Dodging thunderbolts
The Last Podcast On The Left review
Rating – 
This is a podcast that I had talked about in the past, but never listened to. After hearing a particular episode mentioned on the Monsterfuzz podcast, I decided to check it out. What I wasn’t expecting was to find a series that dates back over 8 years, and clocking in at nearly 900 episodes!
I was expecting the rather usual fare of paranormal/true crime/gruesome history kind of podcast. To say this show caught me off guard was an understatement, but read on and I’ll explain my difficulty in rating this show.
So what’s it about?
The Last Podcast On The Left examines the dark side of life. From serial killers, war, folklore, the paranormal, pretty much any gory, scary or messed up subject has been analysed at least once over the last 8 years.
The hosts Marcus Parks, Ben Kissel and Henry Zebrowski vary in their depth of knowledge, and so each episode they get to learn about things at the same time as you do. Well, sometimes they do. They usually end up making jokes and some incredibly bad taste comments about the subject matter. This will be the dividing line for the listener. Either you will laugh along with the guys and let the last shred of humanity slough off your heart like ash, or you will turn it off and burn your headphones and electronic devices lest they have become tainted by what is quite obviously “The Devil’s Work”.
Is it any good?
Here’s where it gets difficult. In searching for the epsiode mentioned in Monsterfuzz, the first episode I listened to was about Japanese war crimes in WWII. To say that this series is in poor taste is something of an understatement. Having said that, I did find it very funny. I like dark humour, and this show has that in spades.
As they discuss the chosen topic, there are some gaps in their knowledge, and some things they just get wrong. I suspect this is more to do with misremembering rather than actual ignorance of the facts. They do have a wide range of knowledge, and I get the impression that this show is almost totally improvised. Thankfully Google is on hand to help clarify some matters.
The delivery of the episodes can only be described as “frenetic”. The hosts are so hyped up, a lot of the time there are interruptions and talking over each other. This can make things difficult to understand on occasion, but if there are any bits you miss, rest assured it will be a rather coarse joke rather than some nugget of new knowledge.
Final thoughts
It seems that most podcasts now have trigger warnings at the outset for various things that would upset people. There’s none for this show though. To list the trigger warnings would literally take up more run time than the show itself.
This show gets three brains because most people with a moral compass would feel nothing but disgust at the humour here. My god has forsaken me though, and there have been some genuinely funny moments (if you find this stuff funny).
In short, I would personally give it 5 brains, but you need to be sure you want to listen to a show like this first. It isn’t for the faint of heart.
You can get The Last Podcast On The Left here: