looking back, the interview was fine for the first 10-15 minutes, before it started to get awkward leading to Sam's crashout. you can see that as time went on, and Sam got tired of trying to riff with Harland's unbreakable persona, he became burned out, which is something you notice with him in a lot of things. Fishtank, the iDubbbz doc, etc. he starts off strong, then just becomes burned out and gets all grumpy. he isnt like a traditional improv comic who just wants to riff and play a character for an hour straight. it just isnt his style, so it was funny/uncomfortable seeing the style clash and Sam being on the receiving end of the trolling.
also, i feel like he has these "walls" up where he thinks highly of himself and doesnt want to engage if hes brought out of his element. once he realized the podcast devolved into just saying random nonsense (Burt voice) and making little quips back and forth at his expense, the only escape he could find was to break shit to try and turn the tides. and while i think he didnt handle it as well as he could have and it might look like he got outclassed by a "wittier" comic, the Redditors continuously seething about it are annoying. the whole point of Harland's shtick is to make the other person uncomfortable and Sam didnt know how to handle it, it doesnt necessarily mean Sam is unfunny or not on his level, it just means he got trolled and made an unfavorable spectacle of himself.
gay psychoanalysis over