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==Reception==
==Reception==
The Bugle has received many positive mentions in the media. A review by American blog Frozen Toothpaste described the podcast in a 2007 review as 'a usually delightful, witty and deadpan satire'.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} Computing website Philosophical Geek praised The Bugle for its unique wit, saying that the reviewer found himself 'laughing too hard to concentrate on anything else'.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}} The Bugle, according to The Nerd Rage Blog, is 'a thing of beauty' and 'is quite simply, hilarious'. Zaltzman's 'bullshit facts' are complimented, as is Oliver's 'biting sarcasm'.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}
The Bugle has received many positive mentions in the media. A review by American blog Frozen Toothpaste described the podcast in a 2007 review as 'a usually delightful, witty and deadpan satire'<ref>http://www.frozentoothpaste.com/2007/11/19/review-the-bugle-podcast/</ref>. Computing website Philosophical Geek praised The Bugle for its unique wit, saying that the reviewer found himself 'laughing too hard to concentrate on anything else'<ref>http://www.philosophicalgeek.com/2008/04/03/the-bugle-podcast/</ref>. The Bugle, according to The Nerd Rage Blog, is 'a thing of beauty' and 'is quite simply, hilarious'. Zaltzman's 'bullshit facts' are complimented, as is Oliver's 'biting sarcasm'.{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}. BBC Comedy review show [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0105rs2 What's So Funny] described The Bugle as the benchmark in satire, in an episode dated 27th May 2011<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011f7m1</ref>.


==Episodes==
==Episodes==

Revision as of 08:57, 29 June 2011


This article is about the satirical audio news podcast. For the musical instrument, see bugle. For other uses, see Bugle (disambiguation).
The Bugle
Presentation
Hosted byJohn Oliver, Andy Zaltzman
GenreNews, Comedy
LanguageEnglish
UpdatesWeekly
Production
Audio formatStream, MP3, AAC
Publication
Original release14 October 2007

The Bugle is a weekly satirical news podcast, hosted by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman, and distributed by TimesOnline. New episodes of The Bugle are released on Fridays with related material appearing on the official website.[1]

Features

  • Celebrity Stories - Most weeks, either John or Andy recounts a story about what happened in their week. For John, this generally includes meeting famous personalities such as Bill Clinton, Aneurin Bevan, Jimmy Carter, or Natalie Portman. One memorable week, Andy recounted the tale of his son's home birth, with himself as the midwife.
  • In the Bin - Since most readers of visual newspapers immediately toss some sections in the bin, Andy will announce a different part of the audio newspaper that has been pre-discarded. This feature will be the end of the introductory section of the Bugle, culminating with the final strains of the opening theme.
  • The Soundproof Safe - More prominent in the 2010 episodes, Andy regularly announces the person/people that are trapped in that week's 'Soundproof Safe'. Usually, these people are obscure celebrities and well known people from history, including Henry Kissinger and the Pussycat Dolls. Due to the Soundproof Safe being 'Soundproof', the guests obviously cannot be heard. However, Andy and John seem oblivious to this fact. The only person to escape from The Soundproof Safe is former producer Tom Wright, who appeared on the show in episode 131 for the The Bugle's 3rd birthday.
  • Ask an American - Occasionally, a guest known only as The American (voiced by The Daily Show producer and comedian Rory Albanese[2]) will appear on the show. He is a mildly offensive caricature of a working-class American; xenophobic, lazy, and ignorant. He is from New Jersey and often gets in heated debates with John, each twisting each others' logic in attempts to validate their points. Most of the time The American joins John Oliver in the New York studio but has appeared on the show over the phone. The American's brother, allegedly voiced by Jon Stewart, also appeared from Las Vegas.
  • Hotties From History - This feature began roughly around the time the show reached double digits. For several consecutive weeks, Andy had been mentioning his attraction to Florence Nightingale with progressively more lewd language. His fascination culminated with John calling Andy out, however it only provoked Andy into encouraging listeners to e-mail in other historical figures they were attracted to. Hotties From History was born. John was initially against the idea, but when Andy put a slideshow of the nominations onto the Bugle blog and John had watched it, he declared that he had become a "total convert." The ground rules for the contest are only that the nominee have been dead for roughly half a century—otherwise it would be creepy. At the end of each month, Andy announced the male and female nominations with the most votes, crowning them "Mr. and Mrs. (Month)." Some of the stranger nominations for the position have been Joanna the Mad, Tiresias (Mr. and Mrs. June 2008), Johannes Kepler, and the Toba Eruption. The latter led to a new rule that nominees "must be human." The hosts announced on the New Year's show for 2009 that the feature would be ending, having run a suitable course.
  • Audio Cryptic Crossword - Pioneered by Andy, this was a fan favourite. Towards the end of each show, Andy would give a space and direction in a crossword grid (available on the blog), followed by a clue. After a few weeks, John commented on how there was probably nobody actually doing the crossword, which Andy refuted forcefully. Each week, John would progressively declare his hate for the crossword in larger terms until it became a major divisive point between the hosts, each trying to rally support from fans in their favour. After the final clue was given in episode 29, John gave his opinion on the Crossword as a whole: "I see the glorious history of the Audio Cryptic Crossword as I see the glorious history of the Third Reich—a terrible idea that was rammed down peoples throats for far too long." Andy replied that he agreed with the Third Reich comparison, but for different reasons: It was "a triumph for persistence, doggedness, and the value of standing up to pressure from the other side of the Atlantic." The following week a listener named Elliot sent in a completed crossword, while another listener, Oliver Keyes, stated firmly that he was extremely glad the Crossword was over. Andy retorted that "people were glad when the war was over, but that doesn't mean it wasn't the greatest part of British history." The hosts have come up with several ideas for segments to fill up the space once occupied by the crossword, but none have lasted more than a couple of weeks.
  • Emails - Each week includes Andy and John reading from listener emails. The emails are on topics ranging from the content of the show itself—the "Hotties from History" segment has historically generated a lot of email traffic—to listeners sending in material that they think might be of interest to the show hosts. One memorable broadcast included an extended riff by Andy and John on pictures sent in by a pilot of airplanes and other objects that resembled giant penises.
  • Sport - Each show contains a brief section on sports. More often than note, Andy will mention unnecessary stories about cricket (which he has a slight obsession for) and also include made up sports reports from fictitious sports, including The World Procrastinating Championships, the World Indecision Championships and the World Series.
  • The Forecast - Each show ends with John and Andy guessing about what will happen in the next week. Topics range from the mundane ("How many runs will Andy get in Cricket?", "Will either of us remember Mother's Day?") to the absurd ("Who is going to replace Andy (as a host) in 2039?" "John, are you going to be alive for next week's Bugle?").

Offshoots

  • The Bugle Blog - Andy periodically updates a segment on the Times Online website with extra e-mails, information on the Bugle, and downloadable versions of the past few episodes. His failure to update the blog, for which he gives numerous excuses, has been a running joke on the show.[1] For a few episodes, Tom the Producer (see below) posted blog entries and was therefore the addressee of listener emails.
  • @hellobuglers, a Twitter account.[3] Although it began as a complement to The Bugle, primarily publishing one-liner political jokes, it also serves as Andy Zaltzman's own Twitter feed. For example, Andy has used it to announce his guest appearances on other programs.[4]
  • @Buglesamerican, a Twitter account[5] from sometime guest "The American" (voiced by Rory Albanese).

Producers

Tom

Tom Wright,[6] known solely on The Bugle as "Tom the Producer", was the producer of the show from episodes 1 through episode 107. He was first mentioned in episode 11 as Zaltzman announced his plans for the Hotties From History calendar. For most of the Bugle he remained silent, occasionally intervening to ask John and Andy to finish up so he can go home or responding to questions when asked. In later episodes he contributed more often, with listeners often addressing their e-mails to him directly. According to Tom's on-air answers to a number of questions sent to him by fans he is married, has a daughter, is Scottish, enjoys his job and does not ski.

In February 2010, Tom and his family emigrated to Australia. A week before his departure, he announced his intention to continue producing The Bugle remotely. However, in Bugle 106 (6 March 2010), it was announced that the next Bugle would be Tom's last as he had found another job. When asked by John and Andy what his new gig was, he refused to identify it on the grounds that it was a sensible show and that mentioning it by name would result in it being abused by Buglers. John and Andy agreed that this was an accurate characterization of their audience and did not pursue the matter further on the air.

Chris

After Tom left, he was replaced by Chris Skinner, about whom little has been said on the air. Chris has previously worked with Andy on "Yes, It's the Ashes" radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2009 and also produces "The Game" podcast for Times Online. When Chris first began producing the podcast, he restructured the standard musical cues quite a bit to jarring effect (e.g., he once played the podcast's closing music during the middle of an episode), but over time, his production became more similar to Tom's. Appearing to be younger and more enthusiastic, Chris occasionally participates in banter with Oliver and Zaltzman with his guest spots increasing in volume over time, an example being an extended conversation about the state of Australia in Bugle 140. Chris has been the subject of semi-ironic hate mail (and fan mail) from listeners,[7] apparently for no reason other than that he is not Tom, and this became a running joke of the show. Chris is the star of fuckyouchris.com, a site devoted to chronicling fan's ironic hatred of Chris. Despite this, fans now appear to only be sending hate mail as a good-natured joke (including the fuckyouchris website), accepting his role on the show's staff. He is the only member of the bugle staff to be a regular poster on the Bugle Facebook page - often insulting buglers and taunting them with his power to release bugles late or badly cut. It should also be noted that Chris "does not ski." Chris is an accomplished triathlete, which is mentioned in episode 157 when he finishes behind Pippa Middleton's ass in a recent Olympic qualifying triathlete event.

Ped

The enigmatic Ped subs for Chris when the latter is ill or on holiday. A man of very few words, about whom almost nothing is known, he is generally regarded as a most dependable hand on the tiller. Vague attempts at getting a Chris-style hate campaign going against Ped have so far not succeeded. Ped also deputies for Chris on The Game.

Paul

The only producer to be mentioned on the American side, Paul handles all the audio for John Oliver in New York City. Paul has been with The Bugle since the beginning. Paul plays the trumpet, which was shown in one podcast when The Bugle used short excerpts of Paul playing the trumpet for the musical interludes between segments.

Reception

The Bugle has received many positive mentions in the media. A review by American blog Frozen Toothpaste described the podcast in a 2007 review as 'a usually delightful, witty and deadpan satire'[8]. Computing website Philosophical Geek praised The Bugle for its unique wit, saying that the reviewer found himself 'laughing too hard to concentrate on anything else'[9]. The Bugle, according to The Nerd Rage Blog, is 'a thing of beauty' and 'is quite simply, hilarious'. Zaltzman's 'bullshit facts' are complimented, as is Oliver's 'biting sarcasm'.[citation needed]. BBC Comedy review show What's So Funny described The Bugle as the benchmark in satire, in an episode dated 27th May 2011[10].

Episodes

A full list of episodes of The Bugle, including titles, release dates, and download links, is available at the podcast's RSS feed. The following list reproduces only the titles.

Notes

  1. ^ In the "History of the World" subseries, Andy pronounced the lowercase letters as being Greek letters, i.e. alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. For presumably technical reasons, the Greek letters were not rendered in the episode titles as α, β, γ, and δ, but rather as the Latin letters a, b, g, and d. Note also that the Greek alphabet does not follow the order of the Latin alphabet, which is why the episodes are a, b, g, d instead of a, b, c, d.
  2. ^ The episode was recorded a mere 40 minutes after Hosni Mubarak's resignation much to the presenters' surprise after his speech on 10th February

References

  1. ^ Bennett, Rosemary; Watson, Roland. "The Bugle". The Times. London. Retrieved 2008-08-20.
  2. ^ st_secular (2008-04-27). "thedailyshow: I saw John Oliver last night in Scottsdale". Retrieved 2008-08-18.
  3. ^ "@hellobuglers". Twitter. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  4. ^ "@hellobuglers". Twitter. 5 December 2010. Retrieved 10 December 2010.
  5. ^ "@Buglesamerican". Twitter. Retrieved 9 January 2011.
  6. ^ http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tomwright2
  7. ^ http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=113169382027094
  8. ^ http://www.frozentoothpaste.com/2007/11/19/review-the-bugle-podcast/
  9. ^ http://www.philosophicalgeek.com/2008/04/03/the-bugle-podcast/
  10. ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011f7m1

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Bugle&oldid=436817633"