Kickpuncher

So great. The Elliott-Kristofferson exchange was phenomenal. If Howl doesn't do some sort of companion series for the new Making a Murderer season with DVK and Beth Hoyt, they're insane. Also, for something that seemed to be done off the cuff, the Claire Danes impression was amazing.

I know! 90% of my favorite SNL sketches are ones that I would call stupid in a loving manner.

I get why they don't want to just offer universally portable audio files, but this isn't just an issue of advancing technology. I normally listen to podcasts on my phone, but I only use an mp3 player when I run because a phone is obtrusively large/heavy and I don't want to get it all sweaty or risk dropping it.

Yeah, I'm surprised no one pointed that out until now (although I'm sure people did on Twitter). If only everyone had an encyclopedic knowledge of one-off SNL sketches.

Per the CEO note in the General Earwolf forum, it sounds like some older episodes will remain free, and these seem like logical candidates. It doesn't matter now for this year, but I do think that every episode that eligible for the next Best-Of should be available at any given time (or at least for the voting period). It's already naturally skewed toward more recent episodes, and it seems like that will get worse if most of the listeners can't even half of the eligible episodes.

I'd like to know why you think the following: 1) Earwolf isn't (or at least wasn't originally) a for-profit venture 2) The hosts don't get paid 3) Anyone said that every Earwolf podcast would be available for free to the public in perpetuity I don't really like the Howl model (or, especially, how it's been rolled out) either, but I think you can criticize it based on the facts rather than illusions about what Earwolf/Midroll is and their rights to do what they want with their product.

I just checked on Amazon and "Roots" and "Branches" are both available for streaming for Prime members.

Also, NPR isn't really a podcast network, it's a radio network that also releases their shows as podcasts, which is a fundamentally different model. Also, it's a non-profit.

I'm sure they have data showing when people listen to the shows, and presumably this isn't a big consideration if the vast majority of listens are within the first six months (in fact, I'd guess that the vast majority are within the first week). Also, most of the ads (or at least the details about products, offer codes, etc.) aren't "evergreen", so the value becomes limited after a time even if a lot of people are hearing them. I'm not a fan of this overall model, but I'm not shedding any tears for the sponsors.

Did anyone else know that Earwolf had a new CEO?

Fantastic start to the year.

If you think there's not enough shilling for Seeso on most episodes, then this one is for you!

I guess this is the opposite of the George Michael thing? https://www.yahoo.com/music/tool-chance-rapper-lorde-phoenix-135800347.html

Just when I thought I couldn't love this episode any more, Gabrus shouts out CBB and the forum. Heynong Man!

Tampons Tampax

Have you listened to Who Charted yet? Not only is he discussed, but someone (Howard, I think) actually asks if he and Andrew Ridgeley are both still alive. I had forgotten about the Hollywood Facts theme performances on last year's holiday episode, so good.

"They're both still alive, right?"

If Best-ofs were eligible for Best-ofs, then the first half-hour of this episode would easily put it in my top 10 for 2017.

As it does every time he appears on Who Charted, Paul's knowledge of the show paid off big-time here. Loved the interview and Howard and Kulap's cameos in the improv. The joke book thing is one of those instances where sort of breaking the rules of improv winds up being way funnier than doing something more straight-forward.

I would say it's pretty normal, maybe a little on the small side, and I don't think any of my Earwolf shirts have shrunken noticeably...so going two sizes up would probably be huge (although maybe it would shrink if you were really trying).

It definitely seemed like it was, but then Scott did mention something about that segment being timely at the time, but not now, which I guess was in reference to their joke about someone being a possible running mate for Trump? "Please Don't Joke..." was amazing, possibly replacing the CDR all-stars' "Do They Know It's Christmas?" as my favorite comedy Christmas song.

Great ep! The greeting cards scene was awesome.

"X-Box, RESPECK MA NECK!" Howard's bank story was amazing.

Two straight days with Earwolf podcasts including a discussion of someone's fight-or-flight response being the loss of consciousness.

And Scott didn't even mention that when he was talking about her in the intro for that clip!