My Dad Wrote A Porno... on HBO

[c]

Is this the real world?

https://www.hbo.com/hbo-news/my-dad-wrote-a-porno-comedy-special

[bgmnts]

My American friend laps this up.

Americans will go crazy for most things British won't they? Makes sense to me.

[Replies From View]

Alice Cooper, Ian Levine and someone else.

[Ferris]

Is the MDWAP crowd just telling the same joke over and over? Because that's what it sounds like.

"Hahaha listen to this passage of bad writing! Hahahaha, now listen to this passage of bad writing! Hahaha my dad wrote this, what was he thinking hahahahah"

How they've spun this into a media career is beyond me. Poor old dad for writing a low-quality book in the past, now his spiteful children have mocked him into an early grave for a few shekels. For shame.

[Mango Chimes]

Is the MDWAP crowd just telling the same joke over and over? Because that's what it sounds like.

Not really. Give it a listen. It's free and good.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's not terrible but they are all far too fucking pleased with themselves.

[Cuellar]

Yeah they're annoying, but some of the writing is genuinely hilarious.

[Natnar]

I've always assumed that the three of them wrote all of the Belinda stuff and the whole Dad thing is just a smokescreen. It's funny for the first few episodes but then the concept starts to wear a bit thin. I can see why the Americans love it though, it's very British.

[Cuellar]

The dad himself has appeared on podcasts in his own right though, hasn't he?

[Seagullsim]

No - they're still pretending that he is 'publicity shy', and answers all the listener questions in written form.

I still find it entertaining, even though it's clear the three of them are writing all the material now.

[Shit Good Nose]

I'll quickly acknowledge I've only listened to a couple, but I ducked out early and quickly because to me it just seemed like Robin Ince's Bad Book Club lite.

[Cuellar]

No - they're still pretending that he is 'publicity shy', and answers all the listener questions in written form.

I still find it entertaining, even though it's clear the three of them are writing all the material now.

Ah fair enough, sure I'd heard that he'd done some media.

[yesitsme]

Another vote for their insufferabie smugness.  The sort of people who find anything funny as long as it's them saying it.

The can take a running fuck at themselves for me.

And then write THAT put.

[Wet Blanket]

The whole MDWAP thing has always come across as too self aware for my taste. They seem like people who hit upon the idea as a good way of advancing their media careers rather than doing it for its own sake.

[amnesiac]

The whole MDWAP thing has always come across as too self aware for my taste. They seem like people who hit upon the idea as a good way of advancing their media careers rather than doing it for its own sake.

exactly this. isn't the woman now the presenter on C4's The Circles? I think it's her. I could just look it up I suppose.
Anyway I heard about 10 eps last year but got bored with it, just too much of a muchness I mean why do you need more than 10 eps of it.

[Rich Uncle Skeleton]

Yeah from what I heard of it I can't imagine how the hell you can stretch it out over however many episodes not to mention a bloody live show and now the telly. (Well, people in this thread have pointed out exactly how you can do it, just get "the dad" to churn out more material)

First heard it when my mate put it on in the car a while ago, heard around 5 episodes during the journey which was plenty for me. Very funny idea but yeah it's very self aware and there's just that really smug air about the whole thing, like most of the podcasts my friend listens to actually.

[Benjaminos]

I've always assumed that the three of them wrote all of the Belinda stuff and the whole Dad thing is just a smokescreen. It's funny for the first few episodes but then the concept starts to wear a bit thin. I can see why the Americans love it though, it's very British.

I binged the first series and really enjoyed it, then this thought occurred to me at the beginning of the second series and all enjoyment just vanished into the ether. I remember something similar happening when I realised Karl Pilkington was playing a version of himself. I'm quite slow on the uptake.

[Paaaaul]

I was recommended the podcast by two friends within a week or so of each other.

I don't think I made it to the end of the second episode because I found it so loathsome.
It is SO smug.
I can't imagine hating another podcast as much as I hate this one, to the extent that I now treat those two friends' opinions with an extra level of caution.

[drummersaredeaf]

Absolute bilgewater of a podcast. I gave it about four more episodes than I should have because I heard it was meant to be good. They might as well call it HAHAHAH GUSSET, because that's the sort of mindless noise that seems to make up the bulk of it. Total S4C.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Brits don't call it porno anyway. The name of the podcast suggests they always had one eye on using their So Very Britishness to court great American success. S4C indeed. I did find the first few quite funny but also quite irritating.

[KennyMonster]

I too gave it two or three episodes before bailing at their smug bullying.

The last straw was when the woman one accidentally used her own piece of bad grammar and none of the cast picked her up on it.

Some bloke who works for Direct Line blocked me on Twitter when I said it was far from being the best thing since sliced bread.

[Z]

It's one of those things that is so often listed alongside things I both dislike and dislike the idea of (No Such Thing as a Fish was always next to it on okcupid profiles iirc, "Hello Jason Isaacs" too) that I've never even considered checking it out.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'll quickly acknowledge I've only listened to a couple, but I ducked out early and quickly because to me it just seemed like Robin Ince's Bad Book Club lite.

I went along to Ince's Dirty Book Club which seems identical to this. It wasn't bad as it goes, but only because of the other comedians there that night and not Ince himself.

[non capisco]

I found the first series amusing enough when I was perhaps naively taking it at face value and wasn't aware one of them is a Radio 1 DJ, but from the second series onwards they had the self-congratulatory 'footnotes' midweek sub-podcast where they had famous people like Frodo Baggins and Michael Sheen coming on to tell them how brilliantly funny it all is and how amazing it is that all these big stars have latched on to our little podcast. They couldn't maintain the illusion of a homegrown podcast about a dad writing embarrassing erotica. IT'S SERIES 2, TIME TO RAMP THIS UP, GET HER FROM STAR WARS ON THE BLOWER.

I ultimately stopped listening when they kept squealing their semi-catchphrase "Not a thing!", nearly always about concepts that the flimsiest of research would confirm do actually exist.

[Mobius]

How much porno did the dad write, that they've been able to milk it this far and do live shows?

Literally cannot believe 'haha badly written fanfic' has so much shelf life.

[Sebastian Cobb]

It's hard to believe one of them is a R1 DJ because she makes Jo Whiley sound like Verity Sharp or something.

[Mango Chimes]

I like Alice Levine and I like this podcast.

[Hat FM]

thought alice levine was cute in taskmaster but this is toss.

[Cuellar]

Of course, I blame Ricky Gervais for this.

[Small Man Big Horse]

This aired in the US last night and is on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Thursday. Here's the final paragraph of my review which sums up my feelings about it.

Perhaps the podcast itself is funnier, I can only presume that is the case given it's ongoing success, but it's not something that I have any intention of checking out as the trio just aren't the kind of people I find that engaging. Moran is the funniest but he has the easiest role as he mostly just reads the story, Levine has the occasional decent line but little more than that (reflecting her performance in Taskmaster series six) and Cooper is mostly bland or irritating, a bit too smug, a bit too self satisfied, and that's something I don't feel appealing. It is just about worth watching, if only for the final 15 minutes, but skipping through the duller moments is also advised.