KajusX

Do yourself a favor and buy the final episode of the CBB LIVE 2013 Tour. Washington DC, 2nd show. Alan Thicke is OFF. THE. RAILS. funny on that episode (presupposing that your mentioning of his first few appearances excludes the Live Tour, that is).

I tend to skip Scott's and all ad copy readings. I have already listened to the entire episode, but now that I've stopped by the messageboard and read the comments about the Squarespace ad, I re-downloaded the episode and listened to the Squarespace ad at the top of the show and then skipped forward and found what sounds like the ad in question (THAAANK YOU, SQUARESPACE, yes?). I have no idea what the fuss is about. But now I've listened to the advertising despite my general practice not to and I'm angry at myself. THAAANK YOU, MESSAGEBOARD COMMENTERS. (SARCASM!)

OH! Thanks for spotting that. I've edited my original comment and removed that entry. I had just opened up windows for all the Lapkus episodes and scanned the summaries for 'Traci,' thinking Lapkus has only done one character with that name.

I loved Patton's breakdown of the Welcome Back, Kotter theme song. I used to watch that show bunches back when Nick at Nite started airing it in '94/'95 (quite a resurgence in popularity too, as the three non-Travolta Sweathog cast members even reunited for a Pulp Fiction parody on the 1995 MTV Movie Awards), and just hearing the theme song sends me back 20 years. I never realized how mean-spirited it was!

I heard the real reason Earwolf had to move was due to the discovery of a corpse seemingly staked to death in the building's elevator.

Traci has a decent back catalog by this point. Four or five episodes? Methinks it is time to give them a binge-listen. Today's episode made me want more, so I've been listening to the Ep #265 RIOT LA at work all day. Traci is so great, Harris' Foam Corner is nice and fresh, and it introduced us all to JW Stillwater; for sure to be one of the top episodes on CBB's 2014 Best Of List. EDIT: Here's the list of Traci appearances: 210 - A Spiritual Journey 218 - The 4th Anniversary Extravaganza! 265 - LIVE from RIOT LA 279 - Reverse April Fools Additionally, when looking those up, I had totally blanked that Lauren also plays Scott's nephew Todd, and then she played Regina Crimp in that ep with David Alan Grier where she couldn't sing her song once without breaking. Makes me smile just remembering that! I'm probably going to give all her CBB episodes a re-listen now. Yay, Lauren!

The movie Traci has seen is Blue Jasmine, btw. It has a 98 minute running time, so she probably stood for the first 9 minutes to ensure that her pierced butt cheeks were not in danger of fusing together by the end of the film. Cutting it close tho!

AHHHHHHGGGGGG!!! Yes!! (06:38) EDIT: (I'm talking about Technicality No Down Boo Over)

I was on-board with this episode when I saw it, but listening back, I'm very perturbed at Fearnly for misremembering the baseball scene in Bioshock Infinite. The race-centric choice he described is between throwing a baseball at a horrible carnival barker OR an interracial couple comprised of a Caucasian man and a black woman, tied together to a post; not a 'black fella.' Ugh. I hate this podcast now. How dare the Monsignor mess that up. EDIT: This is in no way intended to be a commentary on any conversation up the thread. I just realized it could be interpreted that way, but truly, I just wanted to be a nerd and call out the Bioshock Infinite inaccuracy. In no way did PFT's description lesson my enjoyment of the podcast. it was so goddamned funny for him to talk about the game in front of a live audience, that glorious steampunk bastard.

And today's i4h was a goddamn DOOZY! The road rage scene was so amazing, and people on the episode's page cannot stop expressing its GOAT eligibility.

One other visual gag (that you can see in the photos), is at around 1:15:30 when Shaemus announces he is going to tell a Declan McGonagle Chronicle, The Irishmen giddily all sat down on the floor like kids at a storybook reading, with Gourley resting his head in his fists.

Oh! Btw, Jeff, I was the guy who switched seats with you so you and your wife could sit together! (I'm 99% sure it was you wearing the Earwolf hoodie).

What I love is I have enjoyed so many moments from all the pilots so much that every reason stated for why something ranks a certain way, I just agree with. The only thing I am most sure of is I've re-listened to August's episode the most, because like nathanpierce said, The Travel Bug was the "strongest from start to finish. Hardly had a chance to breathe at all during the entire thing." That episode flows insanely well, and by the point in the show when everyone pulls double-duty to play August's children? Ye gods. SO many good lines. ("He has a penis you can see." "Kevin spoke! Kevin spoke!") So if we were ranking on a scale of hilarity, flow and consistency, The Travel Bug exceeded my expectations in all three categories. And as a byproduct, I am SO happy that Hey Really Giger in this episode made so many listeners sit up and take notice of Gourley, leading them to Superego. Superego is one of the most amazing comedy podcasts out there, and is essential listening imo.

In case anyone has not seen this, a video was taken of Monsignor Damien Fearnly blessing the podcast. (I was sitting directly to the right of the person filming. It was such a fun show!) Also, 'Lucian Charms' is an amazing name for a Hibernian. A visual gag happened during Lucian's bleary-eyed entrance, as everyone cheered when he walked out, but continued to do so when he got on his knees in front of the Monsignor, mistaking the proceedings for Mass.

Is it Morch already?!

I never meant to imply you did not have a sense of humor, but if you want credit for having one, then consider credit given. I am very happy everyone is listening to Andy's show to the point where they are pouring over the episodes and picking out the ones that speak to them most. I can fully grasp that someone could have a favorite character from the likes of Don, or August, or Dalton, or Danny, or etc etc etc, and find some of them funnier than others. What rings sour to me in your comments is your dismissive-ness of Danny's episode, chalking up this 'weak entry' as a reminder to US that Andy is human. Speak for yourself. Anyone who has forgotten that Andy is human and needed a reminder can say that about any of these episodes, because it's a matter of taste. I am not saying I agree or disagree, but can you explain why Don DiMello is a more complex character concept than Danny? You threw that statement down and left it there with nothing to back it up. It's not like Andy has ONLY done eight characters on the podcast, so he had to include Danny, whose only CBB/CDDR appearance was Episode #14. Many others-- all who've appeared more recently than Danny-- could've gotten their own podcast pilot: Andi Callahan RN, Ben Alterman, Clive Dundee, etc etc etc. Andy chose Danny. He is the most unfamiliar ADPPP host to the CBB listeners, because he was Andy's FIRST appearance on CDDR and has not returned to the podcast since, unlike Don. Danny was Andy's first character to appear on CBBTV, and on its first episode at that. Danny is the only CDDR/CBB character who appeared in other places prior to the podcast. He's one of Andy's older characters, and I would argue a favorite of his due to Danny's sad, desperate, NY asshole persona (a place that Andy knows very well having grown up around there), and how Danny's whole bit is about being an ignorant bully to audience members he thinks he knows what's best for, culminating in pulling some of them on stage to form the world's saddest conga line while a man in a woman's spaghetti top screams at them to have fun. All performers have experienced heckling, and I would bet Andy created Danny to facilitate a sort of spiritual payback while also winking to the audience about this character's base dysfunctions. I mean, look at who we're dealing with here: All this is to say, I can understand this episode rubbing people the wrong way, because Danny is obnoxious and so are his friends, and he has not been fleshed out on the podcast much prior to this pilot, and people thrive on familiarity of joke premises (one of the reasons everyone loves Don so much is because he is dependable: he is going to show up, say some hilariously fucked up stuff about a new production he's working on, as well as his catchphrase, etc etc). But if you are going to argue objectively that this episode did not provide anyone with a good picture of who Danny is, who his friends are, and what he's about, and that the premise failed to deliver, you would be wrong because listeners (myself included) got all of these things. Comparing the structure to Bill Carter's episode (which may have been a preconceived notion put there by Andy mentioning Get Fit Now as a comparison for the format) or the breadth of Danny's character to Don's (the only difference being Don's CBB appearances are more than Danny's) is not going to change the fact that everything you are saying is specific to your tastes, and if you want your opinions to nail this episode to the wall then you MUST make better arguments. What you heard of the show didn't work for you. That's all you have to say. As another ADPPP fan, I can only encourage you to give it a second try. It really is funny, and everyone involved nailed their parts, imo. Podmass put this episode in their 'The Rest' section, so more people are probably agreeing with you over there if you're looking for an affirmation of your opinion. OR just quote Donnie Mahoney: "I don't have a tv show but I know what I like!"

In addition to people weighing in on the entire Project before it's finished, now you are weighing in on episodes you admitted to not even finishing? To quote any number of Andy Daly characters: What's the matter with you?! Mahoney is an Irish name. Andy & Co were playing Irish-American New Englanders, not Italian-American stereotypes (which I assume is what you meant, because Italian stereotypes would be them spaking in Italian accents and shouting "Mama Mia!"). The first segment was chaotic on purpose, and set everything up fine. We entered into chaos because that is Danny's life. There were four people to recognize. Andy is Danny. Gourley is his friend Fireplug. Fireplug has a wife played by Erinn Hayes; unmistakable, as she is the only woman in the first segment. One person left: Jon Daly. His character is another friend, DONNIE Mahoney (no relation to Danny). This naming was intentionally done to be confusing, just like Andy and Jon probably get their names confused all the time in real life by other people. The 'no relation' was also probably because they get that in real life. It was a little pinch of meta-comedy. So we had Andy and Matt, Erinn, and Jon Daly. They are all assholes gathered by Danny to show the listener how to have a party. That was the premise of the episode. Get Fit Now with Bill Carter was funny because Bill had a work out plan for people, every step of it was insane, and he pulled off giving the instructions. Andy-as-Bill throws a bunch of balls in the air right at the start and juggles them throughout the podcast, touching upon each one and making them great callbacks and punchlines (HE HAD THE LISTENER DIG UP A KNIFE SO HE COULD SLAUGHTER THE WOLF PUPS?! OH MY GOD). Bill was not making his guests exercise, he was making the listener. Therefore Bill got no push back on the workout premise, because he just assumes it's happening, because he's doing the listener a service. Shut Up and Have Fun with Danny Mahoney worked the opposite way. Danny also thinks he is doing the listener a service by providing instruction and making his guests party, with the assumption that the listener was participating too. But his attention to the listener is mostly swept aside due to hiom getting caught up in al of his own interpersonal drama. He gets nothing but push-back and grief from his friends who can barely tolerate him. His family hates him and reveals he's homeless and squatting. Danny Mahoney is a FAILURE. He can shout out every party tip he has, but his control group is in the room with him pushing back and revealing a group of disfunctional, stupid idiots. But even though Danny has these hurdles, he did pull off his podcast's premise: he hosted a cocktail party with instructions for the listener. It included small talk, a couple party games, a cooking recipe, and there was even tips on how to deal with a party crasher. I am 100% in full support of valid criticism of anything under the sun. If the dynamic on the podcast was not to your liking, and you did find yourself confused, I cannot argue that you experienced these things. But if you didn't finish listening to the episode, I have no idea how you can say that the podcast's premise was 'never realized.' How would you even know?

"Oh my god, not only did I just get told that Bowser broke down and cried when he lost a job on television, but I'm being corrected on my linguistics! This is a HARD conversation!"

"A-WOOOOOO What's up, Scott Aukerman?"

I gotcha. My take-away was that we have not heard a lot from Adam Scott outside of the Farts & Procreation episodes, period, so U Talkin' U2 to Me? really scratches that itch for those wanting to hear more from him. I wholeheartedly concur that Adam would do very well paired with any weird soul taking advantage of CBB's open door policy. Love that guy. Party Down is one of my favorite shows, and he's the heart of it.

Do I have the show for you: U Talkin' U2 to Me? So much Adam Scott goodness!

The song was written by Mike Phirman for Andy's Danny Mahoney character. On Andy's stand-up album Nine Sweaters, which is a double-disc album in which Andy plays nine different characters recorded over nine separate Comedy Death Ray shows at UCBLA, Danny Mahoney plays the track while bullying the UCB audience into forming a very dispiriting conga line. The song is then played in full as a secret track at the end of disc 1. I do not know if the song even has a title. I would assume that it's called 'Get Up Out Your Seat and Dance!' since those are the only lyrics (parodying 'Everybody Dance Now' by C+C Music Factory).

I apologize for the length, but I am taking your criticisms seriously, and wish to address them. I acknowledge that you did not like Jason's and Jessica's contributions, and I have no issue with what your comedic sensibilities may be. However, the way you have summarized their roles in the proceedings confounds me. Disclaimer: I am not trying to tell anyone to like this episode. If it was not enjoyed, then that's just how it went for some listeners. I am only attempting to interpret what went down in the performances based on the objections to some of its content, and also to highlight some of the nuances I noticed between these characters. Others could, and did get completely different reads on the episode, which may or may not have hindered their enjoyment. Wompler's role was definitely one of starry-eyed naivety and enthusiasm. Just like on CBB, Wompler wants to be in showbiz and has many body issues, some of which are preventable (stop exclusively eating pizza-and-cream-cheese 'sandwiches' Marissa! You're not invincible!), while others, such as her 'nipple pubes,' are not. These body issues are a comedic commentary on the cosmetic concerns grounded in the reality of the changing, hormonally-imbalanced, raging bodies of teenagers compounded with the pressure women of all ages feel to fit into the mold of society's insane, unobtainable standards of conventional 'beauty,' which is sensitive subject matter for sure, but St. Clair knows where that line is and rides it well. Don, Mal, and Falcon did not express disgust at anything Marissa brought up with her body. If she stressed SHE felt it was a problem, they all were very understanding. They either assured her it was not a huge deal or offered up grooming tips, and recommended things such as where she could get a boob job only after they were prompted. But I feel you missed the point of Don's motivations for taking Marissa under his wing. Yes, due to Andy yes-and'ing Jessica, they established that Don had a very conflicted, muddled, and slight physical attraction to Marissa's unconventional looks (her long fingers, her thin ankles). But Don was in no way looking to turn Marissa into a Rockette. Marissa wants to perform and sees Don as a mentor who will help her achieve this goal. She also knows she has Don's attention-- is not exactly sure why-- and the reasons she craves it and gets it from Don are very messy. Don sees a highly impressionable young lady with father issues who cannot yet be tried as an adult. In her possession are keys to a high school full of many other impressionable young women. She also has a cursory knowledge of stage production and an enthusiasm for the business of show. All of these are things Don can use to further his own agenda. The impression I got was that under Don's tutelage, he would eventually groom Marissa into another willing participant, a la Cactus Tony or Falcon. Once Marissa joins the show, Don, Mal and Falcon consistently attempt to avoid spilling any details about the farm to Marissa. She still gets the gist (mostly due to Falcon over-sharing, which is understandable, because who does he ever get to talk to about his business? Don himself remains in the dark about the methods in which Falcon runs the farm). Hilariously enough, Marissa only fully understands the scope of depravity once they start innocently describing actual Don DiMello stage productions. She's done after that, she realizes Don is not a good role model, and then to add insult to injury, they attempt to rename her Ass Sparkles as she heads for the door. In my opinion, that's a pretty good arc for Marissa. It was like an after school special for her. Moving on to Jason not 'getting' Don DiMello's character, the unfounded thing about such a statement is that Jason and Andy GET each other. Jason didn't 'make' Don do anything that Andy could not handle. Like the outstanding improvisor he is, Andy expertly and effortlessly folded all of Falcon's recollections into Don's backstory. Additionally, the concern over the examples you mentioned either simplify what actually occurred, or are perfectly acceptable things to happen during an improvised scene between characters (in which they heighten, but do not break the scene). Don did not 'join' the Taliban. He went there for research. They parted when Don did what he does 'best': put on a show full of naked ladies. They do not share the same ideologies. Don is not a Muslim extremist. If Don did in fact decide to bronze his penis one time, AND it is still a functioning penis (albeit with a severe lack of sensitivity), 1) No harm, no foul, and 2) HOW IS THAT A BAD THING? The man is a monster who, in a just world, should not be able to derive pleasure from his penis. If anything, it reinforced that Don likes to get off in all sorts of fucked up ways, which is arguably the thru-line to his ENTIRE character. It reads to me like you had very specific expectations for Don's episode, in which the first segment with Mal fit nicely. But when they moved on to include Jessica and Jason, the podcast jumped the rails away from your preconceived ideas, and so you rejected the remainder, dismissing its attempts at comedy by insisting the whole thing veered full-bore into poor taste which was only exacerbated by a lack of comedic compatibility between the performers. This is my take-away, I disagree with this assessment, and if I've completely misinterpreted your feelings on the episode then I apologize. It behooves no one to be all up in a character's entirely improvised canon and constructing a box of set expectations. It goes against the nature of jokes. Let Andy & Co. show us what his characters are and are not capable of. The performers go into it loose because they know what they're doing. The listener should follow suit. We all know it's been purported that Don is now THE Devil, right? Golly said so...

I get you, JackMurray. If I in any way put you on edge, I apologize. Thanks for sharing a bit about yourself. I too often listen to podcasts while doing other things, and miss stuff being said from time to time as well. The ADPPP is the only podcast I have re-listened to this much, and also just out of the sheer enjoyment it brings me to re-hear my favorite parts (Oh! The CBB 2013 LIVE Tour episodes are also really good and I have listened to them multiple times). The ADPPP is seriously like eight double-disc comedy albums. It's a tower of content. Each episode has high and low points, but they all are pretty much on the same level with each other. Andy does good work, and none of his characters are half-baked because none of his improv is.

I really enjoyed the race joke section because they intentionally wrote a selection of incompatible verbs and nouns on those slips of paper so that they'd be non-sensical. No nouns could actually be performed with the verbs they wrote down. The first verb was 'read,' but no noun that Danny nor any other player picked could actually be read. No noun could be 'jacked off.' No noun could be 'betrayed.' So while I understand that the race-based humor could be considered offensive due to the idiot participants trotting out the oldest, laziest stereotypes in the world (most of which involved the ethnicities being drunk all the time), the construction of the segment was ingenious, and comedically played right into the ignorance of this band of completely out-of-touch racists. Once again, just like on the DiMello episode, it's a case of depiction not constituting endorsement, and the opinions of whether it was successful or not will always be mixed.