Good One: A Podcast About Jokes

A lot of people tell us we should talk to Maria Bamford, and you know what? They're right. They're so right that we're re-airing the episode she was on two years ago. The interview focuses on the commencement speech she gave at the University of Minnesota—her alma mater—in which she discussed the negotiations that took place to arrive at her fee for said speech, along with a long list of the mistakes she'd made in her life...

Jesse talks to Ron Funches about his short but sweet joke "F Linda". The "F" in this joke title stands for f**k, so you're going to hear the word f**k a lot. Wait, where are those stars coming from. I can't type f**k here? Ok. Fine. Moving on. "F Linda" is just over a minute and half long, but Ron Funches achieves maximum hang time in between the few words that comprise the joke...

In this episode from Season 1, Jen Kirkman looks at the closer of her 2017 special Just Keep Livin'? She and Jesse start at the very kernel of this joke, going back to its inciting incident in a Starbuck's parking lot in North Carolina. Jen took that event and incorporated it into her act that night, and kept reworking it at subsequent shows. From there, Jen built a whole drama around the character she encountered in that parking lot...

Back in Season 2, Jesse got to speak with actor, writer, and director Taika Waititi about his remarkably comedic take on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Ragnarok. The interview touches on Taika's New Zealand style of comedy, and how he approached changing a historically serious protagonist like Thor into the goofy, muscly, laugh-inducing character that he is in Ragnarok. Jesse and Taika talk pre and post production, as well as what role improvisation takes on set. Also included: eggs...

In 2017, Jesse recorded a live episode of Good One with Roy Wood Jr. at the Just For Laughs Festival in Toronto. The bit that they discussed was "Black Patriotism?", from Roy's 2017 special Father Figure. Roy reveals the staggering amount of live comedy he watches in order to ensure his material is truly his own. He's a brilliant comedic strategist who understands that for a joke to truly be funny, it needs to be funny everywhere--even in front of the people it pokes fun at...

Tig Notaro has been one of the most requested Good One guests, so we're replaying our interview with her from Season 1. Tig and Jesse talk at her house about her breakthrough Taylor Dayne joke, in which Tig chronicles her various run-ins with singer/songwriter/actress Taylor Dayne. We walk through a few different performances of the joke, specifically from her album Good One (ha), her appearance on Conan, and a small, little-known indie podcast called This American Life...

In Jesse's first "holy shit, I'm interviewing this person" interview, "Weird Al" Yankovic explains what went into his song "Word Crimes" from his 2014 album Mandatory Fun. Based on Robin Thicke's multiplatinum, misogynistic club theme "Blurred Lines", Al's parody goes the educational route and confronts the multitude of offenses committed against proper grammar and syntax...

Haven't bothered to check out the Good One back catalogue yet? Well, don't worry. We're digging out the classics to bring to you while you wait for our next season. In this proto-episode of Good One, hear the interview with Jerry Seinfeld that inspired this whole show. Recorded live at Vulturefest in 2015, Jesse was given the opportunity to interview Jerry in front of a live audience...

In the Season 6 finale of Good One, we finally deconstruct the legendary joke "The Aristocrats" with the help of its most infamous teller, Gilbert Gottfried. This one's marked explicit for a reason, folks. You'll hear Gilbert's personal history with the joke, along with his retelling of his set the night of the Hugh Hefner roast, where he launched this joke into the public eye. Jesse asks Gilbert about the evolution of his onstage persona and his relationship with audiences...

Nate Bargatze is one of the the few comedians whose funniness Jesse couldn't fully put his finger on. He wrote about Nate's Dead Horse joke in April 2018 after Nate performed a shortened version of it on Jimmy Fallon. It was an atypical joke for late night not only because of the length of the joke, but because it was a story about an actual dead horse. But Nate pulled it off, and he pulled it off again in his 2019 Netflix special The Tennessee Kid...