Nowhere Near The Top

When Joe Sib was growing up in Northern California, a trip to McDonald’s was a luxury, eaten in the backseat while his mom smoked with the windows rolled up. For his own kids, raised on conscientious West Coast parenting, fast food is treated like a threat.

The contrast between reckless Gen X youth and domestic defeat fuels the material. Sib rants about assembling a backyard trampoline, fighting sixth-grade math word problems, deciphering emoji texts from his teenage daughter, and trying to convince his family that a staycation is just as exciting as Hawaii because the household checking account is running on empty.

Sib spent the 1990s fronting punk bands like Wax and co-founding SideOneDummy Records before pivoting into stand-up and hosting a parenting podcast.

Released by 800 Pound Gorilla Records in April 2017, the 22-minute audio album was cut to red 10-inch vinyl and debuted at number three on the Billboard comedy chart.