Jan 2, 2013
Happy New Year! 2012 had many ups and downs, and that counts in comedy podcasting, too. Some podcasts went off the rails — such as Affirmation Nation and The Gentlemens' Club — never to be heard from again. While at the same time, milestones were passed for others.
What did WTF, Nerdist, and Never Not Funny have in common? They all dropped their 300th episode this year! Congrats! And You Made It Weird, Who Charted?, Walking the Room, The Long Shot, and Sklarbo Country all turned the corner on their episode 100 in 2012. And the granddaddy of the comedy podcast ilk, Tom Scharpling's The Best Show On WFMU, actually rang up its 500th episode!
I came up with the idea of doing a Top 10 Comedy Podcasts of 2012 but, unfortunately, the concept hit me the day before I was going to record Epi45. I didn't have the time or even a methodology in mind to pull it off, so I did the next best thing. I borrowed a list from the AV Club. They had their panel of reviewers dole out 50 points a piece amongst the podcasts out there in the universe, did careful calculations and considerations before posting their list. I swear we'll do something like that…next year. In the meantime, here's how the AV Club's list shook out:
10.
Walking
The Room
9. Pop
Culture Happy Hour
8. Nerdist
7. Doug Loves Movies
6. The
Pod F. Tompkast
5. (tie) Sklarbro
Country /
The Best Show on WFMU
4. You Made It
Weird
3. Savage
Love
2. Comedy Bang Bang
1. WTF
This list was meant to be from ALL realms of podcasts but, as you can see, the majority are comedy-based in nature. Three of them have never been clipped on Succotash before, so we make up for that in this episode, with the exception of Savage Love, hosted by Dan Savage out of Seattle, Washington. The reason being that it is not a comedy p'cast but, instead, a very good and somewhat edgy relationship and sexual advice show. (It's currently #1 on Stitcher's Lifestyle & Health Top 100 list.)
POD MAFIA IRREGULARS
Last episode was our Succotash Christmas Card episode to those podcasts in the Pod Mafia collective of internet shows. But there are also a group of shows that have been very supportive of not just our podcast but a number of the Pod Mafia shows as well, so I'm referring to them as the Pod Mafia Irregulars. And this episode we pay tribute to them by clipping some recent editions of The Brit & The American, The Clutch & Wiggle Experience, The Random Variety Show, Toggle The Switch and Bonn And Obo.
FUNNY MUSIC TIME
This episode's music break is furnished by the duo of Paul & Storm. It's their song Nugget Man, a salute to Robert C. Baker, inventor of the Chicken McNugget. Please click on their name to be linked to their most excellent website, which is festooned with their many musical selections! They also have a podcast you should check out, entitled Paul and Storm Talk About Some Stuff for Five to Ten Minutes (On Average).
BURST O' DURST
This time around, our Ambassador to The Middle, political comedian Will Durst gives us is Ode to Twenty Twelve.
CLIPS
Pop Culture Happy
Hour
NPR's entertainment and pop culture round-table podcast
features Linda Holmes,
Trey Graham, Stephen Thompson & Glen Weldon
having spirited discussions of movies, books, television,
nostalgia, and anything else that might be making them
happy.
Nerdist
Congrats
to Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Myra!
Their Nerdist podcast hit Epi300 this past week or so. And
to celebrate the moment, they returned to whence they began, doing
the podcast in the office of Thomas Lennon’s house. Lennon was
their very first guest and (for my money) he is one of the funniest
guests in podcasting, ranking up there with the likes of Paul F.
Tompkins.
The Best Show on WFMU
The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling is a
combination music/call-in/comedy radio show originating from New
Jersey-based radio station WFMU. The Best Show first aired on
October 10, 2000 and, as mentioned up top, they've aired/dropped
over 500 episodes!
The Brit & The
American
The Brit and The American – namely Alba Lewis and Tom
Moore – have translocated to Peru for the next 6 months but
continue to pump out the podcasts on a regular basis. We feature a
taste from a recent episode, which I think is PRE-Peru.
The Clutch & Wiggle
Experience
Your hosts Rob and Craig (along with K-Love)
take you on a verbal whirlwind as they spin, annihilate and
humiliate everything and anything in the world today. Straight from
the basement on a real air hockey table, they bring comedy and
"justice" the way no one else sees the world. (Their CWERadio.com
also rebroadcasts episodes of Succotash each
week!
Random Variety Show
Podcast
Charley Miller is a good friend of Succotash and we’d be
remiss if we didn’t include him in this belated Christmas card to
the Pod Mafia Irregulars. In this clip Groucho Marx, who
handles most of the heavy lifting when it comes to the interviews
on RVSP, talks to Libby Marie and Lishia from
the Two Funny Girls podcast.
Toggle the
Switch
Cross-Pacific podcast Toggle The Switch features Susan
Wygmans from America and Carl McAteer from Australia.
Susan started out as part of the Cuddlah Army, a total fan of
Walking The Room with Greg Behrendt and Dave
Anthony, and now she finds herself with listeners of her own.
We have a snippet of their show talking about “humpy time” and,
right after that, we’ve got a little holiday message from the pair
that was delayed due to a snag in our Tweetsack.
BonnAndObo
Here’s
a show that’s definitely Pod Mafia worthy, not to mention they are
requesting some guest vocal input from our very own Bill
Haywatt. I’ve sent out a request to Bill’s favorite watering
holes and, if we can get him upright long enough to record those
lines, we’ll get them to you. In this clip, they bring in a very
special guest.
Epic Rant
Radio
As part of Epic Rant Radio with Andre and
Eric, they have a feature called “Rounds”, where the two
guys go at it over certain subjects. In this clip, it’s the merits
of watching old Sex And The City versus
Glee.
King Meany
A few episodes ago, I talked about a new sketch group out of
England called King Meany. Liam Beirne, Andy
Goddard, Shem Jeffs, Natalie Feehan, and Lizzie
Milton were getting ready to start podcasting and
now…they have!
Illusionoid
One of my personal favorite podcasts is out of Canada.
Illusionoid, with Paul Bates, Lee Smart, and Nug
Nahrgang. This was their holiday offering, The Christmas
Ninjas, and we play the whole thing.
In the coming year, I'm hoping to have more interesting interviews with podcasters, comedians and interesting people from the world of entertainment. I also hope to keep up a regular release schedule, which should be welcome news for those of you you enjoy a helping of Succotash you can depend on. And I'm going to feature a recipe for actual succotash at the tail end of every episode this year that I've found online. Why? Just to help you to pass the Succotash even more!
— Marc
Hershon