He touches the mic before calling it a hot mic...oh god...
posted by mittens at 6:03 AM on December 21, 2023 [9 favorites]

This SNL fake commercial was, sadly, cut to make time on the show.

Fisher-Price Podcast Set for White Guys
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:16 AM on December 21, 2023 [42 favorites]

Oh my God I'M NOT IMAGINING IT they really all have the same 4 sponsors don't they!!!
posted by MiraK at 6:30 AM on December 21, 2023 [6 favorites]

Men will do anything to avoid just telling each other they miss each other and want to hang out more, including starting a podcast
posted by rhymedirective at 6:40 AM on December 21, 2023 [13 favorites]

Fisher-Price Podcast Set for White Guys

This is amazing
posted by medusa at 7:55 AM on December 21, 2023

"It's personal for me because... I lost my brother to podcasting."
posted by medusa at 8:05 AM on December 21, 2023 [4 favorites]

That cold open though. "People don't know this, but did you know sleep is actually bad for you?" "Did you read that somewhere?" "I don't read, it lowers your testosterone."

Amazing.
posted by mhoye at 8:16 AM on December 21, 2023 [23 favorites]

Yeah, the opening sketch is really on-point.

The part about 17 year olds and podcasting from street corners doesn't ring true for me. Like, it would actually be cool if that were a thing, but it's not. I get that it plays into the 'police busting petty criminals' idea, but these kinds of podcasts seem to necessitate men who exude an aura of adult-ness, wealth, and power, not underdogs.

In-studio cigars and whisky (sometimes even gratuitous guns). Expensive tech, leather couches. Comfort. Sports metaphors and Marcus Aurelius. A general stance of how feminism has gone too far, a longing for the days when men could be men, and a lament for how the current generation of kids is too weak, stupid, and woke.

But a lot of 17 year olds listen to these podcasts, which is the really sad thing.
posted by splitpeasoup at 8:57 AM on December 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Multiple white guys. Big fucking microphones stuck right in front of their face. Big fucking headphones on their heads. All wearing hats! Obvious greenscreened background. Vapid pseudo conversations with a lot of talking over. Loads of veiled talk about being misunderstood, being oppressed, all strung out within pompous chest thumping and we know what¡¯s best. To be honest¡­ who the fuck cares?
posted by njohnson23 at 9:30 AM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

I don't know if it dovetails with this exactly, except to say that I am part of the problem, but my partner and I have a Yuppie Swear Jar now. We put a dollar in it every time one of us starts a statement with "I was listening to a podcast..." or "I was reading an article about..."

and like, honestly I think we might wind up getting a new TV out of the deal inside a year. If we start adding in conversations about the cat we might manage to save up to buy a house after all.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 9:54 AM on December 21, 2023 [12 favorites]

I thought the street corner thing was hilarious and worked on a few levels. The mapping to drug problem, of course. But also the tendency of these types to exude an image of personal success that probably isn't really there. It's also not that far off something like homeless twitch streamers which are definitely a thing. It's kind of a perfect heightening of all these things.

The whole sketch reminds me of something like early lonely island. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see these guys on snl in the number of years. Or get some kind of netflix-like sketch show.
posted by Flaffigan at 10:35 AM on December 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

"I can stop podcasting whenever I want man!" (He says as he's editing and sound checking his last new episode of the year)
posted by drewbage1847 at 11:00 AM on December 21, 2023

I'll tell you the thing that maddens me about some podcasters. I'll tell you the thing that maddens me about some podcasters. It's a thing they do all the time, all the time, and it maddens me. It makes me mad. It's the way they repeat things. They repeat things and it makes me mad. It's the thing that maddens me about them.
posted by BCMagee at 11:13 AM on December 21, 2023 [36 favorites]

Accurate.
posted by senor biggles at 12:58 PM on December 21, 2023

Okay, this and the Fisher Price ad are both amusing.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:17 PM on December 21, 2023

You better be amused, Sharon!
posted by medusa at 1:22 PM on December 21, 2023

When I was 17 I had a radio show, but I suppose that was pre internet, when selection and broadcast of newer music was highly limited, and required a lot of effort.

At 17 I had much more time than I do currently, to listen and screen the newest music. I would listen to the playlist of such a person now, if I could only find them in the mess of podcasts
posted by eustatic at 1:42 PM on December 21, 2023

So a podcast is just a radio show, but without an editor?
posted by eustatic at 1:43 PM on December 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

Depends on the podcast and the point - the big guys all have editors and producers like a professional radio show. My tiny little podcast had my cohost and I acting as editors and producers. (We each take different roles and alternate editing) But like the 37ish minute episode I'm just wrapping up has 500 edits in it.

But yes, I'd guess the absolutely mass tonnage of podcasts out there (and thus the target of this parody) are a couple of dudes with mics who drop straight unedited fooferal onto the internet.
posted by drewbage1847 at 2:32 PM on December 21, 2023

Yooooo too real man.
posted by Wretch729 at 4:24 PM on December 21, 2023

I'll tell you the thing that maddens me about some podcasters. I'll tell you the thing that maddens me about some podcasters. It's a thing they do all the time, all the time, and it maddens me. It makes me mad. It's the way they repeat things. They repeat things and it makes me mad. It's the thing that maddens me about them.

They have to fill space and they really don't have much to say
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 6:53 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

Splitpeasoup, your ideas are intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your podcast
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 7:43 PM on December 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

They have to fill space and they really don't have much to say

That's basically the entire Internet.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 11:04 PM on December 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

> But a lot of 17 year olds listen to these podcasts, which is the really sad thing.

pump up the volume?
posted by kliuless at 5:55 AM on December 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

talk hard

it's kind of funny how people's opinions of these kinds of shows flip once there's one (1) woman on the panel.

By which I mean, Alice Caldwell-Kelly is a culture heroine who must be protected at all costs.
posted by snuffleupagus at 7:42 AM on December 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

But I wanted the code!
posted by tafetta, darling! at 9:59 AM on December 22, 2023

pump up the volume

I'll also leave this here for anyone who needs it

Wave of Mutilation (The Pixies, 'UK Surf' version)
posted by snuffleupagus at 5:30 PM on December 23, 2023

I tried podcasting but the whales all swam away.
posted by hypnogogue at 9:44 AM on December 24, 2023