Tasty Radio

Scarlett Johansson reading Deuteronomy passages about leprosy and marital stains in a breathy bedroom whisper sets the tone for Tasty Radio. The record ignores stand-up club audio entirely, resurrecting the nineties studio sketch format where a listener turns an imaginary radio dial and catches deadpan premises that never had to cater to a live crowd.

Recorded at Broadway Sound in New York City and released in October 2015 by Comedy Dynamics, the project captured O’Brien at a transition point. He had spent six seasons on the writing staff at Saturday Night Live and one season in the cast before shifting toward independent shorts. For the track list, he called on his regulars: John Mulaney and Fred Armisen play hype men trying to help Joseph Merrick pick up women in ‘Elephant Man’s Boyz,’ Jason Sudeikis talks youth athletics, and Bill Hader, Cecily Strong, and Seth Meyers drop into various fake broadcasts.

Paste named it the third-best comedy album of 2015.