On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild have Part 2 of the conversation with Bernie Taupin. (If you missed Part 1 last week, you can catch up with it here.) As the show writes, “Phil & David are the happy Madmen Across The Table as their dream ‘Naked Lunch’ conversation with legendary songwriter Bernie Taupin continues with more talk about his amazing new album – ‘The Sea Has No Mercy,’ out on October 23rd -- his remarkable and enduring creative partnership with Elton John, and lots of food talk, too. It's more than a little bit funny, and really interesting. Then, for all the Tiny Dancers out there, we finish the episode by spotlighting a great moment from our episode with Cameron Crowe in which Kate Hudson asks an excellent question.”
I'm going to make it easy on myself and start by quoting the opening of an article I wrote about a year or so ago (giver or take) --
I’m a big fan of the “Cunk on…” TV specials from England. If you’re not aware of them, then (in brief) they’re fake documentaries -- some stand-alone, some limited series – with a clueless, somewhat rude host, Philomena Cunk, played masterfully by comic actress Diane Morgan. (Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers have had her on as a guest, largely to talk about “Cunk.” She also was a regular in Ricky Gervais’ series, “After Life,” as a co-worker, the pessimistic, blunt advertising manager with a terrible dating life.) The “Cunk” shows are sort of parodies of the David Attenborough-type of documentaries. She travels around explaining things dead seriously, much of it correct foundationally, but wrong in explanation, and talks with real-life, world experts in the field.
There are only a few available here, on Netflix. My favorite is the five-part “Cunk on Earth”. (It got Diane Morgan a BAFTA nomination as Best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme.) And there's "Cunk on Life" and "Cunk on Shakespeare."
If you want to know more, or see her two wonderful and funny interviews with Colbert and Meyers, the aforementioned article -- with the videos embedded -- are here.
I bring "Cunk" up again, because I found another of her series, and all five half-hour episodes are on YouTube. And...it was absolutely terrific. Extremely funny. I thought I'd make it even easier for folks here and post them on the site. Except that they're "age restricted" (they're largely very gentle, though occasionally get a bit crude), and won't embed. But I can provide thinks. Which I'll do, two at a time. (Well, almost, since there are five. So, two at a time, except for the last one...)
This is the link to Episode One here.
And Episode Two is here.
More to come next week. Watch this space...
On this “The Weekly Show” podcast with Jon Stewart, his guest is Josh Turek, Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in Iowa. As the show writes, “As Democrats across the country work to flip red seats blue this November, Jon is joined by four-time Paralympian and U.S. Senate candidate, Josh Turek, to discuss the ‘prairie populism’ fueling his 2026 midterms campaign in Iowa. Together, they unpack how Iowa voters are responding to Trump, Turek's approach to working across the aisle, and the common-sense policies he says can bring people together. Plus, Jon answers listeners’ questions about useful idiots, the downside of a Democratic win, and Sixers in 6?!
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Author
Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting.
Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, has two sort-of best-selling novels, and was a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and Huffington Post. Among his other writing, he's had a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel. As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.
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