Popular Edgelords Jo Waugh and Adam Smithare joined by Nicole Graham to talk about the popular card game 'Cards Against Humanity.' The game's own promotional materials claim that is it intended as a work of satire, but is it really? Nicole discusses her recent book chapter 'Laughing with Horrible People: Reaffirming Ethical Boundaries Through Laughter' in which she applies an eighteenth-century framework for understanding humour to the famously offensive card game to determine how it works and who is culpable for the cards played during a game should they cause upset or offense. Jo and Adam also talk about their own relationship with board games, CAH's imminent cancellation and what happened when the government decided to use a very familiar font when sending out their important announcement about Coronavirus. 

Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

EP.28. Satire & Horrible People

As the temperature finally rises, but so too do infection rates, Adam and Jo take an episode to reflect on satire released during the between times: that is, the time between lockdown and the often-promised full easing of restrictions. These include: the second season of This Time with Alan Partridge, Borat’s American Lockdown and Borat Debunked and a recent exhibition of juvenile satire on display at the Foundling Museum. Along the way Jo and Adam also think about “cancel culture”, whether it exists and what its relationship might be to comedy and satire. Read the full show-notes here.

EP.27. Satire & the Between Times

Do you ever wonder... what's the point? Liars and cheats prosper and gain power, the hypocritical, the criminal, the venal, the self-interested, the arrogant and the cruel seem to get away with whatever they want. Statistics and figures are cynically manipulated for cynical ends. The average person has no voice and no power, no real chance to change anything or be heard. Everything gets worse and worse, we’re all afraid, nothing really seems stable, and nobody with power can be trusted. Well, satire can help! Adam and Jo are joined by Dr Dieter Declercq, author of Satire, Comedy and Mental Health: Coping with the Limits of Critique, to talk about the extent to which satire can help sustain good mental health in a trouble socio-political world. Read the full show-notes. 

EP.23. Satire, Comedy & Mental Health

Is satire fundamentally left wing or right wing? Does the BBC now have a right wing agenda? Can right wing comedy actually be funny? And was all this really the reason The Mash Report got cancelled? Jo and Adam talk about all of this and more (including their own shocking Political Compass Results!!!) in this all new episode, also featuring a chat with recovering stand-up comic and scholar of comedy, Seb Bloomfield. Read the full show-notes.

EP.25. Satire: Left Wing & Right Wing

Jo and Adam #ChooseToChallenge this International Women’s Day by seeking out and celebrating some of their favourite female satirists from literary history: Mary Leopor and Stella Gibbons. Especially devoted listeners may also choose to stick around after the closing music for an extra treat. Read the full show-notes.

EP.24. Satire On International Women's Day

Stop talking about Valentine’s Day and start talking about Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire Day! That’s right, this episode marks exactly two years since the first episode dropped on 14 February 2019. For this very special anniversary episode Jo and Adam are joined by author Oli Grant to discuss his book How To Live Well The North Korean Way, a satire on the nature of self-help books and their efforts to selectively appropriate, repackage and commodify aspects of other cultures. They also ask whether or not Jo has any authority here or if Adam has read the script and understood it. Read the full show-notes.

EP.23. How To Live Well The Satirical Way (with Oli Grant)

In the second part of this wide-ranging interview with satirist, comedian and cultural commentator Andrew Doyle , conversation turns to touch on cancel culture and the culture wars as Andrew explains what is at stake in his satirical project. Jo and Adam also take time to reflect on Charlie Brooker’s latest production, the Netflix mocumentary Death to 2020, and Jo reveals her clever idea for a new kind of national service.

EP.22. Satire: Social Media, Identity Politics and Woke Ideology Part 2 (with Andrew Doyle)

18 months after he first appeared on the podcast (Episode 8. Satire: Woke Politics and Political Tribalism), Jo and Adam welcome satirist, comedian, writer and cultural commentator Andrew Doyle to discuss life as the man behind Titania McGrath during 2020, and to discuss Titania’s latest book: My First Little Book Of Intersectional Activism. Access the full show-notes here. 

EP.21. Satire: Social Media, Identity Politics and Woke Ideology Part 1 (with Andrew Doyle)

Sometimes, a phrase pops into your head that seems too good not to use, even though sometimes it was plenty weak enough to leave alone. So it is in this episode of the 9th best satire podcast with ‘Karen and Gammon Talk About Salmon’, Adam and Jo find out as they labour the joke to be sure it won’t work. They then talk about satirical books at Christmas time, Christmas itself, and some of the adverts that have happened this year. Read the full show-notes. 

EP. 20 - Christmas Consumer Advice Special

Poor Unfortunate Adam is trapped in his flat with only his memories for company, having been outed as the Saboteur in CBBC’s Trapped – or possibly just been near too many phones.  Jo has decorated her study with subversive prints and a Jane Area, but has now run out of things to do as lockdown looms: what to do? The only way out of  their own Infernos is to chat about some recent satire, including Spitting Image and some good stuff as well. There’s been plenty emerging recently, so it’s time for Adam and Jo to take centre stage as the main event, and talk about it. They also muse on the inconsistencies of Serco’s Track and Trace app, their respective failures to impress Cambridge Admissions Tutors, and the impossibility of telling whether someone is a ghost or not when you can’t touch people any more. Join us in our personal Bly Manors. It’s our podcast! Read the full shownotes here. 

EP.19 - Have We Got Satirical News For You

Jo and Adam are joined once again by novelist Leigh Stein for the second half of an interview about Self-Care, Leigh’s new satire on the wellness industry. This time, they talk about offence, cancel culture, privilege, the presentation of victimhood on social media, and Leigh’s approach to navigating (and skewering) all of these factors and more. Adam and Jo also talk about ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ and the bizarre dating site: Love in a Covid Climate. Read the full show-notes here. 

2.12. Satire, Social Media & Identity Politics (with Leigh Stein)

Jo and Adam are joined by Leigh Stein, author of the new satirical novel Self Care, to talk about the wellness industry, women, forms of feminism (or things that look like feminism), social media, soundbites, and the relationships between wellness, wokeness, and capitalism. So, give yourself permission to listen to our intuition. Read the full shownotes here. 

2.11. Satire, Wellness & Woke Capitalism (with Leigh Stein)

In this long awaited and highly anticipated episode, Adam and Jo discuss comedy, humour, offence, a fence, and much more, with very special guest Dr Sharon Lockyer. Is social justice a legitimate target for satire, or can comedy promote its causes? When it comes to crossing the line, how far is too far? Should Fawlty Towers be cancelled? Was Little Britain ever funny? Is it satire to imply Sir Keir Starmer has a lot of underpants? View the full show-notes here. 

2.10. Satire, Social Justice and Offence (with Dr Sharon Lockyer)

After pestering listeners to give them a yell for the past 18 months, Jo and Adam finally take a minute (or rather 63) to respond to all of the comments, questions and queries that have either landed in their satirical inbox (satirenomore@gmail.com) or hit them up in socials. Some are real, some are fictional, but each inspires a compelling, controversial or comedic discussion of the form, function, history and future of satire. And, since this is a bonus episode, Adam and Jo also take this opportunity to homage two of their own favourite podcasts. Check out the show-notes here. 

2.85. The Bonus Mail Bag Episode

As unprecedented times become the new normal, Jo and Adam return for another unprecedented episode which follows the precedent set by the last unprecedented episode they released in May. That's right, it's time for another Satire in Lockdown Round-Up! With the government's new and confusing message proving almost as viral as the virus, the PM's chief advisor flagrantly breaking the rules he helped to write and everyone else  communicating almost exclusively through Zoom, there's been plenty of fodder for the satirists. Check out the show-notes to see a full list of everything talked about in this episode. 

2.8. Satire in Lockdown 2: Staying Alert

An award winning* podcast in which Drs Adam J Smith and Jo Waugh talk about the form, function and future of satire. They also talk about the history of satire, but that doesn’t alliterate. Adam and Jo are joined by a series of special guests who will also talk about satire. * 'Best Pedagogical Project', The YSJSU Awards 2019

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Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire

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