Author Archive

EPISODE 66 – proper weblebrity

August 7, 2008


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

Hello there, old timers,

Wave your walking sticks, it’s Episode 66! Then turn up your hearing-aids to 11 and listen to Episode 66. And, sprinkled therein, like digestive biscuit crumbs down the front of your cardigan, are such topics as:

AMT as the basis of the post-Julian calendar system
Cornwall in April
Jewish matchmakers
Cheese! The Musical
the attractions of York
sugared almonds
‘Radio Gaga’
Henry Clay Work
medical emoticons
drunk-dialling
crumpets
serrano ham
the hazards of deviating from wedding traditions
and
the Creaky Buttocks.

Plus! Helen gets herself into a crossword; Olly gets himself into the Condescenders’ Club with an octogenarian matchmaker; and Martin the Sound Man does a pun that almost slips under the radar, but instead splatters the radar with Category 4 wordplay. Furthermore, we attempt to help with the love-lives of various young listeners, as if they shouldn’t be saving all that romantic stuff until they’re at least thirty-five. However if YOU have a love-life (or issue of any other kind) that you wish us to go sticking our oars into, please send us an email to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com
or leave a message on 0208 123 5877 or Skype answermethis. We might just have the answer you’ve been hoping for all these years! Although we’ll probably disguise it behind a curtain of stupid banter as ever. What. A. Service.

Helen and Olly

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EPISODE 65 – an elephant’s hymen

July 31, 2008


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

This clownfish is saving itself for marriage

This clownfish is saving itself for marriage


So, Answer Me This! has this week reached its sixty-fifth episode; altogether there’s more than thirty hours of it, which is about the same as the working week of a lazy person; and yet it’s only now that clownfishes’ vaginas have been alluded to. What the hell have we been doing all this time?

Whatever it is, here’s some more of it. And though we were almost passing out in the boiling-hot studio, we remembered to include such important points of order as:

President Schwarzenegger
Richard Attenborough’s Ghandi vs. Richard Attenborough as Ghandi
virgin slugs
Ouranos
Letchworth swimming pool
the cast of Hollyoaks
old men’s scrotums
The Pier
the Cincinnati Foreskins
the declining stamina of Craig David
and
the greatest pun of the New Romantic era.

Plus: Olly has the waist of a girl; Helen makes some spooky noises; and Martin the Sound Man attempts a rap. Cover your ears.

This week’s simmering weather is somewhat blunting our question-answering skills, but if you have some questions for us to attempt in – hopefully colder – future episodes, then please send them to 0208 123 5877, Skype ID answermethis or answermethispodcast@googlemail.com.

Flipmode!

Helen and Olly

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More feedback!

July 30, 2008

If you’re reading this, Mark from Minnesota, we hope your quest for a suitable wife is going well. As well as our cast-iron advice in Episode 63 you might like to take into account these tips from Richard:

Among my friends we have developed a simple 4-point checklist to determine the suitability of a potential girlfriend. These are in approximate order of consideration, and she shouldn’t fail more than one of them at any rate, but failing (1) is much worse than failing (4).

1) Not mental
2) Not frigid
3) Not stupid
4) Not minging

Hope that helps your listeners find love.

Keep us posted regarding your progress towards marital happiness, Mark.

We’ve also received a little tip for Sarah from Gaytown in Episode 64 from Sarah from Cornwall:

I thought I’d share my own unique way of dealing with unwanted male attention. During a conversation, suddenly affect a pained expression and say ‘would you excuse me a second, I have to go to the bathroom…my balls have got caught up in my thong.’ Works every time!

So coy, Sarah.

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EPISODE 64 – the most irritating geriatric ever committed to film

July 24, 2008


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

‘Fiddlededee, biddlededee, will you still need us, will you still feed us, when it’s Episode 64?’

Jeez, stop being so needy! And stop running around after us with a hearty bowlful of porridge, alright? Just settle the heck down and listen to the episode instead!

Drifting forth from our weary mouths this week are such conversational wisps as:

Moses
buffalo wings
Lemsip
DIY haircuts
boozy Sikhs
the Guinness Factory
the Ironbridge rubber duck race
whisky
Brits abroad
Scottish cheese
the interrogative voice
speeding
widows’ curtains
and
Grams from Dawson’s Creek.

Meanwhile, Olly takes a brief break from upsetting the Welsh by setting his sights upon the Scots and the Irish; Helen reveals why drummers count enthusiastically before songs; and Martin the Sound Man shirks his student loan. Did you really think you could get your degree from the Sound Man Academy for free, Martin?

“No, Martin!” cries Grams. “You cannot expect the taxpayer to shoulder the burden for your eight years of tertiary education! Now, how about a slice of pie?”

Shut it, Grams! Your sanctimonious homespun wisdom has no place at Answer Me This!, so get sardonic or get out!

Anyway, if you want some proper AMT-style homespun wisdom, please deliver YOUR QUESTIONS for future episodes to 0208 123 5877, Skype ID answermethis or answermethispodcast@googlemail.com and hopefully we can wallop them right back at you with the kind of advice that Grams would be as horrified by as she is by fun, urban life and spiders.

See you next week!

Helen and Olly
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Olly’s face is proving a popular choice amongst minor public figures

July 23, 2008

After last month’s Alphabeat shenanigans, here’s some more looky-likey fun courtesy of Sophie:

So I’m sat bored out of my brain watching Daily Cooks Challenge on ITV when the camera moves to Ed Baines, one of the chefs, and I can’t help but think that he looks a lot like Olly – good or bad thing I’m not quite sure! So answer me this. does anyone else see the resemblance? Or is it just my brain’s defence mechanism kicking in to give me something to focus my attention on to save me from the boredom?

Let’s look at the evidence!

Olly Mann's face

Olly Mann's face

Ed Baines's face

Ed Baines's face

  • yes
  • no
  • he looks more like 19th-century industrialist and universal male suffrage opponent Edward Baines

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Feedback!

July 23, 2008

I’m sure you’ve all been agog to know what Dan the office poacher from Episode 62 succeeded in nabbing before he was shown the door. Here’s the inventory:

I made off with copious pens, god knows how many pads to help my girlfriend who’s at uni, enough envelopes to run a post office, post-it notes to leave me hilarious notes around home like “Get a job loser”, staplers – spare one for Olly if he wants – and my footrest stool (good for posture when nerding it at home). But my piece de resistance was my office chair – distinctively green and comfortable. All of which is now at home.

My next question is: How can I convince my former work colleagues who come to visit that I procured this through proper channels without having to sweep it all under the carpet when they come round?

The answer to that, Dan, is: don’t! They will be super-jealous that you were so audacious to nick a pile of stuff from the mothership, especially when they realised you managed to sneak out large pieces of furniture under your coat. Ah, if only you had put your wiles to good use rather than petty crime…

Hiccup-related missives are still trickling in since Episode 58, including this eerie question from Steve:

All the suggestions for curing hiccups were probably almost useful for normal people, but answer me this – do you know of any ways to cure the hiccups of our unborn child? It’s getting kinda creepy to watch!

Um…tell the foetus to drink a glassful of amniotic fluid from the wrong side? I fear this cure from Nicole in Kent won’t work on embryos:

If you get the hiccupper at the front and get everyone to stare at them and say HICCUP they should stop.

Yup. They should stop and burst into tears because of all the chanting bullies.

On the back of Episode 59, Nicole also offers a rather less intimidating homework dodge:

Say your water bottle leaked and made it completely illegible; just wiggle lines on a page then run it under a tap to do this.

It’s certainly less of a risk than this one from Doug in Jersey:

This excuse saved me the other day: how about I made my homework into a aeroplane and it got hijacked?

Those teachers in the Channel Islands must either have mischievous appetites for absurdism, or simply not give a shit about their jobs at all.

Finally, following Episode 61, Krabbers reveals who would appear in his ultimate Celebrity Superwank:

I would like to see Vera and Jack Duckworth in a swappsy party with Richard and Judy.

Yum.

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EPISODE 63 – dehydrating Sara Cox

July 17, 2008


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

Hello fellows,

We like the Kings Cross-Honor Oak bus route 63 so much, we’ve named Answer Me This! Episode 63 after it! Although Episode 63 won’t shuttle you between Peckham and Clerkenwell in double-quick time, it will emulate the effect of the passenger next to you muttering crazy nonsense into your ear. To get that “Oh God, can I pretend to be asleep? Will he never shut up about how the cast of The Bill are all actually secret policemen? Does he seem mad because of the face tattoo, or did he get the face tattoo because he was mad?” effect, just click.

You’ll have to imagine the background of tinny R&B played through someone’s sodding phone whilst you are assailed by such subjects as:

Julie Burchill and her opinions
jiggly boobs
U vs Non-U
Lord Byron’s mucky podcast
pork
quiche
the power of My Cousin Vinny
the world’s first colour photo
the world’s first zig-zig machine
fake Arne Jacobsen chairs
and
common sense.

Plus, Olly attempts to downgrade his poshness; Helen is approximately as fascinating to watch as Channel 4’s biggest hit; and Martin the Sound Man makes a joke about Dr Alban. It’s things like that which probably caused the awful headache and stomach pains reported by Charles from Bath after chain-listening to Answer Me This!. Know your limits, people!

Now, we know school’s (almost) out for the summer, but Answer Me This! isn’t so send us YOUR QUESTIONS for future episodes by emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, phoning 0208 123 5877 or Skype-ing answermethis.

See you next week!

Helen and Olly

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pods win prizes

July 12, 2008

** Click here for EPISODE 62 **

Well, here’s a strange thing, listeners – esteemed questioneer Andy from Essex has pointed out that Answer Me This! is up for a European Podcast Award! The website is so magnificently confusing that we have NO idea what this signifies, beyond the mysterious ‘substantial material prizes’; but if you want us to find out, then vote vote vote (you can also win your own ‘valuable non-cash prizes’ by doing so. It’s all a bit like ‘Going for Gold’ or something…).

Befuddlement notwithstanding, thanks very much to whomever nominated us! Jolly kind of you.

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EPISODE 62 – My First Atom

July 10, 2008


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

Hello listeners,

No chit-chat today; Olly’s got a sore ankle. Such grave times do not allow such frivolity. So just listen to Episode 62 and pray for his swift ankular recovery.

It’s quite a groiny episode of Answer Me This today, what with:

split-crotch bloomers vs. the She Pee
cricket boxes
the invention of the gusset
and
testicular cancer;

but luckily there are also ungroiny topics like:

Rolodexes
epilepsy
Djibouti
perry
hot old people
Cinnamon Grahams
the drawbacks to nicking a photocopier
backwards Bulgarians
and
mashed potato.

Also, Helen spells out why you shouldn’t sit in front of her at the theatre; Olly explains the real reason why men enjoy ladies’ tennis; and Martin the Sound Man tries to emulate seductive Mr Spock. Irresistible!

Now, Olly might malinger with ankle man-flu forever if you don’t send us YOUR QUESTIONS, so hurry and email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, phone 0208 123 5877 or Skype answermethis. It’s a bit like that bit in Peter Pan where you have to clap or Tinkerbell will die.

See you next week, hopefully with all four of our ankles hale and hearty!

Helen and Olly

PS. If you are in need of more Helen in the next week or so (although unless you’re an elderly person writing a vanity project and you need help putting commas in the right places, you probably aren’t), you can catch her on Sky.com/News today, Thursday 10th July, at 7.30pm, or as the special guest on Matthew Crosby’s Readable Podcast, or doing stuff in the Literary Arena at the Latitude Festival 17th-20th July, or previewing the press on Sky News’s Press Preview at 11.30pm on 14th July. Olly is also previewing said press at 11.30pm on 11th July, so between them you should be pretty well up on what’s about to happen in the papers, much like a current affairs clairvoyant.

PPS. If you’re curious to know what toy so enraptured Olly’s attention during the recording of Episode 62, look here:

Available from an infant near you!

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If you like our ‘Mary Poppins’ or ‘Bjork’ jingles…

July 8, 2008

…you might like to see the Voice of those jingles, the wonderful Joanna Neary, perform some of her acclaimed comedy. Especially if you also like theatres in Bloomsbury, giving money to children’s cancer charities, and the comedians Jo Brand, Steven Merchant, Mark Steel, Jo Enright, Tim Minchin, Ed Byrne, Milton Jones, Mat Holness, Dan Antopolski and Robin Ince (in fact if you don’t like at least some of those things, you are perhaps a bit unwell).

Because:

on Sunday 13th July, star of stage, screen and Answer Me This!‘s jingles Joanna Neary will be performing in ‘A Night of Jos’, along with that properly stellar array of acts, at the Bloomsbury Theatre near Euston, in a special benefit night for William’s Fund.

So if you fancy spending your Sunday evening laughing your scalp off with the happy side effect of raising money for a very worthy cause, then book yourself a ticket HERE. It is likely to be Very Good Indeed.

** Meanwhile click here if you want to listen to EPISODE 61 **

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EPISODE 61 – kicking the fictional tramp

July 3, 2008


This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through a secure PayPal server, without DRM restriction. CLICK HERE to find out more and support our podcast. (This helps keep our most recent episodes free)

Happy Third of July, listeners! It’s Independence minus one, the last remaining hours in which someone else made all those pesky decisions and tidied your room for you… Hmm, perhaps time for us to brush up on our American history; but we’ve neglected our education in order to bring you Episode 61.

Within which are such topics as:

A.A. Gill
offal
William Caxton
garlic monkeys
past life regression
the Gang of Four (the band, not the terrorists)
an oblique reference to Slint
rice paper
bendy dancers
the drawbacks of unusual names
the drawbacks of the Roaring Twenties
and
the drawbacks of Martin the Sound Man’s privates.

Olly turns Japanese (not in the same manner as The Vapors, although who knows what he might stealthily have been up to below the tabletop?); Helen emulates those feisty Latinas; and Martin the Sound Man looks forward to a nice peaceful existence after everyone else has fallen prey to some kind of apocalypse. What a treasure. We also reveal the fast track to getting a job as a Sunday Times restaurant critic, and the most romantic thing you can do with a blocked nose and a finger.

And if you’re not sated after all that, look at this bit of amazingness!

Send us your affections in the form of YOUR QUESTIONS by emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, phoning 0208 123 5877 or Skype-ing answermethis; and we’ll tuck them close to our hearts and think about all those times we shared.

Byeeee!

Helen and Olly

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Hold onto your stomachs!

July 2, 2008

On the back of George from Aberdeenshire‘s question in Episode 60, regarding bugs which use the human skin much as a mole treats a village cricket pitch, Charlie has written in with the following nightmare-inducer:

I think they were thinking of the bot fly, which does indeed lay its eggs under animal skin (can be human) and then when the larvae hatch they pop out of your skin. This has happened to someone I know when in Africa, but I think they are indigenous to quite a few countries. Pretty rank! To treat them you supposedly cover the eggy skin areas with Vaseline to suffocate/kill the eggs/larvae, although this may be an old wives’ tale. Nice.

There are also lots of nasty wormy type things, generally found in Africa, that infect humans as part of their life cycle, and that you can sometimes see under the skin e.g. guinea worm, or wiggling across the front of the eye e.g. loa loa filariasis. Mmmm. Not sure about the worm that would jump out of the loo and up your urethra though…!

It’s not a worm, Charlie, it’s a fish! In fact Gene wrote in to identify it as the candiru fish; apparently its urine-ascending powers are mere rumour, but as a precaution you might as well take a tea-strainer with you the next time you need to piss in the Amazon.


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