The Spoon

It never fails - when Bill Holmes is plugged into the proceedings (often as the podcasting equivalent of a booty call) The Spoon becomes a shattering, supercharged circuit. A white-hot, searing flame of comedic chaos. Or, as Peppy Boner himself puts it, "a total clusterfuck of talk." Literally from the intro, the show is off to Mars on a rocket of random, and can barely be bothered to wave goodbye. Sacred and profane, discerning and obtuse, referential and solipsistic... the gamut gets not only run, but run over, and not a Zeus-damned thing can be done about it. Enjoy! Music by The Well Wishers, The Swinging Madisons, and Jonathan Coulton.

Spoony superenthusiast Emily-ann Herrington thought that appearing as a guest on the show would be a good for a lark. how wrong she was. But with an onslaught of japes aimed at everything from her country of origin to her pop culture preferences raining down upon her, she serves it right back with wit and gusto. Also, she's the earliest late guest the show has ever had, so bonus points for that. Other topics include the end of film, life on the potato picking line, Winnipeg's surprisingly high murder rate, and the never-ending nomenclature war between soda and pop. Music by Kelly's Heels, Jensen Bell, and 7 Deadly 5.

Bill Funt injects himself into the mishpoche this week, and the important questions follow: what is the difference between Emergency and Emergency One? Who can sum up Marty Kroft in a single sentence? Why are some transgender operations trickier than others? When does good become TOO good? Along the way, friends of the show call in to wish us well and wage their wares, and everyone learns a lesson about vetting heroes and defending villains. Plus, the Westboro Baptist Church’s food sucks… and such small portions, too! Music by The Cretones, The Mockers, and Any Trouble.

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Whatever the answer for Allen Lulu, he’s more excited to be a guest on this week’s show than the mind can comfortably conceive, and at the end of the day he weathers the conversational storm in fine form as we barrel through the surprising economics of football, the disturbing banality of the porn industry, the magical synergy of making music, and yet another trench run at that sweet, sweet Subway money. Plus, who started the Borscht talk? Not Me! Music by Throttleback Sparky

Can the show - nay, the Universe itself - survive all three members of Nice Guy Eddie being in the studio together? Find out, as Dave Shalansky joins us for a whirlwind of topical palaver, with affection for Yiddish, antipathy for celebrity baby names, and ambivalence about the return of Van Halen all present on the conversational menu. Plus, the Zen of Vegas, Dueling McCartneys, and this week’s Sodomizing A Legacy gets meta-muddled, in glorious fashion. Music by The Paul Collins Beat and Great Buildings.

Quinton Flynn forgoes his duties as the Spoon’s Suave Shalansky long enough to let his magnificent coif down and delve into the nerdery of anime conventions, at which he appears frequently and with much fanfare. Also, the axiom of never meeting your heroes seems to have at least one exception, which is watching your hero meet THEIR heroes, and just how white can the men of The Spoon sound whilst pitching a TV show about African-American rock musicians? The answer is none. None more white. Music by Cliff Hillis, Martin Briley, and The Sugarplastic.