U2 is everywhere, including Podmass, but it’s a good thing here
In Podmass, The A.V. Club sifts through the ever-expanding world of podcasts and recommends 10–15 of the previous week’s best episodes. Have your own favorite? Let us know in the comments or at [email protected].
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Comedy Bang! Bang!
Tony Macaroni
Few episodes of Comedy Bang! Bang! reach anything resembling a meaningful conclusion. It takes truly dedicated character work, usually displayed by the likes of Andy Daly or Joe Wengert, to bring a bit full circle without sputtering out. There’s not much set up in the first segment, where Jimmy Pardo and Nick Kroll amusingly discuss the worst grilled cheesery in America and the passing of Pardo’s non-relative Don Pardo. The episode heats up when the Australian comedian Claudia O’Doherty shows up as a bizarrely modified version of herself. She’s there to promote her 12-chapter (and 12-page) book based on her mom’s scandalous relationship with a neighborhood Italian teenage boy. Scott Aukerman presses her expertly on her character’s inconsistencies, but the episode truly takes off when Kroll splits and the famously profane Australian actor R. Shrift mysteriously shows up. Shrift, played brilliantly in an off-the-cuff moment by Kroll, is outrageously funny, especially when snarling descriptions of his shows, like Man-chine (“Half man, half machine—ALL JUSTICE.”). A fellow Aussie, O’Doherty lends credibility to Kroll’s idiocy, and the two work together to bring the episode back to the start with a spectacular and unexpected callback that could only ever happen at Earwolf Studios. [MK]
Doug Loves Movies
Neal Brennan, Retta, Sean Cullen, Lorenza Izzo
Doug Benson relaxes his “No Open Door” policy for the better this week. It would have already been an all-star panel without any surprise guests, but Eli Roth pops onstage to give returning champ Lorenza Izzo a hand, and “Mark Wahlberg” (Daniel Van Kirk) sticks around after Doing Lines With Mark to help Retta during a game of Last Man Stanton in order to even things out. Retta, of course, is an audience favorite, and she seems genuinely delighted by the show, especially Doug’s “favorite Canadian guest” Sean Cullen’s improvised theme songs for Harry And The Hendersons and Cliffhanger. Here’s hoping she can convince Chris Pratt to drop by again. Frankly, this is one time Put Your Hands Together should have to apologize to Doug Loves Movies for cutting such a great episode short. Even though it’s only an hour, it’s a tight one that doesn’t sacrifice the games. Los Angeles audience members: Step up your game and show up. The rest of the country is getting jealous. [DJ]
Evolution Talk
Darwin On The HMS Beagle
It’s been years now since Zachary Moore’s excellent Evolution 101 podcast went to fallows, there never emerged a descent successor. Though the topic of natural selection and genetic mutation could, and does, literally fill library shelves, it really only gets touched upon on the multitudinous science-based podcasts available for download. Evolution Talk is quite new—only three episodes have dropped thus far—but it looks promising. At around 15 minutes a pop, the scripted, immaculately produced show is an easy one to double-click, as you know you’re not likely to feel slogged down by anything too complicated for too long a time. The host, Rick Coste, is a veteran podcaster, having lent his efforts to the similarly titled Philosophy Walk for several years now, and boasts a confident control of his voice, which along with its unobtrusive soundtrack, almost lends it a comforting whiff of public radio. In the latest episode, Coste summarizes Charles Darwin’s five-year stint as a gentleman companion and naturalist aboard the HMS Beagle, when he first made the discoveries that would eventually make his career. It’s both informative and narratively engaging. If Coste can guide listeners through scientific concepts as well as he leads us through history, this could become an excellent weekly listen. [DD]
The Flop House
God’s Not Dead
The most remarkable thing about the new episode of The Flop House is that it’s new, and that it’s an episode of The Flop House, but seeing as it’s maybe the most consistent comedy podcast around, that’s still saying quite a lot. The film at hand is the stupid, silly, bonkers “Christploitation” film God’s Not Dead, which the hosts give an admirably evenhanded treatment, but, even more so than usual, that really doesn’t matter all that much—only insofar as its stupidity and silliness heighten the goofiness of the Floppers’ humor. This is manifested throughout the entire episode, from the introduction to the outtakes at the end, but most memorably in the form of several throwaway goofs that don’t exactly go anywhere, really, but are all the more hilarious for precisely that reason—one involving Star Wars and sand getting in butts, one involving a character named Christopher Columbo, and one involving Cathy that’s basically just saying “Ack!” among them. God may or may not be dead, but The Flop House is as alive as ever. [CG]
Giant Bombcast
9/9/2014
Video game podcast Giant Bombcast has gained more and more popularity over the years, and this episode they discuss the biggest video game of 2014, Destiny (from the creators of Halo). The new game mostly impresses the staff, who livestreamed their first sessions and pick the complex experience completely apart. They spare no sentiment for the grim, deadpan tone of the game which has far fewer moments of humor than its elder cousin without directly comparing the two. Though the game seems to contain a great deal of statistics and design for gamers who like to immerse themselves in such things, it does not seem to realize it’s incredibly simple. Players walk to a spot, push a button, and wait to see if they’re going to fight a boss or a bunch of lesser, non-bosses. Hearing the depth of the game described seems exciting until this shallow gameplay is explained in a discussion format, adding up to a review that has more layers to it than a simple text-based review might be able to provide. There is also ridiculously false speculation of the then-unannounced iPhone 6 and a thoroughly gross story about “bathtub chicken” to round the episode out. [DT]
How Did This Get Made?
Staying Alive: LIVE!
After lots of teasing and build-up, not only was the first annual Howdie Awards mostly just a compilation of supercuts comprised of nearly the entire series since 2010, but it was split between two parts, meaning no new episode for two weeks in a row. For regular listeners, that didn’t provide a lot of opportunity for laughs beyond reminding them of what they already enjoyed about the show, so it’s good to hear them come back strong with a live taping. This week, The Heat writer Katie Dippold joins the gang to break down the wholly unnecessary 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever, which was inexplicably co-written, produced, and directed by Sylvester Stallone. At this point, with episodes covering Cobra, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, and Over The Top, it’s fair to label Stallone as How Did This Get Made’s new Nicolas Cage. Jason Mantzoukas hits the nail on the head when he identifies flick as a rapeless Showgirls, and the dais takes turns diagnosing John Travolta’s revised contemporary jazz dancing character as a sociopath. It’s bad enough to be good, if only for seeing the weird, oily, flamboyant ’80s show-within-a-show the movie’s “plot” centers on. [DJ]
99% Invisible
Genesis Object
Roman Mars opens this episode with pompous fanfare, declaring the “genesis object” it features to be the first and therefore most important piece of design in human history. The goofy sarcasm employed here does well to brighten what could have been a rather stoic episode. The current oldest example of human innovation is the Acheulean hand-ax, an ancient tool found first in France. But it is not enough for it to be a tool (scientists have discovered older tools), what makes it special is the idea that it was a designed object that was crafted for multiple purposes. And design being the central concept of the podcast, this episode deconstructs the running themes of every episode before it. And really, the multi-tool concept is one of three running theories created by designer William Lidwell and discussed with University Of California, Berkeley anthropologist Terrence Deacon. The false pomp of the introduction comes back into play when Deacon tries to keep a good sense of humor without grinding his teeth while reviewing Lidwell’s “Sexy Hand-Ax” theory, which posits that these hand-axes were only created to show off the creator’s abilities. Deacon has a fascinating example of a rose-quartz hand-ax found in the bottom of a well, but its clear that he thinks the whole premise of design over function is a bit obnoxious. [DT]
No Such Thing As A Fish
No Such Thing As A Randy Rat In Polyester Pants
This episode of No Such Thing As A Fish is one of the filthier episodes in a while, thanks in no small part to research projects about rats wearing pants and Icelandic incest apps. The rats wore pants to test their ability to get erections (leading to lots of bowel movement talk) and Iceland needed the incest app due to the incredibly isolated gene pool in the country (which leads you-know-where). Host Andrew Hunter Murray also brings to the table an entertaining packet of stories from the British barracks during World War I. To keep morale up, troops were entertained with organized pillow fights and mule jousting which leads to a brief history of pillow combat and a surprising but appropriately serious tangent about soldier newsletters that were critical of war. As always, the episode bounces back and forth between surprisingly curious trivia the panel of hosts has brought and their riffs on these subjects, but this episode has a particularly strong arc of silliness. Host and head researcher for TV show Q.I., James Harkin, kicks off a series of space exploration facts by dropping an analogy about cooking pizza on Venus that spirals into the idea of sideways glass rain on other planets and the massive marriage proposal package offered by Pizza Hut. The episode starts off intriguing and, by the end, is sillier than ever. [DT]