THE ADAM CAROLLA SHOW

'''The Adam Carolla Show''' is a syndicated morning radio program, which began airing on January 3, 2006. The show is produced by CBS Radio as part of its Free FM format, and is based out of KLSX in Los Angeles. It can be heard in a number of major metropolitan markets on the West Coast of the United States.

Contents

Overview

History

Syndication

Show content

Frequent guests

Recurring characters

Recurring segments

Past recurring characters and bits

Controversy

The Asian community

Ann Coulter

Former staffers

References

External links

Overview

''The Adam Carolla Show'' features Adam Carolla, Danny Bonaduce and news reader Teresa Strasser.
The supporting cast includes producer Angie Fitzsimmons, sound effects guy Bryan Bishop, writer Mike Lynch, voiceover/technical producer Mike Dawson, technical production assistant Mike Cioffi, board operator Bill Mahoney, phone screener Kyle Baugher, and webmasters Jack Sullivan and Marc Chambers. Jimmy Kimmel serves as creative consultant, and hosted the show on June 7 and June 8, 2006, while Carolla was with his wife for the birth of their twins[1] and April 26, 2007, while Carolla was at New York for the Tribeca Film Festival to see the premier of his movie The Hammer[2].

History

On August 4, 2005, Carolla announced that he would leave Loveline to pursue a position in morning radio, replacing Howard Stern (much to Stern's approval) in a number of West Coast markets. Adam's last night on ''Loveline'' was November 3, 2005, to allow him to have time to prepare for his morning debut at the beginning of 2006. He stated that he would love to continue to do Loveline, which seemed to fly by while doing it, but the show would not be a possibility. On October 25, Infinity Broadcasting officially announced that it would be replacing Stern with Carolla on several radio stations in the western United States. On January 3, 2006, Carolla began his new morning radio show, ''The Adam Carolla Show'', on stations in Los Angeles (where the show is based), Phoenix, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Portland, Seattle, Las Vegas, Oakland, Reno, Burbank, Fresno and Sacramento.

Syndication

''The Adam Carolla Show'' can be heard on the following stations (broadcast weekdays from 6:00am-10:00am PST):

★ Los Angeles, CA - 97.1 Free FM

★ Portland, OR - 101.1 KUFO FM

★ Las Vegas, NV - 107.5 KXTE FM

★ Sacramento, CA – 106.5 KWOD

★ Seattle, WA – 107.7 KNDD

★ Reno, NV – 100.9 KRZQ

★ Fresno, CA – 104.1 KFRR

★ Palm Springs, CA - 99.5 KMRJ

★ San Francisco, CA - 1550 AM KYCY

★ Portland, ME - 970 WZAN (tape delayed 7-10 PM ET)

★ Boise, ID - 99.1 KTMB
Most of the show is also available for download via podcast through FreeFM. The format varies depending on the station providing the RSS feed. The current feed links are:
Adam Carolla Show Podcast - hosted by KLSX
Adam Carolla Show Podcast - "Daily Top Segments" hosted by KLSX, linked to from The Adam Carolla Show's official website
The feed can also be found for iTunes users through the iTunes Podcast directory.

Show content

Frequent guests

★ David Alan Grier


★ Perez Hilton


★ Joel McHale


★ Frank Vincent


★ Billy West


★ Adam's buddy Ray from Las Vegas

Recurring characters

★ 'Deaf Frat Guy'. He also goes by the name Jason or the nickname "Maverick", and is played by Josh Gardner (comedian). Deaf Frat Guy originally started his Greek membership as a Tau Kappa Epsilon at the University of Southern California. In May 2006, Deaf Frat Guy was removed from the fraternity, and decided to start his own, called Delta Fu Gamma. He created the fake Greek letter "Fu" because he believed that all possible Greek names had been used. The initials "DFG" also refer to "Deaf Frat Guy". Deaf Frat Guy first appeared on January 24, 2006. [3]

★ 'Fake Jack Silver'. A parody of KLSX Program Director Jack Silver. Fake Jack Silver is voiced by sound effects engineer Bryan Bishop, as mentioned on the December 14, 2006 show. Fake Jack Silver frequently mentions staying "hip" with younger listeners and talks about watching the ratings "needle" drop, or refers to "radio-kryptonite" when a boring bit or caller is on the air. Fake Jack Silver's biggest concern is being portrayed as homosexual, and thus the last thing he usually says is, in a stressed voice, "Not gay!"

★ 'Peanut'. This intermittently appearing character (voiced by David Alan Grier), is a black woman ostensibly hired to answer the phones at the studios of CBS Radio (the real life networks where the Adam Carolla Show is broadcast). The running gag is that every time Peanut is featured on the show, the phone banks that she is ''supposed'' to answer ring constantly, and the calls are often put on hold or disconnected. Peanut's character is disrespectful, possessed of a hair-trigger temper, speaks poor English (once taking the day off for what she called "Mobba Loofin King's Burfday"), and usually ends the sketch by threatening to take off her earrings and flip-flops and challenging Adam to "take it to the parking lot" whenever he makes the slightest suggestion that Peanut is not doing her job.

Recurring segments

★ '1780s Guy'. In this short segment, which occurs almost daily, Adam Carolla brings up a contemporary facet of life in today's world, when the 1780s Guy innocently either asks a question or makes a statement that is politically incorrect by today's standards. (In one segment, Carolla tells the 1780s Guy about modern day tanning salons, whereupon the character loudly exclaims, "So, the rich and wealthy pay money to gain the appearance of a field hand?"). Adam is usually left speechless grasping for a satisfactory reply.

★ 'Ass-Kiss Rodeo'. In this bit, callers or show guests must attempt to shower Adam with praise (i.e. kiss his ass) while he tries to throw them off by contradicting himself. The better the player is able to adapt to his rapid, drastic, and contradictory changes in opinion by continuing to shower him with praise, the better the score. The analogy is that Adam acts a rodeo bull trying to buck off a rider. For example: Adam: "I love sushi." Caller: "Sushi is great and so are you, Adam." Adam: "I hate sushi." Caller: "But sushi is highly overrated...", etc. The current celebrity champion is ''Survivor'' host Jeff Probst. The game was first played on January 13, 2006. [4]

★ 'Angel Adam and Devil Danny'. A sketch that occurs almost weekly, wherein callers discuss difficult issues in their lives about which they ask Adam Carolla for advice. In many of the earlier shows, Adam would play both angel (with constructive criticism) and devil (with advice that is typically self-serving or self-destructive); in recent months, with the arrival of Danny Bonaduce, Adam plays the Angel and Danny plays the Devil.

★ 'Basic Cable Classics'. Hosted by Adam and ESPN's Bill Simmons, but also features Dameshek and Strasser. Carolla and Simmons review classic "guy" movies from the 80s and 90s. Recently reviewed movies include ''Con Air'', ''Face/Off'', ''Gremlins'', and ''Red Dawn''.

★ 'Captain Blowhard'. Occasionally, Adam will answer callers' questions regarding their lives as Captain Blowhard, a persona dating back to Adam's ''Loveline'' show. Captain Blowhard is a mesh of personalities of "blowhards" Adam has met in the past, often citing nonsequitur dates when he turned his life around (such as "June 18th, 1987, I took a long hard look in the mirror."). He "refuses to lie" to people, and insists on giving them the "cold hard truth" that life "isn't a bed of roses." He often prefaces this with "I wish I could blow some sunshine right up you, but I can't, I'm not going to, and I shalln't [sic]." He then gives off a long list of "not your [occupation]," invariably including "not your wet nurse." (Perhaps not coincidentally, Carolla's vocal lilt for Captain Blowhard is close to his Donald Trump impression.) Captain Blowhard debuted October 5, 2006.^[1]

★ 'Crank Yankers segments'. Adam Carolla is one of the producers of the comedy show known as Crank Yankers, and he will intermittently play "the best of" the skits previously airing on the show.

★ 'Custom Strip-O-Grams.' In this segment, Adam asks usually female listeners to call in to give him various details such as the car they drive, their profession, and various other details. He will then perform an exaggerated imitation of a strip club showman (with an echo effect and Warrant's ''Cherry Pie'' or Motley Crue's ''Girls, Girls Girls'' in the background, alternately), using the volunteered information to portray the women callers as strippers using as many double-entendre references as possible. This popular segment typically occurs on Fridays.

★ 'Definitely ''Not'' a Jew!!'. This bit is usually played as a bump after a commercial break, in the style of the vintage "Alcoa Presents… You Make the Call!" ads during football games. The show’s announcer Mike Dawson describes an outlandish crime or other foolish act, followed by a referee's whistle and a booming voice that proclaims "…Definitely ''Not'' a Jew!" This bit is based on Adam's belief that ridiculous and stupid crimes are typically not committed by Asians or Jews.

★ '"Gay-walking"'. A play on the word jay-walking, and an homage to the sketch from ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', this is a sketch in which the openly gay "Pre-Op, Board Op" Bill tours the gay bars of California and asks the patrons questions about stereotypically "manly" subjects such as cars, sports and action movies. It is the job of Adam, Danny, Teresa, and a single randomly selected caller to guess whether or not the gay man will know the answer to each question. Callers who make the highest number of correct guesses are awarded a prize. Meanwhile, Adam, Danny, and Teresa make an on-air, cash bet as to who will score the most correct guesses amongst the three; Teresa has won almost all of these match-ups.

★
★ In recent incarnations of this particular skit, the show now asks "macho," straight men questions that ''gay'' guys are supposed to know; Adam, Danny and Teresa betting on the outcome remains a part of the game.

★ 'Hobo Power'. Years ago, Adam invented a system to measure stink called Hobo Power (based on horsepower, the rationale being that if an engine's power can be gauged by the number of horses it can outrun, stink can be measured by the stench of a standard hobo). It is measured between 0 and 100, though Adam's past assessments have shown it to be a scale of magnitude, as many things can smell bad, but only a few things can smell so bad that they become legend.

This particular bit consists of callers telling the story of their smelliest experience, Adam would then "rank" the smell by number in the Hobopower scale.The rules/scale are as follows:

★
★ 1 hobo = 1-Hobopower

★
★ The visual and/or emotional component of a stench cannot be factored when determining hobopower.

★
★ 25-Hobopower induces vomiting. Because it is impossible for a stench that does not induce vomiting to reach 25, call-in examples where the caller "held back" from vomiting often get a decimal number between 24 and 25.

★
★ 50-Hobopower is "a cat that was fed exclusively blue cheese for a week, [before] defecating on a white-hot hibachi."

★
★ 100-Hobopower is theoretical: No man has ever smelled 100-Hobopower and lived.

★ 'Home Improvement'. A former carpenter himself, Adam gives advice to callers on any of their questions regarding work on their houses. Most of this segment's humor comes from Brian, who hates the bit and constantly uses sound effects to interrupt it. For his part, Adam refuses to take generic home improvement questions, instead demanding that callers ask him really difficult questions. On occasion, Adam will give out home improvement in the voice of one of his Crank Yankers personas, Mr. Birchum.

★ 'Huell Howser'. Adam, Danny, and Teresa break down the game film from an episode of Huell Howser's "California's Gold."

★ 'Mr Brightside'. Seen as the opposite to ''What Can't Adam Complain About'', Mr Brightside features Carolla attempting to cheer up callers with serious issues, most notably a crystal meth-addicted daughter with an alcoholic mother and homicidal father. The bit is normally farcical, and sometimes features a Tom Leykis impersonator (Brian Whitman of ''The Conway and Whitman Show'' on KLSX) laughing as callers talk about horrible things happening in their lives. The bit was first successfully completed on June 16, 2006.^[2]

★ 'Morning Zoo'. Carolla had always been openly disdainful of louder and more obnoxious morning shows, and this segment (much like the former "Lightning Round" bit from ''Loveline'') spoofs them. This bit started as a response to the death of Jennifer Strange, and is based on the morning zoo concept. It runs as stream-of-consciousness improvisation, with Adam playing brash host "Dick Gobbler", who continually gives traffic, time, and weather reports every few seconds (every location in his weather report is stated to have a temperature of 67 degrees). He also repeatedly inserts teasers for 'coming up' on the show, which never come. The time reports are insanely repetitive (its 5 till 8, straight up 8, thats 7:55, 55 after 7, with 8 o clock coming up in 5 minutes), and inconsistent with each other (its 755, then its 753, etc). Throughout, "T-Bone" (Teresa) does a fake laugh and periodically gives celebrity news in an over-excited voice, and complete lack of empathy or human emotion. "Marty St. Claire in the Air" (Bryan) gives traffic updates from a helicopter, followed by an advertisement for some company, with the advertisement usually being more audible and taking up more time than the traffic report. "Red Bull" (Danny) is always on location, hosting a radio contest that is obviously potentially dangerous (almost always involving bodily harm to a fictional intern named Sludge, a parody of former staff employee Big Tad, to squeals of laughter from "T-Bone"). The segment tends to be fast-paced with constant background sound effects and extremely repetitive 'exciting' music. Variations on this segment include "Gulag Radio" and "Motorin' FM".

★ 'Music Monday'. Adam discusses a music-related topic with Danny, Teresa and the callers. Past installments featured the worst cover songs, the most homosexual songs, the best and worst strip club songs, and the manliest songs. The bit debuted on November 6, 2006. [5]

★ 'Name T's V'. (formerly known as 'Name Teresa's Vagina'). ...a departure from the normal "art" of finding interesting 'pet' names for genitalia, based on a distinct theme each time the game is played. (In one sketch, callers were asked to use TV shows to think up pet names for Teresa's genitalia, and came up with such novel offerings as "Monster Garage", "Land of the Lost", "7th Heaven", and "Eight is Enough". Whenever an interesting pet name arises in the course of normal conversation, Adam will often break off the conversation to say ". . ..another good name for T's V".

★ 'Nerd-Off Challenge'. A contest originating with actor and comedian Patton Oswalt, who competed with various members of the staff in a trivia contest for nerds. Common themes for questions include ''Star Wars'', ''The Lord of the Rings'', ''Dungeons & Dragons'', and comic books. However, "there are no winners—only losers".

On May 30, 2006, Oswalt defeated Mike Lynch and Bryan Bishop to retain his championship. Brian Posehn, Dana Gould, and Patton Oswalt competed in a "Celebrity Edition" on June 13, 2006 for a Darth Vader replica lightsaber. Oswalt emerged victorious to retain the title.

★ 'Nerd-Walking.' Same basic premise as "Gay-Walking" (see above), but with ordinary guys asking Nerds about non-nerd topics such as military ordnance, NASCAR, sports, and so forth. As is the case with "Gay-Walking," Adam, Danny, and Teresa try to second-guess the questioned nerd and bet money on who will correctly guess the most Nerd repsonses.

★ 'Oswaldo's Movie Review'. Each weekend, the show sends Castillo to review a new movie. The reviews are typically difficult to understand because of Castillo's heavy Nicaraguan accent, so Carolla stands in as his "interpreter". Castillo's first review was of ''Brokeback Mountain'' on January 17, 2006. [6]. Recently, Adam's longtime friend Ray has joined Oswaldo in this bit.

★ 'Oswaldo's Singing Game'. Oswaldo sings lyrics from a musical group in the news (at one time it was the Rolling Stones exclusively, but now includes songs from any group either currently touring at the time or releasing a long-awaited box set), and listeners call in to guess what he is singing (again, Oswaldo's thick Nicaraguan accent greatly adds to the challenge). Listeners who correctly identify the song win a prize. The Rolling Stones Game was first played on August 23, 2006 [7]. Recent shows have had him singing about Pink Floyd, Rush, The Police, and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

★ 'Outbook August' In September, 2006 and April, 2007, Adam offered anybody $10,000.00 of his own money who could book the best guest on his radio program. Adam felt that show booker Mike August was failing at his job and began the contest. Big Tad booked Howard Stern for the win in September and Morgan Freeman was the winning guest in April. Adam also offered a $500.00 prize for the best guest each week during the month.

★ 'Prisoner David' In this segment, David, a surprisingly upbeat prisoner in the California penal system, calls in from prison with updates about life and news from behind the bars. David serves a 25 to life sentence for conspiracy to murder his wife. Adam Carolla and the crew enjoy hearing the recording that comes on every few minutes and informs that the call is made from inside the prison, and is being recorded. (In the state of California, both parties must be notified of a telephone call being recorded, which -- incidentally -- is why ''Crank Yankers'' calls are made from Nevada).

★ 'Ray-enactments'. Adam and his longtime friend Ray from Las Vegas tell stories about their adventures, mishaps, and frustrations as youngsters at Walter Reed Junior High School in North Hollywood.

★ 'Rich Man/Poor Man'. This is a phone-in game in which callers suggest things characteristic of the upper class and the lower class, but not of the middle class. One notable example is an outdoor shower: a wealthy person might have outdoor showering facilities beside the pool or beachhouse, while the poor person simply cannot afford a real shower and must use a garden hose.

★ 'Same Name Game'. Another phone-in game, where callers must give two notable yet widely contrasting public figures that share the same surname, for example, Barry White and Betty White. Callers with the most creative or amusing pairings are usually granted a prize.

★ 'Slippery Slope Guy'. A sketch in which the commentator, Slipper Slope Guy, provisionally agrees with a side of a given issue, but then warns the audience that "...it's a slippery slope." He then proceeds to go the extreme, implausible examples of what could happen in an attempt to dissuade the listener from agreeing with a given course of action. For example, Slippery Slope Guy refuses to endorse alternate fuel vehicles because "the slippery slope" might eventually lead to jack-booted thugs abducting children and drain their blood to fuel the cars.

★ 'What ''Can't'' Adam Complain About??'. Started after Carolla spent an entire segment on February 21, 2006, complaining about his weekend being ruined because a Ferrari he purchased off eBay was delivered late. [8] Callers provide Carolla with things they do not think he can complain about, such as girls jumping on trampolines, but he manages to respond with complaints. Prizes are sometimes given to callers who manage to find something that he cannot complain about...which does not happen very often.

★ 'Will Angie Eat It??' Same premise as "Gay-Walking" and "Nerd-Walking" (see above), but this skit involves the extremely eccentric food tastes of producer Angie; in this case Adam, Danny, and Teresa read from a random list of foods both normal and exotic, and try to guess amongst themselves whether or not Angie will eat the item in question. Given Angie's seemingly inexplicable and contradictory tastes (e.g., she likes meatloaf a lot but doesn't care much for hamburgers), Adam and company bet money on the outcome of this guessing game as well.

Past recurring characters and bits

Controversy

The Asian community

On January 24, 2006, the show aired several segments spoofing the Asian Excellence Awards. The segments involved repeated use of the phrase "ching-chong". Contrary to the segments, the actual awards (honoring achievements of Asians and Asian Americans in entertainment and science) are conducted in English. Branding the skit demeaning and racist, several Asian American organizations threatened to pressure advertisers to withdraw support from the show if the station did not issue an apology. Donald Young, Interim Executive Director of the Center for Asian American Media wrote, "Clearly Mr Carolla found the rare example of the celebration of Asian-American achievement an easy target. While he does have the right to express his humor, doing so with racial epithets is unconsionable [sic]. Mr Carolla should be held accountable for his derogatory antics." [9] Notably, six cities that carry ''The Adam Carolla Show'' are in the top ten among U.S. cities with the highest proportion of Asian Americans (according to the 2000 Census). Carolla issued an on-air apology for the segment on February 22, 2006: "We do a show here that is a little irreverent, and, sometimes, we cross the line, and we definitely crossed it this time. It was not meant to offend, it did, and, for that, we sincerely apologize to the good people of the Asian community."

Ann Coulter

On July 6, 2006, conservative author and pundit Ann Coulter called the show an hour and a half late. She told Carolla she had been given the wrong number and "was really tight on time," to which Carolla responded, "All right, well, get lost," and hung up. [10] Coulter's publicist later demanded an apology from the show, which Carolla refused to give. This was Coulter's second attempted booking on the show, as she had been booked a week prior but did not call in. While numerous political blogs applauded Carolla's hanging up on Coulter, [11] [12] Carolla noted that his action was not politically-motivated, and that he actually agreed with some of her views. He said Coulter's behavior was unprofessional and disrespectful of the show.

Former staffers

References

1. http://adamradio.wordpress.com/2006/10/05/adam-with-memphis-monroe-lisa-lampanelli-and-dr-gary-alter/
2. http://adamradio.wordpress.com/2006/06/16/adam-with-brian-tee-kelly-pickler-bonnie-jill-laflin-and-the-flapsteak-showdown/

External links

★ Official website

★ Official show recap blog

★ Official show message board

★ Deaf Frat Guy site

★