Two guys, one voicemail, zero useful answers.
Mike Hale and Jesse Farrar open nearly every episode with a listener voicemail, then chase it sideways until the original question is gone. What follows is fast, filthy, unstructured comedy built out of bad products, worse hypotheticals, and constant mutual heckling.
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Your Kickstarter Sucks began as a crowdfunding autopsy and has become something looser and stranger. Mike Hale and Jesse Farrar still nod at the premise — dumb products, doomed pitches — but the real engine is the voicemail line. Every episode opens cold on a caller. One describes a father fish-hooked by a garage-door spring, passing out mid-air, then calling his wife instead of an ambulance. One reports a milestone: buying a first home, and separately, witnessing something appalling behind an Aldi. One asks what near-death revelation prompted them to start a podcast at all. None of these get a real answer. What they get is a demolition. The two fixate on some incidental detail — how many legs an aunt has, whether a walking handle beats gripping a companion's arm, whether a name is one letter from a filthier name — and then argue that detail into the ground with total commitment. The rhythm is compressed and interruption-heavy. A setup half-lands, gets corrected, gets worse, and then something else arrives before anyone resolves the first thing. Producer Dan sits in the crossfire. A caller once floated a joke at his expense and he spent the rest of the episode wearing it, offering a medical explanation nobody accepted. That is roughly how the show handles everything. Subject matter drifts wide: a movie that bombed and whether Lady Gaga or Maggie Gyllenhaal was in it, a returning season of a reality show about compulsions, homeowners' association rules about cats, Arc'teryx jackets and mild geopolitical bravado, a humiliating medical appointment involving a paper bag. Even sponsor reads get metabolized into the comedy rather than performed cleanly. Nothing is sacred and nothing is sincere for long. The tone is dry by default, with detours into mock outrage, feigned expertise, and genuine warmth between the two that surfaces mostly as abuse. There is no guest chair, no research segment, no arc. There is also no polish, which is the appeal: this sounds like a conversation that would happen with or without recording equipment. Language is unfiltered throughout, and the show has an obvious tolerance for bodily comedy that will lose some listeners in the first minute and win others permanently. With more than 450 episodes behind it, the show has a settled internal logic and a caller base that clearly knows the assignment. Newcomers can start anywhere. The voicemail will make no sense either way.
Made for: Listeners who want unstructured comedy banter over interviews or research, and who enjoy a bit being stretched well past its natural end. Best suited to people with a high tolerance for crude, unfiltered tangents.
What sets it apart: Most comedy shows chase guests; this one runs almost entirely on listener voicemails and their refusal to answer them, turning every call into a demolition site rather than a segment.
Mike Hale and Jesse Farrar comb through the crowdfunding dumpster to tell you what projects are worth supporting with your hard-earned dollar. So far, it's been absolutely nothing, but whether it's a social media website for dogs, a toilet brush that reminds you to drink more water, or 5,000 offensive card games, maybe something will eventually be good!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Mike Hale and Jesse Farrar turn crowdfunding pitches into elastic riffs while preserving a keen eye for effort, vanity, and accidental invention.
Your Kickstarter Sucks gives Mike Hale and Jesse Farrar a steady supply of dubious inventions, awkward pitches, and grand business ambitions, then lets their conversational comedy pull each campaign apart.
A hot sauce detective skit meets a $2,300 ask, and suddenly you're invested in somebody's condiment.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A lunch-break spiral through pricey powders, an AI-looking mobility ad, and a poop-sample misunderstanding.
Jesse Fry and Mike Hale start with a lunch-break prompt about an aunt in the hospital, a family conversation, and a Christian message, then slide into overnight oats with collagen and creatine.
A home-buying question spirals into public masturbation, QAnon grading, and a filthy punchline from walking buddies.
A first-home advice request is quickly overtaken by a story about a man masturbating beside an Aldi dumpster, which neatly sets the episode's rhythm: everyday questions become excuses for much worse tangents.
A soda bottle, a remote setup, and movie detours give the banter a pleasantly unstable center.
A remote setup gives this YKS episode its easy shape, with JF and Mike Hale turning the distance between them into jokes about clogged toilets, superbugs, and whether Polymarket has room for bets on human misery.
A baby announcement, Apple Watch anxiety, and Dog Almighty push the show into loose, bodily-comedy detours.
A caller's new baby and Apple Watch worry give JF and Mike Hale an easy way into a broader, sillier referendum on masculinity. The 38-millimeter dilemma quickly opens out into gag reflexes, HOA rules, cat people, and Jay Leno imagined around cars and a hill.
A hot-sauce fundraiser turns into a handmade mob-movie bit with Texas Pete, poker logic, and Detective Dumbass.
This episode treats a modest Kickstarter pitch like the opening to a very strange crime picture. Mike and JF start with a caller's story about a Los Angeles guitar maker building vagina-themed Gibson clones, then drift into a black-and-white hot-sauce sketch centered on Vegas…
A workplace presentation sends Mike and J.F. into office irritation, soldering envy, birthday photos, and a one-backer Wi-Fi display Kickstarter.
A workplace reservation presentation becomes a broader argument about office life, before Mike and J.F. drift into DIY electronics, Meg the Stallion's birthday, and a Kickstarter for a public Wi-Fi password display with one backer.
Tiny debates, treated with heroic seriousness.
Jesse and Mike discuss a voicemail about a guy maintaining a Plex server and then talk about H265 encoding and subtitle syncing.
Mike Hale and Jesse Farrar return with episode 396 of Your Kickstarter Sucks, opening with a rant about remote work sparked by a listener's stoned voicemail.
A host recounts a scary encounter in Nashville where a man with a ski mask and knife charged at her group, then sarcastically defends the city's 'slicing' tradition.
The hosts of YKS discuss a voicemail about their producer Dan's uncontrollable nutting after a golf club accident.
Mike and JF review bizarre Kickstarter projects and internet oddities in Episode 393.
Your Kickstarter Sucks episode 454, "YKS Load Of The Month," opens with Jesse Fry and Mike Hale joking about an aunt on a deathbed and a family "generational talk" message.
Your Kickstarter Sucks episode 452, My Car is in the Movie, opens with Paul describing a first-home offer and a man masturbating behind an Aldi dumpster.
A caller shares his surprise at being charged for a to-go container at a Thai restaurant, sparking a discussion about restaurant fees and packaging costs.
Episode 450 of Your Kickstarter Sucks, "Dan's Apartment," starts with JF and Mike Hale joking about Mike being remote and about betting on human misery on Polymarket.
The hosts of White Gas discuss a listener's email about a My Strange Addiction episode involving a woman who sniffs her dad's underwear, leading to banter about Producer Dan's similar habits and other strange addictions.
Mike Hale, JF, and Dan argue over the 38mm versus 42mm Apple Watch, with Dan saying the small watch looks "dainty" and JF calling the watch a "nuisance device." The episode also spends a long stretch on Squatty Potty, including the line "CEO of a new way to shit" and a debate about whether the inventor should have made "a second thing." Later, the hosts pivot to Mormon hundred-millionaires, Utah houses, and a TikTok product for seeing "your own swimmer swimming." A late update revisits the fart pedal, then jumps into a Jay Leno clip with James Mills and Steve Gatlin.
The episode opens with JF reading a new manager's morning text, "consistency beats intensity," and asking whether ChatGPT wrote it, then the hosts riff on crude parody holiday chain messages.
Jeff and Mike discuss a dangerous garage door accident and then playfully riff on the similarity between Mike's name and 'Mike Hole'.
JF and Mike Hale discuss a listener's tip about a shower enema device called the Shower Shot, leading to a humorous exploration of the product.