''Professor Blastoff'' was a weekly comedy

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

, which was released every Tuesday and lasted four years from May 15, 2011 to July 21, 2015. It was hosted by comedians

Tig Notaro Mathilde O'Callaghan "Tig" Notaro (born March 24, 1971) is an American stand-up comedian, writer, radio contributor, and actress. She is known for her deadpan comedy. Her acclaimed album ''Live'' was nominated in 2014 for the Grammy Award for Be ...

Kyle Dunnigan Kyle Dunnigan (born May 25, 1971) is an American comedian, actor and writer, best known as a writer for ''Inside Amy Schumer'', and for his role as Craig in ''Reno 911!'' Career Dunnigan was a member of the Groundlings Sunday Company and receive ...

and

David Huntsberger David Huntsberger is an American comedian, known as co-host of the '' Professor Blastoff'' podcast and host of the ''Reactor'' television show on the SyFy channel. Huntsberger is a frequent guest on the podcasts '' Alison Rosen is Your New Best F ...

. The topics ranged from scientific, philosophical, metaphysical and humanitarian with guest host Aaron Burrell assisting in the research, who was also Tig's assistant at the time.

History

The podcast was broadcast as part of 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 compa ...

comedy podcasting network, being recorded in studios owned by the company. In late 2012 and early 2013, the podcast went on tour across the U.S. and recorded live episodes at comedy festivals and small venues. The 100th episode was shot on camera. In 2015, Kyle reported that "Tig got too busy." So they decided to end it for good.

Theme song change

The first episodes of the podcast had a theme song by the hosts of the show, then in June 2011, podcast listener Tim Farrell submitted a new theme song that the show used until it ended.

Tig's diagnosis

In the Spring through Fall of 2012, Notaro was absent from a lot of the podcast episodes due to various sicknesses she experienced in a short time period, which she documented on her

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

-nominated album, ''

Live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music *Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of albums ...

''.

Streaming

The podcast could be streamed from the Earwolf website or downloaded from

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

up until June 14, 2016, when it was switched to exclusively being hosted by

Stitcher Radio Stitcher is a media company that specializes in the creation, distribution, and monetization of podcasts. Stitcher creates original shows through networks such as Earwolf and Witness Docs. Stitcher provides ad sales and distribution services to ...

Guests

Many notable people in the world of comedy, music, television and film have appeared on the podcast, including

Amy Schumer Amy Beth Schumer (born June 1, 1981) is an American stand-up comedian and actress. She ventured into comedy in the early 2000s before appearing as a contestant on the fifth season of the NBC reality competition series ''Last Comic Standing'' i ...

Ira Glass Ira Jeffrey Glass (; born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality. He is the host and producer of the radio and television series ''This American Life'' and has participated in other NPR programs, including ''Morning Edition'', ...

Aisha Tyler Aisha Nilaja Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, director, and talk show host. She is known for playing Andrea Marino in the first season of ''Ghost Whisperer'', Tara Lewis (Criminal Minds), Dr. Tara Lewis in ''Crimi ...

Pete Holmes Peter Benedict Holmes (born March 30, 1979) is an American comedian, actor, writer, producer, and podcaster. Musings on spirituality and religion are frequent themes in his works. Holmes gained recognition in the early 2010s as a stand-up comic, ...

, and

Marc Maron Marcus David Maron (born September 27, 1963) is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, actor, and musician. In the 1990s and 2000s, Maron was a frequent guest on the '' Late Show with David Letterman'' and has appeared more than forty ...

Format

The backstory of how the podcast came to be was that a scientist, Professor R.L. Blastoff, Ph.D., got lost in space and reports back findings to his abandoned basement, or the "Hatch," via radio signal and determines the subject of each episode. At the beginning of each episode, Aaron dialed into the signal to see what they will discuss that day after the hosts updated the listeners about what was going on in their lives. Then, the guest was introduced and is either an expert in the field of the subject or very interested in talking about it. As the conversation goes on, Kyle is usually riffing on his various characters and impressions, Tig is being silly, and David is trying to keep everyone on track of getting back to the subject.

Features

Throughout the show's history, Kyle introduced his various impressions and skits such as

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

Tim Gunn Timothy MacKenzie Gunn (born July 29, 1953) is an American author, academic, and television personality. He served on the faculty of Parsons School of Design from 1982 to 2007 and was chair of fashion design at the school from August 2000 to Mar ...

Bill Maher William Maher (; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is known for the HBO political talk show ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' (2003–present) and the similar la ...

, Swamp Rock, the game show '' Name that Punky'', Mother Meditations, Top-shelf Thoughts, Knockout Ball, and improvised raps using only noises from his body.

Episodes

Reception

The podcast has charted in the following countries: United Kingdom, United States, Canada and Australia.

References

External links

* {{Tig Notaro Comedy podcasts Audio podcasts Earwolf Earwolf podcasts 2011 podcast debuts Works by Tig Notaro 2015 podcast endings American podcasts