My Brother, My Brother and Me is more’n just a podcast, it’s a family affair, hosted by three brothers (as if you hadn’t guessed): Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy. A sometime advice dispensary, constant goof manufacturer and professional good times machine, MBMBAM is rife with humour and has a dynamism that even the best would envy. Sparring constantly, with reams of joy and heartfelt silliness, the trio also share a tendency to sojourn into some actual proper real world advice. But not too often.
Jordan Morris, Jesse Thorn, Griffin, Justin and Travis McElroy
Do you know what’s a really nice feeling? When you leave something alone for a while, almost forget that it exists, then come back to it, realising that it’s better than ever. You get a big smile on your face and a flutter of happiness through your heart, as you remember everything you loved about the show and can se that from there it has excelled even further. This is exactly how I felt now that I came back round to My Brother, My Brother and Me. A show that had always been charming, insightful and warm-hearted, overflowing with kindness and fans so lovely and nice that the podcast couldn’t but have gotten onto the MaximumFun Network, it’s boons were grand, but ultimately seemed to struggle beyond this. It seemed to be not quite ambitious enough, nor quite to know exactly wanted to be, more than anything needing to just be a little funnier. And boy has it gone leaps and bounds in that direction.
Travis, Justin and Griffin as Superhumans!
Their comedy had always been of a scattergun, pop culture and heavily pun-based bent, their goofs often almost a test of their own endurance within a joke, squeezing every last drop of humour out of each goof with an admirably relentless vigour. But this has now been matched with an ability to focus a little more, their comedy bits lasting longer and being even more brash and comedic than they had been before. As a trio they are more able in their roles, with the self-knowledge to launch them into bits with a willingness to be silly that is not only fathomlessly admirable, but also comically rewarding. The cracks of laughter erupting from the other brothers at a woeful attempted pun, back-edited joke or almost wilfully disastrous mad-lib are entirely infectious, thanks to their adorably co-operative atmosphere of happiness and daft spirits. And as a lover of pun work, there are probably few podcasts offering quite as many puns per show as MBMBAM does, combining phrases with an entirely delightful inelegance that is beyond charming, exceeds sweet and goes past the lovely, extending into a simple and co-operative joyous atmosphere of communication.
As a nominally advice-lead show, the brothers three do need to possess some kind of skills set to adequately provide such help. An ability to delimit the problems sent in to them (which are almost exclusively set around the theme of social awkwardness) in such a way that they can provide some useful assistance. So it is quite fortunate that they indeed do have this. They very quickly get to the nubs of the questions that actually need answers, matching a clear-midned but simplistic wisdom whilst effusing a positivity and joyousness that is truly heart-warming. This would be perfectly exemplified by their prior insistence on referring to 2012 as ’20-does,’ trying to instil the ‘go forth and do’ mentality that is so powerful for anyone to embrace. Their advice is so often some variation on ‘take a chance,’ ‘own it,’ or the even simpler ‘why are you asking this question? Just do it!’ with an ease and confidence that is charmingly and joyously laden with the McElroy’s trademark good hearts and good humour. This even includes the questions culled from Yahoo! Answers… which seems to be one of the most bizarre and mentally unstable hubs humanity has left on the internet. Their hilarious reactions to the awkward and strange posers uncovered by members of their fanbase not only provides a good portion of the podcast’s comedy, but also further redoubles the idea that your actual problems aren’t that great, because at least you don’t write pleas to your step-dad on the flanks of the family dog.
Gloriously charming, with a down-home style of advice and old school niceness that is utterly infectious, Justin, Travis and Griffin McElroy have captured a really good thing in this podcast. Not only that, they are also ever more able and confident in their comedy as a unit, meaning you are almost guaranteed to laugh more each week to the last. My Brother, My Brother and Me is a special little show, heavily deserving of every second of praise it receives.