‘Phantom Bread’: So Dumb, So Fun

It seems too easy: a Phantom Thread parody about a baker called Phantom Bread. Know what? It is that easy. Written by and starring Anna Salinas and Heather Alarcón Higginbotham, and deftly mapped to the source trailer by Colin Pierce, this sketch is the thing we never knew we always knew we never needed…and, if you’re anything like me, […]

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Essential Advice for Your First Party, by Matt Corluka

If you’re here, in my class, then you already know my story. Until I was 21, I’d never been to a party. And then everything changed. I went to a party, I learned the tricks, and yes, it was the first and last time I felt alive. Let’s begin. Congratulations! You’ve been invited to your […]

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The First Episode of ‘Hard Nation’ Is a Relic of a More Hopeful, Less Terrifying Era

Pod-Canon is an ongoing tribute to the greatest individual comedy-related podcast episodes of all time Here at Pod-Canon, we like to commemorate endings and/or milestones by traveling back to the very beginning to the kick-off episodes that launched some of our favorite podcasts. Sure enough, Earwolf’s wonderful political talk radio show Hard Nation appears to have ended […]

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@AyoEdebiri on Everyday Absurdity and Cool Teens

Ayo Edebiri is a Boston-born, Brooklyn-based comedian and writer. She wasn’t good enough for the Celtics but is making this comedy thing work. She’s in the sketch group Lo-Fi and currently works at The Rundown on BET.  This week, Edebiri talked to me about finding absurdity in everyday events and how she got into comedy, […]

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‘Beethoven’s Producer’ Shows the Changing Tide in Digital Comedy

It’s been nearly two years since we featured Chuck Armstrong and Charlie Stockman’s work, and in that time, digital comedy’s landscape has changed quite a bit. “Our new sketch is specifically about a content gatekeeper ruining an artist’s work in the name of commercial viability,” Chuck and Charlie told me. “The artist, in this case, […]

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Long Works of Literature Made Shorter—and Better—with the Addition of Dinosaurs, by Matthew David Brozik

Atlas Shrugged “Who is John Galt?” The light was ebbing, and Eddie Willers could not distinguish the bum’s face. The bum had said it simply, without expression. But from the sunset far at the end of the street, yellow glints caught his eyes, and the eyes looked straight at Eddie Willers—they were the eyes not […]

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‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine’ Boils Down the Justice System in a Moving Bottle Episode

Genie in a Bottle is a recurring feature where each week a different bottle episode (an episode set entirely in one location, often designed to save money) from a comedy series is examined. “Man, this guy is a good murderer!” “There’s got to be some way to break him.” Before David Simon was playing around […]

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Orli Matlow’s (@HireMeImFunny) Tweets are Jokes and Cries for Help

Orli Matlow is a New York-based comedian and writer who has performed at the Brooklyn Comedy Festival and is headed to the Women in Comedy Festival this year. She is a staff writer at Someecards and once contributed to New York magazine by translating the Hebrew edition of Playboy. Along with Ziyad Gower, she hosts the variety […]

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Garry Shandling and Ricky Gervais’s Epic Sparring Match

Judd Apatow’s two-part documentary on Garry Shandling, The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, was released this week on HBO and it is, in a word, beautiful. In several more words, it attempts to paint a complete picture of a man who seemed to refuse to allow anyone to ever see the whole thing. It digs […]

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‘Triple Kiss’: Billy Scafuri Goes Solo

With these ten minutes of sweet absurdity, the longtime Harvard Sailing Team (HST) member has flexed his muscles as a solo creator with an unmistakable directorial voice. The groundwork has been laid for a longer-form Billy, a Billy that — like other members of HST — spreads his wings past sketch, while still maintaining the sketch sensibility […]

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