The End Of The Chris Gethard Show

Sam Wilkinson

According to a faithful reader, I'm Ordinary Times's "least thoughtful writer." So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

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7 Responses

  1. I had never heard of this, but this was great, thank you for sharing it. EDITED FOR SPOILER (SEW) The clip was hilarious, will definitely look up further episodes.Report

  2. Doctor Jay says:

    I started watching the episode and then someone mentioned they were in NYC. Suddenly, it all made so much more sense.Report

    • Sam Wilkinson in reply to Doctor Jay says:

      @doctor-jay What is the “it” there? The weirdness?Report

      • Doctor Jay in reply to Sam Wilkinson says:

        Not exactly the weirdness, just the show, and it’s sensibility. I hesitate to call any show weird. I’ve been called weird for doing things that seemed very reasonable to me, and not weird at all. But more the answer to the question “how do people get to this sort of comedic place?”

        It’s sort of a very gentle form of satire, all the way through. it’s ridiculously meta and referential. A perfect fit for NYC.Report

  3. Maribou says:

    Can’t watch the clip till this evening, but I’m looking forward to it, especially after your thoughtful praise of the show.

    I have yet to watch this show at all, but Gethard does a podcast called Beautiful/Anonymous where random people call in and talk to him about their stuff one-on-one for a really long time (the edited podcasts are 45mins or sometimes much longer). (Well, he does more than one, but this is the one I care about most.) I’ve only listened to a half-dozen of its more than a hundred episodes so far (i’ve been accumulating rather than binging on podcasts lately), but they all have, in fact, been beautiful. Even accounting for him being selecitve about which calls he airs, it takes a rare talent for creativity to bring forward the inner radio-worthy selves of so many people at random with no preparation – many of whom are in the midst of it when they call.

    Funnily enough, I first heard about it because @professor-esperanto was complaining that it sucked, and did not live up to the hype (all publicity is good publicity, people!) — but still I think many folks here would appreciate it – especially because Gethard’s method of getting to the heart of things with his callers – while still very careful and humane – is far more like the arguments we have here, at best, than it is like a therapist or talk show host… he wants the *truest story*, and what healing may come of telling it is a welcome side effect, but he also doesn’t seem to want to rewrite things to be more interesting, and will carefully backtrack when that appears to be happening.Report

    • Dan Miller in reply to Maribou says:

      My favorite episode of Beautiful/Anonymous is actually the first one, because the show isn’t a big phenomenon yet and the caller is a true rando. It’s a virtuoso display of emotional intelligence by Gethard; the whole thing is just beautiful and true in a way that’s very hard to summarize. I like your “truest story” way of describing what he’s going for. It’s very much worth listening to.Report

  4. Dan Miller says:

    Gethard is a comedic genius. His one-man show, Career Suicide, was also astoundingly good and deserved much more recognition (it was filmed as an HBO special, so if you’re a subscriber you should definitely check it out).Report