Jeff Has Cool Friends

[NOTE: While this is technically a censored episode, I understand that FEAR SHITS is a proper noun with a curse (of sorts) in the title. An editorial decision was made not to censor the title of the book every single time we say it, because that would get REAL annoying REAL fast, and also, censoring the main point of the episode seems like a terrible, downright stupid idea.]

Tom is back! You know Tom Reimann! From Tom and Jeff Watch Batman! And other Gamefully Unemployed shows! And 1-900 HOTDOG! And friendship! AND FEAR SHITS, his brand new 90...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff continue their season on "Lost Things" with Joel Schumacher's (yes, THAT Joel Schumacher) 1987 Horror/Comedy juggernaut "The Lost Boys.

There's a lot to unpack about this unique slice of 80's cinema, so let's hope we can book an Oscar winner, bleach our sinister mullets, and make sure not to put the Superman 98's with the 300's (whatever the hell that means) as we jump into the...

Hey it's John Gourley! The guy from Portugal. the Man! He's my Cool Friend, and was kind enough to sit down with me and talk about, well, just about everything. I ask a lot of questions because I want to know a lot of stuff. Check out all of his great work, because it truly is incredible. The SHISH album. His song with THE Paul Williams from Wildwood. Francis Changed My Life. Just, I don't know, check it all out.

For more, please head over to Patreon.com/jeffmay to enjoy early access to uncensored episodes with...

Tom Thakkar is my Cool Friend, and he's one of the most effortlessly funny people I've ever met. You might recognize him from his appearances on the Tonight Show, Conan, Comics Unleashed, Comedy Central, and so much more! We play softball together and it's fun! And you know, one of the best parts about doing an episode with a comedian is you never know where it's going to go, and this is definitely one of those episodes. The direction this went is truly a delight!

Tom has a great new project lined up that we talk about...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff finish their season on "Poorly Disguised Toy Commercials" with the first ever company-wide comics crossover, 1984's Secret Wars.

There's a lot to unpack about this desperate attempt for Mattel to stay relevant, so let's figuratively smash some toys together, accidentally create one of the most iconic costumes in comics history (that was created by someone else), and create a precedent that will be followed for decades...

Chris Ward is one of the most interesting people I know, and I've been trying to get him on the show for YEARS. Well, I got him. Chris got his start working for Wizard Magazine in the early 2000's, and has embarked on a life full of twists, turns, and pinball. His story is rich and wonderful, and I'm so grateful to have Chris as a friend. I met him before I knew him. I've slept on his couch. We both got pretty into pinball around the same time, in different time zones (although he's MUCH better at it...

My latest Cool Friend is the amazing Emy Lacroix Halle, and we have maybe the most unique friendship of the show so far. You see, while Emy and I are friends, (we message back and forth, have coffee/tea occasionally, and generally are good buds), she's also one of my former students! And while she's not my first guest that was one of my students (see episode 8), she's definitely my closest. We've been friends since for quite some time, with our previous relationship not really playing a factor whatsoever. Her time in LA has led to Emy having lots...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff continue their season on "Poorly Disguised Toy Commercials" with the myriad of comic books based on GI Joe: A Real American Hero.

There's a lot to unpack about this wildly divergent GI Joe property designed exclusively to sell tiny plastic men, so let's rehabilitate a failed Nick Fury pitch, accidentally create one of the most iconic issues in comics history, and show the horrors of war...

OK, what EXACTLY does a Film Producer do? Honestly, I don't know. You know who does? My incredible Cool Friend Lauren Bancroft. Probably because she is one. She also happens to be one of my first friends in comedy, as we met in the Summer of 2012, right when my comedy career was in its infancy. Lauren is a fascinating, hilarious, and talented woman that I'm proud to call my friend. Lauren has led a fascinating life, taking a bunch of twists and turns along the way, and she answers a lot of my questions about, you know, her job...

This was the scariest and, ultimately, my favorite episode I think I've ever done? Not much to write here; I interviewed my mom. Enjoy, and head to patreon.com/jeffmay for even more (and uncensored) MOM-tent!

I see, in my latest Cool Friend, the inimitable Mike Drucker, a kindred spirit. A nerdy iron forged strong in the fires of adolescent derision and sadness. Mike is the kind of guy who has created so much of my favorite art, such as his brilliant tweets over the years, his wonderful memoir "Good Game, No Rematch: A Life Made of Video Games," countless late night jokes that have garnered him countless Emmy and WGA Award nominations, and his incredible live show "Shit Arcade," which will be celebrating a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August! I'm gonna...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff are joined by You Gotta Check This Out's Mike Slater as they begin their season on "Poorly Disguised Toy Commercials" with 1985's He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword.

AND we got a Special Intro Cover theme by our incredible guest Mike Slater!

There's a lot to unpack about this Theatrically-Released Frankenstein of Episodes designed exclusively to sell dolls, so let's be devoid...

My latest Cool Friend is the incredible comedian/actor/writer/genius James Adomian. You might recognize him from his many television and live appearances where he's impersonated folks like Mike Lindell and Bernie Sanders. You also might recognize him as Harley Quinn's BANE! While I've known James for a few years now, I wasn't sure I KNEW him, so this has been an episode about learning how someone becomes a James Adomian, and it was an incredible episode to record and present to you. I shall say no more.

Enjoy it, go follow @jadomian, and head on...

My Cool Friend John Layman is so great and cool! Funny story, but he created one of the greatest and most popular independent comic books of all-time in CHEW. Have you read it? You should read it. Did you know he's also written like, every other character as well? Well he has! Did you ALSO know that he's getting back together with his CHEW partner Rob Guillory for a new project, Ghostbrawler, which launches its Kickstarter campaign on June 23rd? Well I didn't until after I booked this show, and boy what a happy accident because it sounds amazing...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff finish their MYSTERY season with a classic comedy whose title is ALSO the answer to our mystery season: Every episode had to do with Twins!

There's a lot to unpack about one of cinema's accidentally most important significant films, so let's be fathered by 6 dudes (and Heather Graham?), add a murder thread into our family comedy, and shift how the entirety of Hollywood does business, as...

My latest Cool Friend is the brilliant Alex Falcone. If you've been on TikTok or Instagram, odds are you've seen his work. Aside from being a fantastic standup comedian, Alex has found well-earned success with "Is It a Scam, Yep," "UnFun Facts," "Unlearning" and other hilarious and informative videos that have become his hallmark. We talk all about that stuff, and a whole bunch of other stuff, because, honestly, I really wanted to get to know Alex a little better.

So enjoy the episode, go follow @AlexFalcone on the socials, and head on over to patreon.com...

Folks, I FINALLY got to sit down with Cool Friend and nerd legend Jim Fletcher. Jim is one of the most fascinating, talented and well-dressed people I've ever known, and he has a resume that you couldn't make up if you tried. He's widely known as the man that ran DC Collectibles (and its various incarnations) for 2 decades, but did you know that he also illustrated the cover of one of the NES's most sought after games? Did you also know that he created the incredible Flippitoons, a brilliantly insane and fascinating fantasy art project that's gained enough attention...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff continue their MYSTERY season with the tragic, eerie, brilliant wrestling gimmick: Doink the Clown!

There's a lot to unpack about one of wrestling's most misunderstood characters, so let's beat a Hawaiian dude with a fake arm, have a mini-me, and randomly have a twin as we dive into the second episode of our MYSTERY SEASON. 

And, of course, don't forget to follow Dre (@nerdnumbers) J...

I'm so excited to be joined by my latest Cool Friend, the incredible Maggie Mae Fish. Maggie is one heck of a multi-hyphenate: host, writer, actor, producer, and so much more. In researching all of the things that make Maggie great, it dawned on me that I don't actually KNOW much about her. I know her. We've been in many social situations together. And yet, here we are, strangers as friends. Truly a fascinating opportunity to not only talk about some of the amazing projects she's worked on (including Amy's Dead End Dreamhouse on Nebula, and the upcoming BLOW...

My latest Cool Friend is the incomparable Lindsay Adams! Lindsay is an accomplished comedian and baker who has smashed those two talents together in her incredibly fun and unique live show "Bake Stuff with Lindsay," which will be occurring next on Wednesday, April 29th at the Lyric Hyperion in Los Angeles! A multi-time Mint on Card veteran, I see in Lindsay a kindred spirit of funny and progressive dirt-baggery in the most complimentary way possible. We talk about such a wide array of things, and I take this time to truly get to know Lindsay beyond the relatively shallow...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff begin their MYSTERY season with the 1994 kids(?) baseball movie Little Big League!

There's a lot to unpack about one of baseball's most faithful adaptations, so let's name drop some steroid-freaks, get some nice product placement going, and be made for pretty much nobody as we dive into the first episode of our MYSTERY SEASON. 

And, of course, don't forget to follow Dre (@nerdnumbers) Jeff (@h...

Look, it's the 5th Anniversary of the show, and you guys really seem to like this guy, so I'm throwing this episode at you. I ask some general question, I ask some specific questions, we play around a bit with producer names, the whole sh-bang. If you want to hear two bros just kinda bro out with each other for a bit, sit back, relax, and enjoy me talking to like, one of my favorite people on the planet.

Also go follow him and stuff. @adamtodbrown and check out all his fantastic podcasts across all the platforms...

Atif Myers, my latest cool friend, is one of my favorite people in comedy. He's a huge comics dork, like me, and, I'm not gonna lie: this is one of the geekiest episodes of this show I've ever released. We talk a lot of comics, because, well, he has an incredible podcast called Sus Stories about weird comic issues and storylines throughout history. It's incredible, and I had such a great time as a guest on it, talking about X-Force/X-Statix, one of my favorite comics in history. Look, I'm not going to keep typing a bunch of things...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff continue their season on Single-Season Animated Shows with the infamously mishandled, cult-favorite Clerks the Animated Series!

There's a lot to unpack about one of television history's greatest What-If's, so let's switch from drugs to fireworks, spend money on a Super Bowl Ad for a show we hate, and be INCREDIBLY dated, as we tackle one of the most egregious examples of Disney's misplaced greed that, unfortunately...

My latest cool friend is the incredible Kiran Deol, and she is one of the most intimidating people I've ever met. A Harvard-educated comedian/writer/actor/multi-hyphenate, Kiran seems to be living in a world with 28 hour days. Where else could she find the time to do so many incredible things? You may have seen her, among countless projects, on shows like Sunnyside, her comedy special Joy Suck (available on Amazon and Tubi), or in the upcoming Didn't Die, a Sundance-Darling of a film that's been being viewed as a star-making vehicle for Kiran. Honestly, I could write about...

Folks, it's been a bit of a rollercoaster with my February. I know, I know, that's more of a "Monthly Flow" kinda thing, but here we are. My computer has been in and out of the hospital, trying to find a diagnosis. (Probably E-Syphilis or something) I've had several wonderful offers from several wonderful people offering me replacement computers, but I've been on the cusp of not needing them because my laptop is RIGHT ABOUT to be fixed. Alas, everytime I think I'm in the clearing, my screen goes dark again, to remind me that I'm never safe.

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff continue their season on Single-Season Animated Shows with the poorly thought out and poorly executed syndicated abomination, Darkstalkers!

There's a lot to unpack about this abhorrent video game adaptation, so let's get go be deeply inconsistent, add egregiously sexual characters on a children's show, and absolutely fumble the bag, as we tackle one of the most unbelievably terrible cartoons that, thankfully, only lasted one season. 

Hey all, technical difficulties mean this month's nerd will be a month late. So while you wait, checkout the episode on the worst thing we'd ever covered ... until next week!

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Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff finish their season on Unfortunate Video Game Adaptations with the most unfortunate mainstream video game adaptation of all-time: 1994's Double Dragon! There's a lot to unpack about this absoulte violation of a film...

My latest Cool Friend is also my newest Cool Friend, the hilarious Jacob Rice. I know for a fact that a lot of you know who he is, as my inbox is littered with his reels. He has become one of the premiere pop culture satirists on social media, stretching himself out in unique directions with a unique voice, to the point where he has gone from "viral" to "internet mainstay" in a manner of a few months. We hit it off almost immediately after a post of his, and I figured we might want to just continue our...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff begin their season on Single-Season TV Shows with the surprisingly progressive late-80's syndicated animated Space-Western, Bravestarr!
There's a lot to unpack about this spiritual sequel to He Man, so let's get go mine some Kerium, have some totem super powers, and have the darkest episode of a children's cartoon ever, as we tackle one of the most infamous children's properties of the 1980's that only lasted...

Christine Fekete is a fascinating study in going with the flow and moving forward. As the map of her life will detail, there is a 0% chance she could've predicted that she would be one of the fastest growing content creators on social media today! I have seen her grow from a few thousand followers to hundreds of thousands almost overnight, taking down a lot of right-wing talking points in that classic "We see what you're doing" style. But, honestly, do you think I would have someone on the show if their big thing was "has a lot of followers?"...

I'm not sure how to introduce my latest (and newest) Cool Friend, Paige Harbison. She's an accomplished author who got her first novel published at the age of 19, a viral sensation on TikTok and Instagram with her One-Minute Hallmark Movie videos, she hosts the fantastic "Nameless Best Friends" podcast with her mother and brother, she's a painter, she's...well, she's a little bit of everything. Wait, scratch that: She's a LOTTA bit of everything, and she's an incredibly Cool Friend.
This quickly became one of those effortless podcasts that took on a life of its own almost immediately...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This episode was a 2024 Patreon-Exclusive holiday gift from Dre and Jeff, highlighting the absolutely unhinged Christmas episode of X-Men the Animated Series! "Have Yourself a Morlock Little Christmas" contains a wild, uncharacteristic collection of holiday moments between all of our favorite X-Men. There's a lot to unpack about this absurd and mildly insulting special episode, so let's go against our entire character development, plagiarize Demolition Man, and be overly dramatic as we dive...

'Tis the season for Holiday movies, and producer/cohost Alex Simanovsky has chosen to record a long-awaited sequel to 2022's surprise hit pod Do You Hear What We Hear. Join your hosts as they discuss their favorite media of the season! Listen as Alex and Jeff go through a list of their superlatives (and not-so-superlatives) in several categories as they are left home alone, meet a couple of Vince Vaughns, and develop a crush on a puppet.

And once you've listened, SHARE YOUR PICKS IN THE COMMENTS!

This episode is one episode-slot early, but that's ok! What a year, let's talk about it as I try to stay on track during a solo pod while I'm riddled with ADHD!And please, if you're so inclined, check out Patreon.com/jeffmay for early access to uncensored episodes with bonus content, exclusives, care packages, and more!

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff WRAP up their season on Movies Dre Should've Seen by Now with the 1989 Christmas Comedy classic National Lampoon's Christmas Vacvation. And because we theme these episodes to the corresponding holiday, we've added special guest (and Christmas aficionado) Emy LaCroix Halle (Hobby Hopping with Emy)

There's a lot to unpack about this hilarous (yet rooted in controversy) Holiday staple, so let's get 25,000 lights up on the house...

T.J. Chambers, my latest Cool Friend, is one of my favorite people on the planet. One of those friends you can go without seeing for a bit and then immediately just pick right back up where you left off. Well, that's how this episode starts, and it keeps flowing from there. T.J. and I last spoke on a podcast in 2019, and since then he's had a show on SyFy, hosted many panels at cons, and become a writer/producer for the Mythical team, doing a ton of work with Rhett and Link over on the regular network...

My very Cool Friend, Brian Kiley, is such an incredibly talented and, well, cool guy. You might know Brian as a multi-time Emmy winner for writing on shows like Conan and Ellen, his countless appearances doing standup on various Late Night shows over the years, or as a frequent comic on Mint on Card (my live show in Burbank), where he never ceases to tear the roof off the house with his meticulously crafted brand of standup. You ALSO might recognize him as appearing on Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, airing the night this gets published on CBS! You...

Join mega nerds Dre Alvarez and Jeff May as they geek out on a different nerdy cultural touchstone every month. Part reminiscence, part historical deep dive. This month, Dre and Jeff continue their season on Movies Dre Should've Seen by Now with the 2011 action classic Warrior. And because we theme these episodes to the corresponding holiday, we've added special guest Dan Alvarez to fight with his brother about a movie where brothers fight.

There's a lot to unpack about this movie that is far better than it has any right being, so let's listen to Moby Dick...

Jenn Sterger is one of my coolest Cool Friends, and I'm so grateful she joined me for this episode. Jenn is a, well, Jenn of All Trades, so to speak. She's a comedian, actress, journalist, podcaster, cat rescuer, model, and so much more. She's found herself in the center of many different forms of public attention, and boy do we talk about a lot of them.

Honestly, I could spend all day writing up all the reasons that I adore Jenn, but I think when you listen to the episode, you'll understand why. So please enjoy, follow...