Bucho

Every tenth show should be a show with Lee as guest from now on. Or at least every twentieth show.

VYSE21: "Wow when he kept calling Kulap Tulip i was losing it." When he did that bit where Kulap methodically teaches him to say her name correctly and after half a dozen tries he finally gets it and she says, "Thank you Lee." And he says, "You're welcome Tulip." Lost. My. Shit. I mean, I feel like I've seen and/or heard that bit done a thousand times over the years, but never more beautifully than Howard did it as Lee. Holy cow it was magical. I'm going to listen to episode 40 again today, maybe even twice, you mark my words. You mark them good. Now I'm just typing because it's exhilarating to finally know how to put line breaks in between paragraphs. I'll always remember this day.

VYSE21: "Wow when he kept calling Kulap Tulip i was losing it." When he did that bit where Kulap methodically teaches him to say her name correctly and after half a dozen tries he finally gets it and she says, "Thank you Lee." And he says, "You're welcome Tulip." Lost. My. Shit. I mean, I feel like I've seen and/or heard that bit done a thousand times over the years, but never more beautifully than Howard did it as Lee. Holy cow it was magical. I'm going to listen to episode 40 again today, maybe even twice, you mark my words. You mark them good. Now I'm just typing because it's exhilarating to finally know how to put line breaks in between paragraphs. I'll always remember this day.

Well Ben, I surely admire you at least for having the balls to admit it. Also, holy cow. I thought Jughead was making some joke reference I was too dumb to get or testing to see if any more of us were gullible foolios but he's telling the truth. There really is a Tropical Storm Kulap.

Well Ben, I surely admire you at least for having the balls to admit it. Also, holy cow. I thought Jughead was making some joke reference I was too dumb to get or testing to see if any more of us were gullible foolios but he's telling the truth. There really is a Tropical Storm Kulap.

Goddammit Dave, now you made those of us who defended you for not receiving a proper briefing look like fools. And I, for one, don't need any of your God damned help to look like a God damned fool! Ah, who am I kidding, I can't stay mad at you.

Goddammit Dave, now you made those of us who defended you for not receiving a proper briefing look like fools. And I, for one, don't need any of your God damned help to look like a God damned fool! Ah, who am I kidding, I can't stay mad at you.

It was a shock to see LHR stumble after easily winning the rounds for the previous four weeks in a row but these two skating past has set up a nice head-to-head of the gabfests for the final lap. Bring it on!

It was a shock to see LHR stumble after easily winning the rounds for the previous four weeks in a row but these two skating past has set up a nice head-to-head of the gabfests for the final lap. Bring it on!

LOVED THIS EPISODE!!! Good God, Howard is a magnificent bastard. He's done his Lee impression on the show before though right? You guys who're saying you were genuinely fooled are really just fooling. Right?

LOVED THIS EPISODE!!! Good God, Howard is a magnificent bastard. He's done his Lee impression on the show before though right? You guys who're saying you were genuinely fooled are really just fooling. Right?

I already have too many podcasts to listen to but a show of Matt Besser gabbing about comedy would shoot to the top of my listening priorities. Then it'd be my turn to decide who to eliminate off my current roster. But a Bessercast would be awesome. He could be to sketch and improv what Maron is to standup. Besser has past beef with people, right?

I already have too many podcasts to listen to but a show of Matt Besser gabbing about comedy would shoot to the top of my listening priorities. Then it'd be my turn to decide who to eliminate off my current roster. But a Bessercast would be awesome. He could be to sketch and improv what Maron is to standup. Besser has past beef with people, right?

The problem with this round wasn't the judges, it wasn't any imaginary conspiracy and it wasn't the conceit of the Round 9 challenge, it was the wishy-washy criteria. Like Scott said earlier in the thread, it would have been better if the judges had been clearer on what was required. I've already said I agree with the decision, but what makes the show FUN isn't just getting the right decision, it's hearing the judges have a coherent discussion - and launching that discussion requires a solid foundation of clear and simple criteria. Everyone needs to start out on the same playing field - all three judges and every contestant - or the judges sound lost, and that makes the audience feel lost. And by Week 9 of this thing we listeners have learned how to judge a podcast that makes us feel lost. Enough thrashing from me though - right now I want to throw a couple of definite positives at this thread. The "soften the listeners in preparation for elimination revelation" discussion regarding what success in podcasting means was great. Dave's point that a smaller but more rabid audience may be more desirable than a larger, less passionate one was a great observation from the standpoints of both artistic satisfaction and financial reward. The love from a more passionate audience is good for a mofo's soul and the fact a more passionate audience is more likely to shell out for merch and donations is good for a mofo's wallet. Another thing was Belknap responding to Dave saying he felt bad after the elimination with: "That's because you're a good person inside but I'm drunk with power, I just want more things to eliminate right now." Or words to that effect. I cracked up harder at that than anything else in Round 9. And I want to throw another salute at LHR for the hilarious and top-class way in which they received the news of their exit. You guys and gals are the champions of my heart as far as the Challenge is concerned. Lastly, @JEFF: "Last night a bunch of us were talking about this very thing at UCB (Kumail, Aziz, Maron, Thune, Benson)." That's some weapons-grade name-dropping right there Chief. Nice work. Way to make a mofo envious. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS GODDAMMIT!!!

The problem with this round wasn't the judges, it wasn't any imaginary conspiracy and it wasn't the conceit of the Round 9 challenge, it was the wishy-washy criteria. Like Scott said earlier in the thread, it would have been better if the judges had been clearer on what was required. I've already said I agree with the decision, but what makes the show FUN isn't just getting the right decision, it's hearing the judges have a coherent discussion - and launching that discussion requires a solid foundation of clear and simple criteria. Everyone needs to start out on the same playing field - all three judges and every contestant - or the judges sound lost, and that makes the audience feel lost. And by Week 9 of this thing we listeners have learned how to judge a podcast that makes us feel lost. Enough thrashing from me though - right now I want to throw a couple of definite positives at this thread. The "soften the listeners in preparation for elimination revelation" discussion regarding what success in podcasting means was great. Dave's point that a smaller but more rabid audience may be more desirable than a larger, less passionate one was a great observation from the standpoints of both artistic satisfaction and financial reward. The love from a more passionate audience is good for a mofo's soul and the fact a more passionate audience is more likely to shell out for merch and donations is good for a mofo's wallet. Another thing was Belknap responding to Dave saying he felt bad after the elimination with: "That's because you're a good person inside but I'm drunk with power, I just want more things to eliminate right now." Or words to that effect. I cracked up harder at that than anything else in Round 9. And I want to throw another salute at LHR for the hilarious and top-class way in which they received the news of their exit. You guys and gals are the champions of my heart as far as the Challenge is concerned. Lastly, @JEFF: "Last night a bunch of us were talking about this very thing at UCB (Kumail, Aziz, Maron, Thune, Benson)." That's some weapons-grade name-dropping right there Chief. Nice work. Way to make a mofo envious. ONWARDS AND UPWARDS GODDAMMIT!!!

I feel bad for LHR, but I also felt bad for the judges having to give feedback from what came across as a position of unnecessary confusion. If the judging criteria was focused on funniness then clearly LDDC were winners this round and TL may have been the ones to go. If the criteria was on being engaging then the correct decision was made because TL was the easiest to follow and LHR, although they were funnier than TL, was the hardest. . If there's a next season then stronger criteria need to be set out and stated for the judges and the listeners, otherwise there will be rounds like this one where it all does sound very half-assed - and worst of all, like a poor podcast with the gall to judge better podcasts than itself. In fact, there's the rub. How do you take Besser, Belknap and Anthony - three respected, established talents - and combine them into something which is no fun to listen to? You overcomplicate and convolute something which many previous Challenge judges have already said is best kept simple. If this week had been a four-way contest between the final three and The Challenge, then this week The Challenge - with all that firepower at its disposal - somehow contrived to finish fourth. . That's why I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with the decision and still loving everybody involved, but feeling like round 9 of the Challenge was overall a failure.

I feel bad for LHR, but I also felt bad for the judges having to give feedback from what came across as a position of unnecessary confusion. If the judging criteria was focused on funniness then clearly LDDC were winners this round and TL may have been the ones to go. If the criteria was on being engaging then the correct decision was made because TL was the easiest to follow and LHR, although they were funnier than TL, was the hardest. . If there's a next season then stronger criteria need to be set out and stated for the judges and the listeners, otherwise there will be rounds like this one where it all does sound very half-assed - and worst of all, like a poor podcast with the gall to judge better podcasts than itself. In fact, there's the rub. How do you take Besser, Belknap and Anthony - three respected, established talents - and combine them into something which is no fun to listen to? You overcomplicate and convolute something which many previous Challenge judges have already said is best kept simple. If this week had been a four-way contest between the final three and The Challenge, then this week The Challenge - with all that firepower at its disposal - somehow contrived to finish fourth. . That's why I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with the decision and still loving everybody involved, but feeling like round 9 of the Challenge was overall a failure.

If yesterday is who I guessed it is then my tomorrows are going to include a bunch of yesterdays.

If yesterday is who I guessed it is then my tomorrows are going to include a bunch of yesterdays.

@KAJUS: Nice post. . . @PAUL CAMP: You're right about LDDC being the funniest this week and the rightful winner of the round. In general LHR's humour has been much more imaginative and creative than LDDC's but I think the fact that LDDC sticks to well-trodden comedic paths serves them well and gives them the consistency that's lead them so far in this contest. . . @MATT LITTLE: I don't think the whole thing came off as meta-based, it was really just the way in which invoking such a massive comedic property as Borat brings a whole load of hack baggage that can easily weigh down and even break genuine attempts at jokes told from a somewhat original viewpoint. So even though you guys weren't aiming at a meta target, the gravitational field of a comedic black hole like Borat can easily engulf the purest of intentions. . I felt like Left Handed Radio ended up in third place for this round of submissions but overall it's been the funniest and most impressive podcast of the ten.

@KAJUS: Nice post. . . @PAUL CAMP: You're right about LDDC being the funniest this week and the rightful winner of the round. In general LHR's humour has been much more imaginative and creative than LDDC's but I think the fact that LDDC sticks to well-trodden comedic paths serves them well and gives them the consistency that's lead them so far in this contest. . . @MATT LITTLE: I don't think the whole thing came off as meta-based, it was really just the way in which invoking such a massive comedic property as Borat brings a whole load of hack baggage that can easily weigh down and even break genuine attempts at jokes told from a somewhat original viewpoint. So even though you guys weren't aiming at a meta target, the gravitational field of a comedic black hole like Borat can easily engulf the purest of intentions. . I felt like Left Handed Radio ended up in third place for this round of submissions but overall it's been the funniest and most impressive podcast of the ten.

@Ben: He was saying the people they eliminated are "Cuddlahs", which is what they call the WTR listeners. I can see why people who don't know who Greg and Anthony are might find the show lacking, but once you get to know them it makes more sense. . . @Snarla: I don't see where anyone said LHR's was the same as the infamous Hamm Radio sketch. It's not that the entire LHR sketch was meta, it's that one of the elements of LHR's sketch was dealing with hack, played-out comedy - which, as comedy commenting on comedic convention, is dealing in post-modernism. . So when Belknap brought up that point it immediately set up a nice tension knowing that to be one of Besser's demons in this contest, and the way Besser released that tension was funny.

@Ben: He was saying the people they eliminated are "Cuddlahs", which is what they call the WTR listeners. I can see why people who don't know who Greg and Anthony are might find the show lacking, but once you get to know them it makes more sense. . . @Snarla: I don't see where anyone said LHR's was the same as the infamous Hamm Radio sketch. It's not that the entire LHR sketch was meta, it's that one of the elements of LHR's sketch was dealing with hack, played-out comedy - which, as comedy commenting on comedic convention, is dealing in post-modernism. . So when Belknap brought up that point it immediately set up a nice tension knowing that to be one of Besser's demons in this contest, and the way Besser released that tension was funny.

This was maybe the funniest the LITTLE DUM DUM CLUB has been in The Challenge as far as I can remember. I think the judges were right that it was a lot of sound and fury signifying not much, but when they hit on the racist angle near the end they had me laughing pretty good. To be fair though, as much as I find Jimmy Pardo extraordinarily entertaining a lot of the time, NNF doesn't always fly as smoothly as Matt "Voice of Velvet" Belknap was purring that it does. Even a cobra-strike mind like Jimmy's doesn't produce non-stop gold and I've heard NNF labour once in a while the same way LDDC did in this clip. WTR isn't perfect in this regard either come to think of it, so judging the Aussies too harshly on this would seem odd. . Loved Belknap's notes on LEFT HANDED RADIO's post-modern misfire and loved Besser's world-weary reaction to them even more. What a bummer that the funniest minds left in the contest couldn't come up with a funny sketch this round. . The judge's notes on TOTALLY LAIME were on the money regarding how honesty and vulnerability treated with humour have significant potential to be compelling. The more you let your audience see of your own humanity, the stronger the potential connection and attachment between artist and fan. The note at the end where both Matt and Dave suggested bringing in the real deal stuff and mixing it with the interview stuff is exactly what the Keith and The Girl show has been doing for more than six years now, and that show is huge. And maybe TL decided they didn't want to go that way and risk being called out for copying Keith and The Girl, but the shooting-the-meaningless-shit deal they usually run with isn't an original path to tread anyway. For me this was the best entry from TL in The Challenge so far and while they didn't make me laugh like Karl and Tommy it did make me want to listen to more TL in a way that LDDC didn't. . 1. Totally Laime 2. Little Dum Dum Club Bye. Left Handed Radio

This was maybe the funniest the LITTLE DUM DUM CLUB has been in The Challenge as far as I can remember. I think the judges were right that it was a lot of sound and fury signifying not much, but when they hit on the racist angle near the end they had me laughing pretty good. To be fair though, as much as I find Jimmy Pardo extraordinarily entertaining a lot of the time, NNF doesn't always fly as smoothly as Matt "Voice of Velvet" Belknap was purring that it does. Even a cobra-strike mind like Jimmy's doesn't produce non-stop gold and I've heard NNF labour once in a while the same way LDDC did in this clip. WTR isn't perfect in this regard either come to think of it, so judging the Aussies too harshly on this would seem odd. . Loved Belknap's notes on LEFT HANDED RADIO's post-modern misfire and loved Besser's world-weary reaction to them even more. What a bummer that the funniest minds left in the contest couldn't come up with a funny sketch this round. . The judge's notes on TOTALLY LAIME were on the money regarding how honesty and vulnerability treated with humour have significant potential to be compelling. The more you let your audience see of your own humanity, the stronger the potential connection and attachment between artist and fan. The note at the end where both Matt and Dave suggested bringing in the real deal stuff and mixing it with the interview stuff is exactly what the Keith and The Girl show has been doing for more than six years now, and that show is huge. And maybe TL decided they didn't want to go that way and risk being called out for copying Keith and The Girl, but the shooting-the-meaningless-shit deal they usually run with isn't an original path to tread anyway. For me this was the best entry from TL in The Challenge so far and while they didn't make me laugh like Karl and Tommy it did make me want to listen to more TL in a way that LDDC didn't. . 1. Totally Laime 2. Little Dum Dum Club Bye. Left Handed Radio