responsible revenge FAIL

April 5, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 129 **

Last week, we asked you to think up responsible revenges which Ky from Harrogate could exact on his Paypal hacker. Click here to read what you lot thought up. It’s not a very responsible-looking list, is it? What with all the beating, shooting, kicking and anthrax spores… And Sondra from San Francisco hasn’t raised the threshold of savouriness any further with her email:

As the middle child of five, I often found myself as the focus of unwarranted blame. At the tender age of three, my mother accused me of spilling a brand-new box of Cheerios all over the kitchen floor when I TOTALLY DIDN’T. It was my evil older brother, I swear!!! Well, that evening I wasn’t allowed ice cream, but my brother was. Thus, the plot thickens.

In the dead of night on that vengeful Tuesday, I popped a squat in my mother’s closet and dropped a hearty deuce in the left counterpart of her most comfortable shoes. She learned of this stinky bit of fun when she put these shoes on just a few hours later, making her very late for work.

Oh, yeah, and I beheaded my brother’s Teddy.

Denizens of San Francisco, do NOT cross Shondra, unless you want to be pursued around the Bay Area by the words of Paul Calf, “You’ve got shit shoes on, you shitty-shoed bastard.”

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Dear John

April 5, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 129 **

Apply yourselves, please, to this little pickle on behalf of Rukaiya from Nigeria:

Please answer me this:
What’s the best way to tell a guy you’re not interested in a relationship without sabotaging the friendship???

One simple method is to start seeing someone else and parading him in front of poor old Muggins as if unaware of the latter’s interest, although we admit it’s not a sensitive manoeuvre. Readers, any other ideas? Head to the comments to tell Rukaiya how to break a foolish heart!

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EPISODE 129 – intelligence is multiparametric

April 1, 2010 by

Praise be for the forthcoming long weekend (even though it’s all thanks to Jesus having copped the death penalty, and we’re not usually fans of capital punishment)! Anyway, if you can find the time between Easter egg hunts, drawing a comedy moustache on the Turin Shroud, or mopping up your stigmata, have a listen to Answer Me This! Episode 129:


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

On today’s dance-card are:

Mensa
waxed toilet paper
Harefield
Wario
Sharon Stone’s clever fanny
Supergrass’s supersideburns
pubic papercuts
Alex James and Betty Boo
Love Never Dies
annatto
Andre the Giant
Glenn Miller
Mr Darcy
the defilement of Jo Guest
Hymn-Singing for Dummies.
and
‘Bugger’s grips’.

Plus: Olly proves that putting him in charge of the 2009-10 Swan and Duck Census was not a wise decision; Helen looks like she has emotions, but it’s just a bad case of pins-and-needles; while Martin the Sound Man would never got his DPhil in walking along in a straight line without incident. Crash! Thwomp! Oh, Martin… Anyway, while he’s falling over nonexistant obstacles, you can listen to him doing an interview on the Rewind Podcast in which he talks about the time he banged Tiger Woods his music and stuff.

This week, we would like your ideas for a responsible revenge for Ky from Harrogate to wreak upon his Paypal fraudster; please take yourself to the comments on this post and chip in on the matter. Then, as per, please do ask us QUESTIONS, by emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or leaving a voicemail on Skype ID answermethis or our question line 0208 123 5877. That would be even more super-sweet than a Creme Egg with a sugar-lump shoved into the fondant.

See you next Thursday!

Helen and Olly

PS This week’s jingle challenge entries is one of Olly’s favourites, despite it featuring an enthusiastic rendition of an email address which we don’t actually possess. Nonetheless, take it away, Krista and Heather:

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run for your Rolex!

March 31, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 128 **

Apparently there were more errata than usual in Episode 128, which obviously is a real blow to our status as power-Googlers. Let’s get to it. First up to the Plate of Sorrow is James from London, who warms up with an earlier gripe first:

My love for your podcast turned to anger and rage two weeks ago when you answered, or rather, attempted to answer the question: do people really buy expensive things such as a £5,000 watch from the airport.

You missed the two critical words that describe airport shopping: DUTY FREE. Therefore, when people of limited means such as myself see a lovely watch in Harrods priced at £5,875, and think, if only there was a cheaper way to get that, we book a weekend in New York and whilst waiting for the flight to depart, nip into Harrods and buy the choice watch at a bargain price.

Have you been sniffing glue, James? Firstly, the weekend in New York surely costs more than the savings on the watch; and anyway, the only things which count as a bargain when they cost over £5K are houses or racing elephants. Go on then, unleash part 2 of your wrath:

A week later, you suggested that the distance of a Marathon is distance run by Pheidippides from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. Google Maps calculates this as 22.6 miles (although there may have been a different route available at the time) but in any event, this run was only recorded by Herodotus who wasn’t born until six years after the battle ended.

The reason that the route is 26 miles and 385 yards is because this is the distance between the starting line at Windsor Castle and the finishing line at the newly built White City Stadium during the Marathon of the 1908 Olympic Games.

Approximately 30000000 of you wrote in to tell us this, citing Wikipedia and QI as witnesses for the prosecution. Now, let’s not get wound up with the accuracy of those sources [although: ahem!]. This is a tug of love, people. Whom do you love more, AMT! or QI and Wikipedia? Huh? Huh???

OK, don’t answer that. We don’t want you to see us cry. Let’s enjoy some more criticism instead. Nathan, formerly of Tunbridge Wells, now of London, says:

As an ex-Tunbridge Well-ian like Helen, I wanted to point out an error in your last podcast.

There is a bowling alley in Tunbridge Wells and there has been for at least a decade, in the North Farm Industrial Estate, besides the large Odeon. I remember watching The Matrix there when I was on my year out so it must have been built pre-2000, the Odeon that is.

Thankyou for that, Nathan; now I know that if I ever have to go back to my hometown, I’m assured of a cracking night out on the industrial estate. Why did I not think before to go there for my leisure enjoyments? Idiot Zaltzman! Although like any true Tunbridge Wells native, I know that anything built in the town after 1898 officially DOES NOT EXIST.

Let’s cheer ourselves up with this from Mike in London:

Following a listener’s recommendation I have started playing “Answer Me That” with my year 1 class. If they can ask me a question I can’t answer they get a sticker (they love stickers).

I told my school’s other year 1 teacher about this game and now she had adopted it. I soon envisage “Answer Me That” becoming part of the standard school curriculum.

That would be an election pledge we would love to see. By the end of the year, all primary school teachers in the land would be a super-race of question-answerers!

And finally, a few words from Lorraine:

In a recent episode you discussed mood rings. It might be of benefit for Martin to buy Helen a mood ring as it will help him better judge her mood. If she’s in a good mood it will turn green, and if she’s in a bad mood it will leave a red mark in the middle of his forehead.

Ber-bam! In both senses.

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Every cloud…

March 31, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 128 **

There’s not a great deal of cuteness here at Answer Me This!, so thanks very much to Heather from Manchester for supplying some:

Do you have a mascot? If not, my guinea pig Cloud would like to apply. She has had no previous mascot-training; however she is very enthusiastic and will work for free! She even has her own yellow Answer Me This! jacket. Here is a picture of Cloud posing in her uniform for you to look at.

All together now, awwwwww! And also, doesn’t Cloud look a bit pissed off to be forced into a yellow garment? Or is that just her modelling face?

We’re not sure what mascot duties would include, but certainly couldn’t discount having one just yet; so if any of the rest of you want to send us nice pictures of your pets dressed up in home-made Answer Me This! merch, then we can audition them for such mascot-necessary qualities as…er…looking good in yellow and not shitting on the job? Anyway, send in your photos to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, and we can have some sort of X Factor-style contest, only without that infernal singing.

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Boss-boffing update

March 29, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 127 **

Last week we posted about a problem sent in by Megan from North Walsham, and you kindly helped out with some advice. Now Megan has written back with the latest on George and his foolhardy boss-boffing:

Just to clarify, George isn’t a prostitute, he was just utilising his boss’s stupidity in giving him lots of pretty presents.

I advised George to follow the line from Josh about STDs, but since I wrote in, the whole situation appears to have rectified itself.

George went to meet up with his boss for a dirty weekend away, but decided that (seeing as he had his boss’s credit card with him) he should withdraw as much money as he could and spend it on booze on the train down there. Eventually turning up to the rendezvous very pissed on overpriced train alcohol, he regained his moral compass and tried to let his boss down gently. As he didn’t get the hint straight away, George then confessed that he’d been using him for presents and his job all along, quit his job and staggered away with his head held high.

Now he’s unemployed, bereft of future presents, but his conscience is clear.

George, congratulations for putting your concubine days in the past. Now does anyone know of any jobs going in the greater North Walsham area?

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EPISODE 128 – breakfast masochist

March 25, 2010 by

Good morning, fellows,

The general election hasn’t even been called yet, and we’re already a bit bored of our tellies and radios yakking on about it! If you are too, rest assured that any mention of politics in Answer Me This! Episode 128 is purely incidental:


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

On the agenda this week:

more dysfunctional chair-throwing
Her Majesty’s hidden talents
targeting aids
dildonics
Kirsty’s Home Videos
melon ballers
Ryan Parry
Countdown
Pheidippides
olive forks
draught-exclusion
caves
and
our self-esteems being variously bolstered and broken by the results of last week’s poll.

Plus: Olly sheds light on the Chilcot Inquiry; Helen studies at the Kristen Stewart School of Performing Arts; and Martin the Sound Man perhaps says too much about marginal-interest gentlemen’s mags. Also, if you, like most of us, doubt that anything good can come out of a high school production of Grease, we must direct you to AMT jingle stalwart Gavin Osborn’s song ‘Charlie’s 18th Birthday‘. Heck, listen to it even if you have no beef with Grease.

It merely remains for us to remind you to send us YOUR QUESTIONS, so please do so by emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or leaving a voicemail on Skype ID answermethis or our question line 0208 123 5877. Go on, make us (even more) happy!

See you next Thursday,

Helen and Olly

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Don’t boff the boss!

March 25, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 127 **

Turn your minds, please, to this question from Megan in North Walsham:

Is shagging your boss right or wrong?!? My best friend (let’s call him George) is fucking his male MARRIED TO A WOMAN boss. George freely admits that he’s a gold-digger and using his boss for his money. Should I tell him to stop shagging his boss and potentially lose him his job, or ignore it and let him keep raking in the money?? I love George to bits, and don’t particularly want to see him hurt or unemployed. He’s asking me what he should do, and I don’t know what to tell him. Please help!

Ideally, Megan, you could turn back time and make George not fuck his boss in the first place, because each of the realistic denouements in the above scenario will likely result in ‘George’ eventually being sacked. Perhaps we are being prudish, but in our (dirty) book, sexing people a) in a position of authority over you b) who are married c) for money is NOT a good idea.

Furthermore, we anticipate that the longer he carries on this foolish affair, the worse the fallout will be; so he should stop as soon as the employment market is looking a bit more buoyant.

But readers, what do YOU think? Head to the comments to advise Megan how to instill in George the moral compass which he appears to lack.

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cake for the win!

March 24, 2010 by

We’ve just heard back from last week’s rhyme-baffled Alice from London:

I would firstly like to apologise for the question about rhymes (it was a drunk call, alcohol it seems is really killing my brain).

Don’t worry about it, Alice – Episode 127 was none the shabbier for it. Please carry on:

I have a question about cakes!

Me and my flatmates are planning to have a “cake-off” with an independent source judging which cake reigns supreme. I have a feeling that my other two flatmates will go down the chocolate/Victoria sponge route, so Answer Me This – what cake will make me win?? I’m willing to take up any challenge.

Although we do all feel very strongly about cakes – especially chocolate cakes – we worry that the responsibility is far too great for us. So readers, please head for the comments and tell Alice what sort of cake to bake! Meanwhile Alice can take inspiration from here, and heed the warnings here.

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Get your summer beach reads sorted early!

March 24, 2010 by

Following on from Episode 127, let’s enjoy some horrible scenes from books! Many of you have left a marvellous selection yon, and here are a few more:

Shannon: Allow me to add to your collection of scenes in literature that make one doubt man’s humanity:
1. Trimalchio’s feast in
The Satyricon by Petronius: Who doesn’t love an excrement fight with their gang rape? And the dis-memberable poetry reading in the last chapters is inspired.
2.
Blindness by José Saramago: More gang rape and excrement, topped off with a scene in which a man is brutally stabbed through the neck while engaged in an act that leaves an unusual mixed aftermath on his partner’s face.

Kate from Corfe Mullen: The most gruesome scene from a book that I have ever read was from David Mitchell’s Number9dream. Part of the book was set in the criminal underworld in Japan and a torture method was to place people in a cavity at the end of a ten pin bowling alley so that their heads were sticking out. The gang members would then bowl ten pin bowling balls at them.

Peter from Chicago: The most terrifying thing I ever read was a work of non-fiction by William Bradford Huie, Three Lives for Mississippi. The book tells the story of the murder of three civil-rights workers in Mississippi during “Freedom Summer” of 1964. Huie begins the book by re-telling the story of what happened in Birmingham, Alabama in 1957. Six men from a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan gathered to decide who deserved a promotion to a higher rank within the group. One of them wanted the promotion, and to prove he deserved it, he was willing to get “blood on his hands.” They kidnapped a local Negro man, castrate him, and dumped him by the side of road.

The first time I read that section my knees slammed together and I kept my legs pressed together for almost ten minutes.

Thank god for a little palate cleanser from Colin from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham:

The song that was number one on the day I was born was Elvis Presley’s ‘Are you lonesome tonight’, which I think is quite ironic for a twice-divorced Singleton.

Just be glad your birthsong was not ‘Psycho Killer’ then, Colin.

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EPISODE 127 – an exotic beast in an unlikely place

March 18, 2010 by

Hello there, chums!

We know you’re probably still watching the new Lady Gaga video that you clicked on last Friday, but when you need a break from [SPOILERS!] all the killing, the Kill Bill Pussy Wagon, and Beyonce’s impassive acting [/spoilers], then Answer Me This! Episode 127 is right here waiting for youuuuuu:


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

On this week’s agenda:

Charles Fey
San Francisco special bread
McDonald’s apple pies
steak on a stake
Apt Pupil
malaria
killer whales
Steve Coogan vs. Rednex
Snoop Dogg vs. the UK
gambling machines vs. Canadian homosexuality cures
and
American Psycho.

Furthermore, Olly angers Jesus by using his Gideon’s Bible for nefarious purposes; Helen ponders the fugitive crayfish of Tunbridge Wells; and Martin the Sound Man can get you a nice Geiger counter if you slip him £50, no questions asked. Oh, you’ve already got one? Say no more. Plus, we solve the total non-mystery of what happened to former AMT flatmate Matthew Crosby, for the 0.001% of you who are curious.

As always, we enjoy it ever so much when you ask us QUESTIONS, so please do so by emailing answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or leaving a voicemail on Skype ID answermethis or our question line 0208 123 5877. In addition, if you have an opinion on what is the world’s grimmest book scene, express it in the comments – but please, keep any descriptions euphemistic, for we and many of our readers are of delicate constitutions. Also we already get more than enough Weird Googlers as it is.

See you next Thursday,

Helen and Olly

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Maths, French, Double Romance, lunchbreak.

March 17, 2010 by

** Click here for Episode 126 **

Here is a sweet question from Bob in Lincoln:

My girlfriend and I have been going out for a good while now, and it looks like it’s getting thoroughly serious.
We talked a little about the future one time, and since then, I haven’t been able to get the idea out of my head.
So, High/Secondary school romances, can they actually work after school is over?

Well. Judging by our various friends (because of course, we only keep up our various acquaintances to use them as specimens in our studies of human behaviour), yes, they can: many of our contemporary school couples are still going strong a decade and a half later. In other cases, however, circumstance/the inexorable march of time/inconvenient geography/Growing Apart/other people/boredom intervened; but frankly, all parties were probably better off as a result.

Just as you might no longer adore Ivor the Engine quite as much as you did when you were six, what you want from a relationship is likely to be quite different when you’re forty than when you’re fourteen. So the best scheme is really just to enjoy what you have right now and see how it pans out, because you will get to spend more than enough of the rest of your life worrying about the future. There’s something to look forward to, young man!

But readers, please do recourse to the comments to chip in with your opinions as to what Bob in Lincoln should do, or if you would like to satisfy our nosiness by spilling the beans about your own school romances. Lest you care, our own experiences of such went thus: Olly is now shacked up with the lucky lady whom he first dated when they were at school, although she did get a few years’ respite in between; Helen jettisoned her long-term boyfriend a week before going to university, which proved to be a thoroughly good idea; and Martin the Sound Man never even saw a girl till he was nearly twenty.

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