chesterdouglas

I thought that last scene was pretty great, although I was a little surprised that a guy like Matt Besser (who has gone on the record a number of times about his general distaste for "meta" comedy) would open the door to such a "meta" concept as "real" improv comedy actors interacting with fictional improv comedy constructs in a scene.

I liked how during the whole "sparse pubic hair" discussion, Howard did that thing that guys sometimes do when they are around women discussing vaguely titillating topics - where the guy will initially try to feign casual nonchalance in order to allow the women to keep talking, but then later on will awkwardly try to re-introduce the topic again and again in order to try to get them to keep talking about it. Wow. That was a long sentence.

I - for one - would love to hear someone like Paul F. Tompkins on Improv4Humans. I'm not sure if it could ever happen given that Tompkins (to the best of my knowledge) doesn't have a whole lot of formal improv training under his belt, but as anyone who listens to Comedy Bang Bang can attest, he seems to be so naturally gifted at improvisational comedy that I would be very interested to hear him on a show like this. I'll bet it would be great.

Oh dear.

Makes no sense, not particularly funny...in other words, it's perfect!

I particularly enjoyed the fact that this episode included references to people named "Lon Caan," "Lon Faizon," and "Lon Gunderwear."

This was a great episode. I'm ordinarily not a tremendous fan of humor with an intense scatological focus, but the level of talent at work here made the appeal undeniable. I haven't laughed that hard at a podcast in some time. I only hope that there is more material remaining from this session for a "bonus episode" next week. Here's hoping....

Seems appropriately chipper.

That "foreign movie producers generate knock-off movie premises" scene was pretty spectacular. This comment is writing itself! Next!!!

Ahhhh Francais, la langue d'amour!

Is it just me, or is this entire string of comments extremely enigmatic? I am intrigued, but I also don't think I really have any idea what you're talking about. Oh well.

Great episode. Also, in a classic good news/bad news scenario, I bought a copy of Freak Dance and loved it, but I bought it from a guy on the street in Laos, so I doubt very much that any of the 75 cents that I paid will ever get back to anyone involved with the production. Sorry.

Lennon Parham is wonderful, but for the love of Christ please bring back Andy Daly. It's no accident that probably three of the top five episodes of this podcast feature him.

I reiterate my demand that the segment of the show where an internet commenter is brought in to defend him/herself be called the "Matt-Besser-Rakes-a-Listener-Over-the-Coals" Corner. Case closed.

Ben Schwartz's comedic improvising during the whole "placing a phone call to Wyclef Jean" bit was one of the more impressive pieces of quick-and-funny improvisation that I've heard in a long, long time, but things got a little strange after Bob Zmuda showed up. It was still engaging, but overall pretty atypical of this particular podcast.

It seemed to me that Maria was not at all comfortable with discussing her porn viewing habits with strangers (and you can't really blame her for that). It made me squirm a little bit just listening to her try to deal with answering that direct of a personal question. Which is to say, I think maybe this should become a new regular segment on the show. Perhaps the Oprah "game" and the direct grilling regarding pornography consumption can somehow be combined into one single, monstrous entity.

My favorite part was the several seconds of utter dead-air silence when everyone was trying to remember which horrendous dictator Hank Williams Jr. had compared to Barack Obama.

Wait, those guys are named "Tick and Tack?" I always thought that it was "Click and Clack." Now I am genuinely perplexed. But then, this line of inquiry could hardly be more of a inconsequential tangent, and for that I apologize. Good day.

I think that the name for the new "commenter's spotlight" section of the show should definitely be changed to the "Matt-Besser-rakes-a-listener-over-the-coals corner." Watch out, catchment dude. You may be next.

"Guys, do you hear thunder? ... Okay, I just wanted to point that out. Anytime I hear thunder, I like to point it out." Scott Aukerman, master improviser!

I often find several elements of Gelmania to be inspired, but the thing that I can never really figure out is how much of the "Brett Gelman persona" is genuine. I mean, here's a guy who comes across as a somewhat deranged borderline personality who is self-aware enough to be able to mine his derangement for a fearless type of comedy, but seems generally unable to rein it in enough to join the ranks of the "normos." This self-presentation is fairly consistent across time and space. Is this a fabricated "character?" A heightened version of reality? A genuine reflection of his true personality? I don't know. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wait for the WTF one-on-one interview to find out.

I rarely think much of the majority of the Jukebox Jury submissions, but that "Licky Sticky" song was a piece of inspired lunacy. Also, Scott's Mushmouth impression was pretty great. Marissa Wompler episodes are always fantastic.

Andy Daly is clearly a genius.

It's funny because it's true.

Tell me I'm wrong, but don't you think that when Janie started to recount her decision to stop dating men, focus on herself, and take a "journey into inspiration" you guys left a pretty easy masturbation joke on the table?