretty much anything that’s ever happened to him, outside of visits to various parts of California. In fact, he’s pretty much unaware of anything, even vague concepts like ethnicity or the fact that he’s allergic to bee stings.
Like most of Adomian’s characters, Huell dominates the episode, even though this is also Ben Schwartz’s first appearance, and he’s one of CBB’s best recurring straight-man guests (I left him off that list in my last review, but he definitely belongs on it). Chip Pope is here too, including an in-character bit as R.O. Manse, but he’s definitely overshadowed by Huell’s incessant questions and Scott and Ben’s attempts to explain simple ideas to him.
The grand finale of the episode is why I deem this one a classic — Huell, asked about his mother and his life in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, snaps and starts screaming epithets and, according to Scott, turns into a robot. This is the most crucial thing about Huell, which reverberates for all of this appearances on the show: he’s always one minute away from losing his mind in spectacular fashion.
Episode 29 (“Introducing Huell Howser”)
Guests: Ben Schwartz, Chip Pope (also as R.O. Manse), James Adomian (also as Huell Howser)
Games/Segments: What Am I Thinking? (with different theme music)
Songs: Tim & Eric, “Petite Feet”
Flight of the Conchords, “Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor”
Richard O’Brien, “I Can Make You a Man”
Trey Parker, “It’s Easy, Mmmkay”
Comedy Death-Ray, “Do They Know It’s Christmas”
John C. Reilly, “A Life Without You”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episodes 27-28
“Somebody asked me when I stopped doing Phil Donahue, and I said, there was a night in my act where nobody laughed. I did it a year after that.” — Todd Glass
When writing my last recap, I forgot that the following episode was another guest-hoster, the first Cyber Thug take-over, and I should have tagged it at the end of my last review, as I do with most of the guest episodes. But, to be fair, the Cyber Thug episodes are a bit of a different beast, since they’re done entirely in character by Jerry Minor (and Sean Dickerson as Miles Archer) and feel more like they’re part of the Comedy Bang Bang universe. They’re also very funny, but they mostly get me sad thinking about the quick demise of Cyber Thug Radio, one of Earwolf’s first podcasts, which aired two brilliant episodes before vanishing. According to this interview with Dickerson, they didn’t like the deal Earwolf wanted them to sign, which is too bad, but I’m sure there’s another side to the story too.
Anyway, the first Cyber Thug takeover is funny, and Jerry O’Connell is very good at pretending to be baffled by everything, and Bobby Bottleservice is there for the whole hour, it’s definitely worth checking out. I remember future episodes being even better, but it’s a solid first outing.
Meanwhile, Episode 28 is a really good listen, and one I didn’t remember too well. I thought it was the one where Todd Glass tells the Subaru story, but that’s a later ep he did with Paul F. Tompkins. Anyway, this is Glass’ debut on the show, and I’d say that he’s one of the best straight-man guests in Scott’s regular roster. Any time I wake up Monday morning and see he’s the guest, I get excited (there’s a few others I feel that way about, such as Harris Wittels, Weird Al, Andy Richter and Jason Mantzoukas, and I’m sure I’m forgetting more).
It’s something about Glass’ relationship with Scott, where they can bust on each other endlessly (mostly it’s Scott busting on Glass) and you still sense a deep understanding between them. Glass also always seems nervous and tense about the whole podcasting arrangement even though he’s a total pro. His reaction to things like What Am I Thinking (which is debuted with this episode) is just amazing to listen to.
You’ve also got Paul F. Tompkins doing his brilliant John C. Reilly impression in his first in-studio appearance. What’s so good about that character is that he’s taken someone who isn’t inherently ridiculous and made him so, but without a weird gimmick. It’s just a general defensiveness about his career and a slightly misplaced arrogance.
Jon Daly makes his first appearance on the show too, doing his Bill Cosby character, which is a fine impression aided by an excellent attention to weird detail, like him buying sand at the Santa Monica Depot. Jon Daly is not my favorite character guy on the show, but Bill Cosby is one of his best, especially once he becomes Bill Cosby-Bukowski in later episodes.
Episode 27 (“A Cyberthug Take-Over!”)
Guests: Jerry Minor (as Cyber Thug, guest host), Sean Dickerson (as Miles Archer), Nick Kroll (as Bobby Bottleservice), Jerry O’Connell
Games/Segments: None.
Songs: Cut from the podcast.
Episode 28 (“Did Somebody Sit On A Duck?”)
Guests: Todd Glass, Paul F. Tompkins (also as John C. Reilly), Jon Daly (as Bill Cosby)
Games/Segments: What Am I Thinking?
Songs: Steel Panther, “Community Property”
R.O. Manse feat. Dragon Boy Suede, “Bad Wiring”
The Lonely Island, “Ras Trent”
Hulk Hogan, “The Hulkster’s Back”
Monty Python, “The Meaning Of Life”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 26
Scott: (talking about John Travolta) I heard a funny story about him, his, like, son, died?
Andy: Oh, boy. I knew you’d have to go there.
Sarah Silverman: That’s terrible. I feel so bad, because, it’s so tragic and it’s so awful and it’s not something to make a joke about at all, but every time anyone brings it up, I think, “ooo-ooo-oooh-woooh-woooh!”
Scott: Jet! It must have spoiled jets for him, too.
Sarah: And also you’re named after a thing your dad’s into.
Scott: Yeah, really. They should have named him…men’s assholes.
What an absolute goddamn classic episode. It’s very loose, there’s no characters or structure, so it’s more in the show’s “hangout” format, but it’s really one of my favorites, one I could listen to over and over again. And for that reason, I bestow upon it the great honorific of CBB CLASSIC!
For the first half of the show, Scott, Richter and Silverman just yak away about whatever. A couple of Silverman’s jokes fall flat, but who cares? She also sings a couple of songs, including her “diva” song that consists of her saying “cunt” over and over again, which is a personal favorite of mine. One conversation goes down the garden path and ends up in a discussion over John Travolta’s work habits, which leads to the outstanding exchange I posted above. Scott’s final joke actually stuns Richter and Silverman into silence for a second before they burst out laughing (it’s funny enough to have Silverman mentioning it on another episode later on).
Then there’s Scott’s “interview” with Elvis Costello, which also stuns the guests into silence at how absolutely ridiculously silly it is. “I hope you’re hungry, cause you just got served some corn!” Richter quips. I love this aspect of Aukerman’s sense of humor, though. The sillier the joke, the better. Elvis’ dialogue in the interview is made up of famous snippets from his songs, except for when Scott asks him his least favorite Cuba Gooding Jr. role (“Radio” is his favorite) and Scott’s voice gets dubbed in saying “JERRY MAGUIRE.” Gets me every time.
There is also an absolute classic Would You Rather at work here, including one of my favorite all-time questions, whether you’d rather watch Jesus play a video game of your life, or you’d play one of his life. Richter and Silverman get the game instantly and take it in lots of nutty reality-altering directions. Everyone, go revisit this episode. It’s awesome.
Episode 26 (“What Do You Say To Your Dog?”)
Guests: Andy Richter, Sarah Silverman
Games/Segments: Would You Rather, interview with Elvis Costello
Songs: from Eban Schletter’s “Witching Hour” album, also a couple by Sarah. And, of course, Paul McCartney & Wings’ “Jet.”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 25
Scott (discussing the Michael Jackson movie This Is It): I noticed in the description of the movie, Jackson would keep coming up with ideas. ‘I want to replicate an entire waterfall, I want-’
Neil Hamburger: ‘More propofol!’
I love this show, and I’m a fan of Neil Hamburger, but this episode is kinda limp and never really gets off the ground. I know that I said yesterday that I like when the show breaks out of its format and rolls with whatever (or should I say, “whatewers”) but that’s sort of what happens here and it doesn’t work.
The main problem, I think, is that there’s really only two guests: Hamburger (Gregg Turkington, but really he’s a person all to himself) and Brent Weinbach, who comes in after the halfway mark to do a couple of bits, first as Latino comic Anthony Rivera, and then some pre-taped calls to weird Craigslist landlords.
Mike O’Connell stops by to play some songs, but mostly keeps out of it otherwise, leaving us with a bunch of Hamburger jokes about the death of Michael Jackson (his bread and butter), Brent’s bits, neither of which really gather much steam, and a classic Scott Aukerman/Nick Thune joke about U2 firing their lawyer because he works pro Bono. That one’s pretty much the highlight of the episode for me.
Episode 25 (“We’re Down For Whatewers”)
Guests: Neil Hamburger, Mike O’Connell, Brent Weinbach (also as Anthony Rivera)
Games/Segments: None.
Songs: Steel Panther, “Death To All But Metal”
Neil Hamburger, “At Least I Was Paid”
Tim & Eric, “Shrimp and White Wine”
Cartman, “Kyle’s Mom’s a Bitch”
The Glass Beef, “Dot Dot”
Spinal Tap, “Rock and Roll Nightmare”
plus some songs by Mike O’Connell.
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 24
Matt Walsh: Your shonor, my client is being accused of shirter. There is no such law in the law books as shirter. We should throw this courtroom out and let Mr. Borat leave the courtroom. Shirter makes a mockery of our judicial system. Shirter, I’ve never heard of that word. How can you accuse a man of a crime that doesn’t exist? Why don’t we say poo-poo pee-pee, your honor?
James Adomian: Counsel, do you mean the crime of murder?
Matt: Shirter, that’s what I said. There’s no such law as shirter.
James: Counsel, you are correct there, but it seems you are making a mockery of this court now.
Matt: I am not making crockery of anything, sir.
Matt Walsh and Nick Swardson are the dominant players in this episode, but it’s probably most notable as the first appearance of James Adomian, probably one of the show’s most crucial character guys. It’s a surprisingly muted debut — he dominates one segment doing his Gary Busey impression (which never recurs on this podcast but is a regular feature on Sklarbro Country) but otherwise you don’t hear much from him.
The typical format of Comedy Bang Bang these days is to have Scott talk to his first guest for 15 or 20 minutes, and then have the wackos come in after that. But, as I noted in the Seth Morris episode a few days ago, that wasn’t how things worked early on, when the show was much more segmented. Things feel a little more planned-out: not that they’re reading off scripts, but Scott knows that he’ll talk to Nick Swardson, then Matt Walsh is gonna do a couple of improv scenes for weird movie ideas he just thought up, then Adomian will do Busey.
The more the show breaks from that format, the better, but this is still a pretty funny episode. Swardson is about as prepared as usual (read: not at all) but he can roll with anything pretty well. Walsh’s first movie, about the hard-of-hearing lawyer, is funny enough, but it’s a prelude to a much sillier, reality-warping piece where everyone plays the head of the major network, except Adomian does his as Philip Seymour Hoffman and Scott does his as Borat.
Adomian doing Busey is not one of my favorite impressions just because Busey is such an obvious target and anything he spouts could plausibly be something the real guy would do. So it just gives Adomian license to go on about the Illuminati or 9/12 or what have you. But his acronyms do always save the day. Obama meaning Ordinary Black Appearance Masking Antichrist is my personal favorite.
Adomian also gets the biggest laugh of the podcast right at the end in the proto-plugs section when he says he’s starring in a Showtime show called “Baxter” about a child who’s also a child molester. Dexter is the worst, so I was happy to hear that. Still no real plugs section, though! I’m waiting for Scott’s first gag about that.
Episode 24 (“No Such Thing As Shirter!”)
Guests: Nick Swardson, Matt Walsh, James Adomian (also as Gary Busey), Paul F. Tompkins
Games/Segments: Entourage Season recap (“Vince plays pool and says to everyone, ‘It’ll be alright!’”)
Songs: Hard ‘N Phirm, “Carbon Cycle”
Dragon Boy Suede, “When I’m Done”
Neil Hamburger, “Zipperlips”
Tenacious D, “Baby”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Live From Vancouver (+ Episodes 22-23)
“‘You snooze, you lose’ — Anonymous. I always attribute my quotes.” — Ice-T
You really know you’re peeking into the past when there’s a live edition of the podcast and the audience isn’t even full. As we later hear from Paul F. Tompkins when he guest-hosts Episode 23, the Vancouver Comedy festival in 2009 didn’t go swimmingly, with disgruntled, heckling audiences, but the crowd on this show seems pretty into the proceedings. What a show they have unfolding before them! You’ve got Paul F. Tompkins making his debut as Ice-T with Scott in the room, live music from both Reggie Watts and Garfunkel & Oates, and Todd Barry doing a fairly rambling “set” that mostly consists of him shushing Scott’s requests for a specific bit.
It’s a pretty packed house, and the only guest who doesn’t really get a chance to shine is Nick Thune, although he does become the butt of jokes when an epic game of Would You Rather begins. You’d think the curmudgeonly Barry would be the spoiler for that segment, but he plays along very nicely, whereas Thune never seems to grasp Scott’s arbitrary rules. This is also notable for being the first episode to feature a Tompkins character playing the game, and excelling, as his characters always do, with follow-up after follow-up.
Actually, this is the first episode with a Tompkins character, really, since his previous two appearances in character were on the phone as Michael Jackson and as Ice-T on a Jimmy Pardo guest-hoster. But here, you hear what incredible chemistry Scott has with him and how adept he is at going with the flow and never breaking character. Ice-T’s prepared bit, about the Ikea ottomans he’s designed called Ice Cubes, is hilarious, but his work on Would You Rather is even better.
I’ll squeeze in reviews of the two guest host episodes as well. Pardo’s third try, taped while Scott was in Vancouver, is a lot of fun, mostly because he has an exceptional guest with him in Dana Gould, who riffs rather fascinatingly on the fact that Jay Leno doesn’t like him.
Tompkins’ episode is a hell of a lot of fun, since he has two outstanding guests — Tig Notaro, making her first appearance on the show, and Weird Al. Paul’s story about meeting Weird Al is a funny one, and while Notaro is cemented into CDR/CBB history more for her later appearances, she’s nice and dry here too. But who is that calling in as Paul McCartney? There’s no one listed on the Earwolf page, and I could not figure it out.
Episode B1 (“Live From Vancouver”)
Guests: Todd Barry, Nick Thune, Paul F. Tompkins (as Ice-T), Garfunkel & Oates, Reggie Watts
Games/Segments: Would You Rather
Songs: music by Watts and G&O.
Episode 22 (“Yet Another Pardo-sode”)
Guests: Jimmy Pardo (guest host), Dana Gould, Matt Belknap, Pat Francis (as Paul Stanley), Mike Toomey (Kirk Rocker)
Episode 23 (“Guest Host Paul F. Tompkins”)
Guests: Paul F. Tompkins (guest host), Weird Al Yankovic, Tig Notaro
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 21
Nathan Brantley: I’m not the one who talked about Margaret Cho’s mother paddling over…what did you say? Paddling over?
Chris Hardwick: I didn’t say paddling over at all. I think you added that.
Nathan: You talked about Margaret Cho’s mother in her ridiculous lampshade hat.
A really important part ofthis podcast, especially with the “open-door policy” guests, is how aggressively alienating or antagonist they can be. To be sure, we’ve had some of that on the show already — Officer Dick Butterfield, Jim Mahoney in episode 14, or Matt Besser’s Bjork. But Seth Morris’ performance here as Nathan Brantley really takes the cake in terms of how (jokingly) uncomfortable he makes everyone. The main difference between him and the past examples, I think, is that Brantley never leaves the studio, and instead just builds the tension to the extent that it seems Charlyne Yi is actually uncomfortable around him.
Brantley, supposedly the seventh choice host for local NPR show “Morning Becomes Eclectic,” starts out as a proto-Bob Ducca, Morris’ most famous character. He’s quiet, talks at a weird pace, and seems overwhelmed by the speed with which Scott or Chris Hardwick do just about anything, like ask questions, or talk. But then when the topic of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift comes up and Chris jokes that it probably was the tipping point for some “on the fence racists,” Brantley takes a hard right turn and starts (quietly) ranting about Joe Wilson being a patriot, Obama being a Muslim liar, and Asians being generally terrible people.
It’s surprising, it’s a lot of fun, and it spices up an otherwise ordinary episode that features some fun riffing with Hardwick, who at this point was just beginning the new act of his career — he was the host of Web Soup, but the Nerdist podcast/empire hadn’t started up yet. Aside from Brantley’s ranting, the highlight is undoubtedly “What Is It Wearing,” a one-off game Scott designs with no rules that is just a torturous, looping conversation where every guess or answer Chris and Nathan offer is wrong and gets Scott madder. It’s a fun bit, but thank god it was never attempted again, cause it’s stressful to listen to.
Charlyne Yi does a couple of segments in her inimitable style that are great, but they don’t slide into the show very easily and then she doesn’t stick around to futz around with Scott and everyone else, so the whole thing feels a little disappointing. Pretty funny, though. It’s so weird that she’s on House now!
Episode 21 (“Morning Becomes Oddly Racist”)
Guests: Chris Hardwick, Seth Morris (as Nathan Brantley), Charlyne Yi
Games/Segments: What Is It Wearing?
Songs: Spinal Tap, “Rock and Roll Nightmare”
Garfunkel & Oates, “Pregnant Women Are Smug”
The Glass Beef, “Dot Dot”
John C. Reilly, “Let Me Hold You (Little Man)”
some parody of “Satisfaction”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 20
“67.5 FM coming to you live here direct by Burlington, Birmingham Alabama. And this is a new track from Fern Falstarsh called Graupenklak” — Reggie Watts
Reggie Watts is definitely a core part of the Comedy Bang Bang brand, so his first appearance on the show here is worth noting, but otherwise, this is not a particularly memorable episode, although it does have an excellent Would You Rather that explores the concept of the questions being linked and the reality you pick actually occurring after you pick it. The more mind-fuckery involved in Would You Rather, the better!
But even though Reggie Watts, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Rory Scovel are all really funny, they’re kind of an odd mix and never really get into any fun riffy territory. Mary Lynn talks about her Vegas wedding, Reggie does a couple crazy songs (which are up to his usual high standard) and Rory (it’s all about the delivery with him) rattles off a few funny jokes.
Then you have Would You Rather, absolutely the highlight of the hour, and that is that! Oh, and the final, delayed premiere of Weirder Scott’s second, superior single, “Tangelo,” a take on U2’s “Vertigo.” Give the man credit, he does not take his parodies in remotely normal directions. But I would say, come for the music, stay for the episode if you’d like.
Episode 20 (“World Premiere of Tangelo”)
Guests: Mary Lynn Rajskub, Reggie Watts, Rory Scovel
Games/Segments: Would You Rather (Mary Lynn wins)
Songs: Tim & Eric, “I Sit Down When I Pee”
Flight of the Conchords, “Carol Brown”
The Rutles, “Ouch!”
Weirder Scott, “Tangelo”
Rocky Horror, “I’m Going Home”
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 19
Casey: (talking about Lorne Michaels) And then he pointed to a booth in the corner, and he said, “I thought it’d be nice if I brought you here, because this is the booth where I was brought in 1974 and I was asked if I thought I could handle running this show, and I’d also like to extend you the offer.” So I cried, of course, and I hit him. And I know this story seems strange on the heels of my most recent news, but no matter what, it’s come full circle. I spent this morning in that same booth crying.
Scott: Really?
Casey: No, no. But I go back there a lot. I’m just trying to get some closure.
Man, I love Casey Wilson. It’s OK listening to this show now, since she’s currently kicking ass on Happy Endings and has a movie (Ass Backwards) that she wrote and starred in coming out this year hopefully (she actually talks about it on this episode) and is generally a successful lady. But this episode, recorded right after she got fired from her two-season gig on SNL, is a little bit of a bummer. Scott and Casey actually discuss the circumstances of it further in one of her later appearances (episode 101, I believe), but from what I remember this episode was recorded really soon after she got fired, and even though she’s putting a good face on it (Wilson’s consistently funny through the episode), she was feeling pretty miserable.
The presence of two other SNL figures, Kevin Nealon and Laraine Newman, makes it all a little bit stranger, but really, they’re pretty comforting presences to have on the show. Nealon’s tale of how he landed the gig is a funny one, and aside from that, he mostly contributes nonsensical asides and a generally cheerful demeanor. He’s honestly one of the show’s most underrated repeat guests, since he and Scott seem to have a great understanding of each other comedically and can get laugh-out-loud funny when they just bounce silly shit around together.
Laraine Newman kind of reminds me of a lot of fun hippy moms with a ton of stories about the old days, and her tales of studying under Marcel Marceau and SNL’s formation are a good time. She’s even pretty game once we get to Would You Rather and in the best part of the episode, a short bit written by Wilson that closes things out successfully. Still, this is mostly a memorable episode for the story behind it, which I guess we’ll revisit come #101.
Episode 19 (“SNL Reunion”)
Guests: Casey Wilson, Kevin Nealon, Laraine Newman
Games/Segments: Would You Rather
Songs: The Lonely Island, “Like A Boss”
Sarah Silverman, “Porn Song”
Some song by “The Chips” that I could not place at all.
Comedy Death-Ray Radio, Episode 18
Cyber Thug: I know you think that showbusiness is magic, and the images that come on TV, you’re like, “How is that happening, are the people behind masks?”
Scott: To be honest, I’ve never really wondered while I was watching a TV show if every actor was wearing a mask.
Cyber Thug: Well, I did.
This is the only episode Andy Kindler ever appeared on (he’s popped up in other Earwolf shows since), which is a little surprising, because he’s a nimble comedian who’s usually happy to roll with whatever bit Scott’s going with. When Kindler’s around, that bit is often aimed right at him, with Andy’s confusion at the fact that women are called “shorties” in the hip-hop world one of the highlights. Kindler is a very overwhelming presence, though. It’s part of his charm, but he does tend to dominate. Since Jerry Minor (in his first appearance of many) is also doing a lot of stuff here, Brendon Walsh kinda fades into the background, although he is an affably confused presence during Would You Rather.
This is the first Would You Rather where Scott declares a winner, and where he spends a lot of time on the pomp and circumstance of the game, praising people’s questions, chiding Brendon for poor questions or for asking before the floor is open. That’s all really integral to what makes the bit so funny — like how arbitrary Scott’s declaration of who wins usually is.
Minor is always a hilarious presence on the show, and I had forgotten that he busts out Cyber Thug at the end of it after a perplexing, hilarious song consisting of hip-hop buzzwords and little else. Cyber Thug is a routine comic foil in a lot of ways — he’s convinced of his own genius and unaware that he undercuts himself with almost everything he says. But Minor peppers in a lot of funny details, and, in later episodes (and Cyber Thug’s sadly brief own podcast) some remarkably astute hip-hop criticism.
This isn’t an outstanding episode by any means, but it’s a lot of fun, and there’s still plenty of milestones to note. One last one, more of a weird quirk than anything else: Kindler does an impression of Huell Howser (along with either Minor or Walsh, I forget who), who would of course become one of the show’s most legendary recurring characters. Scott claims to have never heard of him, which may well be true, but it’s funny to hear it in the context of what comes over the next few months.
Episode 18 (“Poppin’ Bottles”)
Guests: Andy Kindler, Jerry Minor (also as Cyber Thug), Brendon Walsh
Games/Segments: Would You Rather (Jerry wins), Entourage recap (“I don’t remember”)
Songs: JP Incorporated, “Jazzbot Extreme”
Flight of the Conchords, “Think About It”
Jerry Minor, “Poppin’ Bottles”
Joe Dolce, “Shaddup You Face”
Team America, “America (Fuck Yeah)”
Weird Al Yankovic, “CNR”
Monty Python, “Eric the Half-a-Bee”
Jason Segel, “Dracula’s Lament”
