Popular Culture

Brent Weinbach sits down at a keyboard during his sophomore special to demonstrate how easily a joyous Christmas song can be shifted into a melancholic Hanukkah song with a minor key change. It is a classic Weinbach moment—meticulous, slightly formal, and built on a weirdly logical premise. Recorded at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles, Popular Culture shows the veteran alternative comedian operating at the peak of his idiosyncratic, highly physical style. Rather than chasing standard observational tropes, Weinbach takes a deadpan, deeply unusual approach to mainstream topics, offering strange theories about Michael Jackson’s songwriting choices and walking the audience through highly specific creeping techniques.

The hour represents a culmination of the style Weinbach has spent over two decades refining in the Los Angeles alternative scene. Produced by Abso Lutely Productions and released on YouTube in May 2025, the special was named to The New York Times list of the best comedy of the year. For an artist known for his surreal web shorts and avant-garde stage presence, the set is exceptionally tight, trading none of his characteristic absurdity while proving that his singular, beat-focused style can command a traditional hour-long format. Other highlights of the set include a bizarre seance that channels the spirits of hip-hop group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and a strange bit about carrot cake.