Misconnections offers love in time for the weekend
Beccy searched online “misconnections” for people who had spotted a stranger and hoped to find them again. One woman had laughed nervously when a dog walker approached because she had secretly pulled her shorts aside to urinate in a park. Another person mistook a McDonald’s worker’s routine apology and wish to “have a nice day” for romantic interest, while a Hertfordshire drinker offered a meeting in a neutral location after exchanging glances across a bar.
The strangest message appeared to describe somebody licking a passenger’s fingers on a train. Scott, Beccy and Chris initially imagined a human encounter and became distracted by trying to lick their own fingers, before the rest of the description revealed that the admirer had been writing about a dog. Scott invited anybody who recognised themselves in the messages to contact the show, though the park confession seemed more likely to discourage its intended recipient.
James reveals what happened on Sing Date
Show introducer James had appeared on Scott’s new favourite dating programme, Sing Date. He performed “Broken Strings” by webcam while his rivals included an Elvis impersonator, then was chosen for the studio date. The experience came with travel to London and free Nando’s, two advantages he valued even though he had not found the resulting television entirely comfortable to watch.
James first met his date as she struggled to climb down from a high stool. They then had to look into each other’s eyes and sing Diana Ross and Westlife’s “When You Tell Me That You Love Me”, an unusually intense choice for two strangers. One take became more awkward when she used a Donald Duck voice, a skill she later demonstrated with “Happy Birthday”. She invited James for a drink after filming, but he thought her expression in the finished programme suggested she wanted to kill him.
He did not regret the programme completely because it promoted his music and provided the meal, but he had no desire to join another dating show. Scott warned him that Sky Living could repeat the episode for years, preserving the uncomfortable duet far longer than James might have expected.
Stupid Street forgets Tim Berners-Lee
For Oh! What’s Occurring?, eight people on Stupid Street were asked who had invented the internet. Despite Tim Berners-Lee’s appearance in the Olympic opening ceremony only weeks earlier, not one named him. Suggestions included George Davies, Steve Jobs, an intelligent-sounding “Steven Hawkins”, Brad Pitt and an unnamed Indian man whom one respondent decided was called Hindi.
Beccy had predicted that two people would remember Berners-Lee and Chris chose four, leaving both without points. The team later acknowledged messages correcting the premise: Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, not the internet. Scott jokingly accepted the street’s suggestion that Brad Pitt therefore remained available as the internet’s inventor.
Beccy tries to answer the telephone
Scott tested whether Beccy could work at businesses whose names she found childish. Recordings of staff answering at the Polish Knob, Winking Willy’s and Willy’s Wine Bar caused her to laugh before she could repeat the names convincingly. Scott believed the joke would quickly wear off for a real receptionist, but Beccy could not make it through even a pretend greeting.
Chris reviews films he barely watched
Chris launched a film-review feature despite knowing very little about films or actors. He gave Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory four stars, concentrating on David Kelly, whom he recognised as the old man from Waking Ned, and mentioning Johnny Depp almost as an afterthought. He struggled to describe the plot beyond a child winning a golden ticket for a tour of a chocolate factory.
His review of Brokeback Mountain was even less reliable. After curry and drinks, Chris had fallen asleep about 15 minutes into the film but still awarded it four and a half stars. He assumed it was a boys’ film about two ranchers living the American dream and recommended watching it with male friends over curry and pints. Chris promised to try again with friends at the weekend, while Scott looked forward to hearing how his understanding changed once he remained awake for the plot.
Real or No Real
The genuine facts in the final game were that Adolf Hitler took numerous medicines while suffering from chronic flatulence, urinating in the shower could save a substantial amount of water over a year, and squirrels forget the location of about half their buried nuts. Donkeys doing press-ups, a Scottish ban on every cheese except Brie and hamsters being flightless relatives of ostriches were invented.
The shower fact prompted Chris to admit that he had done his part for water conservation, though the team were less impressed by the suggestion of doing the same in a bath or at his new gym. The programme ended with an online hamster video offered as further entertainment before the next podcast on Monday.
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