My (BSWFMU) Story (how I got over the learning curve)

[erechoveraker]

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.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

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.

[Spreekemp]

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. 

[Spreekemp]

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.

[crumbum]

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.

[Julie]

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.}

[tenspeed]

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.

[Taverner]

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.

[mrs. denneldoff]

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. 

[masterofsparks]

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.

[mrs. denneldoff]

[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.

[<<<<<]

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). 

[jake8jazz]

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.

[MichelleinGB]

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...

[Gibby]

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.