The Best/Worst Moments of last night's show

[Austin From Chicago]

Zach from Mraincahsmsoansds is worse than most Reddit trolls. May he live in interesting times.

Tom, we love you. Don't let those assholes get you down, sir.

[HipGuide]

I think this proves the regular caller ban didn't really work. Laurie and others may have been pointlessly calling, but they weren't malicious.

[GroverJefferson]

I think the idea of the former ban on regulars was to get some new blood, which in theory is great... the beauty of The Best Show over podcasts is that it does rely so much on callers, and evolves based on their ebb and flow. Unfortunately, there's a dearth of great regulars of late... Spike is still reliable, and the Alabammy Comet simply can't be stopped, but other than that? I can't think of folks who have been checking in all that often (and to be entirely fair, I've missed a lot of weeks as of late, so my apologies to you if you have been, as I'm sure you're terrific so long as your name isn't ack-zay from ithamine-may).

Bottom line is the show (whenever it's back) needs new regulars. Who here is going to step up and take a stab? Call in without an agenda, not fawn or flop, and just have a chat every now and again? I know I've always wanted to give it a shot (and have all of twice in the 5 or so years I've listened), and maybe I will. Its such a rare and cool opportunity to be able to contribute to something you love, and I think anyone who's ever pondered it has a real great chance to give back right now.

[bananagrabbers]

I just hope Tom remembers that there are way more Friends out there than those two cretins (I spent a lot of today also wondering if Z***** and Randy identify as FOTs and how I feel about that) who are just silent on the airwaves because we respect him too much to call in and waste all of our time thanking him all night. I hope some of this makes sense. I'm still trying to figure it all out.

I don't call for the same reason, but after this week's show, I think I need to start, because it's apparent that the cretins have no such reservations about calling in and ruining the show I love.

My favorite part of this week's show was Tom's excitement over the coyote call.

[Epic Soundtracks]

Best: Gene Krupa of getting drunk; "Worst" (not really): did TS ever come back to discussing LZ on Letterman? I couldn't watch it, something about it felt very stilted and awkward

[Eric Fishlegs]

Best: Gene Krupa of getting drunk; "Worst" (not really): did TS ever come back to discussing LZ on Letterman? I couldn't watch it, something about it felt very stilted and awkward

No, he didn't. Quite frankly I have no interest in hearing them talk, I only want them to play music.

[Joe Rogaine]

Best part "the call" worst part Tom not realizing it was radio gold and ending the show early.

[dave from knoxville]

Best part "the call" worst part Tom not realizing it was radio gold and ending the show early.

Radio gold? Really?

[Joe Rogaine]

Best part "the call" worst part Tom not realizing it was radio gold and ending the show early.

Radio gold? Really?

Tom giving him the floor and him imploding was great cringy  stuff.

[dave from knoxville]

I hated it. This is not how I want to see the show go out.

[Greggulator]

I feel somewhat responsible for the whole Mit Hamine nonsense since I called that kid out ages ago. He probably would have still kept on keeping on but we'll never know.

Anyways, Zach did play a great foil for Tom for a while. One of the best parts about Howard Stern are when he has guests and personalities who he can battle with -- The Jesus Twins, Eric the Midget. Tom's also talked about his "love" of Bob Grant, who was pretty much the first right-wing radio guy and had a longtime show in the NYC market. Bob used to rip the hell out of callers non-stop and it used to get really combative and crazy. IMO, Zach was essentially like that for The Best Show for a little bit. Tom putting up with him has led to so many really funny moments -- Tom threatening to break his record with a hammer, etc.

But his shtick has a limited shelf life and he went from being "I love to hate this guy" to "I hate this guy" really quickly. The whole "Using far-left causes in order to shill 7-inches" thing could be a Wurster call (it's not too far away from Hammerhead) but it's completely repugnant since that's this kid's real deal.

As far as the last call -- that guy was just a dumb dumb. That was infuriating.

[Joe Rogaine]

I feel somewhat responsible for the whole Mit Hamine nonsense since I called that kid out ages ago. He probably would have still kept on keeping on but we'll never know.

Anyways, Zach did play a great foil for Tom for a while. One of the best parts about Howard Stern are when he has guests and personalities who he can battle with -- The Jesus Twins, Eric the Midget. Tom's also talked about his "love" of Bob Grant, who was pretty much the first right-wing radio guy and had a longtime show in the NYC market. Bob used to rip the hell out of callers non-stop and it used to get really combative and crazy. IMO, Zach was essentially like that for The Best Show for a little bit. Tom putting up with him has led to so many really funny moments -- Tom threatening to break his record with a hammer, etc.

But his shtick has a limited shelf life and he went from being "I love to hate this guy" to "I hate this guy" really quickly. The whole "Using far-left causes in order to shill 7-inches" thing could be a Wurster call (it's not too far away from Hammerhead) but it's completely repugnant since that's this kid's real deal.

As far as the last call -- that guy was just a dumb dumb. That was infuriating.

Yeah the last call from NC was almost as bad,  the dude had no clue what the show is about.

[cavorting with nudists]

I hated it. This is not how I want to see the show go out.

The whole thing was an agony, but when he giggled at Tom calling him out on hyping his band, and then said "Words are an illusion," I wanted to reach my hands through the speakers and strangle the little wad.  Enough, I'm done thinking and talking about him.

On to more important questions: I didn't hear Brian Wilson mentioned, so I hope he was just part of a general Hate Pit amnesty even though Pleasure Island never arrived.

[Steve of Bloomington]

The Mit Hamine dude was booted off the board months ago for being an argumentative wad who kept engaging in personal attacks. JSYK.

His posts were so cryptically written and spelled it was hard to even know if they were personal attacks. Like he walked out of the book Riddley Walker or something.

[peterenlucha]

I haven't finished the whole episode yet, so I can't comment on this Randy from NC, character. But Zach's behavior is classic sectarian disruption. Folks like this go to events, meetings, join groups with the apparent purpose of talking about an issue that's important to them, whether or not it's germane. Their real goal is to either split the group or create so much chaos that folks just throw up their hands and walk away. They do this to eliminate competition or just tear other people down because they're not on the approved program.

If anyone here has ever been involved in left or progressive politics of some sort you've probably seen these people at work. You have to be pretty messed up emotionally to spend your life inflicting this kind of damage on others, as Zach clearly is.

A lifetime ban is the only way to deal with this sort of thing.

Enough wasted time and energy on this creep.

The show has been exceptionally good lately and this episode (with two exceptions) was great as well. Marc Maron's call, Paycheck's call and rich bluesman story were fantastic and I haven't even listened to  Gary and Mike's reconciliation!

Tom, you've been giving master class in mirth for a long time now and it's a shame that sociopaths like these guys have to try to mess that up.