Why Are You Laughing? - Karl Pilkington

Worlds collide as the history-of-comedy podcast "Why Are You Laughing?" examines the career of Karl Pilkington.

This is one where I can say "I lived it." I was listening to the XFM broadcasts basically on a loop from around 2003 to around 2013. I was there when they reunited for the BBC, did the podcast, made the HBO show, and so on. I mention this by way of reminiscing, rather than some form of bragging. I recommended Ricky, Steve and Karl to so many people and only one person really got it. But that was a big hit.

There's a project underway that's unearthing "new" XFM material and remastering the archives. I've lost track of it though. For whatever reason, the clip I shared of the new material has been deleted. But if you're looking to track down that project, you can start here.

Burt Reynolds Made an Album

Sometimes when a celebrity's at the height of fame and fortune, the praise can be so momentous that they're convinced making an album is a good idea.

Such is the case with Burt Reynolds' in 1973 and the resulting album was "Ask Me What I Am." 

It's very much of-its-time, with the Folk-Country talk-singing style. With titles such as:

• The First One That I Lay With
• She's Taken A Gentle Lover
• I Didn't Shake The World Today
• There's A Slight Misunderstanding Between God And Man
• I Like Having You Around

Is it like Neil Diamond? You bet your balls it's like Neil Diamond!

The thing is, though: I don't hate it. It's actually pretty charming. 

For a complete "analysis" of the album check out the podcast "Billion Dollar Record Club" and their episode about it here.

Paul Jr. Has a Podcast

Continuing to pretend that the sudden re-emergence of "American Chopper" is real and organic, it turns out that Paul Jr. has a podcast now.

Above is the third episode where he talks about recently watching the episodes and finding that so much time has past that he feels more like a viewer than a participant. He also says he's working on getting a new show but it's early stages.

So he has a podcast and a youtube channel, Paul Sr. has (at least) a youtube channel, it looks like Mikey has a podcast, Vinnie has a youtube channel... does Rick have a podcast? - no, I think he was a guest on Paul Sr.'s podcast... Basically it's 2024 and everyone in the world is on youtube with a podcast. There isn't enough time in the world to keep up with it.... except I'll probably keep up with Paul Jr.'s channel because I have the American Chopper brain damage and this is how bad it is.

Catching Up with Tom Myers

 Tom Myers took a break for the Summer and is back with a backlog of terrible, old jokes.

The other day someone mentioned that they asked AI something and then were too afraid to ask a further follow-up. I kind of understand that. I'm curious what AI Tom Myers would do but I'm also fearful to see what it's capable of. Whether or not the world is ready, I'm not ready. 

WATP - Tom Myers' New Monologue

 

Yo, a new Tom Myers monologue just dropped. The WATP crowd is known for being a bit critical, it's what they do, but in this case I think they went too easy with this. This is not comedy, these are not even jokes, this is just words strung together into sentences and nothing else. Absolutely incredible.

A Small History of Norm MacDonald on Conan

 

"Why Are You Laughing" re-visits and discusses Norm's appearances on Conan O'Brien's talk shows over the years.

WATP - Oozebear

 

Oozebear is a "user-generated improv podcast." I don't know exactly what that means but... wow.

Conan Podcast - David Letterman

I don't know why I'm so late on this but for some reason I waited until now... Last October, Conan had David Letterman as a guest on his podcast. It's a pretty good interview. Letterman says, looking back at it now, he should have retired earlier. And the two swap Bob Hope stories. No matter what, the thing you can't miss is a cereal story at the end (1:12:09).

Listen here.

How Did This Get Made? - Rad

The title of the podcast is "How Did This Get Made?" The idea is to review bad movies and ask the titular question. Now I know that you can't change the title of the podcast for an episode but honestly this episode should be called "How Did The Art Of Film Take Almost 100 Years To Make This?".

Because of course, the movie that this episode is about is Rad, the most radical film ever made.

[Broken Youtube Link Removed - https://www.earwolf.com/episode/rad-live/]

P&S - The Warrant Hotline

No, the Warrant Hotline is not the number you call after watching America's Most Wanted, it's one of those 900 numbers from the 80s or 90s!

Yeah, it's a ripoff scam but it's a lot of other things too!

Halloween - 3

I mentioned yesterday that I was not aware of "Are You Afraid of the Dark" when it was around. Unlike that show, I WAS aware of the Goosebumps phenomenon while it was going on. But even so, I didn't read a single page of it or watch the TV show that it spawned.

But fortunately for me there's a podcast where adult men read a Goosebumps book originally intended for children and then discuss and analyze it. The podcast is called Goosebuds and it's a fun listen.

For an introduction, I recommend Episode 16 - Be Careful What You Wish For.

Although the show starts with Culling Plans and Super Soldiers, you can skip to 13:45 if you want to get straight to the book.

Michael Giacchino Interview

I thought this was a really interesting interview about film scores. Michael Giacchino isn't a household name but he did the scores for "Up", "Lost", the new "Star Trek" movies, "Ratatouille" as well as the scores for the "Medal of Honor" and "Call of Duty" video game franchises.

The interview talks about the art of scoring, how they're written, how they work, why sometimes they don't and so on, and so on. Check it out if you have half an hour.

P&S - Casey Kasem is Missing

I love Steve's Casey Kasem impression. I can't get enough of it. Recently it was revealed that Casey Kasem may be on a Native American reservation and it lead to a short tirade.

The pre-requisite to any Steve bit on Kasem is knowing this audio (warning: language):



And this is the new result:

2014 Cardboard Classic

Preston and Steve's tradition continues... the 2014 Cardboard Classic. People create sleds out of nothing but cardboard, tape and glue and then ride them down a ski slope.

P&S - Bono as a Wedding Singer

Preston and Steve riff on the idea of Bono being a wedding singer. After the initial intro, be sure your sound is up because it's a little hard to hear.



Incidentally, the same general concept came up before on the Ben Stiller Show.

P&S - Rocky IV Translation

At the end of Rocky IV, Rocky speak to the Soviet people and single-handedly defeats communism. But when he speaks to them, he speaks through a supposedly Russian interpreter. So is the translation in the movie accurate? Preston and Steve investigate it's validity in this clip:



A few explanations to some of the references:

"Carwashes where the people are." is a reference from earlier in the show.
"Been come to known as." is a garbled phrase inside-joke of the show.
"Resist we much." is a quote from Al Sharpton.
"When it's time to change you've got to rearrange." are some of the lyrics of the Brady Bunch song "Time to Change".

P&S - "The World's End" Interview

A really Preston and Steve interview with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright. They talk about "The World's End", Star Trek and Star Wars.

P&S - Tracy Chapman

During a "Music News" story about a heavy metal festival, Preston and Steve get on a tangent about Tracy Chapman.



This clip is highly edited - the actual discussion was much longer and funnier - you can hear the full segment on this episode of their podcast.

Preston and Steve - Home Alone and Smoking

Here, Preston and Steve discuss the current "news" story that Macaulay Culkin smokes 60 cigarettes per day...

Short Film: Cartridge

A video game podcast I subscribe to ("B, A, Start") recently uploaded a short film onto youtube and I thought it was really good. It's a short film about one man's love affair with Super Nintendo. Here it is: