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Web 2009 with Helen and Olly

January 1, 2010

** Click here for The Best of Answer Me This! 2009 – Part II **

Happy New Year, chums!

We saw out 2009 in pleasing and civilised fashion, and we hope you did too. But, thanks to pre-recording, on New Year’s Eve we also presented a radio show, Web 2009 with Helen and Olly. It was our first ever proper radio programme, and we would be ever so happy if you would listen to it; it’ll be available until Thursday 7th January, so CLICK HERE to do so via BBC iplayer, or download it as a podcast from the BBC website.

And if you wouldn’t mind telling your radio-and-internet-loving friends about it, tweeting it, or posting it up on Facebook, then we owe you a lollipop the next time we see you. Which, if you go to the same gym as Olly, is probably quite soon.

Links to all the nominees and winners are below – and another good link is THIS ONE to Martin the Sound Man’s free EP of songs about space. Give it a whirl!

Helen and Olly’s 2009 Web Awards went to:

David Schneider after winning our 'Tweeter of the Year' award

PUBLIC SERVICE OF THE YEAR
Our award for the sites that have become entirely essential this year. We never leave the house without them.
* Spotify *
– Google Streetview
– The Arts Desk
– Nicecritic
– DeathSwitch

WEB FEUD OF THE YEAR
Our celebration of the best online scraps of the year – the unfolding dramas of real, raw arguments that, thanks to the global public forum that is the internet, we can all enjoy.
* Megan Fox vs. the Transformers crew *
– Guido Fawkes vs. Derek Draper
– Stephen Fry vs. @BrumPlum
– Michael Chopra vs. Heather Swan
– Perez Hilton vs. Carrie Prejean

TWEETER OF THE YEAR
Our favourite short-form communicators of the past twelve months.
* David Schneider *
– John Prescott
– Phillip Schofield
– Richard Bacon
– Mrs Stephen Fry

TIME-WASTER OF THE YEAR
Useful as the internet can be, let’s not forget its primary function: frittering your time away. What has been the major enemy of productivity in 2009?
* My Very Worst Date *
– ’25 Random Things About Me’
– Cake Wrecks
– Letters of Note
– AnaFace

EPIC FAIL OF THE YEAR
Our award for those embarrassing moments that went viral in 2009.
* Gordon Brown on YouTube *
– The Baby Shaker iPhone App
– Kimberley Swann is fired
– John X from Cornell Business School
– Christian Bale’s on-set rant

ONLINE JAPE OF THE YEAR
In the olden days, pranks involved propping a bucket of water on the top of a door, or thrusting stinging nettles down someone’s pants. But the internet has opened up a whole new world of mischief…
* Ross Noble’s Twitterbomb Tuesday *
– upside-down YouTube
– Computertan.com
– renegade reviewers on Amazon
– Classic songs reinterpreted by Microsoft Songsmith

INTERNET SONG OF THE YEAR
Who was our Joe McElderry, and who will be our Rage Against The Machine?
* ‘United Breaks Guitars’ by Dave Carroll *
– ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by the Muppets
– ‘Goodbye Twitter’ by Miley Cyrus
– ‘Hot and Cold’ by Los Colorados
– ‘Poker Face’ by Walt Ribeiro

WEBLEBRITY OF THE YEAR
The award for the internet star to have shot furthest in the online firmament this year
* Jill and Kevin *
– Susan Boyle
– Tavi Gevinson
– Little Boots
– ‘Poo Girl’

And finally, the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD went to 104-year-old Ivy Bean, the oldest person on Twitter and, quite possibly, the whole of the internet…

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Tags:Cake Wrecks, Carrie Prejean, Christian Bale, Dave Carroll, David Schneider, Derek Draper, Goodbye Twitter, Google, Gordon Brown, Guido Fawkes, Heather Swan, Jill and Kevin, John Prescott, Los Colorados, Megan Fox, Michael Chopra, Microsoft Songsmith, Miley Cyrus, Mrs Stephen Fry, Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody, Perez Hilton, Phillip Schofield, Richard Bacon, Ross Noble, Spotify, Stephen Fry, Streetview, Susan Boyle, Tavi Gevinson, Transformers, Walt Ribeiro
Posted in extracurricular activities, frippery, News | 6 Comments »

Hurrah!

December 3, 2009

Psssst! Team AMT! We’ve got some good news we want to share with you……..

…no, we’re not preggo…

…and we haven’t won the lottery…

…or the football pools…

…but in fact:

We’ve got a radio show of our very own!

That’s right! Our hearts’ fondest wish granted, just in time for Christmas!

The show is called Web 2009 with Helen and Olly, and in it we’ll be looking back over the year online and handing out awards for the finest and funniest net moments of 2009. It’ll be airing on BBC 5Live on New Year’s Eve at 9pm – ie perfect entertainment if you prefer to see out the decade without too much razzmatazz, or alternatively the perfect hangover accompaniment the next day via BBC iPlayer.

We’re very very pleased about it. Now if Santa brings us each a Shetland pony, our lives will be complete.

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Posted in News | 20 Comments »

“I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list”

July 28, 2009

** Click here for Episode 101 **

Further to the Guardian yesterday anointing us the second-funniest podcast in Christendom, today the estimable London Paper elected us the third best podcast in their Top 10! Click HERE to see for yourself.

What a spiffing week – two press plaudits, and it’s only Tuesday.

Obviously our joy will be punctured if tomorrow we’re number 4 in the Top 10 Most Annoying Knob-Ends on the Web.

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Posted in AMT! press, News | 1 Comment »

Jingles and jollies

July 27, 2009

** Click here for Episode 101 **

This week is looking excellent already and it’s only Monday lunchtime!

Firstly, for all of you who like to groove along to AMT! jingles, Martin the Sound Man has made some of them available for free download – click HERE to obtain them if you so wish.

Secondly, the Guardian has declared AMT! the second-funniest podcast in the land! Which is extremely nice of them. Click HERE to read the article and see who else has landed in the top 10; meanwhile we will go off and pat ourselves on the back for the rest of the day while we try to answer ourselves this: if we’re now officially funnier than Ricky Gervais, do we get to be as rich as him?

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Posted in AMT! press, Martin the Sound Man, News | 2 Comments »

100 tickets for the 100th Episode – now up for grabs!

June 11, 2009

** Click here for EPISODE 98 **

Today’s the day, listeners! We have opened up the draw for tickets for our live 100th Episode at the iTunes Live Festival on 11th July. If you are a) over 14 years of age and b) a member of the Answer Me This! Facebook Fanclub, you can win a pair of them! So if you haven’t already, skedaddle over to the Fanclub and set about the entry form; the deadline’s 5pm 18th June, after which we will hold a random draw for the winners. Cos random is fair, see?

If you win a ticket, you will not only be entitled to watch AMT!P turn 100, with all the live jingles, question-answering and Martin the Sound Man’s slow jams that such a celebration entails, but also the evening’s headliner: La Roux, with support from Dan Black. And all for free! What an electropop treat.

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Posted in News | 4 Comments »

The Sound of the Ladies Lounge 2: Revenge of the Lounge

April 18, 2009

** Click here for EPISODE 91 **

We know how much you people love a bit of Martin the Sound Man. This month you can have a bit more of him than usual: either by fishing his beard clippings out of the bin, or by watching the latest episode of his Sound of the Ladies Lounge, featuring the Sound of the Ladies song ‘D.E.A.D.’ and Superman Revenge Squad singing ‘Idiot Food’:

Check out Martin the Sound(oftheLadies)man’s website www.thesoundoftheladies.com for more musical wonders!

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Posted in Martin the Sound Man, News | Leave a Comment »

Births, Deaths, but no marriages

April 8, 2009

** Click here for Episode 89 **

A few announcements:

Firstly, happy birthday to Jon from Bath, who turned 14 yesterday! Well done, sir.

But let’s turn to sadder news. A few months ago Celeste from France named her guppy fish after Martin the Sound Man. Joy abounded in Martin’s dainty heart. But this week Celeste emailed again, with tidings that he may find devastating:

I’m afraid I have bad news, Martin has Disappeared! The poor fish has gone missing with his auntie, I fear the red-tailed shark malso in the aquarium may have eaten them. 😦

so my question is more of a request: may we take a small moment of respect for poor Martin and his auntie? RIP.

Readers, light a candle and remember Martin the guppy. Remember his auntie. Remember Olly the late guinea pig. Wow, pets named after the AMT!P team really don’t seem to have a good record for staying alive very long…

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Posted in Answer Us Back! Your time to opine, News | Leave a Comment »

We’d like to thank our parents, our friends, our drama teachers, our podiatrists…

April 7, 2009

** Click here for EPISODE 89 **

Olly at the Sony nominations

Scenes of hangover and rejoicing at Answer Me This! this morning, for last night we were nominated for a Sony Award! Unbelievable? We know! But head over to the Sony Radio Academy Awards website, scroll down the list of nominees until your arm gets tired, and there we are, in the Internet Programme Award category.

The Sony Awards are proper stuff, people, so we are thoroughly chuffed. Now, if any of you know people on the judging panel, please give them some cupcakes or a lapdance on our behalf…

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Posted in News | 8 Comments »

This month: ‘Q’. Next month: ‘Reader’s Wives’

February 26, 2009

** We’re back on 5th March; in the meantime click here to listen to previous episodes **

lilycoverfinal1

Ooh, what’s this?

It’s a photo of Lily Allen and some panthers.

She appears to have spent a lot of time getting her hair straightened, but has then forgotten to put a top on. Silly girl!

Or, perhaps she’s in a relationship with these murderous beasts and intends to deconstruct their failings in a future ska-influenced pop hit.

Either way, you’d buy the magazine, right?

Good! Because once you’d read the Lily interview (she wants to be President, apparently), you might stumble across THIS on page 151, in the ‘recommended podcasts’ section:

amtqreview

Thanks, Q!

We are very excited because:
a) we actually read Q and enjoy it,
b) you are the first journalists ever to spell BOTH our names correctly in an article,
c) we probably don’t have too many Stone Roses fans amongst our listenership at the moment, and it’s about time we cracked the lucrative ‘£50 man’ market.

Anyway, Q, if you require some cover stars for the April issue, you know where to come: Martin the Sound Man is more than happy to pose with his top off, whilst we two sit on the floor and growl.

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Posted in News | 8 Comments »

London Word Festival

February 18, 2009

** We’re back on 5th March; in the meantime click here to listen to previous episodes **

Aside from “Why don’t you see white dog poo any more?”, one of the questions we’re most often asked is whether we’re doing any live shows.

Usually, the answer is “No”, as the prospect of doing what we do without the benefits of editing and invisibility sends us scuttling off to bed with the vapours. But presently, it is in fact “Yes!” On March 22nd we will be appearing at the London Word Festival’s ‘Webstock’, an afternoon mini-fest devoted to internetty stuff at the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane. The show is hosted by friend-and-flatmate-of-the-show Matthew Crosby and will feature comedians Tim Key and Idiots of Ants, This is a Knife vodcaster Donal Coonan, poet Luke Wright, blogger Karen McCarthy and, well, us. And Martin the Sound Man doing live AMT jingles, so let the Beatlemania 2.0 commence!

If you’re still not sure, then remember that Brick Lane also has excellent bagel shops and vintage clothes warehouses, so your Sunday entertainment would be fairly complete.

There’s more information HERE. We hope to see your little faces there!

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Posted in extracurricular activities, Martin the Sound Man, News | 1 Comment »

Merry vs Happy

December 24, 2008

Here’s a festive question from Robert from Philadelphia:

Where does Merry come from, like in Merry Christmas? And why do Americans say Merry Christmas and the Brits say Happy Christmas?

Robert, what a lovely gift for me to be allowed to get my etymological dictionary out. ‘Merry’ comes from the Old English ‘myrige’, which meant pleasant or delightful. It was just as popular in Britain as in America until killjoys like the Queen thought it was a bit too redolent of the other meaning of merry, ie drunken. So ‘Happy Christmas’ became popular too, at least until the Queen decides that it is too redolent of the other meaning of happy, ie coked up to the eyeballs.

Anyway, we are feeling very Merry and Happy at Answer Me This! because we’ve been included in iTunes’ Best of 2008 Podcasts! And on a related note, be sure to check back in on Christmas Day for the Best of Answer Me This! 2008 – Part I.

Photographic proof - best of 2008, baby!

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Posted in extracurricular questions, News | Leave a Comment »

If you like Martin the Sound Man…

November 23, 2008

…then:

1) listen out for his song ‘D.E.A.D’ on Introducing with Tom Robinson on BBC 6 Music on 23rd November (which you can hear HERE until 2am Sunday 30th November);

2) send an email to the Tom Robinson show saying how much you enjoyed that song ‘D.E.A.D’ and how they should play Martin’s music all the time.

Do perform step 2 even if you didn’t like the song, or didn’t actually hear the show – just out of pure love for Martin the Sound Man. Meanwhile if you’d like to hear more of Martin’s music, trot over to his website www.thesoundoftheladies.com, upon which there is plenty. That would make him happy. Don’t you want to see him happy? Like he is in this picture?