''Comedy Bang! Bang!'' is a television series created and hosted by

Scott Aukerman Scott David Aukerman (born July 2, 1970) is an American writer, actor, comedian, television personality, director, producer, and podcast host. Starting as a writer and performer in the later seasons of the sketch series '' Mr. Show'', Aukerman is ...

. The show aired weekly on IFC and was a spin-off of Aukerman's podcast ''

Comedy Bang! Bang! ''Comedy Bang! Bang!'' (formerly ''Comedy Death-Ray Radio'') is a weekly comedy audio podcast, which originally began airing as a radio show on May 1, 2009.A Special Thing Forums:Comedy Death-Ray Radio starts today! Popularly known as ''Humani ...

'', which airs on the

Earwolf Earwolf is an American comedy podcasting network founded by Scott Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich in August 2010. In 2011, they announced a partnership with Funny Or Die. It merged with podcast advertising network The Mid Roll in 2014, a separate comp ...

network. Like the podcast, the series featured outlandish and farcical humor, often delivered in a

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...

manner. The mock talk show derived most of its comedy from its

surreal Surreal may refer to: *Anything related to or characteristic of Surrealism, a movement in philosophy and art * "Surreal" (song), a 2000 song by Ayumi Hamasaki * ''Surreal'' (album), an album by Man Raze *Surreal humour, a common aspect of humor * ...

spoofs of common late night tropes and from its characters' ineptitude.

Reggie Watts Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinf ...

quit ''Comedy Bang! Bang!'' halfway through the fourth season, and a few weeks later was offered the job of bandleader for ''

The Late Late Show with James Corden ''The Late Late Show with James Corden'' (also known as ''Late Late'') is an American late-night talk show on CBS. It is the fourth and current iteration of '' The Late Late Show''. Airing in the U.S. from Monday to Friday nights at 12:37:28am ...

''. Musician

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

took over bandleader and sidekick duties after Watts' departure. The season four finale aired on December 10, 2015, and was Cudi's final episode. The series was renewed for a 20-episode fifth season on May 5, 2015.

"Weird Al" Yankovic Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American singer, musician, songwriter, record producer, actor and author. He is best known for creating comedy songs that make light of pop culture and often parody specif ...

took over the position of bandleader for the fifth season, which premiered on June 3, 2016. On August 18, 2016, Aukerman announced that the series would end after season 5, and the finale aired on December 2, 2016.

Production

The show featured celebrity guests playing either themselves or characters. Many of these celebrities were previous guests on the ''Comedy Bang! Bang!'' podcast and revisited characters such as Don Dimello (

Andy Daly Andrew J. Daly (born April 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred as Forrest MacNeil on the Comedy Central series ''Review'', and had a supporting role in the HBO comedy series ''Eastbound & Down'' as Terrence Cutler. H ...

), El Chupacabra (

Nick Kroll Nicholas Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor, voice actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is known for creating and starring in the Comedy Central series '' Kroll Show'', ''The Oh, Hello Show'', the FX comedy series ''The Le ...

), Bob Ducca (

Seth Morris Seth Morris (born May 21, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and writer known for his recurring roles on programs such as '' Go On'', '' Happy Endings'', '' The Hotwives of Orlando'', ''The League'', ''Kroll Show'', and ''Childrens Hospital'' ...

), Lil' Gary (

Thomas Lennon Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'' Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

(

James Adomian James Adomian (born January 31, 1980) is an Armenian-American stand-up comedian, actor, and impressionist. He is best known for his work on '' Comedy Bang! Bang!'', '' Chapo Trap House'', ''Last Comic Standing'', ''The Late Late Show with Craig ...

) and

Cake Boss ''Cake Boss'' is an American reality television series, which originally aired on the cable television network TLC. The series premiered on April 19, 2009, and has spawned four spin-offs: '' Next Great Baker'', '' Kitchen Boss'', ''Bake You Ri ...

(

Paul F. Tompkins Paul Francis Tompkins (born September 12, 1968) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He is known for his work in television on such programs as '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'', ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', and ''Best Week Ever'', later ...

). Many frequent collaborators included former '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'' cast members such as

Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off ''Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has re ...

, and

David Cross David Cross (born April 4, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, and writer known for his stand-up performances, the HBO sketch comedy series '' Mr. Show'' (1995–1998), and his role as Tobias Fünke in the Fox/Netflix sitco ...

. The talk show took place in one-third of a wooden shack with modern decorations, surreal pop-art, taxidermy, old books without dust-covers, and houseplants. Various objects had the ability to talk including the taxidermy, houseplants, as well as a couch named Sir Couchley. "Weird Al" Yankovic (from season 5 onward) provided all of the music on the show including the theme song and interstitial music. Reggie Watts wrote the theme song and first performed it on the podcast. Yankovic later performed his version of Watts' original theme.

Episodes

Reception

Critical reception for ''Comedy Bang! Bang!'' was generally mixed to positive, with a rating of 64 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, and a top critics rating of 66% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

. Most television critics gave the show positive reviews. '' Paste'' reviewer Ross Bonaime called the show "one of the best written shows on TV today", comparing it to ''

Pee-wee's Playhouse ''Pee-wee's Playhouse'' is an American television series starring Paul Reubens as the childlike Pee-wee Herman that ran from 1986 to 1990 on Saturday mornings on CBS, and airing in reruns until July 1991. The show was developed from Reubens's po ...

''. ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' television reviewer Robert Lloyd has called the show "amusing", likening it to ''

Space Ghost Coast to Coast ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast'' is an American adult animated comedy talk show created by Mike Lazzo for Cartoon Network and hosted by a re-imagined version of the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Space Ghost. In contrast to the original ...

''. Additionally, the weekly reviews that were posted on ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cr ...

'' were generally in the B− to A range.

Home media

''Comedy Bang! Bang! Season 1'' was released on Region 1 DVD on January 21, 2014. The two-disc set consists of all 10 episodes of its first season. Special features include: deleted and extended scenes, full-length alternate celebrity interviews and audio commentaries featuring characters from the show and more. ''Comedy Bang! Bang! Season 2'' was released on Region 1 DVD on June 24, 2014. The four-disc set consists of all 20 episodes of its second season. Special features include: full episode commentaries, deleted/bonus scenes and interviews, Reggie's season 2 music supercut, VFX tests and more.

References

External links

Comedy Bang! Bang! at IFC.com
* {{IFC programming 2010s American sketch comedy television series 2010s American television talk shows 2010s American variety television series 2012 American television series debuts 2016 American television series endings American television spin-offs English-language television shows IFC (American TV channel) original programming Television series by Abso Lutely Productions Television shows based on podcasts