Daily Comedy News Podcast Transcripts

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Featured: Jerry Seinfeld, Mark Normand, Sam Morril, Robbie Hoffman, John Mulaney, Jimmy Carr, Amy Schumer

What’s in This Episode

• Jerry Seinfeld on We Might Be Drunk podcast
• Amy Schumer announces divorce from Chris Fischer
• Amy Schumer sells Brooklyn Heights townhouse at loss
• Robbie Hoffman special interview with John Mulaney for GQ
• Jimmy Carr defends performing at Riyadh Comedy Festival

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnnie Mack and this is Daily Comedy News, a daily briefing on stand up comedy comedians and the comedy industry. Which is a sentence you might say if you were trying to retrain the Spotify algorithm to ranker show higher. Jerry Seinfeld was on We Might be Drunk with Mark Norman and Sam Morrel pulled a couple clips. I feel like all this is forced, Like Mark Norman is trying way too hard to impress Jerry who you can impress?

I’ve met the man, you just can’t. And Sam has nothing to add.

Also, looking at the show and in today’s substack, I will have a clip of what…

And it doesn’t look good, says the guy in his basement wearing a yellow hoodie and his headphones on crooked. But it just doesn’t look good anyway. Mark shared some of his pet peeves with Jerry Seinfeld. Well, now they turn the tip tip thing around. You’re seeing this.

I’m sure you got twenty minutes on the tip flow. You know that a Starbucks. So they flip the screen and it says eighteen five percent. I saw in recently. That was.

It was I think twenty five, fifty seventy five. Come on, seventy five, seventy, Yeah, it was. It was insane where in Dubai. Come on, Yeah, everything’s tipped now, everything’s listener. Or anything anything where they get in you cannot get them out.

Yeah, right, they they got away with it and that’s it, and they’re taking the money. I was just reading on the way down. You watch Red Zone on Sunday, right sometimes, so they put commercials on it. Yeah, it’s like two hundred and eighty dollars for this channel to watch football with no commercials. And they say, well, you won’t notice it.

But now they’re all but that’s it. They’re not going back. Nobody goes back. They also discussed whether or not comedians should be married. It is one of the great marriage savers because you’re like, oh, I gotta go, I gotta do a set, and you’re like, oh, I’m out of that.

Can you believe what this guy’s got going on? He his wife comes home. From work, she works at home. She works at home. Oh, she works at home.

Yeah, he comes home from doing this or whatever he’s doing, and then he goes out to the clubs during the week and he goes out on the weekends. They have a baby. We had a canceled flight Gary Veter and I this weekend and Mark texts him, oh, man, so extra time away from the kids. I’m like, yeah, no, no, that we’re not happy about it. Said so much about you.

Well, I think it’s a marriage saver, that road time. It is because you’re not really designed to be married. No, comedian is not. Jim Gaffigan used to say, whenever you would hear about a comedian getting married, he would go why.

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Speaking of whether or not comedians should be married, Amy Schumer announced…

As I’ve said on this show before, I think that’s truly sad. I don’t want to see any marriage end. I don’t come here to dunk on Amy, but Amy continues to make decisions that just bewilder me. Amy wrote this on Instagram. I’m going to read it verbatim, and the first three words she wrote are blah blah blah.

It’s not me being flippant. That’s what she actually wrote to announce her divorce. Amy Schumer on Instagram posted a picture of herself Chris and their son on the New York City Subway. The caption quote, blah blah blah. Chris and I have made the difficult decision to end our marriage after seven years.

We love each other very much and will continue to focus on raising our son. We would appreciate people respecting our privacy at this time. Once again, Amy writes, blah blah blah. Not because misspelled, I dropped some pounds and thought I could bag s basket, and not because he’s a hot James Beard Award winning chef who can still pull some hot tail. Amicable and all love and respect family forever.

I imagine Amy has a publicister, access to a publicist, and could have just released a statement and said, you know, respect her privacy, and I think we all would. It’s just weird. A source close to the pair tells people there’s nothing ugly. It’s a split. They’ve just been finalizing a few things.

The New York Post reported that Amy sold her Brooklyn Heights town host for less than she paid. City records show that Amy sold the four story residents at nineteen Cranberry Street for eleven million dollars, roughly one point twenty five million below the price she and her husband paid in twenty twenty two. The five bedroom property, built in eighteen twenty nine and appears in the film Moonstruck, spans roughly fifty five hundred square feet and includes a private garden and gated parking, a restored roof, original fireplace mantles, and a custom kitchen outfitted with antique cabinry and a wine cellar. According to a prior listing, did you watch Robbie Hoffman special? It’s pretty fantastic.

I still can’t decide if it’s the number two, three, or four special of the year. At worst it’s number four. You should watch it. John Mulaney, producer of the special, interviewed Robbie Hoffman for GQ. This interview, as you can imagine, with m’lanie and Robbie’s all over the place, I’ll pick away at it over the next couple days.

Mlanie’s opener, if you open a water bottle and you don’t hear a crack, do you still drink it? Robbie Hoffman said, mm MMMM’LINI said I found that if I note that it doesn’t crack, but I still drink it. M’linie was curious, did you ever have a time where you pulled back her if you’ve been full blast your whole life, Robbie said, well, here’s the thing around you. I’m still full blast because I’m nervous. For instance, somebody I really respect, I would treat back to talking a lot, to sharing a lot, I go full blast.

I think I had a big period in life of calming down, but then I burst again. What happened was it was very embarrassing to be this boisterous and loud, especially as a girl, and opinionated and kind of you know, if we had a pop quiz, I’d be like, this is an injustice, and then I’d get embarrassed and I would say to myself, for you, shut the f up. But I really tried not to do anything for a long time, and then I kind of came back to it. Now it pops up when I’m really excited. It’s not just you, just anyone, but you, especially because I love being in your presence.

I noticed that a lot more, not that I’m dancing for my keeper or anything like that. It just comes out naturally. Jimmy Carr was on the Louis Thorough podcast, and I don’t know if I said the man’s name right. I don’t mean disrespect. There’s like five thousand articles about how to pronounce his name correctly, and I have to keep moving here.

Jimmy Carr was defending his decision to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival. Jimmy Carr said, I played it. I loved it. I think we need to give up on the idea that the Middle East becomes Western Europe. The Middle East is a very different place, and the same people that will tell you diversity is our strength will tell you don’t go there.

They’re not like us. The thing I like about Saudi Arabia is the direction of travel. Look at where it was forty years ago, look at where it is now. The direction of travel’s pretty good. How much were you paid, Jimmy Carry said, I was paid.

I would say a commensurate amount with selling out an eight thousand seater room. So it’s a big room, and I got paid. I earned it. Cars spoke about freedom of speech interestingly enough and said you have to deal with the consequences. If you’re going to say that, you got to be willing to say it and go, Yeah, I don’t regret telling that joke.

That’s fine. Some people were really upset by it. That’s okay. I’ve got the people that come and see me and they really like that stuff, and I’ve got to serve them, not someone else. Felix Jakins is Amnesty International’s UK head of Campaigns.

Felix said this is entertainment washing in action, using big name comedians and glossy festivals to project reform while repression continues off stage. No amount of laughter, it can disguise the reality of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. Last year alone, a record three hundred and forty five people were executed, many after deeply flawed trials. Comedians performing there should ask whether challenging repressions or helping to legitimize it. Performing free speech in a country speaking freely can cost you your life isn’t brave, It’s hypocrisy.

Jimmy Carr said, I got paid. I earned it. Oh, I think I said that already. Sorry, I repeated a quote. I’ll remember to edit that out later.

Anthony has a book club, he told Vulture. Yes, I’m going to start a book club next year. Jessel nick book club and the goals to try to get guys to read literature. I feel like people say I do like to read, but I read serious books and that drives me crazy. I think that literature is serious, if not more serious than nonfiction.

You learn just as much. I think the world is lacking in empathy, and the guys can benefit from literature. I’ve got a list of twelve books of the month, but that might change something new comes out. I’d like to get into that book influencer space, where on the first of the month it’s here’s what we’re reading, and then you can ask questions at the end of the month and I’ll answer your questions, talk about why I love this book, and just try to give a reading list for guys. And it’s okay to put a book down and say I don’t like this, pick up something else.

Just keep trying. My first book in January is going to be The Getaway by Jim Thompson. It’s an action book that’s been made into a movie several times. The end of it is almost supernatural. It almost turns into a horror novel.

And if you’re a fan of mine, I think you can get into this book. It’s two hundred fifty pages. It’s easy to read. My second book is a Vonnagut that I think says more about podcasting today than it does about World War two. TV is getting worse, movies are getting worse, and I think books become a more viable entertainment option for people as things have become more corporate and bland.

I don’t know if the book club will be successful. It might get five hundred views and no one cares and they make fun of me. But that’s okay. I’m picking timeless novels that I think a guy can get through without being embarrassed. A book that you can read on the subway.

No one’s making fun of you for it. They talked about John Mulaney’s book Club jes Unix sent my publisher. I saw the Milleni post and was like, uh oh, it’s fine. His first one was the first book I picked up in January. Playworld that I’ve forgotten every single thing.

It’s been on some lists and I couldn’t tell you a single thing about the book. It’s okay to forget everything you’ve just read. It’s hard to remember things. I could barely give descriptions of a lot of the books in my top ten. I don’t know how seriously Milanie is taking in.

It seems like it was just a post put up on Instagram and a social media person was like, you should try this. Great. I hope there’s a million comedian book clubs, but I’d like to go a bit deeper than just holding a book and saying this month, we’re reading this and then never mentioning it again. Sarah Sherman, doing a lot of press, spoke to Variety and said that she bombed when opening for Adam Sandler as You’re My Best Friend tour, but says the thing about saidlor Is is comedy is really surreal and bizarre and dirty, so it’s actually a good fit with her own style. But apparently she said she’s stunk.

Here’s why, because she relies on being in smaller venues for interactive comedy. She explained, so much of my material is very audience interactive, so it’s weird to be so far away from people, and my voice is very shrill, and when it’s ricocheting off the walls of aa Gine Arena, it can be painful for some people. If you’re listening on Spotify, follow Daily Comedy News, so it shows up on your feet every morning. That’s the kind of sentence. Somebody trying to go the Spotify algorithm would say on several podcasts in a row, pay attention to that kind of thing out on the eight hundred pound Gerrilla today Christopher MacArthur Boyd’s Scary Times.

No shocker here. Howard Stern is not suddenly ending his career tomorrow. Nope, what do you know? Howard Stern has renewed. After all that press about Howard’s being canceled, Howard did into many bit bah bah blah blah.

I told you all along, the whole thing was nonsense, and right before the winter break, Howard would announce renewal. Howard announced a three year deal. He gets a more flexible schedule. He’s already only doing three days a week and has July and August off. Boy, nice money if you can get it.

Howard is what I call a once in two generations Hall of famer, the best who ever did it, but also little past his prime. People are upset with Saturday Night Live? Are they using AI images during weekend update jokes? The image in question was a woman on Oxygen playing the nickel slots. The image did look very AI ish.

SNL has not commented on this in the past, they’ve used photoshops. Leslie Jones has slammed President Trump. Jones was on ms Now with Nicole Wallace ms now, the former MSNBC with the new name. Wallace said, the President is calling female reporters piggy and stupid and dumb and insubordinate. Leslie Jones said, wait a minute, let me explain something to you.

I don’t understand how these people let that in. Then, according to The Daily Beast, Leslie Jones hurled expletives a president and how she would respond in the scenario of Trump calling Leslie Jones piggy, if he would have said shut up, piggy to me, I would have been like you fat mfer. Jones added, we should be embarrassed. As citizens, we should be embarrassed. Wanda Sykes was honored at Variety’s Power of Women La event.

Now. I’m not sure the HR Department would be too happy with Wanda Sykes. Pay attention to this quote here from Wanda Sykes. Wanda said, my joy is when I’m able to hire somebody, and you know who I like to hire women. I’ll be upfront with you when it comes to a position and I look on the paper Variety said Psykes was holding out her arms with the hand representing the man slightly elevated above the woman one.

So back to the quote. When it comes to a position, I look on the paper. She might be right here and he’s up there. I’m hiring the woman. That’s just how I operate.

And I’ll be honest with you. If she’s a black woman, girl, you got the job. Psykes drew applause from the crowd. Ssykes added, when women thrive, the community thrives. We make everyone around us better.

When we win, everybody wins. When men win, sometimes they get a younger wife. Again, I get what she’s trying to say, but I’m not sure that would get past the HR departments that I’ve worked with. And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll see tomorrow.

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Featured: Jerry Seinfeld, Rob Reiner, Michelle Reiner, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Norman Lear, Michelle Obama, Donald Trump

What’s in This Episode

• Death of Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner
• Rob Reiner’s influence on Seinfeld series
• Trump’s statement about Rob Reiner
• Jimmy Kimmel’s response to Trump’s comments
• Late night hosts tributes to Rob Reiner
• Michelle Obama connection to the Reiners

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. And I’m Johnny Magan. We’re continuing to follow the death of Rob Reiner. I will continue to do these as standalone episodes and focus it through the lens of stand up comedy. Jerry Seinfeld called Rob Reiner the biggest influence on my career.

Seinfeld explained the show Seinfeld would never have happened without Rob Reiner. He saw something no one else could when nobody at the network. Like the early episodes, he saved us from cancelation. That I was working with Carl Reiner’s son, who happened to be one of the kindest people in show business seemed unreal. I was naive at the time to how much his passion for us meant.

Seinfeld praised Rob’s marriage to Michelle Singer, calling it an imprint for me of how it’s supposed to work, each one broadening the other. Their death together is impossibly sad. Rob Reiner was on The Howard Stern Show in twenty sixteen and explained how Castle Rock recognized the potential of the Seinfeld series. Rob defended it to NBC. As Rob told the story to Howard, NBC said, we can’t have the show.

What is the show, just people sitting around talking. As Rob told it, I said, please, I promise you there’ll be stories. You can’t take the show off the air. It’s going to be one of the great shows you’ve ever had. I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s Bonus episode at the President of the United States just made some terrible, horrible comments.

I’m not gonna pull any punches here, just awful. Jimmy Kimmel spoke about those comments at length. I’m going to play a very long clip here from Jimmy Kimmel, but I don’t think it could be said better. Here in Los Angeles, the murder of one of our greatest directors and patriots, Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle Reiner. And what we need in a time like this, besides common sense when it comes to guns and mental health care, is compassion and leadership.

We did not get that from our president because he has none of it to give. Instead, we got a full rambling about nonsense. We got a brief moment of respect for our friends in Australia. We got a brief moment of condolence followed by a thing’s happened for the students at Brown and for Robin Michelle Reiner. We got this posts.

A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away together with his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable reflection. With a mind. Crippling disease known as Trump derangement syndrome sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people crazy by his raging obsession of President Donald J.

Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us perhaps like never before. May Robin Michelle rest in peace. Just when you think he can’t go any lower, he somehow finds. A way to do that. His description of what happened, of course, is not at all what happened, And this is exactly what I’ve spoken about before, this rush to pin the tale on the donkey in pursuit of the Trump friendly narrative, not to mention blaming his death on the fact that he is an outspoken liberal, insulting someone who’s just been murdered, who leaves children behind without having any idea of what actually happened.

It’s so hateful and vile. When I first saw it, I thought it was fake. My wife showed to me this morning, was like, well lad even for him, that seemed like too much, but nothing. Is ever too much for him. Of course, he won’t see the Fox newsgang screaming about this one, but a couple of Republicans did, to their credit, two of them, I think, And so a few hours later a White House reporter gave Trump the chance to take another shot, to act like a human being.

Amber of Republicans have announced your statement hundred social murder and. Rob Ryer. Well. I wasn’t a fan of his at all. He was a deranged person as far as Trump is concerned.

He said he likely knew it was false. Is the exact opposite that I was a friend of Russia, controlled by Russia, you know, the Russia hopes he was one of the people behind it. I think he heard himself in career wise, he became like a deranged person Trump derangement syndrome. So I was not a fan of Reiner at all in any way, shape or form. I thought he was very bad for our country.

Guy that corroded brain is in charge of our lives. If you voted for that, it’s okay to reconsider. It’s perfectly fine. And I’m to say I know ver my personal interacts with Rob Reiner, that he would want us to keep pointing out the loathso atrocities that continue to ooze out of this sick and irresponsible man’s mouths. And so we’re going to do that over and over again until the rest of us wake up.

On that episode, guest Michelle Obama, this is really interesting. Listen to this. Michelle said, We’ve known them for years, many years, and we were supposed to be seeing them that night. Wow. I don’t want to speculate.

I don’t know where the meeting would have taken place, but boy, very easy to let your mind run wild with that one. Stephen Colbert did a cold open. Hi, everybody. Normally we start the show with a short cold open about a major news story of the day, but after the terrible news this past weekend, the horrifying Honokah massacre at Bondi Beach, the tragic shootings at Brown University, and the heartbreaking deaths of Rob and Michelle Reiner. All the major stories are.

Too dark for that. Other people’s tragedy is sacred ground, and we try very hard not to walk there. But we are going to do a comedy show tonight in light of and in spite of the darkness. Seth Meyer has got very serious. He did seven minutes about the Reiners, but I’ll play just a chunk here for you.

We all got the news that Rob and Michelle Reiner had been murdered in their homes. I did not know Rob Michelle very well, but I’d been lucky enough to spend time with them, and they were delightful people to be in a room with. I had Rob here on this show for the first time a couple months ago, and I could have talked to him for hours about his work, about his career. A few years ago, I was lucky enough to get invited to a hundredth birthday party for Norman Lear. Norman Lear was an incredible creator of television.

He was the mind and the heart behind some of the greatest shows ever made. One of them was All in the Family. Rob had been in that show. Rob was also at that one hundredth birthday party, and Norman was one hundred years old and he was still very with it. I was sitting next to him, and he could hold a conversation.

He was incredible to behold. At the end of the night, remember about forty or fifty people there, the host of the party said, does anybody here have anything? Thatsk Norman? And somebody said, Norman, how did your career start? How did you know you wanted to do what you did?

And you know, he was a sharp one. Hundred year old man, but he was still one hundred year old man. He was sort of struggling to come up with a way to answer that question. And we were all patiently waiting, and then Rob just yelled out from the back of the room. He said, Norman, tell them the story about how you once hit in a birthday present.

And then Norman launched into the story that he clearly told a hundred times, if not more, and it was just the most wonderful story and everyone was delighted in it. And as soon as one story ended, Rob, who’d know Norman for so long, would just yell out another greatest hit story, and Norman would tell another incredible tale and I know this sounds like a story about Norman, but it’s also a really great story about Rob. Because Rob was known. Rob had this reputation for getting the best out of people, and if you watch his films, you know that is something he had the skill with. But to see him in person and know that’s what it was like in his real life as well, it was just so truly special to see.

Late Nighter reported that Jimmy Fallon did regular monologue jokes about Trump, but stayed away from the Reiner story. In time, Late Night Ers says that Jimmy addressed it in a straightforward post monologue expression of sadness without any mention of Trump’s accompanying comments. Johnny Mac will add the opinion that is a poor decision by Jimmy Fallon. Jim Norton tweeted, just a heads up, it’s okay to be sad about Rob Reiner’s death without letting everyone know that you didn’t agree with the politics. No one gives a whot.

Continuing to focus this story through a stand up comedy lens and not getting into the gory details of it, but Conan O’Brien’s name, making the story Rob Reiner and son, Nick Reiner, were involved in a heated argument on Saturday night at Conan O’Brien’s Christmas party. Sources told people Nick was quote freaking everyone out, acting crazy, kept asking people if they were famous. TMZ reported that after the arguments, Robin Michelle left the party. It is unclear if Nick left the party at that time. At the National Comedy Center in j Jamestown, New York, executive director Journey Gunderson says Rob Reiner visited in twenty twenty with his family to cut the ribbon on the Karl Reiner Keep Laughing exhibit.

Journey said it was incredible because it wasn’t a moment about him, even though his career certainly stands on its own, both within comedy and outside of it. It was about honoring his father’s legacy, and he had reverenced in humility, in this kind of steadfast intellect about anything comedic or when it came to the humanity of the art that his father had created, she recalls. In twenty twenty one, Rob Reiner appeared on The Today Show to announce the Comedy Center’s acquisition of Karl Reiner’s archive. Journey said, my first meeting with Rob was to brief him on what he would then later find in Jamestown and our work at the National Comedy Center, and he really went to bat for us as a cultural institution because he believed in the mission and he believed in the cause. Gunderson said, not a day goes by at the Center where someone isn’t laughing about Rob’s own contributions, including This is Spinal Tap.

She says it was a film that was largely improvised and collaborative, which is kind of rare. So many things are really scripted to a t. So in nineteen eighty four he comes out with his directorial debut of This Spinal Tap. Over the more than ten years since we started building the National Comedy Center, people come up to me all the time with their favorites, so their quote of all time, and it’s many times that people tell me the original Spinal Tap is their favorite comedy. Gunnerson says, it feels like they’ve lost a leader of the entertainment community.

Someone online said it best. They said, we’ve lost one of the few good men, and I thought that was well said. There was a regular episode in the feed earlier today. Back in the morning with a normal episode

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Featured: Rob Reiner, Anthony Jeselnik, Bill Burr, Amy Schumer, Sarah Sherman, Robbie Hoffman, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, Matt Rife, Tim Dillon, Mark Marin

What’s in This Episode

• Rob Reiner’s influence on comedy and mockumentary filmmaking
• Amy Schumer announces divorce with unusual statement
• Sarah Sherman’s Netflix special Sarah Squirm receives mixed audience reaction
• Robbie Hoffman Netflix special review and ranking in top tier specials
• Bill Burr’s controversial year following Saudi Arabia comedy festival appearance
• Anthony Jeselnik discusses Saudi Arabia comedy festival controversy and participant reactions
• Sketch Fest January-February programming with Kids in the Hall and Women of SNL tributes

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Hey, John, this is what we call a new top, where you take something and you put a new opening on it. I had already recorded today’s episode to accommodate my teaching schedule yesterday, but just there’s a few things out there that I didn’t want to let go another day. Krackt wrote a really nice piece about Rob Reiner and his influence on comedy. Excerpting from the Cracked piece, they wrote, it couldn’t have been easy to be the son of Carl Reiner, creator of The Dick Van Dyke Show, comedy partner to Mel Brooks, and frequent director of the early movies of Steve Martin. But somehow Rob Reiner not only met his father’s legacy, but arguably surpassed it.

It started with young Reiner being cast as Hollywood’s resident hippie in several nineteen sixty sitcoms like The Beverly Hillbillies, Batman, and The Long Haired Peace Lover Who Turns Gomer Pyle onto the Counterculture. Those roles led to Reiner beating out Richard Dreyfus and Harrison Ford for the part of Archie Bunker’s meadhead son in law Mike Stivick on all in the family. I didn’t realize those guys were up for it. Wow. Rob won two Emmy Awards for delivering liberal counterpunches to Archie’s bigoted diet tribes.

I’m shocked that that hasn’t come back in modern times. It just seems kind of perfect to have an Archie Bunker like character and somebody in the mike’stivic role. Maybe it’s too much of a shadow to cast, but we’ve brought everything else back. I was really surprised before the Biden administration, I’ll put it that way, that it didn’t come back, and I’m kind of surprised it’s not back now crack rights. For comedy fans, Reiner’s lasting contribution will be This Is Spinal Tap, the mockumentary that cut so close to the satirical bone that many early audiences thought the band was the genuine article.

The director’s underrated, deadpan performance as Marty Devergie made him the perfect straight man Foyle. Reiner’s movie wasn’t the first mock documentary, but was the most influential, inspiring the Christopher Guest films as well as a generation of street to camera sitcoms like The Office. On his website. Ricky Gervay says it was a big thing for me. When I first saw this as spinal Tap in about nineteen eighty three, I immediately watched it again.

I can’t remember a film I’ve done that with before or since. To get so deep into the genre that they were spoofing the details of human behavior, and then to do it all and someone else’s native accent just blew me away. There’s just a few things that go to comedy Heaven. While I’ve got you a few other things in the news. Amy Schumer did announce her divorce over the weekend.

Really weird statement. I’ll dive into that tomorrow. I’ve got some thoughts about it. Watch two comedy specials and Boy if you like the comedy stock Market segment on Friday, it was on point. I had warned you all that I didn’t think America was ready for Sarah Sherman’s Sarah Squirm persona and Boy.

According to the conversation in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News podcast group, people were not feeling Sarah’s Squirm. I put it on and I was like, this is pretty good. What’s the problem with everybody? And twenty minutes in it just fatigued me. It’s just a lot.

It’s not bad, it’s not horrific like George Lopez’s Amazon special. It’s just a lot, like a lot coming at you and your brain has to work really hard to watch it.

And then she went into a routine that just dragged for me and I have comedy a…

The new season’s pretty good. Then on Sunday night it was footballed out and I watched Robbie Hoffman Special on Netflix. Okay, that one is fantastic. I’m not sure it ranks, but it’s in the conversation in that top tier. So my top tier if you listen to Saturday’s episode was Maren and then Kevin Hart and Matt Rife.

Robbie Special is in the conversation with Kevin Hart and Matt Rife. Now those two are probably pound funnier, but Robbie, same thing I said about Kevin Hart Versarah Silverman. Robbie is doing higher art. It might be the second best special year. At worst, it’s fourth.

If you haven’t watched Robbie Hoffman on Netflix, do it all right, So those are new thoughts, and now let’s join the originally recorded Tuesday episode Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Anthony Jill spoke with Vulture about his book club that he’s starting. Now we’ll get into that tomorrow because I like when comedians mix it up. The question here for jessel Nick was what do you think about Bill Burr’s year?

Now, that’s interesting, phrazing, because I said on Sunday’s podcast, right, I think Bill Burr had the worst year in comedy. So it’s interesting that that’s out there beyond just me saying it. Vulture said, I think he’s taking the biggest hit out of the Rion Comedy Festival thing. Jessl Nick said, Oh, I’ve been really surprised by how much he kept talking about it. I was shocked to see his name on it.

I got offered this thing way in the beginning, and I just saw the name of the rules and was like, Nope, absolutely not. I was not thinking this would be a real thing. I was thinking, this isn’t gonna happen. Why would you say yes to this?

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And then I saw the announcement realized everyone said yes to this.

Everyone seems embarrassed. But Burr is doubling and tripling down, whereas Pete Davidson was just like I said, I’d go and I saw the money and then people leave him alone. But with Burr, it’s insane to me that he would be so dumb. It’s just shocking that he didn’t know what would come for him, and then to be fighting with everyone screaming at Mark Marrin publicly, it’s just wild to me. I haven’t talked with him at all, but I just been stunned.

He’s the one name that stuns me. No one’s like, oh, Kevin Hart Wow. And it wasn’t just defensive. He came out and was like, they’re just like us. They’ve got the chimberlaind and the Applebee’s.

He was doing as much pr for them after the fact as he possibly could, which was like, what did you think the money was for? It wasn’t just for the event. Esa Neck revealed how much he was offered to do it, and it seems like this is a real number because it’s the same number Tim Dillon gave Justin Nick said it was a lot of money. I want to say it was around three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and listen, I bought a house. I could have used it.

But it doesn’t matter. If it was three hundred and fifty million dollars, I couldn’t have done it. Comedy is so capitalistic, and I think the people that have podcast just didn’t want to miss out on that money on the table, and then they didn’t realize how big a thing it was going to be. And it’s a lot of money, but not that much money, you know, not enough that you couldn’t make it up in two shows. For Burr, it seems like he’s trying to set up going back like an annuale once a year.

I performed there part of his tour. That’s repulsive, jess On, I continued. I thought that two weeks later no one would care, but when I mentioned the Rion Comedy Festival on stage, people go nuts. They love it as a punchline. They want your opinion.

I don’t I think that’s going away anytime soon. People who have no idea about the journalist killed just want to hear about this stupid cash grab. I wonder how long it lasts, and I’ll be surprised if Burr’s Neck Special isn’t addressing most of it awesome. I hope Burr Fire’s back. Johnny Mac likes when the comedians mix it up.

Sketch Fast coming up January fifteenth through February first. They’ve announced some new editions. Bob Odenkirk, We’ll join the cast of Kids in the Hall for the Brain Candy thirtieth Anniversary Live Read, a special stage performance featuring live music that celebrates the cult classic and the humor fans of love for decades. Norah Dunn and Melanie Hutzel will join Ellen Cleghorn, Rachel Dratch, Robin Duke and a guest Iyar, Lorraine Newman, Cherry O Terry and Julius Sweeney in the Women of SNL Tribute, a special program honoring the groundbreaking performers who shape the show’s comedy legacy. Some of the folks previously announced include Joel Kim Booster, Jennine Ruffalo, The Groundlings, John Hodgman, Eugene Merman, Adam Pally, Chelsea Peretti, Kristin Shawl, Jenny Slate, Robert Smigel, Paul F.

Tompkins, the UCB, and many others. Michelle Wolf was on The Good One podcast. She talked about putting clips on Instagram and said, yeah, I used to get paid thousands of dollars to do these shows. Now more people watch them and I get zero. But I understand I do it in the hopes that I gained people who are like I like her comedy.

If you like this joke, then hopefully you buy a tickety, watch a special whatever else I might be doing next. And I’d be quite honest how at this point, I’m just trying to a massive following, and sometimes I put up jokes and people like, ugh, unfollow and I’m like, good, get out, it’s not for you. I want my audience to be people that like my comedy. They don’t have to love every joke I do, but I don’t want to have to edit myself for my followers. She talked about the time she hosted the White House Correspondence Dinner and said, I think if I could do it all over again, I would have been meaner.

I would have gone harder. The jokes I said about Sarah Sanders weren’t actually mean. Everyone said I made fun of her appearance. I definitely did not. I complimented her makeup and said she told lies, which she does.

I knew the points I was making, and I was very happy to make those points. But I also feel like I was fairly restrained. Had I known what the reaction was going to be and how strongly people would have reacted, I would have gone harder. If you’re gonna get mad at me for joke, then let them actually be mean jokes. As far as roast goes, what I said about Sarah Sanders was very team well.

If continued in a normal correspondence dinner, the community makes fun of the president, and the president gets up and makes fun of everybody, including the comedian. But that didn’t happen, which is me up there making fun of Sarah Sanders, who was there in place of the president. I’d much rather tell jokes to someone’s face than behind their back. John Oliver poked fun at President Trump’s three hundred million dollar ballroom. Oliver was an event that highlights the twelve million children in the United States that grew up in poverty each year.

Oliver said at the Comic Relief Live event in New York City, it’s wild to get a news alert saying that President Donald Trump just demolished the East wing of the White House thirty years ago. Every element of that sentence would have sounded completely insane. Nobody gives a hoot about ballrooms, apart from people who like ballrooms, who were all chirke holes. He some alternate language there, Sarah Sherman. Boy, she’s out there promoting things like she’s almost like a Kevin Hart levels of like, Okay, tap the brakes, your special come out to talk to everybody.

Relax. She spoke to grub Street and said, I wake up at ten am and I forced my boyfriend to make coffee at gunpoint, and then she wrote, yeah boyfriend. Sorry, ladies, I have two cups before realizing I haven’t had any water, so I fill up a Stanley cup and drink the entire thing in one sitting. I don’t love Stanley cups, but bow and Yang gave me a wicked one he got for being in the movie. And if Bowen gives me something, it becomes one of my most prized possessions.

On this particular day, she was off from Snell and not touring, which made her happy. She explains, at work, I eat approximately eighty five pounds of chips, and die coke every five seconds. By noon, I drink approximately one hundred more cups of coffee and only realize I’ve had too much once I start feeling a crazy panic attack coming on. Not a capital P capital a panic attack, just a small, low gray Jewish one. I usually have about three to four small Jewish panic attacks a day.

I’m starving, so I eat some weird overnight oats thing. I found out a fancy supermarket called Mush that ran only has fifteen grams of protein in it. Why are all the girl he’s addicted to protein all of a sudden? Did everyone become a bodybuilder overnight? What am I missing here?

Her? Jimmy Carr revealed that his mother’s death left him with an unhealthy relationship with food and how the fear of dying young drives his obsession with dieting and weight. Jimmy Carr, who is fifty three, was very close to his mother, Nora. She passed away at age fifty seven after a battle with pancreatitis. Jimmy explained, my mother didn’t look after herself, was maybe a little bit overweight.

She was unhealthy, and then she got sick and then she died and That’s not lost on me in terms of I’m very particular about trying to keep myself trim. I don’t think I have an eating disorder, but I certainly have a strange relationship with food. Jimmy says he does not exercise as much as I could. I’d like to do more, but it’s finding the time. Jimmy’s playing an arena show in Manchester tonight.

He says he’s looking forward to spending Christmas with his family. He explains, I’ve got little kids and stuff, so it’s kind of joyful. It’s a great time of year. I’m worry that people are a bit isolated, but Christmas brings those little interactions. You go to the carol service, you go to the midnight Mass.

Doesn’t matter whether you believe or not, just nice to sing a song. A partner on Trilla till the Cut, I’m someone who wants to fix my life in five easy steps. But I also have a very loud existential voice that says there are no five steps. None of us knows what we’re doing. We’re all floundering.

Those are two opposing forces for me. A partner who’s fantastic has a new special ad on dropout. It is called Hopeful Potato. Hannibal burs he’s just back from the Riyadh Comedy Festival, and the city of Miami apparently has agreed to settle a lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that one of the Miami police officers falsely arrested Hannibal Burst in twenty seventeen on a bogus disorderly intoxication charge.

Reports are the Hannibal and the city’s attorneys decided to settle the case. Back in twenty seventeen, Hannibal was walking to his hotel from a bar after a night of drinking with some friends. As the story goes, Hannibal asked the police officer if he could give the officer twenty dollars to call him an uber ride to his hotel because his phone battery was dead. The officer declined. Then something happens and the police officer orders Hannibal off the street.

Hannibal went into a bar looking for a charger. The officer followed in told him to leave for being quote too drunk, as the story goes, outside, the police officer activated his body camera, capturing the encounter that led to Hannibal’s arrest. Hannibal apparently said to the body worn camera, Hey, what’s up. It’s me, Hannibal Burris. This cop is stupid as f The police officer cautioned Buris to leave.

Camera. Footage released by the police department as Hannibal saying into the camera, hey, what’s up. YouTube the police officer says, all right, put your hands behind your back. Hannibal arrested for misdemeanor disorderly intoxication. That charge was later dropped.

Three years later, Hannibal filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the police department, and two police officers, alleging wrongful arrest. Some appeals and stuff, and now it seems that they have settled it. That’s your comedy news for today. See tomorrow.

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Featured: Rob Reiner, Michelle Reiner, Nick Reiner, Carl Reiner, Penny Marshall, Ben Stiller, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Guest, Stephen King, Jerry O’Connell, Norman Lear, Barack Obama, Ron Howard, Eric Idle

What’s in This Episode

• Rob and Michelle Reiner found dead in Brentwood home
• Nick Reiner arrested on suspicion of murder
• Rob Reiner’s directorial career and filmography
• Rob Reiner’s political activism and social causes
• Celebrity and industry reactions to Rob Reiner’s death

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey, it’s Johnny Mac. As you’ve probably heard by now, Rob and Michelle Reiner were found dead inside their home in Brentwood, California, on Sunday afternoon around three forty pm, and had reportedly been stabbed to death. I just want to jump on the mic and talk about this. It’s a little before two pm on Monday.

I had to teach this morning, so I couldn’t put this out any earlier. But I think, like all of us except one guy that we’ll get to at the end of the podcast today, you know, everybody just stunned and really sad about the passing of Rob and Michelle Reiner. I don’t want to get too much into the details, as it is an evolving story and none of us really know what happened on Sunday. The LAPD said the deaths were being investigated as a homicide. A family spokesperson at a statement set is with profound sorrow that we announced the tragic passing of Michelle and Rob Reiner.

We are heartbroken by the sudden loss, and we asked for privacy during this unbelievably difficult time. At this hour, there are reports that Nick Reiner, the thirty two year old son of Robin Michelle Reiner, is being held on suspicion of murdering his parents. The La County Sheriff’s Department online records say Nick Reiner was arrested Sunday night at nine fifteen pm and booked on a felony charge at Monday at five four am. At a press conference on Monday, LAPD Chief Jim McDonell confirmed Nick Reiner had been booked for murder, bailt at four million dollars. McDonald added a very very tragic incident.

Charges have yet to be filed at this time. Reiner, the son of Carl Reiner, was known for his role in All of the Family, which is where people my age first knew him as Mike Stivick on that classic sitcom. Rob Reiner then went on to become one of the great directors of our time. His films include Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, and A Few Good Men. Rob Reiner’s father, Carl Reiner, created The Dick Van Dyke Show, and they moved the family out to Los Angeles in the nineteen fifties.

Rob Reiner worked in small theater and started his own improv group before landing the role on All On the Family. He was on that series for eight seasons from nineteen seventy one to nineteen seventy eight. In nineteen eighty four, he made his directorial debut with This Is Spinal Tap. From there, he directed The Sure Thing at Romantic Comedy, starring John Cusack. Then he adapted a fantasy adventure novel that he had loved, The Princess Bride.

Reiner told The New York Times in nineteen eighty seven, people take a look at Princess Bride and exclaimed, God, this is such an odd conglomeration. How could he balance all those things? But it didn’t seem strange to me because those are all parts of my personality. I’ve definitely got the satirical side to me, and there’s romantic side and this more realistic way of looking at things. In nineteen seventy one, Reiner married Penny Marshall, you may know her as Laverne from Laverne and Shirley.

After the divorce, Reiner re entered the dating world and had the idea for romantic comedy about whether men and women could Truly be Friends without sex getting in the way that eventually morphed into When Harry Met Sally, starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. While making that movie, Rob Reiner was introduced to the movie’s director of photography, Michelle Singer. They were married seven months later in nineteen eighty nine. Rob Reiner said the romance led to him changing the ending of When Harry Met Sally. An earlier version ended with Harry and Sally walking away from each other.

In the nineties, Reiner directed Misery, A Few Good Men, and the American President. Rob Reiner was also politically active, a longtime activist and outspoken supporter of candidates and political causes in California. He led a nineteen ninety eight ballot initiative that increased taxes on tobacco to pay four early childhood programs and worked with unions on labor issues. He backed a legal campaign aimed at persuading the Supreme Court to establish a constitutional right of same sex marriage. In more recent years, he was a vocal critic of the Trump administration.

Reiner did continue to lightly act. He appeared in the Wolf of Wall Street, episodes of New Girl and made a cameo in the fourth season of The Bear and even more recently in Spinal tamp iiO. During the lead up to Spinal Tap two, he spoke to The New York Times about some of the things that were most important to him. The first things he mentioned were my wife and kids. That’s the most important to me.

There’s the joke. Nobody on their deathbed ever said I should have spent more time on the office. Nobody says that we’ll take a break here and we’ll come back with some celebrity reactions in no particular order. This is just how I cut and pasted them. Ben Stiller wrote on Twitter, what a huge loss.

Rob Reiner was one of my favorite directors. He made some of the most formative movies for my generation. He came out from behind a comedic shadow of the great Carl Reiner and being a TV actor to being a great director who made an incredible run of movies. Spinal Tap is one of the best comedies ever made, and the list goes on. He was a kind, caring person who was really really funny.

I don’t know him well, but was always a fan, and I feel real sadness for those who did and his family Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest put out a joint statements of variety. It’s phrased from the perspective of Jamie Lee, Christopher and I are numb and sad and shocked about the violent, tragic debts of our dear friends Robin Michelle Singer Reiner, and our only focus and care right now is for their children and immediately families, and we will offer all support possible to help them. There’ll be plenty of time later to discuss the creative lives we shared in the great political and social impact they both had on the entertainment industry, early childhood development, the fight for gay marriage, and their global care for a world in crisis. We have lost great friends. Please give us time to grieve.

Stephen King on social media, I’m horrified and saddened by the death of Robert Michell, wonderful friend, political and brilliant filmmaker, including two of mine. Rest in peace, Rob. You always stood by me. Jerry O’Connell on social media, Love you, Rob, sincerely. Jerry shared a photo of himself and Rob on the set of Stand By Me.

Norman Lear created All in the Family. A statement from the Norman Lear family says the Lear family is devastated by the deaths of Robin Michelle Reiner. Norman often referred to Rob as a son, and their close relationship was extraordinary to us in the world. Norman would have wanted to remind us that Robin Michell spent every breath trying to make this country a better place, and they pursued that through their art, their activism, their philanthropy, and their love for family and friends. Lynn Lear had remained very close with them and said the world is unmistakably darker tonight, and we are left.

Barack Obama said, Michelle and I are heartbroken by the tragic passing of Rob Reiner and his beloved wife Michelle. Rob’s achievements in film and television gave us some of our most cherished stories on screen, but beneath all the stories he produced was a deep belief in the goodness of people and a lifelong commitment to putting that belief into action. Together, he and his wife live lives defined by purpose. They will be remembered for the values they championed and the countless people they inspired. We send our deepest condolences to all who love them.

Ron Howard said he proved to be a superlative filmmaker, a supportive colleague, and at all times a dedicated citizen. Rob will be missed on so many levels. My heart goes out to his family and his many close friends. Eric Idol on social media said he had just spoken to Rob the night before. For over an hour he was telling me about filming at Stone Edge and his thoughts for the future.

This is so awful. I shall miss him. A clever, talented, and very thoughtful man. Rob Schneider said, I am deeply saddened. Every life is sacred and given by God, our creator.

One of the most accomplished American directors who ever lived. His movies have been adored by generations. But I will remember him most for making me laugh my guts out with my dad watching the greatest American TV show of all time, All in the family. I’ll be praying for his friends and family that they may find solace in peace. Josh Gad said he was one of the greatest directors of our time.

He was a friend, He was simply a beautiful person. Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle were two of the most kind and caring souls you could ever imagine he cares so much for those who had no voices. This loss is devastating. I cannot express to you how much this hurts. Love you, Robin, Michelle, thank you for all you gave us.

Roseanne Barr tweeted, I’m absolutely shocked and horrified to hear about Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle. This is a travesty. Praying for swift justice, sympathies to their family and children. I’m going to loss for words, and President Trump completely unwilling to be sympathetic or show any class posted on truth social and I’m going to deliberately read this flat and not put any emphasis on any of the words. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away together with his wife Michelle, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding and incurable affliction with a mine crippling disease known as Trump Derangement syndrome.

Those three words in all caps sometimes referred to as TDS. That is, the President of the United States responding to two people who had their throats slashed. Michelle Reiner was sixty eight. Rob Reiner was seventy eight

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Featured: Jordan Clepper, Theo Von, Leanne Morgan, Morgan Wallen, Tom Segura, Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jim Gaffigan

What’s in This Episode

• Jordan Clepper’s Comedy Central special about Trump and the Nobel Peace Prize
• Theo Von attending Bible study with Morgan Wallen
• Tom Segura’s new Italian bakery Chichio Bamba in Austin
• Patton Oswalt calls Maria Bamford the greatest living comedian
• Sebastian Maniscalco’s gift-giving etiquette advice on Drew Barrymore Show
• Jim Gaffigan interview about being silly off-stage and his early career
• LA Times list of the 33 best comedy specials of 2025

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. If you missed it over the weekend, I dropped two episodes taking a look bit this year’s top twenty five stand up specials. Go back and check that out, please. Jordan Clepper will have a special tonight on Comedy Central.

Daily Show presents that Jordan Clepper fingers the pulse. This time he went to Mississippi, Oregon, and Norway in search of an answer to the question does Donald Trump deserve a Nobel Peace Prize? Now? The answer was no. The Nobel Prize came out last week and did not go to Donald Trump.

Klepper told the Hollywood Reporter. As we were putting the special together, two conversations were taking place in the country. There were troops being sent to Portland and to Chicago. There were ice rays and protests. At the same time, Trump was campaigning openly for the Nobel Peace Prize.

We saw a special in that conversation said we went to Mississippi and talked to Trump supporters about why Donald Trump was the most peaceful president. They talked about the wars he solved, They talked about him bringing strength to cities then we went to Oslo to talk to the people who give out the Peace Prize about what qualities a Peace Prize winner would have. He even found a group of Nordic mega types. The Hollywood Reporter was curious about doing four or five minutes on the Daily Show versus something like this, Jordan said, you get to go deeper. What I feel really lucky about is I get to work in three separate modes at the Daily Show.

I get to host. When you’re doing that, you’re dealing with a day of stories, You’re responding to the news of the moment. Then I get to do field pieces, which are reflective of what’s happening. A lot of those, to me feel like I’m stressed testing propaganda. With these specials, you get to have a larger argument and really dive deeper into these conversations.

Theol Vaughan has revealed that he goes to Bible studies with Morgan Wallen. This happened during Theo’s conversation with Leanne Morgan. Morgan Wallen’s name came up and fil Vonn said, I’m going to see him tomorrow Bible study. Actually, Leanne was curious, what are you studying? Was that.

I mean, I think we’re watching a movie, but it is Bible study. Yeah, I’m not sure what chapter we’re on at the moment. In Austin, there’s a new Italian bakery, Chichio Bamba. One of the co owners Tom Sagora. We’ve learned that Italian chef John Ba Vinzoni is a restaurant tour who wiled Tom Sagora with his signature croissants at Vinzoni’s restaurant in California.

Sigora started sharing the croissants far and wide and has collaborated with Vinzoni to bring them to Austin. Foreign menus include Cornetti, which is a horned Italian croissants, Fcaccia Italian sandwich is brunch specialties, and coffee. The bakery is open from seven thirty to four, and there’s a menu we can check out. And if you’re a longtime listener, you know I’m clicking on the menu. Now I have some bad news for Tom Sagora.

I wanted to click on the menus and make a bit out of this, but you see, when a click on the dine in menu, it fails and tells me I’m not online, but I am online. I have fifty nine point seven megabytes of download speed right now. I ran speed test, and when I try to order takeout, several menus come up, including the Austin Retisseri and Taco Pagaso. But I’m not seeing Sigor’s place, which is a shame because it ruins the bit. So let’s just move on.

Patton Oswalt says, right now, the greatest living comedian is definitely Maria Bamford. Now, Patton Oswalt also thinks Doug the Vulcan is a good idea, so we might have to say, h Patton Oswalt’s not right about everything. People who like Maria Bamford love Maria Bamford. Patton Oswalt said, she’s in her own category. She’s a comedian.

But there’s certain people with a profession where you’re like, you don’t put them anywhere. He told the Good One podcast. You go now there’s a separate chapter about this person. She’s her own chapter, both in form, content delivery and how she pursues her career. It’s all original, it’s all brand new and unprecedented, and it’s amazing.

No one comes close. Jesse David Fox, who hosts The Good One podcast, that I was hoping you’d say her, it’s just Richard Pryor than her. To me is the conversation in terms of what can be done with stand up as a form. That’s all crazy talk. I mean, just absolutely insane.

Richard Pryor, Maria Bamford, Stop you sound crazy. Sebastian Manaskalgo went on Drew Barrymore Show and had some food advice. He said, if you go to someone’s house, bring something, a small gift, it’s kind of a right thing to do. Jew said, I get really stress and people ask me what can I bring. I don’t know.

Sebastians suggested a small candle, something small, something nice, just to gift for the house. Thanks. Sebastian. Variety asked Jim Gaffigan if he’s a silly person off stage, Having spent time with Jim Gaffigan twenty years ago. The answer was no, maybe these days he’s super silly.

He wasn’t. Then Jim said, I’d say I’m a silly person with my comedian friends. What I love about stand up is that element of play give when someone the guff that sarcastic banter. I wouldn’t describe it as roasting. It’s just play.

Some comedians are always in play and doing bits, like Todd Glass. That’s why comics gravitate towards each other. It’s a plain environment. But when I’m with my kids, no, I’m very focused. I’m also someone asked to work hard.

I don’t know what kind of learning disabilities I have, but even studying lines for an acting role, it takes me longer than it would take my wife. Twenty years ago, I would often discuss bits with my wife. Now I might be discussing them with my opening comedian Ted Alexandro. The writing and rewriting is very valuable. That’s something I do when I tour.

I don’t have that tree at home because kids are too much work. If you think of having children, don’t. The luxury of doing shows out of town is that I can spend those days listening to a set and dissecting how I could expand it. For me, It’s not that I have to walk away from a writing session with a joke. I just feel good if I made the effort.

They asked Jim if the story was true where he woke up at his office to be fired from his day job. He was a comedian in New York in the nineties he was an ad salesman during the day. Jim said, absolutely. And the cruelty is that a friend of mine, David Tel, already had a joke about being woken up to be fired. Whenever this comes up out of respect, I have to mention the fact that David Tel had this joke.

But yes, I worked in advertising and I’m really grateful that experience as a copywriter, the editing process furing out the shortest way to say something is incredibly valuable, and that carries over into stand up. I was definitely delusional. After six months of doing stand up. I remember thinking I can’t believe I haven’t been on Letterman, and then I didn’t get on for seven years. So I did a lot of work on myself, therapy and stuff like that, but there was no expectation of I’m going to stop doing this.

All comedians are delusional. You have to be. If insanity is repeating something and expecting a different result. Even the quickest careers involve five a failure, that’s insanity. Right.

The La Times put out their list of the thirty three best comedy specials of twenty twenty five. I’ll go quickly here because I spent the weekend doing lists, but I was curious and the Ala Times has a very very good comedy section. I don’t think these are ranked, and I can’t tell what kind of order they are. They’re not chronological, I don’t think. But here’s what they have.

Frankie ken Yunius, Damn, That’s Crazy from Hulu, Andrew Schultz Life from Netflix, at bashed In, Manuscalcos and Ain’t Right from Hulu. Bill Burr’s Dropped Dead Years from Hulu. Nah Jordan Jensen’s Take Me With You on Netflix, otsco At Kotska’s Father on Hulu, gab Iglesias Legend of Fluffy on Netflix, Mark Maren’s Panic on HBO. Nate Jackson’s Super Funny on Neateflex on Netflix. You know what, I’m leaving the Neateflix.

You heard me clean it up at But I’m leaving it in because it’s funny on Nateflex. Nate Jackson Super Funny. Are They’re right? There’s a reason. Nate Jackson’s debut Netflix special arrives during barbecue season on a stool under the spotlight.

Out of shows, the comedian spends most of his evening delivering hospital worthy third degree burns to crowd members who want the smoke right, that’s probably worth checking out. Lean Morgan Unspeakable Things Netflix, Eliza Slessinger Is a Different Animal Prime Video, Ralph Barbosa’s Planet Bosa on Hulu. Gaffigan’s Bourbon Set on YouTube, Steph Tolev’s filth Queen Netflix, Christella Alonso’s Upper Classy. I feel like that was on Netflix. They didn’t list to a platform here.

Ali Sadiq’s Rugged on YouTube. Yeah, a lot of people commented on him throughout the year. Jim Norton’s Unconceivable on YouTube. I should probably put eyes on that. I like Jim a lot, Jay Jordens, Yes Ma’am on Hulu.

Rosebud Baker’s The Mother Load Netflix, Ken Flores Lol Live with Ken Flores. That’s Hulu. Burt Kreischer Lucky Netflix, comedian cp on veep’s Sunday After Six. Tree Crowder’s Liberal Redneck on YouTube. I haven’t seen that one.

Phoebe Robinson’s I Don’t Want to Work Anymore on YouTube. Tim Dillon’s I’m Your Mother on Netflix, Kathleen Madigan’s The Family Threat on Amazon Prime. I’m Mike Veccioni’s Low Income White on YouTube. Ian Edward’s untitled on YouTube. Interesting that keeps popping up on lists.

Ryan Sickler’s Live and Alive on YouTube. They say Ryan Sickler turn thick blood into sweet wine. His trademark candor and giggle drives the hours he plays tour guide through a traumatic hospital state that nearly became his last Chinity Wunaka is lo Alive on Hulu. I have that on my list. Cameron Esposito’s four Pills on Dropout.

Samantha Hale’s Horror Nerd on Apple TV. That’s a thing. Where’s that not out yet? Or what that’s on Apple TV? Only Samantha Hale could make hair raising terror this funny.

Her long running show harr Nerd jumps from the Hollywood improv stage to the screen. She nostalgically riffs on serial killers, the healing power of stabby movies, and turns genre obsessions called classic fantom an online feedback into an unbroken chain of laugh out loud brilliance. Okay, totally missed that one. And Jayang Summers What Specie Are You? Is on Hulu.

There’s the La Times thirty three picks. They have a very very strong comedy section Kathleen Madigan until the La times. I love beer, and all my uncles worked at the brewery forever and ever. They were pipe fitters full time at Anheuser Bush Downtown. The Midwest is kind of like that.

That’s our thing. Saint Louis is a beertown period. Anheuser Busch Brewery is still there. People still have jobs there, They sponsor everything. Milwaukee is kind of like a beer town too.

It’s all about the middle of light now, but back in the day they had a thousand breweries before prohibition. It’s very beer centric. With the Paths Theater, I had taped a special already there, and they’re just the nicest people, the crew and everybody works there. They’re excited to you there. And I don’t need to be flattered.

I really don’t not even need you to be there. But if you’re gonna be there, if you cannot be cranky, that’d be great. The comedians will also tell you this, there’s certain spots where you walk off stage and go. People should film specials here. This theater is one of the three that I feel that way about.

Why are these certain places so special? I don’t know. There’s a little magic in there, I guess. Madigan talked about being on TikTok and said it’s a lot different from dancing in your bedroom to Madonna in nineteen eighty four. I’m not particularly good at TikTok as a human or as a comedian, but I love being on TikTok as a voyeur.

I post jokes and do work stuff. But I was really good at Twitter because I’m good with words. Instagram, I’m there, But TikTok, I’m watching seven thousand cab videos. If you have any kind of addictive personality, you love it because it’s endless. It never stops, and there’s hardly every repetition.

Seems to be people way younger than me, But I like it. I wouldn’t want to think I made a career out of it, though I think some of the young ones are biting off more than I could ever chew with this experience. Does it last? I’m curious to see if all these acts will work. Will your fans keep coming five years from now?

That’s why I’m glad I started when I started. When young comics ask what should I do, I’m like, dude, I don’t have any idea. Just make sure you get on stage a lot. She is so funny. I love her.

The Trevor’s City Economy Festival will return in April April sixteenth to the eighteenth, seven venues across Traverse City. Roywood Junior and Gary Golman will be the headliners for this one. Lewis Black spoke to Esquire about you know, he keeps talking about retiring. I thought he retired at the end of last year. Now he’s doing fewer shows.

I don’t know what’s going on. As for one of his final shows, he said, it was a concentration of all the performances I ever gave, including a heckler at the end. It was kind of like everything that could happen along the way happened that night in a bad way. It was good. The thing you can’t explain to people, including Johnny Mac, is there was touring and then there’s doing some shows.

I might do ten shows a year as opposed to one hundred to one hundred and fifty to two hundred. I’m not sad about not doing one hundred shows. I had a tour bus I was leasing, so I’d fly in a place on a Thursday or Wednesday, then drive somewhere Friday, Saturday, Sunday and then fly home. So I was in four days and back three and it wasn’t bad, he said. If not for the pandemic, I would have retired probably by this time, it was seventy four to seventy five.

I would have done it anyway, because there were other things I wanted to do it. Basically, wanted to retire to be able to write again. That is your comedy news for today. I’ll see tomorrow

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Featured: Bill Burr, Conan O’Brien, John Mulaney, Will Ferrell, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, Shane Gillis, Tom Segura, Jimmy Carr, Jonathan Kite, Bill Maher, Andrew Schulz, Rosebud Baker, George Lopez, Lisa Lampanelli, Sebastian Maniscalco, Jim Gaffigan, Joe List

What’s in This Episode

• Conan O’Brien Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize celebration on Netflix
• Top 25 stand-up specials of 2025 rankings
• Bill Burr’s year in comedy performance decline
• Hulu comedy specials trend analysis
• Stand-up specials that missed the top 25 list
• Last One Laughing UK series on Amazon Prime Video
• Golden Globes nominations for Best Performance in Stand Up Comedy

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Yesterday I revealed my top twenty five stand up specials of the year so far. Today we’ll take a look at things that didn’t make the list. But first I want to list things that were funny but not stand up specials, because, point blank, the best comedy event of the year on your television was Conan O’Brien the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor that was on Netflix, far and away the best, even better than Mark Maron special, which I have at number one.

Big names coming out to celebrate Conan O’Brien, including John Mulaney, Will Farrow, Bill Burs, Stephen Colbert, David Letterman, even Adam Sailor, Yes he was there, Triumph the Masturbating Bear. What could you not want? A celebration of why Conan matters? Absolutely fantastic, all right. Another thing that was really great Shane Gillis’s SB monologue on ESPN.

Not a special, but it was fifteen minutes or so of Shane doing what Shane does best, not pulling any punches or really gotta laugh out of me that Chuckley you just heard, was me flashing back to some of the jokes he told that night fantastic. I really liked Tom Sagora’s Bad Thoughts on Netflix, specifically the stuff that’s totally not making fun of Garth Brooks. It’s not Garth Brooks at all. He’s not making fun of Garth Brooks. Why would you make fun of Garth Brooks.

It’s not like Garth Brooks is a serial killer, which he’s not. What a wonderful show Tom Sagora’s Bad Thoughts. Did you watch Last One Laughing UK? That’s on Amazon Prime Video. They lock some funny people in a room for six hours with one rule.

Do not laugh. If you laugh, you get a warning. If you laugh a second time, you’re out. Jimmy Carr is your host. One of my favorites, Richard Ayuada was on there.

Rob Beckett did a great job. Bob Mortoner doing magic is hilarious. It’s fun to play along at home. You sit on the couch and see if you can not laugh yourself. I recommend on Last One Laughing.

They’re actually working on a second season which will feature, among other people, Diane Moore ran from the Kunk series. She’s great and David Mitchell from Mitchell and Webb. I’m looking forward to that. Maybe my favorite thing all year was Jonathan Kite’s Anthony Bourdain impression on Instagram just injected into my veins. He could put out one of these every single day and I would watch it.

If you haven’t seen it, find it. It’s incredible. Kite as Bordain visits places like in and out Burger, can’t get enough of it, and Shane Gillis twice making less Tires on Netflix. It’s like blue collar The Office but in an auto repair shop. Fantastic show.

Can’t get enough of Tires on Netflix. Yesterday I did the top twenty five. Here are the specials that did not make the list. I just want to acknowledge they existed in no particular order. Bill Maher, is anyone else seeing this?

Nominated for a Golden Globe that was on HBO? All right? Whatever, I know it’s a hack line, but the titles. Is anyone else seeing this? And apparently the answer is no.

I didn’t see anybody talking about that, but it’s nominated for a globe. Okay. Andrew Schultz’s Life was on Netflix. It just didn’t work for me. For me, the storytelling felt off.

I couldn’t get into his journey. I know a lot of people really like that one. I just didn’t connect with it. Rosebud Baker is the mother Load. This was the one where she took two shows, one in which she’s pregnant and one after she had the baby, and split them together.

It just didn’t work. It was more distracting. Christa Stefano had one of the Hulu specials this year. I was not a fan of the Hilarious brand for the most part. His special, It’s just unfortunate.

Here’s my entire review hack. While we’re being negative. George Lopez is special on Amazon. I wrote the word horrific. I can’t believe Georgia actually released it.

Lisa Trigger had a special on Netflix called night Owl. She has tremendous energy. I didn’t love the material, didn’t connect with it. On Amazon, Eliza Selessenger’s a different animal. Now watch this one and pay attention to her performance.

She is reciting her act as if she’s in an empty room, no regard whatsoever to how the crowd is reacting. She’s not surfing the energy. She’s just got words in her brain, and the brain is connected to the mouth and she’s going to deliver them. It’s really, really weird. Another disappointment from Hulu Bill Burr’s dropped dead years.

I know we’re supposed to come away impressed by how enlightened Bill has become. Those were the talking points. The press spit back, Yeah, Bill, you’re so enlightened now. I think it’s the example of how hilarious is the brand you go to when you’re on your way down. I think Bill Burr might be past peak now.

He did not have a great year in general, his late night appearances, everything around birth this year was bad. I think Bill Burr might have had the worst year in comedy. Let’s think about that and we’ll come back and talk. Some more specials. Some more specials from twenty twenty five that did not make my list.

Steph Tolev’s Filth Queen on Netflix. I know people really like that one. Filth Isn’t my thing, so I was like, Eh, I just don’t want to do this. It’s probably a very funny special, It’s not my thing. Devon Walker is loll Live special on Hulu has one good Chris Rock joke.

Also on Hulu, Ralph Barbosa’s Planet bos uh. This has my typical notes. Civilians will like it, but I’m a comedy snob. I never connected with this one, and I like Barbosa a lot. I hope I’m wrong when it comes to my Hulu theory and Barbosa.

I hope he’s still on the way up and hasn’t peaked, because I do like him. Joe lists small Ball on YouTube, I did not believe a single word coming out of Joe’s mouth was true. I understand comedy. I understand repetition and exaggeration. I get it.

I know how it works. I also understand that anyone up on a stage is doing a performance, just like I’m doing a performance right now for this podcast. I get it, but I need stuff grounded in reality, like I’ll break character for a second. Do I like Adam Sandler movies? No?

Do I walk around kicking my dog all day because Adam Sandler put out Happy Gilmore too. No. I don’t think about Adam Sandler at all unless I’m sitting here in the studio with a microphone in my hand and slipping into the Johnny Mac character. So this is a performance, just like Joe lis Smallball as a performance, But I didn’t believe a word of it is true. Opinions on Sailor are true.

I’m just repeating them and exaggerating them for effect. But the small ball material, Nope. David Spade’s Dandelion on Amazons started out really slow and I lost interest. And maybe the back forty minutes is awesome, but you know, dude, you got to get things going here. We’ve heard comedians talk about Netflix specials that they’re moving their closers up to the first act because of people like me.

Maybe Spade needed to do that. Maybe his closer is amazing. I’ll never know. This next special actually upset me from Hulu yet again. Sebastian maniscalcos he ain’t right.

The trailer radicalized me. It’s the editing and this and Sebastian making the stupid faces. Enough with the stupid faces, and then I put on the actual special and I have come to the conclusion that Sebastian is doing a character that I have called old man Dice Clay at sixty years old. It’s like if the Dice character just got gray hair and decided he was going to work clean and talk about food. That’s what Sebastian doing.

I don’t know what’s going on there. And Jim Gaffigan’s Bourbon Set on YouTube clearly not his best work, but over three and a half million people have watched on YouTube, which all suggest I am a loser doing a podcast in the basement whose opinions are just terrible. And Jim Gaffigan is right. I cannot argue with any of that. So those are the other specials that are quote not on the list.

Before we go, let’s take a look at the Golden Globes nominations for Best Performance in Stand Up Comedy on Television. They are Bill Mahers, Is anyone else seeing this? Brett Goldstein’s The Second Best Night of Your Life? That’s in my top twenty five, Kevin Hart’s Acting My Age that was my number two, Camille nan Gianni’s Night Thoughts not out yet, Ricky Gervais’s Mortality not out yet, and Sarah Silverman’s post Mortem also in my top twenty five. And I don’t get to pick the Golden Globe.

I don’t know how I would give the award to you here among the ones that I’ve seen, so definitely not mar and I like Goldstein a lot, but for me, I keep staring at Kevin Hart and Sarah Silverman and where I’m strung buggling is I have Kevin Hard as the number two special of the year because it’s funny but it’s not art, and what Sarah Silverman did, I would consider it to be art. Now, the correct answer here would be Mark Marin special, which was both funny and art. So I don’t know. Could I give a golden globe to Sarah Silverman and be like, this is an award winning piece of work, whereas Kevin Hard is just a good time in a theater for night. Or is that unfair to Kevin Hart because John, you got it at number two so it’s funny and mission accomplished.

I don’t know. I think if I had to vote, I think i’d vote for Sarah Silverman. Does that make any sense? Maybe it doesn’t. I’m not even sure it makes sense to me anyway.

That is the look at this year’s stand up comedy specials. Again, as I mentioned yesterday, there are a few that I haven’t been able to watch yet because I tape this on Tuesdays to who accommodate my publicist, and some aren’t out yet. Friday Night, Sarah Sherman released Live plus in the Flesh Tonight on Netflix, Robbie Hoffman’s Wake Up. I could see both of those making a revised version of this list. December nineteenth, com Ounanjianni’s Night Thoughts.

Vulture has that as their best special of the year. I’ll believe it when I see it. Tom Sigora’s Teachers on Netflix Christmas, even Ricky Gervai’s Mortality on Netflix December thirtieth. So I will do a revised, updated, quick flyover version of these lists at the end of the year, but for now, because I had a hand on the homework, those are my top twenty five stand up specials of the year. I listened to yesterday’s episode.

I’ll combine with today, and those are my thoughts on the year. I would like to hear your thoughts. And we have a Facebook group which is Daily Comedy News Podcast Group. I’ll remind everybody it’s just a list. I’m just a dude in the basement hosting a podcast.

Your list will be different. Your list is valid. My list is valid. Vultures list is valid, Golden Globes list is valid. It’s all valid.

It’s comedy, it’s art, it’s subjective, whatever, it’s just a list I’ll see tomorrow.

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Featured: Mark Maron, Kevin Hart, Matt Rife, Jim Jefferies, Justin Willman, John Mulaney, Moe Amer, Dusty Slay, Bert Kreischer, Brett Goldstein, Michelle Wolf, Sarah Silverman, Tim Dillon

What’s in This Episode

• Top 25 Stand-Up Comedy Specials of 2025
• Mark Maron’s Panicked HBO Max Special
• Kevin Hart’s Acting My Age Netflix Special
• Matt Rife’s Unwrapped Christmas Special
• Upcoming December Comedy Specials Not Yet Available
• Early Year-End Comedy List Release Due to Publicist Timing

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. Today. It is the twenty five best stand up specials of the year, and let’s just dive in. Why are you doing this now, John?

The year is not over. Well. You see, I hired a publicist and she needs to get the lists out to everybody else who’s doing their year end recap. So I can’t wait until New Year’s Eve to put this out, so I have to jump in now. So with that said, there are at least five notable specials not part of this list because as I recorded this on Tuesday, they were not available yet.

They include Sarah Sherman Live and In the Flesh, which was on HBO last night tomorrow, Robbie Hoffman’s wake Up is on Netflix coming up on the nineteenth, Kamil nan Gianni’s Night Thoughts, which Vulture says is the best special of the year based on the trailer. I can’t believe that, but okay. Tom Sigora has a Netflix special on Christmas Eve, and Ricky Gervais has Mortality on Netflix on December thirtieth. So there’s a good chance all five of those or at least four of the five of those make my revised end of the year list, which I’ll put out around New Year’s Day. But for right now, these are the top twenty five stand up specials of the year.

I’m gonna jump right in, not mess around, not tease you, just tell you what it is. The answer is the top stand up special love twenty five is Mark Maren’s Panicked from HBO Max. This is Maren at his absolute best. He found a way to channel all the anxiety of the current movement into something both deeply personal and universally relatable. This was the year Mark Maron walked away from his podcast sadly, but he handed it in his best work.

Mark Maren’s Panicked easily the best stand up special of the year. Number two Kevin Hart’s Acting My Age on Netflix. Sorry haters, this one’s just funny. It’s Kevin Hart doing material about getting a little bit older. Laugh or laugh.

It’s there. I’m a guy sitting on the couch. Kevin Hart made me laugh. That’s the mission. Mission accomplished.

Same note from my number three special of the year, Matt Rife Unwrapped, a Christmas crowd work special. I know you like to hate on Matt Rife. I’m sorry, he’s funny. I posed it in the Facebook group Daily Comedy News Podcast Group that Matt Rife Special’s funny and people are like, really, Johnny mag you might be, as they say in Queens, are you on crack? And no, I’m not on crack.

I’m on the couch watching Matt Rife and laughing. And most of the people who took my word for it clicked on it and went, oh wow, that was really funny. Bit of a drop to the rest of the top tier here. So those three, I think stand alone a bit of a gap here down to number four. Jim Jeffries to Limb Policy on Netflix.

Jim Jeffries being Jefferies. Edis goes for it, always funny, always delivers. Number five Justin Willman’s Magic Lover on Netflix. Did you watch this one? It’s a comedy show plus magic.

Yeah, I know you’re like, what, trust me? Watch it? Justin Wilman Magic Lover, blending magic in comedy. It works. Number six and one of these years this guy’s going to top the list.

This is someone in ascendency. Longtime listeners of this program know what a fan I am. We are still at the point where I can somewhat easily get him to come as a guest on this show. We’ll see how long that laughs, or if he’s the new Jim Gaffigan. I think he’ll still come on.

He’s Gianmarco Soresi Sareisi Thief of Joy on YouTube. Fantastic. People are noticing how good he is. I saw he as a million three followers on Facebook. Now, like I said, one of these years, he’s going to be number one on the list.

Number seven kind of under the radar came and went, but I watched it and it was really good, and it was someone who had something to say. Moe Amer’s Wild World on Netflix even did a bit of a Carlin esque thing at the end there. Really like that one a lot. On number eight. One of my favorite working comedians these days, Dusty Slay’s Wet Heats, also from Netflix, quote unquote Southern comedy, working, clean, shucking jokes, love Dusty Number nine Netflix again.

Bert Kreischer is lucky, Bert being Bert. Take your shirt off, tell a couple fun stories, be chartismatic. My note on this was just funny. Sometimes you don’t have to overthink the comedy, specially you come right down the middle. Burt Kreischer knows what his fans want, he delivers.

That’s a good one. Number ten Brett Goldstein for the second best night of your life. That’s nominated for a Golden Globe. You might be like the guy from ted Lasso. He’s good at stand up.

Yeah, he’s good at stand up. Number eleven Michelle Wolf’s The Well Netflix Again. I have in my notes here not hilarious, but, as I’m always say, for this next bunch of specials, good company. Enjoyed just staring at it and having my brain tickled. I wasn’t like ah for an hour, but I thought that was really good.

That’s my number eleven special Michelle Wolf At twelve Sarah Silverman’s post Mortem, also on Netflix. Netflix had a hell of a year here, very thoughtful comedy, which is a weird thing to say. I really enjoyed spending an hour on the couch with Era, so to speak, very very enjoyable. All right. One night when I was diving around Netflix, I came across Matt McCusker’s Humble Offering and I wrote, poor Man Sheen gillis.

Yeah, maybe, but the special works. The audio could be better. This is a little bit homebrew, but the material lands. Number fourteen, our first Hulu special, Mateo Lane’s Al Dente, same note as I’m a one trick pony, I wrote, maybe not hilarious, but Mateolane is a nice company for an hour and sometimes that’s enough. And number fifteen the last of the top tier specials, Tim Dillon’s I’m Your Mother.

If you like this podcast, you’ll like this special. If you don’t like Tim Dillon’s podcast, you won’t. Simple as that, take a break here and I’ll tell you about the middle tiers. We take a look at Johnny Max’s top twenty five comedy specials of the year, not including the five that didn’t come out yet. Earlier I said there was that top three of Marin Hart and Rife, and then a bit of a gap.

Then I had the rest of my top tier. This is the middle tier. This is still the top twenty five, but these aren’t quite on par with everything that came before. The commercial break. Number sixteen special of the year, Mike Kaplan’s Reenie.

You’ll find that on YouTube. Clever writing, clever execution, definitely worth your time. Seventeen Hulu again, Chinado Unaka’s LOL Live that’s a part of the Kevin Hart Brand. Nice debut special, Very funny eighteen Drad Carmichaels Don’t Be Gay on HBO and here’s the thing. For twenty minutes, it’s brilliant Carmichael at his best.

Then it kind of gets tired. This is a talented storyteller with something to say, but it just doesn’t land. And after like twenty minutes, I’m like, oh, okay, nineteen Roywood Juniors at your age on Hulu. I know a lot of people really like this one. It’s a solid pro doing solid pro work.

Twenty yachtsco at Kotska’s father. I think maybe I was a little disappointed in it because I loved her previous special so much. I was like, oh, this is gonna be amazing, and it was solid, not amazing, but definitely put eyes on that. Twenty one Ian Edwards untitled. Now.

I didn’t even know this existed. You’ll fund it on YouTube until Vulture put it in their top ten. It’s a nice club set. It’s nothing special, there’s nothing wrong with it. There are a few individual chunks that are quite memorable, a few individual jokes that are even more memorable, But you know to compare this to some of the things higher up on the list.

No way. It’s a nice, solid club set, but it’s the sort of thing that you’d expect to see at the Chuckle Hut on Thursday night at the Late Show, not if you went to the arena and if he and Edwards handed that in, if that makes sense. Arii Shafeer America’s Sweetheart on Netflix. A lot of people really like that one. I just couldn’t connect with it.

Wasn’t digging it. It was okay. And I’m starting to pull teeth a little bit here. This was not the strongest year for comedy specials. Twenty three Gabriel Iglesias Legend of Fluffy from Netflix back in January.

Here’s the problem. It’s an hour forty one. I can’t I have comedy add I can’t watch one guy for an hour and forty one minutes. No way, Gabe is funny, but this needed editing. Hey Gabe, maybe this was two really good fifty minute specials.

I don’t know why they went an hour forty one. He too much. Number twenty four Mike Birbiglia is The Good Life on Netflix. My note, civilians will like it Bverbiglia does his storytelling thing well, it’s well crafted, it’s a good version of what it sets out to be. Just not my cup of tea, but I understand the civilians like it.

Twenty four is Mike Burbigulia running out the top twenty five. Jessica cursons, I’m the man, hilarious, same note, civilians are gonna like this. It’s fine. I’m a comedy snob. It’s fine.

Some others that were on par with that, but I had a hand in a top twenty five, not a top twenty eight for the Publicist. So you can rank these twenty six, seven, and eight however you want, but these are among the better specials of the year. Larry the Cable Guys It’s a Gift on Amazon. Cable guy knows what you want and cable Guy gets here done. Kathleen Madigan The Family Threat on Amazon.

Kathleen is a pro, always hilarious, always puts a smile on your face. And Leanne Morgan’s Unspeakable Things on Netflix, totally fine comedy stobbing me went, yep, this is good, but it’s just not my cup of tea. So you know I got it. Her audience loves her. I’m not her audience.

That’s all fine. So those are Johnny max twenty five best stand up specials of twenty twenty five so far, not including the ones that aren’t rut yet. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at six of the funniest things of the year there weren’t stand up specials, and I’ll fly down what didn’t make the list, and i will comment on the Golden Globes and nominations and meet you back here tomorrow

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Featured: Sarah Sherman, Steven Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, John Mulaney, Robbie Hoffman, John Stewart, Yusef, Dick van Dyke, Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, Roywood Junior, Cameron Esposito, Rosebud Baker, George Severs, Gianmarco Soresi Serrasie, Chris Fleming

What’s in This Episode

• Sarah Sherman HBO Special ‘Sarah Sherman Live Plus in the Flash’
• Robbie Hoffman Netflix Special
• John Stewart Receives Walter Cronkite Award for Comedic News and Commentary
• Late Night Comedy Jokes About Trump and Kennedy Center Honors
• Top Twenty-Five Stand-Up Specials of 2025 List Coming Tomorrow
• Dick van Dyk Turns 100
• New York Times Best Comedy of 2025 Rankings

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Johnny Mac with your daily comedy and he was. Tomorrow on this program, I will reveal the top twenty five stand up specials of the year, not including the five major ones still to come out later in the year. But that’s tomorrow’s program. It is a quiet day at the end of a quiet week as the comedy industry seems to have gone into hibernation.

Let’s take a look at the late night jokes. Steven Colbert was talking about the cold. He said, it was the kind of weather today that makes you wish you were someplace tropical, like on a boat in the Caribbean, but not near Venezuela, which is a great joke. Jimmy Fallon getting very edgy for Jimmy Fallon, he said, yeah. First when Trump heard it dipped into the teens, he was like, what Epstein file did they release?

Now. Kimmel joked about how they want us to work out of the airport. Now, he said, that’s one idea, or hear me out, maybe just try to have the planes leave on time so we don’t need to come up with fun ways to hang out at the airport all day. Last weekend, Trump hosted the Kennedy Center Awards. Jimmy Kimmel said he’s been boasting about hosting, saying, we’ve never had a president host the Kennedy Center Honors before, which, yeah, why do you think that is?

We’ve also never had Neil Patrick Harris order a military strike on a fishing boat before. Among the five major specials that are not on my list because I haven’t seen them tonight, Sarah Sherman is on HBO tonight. Now my HBO is back. My son did go to the phone store and argued with them and successfully lobby to restore my free HBO. I was able to catch up on The Chair Company.

Good show, you should be watching it. I felt like a senior citizen last night. I felt like I turned to my mom. I was watching the most recent two episodes and I was like, I don’t even know what’s going on. How did we get to the scene.

But it’s such a roller coaster ride. Watched The Chair Company. I don’t know if America is ready for Sarah’s squirm. The New York Times caught up with Sarah and they said, somewhere in Sarah Sherman’s apartment is a prosthetic eyeball that once peered out of her grandmother’s skull. You see when Sarah was a child, Grandma liked to remove its iris and start off with one milky white orb.

Sarah said it was terrifying but also really funny. After Graham, I’ll pass away. Sarah Sherman inherited the eyeball and sometimes wears it as a necklace. Sarah Squirm Live Plus in the flash HBO Tonight the Time, says Sherman enthusiastically repulses her audience while counting on her material to keep them in their seats. Sarah says, I like getting screams of terror and groans.

I like playing with how far I can push people and then bring them back with comedy. Sarah talked about her heroes Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller talk about the same stuff that I talk about. They were just funnier and I have images and props. As for my concern that America’s not ready for her, she said she never considered toning it down. Telling the Times, even if people hate the special, I’m like, this is what I’m really good at.

Before in advanced screening in December, workers handed out barf Bags.

Also out this weekend, Robbie Hoffman’s special that’s on Netflix Sunday Night.

And I think the Sunday Night football game is a dog, right, so this might work out. Well. What’s Sunday Night football this week? Oh no, it’s Cowboys Vikings. That’s watchable, all right.

I often blow off Sunday Night football. It’s like too much. It’s like, all right, I watched seven hours of sports already, need to do something else. Plus there’s that hour between the late games and the eight o’clock Maybe I’ll get in there. I’m excited for Robbie Hoffman.

When I saw John Mulaney was producing her special, which he did, I brushed up on Robbie Hoffman as part of what I do for a living, and I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, I’m excited for this one. Robbie told Gaiety dot Com. I’ve been very slow and steady wins the race. I’ve been working a long time, but steadily chipping and enjoying. Congratulations to John Stewart.

He will receive the Walter Crunkite Award. They have a new category. It is Comedic News and Commentary. Stuart will be recognized for his work on The Daily Show, well earned, but are there enough people to give out that category every year? So you’re going to wind up giving it to Oliver and Seth Myers and Roywood Junior and then who, I guess that’s a problem for five years from now.

Wow, John Stewart’s sixty three years old. Now I guess I’m fifty six, So I guess. Wow, All right, we all got old. Everybody. The Cronkite people said John Stewart redefined satire as a student insights based on solid research.

They lauded Stewart as a master of his class, saying he remains relevant, bringing five valuable facts to light, advancing public discourse, and using civic action awesome. Yusef said, when the revolution in Egypt broke out, I did the one thing that made sense to me. I left medicine and became a comedian. He was at the Bridge submit in Abu Dhabi and said, I’m in this very peculiar position where I’m a comedian, but my name is associated with wars, revolutions and human tragedy. For some reason, people take my jokes more seriously than they should.

We live in a world where a TikTok video gets more engagement than a UN resolution, and where a comedian’s Instagram post about Gaza gets more traction than a fifty page Amnesty International report. I’m invited to political forums, hard talk interviews, and serious events, but I don’t know if this says more about how seriously people take comedians or how much of a joke serious discourse has become. Is it because comedians are brilliant, absolutely not. Is it because somewhere along the way the circus became more trusted than the Senate and gestures became more credible than the journalists. People have found more truth in comedy clubs than in the outlets of the free press.

As I mentioned, tomorrow is the top twenty five stand up specials of the year, so I won’t have an opportunity to wish Dick van Dyk a happy one hundredth birthday, so I will wish it to him in advance. Vandik told People Magazine. I’ve always thought that anger is one thing that eats up a person’s insides, and hate, and these were things I didn’t like, people I don’t like and disapprove of, But I was never able to do a white heat kind of hate. He says his brighter outlook is one of the reasons he’s made it to ninety nine slash one hundred. He also credits his wife, or Lean and says, without question our ongoing romance it’s the most important reason I’ve not withered away into a hermetic rouch.

Arlene is half my age, and she makes me feel somewhere between two thirds and three quarters my age, which is still saying a lot. It is less season. Friend of the show, Jason Zinnemann in The New York Times put out something on Thursday called Best Comedy of twenty twenty five. Jason has Roywood Junior’s Lonely Flowers as his best special under a category called best Auturist Special is Cameron Esposito’s Four Pills, and says Esposito patient Lean Worf’s a swaggering act about dark subjects, including divorce, rehab, a relationship with a clown into something fractured, emotional and stylish. The best parenting comedy is rosebud Baker’s The Mother Load and George severest a Sense of Urgency.

I don’t know George’s special. Let’s say George wonders whether he should join his gay friends and having children. Before concluding he would like to skip the diaper’s phase and go right to the port where his daughter’s of bohemian playwright. Best YouTube special goes to Gianmarco Soresi Serrasie Thief of Joy. None of us can argue with that, and people who listen to this podcast now, I’m a big fan of Gianmarco Soresi.

Three time guest Best Range Chris Fleming. Jason and I are aligned here. We really like Chris Fleming. One of the loudest comedy audiences I heard this year was when Fleming performing at Union Hall in Brooklyn. Right Zi him In imagined a drawn out fight between the Fresh Air host Terry Gross and Adam Driver.

What was more impressive is two days later at Carnegie Hall, he took the same at Ceial below to his fiscality and did just as well. He has Mark Marin’s special listed under Funniest spoof of the Right, quoting the killer line from Maren’s special, you do realize we annoyed the average American into fascism. Best Lineup went to the Mark Twain Awards. I will talk about that over the weekend, and Best Year and Surprise he gave it to Jim Gaffigan’s Bourbon Special Live from Old Forrester. According to Zinneman, in a fragmented culture where many specials feel padded out, it’s a savvy move to go deep and narrow, a labor of love that comes off as a little holiday gift.

Comedy stock markets. Thank you, Bert Reynolds. Again, I will remind everyone the comedy stock market is where we find value to make hypothetical money off comedians who are undervalued, and then we try and sell high on comedians who are overvalued. This is not saying anyone is good or bad. We’re just looking at relative value, how they’re valued in the mainstream media these days, and where we can find some value.

I got a recommendation from one of the listeners who sent me a cover art for Nikki Glaser promoting the Golden Globes, and let me open up my phone here so I can describe this to you. We are going to sell Nikki Glaser. Here. We see Nicki. Now, the first thing that draws your attention are her boobs, because she’s showing a lot of boobs here.

Minimal dress on the top here covering the extra naughty parts. But we’re seeing a lot of boobs, your eyes go straight to the boobs, and then your eyes are drawn over to the phallic ish trophy and Nicki looking longingly after the phallic like trophy while her boobs are hanging out. I like comedy, I like sex. I like the golden globes. I don’t need to mix all three.

We’ll sell Nikki Glaser. We’re also gonna sell Sarah Sherman. Now. Again, this is not good or bad. I’m really excited for Sarah Sherman’s special.

I really like Sarah Sherman. I’m prepared for Sarah squirm. I don’t think America is I think people are gonna be like, oh, it’s the nice, weird lady that makes fun of Colin Joe’s from Saturday Night Live. Let’s check her out, and they’re gonna be horrified by this. So let’s sell Sarah Sherman right now, while all the press is out there, before people actually watch this thing.

So this is an example of we’re getting good value if we sell today. Conversely, let’s load up on Robbie Hoffman. I know last week I told you to buy Robbie Hoffman. Let’s double down on Robbie Hoffman before that special comes out, and especially that’ll be on Netflix and people will be like, what’s this? Let me hit play on this and they’ll be like, oh, that was really good.

So I think we’re getting really good value on Robbie Hoffman. Looking ahead to twenty twenty six, let’s sell Marcelo Hernandez stock do we even have any Well, maybe we’ll short sell it. He’s got a special on Netflix, and I’m convinced he does two things well, one a Sebastian Maniscalco impression, so that’s good for thirty seconds that you’re special, and he does Domingo and things that might as well just be called Domingo. I don’t know if he’s got an hour in him. We’re gonna find out on Netflix in January.

But I’m gonna sell Marcelo Hernandez and we probably should buy some Jimmy Kimmel extended for another year, and you’re probably like, well, Johnny already extended. So where’s the value here? Here’s the value? When Colbert’s show ends? Where are those people going to go?

Like the people like my mom, they’re not going to switch over to Jimmy Fallon. I think they’ll go over to Kimmel. I think Colbert’s audience is more aligned with Kimmel than Fallon, and the late night audience has to go somewhere. Some of them will just fade away because like my mom would just leave on CBS, and you could put this show on CBS and should stare at it. I think Kimmel is going to pick up a decent amount of audience.

So this is long term buy here. Let’s buy some Jimmy Kimmel. Right, So we’re selling Nikki Glaser, we’re selling Sarah Sherman, we’re selling Marcelo Hernandez, we’re loading up on Robbie Hoffman, and we’re buying some Jimmy Kimmel. Let that’s your comedy stock market for this week. An update on Andy Dick from TMZ.

TMZ says Andy invited a TMZ photographer into his La home on Wednesday to talk about the incident I reported yesterday. Andy apparently told the cameraman he’s one hundred percent fine, and then he changed his answer to one hundred and ten percent fine, as TMZ tells it, Our cameraman then asked what happened on Tuesday. Andy let one of his friends take center stage, the dude starts talking about the day and then Andy cuts him off. When the convo turns to one of his other down on his luck friends, Andy said he sat down next to the guy who whipped out some crack, and from that point forward everything went downhill. Andy said he need a little bit of that meaning crack.

And then it’s told quote that TMZ is calling stunning. I don’t mind doing some crack every now and then. I hope you’re okay, Andy Dick. I’m not sure you are. Brad Williams was on Jacksonville Radio.

He found out about the minor league baseball team and said, how am I not a fan of a team that are called the Jumbo Shrimp. That’s amazing. I’m four foot four. I should be wearing Jumbo Shrimp merchandise wherever I go. I will literally fly out from California.

I will leave my hot Chinese wife and my wonderful daughter just to be out there throughout a first pitch for a Jumbo Shrimp game. Let’s make this happen, all right, Mitchell and Webb are not helping. We’ll get a second season from the UK’s Channel four. That’s great, Charlie Perkins is head of Comedy for Channel four and mister Perkins said, they said sketch was dead, but the success of Mitchell and Webb are not helping with audiences on linear streaming and social proofs otherwise making a hit on top of having the ability to showcase so many incredible new writers and performers alongside David and Robert has been an immense honor and joy. Thank you so much to our exceptional Series one ensemble.

We’re looking forward to offering more brilliant writers and performers the opportunity on series two. Long Live Sketch Comedy will stay in the UK. They say to be working this week. The US is not so much. They’ve made a change to the judging panel on BBC two’s Great British Menu.

Phil Wang will replace Ed Gamble as one of the judges. I like Phil’s comedy a lot. Phil said, I’m so excited to be the new judge on Great British Menu. I’ve been an avid food lover all my life. I’m thrilled about this opportunity to taste food from the most creative and skilled chefs in the country.

Can’t wait to put my mouth where my mouth is Ed Gamble said, I can think of no better person to pass the Golden Spoon two than my dear friend and frequent dining companion, Phil Wang. He’s hilarious, great company, and crucially matches my appetite more than anyone else I’ve met. I’ll miss everyone on the team, but I know they’ll forget about me as soon as they start chomping with the Wang. And that is your comedy news for today. Alright tomorrow Top twenty five stand up specials of the Year Sunday is other stuff that was funny, for example, the Mark Twain Awards, Tires, things like that, and all the other specials that didn’t make my list and my reasons why.

And I’ll see you here tomorrow.

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Featured: David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Taylor Tomlinson, Sarah Sherman, Michelle Wolf, Andy Dick, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers

What’s in This Episode

• David Letterman appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Andy Dick found unresponsive in Hollywood
• Taylor Tomlinson cancels remaining Save Me Tour dates due to illness
• Sarah Sherman HBO special premiering Friday
• Michelle Wolf discusses motherhood and stand-up comedy career

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hey there, I’m Jenny mack if your Daily Comedy News. David Letterman was on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and I gotta tell you him a mixed thoughts here. On the one hand, it felt like the old Dave. But on the other hand, I kept thinking that Dave’s appearance was the kind of guest that used to drive Johnny Carson nuts because Dave sits down and just starts doing shtick and isn’t really having a real conversation anyway.

Let’s listen. I’ve edited this down for pacing. I love man. I love him more than Chinese food. That’s right.

I love him more than Valet Parking. I love him more than that cars for Kids song. I just that’s really good. Yeah. Yeah.

People are aware of the fact that you are the leader of the resistance. I’m gonna suck up to you because I feel like if I kind of tag along with you, I’ll be glorified in retrospect. I know. It’s kind of like you just sit there. If the now this is irrespective of a party or political ideology, irrespective part of your political ideology.

If the leader of the free world is a fool, the leader of the free world, then should expect and examine every bit of ridicule he received. Kim Al asked Letterman if you ever missed hosting Late Night, and Dave said, people used to know who I am and now have to wear a name tag to get anything going. I’m so glad to be out from under this mess because people like you, and people like Stephen Colbert and people like Seth Meyers do such a masterful job of this defending democracy. Thank god for you they got for others SNL and everybody else. I think it’s the way things need to be in a democracy that seemingly this crippled Andy Dick was apparently discovered unresponsive in Hollywood on Tuesday.

Reports suggested it was an apparent overdose. Photos obtained by TMZ show Andy Dick slumped over while sitting on some stairs. The only male reported that. Witnesses at the scenes said Andy Dick’s friends rushed over to him and shouted wake up. Others called nine to one one.

Some others say that Andy cried out for narcan, which is a medication that is used to halt and reverse the effects of opioid use, including in the event of an overdose. Hope Bowl is okay with Andy Dick. Interesting. Taylor Thomson’s story surfaced yesterday. Now apparently she put out a video on November eighteenth.

Check your calendar this so this has been around, but I only first saw any whiff of this yesterday. In the November eighteenth video, Taylor Thompson said, as you guys know, I had to move some shows because I got sick. And if you went to a few of the shows in the weeks before, you know I was sick for a little while, and unfortunately I’m still sick and dealing with that. Luckily, I have a great team and a great doctor, and I’m trying to follow their advice at the moment. As a result, I’m not going to be able to finish out these last cities on the Save Me Tour.

This is not an easy decision to make. It’s not when I want to make. Now this is really interesting, and maybe I’m putting two and two together and getting seventeen. But you may recall that after Midnight had been renewed, and then Taylor said she didn’t want to do it, and then they unrenewed it, and then somebody, possibly perhaps looked at late night in general, and got rid of Colbert. As I’ve said in the past, I’m not blaming Taylor, but she may be the butterfly that flapped their wings anyway.

Taylor Toman said, I haven’t been one hundred percent for a while now. I’m really bad at prioritizing my health, and I think it’s just caught up with me, and I need to prioritize that at the moment and focus on getting healthy, not just like good enough to work, which is what I usually do.

And also like I don’t want to keep rescheduling on you guys, She explained, i…

She’s also worried that if the tour dates were postponed until after her special is released, people will think we could just watch this at home, So she says, I just want to refunder your money. This sucks. Life happens, and this is where we’re at right now. I love you and appreciate you think for understanding. She did not clarify what her illness is, and again it’s unclear to me what she means by for a while now.

If that’s after the twelve thirty renewal, or perhaps even before and again, I might be adding two and two and getting seventeen here. I hope you’re doing okay, Taylor Tomlinson. Sarah Sherman Special is out on HBO on Friday. Oh good news. My son came home to get his new phone and he knows I was a little frost about the HBO thing, so he went down to the phone company store and who’s like, hey, Dad, it’s not happy with this.

And apparently he found a cool customer service rep who’s putting the HBO back. So I’ll be able to watch Sarah Sherman without having to stand out in the cold looking through someone else’s window. Great news. I also get to finish the Cheer Company. I had one episode left, I mean, come on, Nylon asked Sarah Sherman, Hey, you’re on your fifth year at SNL.

Wow is it five years already? How you feeling about this season? Sarah said, I was editing the special kind of right up on a going back to work. So Shifting Gears has been whiplashy and startlaning, but also kind of fun. The show is forced me to be like, hey, you actually have to write a joke.

You can’t just be screaming about poop all the time. And I feel like the show’s made me more grounded. I know it’s funny after watching that to think of anything being grounded that I ever do. But I’m in drag at work. Basically, they put me in a lot of blonde wigs.

I’m a normal woman who’s like, hey, grandma, whatever, All right, Sarah Sherman, how do you want people to feel away walking from this special? She says, I don’t even know how I want them to walk away. I want them to walk towards it. That people wi see the post and be like, oh, this isn’t for me. This is for bisexuals in Brooklyn with gay little haircuts.

But I promise there’s something I did for everyone. There’s jokes, there’s stuff to look at. It’s definitely not boring. I hope people walk away not bored. And she’s reading the room.

They asked her, all right, what about people that only know you from SNL any warnings? She said, do not eat while watching Oh my, I’m looking forward to this one. Michelle Wolfe is on the Good One podcast. She says being on stage is like a tiny vacation and now that she’s a mom. I’ve become a much more efficient joke writer because I have a limited amount of time to write jokes.

Now I feel like I have an actual personal life to talk about. Although you do see reviews from people that are like another comedian at a kid another time about being a parent, and it’s like, yeah, one of the most relatable experiences a human can have. A good one asked her if she could have gotten where she was in her career if she’d become a mom earlier. Michelle said, as a stand up, between touring and working at night and all that stuff, it’s nearly impossible to do it without an extensive support system. In order for me to go on a tour with a baby, it’s a nanny, which means more flights, more hotels.

You’re just spending a lot more money. And earlier in my career, I wasn’t making that much money. I would have been spending at least what I was making just to do the shows. So the kind of grind that you have to have and stand up, I don’t think I would have been able to do it. And even right now, I’ve got my eye on that private jet money.

At the moment, I know everyone can roll their eyes about rich people right now, but I’ll tell you what, if I can travel on a jet with two children, I’ll post my feet on OnlyFans for a little bit. The conversation changed to the Rio Comedy Festival. Michelle was offered it and turned it down, and she said, I didn’t have to make a decision. The decision was made for me. The show they offered me was on October fourth, My due date was September twenty ninth, So whether I wanted to do it or not really wasn’t part of the question.

It would have been literally impossible, and it had it been a different time, I really would have had to weigh the pros and cons of it because they were throwing crazy people and then in your head you’re like, well, maybe this opens up a whole new market for me. But I do think anything paid for by a government, that’s a hard one to do, and a lot of countries like this, everything’s paid for the eye of the government. You can travel to America and do a lot of things that are not sponsored and paid for by the government. If I had decided to do the festival, I would have done jokes like the ones I’ve released are very similar to them. I would have been like, I got to throw at least one or two of those in there.

So I think it’s best for everyone that I didn’t do it. But I think a lot of people like Jessica Kerson, who people got really angry with, but she said, I’ll only do it if I’m allowed to be an open lesbian on stage, and they were like, okay, And I do think that’s important. I think what she did was a big deal. I think was very brave of her. There were probably a ton of people who had never heard of lesbian new comedy, and I feel bad that people got angry about that, because I think she’s breaking a barrier.

Mike Apps got a Netflix special in January, so as we head into late January, the nominees for Best stand up Special of twenty twenty six will be either Mike Epps or Morselo Hernandez. The special is called delusionalan to be out January twenty seventh. It is Mike EPP’s fifth for Netflix. In it, he discusses how a little delusion and a lot of hustle made him a star. There was a Nikki Glaser item in the News I feel like we knew this already, but Deadline reported it like it was real, So maybe I’m just crazy Anyway.

Nikki Glaser, Fortune Fimester, and some others will join Kim Kardashian in the Netflix comedy The Fifth Wheel. The film follows a group of best friends from high school who attempt to reconnect during a weekend jaunt to Vegas. When a hot outsider, Kim Kardashian, crashes the weekend, they’re forced to face their messy lives, bad decisions, and unraveling friendships. Anthony Jelinek wrote a guest piece for Vulture about books. Anthony writes, as I’m writing this piece, I’ve read fifty one novels that were released in twenty twenty five.

I choose what to read either based on the description written by the publisher or because I recognized the author’s name and enjoyed their previous work. For the past five years, I’ve kept the list of everything I’ve read, and then gone back through and created a top ten list of novels I’ve read from that year for social media to admire and or make fun of. This year, I’ve graduated to publishing my lin Vulture behind a paywall. His number one pick of the year is Perfection by Vincenzo Letronico, translated by Sophie Hughes. Jalnik tells us this one is tough to describe without using some version of the word perfect.

It’s about a young couple of digital creatives who can work from anywhere in the world. They choose Berlin at a time when living in Berlin was the coolest thing anyone could possibly do with their youth. It’s not just the only novel I read twice this year, but the only one I read in one sitting, riveted by the vivid description of a life many of us consider, but few choose to pursue. Jim Gaffigan released a clip on social media. Now, I gotta be honest.

I went into this cynically, going okay, he was only on social media to sell us something, But no, he didn’t sell anything in this clip. The material is really strong here. If you can imagine this with a crowd, a lot of these jokes would have landed as it is. It’s just Jim talking into the camera, laying down some I guess extra material he needed to get out of his system. I did cut this down.

The original piece, which we’ll find on Jim social media as a minute forty two, which is kind of long to excerpt. Tier. Let me give you a taste into the break. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. Really, is it the most wonderful?

Have you been outside seeing the crowds, the traffic, ever go through security in the airport in December. I’ll tell you one word that doesn’t come to mind, wonderful. Gossip Conna stood in the street, Gossip Conna, Bobby, Bobby, gossip Conna with Johnny Mage. It’s always a tree. Pete Davidson spoke to People magazine.

Pete is excited about his new baby. He says he’s just excited to meet this little thing. And as for a name, he explains, for a while, we were like, should we do that weird Hollywood thing where it’s like a color or something, And I think now we’re more into Staten Island normal among the considerations, Mikey, Johnny, Tommy, mar Amy, Bridget, Maggie, something like that. I missed that. Remember when you were growing up, you knew like seven francs.

Although he says we were thinking the middle name could be a little more fun Pete apparently is getting a Honda Odyssey. This from the Autopia in your Home for comedy News. Pete said, I’m about to be dad, so I figured it was time to drive something practical but not boring. I’ve always used eBay to find just about anything, like classic TV Memorabilian sneakers, so of course that’s where I found my van too. I used to have a Hanna Odyssey.

I loved it. Pete Davidson’s custom Honda Odyssey includes a changing table, a power bank for the vacuum cleaner, a bottle warmer, and a refrigerator. They’ve also added a VHS. They found a new one on eBay, unused from nineteen ninety one. Guy named Angelo delivered the custom van to Pete Davidson and asked Pete what videotape he wanted to use to test the vc or The answer he put in the first episode of The Sopranos in the VHS.

We watched the Sopranos, joked around a ton, and we went through all the features of the van. I showed him everything. He’s quite a bit taller than I am. And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll see tomorrow

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Featured: Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Sherman, Steve Carell, Taylor Swift

What’s in This Episode

• Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert event at New Jersey Performing Arts Center
• Stephen Colbert’s Late Show ending announcement
• Jimmy Kimmel show renewed by ABC through May 2027
• Jimmy Kimmel responds to Trump Kennedy Center Awards hosting claim
• Bill Lawrence’s new HBO show ‘Rooster’ with Steve Carell and John C. McGinley
• Sarah Sherman’s HBO special premiering Friday with unconventional format
• Please Don’t Destroy and White Claw ‘Roast Host Collection’ holiday merchandise

Questions Answered in This Episode

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Full Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.

Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News Boy. What an exciting night in Newark, New Jersey. Governor elect Mikey Cheryl was there. The Governor elect promised the entertainment event of a lifetime at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Jay Pack and who were there.

It was an evening with Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert. Hope they found something to talk about. Of course they talked about late night. I don’t know if you heard this, Stephen Colbert show is coming to an end. Conan O’Brien said, I’m sad about the form, but I’m a fifty two percent optimist, and I believe that humans find a way and really find people who are fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, twenty twenty five right now are going to use what’s available to make beautiful, hilarious, funny things.

I have to believe that it will not look the same way as our path. It will not be the same path, but it’ll more or less be the same idea. Addressing Colbert directly, one of the first things I said to you when this news broke There isn’t a person on this planet. Who’s worried about Stephen Colbert. These shows are a way for Stephen Colbert to relate to people, but they are not the only way.

There are so many different things that you can do, and you’re going to do that. They’re gonna give you enormous amounts of pleasure and you’re gonna be great at it. You’re just not there yet. You haven’t begun that yet. Conan said, there’s no better person I could be sharing the stage with right now.

The world is your oyster, and double down. Whatever Colbert does next is going to be amazing. Now, ABC has some news. I have news for your paying attention. I’m lifting the embargo on Hulu.

Aside from their not so good hilarious comedy special, that’s a whole other thing. But if you want to just push the green button on your moat and watch Scrubs on Hulu, go ahead, Because ABC Disney has made it clear they are not supporting fascism. Okay, why Johnny Mac. They have renewed Jimmy Kimmel, which is sure to make certain people unhappy, But go ahead. You don’t have to walk three flights of stairs to watch the Scrubs DVDs go ahead and push that button, which is good news for the Scrubs reboot.

I mean I was gonna have to stand out in the cold outside somebody’s house, peering through the window while they watched Scrubs, which is sometimes how I watch Knicks games because YouTube TV doesn’t have MSG less. I’ll stay out the street and somebody else is watching the next game and I watch it through their window. Kim Oll commented on Donald Trump hosting the Kennedy Center Awards on Sunday night. The President had said that if he couldn’t do it better than when Jimmy Kimmel hosted, he might have to give up being president altogether. Kimmell, of course, has never hosted the Kennedy Center Awards, which kim Oll pointed out, but he welcomed the idea of a talent competition matching his own skills, which are apparently jokes drawing and playing the clarinet, against Trump’s ability to golf, spank a porn starre and run a country.

The reveal came when kim Oll was talking about how apparently the President did not enjoy sixty minutes this week. Kim Olds said, I’m sorry you feel that way about sixty minutes, and the last thing I want to do is upset you at this sensitive time. But I have one more bit of entertainment news to share. I have decided to extend my contract here at ABC for another year. Our show has been renewed until May of twenty twenty seven, or until the world ends, whichever comes first.

On The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tonight, your guest is Taylor Swift.

Speaking of Scrubs, Bill Lawrence has a new show coming to a We’ll have to pa…

It is titled Rooster. It stars Steve Carell. One of the co stars John C. McGinley, you know him as Doctor Cox. Ten episodes.

Rooster is a comedy set on a college campus, centering on an author’s complicated relationship with his daughter. A lot of good pedigree there that should be good. Of course, I won’t be able to see it because my son went to the AT and T store and got a new phone and they got rid of the free HBO that I had, So I’m not happy with my son or the AT and T store. I’m gonna have to stand out on the street looking through somebody else’s window while they’re watching HBO and Hope the Rooster’s on very upset about my FREEHBO going away, like very very upset. Oh the Boiler’s back.

Yeah. I called him and I begged him like, will you please come? And they came. Man, it was cold here. Sarah Sherman has a special on HBO on Friday.

Again. I wish I could watch it, but you know, hope my son enjoys his new phone. She’s doing a lot of press. I’m saving a lot of the press for Friday when the special comes out. But one of the interviews she did was with Nylon dot Com and they said, I imagine people watch this special and be like, is she okay?

Yeah. I’m concerned that people are gonna be like, oh, Sarah’s so funny on Saturday Night Live, and I have no idea what they’re getting into when they watched this one. Sarah said, it’s funny. I did a show a couple weeks ago when the merch table was in the room, so the merch guy saw the whole show. I came up to him after the show and he’s like, oh my god, I thought you were gonna be root and mean, but you’re nice.

I would have hoped that in real life, I’m a lot tamer, but the show’s an expression of some very Jewish neurosis. Embodied some spoilers for the very opening Okay spoilers here, I’m not ruining the special for you, but apparently the opening sequence. Sarah says, so many stand up specials start with the comedian being backstage getting ready, and they’re in the green room. My version is that I’m not in a green room. I’m in a crypt and my bones and gour forming.

That’s my version of getting ready a right, so that sets the scene for what this thing’s gonna be. Sarah said, the show is really intense and loud and in your face. It’s almost like a total sensory experience. So me and the director were just like, we don’t want that to be flatten when people are watching it on their phones on the toilet. Sarah, how long does it take you to make a special?

She says, A really long time. I’ve been touring for ten years and this is my first specials of the material has been coming together for a while. Jesus prosthetics and said, pitching it to people and being like, I know this sounds crazy, but we need a little bit of budget to do something because stand up specials are cheap, and we’re like, but what if it wasn’t cheap? That’s funny. The guys from Please Don’t Destroy they have teamed up with White Claw Please Don’t Destroy has created the Roast Host Collection, a new line of holiday essential merch inscribed with various tongue in cheek roasts you see.

The collection was inspired by a recent White Claw survey that found that friends who regularly roast each other are nearly twice as loyal as seventy eight percent, saying roasting feels playful and friendly. The Royal Host Collection includes a serving plotter with You’re so brave for speaking before thinking, a set of four dinner plates also sold individually with lines like you couldn’t read a room if it had subtitles and unsolicited advice is your love language, as well as a serving bowl of napkins with equally hilarious inscriptions. Kevin Brady is the vice president of marketing for White Claw and said, the holidays we’re all about laughter, connection and maybe calling out your friend who makes the group chat go silent, and we love them for that. We’re raising a claw of the good natured bonding that makes the best friendships feel even funnier and hangs more memorable. The roast Ose collection of Albot white Claw dot com slash Holiday another merch drop coming out today, very exciting.

Meanwhile, Ricky Gervas is out howking his vodka for some reason. When he does it, I find it funny, And when Jim Gaffigan does it, I don’t know. I think it’s that Ricky is just blatantly telling you he’s trying to make money off this thing. But here’s Ricky Gervis will take us into the break. Thanks to everyone who’s subscribed to Dutchbarn dot com.

If you haven’t go there, you go into a draw every month someone wins a year’s supply of vodka and if you buy Ginger spiced, we help donkeys. I’ve also been tying up the money I’m going to give to animal charities from the tour through a little press release like that next week. So yeah, Dutch Barn Mortality Donkeys Very Christmas. Out today on the eight hundred pound Gorilla Channel. Luke Higgy’s tip Rat some more details out of Canada about that.

Dave Chappelle appearance. I scolded Mike from the Lehman podcast on the side. I was like, I thought you people were polite. Why are you being rude to Dave Chappelle? And it just he apologized because that’s what Canadians do.

Mike feels bad for the entire country being mean to Dave Chappelle. Anyway, CETV spoke with one person who says she was at the show. Let’s hear what she has to say. I have made some edits to this for pacing. Dave just shut down.

He said, like, I’ve done a million shows and this is the first time. I can’t wait to be off stage. Three quarters of the way through. That’s when the crowd kind of got a little rude. I’ll say, yeah, rude.

He just stood there and he looked at his watch and he’s like, I could stand here for the remainder of the show, for like the next ten minutes that we have and like, you guys can just scream at me and be ignorant or you know. Shane Gillis is a Notre Dame football fan. You may have heard that Notre Dame didn’t make the college football playoff and they were like you know what, we don’t need to play in any stupid bowl game. We’re good. Shane was appearing on the Film Guy Network and the Notre Dame topic came up.

Shane said he set an alarm to make sure he didn’t sleep through the selection show. He was convinced Notre Dame would be in then after Alabama showed up with the nine seed. According to Shane, once you see the number nine come up and it’s Bama, that was worse than watching Notre Dame lose a game that was terrible. That hurts. Gillis believes there is Bama bias, pointing out that Alabama didn’t lose any ranking despite losing to Georgia twenty eight to seven in the SEC title game.

Shane said, I understand not penalizing a team for being in the conference championship if they’re competitive or at least don’t have minus three yushing yards. But I don’t know if Alabama was competitive at all. It’s the SEC, it’s the best conference. Technically, Notre Dame didn’t really beat anybody. But I’m a fan.

I want Notre Dame in there. If you’re not to college football. Notre Dame is an independent they’re not in any particular conference. Gillis said, it’s finally catching up my whole life. Everybody’s been like, join a conference, and he said if Notre Dame does join one the Big ten or the SEC would be awesome.

Never the ACC after they were trayed us this year, Notre Dame got screwed. Whatever, We’ll be back watching that selection show and having your team left out that hurt. My day’s ruined. And that is your comedy news for today. I’ll see you tomorrow

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