Nothing On The TV, Nothing On The Radio

Following the global phenomenon of Little Britain, comedy superstars Matt Lucas & David Walliams returned on Christmas Day in 2010 with Come Fly With Me, reflecting their sudden international stardom with a new series keen to prove just how bloody funny airports are! Dialling down the fake vomit, adult lactation and relentless catchphrasing of their best-known creation, but maintaining the fat suits, crap wigs and blacking/browning/yellowing up beloved by the British public, Come Fly With Me provides John and Jack the perfect opportunity to revisit a one-and-done series of pure televisual detritus, while also considering their own relationship with ‘offence’. To think, if two white, privately-educated men hadn’t taken the risk of making this, they might not have inspired one white, privately-educated man to publicly divulge details of his school play casting as ‘Chairman Mao’, while another white, altogether less-educated man sits mouth agape, trying to recall when he was last offended by anything at all. Essential listening for allies and edgelords alike. Plus, scene reports from SNL UK, Digger and raving in a former IKEA.

Widely regarded as the greatest television show of all time, The Sopranos premiered in 1999, changing the landscape of popular culture with its ambitious, uncompromising portrayal of modern American life in a state of malaise. The Sopranos: Road To Respect was released in 2006 and changed the ambitions of spin-off video games with its similarly uncompromising portrayal of punching people in the head, aimlessly walking around an empty strip club and occasionally being visited by the ghost of a wiseguy. Sopranos devotee John and Sopranos casual Jack wake up this morning to visit recreations of iconic Sopranos spots like the Bing, Satriale's, and of course, Deano Buscetta's porn studio, testing that sweet, psychologically complex mob life for themselves, desperately attempting to spot any trace of approval on Tony Soprano's flat, depressed and pixelated face. It's going to be tough to win over this crew, all voiced by the original cast! Here, Christopher Moltisantia is a made man, and now you must make him a sandwich. Or at least fetch one to his liking. For reference, this game sells for around 70 euros on Ebay, and there's still a few months until GTA VI.... How did a spin-off of this drabness slip through creator David Chase's notoriously firm grip of quality control? Is it actually cool to just fast-forward through all of the scenes of Tony sitting in therapy with Dr. Melfi, when you could just be making your own fun by bashing someone's head against a sink? Could Quasimodo have predicted this? Detritus finally gets to grips with a weird juncture in the legacy of this familiar pop cultural juggernaut, settling things with a sit-down to quote bits from the show, as well as The Simpsons and The Office. Truly, this one's for the fellas... Stupid-a fucking game! Plus, scene reports from Ed Sheeran's US tour, and the cold, hard concrete of Berlin's cycle lanes.

Calling all fashionistas, gussy yourselves up for possibly the most fabulous episode of Detritus yet! John and Jack transport back to 2015 to revisit the impact of…. The Dress. Discovered on the racks of an outlet mall in the North West of England, then finding global infamy via Tumblr, Facebook and Buzzfeed, no evening wear has made such an impact on the culture since Marge’s candy-pink Chanel suit hit the Springfield Country Club. But is it blue and black, or white and gold? Or some other variant that certain people (Lady Gaga) claim to see, presumably for attention? A relic from back when divisions on the internet didn’t lead to the undoing of democracy, the Detritus lads test their very own eyes on this nostalgic item, as well as their ears, discovering more about themselves, and the world, through viral sonic illusions. You’ll laugh, you’ll sigh with nostalgia, you’ll want to hit up your family Whatsapp group to see if anyone’s opinion on this has changed. It’s fun, it’s breezy, it’s Detritus! Plus, scene reports and analysis from the rise of the far-right in Germany.

E10 - Pod’s Gettin’ Better (Man!!) - Oasis, Be Here Now & Magical Pies All around the world, you gotta spread the word… Because Detritus has reached a monumental TEN transmissions. If this podcast were a vintage prestige HBO television show, that landmark would usually signal a season finale. However, we all know podcasts have to LIVE FOREVER, so instead we’re treating ourselves to a lengthy dissection of Oasis’s legendarily indulgent 1997 folly, ‘Be Here Now’; albeit still coming up shorter than the album itself, assuming you discount all the complete bollocks talked for the first twenty minutes or so. But boy, when those thirty-two layers of guitar overdubs kick in, do we have some, er, different bollocks to chat. How did a group of men so consistently opposed to experimentation write and record something this gruelling at the very peak of their powers? Why did Noel think it was a good idea to follow up the likes of ‘Cast No Shadow’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ by singing riddles about shoes and gnomically quoting Tony Blair? Why is Johnny Depp playing slide guitar on this thing? The answer to all of these questions is cocaine, obviously. But on the twenty-ninth anniversary of this singular release, John and Jack turn up a year early, or perhaps four late, to ask; Does ‘Be Here Now’ communicate more than initially meets the eye…? Or, as Freud might have concluded, is a bunch of crazy crap in a swimming pool sometimes just a bunch of crazy crap in a swimming pool? As you were, JL/JS x. Plus, scene reports from humanity’s cruel disrespect for the beauty and culture that surrounds us.

There's no pod like home, there's no pod like home... John and Jack tap their heels together to explore the century-long fallout from one of the world's most recognizable pop-culture artifacts, The Wizard of Oz; a film so significant that one of your hosts can apparently recount the entire plot without having ever seen it. But don't worry, that's not the whole episode! Finding extensively studied yet genuine horror in 1985's unremittingly bleak Disney spin-off 'Return To Oz', and at least slightly more fun in 1978's NYfuckinC African-American reimagining 'The Wiz', the margins of the Oziverse provide greater pleasure. For example, just what can we learn about the modern corporate nineties workplace from Dorothy's adventures over the rainbow? Can rumours of a Munchkin suicide cover-up be substantiated with the latest technology, or has the post-truth era reignited them? What do VeggieTales, Tom & Jerry, and The Muppets all have in common? Aside from being for children and adults who need a better excuse. That's right, they're all chewing a strip from this public domain IP, and now we're getting our own taste. Finally, a podcast with brains, heart and courage!