I’m a bit busy with actual paying work, so I’ll keep last week’s review short and sweet. If you read this site regularly, you know I’m a big fan of a couple of long-running comedy podcasts: Comedy Bang! Bang! and Never Not Funny. Both celebrated big milestones last week in typically funny fashion. On top of that, you may also know I always like a podcast mashup, especially one that introduces a new podcast to me. Check out my podcast highlights for last week.

Comedy Bang! Bang!

Last week marked the 400th episode of this part talk show, part improv show. Host Scott Auckerman celebrated in style by bringing back one of the all-time great characters on the show, Hot Dog (played by Andy Daly). Host-in-waiting, Jason “Haynong” Mantzoukas, also joined the show, as he often does when one of Daly’s characters makes an appearance, and together the three put on quite a show.

Never Not Funny

Host Jimmy Pardo doesn’t think much about the numbers assigned to his episodes, but I say a new season of a long-running and long-funny podcast deserves a little notice and is a great opportunity to share the greatness of Pardo, co-host Matt Belknap and the rest of the NNF gang. In the first episode of the podcast’s 18th season, singer/songwriter and previous NNF guest, Ellis Paul joined to mix in a few beautiful songs to the normal mix of laughs, insults and games.

Switched on Pop

I have to admit, this was my first episode of Switched on Pop, but when I saw it featured some of the people behind the Call Your Girlfriend podcast, I gave it a listen. What I found was a podcast featuring a thoughtful analysis of the making and meaning of pop music, surprisingly interesting for a person who isn’t the biggest fan of pop music in general. Last week, host Charlie Harding discussed the theme song and namesake of the Call Your Girlfriend podcast with one its co-hosts, Ann Friedman, and its producer, Gina Delvac. Harding slices the Robyn song of the same name down to its parts, performing pieces of it along the way and really helping the music novices among us (myself included) appreciate the art of the song. Harding also talked wedding playlists with New York DJ, Zach Seely, and was later joined by his regular co-host, Nate Sloan, to talk about the subject of Sloan’s doctoral thesis that’s been keeping him away from his normal podcast hosting duties: Harlem jazz clubs of the 1930s. Hi de ho!

Home: Stories from L.A.

Finally, as a relative newcomer to the L.A. area, I’d heard murmurings of a murder house in the Los Feliz neighborhood, but never really knew the details. Host Bill Barol solved that with last week’s episode of Home: Stories from L.A. Barol used his podcast about finding home in L.A. to tell the gruesome and unnerving story of Harold Perelson, who killed his unsuspecting wife one night in 1959 in their house in Los Feliz. Barol also pealed back the decades worth of myth and mystery that have built up around the murders and what has happened to the house since (not much by the way). You don’t have to live in Southern California to appreciate this well-told story of murder and superstition.