Tom i've listened to at least 80% of the shows in the archive and i rate the show together with the uk office, Tim Hiedeckers stuff, Monthy Pythons hunt for the holy grail ,Frisky Dingo, Alan Partridge and the thick of it as the best comedy things that's been done. The last two years however there have been a trend that have troubled me, and that trend is that the quality and diversity of callers have been reduced. The show has also, to my ears, gone from being a polyphonic show, with many different voices talking, to just one voice and one point of view taking up too much space. Some reasons i think this is the case below:
- If one listens to shows that were made back in 2005, one things that stands out is that there were a lot more quirky callers. Sure a lot of them were stupid, some of them were annoying and a lot of them were offensive. With that said, bar the offensive ones, it's kind of funny to listen to stupid and annoying callers sometimes. I can't see how a person like Petey would get a chance to show his personality on the current show, he'd just get hung up on after 10 seconds. Would it be possible to sometimes just give the odd, slightly jarring personalities a bit more space?
- sychopants taking up way too much space on the show when they should be banned forever from calling. I get that it's draining to talk to a bunch of lunatics all the time, but as a listener it's not super funny to listen to guys who just wants to be on the radio and who doesn't seem to have their own personality either, they're just reflecting your opinions back at you. An example of this would be the torrent of people who called up regarding seeing Todd Barry and Ted Leo in concert in 2011. You eventually clamped down on this but there were several months where it seemed to be just talk about how great Todd Barry and Ted Leo are, zero friction and completely predicteable. Right now the trick these sychopants employ is to call up and ask you "what you think about something because they're unsure what they're supposed to think about that thing". So uh what do you think of the latest season of breaking bad? is it good should i watch it? Is it ok for me to like shoegazer music? They're not contributing anything, they don't have a voice of their own. Another problem are the gushing fan callers who don't have anything to say except that the show saved their lives. These callers should not get through the call screening process except on rare occasions, you deserve the praise but is the show really the right place for that? if they don't have anything funny or interesting to say, they are not contributing are they?
-The lack of the working man caller. The increase of comedy nerds and psychopant callers getting through to the show has made the topics discussed much more narrow. Going back a couple of years i seem to recall there being more "real life" people calling in about their job and their situation. There haven't been a new officer Tom since officer Tom, and that's a great shame because he is a great caller. He's got interesting things to say and he is more on an even footing with you, a real person with a distinct personality that isn't just reflection of your own. One of the calls i've heard lately that was interesting was a guy who worked at bar calling in, selling cigarrettes and alcohol in the middle of the night. What's the deal with that guy? He must have gone through some interesting stuff in that situation, unfortunately that call was quickly dispensed with. Officer Tom can easily be contrasted with Jason from Alabama or whatever that guy is called, he's on almost every show and he's basically just a watered down version of Tom Scharpling, he doesn't give anything to the show that's not already there.
I think the main problem here is the call screening process, when Mike was replaced a couple of months ago with another guy, the diversity of topics and interesting conversations just went through the roof. Tom your opinions and the topics you are knowledgeable about are all interesting and funny to listen to, but the trend for the last two years has been that those opinions and topics have completely suffocated everything else, mostly because of callers that are just mirrors, psychopantic reflections of you getting way too much space. The show is at its best, in my opinion of course, when there's a large variety of people with different opinions, personalities, interests and life situations calling in, when there's a balance between what's going on in Tom Scharplings head and the outside world and when there's a little bit of chaos creeping in at times. Latest Garry Shandling bashing episode was one of the best i've heard in terms of Tom talk, but the polyphonic aspect of the show is still missing, more voices needs to be part of the mix, stronger voices needs to be part of the mix, imo of course. Maybe get a call screener in that isn't such a wet blanket and with a better ear for caller diversity? Either way, it's still a great show but i can't help but feel it could be vastly improved by just some small changes.
