Keen observers will have already spotted that Garfunkel & Oates appeared in the “Laugh It Out” section of the C&B blogroll several weeks ago. Like one of my previous list-ees, original credit for bringing G&O to my attention is due to the WTF with Marc Maron podcast — specifically, a live episode from early 2010 that featured Kate Micucci (a.k.a. “Oates,” the brunette one). Her abundant charm came through in her conversation with Maron, and I found her solo voice-and-ukelele ditties delightful.1 Googling for more, I discovered her having formed a duo with Riki Lindhome (a.k.a. “Garfunkel,” the blonde one) and I was an immediate fan.
G&O make what they call “couch videos” of new songs they write and post them on YouTube. My listing the following video of “Pregnant Women are Smug” at #3 in my 2010 Top Ten is a little bit of a cheat, because their original YouTube video of the song appeared in April of 2009. But in 2010 they made their first national TV appearances — three, in fact, on The Tonight Show — and this is my favorite of them.
Garfunkel & Oates have made several appearances on my buddy Scott Aukerman’s podcast Comedy Death-Ray Radio (see also #8 in this year’s Top Ten). My favorite G&O on CDR episode so far was the one with them and Weird Al Yankovic.
Last night I got to see G&O’s live show at the UCB Theater here in L.A., where they have a regular gig the first Friday of each month. In addition to an hour of Riki and Kate being as beguiling and hilarious as I’d expected, plus a funny stand-up interlude by special guest Moshe Kasher, my $10 ticket also got me a red lunch bag with the punny label “Garfunkel and Oates Presents.” The schwag within included two packets of Swedish Fish, one of Sour Patch Kids, a mini-box of Wonka Nerds, a fun-size Butterfinger, and G&O-branded stuff including two decals (one pictured above), a kazoo (to accompany the girls on the second verse of “Fuck You”), a lighter, and a retractable ballpoint pen.2 That is unbeatable value for your comedy-show dollar, baby.
Garfunkel & Oates’s all-inclusive website is garfunkelandoates.com. For their complete video canon, check out their hilarious YouTube channel (my all-time favorite: “This Party Took a Turn for the Douche”), and their Facebook page is here. They recently finished but have not yet released their first album, All Over Your Face; in the meantime, MP3′s of some of their songs are available on iTunes.
If this is your first visit to C&B you may be wondering, "Who the hell is this guy, and why does he have a blog?" It's a fair question, so I've dedicated an entire page to answering it: check out
Hello just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same results.
Hi Siobhan, thanks for letting me know about this. I’ve updated the post to fix the missing video image link. I really appreciate commenters like you who take a moment to alert me about something like this, because otherwise I might not know for a long time that I had incomplete content sitting out there.