Last summer, I ran down a list of the best podcasts hosted by current or former members of Saturday Night Live, so it only makes sense that I’d eventually get to the genre’s worst. Since the federal government requires every comedian to host a podcast, there are plenty of candidates but here are the shows bringing up the rear, brought to you by your friends at Squarespace…
Superfly
Live from the Carveys’ spare bedroom, it’s Superfly, the even-less-produced version of David Spade and Dana Carvey’s Fly on the Wall podcast. I included Fly on the Wall among the best SNL podcasts, despite “Carvey’s tendency to repeat stories and interrupt guests.” But spin-off Superfly keeps the worst of that show — the rambling, the cutoff conversations, the “what are we doing now?” hiccups — while dumping the SNL guests that make the original such a fun listen. Superfly is only two episodes in so maybe the show will find its feet, but it needs better setups than, “Let’s hear about your weekend, Dana.”
Woo Woo with Rachel Dratch
I was intrigued by the idea of Woo Woo, a podcast in which Rachel Dratch and comedy pals “explore the unexplained with humor and curiosity.” Who doesn’t want to listen to Tina Fey tell ghost stories or Amy Poehler talk about her manifesting typewriter? But the biggest problem is Dratch herself. She’s a fun hang but seems to have little interest in or knowledge of the mysterious subjects she’s discussing. Whether it’s mysterious bodies of water on Europa or the personality analysis of the Enneagram, Dratch needs Wikipedia to explain the enigmas since she’s just learning about them herself.
Jim Breuer’s Breuniverse
Here’s a Would You Rather: Would you rather have your wisdom teeth pulled without anesthesia, or listen to Breuer and Victoria Jackson share all the ways in which SNL wronged them?
Yeah, that’s what I thought. The dentist will see you shortly.
Strike Force Five
Back in the dark days of the writers’ strike combined with the actors’ strike, any entertainment was welcome. But no one should ever be so hard up for laughs that they listen to Jimmy Fallon’s Fun Facts. Strike Force Five existed to give bored late-night hosts something to do, but this amiable podcast made us long for the days when Jay Leno pulled every dirty trick in the book to steal The Tonight Show from David Letterman.
Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast
Okay, so Shane Gillis was only a cast member of Saturday Night Live for about 15 minutes, but the fact was, he was hired. And Secret Podcast was the show that sent him packing after people shared video from a 2018 episode in which Gillis used an ugly racial slur for Chinese people. “Chinatown’s f—ing nuts,” Gillis proclaimed to cohost Matt McCusker. “Let the f—ing ch–ks live there.” For good measure, Gillis showed off his imitation Chinese accent that, surprise surprise, was less than flattering. Entertainment Weekly recently did a round-up of Gillis atrocities on other episodes, including calling presidential candidate Andrew Yang a “Jew ch–k,” using anti-gay slurs on a slew of episodes and calling Judd Apatow and Chris Gethard “white f—-t comics” and “f—ing gayer than ISIS.”
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome your February 24th SNL host, Shane Gillis!