Good One

On this week’s special coronavirus-focused episode, stand-up comedians Roy Wood Jr. and Maria Bamford discuss how comedy has been affected and has adapted to COVID-19 and self-quarantining. First, Roy explains just how radically different it is for stand-ups to be unable to perform in front of audiences, and how the temporary closing of clubs (and the resulting recession) will cripple comedy club employees and touring comedians. Then Maria talks about what it’s like to perform comedy every day to 100 silent strangers over Zoom.Follow on social media: Roy Wood Jr. (Twitter, Instagram); Maria Bamford (Twitter, Instagram); Jesse David Fox (Twitter, Instagram) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, Daily Show senior correspondent Ronnie Chieng talks about his journey to his first Netflix stand-up special, Asian Comedian Destroys America!Born in Malaysia, Ronny grew up in Singapore and began doing stand-up in Australia, where starting comedians quickly put together hour-long sets to perform at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. So when Trevor Noah tapped him to join the Daily Show in 2015, Ronny moved to New York and faced a very different comedy scene in a very different country.  Four years later, Ronny’s joke examines American consumerism from the perspective of an outsider who has embraced American values, for better, and for worse. NOTE: This interview was recorded in January 2020.Watch Asian Comedian Destroys America! on Netflix. Follow Ronny on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Jesse David Fox on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When veteran stand-up Marc Maron recorded his latest hour special, End Times Fun, back in October 2019, he had no idea how topical it would be. Seven months later, End Times Fun has proven to be bizarrely, morosely timely, as it deals with themes of uncertainty, fear, and isolation, in the face of a looming apocalypse. In this episode, recorded in the shadow of the growing coronavirus pandemic, Jesse David Fox talks to the host of the seminal comedy podcast WTF about his opening, table-setting joke, which involves questioning how we know anything, and the utility of taking spices for medicinal purposes.Watch End Times Fun on Netflix. Follow Marc on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Jesse David Fox on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, standup comedian wunderkind Taylor Tomlinson (Self-Helpless podcast) talks about becoming one of the youngest comics ever to have their own Netflix one-hour stand-up special. Her path to taping her hilarious Quarter-Life Crisis at the age of 25 is an extremely nontraditional one: she started as a teenage Christian comedian, after taking a stand-up class with her father. This meant to fully become the comedian she wanted to be, she had to distance herself from her church and her dad.As a result of her religious upbringing, Taylor lost her virginity after she had already become an established comedian. The joke she discusses this episode mines the absolute absurdity of that for comedy, while slyly touching on more serious issues of consent. All building to a perfect classic movie reference!Watch Quarter-Life Crisis on Netflix. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Jesse David Fox on Twitter and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s episode, we welcome back Moshe Kasher, a comedian who’s best known as an early podcast pioneer (R.I.P. the Champs, long live Houndtall and The Endless Honeymoon) and one-half of the standup power couple with wife Natasha Leggero, who he starred alongside in Netflix’s Honeymoon Stand Up Special.This time he’s discussing the much maligned art of crowd work, where the comedian talks to audience members in search of laughs or a funny story. Moshe has become a modern master, able to turn the form that is often lazy and hacky into something ambitious and damn near spiritual. He compares crowd work to walking out on a tightrope and hoping that the rope goes all the way to the other side.The joke we discuss is a sex story from a Washington, D.C. woman that twists and turns, forcing Moshe to ride it like a wave. It’s off his appropriately titled album Crowd Surfing Vol. 1, which he released last year. Listen to the album wherever you listen to music. Follow Moshe on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Jesse David Fox on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Our two-part series on “comedians named Michelle” continues this week with Michelle Wolf. Michelle has been known to comedy fans for years for writing and performing on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.” But her headliner performance at the 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner made her a household name and changed the expectations of the audiences that went to see her stand-up. The joke discussed in this episode, which starts off with otter pictures on social media, opens her recent Netflix special, “Joke Show,” and is her attempt to reckon with her public perception, and to define her comedy by what she says, and not the reactions to it. NOTE: This episode contains a discussion about rape jokes.Watch “Michelle Wolf: Joke Show” on Netflix. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram and check out her upcoming tour dates on her website. Follow Jesse David Fox on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good One relaunches with comedian Michelle Buteau, who you may know as host of the Netflix reality show "The Circle," or her roles in "Always Be My Maybe" and the "First Wives Club" reboot on BET+. Michelle’s about to bring her conversational, big-hearted stand-up to a worldwide audience with her first Netflix one-hour special.Host Jesse David Fox talks to Michelle about a joke featured in her 15-minute set from Netflix’s “The Comedy Lineup.” The joke was recorded in February 2018, three months after the reports of sexual misconduct came out about Harvey Weinstein, leading to the explosion of the #MeToo movement. Michelle’s joke is her processing all she was seeing and hearing and, in turn, boiling it down to one perfect phrase. Also included: mid-century modern furniture. Watch “The Comedy Lineup” on Netflix and see Michelle record her Netflix special on March 1st at New York’s Sony Hall. Tickets on sale here. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Follow Jesse David Fox on Twitter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What goes into writing and telling a joke? Each week, Vulture senior editor Jesse David Fox breaks down a joke with the comedian or performer who told it. New episodes drop Tuesday mornings. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the episode you've been asking for -- yes all of you! The tables are turned as Josh Gondelman interviews Good One host Jesse David Fox (@JesseDavidFox), and poses all the big questions -- why a podcast about jokes? What's changed about comedy today? How are you relaunching the show? And what's up with the laughning round?Josh Gondelman (@JoshGondleman) is a comedian, the author of the recent collection of essays, Nice Try, and a co-executive producer of the Showtime series Desus & Mero, New episodes of Good One drop weekly on Tuesdays starting February 25th. Subscribe to Good One on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. From Vulture and the Vox Media Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In anticipation of the series finale of The Good Place, stars D’Arcy Carden and Manny Jacinto talk about how the show's writers came up with the unconventional romance between their characters Janet and Jason, what they're going to miss most about the show, and how playing Jason inspired Manny to propose to his fiancé. This panel was recorded live at Vulture Festival in Los Angeles on November 9th, 2019, and was moderated by The Good Place: The Podcast host/demon Shawn Marc Evan Jackson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices