The Bugle
The Bugle | |
---|---|
Presentation | |
Hosted by | Andy Zaltzman |
Genre |
|
Created by | |
Language | English |
Production | |
Opening theme | "Tide of Empire" (George Chase) |
No. of episodes | 403, 549, 558, 567 |
Publication | |
Original release | 14 October 2007 |
Ratings | 4.6/5 |
Related | |
Website | http://www.thebuglepodcast.com/ |
The Bugle is a satirical news podcast, created by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman in 2007. It is currently hosted by Zaltzman and a rotating cast of co-hosts including Alice Fraser, Nish Kumar, Anuvab Pal, Hari Kondabolu, Tom Ballard, Tiff Stevenson and Helen Zaltzman. It focuses on global news stories (but primarily on United Kingdom and United States news items).
Oliver and Zaltzman co-hosted the podcast from 2007 to 2015, and Zaltzman has hosted it with a rotating set of co-hosts since a relaunch in September 2016. The podcast was initially produced independently and distributed by
History
John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman had previously partnered for satirical comedy radio programs
At its launch, The Bugle was distributed by
"Welcome to any first-time Buglers who are here because they might have read The New York Times' story on us earlier this week...but now that the story's in a newspaper that I'm guessing [Murdoch] reads cover to cover every day, I'm thinking there's an even smaller chance of us managing to not get fired now. So thanks very much, New York Times! Your trumpeting of this podcast may well turn into bugling the Last Post. I guess what I'm saying is—to our new listeners—'Hello and goodbye!'"[4]
On 14 December 2011, it was announced on the podcast that Times Online would no longer be hosting and distributing The Bugle.
The first episode of the newly independent Bugle was published on 20 January 2012 and the podcast was funded by donations and merchandise purchases by listeners from October 2012 to mid-2016.
In the summer of 2014 The Bugle was put on hiatus so that Oliver could focus on his then-forthcoming television show Last Week Tonight with John Oliver with weekly Bugle publication having resumed in October. From summer 2015 to June 2016 episodes were published intermittently when the hosts' work schedules permitted.
On 3 June 2016, it was announced that Oliver would be leaving The Bugle as a permanent co-host, no longer able to regularly host due to family and work commitments.
The Bugle left Radiotopia in 2019 and is now funded through voluntary subscription.[11] As a reward for donations, Zaltzman runs a Lies about Our Subscribers service, where he puts each donor's name to an unlikely fact. These are read in a list at the close of episodes.[12]
Guest co-hosts
Since the 2016 relaunch, the show's most frequent co-hosts have been
Other co-hosts to have appeared more than once include Chris Addison, Wyatt Cenac, Neil Delamere, Alex Edelman, Matt Forde, Jena Friedman, Lloyd Langford, Aditi Mittal, Al Murray, James Nokise, David O'Doherty, Sami Shah, Mark Steel, Baratunde Thurston and Felicity Ward.
John Oliver has co-hosted twice since the 2016 relaunch, including in episode 4100.
Live shows
In 2017, the show began to add live shows, performed in front of an audience. Starting at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, followed by dates in London and Edinburgh, the live shows feature Zaltzman with regular co-hosts and Producer Chris. The show is similar in nature to the podcast, with added visuals, a listener Q&A and live audience-only content. These shows also are available in the podcasts feed for all listeners.
Producers
During the first several episodes of the show various "producers" are mentioned by name on air though none of them featured in the show's content.
Tom Wright,[13] known solely on The Bugle as "Tom the Producer", was the producer of the show from episodes 1[citation needed] to episode 107. He is first heard in Episode 21a, providing continuity to various out-takes from the first twenty episodes. Wright emigrated to Australia in 2010, and returned as a producer for the season 4 episodes recorded in Australia (4023, 4024, 4025).
Wright was replaced by Chris Skinner,[14] who had previously worked with Zaltzman on the Yes, It's the Ashes radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2009. In 2019 Skinner launched his own podcast, titled 'Richie Firth: Travel Hacker,[15] with Absolute Radio's Richie Firth, which featured a cameo from Bugle co-host Alice Fraser.
Ped Hunter has subbed for Skinner when the latter is ill or on holiday.[16] In 2020, Hunter was one of the producers of spin off series The Last Post.[17]
Offshoots
- The Bugle Website – Created in January 2012, the site contains updates on new shows, funding information, notes from the producer and technical information. A site with the same URL had existed previously as an unofficial site.
- @hellobuglers, a Twitter account.[18] Although it began as a complement to The Bugle, primarily publishing one-liner political jokes, it also serves as Andy Zaltzman's own Twitter feed. For example, Zaltzman has used it to announce his guest appearances on other programs.[18]
- @ProducerChris, a Twitter account[19] from show producer Chris Skinner, providing news and updates.
- In 2020, The Bugle launched a daily show titled The Last Post,John Luke Roberts. In November 2020 Fraser confirmed on Bugle 4173 and on social channels[21]that the series would come to an end upon completing a full year, to be replaced with a new show.
- In 2021, a second Alice Fraser spin off show, titled The Gargle' launched. This weekly show was billed as 'the glossy magazine to The Bugle's Audio Newspaper'. The show follows a similar format to The Bugle (with crossover guests from both The Bugle and The Last Post), with a focus on non-political news.
- The Bugle has also produced two Tiffany Stevenson series'; Tiny Revolutions, and Catharsis, which launched as part of The Bugle's 15th anniversary, in October 2022.
- To mark The Bugle's 15th anniversary, Top Stories, a new daily, short form podcast series was launched, featuring clips from classic episodes over the 15 years of the show's history.
- Zaltzman and Fraser appeared in the 2020 videogame Watch Dogs: Legion as hosts of in-game fictional podcast The Bug, styled after The Bugle, that aims to "analyse the latest blowflies to emerge from the corpse of a once-free Britain".[22]
Reception
The Bugle has received many positive mentions in the media. A review by American blog Frozen Toothpaste described the podcast in a 2007 review as "a usually delightful, witty and deadpan satire".[23] Computing website Philosophical Geek praised The Bugle for its unique wit, saying that the reviewer found himself "laughing too hard to concentrate on anything else".[24] The Bugle, according to The Nerd Rage Blog, is "a thing of beauty" and "is quite simply, hilarious". Zaltzman's "bullshit facts" are complimented, as is Oliver's "biting sarcasm".[25] BBC Comedy review show What's So Funny described The Bugle as the benchmark in satire, in an episode dated 27 May 2011.[26]
The podcast has continued to gain positive press coverage in the "Season 4" era, a Financial Times review of its earliest episodes opining that "Anyone wondering if The Bugle would be a damp squib without Oliver needn’t have worried."[27] More recently, there has been particular praise for the show's most frequent 'guest host' Alice Fraser. The Spectator stated Fraser "vibes perfectly with Zaltzman’s hyper-articulate and anarchic style",[28] whilst Narc Magazine reviewed her live performance as "captivating, landing her punch lines every time with surreptitious asides into the mic, while Zaltzman whips factual news into delightful, fantastical nonsense, leaving you questioning what was real and what was not."[29]
References
- ^ "Brexray Specs – Bugle 4091". The Bugle Podcast. Retrieved 15 December 2018.
- ^ Kondolojy, Amanda (24 April 2014). "'Last Week Tonight With John Oliver' Debuts April 27 on HBO". TVbytheNumbers. zap2it. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
- ^ a b c d Goodman, J. David (14 August 2011). "Comedy Podcast Inside News Corp. Feasts on a Scandal". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2011.
- ^ Zaltzman, Andy; John Oliver (19 August 2011). "Episode 165: Bashar goes to Madcon 1". The Bugle. London.
- ^ @hellobuglers (14 December 2011). "BUGLE NEWS ALERT: The Bugle will be leaving Times Online in the near future. We will do everything we can to keep The Bugle going..." (Tweet). Retrieved 14 December 2011 – via Twitter.
- ^ Zaltzman, Andy. "Bugle 4001 – Tony The Tiger RIP". Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ^ "John Oliver has left "The Bugle," the world's best podcast". The New Republic. Retrieved 18 July 2018.
- ^ Sturges, Fiona (18 November 2016). "Podcast review: The Bugle: 'Silliness and laughter". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
- ^ Buglemas Eve – a final preview, retrieved 5 November 2016
- ^ The Last Post, retrieved 31 December 2020
- ^ Mardavich, Audrey (4 January 2019). "Holy Sh*t – What a Year". Medium. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ Subscribe to the Bugle, retrieved 31 December 2020
- ^ "Podcasting Down Under: Tom Wright on how Australia is innovating with audio". New Statesman. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ Goodman, J. David (14 August 2011). "Comedy Podcast Inside News Corp. Feasts on a Scandal". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
- ^ "Richie Firth: Travel Hacker".
- ^ Podchaser – Ped Hunter Producer Credits
- ^ Ped Hunter LinkedIn profile
- ^ a b @hellobuglers (5 December 2010). "FACT ALERT: I'm about to go on air on TestMatchSofa.com to commentate on the Northern hemisphere's march to cricket supremacy. Or a draw..." (Tweet). Retrieved 10 December 2010 – via Twitter.
- ^ "@Producerchris". Twitter. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
- ^ "The Last Post".
- ^ @aliterative (6 November 2020). "@Davidp1985 I think unlikely. We just about cover bills, and daily is a huge amount of work. There will be SOMETHING cool next year though" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ Peel, Jeremy (4 November 2020). "Watch Dogs: Legion's best writing is hidden in a radio station". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
- ^ "Review: The Bugle (Podcast) | Frozen Toothpaste". frozentoothpaste.com. 19 November 2007. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- ^ "The Bugle podcast". Philosophical Geek. 3 April 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
- ^ "Protected Blog › Log in". thenerdrageblog.wordpress.com. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- ^ "Episode 8, Series 1, What's So Funny? – BBC Radio 4 Extra". BBC. Retrieved 5 September 2018.
- ^ Sturges, Fiona (18 November 2016). "Podcast review: The Bugle: 'Silliness and laughter'". Financial Times. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
- ^ "The best comedy podcasts to brighten your day, Robert Jackman". Retrieved 31 December 2020.
- ^ "COMEDY REVIEW: ANDY ZALTZMAN: THE BUGLE @ THE STAND, NEWCASTLE (08.10.19)". Retrieved 31 December 2020.