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Last modified: 2024-09-22 04:10:54 PM

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Obscure with Michael Ian Black

It's a book club, but funny!

Comedian Michael Ian Black is tackling a great work of literature: Wuthering Heights.

Join Michael's weekly book club as he reads aloud from a classic and asks people like Jen Kirkman, Mike Birbiglia, Michael Showalter, and even his teenage kids to weigh in with their perspectives. 

Season 1: Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. The book is bleak, but Michael does a lot of accent work.

Season 2: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It's alive, and it's just a big buddy. Also, more accent work.

Season 3: Wuthering Heights. It's a love story? Who knows

Season 4: American Tragedy. Also a potential title of this podcast

Support this show and access bonus content: https://www.patreon.com/michaelianblack


Latest Episodes

S4 Episode 114 - A Real Horse's Patootie

4 days ago Tue, Nov 18th 2025

Two horse patooties on this week's episode of Obscure. In the case of your host, the patootiness stems from taking extra trips when I'd rather be home. This episode, I briefly describe a short trip to New Hampshire from which I've just returned that I need not have agreed to go to, despite the fact that I had cromulent time. The second horse's patootie, of course, is our own Clyde, now incarcerated and finding himself the subject of horror and scorn. Between the two of us, I suspect my own trip to the New Hampshire Film Festival left me in a better position than Clyde finds himself.

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S4 Episode 113 - Who Do I Gotta Kill To Get Ahead In This Life?

11 days ago Tue, Nov 11th 2025

Twice-over murderer Clyde Griffiths finds himself at the mercy of Johnny Law. Now he's in the hoosegow, awaiting his fate. Meanwhile, his fancy pals over at the campsite have are tres, tres bummed. Their own Clyde, arrested for murder? How could it be? And poor Sondra Finchley now left flummoxed and alone; "I don't believe a word of it," says she. Sorry, chicky, but belief doesn't come into play here. It's about the fact, ma'am, and nothing but.

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S4 Episode 112 - What A Dunce You Are

18 days ago Tue, Nov 4th 2025

As indisputable proof arises that Clyde is, indeed, the instrument of death in the case of one Roberta Alden, Orville B. Mason isn't having more of young Master Griffiths' bunkum. Things continue to deteriorate for our young hero, whose defense is now crumbling as assuredly as Clyde once assuredly strode through the streets of Lycurgus, New York. Well, his time in Lycurgus is now done. The only question now is where our young hero now meets his end.

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S4 Episode 111 - Not Home, Alone

25 days ago Tue, Oct 28th 2025

Mallomars, a terrific confection, is the subject of some discussion early in this episode which reminds your host that Mike and Tom Eat Snacks is back, a podcast featuring Michael Ian Black and Tom Cavanagh picking, eating, and rating snacks. Why promote another podcast during this podcast? Because your host is whore. Other whorish behavior in this episode: Clyde Griffiths has confirmed his identity to a sheriff's deputy and it looks as though the whole sordid tale will at last be revealed.

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S4 Episode 110 - 23 and Zzzz

1 month ago Tue, Oct 21st 2025

Your host complains of insomnia, discusses his genetic mutations, and makes this episode all about HIM instead of the terrible plight of Clyde Griffiths, who remains on the run from Johnny Law. All the good and wealthy young people of Lycurgus a-camping out there in far-flung Adirondack Mountain lakes may not be enough to protect the murderer in their midst... or will they???

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S4 Episode 109 - Partying Like It's 1999

1 month ago Tue, Oct 14th 2025

First off, your host doesn't party. Didn't party in 1999 and doesn't party now, so the title was, we're sorry to report, a lie. Even so, some late 20th century memories are returning to this 21st century babe, which involve living back in NYC after a multiple-decade absence. One can feel mighty alone, even when surrounded by people. You know who's aware of that more than even your host? Mr. Clyde Griffiths, now on the run and unable to confess his fears to anyone, not even dear Sondra Finchley .

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S4 Episode 108 - Hey This Is For You, Baby

1 month ago Tue, Oct 7th 2025

Both Clyde and your host have a few bucks in our pockets. Your host, because he is a VERY FAMOUS CNN political contributor (not, strictly speaking, true) and because Clyde's gal pal Sondra Finchley slipped him eighty smackaroos, which is something like ten million dollars in today's money. (Again, not true). Are Clyde's final days of freedom upon him, or will he escape Johnny Law's long arm and retire in the gentle bosom of young Sondra Finchley?

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S4 Episode 107 - Velocitized!

1 month ago Tue, Sep 30th 2025

Your host has returned from the former honeymoon capital of the world (not Niagara Falls) feeling like he's still on the move. Decades of travel have left your handsome narrator feeling plum tuckered out. You know who else is tuckered out? Clyde Griffiths, on the run, panicked, mentally velocitized. Will Johnny Law's long arm reach him all the way in Sharon, where he waits on the west veranda for a ride to Sondra and sanctuary...

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S4 Episode 106 - Desire Under the Elms

1 month ago Tue, Sep 23rd 2025

Is the name of the opera your host was trying to recall during this week's episode. And it's desire, is it not, that has driven Clyde Griffiths to his murderous fate? Desire for love, money, social status, desire for a new pair of spats and a fancy cravat. And now he's on the run for his very life. Desire has destroyed better people than ol' Clyde and it's desire that will, eventually, do him in.

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S4 Episode 105 - An Enormous Personal Hate for the Man

2 months ago Tue, Sep 16th 2025

Haven't we all felt hatred for The Man at some point? In Orville Mason's case, the man in question is the murderer of Roberta Alden. Is that Clyde Griffiths? It sure looks like it, and DA Mason is practically seething at the whichever rich wastrel did Ms. Alden in.

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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.