This article is taken from the March 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £10.
What made shock jocks such as Howard Stern and Opie and Anthony such cultural behemoths in the nineties and noughties was not just their strong language and outrageous stunts, but their supposed authenticity.
Other broadcasters were full of feigned enthusiasm and twee talking points. The likes of Stern were angry, lecherous and bitter. They talked about sexual, professional and interpersonal problems. They seemed real. They seemed like people the audience could relate to.
With the rise of podcasting, it became possible not just to listen to a show and feel like you were hanging out with friends, but to hang out with friends and make a show. Ironically, Stern, who must have inspired hundreds of podcasts, hates podcasters.
He thinks the barrier to entry is too low. “It’s a lot of people talking to other people who aren’t really that interesting,” he’s said, “They’re bores. They’re fucking bores. But no one tells them that they’re bores.”
Enter podcast reviews. Your humble critic is not alone in this endeavour. At Who Are These Podcasts?, Karl Heberger, “Producer Chris” and a variety of guests satirically dissect the worst of the genre. No one — from comedians, to journalists, to nappy fetishists, to Howard Stern himself — is safe.
It’s a good concept, and I’m a longtime listener, but the show has become much more surreal in recent years. John “Stuttering John” Melendez was an intern, interviewer and rhetorical punching bag on The Howard Stern Show, before a brief and unfruitful stint as a contributor to The Tonight Show. Since being spat out of the bottom of the entertainment industry, Melendez has maintained a series of failing podcasts.
Despite years of working for the likes of Stern and Jay Leno, Melendez has no discernible wit, intelligence or charm. His podcasts have the humorous qualities of an ape attempting to understand a smartphone — except unlike the poor primate, Melendez is capable of malice.
Who Are These Podcasts? poked fun at Stuttering John, who reacted in the worst ways imaginable. He targeted their funding streams, made libel threats and fumed online like ageing cookware, ready to explode. Understandably, Who Are These Podcasts? poked even more fun at him, as his hapless attempts at revenge blew up in his face and inspired more content.
Soon, a whole podcasting universe flourished around the sad figure of Stuttering John. It is called “the Dabbleverse”, in a reference to Melendez taking offence at being said to have “dabbled” in comedy.
Numerous shows have been created to mock Melendez, as well as various other struggling characters, such as obscure grievance-monger Patrick Michaels, chronic noughties nostalgist Aaron Imholte and failing anger manager Chad Zumock.
“Lolcow” is online slang for a stupid or unstable person who can be “milked” for comedy. Sometimes such people are obscure eccentrics, like the unstable autistic Sonic fan Christian Weston Chandler, who has been stalked across the internet for most of his unfortunate adult life.
Others are celebrities who drifted into the deep end, like the mixed martial artist, podcast host and professional idiot Brendan Schaub, who has become so unpopular that there is a Reddit subforum with 165,000 members which is specifically devoted to his sins and follies.
There have long been podcasts that have turned raw hatred into entertainment. Redbar Radio is a cult hit which directs obscene satirical disdain towards comedians and their alleged pandering and opportunism. Podcast Cringe and 2Lazy2Try are more presentable critics who inspect the hackery of people who have cashed in as podcasting has become big business.
Famous people of our times have to deal with the fact that unsatisfied audience members are not impotent souls writing letters that no one will read but potential competitors. It should keep them sharp.
What is fascinating about the Dabbleverse, though, is that it is made up of very random obscure people making fun of very random obscure people. Stuttering John is the most famous person in the sphere, and he could walk for longer than the Proclaimers without being recognised.
The line between the amused and the objects of amusement is also fascinatingly thin. It just takes a flaw to be illuminated, and the mocker becomes the mocked. Perhaps we all have a little lolcow inside of us — where our ego and our insecurities lactate.
Old, bitter and borderline agoraphobic, Howard Stern has taken to doing his show from his basement, where he talks about regrets and grievances to a dwindling audience of nostalgists.
In truth, there is no fundamental difference between the radio legend and the podcasters he disdains. Broadcasting, ultimately, is all about having something to say. Run out of things worth saying, and the biggest platform in the world won’t stop you from declining into a figure of fun.
The Political Podcast Awards 2025 took place last month, with the likes of Ed Balls, George Osborne, Rory Stewart, Alastair Campbell, Ruth Davidson and Beth Rigby picking up awards for their contributions to the field of limp clichés and smug complacency.
Why are British political podcasts dominated by failed politicians and establishment journalists? It’s an embarrassment to the United Kingdom that even the vice president of the United States has made fun of it.
We need a Redbar Radio for British political podcasts. Except a lot nastier.
