Dissecting Frogs

Rose City Comedy Collective
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  • Stand-Up

Dissecting Frogs is a stand-up comedy podcast about the craft of stand-up comedy — not another comedian-interview show, but a breakdown of how jokes and sets actually work. Hosted by three working stand-up comedians, Kelly, Robbie, and Kate, of the Rose City Comedy Collective, each episode picks apart a different piece of the craft: stage persona, joke construction, writing process, audience and ethics, and the changing tools comics use to work. The name comes from the old line about how examining a joke too closely can kill it — the tension the show leans into on purpose. Expect real disagreement, some genuinely useful comedy theory, and plenty of unrelated banter along the way. For comedians, aspiring comedians, and anyone who wants to understand what's actually happening when a joke lands.

Episodes

  1. 3d ago

    Punching Up vs. Punching Down in Comedy — Ep. 003

    Punching up versus punching down is the question this episode puts to the test: is any topic fair game in stand-up, or does the target's power matter? Kelly, Robbie, and Kate of the Rose City Comedy Collective work through Louis C.K.'s homeless-guy bit, Mark Normand's "we all need somebody to hate," and Anthony Jeselnik's joke about his own mother and 9/11 to figure out what actually separates a sharp punch-down from a lazy one. They debate whether marginalized comics get a pass to punch down at their own group, dig into Ricky Gervais's "Pedo Pete" bit from Afterlife and Jimmy Carr's escalation technique, and land on why online outrage and a live room's laughter are two different audiences entirely.

  2. Sep 21

    Identity-Based Comedy and Comedic Persona — Ep. 002

    Identity-based comedy means writing from your own lived experience rather than joking about a group from the outside — this episode maps where that line actually sits. Kelly, Robbie, and Kate of the Rose City Comedy Collective use Larry the Cable Guy, Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, and Bill Burr to separate comedians who build a stage persona from comedians who are simply amplifying their real selves, and trace the neurotic-comedy lineage from Seinfeld and Larry David through to today. They test Robbie's own disabled-parking joke to see whether it's actually identity-driven, debate whether Bill Cosby's and Andrew Dice Clay's off-stage histories should change how their comedy is judged, and close on female comics — Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, Fortune Feimster — who built entire careers around a defined persona.

  3. Sep 14

    Tragedy vs. Time: When Is It Too Soon to Joke? — Ep. 001

    Tragedy versus time is the question at the center of this episode: how long after something terrible happens does it become fair game for a joke? Kelly, Robbie, and Kate trace disaster jokes back to the 1950s, when dark humor about a tragedy spread within hours but stayed behind closed doors, and compare 9/11 to the OceanGate submersible disaster to show how a victim's likability changes the rules. They cover George Carlin postponing his "I like it when a lot of people die" bit after 9/11, Robbie's own Charlie Kirk joke written the weekend after his death, and a race-adjacent joke Robbie retired after it bombed at an open mic. The episode also gets into SNL's post-9/11 return, the current wave of Epstein jokes, and the backlash to Netflix's Kevin Hart roast.

  • 3 Episodes

About

Dissecting Frogs is a stand-up comedy podcast about the craft of stand-up comedy — not another comedian-interview show, but a breakdown of how jokes and sets actually work. Hosted by three working stand-up comedians, Kelly, Robbie, and Kate, of the Rose City Comedy Collective, each episode picks apart a different piece of the craft: stage persona, joke construction, writing process, audience and ethics, and the changing tools comics use to work. The name comes from the old line about how examining a joke too closely can kill it — the tension the show leans into on purpose. Expect real disagreement, some genuinely useful comedy theory, and plenty of unrelated banter along the way. For comedians, aspiring comedians, and anyone who wants to understand what's actually happening when a joke lands.

Information

  • Creator
    Rose City Comedy Collective
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Rose City Comedy Collective
  • Show Website
    Dissecting Frogs