Episodes generally consist of Davenport, Clements, and a guest offering advice, telling stories, and doing segments, all in a highly satirical, absurdist manner.

The show has been described as "essentially a mockery of entertainment niceties — with Clements (mischievous, smirking) and Davenport (droll, unamused) taunting industry bigwigs [...] about whatever projects they are promoting, all while pleading to be involved with them".

[4] In Hollywood Handbook, the hosts play highly-successful versions of themselves, presenting the podcast as "an insider's guide to kicking butt and dropping names in the red-carpet-lined back hallways of this industry we call showbiz".

In recent years, however, the show has adopted a much looser format, featuring less planned segments and more interactions with the guests and Earwolf staff.

[7] Hollywood Handbook has been featured on Vulture's best-of comedy podcast list in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2021, ranking seventh,[8] second,[9] fourth,[10] and fifth[11] respectively.

[16] In a 2023 profile of Davenport and Clements on Vulture, the show was described as "one of the great impossible-to-explainers in modern comedy, a shaggy, shape-shifting improv machine heavy with fan-maintained lore and nonsense inside jokes".