Laugh Out Loud Friday

Below is an old Silicon Valley Mom's blog post, with some funny downloads, urge you to GET THEM NOW.  Who has time to go to audible these days and actually do a search, though, so thankfully I've found a number of funny - and free - podcasts, plus a few others.  It seems comedians are doing their own podcasts to promote themselves and their friends, and to talk about things they love.  What's not to love about these self-proclaimed "nerds?" - nothing, that's what.  I've found several of these through the first one, when he's had them on his show, so thanks Doug Benson...as someone recently said to me, "he always looks like he's high" to which I responded, "he probably is."  He created the documentary "Super High Me"  - still need to get that.

My top 10 (or so) podcasts (all can be found in iTunes)

1. Doug Loves Movies - I wish there were more of these, but he's getting his own TV show
2. The Pod F Tomcast (Paul F Tomkins is a riot, the first hurt my tummy muscles and made me want to start using Google Voice)
3. Stop Podcasting Yourself (subscribed for the name, Canadian, so sweet & funny - and nice of course)
4. The Nerdist (awesome, just awesome, if sometimes a bit long)
5. This American Life and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me - of course
6. The Moth Podcast - hilariously funny, heart wrenching, tear jerking, unbelievable stories
7. SuperEgo - completely and totally crazy, if I remember correctly (seems it's turned to video)
8. WNYC's Radiolab - just very cool, and family-friendly
9. Freakonomics - economics explains everything
10. Sklarbro Country - okay, have not yet heard this, but sounds great.  They have Doug Benson on this week and heard them on the Nerdist.

And just to round out this post, I've Jerseylicioued myself, thanks to Cat (aka @dearbadkitty at Wishbone Clover) and Kristy (She Just Walks Around With It - speaking of funny, also of Promtacular fame)
Shudder.

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Originally posted at SV Moms Blog
I remember back in high school having these laughing fits with my friends until my stomach was aching.  In particular I had this one friend who was just really funny, and another on the more serious side but for some reason just really cracked me up.  She'd say some random thing, I'd go into fits of hysteria and she's just look at me like I was nuts, going "What?  What?"  This of course happened at innapproriate times like Passover dinner or in a mall restaurant while I was trying to order.

Laughing is great for you - burns calories, puts you in a cheery mood, but I find spontanious bales of this level of laugher much rarer these days.  Sure my kids do funny things, but sometimes those are the times you can't really burst out laughing so much as chuckle slightly as they seriously expalin the intracacies of the power ranger clan or why you should NOT call them "sweetie pie".   Therefore I've attempted to artificially induce these in the car using my trusty iPod. 

My top 5 funniest downloads.

1. The Ricky Gervais Show- Season 1.  Ricky's from The Office (BBC version) and Extras and this show is to die for.  By the last few episodes I think driving was probaby quite dangerous.  The other seasons are hilarious I'm sure but this one was free (I don't think it's free anymore, but he does have three free specials).  I've been too cheap to purchase the rest until I've exhausted other free downloads.  It was the number one downloaded podcast with like 8 million downloads and I won't say anything more beyond "I could eat a knob at night" - the dance remix.
2. Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - NPR.  This is on every Saturday, but who can schedule these things with little kids running around?  Subscribe free on iTunes.
3. Steven Colbert's interview with Terry Gross on Fresh Air- need I say more?  I just noticed you can get John Stewart, David Sedaris, Dave Chappelle... - those have all got to be funny.
4. Un-caberet Stand-up and Stories.  I first heard one of these from Julia Sweeney on This American Life.  These are funny, sometimes sad stories told at a club by comedians - the idea (but don't quote me) is the stories must be true and told for the first time at this club.  Standup is from the stage, stories are, well, stories.  Free preview shows from audible.com.
5. And speaking of This American Life - this is now a free podcast, archives cost.  Some of the funniest episodes are:

• Anything by David Sedaris...audible's list (also at iTunes of course)
• Fiasco - Peter Pan production
• Recodings for Someone - the best phone message ever

Bonus Track - Car Talk, also on NPR, 10am every weekend. I personally have not downloaded this, but own a CD and listen as often as I can.  These guys also sponsored Lightening McQeen, so they've got to be cool.

I found some of these using the cool "I want to...Laugh out Loud...For less than 3 hours" feature on audible.com, thus the tile.