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Nerdist was started by Chris Hardwick and has grown to be a many headed beast.

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Nerdist Podcast: JOHN HODGMAN

Hodgman talks moustaches, Steve Jobs, and his new book “That Is All,” available Nov. 1. If you listened to the Neil Gaiman episode then you already know that Hodgman is both spirit and flesh and exists everywhere and nowhere. He must be feared and revered. He. Is. THE HODGMAN.

Follow @hodgman, peruse the areas of his expertise or listen to him judge people on a weekly basis.

 
72 comments read them below or add one

  3. John Hodgman is one of my favorite people. I love pretty much everything he’s done (haven’t seen Baby Mama though). If you haven’t already, check out his interviews with George R.R. Martin and Neil DeGrasse Tyson on The Sound of Young America when he was filling in for Jesse Thorn.

  5. “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”
    “Ragtime”
    “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”
    “The Producers”
    “Hair”
    “Hello, Dolly!”
    “Follies”
    “The Cradle Will Rock”
    “The Sound of Music”
    “Anything Goes”
    “Full Monty”
    “Pal Joey”
    “Beauty and the Beast”
    “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
    “Bye Bye Birdie”

    /and I’m spent

  6. Musicals as euphamisms for defecation? How about…
    “The Black Crook”(very obscure, often cited as the first “musical”)
    (Very discreet) “The Act”
    (Drunken projectile sh***ing) “The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd”
    (See above) “On Your Toes” & “Paint Your Wagon”
    (After over-spiced Italian food) “Mamma Mia!”
    (Dysentery/food poisoning) “Anything Goes”
    (Constipation) “Promises, Promises”& “Working”
    “Passing Strange”, “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring In ‘Da Funk”, “Hellzapoppin”, “I Do, I Do” & “Can-Can” (Of course)
    “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” (esp appropos w/a French accent)
    (Explosive Infant Version) “The Cradle Will Rock”
    “Pennies from Heaven”, “Sugar Babies”, “What Makes Sammy Run?” & “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”
    (After days of too much cheese AND fiber) “The Cocoanuts”
    (A violent case of the anal distension Chris alluded to) “Rent”
    (Sneaking off to the bathroom once a new love interest falls asleep, & vainly trying not to make any noise) “A Little Night Music”
    (An enormous movement while camping, forcing you to relocate several times, so as not to soil your shoes) “Side By Side By Sondheim”
    And, in the ‘almost fits the category’ list: “The Wiz”
    (Good God, I have too much free time…)

  7. Loving it. Not even thirty minutes in and already there’s cockney rhyming slang, an oblique reference to I, CLAVDIVS, and a discourse on bakelite. I’m half-expecting a PBS pledge break in the middle.

  8. Possible Musical Contenders:
    Spring Awakening
    Next to Normal
    Bare
    The Scottsboro Boys
    The Story of My Life
    Little Women
    South Pacific
    The Boy From Oz
    Blood Brothers
    La Cage Aux Folles
    Les Miserables
    Jesus Christ Superstar

  9. Great podcast!

    What a delicious treat of knowledge and laughter with John Hodgman.

    And I really don’t know many musicals to connect to defecating but don’t forget

    The Sound of Music
    My Fair Lady
    Pippin
    and Jersey Boys

  11. Put me on the “Anti-Jon Hodgman’s mustache” List I’m afraid. It’s not that I’m opposed to the idea of him having a mustache so much as that the one he currently has (based on the last time I saw it) looks like he has a broom head stuck to his face. Ultimately it’s his face though and if he insists on it, then it’s a small price to pay as long as he continues to share his Hodgmany goodness with the world.

  12. All I could come up with is “The Iceman Cometh” and “Death of a Salesman”. Great episode!

  13. I’ve been waiting for this episode ever since you mentioned that you and Hodgman were friends. I can’t wait to listen to this.

  14. I feel like we’re up to the part of the game where it can make less sense and still be funny?
    So…….
    Second Chance (2009)
    See you later (1951)
    Runaways (1978)
    Tickets, Please (1950)
    Red, Hot & Blue (1936)
    Pipe Dream (1955)
    Oh, Boy! (1917)
    Yes Nurse! No Nurse!
    Yellow Submarine.
    Pirates of Penzance??
    Toxic Avenger: The musikill (2004)
    Working. (1978)
    The Wizard of Oz.
    Urban Cowboy.
    Tomorrow Morning (2008)
    Sucess (1993)
    Top Banana (1951)
    Tarzan?
    Sweet Smell of Success (2002)

  15. Folks above beat me to some I had in mind, & came up with some winners, too (“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” might take the blue ribbon). Anyways, here’s my 2 cents:

    Into the Woods
    Sweeny Todd
    Fiddler on the Roof
    Sweet Charity

  18. Has anyone considered the idea that John didn’t just grow the mustache as a fashionable add on but that this Hodgman is actually evil. He may have captured our universe’s Hangman and locked him in a panic sweet.

  21. Spoony, that was my first thought. Wonderful.

    Also:
    Movin’ Out
    Once Upon a Mattress
    Passing Strange
    Catch Me if you Can
    Little Shop of Horrors

  22. I love this interview. It’s not as if I really believed Hodgman was an insufferable know-it-all, but the vulnerability he showed here will prevent me from ever imagining so. Kind of a shame we didn’t find more out about how he got started as a writer – but we can’t always have the whole pie!

  23. Awesome episode as always, Nerdcast. lol, you guys keep making it look like Matt only had a flu with the previous episode, Ouch stomach flu.

    I had a problem with John Hodgman. He was so dry that I didn’t know what fake or not. That man has a superpower some how and my simple mind can’t even keep up. Fraking hell, Neil Gaiman was right. We need to assassinate John Hodgman on sight… or atleast subdue him with Justin Long.

  24. Coming in late,with a single poop musical offering.

    Assassins, by Stephen Soundheim.

    We’ve all been there.

  25. No musicals came to mind (haven’t seen enough sadly). Though I did think of 2 novel titles.

    Stardust
    Hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse

    Then a video game

    Splatterhouse

  26. I’m gonna jump the gun here and say that this is the best podcast since the James Gunn one.

  27. Broadway: “Tomfoolery”, in honor of the fathre of us all.
    Books: “The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul”

  28. The interview with John Hodgman and him talking about Apple, Steve, and life changing events really hit home. This is instantly one of my top 10 favorite nerdist eps ever.

  29. This week’s “Community” was a re-run of the premiere, and in it there’s a scene where Jeff is mad at the study group for sitting around playing the poop movie game without him. He even says that they missed the most obvious one, “Operation Dumbo Drop.” Then, I listened to the Hodgman episode and heard the same conversation! I felt like I’d entered the weird timeline episode! Does this mean that Hodgman is coming to Community? Does it mean that this game links all the best funny people? What does it mean?

    More importantly, I agree with JenK above, it was so great to hear John Hodgman out of character and being introspective and humble. Great, great episode.

  32. Just got back from Kailua visiting family. My younger brother was marveling at how many white people live there

  33. Big C were you really the guest of Neil Patrick Harris? Why haven’t you had him on? Neil Patrick Harris is one of my favorite actors.

  34. ALBUM TITLES THAT CAN BE USED AS AN EUPHEMISM FOR DEFECATION:

    Silent Alarm (Bloc Party)
    A Weekend in the City (Bloc Party)
    Intimacy (Bloc Party)
    One More Chance (Bloc Party)
    Discovery (Daft Punk)
    Shout (Devo)
    Night Ripper (Girl Talk)
    All Day (Girl Talk)
    The Warning (Hot Chip)
    Made in the Dark (Hot Chip)
    Congratulations (MGMT)
    Unknown Pleasures (Joy Division)
    Movement (New Order)
    Technique (New Order)
    Get Ready (New Order)
    Oh No (OK Go)
    The Chaos (The Futureheads)
    Is This It (The Strokes)
    Room on Fire (The Strokes)

    And my favorites:

    Hot Fuss (The Killers)
    It’s Never Been Like That (Phoenix)
    This Is Happening (LCD Soundsystem)

    I hope I have enriched your lives just a bit.

  40. Can’t believe you have other nerds make fun of PC people. “OK radio Shack”. WTF??
    All the intelligence and ability to create and you cannot appreciate people who admire their devices for the use they provide. Steve Jobs RIP. But I in no way like Apple because I do more with a PC and always have. I am 37 and damn good with programming and creating whatever I want. To be snide coming from this crew and this guest is annoying. I know John worked for Apple, but him being a troll saddens me a little. I will not be buying his book.
    I am glad Chris did not dive down that hole with him too much. I am still motivated to get his book.
    But John can take that snide, pompous, attitude and apply his own name to the analogy of being shit. I truly expected better from a smarter man.

  42. Brilliant episode that had me laughing so hard the people around me wondered what I was choking on as I tried not to disturb the office too much. Great stories (the Steve Jobs “leave me alone” tone with the e-mails killed), plus great to see someone who had success after the age of 30.

  44. First 45 min of the podcast are awesome and even though I never understood the “I’m a pc” commercials (because to a computer science engineer like myself, macs ARE pc’s (they even have x86 chips, nowadays)), I get that you talk about that part of hodgman’s life (and the story about missing out on meeting Jobs is a good one).

    But after that it gets really fanboyish (and plain inaccurate. Because if, back in the day, you were laughing at people without a mac for not having a graphical interface, you weren’t looking close enough. Atari, Amiga and Xerox all had graphical interfaces back in the early 80′s. A lot of PC users just enjoyed using a text-based system better and still do for that matter. I have several collegues (and not just old-timers) who still would choose command-line tools over GUI based tools any day).

    There, that’s enough ranting for today. Summary: I’m a big fan of the nerdist podcast, but this one just had a little to much Apple fanboy rage in it. Also I seem to be a fan of nesting parentheses. Fuck you, it’s not illegal…

  45. i can’t believe you guys didn’t string together the words “meta book report”! i even googled it and no one on the internet apparently has ever strung those words together (actually it’s still possible, google doesn’t really search everything on the web, does it?)!

  46. Oh, it’s pronounced “ko-an.” I was familiar with this concept but always thought of it as “cone,” and consequently never said it aloud. That would sound silly.

  47. I often find myself on the T getting weird stares from other passengers as I giggle to myself while listening to the podcast. This episode was no exception and I’m pretty sure some passengers got off my bus because I had a creepy (i.e. my normal) grin on my face the whole ride. Well done, Nerds! You’ve creeped out Boston by proxy!

    Als0 – MT Euphemism: Taboo
    Though, I have to give a huge shout out to whoever said “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” – to that I’ll add – “Titanic”

    You’re welcome.

  49. wow @Colin White, you won’t buy Hodgman’s book because he’s a Mac guy? i didn’t find him to be trolling at all. he was honest and came out right at the beginning saying that everything creative he’s ever done has been on a Mac. if that’s his feeling, why not just live and let live? the Radio Shack comment was just a joke…lighten up! :)

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