The Bugle - Literally Anybody Else

Episode Date: March 31, 2024

Who do the American public want at the forefront of their democracy? Maybe it's Literally Anybody Else? But beware what you wish for. Also, Scotland embraces hate and New Zealand fights dolphins. Andy... Zaltzman is with James Nokise and Josh Gondelman, in Edinburgh.A new Ask Andy is hitting your feed this week. Send thoughts and questions for Andy at hellobuglers@thebuglepodcast.com. Click follow to make sure you get every episode and please drop us a nice review or rating wherever you choose.A favour: Please rate and review this show. Share it around. We always forget to ask people to do this.This episode was presented and written by:Andy ZaltzmanJames NokiseJosh GondelmanChris SkinnerAnd producer by Chris Skinner and Laura Turner Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Starting point is 00:00:26 Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah Gonna have to take my word for it. Welcome to issue 4297 of The Bugle, audio newspaper for a visual world. This show comes from our Bugle live show in Edinburgh last Thursday for which I was joined by James Nakise at the Queen's Hall, a former church turned performance venue that I'm delighted to say turned out to have been 100% decommissioned properly, as proven by the fact that I was not struck down by a vengeful god even once during the entire show. We were also joined by the wondrous worldwide witchcraft that is the Internet by Josh Gondelman from New York. And these are some of the words
Starting point is 00:00:55 that the three of us said at the time, in the order that we said them, unless Producer Chris has really dicked around in the edit. out that heavy artillery on three sides of a valley could on occasion prove more than a match for wearing smart British uniforms, playing fair, having natty moustaches and a general sense of British superiority. So um but live and learn. In October 1854, celebrity nurse Florence Nightingale went out to the war zone. Keep yourself calm. Only at this gig would that get that reaction. Of course the celebrity nurse went out to do some pretty high octane nursing. See the Crimean war saw way more people die of disease than die of war but Florence's nursing revolution helped put humanity on a course for better medical practices in wartime so that by the time the 20th century megawars rolled around
Starting point is 00:02:10 we could really focus on the absolute f***ing brutality of war instead without having to worry about people dying of illness. It was a real progress for humanity. Was she one of the nurses that gave like the first happy endings to like soldiers? That I don't know. I mean, you might have been taught slightly different lessons in history class in New Zealand, James. We didn't, we definitely didn't get that. She was like the night nurse, right? And she'd come around and help put you to sleep.
Starting point is 00:02:34 Yeah, look, I mean, she didn't specifically write about that. And... Well, you don't write about it. You don't want to be crude. Before nurses, it was really tough. They just had your dad come in and say, walk it off. So this is huge. I suppose you know what medicine was in Britain until I think at least 2008. Just walk it off.
Starting point is 00:03:00 I think it's probably going back now, I could say the NHS is quite a lot of money. Rather than operations and medicine, just walk it off became the... Well, I do think you should have three strikes and you're out with the NHS. Three goes on the NHS in your lifetime and then you're on your own. It might sound a bit harsh, but I think you'll find people won't... Wait, you get three over there? You can go to theH and bring down it? Yeah, but you pray harder in America, so it probably balances out.
Starting point is 00:03:26 That's right. Yeah, but the government doesn't listen to Jew prayers, so I'm in big trouble. Today, I don't know if you know this, it's National Something on a Stick Day. This is a fact. That is a genuine Something on a Stick day. Perhaps most famously celebrated back in, what was it now, about 33 AD, I think, in the Roman province of Judea. Cost us a lot of market share, that is really. Easter of course, this weekend, it's right about Easter, the renowned festival for lapsed Jews.
Starting point is 00:04:08 Sorry, Christians. Basically lapsed Jews. Commemorating when the then four-time Holy Land magician and raconteur of the year suffered his career-ending but profile-boosting crucifixion industry. Industry? Injury. There we go. Top story now.
Starting point is 00:04:37 American politics news now and well the American election is looming over the democratic world like the bacon industry over a baby pig. And have you enjoyed the election campaign so far? And have you enjoyed the election campaign so far? Do you follow American politics? Yes. I feel that enthusiasm. I think it's important to follow American politics just because at least it makes our politics seem marginally less than it is. By comparison. So Josh, you are our official candidate, I think, in the presidential election running on the for the bugle party. But there's another name in the race as of this week, and that is Mr. Literally Anybody
Starting point is 00:05:17 Else. And this is after a man from Texas changed his name to Literally Anybody else and announced the presidential run. I mean Josh you've got to think he must now be the bookies favorite surely. He is an odds on favorite and on one hand as a comedian I do respect the commitment to the bit to legally change your name. That is, I salute you, sir. On the other hand, this isn't really politics, right? Like his name, he said his name isn't a person, it's a rally cry. But if I've learned anything about American politics, and I try not to, but I have, it's
Starting point is 00:06:00 that things could always get worse. And this feels like a real monkey's paw wish of a name change. Oh, you want literally anybody else? How about American President Vladimir Putin? Or President the first baby born on New Year's Day 2025? Or how about President Jared from Subway? I don't know if that works over here, or if that reference says he's one of our most famous television pedophiles.
Starting point is 00:06:30 I too am frustrated with the gerontocracy of American politics, but I don't think childish attention grabs their way out of the situation. And I say that as a professional childish attention grabber. Although this new guy's name is perfect because it's exactly who I would want to talk to if I ran into him at a party. They're like, oh, you're literally anyone else? Excuse me, I'm going to go talk to literally anyone else. James, I mean, have you been following the election campaign so far?
Starting point is 00:07:07 Yeah, I think like most people outside of America, it's just in this impending sense that none of us trust them not to f*** this up. That's how we feel inside America too. But I feel like he's missed a beat here, he's got literally anyone else and that's fun. But if you really want to capture those swing voters, why not just like change your name to Obama Bush? I just really confused the hell out of him. It does seem that corporate America, Josh, thinks that Donald Trump is going to win in November.
Starting point is 00:07:46 I mean, how much is this just corporate America basically gambling on a Trump victory? Because it seems quite hard for us to understand how Trump could possibly win again. But I guess what makes him so strong as a candidate is there's a famous saying in politics that if you throw enough shit at a wall, some of it will stick. I think it was Aristotle first said it. But the thing with Trump, and this is what sort of affected Hillary Clinton last time, this is what's sort of affecting Biden this time, but with Trump, Trump is not a wall, Trump is a volcano of shit.
Starting point is 00:08:19 And if you throw shit at a volcano of shit, what you end up with is an indiscernible larger volcano of shit. So it doesn up with is an indiscernible larger volcano of shit. It doesn't really have any effect on the people who have already decided they quite like the idea of living on a volcano of shit. I hope I've explained that in accessible terms. So what do you make of this, Josh, that your big business in America seems to be punting for Trump?
Starting point is 00:08:40 Yeah, I mean, I don't really trust business predictions, no matter how many great documentaries about Elizabeth Holmes they've given us. But this isn't a prediction, right? Of course corporations are predicting that Trump is going to win. They want him to win. He accelerated ongoing upward transfer of capital in America. This isn't a prognostication. It's the secret for guys with MBAs, that's all it is.
Starting point is 00:09:06 And like corporate executives are, we don't like to think of it this way because they seem more genteel, but corporate executives are one of Trump's key demographics. Everyone pictures Trump voters as a horde of guys who have never seen a lesbian in person descending from the hills of Appalachia, just coming down from the hills to swarm the voting booths
Starting point is 00:09:25 and cast 15 ballots apiece. But Trump is also quite popular with C-suite moguls who would love to use unhoused people as backup fuel for their Teslas, but they also enjoy living in a place where they can get Thai food delivered. So. So.
Starting point is 00:09:40 So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. So. This part of me that just wants to vote Trump in because currently, that could change the laws are you only get two terms. And we, this seems really weird to say, but we haven't seen Trump with no f***s left to
Starting point is 00:09:55 give yet. And there is that sort of mordid, oh, that's just in the world now kind of view where you go, oh, how bad could it get? You know, like when you go to Amsterdam and you like just have your first hash cookie and then you're like, oh, this is pretty bad, but how bad could it get? And then you wake up in Estonia. So, I mean, obviously, Josh Trump, he's got a few sort of legal distractions at the moment, about 290 of them, I think. But this seems to be strengthening Trump, Josh, this deluge of court cases.
Starting point is 00:10:38 Yeah, well, I mean, as you said, it's a shit volcano. And so when shit hits the fan fan it just is that's his That's where he lives, right Trump I feel like wouldn't know what to do if he didn't know people money because Then he wouldn't know what to do with his money other than give it to him the people he owes Tattoo news in America It's turned out that up to 90% of tattoo ink in the USA has been mislabeled after some research by scientists, more on scientists later in the show. They've
Starting point is 00:11:16 been absolutely disgracing themselves of late. But anyway, they've done some very important research into the labeling of tattoo inks. James, you're a little bit more of an expert on the art of the tattoo than I am. I've only got the one, which is a tattoo of my face that I had done on my face. I'm a bit worried about how it's going to age, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. I mean, this... Is this a... Because I don't know what tattoo ink is actually made of. From what I worked out, it was from a mixture of milk, Spanish vermouth, ketchup and the souls of the damned. But I might have got one of these mislabeled bottles.
Starting point is 00:11:57 So, I mean, is there, does this worry you? Did you check the ingredients? British tattoos particularly talking about New Zealand tattoos are a combination of links deep heat And the sweat from the all-black Yeah, it's a little bit work and again it's the kind of story that could only come out of the states It's like how do you fuck up tattoo ink something that indigenous cultures have been doing around the world For centuries and somehow the Americans have managed to make like a toxic version of it. Of course, of course they have. Yeah, look, it's, I kind of want to see this get more political.
Starting point is 00:12:38 I want to see, I think what we need to see is more American politicians rocking some ink. I think that's where their pop culture's going and I feel like I want to see Bernie Sanders with a teardrop, you know, and then like a tree on the other side. I want to see, I think Donald Trump has definitely got some sort of tattoo about pussy somewhere on his body. I think we can all agree to that. I saw you checking out my ink as well and how cultural it is, wondering if you should ask me about this or it's going to be racially incensed.
Starting point is 00:13:13 We can talk about your ink and then we can talk about my lack of foreskin. And then it's probably a little bit balanced out. It's just a Friday night for us souls. James, you give me such a great idea. I think that we should make it more political. I feel like it's fine to mislabel tattoo ink. Only in the specific case that all the colors used for a Confederate flag tattoo are replaced with the COVID vaccine. LAUGHTER
Starting point is 00:13:43 APPLAUSE CHEERING the Covid vaccine. Just get it into the veins of the people who haven't had it yet. Josh, whenever you do the bugle, I can't wait for the day that you do genuinely become president because you have solutions for everything. Thank you, thank you. One final American story before we move on to the rest of the universe. Baseball story, Josh. And the biggest star in baseball at the moment, Shohei Otani, Japanese player, who's a sort of unique baseball player. He's on, I think, a $700 million contract.
Starting point is 00:14:20 But he's got in trouble, Shohei Otani, because his interpreter seems to have stolen a lot of money from him to gamble with, and then Otani's been dragged into this sort of argument about sports and gambling, is that right? Yeah. Yeah, this is, I mean, American media has been obsessed with the Shohei Otani story, ever since Kate Middleton's situation got what we call
Starting point is 00:14:44 way less fun to talk about. It's tough. Baseball, if you don't know, if you don't have a lot of experience with American baseball, it's like cricket but for all the countries that you people didn't force to learn how to play cricket. It is so boring, though. Watching the World Cup in Spanish is like the most exciting sporting event you've ever seen. Watching baseball in Spanish still sounds like three hours of good night moon.
Starting point is 00:15:16 So Shohei Otani is the reigning most valuable player in the American League. Not to be confused with the National League, which is also just American. And he's caught up in a gambling scandal. He says he's never gambled. And then his longtime translator, Ipe Mizuhara, stole $4.5 million from him and used it to place bets. I have a solution for this. I think if you're the MVP, you should get to gamble. I can bet on sports, and you know I'm solution-oriented,
Starting point is 00:15:47 I can bet on sports, I'm just some slob. Why can't the person who knows the most about sports and would be the best at gambling be allowed to do it? That seems unfair to all the time he's put into learning about baseball. You may ask, wouldn't that encourage cheating? Yes, of course it would. I also think you should be allowed to cheat at baseball. It would make it more exciting. I do, I feel for Shohei Atani because it's not just his translator. It's like one of his oldest mates as well.
Starting point is 00:16:22 It's his bro who's also his translator. So it's like a double betrayal. And we've all got that one mate who just is an old mate, but really f***s up our life. Like the missus doesn't want him coming around. He's like, you don't speak the language, he speaks the language, but you think he's ordering a subway
Starting point is 00:16:40 and he's actually like embezzling your funds into a gambling syndicates. And the whole thing is that he didn't know any of this was happening. So his translator was out there going, oh, now this guy is going to pay off my fines. And then he was like, what? Who said what? And I just think it's the funniest shit because close friends, their parents are definitely going to know each other.
Starting point is 00:17:05 I just feel like the real story is back in Japan where they're having the most passive aggressive cup of tea anyone has seen. I think your son robbed my son. Passive aggressive, certainly that's the Latin tense I found hardest to learn in my schooling. You do have to explain to Scottish people passive aggressive. Have we got time for one more before the end of it? Well that's up to you Andy, you're the boss. That's passive aggressive.
Starting point is 00:17:40 I mean, yeah. Not only is it passive aggressive, but me being the boss of anything is deeply worrying for everyone concerned. Scotland news now! BEEPING Right, okay, buglers, I'm going to ask you a question. Do any of you have anything to say to Chris? BEEP
Starting point is 00:18:04 Well, he can say that now. But in April, that would land you all in jail for hate crimes. It's... So Hamza Yousaf has criticized disinformation over the hate crime law. He's talked about disinformation and inaccuracy, which I think were Michael Govan, Boris Johnson's Secret Service code names by coincidence. I also think the bugle's backup slogan.
Starting point is 00:18:40 James, obviously you live here now and this law is about to come in. Do you feel that you're never going to be able to say anything again out loud? Well, I was actually down in Scottish Parliament a couple of days ago because you can do that here. It's really weird. You just walk up and you're like, oh hi, can I come in? And they're like, yeah. That's how Boris Johnson became Prime Minister, he's not just up here. Yeah. That's how Boris Johnson became Prime Minister. He's not just up here.
Starting point is 00:19:06 Humza, for our international listeners, obviously the locals will know, the hate speech laws in Scotland, there's new legislation coming in on April 1st, which, of all the dates to say you can't call JK Rowling a c*** is just... So the laws are being changed. Now it's important to know that there are already hate crime laws in place against racism and religion. And the main gist of this, just to speed it all up, is people are worried that people like JK Rowling will say something transphobic on Twitter
Starting point is 00:19:51 and then the cops will show up at her door. First thing to say, arrest her for hate crimes, which Hamza Yousaf has said was definitely not something that would happen. Obviously you would raid JK Rowling's house for the crimes of Grindelwald or whatever that horrific, fantastic piece of film was. Or just the clear, clear lie. This is why we don't broadcast live. Lord of the Rings! But it's a very interesting time because people have been going, well, comedians could get
Starting point is 00:20:28 arrested at gigs or actors could be arrested. And I feel like all of these people who are fear mongering have not yet encountered Scottish police because they don't have the time for that. I could jaywalk with a joint. And they'd just be like, you know what, pal? Greg's is over there. Thank you very much. I mean, obviously comedy and hate speech is quite an important issue for all of us in comedy. Certainly was for me when 400 people
Starting point is 00:21:05 exercise their right to be as hateful as possible through speech when I was on stage at the Manchester Comedy Store back in 2002. So. Well that's the thing with comedians, isn't it? Is that people are like, oh, oh, oh. Police might show up. We're like, that's kind of nice.
Starting point is 00:21:22 That's not a bad gig. No, ticket sale's a ticket sale. Some of my early Edinburgh festival shows, I'm gonna kill for some policing. Which might have been counterproductive. Anyway, I don't really thought that through. It's so silly to the people that are getting upset about this. It feels like to me as an observer from somewhere else, right? Because it's trans-exclusive radical feminists.
Starting point is 00:21:47 We call them TERFs here, but they call themselves gender critical, right? And they're saying that these laws might come down hard on gender critical feminists, and to which I say, oh, you're worried about people making arbitrary laws that would infringe on your way of life? Sounds tough. Let's follow that logic to the end shall we? Well obviously you know one of the great things as humans, one of the things that has already set us above other species and the evolutionary race is our ability to be monstrously hateful to
Starting point is 00:22:25 each other in incredibly creative ways. I mean, I think of human history, I don't know what percentage of all history is a hate crime. But I mean, it's got to be at least 90%, I reckon, mentioning no empires. And well, Scotland here, I mean, your national animal is the unicorn, which is a hate crime. The big spiky spike at the average height of an English person's face. I would say that is a hype. I need to get a new Scottish symbol, maybe the bagpipe or the flip side of the bagpipe, the person with their fingers in their ears either I was doing I don't think like this I say and
Starting point is 00:23:09 I say this with deep love I think what I love about the Scots is you're straight talking people and and you you swear like the language is a garnish on a sentence like you'll do a sentence normally and your brain just goes, there's not enough **** and **** in there. And then you just sprinkle it on top and like Robbie Burns. So I don't know that people should be really worried in this country in particular about like hate speech laws because as a foreigner it's very difficult to tell. Are you threatening me or applauding me? I cannot.
Starting point is 00:23:58 Let's talk a little bit about the state of politics in Scotland. Another spat between the SNP and the Westminster government this week about Rishi Shunnath pledging to spend £200 million strengthening the UK's nuclear deterrent rather than, for example, fixing the NHS or buying everyone in the country half a pint of beer at London prices. So are you happy with the SNP? Are you happy with the Tories? Are you excited about Labour? Well there we go, that's a little snapshot of the state of politics in the United Kingdom. It was worth fighting all those wars for the three world wars, two hot, one cold.
Starting point is 00:24:47 So yes, you could spend the £200 million on the NHS, that would be free surgery worth a quarter of a million pounds for 800 randomly chosen people, which I think would make great television if nothing else. They could spend it on a special decoy inflatable Great Britain to just pump out, put Boris Johnson on and then just float it into the Atlantic where he can live out his dreams in a safe environment. So obviously you know the relationship between Scotland and West Minster has been well it's been a little, well it's all in between Scotland and anything south of pretty much... I mean, that was exemplified when Hadrian took one look at this place and said,
Starting point is 00:25:30 wall, big fucking wall, big, big, big fucking wall. So, James, what do you... I mean, as a sort of newcomer to Scotland, how do you compare... Because, I mean, it's New Zealand politics where you come... That's got quite poisons. We'll talk about that a little bit later on. Oh, that's great, like things happen. Although, like, I don't know, man, I've been gigging in Edinburgh, gigging in Glasgow, but I have also gigged in Dundee and Aberdeen and I don't know if you need the nuclear deterrence. I'm not sure that's really the vital because I mean Scotland are very the nuclear storage. That's the Very controversial part is that you have the nukes
Starting point is 00:26:11 And I feel like that's why England is Spending 200 was it million billion 200 million 200 million because they like well we should probably get some back before they leave Because you have the deterrence but they do not you could nuke them I'm not saying that's why I moved here another story from Scotland this week is that Visit Scotland, your de facto national tourism organisation that is supposed to persuade the world to come to Edinburgh, the highlands, the beautiful islands off the west coast, Paisley, Cumbernauld and Stenhouse Muir is closing all of its information centres.
Starting point is 00:27:00 The best bit about this is how they've explained it by saying this is part of a strategy designed to grow the visitor economy by influencing visitors in the planning stage of their trip before they leave home. So they're basically just closing all the tourist information centres, hoping that by the time people get here, they've got everything f***ing planned. But again, it sounds weird if you're from overseas but if you've been in Scotland it's the most Scottish f***ing thing. Figure it out before you get here. But no, if you want to learn about Scotland and Scottish tourism you don't
Starting point is 00:27:39 go to a visitor centre, you go into a local pub, announce you're a foreigner, and people will just tell you shit to do. And it's way more fun shit, isn't it? Yeah. I'm so glad that they're still projecting the information overseas because I heard they were closing the information centres down and I thought, no, you can't do that because I don't know enough about Scotland. And if you cut off that flow of information,
Starting point is 00:28:09 the longer it goes without being reminded what Scotland is actually like, the more I'll just picture Narnia. So. So. And this is, you need to keep these centers open, right? I understand that you want to bring people in. But when I travel, I don't even Google how to get to my hotel until I arrive, until I land at the airport.
Starting point is 00:28:33 You cannot overestimate how underprepared tourists are. I don't even exchange my money until I get overseas. I just bring my American dollars and try to do it at the airport and it backfired one time. I had a whole trip in Canada where I couldn't buy anything because I didn't have money.
Starting point is 00:28:52 So I had to just go where they would take my currency. So for the whole trip, I ate nothing but heroin. I think the mistake, Andy, is that you don't need information centers when you come to Scotland. You need translation centres. That's all you need. They're very helpful. They'll tell you a whole bunch of stuff you can do and you will understand about one eighth of what you've been told and try and figure out if you're being complimented or threatened. Let's move across the hemispheres to New Zealand news now. Well, James, some sensational stories from New Zealand. Somehow, and I didn't think I'd ever say this sentence,
Starting point is 00:29:40 the pop group Chumbawamba is in an argument with a New Zealand politician. How has this come about? It's not just a New Zealand politician, it is the Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand, whose name is Winston Peters, who is known in New Zealand as... It is incredible to me that Winston Peters is so hated, he's getting booed on the other side of the planet. Maury Trump is his nickname. He's a populist, an incredible populist, a very angry populist who may or may not have bummed cigarettes off me unknowingly behind the back of a political bar in Wellington. But he played tub thumping by Cham Wamba at one of his rallies, his meetings, and he
Starting point is 00:30:30 is a right-wing politician, but he's also been Labour's deputy prime minister. He's a populist who'll do whatever. Cham Wamba were informed of this, and if you know their history, didn't really like the idea of a right-wing politician. So they sent a cease and desist to Mr Peters, who basically went off. You're a one-hit wonder from the 90s. What are you gonna do? So Chumbawamba are suing him. It's really wonderful that we can give this to the world that has got so many global conflicts
Starting point is 00:31:08 going on right now that we can say, come to New Zealand, the worst conflict we have are 90s anarchist punks versus a Kmart version of Donald Trump. I'm not really in a position to judge people for using sort of strange walk-on music. I once did a gig at Liverpool University with John Oliver in our early days and he dared me to use Bob Dylan's Masters of War as a walk-on track which is an early Dylan acoustic track singing about the absolute horror of war and Whilst it made John laugh It left a room of 200 students so confused that they were then silent for the next 40 minutes, so That's bullshit
Starting point is 00:32:07 Josh has this story made the states? I've heard it, yeah. And it just is so baffling to me when right-wing politicians use music that is so obviously left-wing. And clearly even tub thumping is an anarchist anthem, right? He takes a whiskey drink, he takes a vodka drink, he takes the lager drink, he takes a cider drink. You put that all in one bottle, that's a Molotov cocktail. I think that's where the confusion has come from because people who might know
Starting point is 00:32:35 Winston Peters or listeners back home will know that he is renowned for taking a whiskey drink, a vodka drink, a lager drink and a cider drink, sometimes before entering the debating chamber. My policies are, you know, obviously they don't sort of think these things through. Liz Tross, I mean, she walked out to using Velva Underground's heroin because she sees herself as a heroine of the beleaguered free markets. That's not entirely true, but the fact that no one, none of you corrected me suggests
Starting point is 00:33:11 that you thought it stacked up. So it shows you everything you need to know. I can see this going in, I think we must have the technology now where AI can interpret everything a politician has ever said and done, what's in their latest manifestos, and tell them the song that they should walk out to. Obviously, we might have a situation where Nigel Farage walks out to the sound of the Beatles singing, Get Back to Where You Once Belonged. But I think, you know, that's a risk we have to take. I do worry about New Zealand politics though, James. Because, you know, you see, things seem taken a sort a turn for the worse in the last few years.
Starting point is 00:33:48 If New Zealand can't get it right, there's no hope for anyone. You just have to remember we are a three-hour flight away from everyone else. We're the most isolated country. So inevitably it was going to go a little bit Lord of the Pigs. Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Pigs is a police drama, never mind. That's a... That is David Cameron's Secret Service code name now.
Starting point is 00:34:10 No reason to have to look. LAUGHTER But, yeah, always remember... Family show. Family shows yourself. LAUGHTER Family showed yourself. There is never any political drama in New Zealand that will not inevitably be solved with a rugby game.
Starting point is 00:34:33 That's just how blatantly insane we are. So your Prime Minister now is Christopher Lutson. Yes. And, well, this again shows what New Zealand politics descends to. He has now picked a fight with dolphins. Yes. And again, isn't it wonderful that in a world of so many conflicts, there's old New Zealand fighting chumbawamba and dolphins. And politicians... The Chumbawamba of the sea.
Starting point is 00:35:08 This is a completely true story. There was a sailing regatta down in Christchurch in New Zealand and they had to call off the race because marine life had been spotted and the organizers of the race had agreed. There's laws in New Zealand around environmental protection and a famous New Zealand yachter, Russell Coote, was going, oh, bloody dolphins, what are we going to do? And the Prime Minister has weighed in saying that this is a sign of too much red tape and too much regulation because it's going to kill tourism if people can't watch these sailing events.
Starting point is 00:35:45 Apparently people don't mind if a dolphin dies on TV, or a dolphin NATO is taking place. But people are sort of confused about why this story sounds silly without realizing that in New Zealand, I think as of recording, there has been four days where the Prime Minister has been seriously talking about dolphins. And they think that's normal. Because they don't have nuclear weapons. Red tape is such a weird phrase to use there. Because in this context, there's too much red tape.
Starting point is 00:36:23 That just sounds like a euphemism for the intestines of a dolphin that was hit by a sailboat and disemboweled. And it's not uncommon for conservative politicians to oppose environmental protections, but it's a little weird for them to have vendettas against individual animals. I do think they should still have the little boat race despite the dolphins, but only if they add an equal number of orcas to the course. You want to rumble? Let's rumble.
Starting point is 00:36:52 Pick on someone your own size, sailboats. Let's move on. We are running a little bit out of time, so we might not be able to do all the wonderful stories we had lined up for you. So if there's any, there will be some stories we don't get around to. So if you leave your email addresses on the way out, we'll all email you the bits we would have done about those stories had my time management been a little bit better. Then you can email us back with how much you think you would have laughed at them. I'll forward all your emails onto each other and then you can create
Starting point is 00:37:20 an artificial memory of how those bits of the show would have gone. Had we done we could have done one of those bits in the bit that took me to explain that to you. Anyway so let's move on to more battles between humans and animals now recurring theme on the bugle these days and well this is teenagers versus goats. Another bit of science, you people disgust me, has analyzed what teenagers smell of and apparently they have a unique body odour, different from for example babies and teenagers body odour, they've discovered the smells of sweat, urine, musk and sandalwood. I don't know which teenagers they were specifically using. Sandalwood, I think is what Jesus made his clogs from. I think that's a slightly better joke
Starting point is 00:38:18 than you're giving it credit for. They smell of musk, I mean, that is the power of the man. Not only wheedling his tech into every cranny of our lives, he's now making our teenagers smell like him. And then urine and sweat. It's just possible that our teenagers are more nervous about the future that we are bequeathing to them and are therefore sweating nervously
Starting point is 00:38:42 and pissing themselves, but we don't know. Is this Darwinism, do you think, James? I don't know of anyone else's sort of story. I think it's just really weird that they specifically went goat. Like, you've got it like, who...? Like, did they smell the goat and go, oh, it smells like a teenager, which is creepy. That was the first draft of the Nirvana song, actually.
Starting point is 00:39:04 And then... Josh, so do we can we expect then that there to be sort of t-shirts coming out soon saying what this is what a goat smells like that teenagers will be wearing? I do think there is a unique opportunity for merchandising here and it is goat deodorant. I think that's what we got to start producing but the problem is you got to make goats self-conscious about how they smell. So, so until we get this product off the ground and I think this is going to be easy for most of us but very difficult for just a couple people, nobody f*** goats. What's the thing with a
Starting point is 00:39:48 satirical comedy show like this? You want to leave with a strong point that can change the world. Solutions. Too many people are afraid to say that kind of stuff Josh, but you go right to the heart of the matter. Thank Thank you. So Chris cancel me if you want. I don't think people should have sex with ghosts. Testify! Well thank you for listening. Buglers do find more of Josh's and James's wonderful work online using your initiative, a reputable search engine, and ideally the correct spelling of their last names G-O-N-D-E-L-M-A-N and N-O-K-I-S-E. Next week's bugle will be from the final show of our live tour at the Lowry in Salford,
Starting point is 00:40:39 starring Alice Fraser and Tiffany Stevenson. Also coming soon is another episode of Ask Andy. Become a voluntary subscriber now for our universe-exclusive show in which you ask me, i.e. Andy, any question out of the, ooh, I'd say 150 or so available in the world and I attempt to answer it or deflect it or reflect it. We do have two more live shows in the relatively near future at the Leicester Square Theatre in London on the 7th and 8th of June. Tickets available if you ask the right people in the right manner. Or just go on the internet and buy them. Until next week, buglers, goodbye.

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