Hershal Pandya

A nice young person helped me renew a permit the other day in a bureaucratic setting, and he ended every second sentence he said with the words "type thing."

The interaction was very professional, and I love that part of that was him swapping out "type shit" for "type thing."

Tried out a fun little "Who's on first" riff with my 4-year-old nephew the other day about the TV show "Is it Cake?"

"What are you watching?"
"Is it Cake?"
"Well, is it?"
"Is it what?"
"Cake."
"Noo,'Is It Cake?'"
"Well, is it?"

Predictably, he hated it.

It's a shame how capitalism has narrowed how we define "productivity."

It's all about "taking tangible steps to complete tasks."

It's never about, "depleting all your mental energy worrying about tasks so you have none left to actually do them."

Smh. Goldman Sachs.

Every creator of a TV comedy: What if the protagonist was — get this — vapid and self-obsessed?

Television networks: No way! You wouldn't!

Creator: It's revolutionary.

Network: Here's millions of dollars.

Music straight up doesn't get better than Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo harmonizing the lyric "nothing but you" over and over.

I don't think I'd ever conceived of the world going on without D'Angelo. "Spanish Joint" forever. This sucks so much.

A couple years ago, I learned how to make a humane fruit fly trap by putting a piece of banana in a glass jar, covering it in saran wrap, and poking holes in the top with toothpicks.

The problem is that nothing in my life works as well as this thing catches fruit flies.

Ugh I wish I was wearing my super baggy trousers right now in tribute.

Doing mutual aid to raise the money the Saudi Arabian government was going to pay me to cover the Riyadh comedy festival, which I was definitely 1000% offered but forfeited due to morality reasons.

Will Arnett Will Retire When He Has $19 Billion He’s a man of ‘very highfalutin tastes.’

Not included in this interview: The moment when Will Arnett stopped me mid-question to absolutely clock me with, "Hershal, are you Canadian?"

www.vulture.com/article/will...

Nate Bargatze’s Awards-Show Purgatory He couldn’t figure out how to position himself as a celebrity outsider or insider, and by trying to keep a foot in each camp, he fell flat.

Nate Bargatze is a great comedian, but he was always going to be a strange fit as an awards show host. I wrote about his Emmys performance here.

www.vulture.com/article/nate...

The Comedians You Should and Will Know of 2025 We surveyed more than 200 industry insiders to determine these 21 comedy stars of tomorrow.

This is my favorite thing I get to work on. The way people discover comedians now removes them from all context. I love that we get to put together this list that frames their work in the proper light. Please read and enjoy!

www.vulture.com/article/best...

The first person who said "have a good one" instead of "have a good day" definitely thought they cooked with that.

Eternity Should Be Sadder For a movie with such high emotional stakes, this would-be tearjerker sure has a lot of jokes.

Had a great time watching 'Eternity.' Maybe too great, given the movie's premise. I wrote about it here.

www.vulture.com/article/tiff...

Roofman Is the Kind of Thing Derek Cianfrance Does Best Channing Tatum charms in a morally tricky tale that leans into Cianfrance’s knack for good men who are bad dads.

Channing Tatum + Derek Cianfrance = good www.vulture.com/article/roof...

You Can’t Look Away From Cooper Hoffman In Poetic License, Hoffman is like a Gen-Z Vince Vaughn, bullshitting sophistication at a mile a minute, but also too sensitive for this world.

Maude Apatow's directorial debut 'Poetic License' is so much better than I was expecting it to be, but my main takeaway from it was: COOPER HOFFMAN. www.vulture.com/article/poet...

Take a Seat for Tim Robinson’s The Chair Company Next Month His new HBO comedy co-created with Zach Kanin premieres on October 12.

I had an impossible chat with Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin about their new HBO show 'The Chair Company,' during which they refused to tell me anything about the show, but we all laughed about how impossible the conversation was.

www.vulture.com/article/tim-...

Aziz Ansari vs. the Gig Economy The comedian’s feature directorial debut makes a point about economic precarity in America that is well-intentioned, if a bit obvious.

Wrote about Aziz Ansari's new movie. This Keanu Reeves guy is pretty great. Who knew? #TIFF

www.vulture.com/article/in-g...

John Early Made a Horror Movie Where the Villain Is Food The comedian’s directorial debut mines melodrama for comedy, but pushes it so far, it swings back around to being emotionally affecting again.

Wrote about John Early's directorial debut 'Maddie's Secret,' which is very good at being the movie it is trying to be, and also ruined my ability to watch online food videos forever.

www.vulture.com/article/tiff...

Liking John Candy Isn’t Enough Colin Hanks’s new documentary, John Candy: I Like Me, while pleasant enough, is hampered by a desire to serve a particular narrative.

Wrote about the John Candy doc premiere at TIFF, which Prime Minister Mark Carney showed up and somehow found a way to make about the tariff war.

www.vulture.com/article/i-li...

Doing mutual aid to raise the money the Saudi Arabian government was going to pay me to cover the Riyadh comedy festival, which I was definitely 1000% offered but forfeited due to morality reasons.

Adam Sandler on Being SNL50’s Secret Emotional Weapon The comedy legend and his co-writer, Dan Bulla, discuss how they wrote their Emmy-nominated song “50 Years” in just 24 hours.

Had a nice little chat with Adam Sandler and Dan Bulla about writing their Emmy-nominated 'SNL50' song, "50 Years."

www.vulture.com/article/adam...

Adam Sandler on Being SNL50’s Secret Emotional Weapon The comedy legend and his co-writer, Dan Bulla, discuss how they wrote their Emmy-nominated song “50 Years” in just 24 hours.

Had a nice little chat with Adam Sandler and Dan Bulla about writing their Emmy-nominated 'SNL50' song, "50 Years."

www.vulture.com/article/adam...

Haha. The number one criticism is that I should have spoken to some people with intellectual disabilities to get their perspective on the word, which isn't unfair, though I think there's a fair amount of documentation of that

It's on me for trusting readers enough to not spoonfeed a moral argument.

Please make a note of all your grievances to yell at me about!

Comedy’s Safest Slur Left, right, center — everyone is using it. How stand-up has all but killed a controversial term’s taboo.

I wrote a piece about how the R-word is everywhere in stand-up again. You're welcome to yell at me about it, but I would just politely ask that you read the whole article first. Thank you.

www.vulture.com/article/come...

Thank you for reading!

"But as the taboo surrounding it diminishes, so too does the comedic value of saying it onstage in order to shock an audience, defend its usage, or use it as I’m-one-of-the-cool-ones shorthand."

Comedy’s Safest Slur Left, right, center — everyone is using it. How stand-up has all but killed a controversial term’s taboo.

I wrote a piece about how the R-word is everywhere in stand-up again. You're welcome to yell at me about it, but I would just politely ask that you read the whole article first. Thank you.

www.vulture.com/article/come...