Chapo Trap House and the rise of the dirtbag left

I tried listening to some of the other leftist US podcasts after enjoying Chapo - Delete Your Account, Katie Halper - and while they were informative and fighting the good fight, realised that as someone outside the US I didn't really care enough about US domestic policy to keep listening. But Chapo I kept up with, and I think that is indeed because it's funny. Not as funny as a lot of comedy podcasts, but then no professional comedians have moved to occupy this niche.

the Naomi Klein segment this week is a good overview/entry point for the curious

yeah, I don't know. I think I listen to too many lib/left podcasts so very often the "serious" guests are ones I've heard interviewed before, and the Chapo guys are imo pretty mediocre at interviews. They either turn the same crank as usual or they seem like some Nerdist try-hards waiting for an opportunity to get their jokes in. But now and then there's some good back and forth.

The only part of the show I find funny is the idiot readings. And even then I could do without the "this David Brooks column made me scream so hard my neighbors called the cops" shit. But yeah I guess I got over Sam Kinison shit back in the 80s.

the Peggy Noonan one this week is funny but if anything kind of undersells over just how weird and bad the piece is

really weird discussions come up in this thread. as in hard to tell if people are being disingenuous or just daft as a brush. podcasts which are "funny" but where the hosts are not comedians nor do they have traditional comedic chops compromise a good chunk of popular podcasts, people generally enjoy the humour that is in them.

Freudian slip?

"Why do people like this thing that I'm so obsessed with that I can't stop posting about it?"

imo Amber's writing is great on intra-left beef. this dispatch from left forum

https://thebaffler.com/latest/flakes-alive

or this oldish one in jacobin on deriding leftists as "bros"

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/06/bro-bash/

are both great funny bloggy writing. but her actual writing on "actual politics" i have found not that good

really weird discussions come up in this thread. as in hard to tell if people are being disingenuous or just daft as a brush. podcasts which are "funny" but where the hosts are not comedians nor do they have traditional comedic chops compromise a good chunk of popular podcasts, people generally enjoy the humour that is in them.

― -_- (jim in vancouver), Monday, 18 September 2017 16:40 (five hours ago) Permalink

no that wasn't my point at all, it works fine for a podcast, and I do like the podcast quite a lot, obvs, it's just that when they try to move outside their range into, e.g., live shows, the fact that they aren't actually comedians or performers becomes much more naked. And I imagine the same would be true with a book. I mean actually most "humor" books suck anyway, so whatever.

Also, their podcast is good because it doesn't *exclusively* rely on them being funny, and when it veers too much into that direction it's not as good as they seem to think it is.

Naomi Klein ep was good. I was worried Felix was going to shit it up with his comments but it felt like someone had him on a short leash or had given him a good talking to beforehand, or maybe Klein is just a commanding enough guest to control the conversation in a way other guests haven't been.

Xpost. Yeah their live shows and bits are not good

The Harvard show was painful but I thought the last one not so bad.

Deadspin or Splinter should steal the Harvard Evil tourney idea (Ryan Fitzpatrick definitely makes it to the Sweet 16)

Harvard ep was the only good live show thanks to the concept keeping them grounded

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKTN7pYUQAAEwhB.jpg

Oooh la la who made that beauty

Rob Whisman, isn’t it?

would like to announce my new grassroots political movement pic.twitter.com/W9d6aQ4eH7

— rob whisman (@robwhisman) September 22, 2017

Tim Faust is great on this:

http://art19.com/shows/with-friends-like-these/episodes/5a14a188-96ee-4906-a399-7161a06162ca

tim faust always sounds like he's been practicing his relatable dirtbag schtick in the mirror for 2 weeks before any of his podcast appearances :/

I disagree, I find him really passionate and easy to listen to

not an easy combo to find lol

He just seems like a really hyped-up but endearing nerd to me - he could be telling you about his favorite Dischord bands but instead it's single-payer healthcare.

Matt was on the Michael Brooks show. Not the most high-energy of performances, but fun to have on in the background.

Also I noticed that no one(including him) ever adjusted his mic, so he's constantly hunched over and looking at the table.

At least he's right up on that mic, so we'll take what we can get.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSAlqts697w

(about 30 mins in)

If Crulge is doing a shtick he's certainly consistent about it

.@crulge explaining how we're going to win Medicare for All to like 300 @DemSocialists members. pic.twitter.com/CYeh97B5Up

— Micah Uetricht 🌹 (@micahuetricht) September 28, 2017

He just seems like a really hyped-up but endearing nerd to me - he could be telling you about his favorite Dischord bands but instead it's single-payer healthcare.

Haha, his new podcast is exactly this, only they go on about metal.

http://www.blubrry.com/heavyxmedical/

I don't understand the release schedule anymore -- is it Sundays and Thursdays?

it's "sometime between Tuesday and Thursday" and "on Sunday, most of the time"

new premium is up. can't believe they got Hillary Clinton. impressive

He just seems like a really hyped-up but endearing nerd to me - he could be telling you about his favorite Dischord bands but instead it's single-payer healthcare.

― louise ck (milo z), Tuesday, September 26, 2017 11:33 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

will be interesting to see these dudes grow up in the public eye

I'd never really looked at this thread, which, along with the Innocent Smoothies thread, seemed pretty active yet completely foreign to me. I just assumed they were about some British comedy troupe or something. But lo, it turns out to be about a popular political podcast! Who knew. I don't listen to many (any?) podcasts beside what my wife plays on car trips, but I think I'll give this a shot. I like political yammering.

Hah I had the same experience until a friend of a friend I respect mentioned he listened to the show and it forced me to check it out.

Josh in Chi, I usually recommend people start with one of the Ross Douthat episodes. It's not Pod Save America, you have to kind of get acclimated to their sensibility and their mythical pundit world.

Cool, thanks. It's always tough when you find you're 150 episodes behind.

(That said, I think I've heard maybe part of an ep of Pod Save America and I don't remember it being radically different, mostly less prone to crazy reference-strewn digressions?)

the recent Naomi Klein episode was a good overview of their politics and a bit of their humor, maybe skip the cold open though (virtually all of their scripted stuff, of which there is thankfully little, is bad)

Mostly agree. I still love the "Woke Morning Zoo" bit from one of the early eps though.

And obviously the Adornian Gorka bits are classic but I assume he comes up with those.

Re: Adomian—This is the kinda thing that drives me up the wall, especially because it keeps happening:

I must now confess: we once taped an intro with Adomian where he was Kurt, right after the hentai, and it was so funny but my laptop ate it

— The Dying Pundit (@deep_beige) September 27, 2017

Theyre a year into an extremely successful independent revenue model and nobody has ever updated the gear from just recording directly into Brendan’s MacBook.

Even Nick Mullen uses a Zoom recorder now.

nick is too, uh... "obsessive" to ever let anything like that happen. i hope he actually releases a 7.1 mix of the show, so we can hear him "wrap around the room like a goddamn Comanche helicopter."

Baffler/dirtbag fave Brandy Jensen shows up on The Dig today

https://www.blubrry.com/thedig/27559795/marisol-lebrn-brandy-jensen-puerto-rico-austerian-disaster-roy-moore-perfect-republican/

the Marisol Lebron segment in there on PR is also good

has mullen ever come on CTH?

no but he's been in the room/made off mic remarks in a couple episodes, sorta like Amber on his show.

amazing that they are so close with the head of DSA

and the clown prince of the alt-right

BTW Adam Johnson's last Citations Needed podcast was really good -- covered deficits and MMT with Stephanie Kelton.

If this is podcast-related, shit's just embarassing

trying to resolve this error is absolute geohell pic.twitter.com/wlWLo3dB8q

— Virgil Texas (@virgiltexas) October 2, 2017

I gotta say the work Amber and Tim are taking part in sounds very cool

Yeah, to continue the upthread discussion about whether this is just lefty Daily Show or something more, hearing how the show is only a degree separated from real organizing kind of points to "something more."

that's still tricky to argue imo since Amber is only on about 1/4 of the time on average and is also the only active organizer