Maya’s mum tried to get her through a supposedly drunken Radio 1 show
Maya Jama returned for her second Friday with Scott and Chris and became the first subject of a newly renamed feature: the Maya Speech Jammer.
The trick fed Maya’s own voice back into her headphones with a tiny delay. The effect made normal speech surprisingly difficult, producing stretched words, stutters and changes in pitch as her brain tried to keep up with itself.
To make the test harder, Maya phoned her mum. The cover story was that the previous week’s programme had gone so well that Maya had gone for coffee with one of the bosses, champagne had appeared instead and she had somehow become “mashed” shortly before going on air.
Her mum moved through several reactions in quick succession. She was worried, then practical, suggesting Maya have coffee and get on with the show because the boss had been drinking too. She repeatedly told Maya she did not sound that bad and thought she could probably get away with it.
The delay made Maya increasingly incoherent, and at one point she decided to sing a song she was making up as she went along. That was the moment her mum became much firmer, telling her that singing was absolutely not what she needed to be doing on Radio 1 and promising to tune in.
Scott and Chris loved how believable the concern had become. Maya’s mum had gone from trying to rescue the situation to effectively monitoring the broadcast herself.
Kitten fishing was the less dramatic version of catfishing
Maya introduced Scott and Chris to the term “kitten fishing”. Unlike full catfishing, where somebody adopts a completely false identity, kitten fishing meant presenting a slightly improved or exaggerated version of yourself online.
Examples included adding inches to your height, using heavily filtered pictures, being creative about your weight or appearance and generally making a dating profile sound more impressive than reality.
Chris immediately realised he had done his own offline version. When he first met his girlfriend he claimed to have been a backing singer in a friend’s old band, even playing her one of their songs as evidence. In reality the band existed, but Chris had never been in it.
Maya admitted that people could also become more entertaining in messages by asking their funniest friend to suggest replies. A promising conversation could effectively have an unseen writers’ room behind it.
Listener Varity then supplied a much more committed example. A man she met through a dating profile claimed to be a semi-professional footballer and fluent in French. He arrived for the date wearing a football shirt, but basic questions about what position he played appeared to confuse him.
Varity then spoke French to him and even ordered food in French. Again, he had no idea what she was saying. The combination made it obvious that both claims had been invented, and she eventually arranged for friends to get her out of the date early.
Greg returned to Radio 1 after Pedal to the Peaks
Greg James was finally on his way back to Broadcasting House after the extraordinary week of Pedal to the Peaks. The weather had stopped the challenge from following the exact original route, but the programme concentrated on what he had already achieved and the amount listeners had raised for Sport Relief.
Scott moved the Official Chart earlier so Greg could return to his own show at four o’clock and receive what the team described as a hero’s welcome.
Maya said she had followed the challenge and could not imagine attempting anything similar herself. For Scott and Chris, the dominant feeling was relief that Greg was returning safely after several days in which snow, wind and exhaustion had repeatedly complicated the plan.
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