Athletico Mince

[phantom_power]

There's that. There's getting angry about a perfectly ignorable thing, and then there's the cuntish outmoded cliche about nerds. A trifecta of twattery

[Old Gold Tooth]

Andy just can't act like a decent human, can he? Relentlessly bilious. Also his "My name is John" song in this week's ep was embarrassingly shit.

[dunelm]

Andy's genuine unpleasantness is fully revealed on Twitter. He seems to reign it in on the podcast. There's no beginning to his talent. The John song the most recent example. Dire.

[Mantis Toboggan]

The Big Lass to Steve: "Out of the way, you watery shadow."

What a great line.

Another superb episode. I love Mrs Beardsley's posh voice.

Sadly I must kick Andy while he's down. That John song was about the worst attempt at humour I've ever had the misfortune to witness. Bless Bob for forcing out a feigned chuckle. Bad. Really fucking bad.

[robhug]

I've listened twice and believe Bob's laugh to be more nervous incredulity than feigned amusement.

Theres no other explanation other than he's taking the piss out of us with the John song, he cant have thought it was worthy of Bobs listening time.

[Replies From View]

Why hasn't Andy improved?  Why is he impervious to Bob's genius?

The man is so shit that he can't even pick skills up from Bob Mortimer.  Just think of how gut-wrenchingly shit and unjustifiably self-absorbed and arrogant that means he is.  He's essentially getting free comedy workshops and going "Well you can't teach me more than I know anyway.  I will now use all the same voices and ideas that failed to make anyone laugh when I randomly bellowed them out in secondary school."

It also means that if you or I were to ever spend time with Andy, all of our more limited comedic capacity (relative to Bob's) would be sucked away by the sheer black hole vacuum of Andy's talent-void.  Only somebody like Bob Mortimer is able to withstand such a terrible negative force I suppose. 

But what on earth does Bob get out of it?  Does Andy hold compromising photos of him or something?  Baffling.

[SteveDave]

I was listening to this today and, as I was going down the escalator at Camden Town Tube, the opening notes of piano for the Peter Beardsley bit started and I involuntarily said out loud "Awlright Bob"

[dunelm]

But what on earth does Bob get out of it?  Does Andy have compromising photos of him or something?

It's been discussed before and I think it's evolved from where it started.

Initially it was meant to be a football podcast so Andy's lack of comedy pedigree wouldn't have been as important and he is knowledgeable about footy. Then it stopped being a football podcast and Andy's lack of comic chops was fully revealed. But by then Andy was part of the furniture.

I also think because Bob's a nice guy he hasn't binned him.

Andy's bananarama 'bit' and the john song are two of the most pathetic attempts at humour I can recently recall. We have the luxury of being able to skip Andy's bits, poor Bob doesn't.

[Old Gold Tooth]

The man is so shit that he can't even pick skills up from Bob Mortimer.  Just think of how gut-wrenchingly shit and unjustifiably self-absorbed and arrogant that means he is.  He's essentially getting free comedy workshops and going "Well you can't teach me more than I know anyway.  I will now use all the same voices and ideas that failed to make anyone laugh when I randomly bellowed them out in secondary school."

It's interesting to see how Andy sort-of copies Bob's style of repetition, songs and character voices, but just can't make it work because he always makes his characters and songs quite hateful and that hatred seems to come from a genuine place. Feels like all his characters constantly have their teeth bared.

If anyone's watched the Athletico Mince live show, the "Two Large Mangoes" song segment from Andy is a fucking toe-curler. The audience is a bit muted throughout the whole show in fairness, but there's not a single solitary laugh while Andy sings this for what feels like forever, and then once it stops there's a smattering of polite applause.

[Mantis Toboggan]

Andy's picked up lots of Bob's bits. He used the 'machine in his garage that shags yer' line a couple of times. That had me in hysterics when Bob came up with it. When Andy said it, it fell completely flat.

Considering the amount of content he's put out over the years, Bob rarely repeats himself. It does wind me up though to see Andy ruin a good bit and then know it will be consigned to the bin.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I think Bob's comedy has a certain rhythm to it that Andy can't match. Like the quiz sections, written down there's nothing at all funny in the names of the quiz that Bob thinks up but the rhythm of the words when he says them is somehow pleasing and funny. When Andy  does the quiz, even using a lot of the same phrases Bob had used for the title, it just doesn't work. That's all I can see it as, Bob instinctively knows what works and Andy doesn't and when he tries to keep up he fails. I think he's much better as a straight man to Bob's lunacy rather than attempting bits of his own. 

[Replies From View]

a straight man 

In the Syd Little "just stand there and be shit" mould.

[robhug]

In the Syd Little "just stand there and be shit" mould.

Andy was born for that role. Harsh connecting Bob to Large though.

[sponk]

Andy's Ringo Start impression in a recent episode made me laugh. First time in 50+ hours of content

[Twed]

Andy is great for bouncing off Bob and grounding him, but I wish he would produce about 10% of the content that he does. The occasional stuff (WORHMMR etc.) is fine, but when he makes a song or tries to do a sketch it's toe-curling.

[non capisco]

Bob's increasingly naked disdain for Andy's bits nearly makes them worthwhile for me. His final brutal shutdown of the Bananarama shite was glorious.

[shiftwork2]

Andy's Ringo Start impression in a recent episode made me laugh. First time in 50+ hours of content

I think he's done that once before.  It was the line though, not just the impression.  "The best thing about being in The Beatles was all the free sweeties". 

Credit to Andy lad there
_{if he came up with it}

[Replies From View]

.

[Enzo]

I think Bob's comedy has a certain rhythm to it that Andy can't match. Like the quiz sections, written down there's nothing at all funny in the names of the quiz that Bob thinks up but the rhythm of the words when he says them is somehow pleasing and funny. When Andy  does the quiz, even using a lot of the same phrases Bob had used for the title, it just doesn't work. That's all I can see it as, Bob instinctively knows what works and Andy doesn't and when he tries to keep up he fails. I think he's much better as a straight man to Bob's lunacy rather than attempting bits of his own.

Bob basically teaching Andy the right rhythm for "I could have nicked it... but I didn't" is a great example of that.

[non capisco]

That was by and large another excellent episode, though. The Nonsense Potter's voice is very nearly up there with Beardsley's Wife for me now in the hilarity stakes.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Club Parsnips compilation of Bob's alderman stories reminds that it was actually Andy who came up with the idea of there being some sort of romantic relationship between them. It's Andy who coins the phrase "kiss the alderman", which makes Bob laugh. So that's nice, isn't it Andrew?

[dunelm]

The Club Parsnips compilation of Bob's alderman stories reminds that it was actually Andy who came up with the idea of there being some sort of romantic relationship between them. It's Andy who coins the phrase "kiss the alderman", which makes Bob laugh. So that's nice, isn't it Andrew?

Andy contributes something shocker.

[Replies From View]

I'm sure you're wrong. 

Here's Bob Mortimer on Would I Lie To You:  https://youtu.be/chBbsduBjzk.  "Kiss the Alderman" goes back to a time when Bob, independently of Andy, was naming beers.


Read the writing on this:




So unless you are saying Bob took Andy's phrase without crediting him, it originated in Bob.

[Cuellar]

Oh no, kissing the Alderman in Mince predates that WILTY episode and the beer by a good couple of years.

The beer is a reference to the podcast!

[Replies From View]

Okay, I haven't heard Andy "originating" it or Bob laughing in response but my assumption would be that Bob said it first, maybe when they weren't recording.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Okay, I haven't heard Andy "originating" it or Bob laughing in response but my assumption would be that Bob said it first, maybe when they weren't recording.

That's quite an assumption.

I'm sure you're wrong.

As is that.

[Replies From View]

That's quite an assumption.

Fair enough though, no?


Does anyone know which episodes start the Alderman trajectory off so I can hear the origins for myself, as I haven't anything to go on beyond the raw fact that Andy is shite.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I suppose so.

[Replies From View]

If "Alderman" was already floating around in the improvisations and Andy merely added the "kiss" bit I can picture it.  But I'd say it's a stretch to give him credit for the whole thing after just plonking together pieces that were already sitting there.

[Cuellar]

I wanted to find the first appearance of the Alderman and I think it's in episode 15, one of Andy's questions to Bob is 'Does the dirty Alderman insist that you call him daddy or is it the other way around?'

To which Bob says 'who did you say, the Alderman?... My relationship with the Alderman is purely business/professional'
Andy: 'Is that why you kissed him at a charity function'

So I think Andy did originate both the alderman and the kissing, but Bob made it sing.