all About the best: The Best Comedy Podcasts On Earth (Which You Should Subscribe To Immediately)

David Pemberton

Last Updated: June 13th

Comedy podcasts are essential listening for commuting, working out, doing the dishes, or long, solo road trips when you need to hear someone incessantly spouting out jokes and witty insight. So here are 20 of the best comedy podcasts right now that can’t be recommended enough:

My Brother, My Brother, and Me

David Pemberton

It’s an advice show for the modern era, hosted by three brothers who rarely give real advice. In fact, each episode opens with the warning that “their advice should never be followed.” That’s because Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy aren’t professional therapists or counselors or even consultants. They’re just three brothers who love to laugh.

And that’s exactly what makes My Brother, My Brother, and Me such an engaging, instantly inclusive podcast. The brothers spend each episode going through a mix of questions from their audience alongside questions from Yahoo! Answers and — more often than not — devolve into riffing off one another. It’s great, it’s genuine, it’s that ineffable quality that only brothers can share.

All joking aside, if you listen to MBMBaM close enough, you might actually hear some genuine, solid advice.

Suggested listening: Episode 265 The Ballad of Tit Liquid

Unpops Network

Adam Tod Brown and the Unpops crew drop about ten fresh episodes of comedy gold per week. What makes this podcast network special is Brown’s knack for pulling in young and hip comedians from the L.A. scene to host unique shows.

One highlight includes Quincy Johnson II and Brown hosting a news-centric international policy show “What in the World” which lets the two comedians riff on a current event while doing a serious deep dive on the issue. On the opposite end of the spectrum, comedians Anna Valenzuela, Vanessa Gritton, and Cindy Aravena gather every week to discuss the world through their young, Hispanic lens and all the trivialities and hilarities that are part of their community. Then, there’s a great bad movie show, a Nirvana show, conspiracy show, and so much more every single week.

Suggested Listening: The Brujaja Podcast episode “We Need To Talk About Puerto Rico”

2 Dope Queens

David Pemberton

This is, without a doubt, the best new podcasts of 2016. Hosts Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams invite their favorite comedians to talk about everything from sex to New York to race relations. The conversations are always young, always energetic, and really damn funny.

Like several of the podcasts on this list, 2 Dope Queens radiates with a rare kind of authentic charm. The conversations that Robinson and Williams have with their guests are more intimate than interviews, often exploding into long form laughter that’s genuine and spontaneous. One of the best parts about listening to this podcast is that it introduces you to new and exciting comedians like Naomi Ekperigin and Michelle Buteau. If you love comedy, if you love to laugh, if you want to stay in the know, then 2 Dope Queens is for you.

Suggested listening: Episode 04 How To Channel Your Inner White Lady

The Joe Rogan Experience

Joe Rogan’s podcast is one of the most popular in the world. Sometimes this is a dead serious podcast that touches on huge ideas, science, and societal debates. Sometimes it’s a podcast where the biggest names in comedy gather to talk the industry and/or just spend three hours doing their comedy thing.

It’s truly one of the best places to get to know any of the major names in comedy a little bit better.

Suggested Listening: Episode 1,092 with Mary Lynn Rajskub

Harmontown

David Pemberton

It’s really hard to describe what Harmontown is. It’s part interview, part stand-up, part improv, part Dungeons & Dragons, and — more often than not — part therapy. Originally created by Dan Harmon and Jeff B. Davis as an attempt to repair the flaws of society and create a “utopia” where everyone could feel safe and accepted, the podcast has since grown into a weekly variety act that focuses on movies, social issues, current news, random ideas, politics, and (if we’re being honest) anything else that Dan Harmon wants to talk about.

Sure, it might sound disjointed and, in many ways it is, but in the end, that’s what makes Harmontown so enjoyable. In the early days of the podcast, the live audience was invited to a bar after every episode with Dan, Jeff, and the guests involved, to hang out and have a few drinks together. It created a real community, and that sensibility is alive and well in the episodes being recorded today. Not only is it really, really funny, it’s also a podcast that has a lot of heart. And, of course, Dan Harmon is absolutely nuts in all the best ways.

Suggested listening: Episode 112 Popeye Is Our Lord and Savior

Comedy Bang Bang

Comedy Bang Bang has become the gold standard of great comedy pod. Every week stand up comedians, comedic writers, and comedy actors take to the couch for candid interviews that often turn into examinations of the world comedy in general through the guest’s POV and characterizations.

It’s a fascinating and hilarious take on the industries around comedy and the people who populate that world.

The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project

David Pemberton

If you’re unfamiliar, Andy Daly is easily one of the funniest persons to ever have lived in the history of anything. His wit is as understated as it is outrageous, often verging on the absurd while under the guise of normality. He is, essentially, a hilarious Albert Camus dressed like a Midwest librarian.

But Andy Daly is smart about being weird, and that’s why The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project works. It’s built upon the idea that Andy Daly is sifting through the best podcast pilots that have been sent to Earwolf studios, playing his favorites every episode. The pilots are fake of course, and often made by Andy Daly playing one of his many improv-based characters. It’s an amazing concept and one that let’s some of the world’s most talented comedians tackle long-form improv. It’s the perfect antidote for a boring commute, or an extended road trip, or a lazy afternoon in bed.

Yo, Is This Racist?

The conceit here is simple: Hosts Andrew Ti and Tawny Newsome answer emails and voicemails on whether something is racist. Every week the duo welcomes guests (usually comedians) to parse the world we live in and all the metaphoric speed bumps, roadblocks, and death traps of the modern world by examining how we deal with race as a society. Enlightenment and hilarity ensue.

The Adventure Zone

David Pemberton

This is possibly the best podcast about Dungeons & Dragons that has ever existed, not because it’s exciting (which it is), and not because it’s informative (which it is), but because it’s uproariously and undeniably funny. The idea is simple: Three brothers play Dungeons & Dragons with their dad. If that format sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it’s the same three brothers from My Brother, My Brother, and Me, only this time they’re joined by their father, Clint McElroy.

And, like all great podcasts, The Adventure Zone gets better and better with each episode. The comfortability that the players have with the rules and their own characters is neatly partnered with an uptick in production value as Griffin, the current Dungeon Master, adds custom soundtracks to each episode along with sound effects and electronically modded voices. It’s hard to tell what makes this podcast more addictive, is it the comedy (which is pitch perfect) or is it the story (which is legitimately exciting)? The answer is, as you might expect, both.

Suggested listening: Episode 001 Here There Be Gerblins

Anna Faris Is Unqualified

Anna Faris is one of the great comedic actors working today. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that her Unqualified pseudo-advice podcast is a great and often hilarious listen that’s legitimately insightful.

Each week or so Faris welcomes a celebrity to her couch to talk about the industry, how weird it is living in said industry, and the ticks that seem to become universal once you’re in it — then they call up someone with a problem and try to solve it. It’s funny, poignant, and useful all at the same time.

Suggested Listening: Episode 114 with Macaulay Culkin

How Did This Get Made?

David Pemberton

Making fun of terrible movies is one of comedy’s oldest pastimes. It’s something that we all do, but Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, and Jason Mantzoukas elevate comical deconstruction of awesomely bad movies to an artistic level with each episode of How Did This Get Made?

Yes, the hosts are comedians and, yes, they are all active participants in the film industry, but what makes their commentary so engaging isn’t their expertise or their humor, it’s their genuine fandom. You can tell that they actually love watching bad movies, and not in an ironic context. It’s this authenticity that makes the insights more insightful, the conversations more conversational, and the humor more hilarious.

Suggested listening: Episode 48 Sleepaway Camp

Hannibal Buress: Handsome Rambler

Hannibal Buress is killing the comedy game right now. He’s a lauded stand up, has a great acting career, and is throwing down some great pod nearly every week with some of the biggest names in the comedy world. Handsome Rambler does indeed ramble a bit with every guest Buress invites on and that’s the charm. Guests chat about what’s drawing their attention, throw down bits, and open up about life. It’s always a great listen.

Suggested Listening: The Neal Brennan Episode

Cool Games, Inc

David Pemberton

Like many of the podcasts on this list, Cool Games, Inc is kind of hard to explain. It’s run by Polygon.com and hosted by two of the site’s editors, Nick Robinson and Griffin McElroy (yes, the same Griffin McElroy from MBMBaM and The Adventure Zone). In each episode, Nick and Griffin take ideas submitted by listeners and attempt to develop them into full video game pitches. Notable games include “Grandma Likes It Al Dente,” “Surgeon Simulator Meets Tinder in Surgery Date,” and “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, But With Trucks.”

As we said, it’s kind of hard to explain.

But that’s what makes the podcast so much fun. Nick and Griffin — perhaps inadvertently — work with a sense of nostalgia that resonates with those of us who were born around the same time as the first Nintendo. Their jokes are off the wall and, at times, niche, but always surprisingly colloquial. They make the kind of jokes that you’d make with your friends after school while you ate Totino’s pizza rolls and traded Pokemon cards. It’s exact, it’s absurd, and for a fake video game design podcast, it’s strangely approachable.

Your Mom’s House

Comedians Christina Pazsitzky and Tom Segura are having a great year. Each of them has hilarious new Netflix stand up specials. Plus, they have one of the funniest podcasts streaming.

The husband and wife duo take to their home studio to talk current events, life in comedy, and dance of the lines of absurdity with fascinating guests from every walk of life. This comedy isn’t for the faint of heart but offers a seriously hilarious take on life and all the bullsh*t we put up with every day.

Suggested Listening: Episode 447 with Sarah Tiana

You Made It Weird

David Pemberton

It’s one of the only straight forward, no gimmick interview shows to make it on this list. There are a lot of “comedians interviewing comedians” podcasts out there, and most of them are really great, but few of them are as legitimately hilarious as You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes.

His guests range from seasoned comedians to spiritualists to quantum physicist (basically, anyone that Holmes finds interesting) and, depending on the guests, some episodes are funnier than others. That said, the constant presence of Holmes’ infectious laugh makes You Made It Weird the kind of podcast that will make you look like an insane person when you listen to it in public because, of course, you’ll be laughing out loud to something that no one else can hear. A signature episode features an interview with Keegan-Michael Key. The two comedians have so much fun riffing off one another that — no joke — there’s a 30 second stretch of the episode that is nothing but laughter. And. It. Is. Fantastic.

Suggested listening: Episode 152 with Rob Bell

Bill’s Monday Morning Podcast

Bill Burr is slowly becoming a comedy legend. The Boston, no-nonsense comic takes to the airwaves every Monday morning to ramble about life, fatherhood, current events, sports, and all craziness of the world for about an hour or so. If you dig Burr’s brash and intelligent comedy, you’ll love his off-the-cuff ravings every Monday. It’s a great kickstart to your week.

Uhh, Yeah Dude

David Pemberton

It’s America through the eyes of two American-Americans, and one of the Internet’s oldest and most beloved podcasts, with more than 500 episodes available online. Hosts Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette spend each episode meandering through current events, offering their unique opinions (and jokes) about what’s going on in the world.

One of the most amazing things about this podcast is that it’s been going since 2006. Even Marc Maron, host of the famous WTF podcast (which didn’t make it on this list because it is, sometimes, a very depressing podcast) once called Seth and Jonathan podcast pioneers, and it’s a title that fits. Their show helped define the format, and their casual, conversational comedy has influenced dozens of podcasts in the past decade. It’s just two dudes shooting the shit and therein lies the show’s subtle genius.

Suggested listening: The most recent episode (Seth and Jonathan are the most fun to listen to when they’re talking about current events).

The Dollop

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds tackle American history with a heavy dose of comedic edge. Their famous and hilarious podcast is a great way to parse some of the more curious and hilarious corners of our shared past.

It’s learning through laughter, if you will, that’s not afraid to go dark or absurd in its examination of America and Americans.

Suggested Listening: Episode 300 A & B, The Life of Donald Trump

The Worst Idea of All Time

David Pemberton

Conceptually speaking, The Worst Idea of All Time is the funniest podcast on this list. The basic idea is that the two hosts — Guy Montgomery and Tim Batt — meet once a week to watch and review a movie. The catch is that it’s the same movie, every week, for one year at a time. The first year they reviewed Grown Ups 2 (that’s every week for 52 straight weeks), the second year they reviewed Sex and the City 2 (again, that’s every week for 52 straight weeks), and this year they’re reviewing We Are Your Friends.

Masochists? Maybe. Comedic visionaries? Definitely.

And unlike the other podcasts on this list, The Worst Idea of All Time features episodes that are a tight, hassle free 30 minutes in length. After all, you wouldn’t want to listen to them talk about the same movie, week after week, for any longer than that.

Suggested Listening: Episode 11 Gold Star

Never Not Funny

Comedian Jimmy Pardo and producer Matt Belknap host a show that’s, well, never not funny. Each week they welcome a famous comedic guest to chat about whatever pops into mind.

It’s a free-wheeling discussion that’s often insightful and always hilarious. If you’re a fan of comedy in all its iterations, then this podcast will be a great addition to your queue.

Suggested Listening: Episode 2214 with Andy Daly

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