Triumph The Insult Comic Dog Pooped on Weird Al Yankovic, Rob Schneider, and More at SF Sketchfest

This past weekend, 800 Pound Gorilla News took in a ton of great shows at SF Sketchfest. This week, we’ll be taking a look back at some of what we saw. And perhaps no show made us laugh harder than Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s game show, Let’s Make a Poop. 

The night started strong with a look back at some of Triumph’s greatest moments. This included the time he interviewed people waiting in line for Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, hit up the Weiner Circle in Chicago with Jack McBrayer, and tried to interview politicians at the US Capitol. Finally, everyone’s favorite dog puppet that loves to metaphorically poop on people and hurl insults appeared from behind a black curtain.

Behind the curtain sits Triumph’s puppeteer, the comedy genius that is Robert Smigel, donning a Chicago Cubs hat that you can sometimes see popping up from behind the darkness. The fact that you could sometimes see the man behind Triumph was always part of the charm. Smigel was a legendary writer for Saturday Night Live, and the brains behind TV Funhouse. He’s also got a brand-new Netflix animated film he just directed, Leo, starring Adam Sandler and Bill Burr. But Triumph is perhaps his greatest creation, and allows Smigel to show off not just his incredible joke construction, but also how truly quick he is on his feet. 

Early on, he tells the crowd, “Anybody who’s offended, relax. All of these jokes have been cleared by Dave Chappelle.”

“San Francisco is a great town for me to poop on,” Triumph says, with the crowd applauding before he even finished his famous catchphrase. “And apparently, also for humans to poop on. Lovely, lovely. You guys make me feel so at home. On the way to the show, I saw so many people doing my act.”

There’s something to be said for what you can get away with when you’ve got a puppet on your hand. Having an adorable little dog puppet like Triumph - complete with the bow tie and cigar - can get away with the type of jokes that Smigel wouldn’t be able to otherwise. And the jokes are all the funnier when you think about the source.

At this point, the show’s announcer Michael Winslow brings out the celebrity guests who would be playing that night. Adam Savage from Mythbusters, (“Tonight you’re busting the myth that you’re gainfully employed”), Rob Schneider (“We’ve got a Mythbuster and a myth spreader”), and Weird Al Yankovic (“So many people kept their virginity to your music”) were immediately in the hot seat with Triumph as soon as they sat down.

From there, it was onto the game show portion of the night, titled Poopardy. The categories for the evening were Notant Notable, Me Poo, A Swing at the Next Minority I See, Fog this City, A Sip of your Pee, and Poo-pouri. In true Triumph fashion, the answers to the questions were all comedically bent insults. “Trump said he’ll do this but only in the first day of his presidency,” read one question. The answer? “Touch a bible.”

Perhaps one of the standouts of the show was the Audio Answers. These were all Weird Al Yankovic parodies that Weird Al never actually wrote, but instead were written by Smigel in the style of Al. Triumph enlisted some celebrity guests to come out and sing the hints, including Thomas Lennon, Dave Hill, and Amber Ruffin, who wound up joining the panelists after her segment was done. A personal favorite was Peep, set to the tune of Creep. 

You really have to admire just how much went into producing a show like this. The game show portion alone featured over 40 questions and joke answers, which occasionally the contestants even got right. Triumph would also give points if the answer was meaner than what he intended. For the question “In the state of California, anyone found guilty of anti-trans hate speech is automatically given this.” Weird Al - inarguably a beloved comedy fixture - answered “What are tickets and backstage passes to a Rob Schneider show.” 

Speaking of Yankovic, he was the night’s big winner, with Savage, Schneider, Ruffin, and a random lady in the audience who shouted out an answer trailing behind. For the big finale, Triumph enlisted Yankovic to join him to sing his favorite Weird Al “parody,” which was an ode to Mr. Belvedere, to the tune of Chandelier. The song then segued into being a song about an auctioneer and eventually Judy Greer. 

Though SF Sketchfest still has 2 more laughter filled weekends to go, we can’t think of any better way to close out the first weekend than with this show. Triumph and Smigel delivered a 2 hour tour de force of comedy, rapid-fire jokes, and yes, lots of pooping. If Triumph ever does another show, we can’t recommend it highly enough.