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Jo and Adam explore satire across the generations in a new instalment that certainly isn't a belated grab bag episode. We begin with Gen Z slang and BBC Radio 4’s attempts to make sense of it, before turning to Bad Apples, the new satirical film about a teacher who kidnaps one of her Gen Alpha pupils in an attempt to improve everyone else’s education. Then South Park becomes South America in a satirical assault on Donald Trump, leading us into the increasingly strange world of AI, including the recent claim that artificial intelligence could end human life within ten years and the satirical responses it has inspired. We also investigate a fully AI-generated sitcom about angel investors recently released on YouTube. Finally, we travel back to the 1990s for Mrs Merton, the beloved satirical chat show now newly available in full on iPlayer. From Gen Z slang to Gen Alpha classrooms, AI apocalypse to Gen X nostalgia: every generation gets the satire it deserves.

What makes a robot funny? And, more importantly, are they satire? Jo and Adam ask why robots seem to lend themselves so readily to satirical comedy. They look at the BBC sitcom ANN DROID, Apple TV's SUNNY and Channel 4's prank show BAD ROBOTS, alongside various satirical machines including Kryten from RED DWARF, Bender from FUTURAMA and ROBOCOP. There are also honourable mentions for robots who are decidedly less satirical (Vision, Data, the various artificial humans of HUMANS and BLACK MIRROR) as they consider what separates a robot who makes us laugh from one who simply makes us think (or are they perhaps the same, ahhhh....). Along the way, they discuss Isaac Asimov, The Bicentennial Man, and the peculiar relationship between robots, humanity and satire. And, because no episode is complete without getting distracted by something else, Jo and Adam share their thoughts on The Odyssey and the memes it has generated.

Jo and Adam unpack the extraordinary Clacton by-election, where Count Binface takes on Nigel Farage after the Reform leader resigns and re-contests his own seat, calling the election a referendum on his political credibility. As the campaign descends into surreal farce, we ask whether Count Binface is effective satire, and what happens when satire becomes an active participant in democracy? Along the way, Jo and Adam discuss French satirical magazines, the comic response to Andy Burnham's rise to the premiership, and Burnham's own use of humour on social media. And Adam shares his concept for a new spin-off solo podcast for Jo called "This Means Waugh" all about why you are wrong about things.

Jo and Adam discuss Send Help!, Sam Raimi's new satirical horror in which a woman escapes her toxic workplace only to find herself stranded on a desert island with her awful boss. From there, they explore the long history of satirical workplaces, from The Office and The Office to Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, asking why terrible managers have become such enduring comic figures. The conversation also turns to the satirical response to the resignation of Keir Starmer and the accession of Andy Burnham. Adam also reports back from a Humour conference at Oxford and Jo pitches an idea for a brand-new podcast spin-off.

Jo and Adam discuss Louis Theroux's latest feature-length Netflix documentary, 'Inside the Manosphere'. exploring the role of humour in his filmmaking. From awkward timing and fourth-wall breaks to defamiliarisation and deadpan observation, they discuss what Theroux's distinctive (and often parodied) style owes to satire. They then turn to one of the most talked-about novels of the summer, Caro Claire Burke's 'Yesteryear', a satirical take on influencer culture, tradwife aesthetics, and the manosphere. Along the way they consider the novel's controversial relationship to the real-world phenomenon of Ballerina Farm and the online debates it has inspired. Also featuring: hot weather, Noel Coward, nipples and a update from Adam on his recent visiting fellowship at Ghent University, where he delivered a talk on cannibal satire.

This month, Jo and Adam unpack a hellish grab-bag of take on satire, ranging from campus culture wars to actual global wars. We begin with the Netflix adaptation of Vladimir, exploring the enduring appeal of the campus novel and the uneasy position of satire within the contemporary university. What does it mean to teach English Literature in the modern academy, and how well does Vladimir capture (or caricature) that world? From there, we turn to The Drama, asking whether its portrayal of the wedding industry lands as satire, critique, or something more ambivalent. The main focus of the episode, however, is the increasingly strange role of satire in digital conflict. As tensions escalate between the United States and Iran, satire has emerged as a visible , and volatile, part of the information landscape. We examine the implications of Donald Trump sharing a satirical sketch from Saturday Night Live UK moments before real diplomatic engagement; explore state-linked satirical media circulating from China; and consider the memes and videos posted by official Iranian channels themselves. We also unpack the controversy surrounding a series of viral Lego rap videos critiquing Trump, variously celebrated as satire, dismissed as propaganda, attributed to Gen Z creators in Iran, labelled as such by the BBC, and ultimately removed from YouTube. Across these case studies, we ask a pressing and increasingly difficult question: when satire becomes indistinguishable from strategic messaging, how do we tell the difference between satire and propaganda?

The episode our listeners demanded. This March, Jo and Adam turn to the film everyone is arguing about: Wuthering Heights. From casting discourse to meme culture, the adaptation has generated an extraordinary wave of online reaction... and a surprising amount of satire. Drawing on Jo’s expertise as a Brontë scholar (author of Charlotte Brontë and Contagion: Myths, Memes and the Politics of Infection and contributor to The Edinburgh Companion to the Brontës and the Arts), we unpack the film, the backlash, and the strange ecosystem of jokes, parodies, and hot takes that now surrounds it. Along the way Jo gives her scholarly verdict on Emerald Fennell’s controversial adaptation, while Adam explains his growing concern about Jacob Elordi and the effect he may be having on a new generation’s understanding of classic literature. We also dive into the satirical response to the film itself: what works, what feels justified, what misses the point, and what is simply very funny. Because when the internet encounters Wuthering Heights, the result is apparently… satire.

In this episode, Jo and Adam trace the long, shuffling history of the satirical zombie, from the consumer cannibalism of Dawn of the Dead to the suburban self-recognition of Shaun of the Dead, and the bleak media mirror held up by Dead Set. Along the way, they consider the evolving satirical function of the undead in the 28 Years Later franchise, with passing reflections on the undying TV universe of The Walking Dead. The main focus of the episode is the release of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, a film that has already provoked confusion, fascination, and a number of deeply questionable audience participation trends. Jo and Adam examine the film’s unsettling satirical architecture through the figure of Sir Jimmy Crystal, asking what it means to construct a character so insistently entangled with Britain’s most toxic celebrity legacies. They explore the strange and troubling phenomenon of American cinemagoers attending screenings in costume, and ask what happens when satire escapes the screen and becomes a form of ritual. The conversation also considers the film’s deeper literary inheritance, tracing unexpected connections to Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver's Travels, and reflects on how the zombie narrative continues to draw on older satirical traditions of isolation, scale, and estrangement. Elsewhere, the episode briefly turns to the internet’s response to the arrest of Prince Andrew, asking what contemporary satire does with figures whose public identities already border on the grotesque. Finally, Jo offers a preview of next month’s episode, which will explore the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Satire, as ever, refuses to stay buried.

Jo and Adam ease themselves into the new year by asking some deceptively simple questions about contemporary culture. They discuss Paul Feig’s latest film The Housemaid, and try to pin down why so many viewers are describing it as satire (and what, exactly, they mean by that). Along the way, they turn to meme culture, looking at online responses to the latest series of The Traitors and the internet’s collective processing of the final season of Stranger Things. We also get to know Toast Man better, learn what a person sounds like when they’ve just finished buttering their toast, and discover, to Jo’s horror, that Adam cannot say “cutlery”.

Jo and Adam are back with their annual festive sketch, this year titled “The Grinch Who Stole Satire”: a cheerfully mischievous look at irony, earnestness, and why people keep declaring satire dead. Along the way, they explore the extraordinary new sci-fi satire Plur1bus, which imagines the horror of a world where everyone is happy; the satirical fuel behind Netflix’s cosy crime hit Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery; and Alan Partridge’s latest appearance in How Are You, It’s Alan (Partridge). Add festive banter, Christmas cheer, and the long-awaited return of everyone’s favourite recurring character, Toast Man, and you’ve got a properly festive Smith & Waugh feast of satire. Pass the peer reviewed mince pies.

Join us for an episode filled with spectacular spats, bruised egos, and top-tier literary shade. This month, Adam introduces a riotous tour through Britain’s greatest writerly bust-ups: from Lady Mary Wortley Montagu shredding Swift in more ways than one, to Pope’s poisonously personal vendettas, to the mutual mockeries of Anne Ingram, Mary Leapor, Thackeray, Woolf, Gibbons, Brontë, and beyond. Notably absent from the episode is Jo Waugh herself, rumoured to be lying low after some spirited listener feedback concerning a certain comment she made about friend-of-the-pod Ben Garlick. Will Ben forgive us? And were the best writers really the “good haters” Samuel Johnson claimed? Tune in to find out.

It's all treat and no trick this SpoOooky Season, as Jo and Adam welcome back Best Friend of the Pod, acclaimed novelist Leigh Stein, for a bumper Halloween special (rustle rustle). Together they discuss the origins and development of Leigh's new novel, IF YOU'RE SEEING THIS IT IS MEANT FOR YOU, a gothic satire set inside a TikTok hyper house. Leigh also fills us in on life as TikTok's resident expert on satire, pulling off her own viral satirical hoax and what Tiktok has done to publishing and the way we read more generally. Jo also updates us on the Brontë Parsonage Shirley Read-a-Long (Shirley, Charlotte Brontë's second novel, which is definitely satirical) and Adam tells us what he learnt about satire and alcohol during his most recent international escapade at the University College Dublin.

Inspired by the return of sketch show comedy to British television in the form of the surprisingly satirical Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping, Jo and Adam go on a whistle-stop tour of British sketch show comedy and even have an argument (live on air!) about whether there is something intrinsically satirical about the sketch show format. They also check in on the alarming satire-related events taking place across the Atlantic, with some blaming South Park for the tragic death of Charlie Kirk, and others observing that some of the bullet casings used in his assassination were etched with messages from the hugely popular satirical video game Helldivers 2. Adam also reflects on his recent visit to the Storm Museum of Humour and Satire in Copenhagen and Jo shares a charming breakfast update about a Toast Man.

In this episode, Jo and Adam turn their attention to American animated satire, revisiting their own memories of cartoon-watching while asking what makes animation such a distinctive vehicle for social and political critique. From King of the Hill’s return in the Trump era to South Park’s take on immigration, right-wing troll culture, and ChatGPT, they explore how animated satire has adapted to address the controversies of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Along the way, they share updates on their recent media appearances and reflect on Jane Austen’s place in the history of satire.

This episode isn't a grab-bag in the sense of an oversized packet of Monster Munch, but it is a kind of mystery bag of miscellaneous treats that you might grab from a caravan site kiosk during the summer holidays as a child in the 1980s or 90s. What's inside? Stickers? Sherbet? A colourful pencil? A fake tattoo of a Power Ranger? Or a horrible old Moomin? On this occasion it is a bunch of stuff even better than all of those things... In this episode Jo and Adam talk 28 YEARS LATER, and if it is satire; new SQUID GAMES, and if it is satire; new ALAN PARTRIDGE: FROM THE OASTHOUSE, and if it is satire; new SOUTH PARK, and if it is satire; the COLDPLAY KISSING COUPLE, and if they are satire. Jo also tells us about her recent trip to France and the shoes they wore there, and Adam recounts his recent experience delivering a lecture to The Thackeray Society of the Reform Club. And that's not all! Stick your hand in and see what you find, we promise it probably isn't a Moomin.