We all need to turn off our brains sometimes to ease the onslaught of chaos that is the modern world. That's even more true for those of us who wrestle with depression, and often the only thing that can temporarily ease this burden is by distracting it with pop culture entertainment. While many folks choose to distract themselves in this manner with TV, I've doubled down on an entertainment outlet that had already been bringing me consistent bursts of mirth for years: comedy podcasts.
So during depressive dips my go-to soothing distraction has become throwing on one of my favorite funny pods while playing a video game. Whether improv madness, playful buddy hangs, or humorous pop cultural or historical dissections, I've found a wealth of relief in podcasts that celebrate (mostly) kind-hearted silliness. If you're also looking for an absurdist escape from the real world, here are a few podcasts that might be worth a listen.
COMEDY BANG! BANG!
The Rosetta stone that can open up the world of comedy podcasts, Scott Aukerman's weekly weirdo extravaganza still hits after over 16 years. Most weeks Auckerman interviews a celebrity at the top and follows it up with interviews by improvisers playing wild characters, ranging from arch impressions of folks like Andrew Lloyd Webber to stabby orphans, dirty Halloween songwriters, murderous cowboy poets and more. It's pure madcap comedic mania. The pod has even spawned its own (totally worth it) subscription service, Comedy Bang Bang World, where CBB favorites get their own hilarious shows (highest recs for Hey Randy! and WHO ME? An Extremely True Crime Podcast with The Batmin!).
OMNIBUS
At its core, Omnibus is a history podcast about fascinating things or events we've collectively memory-holed or totally misinterpreted. And while it totally delivers on that premise, it's also frequently very funny thanks to the banter dynamic between co-host Ken Jennings (yes, the Jeopardy one) and Seattle indie rocker and raconteur John Roderick. Jennings' whipsmart nerdy quips (and awful puns) play well with Roderick's endearingly mild blowhard tendencies, making topics ranging from defenestrations and theoretical math concepts to military bears and The Noid into humorous romps throughout humanity's odd arc of existence.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD LISTEN
Hosted by Comedy Bang! Bang! legend Paul F. Tompkins and Nicole Parker, this comforting listen finds the pair playing friends who host a podcast about their bizarre fictional town of Dignity Falls. Each episode, a guest comes on and improvs a character based on a real-life crazy post from the Nextdoor app. With crackling chemistry and an abundance of silliness, The Neighborhood Listen might be the comedy pod that consistently goes down the smoothest.
OFF BOOK: THE IMPROVISED MUSICAL
If you've never done improv comedy, it's hard to explain how much harder doing musical improv is than just making up scenes. It's brain-breakingly hard, and it's borderline magical when people can pull it off. That makes Off Book hosts Jessica McKenna and Zach Reinto sorcerers supreme. Each episode, the pair, a crew of musicians, and sometimes a guest makes up an entire musical off the top of their heads. It's nuts. The duo's peppy and endearingly dorky music theater kid energy shines in stories about doggy Christmas concerts, Spider-Man going to therapy, rivers that suck and more.
THE RINGER FANTASY FOOTBALL SHOW
While certainly the outlier of the bunch as it's primarily a football podcast, humor is the selling point of the The Ringer Fantasy Football Show because hosts Danny Kelly, Craig Horlbeck and Danny Heifetz make each episode feel like a joke-filled parasocial hangout with your buddies. The guys take creative approaches to dry sports topics — such as shows explaining the football season through Happy Gilmore or Arrested Development quotes — but the real fun comes when they reach the mailbag at the end of each episode and go on deep dives about crazy old-timey football (like Cloyce Box or the Dayton Triangles), have extremely long fights about Heifetz's inability to pronounce words, elicit wild stories from listeners and more. It feels like chopping it up with your friends even when listening alone. ♦
