Every summer Pardon My Take turns into an actual awards show, complete with a red-carpet-sized rollout of categories, and this year's version dropped with the usual chaos: Take of the Year, Hank's Loss of the Year, Gorilla Trade of the Year, Blake of the Year, and on and on. Big Cat put the number at 29 awards handed out in total, which is basically the Oscars if the Oscars had a segment called Gorilla Trade of the Year.
Big Cat laid out the scale of the special: 29 awards and a loaded guest-presenter list.
But the category everyone actually shows up for is Lib of the Year, and Jersey Jerry has turned it into his personal fiefdom. Buttigieg himself presented Jerry with the honor last year, needling him for 'defending your title' since it was already his second win in a row, per Mediaite's writeup of that appearance. This time around, PFT Commenter was calling it a full-on dynasty, and Big Cat confirmed Jerry was going back-to-back-to-back.
Big Cat teased the three-peat before the segment even aired.
Jersey Jerry is going on a dynastic run for Lib of the Year @PardonMyTake
The bit around this year's win leaned into the show's signature absurdist streak, with a video-call cameo edited into the acceptance segment alongside captions playing up the joke. It's worth being clear-eyed about what that segment actually is: a scripted, comedic award-show bit built for laughs, not a literal appearance to take at face value. That's the whole engine of the Takies — real internet reactions bolted onto a fake awards ceremony.
The moment Jerry's three-peat got the full presenter treatment, played for maximum bit.
PFT Commenter framed the whole thing as a 'plot twist'-laden victory lap for Jerry, which tracks with how these categories have evolved. Lib of the Year started as a roast of Jerry's political contradictions — a Bud Light drinker who somehow keeps ending up next to actual Democratic politicians on a comedy podcast — and it's now become the marquee bit of the entire special, bigger even than Take of the Year most years.
PFT Commenter's own recap leaned into the 'dynasty' framing and the segment's twist ending.
What makes the Takies work, year after year, is that it's the one time PMT fully commits to bit over analysis — no NFL picks, no bad beats, just Big Cat and PFT running a fake award show that somehow attracts real political heavyweights willing to play along. Whether Jerry can make it four in a row next summer is now officially a storyline the show has to pay off, which is either the dumbest or most impressive running gag in podcast history depending on how many Takies you've sat through.