unconsenting third party listeners

[driz]

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

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

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.   

[Bryan]

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.

[erika]

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.

[dave from knoxville]

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.

[Kid Pain]

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.

[driz]

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.  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.

[Sarah]

Why can't people just leave each other alone for three hours?  Sheesh.

[hugman]

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.

[masterofsparks]

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.

[JonFromMaplewood]

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.

[driz]

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!

[Steve in North Hollywood]

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.

[Fido]

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

[theaidan]

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).