Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #67

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

Tig and Fortune dip their toes into observational comedy and brainstorm questions for family members on a delightful Pretty Little Episode! Don't miss out on our Black Friday merch sale at handsomepod.com!Handsome is hosted by Tig Notaro, Mae Martin, and Fortune FeimsterSubmit your questions to speakpipe.com/handsomepodFollow us on social media @handsomepodMerch at handsomepod.comWatch Handsome on YouTubeThis is a Headgum podcast. Follow Headgum on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok. Advertise on Handsome via Gumball.fm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a headgum podcast. You know it's smart? Checking Allstate First for a quote that could save you hundreds on car insurance. You know it's not smart? Not checking the dress code before heading to a fancy function. Everyone's dressed very formally and you wish you brought a suit jacket to wear over your vintage band t-shirt. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate First for a quote that could save you hundreds.

You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary, subject to terms, conditions, and availability, all state North American insurance company and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. Handsome Pot. Chatting the friends on the Handsome Pod. Chatting the friends on the handsome pod. Pretty little episode. I heard you chime in there.

I did. I was just, you know, really struck by the moment. Yeah, it's a catchy little tune. I sure is. A little cowboy did a good job with that. Yeah. And us singing like songbirds was pretty amazing too. I mean, deep tenor of yours.

I should have taken a solo. You should have. Well, welcome to the Hands of Pods' prel episode. I'm Fortune Feems, dear. And I am Tignotaro. I'm eating apple pie. wait why do you have an apple pie um because it was just Thanksgiving no it wasn't fortune we are pre-recording this

god dang it weeks a month in advance it is not thing why how does one end up with an apple pie in their house I wanted to use Thanksgiving is an excuse um it was served on set last night Oh, and were you like, could I just take that home? She just took a bowl to go. Oh, I thought you took the whole pie. I was like, God, that's so bold.

Listen, I love food, but I'm not that crazy. I am, yeah. No, I just, I grabbed me a bowl of it. Yeah, why not? How is it? It's pretty good. It's sweet, though. I never thought I'd be that person that was like, it's too sweet.

It's just very sweet. Yeah. But my palate has shifted a little bit, and it is pretty sweet. Yeah, I like with cake. I like the actual cake part and then just a little bit of frosting on there. Yeah. I still think about this place in St. Louis that had the best vegan cupcake I've ever had. I mean, even up there with regular cupcakes, it was their version of a hostess cupcake.

okay and it was vegan and where was this place oh gosh what is the name hold on i'll find it right now they also had a great buffalo vegan sandwich wow st louis vegan what would it take for you to become vegan a private chef yeah i would have to have some good food There is good food. It has to be a real tasty. Sweet art? I mean, but you and Stephanie are good cook. The vegan cake spot.

Oh, sweet art. Yeah, that's what it's called sweet art. Stephanie and I, what? Are good cooks. So you guys... No, I'm not a good cook. Well, Stephanie is. You've told me.

Yeah. Stephanie loves her cooking. Like, nobody. I always tease her own cooking. Loves it. It's amazing. I'm always like, you are the most hilarious chef because most people make food and go, yeah, but it's a little overdone or it needs a little more salt, but not Stephanie. She is like, oh, my God, this is delicious.

Come try it. I would love to be able to do that. Everything I make, I'm like, it'll do. Everything's just like, I'll eat it. But if anyone else was here, I would not let them eat this. I just I've never seen it and I love it so much how much Stephanie endorses her own cooking and it and it's great yeah I'm more of the the cook that throws things together you know that's what I can do yeah I am pretty good about eating whatever unless it seeds the berries and stuff like that sure yeah I'm pretty good about eating whatever someone puts in front of me. me. Especially cupcakes.

You want to ask me twice about that, sister. I, so one day I'm going to splurge and have someone start making me food, but I'm not, I'm too busy right now to have somebody else make food. But can't they do it and then pack it for you and you bring it? I would be into finding a food delivery service. But I got, I want a good one. I've tried a couple of that. You don't want a bad one.

I don't want a bad one. There are many bad ones out there. But what about an actual chef? I would cook at, but I don't know who. I don't, I don't have. Well, that would be easy. You just poke around, ask some people. I mean, because I've never heard of somebody saying they're too busy to have someone else cook their food for them.

I just meant being home, like having someone cooking here, but I would not be opposed to hiring a delivery version of that. I would actually really love that. That would be... Here's my question about this. You ask away. Thank you. When people hire a private chef.

Yeah. Is that better or less expensive than actually just ordering every meal to your house? Honestly, I don't know. I just know when you order out, the food's usually fatter, fatterier, greasier. greasier. Well, because they want it to taste good. So it's going to have a lot more butter. It's going to have a lot more whatever. Yeah. Because they want you to keep coming back to their restaurant. Oh, speaking of whatever, I grabbed a little snack for the road last night from my hotel room. Yeah. And I thought it was vegan. I looked closer.

Oh, no. Guess what was in it? What? Something called milk solids. What is that? I don't know, but I was. I was like, like already milk is not is going to send me running, but milk solids. It'll give you a solid. It'll give you a milk solid.

That's a dogy joke. Are you still there? Yes, I'm still here, Fortune Marie. can you do me a solid and make it milk oh my god so you put it down you found this out halfway through eating it i gave it to um i gave it to jessica the producer of come see me in the good light we were at a screening and and um it just became a joke the whole night because like at one point

it fell out of her purse and um and it was one of those things where everyone was trying to get rid of this little chocolate snack that had milk solids in it. And when I was going to get in my car, she was going to get in hers, I was like, oh, Jessica, really quick. And she was like, oh, yeah. She runs over and I go, here, you forgot your milk solids. And she was like, God damn it. And so she ended up leaving with the food that had the milk solids. I mean, that is just, that's a terrible, terrible description of something. No. There's a lot of weird stuff and food, though. That's definitely up there with the weird ones. Yeah. I'm glad you didn't eat it. Thank you. Me too.

Well, should we get some questions? I think we should, Fortune. Our handsome pod listeners. I think we should. Absolutely. Our handsoms. Hey, May. Hey, Tig. Hey, Fortune. This is Melissa from Medford, Oregon. About a year ago, I got my mom listening to your podcast. And of course, she was just instantly hooked. As inspired by Ginger and Fortune's adventures, we're going to take a mother-daughter trip to Palm Springs in December to see Fortune perform live. And we are so excited. Amazing.

I was thinking that while we were there, it would be really fun to ask my mom a question or two that I've never asked her before and just kind of inspire a really fun conversation over dinner or something prior to the show. And I was just wondering, what's something that you want to ask your mom but have not yet had the chance and take what's a question that you really wish you had had the chance to ask your mom i can't wait to hear your guys's answers and i really look forward to the conversation that this will start between me and my mom i love you guys all so much thank you all for the laughs can't wait to hear your answers oh sweet that is so great and if i can just out of the gate say

that i man and i can't encourage you fortune tom and anyone listening, I cannot encourage you enough to do this. I almost was able to do it with my stepfather and I didn't even think to do it with my mother. But I interviewed my brother, I interviewed my cousins, and I, in fact, I have, Thomas, I think, helped me come up with this list of questions. This was years ago. Yeah, I remember this. Yeah, and I can send them to you fortune. Oh, I would love that.

to interview and record your mother asking all asking her and asking your dad, your brothers. And it really puts pieces together in your life and gives you this understanding of these people that you kind of just took for granted that you know them. And they have, obviously, we all know, but like backstories that details that you, I mean, about their first date together, about, um, When they found out that they were pregnant with you, what was that like? Or, you know, just I'll send, I'll send you these questions. But I, it's such a really, really fun exercise and experience.

Oh, that, yeah, I actually was talking about that with somebody recently where she was like, maybe it's, you know, you should start thinking about, you know, filming your mom asking her a bunch of questions. My brother is really good at that. So I might have him figure that out because we did that with my grandmother. I am for a high school project. The high school project was to interview someone in your family and I interviewed my grandmother. And it's one of the only videos we have of her telling some family, you know, about the Great Depression and telling some family history. And I made copies.

I turned that. It was a VHS back in the day. I turned it into a DVD and gave it to all my family. Oh, amazing. years ago. And so, you know, with sort of, especially facing mortality in the way that we are, hopefully not any time soon, that definitely has come up for us. My mom has such a good, has such a good memory.

And, you know, the chemo, unfortunately, really messes with people's memory. And as you know, and the brain fog is very real. So it would be nice to get. her before that, you know, really messes with a lot of the memories to get a lot of that oratorical versions of our, of her life and our family history. Yeah. So I would love those questions. Yeah.

I would definitely do that. It's a really thorough rundown. Yeah. And maybe you could do it where it's like you, your mom, your dad, and your brother's all, like, interacting, getting the same questions. and responding with what makes sense in your life and if something doesn't make sense with that question for you, then you skip past it. But it would be so interesting to see the exchange between your immediate family with those

kind of questions. You know what's smart? Checking Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds on your car insurance. You know what's not smart? Not checking how long the trailers run. run before a movie. No need to end dinner early if the movie doesn't actually start for another 30 minutes. Yeah, check in first is smart. So check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary subject to terms,

conditions, and availability. Allstate North American Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. Anyway, do you have a question or in response? to this question. I have a specific one for my mom. Uh-huh. I would like to get on camera, like my mom talking about my, the history of my name, Fortune, and I would like to get her talking about the story about when I was born. She has a neat story around that. And talking about my grandmother a little bit.

Yeah. My mom likes to talk about a lot of the cousins. I'm not really as. interested in the extended family. I know it's like how far I have a cousin that's so into that kind of stuff and I'm like how far back are we going? Are we going to apes or you know what I mean?

Like at what point do we stop? I just, I'm more interested in the people that, you know, I mean, now that I don't want to hear about my third cousin that I never met. Quit bringing her up. I just want to hear about my mom's life. my grandmother and like our childhood. We didn't have a lot of video cameras in my childhood.

So there's not a lot of footage from when I was young. So she would, a lot of those memories, my dad's not going to remember a lot of stuff. So a lot of those memories are going to be with my mom. So I'd like to get some childhood stories and stuff from her perspective. And yeah, just to kind of her talking about who she is, would be nice or who she was yeah that's i i wish i mean god i have so many questions questions yeah for my mother my father my stepfather and man i

missed the boat yeah i missed the boat um i think i'm very curious about i mean i could find this out very easily when they got married. I think it reveals that I think she got married because she was pregnant with my brother. Oh, yeah? Yeah. And I'm just really curious about what went down because her mother was very, very strict and conservative. And I think that's what turned my mother into the free spirit artist, funny, wild person that she was. Yeah. Yeah. I'm curious about that.

Yeah. I would encourage anyone to do that with, especially as their parents are getting older. Because, I mean, even though I have that one video of my grandmother, I would ask a bazillion more questions, too. Absolutely. Interview your grandparents, your siblings, whoever, whoever, whoever. you're close to, interested in, care about, do it now. Well, thanks for that, Melissa.

Yeah. I'm so glad that she asked that. It's a good one. What's next? Hi, handsome. My name is Evangeline, and I'm from Oklahoma. My question for you all is this. Is there a particular bit of observational comedy that has stuck with you?

And so now every time you encounter that thing in the wild, you think of that just. think of that joke. For example, like the Seinfeld bit about what's the deal with airplane food? And now every time you're on a plane, you're like, why am I eating pretzels and ginger ale? Observational comedy. Yeah. I mean, I don't know who this comedian was, but I always thought that this was so funny. When I'm at the beach, I think about it. But some comedian said that everybody's this you know that shark attacks happen closest to the shore and everybody is surprised by that and he's like oh that's where all the people that's all the people are and i was like that's so obvious yeah it's just it's so simple but it's like it's so

funny and another one i love is i don't know who that is so whoever that whoever made that joke I've known that joke for like 30 years. But when I heard it, I was like, that is hilarious. And then, you know, the comedian Bill Hicks, one of my favorite jokes of his was, you know, like, how come when people do drugs that they only, only when they're on top of a building do they think they can fly? How come not when they're walking down the streets? That's funny. Yeah. But I don't ever run into that.

I'm never like on drugs or on the rooftop. But when people talk about hallucinations and tripping and whatever, it's... Are there a lot of comics doing... Is there still a lot of observational humor going on right now? I'm trying to think of moderate comics. Oddly don't follow comics. I know. I can't believe it's a stand-up.

I don't know more bits. But I don't watch a ton of it. I remember you did that thing about the no molestar sign. No moleste. Beleste, yeah. So any time I would see those signs that wouldn't make me laugh, obviously when I see Taylor Dane or hear Taylor Dane's name of it, that's not observational, it's not anything to think of you.

But again, like, how often do you see Taylor Dane? Yeah, exactly. So you never think of it. Her name comes up every now Tom Papa had a funny bit in his last special about how things aren't that bad that people used to wear burlap underpants He is so funny

He is so perfectly silly And funny And I just find him to be a delight of a stand-up Yeah He's very very good writer as well. Yeah, that's what I mean is it's like he's so funny, his delivery, his silliness, but like he's got tight jokes. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe Evangeline has a good one to share. Well, she shared that Seinfeld. True. What's the deal? What is the deal? This isn't like

an observational comedian's joke or anything, but I think, and I guess I could write this down and tell it on stage. But I always think two things flying. One, when they say if there's a water landing, it's like, I'm sorry, but there's no water landing. You mean when you crash into the ocean. And then the other thing is when flight attendants, you know, they say we're primarily here for your safety. And then they're walking around in high heels. It's like if this goes down, this is our leader is in like a skirt and high heels

you know follow me so I think about that all the time but again that's just my little thoughts your tics

yeah as I barrel through the clouds I don't really do observational humor ever so I don't have any many bits my own you just have

rage for political you ever notice when you never notice one yes full of rage and political commentary yeah all right what's we got um my answer is that tig used to do a bit about the little sigh people do after they finish laughing and now i notice it every time the y'all do it a lot on the podcast and i'm always wondering if tig is consciously aware of it the same way that i am um but anyway thank you you guys so much for your podcast. I'm in kind of a hard time right now, and so I've been

binging old episodes nonstop, partially to avoid being alone with my thoughts. But your silliness really brightens my day, so thank you. I look forward to your answers. Oh, thank you, and I'm sorry, yeah, that you're going through a tough time, and please use and abuse our previous episodes. Our ridiculousness, it gets us through hard times, too. Yeah, for sure. To be able to laugh with our friends. Yeah, to go. Yeah, the joke is you're reflecting on one second ago. Remember when we said this one second ago?

That was fun. That is funny. You are pretty good at the observational stuff. I'm pretty good. You're very good. Thank you. Your mind has questions. a lot. I think I think that's why I don't do more observational things. My mind is not thinking of

questions. Okay. But you are always like, well, tell me more about that thing. What does that mean? How did this happen? How do we get here? Who are you? Why are you saying that? And my brain just does not think of those things. I have a friend that jokes with me all the time that's like, did you ask a follow-up question? I was like, no. You're more of like, wow, they said something weird. I guess something's on fire. Yeah. Well, that was fun.

And if you have any questions for the handsome pod, submit your questions to speakpipe.com slash handsome pod. And yeah, we would love to hear from you. They're always such interesting little nuggets that get you thinking, like, Like, man, never would have thought of that. Or what an interesting angle. Yeah. I love it.

Yeah. I love you too. Oh, I love you. Also go to tignotaro.com for tickets for my, what is my tour called? Out of nowhere. The out of nowhere tour, which is where this material is coming from. That's where everything comes from, Fortune. Out of nowhere.

Yeah. And I don't know. You got anything you want to say? I'm on tour too, so go to FortuneFambertser.com and see if I'm coming to a city near you. Okay, sorry to bother you. Until next time. Keep it? Pretty handsome.

Handsome is hosted by me, May Martin, Tignotaro, and Fortune Feamster. The show is produced, recorded, and edited by Thomas Willett. Email us at handsomepod.com, and please follow us on social media at HandsomePod. What a podcast. That was a Hidgum podcast. You know it's smart? Checking Allstate First for a quote that could save you hundreds on car insurance. You know it's not smart?

Not checking that your smart watch is charged before going to your fitness class. You work hard to get those steps in so make sure they're counted towards your daily total. Yeah, checking first is smart. So check Allstate First for a quote that could save you hundreds. You're in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings varies, subject to terms, conditions, and availability, Allstate North American Insurance Company and affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois.