3/110 - The Hound Tall Podcast
I've done more than three but writing the posts makes me self-conscious!!!
note: I didn’t share this on my social channels because I am scared about criticizing comedians! Not totally sure why I mentioned this but thought y’all should know.
Sometimes I wonder how many recordings of myself there are in the world of which I would be thoroughly ashamed.
I have a limited but existent record of my time as a middle and high schooler full of the racism and self-perpetuating sexism of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Nothing that would get me fired from a media job, per se, but definitely things that folks could point to as evidence of … me growing up white in Missouri at the turn of the Millenium.
I wonder if there are any videos or recordings of me being particularly loud and obnoxious. Any moments where I talk over someone and then never let them finish speaking. Any conversations where I say one thing at the beginning and then talk myself out of it by the end without every acknowledging having made any type of mistake.
I thought about this while listening to first episode of The Hound Tall Podcast - hosted by Moshe Kasher and featuring Pete Holmes and Beth Stelling talking to a woman who had been in a Harem in Brunai. The reason I wondered if I had ever made a recording that would make me want to crawl into my own self and die was because if all three of the people interviewing the show’s guest DIDN’T feel that way after listening to a playback, I would be...surprised.
The show is a recording of a live show at the late UCB Sunset, and while the initial sound quality and audience interaction made me mourn for the days of live theatre, and crowd-acknowledging comedy in New York, it was also vaguely disheartening to be aware that I was receiving the secondary transmission of the entertainment event. That is, my participation was a bonus, but I was not the intended or acknowledged audience.
I want to caveat this by saying that I did listen to another episode after the first one that I enjoyed very much so this recounting is less a referendum on the podcast as a whole and more one on… well tbh it’s gonna be mini rant about Pete Holmes and the male comic ethos in general in which Moshe Kasher was, at some points, equally culpable.
The women to whom they were speaking had been in a Harem in Brunai. A fact that our adorable, all-white comedians wasted no time equating to.. anything from Aladdin. There were Pete Holmes being a pedophile jokes that not only didn’t land well but kept coming back with a kind of pathetic school boy trying to get the teachers to notice him vengeance that was so unselfaware, I found myself needing to pause the show so I could listen to it later when I was doing something more physically active and thus flooding my body with endorphins.
Beth Stelling was asking multiple, meaningful questions that the men turned into jokes because they were… attentive to relevant details of the story tellers life? And then, toward the end, in a moment I still cannot think about without all of my internal organs getting *itchy*, Pete Holmes takes things off topics 4 consecutive times and then Beth asks a relevant question of the guest and then Moshe Kasher chides her for getting the show off topic and making things run long. I almost threw my phone across the park where I was doing self-soothing hill repeats.
I don’t think people should be defined by their worst moment. I think one of the most important questions of our constantly-recorded era inching toward progress will be how to fully apologize for, fully forgive, and fully move on from errors made in ignorance. I think if we don’t give people room to be wrong, to admit and take ownership of their offenses as a means of correcting them, we give them an excuse to double down. We all need to build up the confidence required to say “that didn’t work” or “that didn’t come out right” or “that did come out right but after hearing it out loud and learning a bit more about the context in which it was received, it was unkind” and then move on with the trust and effort required to do better next time.
Otherwise, we’re stuck 50 minutes into a podcast beating to death a pedophile joke that was never alive to begin with.
Currently Reading: Boom Town by Sam Anderson
Currently Watching: New Girl (not a rec...but I need a kind of mindless thing with also fun heart)
Currently Listening to: “Alexa, play something that will help me focus”
Currently spending money on: Seamless because our weekly grocery order (humble brag) got kinda outta whack with the holiday. We are very lucky to be able to afford both groceries and delivery - so as part of counting and contributing blessings in the New Year, I’m also making a monthly donation to Feeding America. One Poke Bowl for me = 200 meals a month for the underserved in our country. If you’re interested in doing the same, here’s the link!
Currently Laughing at: This perfect TikTok
Check out the full rec list here.
Rec me stuff here.
Love you all so much!!
TKP