EPISODE 18: The Return of Answer Me This!

June 7, 2007 by


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)

Hey there, friendaramas!

It’s delightful to see you again. It’s been ages! Haven’t you grown? Etc etc.

I’m afraid we didn’t bring you back presents from our holidays. Nor did we take up questioneer Jonny’s highly flattering suggestion: “When you get back from holiday, can you do a double length podcast to make up for the amount of podcasting pleasure we have had to do without for what feels like years?”

Jonny, you are too too sweet. However we have conducted a series of mathematical experiments that show that
if podcast = x
and listening pleasure = y,
2x does NOT equal 2y.
In fact sometimes it can even equal less than y. And that’s the kind of risk we’re just not willing to take here at Answer Me This!, which is why we’re presenting you with a taut 25 minutes and 20 seconds of EPISODE 18.

And what’s awaiting? Why, this lot:

Cinnamon Grahams
oui
do you feel the power of the Gladiators? (dobededoo)
the dark underbelly of ‘social networking’ websites
idiomatic mums
Answer Me This! vs. The Man
conspiracy theories
square roots
delusional paranoia
Ginny from the Mission
and
Leisuresuit Larry*

Plus: new jingles! New skits! And a belated birthday shout-out to listener Katherine, who has just turned 21! Well done, Katherine. Also, well done to the recently augmented Answer Me This! Players, who have made a whole lot of kick-ass new jingles and suchlike for the new season of Answer Me This!, rather like your mum getting you shiny new shoes and extra-sharp pencils for the start of termtime.

With episode 19 imminent, please send us your questions – you must be chock-full of them by now! Email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, and we promise not to hand on your email address to sinister debt consolidation services.

Love,

Helen and Olly

*if any of you want to send us a copy of Leisuresuit Larry for ‘research’ purposes, don’t be shy. Also, in a similar vein, Helen’s flatmate claims as a child to have played Stroker 64 on the Commodore 64, which sounds like nothing more than internet child abuse before the internet existed. If any of you have likewise tarnished your youthful innocence playing Stroker 64, get in touch and maybe we can form a support group for you.

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Soon, my pet; the hour is nigh….

June 1, 2007 by

Hello, chums!

Answer Me This! is back next Thursday. Hallelujah! Wickitty-wickitty-wah! There’ll be new jingles! New songs! New costumes! And a whole lot of the same old shit, so don’t think we’re ditching our roots and not keeping it real.

If you’re restless in anticipation of the new episodes, or just not very busy this weekend, you can entertain yourself with one of these pursuits:

1) Check out this shit-hot video from tomorrow night’s Culture Show of Tony Blair’s final speech as Prime Minister, as voiced by premium impressionist Rory Bremner, animated by cartoon badboys Triffic and ghostwritten by John Oliver off The Daily Show and Helen’s big brother Andy Zaltzman. Yep, it’s a nepotistic plug!

2) Bone up on how Olly and Helen met and fell in like all those years ago in the new edition of the stupendous magazine All The Rage. And even if you couldn’t give a rat’s handbag about how we met, you should read the magazine anyway because it’s very good.

3) Send us all the questions you’ve been brewing while we’ve been away! We’ve missed you and your lovely inquisitive brains. Pop them in an email to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com – it’s a much better way to while away your time than watching Big Brother 8, that’s for sure.

Until Thursday 7th, bye! Xoxo! Lol! etc

Helen and Olly

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EPISODE 17: brat on board

May 3, 2007 by


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Episode 17 is here, and we hope you enjoy it, as it’s (cripes!) the last Answer Me This! until the beginning of June. Yes, it’s time for us to gather our bucket and spade, roll up our trouser-legs and have a nice paddle in the balmy waters of not glutting ourselves on the sound of our own voices for a few weeks… WE WILL RETURN!

This week:
the rules of The Quiet Carriage
chicken
Christian fish
Yiddy rickshaws
evil child Olly
gambling vs. piggybanks
the Hitchcockian suspense of ITV Play
the hidden side of tinsel
Cirque du Soleil
and
dragged-up crowbars.

And also, if you’re Olly’s childhood friend Sebastian Stent: sorry.

In the meantime, if you’re craving your Answer Me This! fix while we’re holidaying – why not check out our AMAZING BACK CATALOGUE ? Gasp! at our learning curve! Wince! at our early episodes! (and then some) Grimace! at bowelly episode 5!… and then, when you’re bored of all that (as if!) be sure to join our new Facebook fanclub to declare your love for us to the WORLD!

There’ll also be the occasional new bits or bob on this site to keep you amused in our absence. But, of course, the main thing is y’all keep yourself busy by sending us YOUR QUESTIONS, and those of your quizzical friends and acquaintances, to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, to help us come back in June BIGGER and BETTER and, um, BACKIER.

So long!

Helen and Olly

PS Thanks again to Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com for the fantastic tune we used at the end of the episode. We’d love to give you money for it, but only Gervais can afford that kind of shit.
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Join our fanclub on Facebook!

May 2, 2007 by

Of course, we know that many of you subscribe to us on iTunes, thereby helping us move up the podcast chart and reach new listeners.

And that many more of you still have added us to your MySpace friends to help share your love for us with all your Murdoch-loving comrades who like the same sort of songs and films, or something.

But now, friends, is the time to show you REALLY care about our podcast, and are quite literally MAD for some interactive fun on our behalf…

You can now JOIN THE ANSWER ME THIS! PODCAST FANCLUB ON FACEBOOK!

This club has only been active for a few days and already has 45 members. Think what we could achieve in a few weeks! SHARED PHOTOS! BULLETINS! INTERLINKED FRIENDSHIP GROUPS! REGRETTABLE BUT IRREVERSIBLE DIGITIZATIONS OF OUR ENTIRE LIVES!

It’s all to play for, people.

Seriously – if you like our podcast, and you’re on Facebook, please do join the fanclub– and help spread the word.

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EPISODE 16: shitty socks

April 26, 2007 by


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It’s party time at Answer Me This! Helen and Olly break out the champagne and immediately get giddy, because, as it turns out, they’re as hard as eggs. Soft-boiled eggs. In the cocktail-shaker of our brains this week are:

101 Fun Things to Do With a Pineapple (or, more accurately, A Thing to do with a pineapple)
The Rock
astigmatics of the world unite!
Chucky the Blood Doll
um…err…um….
Paul Robinson, the champagne charlie
naughty naughty Top 40
Toksvig! Toksvig! Toksvig!
magic eye pictures
and
Fishcotheque

Also, Olly’s grandmother smacks down Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Helen smacks down summer, Olly attends the shittest ‘key party’ in Christendom, and also puts some Zimbabwegians off their lunch. NB: do not listen to this episode while eating.

As ever, you can email your questions for future episodes to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, and also if you have any ludicrous family games like the ones in this episode, please tell us about them: the Manns and Zaltzmans don’t really go in for that sort of thing, so we’re having to live vicariously through you chaps instead.

Until next week, farewell!


Helen and Olly

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EPISODE 15: it’s got game

April 19, 2007 by


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, dears.

Spring has sprung, as it is wont to do, and duly we’ve had a big old clear-out of the Question Cupboard. So if you sent us a question three months ago and have been on tenterhooks ever since, EPISODE 15 might just be your lucky day! And if it isn’t, well, hang in there.
Treats in store include:

Columbo
Sepultura t-shirts
banging 1930s jazz
the surprising success of Vanilla Ice
Queen Elizabeth the Egg-Head
the Alan Bennett Megamix
X-rated jerky
Bill and Ted Hit Middle Age
baked goods in Beowulf
and
a helluva lot of classic gags.

You’ll also be privy to Olly’s misbegotten attempt to impress Barry Norman with his cool, the quite extraordinary extent of Helen being a square, and yet more coughing and spluttering from Martin the Sound Man. Someone get that man some damn eucalyptus, stat!

Until sweet Episode Sixteen, bye!

Love,

Helen and Olly

PS We’ve had to go a bit further afield for our sound effects this week, indeed as far as the awesome tunes of Kevin MacLeod and the boisterous noises of Absolute Sound Effects. Thanks, chaps!
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Distraught Britain demands answers!

April 17, 2007 by

* Click here to listen to EPISODE 14 *

It’s the question on everyone’s lips. Well, not quite everyone – mainly the lips of the This Morning royal stalker James Whittaker, old ladies and readers of Hello! Magazine. And also, as it turns out, listener Mark:

What is the real reason for the untimely breakup of William Windsor and Kate Middleton? Is it because they kept putting cameras up her skirt?

I have not been this upset since Busted.

Oh Mark. Are you upset because you’d invested all your savings in the Woolworths’ Wills’n’Kate wedding souvenir range? Surely, any couple in their early-mid-20s would find that level of premature wedding-commemoration rather too much pressure on their relationship, but particularly when coupled with Hello! frenziedly announcing each week: “Look, they’re SMILING! He’s bound to propose ANY DAY NOW! She’s got a HEART-SHAPED KEYRING! Because he’s GOING TO PROPOSE!”

But I think the real reason for their split, Mark, is that with every passing day Prince William looks more and more like the Jabberwocky. And if that’s the case when he’s 24, in twenty years’ time it would be like waking up next to an industrial mincer.

Love can only conquer so much.

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Washing-up bowls: the Defence speaks

April 14, 2007 by

* Click here to listen to EPISODE 14 of Answer Me This! *

We’ve had some wise listener feedback this week, from Alex, who happens to be one of Answer Me This!’s premier jingle artistes. In response to Chip’s question from Episode 14, Alex says:

We have washing up bowls for one very simple reason. It’s for swilling! If you’re not lucky enough to have a double sink then you need space for the cold swilling water to escape and not pollute the lovely warm soapy washing-up water, or cause the sink to overflow.

So: double sink – no need for a washing up bowl. Ridiculous and senseless. I have a single sink and so am entirely justified in my purchase.

And if you don’t swill, as you’ve said yourself Helen, “the plates aren’t clean”!

Thank you, Alex, for shaking us out of our privileged double-sink-reverie. (And, indeed, without rinsing washing up isn’t worth a damn.) I feel satisfied now that the mystery is resolved. However, if YOU have a washing up bowl AND a double sink – what the hell are you playing at, eh?

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EPISODE 14: the Lynx Effect

April 12, 2007 by


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Watcha!

With EPISODE 14, Answer Me This! is now firmly in its teens. But instead of slamming the door and sulking in their room all night, Helen and Olly (firmly in their twenties) decided to pass on their podcasting wisdom to a new generation, and welcomed Nathan the Work Experience into the studio for an incredible exclusive behind-the-scenes view of how the magic happens. You can hear all about Nathan’s journey to podcasting maturity in this week’s episode, plus:

the unspoken baby taboo
Dogtanian and the Muskehounds
pound shops
Oscar the Grouch’s unsanitary diet
cut-price Easter eggs
Sausage McGraw
beef money
the Daily Express
armpit-licking
Bentley Mann
Hercules Zaltzman
and
Button from Neighbours.

Furthermore, you’ll receive incredible insights into Olly’s sex education, Helen’s career development, and Martin the Sound Man’s sinuses. (He’s got a cold and a cough, you see, and keeps honking into the microphones. Sorry.)

Well, that concludes the week’s business; if you have anything to add to the minutes – or, more importantly, QUESTIONS for us to answer – please email answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. On the subject of which, apologies to listener Neal, who sent us the following message:

I have one of your jingles playing in my head in a continuous loop: “answer me this podcast at google mail dot com, answer me this podcast at google mail dot com, answer me this podcast at google mail dot com, answer me this podcast at google mail dot com, etc.”

I now know your email address by heart, but how can I break the cycle? I’m not sure it’s good for me.

Sorry, Neal. Our jingles (thanks, Martin the Sound Man and the Answer Me This! Players!) are dangerously catchy. The only cure is to get something even more infernal on the brain. We suggest ‘The Vengabus’, or ‘Chiquita’ by Abba. Nobody said it would be easy…

Until next week, farewell!

Helen and Olly
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Unlucky EPISODE 13 (oooooooooooh!!!)

April 5, 2007 by


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)

Don’t worry – it’s not really unlucky! It’s just pure coincidence that, during recording, a copy of Now 13 fell off the shelf and smote Olly in the eye. Go on, take a chance on EPISODE 13 – topics in the Answer Me This! lucky dip this week include:

Lemsip vs. Fisherman’s Friends
Gremlin nutrition
Helen’s candied face
Stephen Sondheim’s birthday
Tall blonde hotties
the inscrutible Shaggy
unison clapping (urrggghhhh!!!!)
fatalistic George Michael
funspoiler E.M. Forster
toaster rage
Paris Hilton’s ladyparts
the inner workings of Heat magazine
and
poussin.

Plus Helen’s skincare tips for teenagers, Olly’s incredible impersonations of Glamma Kid, and Martin The Sound Man putting his PhD in Physics to (good) use. And if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, your fancy probably isn’t ticklish.

Don’t forget: if YOU want to go on a date with Answer Me This! listener Emma (tall! Blonde! Hot! Mid-20s! London! GSOH!) then send an email describing yourself and where you’d take Emma on a date to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com. (Or, if you aren’t into lovely ladies, just email us YOUR QUESTIONS instead, just like this week’s questioneers Lauren, Jonny, Rick, Nick, other Nick, and Emma did. ‘Cos without questions, Answer Me This! would wither like a bunch of grapes in an old people’s home.)

Until next week, farewell!

Love,
Helen and Olly
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Nick’s Erecticon

April 3, 2007 by

In response to Rosie’s question about emoticons in episode 11, Olly suggested there is a gap in the market for an emoticon shaped like an erect penis, in order to express extreme joy.

And now, thanks to listener Nick, there is! Check it out:

I think this looks like a stiffy.

<=8

Or, if you wanted to be rude:

– – <=8

Cor! Lock up your grannies, readers! That there erecticon’s saucier than a giant bottle of ketchup!

(By the way, if you are interested in songs about giant bottles of ketchup, why not check out Martin the Sound Man’s collaboration with Josie Long, The People’s Sauce?)

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Ye Gods! EPISODE 12 is gettin’ it ON!

March 29, 2007 by


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)

“PODCAST OF THE WEEK” – THE TIMES

Fuckaduck, Answer Me This! Episode 12 is ready to get jiggy!
So, what’s on the menu for this week’s delicious banter?:

Ted Bundy
a whole lotta hummus/houmus/houmous
the future of the London Dungeon
bonecrushers coming on to Martin the Sound Man
the polluted hands of Chris Martin out of Coldplay
A Beautiful Mind stationery
randy store detectives
Nicholas Lyndhurst
the lie behind Armani jeans
guffing etiquette and evolution
Judy Blume (audio adaptations of)
and
the lost art of home recording

… that’s what! You’d be mad to miss it.

Oh, and if you’ve come to us because we’re Podcast of the Week in The Times this week, be sure to check out our delightful back catalogue, and subscribe to us on iTunes to get future episodes first. And remember – you can email questions for forthcoming episodes to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com

Love

Helen and Olly
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