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Caloroga Shark Media. Last day of August, Joni Mack. Summer has got about eighteen seconds and one time out left on the clock and hello, I am Johnny Mack. I like my Summers. I’m running out of time.
Mark Meron talked to Newsweek. They asked Maren, what is it about progressives and liberals that make them a good source for comedy. Maren said, I guess stated pretty clearly of the problem is there’s no real unified left. There’s centrist Democrats, some lefty Democrats, you know, they want things to be okay, but this idea that the left has an agenda, it’s a very fragmented business and there’s no unifying principle where everybody’s all on the same page in terms of how we do this. People locking into their causes and they get rightious about it, but does do anything in the big picture.
I don’t know. The problem with the left is all the infighting and everybody’s arguing about what should be platforms, what’s more important? And I dealt with that years ago at Air American stuff. I wasn’t gonna build mohrett and accuse them and do it in a lighthearder way, but an anti woke person. They do think there’s some fun poking to be had at people that are overly committed to very small things, and that’s what justifies their political existence.
I thought that was right for comedy. And I think that line, which I came up with like two days before I shot the special, that we annoyed the average American into fascism. I’m so happy I got that line. I think that says it all. And I think the way I ride the line with that stuff is the progressives and liberals can see themselves in what I’m saying and take themselves down a notch website.
Find that pod dot com put out an article called best Episodes of WTF with Mark Marron. Now this is from March, so they had done this anyway. Outside of Mark announcing the podcast was ending. They flag episode sixty seven with Robin Williams the Louis C.K. From twenty ten, both of those stuck behind a paywall Episode six thirteen with President Barack Obama.
I personally consider that the best podcast episode of all time and use it in my college class as an example of how podcasts can be great. Now, what do you mean by that? John? If you listen to the episode. When Obama shows up, he’s the President, allough Mark, good to see you, and he’s all on his talking points.
But somewhere about twenty minutes in from Memory, President Obama becomes Barack and they just start having a normal conversation for a while. Now towards the tail end, the President comes back, gets his talking points in. But if you’ve never listened to Obama, Maren, it is fantastic. The conversation covers college identity, race relations, gun violence, challenging the status quo, letting down supporters, comedy, fatherhood, and facing fear. I always thought Obama should have gone hard on the gun violence in his last term, but he did not.
I bring that up because I first made that opinion when listening to that episode also spotlights Norm MacDonald from twenty eleven episode one ninety Todd Hansen, who’s that I don’t know either, one of the original writers for the Onion. That’s interesting. They also like five sixty eight with Mike Judge, six sixty nine with David Spade, ten thirty with Stephen Colbert, fourteen five ft three with Murphy, eleven forty three with Seth Rogan, twelve thirty nine with Quentin Tarantino, twelve seventy one with Jane Goodall, eight to one with Anne hathawayne Amy Mann, the Gallagher episode, which apparently doesn’t have a number, but that’s from twenty eleven. Their discussion on comedy, language and cultural tolerance eventually led to Gallagher walking out, making that the first and only time that has ever happened on WTF. I might have to go grab that one.
That’s a good tip here. I also like episodes with Josh Brolin, Andrew Garfield, Larry King, John Oliver Mayevis Staples. This is a long list, guys. I know this one thousand episodes, but you got to narrow this down a little. Bradley Whitford, Bill Hayter, Lin, Manuel Miranda, David Herber, Shatner at age ninety two, Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio, Hugh Grant, Sebastian stan This is too many.
Find that pod dot com, Melbrooks, Conan Gaffigan his fifth Visit episode five seven three, Peter Dinklice. And that’s the end of the list. That was too long, guys, but I’ll grab some of those I’ve actually been putting a bunch of Marens on my phone in case they decide to start paywalling everything where the episodes disappear. Zarna Garg’s old Fox News Digital this is a country that looks at a person like me and says we want to hear what you have to say. That must have been interesting for Zorna Garg to say to Fox News that this is a country that looks at a person like her and says we want to hear what you have to say.
Fascinating. Zorta said, my whole life I did in India what is called talking back to your parents were like, oh, you’re a Weisenheimer. So that was my life. I remember my dad when I was very little, before I’d ever stepped foot in America, he used to be like, who do you think you are an American woman? Because all bad ideas back then came from America.
I remember getting off the stage and thinking, is it possible this is my thing? When she got into stand up, I couldn’t believe people found my observations funny. I couldn’t believe that anybody wanted to hear what I had to say about anything. My whole life. People have been trying to shut me up.
So that was a real revelation that up on stage I could be saying all these random, really minute observations that have made my whole life, and that people would be excited to hear what I had to say. Again, she told Fox News, what I’d be doing would be possible back home, as it makes America America. I’m like a middle age Momo three with a weird outfit and an accent, and here I am being asked what I have to say on Fox News. This is a country that looks at a person like me and says we want to hear what you have to say on Fox News. Fascinating.
Adam Sandler spoke to Vulture about writing the song on SNL fifty. Sandler said, I think we were talking about it for a few months. We knew the fiftieth was coming and Lauren said to do something, and we were trying to come up on an idea. We were chipping away at it. We weren’t excited enough.
We’d remind the other writer who was going to be there, and we’re like, oh, we better kick some butt for everybody. The audence is pretty amazing, so we’re like, let’s rethink it for a second. We went into a little office and jammed on it. It was the best. It was fun.
We were both coming up with good stuff. When we were on stage was the most surreal feeling to look out and see who was there and feeling that energy. I had the thing where you sometimes do when you do stand up, where you do a talk show, whatever your mind is kind of talking yourself while you’re performing, your brain saying is your mouth dry? You better get this out. This is a live event, you better cruise through this.
Then it kind of clicked in Vulture talked about Adam Sandler’s SNL song. They seem to like them. They may be insane. Their opinion is they’re funny. They land on the side of being sweet and earnest rather than cynical.
Sandler said, I definitely like when that happens. I can’t guarantee every time we write a song that’s gonna have a sweetness, but we feel good when we come up with something like that, and it is a different style of connection. I don’t sit down and say let’s do one like that. I remember being at the show and going I haven’t done a song in a month and a half or so. Maybe it’s time to write one.
I’d sit and jam with a couple of the writers come up with whatever we came up with. I’ll never forget that I did that red Hooded Sweatshirt tune and Paul and Linna McCartney were part of it. Imagine getting to do that and call home and tell your family just sang with those two. That was one of the greatest things that ever happened to me. The Guardian caught up with the guys from Anti Donna, the Australian sketch comedy guys.
They had a thing on Netflix during the pandemic that I liked a lot and I listened to their podcast, which is fun. Broden Kelly is one of the Anti Donna’s and said comedy is like an orchid, it needs the perfect conditions to grow. Therefore, Anti Donna established Grouse House, a YouTube platform to support up and coming comedians. That way the up and comers can leverage Anti Donna’s existing fan base rather than getting stuck in the weeds of promotion and distribution. That’s pretty awesome, Broden Kelly said.
We could feel the writing was on the wall with network comedy in Australia. There are two that do it, Channel ten and ABC two, but it’s the Lord of the Rings style Odyssey stuff to get commissioned. Our experience is that when we were given the green lights, either go make a pilot or proof of concept that needed to be everything to everyone and would receive heavy rounds of notes. In twenty twenty three, the Australian ABC screened the six part series Anti Donna’s Coffee Cafe, but the viewing numbers were eclipsed by one sketch shot over a few hours for five hundred dollars, which Anti Donna uploaded to YouTube. Broden Kelly said, you got to forget what fourteen year old you would want for your career, because all we wanted was an ABC two show.
By the time we got one, we put it on a platform that was an EPT and did a bad job of promoting it. So what kind of things might you see on Grouse House? There’s a show called So You Want to Win a Penis Pump. It is described as what happens if you leave Taskmaster and game Changer too close to the and they melt. Guests include Paul F.
Tompkins that actually sounds pretty funny and the Toronto Guardian profiled comedian Owen Farewell. Owen says, I like to be real, direct, not animated, just telling stories. A lot of people say comics are the people who say what everyone is thinking, but that’s not the point. I like to say what no one is thinking. Favorite comedian growing up Patrese O’Neill and Louis c.
K. Who’s your favorite comedian now? Shane gillis pre show ritual. I get a crappy hot dog, truck hot dog, listen to two thousands rap and take the subway man. Those hot dogs are good, though, no matter how crappy.
What’s your favorite bit? My favorite bit is about bedbugs on the subway. I’ve seen some crazy stuff on the subway, but if you have to see a bed, how are these guys getting there? I think we should go easy on them. It’s too be months to learn how to ride the subway.
Let’s lay off the creatures that live in literal beds. This is my favorite bit because it never fails to make me chuckle on stage, and my own humor is my only real way of judging these That’s Owen Farewell, and that is your comedy news for today. August is over, See you tomorrow,