Let Them Fight: A Comedy History Podcast

Today we'll be giving Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, the godfather of Harlem, his due. He may have started his life as just a simple country lad, but by the end of his life he was a massive part of the history of New York City, especially Harlem. "Bumpy" lived a bonkers life, from fighting the mob to yelling at magazine editors, with some fun cameos from people we've covered on the podcast previously....

It's time for another Civil War guy on the Confederate side. This time we're talking about "Stonewall" Jackson, who was a pretty great soldier, but also a racist that loved slavery so not really a good person. He was also apparently weird as hell and ridiculously over the top with his religion. Anyways, he did a lot of shit in his life so join us in making fun of all of it. And listen in for what...

Today we'll be talking about John Brown, a man who was so fervently anti-slavery that at one point even Frederick Douglass was all, "Damn, bro. You're pretty extreme." John Brown is famous for a small paragraph we all had to read one time in our history books in school but they just don't do his whole bonkers life justice with that little coverage. Enjoy!

In today's episode we went back to our big bag of requested scumnut creators to pull out Earle Leonard Nelson. If you've been listening to us for a while you know what three first names means, an awful garbage monster. And you'd be right. Earle spent his life traveling around the US, and a little bit in Canada, proving what a "badass" he was by choking the shit out of old ladies. And doing other s...

Today we'll be traveling to the oft ignored country of Paraguay to talk about a type of person we haven't covered in a while, a dickhead dictator. Alfredo Stroessner did a lot of dirty shit in his days as evil despot of the country, and we're here to tell you about all of it. And what is a South American fascist regime without a little help from the United States? So don't worry, we pop up in this...

Today we're covering a true rarity, a badass Italian. Pre-World War 2 he ran all over Spain fighting commies and North Africa kicking in the teeth of various locals from horseback. Then things got kinda wonky when World War 2 kicked off proper and he found himself pretty well abandoned. So he decided it was time to fight the British. While also kinda, sorta doing blackface. But just ignore that pa...

Friends of the show Dave Apkarian and Matt Cole join us again to talk about a man with the most old timey American name ever, Bud Day. Also, one hell of a survival story. People that fought in Vietnam pretty much all went through some heavy shit, but one group went through a next level shit storm, POWs. Turns out the Vietnamese weren't very kind to their prisoners, and old Bud Day spent over 5 yea...

Today we're bringing in two previous guests, Dave Apkarian and Matt Cole, to talk about garbage monster/walking nightmare, Tommy Lynn Sells. He may not be the worst person we've talked about on this podcast, but he certainly gave it the old college try. And of course we got some quotes from the man himself at the end to let him personally convey what a godawful person he was. Enjoy!

Now, when you hear that a man is a crazy religious member of the East India Company you might not think he's going to be a badass. But you'd be wrong. John Nicholson might not be the best person, seeing as how he played a significant role in the colonization of India by the British, but I'll be damned if he didn't kick some ass along the way. Enjoy!

Today we're talking about a man who loved killing so much he decided to fight in two world wars, Lou Diamond. He also refused being promoted from enlisted to officer because it would probably mean less killing. He was such an incredible badass that a Marine who just heard his life story decided to name his son after him. Enjoy!

Friend of the show Joey Kuriki joins us again today. This time to talk about his fellow countrymen, Issei Sagawa. Issei was born fairly well cursed and wound up in a little tiny body and with very creepy urges. Which you know he acted on at some point since we're talking about him. He's another guy that has a drastically lower body count than a lot of other monsters, but makes up for it in the gro...

Today we're joined by friend of the show Joey Kuriki for a trip down under to talk about infamous outlaw, Daniel "Mad Dog" Morgan. Danny boy ran/rode horses all around New South Wales visiting all the goofiest named places so that he could rob people, or shoot them, or force them to make him breakfast. Whatever he was feeling that day really. He may have had a touch of mental illness, or maybe he...

Today we're talking about the only thing British that's better than the American version, Charles Bronson. Not his born name, but I'm pretty sure the American Bronson wasn't named that at birth either, oh well. His life started out normal enough, then fairly rapidly descended into a beautiful madness. Despite not killing anybody, he's one of the most feared men in all of the British prison system....

Today we have a real fun monster for you, dear listeners. We're talking about Uday Hussein. And if you thought his dad Saddam was bad, well you'd be right. But this guy was also a giant piece of shit. Imagine if you will, all the wonderful personality of a douchey trust fund kid combined with the sadistic streak of an evil dictator, then wrap it up with a nice incest bow and boom, you have an Uday...

Today we have a story that adds more evidence to the fact that Italy sucks militarily (as if we needed more evidence). Sir John Hawkwood was English as fuck, but got a taste for fighting Italians so he decided to keep doing it. He basically terrorized the whole country and really mastered the art of extortion. Even popes paid him to not fuck their shit up. Enjoy!

Today we're taking a trip to the country with the most garbage names per capita, Poland, to talk about a dude that loved killing people from horseback. Casimir Pulaski ran around Europe fighting the Russians every chance he got, and honestly not doing all that well. He was great at drumming up support and training cavalrymen, not so great at the whole leading his troops in battle thing though. But...

Today we have another cultist for you, Robert Rozier AKA Neariah Israel. This guy had a shot at being a professional football player and decided he'd rather go join up with Yahweh ben Yahweh in Florida as part of a cult that's basically part Nation of Islam and part Christian Identity. Yet another group trying to claim they're the real Jews and the rest of us are all wrong. Oh, and they also loved...

Today we're bringing you a good old fashioned Australian garbage monster. Ivan Milat may not sound like an Aussie name, because it's not, he was half Croatian. So none of what he does should surprise anyone. His life really showcases how dangerous it can be to backpack through certain parts of the world. And how dangerous it can be to keep knickknacks from the aforementioned backpackers if you hap...

Today's person of discussion is Bruce Lindahl. And it's hard to figure out if he was a rapey murderer or a murdering rapist, but either way he was super not a good dude. Which you can pretty much figure out just from looking at his picture. Got them creeper eyes. Come tune in and listen to us make fun of this douchebag and experience the schadenfreude in how his story ends. Enjoy!

Today we're covering a famous Brit with one of the highest kill counts we've seen on this podcast. Of course, all those kills were state sanctioned since he was an executioner so he never had to serve any prison time for any of them. But hey, a kill is a kill even if you're not doing it for a scumnut. He had a very particular system and methodology and he made sure each hanging went the way it was...

Today we're talking about The Poughkeepsie Killer, Kendall Francois. A dude that loved strangling hookers and living in his own filth. To such an extent that people just straight up called him Stinky. He holds the distinct honor of being the grossest living conditions I've read about since Richard Chase. Also this is one of the few stories where the cops found out hookers were going missing and ac...

What can one say about one of the world's most famous writers that he hasn't already drunkenly typed onto a page at some point in his career? Ernest Hemingway may not be the first name you think of when you think violence, but he managed to make it part of his life in a pretty spectacular way. And also come on, it's Ernest fucking Hemingway, you know his life was batshit.

It's time for round two with our friend Kyle Clark, this time to talk about Thomas-Alexandre Dumas. This dude kicked some major ass for France. Even with all the racism over the fact that he was black, he was so good at soldiering and killing people that he still rose in fame and rank. Hell, he was such a badass that his kid spent his whole life basically just telling everyone he could about all t...

Boy have we got an episode for you today, dear listeners. Friend of the show, and fellow comedian, Kyle Clark joins us to talk about Chuck Zito. A man who went from humble beginnings in New York, to the kind of guy who has celebrities writing blurbs for the back of his autobiography. And of course there are plenty of beatings and hilarious incidents between those two points. Including what is for...

We're joined again by friend of the show Shaun Arredondo for round two, this time to talk about notable racist and bare knuckle fighter, William Poole, better known as Bill the Butcher. Not because he was a butcher by trade though. More so because he loved leaving people as a bloody mess. Preferably the Irish because well, he hated them like only somebody of English descent can manage. Gangs of Ne...