Comedy Podcasts: A Guide to the Formats, the Shows and the Business

A comedy podcast can be almost anything: two friends eating imaginary meals, an improviser playing a time-travelling hot dog vendor, a comedian spending ten hours investigating a novel. That variety is the medium's strength and the reason people bounce off it. Someone who hates three-hour hangout shows may love a tightly edited investigative series. This guide sorts comedy podcasts into five basic forms, names the best examples of each, explains how to find shows that match your taste, and lays out how the business works.

For a straight ranking of the greatest shows, see the 25 best comedy podcasts of all time. If you just want somewhere to start this week, our beginner's listening guide is quicker.

A short history

Comedians started podcasting in the mid-2000s, when the format was still a technical novelty. Ricky Gervais's show for The Guardian (2005–2006) proved there was a mass audience; in the US, early shows like Never Not Funny, Superego and Doug Loves Movies found niche followings. The breakthrough year was 2009, when Marc Maron launched WTF and Scott Aukerman's radio show Comedy Death-Ray Radio began its life as what became Comedy Bang! Bang!. The Earwolf network followed in 2010 and gave Los Angeles alternative comedy a permanent home in audio.

For alt comedians the timing was perfect. The club and television systems still controlled who got seen, but a podcast needed only a microphone and some friends. Performers who were too strange, too slow-burning or too niche for a five-minute TV set could build an audience directly. That dynamic, which we trace in our history of alt comedy in the 2010s, is still the medium's core appeal.

Form 1: Improv and character shows

The most purely alternative form. A host sets up a frame, and improvisers arrive as characters who are rarely what they claim to be. Nothing is scripted, and the pleasure is watching performers find a premise and escalate it in real time.

• Comedy Bang! Bang! (Earwolf, since 2009) is the blueprint. Scott Aukerman interviews a real guest, then performers like Paul F. Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus and Jason Mantzoukas appear as characters. Our Earwolf guide covers it in depth.
• Hollywood Handbook (Earwolf) commits to one long character for the whole show: its hosts as clueless would-be power players.
• Hello from the Magic Tavern turns improv into a serialised fantasy sitcom with a continuing story.
• Improv4Humans and Spontaneanation are closer to pure scene work in the UCB and Paul F. Tompkins traditions.

Try it if you love improv, Tim and Eric, or any comedy where the joke is a performer's total commitment to a stupid idea. Avoid it if you need things to make sense.

Form 2: Interview shows

The most influential form, and the one that changed how audiences understand comedians. Long, loosely structured conversations reveal process, biography and personality in a way a five-minute talk-show slot never could.

• WTF with Marc Maron (2009–2025) defined the form: personal, confrontational, often therapeutic. See our Marc Maron profile.
• The Adam Buxton Podcast offers a gentler, more playful British take.
• Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend is as much about Conan and his staff as the guest.
• Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast records interviews live in front of an audience.
• The Comedian's Comedian and Vulture's Good One focus specifically on how jokes and sets are built.

We have a full guide to the best comedian interviews, including radio, books and documentaries. Try it if you are curious about how comedians think. Avoid it if you want jokes per minute.

Form 3: Hangout and premise shows

The biggest category by far. Two to four performers talk, usually around a hook (a bad movie, a restaurant, a pop star's catalogue), and the hook is mostly an excuse for chemistry. When it works, it feels like eavesdropping on the funniest table in a bar. When it doesn't, it is three people laughing at in-jokes.

• How Did This Get Made?: bad movies, three hosts, a decade-plus of live shows.
• Off Menu: Ed Gamble and James Acaster's imaginary restaurant. The easiest show on this page to recommend to anyone.
• My Brother, My Brother and Me: the McElroy brothers' advice show.
• Doughboys, Blank Check and U Talkin' U2 to Me?: food, directors and rock bands as pretexts.
• Poog and Las Culturistas: wellness culture and pop culture, from four of the sharpest stand-ups and writers of their generation.
• Threedom and Stop Podcasting Yourself: hangout with almost no premise at all.

Try it if you like a show as company while you do other things. Avoid it if you get impatient with tangents. Hangout shows reward loyalty; the first episode you hear will feel like walking into the middle of a conversation, because you have.

Form 4: Narrative and investigative shows

The newest form to mature. A comedian researches a subject in depth and presents it as a story, either as a limited series or a long-running format. The comedy comes from the host's voice and reactions rather than from riffing.

• Jamie Loftus is the form's leading figure. Lolita Podcast (2020) examined Nabokov's novel and its cultural afterlife; Ghost Church (2022) investigated American Spiritualism; Aack Cast looked at the comic strip Cathy. Each mixes reporting, criticism and jokes. See our Jamie Loftus profile.
• The Dollop tells one strange story from history per episode, read by Dave Anthony to a co-host who hears it cold.
• Beautiful/Anonymous sits on the edge of this category: one anonymous caller, an hour, no edits for comfort.

Try it if you like documentaries, longform journalism or comedians who are clearly the smartest person in the room. Avoid it if you want a laugh every thirty seconds.

Form 5: Sketch and audio fiction

The oldest form, really, since it descends from radio comedy. Scripted or heavily edited pieces with sound design, characters and punchlines. It is the hardest to make well and the least common.

• Superego, launched in 2006, presents sketches as psychological case studies and is still the benchmark for edited audio sketch.
• The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a staged live show in the style of old-time radio, became a popular podcast in the 2010s.
• Hello from the Magic Tavern belongs here too, as improvised fiction.
• The Bugle, satirical news started by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman, carries on the radio-satire tradition.

In the UK, much of this tradition still lives on BBC radio rather than in podcasting, and many Radio 4 comedy shows are available as podcasts.

How to find podcasts you'll actually like

Start from what you already enjoy in other forms, and use the five categories above as a map:

Three more practical tips:

1. Follow the guests. When you like a guest on one show, check their own podcast. The comedy podcast world is small, and the same performers appear across dozens of shows.
2. Don't start at episode one. Most shows took months to find their footing. Start with a recent episode or one featuring a guest you know.
3. Give a hangout show three episodes. Chemistry shows feel exclusive at first. By the third episode you start getting the references.

How the comedy podcast business works

Networks

Networks bundle shows together to sell advertising, share production staff and cross-promote. In comedy, the key names are Earwolf (founded by Scott Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich, now part of SiriusXM), Maximum Fun (Jesse Thorn's listener-supported network, home to My Brother, My Brother and Me and Judge John Hodgman), Team Coco (Conan O'Brien's company, acquired by SiriusXM), Headgum, and Exactly Right, the network built around the comedians behind My Favorite Murder. Big audio companies such as iHeartRadio and Spotify have also signed or acquired comedy shows. A network deal typically trades some ownership and revenue for ad sales, production and promotion.

Advertising

Most comedy podcasts make most of their money from host-read ads, priced on the number of downloads per episode. That is why hosts read ads in their own voice (often with jokes), and why shows care so much about consistent release schedules. Ads are increasingly inserted dynamically, so the ads in an old episode may be recent.

Listener support

The second model is asking listeners to pay directly. Never Not Funny was one of the first comedy shows to charge for episodes, years before Patreon existed. Maximum Fun funds itself partly through an annual membership drive. Today countless shows use Patreon or their own platforms to sell bonus episodes, ad-free feeds and archive access. For a mid-sized show, a few thousand paying fans can be worth more than advertising.

Live shows and video

Successful podcasts tour, recording episodes in theatres, and live shows have become a major income source. The other big shift is video: many comedy podcasts are now filmed and posted on YouTube, where clips also serve as marketing. That has changed the form, favouring shows with a visual element and hosts comfortable on camera.

Where to go next

Read the ranked list of the greatest comedy podcasts, try our beginner's path, or go deeper on the people behind the medium: Marc Maron, Jamie Loftus and the Earwolf and Comedy Bang! Bang! story.

Frequently asked questions

What are the main types of comedy podcast?

Broadly five: improvised character shows (Comedy Bang! Bang!), interview shows (WTF with Marc Maron), hangout or premise shows built on chemistry (How Did This Get Made?, Off Menu), narrative or investigative series (Jamie Loftus's Lolita Podcast, The Dollop), and scripted sketch or audio fiction (Superego, Hello from the Magic Tavern).

How is a comedy podcast produced?

Most are recorded in one take with two to four microphones, either in a small studio or remotely, then lightly edited for length, sound levels and dead ends, with ads inserted at set points. Network shows have producers who book guests and sell advertising; independent shows often do everything themselves.

Is starting a podcast a good way to start out in comedy?

It can help you practise and find collaborators, but it is rarely how comedians get discovered. Most successful comedy podcasters already had stage experience and a network of funny friends. Do stage time first and treat a podcast as a way to develop chemistry and a voice.

How do comedy podcasts make money?

Mainly through host-read advertising, sold by networks or ad agencies based on downloads. Many shows also earn from listener subscriptions on Patreon or their own platforms, live touring, merchandise and, increasingly, YouTube video versions.