Let Them Fight: A Comedy History Podcast

We're going back to the early days of America to talk about a member of the Comanche who stood up to America's pretty shitty policy in regards to dealing with Native "troublemakers" for as long as he could. He kicked a lot of ass and then when it became time to turn in, he did what he had to do. And made damn sure that his people made some money and were taken care of after the fighting ended. Whi...

Today we're covering pretty much the most opposite a person possible from our Tuesday episode. Joseph Paul Franklin, like all Americans with three names, dedicated his life to killing people. And because he was super racist the media gave him the wonderfully creative nickname, The Racist Killer. Really. These people get paid to write for a living. I hate them. Anyways, some truly surprising name d...

Today we have badass soldier from the Revolutionary War, Titus Cornelius. It's just a shame he fought for the British instead of the US. But well, we kinda fucked that up by not being the ones to offer him freedom from slavery so that's kinda on us. And it doesn't take away from any of his hard charging, dick punching ways. He ran around New Jersey (gross) and neighboring areas slapping down slave...

Today we're talking about Charles Starkweather, who answers the question, "What if we took a James Dean wannabe and gave him all the worst parts of Mickey Knox from Natural Born Killers, removed all the charisma, and gave him the brain power of James Dean after the car crash?" This spree killer really set the bar in regards to what you can get away with in a few days when the cops are terrible at...

Today we'll be talking about the life of Benedict Arnold, one of the most hated men in America due to kinda, sorta betraying us during the Revolutionary War. Of course we wouldn't have won the war without him either. And he kinda got fucked over and over again. So it's all a bit of give and take here. But there are plenty of shenanigans, wonkyness, and violence to discuss. And he has one of the be...

Dave Apkarian joins us again to talk about a great marine, and sprayer of nightmare fuel (a flamethrower), Hershel Williams, and the part he played in the battle of Iwo Jima. That battle was horrible no matter what side you were on or what you were doing, but Hershel made it just a tad bit worse for the Japanese as he was walking around with a weapon that turned regular soldiers into well done sol...

Today we're joined by friend of the show and shining gem of Fresno, Dave Apkarian, to talk about badass Armenian, Andranik Ozanian. For those that don't know about Armenian history, which is probably most of us since I didn't even know who they were until I was legally old enough to rent a car, they've gotten fucked with by the Turks since pretty much day one. Things got pretty bad for them and An...

Today we'll be continuing the week of incompetence by talking about John Ausonius. Also known as "The Laser Man," this dude wanted to be the savior of Sweden from the foreign menace, only to go down in history as the most failed, self-hating immigrant, assassin that it's possible to be. Come for the violence, and stay to laugh at how upset Tim gets at the dumb shit this guy did while in prison. En...

Today we're talking about one of the most batshit crazy people I've ever heard of. What Richard Lawrence lacks in an interesting name, he more than makes up for with pure, unadulterated insanity. It all started pretty normal, then ramps up and up until it becomes one of my favorite stories involving a president. He doesn't commit a lot of violent acts, other than beating on his sisters for assumed...

Today we're talking about our first (I think) person from Dutchland, or Holland, or the Netherlands, whatever those windmill making bastards call their country. Jeronimus Cornelisz not only has the most frustratingly spelled name I've ever seen, but he was a bonkers ass crazy person. He wound up in Australia and did things that would put that nightmarish hellscape to shame. Or at least ordered tho...

Today we're talking about a badass Norwegian who for sure has that strong viking blood, Jan Baalsrud. He fought the Nazis when they first showed up in his country, and admittedly lost. But he made his way to Britain to learn how to fight back, at which point he admittedly lost again. So he's not great at winning. But damn if he isn't great at surviving. Dude went through hell and back, and still l...

Time for round 2 (or I guess round 4 technically) with Tom Goss, and boy do we have a doozy of a subject for him. Robert Pickton was a murderous dick, ran a pig farm, and, fittingly, he basically wallowed in his own filth. We've covered a few Canadians at this point and Robert is definitely by far the grossest. When the guy running a rendering plant says you're creepy and gross, you should probabl...

Today we are joined by comedian, friend of the show, and beloved nutball, Tom Goss, to talk about John C Woods. A man so inept at his job that he actually cycled back around to kinda successful. He stumbled through life bungling one thing after another before winding up in the Army and being asked, "You know how to hang people?" He of course lied his ass off and became the Army's personal executio...

Today we'll be visiting the land of leprechauns to discuss a pretty divisive figure from The Troubles, Lenny Murphy. If you're an Irish Protestant or English, you're probably pretty supportive of his cause. But if you're an Irish Catholic or one of the many people in the world that thinks England should keep its dick to itself, you're probably not a fan. Also dude was in charge of a group called T...

Today we're covering a requested vigilante, Nathaniel Kinney, and his terribly named vigilance committee from the 1800s. This committee stirred up a whole heap of shit in Missouri and despite starting for semi-admirable reasons, quickly devolved into some blatant fuckery. Beatings, shootings, and lynchings, they pretty much covered all the necessary bases and earned the attention of a hilariously...

We're closing out anniversary week with a dude that's popped up over and over again in other stories, so we figured it's finally time to cover his life. Dutch Schultz went from German Jew immigrant to fake Dutchman criminal. He made a lot of money, killed a lot of people, and even blinded a guy in the grossest way possible once. We had a lot of fun talking about his life, and going over the stream...

Today we're kicking off the week of our 2 year anniversary with Miyamoto Musashi, a man surrounded by a fog of legends, but we cut through all that anime bullshit and give you the real stuff because even that is plenty bonkers. He ran around the Japanese countryside alternating between sword and wood, beating the shit outta every badass he could in duels. And even when he earned enough prestige an...

Today we got Llewellyn Chilson, another man who proves that if you give a dude a woman's name he'll grow up to fuck some shit up. The amount of Nazi ass he kicked during World War 2 led to him being one of the most decorated American soldiers and probably inspired at least a few video games. How he was never awarded the Medal of Honor baffles me, because he easily did enough to earn one several ti...

Do you like crazy vindictive Welsh pirates with a flair for fancy clothes? Well then this is the episode for you! Bartholomew Roberts got into some wild shit over the course of his 3ish year career. He became one of the most successful pirates ever in terms of ships captured, and showed the people of Martinique why they shouldn't send pirate hunters after him. He wasn't terribly creative with ship...

It's been a while since we covered a fun wild west badass, so today we're bringing you Luke Short. Whose life is proof that everyone seemed to know each other back then as he ran around with some familiar names. And shot a few people who also knew people he knew. It's like a big old game of six degrees of separation but with gambling and guns. Also check out that top hat, dude was a classy ass gam...

Today we'll be talking about a horrendously gross man, in pretty much very possible meaning. I don't want to give away everything about Nathaniel Bar-Jonah, but I will say that there was a lot of strangulation. And where he went, children disappeared, and meals were made. And he looks like exactly the kind of person to do all the fucked up shit that he did. Turns out, sometimes you can judge a boo...

Today we'll be talking about the first guy from the South to show up on this podcast that wasn't super into slavery, Newton Knight. This dude, while admittedly kind of a simpleton based on the way he sounds in his quotes, was anti-Confederacy and managed to lead a whole splinter group of other like-minded swamp folk. They didn't do a whole lot of significant damage, but man did the rebel leadershi...

Today we're taking another trip to England, dear listeners. This time it's to talk about human Guy Ritchie movie, Roy "Pretty Boy" Shaw. Like most of the people we talk about, he started fighting at a young age, and then just didn't stop. He fought in the streets, in the pub, in the boxing ring, in the psych hospital, in the prison, pretty much everywhere you can fight. Hell, he probably didn't fu...

It's time for us to go back to Australia to talk about Dennis Allen, and his family, who were frankly, super fucked up. His story is pretty much all over the place. A Mr. T amount of gold chains, glory hole drugs, a sex slave, and blood vomit. Just some of the examples of baffling insanity that Mr. Death got into throughout his short but brutal life. No matter how much of the animal life in that c...

When it comes to terrible names, Claude Percy Lemieux is gonna be at the top of the list. He's also going to be at the top of the list of hated NHL players for all the dirty shots and shenanigans he got into over the years. This dude loved winning, and cheap shotting anybody in an opposing jersey. He was also the cause of probably the greatest brawl in sports history, seriously, that fight had eve...