The Bugle

The Bugle
The Bugle cover art (Issue 180)
Presentation
Hosting	John Oliver, Andy Zaltzman
Genre	News, Comedy
Language	English
Updates	Weekly
Production
Audio format	Stream, MP3, AAC
Publication
Debut	14 October 2007
Website	http://www.thebuglepodcast.com

The Bugle is a weekly satirical news podcast, hosted by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman. It was initially distributed by TimesOnline, but has been produced independently since January 2012. New episodes of The Bugle are released on Fridays with related material appearing on the official website.^[1] Focusing on global news stories (but primarily on UK/US news items), the show was launched in 2007 following John Oliver's move to New York to work on The Daily Show, allowing Oliver and Andy Zaltzman to continue a partnership that had previously enjoyed success with Political Animal and The Department. In December 2011 The Times decided to stop producing^[2] the show and The Bugle became an independent production in January 2012, which has continued to this day. The podcast depends solely on donations.

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 (http://www.thebuglepodcast.com) had existed previously as an unofficial site.
• @hellobuglers, a Twitter account.^[3] 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, Andy has used it to announce his guest appearances on other programs.^[4]
• @Buglesamerican, a Twitter account^[5] from sometime guest "The American" (voiced by Rory Albanese).
• @ProducerChris, a Twitter account^[6] from show producer Chris Skinner, providing news and updates.
• BugleMars, the home of the Bugle's attempt to land a small probe on the Martian surface and transmit back puns.

Producers

Tom

Tom Wright,^[7] known solely on The Bugle as "Tom the Producer", was the producer of the show from episodes 1 through to episode 107. He was first mentioned in episode 11 as Zaltzman announced his plans for the Hotties From History calendar. For most of the Bugle he remained silent, occasionally intervening to ask John and Andy to finish up so he can go home or responding to questions when asked. In later episodes he contributed more often, with listeners often addressing their e-mails to him directly. According to Tom's on-air answers to a number of questions sent to him by fans he is married, has a daughter, is Scottish, enjoys his job and does not ski.

In February 2010, Tom and his family emigrated to Australia. A week before his departure, he announced his intention to continue producing The Bugle remotely. However, in Bugle 106 (6 March 2010), it was announced that the next Bugle would be Tom's last as he had found another job. When asked by John and Andy 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. John and Andy agreed that this was an accurate characterization of their audience and did not pursue the matter further on the air.

In episode 200, Tom'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, Tom came back for a short segment, speaking from Australia. In that episode, Tom confirmed that he currently works for the ABC.

Chris

After Tom left, he was replaced by Chris Skinner. Chris has previously worked with Andy on "Yes, It's the Ashes" radio show on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2009 and also produces "The Game" podcast for Times Online. When Chris first began producing the podcast, 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. Appearing to be younger and more enthusiastic, Chris occasionally participates in banter with Oliver and Zaltzman with his guest spots increasing in volume over time, an example being an extended conversation about the state of Australia in Bugle 140. Chris has been the subject of semi-ironic hate mail (and fan mail) from listeners,^[8] apparently for no reason other than that he is not Tom, and this became a running joke of the show. Chris was the focus of the website fuckyouchris.com, a site which was devoted to chronicling fans' ironic hatred of Chris.

Chris 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. Chris "does not ski", and ran in (and lost) the London Marathon 2012 (ep 192). In Episode 237, it was revealed that Chris had purchased the domain name fuckdungeons.com, which redirects to the podcast's home page.

Ped

Ped subs for Chris when the latter is ill or on holiday. Not much is known about Ped. Vague attempts at getting a Chris-style hate campaign going against Ped have not succeeded. Ped also deputies for Chris on The Game. Ped reacted angrily on the Special "Producer Chris Podcast" episode when Chris stated he "let" Ped substitute for him on the Bugle, giving strong support for an earlier (jestful) insult thrown at Chris.

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'.^[9] 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'.^[10] 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'.^[11] BBC Comedy review show What's So Funny described The Bugle as the benchmark in satire, in an episode dated 27 May 2011.^[12]

Relationship with News International

Until January 2012 the Bugle was distributed by TimesOnline, a division of The Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International. During the News International phone hacking scandal of 2011, The Bugle satirised its parent company in a manner which the New York Times characterized as "blistering" in an article published 15 August.^[13] 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.^[13] Their barbs included a comment that The News of the World "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 humor inherent in the attack, "[you] just don't want to find yourself with any misplaced sympathy for Rupert Murdoch."^[13] The comedians jokingly marveled 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!"^[13] 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 [Murdoch] reads 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. I guess what I'm saying is—to our new listeners—'Hello and goodbye!'"^[14]

End of relationship with Times Online

On 14 December 2011, Zaltzman announced that Times Online would soon cease hosting and distributing The Bugle.^[15] He stressed that he did not believe that this decision was connected to the Bugle's coverage of the News International phone hacking scandal.^[16] He also stated that both he and John wished to continue creating the podcast, and so Zaltzman "[does] not see this as the end of The Bugle".^[17] As of October 2012 the podcast has moved to being funded by listener donations and runs most weeks.

Episodes

A full list of episodes of The Bugle, including titles, release dates, and download links, is available at the podcast's RSS feed (Times Online feed). The following list reproduces only the titles.

Episode 1 – How like Vietnam is Iraq? Episode 2 – The Empire Strikes Back Episode 3 – California's Burning Episode 4 – Immigration Everywhere Episode 5 – 110 Per Cent Behind Musaharraf Episode 6 – OPEC: Let's talk oil and fiery rhetoric Episode 7 – 25 million people missing Episode 8 – Australians keep touching the Queen Episode 9 – Iran: Nukes or No Nukes? Episode 10 – Have an Adequate Christmas Episode 10A – The Very Best (so far!) Episode 11 – After Iowa, only 302 days left to go Episode 12 – Bush brings yet more chaos to the Middle East Episode 13 – After 443 years Sark finally gets democracy Episode 14 – Money, Money, Money Episode 15 – A Message to You, Rudy Episode 16 – Afghanistan in a zen state of chaos Episode 17 – The Guantanamo Graduates Episode 18 – Is Fidel Castro Roadrunner? Episode 19 – A Very British earthquake Episode 20 – Who's the least democratic of them all? Episode 21 – Swearing at the Queen Episode 21* – DVD Extras Episode 22 – Hugo 'crackers from Caracas' Chavez Episode 23 – How is Mugabe losing a rigged election? Episode 24 – Was Stonehenge an ancient tax dodge? Episode 25 – John Loves the Pope Episode 26 – Food! Nonexistent Food! Episode 27 – The Swimsuit Edition Episode 28 – Dead Hill Walking Episode 29 – Adults and Aliens Episode 30 – Volcano Porn Episode 31 – Sharon Stone fludges her pontullius Episode 32 – Obama and KSM Episode 33 – George Bush: 'Regrets? I've had a few' Episode 34 – You Will Know Us By Our Knobbly Fruit Episode 35 – Barack Obama and his disappearing change hat Episode 35 Asterisk – Independence Day Special Episode 36 – Oil Prices, recession & inflation but what do the G8 do? Have an 18 course meal Episode 37 – Barack Obama is coming to Europe! Episode 38 – Karadzic's Scooby Doo disguise Episode 39 – McCain, Andy and John plumb new depths with their Obama attack ad Episode 40 – Osama Bin Laden's taxi driver Episode 41 – Russia gets gold at new Olympic sport of invasion Episode 42 – An Olympics Special Episode 43 – Democratic convention special Episode 44 – Republican Convention Special Episode 44.1 – The sub-issue you have all been waiting for Episode 45 – Help to save investment banking Episode 46 – Economic Armageddon Approacheth Episode 47 – One Giant leap backwards for man kind Episode 48 – How Low Will They Go? Episode 49 – Joe the plumber now regrets chatting to Barack Obama Episode 50 – US Election nearly over! Episode 51 – Let it all be over soon! Episode 52 – Spoiler alert! Obama won Episode 53 – Obama and his not so secret code name Episode 54 – The Vegas Special Episode 55 – Thanksgiving Special The Real Episode 55 – Literally, shooting oneself in the foot Episode 56 – Selling Barack Obama's seat Episode 57 – Hats off to Obama, shoes off for Bush Episode 58 – Did you get peace in the Mid-East for Xmas? Episode 59 – Why Obama's inauguration will be like the Rio carnival Episode 60 – George Bush and Hello Barack Obama Episode 61 – Obama Inauguration Special Episode 62 – Obama and his do nothing wonderland Episode 63 – Foreign snow is invading Britain! Episode 64 – Bankers pretend to apologise to British MPs Episode 64 – Appendage 1 guided tour to the new webpage Episode 65 – Will Obama's stimulus package work? Who cares Episode 66 – Brown gets rubbish present from Obama Episode 67 – Monkey News Special Episode 68 – Obama and his Al Qaeda style video Episode 69 – Possibly the longest penis joke in the world, ever Episode 70 – G-G-G-G-G-GEEEE 20 Episode 70.1 – The Easter egg edition Episode 71 – Does torture work? Episode 72 – The Real Swine Flu Vaccine Episode 73 – Are the Taliban skiing down the Swat Valley? Episode 74 – Claiming expenses for MPs that do not exist Episode 75 – What to do with Gitmo? Let fear decide. Episode 76 – Calling out North Korea Episode 77 – Gordon Brown gets a bad dose of the quits Episode 78 – Apathy or the far right? Europe decides. Episode 79 – Iran's theocracy: Letting God decide the election Episode 80 – Iran, Pick on a country your own size! Episode 80.5 – Special Independence Day Issue Episode 81 – The G8 the worlds slowest superheroes Episode 82 – Freedom of Speech Special Episode 83 – Obama; Pay for this or you will be dead! Episode 84 – Will China rule the world in the future? Episode 85 – I need a hero! Bill Clinton goes to North Korea Episode 86 – Burma triumphs in made up crime prevention. Episode 87 – Afghanistan celebrates election with fireworks! Episode 88 – Iran and its glitzy show trials Episode 88.1 – Travel Section Episode 89 – Good Health Bad Health Episode 90 – Bring on the crazy, Gaddafi! Episode 91 – Happy Birthday Communist China Episode 92 – Obama wins first pre-emptive Nobel Peace Prize Episode 93 – Peak Oil Special Episode 94 – Does the EU really want El Presidente Blair Episode 94 and a half – Autumn Bonus Bugle Episode 95 – Walls, Wars and power Episode 96 – Two star review for this year's Queen Speech Episode 96 and a bit – Thanksgiving for Berlusconi Episode 97 – Stupid Buildings Afghanistan and Shoes Episode 98 – Britain can no longer afford defence against aliens Episode 99 – Berlusconi takes a cathedral to the face Special Episode – Best of the first 99 – Your favourite bits Special Episode – The Musical Spectacular Episode 100 – Telegrams, Snow, The Devil and Pat Robertson

Episode 101 – Barack Obama and how to lose hope and irritate people Episode 102 – Why the global economy is like Elvis Episode 103 – Climate change denial and a Narnia of nutjobs Episode 104 – Valentine's Day Special Episode 104a – Where is John? Episode 105 – Back off our islands Argentina! Episode 106 – The American right to flip the bird Episode 107 – An Ethics special Episode 108 – Eyes on Africa Episode 109 – In Rude Health Episode 110 – Britain Holds Its Breath Episode 111 – Some Seriously Bad Pope-ing Episode 112 – Birthday Party! Super Best Friends Invited! Episode 113 – Countdown to Vote-ageddon Episode 114 – Waking Up in a Different Britain Episode 115 – Exactly Five More Years of This Episode 115.1.1 – Recent Decents, May '10 Episode 116 – Freeze The Oil Episode 117 – She Bored 'er colleagues Episode 118 – World Cup Special Episode 119 – Oil Never Do It Again Episode 120 – McChrystal Balls Episode 121 – I Spy With My Little Eye... Episode 122 – Donald Trump in Drag Episode 122a – History of the World Part 1[note 1] Episode 122b – History of the World Part 2 Episode 122g – History of the World Part 3 Episode 122d – History of the World Part 4 Episode 123 – That clock is pimped out! Episode 124 – Brazilliant! Episode 125 – Donor Fatigue Episode 126 – Let's Talk About Peace, Baby Episode 127 – 12 Friends and 1 Champion Episode 128 – UN-couth Episode 129 – Kim Jong Unbelievable Episode 130 – Fire Sale Episode 131 – A Miner Celebration Episode 132 – Massive Cuts Episode 132 and a bit – Cut For a Reason Episode 132 and an old bit – No Bugle Episode 133 – Backwang Forever Episode 134 – Royal Wedding Souvenir Edition Episode 135 – Kim Jong Il-conceived Episode 136 – Do I Not Leak That Episode 137 – Crazies Special Episode 138 – A Christmas Bugle Episode 138a – More Old Gold Episode 138b – Review of 2010 Episode 139 – *Spoiler alert* 2011 Preview Special Episode 140 – The Divorce of A Nation Episode 141 – Tunisia is Revolting Episode 142 – Egypt Erupts Episode 143 – Egypt crisis – a good time to buy a jumper Episode 144 – No Going Mubarak [note 2] Episode 144a – Lowlights 2011 Episode 145 – Libyeah or Libyna Episode 146 – Long Over-Jew Episode 146a – Lowerlights 2011 Episode 147 – Man Versus Nature Episode 147a -Zaltzman, live from Dhaka Episode 147b – More Zaltzman, live from Dhaka Episode 148 – Mayhem Update Episode 149 – #crucifybieber Episode 150 – Royal Wedding Preview Episode 151 – Regal Bugle Episode 152 – Compromised to a Permanent End Episode 153 – Wake up, Gaddafi Episode 154 – Keep it in your pants Episode 155 – The Queen Is On Fire ! Episode 156 – Who's Tailin' Palin? Episode 157 – Reacting like a coiled donut Episode 158 – Hot Rod & Dragster Strike Out Episode 158a – Truly Offal Episode 159 – Everything Must Go! Episode 160 – News Out Of This World [13] Episode 161 – Hacking: A Self-esteem issue [13] Episode 162 – Making A Mountain Out of A Mountain [13] Episode 163 – Debt to America Episode 163a – Too Offal Episode 164 – Ich Bin Ein Hulkmaniac Episode 165 – Bashar goes to Madcon 1 Episode 166 – Gaddafi's Last Bugle? Episode 166a – We're back Andy Episode 166b – This offal tastes funny Episode 166g – Offal Edinburgher Episode 167 – Berlusconi: Hard to Swallow Episode 168 – Streets of Rage Episode 169 – Captain Crazy corks it Episode 170 – It's time to ban slap bass Episode 171 – A Greek Tragedy Episode 172 – Berlusconi Bows Out Episode 173 – Techno! Techno! Technocrat! Episode 173a – Turkey Offal Episode 174 – Britain's Back Baby! Episode 175 – Putin the boot in Episode 176 – Deep Space Nine Episode 177 – Weapons of mass election Episode 178 – The Final Countdown Episode 179 – Playas gon play Episode 180 – The truth about lies Episode 181 – A Knight's Fail Episode 182 – Stockpiling Humanity Episode 183 – Bugle Lady Special Episode 184 – Wangderlust Episode 185 – Burning Rings Of Steel Episode 186 – An Insult to Civil Society Episode 187 – The President's Playlist Episode 187a – The Bugle Q&A, vol. 1 Episode 188 – Gentlemen, start your engines! Episode 189 – 'Like eating Bill Cosby' Episode 190 – Santorum splashes out Episode 191 – A secret servicing Episode 192 – Uncle Rupert is the real victim Episode 193 – Happy Deathiversary! Episode 194 – Global Election Round Up

Episode 194a – Too Good for Context Episode 195 – A drop of Reagan's blood Episode 196 – Jubilee Special Episode 197 – Singing in the Reign Episode 198 – Warm up and melt down Episode 199 – This is an ex-president! Episode 200 – The horn dog returneth! Episode 201 – Dirty bankers Episode 202 – Sport! Episode 203 – No medals for Syria Episode 204 – What the Feck Episode 205 – The Trojan Horse Episode 205a – Paralympic update Episode 205b – (no title) Episode 206 – The president is not a gremlin Episode 207 – It’s UNbelievable Episode 208 – A Kama Sutra approach to the truth Episode 209 – 5th Birthday Edition[note 3] Episode 210 – Punch-up for President! Episode 211 – Electoral Labour Episode 212 – Wind of change Episode 213 – Free At Last! Episode 214 – A Few Bad Men Episode 214a – The Producer Chris Podcast Episode 215 – Let's Nuke the Moon! Episode 216 – We're Having A Baby! Episode 217 – Silvio's Christmas Gift Special Episode – The Complete 2012 – Part 1 Special Episode – The Complete 2012 – Part 2 Episode 218 – Cliff Diving Episode 219 - 5th versus 1st Episode 220 - The Cheat Hits The Fan Episode 221 - Do EU really love Us? Episode 222 - Halfrica Episode 223 - Invasion of the Asylugrants Episode 224 - Papal Proton Packs Episode 225 - Waffles are forever Episode 226 - Salvo for Mali Episode 227 - Farewell Bush's muse Episode 228 - Rome's most eligible bachelor Episode 229 - Cyprus ready to go Mad Max Episode 230 - The Baroness bows out Episode 231 - The Queen should play poker Episode 232 - Mars, Merchandise and Mad Men! Episode 233 - Baby got hack Episode 234 - Nuns, guns and nutters Episode 235 - The long arm of the lorry Episode 236 - Tennis racquet marries guinea pig Episode 237 - Istanbul's hit Episode 238 - Inprismed Episode 239 - Goodness Gracious G8 Balls of Tennis Episode 240 - Political Gooaaalllsss! Episode 240a - Jet Skis, lawyers and donations Episode 240b - Bugle Bulge Legume Bleurgh! Episode 240c - The Story of Wills and Kate Episode 241 - Motown breaks down Episode 242 - Woman gives birth! Episode 243 - The gifts that keep on giving Episode 244 - Russian into battle Episode 244a - Guide to Parenting Episode 244b - Bugle Elbug Snug in a Rug, Doug Episode 245 – Syria, too complicated for 5 year olds Episode 246 – Selling The Drama (And War And Guns And a The Planet) Episode 247 – Mind The Gap! Episode 248 – Anarchy in the USA Episode 249 – America stands that little bit smaller Episode 250 minus a half - more satirist for hire (sic) Episode 250 - No one is madder than Obama... Episode 250a - A Bugle Call To Action! Episode 251 - Nailing the truth to the floor Episode 251a - Bugle requests Episode 251b - Fashion and Edinburgh Episode 252 - (Product of) Pigs Might Fly (Off the Shelves) Еpisode 253 - Lenin in a dress Episode 254 - Christmas Special! Special Episode - The Bugle Review of the Year: 2013 Episode 255 - (no title) Episode 256 - Troubled Bridge Over Boiling Water Episode 257 - Dancefloor Diplomacy

Sub-episodes

Starting 29 September 2011, the show's producer Chris initiated a new series of episodes to be released on the topic of world leaders, to be released instead of the normal cut-outs when the presenter(s) are away.^[18]

• In late June and early July 2012, there were two episodes wherein Oliver and Zaltzman individually answered questions sent in by Bugle listeners in the run-up to the 200th episode.
• During the 2012 Summer Olympics, Zaltzman hosted a series of shorter episodes of The Bugle. These were unofficially titled The Londinium 5772 Nemean Games Daily Bugle Micro Sports Bulletin.

Notes

1. ↑ In the "History of the World" subseries, Andy pronounced the lowercase letters as being Greek letters, i.e. alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. For presumably technical reasons, the Greek letters were not rendered in the episode titles as α, β, γ, and δ, but rather as the Latin letters a, b, g, and d. Note also that the Greek alphabet does not follow the order of the Latin alphabet, which is why the episodes are a, b, g, d instead of a, b, c, d.
2. ↑ The episode was recorded a mere 40 minutes after Hosni Mubarak's resignation much to the presenters' surprise after his speech on 10 February
3. ↑ This episode aired five years to the exact day the first-ever Bugle was recorded (14 October 2012).

References

External links

• Podcast (MP3)
• The Bugle on Twitter
• The American on Twitter
• The Bugle Podcast Website
• The Times website
• Podcast of the week: the satirical charms of The Bugle, The Times
• Newsnight Review: Andy Zaltzman, BBC
• Comedy Podcast Inside News Corp. Feasts on A Scandal, The New York Times