Episode 006 — Shut Up and Have Fun with Danny Mahoney

[BrianBouton 32]

 

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?

 

Apart from forgetting they were Irish instead of Italian---it had been a few days since I'd listened---I was bright enough to get what the jokes were supposed to be throughout the podcast. They just weren't funny. Don Dimello is a far more complex concept, and if I say Don's was my hands down favorite podcast of all time, you can give me a little credit for grasping the basics of humor. My confusion stemmed from the weak characterizations and plenty of crosstalk which failed to let the characters breathe or develop distinct personalities. I'm pretty sure Andy would admit Danny isn't one of his top five characters which is why he likely isn't brought out that often.

 

I turned off the podcast because I found it grating as opposed to any of the other episodes, or more accurately, I sped through the rest to see if I was missing anything after listening to two-thirds of it.

 

I'm glad you loved it, and I have no interest in convincing people to dislike something they enjoy. I still stand by my statement of it being the weakest entry so far but that's also in comparison to some of the best comedy podcasts ever recorded.

 

If anything, I'm happy to hear there is one weak entry to remind us that Andy is human. Otherwise I'd be worried he's some sort of comedy Terminator come from the future to make us laugh ourselves to death.

[KajusX 1807]

Apart from forgetting they were Irish instead of Italian---it had been a few days since I'd listened---I was bright enough to get what the jokes were supposed to be throughout the podcast. They just weren't funny. Don Dimello is a far more complex concept, and if I say Don's was my hands down favorite podcast of all time, you can give me a little credit for grasping the basics of humor. My confusion stemmed from the weak characterizations and plenty of crosstalk which failed to let the characters breathe or develop distinct personalities. I'm pretty sure Andy would admit Danny isn't one of his top five characters which is why he likely isn't brought out that often.

 

I turned off the podcast because I found it grating as opposed to any of the other episodes, or more accurately, I sped through the rest to see if I was missing anything after listening to two-thirds of it.

 

I'm glad you loved it, and I have no interest in convincing people to dislike something they enjoy. I still stand by my statement of it being the weakest entry so far but that's also in comparison to some of the best comedy podcasts ever recorded.

 

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!"

[BrianBouton 32]

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.

 

Jesus, man, my comment about Andy being human was a compliment recognizing his comedic genius with the exception of this particular character in this particular episode. We're both arguing the same side of our love for the man's talent.I think we can move past this in being fans.

 

As for why I love Don Dimello---Whereas Danny is a one-dimensional angry Irishman who likes party entertainment, Don Is your everyday pornographic children's theater operator who commits hilarious acts of intellectual property theft and runs a ranch for broken down Rockettes. This is in addition to the whole world he's carved out for this character including side characters Cactus Tony, Andi Callahan, and more. And that voice...oh God, the voice. "...a little something for Daddy..." is one of the best lines ever.