Should politicians be funny? (with Mike Birbiglia)

NO SUCH THING

iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope

Society & Culture, Comedy, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 609 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today's episode, Manny, Noah, and Devan chat about the use of humor in politics. Using Gavin Newsom's recent mocking of Donald Trump as a jumping off point, the boys assess how effective humor can be as a political strategy. They hear from humor historian Mark Rolfe, of the University of New South Wales in Australia, and then Manny talks to Mike Birbiglia, host of the Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast, to get thoughts from an actual comedian.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Mani.
0:12.4	I'm Manny.
0:12.5	I'm Noah.
0:13.5	This is Devin.
0:14.2	And this is no such thing, the show where we settle our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing the research. On today's episode, should politicians be funny?
0:24.0	And is humor kind of a cheat code to getting elected?
0:27.4	As always, we'll talk to an expert, but then stick around for my conversation with comedian
0:32.8	Mike Berbiglia.
0:34.2	What a deeply unfunny person.
0:37.4	He doesn't have it.
0:40.3	There's no such thing. No such thing.
0:45.3	No such thing.
0:48.3	No such thing.
0:49.3	No such thing.
0:51.3	No such thing.
0:53.3	All right, boys.
0:58.4	I was influenced to do this episode based on some recent activity.
1:04.5	Okay.
1:04.9	By one Gavin Newsom.
1:08.0	In case...
1:08.9	Yeah.
1:09.2	In case you're someone in the audience who literally does not consume one ounce of politics.
	...

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