The Nerdist Drinking Game

By Ryan O'Connell on 11/13/2014 • ( 0 )

This: The Nerdist podcast is a jovial little back and forth between host Chris Hardwick, his sidekicks Matt Mira and Jonah Ray and a guest.

Also This: It has a 70% success rate in terms of being entertaining.

And This as Well: It has a tendency to get borderline annoying.

As a man in the midst of a commuting lifestyle, an hour in the morning, an hour in the evening, I rely on podcasts to get me through. Sorry radio, you’re repetitive and unreliable. Podcasts work because I listen to music all day and it’s a nice break to change it up when heading to and from work. Podcasts let you zone out, make you laugh, occasionally get you thinking. I don’t want to say they are a perfect commuting companion- that would be either a cup of coffee, bottle of water or a dog with a slew of off-color jokes. But they are a near-perfect commuting companion.

Giddy Up America’s Top 5 Podcasts

5. Slate’s Political Gabfest, Pardon the Interruption (tie)
4. Nerdist
3. Hollywood Prospectus (Grantland)
2. WTF with Marc Maron
1. The BS Report with Bill Simmons

The Nerdist Podcast is good. Let’s get that out of the way. It’s good. They have entertaining guests (comedians, actors, musicians) and it’s an easy hour to listen to. Chris Hardwick is a man about town, also a dude who quit drinking, used to be fat and is a comedian. He makes all of these things known frequently throughout each podcast. His sidekicks, Matt and Jonah, are also comedians and the Peanut Gallery of Nerdist episodes, adding quips, asides, bellowing laughter throughout. For the most part, it’s fine. For the lesser part, it’s not. Where Nerdist runs into trouble is when the show becomes a round table of riffs, jokes and bits, which would be cool except for the fact that the guest is frequently excluded. This kind of defeats the point a lot of the time, especially when the guest is someone you want to hear from.

But hey, it’s their podcast. More power to them.

But as listeners, it’s also our podcast. Kind of.

So let’s introduce this…

**Giddy Up America’s Nerdist Drinking Game**

Editor’s Note: You are not required to drink alcohol in this drinking game (although if you want to, have at it!) But because you are most likely driving or on a treadmill while listening to the podcast and also as a tip of the hat to Hardwick’s sobriety, it is perfectly acceptable to play this game with lemonade, water, coffee, Snapple or soda…although soda will rot your teeth out and there is NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT MISSING TEETH. MISSING TEETH ARE GROSS.