"What's up, hotdog?"
Comedy Bang! Bang!, formerly Comedy Death-Ray Radio, is a radio show-turned podcast hosted by Scott Aukerman. Released weekly, the show started off as a straight interview with two or more comedic guests such as "Weird Al" Yankovic or Thomas Lennon, but quickly grew to incorporate characters, sketches and live music. As a veteran writer on shows such as Mr. Show and the host of UCB theatre's Comedy Death-Ray live show, Aukerman's guests regularly include comedians like Paul F. Tompkins, Sarah Silverman and Bob Odenkirk. Sometimes they appear as themselves, sometimes they are pretending to be someone else.
The show is well regarded as the cornerstone of comedy podcasts, often crossing over with shows like Doug Loves Movies, Nerdist Podcast and Never Not Funny. It has spawned a TV show.
Available through the iTunes Store or directly from the Web site
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The podcast contains examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: In episode #32, "Stan Lee" refers to Brendon Small as "Biggie Smalls". And then in episode #256, "Jesse Ventura" repeatedly refers to Brendon Small and Cameron Esposito as "Brandon" and "Cam'ron". This may or may not be a reference to the fact that Brendon's name is commonly misspelled as "Brandon Smalls" in interviews, something the Metalocalypse fandom has turned into a Running Gag.Brendon: [imitating a fan] "I can't believe I drove out six hours, and I'm hanging out with Brandon Smalls of Metalgocklemits." —Episode #32
- Adaptation Displacement: In-universe: In episode #294, Ian Edwards was surprised to hear that The Haunted Mansion (2003) was originally a ride.
- Back from the Dead: In episode #32, the possibility of Stan Lee's inevitable death being subject to a Retcon is discussed.
- Pretty much the whole idea behind the character of John Lennon.
- Beastly Bloodsports: The Calvins Twins' passion is to organize "horse fights" on their property, where special horses capable of standing up on their hind legs and punching each other are made to box to the death. Because horses are both very strong and very fragile, the fights last seconds at most, and they refuse to shoot them as they're dying. They eventually realize that, because of the beehives they keep on the estate, their horses might not have "fightin' spirit" so much as they're being driven mad from thousands upon thousands of bee stings that swell their front hooves up to look like boxing gloves.
- Berserk Button:
- Bully one of the guests too much and Victor Diamond will violently demand you leave them alone, as evidenced in episode #301.
- Do not mention Duff Goldman (The Ace of Cakes) around Cake Boss.
- "Cake Boss!"
- The Pie Minister is no friend to pastries that aren't pie, but cheesecake especially puts him on edge.
- The Cameo:
- Doug Benson appeared regularly during the first few shows, reviewing films in eight words or fewer.
- Ben Stiller's brief appearance on the show.
- Cannot Tell a Joke: Harris Wittels?
- Catchphrase: Before the name switch, Scott would introduce shows with the phrase "What's up, hot dog?" After the name switch the catchphrase would be retired, and would be used as the new title for the plugs segment: The "What's Up Hot Dog? Memorial Plugs Section."
- Marissa Wompler likes to "Womp it up!"
- Numerous recurring characters and impressions tend to have their own catchphrases whether they were intended to or not.
- Chupacabra: "Coo-coo-ree-koo!"
- Cake Boss: "Cake Boss!"
- Don DiMello: "Bring out the girls..." and "A little something for daddy."
- Lil' Gary: "I'M NOT FOOD!"
- Garry Marshall: "Please! Call me Garry!"
- Bobby Bottleservice: "Alright. Very cool."
- John Lennon: "Drums."
- Ho Ho The Elf: "Ho-HO!"
- Tiny: "That's a good song!"
- Cloudcuckoolander: Huell Howser has a tendency to question everything around him.
- Cluster F-Bomb: In Episode #294, Bernie Fretts (Brendon Small) is allowed only one F-bomb. He proceeds to drop the word "motherfucker" constantly later on in the episode.
- Crossover: Episode #284, "A Thrilling CBB Adventure Hour", crosses Comedy Bang Bang with The Thrilling Adventure Hour, featuring Marc Evan Jackson as the guest, and unscheduled appearances from TAH characters Croach The Tracker (Mark Gagliardi) and K of the Cosmos. (Paul F. Tompkins)
- Dead Air: Aukerman is very fond of letting an awkward silence hang.
- Enfant Terrible:
- Fourvel, a tiny, adorable and sometimes surprisingly foul-mouthed orphan boy... who regularly threatens to stab people he thinks aren't showing him respect.
- Full stop, J.J. and Murphy O'Malaman, the Kid Detectives. Although they seem at first to indeed be just perky Kid Detective types, they're quickly revealed as deeply disturbed, incestuous psychopaths who engage in piggyback rides on flayed, salted corpses and enjoy watching footage of the Challenger disaster; J.J. even excitedly mentions that he's developing telekinetic powers which he uses to torture and rip apart small animals.
- Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Apparently the Universe wants Paul Giamatti dead.
- Evil Overlord: It's implied that Don DiMello is this in episodes #274 and #300.
- Golden Snitch: Would You Rather, Who Said It, Are They Dead, pretty much any game starts with a few rounds of one point and a final round worth, usually, millions of points. Scott also arbitrarily detracts and adds points, particularly in Would You Rather, but the final round tends to still be worth at least worth between 100 million points and 1/64th of a point enough to win any player the game.
- Guest Host: Jimmy Pardo, Chris Hardwick and Paul F. Tompkins have hosted the show when Scott is busy elsewhere.
- Hostile Show Takeover: The Cyberthug take-over episodes.
- In-Universe Nickname: "Comedy Bing Bong", "Comedy Bean Bag", and other various permutations, for the podcast itself.
- Jason Mantzoukas is introduced as the Heynong Man, which stems from a Running Joke.
- Ben Schwartz has quite a few that Scott will always mention at the top of the show, including but not limited to: Benny Schwa, Benny Ugh, and The Elegant Mr. S.
- Scott would also refer to one of Ben's shows, Hou$e of Lie$, as "House of Pies", much to Ben's annoyance. Once the show ended, Scott had taken to calling it by its proper name and suggesting its ongoing broadcast, much to Ben's further chagrin.
- Ironic Death: In episode #294, the idea of dying in a haunted house is discussed.
- Just a Stupid Accent: British people don't really sound like Paul F. Tompkins' impression of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
- Long List: Bob Ducca is particularly prone to reeling off a list of ailments from which he's currently suffering.
- Overly Long Gag: The opening fanfare for Would You Rather?
- Paul loves chemicals so much he's basically Walter White over here.
- Long after the introduction of the "Closing Up The Plug Bag" theme song, Brendon Small (In-character as Tiny) book-ended the song in episode #301 by saying: "That's a good song!" From then on, more and more comments about the song were added onto the end of it over time. (The theme song would eventually be retired in 2016 and replaced with a new shorter one.)
Tiny: That's a good song!Tiny: That's a good song!Pie Minister: That is a good song!Tiny: That song's okay...Tiny: That's a great song!JW Stillwater: I didn't like that song.Mike The Janitor: Was that even a song?Tiny: That's a goooooood song!Willy Mapleton: That's not a very good song...Reverend Parsimony: The only good songs are hymns! - Overly Narrow Superlative: In Episode #301, Kumail Nanjiani calls his dad "the buffest Pakistani psychiatrist in New Jersey".
- The Power of Acting: John Hamm and Paul F. Tompkins (in the guise of John C. Reilly) once had an "acting stand-off", reading a Shakespeare monologue to see who could be most powerful. Reilly won.
- Persona Non Grata: Brett Gelman has nobody to blame but himself.
- Running Joke: Scott mispronouncing his name at the start of each show (Hot Saucerman, Clock Soccermom, etc).
- Scott thanking Reggie Watts for singing the theme tune live. Watts plays it up on the rare occasions he's actually a guest for the show.
- If Scott and Paul F. Tompkins are in the same studio, there's a good chance the two of them (Or Scott and whatever character PFT is playing) will eventually break out into an acapella rendition of the "Cantina Band" song from Star Wars
- The rules of Would You Rather, which are simple to grasp but violently enforced by Aukerman.
- And DO NOT speak over the Would You Rather theme music.
- And DO NOT send WYR submissions to Scott's personal twitter, as he will put them in the Would You Rather pile. This is not a pile of WYR suggestions, but a reject pile that Scott will destroy.
- There is a new listener-submitted catchphrase every week, and Scott regularly claims to have a nickname that is either the name of a seemingly randomly chosen Native American tribe (the Choctaw/Cherokee/Navajo/etc), or "The World-Famous Scott-o-bot".
- "Are people born in the 80s in their 80s? I think that everyone born in the 80s is in their 80s."
- "The countdown that we're ALL familiar with: Five, Four, Three, Nose, One!"
- Technicality no down boo over!
- Technicality no down boo over?
- Everyone's URL is internet.com.
- Hey nong man!
- Beginning in 2016, Ben Schwartz and Horatio Sanz would record a new "Closing Up The Plug Bag" song at the end of the first episode of the new year. Scott would plead them to make sure that the song is actually about closing up the bag, and the two would take note, but immediately sing about opening up the bag.
- Shout-Out: In Episode #301: "A little buzz? Toy Story is a lotta Buzz!"
- Stylistic Suck: Victor and Tiny's "podcast interview" with a dentist that lives in an apartment complex. Stolen stock music, a loud, audible hum, and unintelligible mics ensue.
