FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: colonel panic on August 25, 2008, 11:34:09 AM
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It's been discussed that the TBS has a steep "learning curve" to get over before one becomes a fan of the show. As we are all aware, no one can lead you over the mountain; you have to trudge along of your own volition.
My story-
I'm a new listener (early 2008).
My friend Phil mentioned the show (podcast) a couple of times over several months and I never downloaded it. We have a similar taste in comedy and music so I took note but never actually listened to the show (it seemed really long). Then, out of sheer boredom I listened to the shows that happened to be on during the pledge-a-thon. I was wooed by peoples dedication to the show and that Patton Oswalt (?!!?) was in the studio. Weird. Ted Leo actually sounded punk rock and I liked that so I kept listening.
I didn't like the Wurster calls at first. I, obviously, didn't get the inside jokes and the characters didn't sound all that different from each other. I remember telling Phil that I didn't like the Wurster calls and I think I offended him. I kept listening on the strength of the fan base calling in. I love talk radio shows where people call in.
I don't remember the point where it clicked. But I remember PBR saying something so funny that I almost cried. Then I started googling Wurster and found out he played in a bunch of bands that I like and then it was an incredibly slippery slope. I'm obsessed.
So, for me, it was a combination of the die-hard fan appreciation and star power that pushed me over that edge.
What's your "TBSOWFMU Story"?
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a friend played me PBR's rendition of the song "philly pride" (from the film of the same name) and i though it was pretty good, but never gave it much further thought. a while later, he made me a CD of one of the podcasts ("snakes on a steak") and i tried to listen to it, but the long intro + tom back announcing songs i didn't hear him play = i didn't get but 10 minutes in before i shut the thing off.
months later, for whatever reason, i popped the podcast CD in while driving and found myself cracking up all the way home. was in a bad car accident a few weeks later, and my satellite radio accompanied my auto the scrapyard, so i started downloading the podcast and the rest is history. i've only been listening since january '08, but this program is by far the funniest thing i've ever heard and i'm 100% completely obsessed with it. i even keep an eye out for roy when driving through roxborough.
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I actually heard about the show at a SXSW "comedy panel" or something that Andrew Earles and Jon Wurster were a part of. The Best Show was name-dropped a couple of times, so I wrote down a note to check it out, and started listening to two episodes a day at my old data entry job.
I made my glorious on-air debut a few months ago and was promptly banned for 11 years.
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I actually heard about the show at a SXSW "comedy panel" or something that Andrew Earles and Jon Wurster were a part of. The Best Show was name-dropped a couple of times, so I wrote down a note to check it out, and started listening to two episodes a day at my old data entry job.
That's where I heard about it, too (linked from the Chunklet site). I started listening in mid-2007 - the Hammerhead call was the first JW call I heard. Because I only knew the little about the show mentioned in those videos, I actually thought Hammerhead was a real caller for the first couple of minutes. I figured out pretty quickly what was what, though, and between that episode and the Patton Oswalt in-studio interview, I was pretty much hooked right away.
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I was referred to the Best Show by the Comedy Zone message board. Through early 2007 I kept seeing that comedians I liked were appearing on the show. I'd check out their interviews, and skim the rest of the show. I remember that the Nov. 20th 2007 show was the one that made me a believer - the return of Ronald Thomas Clontle.
The exact moment when I knew it was true love was when Clontle explained that he thought Bix Beiderbecke's name was Big Spiderman, and that he'd been around since Civil War times. And now I'm in deep.
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I just like Tom's attitude, to be honest. First time I heard him GOMP someone I was sold.
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I made my glorious on-air debut a few months ago and was promptly banned for 11 years.
I don't remember the call, but thank you for taking one for the team. I'm sure I got a good laugh out of it. :D
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I first found out about the show when Fluxblog posted "Timmy von Trimble." I didn't have home Internet yet, so I didn't start listening to the show regularly until the final marathon show of 2007. I committed to the show almost immediately, although it took longer than that to catch the Newbridge inside jokes and to recognize the regular callers (I think the first one to stick out was Laurie).
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I picked up the S&W CDs first, then eventually my curiosity got piqued about two and a half years ago and I wound up listening to the Tom Plays Dark Side of the Moon segment of the 10/4/05 show. I think I got sold when he freaked out about "the pot helicopters" and eventually subscribed to the podcast, though it took me a little while to get over the unfamiliarity with the call-in aspect of the show and the fact that he didn't like a couple bands I did.
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My brother (FOT John M) had been telling me about the show for a while, and the Wursterisms had officially worked their way into his lexicon. So, he'd say something like "You're a good Za Bra" and I'd chuckle and say "What's that from?"
After explaining The Best Show about a hundred times, I still just kept forgetting to check it out. Then, while I was back home for Christmas, we just sat in his car while waiting on some friends to meet us for a movie. We listened to the Darren From Work call and then the Old Skull call.
Darren from work made me chuckle a few times, but when Tom pushed play on the new Old Skull CD and that smooth jazz song started, I completely cracked up. I've been hooked ever since. I now listen to two episodes per night while at work on the graveyard shift. Been doing that since January, and so far, it's all still hilarious.
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I was in Grad school in my studio listening to whatever happened to be on WFMU online, and the episode where Tom plays the drums on air came on and his chanting about the New Jersey Devils had me hooked. It was pure joyous radio, loud, bombastic, silly at times, and I loved it. I've listened to all of the archives, many more than once.
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I came into the Best Show from that other show on Wednesdays. The first show I remember had the German Hi-Fi salesman talking about stereos. It took me a while to "get it" but I think I was hooked for pretty much weekly listening around the time of the roadhouse show. I got a few other internet friends into the show by then and none of them had the movie that night so I turned my webcam towards the tv and streamed the video of the movie live with the show. It was great.
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I had heard about TBS from an interview on a DVD special feature. So I knew it existed somewhere out there. Later, I listened to the episode of TSOYA where Tom pulls an Al Roker and guest hosts where he played some tracks from his CD. (I think they were kid e-bay and Darren from work) and I thought they were great. So I got a couple more of the CDs then finally started listening to the show around mid 2007.
Best decision I ever made in my life.
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I got hooked via Fluxblog with "Timmy von Trimble" and later "The Hero's Call" with Brock Peuchk. After I realized it was a whole 3-hour show I started listening to the podcasts on my commute and got completely hooked. That was about two years ago. I still have never called because I don't listen live often enough and I can never think of anything for the topic.
I got my wife hooked on it in the past year. It's funny because she often has an attitude very similar to Tom's.
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Patton Oswalt recommending it on The Sound of Young America.
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I'm pretty new to the show... so I'm still all obsessed with it and giddy.
I was searching the vast system of tubes for Patton Oswalt material (I was deep in the throes of "discovering" Patton at the time) when I saw the EP he did to raise money for WFMU. I thought, "Weird... 75 bucks for an EP? Who the hell is this Tom guy?" The only other time I'd heard of FMU was from an in-studio live cut on the Peelander-Z album "P-Bone Steak", which earned major coolness points with me. I also found a link to "Rambocky" on Patton's myspace site. While I could tell that there was a whole lot of inside-joke going on there that I wasn't getting, being a Philly boy myself, I loved it. I said, "EAU MY GAWD! NEM GUYS IS HILARIOUS!"
From there, I started goople-ing PBR, which led to Wurster/Scharpling, which led to my downloading a few shows to listen to during some horribly long drives between Philly and Rochester, NY (5.5 hours each way). I was thrilled to discover that Wurster does PBR pretty frequently, and since then, I've downloaded all the S/W albums from Rhapsody and have been working my way through them as well as the archives. I can't believe these guys aren't a bigger phenomenon. I don't know if I'll ever learn to enjoy some of the callers (I'm talking to you, Julie from Cincinnati), but that's a small price to pay.
BTW - If you haven't yet heard "Hippy Justice", it's ALL KILLER, NO FILLER. Kid E-Bay is one of the most bizarre ideas for a comedy sketch I can imagine, yet somehow, it comes off feeling almost natural. To me, that's as good as it gets.
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The first episode I heard was the one in which Tom kept hanging up on kids from Goshen. I didn't know the back story yet, but hearing him GOMP those callers, one after the other, had me sold for good.
He also did the thing where he asks the caller to repeat himself, and then hangs up mid-word.
As in:
"Where did you say you were from?"
"Gosh-"
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I got hooked from Ted Leo. I'd heard of WFMU and how cool it was but Ted posted on his website that he called in during the Unfunniest Funny people segment. I figured I'd check it out to here what he had to say. When Ted called, Tom didn't even realize he was talking to a rockstar! Anyways, I heard Bryce, a few GOMPs and a great topic. After listening I didn't know what to think except that I should keep listening. Three years later people keep telling my to shut up about the Best Show and how good it is.
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I heard Kid eBay on TSOYA, then subscribed to the podcast. The first show I heard was February 7, 2006 with Superbowl Champ Troy Renfro and the Puppy Bowl Referee. These are facts.
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There's an old seven-page thread on this, too:
http://www.friendsoftom.com/forum/index.php/topic,1174.0.html
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I heard the great "Music Scholar" call sometime back in 2001 or 2002, but the link was sent to me without the proper context of "Hey, this guy has a hilarious radio show on which they do stuff like this all the time ...." So I didn't discover the Best Show then. So many wasted years!
Then, in early-to-mid 2007 I read a positive review of Art of The Slap, which led me to the S&W albums on eMusic, which led to the realization that these were the guys who had given me that half-hour of "Music Scholar" joy in my younger and more callow days, which also led to a week of playing "The Gorch" for anyone who would listen and, of course, to the Best Show itself and the treasure trove of the archives.
Never had too much of a problem with the learning curve. At first the adjustment from Tom's bemused straight man persona (during the JW calls) to the full might, fury, and wisdom of The Kid (during the rest of the show) was a bit jarring, but by the fourth or fifth GOMP I was giggling like an Ewok.
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If I can plagarize from myself on the TSOYA board for a minute:
The first time I remember hearing them was the really old TSOYA where Jesse played tracks from one of their CDs. I didn't get it at all at first (I think the call in question had a particularly slow buildup) and never really listened to it, but when I went back later and actually listened to the whole thing I realized it was genius. I had a similar experience with the podcast- I didn't hate it at first but I wasn't particularly enthused until I listened to like four of them in one week and I was hooked. (Also I started listening to the Best Show Vault [first from the TSOYA blog and then on its own] in between those two things but I guess I didn't write that before.)
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There's an old seven-page thread on this, too:
http://www.friendsoftom.com/forum/index.php/topic,1174.0.html
At least my answer is consistent.
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Like quite a few people my age, I used to watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force on adult swim. I saw the episode, "The Shaving" in 2004 which Tom guest starred in as Willy Nelson, a "monster" who lived in the attic. After the episode, in one of their bumps, they mentioned that Tom was a guest star and promoted The Best Show. When I got to work the next day, I started listening to the archives, and had a blast. Though it's not one of Tom's, my favorite episode was the one at the end of '04 where the callers finally drive Tom crazy enough that he popped in a best of Elton John CD and wound up singing along with most of it... twice. He did this until the show was over. If you haven't heard it, his rendition of "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" is absolutely fabulous. We were in the middle of a conversion at work then, working a lot of late hours. I would play that episode for anyone who would listen, and crank it up during the Elton John parts. Shortly after that, the overtime wound down, and with a new company came stricter rules on computers at work... As in "no streaming media." So, since I didn't have a computer at the time, I fell out of listening to the show.
In 2005, I got my first iPod and got into podcasting pretty quickly. I had completely forgotten about The Best Show until Mid-2007, when something, I don't even remember what, reminded me of the show. I searched iTunes and saw that it was available as a podcast and got excited pretty quickly. The first show I listened to sounded like quite a different show. Were there really three theme songs on every episode? What's this about a 30-second clock during the pre-topic portion of the show? What's this about a pre-topic portion? There are topics now? Anyway, I fell in love with the show again and haven't missed a podcasted episode since. I've listened live a couple of times. During the marathon back in March, actually. I was blown away and humbled that Tom took the time to thank every one who donated individually by name.
Hatch: Daniel from Whitesboro just pledged...
Tom: Thanks, Dan.
So cool!
A couple of times, I came close to calling, but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Fear of the GOMP, I guess. :D
I'm surprised no one else started listening because of Aqua Teen!
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I made my glorious on-air debut a few months ago and was promptly banned for 11 years.
What prevents banned callers from calling back after a significant amount of time has passed? Does Mike have a list of people that have been banned? Is it the social humility the banned people feel?
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I made my glorious on-air debut a few months ago and was promptly banned for 11 years.
What prevents banned callers from calling back after a significant amount of time has passed? Does Mike have a list of people that have been banned? Is it the social humility the banned people feel?
Since Tom pays out of pocket for each call ($500 or so, I think), if you call during a ban you're trespassing and he'll haul your ass to court.
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The first two episodes I checked out were good, and kept me coming back for more. The third time had me struggling to stop laughing. I wish I could remember which shows they were. All three episodes seemed equally funny in retrospect. I think I finally felt at home in the TBS universe and *got it* after the third try.
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I wrote this in some other thread, not the one linked above, but...
When I lived in Brooklyn, I used to have a Park Slope Food Coop shift on Tuesday nights. On my drive back to my apartment in Sunset Park, I used to listen to WFMU. The sound would go in and out along 4th Avenue. But this weird voice was coming through, with abnormally long pauses in between utterances. I thought "Who on earth is this? He is in NO rush. Has he ever listened to radio before actually being ON the radio?" I appreciated his slow presentation. Most DJ's sound like they are being paid by the word, and that if they let a moment of silence occur, death will follow shortly thereafter. Then, when a Wurster call came in one night, it added another dimension that totally got me.
But, I was not yet hooked enough to seek it out. I never found out the DJ's name and when I moved to NJ and left the coop, I did not tune back in.
Then a friend of mine told me he went to see The Mountain Goats in concert, and John Darnielle kept lauding some WFMU DJ and this caller impersonating "The Gorch" who was apparently the inspiration for the Fonz, but was in real life much more violent. In between songs, Darnielle would blurt out "And then I hit him widda chain." THEN I was compelled to seek out The Best Show and listen to the archives.
My first call was to inform Tom of The Mountain Goats love for the show.
That was about two and a half years ago, and I still adore it.
We happy few...
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Then a friend of mine told me he went to see The Mountain Goats in concert, and John Darnielle kept lauding some WFMU DJ and this caller impersonating "The Gorch" who was apparently the inspiration for the Fonz, but was in real life much more violent. In between songs, Darnielle would blurt out "And then I hit him widda chain." THEN I was compelled to seek out The Best Show and listen to the archives.
My first call was to inform Tom of The Mountain Goats love for the show.
Was the "real" Gorch behind the drumkit for that show, I wonder? That would've made the story even weirder/funnier.
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Then a friend of mine told me he went to see The Mountain Goats in concert, and John Darnielle kept lauding some WFMU DJ and this caller impersonating "The Gorch" who was apparently the inspiration for the Fonz, but was in real life much more violent. In between songs, Darnielle would blurt out "And then I hit him widda chain." THEN I was compelled to seek out The Best Show and listen to the archives.
My first call was to inform Tom of The Mountain Goats love for the show.
Was the "real" Gorch behind the drumkit for that show, I wonder? That would've made the story even weirder/funnier.
I think this was before The Gorch was drumbing for MG. But I sometimes fantasize that my call got The Gorch in touch with Darnielle, and led to the future pairing. Sigh.
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Pretty similar story to everyone else. Heard the show mentioned mostly via the Comedy Zone site, lots of cool people would talk it up etc, I was fully aware of it for sure. I just wasn't really into listening to podcasts so much I guess.
Finally, just about this time last year, one of my good friends who I have a ton in common with and who is constantly turning me on to new, awesome things, started slowly pushing for me to listen to the show. He's a card-carrying FOT and I guess has been for awhile, but he said he wasn't ever sure how to broach the subject with people, because it does take a certain nerve and commitment to get in to it. He gave me some of the S&W tracks to listen to, and the Music Snob and Kid Ebay were two of the funniest, sharpest things I had ever heard.
The dynamic of the actual show versus the S&W stuff took some getting used to, because they are pretty jarring in their differences. But once I realized who real Tom was (or at least I guess the closest representation on the show), it was really easy to get into the groove. Tom makes fun of all the things I hate, he gomps all the people who need to be gomped, I think the only thing I have ever disagreed with him was over the King of Kong stuff (although I disagree with everyones take on that movie I think). It's like Tom is a representation of everything I love and hate, Tommy Justice measuring out what is right and wrong with the world for 3 hours every week. It can be very validating when you hear people say they loved Juno or think Candy Palin is hot, in that when so many people around me say such crazy things I often then start feeling like there is something wrong with me. But now, thanks to El Goodo, I know it's (mostly) not me, but they who are the wrong!
Anyways, started listening live not much after that, and by last Halloween I was hooked. Caught up with a couple years worth of archives while at work, this show saved my sanity many a day I know that.
Yup, that's my story.
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I already laid this out in that old thread, but here's another version:
-Intermittent WFMU fan since 1990
-Got seriously into the station in 2005 with consistent access to high-speed internet and the advent of podcasting
-Tried the Best Show podcast when it started (2006?). Found it personable enough but just thought it was an interesting eccentric guy taking calls, something like Bronwyn's show, and gave up because a three-hour podcast was too long for me at the time
-Saw the Ronald Thomas Clontle list on eMusic; thought it was really funny but couldn't tell whether it was a joke; searched obsessively for the book Rock, Rot & Rule; eventually figured it out, thought it was worth one download on eMusic, loved it
-Mere months after I had initially given up, I resubscribed in late 2006; I heard a Spike call and was hooked
-Throughout 2007, obtained the rest of the Scharpling & Wurster catalog from eMusic
-May 2007, at a residency in Austin, Texas, I was spending late evenings alone in a little shack and deciding to dig a little deeper. I checked out the FOT site, the Best Show Vault, the WFMU archives, Omar's recaps, and this board, where I lurked for a little while. This happened on and off during the summer, and I increasingly got into the show, which helped me feel rooted when I was traveling and spending a lot of time alone in unfamiliar cities. I remember the kidney stone show, which made me realize that Tom was a hero of the first order.
-August 2007, the show where C*pt**n J*ck sent a fish in a cooler to the show and Tom threatened to quit. I liked the FOT and thought that I should register for the boards for reasons I can't quite articulate; like, maybe it was time for me to start being more vocal about what the show meant to me, or if I was going to talk to any of these interesting people, I had to do it soon in the event that Tom actually quit.
-I came close to quitting the board exactly once, early in my tenure; I followed some picture link to one of those gross-out picture sites and wound up looking at, like, ghoul pics of people who died horribly. I briefly had an involuntary association of that awfulness with the FOT, but sanity prevailed and I stayed.
-In November 2007 I fell deathly ill with an awful flu and spent a week in bed going back through the archives and old FOT threads. Eventually I got better, and pretty much solidified my FOTdom.
-Here I am; I wouldn't quit the show for anything.
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Actually found TBS by Googling "H. Jon Benjamin Interview" a few (4?) years ago. One of the results was the show where Benjamin uses a robot voice-simulator to save his prized voice. Couldn't get into it at first because I would skip to the Benjamin part, and the whole point of the interview was ultimate deadpan (think of coach McGuirk in a flat robot voice) and awkwardness. I gave the same episode a couple more shots, feeling like there was something there that was JUST over my head, and eventually it clicked.
I was hooked for life when I later that day found Philly Boy Roy through the archives. Specifically the "Freaky Friday" bit with Roy Jr.
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It can be very validating when you hear people say they loved Juno or think Candy Palin is hot
What a difference a letter makes. Hate to admit it, but I vote for Candy Palin in a heartbeat, sight unseen. I want a VP that can bowl 220.
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I've been listening for six or seven months now, and like most newish listeners posting here I'm in the full-on obsession phase. To the best of my recollection I came upon the show when I googled Patton Oswalt looking for audio clips after hearing his 'Ratatouille' interview on Fresh Air.
My first experience with the show was downloading a (then) recent episode and listening while I walked to work in a blizzard. I was hooked as soon as Spike called. Tom did an impression of Spike buying cutlery for the dungeon at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
I was so taken at first with Tom's whole on-air persona, in particular his rambling rants, that I found myself unintentionally imitating his speech patterns in conversation. Once I noticed that I cut it out pretty quick though. Kind of creeped myself out.
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Rick used to listen to podcasts while I was trying to do my stats homework. Since it was pretty depressing to be a failure even though I was failing at something I shouldn't have been doing*, I needed to laugh. Still, I blame Tom for my flunking out of grad school.
*I chose statistics because one of the professors used to mutter the funniest jokes about death under his breath and they made me laugh until I cried.
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Kindred to having the flu, freelancing or studying, I had a long bout with unemployment from August 2001 to December 2001. That was all the learning curve I needed. I was the archetype of the ridiculed listener: unemployed, living with my parents...a mutant. I went away for a year, but came back--just like riding a bike.
Oh, I still have a vivid memory of being like, "is this guy serious?" I couldn't tell. It also corresponded with reading Lost in the Funhouse, Andy Kaufman's biography. It was perfect. Perhaps that should be required reading.
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In 2002, I was a junior in high school and playing guitar in a band called Wafflestomper. A friend of mine recommended we send our demo in to the Best Show and, lo and behold, a few weeks later we were playing "Smash or Trash" with Tom. It's a shame that the archive for that show isn't available, but it was a blast and I've been listening since.
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My husband was a rabid fan for a long time before I ever listened. At first it just seemed kind of deceptive and mean--especially the GOMPS. Then he sat me down with some PBR--that song about the jelly donuts at the deli--and I've been hooked ever since. I'm from the Philly area originally, so I'm nostalgic for the accent.
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My husband was a rabid fan for a long time before I ever listened. At first it just seemed kind of deceptive and mean--especially the GOMPS. Then he sat me down with some PBR--that song about the jelly donuts at the deli--and I've been hooked ever since. I'm from the Philly area originally, so I'm nostalgic for the accent.
My wife lived in Philly for awhile so PBR is definitely a favorite. When he mentioned that the Running of the Cheesesteaks takes place in Yardley (which, she had to explain to me, is a very swanky part of town), I think she actually snorted with laughter.
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[quoteMy wife lived in Philly for awhile so PBR is definitely a favorite. When he mentioned that the Running of the Cheesesteaks takes place in Yardley (which, she had to explain to me, is a very swanky part of town), I think she actually snorted with laughter.quote]
I'm not so familiar with Yardley, but one time PBR said that he had gone to Radnor High School, which caused me to snort, for similar reasons.
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I might be unique in that I've never been into underground comedy. But then this is a unique show on a unique station, so perhaps it isn't so odd afterall. I didn't even know who Patton Oswalt or Paul F Tompkins were until this show introduced me to them. Not that those guys aren't famous to me, I'm just sort of clueless.
I think I've been listening to FMU since about 1999 or so. Thing is, I'm a total music dork, so 99% of that time has been spent listening to the music programs. The first time I actually heard Tom was on the Hoof 'n Mouth a few years back and I thought he pretty much stole the show. I don't think it took me too long to "get it" once I started listening. It just took a little while to get me to actually think "what's this show about?" (click listen).
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One of the guys in my husbands's band got him listening to TBS archives on the weekends and I would just more of less blank it out, but one day I overhead PBR and actually started listening and have been hooked ever since.
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Here's a left-field way of discovering the show...
I'm a knitter who listens to a lot of knitting podcasts (no, seriously - search for knitting on iTunes and gape in awe at the number of podcast results!)
One of those podcasters mentioned The Best Show in passing and said she liked it because "Tom is annoyed by a lot of the same things that annoy me." Since I liked her show, I thought I'd give it a shot. This was around the end of 2007.
I was pretty mystified by the first couple of episodes I heard, so my listening was pretty sporadic at first. I heard some of the marathon shows, and I started to get really drawn in by the excitement. I started lurking on the message boards and got answers to some of my questions about recurring themes on the show ("Oh, so Newbridge isn't real?") and the rest is history.
My schooling continues...I've just started listening to the archives from the beginning. The very first available Best Show is streaming right now. Maybe I'll work up the nerve to call in soon...
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I read http://www.markprindle.com and read the S&W reviews. I found out from where they were derived and tuned in. I'd finally found a radio show that seemed hosted by a human being rather than an automaton, so I felt an instant recognition as to what was happening, and enjoyed the sense of community and the decorum the show seemed to have. Crucially, it made me laugh out loud often and the tunes that opened the show are always great.
I still don't completely get it after maybe a year (and having listened to maybe a third/two-fifths of the archive) but I'm definitely on board for the foreseeable. The show has gotten me through a really tough job and bouts of annoying insomnia. Through the show I've gotten way into Ted Leo, PFT and the rest of WFMU and the great shows it has.
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The first time I heard the Best Show was in June '06. Tom was telling a bizarre tale of tall bikers beating him up, which I was just listening to going "....huh? What the...." But it was so weird that I just kept listening. Then I heard JW calling in as various characters, didn't know they were all him at first, but really dug the utter absurdity of them. The moment that completely got me was a few weeks after I first started listening, when he was talking about the "Laser Allin" show and how this 40-foot-tall laser GG was getting naked, doing nasty things to himself, etc.....such an absurd freakin' image that I literally laughed out loud (kinda rare for me!). Since then I've been hooked and listen every week! Tom and this show got me into talk radio!