Liam Lynch, Geoff Nunberg, and Kasper Hauser

Episode 40

9th October 2012

The writer, director and musician Liam Lynch talks to us about bringing back his sock puppet duo Sifl and Olly and how he met not ONE, but TWO Beatles. Plus, linguist Geoff Nunberg talks about how the word “asshole” found its way into our lexicon in his new book Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years. Plus, only the BEST of fake news from Kasper Hauser.

Episode notes


Music Picks with the Low Times

We’re joined this week by the entire cast of the Low Times podcast for their music recommendations. Daniel Ralston goes with Rock Bottom by King Krule, Maggie Serota suggests Your Side by Fear of Men, and Tom Scharpling recommends The Diaz Brothers by The Mountain Goats.

(Embed or share this segment with the Low Times)


Musician and Director Liam Lynch on the Return of Sifl and Olly

Liam Lynch is a writer, director and musician who’s made a career out of a certain kind of alternative musical and skit comedy — the kind that is “funny the way your friends are funny with each other.” That sensibility lent itself well to Lynch’s directorial work in Sarah Silverman’s Jesus is Magic and Tenacious D’s The Pick of Destiny.

His sock puppet duo, Sifl & Olly, found a niche on late-night television on MTV. Joined by the occasional sidekick or home shopping network representative, Sifl and Olly ribbed each other, took calls from the public, and broke out into songs like Lynch’s strange and catchy “United States of Whatever.”

He’s now revived the puppets, more than ten years after the last Sifl & Olly Show broadcast, to conduct fake video game reviews for the YouTube channel Machinima.

(Click here to listen and share more of our conversation with Liam Lynch that didn’t make the radio cut!)


The News with Kasper Hauser

The Kasper Hauser news team is back with another update. If you’re tired of telling fact from fiction in your news, we’ll make it simple for you: this news is completely fake.

The members of Kasper Hauser are based in San Francisco and are the authors of Obama’s Blackberry, Weddings of the Times, and the forthcoming Earn Your MBA On the Toilet.

(Embed or share The News with Kasper Hauser)


Linguist Geoff Nunberg on The First Sixty Years of Assholism

Geoff Nunberg is a professor at UC Berkeley, the resident linguist of Fresh Air, and the author of Ascent of the A-Word: Assholism, the First Sixty Years. He talks to us about his studies into the word “asshole,” which began life as a bit of slang used by WWII servicemen and has come to envelop the concept of modern incivility.

(More of our conversation with Geoff Nunberg that didn’t make the radio edit! Click to listen and share.)


The Outshot: Comedian Bill Burr

Jesse shares his enjoyment of the analytical comedy of Bill Burr.

(Embed or share The Outshot: Bill Burr)

Who’s your favorite standup? Jump over to the MaxFun forum and pick your own Outshot.

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In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow
Video Editor

Guests

  • Liam Lynch
  • Geoff Nunberg
  • Maggie Serota
  • Daniel Ralston
  • Tom Scharpling

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Video Editor

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