Journalist/Comedian Harmon Leon dives into comedy cult classics, comedic influences, and all things comedy history.
Our guest is Art Bell; the man who pitched the idea that became Comedy Central. Art was also the head of programming at the network.
We do a deep dive into the origin of such iconic shows as Mystery Science Theater 3000, South Park, The Daily Show - and talk about the early careers of Jon Stewart, Marc Maron, and Bill Maher.
Art also has a new book out: Constant Comedy: How I Started Comedy Central and Lost My Sense of Humor.
In 2005, Pepe the Frog was created by cartoonist Matt Furie And then his lovable creation got coopted by the alt-right. Ugh! Coinciding with the release of the new documentary, Feels Good Man - we chronicle the crazed, insane journey of Pepe the Frog.
Gallows humor is witticism in the face of – and in response to – a hopeless, tragic, or deathly situation. Gallows humor is typically made by or about the victim of such a situation. In this episode of CH!01 - we actually chart gallows humor - made by people in history right before they’re about to be executed.
Yes, gallows humor on the gallows.
We continue our history of: Dolemite. Eddie Murphy has a new Netflix bio-pic on comedian Rudy Ray Moore - and the making of the movie Dolemite. The movie was made for $100,000 in 1974- and in this episode we cover everything that went wrong during production; including a drunk director, hiring a real-life junky, and basically filming without permits.
“Dolemite is my name and f*cking up motherf*ckers is my game!” says Dolemite - the comedy creation of Rudy Ray Moore.
There’s a new Netflix bio-pic coming out on Rudy Ray Moore called: Dolemite is My Name. It stars Eddie Murphy - and chronicles how Moore went DYI and produced the movie: Dolemite. In this episode we dive into the early days of Rudy Ray Moore, producing XXX Party Records - to the Dolemite origin story.
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Here Comes the Judge is a 1968 song by legendary comedian Pigmeat Markham. It become one of comedy’s first memes when Sammy Davis Jr. made it a catchphrase on the TV show: Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In.
The song, and Laugh In comedy sketch, became so huge - that 4 other versions of Here Come the Judge were released in the same year - all them making the charts. (The most famous by Shorty Long.)
Here Comes the Judge - also inspired the Baskin-Robbins flavor: Here Comes the Fudge.
Find out more about one of comedy’s first memes - long before there was the Internet.
This week, Saturday Night Live fired new cast member, Shane Gillis. Turns out he made racist comments on podcasts.
Ugh!
But there’s been numerous famous comedians who have been fired by SNL over the years. Adam Sandler. Fired! Chris Rock. Fired! Sarah Silverman. Fired! Not to mention, Norm Macdonald, Damon Wayons, Rob Riggle, Chris Farley, and of course, Iron Man: Robert Downey Jr….ALL FIRED!
In this episode of CH101 - we cover all the performers who have been fired by SNL over the years.
In 1971, the legendary comedy troupe, Monty Python, went to Germany to film two episodes of: Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus.
The Pythons were reluctant to do the episodes - largely because they had to do the shows..in German. The only problem was - none of the members of Monty Python could speak German. The Pythons had to phonetically learn the scripts - to appear like they knew German - to very mixed results.
We explore the comedy history behind the band DEVO - one of the funniest music groups of all time.
DEVO first described their music as bombs dropping mixed with Alka Seltzer jingles and the overall mood of the band as a combination of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Ronald McDonald.
Find out about such carnations as Boogi Boy (Mothersbaugh's alter-ego), the red energy dome hats, and where they came up with the idea for the yellow jumpsuits.
Look at Jimi Hendrix. He loved Mad magazine. I’d like to think that when Hendrix played his rendition of The National Anthem at Woodstock, he was doing his Mad magazine interpretation of the song—thumbing his legendary nose at authority.
And Mad is ending it’s 67 year run in August. We dive into Part Two of your history of the magazine. - covering some of the controversies over the years. Longtime editor, Joe Raiola tells us what happened when they had an article where the prophet Muhammad appeared in a pancake.
You can also read my entire interview with Joe at the Observer.
Sadly, Mad magazine is ending its 67-year print run in August. Gone. Vanished. No more. But Mad will live on through how it influenced every comedic force that has ever thumbed its nose at authority, from The Simpsons and the Onion to Howard Stern, and Stephen Colbert.
I recently got a chance to interview longtime editor/writer for Mad, Joe Raiola - for a story I did in the Observer. Joe provided some great insights on his 33 years working for Mad.
We continue with the literal trials of Lenny Bruce - and the nature of free speech in comedy clubs.
Does free speech mean that we occasionally have to listen to what we don’t want to hear?
We dive into the gamut of free speech from the controversy of Milo Yiannopoulos appearing at a NYC comedy club - to comedian Ahmed Ahmed having a comedy club patron call 911 on him for making ‘Middle Eastern’ jokes.
Are there limits to Lenny Bruce’s plight?
Roseanne was supposed to be the big comedy breakout star of Trump’s America… and look how that turned out. So, why are there so few right-wing Republican comedians who can extend the comedic olive branch across both sides of the political aisle? And how come every time there’s a Republican version of The Daily Show - it fails?
We dive into the fine art of right-wing comedy and its proclivity to punch down rather than punch up….
Today’s episode jumps off from a story I did for the Observer - on the release of Nick DiPaolo’s right-wing comedy special that he deemed “Too dangerous for Netflix and too honest for Comedy Central.”
Tim Conway was one of the greatest second bananas in comedy history. Sadly, he passed away on May 14th at the age of 85. Conway’s comedy career started on a local TV station in Ohio, and he made his mark in sketches alongside Harvey Korman on the Carol Burnett Show. He also starred in the much overlooked TV movie: Roll Freddy, Roll.
We love the comedy work of Tim Conway - and today’s CH101 episode is a tribute!
Alex Jones began his career in Austin, Texas, back in the ’90s, as a local cable access cult figure - and built a rabid national audience by spewing out conspiracy theories.
To set the stage, ACTV (Austin Community Access TV) in the ’90s was pure Austin at it’s weirdest. Find out how Jones jumped on the scene as an amped up 22-year old - and originally wanted to be a standup comedian. Learn what happened when he got in a fight in the parking lot of ACTV - and claimed he was attacked by a man with “strange goat eyes.”
Read Harmon’s entire story about the incident in the NY Observer.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, slipping on a banana peel has been a fixture in physical comedy. A comedy trope, if you will. We’ve seen such legendary silent comedians as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Laurel and Hardy - all do a variation of the slipping on a banana peel gag.
But how did the “slipping on a banana peel” gag come into our lexicon? And why don’t we see people slipping on banana peels in 2019? Find out all this and more as we do a CH101 deep dive into the history of slipping on banana peels!
Knock knock? Who’s there? It’s time for the history of knock-knock jokes…
Knock-knock jokes are the classic question and answer kid joke. But did you know that its origin goes all the way back to Shakespeare’s Macbeth? Well it does.
In the episode we dive into the joke’s origin - and how Rowen and Martin’s Laugh In - helped it’s comeback into pop culture.
We continue with Part 2 of our history of the National Lampoon Radio Hour; the show that evolved into Saturday Night Live and featured such iconic comedy figures as John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, Richard Belzer, and Chevy Chase.
We cover our favorite episodes of the NL Radio Hour and how Lorne Michaels scooped up all the talent for SNL.
It’s Part Two of our episode on comedy that crosses the line. You know, the edggggy comedy that goes too far for the times. We dive into Bill Hicks getting censored on the David Letterman show to the revolutionary comedy of Dick Gregory in the early ‘60s - to the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo.
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On this episode of CH101, we explore the history of comedy that crosses the line. You know, the edggggy comedy. Sometimes it’s comedy that’s revolutionary and creates change, such as the comedy of George Carlin and Lenny Bruce. And sometimes, its comedy that goes too far - and is there just for shock value. (Michael Richards - we are talking to you.)
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