12 best comedy podcasts to listen to in 2026

Comedy podcasts are the form's most reliable utility. You're folding washing, walking the dog, sitting in traffic. You want a couple of voices that make the next 45 minutes a little better. Stand-up specials are great. Comedy podcasts are weekly.

This list is twelve shows that consistently deliver, picked to balance celebrity-interview hangs, absurd improv, food chat, and a few long-runners that have been at it for years and still bring it. No filler, no shows we'd skip ourselves.

TL;DR

• Best easy entry point: SmartLess or Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
• Best for absurd improv: Comedy Bang! Bang! or Threedom
• Best food + comedy crossover: Off Menu
• Best long-running family show: My Brother My Brother and Me
• Best UK pick: The Adam Buxton Podcast or Off Menu
• Best for binging old episodes: How Did This Get Made?

SmartLess

• Hosts: Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes
• Format: Celebrity interviews, twist being one host doesn't know who the guest is
• Length: ~60 minutes

If you've never listened to a podcast before, this is probably where to start. The hosts have great chemistry, the guest list is enormous (presidents, A-list actors, novelists, athletes), and the format keeps it loose. The "surprise guest" gimmick gives the show an energy that pure-interview podcasts struggle to maintain.

Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend

• Hosts: Conan O'Brien, with Sona Movsesian and Matt Gourley
• Format: Loose interview anchored by Conan's late-night sensibility
• Length: ~70 minutes

Conan, freed from network TV's three-camera setup, leans fully into himself. The supporting cast (his assistant Sona, his producer Matt) is genuinely part of the show, not background. The interviews wander into bits and back, the way good conversations do.

My Brother My Brother and Me

• Hosts: Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy
• Format: Three brothers giving terrible advice to questions submitted by listeners (and pulled from Yahoo Answers)
• Length: ~60 minutes

This show has been running since 2010. It's still funny, which is its own quiet achievement in podcasting. The McElroy patter is a particular flavour. Once you've spent a few episodes with it, you understand why it's been on the air for 15 years.

Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster

• Hosts: Ed Gamble, James Acaster
• Format: A guest walks into the dream restaurant and orders their dream meal
• Length: ~75 minutes

The premise sounds thin. The chemistry is the whole show. Ed and James are two of the funniest stand-ups working in the UK right now, and the dream-restaurant frame is a way to talk about everything else (childhood, work, embarrassment, more food). Even if you're not in the UK, you'll laugh.

Comedy Bang! Bang!

• Host: Scott Aukerman, plus a rotating cast of comedy regulars in character
• Format: Mock chat show with improvising guests playing absurd characters
• Length: ~90 minutes

A foundational improv comedy podcast. Scott Aukerman invented the format people still copy. Some episodes are guests being themselves; some episodes are guests in increasingly bizarre characters; the best episodes blur the line. Start with a "best of" if you're new.

The Adam Buxton Podcast

• Host: Adam Buxton
• Format: Long, careful conversations with creators, mostly in or around the UK
• Length: ~90-120 minutes

Buxton's pacing is opposite to most US comedy podcasts. He's patient. The intros are little walks with his dog. The interviews are nerdy and warm. Worth it for the David Bowie, Caroline Polachek, or Louis Theroux episodes alone.

How Did This Get Made?

• Hosts: Paul Scheer, June Diane Raphael, Jason Mantzoukas
• Format: Three comedians break down terrible movies
• Length: ~75 minutes

Long-running, deep catalogue, and the back episodes are basically a film school in why bad movies are bad. Mantzoukas has one of the great podcast voices of the form. Choose your favourite trash movie and start there.

My Favorite Murder

• Hosts: Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
• Format: Hosts tell each other true crime stories with comedy framing
• Length: ~75 minutes

The show that mainstreamed comedy-meets-true-crime. Karen and Georgia have grown the format into a network (Exactly Right) and their early episodes set the template for half the comedy podcasts that came after.

2 Bears, 1 Cave

• Hosts: Tom Segura and Bert Kreischer
• Format: Two friends who are also touring stand-ups talking about… whatever
• Length: ~90 minutes

Conversational stand-up energy. Not for everyone, but for the right audience this is the workhorse of the comedy-podcast week. Watch out for the YouTube-style banter and pick episodes by guest if you want a quick way in.

Distractible

• Hosts: Mark "Markiplier" Fischbach, Wade Barnes, Bob Muyskens
• Format: Three internet-era friends doing storytelling and bits
• Length: ~60-75 minutes

Born from YouTube but it works as a pure audio listen. The energy is younger than most of the rest of this list, which is part of why it's on it. If you want a comedy podcast that's not anchored on Hollywood, this is one.

Threedom

• Hosts: Paul F. Tompkins, Lauren Lapkus, Scott Aukerman
• Format: Loose three-host hang
• Length: ~45 minutes

Earwolf's tightest comedy-hang format. Three of the best improvisers in the business sit down and just talk. Shorter than most on this list, perfect commute length.

The Last Podcast on the Left

• Hosts: Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks, Henry Zebrowski
• Format: True crime, conspiracy theories, and weird history, played for comedy
• Length: ~90 minutes

If My Favorite Murder is comedy-meets-true-crime, The Last Podcast on the Left is comedy-meets-weird-history. Researched, irreverent, and dense. The episodes on conspiracies and cult leaders are the show at its most listenable.

How to use this list

These twelve cover a lot of ground, on purpose. Comedy podcasts work best when they fit your particular sense of humour, so try one episode of three from the list before deciding which to subscribe to.

A practical habit: pick two as your regular weekly shows, and rotate one "discovery slot" through the rest until you find the third that you actually return to. Three regular comedy podcasts is about the right amount for most listeners. Any more and you fall behind. For tips on managing the queue, see our guide to organising your podcast library.

If you're still hunting for a third regular, our comparison of the best podcast apps covers which apps make discovery easiest.

How we chose

Three filters. First, the show is still consistently good as of mid-2026. Plenty of legendary comedy podcasts have wound down or coasted. Second, the back catalogue is approachable: no twenty-hour arc you need to follow. Third, the hosts have chemistry that survives a host swap, a guest cancellation, or a slow news week. The shows on this list have all been tested by those things.

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