Good One

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, J...

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. Thi...

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 t...

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 s...

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...

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 rec...

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...

Jesse David Fox and Moshe Kasher deconstruct a joke about heaven from Moshe's 2013 "Live From Oakland" special -- it's a bit that's evolved over time, as he first tried a much shorter version of the joke on his 2009 album. They talk about religion, Moshe's 2017 Comedy Central show "Problematic", and how Moshe mastered the art of "highbrow-lowbrow." BONUS: At the end of the episode, we've got a spe...

Nikki Glaser asserted herself as a ruthless and talented roaster at Comedy Central's Roast of Rob Lowe in 2016, so it was no surprise that she was invited back for Bruce Willis in 2018. Nikki walks Jesse through the roast process from start to finish, explaining the massive undertaking that is writing effective insults. Follow Nikki on Twitter and Instagram, and check out her website for her upcom...

Ok, here we go. The most requested joke/sketch/idea for this show, ever. Recorded live from Vulture Festival 2019 in LA, it's the first ever "Live Oral History" featuring one of the year's best pieces of comedy. "Ford Focus Group" is a sketch from Netflix's I Think You Should Leave. It stars writers and creators Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin, along with Ruben Rabasa, who plays a boisterous but endea...

Aaaaaaand we're back. Jesse and Vulture Staff Writer Kathryn VanArendonk continue their review of the year's ten best standup specials, counting down numbers 5 to 1. Discussed in this episode: Nikki Glaser - Bangin' Gary Gulman - The Great Depresh Mike Birbiglia - The New One Anthony Jeselnik - Fire in the Maternity Ward Lil Rel Howery - Live in Crenshaw This is Part 2 of a 2-part episode. Learn m...

As 2019 draws to a close, Jesse and Vulture Staff Writer Kathryn VanArendonk review her ranking of the year's ten best standup specials, with some added honorable mentions. Discussed in this episode: Nate Bargatze - The Tennessee Kid Whitney Cummings - Can I Touch It? Wanda Sykes - Not Normal Julio Torres - My Favorite Shapes Emily Heller's - Ice Thickeners Bill Burr's - Paper Tiger Roy Wood Jr. -...

In another live panel recorded at Vulturefest 2019 in LA, we're bringing you the first ever Party Down reunion. Jesse talks with the show's creators and stars about what went into casting the show, and then runs through their favorite episodes and moments. Everyone talks about how much they got paid, Megan has a wig, Martin talks about "playing" with other actors, and the panel agrees that while t...

Recorded live at Vulture Festival 2019 in LA, holy shit, it's a live Community reunion! The cast and creators of the hit show Community talk about their favorite episodes and moments from the series. Jim raps, Danny does the Batman voice, everyone talks about Chevy and Donald, there was a scene that got cut where Shirley was supposed to poop in a drawer? Everyone gushes about the fun and hard work...

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 mista...

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. Jesse asks Ron ab...

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 characte...

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...

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...

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 o...

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. In true Good One fashion...

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. The conversa...

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...

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...