Paul Finebaum has become well accustomed to dealing with the wrath of his callers on The Paul Finebaum Show. But on Friday, one caller in particular opted instead to take aim at Finebaum’s guest, comedian John Crist, over whether his jokes are funny.
Crist made a guest appearance on Friday’s edition of The Paul Finebaum Show to discuss his affinity for SEC football and his loose ties to the conference, which include his sister actually working under SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
But before he really got to speak much to this, he was greeted by Chris from South Carolina, a Clemson football fan who made it incredibly clear right away that he was not impressed by Crist’s comedy or his fandom of the SEC.
“Hey Paul, this guy is supposed to be a comedian?” said Chris. “I’ll tell you what, Paul, he needs to quit telling jokes. What does he do? Stand on stage and drop his pants down? Are we supposed to laugh or not, Paul?”
Finebaum Callers are some of the best hecklers in the business… Sorry to @johnbcrist pic.twitter.com/oYxSc3PY6b
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) May 2, 2025
This prompted both Crist and Finebaum to fire back with some insults about Chris’s allegiance to Clemson football.
“You are looking at a picture of Chris right there,” Finebaum told Crist. “He’s a Clemson fan.”
“Typical Clemson fan,” replied Crist. “What did your coach say? Something about the name, image, and likeness of Jesus or something like that?”
“See, Paul, you’ve got to take his credentials,” said Chris. “He’s talking about something three years ago. Something three years ago. This is up to date.”
“I’m sorry that John doesn’t have time to look at the Clemson message boards like you do,” replied Finebaum.
“This tone doesn’t really sound like the name, image, and likeness of the lord, if you are a Clemson fan brother,” added Crist.
Ultimately, Chris returned to the criticisms of Crist’s comedy before hanging up the phone.
“Hey Paul, let this man tell some funny jokes, man,” said Chris. “He ain’t made me laugh yet. Have a nice day.”
Crist, as most comedians are, is well-versed in dealing with hecklers. So instead of taking offense to Chris’s criticisms, he actually gave him props.
“Everybody in my family is gonna be texting me now,” said Crist. “That was a stellar call. This guy is great.”
There have been some pretty memorable callers to feature on The Paul Finebaum Show in the past. But in terms of being confrontational from the very start, Chris from South Carolina may just take the cake.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.