“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
“Of randy stroppy teenagers;
“Ant queens; the term ‘left wing’…”
Believe that Walrus, because there’s all that and yet more talk of many things in Answer Me This! Episode 137:
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)
Including:
Top of the Pops
Dorian Gray
Next t-shirts
the golddigging DVLA
Freddie Windsor
blackberries
‘Turning Japanese’
electronic vs. paper voting
aristocrats vs. bohos
Shirley Valentine vs. the Wailing Wall
Russell Grant
and Knightmare.
Plus: Olly is a man with a tiny car and a less tiny waist; Helen should have gnawed off her bad leg rather than sit through the Scooby Doo movie; and Martin the Sound Man comes up with a plan to oust the National Lottery’s Voice of the Balls, probably because he must be jealous that there is someone whose job title is ‘the Voice of the Balls’. Even more gallingly, the guy is a multi-millionaire. Watch out, Mr Ball-voice, there’s a sound man out for your blood…
…Meanwhile, the rest of us are out for your QUESTIONS, so bestow them upon us by leaving a voice message on 0208 123 5877 or Skype IDanswermethis and by sending an email to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com.
I’m sure most hot-blooded ladies are turned on by the sight of Christian Bale running around with the chainsaw then talking to Willem Dafoe, but evidently not Emma, who says:
Some years back, when I was a singleton and American Psycho was in cinemas, I agreed to a date with a seemingly normal chap. When he called to arrange the data he was pretty insistent that American Psycho would make an ideal first date film. I did not agree. Somehow I feel that female mutilation, extreme violence and rape do not make the best start to a relationship. In the end I told him I would rather not go out with him at all and, after a few more phone calls to try and sell me the American-Psycho-ideal-first-date thing, he gave up. I still feel that I probably escaped a bit of a nutter.
So Helen and Olly please answer me this: What is the worst date you have ever been on, or almost been on?
It’s hard for any of us to answer this question: partly because we’ve all been in our respective relationships that dating seems a very distant memory; partly because we’re English and, back in our single prime, people here never went on dates – they just got drunk and molested each other. That was the native form, until internet dating came along and made people more courtly/completely perplexed by the whole process.
But hey, let’s kick off our own My Very Worst Date-style thread right here: readers, head to the comments and blab about YOUR own dating horror-stories. I could pretend it was for some noble purpose, but it’s obviously so we can all have a jolly chuckle at your expense. Go forth and enable.
There are some very big issues in Answer Me This! Episode 131. The link between artistry and depression. The baffling denouement of the video of ‘November Rain’ (see below for a refresher). How to emasculate stones. Hear:
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)
As side orders to that big plateful of Important Issues, we mention:
Mary Pickford
Stephanie Seymour
bicarbonate of soda
Fernand Pitoit
Scissors Paper Stone
film myths
safety myths
creativity vs. crack
Fargo vs. chipped beef
crochet vs. stones
the boringest action figurines in toy history
cannibalistic tomatoes
and
Phillip Schofield’s big tart.
Plus: Olly conflates coitus and cultural colonialism; Helen is disgusted that all of the internet can’t come up with a believable explanation for why the Bloody Mary is called a Bloody Mary; and Martin the Sound Man comes up with a new word to express the apathy of the Web 2.0 generation. Feel free to use it in a sentence today. Also vengeful Ky from Harrogate seeks your help once more, to sponsor him on his 40-mile jog: make up for his recent Paypal fraud pain by throwing him a couple of pence at http://justgiving.com/kyle-addyman. Or you could just stand by the jogging route and throw pennies AT him, but I don’t think he or the British Heart Foundation would appreciate that as much.
Get your excitement on the boil in anticipation of next week’s Special Guestisode, featuring Andy Zaltzman out of the Bugle podcast and Helen’s gene pool; then send him some QUESTIONS. Preface them with ‘Andy, answer me this’ – email them to answermethispodcast@googlemail.com or leave a voicemail on Skype IDanswermethis or our question line 0208 123 5877; or if you’re absolutely horrified at a stranger responding to your problem, the usual question-posing format will be perfectly fine.
See you next week, for family fun day!
Helen and Olly
PS if any of the rest of you are superfans of Dr Brian Cox, treat yourself to one of THESE.
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.
Wade back in your memory through the mists of time, around the bog of forgetfulness, and over the stile of reminiscence, right the way to the end of the last series of Answer Me This!, then append the following observations supplied by our beloved listeners. Firstly, Jim in New Jersey:
You may have strongly doubted the origins of the wedding kiss in an actual ritual consummation, but how about this for a dramatic touch? Margaret Mead documented a primitive wedding ceremony performed by a tribe in New Guinea in which the newly wedded couple copulated on a wooden platform in front of all the villagers. At the moment of climax, a huge pile of lumber was released from above them, crushing them to death. One would think this ritual might have a negative effect on population growth.
Not only that, it would really decimate the honeymoon industry. If this came back in vogue, Sandals resorts would close overnight!
On a related note, Matt, who calls himself ‘Moo’ (each to their own), suggests we all have a little paddle in the following pool of schadenfreude:
In Episode 123 you were discussing proposals in public and how shameful it would be – well have a look at this for the ultimate humiliation, and the amazing premonition-like commentators:
Don’t cry, she’s probably just popped off to the loo for a sec. Right? Right?
Forgive us, but we’re all tired out at the end of this series of Answer Me This! – it’s been our longest one so far! And while we’re off on our anecdote-gathering trips in February, we want you to do a little something for us. Something fun and exciting. Find out what in Episode 124:
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 today are:
the cockblocking face of Gareth Gates True Blood
SOHCAHTOA Fatal Attraction
cuddling vs. cortisol
Mitchell’n’Webb
nudie pics
mad actors The Reader
the sexy Saw ride
and
Aslan.
Plus: Olly takes umbrage with ancient Canadian traditions; Helen totally fails the 1990s Culture module at the University of Life; and Martin the Sound Man doesn’t want to see any of those nasty films with boffing in them, OK? So stop sending him copies of Nine Songs in the post!
Now, it’s with great solemnity that we bid adieu to you until 4th March – but make sure we come back with a bang by supplying us with YOUR QUESTIONS, via answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, Skype IDanswermethis or the question line 0208 123 5877. We look forward to hearing from you, and hopefully you will look forward to hearing from us. You might also be looking forward to hearing a free Audible audiobook, which you can get HERE. That should obliterate a few hours of silence while we’re off air, no?
Please treat yourselves nicely during February, and we’ll see you right back here before you know it!
In Episode 119 young Ed from Market Harborough sought our advice regarding his fake girlfriend. They’d only been fake-going out for a week and a half at the time, and she was already causing trouble! We said he should dump the fake-bitch, or that he should say she dumped him.
I CAN TELL YOU ABOUT MY FAKE GF AND WHY I CAN’T DUMP HER!
1) IF I DUMP HER ILL BE A TOTAL PRICK FOR DUMPING HER!
Who cares, Ed – what’s the worst that can happen? Is her fake father going to come round to your house with a baseball bat?
2)IF I SAY SHE’S DUMPED ME THEN I’LL GET JEERED AT FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP A GIRL FOR MORE THAN A MONTH
Your friends are probably fresh out of jeers, having expended them all last week when you invented a girlfriend.
3)I CAN’T SAY SHE MOVED TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COUNTRY BECAUSE SHE ALREADY LIVES IN JERSEY
Let’s not forget, Ed – YOU MADE HER UP! YOU put her in Jersey; YOU get her out of there! One of the numerous benefits of fake girlfriends is that they are highly portable, so invent her an interest in South American ferns and send her off to live in a remote part of Chile or something.
Buck up, young man: this is the only relationship you will ever have where she does exactly what you say. The only limit is the breadth of your imagination. Now, go away, and don’t you dare reject our sage advice again until you’ve stopped being such a silly sausage.
***WARNING: This episode contains spoilers
about the 1994 Coen brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy***
Undaunted? Then by all means listen on, but don’t complain to us when you get to the 19th minute and discover that 15-year-old plot twist:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through iTunes or 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 week we bang on about:
Philip Larkin’s debut novel
the three second rule
Tom of Finland
Sir Patrick Mayhew
Jason and the Argonauts
Lorraine Kelly, record-breaker
Stephen Fry’s Paperweight
Sir Menzies Campbell
Rick Witter
the Milton Keynes Snow Dome
Vince McMahon
Porthos
urethral openings
raw chicken Brewster’s Millions
and
travelators.
Also: how Olly breaks wind stealthily; how Helen’s congenital squint ruined Up for her; and how bananas work, according to Martin the Sound Man. You’d been wondering for years what secrets those little bastards were concealing, hadn’t you?
As ever we’re greedy for YOUR QUESTIONS, so ask ask ask via answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, Skype IDanswermethis or the question line 0208 123 5877. We’re very grateful to all of you who shared your stupid nicknames last week – which everyone else can enjoy here; this week, you have the easy task of leaving a comment with your answer to Jorge from Mexico’s question, telling us what you would like to do for one day and one day only. Nothing too blue, please; the shock could kill us.
Also, if you are planning on doing any pre-Christmas Amazon orders, would you be a tremendous dear and log onto their site via this link first? Your Amazonian shopping experience will be 100% the same; however we will then get approx. £0.0000001, which we can put towards a new microphone, or the high-class courtesan we’ve been saving up for. Much obliged to you.
We’ve been in this question-answering business for quite a while now, and naturally a handful of questions come up a lot. Some of them are here. But we’ve been receiving the following one an awful lot lately, in various forms , and it’s high time to deal with it.
We know all of you who have this problem are probably suffering from it in a highly individualistic fashion, but this is approximately how it goes in each of its permutations:
I like a girl/boy in my class.
We spend all our time together.
I am 14.
Should I ask her/him out?
Now children, you know we love you. So forgive us if we seem brusque, but YES. DO IT. FOR GOD’S SAKE, DO IT! Partly because acute as the pain of rejection is, that of not knowing can last a lot bloody longer. And partly because getting this question 100 times a week is making us feel ancient and withered inside. Half our lives have passed since we felt the singular, fresh pangs of unrequited teen ardour. Or, in fact, anything. Pass the gin.
Answer Me This! Episode 108 is one for the record-books! Why? Is it the world’s fastest-ever podcast? No. Is it the world’s fattest-ever podcast? Possibly… Oh, shut up. Actually, the superlative achievement we refer to is this: in today’s episode, we read out our longest-ever question. Yes! You excited? Tarry no longer:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through iTunes or 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)
As well as the behemoth question, we talk about:
Lady Sovereign
the Romans
cuttlefish
head ushers
pierced kidneys
Coinstar machines
sex in tents
Sinitta
Brian Wilson Mr Bean
and
groats.
Furthermore, Olly displays a surprisingly delicate sensibility towards the bare-chested ladies of Page 3; Helen blames a broken mirror for her sub-par exam results, rather than the fact that she was too lazy to do any revision; and Martin the Sound Man will soon be auditioning for a new Best Man – mint-condition applicants ONLY, please; he’s not taking anyone else’s cast-offs.
This episode also comes with illustrations! Like Storyteller magazine – ‘ting!’ when you turn the page, etc etc – only in this case, your cue is when you hear us talking about grisly piercings, at which point you may want to view these pictures (SFW, don’t worry).
If you have any unusual body-art you feel compelled to share with us – or, preferably, you have some QUESTIONS for us, please get in touch: email answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, or croon them into the ear of Skype IDanswermethis or the question line 0208 123 5877. Plus if you’re a cheapskate with a bit of advice for William from Larne’s student budget, please leave it in a comment below (don’t worry, it’s totally free).
It’s a car-centric episode this week, as Helen tries out some technical car words, we find out what cowboys have to do with the front passenger seat, and Martin the Sound Man stands up for the innocent victims of doggers. But don’t worry, pedestrians, cyclists and pilots; there’s still more than enough material to suit you! Including stuff about canal boats. Ok? Here you go:
This classic episode is available to BUY NOW for just 79p, through iTunes or 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)
Aside from the aforementioned transportation flimflam, we discuss:
21 Grams vs. the Dawn of the Dead remake
Paul Merton’s mic technique
Big Bird
Cath Kidston
Al Jolson
Michael Caine’s teeth
skewering Cheryl Cole in the face
the late Pizza Piazza Dead Set
munchkins
Worcestershire Sauce
puffer fish Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Mont Sleet
and
celebrity cocks.
Plus: Olly admits his desire for Janice the Muppet; Helen finally realises why the Zaltzman family never took holidays; and Martin’s immense knowledge about everything ever even extends to the speed limit on Britain’s inland waterways. We also give Vitamin Water the kicking it deserves. Yeah! We know you’re probably just as eager as we were to slate Vitamin Water, but if you can restrain yourself for just a mo, send us your QUESTIONS: email answermethispodcast@googlemail.com, or speak them to Skype IDanswermethis or the question line 0208 123 5877.
Remember Rebecca from London‘s touching phonecall in Episode 105? The four years of international romance, and now that her boyfriend has finally immigrated to the same country as her, he’s living in a town a two-hour drive away and she’s living in despair?
Well, the other side of the coin has been revealed, for Mr Rebecca, AKA Androo in Brighton, has since been in touch! He says:
I’m from The Bahamas and have just recently moved back to the UK after some problems with Immigration – I had been living in London near my amazing, special ladyfriend but recently had to move to Brighton for work.
Unwittingly I have hurt her feelings, but I feel that an hour train ride is a lot easier than basically 24 hours of travel that costs around £1000 each time…so, answer me this:
How do I get my ladyfriend to stop getting drunk and calling popular internet podcasts to make me look like a twat? 🙂
Hide her phone? Pour her booze stash down the lav? Listeners, we hope you’re rooting for Androo and Rebecca as much as we are – so please comment below with your suggestions for resolving their less-long-distance relationship.
first? Your Amazonian shopping experience will be 100% the same; however we will then get approx. £0.0000001, which we can put towards a new microphone, or the high-class courtesan we’ve been saving up for. Much obliged to you.
Answer Me This! Podcast 