"A Life Well Wasted" (Robert Ashley's Podcast)

What a great episode. It's hard to imagine future episodes being this polished. I guess we'll see.

As someone that dreamed of working at a place like EGM when I was a kid, I find bittersweet solace in the fact that so many of 1up/EGM's voices had the same {ableist slur}-ass goal.

I'm with the hive mind in hearing heavy underpinnings of This American Life in this podcast, which is a good thing. I also hope it stays focused, it's great to have a segment on something about video games; as much as I love the much-used email/what we're playing/review/news/random topic form too many podcasts using it means I can only listen to so many of them.

He's #6 on iTunes right now. I really hope these various 1up guys can find ways to convert their podcasts into sustainable sources of income. I really have enjoyed all their post-1up work, and hope that they don't all lose momentum as the need for income pulls them in different directions.

I just got around to listening to the podcast, and it was incredible. Robert Ashley is one smart cookie. Too bad Shawn Elliott wasn't around to work on this project with him.

TheCounselor wrote:

I just got around to listening to the podcast, and it was incredible. Robert Ashley is one smart cookie. Too bad Shawn Elliott wasn't around to work on this project with him.

According to Shawn Elliot's twitter he has requested to appear and regale us with more tales of Second Life.

I was pleased hear Seanbaby's tale of Phil Collins hatred.

Oh wow, awesome, awesome. I've been disappointed by so many podcasts due to first being spoiled by the GWJ CC, this is the first time I've really stood up and paid attention. I find it hard to see how he could upkeep this level of quality, but I hope to be proven incorrect.

I never even read EGM (wasn't available here, I think), but this sort of feels like a fitting end to the print magazine era, if it does come to that. And hasn't it? At least in the format we grew up with.

The quality on this podcast was astounding.
It felt like a PBS/NPR documentary. Extremely high audio quality.

Also, he must have spent 80 hours just editing that thing, but the effort really shows.

Very nice, I was totally surprised at this different take on a gaming podcast.

And I'm gonna say it's more Radio Lab than This American Life, both because I love Radio Lab about 10x more (even though I like TAL) and because the interweaving of sound and interviews definitely smacks more of RL.

As someone who enjoyed this, I demand more!

Please?

He's pretty much stated he is going to try once a month. With all the work he puts behind it, I think it's a good goal. I can't wait for the next one.

Wow... I was enjoying this podcast for the most part. Yes, it's an obvious TAL "homage," which is a fine place to start. I just hope he gets a bit more original in subsequent episodes. The constant musical cues in the middle of the interviews weren't nearly as smooth as the way they're handled in TAL or Radiolab (esp. the one that repeated the exact same interview remixed immediately after it had just aired).

So I was enjoying it, until they got to the ridiculously idiotic "Seanbaby" segment. Really, giving over 10 minutes of a podcast to some moron talking about "dicks in people's mouths"? After all the more or less intelligent comments of the previous 40 minutes, I just had to turn the thing off after that segment kept going and going and going...

Judging by the responses, I guess my sense of humor just isn't doesn't align with many of the other people here.

Your sense of humor doesn't align with EGM, is the problem

DrJonez wrote:

Your sense of humor doesn't align with EGM, is the problem :P

I've actually been an EGM subscriber for over 10 years... I've never been a fan of his "humor" though, but it was always easy to skip one-two pages in the back.

I wish, instead of spending all that time with this dope, that he'd have done more to talk to the people who founded the mag.

SommerMatt wrote:

I've actually been an EGM subscriber for over 10 years... I've never been a fan of his "humor" though, but it was always easy to skip one-two pages in the back.

I wish, instead of spending all that time with this dope, that he'd have done more to talk to the people who founded the mag.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, I'm just glad you're not in charge. Everything is better with dick-in-mouth jokes.

Switchbreak wrote:

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, I'm just glad you're not in charge. Everything is better with dick-in-mouth jokes.

Dick-in-mouth jokes brought down the Romans, you know...

Deadron wrote:
Switchbreak wrote:

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, I'm just glad you're not in charge. Everything is better with dick-in-mouth jokes.

Dick-in-mouth jokes brought down the Romans, you know...

You see, you learn something new on Stan's every day! I for instance, would never have figured either Odoacer or the rest of the Heruli as comedians, but hey, in 476 AD locally grown dick-in-mouth jokes were probably hard to find compared to the standard 'a funny thing happened on the way to the forum' fare

Switchbreak wrote:
SommerMatt wrote:

I've actually been an EGM subscriber for over 10 years... I've never been a fan of his "humor" though, but it was always easy to skip one-two pages in the back.

I wish, instead of spending all that time with this dope, that he'd have done more to talk to the people who founded the mag.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, I'm just glad you're not in charge. Everything is better with dick-in-mouth jokes.

Wonder if it's an age thing. I certainly thought it was incredibly lame, and the fact that he somehow thinks two wealthy famous celebrities are aware of (much less bothered by) his EGM column is laughably delusional.

There's got to be so much other stuff you could have talked about, so many other people you could have interviewed. To go on and on and on with this guy was a complete waste.

I don't care if you have "DiM" jokes-- I don't need 10 minutes of them.

So Seanbaby is dumb, but cartoon hillbilles aren't? Ok.

I laughed quite a bit at the Seanbaby segment.

DrJonez wrote:

So Seanbaby is dumb, but cartoon hillbilles aren't? Ok.

Winner

Thin_J wrote:

I laughed quite a bit at the Seanbaby segment.

DrJonez wrote:

So Seanbaby is dumb, but cartoon hillbilles aren't? Ok.

Winner :P

"Winner"? Unlike "Seanbaby," you make me laugh.

To compare some idiot who makes dick jokes in a gaming magazine to a TV comedy that has lasted more than 13 seasons and has such a pedigree of quality talent behind it is (again) laughable.

That's TWICE you've made me laugh... two times more than the original segment. Congrats

SommerMatt wrote:

To compare some idiot who makes dick jokes in a gaming magazine to a TV comedy that has lasted more than 13 seasons and has such a pedigree of quality talent behind it is (again) laughable.

That's TWICE you've made me laugh... two times more than the original segment. Congrats

Then you've laughed twice as much in a day as I've laughed at King of the Hill in all of it's 13 seasons.

It is one of the most insanely idiotic shows I have ever seen. At no point in it's entire running did it ever even come close to showing an entertaining joke, and we are all dumber for having seen it. I award it no points, and my god have mercy on Mike Judge's soul.

Ok, that may be too far (but I love altering that quote for my own uses...) but the general gist of it still stands. That is one of the most incredibly boring shows ever. I still insist they made some kind of deal with the devil to keep it on the air that long. Perhaps it's future was ushered in on the same satanic parchment that let Home Alone into theaters and shot it to the top of the box office charts.

DrJonez wrote:

Your sense of humor doesn't align with EGM, is the problem :P

I don't consider that a problem.

DrJonez wrote:

So Seanbaby is dumb, but cartoon hillbilles aren't? Ok.

  • Hillbillies live in or near hills.
  • Mike Judge's biggest accomplishment in King of the Hill is probably in the increased subtlety of the humor (when compared to his other works). It's a wonderfully satiric depiction of an oft dismissed culture.
  • [Penis joke]. I'm trying to keep your attention here.
  • Edit: I'm coming off as a bit too snarky, I think. All due apologies, but riffing on homosexuality and body humor strikes me as terrible taste at best.

You know what they say, subtle jokes get subtle laughs.

Relax guys. Let's stop the petty bickering, shake hands and agree that Seanbaby and King of the Hill are both equally unfunny.

kuddles wrote:

Relax guys. Let's stop the petty bickering, shake hands and agree that Seanbaby and King of the Hill are both equally unfunny.

Agreed. Let it be so.

kuddles wrote:

Relax guys. Let's stop the petty bickering, shake hands and agree that Seanbaby and King of the Hill are both equally unfunny.

I think I'd be willing to make that trade.

kuddles wrote:

Relax guys. Let's stop the petty bickering, shake hands and agree that Seanbaby and King of the Hill are both equally unfunny.

I agree that I have low standards of humor and love both!