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Is Comedy Bang Bang podcast still good?

Started by The Always Red Society, July 30, 2021, 10:12:17 AM

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Mainly a genuine question but hopefully can springboard into a general thread for the CBB podcast.

So I listened back to a Bob Odenkirk episode this week in light of events and then have just gone back and listened to the Farts and Procreation ep and it reminded me how for a few years CBB was pretty much my comedy highlight.

There was then a point which is now years and years ago where I just drifted away, for a combination of reasons. I think when they were making the TV show and touring the live show and Earwolf were launching a thousand podcasts often featuring half the regular guests from CBB it all became a bit diluted and it just wasn't clicking for me that much.

But it also coincided with just not having much time for podcasts at that point, so it was partly me as well, and that I find it hard to dip in and out of stuff sometimes if I feel like I'm missing jokes because this character was on before etc.

So my question is: is anyone still listening to CBB? If so, any highlights from the last 6 years or so?

letsgobrian

It's not relying on the cast of Bajillion Dollar Properties as much as it used to these days. For the last 12 months your main character guests have been PFT (16 appearances), Carl Tart, Lily Sullivan (8 appearances each), Ego Nwodim & Shaun Diston (7 appearances each).

Povidone

I still listen to the best ofs every year, makes for a great christmas tradition listening to 4 odd hours of Scott and PFT's married couple banter and I find it easier to dip in to the podcast that way as i might go back and explore the featured episodes.

I started listening to some of the episodes during the start of lockdown and it definitely took them a while to get in to the swing of remote recording episodes but there was plenty of good stuff. Ive always enjoyed Carl Tart who's featured pretty regularly, Ego Nwodim amd Drew Tarver have both been good returning regulars as well.

Anyone remember the name of Drew Tarver's New Romantic singer character? Think they said he was meant to be a pisstake of the bloke from ABC. I always enjoyed that stuff.

thundarrshirt

Quote from: Povidone on July 30, 2021, 11:14:20 AM
Anyone remember the name of Drew Tarver's New Romantic singer character? Think they said he was meant to be a pisstake of the bloke from ABC. I always enjoyed that stuff.

That's Martin Sheffield Lickley, whose oeuvre I return to often. Second only to Tarver and Carl Tart as Memphis Kansas Breeze to my mind.

The latter's about a year old now. I used to listen religiously,[nb]Candle lit, on my knees, bum out[/nb] then dropped off when the backlog started to get ridiculous. Wasn't any conscious decision behind it, still listen to the Christmas episodes and all to pick out the cream of the crop. Maybe just not been as excited by the guests, or the overall premise, compared to Threedom and Hollywood Handbook what I'm still all up on.

Povidone

Quote from: thundarrshirt on July 30, 2021, 11:26:09 AMMemphis Kansas Breeze to my mind.

Ha! Forgot about them, absolutely decked every time their song degenerates into 'toot honk meep'.

I got back into Hollywood Handbook recently, I find them a bit easier as despite the developments in their canon the shtick is generally the same. One thing that I learned around that time though is that earwolf podcasts are now lumbered with Stitcher Premium, which i tried and found to be a horrendous piece of shit for a premium podcast service. I know they tried their own thing with Howl which quickly became something else, i feel like the massive expansion and Big Bizness moves made the whole thing impenetrable for a while. Has there been much acknowledgement of that?

thundarrshirt

Quote from: Povidone on July 30, 2021, 11:59:11 AM
Ha! Forgot about them, absolutely decked every time their song degenerates into 'toot honk meep'.

I got back into Hollywood Handbook recently, I find them a bit easier as despite the developments in their canon the shtick is generally the same. One thing that I learned around that time though is that earwolf podcasts are now lumbered with Stitcher Premium, which i tried and found to be a horrendous piece of shit for a premium podcast service. I know they tried their own thing with Howl which quickly became something else, i feel like the massive expansion and Big Bizness moves made the whole thing impenetrable for a while. Has there been much acknowledgement of that?

There's been nowt in terms of acknowledgement but shitloads of Earwolf pods left (presumably in response to the Stitcher buyout and pivot away from supporting new comedians and towards giving Conan O'Brien a show) to go independent and are, presumably, doing better financially by supporting themselves through Patreon and such! Might explain why the roster of guests on CBB decreased significantly over the past couple years...alongside the 'rona obvs.

Povidone

Aye i figured thats why HH moved to Patreon, that and a desire to play up their theatrical rivalry with the Earwolf head honchos.

Must have been on CBB that I heard Scott asking one of the engineers about HH "let me know if they ever drop the shtick around you, because they dont with me" which I thought was hilarious.

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Povidone on July 30, 2021, 11:14:20 AM
I still listen to the best ofs every year, makes for a great christmas tradition listening to 4 odd hours of Scott and PFT's married couple banter and I find it easier to dip in to the podcast that way as i might go back and explore the featured episodes.


That was around the time I stopped listening, when the Best Of eps became bloated with their banter and there was more of that than there were clips. Then a lot more podcasts like Threedom popped up where the hosts think their banter is that entertaining and all they have to do is turn up and chat with their friends and it makes for an interesting weekly podcast. It really doesn't. But then that's part of my rant in general about how podcasts have made comedians lazy. Why bother writing an hour-long stand up special when you can just turn up to a recording studio and bantz with your friends for an hour while reading ad copy?

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on July 30, 2021, 12:29:12 PM
Why bother writing an hour-long stand up special when you can just turn up to a recording studio and bantz with your friends for an hour while reading ad copy?

You can do both.

beanheadmcginty

As someone who hasn't enjoyed stand up comedy for about 20 years, I'm delighted that these talented comedians have directed their efforts to podcasts instead. They keep me entertained all day.

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Master Cylinder on July 31, 2021, 11:48:27 AM
You can do both.

You can, but few do.

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on July 31, 2021, 11:57:10 AM
As someone who hasn't enjoyed stand up comedy for about 20 years, I'm delighted that these talented comedians have directed their efforts to podcasts instead. They keep me entertained all day.

All depends what you want from them, I suppose. I would rather hear a stand up do stand up, but if you want volume over quality then yeah, these types of podcasts are for you.

brat-sampson

I've sadly fallen off for the last year or so. Working exclusively from home now I just don't get through nearly as many podcasts as I used to, and CBB got the chop. Shame because it was almost always worth listening to and occasionally incredible.

Neomod

I still subscribe to CBB but find myself skipping eps if they don't grab me immediately. Tried Stitcher a few years ago for a year (it was for going for something ridiculously cheap) but it was a terrible app so used the RSS feed thingy.

I've got a folder full of classic episodes on my phone to remind me how hilarious it used to be and it has introduced me to a whole bunch of very funny people.

But..

Might be time to knock it on the head and move on.

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on July 31, 2021, 12:19:18 PM

All depends what you want from them, I suppose. I would rather hear a stand up do stand up, but if you want volume over quality then yeah, these types of podcasts are for you.

Well, Comedy Bang Bang is more improv based with improv performers - a far less easy-to-access comedic artform than stand up

BeardFaceMan

Quote from: Master Cylinder on August 01, 2021, 06:51:35 AM
Well, Comedy Bang Bang is more improv based with improv performers - a far less easy-to-access comedic artform than stand up

Comedy Bang Bang is different, I'm talking about pods like Threedom or Wolf Vs Owl in the UK, things like that, it's only really the Best Ofs that have that kind of 'people having a chat' vibe with CBB. Long-form improv podcasts can fuck off too, thoroughly bored of hearing people wanking on about Harolds, whenever I hear an hour of that I think 'great, that would make a great 5 sketch, go and write it up', long-form improv feels like I'm sitting in on a writers room, like I'm hearing the process rather than the end product. And again, that's something where performers feel they can just show up and shit out gold and very few can.

And I wouldn't say improv isn't an easy to access art form, especially in America with UCB (could do another rant there), it's everywhere (see things like Michael in The (US) Office going to improv classes and pulling a gun on everyone in every scene, it's a lot more mainstream over there). And PFT had no improv training whatsoever and he's one of the best at it, I don't think access is an issue to either doing it or listening to it/watching it.

veletision

All podcasts lose their lustre after a while. It's natural.

Some get worse and some you just lose your affinity too after spending so much time with them.

Neomod

I do still love the best of's. I could listen to Scott and PFT gas all day long.

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on August 01, 2021, 07:46:45 AM


And I wouldn't say improv isn't an easy to access art form, especially in America with UCB (could do another rant there), it's everywhere (see things like Michael in The (US) Office going to improv classes and pulling a gun on everyone in every scene, it's a lot more mainstream over there). And PFT had no improv training whatsoever and he's one of the best at it, I don't think access is an issue to either doing it or listening to it/watching it.

Compared to stand up.

robotam

Some guests come in with a funny premise and then, with Scott, they try to develop the character throughout the interview, digging in on whatever funny thing they discover organically. I think the ratio has shifted in favour of this, rather than characters that are already well developed and have been used in stand up or sketches.

The process becomes formulaic this way, and it's boring to hear multiple of these type of characters in one episode. Worse is if they come back in a later episode and just do the same bit again.

BeardFaceMan

That was one of the things i didn't like about CBB, trying to force things. If they stumbled upon gold with a pairing of people or with a character, they'd always run it in to the ground trying to recreate it.

I also got tired of Scott's style, he stops more comedy than he helps create. He's a good writer/producer but I don't get him as a perfomer/improviser at all.


Thursday

I know it became a tradition to always have the first episode of the year be Ben Schwarz and Horatio Sanz, but I never liked the combo. Don't know if that's still a thing. (Well mainly just not liking Ben Schwarz, he could be perfectly nice but I never found him and Scott funny together)

Also, always pairing "Chief" and "Bone Queef" and I seemed to be alone in finding Bone Queef annoying. That was around the time I stopped listening. It wasn't out of feeling the show had declined particularly, I also just lost interest/struggled to find time.


Famous Mortimer

Long-form improv can occasionally be gold, but all too often it's, as BeardFaceMan said, like hearing the process rather than the end product.

Like Gene Siskel used to say about movies - is this more entertaining than watching the same actors have a conversation over lunch?

non capisco

Quote from: Thursday on August 02, 2021, 11:46:48 AM
I know it became a tradition to always have the first episode of the year be Ben Schwarz and Horatio Sanz, but I never liked the combo. Don't know if that's still a thing. (Well mainly just not liking Ben Schwarz, he could be perfectly nice but I never found him and Scott funny together)

Also, always pairing "Chief" and "Bone Queef" and I seemed to be alone in finding Bone Queef annoying. That was around the time I stopped listening. It wasn't out of feeling the show had declined particularly, I also just lost interest/struggled to find time.

Word for word also my experience. Even Ben Schwartz popping up as a voice actor on Bojack set my teeth on edge, he became more and more like someone you'd rather die than be stuck in a lift with.

I binned it off three or four years ago but might listen to the best ofs to see what I've been missing, skipping any Solo fuckin Bolos that might come up. That Martin Fry pisstake character mentioned upthread sounds like it might be alright.

ProvanFan


BeardFaceMan

How did people find the TV show? I found it weirdly flat and lifeless, i think I gave up on it after season 2, and that was when I was still listening to the podcast every week.

chveik


Thanks for the replies.

Have listened to a few old classics this week and a few highly regarded eps from since I stopped listening.

And I think someone nailed it really that I'm not sure the quality has declined, it's just that inevitable the formula does get formulaic so I had tired of it. Coming back in fresh after a few years I'm enjoying listening to it and the quality between classic and more recent is not that noticeable. I think there were always good and bad episodes, as you'd kind of expect from the format and ultimately I went from absolutely loving Scott's shtick to growing a little tired of it after years of it, but am currently enjoying returning to some of it.

I totally agree that sometimes the attempt to re-do an idea is never as good. It's hard though because there were the likes of Andy Daly, Jessica St Clair and James Adomian where their repeated appearances would build up brilliantly stupid worlds, but there were always duds with repeated characters or formats too, Solo Bolos being a good example.

With Scott's style, I absolutely loved it on first listening back in the day, I enjoyed the way he often really messed up the improv conventions but it does depend on how well the guest clicks with it and as said it can get formulaic if you listen all the time.

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on August 02, 2021, 02:03:41 PM
How did people find the TV show? I found it weirdly flat and lifeless, i think I gave up on it after season 2, and that was when I was still listening to the podcast every week.

I sort of did the same at the time. I wanted to love Season 1 and found it weirdly cold and flat. I then sacked it off but then returned to it later and it did seem to be loads better in later series, and incredibly fun and inventive at times.


Quote from: Thursday on August 02, 2021, 11:46:48 AM
Also, always pairing "Chief" and "Bone Queef" and I seemed to be alone in finding Bone Queef annoying. That was around the time I stopped listening. It wasn't out of feeling the show had declined particularly, I also just lost interest/struggled to find time.

Bone like you're bone tired of the combination of the characters Bone Queef and Chief as a useful vein of humour, and queef like a pussyfart.


Neomod

I see they have got rid of the awful 'closing up the plug bank' Sanz and Schwartz theme before the year is out. Could this be down to Sanz's SNL Me Too problems I wonder.