Give em a game of swing ball

Anything beyond season 2 Gervais acts as if he has always loved him and wants to be best mates with him.

During early season 1 he says he doesn't know why Bowie stopped writing songs since Space Oddity

Merchant agrees and says that he "feels the same way" and that his songs has never gripped him.

Tbf this makes Merchant a hypocrite as he criticised Gervais for not inviting him to the gig special later on, think it was season 2. And he goes on to say "you know how much that would have meant to me"

Anyway think I've covered that

I really need help. I listen to the XFM episodes constantly. I wear bluetooth headphones when I go out to grocery shopping, and I listen to it giggling like an idiot, and dying, laughing inside. People look at me like I'm weird an that. I put it on in the background when I'm cooking, studying, walking etc. Can't be doing without listening to the round headed bald twat all day.

How'd you guys cope with this weird addiction?

Email it in.

Did that..just go out?

I was in the middle of listening to XFM on YouTube (my Spotify doesn’t work on my work computer) and the video just stopped and said the owner has closed the channel - they’re all removed from my watch history as well. I hope they come back but if not, thank you for your service all these years Man Moth. 🫡

Personally, it’s

“Ooh, not… bright stuff, Rick… you’ve embarrassed yourself, PLAY A RECORD!”

Had some spare time in London so I've reviewed some xfm hotspots.

Studio - tinpot, even from the outside

Mcdonald's - good value. I hope someone from hamburgers is reading I can get some free stuff

Chinatown - slippy streets

Punch & Judy - expensive round

Stringfellows - had a look at the fellas tackle but the woman put her knickers on quick to have a look

Christopher's - they said I didn't have a booking so can't review

I am asking this because I think Karl Pilkington's response to Ricky when Merchant is reading out the horoscopes gets very little attention.

Basically, Merchant is reading out some vague horoscope that includes "Virgos are happy little chaps" or some variant of that and Karl immediately goes, incredulously, "little?"

And I think that is just such a perfect line from him.

Ricky: Piano ballad dirge like Galvestone by Jimmy Webb (who wrote it) or other things he arbitrarily labels beautiful like that Antony and the Johnsons track

Steve: All timer hip hop artists like Princess Superstar and Mr Cheeks plus songs for the ladies if he’s in the mood to make whoopie

Karl: Songs with a story like the first half of Living for the City or Killing of Georgie, Lola and other gay anthems

In the podcasts, the dynamic in their relationship was that Ricky was to be the smart one, Karl the dumb one, and Steve someone in-between. So I think we can all agree there have been a few cringe or petty moments due to that relationship that they felt they had to keep up, so I'm wondering what the pettiest things from each of them had been.

Examples ~

Ricky: Other than the obvious thing of him showing absolutely no sign of having the philosophy degree that he talks about when immediately refusing to give way to talks about a God or religion. For me, the pettiest thing I remember was him going mental when Karl said bees have fur. Just because Karl said it, he stumbled the next minute trying to find a scientific explanation to back up his insistence that bees don't have fur. He would've let that slide if it was anyone else.

Steve: I don't remember why he did it though it wasn't for anything big, but him punching Karl on air never seemed right. It's was awkward on air too, Ricky's only quiet response being "That was real, play a record". Steve often sided with Ricky and often he was unnecessarily harsh with Karl with small things, despite the K-man being older. "Cheap, crap, go-cart"

Karl: Usually in retaliation to Steve to be fair. "You're the one that's sad and lonely" felt like he had a bit of emotion in that.

Thoughts? Am I having a go? I'm not sick of it

Am I going insane or do they repeat the same stories on the podcast from xfm episodes. Example: the Karl story of when he sees the naked lady across the road whilst washing up? I swear they talk about that in xfm. But they are talking about it in Ep7 on the podcast. Am I going insane?

Done by Dani @ Handpoked by Dani in St. John's, NL

Knock knock

A call in moment where the person doesn't get enough, if any, hate. The standard smelly eyebrows woman and that woman who phoned in about the candy sweet girl get so much hate on here. I think the reason this person gets overlooked is because it's a Sturgess episode (S2E06). Ricky and Steve hold a little competition to guess the song lyric, and a chap named John Ball calls in and gives the correct answer. Steve explains they have nothing to give him, and he immediately snaps at Steve, saying “Nah, it’s not good enough,” and then proceeds to chant "Office DVD" like a performing seal, clapping his hands together. It really winds me up hearing his voice on every relisten. Can I make a bigger suggestion? That’s probably the most arrogant thing we’ve had said on the show today. Thanks very much for your call.

Ages ago, cannonballs...

Always found it interesting that none of the 3 ever had children. I wonder why?

Once you’ve looped round all episodes, and you’re starting over, e.g. from S1 E1 like I do, you can reset all the episodes back to “not listened”, so you’re completely starting afresh and every episode will start from the very beginning again.

Click the little cog icon, then mark all as finished. Then go back into the cog icon, and mark all as not finished, and then all episodes will be reset back to the very beginning.

See screenshots for more details, oh and uh, ‘ave a good Christmas.