The ‘Thirty Odd Foot of Pod’ podcast is a collaboration between Australian comedian and TV person Wil Anderson and actor and writer-type Charlie Clausen. Since both of them are frustratingly handsome, it’s mildly annoying that this podcast is very good too.
TOFOP is a podcast that takes its time in an exemplary way. The host’s conversation is laid-back and humorous in a way that makes talk about even the most detached or irrelevant subject a minor delight. Most of the episodes contain a through line that is, along the way, repeatedly corrupted and twisted by swerving violently off track. There is a kind of (modest) genius in the way that between them, they manage to stretch a topic over an episode, whilst introducing tens of tangents and still manage to finish up the story by the close. At times, the level of quality, consistency and fullness are close to that off a written piece rather than something off the cuff.
The boys of the TOFOP
A lot of the comedy comes from the escalating, ridiculing and accentuating of one another’s scenarios, but the quality of the pair’s single-line and longer form jokes forge the podcast into something that’s funny in a way most podcasts aim for, but don’t have the capacity to reach. Each week comes fully equipped with multiple laugh out loud moments, quotable lines that can verge on being simply glorious; and allied with the ‘TOFOP fact’ phenomena (semi-imagined ‘facts’) the show really drives itself forward in both an intriguing and humorous way.
By their own admission, their primary topics are often either: Batman, time travel, or prison rape, and occasionally, a combination. It wouldn’t exactly be unheard of for them to talk for at least forty-five minutes about Batman Rises, just as it would be unheard of for them to go a few episodes without talking about Batman. Not that that’s anything to be ashamed of, since it’s far better for the pair to use their not insignificant chemistry to talk about something they love rather than avoiding it.
Another trope of the podcast is hypothetical situations. Within any episode there will be at least two or three hypothetical concepts proposed and discussed at length. This could limit the podcast, either making the conversation stilted, structured or limited, but because of their improvisation, and the directions both Wil and Charlie take, even the most mundane scenario would entertain, and the scenarios are far from that. ‘What would you do if eight foot tall Amazonian women took over the world and used all the men as sex slaves,’ or ‘of all Brad Pitt’s films would you most like to see him replaced by a dalek,’ for example. Vicariously, these hypotheticals also encourage audience reaction and interaction, be that to other listeners, or just within your own head.
They've also got mugs!
Within the podcast there is also plenty of fun Australian references, which can be a little confusing for a new listener, but they have an admirable commitment to explaining or contextualising their references. Sometimes these direct explanations fall by the wayside, but their references are most often either American or worldwide ones, so them talking for ten minutes about Australian Football really isn’t a hardship. It wouldn’t be a good show if it was.
The podcast does have a rather pop culture sensibility. With many of the starting off or tangential points beginning with an idea culled from the news, or pop culture centric. These are two guys who know about, appreciate and seem to very much enjoy pop culture and who have opinions on the ideas they talk about. Many of these may be based in partly made up facts or wild speculation, but they usually do it in a way so entertaining and enjoyable that even if you don’t care about the cultural zeitgeist, you will find something to love anyway.
All in all it’s a joyous show, revelling in its tangential extremities, enjoyably explicit nature and cultural otherworldliness. And it needs more listeners, so get involved, you!
You can find the podcast on iTunes or on their website, www.tofop.com. They are on twitter individually as @Wil_Anderson, @CXClausen and as @tweetfop. They can also be found on facebook as TOFOP and that’s about it.