10 Comedy Shows To Listen To If You’re Still Crawling Out Of A Hole After The Long Weekend

At PEDESTRIAN.TV, we independently choose and write about stuff we love and think you’ll froth too. We have affiliate partnerships so we might get a bit of money from any purchase you make based on our recs, cool? Cool. FYI – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Folks, it’s been a bloody bleak start to winter — between the gazillionth Melbourne lockdown and all the depressing ‘how is this shit still happening in 2021?’ headlines — now more than ever we need a bloody good belly laugh. Cue: Comedy shows and audiobooks on Audible. 

As a regular audiobook listener (Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter *chefs kisses*), I can confirm that plugging a comedy show or audiobook into your earbuds is downright delightful — especially when narrated by celebrated comics like Trevor Noah, Kate McKinnon, Ali Wong and Tina Fey. Hell, you can even find some good Aussie comedy on Audible, including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s show Plot Twist. 

If you’re keen on listening to some lols, there are a few ways to get a sweet, sweet deal on some audiobooks RN. Thanks to the upcoming Amazon Prime Day, if you’re already a Prime member and you haven’t tried Audible, you can get a free 3-month Audible trial that includes two audiobooks of your choice during your first month and then one every month after that, as well as a bonus monthly audiobook chosen by Audible’s editors. Plus your standard unlimited access to hundreds of hours of audio.

Alternatively, you can just sign up for Audible and still receive a free two-month trial, while getting access to a range of audio entertainment from best-selling audiobooks to exclusive podcasts. Whichever option you chose, after the free trial, you can either cancel your subscription without having paid a cent (‘yuge), or it’ll cost you $16.45 per month.

How’s that for bloody good value?! To get you started, we’re rounded up a bunch of the best belly-laugh-inducing essay collections, memoirs and original audio comedies that are worth signing up to that free trial for. 

Born a Crime

comedy shows

The compelling, inspiring (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed.

The host of the US hit show The Daily Show with Trevor Noah provides viewers around the globe with their nightly dose of biting satire, but here Noah turns his focus inward, giving listeners a deeply personal, heartfelt and humorous look at the world that shaped him. Born a Crime is a must-listen.

Dear Girls

comedy shows

In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women and why you never see new mum comics onstage but you sure see plenty of new dads. 

The sharp insights and humour are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she’s learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life offstage. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong’s letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving and enlightening (and gross) for all. 

Judith Lucy & Denise Scott – Disappointments

Between them, Denise Scott and Judith Lucy have been doing stand-up comedy for over 60 years. Eavesdrop on their conversations about everything from sex to ageing to work and back to sex – actually, there’s a lot of sex. These conversations are based on material tried and tested at live shows so you get the best of their crapping on.

French & Saunders – Titting About

French and Saunders are back! This is an exclusive opportunity to hear comedy goddesses Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders doing what they do best: titting about and being funny, in their brand new comedy podcast series.

Across the series, award-winning double-act Dawn and Jennifer take six big important subjects and quite literally ‘tit about’ with them. From useful tips on airport shopping to naming their top three vegetables, Dawn and Jennifer leave no stone unturned in this thorough quest to entertain, inform and properly tit about.

Audible Presents: Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s Plot Twist

comedy shows

Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Audible have teamed up to bring you Plot Twist, a collection of six short stories created by 30 of the best comedians from around the world. Hosted by Nikki Britton, one of Australia’s most talented comedians, Plot Twist is probably best described as an outrageous comedy chain letter meets narrative relay. Each short story was created by a team of five comedians who were given a strict two hours to write their chapter. What could possibly go wrong?

Available on Audible from July 6.

Heads Will Roll

Heads Will Roll is an Audible Original from Saturday Night Live star Kate McKinnon and her co-creator/co-star (and real-life sister) Emily Lynne. Produced by Broadway Video, this is not an audiobook—it’s a 10-episode, star-studded, audio comedy that features performances from Meryl Streep, Tim Gunn, Peter Dinklage, Queer Eye’s Fab Five, and so many more.

Bossypants

Before 30 Rock, Mean Girls, and ‘Sarah Palin’, Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream and, at last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon – from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

Wow, No Thank You

comedy shows

Staring down the barrel of her 40th year, Samantha Irby is confronting the ways her life has changed since the days she could work a full 11-hour shift on four hours of sleep, change her shoes while putting mascara on in the back of a moving cab and go from drinks to dinner to the club without a second thought.

Wow, No Thank You discusses the actual nightmare of living in a rural idyll, weighs in on body negativity (loving yourself is a full-time job with shitty benefits) and poses the essential question: sure sex is fun but have you ever googled a popular meme?

Best Foot Forward

Adam Hills was a quiet primary school kid with a prosthetic foot, who did all his homework and only spoke when spoken to. His dad sparked in him a love of comedy, and together they’d spend hours watching and listening to the greats like Peter Sellers and Mel Brooks.

In Best Foot Forward, Adam describes his early years on the Australian comedy scene sharing gigs with Steady Eddy and Jimeoin, how he coped the first time he died on stage, his early morning apprenticeship in radio, touring the world’s comedy festivals, the magic of Spicks and Specks and his hosting gig for the 2008 Paralympics that led to his ongoing hit UK TV show The Last Leg.

Julia Morris Makes it Easy

comedy shows

You may know comedian, actor, and self-described ‘big deal’ Julia Morris from her stints as a television presenter on Australia’s Got Talent and I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here or as the winner of 2011’s Celebrity Apprentice Australia. Now, Morris adds another title to her esteemed resume: life-expert and personal development guru. 

Sharing wild showbiz anecdotes and offering tongue-in-cheek advice, Julia Morris guides listeners through the ins and outs of making life EASY — by expecting nothing, and putting a stop to anything you object to, so you can finally have a life worthy of exclaiming ‘Yippie!’.

Oh, and while we’re at it, if you’re someone who still prefers to read books, can get a free 3-month free trial of Kindle Unlimited when you sign up for Amazon Prime.  After which it’ll set you back $13.99 a month, but you’re free to cancel it at anytime.

You can sign up for Amazon Prime here.

Podcast descriptions were provided by Audible. 

More Stuff From PEDESTRIAN.TV