RIP Dustin Diamond

Earlier today I was outside with my daughter while she rode her wheel cart and RD texted me, "pour one out for Screech".

I was surprised, to say the least. I knew he was sick. I knew a few weeks back they had rushed him to the hospital and it was kind of a secret as to what was going on. Then it was released that he had stage 4 lung, or maybe throat, cancer. But by all accounts, as of less than two weeks ago, he seemed to be in recovery. Everyone around him said he was doing chemo, and they had hoped it was working.

Apparently it did not. I guess, from what I have read since receiving that text, was that the cancer was very dangerous and that it spread very quickly throughout his whole body. His reps said that the only good thing to come from this was that he died fast and wasn't in a "pool of pain". That sounds brutal to me.

Now that I have had a couple of hours to sit on this info, and I even talked to my wife about it, it feels pretty goddamn weird to be writing, basically, a "tribute" to Dustin Diamond. He was an actor, as a child, that I adored. I watched "Saved by the Bell" pretty religiously as a kid. I didn't get up to watch on Saturday's when it first aired, but syndication was my jam. I would watch it for two hours some days, if I was lucky enough to catch the TNT and TBS blocks. I devoured the show in my tweens, and even into my teens and early 20's. I know every episode from the four high school seasons, I can quote most of them, and Screech was probably my favorite character, at least as a kid. He made me laugh, he was goofy, he dressed wild and he was smart. I even thought he was kind of cool, and I loved his pursuit of Lisa. As I got older, and still watched the show, maybe even more so when RD and I lived together, I saw it with different eyes, but Screech was still the funniest. Only this time around I laughed at him, and then realized that I had been laughing at him even when I was a kid. He was the main character that got dumped on by everyone on the show. He was the butt of the jokes. Even when he would get the girl, or do something helpful, it was always backhanded, or made out as a joke. Screech wasn't this funny, smart kid I looked up to on the show as a child. He was the nerd, the doofus, the one everyone made fun of. I still stuck with him, even going so far as to wear Zubaz pants when RD and I had a day we dedicated to Screech. But as I look back on it now, Screech wasn't cool, he was the dork, point blank. I very sparingly watched the "College Years", and I think I only saw maybe a handful of "The New Class", but it was more of the same with Screech. He never really evolved on the show.

After “Saved By the Bell” his personal life became more of the thing, and he did not seem like the best person in the world. He released a sex tape, which he later said he used a "double" for the sex. Okay, whatever. Then he wrote a tell all book, which he then confessed was written by a ghost writer, and half, if not more, of the stories were false. That's kind of pathetic. Then he went the reality show route, and he was always cast, or trying to be, the villain. It didn't work, and he couldn't pull it off. Anytime he got into it with someone, I would always say, "Screech is about to get his ass kicked". This is partly him, for being an asshole, but me also, for typecasting him in my head as Screech. He never changed from the character I watched growing up, so that was who he always was to me, and a lot of other people. The nail in the coffin was when he was in a bar fight that involved a stabbing, and he was arrested and put in jail for, I believe, three years. That wiped any, of which there may have been none, respect that I had left for Dustin Diamond. It all went out the window, and it seemed that way with his former castmates, and even some friends he had made. I know he did a tell all thing with Oprah Winfrey in 2013 where he tried to clean things up, and did a similar thing with Mario Lopes three years later, but the damage had been done, and he was, quite frankly, a dirtbag in my opinion.

Yet it is a bummer when someone dies so young. He didn't get COVID or anything like that either. This wasn't because he was being careless. He unfortunately got a very serious form of cancer that cut his life way, way too short. I know I have been dumping on him this whole blog, but that is a crummy way for a person to go out. Yes he wasn't a good person, but he wasn't some kind of monster that did awful things to people. All of his harm was self inflicted. So while I do not feel about him like I did with Kobe Bryant, or someone I truly adore like MF Doom, it is still a shock and a bummer when someone I watched growing up dies so young. He was only six years older than me. That is crazy.

RIP Dustin Diamond. You lived a wild and crazy life, but Screech will live on forever, and I guess you made the most of your time here.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

SeedSing Classic: Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Television Programs: Day 3 - "Saved By the Bell: Home for Christmas Part 1 and 2"

ed note: This article was originally published on December 3rd, 2016

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday television program for every day of Advent. This is the greatest tv of the season. Enjoy.

Day 3: "Saved By the Bell: Home for Christmas Part 1 and 2" Original air date, December 7th and 14th, 1991

Opened Doors: One, Two

Going to the mall during the holiday season has its ups and downs. It is always very crowded, people are downright rude, and there are cheesy Christmas activities going on everywhere. Santa is patiently attending to thousands of scared, or overly greedy, children every single weekend. All the stores are playing the same holiday standards you were sick of decades ago. Untrained, seasonal, workers slow down the cash registers at stores people only visit in December. And if you are lucky, there will be a half-assed holiday pageant or play going on near the food court. Nine times out of ten, this production is an extremely loose interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol".

In the early 1990's, the gang from Bayside High taught the gen xers and millennials the important lessons of the late 20th century. Lessons like staying away from caffeine pills, be nice to the hot girl in a wheelchair, and should you use dope? Nope. The lesson on two Saturdays in December was about how homeless people are real. 

Home for Christmas was a two-part episode that took place entirely away from Bayside and The Max. Due to this geographic change, there is no Mr. Belding to be seen in this extended adventure. Instead we have the kids all hanging out at a local mall for a variety of reasons. Kelly is working at a mens store to make some extra money. Jessie assisting Santa as one of his elves. Slater is wrapping presents, very poorly. Zack and Screech are not being employed, but they are still hanging around because Zack's mom is getting ready to put on a mall production of "A Christmas Carol". Lisa is volunteering at a hospital, but she also finds plenty of time to get away and join the crew. Shenanigans were about to start.

The craziness gets started when Zack and Screech discover an extremely well put together homeless man shaving in the mall bathroom. Later, on a date with a girl he just met, Zack remarks unkindly about the homeless man. The new girl promptly storms out. The whole crew becomes obsessed with the encounter with the homeless man. The girl Zack pissed off also happens to work at the same store with Kelly. Storylines start to connect after Zack sees the new girl wolf down a basket of fries. She was eating like an animal, not a classy early 90's socal teenager. We learn that the homeless man and the girl are father and daughter. This Christmas was about get real in Bayside California.

The story progresses like any other good Saved By the Bell. The crew discover a problem, hijinks ensue, a lesson gets learned, and our new friends get a better shot in life. There is the Scrooge-like character of the mens shop owner, the bratty kid who kicks Jessie, and the women rightfully upset about Slaters bad gift wrapping job. All of these people exist in large quantities in the real world, but in the Saved By the Bell world we have the Bayside crew to make it all better. The Scrooge discovers the Christmas spirit, the gang learns a lesson, and the homeless people get to live in the Morris house until next episode. A true god bless us everyone. 

Even if you do all of your holiday shopping online, and you should, it is always fun to get out to the local mall. The people are usually terrible, the kids are brats, and there may be less desirable homeless people in the bathrooms, but the Holidays are alive and well in these retail wastelands. The malls are also filled with teenagers, and some of them may be well meaning. If they lack in empathy, maybe they will at least give you a terrible rendition of "A Christmas Carol". The memories of that awfulness will keep Christmas going all year.

Ed Note: These Holiday music article are meant to be fun. Having said that, this is the most important time of the year to help the homeless in your city. Your time and money is needed to assist your local homeless charities. Contact the United Way to find a charity in your city.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks if you are going to watch only one two-part Saved By the Bell that takes place in a mall, skip this one and watch the one where the crew buys U2 tickets.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing

Ty Listens to the "Zack to the Future" Podcast

Today I come to you with a new podcast recommendation. Obviously the X Millennial Man podcast is the best out there, but I do listen to other pods.

It’s no secret that RD and I used to enjoy “Saved by the Bell”. We enjoyed it unironically too. We had days where we wore Zubaz pants, we watched the blocks on TNT and TBS and I have been on this very site praising April Richardson’s old podcast “Go Bayside”. It was, keyword was, the best “SBTB” podcast out there until three weeks ago.

In that time there has been a new podcast focused on “SBTB” called “Zack to the Future”. “Go Bayside” will always hold a very special place in my heart, but “Zack to the Future” has host Dashiell Driscoll, you may know him from Funny or Die’s “Zack Morris is Trash”, which is phenomenal, and the cohost is the very Zack Morris himself, Mark-Paul Gosselaar. This is a humongous deal for all the “SBTB” fans out there, which there are so, so many. To get these two to talk about this show is simply amazing. Driscoll is a self described super fan. He created a whole web series. He says he’s seen every episode. He is a writer on the new show they’re doing for “SBTB”. He is very informed, knows the material extremely well and has a great way of hosting a podcast. Then we have Gosselaar, who plays the main guy, the one we all grew up with, cheered for, then rooted against when we all grew up, as the cohost. Also, he says he’s never seen an episode ever. At first I didn’t believe him, but after three episodes, it’s obvious he has never watched this show. He explains that he doesn’t like to watch his performances, and I get that. I don’t listen to pods I’ve been on. I don’t watch TV stories that I’ve been on. I don’t read newspaper articles where I’ve been interviewed. I know what I said and did, and that’s how Gosselaar describes it. It makes sense.

The purpose of this pod, Driscoll has Gosselaar watch an episode, then they talk about it, they break it all down. It’s fantastic to hear Gosselaar talk about what he remembers and what he doesn’t. He gives real insight as to what it was like as a child actor, and a very famous one at that. He’s incredibly humble, and I adore hearing him poke fun at his character of Zack. I also like hearing him talk about how bad of a person Zack is. I also enjoy hearing all the inside baseball talk that Gosselaar gives the listener. There’s so many things that went into this tiny teen comedy shown on Saturday mornings. It’s truly wild. It’s also helps that Gosselaar is the cohost because he gets great guests for the show. Elizabeth Berkeley was on the first episode. I know Tiffani Amber Thiessen will be on later because I heard her voice in a preview. I’m sure he will also get some other big time names to interview for this great, great new show.

This is really a perfect podcast given our current climate. There’s a new “SBTB” show coming out, but we are all home, or should be, and I know I’ve gone back and watched some “SBTB” when I have free time. Now I go and watch the episodes they are going to talk about in the upcoming podcast. We have time to binge, we can do our “homework” as they call it and we can relate to the conversation.

So far this podcast has been great, it’s a great distraction in the best possible way and I love everything about it. The stories, the memories, the hosts, the guests, it is all wonderful. I cannot recommend “Zack to the Future” enough, especially for fans of “SBTB”. It really is the perfect retrospective of a show that had stayed with all of us for a very, very long time. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.  

Where are the Great 4th of July Television Episodes?

Happy 4th of July everyone.

That is actually what leads me into what I want to touch on very, very briefly today. The 4th of July is a pretty big holiday. Or, at least, I imagine it is for most. For me as a kid the Fourth meant that I got to eat Dairy Queen and watch fireworks on the hood of my folks car. Pretty simple, yet very fun as a kid. As I got older, the fourth wasn't too important. Then I met my wife, and her family loves the Fourth. They have a big cookout, a barbeque and we shoot off fireworks. It has been that way for 13 plus years now.

I recently noticed that most of the TV shows I watch don't do an episode focused on the Fourth. I know that "Saved By the Bell" had one episode where they played games while working at the beach one summer, and it ended with fireworks, thus leading us to believe it was July 4th. And RD pointed out to me that the episode of "The Simpsons" where they go to Flanders beach house takes place on the Fourth. So, there are 2 examples of shows I do watch that may have a Fourth themed episode.

When thinking about this topic, I searched my brain for other shows I watch that do good holiday themed episodes, and none really came to mind. "The Office", the American version, even when it was bad, they did a good Christmas/Hanukkah themed episode. They also did solid Halloween episodes. But, no real Fourth of July ones. "30 Rock" crushes their Christmas episodes. I think they make some of the best in fact. But, not only do I not recall seeing a Fourth ep, I don't know that I have seen a Halloween or Thanksgiving one. "Parks and Rec", who you'd assume would have a great Fourth of July episode, or episodes, never touches on the holiday. They do excellent Halloween ones. The one with Greg Pitkitis, or when Gerry has a "fart attack", those are classics. But not even when Anne moves to Michigan and Leslie throws a mega party with all the holidays crammed into one, do we see a Fourth of July themed area. It just strikes me as weird is all.

I'm sure there are some shows out there that do celebrate this holiday, I just haven't seen them, or they were forgettable. It is strange is all I am trying to say. The Fourth of July seems to be a major holiday, and the shows I watch that cover major holidays, have never really dipped their toes into the Fourth. Please let me know if I am wrong, or just missed something because I'd like to see how an "Office" or "Parks and Rec" handles the day.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Make your 4th of July resolution to be the person on your block who grills the best hotdog. We have a guide for that.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

Cloves and Fedoras: "Zack Morris is Trash" Delivers the Truth on One of Television's Greatest Monsters

Cloves and Fedoras is Seed Sings reviews for little known pieces of pop culture.  Feel free to contact us with your own submissions of undiscovered gems that must be known.

I'm not big on watching TV or videos on my phone. The screen is too small, and unless it is about 5 minutes long or shorter, I am not interested. But, there is one particular shot clip show that I love watching on my phone, and that is Funny or Die's "Zack Morris is Trash".

Now, I used to love "Saved By the Bell". I watched it all the time with RD, and when he moved away, I watched it by myself. RD and I even went so far as to wear Zubazz pants and have a Screech Powers day, for which we were deservingly ridiculed by friends and family. I even listened to April Richardson's phenomenal podcast, "Go Bayside" two full times through the entire catalog. After listening to "Go Bayside", I decided that I wanted to give "Save By the Bell" another chance. Luckily for me, it was streaming on Netflix, and I was able to start watching the very next day. I did, and I was so disappointed in what I was watching. This show that I adored as a kid was truly, truly awful. There is not one redeeming thing about "Saved By the Bell". RD and I have argued about this on the podcast, but I feel like I am 100 percent right. The show is terribly acted, poorly written, horrifically directed, misogynistic and, almost always, pretty racist. Maybe my mind was turning on it just from listening to comedians I like destroy it on "Go Bayside", but still, the show is very bad.

One day I was scanning Facebook and I saw a new Funny or Die video entitled, "Zack Morris is Trash". I was immediately intrigued strictly by the title. I have always thought, and it was only further hammered home by April Richardson and her guests, that Zack Morris is a horrible person. He takes advantage of his friends, family, school mates, pretty much anyone he comes in contact with. He will also stop at nothing to get his way. He is like a big baby. And, when things don't go his way, he never learns his lesson. He just whines and complains and causes awful things to happen to the ones he is supposed to love, just to get his way. He is the quintessential narcissist.

Well, "Zack Morris is Trash" takes this narrative and runs with it. The narrator, who's name I don't know, but he is so great at his voice over job, takes several instances from past episodes to explain why Zack Morris is trash. Some examples from season one include how he took photos, unknowingly, of his female class mates and printed out calendars and sold them to other students. He then gets mad when a modeling rep sees one, tells Kelly that she can travel the world as a model, and she decides that she wants to do it, leaving Zack behind. He of course convinces Kelly that she will let everyone down if she leaves, and he thwarts her chance at stardom just so she will stay at Bayside with him. There is another one where he goes on a date with a girl in a wheelchair, unbeknownst to him until later, and how he takes it way, way too far. He starts a wheel chair basketball game at school for her. He complains that there is no handicap seating so loudly at a theater that he embarrasses the young lady. He makes a big speech about hos much she has overcome, once again embarrassing her, this time in front of the whole school. He clearly only cares about himself, and the "good deed" he thinks he is doing. Another great one with a "good deed" is when he helps out the homeless family in that god awful Christmas episode in the mall they did. That "Zack Morris is Trash" is more than worth your time. There is the Yom Kippur episode where Zack fakes being Jewish so he can go to a Dodgers game, then messes with Jesse's step brother and breaks Lisa's heart all in 22 short minutes.

There are so many more great mini episodes to watch from season one of this wonderful internet show. The narrator, as I said before, is amazing. He rips Zack Morris to shreds every time. He breaks down all the evil, maniacal and mean things he does to the people he is supposed to care about. The breakdowns at the very end are my absolute favorite part of the show. This is when the narrator quickly goes through all the bad stuff Zack did, reprimands him for it and shows sympathy for all the people that got hurt during his personal take downs.

The reason I bring this show up today is because season 2 just started. I of course watched the first episode, it was about the ski trip and teacher's strike from a later season. I'm so happy that this is back. I look forward to the new one coming out every week. I went back and watched all of season one after seeing the season 2 "premier". "Zack Morris is Trash" is the best internet show right now, hands down, and if you even watched just one single episode of "Saved By the Bell", "Zack Morris is Trash" is must see internet television. It is wonderful. Thank you Funny or Die, thank you so much for this wonderful show.

Watch "Zack Morris is Trash" right here.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Do you like "Zack Morris is Trash" Check out the great works creator Dashiell Driscoll on Funny or Die. Just watch the horror of recapping the "Mr. Belvedere" episode where a kid gets AIDS. You read that correctly.  

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.

SeedSing's Advent Calendar of Awesome Holiday Television Programs: Day 3 - "Saved By the Bell: Home for Christmas Part 1 and 2"

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a new awesome holiday television program for every day of Advent. This is the greatest tv of the season. Enjoy.

Day 3: "Saved By the Bell: Home for Christmas Part 1 and 2" Original air date, December 7th and 14th, 1991

Opened Doors: One, Two

Going to the mall during the holiday season has its ups and downs. It is always very crowded, people are downright rude, and there are cheesy Christmas activities going on everywhere. Santa is patiently attending to thousands of scared, or overly greedy, children every single weekend. All the stores are playing the same holiday standards you were sick of decades ago. Untrained, seasonal, workers slow down the cash registers at stores people only visit in December. And if you are lucky, there will be a half-assed holiday pageant or play going on near the food court. Nine times out of ten, this production is an extremely loose interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol".

In the early 1990's, the gang from Bayside High taught the gen xers and millennials the important lessons of the late 20th century. Lessons like staying away from caffeine pills, be nice to the hot girl in a wheelchair, and should you use dope? Nope. The lesson on two Saturdays in December was about how homeless people are real. 

Home for Christmas was a two-part episode that took place entirely away from Bayside and The Max. Due to this geographic change, there is no Mr. Belding to be seen in this extended adventure. Instead we have the kids all hanging out at a local mall for a variety of reasons. Kelly is working at a mens store to make some extra money. Jessie assisting Santa as one of his elves. Slater is wrapping presents, very poorly. Zack and Screech are not being employed, but they are still hanging around because Zack's mom is getting ready to put on a mall production of "A Christmas Carol". Lisa is volunteering at a hospital, but she also finds plenty of time to get away and join the crew. Shenanigans were about to start.

The craziness gets started when Zack and Screech discover an extremely well put together homeless man shaving in the mall bathroom. Later, on a date with a girl he just met, Zack remarks unkindly about the homeless man. The new girl promptly storms out. The whole crew becomes obsessed with the encounter with the homeless man. The girl Zack pissed off also happens to work at the same store with Kelly. Storylines start to connect after Zack sees the new girl wolf down a basket of fries. She was eating like an animal, not a classy early 90's socal teenager. We learn that the homeless man and the girl are father and daughter. This Christmas was about get real in Bayside California.

The story progresses like any other good Saved By the Bell. The crew discover a problem, hijinks ensue, a lesson gets learned, and our new friends get a better shot in life. There is the Scrooge-like character of the mens shop owner, the bratty kid who kicks Jessie, and the women rightfully upset about Slaters bad gift wrapping job. All of these people exist in large quantities in the real world, but in the Saved By the Bell world we have the Bayside crew to make it all better. The Scrooge discovers the Christmas spirit, the gang learns a lesson, and the homeless people get to live in the Morris house until next episode. A true god bless us everyone. 

Even if you do all of your holiday shopping online, and you should, it is always fun to get out to the local mall. The people are usually terrible, the kids are brats, and there may be less desirable homeless people in the bathrooms, but the Holidays are alive and well in these retail wastelands. The malls are also filled with teenagers, and some of them may be well meaning. If they lack in empathy, maybe they will at least give you a terrible rendition of "A Christmas Carol". The memories of that awfulness will keep Christmas going all year.

Ed Note: These Holiday music article are meant to be fun. Having said that, this is the most important time of the year to help the homeless in your city. Your time and money is needed to assist your local homeless charities. Contact the United Way to find a charity in your city.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. He thinks if you are going to watch only one two-part Saved By the Bell that takes place in a mall, skip this one and watch the one where the crew buys U2 tickets.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing

The SeedSing (half) year in Pop Culture: The Top Five Podcasts of 2015

Time to remember the mic's best guests

Continuing my week long best of 2015 countdown today I'll pick my top five podcast episodes of the year. I'm a very, very big fan of podcast, mostly comedy podcast. Comedy podcasts are very well represented in this countdown, but there's one pretty serious, not very comedic episode that tops my list. I could've easily done a top 25, 50 or even 100 for this topic, so paring it down to five was tough. Here it goes.

My number five podcast episode of 2015 was the return of "Go Bayside" when they critically deconstructed the "Saved By the Bell: Hawaiian Style" movie. By they I mean the excellent and very hilarious host, April Richardson and her equally as funny best friend, Millie De Chirico. I was so pleasantly surprised and happy when my podcast app showed me that there was a new "Go Bayside". I put time away to go on a hike so I would not be bothered while I listened. April Richardson took a long time off after she finished doing all the pertinent episodes of "Saved By the Bell", but she promised to return to do this movie and the one when Kelly and Zack get married. This episode made it well worth the wait. Richardson and De Chirico come out hot from the start, just chastising the racism in this movie. It was so funny. I loved how upset they both got t the fact that there was a principal's convention in the exact same spot of Hawaii that the students were vacationing in. They couldn't fathom a world that in all of Hawaii these people picked the same spot to vacation in. I couldn't agree more with them. They constantly bad mouthed Kelly's vacation boyfriend for being a creep and this actor totally deserved it, he was terrible. My favorite thing in the whole episode was how they kept going back to the piece of paper that the hotel lease was written on that was literally, a plain sheet of paper. They kept asking why this wasn't a more important document that they would keep in a special place and I found myself asking the same questions. It's baffling. This was such a great episode of my all time favorite podcast and I can't wait until April Richardson does the wedding of Zack and Kelly on what I assume will be the final episode ever of "Go Bayside".

Number four is the episode of "Doughboys" where they talk about In and Out Burger. "Doughboys" has been my new favorite podcast and this episode takes the cake. In most episodes, there's a back and forth between Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger and the guest just chimes in with whomever they are friends with. It's all very funny, but this episode was bizarre in the best possible way. Their guest was Armen Weitzman. Comedy fans know who Weitzman is, and how weird he can be, but he was off the handles in this particular "Doughboys". He would go back and forth between talking about the food to talking straight nonsense. While I was listening, I was enthralled at how wacky this episode was becoming. Even Mitchell and Wiger seemed to be taken aback at where all this was going. They even stopped their bickering towards each other and let Weitzman go on some long, strange rants. The best part was Weitzman explaining why his basketball podcast with Mitchell never came to fruition. This was the most bizarre thing in a completely absurd episode. I loved every second and I've listened to it multiple times just to hear the craziness. Not every episode is like this one, but I'm glad they have this, because it's one for the ages.

Coming in at number three I have "The Bill Simmons Podcast" episode with Michael Rappaport. As we all know by now, Simmons was fired from ESPN, took a social media hiatus for a couple of months and finally announced he'd be returning with a podcast and a TV show soon. The podcast was first and his early episodes were with friends and former athletes. It was basically the same thing as the "B.S. Report". Then, he had Michael Rappaport on and it was magical. He talked about everything fro his love for Knicks basketball to Rocky's trainer being a ladies man. He professed his love for Knicks rookie Kristaps Porzingis, calling him the "Latvian Gangster". He also kept calling Latvia, Lativia. He added an "I" that didn't need to be there. He also pushed Simmons to say something bad about ESPN. I loved how he was all in his business trying to get Simmons to say anything about his firing and what led to it. Simmons didn't say anything on air, but I like to imagine he crushed ESPN off air. Rappaport was a great relief from all the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics love that flooded the first month of Bill Simmons new podcast. He was lively, constantly cursing and just being himself. I loved it and I know most of his listeners did too. I can't wait for part two because there needs to be a part two.

My number two podcast episode was Comedy Bang Bang's fourth edition of "Farts and Procreation". This was bittersweet. Harris Wittels unfortunately overdosed and died the week before this episode came out. It was tragic and he has been greatly missed. He died way too young and had a horrible addiction problem. I didn't even know him and I miss him, so I can't even imagine what was going through Scott Aukerman's head when he did the intro. Well, his intro was an absolutely beautiful homage to his friend. He spoke of the good and the bad times they had and their close friendship. These two were very good friends. I'll admit, the intro brought me to tears. Then, they played their annual episode and it was as funny as one could've hoped for. Wittels, Chelsea Peretti and Adam Scott were as goofy and funny as they were on the previous three. Aukerman did his thing as the host, keeping the pace. Wittels did his classic "Harrison's Foam Corner" where he tells jokes that aren't ready for the stage yet and it was, once again, riotous. Peretti and Scott were great too. This was a great sendoff to the great career of Harris Wittels that was cut way too short. This is another episode I go back and listen to because it reminds me how truly talented Harris Wittels was. He was a great comedy writer nd he will be deeply missed.

And that brings us to my number one podcast episode of 2015, the "WTF with Marc Maron" episode where he interviewed President Barack Obama. This was a watermark moment in podcast history. I know that Obama was on other podcast, but not a comedian's podcast that thousands of hard core comedy fans listen to. This was a huge deal to me because I am an Obama supporter and I'm a Maron fan, so put those two together, I'm immediately on board. Maron did a great job with the interview, asking him all types of questions. Obama was even better, answering everything and telling more. He spoke of his father not really being around. He spoke of his love for his mom. He praised his wife. He talked about being a dad to teenage girls. He came off as a regular guy, not the President and I loved that. This was easily the best one hour of podcasting I listened to every year. And, I'm glad it was Maron that got the interview. He's gotten some big time people to be on his show, but he got the President and to people of my generation, this was great for us to hear this powerful man sound like an everyday guy. Maron and Obama did a great job with this episode. I mean, how could anything else be number one beside this episode.

So there you have my top five podcast episodes of 2015. Come back tomorrow where I wrap it up with my top five sports moments of 2015.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Next year his top five podcasts will all be ones he is a featured guest on. Follow Ty on twitter @tykulik.