The comedy-podcast universe is ever expanding, not unlike the universe universe. We’re here to make it a bit smaller, a bit more manageable. There are a lot of great shows, and each one has a lot of great episodes, so we want to highlight the exceptional, the noteworthy. Each week, our crack team of podcast enthusiasts and specialists and especially enthusiastic people will pick their favorites. We hope to have your ears permanently plugged with the best in aural comedy.
My Neighbors Are Dead — Friday the 13th Month With Kelly Nugent
My Neighbors Are Dead is going all in on the Friday the 13th franchise this month. The podcast’s formula remains the same, with host Adam Peacock talking to lesser-known characters from listeners’ favorite horror movies; Peacock and “friends and luminaries from the worlds of comedy, horror, and beyond” improvise the hilarious conversations. But the schedule is changing to keep up with all the action adjacent to Jason Voorhees and will feature two episodes a week instead of one. First up is Kelly Nugent (Teen Creeps, Exile) to discuss Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter and assume the role of “Kim Milk, of the Milk family salami empire, who stops by to talk about growing up with Pamela Voorhees.” Milk is straightforward about her relationship with the Voorhees matriarch: “We were sworn enemies.” The reason for such bad blood between the women? Voorhees killed Milk’s salami sales. Not only would she not order any salami for Camp Crystal Lake but her revenge murders cut into Milk’s cash flow. She sowed “the seeds of discontent all around town,” so nobody wanted to “eat a fatty, salty meat,” says Milk. It’s a silly conversation about a scary movie that’s sure to elicit laughs. —Becca James
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
A Funny Feeling — “Happy Sh*t w/Sara Chase”
Boo! It’s time for the spookiest season of all: election season. Wait, no. That’s not right. As the leaves change and food is offered only as “pumpkin spiced,” it’s time to gear up for another haunting Halloween, of course. If you’re feeling festive and looking for a good scare outside of the very real horrors of modern-day politics and pandemics, our friends over at A Funny Feeling have you covered. While Freddy Krueger may be known as the “funny slasher,” I’m willing to bet hosts Betsy Sodaro and Marcy Jarreau deliver more consistently fun scares than the foulmouthed murderer. To help ring in the scary season, Sodaro and Jarreau welcome their first pandemic guest, Sara Chase (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt). After hearing some terrifying tales from Chase and a rather sweet story about a phone call her sister received from beyond the grave, Sodaro and Jarreau dive into the meat of A Funny Feeling: listener stories. This week, we’re treated to a fun series of tales featuring UFOs, government cover-ups, and a creepy farmhouse in Wisconsin. Double, double, toil and trouble; this spooky podcast will give you a chuckle! —Tom Rainey
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Things Are Going Great for Me — Melissa Fumero & David Lengel
In the timeline of podcasting, a pronounced blip will mark the shows that got their start during the time of the coronavirus. This time of the Great Weirdness is when actors and comedians are finding work scarce to none at all, so they’re turning to mics and Zoom to get whatever performance fix they can. J. Claude Deering is one such figure who banked a bunch of chats with fellow performer friends when shelter-in-place began in Los Angeles, and now he’s releasing them through Things Are Going Great for Me, a 12-episode “limited series.” This week’s main event is his old acting-school chum Melissa Fumero, who plays Amy Santiago on TV’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine but started out on Guiding Light, a long-running soap opera. They get into how BLM and other movements are shaping the scripts for the upcoming eighth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine and the various convolutions the show went through to hide her first pregnancy only to write her second one into the show. Onboard in the back third of the episode is another friend, hardworking character actor David Lengel, who talks a lot about the vagaries of casting via Zoom. He also explains the term hair actor, which is based on the variety of facial, head, and even body hair he has crafted, coiffed, and combed to help get the right feel for his characters. —Marc Hershon
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Other Podcasts We’re Listening To:
Let’s Get Lit — “The Eve of the War” with Judah Friedlander
Listen: Spotify | Website
Left Handed Radio — “Your Stupid Stupendous Brain”
Listen: Spotify | Apple | Website
Got a comedy-podcast recommendation? Drop us a line at comedypodcasts@vulture.com.
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