Author Topic: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers  (Read 3774 times)

joeFOT

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Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« on: April 04, 2019, 01:12:05 PM »
I'm a longtime fan, almost 10 years, though I hadn't been listening as much lately, having my plate full with some other podcasts. I come back and listen to this short Bests ep #117 (12 min) just now. It starts up as a solo Tom bit. It's going strong, I'm enjoying myself, man I've missed this guy. He starts taking callers, a few guys getting on and joining in on the joke, keeping it moving, keeping the bit rolling down the highway.

Then around the 6min mark a lady caller gets on with Tom the trucker.  Her convo starter on air is just like "how are you doing tonight", then asking "what's the topic?" She has no idea what's going on, like is not even listening. She procedes to just grind the whole bit to a halt, completely kill the momentum, just dead air...and Tom just lets it happen, god forbid he should ever hang up on a woman caller. So after 5 minutes of good Tom, then two minutes of a wet blanket, I have to stop and can't even finish the 11 minutes of total content. Then Tom includes this as a "best"...he could have just edited this dud caller out for a Best.

It's so weird the way Tom handles women on air, especially women who are bad callers. He would not give this type of caller the time of day if it was a dude, but if it's a woman and she's bad somehow he ends up letting her sit on the line extra extra long, and it's so annoying. I know he means well and wants to be inclusive, but in effect he's making women look unfunny by giving the bad ones all the time of day, and on top of that not making it funny by making fun of them or any of his normal funny treatment of callers.  This kind of thing really started annoying me a while back and def contributed to me listening less, and it sucks that right when I come back to the show after a little break, it only takes 5 minutes before I run into an egregious example of it.

Yeah I know how I probably sound to a lot of people, I probably sound like I'm hating on women.  I'm not anti-women or anti-women-in-comedy though, I'm just anti-making the show worse for any reason.

FredN.

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #1 on: April 04, 2019, 02:36:16 PM »
Then around the 6min mark a lady caller gets on with Tom the trucker.  Her convo starter on air is just like "how are you doing tonight", then asking "what's the topic?" She has no idea what's going on, like is not even listening. She procedes to just grind the whole bit to a halt, completely kill the momentum, just dead air...and Tom just lets it happen, god forbid he should ever hang up on a woman caller.

To be honest, as another 10+ year listener, I recognized that right away, and I agree that Tom does let female callers (I think that is preferable to 'woman caller'?) go on too long -- when they are not bringing anything to the table -- compared to male callers.

Now, I do sense some anti- sentiments in your writing, or maybe it's just the old school way you refer to 'woman callers', but it doesn't take away the fact that this is a true point you bring up. It has gotten to the point that if an unfunny, or unhelpful-to-the-cause caller (you know the kind, they don't read Tom right, they are weird in a bad way, they are super lame, etc.) the odds of the caller being on air longer than they should be goes up exponentially if the caller is female.

But it's Tom's show and Tom's call. He likely wants to make up for a super-majority of callers being dudes (or lame dudes) and it's not a bad idea to try and work a dud caller a little bit to extract some funny. But I really wish he was quicker on the trigger more often. Ripping thru multiple dud calls quickly can lead to more likely laffs than letting a dud caller push the train off the tracks even more.

Clsn

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #2 on: April 04, 2019, 06:54:51 PM »
I'm so very, very sorry that some portion of a twelve-minute experience wasn't as much to your respective likings as you would have both preferred.  As somebody who listens to the show, is there some way I personally can make it up to you?

joeFOT

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2019, 10:43:15 PM »
Thanks, FredN, for a thoughtful response.  I was expecting more like the next one from Clsn.  Apologies if "woman caller" is offensive and "female caller" is okay - I don't see a huge difference but if that's the consensus I'm happy to use the latter.

And to Clsn, maybe you can make it up to me by not adding to the outrage/offended culture that makes talking about things so difficult and thorny.  Was that you on the call in question?  Do you identify as a bad female caller?  If not you sure seem to be taking what we said personally.  Anyway it's not about one 12 minute clip, and you can't think that's all we were talking about, so thanks for being disingenuous.  This is about a show that we both have a lot invested in over the years, as you seem to, which has changed and not all for the better.  Now I've said my piece and I feel a little better, maybe somebody else was thinking the same thing and they can speak up, or someone can say why we are wrong.  I'm happy to read someone else's perspective on the topic, if it agrees with me or disagrees - mainly just not the type of sarcastic, smug, shut-down response like you gave.

Clsn

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2019, 01:50:10 PM »
lmao, you're explicitly calling for a dude to be ruder to some ladies for your entertainment bud

FredN.

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2019, 03:48:05 PM »
lmao, you're explicitly calling for a dude to be ruder to some ladies for your entertainment bud

Clsn is a troll. No one is calling for Tom to be ruder to women. Well, I'm not at least. Instead, I tried to thoughtfully point out something that is likely happening on an unconscious level - dud callers are not being hung up on quick enough because they are (a) rare female callers to a call-in show that historically lacked in female callers, and (b) females have historically been shut out of comedy.

You may have read some 'anti-' commentary in JoeFOT's initial post. You should not have read any in mine. While I self identify as straight male, I am actively engaged in a profession that represents women in areas in which they are either vulnerable or not receiving their fair share (or are even being stigmatized by their gender). I use my real name for Chrissakes. Of course, this is the Internet, so who knows. I assume your real name is Chris Collision, which is braver than I who only uses a last initial.

All that to rebut a dang troll. But in case anyone who matters is reading this sub-forum, I want it to be clear: I want every dud caller treated the same!

Clsn

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2019, 06:18:22 PM »
Not a troll, bud.  Just not into your position.

fonpr

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2019, 07:30:06 PM »
I want every dud caller treated the same!
That is not unreasonable.
"Like it or not, Florida seems dedicated to a 'live fast, die' way of doing things."

joeFOT

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2019, 12:04:46 AM »
Well Clsn, you don't seem to have a position yourself, all you know is you're just not into FredN's position? My position, which I think I share with FredN, is as follows:

1. Dud callers on average get treated differently by Tom depending on if they are male or female.

2. Dud callers should either be made fun of or hung up on.

For starters, can you at least say which of these you are not into, or both, or is it something else?  You can just troll though if you want, I've trolled before, it can be fun if you're bored.

Clsn

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #9 on: April 08, 2019, 01:05:11 PM »
I disagree with you about who is / is not a dud caller.  Some of the most popular ones don't really do it for me, which is fine.  I ride those calls out and generally enjoy what's on the other side.  But mainly what I do is try to enjoy the calls on their own terms: Tom's not god, he's not infallible, but he's a damned good radio host, and I try to come at the calls with the assumption that he knows what he's going for, and that what he's going for is going to be interesting if I take it on its own terms.

puffskull

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #10 on: April 08, 2019, 11:14:01 PM »
Brothers, Sisters, come together...

I feel as though no-one who has commented in this thread is a misogynist or being actively sexist. Yes i understand that i am yet another dude commenting on this phenomenon but i think the central point about Tom letting non-cis-male bad/boring calls go on longer is a thing. Also, totally get that it is probably Tom balancing the ledger a little bit in a male-dominated space. Which i am for.

Though there is still a further balance to be found between balancing out the callers and making the show interesting and funny as possible.

I do miss a bit the savage GOMP-ing of yesteryear. And that is a separate but related issue which i think is being conflated a little bit. The nature of the show in its current form vs the truly horrible/left-field calls that he would get on WFMU means that there is naturally less comedy to mine in the savaging of callers...

...maybe that's part of why this issue has come up. But i'm all for the evolution of the show and would much rather have this version than Tom to be bored doing the same thing he did ten years ago or nothing at all.

FredN.

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #11 on: April 09, 2019, 10:29:30 AM »
Brothers, Sisters, come together...

...maybe that's part of why this issue has come up. But i'm all for the evolution of the show and would much rather have this version than Tom to be bored doing the same thing he did ten years ago or nothing at all.

Agree with both - the MC5 type sentiment about coming together, and that Tom evolves his show into something even more spectacular. I've got my helmet on and I'm strapped in for the ride!

bdb318

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #12 on: April 12, 2019, 07:15:35 AM »
BRING BACK HASU KID


Brothers, Sisters, come together...

...maybe that's part of why this issue has come up. But i'm all for the evolution of the show and would much rather have this version than Tom to be bored doing the same thing he did ten years ago or nothing at all.

Agree with both - the MC5 type sentiment about coming together, and that Tom evolves his show into something even more spectacular. I've got my helmet on and I'm strapped in for the ride!

Vinyl.Score

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Re: Best Show Bests 117 - Pokemon for Truckers
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2019, 09:53:53 AM »
She was on for less than 90 seconds. Tom tends to Gomp when he can make it funny, he was probably just looking for an opening.
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