The Adam Buxton Podcast Thread II: You're MAI WAIF now

[elastoplastthefasterplast]

I really wish he'd stop with all the cancel culture stuff, he's very much in his head about it. As far as I know, he's never done anything especially objectionable, so I find his obvious paranoia and guilt a bit mystifying if I'm honest. He's been banging on about it for about two years now by my count, but when he gets specific it's just something like that wishy washy festival anecdote.

[mjwilson]

I really wish he'd stop with all the cancel culture stuff, he's very much in his head about it. As far as I know, he's never done anything especially objectionable, so I find his obvious paranoia and guilt a bit mystifying if I'm honest. He's been banging on about it for about two years now by my count, but when he gets specific it's just something like that wishy washy festival anecdote.

Didn't he confess to groping someone's arse and excuse it with a mystifying "Well we did it at school" excuse?

[Cold Meat Platter]

I really wish he'd stop with all the cancel culture stuff, he's very much in his head about it. As far as I know, he's never done anything especially objectionable, so I find his obvious paranoia and guilt a bit mystifying if I'm honest. He's been banging on about it for about two years now by my count, but when he gets specific it's just something like that wishy washy festival anecdote.

Buckles might be guarding a dreadful secret. Something that would make Jimmy Savile look like a saint in comparison.

It was Alexa Chung's arse he groped btw.

[elastoplastthefasterplast]

Didn't he confess to groping someone's arse and excuse it with a mystifying "Well we did it at school" excuse?

It was Alexa Chung's arse he groped btw.

Yeah this is the festival anecdote I mentioned, it sounded like a misjudged bit of playfulness which he's understandably very embarrassed about more than his personal MeToo moment or whatever, so I can only assume he's committed some hidden atrocity that gnaws at his soul or suttin

[Twit 2]

- Living in rural Norfolk

He lives a couple of miles away from me ([tag]Twit 2 mentions living near Adam Buxton[/tag])so another area of comfort listening for me is that I tramp around the same fields as him more or less, sans dog and mic and so those tail end bits where he describes the surroundings and weather feel very vivid and familiar to me.

Forgot to say in my appraisal above that the jingles consistently make me grin from ear to ear. He makes it look easy, but to write so many of them that convey a mood, style and joke in such a compressed way takes real skill. The jingles are another thing that set it apart from the rest.

[Icehaven]

He lives a couple of miles away from me ([tag]Twit 2 mentions living near Adam Buxton[/tag])so another area of comfort listening for me is that I tramp around the same fields as him more or less, sans dog and mic and so those tail end bits where he describes the surroundings and weather feel very vivid and familiar to me.

Have you ever heard a distant "I love you, bye!!" echoing across the fields?

[Cold Meat Platter]

Have you ever heard a distant "I love you, bye!!" echoing across the fields?

haha

[Sonny_Jim]

Yeah getting sick of the 'cancel culture' thing as well.  I don't think he's got anything lurking in his past and even if he does it's likely he's blown a trivial incident out of all proportion.

Honestly, I just think that it's a combination of him getting old with a side serve of 'makes him feel a bit Jon Ronson/Louis Theroux'.  It might be that it's something to do with the pickle his former co-worker Glinner has gotten into, but I doubt it.

Very much enjoyed the podcast with the Louis impressions, can see why Chris Morris likes that guy.

[BeardFaceMan]

I'm not a regular listener to this, I generally just dip in when someone I like is on so I listened to this last one with Novak. Fucking hell, does Buckles really do that cancel culture stuff every week? I very nearly turned the interview off after 5 minutes of that, so fucking tedious, and it's all crouched in "well some people say this...". That conversation around Fonejacker and doing accents was embarrassing, any time he came close to expressing an actual opinion he changed his mind when Novak didn't agree with him. I have no idea what the points are that he's trying to make, he just talks an awful lot without actually saying anything.

[Pink Gregory]

it makes me cringe too, but maybe he thinks that it's an interesting conversation to have.

Not Adam's fault that people like John Cleese and Jack Dee exist who don't understand the idea that attitudes change over time.

Also it helps weed out who the biggest cunts are.  I've got no time for David Mitchell since his last pod with Buckles, for instance.

[selectivememory]

Yeah, I think it comes from a well-meaning place, but it's rarely interesting to listen to. And it did kind of spoil this otherwise excellent episode for me too.

I am glad he got off social media. It's still clearly a massive preoccupation of his, so it's great he had the self-awareness to see how poisonous it could be for him.

[Icehaven]

I listen to every episode and I can't honestly say I've noticed him going on about cancel culture that much. Sometimes yes but not with every guest. If it is a preoccupation of his then that suggests while he's not actively on social media he still lurks enough to be aware of what's going on on it.

[thelittlemango]

I thought Novak seemed very defensive about it and his argument was quite thin, I'd have liked to hear Adam push this a bit further but as mentioned, he bottled it and kept saying "well, that's not what I'm saying, that's what someone could potentially say...blah blah...yeah I agree with you" everytime.

[turnstyle]

I don't think he's got anything lurking in his past and even if he does it's likely he's blown a trivial incident out of all proportion.

How quickly you've forgotten the callous murder of Boggins.

Listened to the Novak pod on my commute this morning. Good stuff, especially the Theroux impressions, just incredible.

Also a big childish guffaw from me when Buckles was doing an impersonation, and Novak said 'That's quite a good impression...if you like SHIT impressions'.

[thelittlemango]

Also liked it when Buckles went over the top of one of Novak's impressions with one of his own and Novak said "are you just gonna red card my impression?!"

[Blinder Data]

I think a year ago I asked the question in this thread about whether he has to mention cancel culture every week. The guy just can't stop!

If Buckles had something interesting to say it would be fine, but as somebody else mentioned, he doesn't and is scared to nail his colours to the mast either way so the conversation never goes anywhere. Asking whether Novak feels he has more licence to imitate other nationalities/races as a non-white guy with Iranian parents could have been interesting, but no, just the same bland stuff, and it made the second half of the podcast a bit of a chore.

Novak's various voices were great - in fact, to my ears some of them sounded a lot like Buckles himself.

[Sonny_Jim]

No Bowie-off from what I remember, Novak choosing his battles carefully there...

Oh and I always get a bit uncomfortable when he talks about his relationship with his wife, dunno why.

[gotmilk]

it makes me cringe too, but maybe he thinks that it's an interesting conversation to have.

Not Adam's fault that people like John Cleese and Jack Dee exist who don't understand the idea that attitudes change over time.

Also it helps weed out who the biggest cunts are.  I've got no time for David Mitchell since his last pod with Buckles, for instance.

What did Mitchell say? I can't remember anything objectionable.

[Pink Gregory]

Nothing that anyone normal would find objectionable, just didn't like his attitude.  To be honest I find his personality/shtick a bit tiresome anyway.  I'm being entirely unfair.

Think it was to do with him having an arrogantly apathetic attitude to climate change activism or something.

[thr0b]

Criticising a podcast he calls a Ramble Chat for not going anywhere rather misses the point. It's meant to be a chat that doesn't necessarily go anywhere.

I think he'd have got Bowie on eventually. And wouldn't have got a word out.

[mjwilson]

Yeah this is the festival anecdote I mentioned, it sounded like a misjudged bit of playfulness which he's understandably very embarrassed about more than his personal MeToo moment or whatever, so I can only assume he's committed some hidden atrocity that gnaws at his soul or suttin

If I didn't want to be cancelled for groping a stranger's arse twenty-five years ago, I would simply not bring it up on a podcast.

[AllisonSays]

As someone who also loves the podcast but shares the general sense here that Adam's weird neurotic fixation with 'cancel culture' is tiresome and unilluminating, I actually thought the discussion in the most recent one was relatively interesting - or at least it felt like it had a wee bit of an uncomfortable, difficult edge, which is maybe more useful than his usual burbling half-engagement with it.

[PammySpacek]

Nothing that anyone normal would find objectionable, just didn't like his attitude.  To be honest I find his personality/shtick a bit tiresome anyway.  I'm being entirely unfair.

Think it was to do with him having an arrogantly apathetic attitude to climate change activism or something.

I remember him saying something about how the present day (as in the 21st Century pre-Covid, as it was recorded before then) is overall the best time to be alive, which is something only a very middle class and well-off person could possibly think.

[Brundle-Fly]

I remember him saying something about how the present day (as in the 21st Century pre-Covid, as it was recorded before then) is overall the best time to be alive, which is something only a very middle class and well-off person could possibly think.

When was the best time to be alive then?

[popcorn]

I remember him saying something about how the present day (as in the 21st Century pre-Covid, as it was recorded before then) is overall the best time to be alive, which is something only a very middle class and well-off person could possibly think.

errrr perhaps I'm an awful centrist bigot then but isn't that likely to be true? Like, if you were to pick a century to live in in which you had, eg, the best chance of surviving childhood, learning to read and write, being warm and dry, having clothes, having enough to eat, not losing most of your teeth or dying of some horrible illness or suffering some other crippling malady by the age of 30, not being sent to war, not being executed for your religion or sexuality, wouldn't now be better than almost any other time? Obviously your chances of any of those happening to you today varies greatly depending on numerous factors, and I mean the tories are cunts and everything, but I'd pick now over 1921, or 1821, or 1721...

[AllisonSays]

I guess the person who's most associated with saying that is Steven Pinker, and in Pinker's account it ends up being an essentially quietist argument, where crushing global poverty, profound alienation and unhappiness under capitalism, climate change, racism etc are elided or not taken seriously, and certainly where any demand for radical political change is dismissed in favour of the kind of consensus neoliberal centrism that Pinker shills for. Obviously someone using a similar formulation isn't necessarily repeating the Pinker argument verbatim but that's what it'd put me in mind of anyway.

[popcorn]

I haven't read any Steven Pinker so perhaps I'm talking out of my arse. I'd certainly like to survive childhood though, and have decent dentistry.

I can't quite imagine that people were less racist in the 1800s?

[Mobbd]

What did Mitchell say? I can't remember anything objectionable.

Think it was to do with him having an arrogantly apathetic attitude to climate change activism or something.

It was something like: "The Greenies are right but their message isn't convincing. They're essentially saying 'there's a fire' but I really like driving. And that's not going to get me out of my car."

I mean what the fuck is that? Piss weak and part of the problem. I've not looked on him very favorably since that.

[Mobbd]

decent dentistry

Come over and say that in @Cloud 's thread!

[frajer]

I listened to the Novak episode this morning and enjoyed the first half (that Theroux impression!) but the latter left me cold.

Novak impressed me a lot but Buckles (who I love) felt far too relentless in his attempts to get Novak to make a declarative statement on a dicey topic that cannot possibly be resolved to anyone's satisfaction. There is something to be said for exploring the subject to try and progress it, but I have no idea what Adam is pushing for. Also few of his comments like "these days you can't even go there" had a big whiff of privilege. I genuinely don't think a dismissive swipe at 'cancel culture' was his intent, which made it even more frustrating to hear him trot out this tired shit.

I thought Novak hit the nail on the head towards the end when he said that he feared conversations like that were unenlightening and self-serving. Not sure if that was a dig aimed at Buxton but if so I'd say it was well-deserved.