FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Show Discussion => Topic started by: driz on January 09, 2009, 11:00:23 AM
-
My wife and daughter often become unwilling listeners of the show on long drives.
It adds a new element to the show having to explain why something is hilarious to me and utterly unfunny to my wife
The best part though is when my wife is clearly trying her hardest to be a hater and tom still manages to make her laugh unwillingly.
My other unwilling third parties are coworkers at work. Ill play the podcast usually on fridays and most other office denizens are listening to sports talk or secretary soft rock.
Once in a while they will overhear the show and get hooked for a bit. The recurring dynamic here is they seem to never grasp the concept of there being characters who aren't real.
The airhorn from last episode did not go over well in the office environment.
Share your third party audience stories
-
I've posted about this before, but my wife - who is mildly weirded out by my FOT obsession - has become a pretty big fan of the show, mostly of Tom's solo rants, and then occasionally of interactions with callers (about a month ago Tom hung up on a guy who was eating a big bowl of mashed potatoes and she's been laughing about it since). She likes some of the Scharpling & Wurster bits on the albums, but doesn't listen regularly enough to get most of the running gags.
The only problem with this way of listening is that it's virtually impossible to remain silent for three hours (it would probably be different if we drove more often). When we listen together, I usually wind up re-listening on my Zune, which - as much as I love the show - is kind of a crazy commitment.
-
The only problem with this way of listening is that it's virtually impossible to remain silent for three hours (it would probably be different if we drove more often). When we listen together, I usually wind up re-listening on my Zune, which - as much as I love the show - is kind of a crazy commitment.
I've got this problem too. I'm learning to stifle my rage when my wife starts gabbing about something while we're listening. I realize that if I submitted to my urge to scream, "Oh, so you think you're more interesting than Tom!?" my marriage would instantly end.
-
My guy's got an FOT card but doesn't listen every week. In fact, he's usually at band practice or playing video games.
I threatened to confiscate his card.
-
My wife is not a fan of sarcasm. She will never be an FOT. afk loves the show, but it's hard to slow him down long enough to listen. efk is frightened by Tom's intensity. She's more of a Hannah Montana fan.
-
my girlfriend is usually happy to hear the show because at the least it means I'm doing the dishes, cleaning the kitchen and making a time consuming dinner.
-
Hahaha this thread was created in response to a discu-okay, argument- that my wife an I had last night about her talking while I am listening.
It went like:
Me - attempt to retell 1000 fights story while we are laying in bed
Her - not laughing
Me - I guess it doesn't really translate as a second hand story well
Her - yeah I guess not
Me - I guess that show is a pretty niche kind of humor taste
Her - no, I like it, I just am not into 3 hours of silence while listening to it
Me - well what's the point of talking over it?
Her - I should be allowed to interject with non best show topics without you passive aggresively pausing it and looking impatiently annoyed for me to finish talking before exasperatingly unpausing it
Me - guilty as charged
I'm paraphrasing of course, she mostly just called me a nerd as usual
Funny that I'm not the only one putting his/her s.o. thru this. Â Not sure if its comforting or like when you read a list of symptoms for some condition and realize hey what a minute, I have those symptoms too.
-
Why can't people just leave each other alone for three hours? Sheesh.
-
Man, I was gonna lay off posting for a few days, but I had to comment. My wife finds my fascination, er obsession with the show a little weird, too. She never hassles me while listening to it, it's when I quote Tom or say, Tom says....that gets on her nerves. She was delighted that F1K was such a hit, though, as he has tormented her for some time. She wants me to make my own Foot Fist Way type of show about F1K but I'd feel a bit awkward if my big break came from ridiculing someone in my family. TBS is like It's Always Sunny or 30 Rock in that she refuses to watch/listen but whenever she does, she laughs.
All you fellas with long-suffering wives should seek out the Jonathan Richman song "She Doesn't Laugh at My Jokes".
What I find weird is how utterly insanely jealous my writing partner gets whenever I bring up anything to do with the best show.
-
My wife absolutely does not have the attention span to listen to a 3-hour show, but she's a big fan of the JW calls (as a former Philadelphia resident, she takes special delight in PBR). We like to listen to those on long drives. I played her some of my favorite topics and a couple of full shows during drives and she's liked everything she's heard, but I don't see her turning into a regular listener. She understands that I'm busy every Tuesday night forever and doesn't interrupt while the show is on, so I have nothing to complain about.
-
My 9-year-old daughter is more amused by my responses to the Best Show than she is by the Best Show, which she does not yet get - at all.
My 5-year-old son is oblivious, but likes Wurster's voice and thought Tom's Costello/Reed "Perfect Day" imitation was hilarious.
My wife is torn. She finds a lot of what Tom says hilarious, but like others have said about their own s.o.'s, she is not happy about the three-hour thing, and she feels totally fine about talking to me during the show...as she should! But it is hard because I want to listen to each second of the show. We make it work somehow.
But I MUST tell her as soon as possible each week whether I am calling into the show. That is because she knows that when I call in, I am useless for about twenty minutes before and after.
-
My wife is from new jersey and I am from philly, so I tried to persuade her that this was a worthwhile hobby because it allowed me to appreciate something from new jersey as opposed to simply tease it. (See: jughandles, no pumping gas, overwhelming smell).
She was not swayed by this.
Go eagles!
-
My brother, who occasionally posts as John M, and I listened to the December 30th show with our dad. After explaining the show to him several times BEFORE we started listening, dad still said ...
"He should've hung up on that guy with the airhorn a loooong time ago. Jesus ... Talk about a waste of radio time."
It has just dawned on me that, technically, he does live in western Maine.
-
My partner* had a comment about the Best Show one time that totally baffled me. He said, "What is that white trash stuff that you're listening to?"
??? ??? ??? ???
Maybe he heard a PBR call and was referring to Roy. I have NO idea.
*who is not caucasian
-
My wife enjoys the Wurster calls, especially Philly Boy Roy. We did a lot of HEHHH!-ing after the Palin call. She doesn't really like listening to a full show because she thinks Tom can be mean to callers when he hangs up on them, which I can understand if you only hear a few minutes of the show at a time. After lisetening for a few years, there aren't many callers who I feel get hung up on without a good reason, but I can understand how someone without that experience might think otherwise (my brother called a few months back about his celebrity sighting and got hung up on when he said he'd seen one of the Whitest Kids You Know in a comic store - no idea why Tom pulled the plug on that call).
-
Obviously because your brother's a racist.
-
i thought the guy telling the "oh family" country club story who got gomped as a racist was a tad harsh of tom....but i felt that gomp was deserved regardless for being a realy drawn out story that wasnt even really that great. racism is sometimes just a euphemism for boring. tom is giving the poor unfunny folk a chance to feel they were slighted for some noble moral outrage as opposed to simply being rather milquetoast.
-
Obviously because your brother's a racist.
What other explanation could there be?
-
Obviously because your brother's a racist.
What other explanation could there be?
Probably has a distant uncle who belongs to a country club.
-
my family made me go to a country club for xmas dinner once, and it was an amazing place...it had all the exclusivity and whiteness of a regular country club, but none of the quality or class. it was like the worst of both worlds, crappy and racist.
its located in delaware county just outside of philly. "springfield country club"
-
My SO finds my fandom, and the show itself, mildly amusing, but doesn't have any interest in listening live. I just pop on some headphones on Tuesday night and she finds something to occupy herself for three hours. When the podcast shows up a few days later I select a few short segments to play for her -- but I've learned to stick to the music-related stuff, like the Gene Simmons or Marky Ramone bits. She loves the Old Skull call from Hippy Justice.
-
jughandles, no pumping gas
I was in Pennsauken, NJ over the holidays and it's totally the best(?) of NJ and Philly combined. That accent, thanks to PBR, kills me. But the jughandles, to which my reply to my sister-in-law who was giving me directions, was "WTF is a jughandle?" (as opposed to traffic light with a left-hand turning green arrow that would have saved me 10 minutes), and the no pumping gas, which makes being at a gas station 10x longer than it normally is, is a little effed up.
But back to the topic,
my 14 month old likes the music Tom plays, including the themes, and I think my wife is coming around after two years.
-
racism is sometimes just a euphemism for boring.
This sentence only makes sense at all in the context of the show.
-
I don't let anyone else listen to the show. I listen by podcast, and if anyone else comes in I switch it off. This is partly because I tend to keep really cool things to myself and don't like anyone else spoiling them.
It's also so that I can steal Tom's jokes, opinions and phrasing etc. in conversation without anyone noticing.
I guess my belated new-years resolution should be to stop this nonsense and help the plans for world domination by sharing the best show with all my friends.
-
jughandles, no pumping gas
I was in Pennsauken, NJ over the holidays and it's totally the best(?) of NJ and Philly combined. That accent, thanks to PBR, kills me. But the jughandles, to which my reply to my sister-in-law who was giving me directions, was "WTF is a jughandle?" (as opposed to traffic light with a left-hand turning green arrow that would have saved me 10 minutes), and the no pumping gas, which makes being at a gas station 10x longer than it normally is, is a little effed up.
Some people just can't handle the good things. Jughandles make things go faster, and it doesn't take '10 x longer' to get your gas automatically pumped (at a cheaper price than NY, by the way). You went to the wrong gas station. Don't blame that on New Jersey.
Tom.
-
I had to google Jughandles. I don't hate the idea. What really drives me crazy is California's complete lack of Cloverleafs on the highways.
-
My jersey gripes earlier were meant to be just a little ribbing, as my wife is from nj and , accordingly, my daughter is going to carry my lineage intertwined with jersey dna.
However it is part of ones rearing if you are from the metro philly or ny areas to tease nj.
Secretly we are just jealous of your coastline that we flock to each summer
And as to jughandles, the concept isn't a bad one, what bothers me is if I am on, say 72, and I see a wawa on the left side of the road, my obese phillyness makes me freak out when , in order to get my hoagie, I have to drive a mile down the road and make a jughandle turn, wait for a light, then double back a mile. In pa, I would just wait for a break in traffic and turn left into the wawa and begin my gorging
As to pumping gas, my gripe isn't that gas takes long to obtain, but rather that it makes me uncomfortable to be served (and not tip) in a scenario I was trained is a diy thing. I feel like I should be tipping everytime, and the whole sitting in the car in the winter while someone fills my tank just feels shitty to me. This is prolly less of new jerseys fault than my irish catholic guilt riddled upbringing
To counter my mean nj comments, I will things I love about nj:
The coast. From barnegat to cape may at least. I can't handle those seaside people (although granted the crappy people are most likely crappy newyorkers and not jerseyfolk)
The delaware water gap. Super awesome
Car inspections at state regulated places. So much nicer and more efficient than the pa version where you go to any joe's garage.
The band lifetime
The rapper redman
-
You know your radio show is great when your listeners' significant others are jealous of you.
That said, I was once with a girl who dismissed the show because she didn't like the bed music (the old, bass-driven one). ??? ??? ???
-
What's bad about jughandles, except in the one example cited above? They always seemed to me like a more evolved system of road design.
What's bad about Jersey?
Strip malls (all of America is littered with these things)
Corrupt politicians (other states have these too)
Stupid people (ditto)
That guy who threatened me with a gun at the Holland Tunnel entrance a few weeks ago. And he was a pisher, in reality. In another state, I might have been shot.
Whenever I am in Jersey, I feel like I am almost-home. I love Jersey.
-
I too had to look up Jughandles, which sounds a good idea, but I spent about half an hour this afternoon looking at the Wiki picture of the Jughandles and trying to understand how they work. It isn't helped by the fact that I drive on the wrong side of the road (left), and my brain literally cannot reverse the directions.
-
Driz -
You're okay in my book.
Come back to New Jersey anytime you want.
Tom.
-
Driz -
You're okay in my book.
Come back to New Jersey anytime you want.
Tom.
my visual depiction of this moment:
(http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/77/2577-004-DA7549AE.jpg)
-
I had to google Jughandles. I don't hate the idea. What really drives me crazy is California's complete lack of Cloverleafs on the highways.
steve, do you really think california would benefit from cloverleafs...? come on.
my spouse was the one to get me into the best show. the very first time i listened i didnt want any of it, i was more occupied with other things- like getting familiar with them (we met three days earlier). eventually, it caught on and now i listen to it ten hours a day (merely rotating the last three shows). at some point in the week, i pepper in cherry blossom clinic and evan funk davies.
however, in the last year and a half ive been without my spouse, i dont share the best show with third parties, consentual or otherwise. they trash talk it, and hold it against me for boring them for three hours; they just dont get it. although lately, the guy at work who ive previously thrown under the bus on this board for giving me a seriously hard time about the best show v. howard stern or adam carolla has been listening to the best show but still hates the wurster calls and doesnt understand why Tom hangs up on "good calls" and lets "bad calls" (most likely a wurster call) stick around for so long.
it used to bother me, but ive accepted now that im going to listen to the best show and if they like it, great. if they dont, get out of my car/house/office.
-
My wife is still kind of on the fence. Three hours is a long stretch of time for her to concentrate on one thing so she kind of fades out every now and then. On long drives she makes no fuss about listening to the archives. And on Tuesdays, she has recently been scheduling things outside of the house; hair cut, ceramics, whatever. That leaves me three hours of personal work time with TBS on. Not bad. I think I'll keep her.
-
My wife is still kind of on the fence. Three hours is a long stretch of time for her to concentrate on one thing so she kind of fades out every now and then. On long drives she makes no fuss about listening to the archives. And on Tuesdays, she has recently been scheduling things outside of the house; hair cut, ceramics, whatever. That leaves me three hours of personal work time with TBS on. Not bad. I think I'll keep her.
You, sir, have struck gold!
-
Why can't people just leave each other alone for three hours? Sheesh.
I decided to test Sarah's theory last night, and when my wife made a conversational overture during TBSOWFMU, I asked if we could wait until it was over to chat. I was slightly agitated (knowing it was a doomed tactic) so I was less diplomatic than I ought to have been. This resulted in a non-serious, but long-simmering fight during which I was forced to say out loud "Of course I love you more than I love the Best Show!" (It's true, too. I hope I never have to choose just one.)
-
A query more than a theory, sir. And a plaintive one at that. Having lived with men who refuse conversation during all manner of sporting events yet insist on bending my ear when I'm watching/listening to something I care about, I'm well aware that the ideal embodied in my question is rarely realized. This angers me and also may account for why I live alone now (at least in part).
-
My wife is still kind of on the fence. Three hours is a long stretch of time for her to concentrate on one thing so she kind of fades out every now and then. On long drives she makes no fuss about listening to the archives. And on Tuesdays, she has recently been scheduling things outside of the house; hair cut, ceramics, whatever. That leaves me three hours of personal work time with TBS on. Not bad. I think I'll keep her.
You, sir, have struck gold!
Don't I know it! And last nights show was so damn funny, I managed to get zero work done.
-
This angers me and also may account for why I live alone now (at least in part).
Except for your beloved menagerie, right?
You're all right, Sarah.
-
jughandles, no pumping gas
I was in Pennsauken, NJ over the holidays and it's totally the best(?) of NJ and Philly combined. That accent, thanks to PBR, kills me. But the jughandles, to which my reply to my sister-in-law who was giving me directions, was "WTF is a jughandle?" (as opposed to traffic light with a left-hand turning green arrow that would have saved me 10 minutes), and the no pumping gas, which makes being at a gas station 10x longer than it normally is, is a little effed up.
Some people just can't handle the good things. Jughandles make things go faster, and it doesn't take '10 x longer' to get your gas automatically pumped (at a cheaper price than NY, by the way). You went to the wrong gas station. Don't blame that on New Jersey.
Tom.
I said it before and I'll say it again - "I was wrong and I'm sorry". It really wasn't NJ's fault, I was projecting. Can I still blame it on my mother-in-law?
-
hearing all these stories about married couples who dont listen to the best show together makes me realize how lucky i was. now im merely trying to find anyone platonic who will like the best show.
*caution: reads unintentionally "sad bastard"
-
A query more than a theory, sir. And a plaintive one at that. Having lived with men who refuse conversation during all manner of sporting events yet insist on bending my ear when I'm watching/listening to something I care about, I'm well aware that the ideal embodied in my question is rarely realized. This angers me and also may account for why I live alone now (at least in part).
I've always hated this.
The guys who do this are really into grunting and meatheadedness and, well, being guys. What is this, Home Improvement?
I guess I can't really get too mad though, because I don't want to talk to anyone when The Best Show is on or I'm really into a book or movie.
-
A query more than a theory, sir. And a plaintive one at that. Having lived with men who refuse conversation during all manner of sporting events yet insist on bending my ear when I'm watching/listening to something I care about, I'm well aware that the ideal embodied in my question is rarely realized. This angers me and also may account for why I live alone now (at least in part).
I've always hated this.
The guys who do this are really into grunting and meatheadedness and, well, being guys. What is this, Home Improvement?
I guess I can't really get too mad though, because I don't want to talk to anyone when The Best Show is on or I'm really into a book or movie.
BUT that's because The Best Show is a primarily auditory experience. Sports games? They action and stats are all there for you to look at on the screen. Hearing the commentary is just the icing on the cake. I like to turn on a game and listen to Harry Potter books on tape*.
*That entire sentence is untrue. I've never liked turning on a game, nor have I ever listened to a Harry Potter book on tape ... or CD. No technicalities here.
-
I like to turn on a game and listen to Harry Potter books on tape.
The best of both worlds would be this set of Lestat audiobooks I own read by Joe Buck.
-
I can accept a guy's wanting to give his full attention to a sporting event; I just want him to accept my wanting to give my full attention to whatever I'm that interested in. I'm a sauce-for-the-goose kind of gal.
-
I'm a sauce-for-the-goose kind of gal.
Sarah, you say the randiest things.
-
While you, Steve, have a filthy, filthy mind.
-
Whaaaaaaaaaaat?
-
I have tried to hoist TBS on both my SO and coworkers but only some coworkers have enjoyed it on any level. I find work is not a good place for a first time listen but if there is a solid guest or JW call my minions tend to warm up. One coworker in particular thinks Tom is really mean but loves PFT so this weeks show should be a hit.
-
I'm trying to get my girlfriend into the show, but it's difficult because she's usually pretty drained when she gets off work, and doesn't have the energy to dedicate to listening to a three hour show with the focus that TBS deserves. Luckily(?), she lives about an hour and a half away from me, so once I work through the archives I won't have to worry about ignoring her for three hours on Tuesdays to listen to the show live.
-
My wife understands English, but not well enough to follow an fast-paced radio show with a ton of inside jokes and references to famous people and bands she doesn't know. Getting her into the show is near impossible. I'm hoping that after we move back to the US for a while she'll be able to understand something like "Best Week Ever." I've also tried to show her MST3K which didn't translate at all. Too many references to things that only a native American would understand.
I can understand a good amount of the Japanese comedy my wife likes. We watch it on TV, however, where there are Japanese subtitles under everything and a lot of the humor is physical. I still don't know half of my favorite comedians' names however.
-
I think the true definition of an american is one who has a ridiculously disproportionate amount of popculture trivia in their brains. Find me a true american who hasn't seen every single episode of cheers. I dare you.
-
I haven't.
-
I haven't.
Zdravstvuj, komrade.
-
Ya ne pani`mayu.
-
I'm definitely going to start recommending TBSOWFMU to people. I guess Best Show Gems could be an easy sell. I think I might start with my sister, she's fairly cool, and more likely to listen than most of my friends. I am interested, though in knowing how other people have successfully introduced it to people. I have some friends who like Monk, though I'm not sure thats a good angle. "Hey, if you like that funny detective show, why not listen to 3 hours of this guy who works on it talking to people on the phone?"
-
the one guy at work who gave me more grief about it than anybody actually listens every week now! my theory is that he hated missing out while he was forced to listen to me laugh at loud, having fun at work, while he barely chuckled listening to his radio comedy (adam carolla+howard stern).
PS he still hates the wurster bits.
-
Wy wife has a class on Tuesdays, which leaves me with my 7 and 4.5 year old sons. Since I can't get them to sleep by showtime, I usually turn on the show while we eat dinner. They're quite taken with Philly Boy Roy, and they even enjoyed Spike for a bit. They sing the theme song at completely random moments, in the same way that they burst into the "Teen Titans" theme.
My wife has listened to bits on occasion. She laughed a lot at the first call of Sean from Rampbridge, but lost a little enthusiasm when I told her some of the calls might not be real.
-
My brother overheard me listening to the show and began to listen to the podcast himself. Although, I think he has since lost interest. He's a fan of neither mirth nor mayhem.
-
I can't even get to the point where my friends listen. I've tried repeatedly, and for purely selfish reasons, they'll like it, but I want to have a conversation about this thing I like. No dice. Can't get anybody to give it a shot. Mostly the response is "Three hours..." like their iPod doesn't have a pause button. It's maddening. I usually listen to the show from start to finish, but you can go back to it later, it's not a murder mystery about the news. Go back to it tomorrow and listen some more. Ration it.
Angry.
-
A lot more people at my hotel have started hanging out in the office while I have the show on (which is all 8 hours of every night because I often have to rewind because they're talking). But whenever they do shut up, they always get a kick out of the show.
My next convert will be Adam. He's already borrowed my Hippy Justice CD and LOVES it. As a walking music encyclopedia, S&W speak to the core of him.
-
lord how i've tried-- my wife, 15 yo my daughter, my best friend... i get nowhere with my conversion efforts...EXCEPT my brother-in-law-- who I haven't seen in about 10 years but who is now a BSOWFMU fanatic... because of an email i sent him while he was working in Kuwait!
figured he'd like it bein' one a nem philly guys...
-
After many dosings of S&W CD's, my friend Charlene has finally decided to start listening to the show after Tom's "HuNan Giant" remark this week. She's officially hooked. That's THREE!!!
-
I wish my wife had the attention span to appreciate the show. I wonder if it would help if I were to teach my 2 and a half year old daughter the phrase "heave ho".
-
I wish my wife had the attention span to appreciate the show. I wonder if it would help if I were to teach my 2 and a half year old daughter the phrase "heave ho".
it is not uncommon for FOTlings to take after their parents or catch phrases from the show. do it!
-
I wish my wife had the attention span to appreciate the show. I wonder if it would help if I were to teach my 2 and a half year old daughter the phrase "heave ho".
My 3 yr old girl asks to listen to Tom, but she only laughs when he says HEAVE HO!
-
It's a start.
-
One time, my old girlfriend wanted to have dinner on a Tuesday night cause her mom was in town from Cleveland. Needless to say, I had to play the show during the whole thing. The mom didn't seem to mind; but I was the only one laughing... Also, any momentum I had gained in getting her (the girlfriend, not the mom)to like the show was completely destroyed.
On the flip side, my mom does like the best show. She heard Tom making fun of the old "Whopper Freakout" commercial and lost it.
-
Over my last trip home, I tried to get my brother into the show and his only feedback was "Doesn't this guy know that dead air is bad?"
Doesn't my brother know that that's the best part?
I haven't been home since...
-
yeah i get that a lot too: "i hate dead air" or "what's with the dead air?"
it's called letting the show breath, i explain. this always results in a heated discussion on what makes a good radio show. by the end, my argument remains, "i like it so you dont have to" or "tom wouldnt want you anyway"
it's also noted very quickly by the third party that tom is a jerk for hanging up on people. granted, i continue to rush to tom's defense but if they dont get it, they dont get it.
-
Calling into the show is a good way to get loved ones to listen.
-
My wife enjoys the show, PBR especially, and has taken to slipping the occasional "Wait, whaaaat?" into casual conversation. She's also a fan of Gene Simmons Toyota of Newbridge on Facebook.
However, I am the downloader and keeper of the podcasts, which we'll usually listen to in the car. And while I don't miss an episode, the wife doesn't make a point to listen, just picking it up peripherally. There's also times when she'll veto the Best Show, saying, "I want to listen to music." What the crap hell is that all about!?!?
That said, tonight we're going to listen live for the first time. And our marriage will be stronger for it.
-
havent posted in a while, just checked in and saw this thread was still around.
tonight after a long drive back in the rain from LBI to south philly, I played the juggalo/PFT episode and was laughing so hard i made my wife and daughter laugh not with me but *at* me.
since i made this thread, my wife has started to like the show a bit more, but still dislikes the JW calls. her view is that they are "a little funny but go on way too long".
she also went from thinking the heave hos were "mean" to now cracking up at them with me.