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...

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. O...

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...

Perhaps love is a many-splendored thing. Perhaps love is a battlefield. Perhaps love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath, and at night, the ice weasels come. Perhaps love just stinks. Whatever your perspective, the men of The Spoon and special guest Jenni Rosen have you covered on this pre-funk to Valentine's Day, along with ruminations...

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 a...

Rob's girlfriend Jenni is here to do some mythbusting on male/female relations, but not before the show plows through a raft of Facebook flamings, DMV woes, movie cries, college tutoring, and a random rummage through the studio's filing cabinet in search of the wily and elusive Bell Of Insult. Eventually, education and elucidation do ensue, and are all the sweeter for being hard-won. Presumably. A...

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 S...

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 p...

It's all about filters this week: whether it be the mist of nostalgia, the blood-rush of tribalism, or the constantly shifting sands of cultural propriety, it cannot be denied that perception colors reality, and reality gets pretty weird as a result. Are the men of The Spoon able to pierce this veil and see things as they truly are? Maybe not, but it's fun listening to them try. Plus, Rob can fina...

And the men of The Spoon wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer. Thus, on the second day of the first month in the year of our lord two thousand and twelve, they turned the full glare of their conversational lens in toward one another, and began upon a campaign of self-promotion and self-destruction, largely centered around what kind of bands they dig. Will this righteously indignant kick-...

Past, present, and future collide as the men of The Spoon assess their own story so far (complete with audio flashbacks!) and look toward the chapters yet to come, all while giving 2011 the arse-kicking out the door that it so richly deserves. Plus, the director's cut of "Billy Squier: Sodomizing A Legacy" is finally aired, and anthropological answers to your cuisine-related questions. Enjoy! Musi...

They may be overeager to put 2011 in the rear-view mirror, but the men of The Spoon still have room in their hearts (and time on their hands) to dissect caroling culture, Canadian winter, the anti-cool of A Capella groups, a permanent geographical fix for the Northeastern US, one of the worst "bad date" stories in the history of ever, and even spare a thought for their favorite Christmas memories,...

Johnny Dam is on a mission to educate the men of The Spoon, and provide a rousing wave of slow claps when and if any lessons sink in. Items on the syllabus include the difference between comics and comedians, the downside of human evolution, practical advice on celebrity impersonations, and important criteria for determining the Sexiest Woman Alive. Also, praise for artists who get a second act, a...

The achievements of Bill Holmes are already the stuff of legend,but successfully giving himself a nickname is surely his zenith. Join "Poppy", along with conversational companions Sean "Jilly" Brennan, Chris "Mitch"Jackson, Thom "Who?" Bowers and Robbie "Robbie!!!" Rist, as they plumb the comic cases and whimsical whatnots of movie medication, animal allegories, real-doll relationships, and other...

There is joy in Spoonville this week, if for no other reason than our willingness to find humor in the apocalypse -- whether it be of the classic Hestonian variety, or the more contemporary Black Friday flavor. Other topics include the art of canine communication (both telepathic and olfactory), and the importance of having specific goals for 2012. Music by Foxy Shazam, Electric Angels, and an esp...

Spending the show as a dramaturgical triad for the first time in a couple of months, the men of The Spoon seek shelter from the trials and perils of real life by pondering such questions as what do we mean by "real", and how can we arrive at an empirical definition of "life"? Also, which is tougher to endure: horror done right, or comedy done wrong? And where have all the non-vanilla sportscasters...

Sometimes the men of The Spoon are able to mix the silly and the serious with a deft, neuro-surgical touch, but this week the results are more Frankenstein-esque. Shit gets real over the goings-on at Penn State, throwing what had been a regular round of shenanigans into a debate over power, responsibility, community, and humanity. Plenty of gallows humor to be found here (especially from special g...

Bill "Pappy" Holmes returns to the show on a mission to promote his new radio adaptation of A Christmas Carol, and is only slightly sidetracked by having to spill his entire professional biography as the price of admission. Also, amid tales of pixel blood, eyebrow spikes, horseback drill teams, Spanish verbalization of varying quality and veracity, the Zen of Tim Gunn, and mad love for Stump The B...

It's often been said that The Spoon is a show ahead of its time. That has never been more literally true than this week's episode, broadcast on Halloween but disproportionately concerned with the approaching Christmas season. NDR head cheese Johnny Dam joins us for a rollicking evening of righteous indignation, reflective rumination, and Re-Animator talk. Also, a trick-or-treater visits the studio...

Tonight, the men of The Spoon are pleased to render for you a highgrade slice of puerility, lovingly sprinkled with non-sequitur, and drowned inan avalanche of What The Fuck. Join us, along with special guests Kerry Kompost and Jerry Beller of Mars Hollow, as we learn that the differences between powerpoppers and progressive rockers are only skin-deep, while their sames go rightdown to the bone. (...

Although menaced by studio vermin and suffering from such ailments as Facebook fatigue, Gosling fatigue, and Insomnia fatigue (is that even a thing?), the men of The Spoon are game for a conversational campaign on the subjects of Simpsons & Stooges, dots and feathers, testectomies and trailers, and all manner of minutia. Dave Shalansky pops in from the 8th dimension to once again sit in for Rob, w...

Dave Shalansky returns to the show; older,wiser, and brimming with both excitement about his return to stand-up, and stress about his upcoming wedding -- specifically, the dilemma of DJ selection. Rob's girlfriend Jenni calls in to defend his manhood from Dave's spurious send-ups, and Rob himself checks in a little later with an attempt to steer the show toward the thoughtful and relevant topic of...

The men of The Spoon have vowed never to do re-runs, but tonight they take a shot at their first Best-Of episode. The 127 Hours/baby lube discussion from ep25 is here, along with the first recorded airing of Rob's Disney Princess rant, from all the way back in ep2. Plus, classic SALs of Lucas and Lohan, and live commentary -- of sorts -- provided by Chris & Thom. Music by The Andersons, Sorrows, a...

It cannot be denied, the show is weird this week. The men of The Spoon seem to be caught in the grip of a strange, unusually mellow energy field, gliding through the proceedings in a laconic – for them – fashion, and constantly quoting song lyrics for no apparent reason. Fortunately, Quinton Flynn is there tohelp polish the amorphous humor blobs into diamond-edged zingers, and James Honeyman Smith...

Experiencing some quasi-hangover after last week's comedic cliff dive, this installment finds the men of The Spoon in a more reflective mood, pondering the slippery, volatile nature of supply and demand, and the odd predicament of those who start out as part of The Solution but eventually go on to perpetuate The Problem. Plus, the gig that saved Rob's life, and the wounds that Thom receive from a...