Bumpers: A Retrospective

[KingKalamari]

So with bumpers no longer being a thing I thought we could take some time and reflect on what our favourite bumpers and intro segments have been. For me:

Episode 39: Hoc Est Praecipue De Buttsex
Really I just love any segment that features John being pissy

Episode 102: I've Also Got An Idea For A Reboot Of Young Guns
With Boots and Lemon cracking up over terrible Quentin Tarantino movie puns

Episode 112: I've Got My Spine, I've Got My Woman Crushed
The F Plus' new theme song...

[Tiny Prancer]

there are probably many more that I found funnier, but these are the two I particularly remember off the top of my head:

Episode 68: The Episode Is Coming From Inside Your House!
I just really love Portaxx's gleeful cryptkeeper impression in this one. I really hope there's a second creepypasta episode sometime, both because I loved the episode and because I want to hear Portaxx do that again.

Episode 83: Just The 160,000 Of Us
I'm not even sure if this one is a particular favorite, but this was the first episode I ever listened to and the opening bumper was what keyed me in right away that I was going to love it.

[Mister Smalls]

Literally no bumper can ever top "I just thought that Reservoir Cats, Pig Fiction, and From Dusk Till Dog would all. fuck!  *six seconds of unbroken hysterical laughter*"

[Bobalay]

Episode 100 will always be the best. "Gwen Saskani! Skactor Dre! Damn Skankees! Teska! Red Skat Chili Peppers! The Brian Jonestown Masskacre! GG Skallin! Screaming Jay Skawkins!"

Is there any reason the bumpers got axed?

[Emperor Jack Chick]

Episode 100 will always be the best. "Gwen Saskani! Skactor Dre! Damn Skankees! Teska! Red Skat Chili Peppers! The Brian Jonestown Masskacre! GG Skallin! Screaming Jay Skawkins!"

Is there any reason the bumpers got axed?

We ran out of ska puns.

[Bobalay]

Episode 100 will always be the best. "Gwen Saskani! Skactor Dre! Damn Skankees! Teska! Red Skat Chili Peppers! The Brian Jonestown Masskacre! GG Skallin! Screaming Jay Skawkins!"

Is there any reason the bumpers got axed?

We ran out of ska puns.

But you never even got to Skadest Mouse, Ska.E.M., Skosh Groban,  The Reigning Skanarchs, Muskard Plug, Skanye West, Suzanne Vegska, or TV Skon the Radio!

[RedMinjo]

Skavenged Sevenfold, Hanskan, The Skaquabats!, Big Bad Voodoo Skaddy, Daft Skank, John Philip Souska, Skanye West, Weird Al Skankovic, Michael Jackskan, Skaul Simon, Muskard Plug, Skave Ferris, Metalliska, Skall Out Boy, Skatley Crue, Rob Skambie...

e: ^sup

[Bobalay]

e: ^sup

Don't you mean 'skap'?

[Isfahan]

Is there any reason the bumpers got axed?

Bumpers were not recorded in the same session as the main reading, mostly because by the time we're done, everyone is burned out and tired (we always record rather late in the evening). From there, we'd generally wait until the body of the recording had been edited to what the final version would be, then we'd try and work out a time where Lemon and whoever (usually the episode editor) could get together to record bumpers. Sometimes this was a huge hurdle, due to schedules and such, so there would be times where it could be four or five days to a week where the incomplete yet edited episode would be sitting without bumpers. It was a bottleneck in the workflow, so it was decided to just incorporate the intro and reflection into the main recording and let it be a bit more round-tabley and improv-y.

As a frequent editor and bumper-participant, I very much like this new way.

[Lemon]

To further derail the thread...

The perfunctory nature of the bumpers was problematic at times as well. If we're doing a topic that could do with some explanation, like omaroshi or monkey moms or some community that the listener may not have been familiar with before, it's a really good idea to set up that topic and give a little overview before we dig in. However, if we're doing something like, say eHelp, it's a lot more straightforward: People are gonna ask dumb questions, other people are gonna give dumb answers. There's plenty of times when we would try to think of some asinine vaudeville routine which didn't so much introduce the topic as much as eat time with a sketch that was semi-related to the topic at hand, and when I'd go back and listen to an episode, I'd just skip 3 minutes in.

I really love finding topics and groups of people I didn't know about before, and I really love trying to piece together some sort of sense from these discoveries. Intros are important, and "What did we learn?" is a great conversation to have, and I think we can do both of those things better without set pieces.

That all said, "I'm balls deep in a My Pet Monster!" was a great nail in that coffin.

[Cyberventurer]

My favorite bumper is the episode about the people worshiping comic book heroes.  Boots slips up and says he puts up a crepe instead of a cape, and Lemon immediately jumps on it to ask if it's a savory or sweet crepe.

[Kairamek]

While I miss the opening bumper to transition into the episode's subject matter I find the round table "What did we learn?" a lot more enjoyable than the closing bumper.
Though I might be biased because the first one had the line "MORE metal shows? Good lord," and I laughed so hard I almost wrecked my car.

[Mister Smalls]

"I wish you remembered when you complained about being pigeonholed as the metal guy."

On the topic of bumpers, I forget what episode it's from, but one of my other favorites is: "So Boots, what are you doing this week?"  "Faking an interest in this week's topic."

[Down10]

I'm willing to forgo the bumpers in place of a solid opening theme song, "Doug Loves Movies"-style.

[count_actuala]

I'm with Downton, bring back the jingle!