How Did This Get Made?
Studio: Earwolf & Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas
Category: Comedy
What Is It
Three comedians and a rotating roster of guests watch & discuss bad movies.
Technical Details
The show has an alternating schedule where a full length episode comes out every two weeks, with minisodes falling on the weeks between full-length releases. The full-length episodes can run around ninety minutes or more; the minisodes have slowly ballooned in length over the years until they’ve gotten up to forty to forty-five minutes. Some of the show is behind a paywall with Stitcher premium, but Scheer has fought to keep a lot of the show free, so the iTunes archive and the official site both offer well over a hundred free episodes (well, with a few minisodes too, but still, there’s plenty of free episodes). But, let me just say, if ever a show was worth ponying up to get behind the paywall, it’s this one.
What About It
This one’s a classic, full-stop, probably the giant in the room when you talk about bad movie podcasts (The Flop House is probably the only legitimate competition). The three hosts have great chemistry and are all brilliantly funny. It would take too long to go through their varied careers, but if you’re a comedy podcast fan, you’ll know Mantzoukas (and the other two to a lesser extent) from Comedy Bang Bang, also an Earwolf show. They pick great movies, everything from big budget blockbusters to low budget indies. To get the most enjoyment, you should probably watch the movie to be discussed first, but, even if you haven’t seen it, you’ll still get lots of laughs. This is a brilliant show; quite possibly in my top ten, definitely in my top twenty.
4 stars.
Essential If
Johnny is your favorite customer.
Avoid Like the Plague If
You’re too busy at your job selling solar panels.
Best Starting Place
I’m already had a couple of episodes picked out for my selection on this post; I was afraid one of them might be behind the paywall, but it turns out they both are. However, they’re too damn good not to mention and, anyway, if you’re a podcast fan you may already have a Stitcher Premium subscription. I’ll mention those two and then close out with one you can still get free. The first is Birdemic: Shock & Terror. It’s infamous as one of the worst movies ever made; it’s certainly one of the most inept, but it’s maybe my very favorite bad movie – it just keeps delivering. Plenty of other bad movie sites and programs have taken a crack at this one, but this episode features Weird Al Yankovic as the guest and also features a surprisingly good interview with Whitney Moore, the female lead in the film. It is, as a lot of the episodes are, recorded live and the energy level is really great. Next up, The Devil’s Advocate. The guest on this one, which is also live, is Julie Klausner from How Was Your Week?, a podcast I don’t like as much as I wish I did. Again, they’ve made an inspired choice with this bombastic, magnificent, cheesy horror flick and the episode is great. And I’ll close with a more recent episode that’s still free. I’m going with the one where they take down The Shadow, the movie starring Alec Baldwin as a mystical crime-fighter in the 1930s. This one is, in my opinion, worth the price of admission purely for Paul Scheer’s unhinged intro which made me, ironically, laugh really hard. Anyway, troll the free archives or, if you’ve got that premium access already, troll the entire archive. I’m sure you’ll find movies you’ve seen; when you do, check out the episode. I can practically guarantee you’ll end up a fan; it’s hard for me to imagine a person not liking this show.