In a viral clip from the first episode of Good Hang, the hit new podcast from comedian Amy Poehler, her guest, Tina Fey, talks about how sick she is of famous people having “side hustles.” Poehler replies wryly, “Yeah, you mean like a podcast or something?”
While in context Fey actually meant celebrities hawking supplements and tequilas to bring the extra millions in, that exchange encapsulates a certain unease at the center of this podcast. Six episodes in, Good Hang doesn’t seem to know what it’s about.
Ostensibly, it’s an hour of Amy Poehler talking with her friends about… things. “I just want to make it clear: I’m not an expert, I’m not a therapist, I’m not here to change your life. I don’t care if you get any better. I don’t have any advice for you,” she says, right at the top of that first episode. “I just want us to have fun.” All of that is fair enough. She is a comedian, after all. And so far, all her guests have been funny people with whom she has rapport.
Nevertheless, this almost defensive light-heartedness makes Good Hang an oddly uncomfortable listen.
Before Poehler gets to the main guest, each instalment starts with a Zoom call between some of their famous friends, where they brainstorm what Poehler should ask. It’s a strange concept, especially considering the questions they dream up rarely constitute more than an afterthought in the following interview. Much of the conversations revolve around famous people endlessly complimenting each other, which can get a bit much.
Like a lot of podcasts these days, Good Hang is also available to watch on YouTube. As of yet, the show seems to favor viewers at the expense of listeners. The opening Zoom call in the first episode largely revolves around roaring 5-way laughter because Rachel Dratch cannot put her headphones on properly. As a viewer, it’s quite funny. To listen to, it’s perplexing, and more than a little irritating. In the second episode, an extended bit involves guest Martin Short inspecting the collection of miniature fake food in Poehler’s studio (this has a brief reprise in the Ike Barinholtz edition) which is, again, pretty impenetrable for the audio-only crew.
Most of all though, it’s the tenor of the conversations themselves that is surprisingly awkward. You can see what is meant to be the appeal of Good Hang. Come chill with Amy Poehler and her famous pals! Be one of the gang!
In practice, this creates an atmosphere that feels both forced and insular. It’s too often like being a guest at a party where you only tenuously know anyone, listening to two close friends swap notes about something that happened long ago – it’s hard to know why the rest of us are supposed to care.
The conversations themselves are a mixed bag. During her chat with her Parks and Recreation co-star Rashida Jones, Poehler and Jones say very earnestly how they no longer want to make small talk with their close friends, and just save it for their acquaintances. Who is… exactly who small talk is for.
In the Martin Short episode, Poehler spends an uncomfortably long time asking him how Selena Gomez came to be involved in Only Murders in the Building, a question better suited to Google or Gomez herself.
There have been more worthwhile moments, however. The highlights so far have been Poehler and Short comparing their dynamic with their comedy partners (Tina Fey and Steve Martin respectively) and riffing about how they both ended up being perceived as the most approachable one of their pairings, and Rashida Jones discussing how having such a ground-breaking father (Quincy Jones) has affected her view on life. Poehler repeatedly expresses her desire to keep things light, but it’s actually when things get a little deeper – Short talking about his relationship with Gilda Radner is another example – that Good Hang is at its most interesting.
To be fair to Poehler, she is aware of her shortcomings. She professes anxiousness to Tina Fey at the start of their interview, which amuses the woman who’s been her comedy partner for more than thirty years. Mid-giggle with Ike Barinholtz, she says, “I’m so bad at this, I don’t know how to ask questions! What are questions!?” While her self-consciousness does make Good Hang a hard show to relax into, somewhat defeating the purported point of the podcast, it’s easy to see how some might find her lack of polish endearing.
Although Poehler immediately makes it clear what Good Hang is not, it is not yet clear what it is. It’s early days: there’s a good chance that the show might develop more of an identity, and that Poehler will become a more comfortable presenter. Until then, however, it’s nice that she’s catching up with some old pals.
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Chloe Walker is a writer based in the UK. You can find her work at Culturefly, the BFI, Paste, and her Letterboxd page.