The Podiwan Review 6 – The Bugle

The completely funny faux news style banter fest and one-upmanship contest of the Bugle is to podcasts what the Daily Show with Jon Stewart is to basic cable. And that is completely appropriate because one of the stars of the Bugle is Daily Show Senior British Correspondent, John Oliver. Together with his buddy across the pond, Andy Zaltzman, the Bugle buggers politics on both sides of the Atlantic. Oliver works from a studio in the US and is forbidden to leave until his visa is processed. Zaltzman is at the Times Studio in London. But it feels like they’re in the same room with each other as they try to crack each other up while reading news break downs and cultural reportage through a filter of satire and FU commentary. It moves very quickly and you may find yourself re-listening to make sure you didn’t miss something. My favorite of the two is Oliver because he makes me laugh more, but I’m pretty sure that Oliver’s favorite of the two is his podcast partner and school days friend inasmuch as Zaltzman is fully capable of causing Oliver to blow milk out of his nose with a bawdy metaphor or prolonged description that goes so far down a very wrong road that Oliver very nearly stops breathing.

I follow British politics and several news and political humor (humour) podcasts so I’m not as lost as some might be at times as the show spends about half of the time submerged in British and World politics/popular culture.  The average American seems to be less than interested in knowing what happens outside our borders or anywhere for that matter.  But the Bugle is a good way to get some news on the world in teh same what that the Daily Show has become the number one news source for most folks in the 25 to 39 demographic.

 There are 113 podcasts in the library but currently only numbers #85 through #113 are available for download at iTunes but all 113 of them are available at the Times Online.

My rating scale

Is this podcast entertaining? - Yes - quite

Am I likely to listen to the next podcast? – Yes, oh yes

Do I recommend this podcast to friends? – 3 Times, just today.