Earwolf and Comedy Bang! Bang!: How a Radio Show Built a Comedy Podcast Empire

Earwolf was a Los Angeles comedy podcast network founded in August 2010 by Scott Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich, built around Aukerman’s improvised talk show Comedy Bang! Bang!. It became the defining home of the 2010s comedy-podcast boom, then passed through a chain of acquisitions (Midroll, E.W. Scripps, Stitcher, SiriusXM) until, in September 2025, its remaining shows dropped the Earwolf name entirely. Comedy Bang! Bang! itself is still going, at nearly a thousand episodes.

This is the history of both: the show that came first, the network it anchored, the corporate deals that reshaped it, and why it all matters to alternative comedy. For a wider listening guide, see our best comedy podcasts of all time.

Before the podcast: Comedy Death-Ray

Scott Aukerman came up in the 1990s Los Angeles alt scene and wrote for Mr. Show with Bob and David in its later seasons. In the 2000s he co-ran Comedy Death-Ray, a weekly live show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles that became one of the city’s key alt showcases. He also co-created Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.

On May 1, 2009, Aukerman launched Comedy Death-Ray Radio on the Los Angeles station Indie 103, with Rob Huebel and Thomas Lennon as his first guests. It was a radio show first and a podcast second, and it already had the format that would define it.

The Comedy Bang! Bang! format

The idea is simple. Aukerman interviews a real guest, often a comedian, actor or musician promoting something. Then, after each break, a new guest arrives who is a comedian playing an improvised character: a delusional celebrity, a strange expert, a figure from history, someone with an outrageous claim. The real guest has to play along. Aukerman, a superb straight man who is also always looking for a joke, keeps things moving and lets the characters build into absurd shared stories.

Over the years the show accumulated rituals: a listener-submitted catchphrase at the top, games like “Would You Rather?,” and the closing “plug bag,” where guests promote their work. Characters recur, and some build multi-episode arcs, giving the show a deep, internally consistent fictional universe that rewards long-term listeners.

In May 2011, on its second anniversary, the show was renamed Comedy Bang! Bang!, a name credited to the producer and comedian Kulap Vilaysack. As of September 2026 it had passed 980 main episodes.

The character players

The show is as much a showcase for its regulars as for its host. A few of the most identifiable characters:

• Paul F. Tompkins has appeared more than anyone, around 250 times, with impressions and inventions including the Cake Boss, Ice-T, Garry Marshall and Andrew Lloyd Webber, none of them remotely accurate and all the funnier for it.
• Jason Mantzoukas is the second most frequent guest, a chaotic force usually appearing as himself.
• Andy Daly brought a gallery of characters, including theatre director Don DiMello and the Western poet Dalton Wilcox.
• Jessica St. Clair as teenager Marissa Wompler, who later got her own spin-off, Womp It Up!
• Seth Morris as the hapless Bob Ducca, Thomas Lennon as Little Gary, James Adomian as Huell Howser and Jesse Ventura, Nick Kroll as El Chupacabra and Bobby Bottleservice, and Gregg Turkington as Neil Hamburger.

Many of these performers came through UCB and the improv scene. For a decade the show was where you heard the best of LA improv doing what it does best, long-form scenes with total commitment.

Earwolf: the network (2010–2014)

In August 2010 Aukerman and producer Jeff Ullrich launched Earwolf as a network, with Comedy Death-Ray Radio as the flagship. The pitch was to bring comedy podcasts together under one brand, with shared production, promotion and advertising, at a time when most shows were hobby projects or radio side-products.

Early shows included:

• How Did This Get Made? with Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael and Jason Mantzoukas, dissecting famously bad films. It launched in 2010, became Earwolf’s other flagship, and created a format others have copied ever since.
• Sklarbro Country with Randy and Jason Sklar, the first show added to the network. It ran on Earwolf until 2017.
• Professor Blastoff (2011–2015), with Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan and David Huntsberger.
• Analyze Phish (2011–2014), in which the late Harris Wittels tried to convert Aukerman into a Phish fan.
• Totally Laime, Who Charted?, improv4humans with UCB co-founder Matt Besser, and many more.

In 2011 Earwolf announced a partnership with Funny or Die. In the same period the network kept adding shows that would become long-running staples, including Hollywood Handbook, With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus, U Talkin’ U2 to Me? (Aukerman and Adam Scott, later followed by an R.E.M. version) and, later, Office Ladies and Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.

Comedy Bang! Bang! on TV (2012–2016)

The podcast was adapted for IFC as a half-hour television show that ran from 2012 to 2016. It kept Aukerman as host and the arrival of character guests, but added sketch-style surreal set pieces and a bandleader: first Reggie Watts, then Kid Cudi, and finally “Weird Al” Yankovic. The TV show is a delight in its own right, but feels more scripted and less free than the podcast; think of it as a companion rather than a substitute.

The ownership trail: Midroll, Scripps, Stitcher, SiriusXM

Earwolf’s corporate history mirrors the entire podcast industry’s shift from DIY to big business.

1. 2014

   Midroll Media

   Earwolf merged with The Mid Roll, the podcast advertising network Ullrich had founded, to form Midroll Media, combining a comedy network with an ad-sales business. In November 2014 a sister network, Wolfpop, launched under Paul Scheer; most of its shows were folded into Earwolf in March 2016.

2. 2015

   E.W. Scripps

   The broadcaster E.W. Scripps bought Midroll. Midroll launched Howl, a premium podcast app, the same year. Scripps went on to acquire the podcast app Stitcher, and the businesses were combined.

3. 2019

   Into Stitcher Premium

   Howl was discontinued and its paid programming moved to Stitcher Premium. Stitcher Premium itself was discontinued in 2023.

4. 2020

   SiriusXM

   In July 2020, SiriusXM agreed to acquire Stitcher, including Midroll and Earwolf, for about $325 million, as part of its push into podcasting.

5. 2020–2025

   The slow shrink

   After the sale, Earwolf gradually lost or dropped shows. Hollywood Handbook and Office Ladies left; Chris Gethard’s Beautiful/Anonymous went independent in 2023; others moved to networks such as Headgum and Maximum Fun.

6. Sept 2025

   The name disappears

   Earwolf’s last four shows, Comedy Bang! Bang!, How Did This Get Made?, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and Scam Goddess, dropped the Earwolf name for SiriusXM branding, and the network’s website went dormant.

Comedy Bang Bang World and the shift to subscriptions

As the network shrank, Aukerman built a direct line to fans. On October 1, 2021, he and producer Brett Morris launched Comedy Bang Bang World, a paid subscription service offering ad-free back episodes, a community space, live performances and spin-off shows. Its rotating CBB Presents feed has given individual characters their own series, and in 2023 it took on Threedom (Aukerman, Tompkins and Lauren Lapkus), Womp It Up! and other shows. Like many comedy podcasters, Aukerman moved from relying on a network to owning a relationship with listeners.

Why Earwolf and CBB matter

1. They made the comedy-podcast network a model. Shared branding, cross-promotion and a stable of hosts became the template for Headgum, Team Coco, Maximum Fun’s comedy shows and many more.
2. They made improv an audio art form. Comedy Bang! Bang! proved that long-form character improvisation could hold an audience every week for more than fifteen years.
3. They were a talent pipeline. Countless comedians got their first national exposure as CBB characters or Earwolf hosts, carrying UCB-trained skills into TV writing rooms and casts.

Earwolf is the other half of the story that Marc Maron’s WTF started in 2009: Maron proved the intimate interview could work as a podcast; Aukerman proved pure play could. Both shaped what we cover in our guide to comedy podcasts.

Where to start listening

Frequently asked questions

Who founded Earwolf?

Scott Aukerman, host of Comedy Bang! Bang!, and producer Jeff Ullrich founded Earwolf in Los Angeles in August 2010, with Aukerman’s show as its flagship.

Who owns Earwolf and Comedy Bang! Bang!?

SiriusXM. Earwolf merged into Midroll Media in 2014, Midroll was bought by E.W. Scripps in 2015, and SiriusXM acquired Midroll and Stitcher, including Earwolf, in 2020 for about $325 million. In September 2025 the remaining Earwolf shows, including Comedy Bang! Bang!, dropped the Earwolf name for SiriusXM branding.

Is Earwolf still around?

Not as a brand. By September 2025 Earwolf’s website had gone dormant and its last four shows (Comedy Bang! Bang!, How Did This Get Made?, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend and Scam Goddess) were branded as SiriusXM podcasts. Many former Earwolf shows continue independently or on other networks.

What was Comedy Bang! Bang! originally called?

Comedy Death-Ray Radio. It launched on May 1, 2009 on the Los Angeles station Indie 103 and was renamed Comedy Bang! Bang! in May 2011.

Where should I start with Comedy Bang! Bang!?

Pick any recent episode featuring Paul F. Tompkins, the show’s most frequent guest, or a milestone or anniversary episode with a big cast of characters. The show’s format is consistent enough that you don’t need to start at the beginning.