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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 108 - Hey This Is For You, Baby

9 hours 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!

7 days 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

14 days 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

21 days 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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S4 Episode 104 - A Fabulous Time Out There on the River

28 days ago Tue, Sep 9th 2025

The episode begins with a delightful recounting of a water adventure, which segues PERFECTLY into the horror show unfolding over there on Big Bittern. Highs and low on another cromulent episode of Obscure.

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S4 Episode 103 - Law & Order

1 month ago Tue, Sep 2nd 2025

As Book 3 unfolds, we're starting to transform from "The Wire" to "Law & Order." We've got the DA (portrayed by the late Jerry Orbach) and the coroner (portrayed by the late Foster Brooks). Yes, it's a perfectly cromulent episode of Obscure.

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S4 Episode 102 - My Dogs are Literal Animals

1 month ago Tue, Aug 26th 2025

Having just spent two days in the car with his pets, your host spends most of the episode complaining about the adorable Ole and Squash, who are not adorable. Things are worse, however, for Bert Alden, dead at the bottom of a lake. Thankfully, Orville Mason is on the case!

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S4 Episode 101 - Machinations!

1 month ago Tue, Aug 19th 2025

There's been a murder (maybe) in these here parts and political machinations are afoot! The coroner, upon suspecting foul play, has some ideas in that big head of his. While murder is never welcome, when it arrives, one would be a fool not to use it to one's advantage...

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S4 Episode 100 - Beautiful Mount Airy Lodge

1 month ago Tue, Aug 12th 2025

Reporting this episode from the former honeymoon capital of the world (not Niagra Falls), the Poconos Mountains which is an ideal location to commit a lake drowning. A lake drowning has, in fact, occurred. Clyde, our poor benighted Clyde, has gone and done it. And now, we shall see what consequences await.

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S4 Episode 99 - Dithering and Dickering

2 months ago Tue, Aug 5th 2025

Perhaps we are at the moment of no return. Hard to say, of course, and lo we have had the rug pulled from under our feet so many times over these last almost 100 episodes. Clyde Griffiths is possessed now, a demon steadying his hand as the deadly moment has now arrived. Or has it???

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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.