WTF with Marc Maron (it's a podcast)

kerri kenney was good, i had no idea about her rock band

I liked that she was kind of disgusted at his research habits

oh i might have to check out the kerri kenney episode, i love her. yeah, cake like was kind of an up-and-coming band that never really came up.

so who from the state has he still not interviewed?

I was cringing at Maron throughout the Kerri Kenney episode.

All the like "how many of them did you sleep with?", "oh, so you were playing with your boyfriends' instruments and now none of you play music anymore?" patronizing misogynistic bullshit.

ugh ok maybe i won't listen

That's the impression I got anyway. It was an awkward interview regardless. He wasn't asking great questions.

Poorly researched, as noted above.

yeah that shit was kinda dumb but it's easy to tune out (for me anyways)

Poorly researched, as noted above.

that's an essential part of the wtf experience though

"here's some shit I found on Google about you while I was waiting in the garage"

This episode hit the trifecta in terms of (a) Maron not having the facts (about music, no less); (b) Maron airing past grievances/insecurities wrt several members of the State; and (c) Lorne Michaels.

JB Smoove won that show by never stopping to breathe. Marc could hardly make it about himself.

I actually found that Smoove's domination of the conversation uncomfortable and turned it off after 15 minutes.

Maron always talks about how the State was the biggest thing on MTV. I don't remember it being that popular of a show (and the members don't seem to remember it that way either.)

in his world of comedians maybe

It's worth going back to, Jaymc--it somehow gets more personal and direct and less "on" after another 15 minutes or so.

Good to know.

And yeah, I've found that characterization of The State odd as well, but I think it's partially his way of justifying the success of performers he's never particularly liked. I.e., they're only popular b/c they were able to hook a generation of teenagers onto them.

I was a high school stoner named Doug while the State was on TV. People I didn't even know, like jocks and shit, from would come up to me and say "I'm outta....heeeeeeeeere." I don't know if it was more popular than the Grind. Probably not as popular as Real World, Beavis and Butthead ... fuck, what else was on back then?

Daria

Last season of the State overlaps with the first season of Singled Out.

Daria started in 1996.

Huh, I was in high school when The State aired, and I was mostly unaware of it. I mean, my family didn't have cable, but judging by what my classmates talked about, The Real World and Beavis and Butt-Head both had a bigger cultural presence. My introduction to the show was through a warped VHS tape that got passed around my college improv group circa 1999.

This fuckin' guy. Listening to the Jim Rash one. "I don't wanna stereotype Southerners.. I don't want to assume anything about people from the South... Breaking your jaw falling down drunk? That's something a Southerner would do... The hill people? Yeah."

every time he talks about hill people it sounds really paranoid and the guests get uncomfortable.

Seriously its like in 2012 Marc is still basing everything he knows about Southerners on hearing someone describe Deliverance to him.

oh god I had to pause it there, I wanted to yell at him

luckily Rash was cool and made it funny but gaaaahhhh of all the things he does that might be the one that annoys me the most. And it's totally for his own amusement, no-one elses, but it's just so DUMB and embarrassing

Maybe I was just a bit late for The State, but I don't remember hearing about it until the early '00s

120 Minutes, Daria, Beavis & Butthead, The Maxx, Real World were what people I knew watched/talked about

Anything that was strictly comedy on MTV was always a bit niche, but most of their comedy stuff featured established Boston/NY comedy guys. The State stuck out because it was entirely these kids who just graduated from college.

Friends and I would make sure to be in front of the tv when The State came on each week, so I remember it being popular in its original run. It was no B&B or Real World, but it had an audience.

I definitely knew people who watched the State but they were just like "It's MTV's Kids in the Hall." Maron seems to think it had a huge impact on the next generation of alt-comics.

has he interviewed any of the kids in the hall? he talked to foley, right? i bet KITH were more influential than the state.

I'm holding out hope he interviews Scott Thompson some day.

i'd love mckinney or mccullough but i'd listen to any of them. though i guess he'd probably just fixate on their snl experiences.

foley was so great

"Tell me about Lorne... what was THAT like?"

man i would love a bruce mccullough one, or any of them really.

OTM, bruce all the way

The Lorne obsession is so annoying. It's like listening to some indie rocker grouse about how he never made it onto American Idol.

Apparently, there is something worse than Marc talking to musicians; it's Marc talking to alternative artists. This Coop interview is pretty horrible, despite Coop's patience and willingness to engage and talk Marc through his obliviousness.

Oh man, I was like "why the hell is he interviewing COOP?"

Coop is great on this - you just have to ignore Marc more than usual. He is completely unable to let Coop finish a story without interrupting him.

So is Marc getting actively more annoying? Or is what I'm experience now just a general part of the cycle of WTF fandom, learning to deal with Marc's faults?

the cycle of WTF fandom

I think this is spot on. Sometimes he drives me up the wall, so I have to take a break for a few episodes and come back fresh.

I think as he has expanded past his general comfort zone--interviewing stand-up comics--his lack of exhaustive knowledge makes his questioning style hard to take. First he started interviewing sketch and improv people, who he holds in a bit of contempt, and the talk all had to be about, "Oh, you're not really the careerist I thought you were." Then it was the musicians, who he always had to find common ground with, hence the "who are your guys?" thing. Now he's interviewing comics guys and artists, but it's very much from this "I was up on this shit back in the 80s" place, which feels very annoying.

yeah I think that when he goes outside his knowledge base -- like with comedians, even ones he doesn't know, he at least has an understanding of the mechanics of what they do. So the research on where they grew up etc doesn't matter as much to him because he's going to be able to converse with them when it comes down to what they *do*.
Not that he always did it successfully, of course.

But Keyes is otm - with musicians and artists he's got nothing but enthusiasm and it ends up being an unfortunate real life parody of Farley's fanboy Paul McCartney interview on SNL. There's nothing to ground him in the conversation; and in order to have that conversation he either needs to let them do most of the talking, or do some homework.

He won't though. So he'll either get better at it or we'll just be perpetually kind of annoyed, lol

fyi the Loren Bouchard episode is really good (Bob's Burgers creator)

Gilbert Gottfried today, shd be interesting (I hope)

i haven't heard of the last few weeks' guests--i am so much less interested when he strays from comics of his generation or older. i actually just listen to his intros now. i am sorry that his cat Boomer has been missing for the last few days!

Now he's interviewing comics guys and artists,

fsvo of "now" including less than six months after he started!

(Bagge was in January 2010)

Was he better at it back then?

nah it's always been "I was up on this shit back in the 80s" (except early '90s is his jam rly, Eightball/Hate/the first few years of Hellblazer in one go. Millionaire is obv an exception but he just let him roll on the TCJ interview stories mainly)