Pete Holmes
Stand-up comedian and podcaster whose special 'Silly Silly Funboy' is currently on YouTube.
Appeared on: Andrew Santino · Bad Friends · 10% Happier · Neal Brennan
Circuit updated May 8, 2026
Pete Holmes keeps coming back to the same core obsession across every show: the idea that reality is fundamentally benevolent and that most human suffering comes from learning the wrong lesson early, the 'killer be killed' framework he described to Neal Brennan that poisons everything after. Whether he's retelling the Prodigal Son for a mindfulness crowd or explaining mushroom walks to Andrew Santino, the theological argument is always underneath it, God isn't punishing you, you're just not paying attention. The self-contradiction worth flagging is that Holmes presents himself as someone who has metabolized all of this, a man peacefully watching the river, but on Neal Brennan he admitted he nearly couldn't survive the disorientation of his plant medicine experiences, which sits uncomfortably next to the guru-ish confidence he radiates elsewhere. What makes Holmes genuinely interesting as a podcast circuit figure is that he's not selling wellness or comedy separately, he's fused them into a single bit, and the seams only show when he's talking to someone who knew him before the fusion happened.
- Pete Holmes on Silly Silly Fun Boy, Carousel Guilt, and the Case for Paying for Your Porn
“A friend of mine dared me to write a joke where the punchline was genocide. I thought that would make it funnier.” 50:21
- Pete Holmes Teaches Bobby Lee the Way of the Whites
“I come in, I go, Bobby, and I mean this in the best way. Is it like a wild man? Like if I had five... if the doors of the elevator are closing, I'm going to go see Bobby Lee tonight. They get off the elevator. Who's that? Ah, he's kind of like a wild man. That's what I would say.” 1:12:32
- Pete Holmes Retells the Prodigal Son and Somehow Makes It Funnier Than His Standup
“Jesus didn't die to change God's mind about you. He died to change our mind about God. That he's in it with us. God suffers in and through and with and as you.” 13:15
- Pete Holmes Went to Ayahuasca, Neal Brennan Is Scared of His Dog
“everyone's good as a baby and then someone steals their toy and they go fuck everyone forever that's right like that's kind of like no everyone you learn a terrible lesson which is killer be killed which is not reality” 11:43
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“I come in, I go, Bobby, and I mean this in the best way. Is it like a wild man? Like if I had five... if the doors of the elevator are closing, I'm going to go see Bobby Lee tonight. They get off the elevator. Who's that? Ah, he's kind of like a wild man. That's what I would say.”
Pete Holmes · Bad Friends -
“the movie starts when my daughter is born it starts with me and Val and we and we have a fan I know right well I thought you meant it good it's every day I'm with a running faucet of Love meaning it's constantly changing and morphing”
Pete Holmes · Neal Brennan -
“everyone's good as a baby and then someone steals their toy and they go fuck everyone forever that's right like that's kind of like no everyone you learn a terrible lesson which is killer be killed which is not reality”
Pete Holmes · Neal Brennan -
“If you can just say yes to what is, that's all you need. Yes. Thank you. It just shortcircuits your brain. That's been one of the most powerful things in my life.”
Pete Holmes · 10% Happier -
“Jesus didn't die to change God's mind about you. He died to change our mind about God. That he's in it with us. God suffers in and through and with and as you.”
Pete Holmes · 10% Happier -
“I'll stand and face them to shame them and then take my bag down while making eye contact with them and then deliberately leave slowly.”
Pete Holmes · 10% Happier
Pete Holmes on Silly Silly Fun Boy, Carousel Guilt, and the Case for Paying for Your Porn
The comedian stops by Whiskey Ginger to workshop new material, defend OnlyFans on philosophical grounds, and explain why mushrooms change your walk.
Pete Holmes Teaches Bobby Lee the Way of the Whites
Baking soda in the freezer, gas before the light comes on, and other mysteries of white American life, as explained to two men who never learned.
Pete Holmes Retells the Prodigal Son and Somehow Makes It Funnier Than His Standup
The comedian and podcaster walks a live audience through evangelical upbringing, mushrooms at Bonnaroo, and why awareness is the only God worth arguing about.
Pete Holmes Went to Ayahuasca, Neal Brennan Is Scared of His Dog
Two comedians closing in on 20 years of friendship talk God, plant medicine, body dysmorphia, and whether love is just a dog following a turkey leg.