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''The Bugle'' is a
satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...
news
podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
, created by
John Oliver John William Oliver (born 23 April 1977) is a British-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. Oliver started his career as a stand-up comedian in the United Kingdom. He came to wider attention ...
and
Andy Zaltzman Andrew Zaltzman (born 6 October 1974) is a British comedian and author who largely deals in political and sport-related material. He has worked with John Oliver, with their work together including '' Political Animal'', ''The Department'', an ...
in 2007. It is currently hosted by Zaltzman and a rotating cast of co-hosts including Alice Fraser,
Nish Kumar Nishant Kumar (born 1985) is a British stand-up comedian and television presenter. He became known as the host of satirical comedy ''The Mash Report'', now known as '' Late Night Mash''. He has also presented BBC Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy ...
, Anuvab Pal,
Hari Kondabolu Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (born October 21, 1982)Beem, p. 38 is an American stand-up comic. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' and the creator of ...
, Tom Ballard, and
Helen Zaltzman Helen Zaltzman is an English podcaster, broadcaster and writer. She produces the linguistics podcast ''The Allusionist'', the entertainment podcast '' Answer Me This!'', and the ''Veronica Mars'' recap podcast ''Veronica Mars Investigations''. ...
. It focuses on global news stories (but primarily on United Kingdom and United States news items). Oliver and Zaltzman co-hosted the podcast from 2007 to 2015, and Zaltzman has hosted it with a rotating set of co-hosts since a relaunch in September 2016. The podcast was initially produced independently and distributed by
TimesOnline ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
before becoming independent in 2011. It was part of
Radiotopia Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by '' 99% Invisible'' host Roman Mars and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their work. ...
from 2016 to 2018, when it switched to independent production funded by a voluntary subscription model. As of April 2015, the podcast had received over 500,000 downloads a month.


History

John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman had previously partnered for satirical comedy radio programs ''Political Animal'' and ''
The Department ''The Department'' is a satirical comedy on BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, in ...
''. Shortly after Oliver's move to New York to work on ''
The Daily Show ''The Daily Show'' is an American late-night talk and satirical news television program. It airs each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central with release shortly after on Paramount+. ''The Daily Show'' draws its comedy and satire form from ...
'', the two were approached by ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its s ...
'' to do a satirical podcast. The first episode of ''The Bugle'' was released on 14 October 2007. New episodes of the podcast were generally recorded and published on Fridays with related material appearing on its official website. At its launch, ''The Bugle'' was distributed by
TimesOnline ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...
, which is owned by
Rupert Murdoch Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
's
News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media conglomerate News Corp. It is the current publisher of ...
. During the
News International phone hacking scandal The News International phone hacking scandal was a controversy involving the now-defunct ''News of the World'' and other British newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking, police b ...
of 2011, ''The Bugle'' satirised its parent company in a manner which the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' characterised as "blistering" in an article published 15 August. Over the course of a few weekly episodes prior to the ''New York Times''' article, Zaltzman and Oliver had gone "straight for the jugular" regarding News International, its newspapers, and Murdoch himself. Their barbs included a comment that ''
The News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...
'' "would not be missed at all", as well as the assertion by Oliver—in response to the shaving cream pie attack on Murdoch—that despite the humour inherent in the attack, " oujust don't want to find yourself with any misplaced sympathy for Rupert Murdoch." The comedians jokingly marvelled with one another that no one in News International had yet shut down their podcast, with Oliver tapping his microphone and asking, "Should this not have been stopped by now? It doesn’t make sense!" In response to the report from the ''New York Times'', in an episode of ''The Bugle'' released 19 August, Oliver gave this opening monologue:
"Welcome to any first-time Buglers who are here because they might have read The New York Times' story on us earlier this week…but now that the story's in a newspaper that I'm guessing urdochreads cover to cover every day, I'm thinking there's an even smaller chance of us managing to not get fired now. So thanks very much, New York Times! Your trumpeting of this podcast may well turn into bugling the
Last Post The "Last Post" is either an A or a B♭ bugle call, primarily within British infantry and Australian infantry regiments, or a D or an E♭ cavalry trumpet call in British cavalry and Royal Regiment of Artillery (Royal Horse Artillery and ...
. I guess what I'm saying is—to our new listeners—'Hello and goodbye!'"
On 14 December 2011, it was announced on the podcast that Times Online would no longer be hosting and distributing ''The Bugle''. It was made clear by the hosts and TimeOnline that decision was not based on the show's repeated satirisation of
News Corp News Corporation, stylized as News Corp, is an American mass media and publishing company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The second incarnation of the original News Corporation, it was formed on June 28, 2013, following a ...
and the Murdoch family, something that had been a feature as early as in the never-broadcast pilot approved by News Corp executives in 2007. The first episode of the newly independent ''Bugle'' was published on 20 January 2012 and the podcast was funded by donations and merchandise purchases by listeners from October 2012 to mid-2016. In the summer of 2014 ''The Bugle'' was put on hiatus so that Oliver could focus on his then-forthcoming television show ''
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver ''Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'' (often abridged as ''Last Week Tonight'') is an American late-night talk and news satire television program hosted by comedian John Oliver. The half-hour-long show premiered in April 2014 on HBO. ''Last Wee ...
'' with weekly ''Bugle'' publication having resumed in October. From summer 2015 to June 2016 episodes were published intermittently when the hosts' work schedules permitted. On 3 June 2016, it was announced that Oliver would be leaving ''The Bugle'' as a permanent co-host, no longer able to regularly host due to family and work commitments. The "fourth season" of ''The Bugle'' would continue to be hosted by Andy Zaltzman with various international guest hosts filling in for Oliver. The show was officially re-launched on 24 October 2016, supported by the
Radiotopia Radiotopia is a podcast network founded by '' 99% Invisible'' host Roman Mars and run by the Public Radio Exchange. The network is organized as a collective of some two dozen shows whose producers have complete artistic control over their work. ...
podcast network. Producer Chris Skinner remained on the show along with Zaltzman, and the first set of new co-hosts were
Wyatt Cenac Wyatt John Foster Cenac Jr. (; born April 19, 1976) is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He was a correspondent and writer for ''The Daily Show'' from 2008 to 2012. He starred in the TBS series '' People of Earth'' and in Barry ...
(US),
Hari Kondabolu Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (born October 21, 1982)Beem, p. 38 is an American stand-up comic. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' and the creator of ...
(US),
Nish Kumar Nishant Kumar (born 1985) is a British stand-up comedian and television presenter. He became known as the host of satirical comedy ''The Mash Report'', now known as '' Late Night Mash''. He has also presented BBC Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy ...
(UK), Anuvab Pal (India) and
Helen Zaltzman Helen Zaltzman is an English podcaster, broadcaster and writer. She produces the linguistics podcast ''The Allusionist'', the entertainment podcast '' Answer Me This!'', and the ''Veronica Mars'' recap podcast ''Veronica Mars Investigations''. ...
(UK). All except Cenac continued to appear on the show regularly through to 2020. Other co-hosts continue to be added to the roster, with some, including Tom Ballard (Australia) and Tiff Stevenson (UK) becoming long-term contributors. Alice Fraser (Australia), introduced in Bugle 4024, has become the most frequent presenter introduced since Oliver's departure, and was the creator and full time host of its first spin off ''The Last Post'', which ran for more than 300 episodes in 2020. ''The Bugle'' left Radiotopia in 2019 and is now funded through voluntary subscription. As a reward for donations, Zaltzman runs a ''Lies about Our Subscribers'' service, where he puts each donor's name to an unlikely fact. These are read in a list at the close of episodes.


Live shows

In 2017, the show began to add live shows, performed in front of an audience. Starting at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, followed by dates in London and Edinburgh, the live shows feature Zaltzman with regular co-hosts and Producer Chris. The show is similar in nature to the podcast, with added visuals, a listener Q&A and live audience-only content. These shows also are available in the podcasts feed for all listeners.


Producers

During the first several episodes of the show various "producers" are mentioned by name on air though none of them featured in the show's content. The first to be featured on air is "Tom the Producer".


Tom Wright

Tom Wright, known solely on ''The Bugle'' as "Tom the Producer", was the producer of the show from episodes 1 to episode 107. He was first mentioned in episode 11 as Zaltzman announced his plans for the Hotties from History calendar. He is first heard in Episode 21a, providing continuity to various out-takes from the first twenty episodes. In later episodes he contributed more often, with listeners often addressing their e-mails to him directly. According to Wright's on-air answers he was married, has a daughter (as fetted in Episode 69), is Scottish, enjoys his job and does not ski. In February 2010, Wright and his family emigrated to Australia. A week before his departure, he announced his intention to continue producing ''The Bugle'' remotely. However, in episode 106 (6 March 2010), it was announced that the next ''Bugle'' would be Wright's last as he had found another job. When asked by Oliver and Zaltzman what his new gig was, he refused to identify it on the grounds that it was a sensible show and that mentioning it by name would result in it being abused by Buglers. Oliver and Zaltzman agreed that this was an accurate characterisation of their audience and did not pursue the matter further on the air. In episode 200, Wright's "character" was killed off in an apparent poisoning. The hosts remarked that this was the first person to be killed on ''The Bugle'' and would surely result in a ratings boost. In episode 247, Wright came back for a short segment, speaking from Australia. In that episode, he confirmed that he worked for ABC. Wright returned as a producer for the season 4 episodes recorded in Australia (4023, 4024, 4025).


Chris Skinner

After Tom left, he was replaced by Chris Skinner. Skinner has previously worked with Zaltzman on the ''Yes, It's the Ashes'' radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2009 and also produces ''The Game'' podcast for Times Online along with other podcasts. When Skinner first began producing ''The Bugle'', he restructured the standard musical cues quite a bit to jarring effect (e.g., he once played the podcast's closing music during the middle of an episode), but over time, his production became more similar to Tom's. Skinner occasionally participated in banter with Oliver and Zaltzman with his guest spots increasing in length over time, an example being an extended conversation about the state of Australia in ''Bugle'' 140. Skinner has been the subject of semi-ironic hate mail (and fan mail) from listeners, apparently for no reason other than that he is not Tom, and this became a running joke of the show. Skinner was the focus of the website ''fuckyouchris.com'', a site which was devoted to chronicling fans' ironic hatred of him. In 2019 Skinner launched his own podcast, titled 'Richie Firth: Travel Hacker, with
Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British National radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and on 1215 kHz MW. History 1993–1997: Vir ...
's Richie Firth, which featured a cameo from Bugle co-host Alice Fraser. Skinner is the only member of ''The Bugle'' staff to be a regular poster on the ''Bugle'' Facebook page – often insulting buglers and taunting them with his power to release ''Bugles'' late or badly cut. Skinner has repeatedly stated that, during the weeks that the show was on hiatus before Oliver's departure, or otherwise off, that shows were nevertheless recorded, edited and made ready for release without actually posting them on the Internet. Skinner "does not ski", and ran in (and lost) the 2012 London Marathon (ep 192). In Episode 237, it was revealed that Skinner had purchased the domain name fuckdungeons.com, which redirects to the podcast's home page. Skinner supports
Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...
, however rumours that he was Chirpy the mascot from 2001 to 2005 remain unsubstantiated. After a fundraising campaign trailer for the Bugle made a jocular reference to the idea, Skinner recorded and produced a full episode of ''The Producer Chris Podcast'', much to the (genuine) appreciation of Zaltzman and Oliver.


Ped Hunter

Hunter has subbed for Skinner when the latter is ill or on holiday. Only ever known as 'Ped', Buglers sent letters to the podcast asking if this was his first name, surname or nickname, with Ped preferring not to reveal his full identity to avoid the (mock) abuse Chris Skinner suffered online. When conversing with Skinner in the Special "Producer Chris Podcast" episode, Hunter was deliberately antagonistic to live up to fan expectations of rivalry between the producers, giving strong support for Buglers to bombard Skinner with their traditional (jestful) insult. In 2020, Ped was one of the producers of spin off series The Last Post, with Alice Fraser, where his full name was revealed on air.


Bugle Season 4 co-hosts


Offshoots

* The Bugle Website – Created in January 2012, the site contains updates on new shows, funding information, notes from the producer and technical information. A site with the same URL had existed previously as an unofficial site. * @hellobuglers, a Twitter account. Although it began as a complement to ''The Bugle'', primarily publishing one-liner political jokes, it also serves as Andy Zaltzman's own Twitter feed. For example, Zaltzman has used it to announce his guest appearances on other programs. * @ProducerChris, a Twitter account from show producer Chris Skinner, providing news and updates. * In 2020, The Bugle launched a daily show titled ''The Last Post'', a short form podcast "set in a parallel universe" and hosted by regular Bugle co-host Alice Fraser. Featuring Andy Zaltzman, Chris Skinner alongside other Bugle regulars (including John Oliver as the voiceover) the show has expanded on ''The Bugle'' universe, bringing in emerging talent including
Alison Spittle Alison Spittle is an Irish comedian, comedy writer, radio producer and actress. She has worked for iRadio, RTÉ Radio 1 and Newstalk and created sketches for '' Republic of Telly'' and has written and starred in her RTÉ Two sit-com ''Nowhere ...
,
Charlie George Frederick Charles George (born 10 October 1950) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward. George began his career as a youngster with Arsenal and was part of their 1970–71 League and FA Cup Double-winning team ...
and John Luke Roberts. In November 2020 Fraser confirmed on Bugle 4173 and on social channels that the series would come to an end upon completing a full year, to be replaced with a new show. * In 2021, a second Alice Fraser spin off show, titled The Gargle' launched. This weekly show was billed as 'the glossy magazine to The Bugle's Audio Newspaper'. The show follows a similar format to The Bugle (with crossover guests from both The Bugle and The Last Past), with a focus on non-political news. * The Bugle has also produced two Tiffany Stevenson series'; Tiny Revolutions, and Catharsis, which launched as part of The Bugle's 15th anniversary, in October 2022. * To mark The Bugle's 15th anniversary, Top Stories, a new daily, short form podcast series was launched, featuring clips from classic episodes over the 15 years of the show's history. * Zaltzman and Fraser appeared in the 2020 videogame '' Watch Dogs: Legion'' as hosts of in-game fictional podcast ''The Bug'', styled after ''The Bugle'', that aims to "analyse the latest blowflies to emerge from the corpse of a once-free Britain".


Reception

''The Bugle'' has received many positive mentions in the media. A review by American blog ''Frozen Toothpaste'' described the podcast in a 2007 review as "a usually delightful, witty and deadpan satire". Computing website Philosophical Geek praised ''The Bugle'' for its unique wit, saying that the reviewer found himself "laughing too hard to concentrate on anything else". ''The Bugle'', according to ''The Nerd Rage Blog'', is "a thing of beauty" and "is quite simply, hilarious". Zaltzman's "bullshit facts" are complimented, as is Oliver's "biting sarcasm". BBC Comedy review show ''What's So Funny'' described ''The Bugle'' as the benchmark in satire, in an episode dated 27 May 2011. The podcast has continued to gain positive press coverage in the "Season 4" era, a Financial Times review of its earliest episodes opining that "Anyone wondering if The Bugle would be a damp squib without Oliver needn’t have worried." More recently, there has been particular praise for the show's most frequent 'guest host' ''Alice Fraser''. ''The Spectator'' stated Fraser "vibes perfectly with Zaltzman’s hyper-articulate and anarchic style", whilst Narc Magazine reviewed her live performance as "captivating, landing her punch lines every time with surreptitious asides into the mic, while Zaltzman whips factual news into delightful, fantastical nonsense, leaving you questioning what was real and what was not."


Episode list


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bugle, The Audio podcasts Comedy and humor podcasts The Times 2007 podcast debuts Radiotopia