Ty Listens to 'Who Me? An Extremely True Crime Podcast"

I subscribe to CBB World. For those that may not know, CBB World is a Patreon level of "Comedy Bang! Bang!". I have listened to "CBB" from the start, so subscribing to this was almost a no brainer for me. I have found a ton of new pods off this too. I mentioned "Hey Randy" and "Scott Hasn't Seen" on my best of lists last week. Shaun Diston is also a big part of CBB World. But there is one pod that has caught my attention of late.

This is a new pod. The host is Bobby Moniyhan, who I happen to be a big, big fan of. The podcast is called, and this is a big title, "Who Me? An Extremely True Crime Podcast". Moniyhan plays, as he puts it, The Batman. This is a Batman style podcast but it is all comedy and improvisation. This is one of my new favorite podcasts. I was listening to it earlier today on my run and I was cracking up. I find myself laughing harder with every listen. I find something new within each episode that makes me cackle. Moniyhan has this incredible control over the show and it works on every level.

To date they have had three episodes and each one has been better than the one before it. The basic story line of each episode is The Batman is trying to find who killed his parents. He will invite a guest and just start asking them questions without any warning. From there on out it is pure madness in the best way possible. Moniyhan is totally owning this show. He is so funny. His Batman voice is riotous. The way he complains about it makes it even better. The connection between him and whoever plays Alfred is just great. They are never in sync. Batman is always yelling at him. Alfred is always missing music cues. He is never ready. They have this great love hate relationship. It is perfect. In each episode the guests have been such a wonderful addition. The pilot ep featured Taran Killam as himself. This is great because of the friendship Killam and Moniyhan have. They worked together on "SNL" and they play so well off one another. The back and forth was tremendous. Killam's willingness to play and improv is second to none. I was so happy when I heard this episode because it grabbed me right away. I was in because of Moniyhan, and to hear him and Killam together hooked me even more. The second ep featured Ben Rodgers as Superman. Rodgers take on Superman was interesting and unique. He played him as a jock from NYC. His voice work sounded like Slyvester Stallone, and I am here for it. This was great because they kept bringing up the movies that the two of them have been in together. They kept making jokes. The questioning was hilarious. Moniyhan could barely get word one out without Rodgers making him crack up. I was in awe of the comedy I was listening to during that hour. I did not think it could get any better, but then we had the new episode that came out today. Nicole Parker was the guest and she was playing Gal Gadot. This was improv comedy at its best. I had to stop running a few times to catch my breath because I was laughing so hard. Parker was amazing. I do not know much about her, but damn was she cracking me up. Her take on Gadot/Wonder Woman was a thing of beauty. They brought up the "Imagine" thing she did at the start of the pandemic. This thread was wonderful. It was so funny. The jokes being made, man they were top notch. She busted out a Sarah Silverman impression and that was a home run. I loved that The Batman stopped down to tell her how great her impression was. When Parker as Wonder Woman kept asking him which question they were on, that is an old bit, but when it is done right it can beautiful. This was one of those beautiful moments.

I love this show. I find myself wanting more and more. That is a good thing. If you have the means and want, go get CBB World and listen to "Who Me?" ASAP. It is one of the best comedy podcasts in the game. 

Ty

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

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Tracy Morgan brings some glory back to SNL

Tracy Morgan is bringing comedy sunshine the dark landscape that has been SNL.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming from me.

I know I've been blogging a lot about basketball and sports lately, and I'm still going to do that, but now I'm going to get back into the groove and give you pop culture from a lot of different angles. I'll get back to movies, TV shows, music and everything else starting today.

Today, I'm going to tell you about the sheer greatness that was last Saturday's SNL. Tracy Morgan, making his triumphant return to TV, crushed as the host of the 41st seasons third episode. The season premiere, featuring Miley Cyrus wasn't very good, and Amy Schumer did a better job on the second episode, but Tracy Morgan, hosting the third episode, hearkened SNL back to it's glory days. He seemed so comfortable and calm on that stage. This was the perfect place for him to make his official return to TV. As I written before, he's most comfortable at 30 Rockefeller Center and that's where his career took off, both on SNL and "30 Rock".

I did want to touch on the cold open before I get to the meat of the episode. My wife and I usually never watch cold opens because they're always political and we, quite frankly, don't care for humor involving politics. But, due to some social media searching, we both found out Larry David would be making an appearance. I'm a HUGE Larry David fan and this piqued my interest. So, we watched the cold open, hoping that it would be worth it, and boy was it totally worth it. David played Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. I can't think of a better character for him to play besides himself. This was a grand slam, getting David not only to appear, but also to play his doppleganger, Bernie Sanders. He was absolutely hilarious, and had you told me the lines David was reciting were actual Sanders quotes, I would've believed it. Bernie Sanders is a total nut job, and Larry David played that almost as perfect as comedian James Adomian does. Seriously people, if you liked David's impression, check out James Adomian's impression, it's better. Needless to say, the cold open set the tone for this being a really, really good episode. Oh, and I didn't even mention that Alec Baldwin showed up playing, a senator I think, named Jim Webb. But, David's appearance outshined everyone else on the stage.

Now, let's get to the return of Tracy Morgan. First of all, during the monologue, he started to talk as if he had a stroke. I was taken aback, but he immediately said he was joking and I was already laughing. The monologue was very good. None of the singing that usually goes on now, in fact, he talked about his old show "30 Rock" being prophetic about his accident. Which reminds me, he said that maybe the accident made him smarter because he now knew what prophetic meant and how to use it in a sentence. Back to the "30 Rock" episode. It was on the same stage, obviously it wasn't a real "30 Rock" episode, and cameos were made by Tina Fey, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer and Alec Baldwin once again. They all reprised their roles from the show and talked about Tracy Jordan being in an accident. Morgan appeared as Jordan and let everyone know he was okay. This bit was played to many laughs. And, it's always good to have old friends and cast members appear on SNL. Pretty much all of the sketches were hilarious, and they brought back two beloved characters that Morgan played while part of the cast.

The first character they brought back was Brian Fellows. They did the Brian Fellows Show and anyone who watched when Morgan regularly did the show, knows how insane and bizarre this sketch is. It was just as crazy, with Fellows at one part, accompanied by a dream bubble, thinking about a beaver smoking cigarettes. He also yelled his titular line, "I'M BRIAN FELLOWS!".

It was great. During Weekend Update, we got a cameo from Tina Fey, hilariously making fun of Playboy not being a nudie magazine anymore. She even showed off some of the poses she always wanted to do, if she ever got a chance to pose for Playboy. During Weekend Update, while Michael Che was talking to his always upbeat neighbor, Willie, Morgan showed up as the bum who thinks he's way more important than he really is, Woodrow. Woodrow was Willie's life coach and the two of them sang a sweet, but very sad song. This was a great use of this character.

Some of the other good sketches were, one where, it was set up like a musical and all the cast members were joyously singing what they were doing. Well, when Morgan showed up, he sang what was literally on his mind. For example, one of his lyrics were, "I just peed". It was so weird, but Morgan made it funny because that's what he does. There was another weird sketch that Morgan made work called "Where's Jackie Chan At?". Morgan and Keenan Thompson played two guys that simply asked the question, where's Jackie Chan at. They had callers and even a person to person chat with Chris Tucker, played excellently by Jay Pharoah, and no one knew where Jackie Chan currently was. I loved this sketch, because I'm still trying to figure out, where's Jackie Chan at. They did one of their premade videos and it was very funny. The "movie" featured Pharoah, Shasheer Zamata, Taran Killam and Morgan. Killam and Zamata are a couple at the bar and Killam's character is clearly upset. Apparently, Morgan's character said something to her in passing and Killam was waiting for the right time to broach the situation. He finally does, and it's revealed that Morgan's character wants to dance. They keep saying, "you want to dance", insinuating a fight, but Morgan literally means dancing. He even has ballet flats on to prove how serious he is. They get into a whole back story about how Morgan's dad never let him dance, and made him act tough, and finally Zamata says she will dance with him because his story is so sad, but Morgan says he needs to dance with Killam because, "I can't lead, I don't know how". It ended with the two of then getting ready to dance, it was pretty funny.

The best sketch of the entire show was the first sketch after the monologue. They did a "Family Feud" sketch and I was in stiches the whole time. First of all, if there's a better impersonation of Steve Harvey than what Keenan Thompson does, I haven't seen it. He does a spot on Harvey impression, going so far as to call everyone player. It's great. During this sketch, we find out that the two families involved in the game are Tracy Morgan's new family, he got divorced six months prior, and his ex wife and three kids. This was a very, very funny premise for a sketch. We first met Morgan's ex wife, played by Leslie Jones. She's a star and needs to be on this show much, much more often. The kids are played by Pharoah, Zamata and Che. Morgan's new wife and family were as lily white as they come. His new wife was played by Cecily Strong and his kids were the new cast member, his name escapes me at the moment, and Vanessa Bayer. The only question asked during the feud was, "name something someone forgets". Jones rings in first and exclaims, "COMMITMENT!", clearly still upset about the divorce. She gets the answer right and her family gets to play. Pharoah answers, "not coming to your son's clarinet recital because it's not manly" and Zamata says, "not being there as a male role model, so now I have to strip". They each get strikes, and when they get to Che, he's gone to the other family because, "they're happy and always smiling". The whole time, Morgan is yelling back at his ex wife and children and it's hilarious. This was a great sketch to open with.

Obviously, I loved this episode. Tracy Morgan was phenomenal and exceeded my expectations by a million miles. I'm so, so happy that he's healthy and back doing what he loves. The comedy world has missed you Tracy Morgan, but your future looks bright after your triumphant return to SNL.

Welcome back.