Comedy Death Ray Radio

"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.

Available through the iTunes Store or directly from the Web site.

Tropes used in Comedy Death Ray Radio include:

• The Cameo: Doug Benson appeared regularly during the first few shows, reviewing films in eight words or fewer.
  • Could also apply to Ben Stiller's brief appearance on the show.
• Cannot Tell a Joke: Harris Wittels?
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Brett Gelman's now-infamous "iBrain" story.
  • Lil' Gary IS NOT FOOD!
    • Andy Daly's appearances on the show.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Huell Howser has a tendency to question everything around him.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Almost every episode!
  • Matt Besser's recent appearance as Fred Phelps did this, as you can probably imagine.
• Dead Air: Aukerman is very fond of letting an awkward silence hang.
• Everything Is Trying to Kill You: Apparently the Universe wants Paul Giamatti dead.
• 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.
• Just a Stupid Accent: British people don't really sound like Paul F. Tompkins' impression of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: El Chubacabre, Ice-T, Huell Howser and Lil' Gary are some of the best known.
• Long List: Bob Ducca is particularly prone to reeling off a list of ailments from which he's currently suffering.
• 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.
  • 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.
  • The rules of Would You Rather, which are simple to grasp but violently enforced by Aukerman.