Colin Quinn on Incels, Woke Activists, and Peaking at 14

Old School with Shilo Brooks

In this episode, legendary comic Colin Quinn dives into a cult classic that still makes him cry with laughter: John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces.

The novel follows the misadventures of an overweight, pretentious misanthrope still living with his mother in 1960s New Orleans. It’s a book that turns fart jokes into high art. It’s also, somehow, a love story between a fat incel and a woke activist—a seemingly absurd pairing that just may be a prescient solution to our modern polarization problem. 

Plus, Colin and Shilo dig into the parallels between great comic writing and great standup: Both give language to things audiences half-know but have never quite articulated, making the familiar suddenly, painfully funny.

Old School is proudly brought to you by the Jack Miller Center. If you believe in the importance of civic education and want to help prepare the next generation to carry on our democracy, join us at JackMillerCenter.org.

Become a paid subscriber to The Free Press today to enjoy exclusive bonus episodes and reduced ads. Click here to subscribe.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2026-01-29 52 min

Available Results

Generated results are saved to the knowledge database for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Extract Knowledge

Pick what you want extracted first. Model, scope, and chapter options appear after a template is selected.

Generated results for public episodes are saved to the knowledge database so they can be reused and searched later.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.