Knock knock! Who's there? Why it's the Worst Foot Forward guys with their guest Shalaka Kurup and they're poking their heads around various portals in search of the World's Worst Door. Inside you can find gates to hell, the crooked numbers on Number 10 Downing Street and Shalaka's superstitious fear of revolving doors.
210 - SIKISA BOSTWICK-BARNES - WORLD'S WORST EXAM
Turn your papers over, roll up your sleeves and hope that the cunning revision notes you'd tattooed onto your forearms in biro haven't smeared themselves into illegibility. This week we're joined by stand-up comedian, burlesque performer, lawyer and infuriated dancer Sikisa to talk about the world's worst examinations. We travel from the dreaming spires of Oxford to the elite butlering colleges of Amsterdam, via the Japanese underworld and performing arts schools everywhere. Tea trays on your head, white gloves on and 5, 6, 7, 8...
209 - VIX LEYTON - WORLD'S WORST BRANDING
We're covered in logos, humming jingles and spouting catchy slogans this week as we present the World's Worst Branding. We are joined by PR guru and stand-up comedian Vix Leyton to examine the pain side of advertising campaigns. Barry offers up a brief history of apples, Ben explores the literal branding of animals and Vix has a thing or two to say, on behalf of all women, to the makers of the Yorkie chocolate bar.
208 - ANNA PLOSZAJSKI - WORLD'S WORST CRAFT
This week we dive into a box overflowing with pipe cleaners, pasta shapes and PVA glue as we discover which craft, honed by humanity over the millenia, is the worst of them all. We're joined by our first three-time guest, the mighty and resourceful Dr Anna Ploszajski, who helps us answer these questions: can you polish a turd, is it ever appropriate to brandish a spoon in a graveyard and how many sheep does it take to make a bible?
207 - STUART LAWS - WORLD'S WORST MOVIE ADAPTATION
We're making cuts and elisions all over the place this week as we try turn this mish-mash of facts into a coherent podcast about the World's Worst Movie Adaptation. Alongside Patreon supporter and guest judge Kyle Bova is comedian and director Stuart Laws who has a good old bitch about The Beach. Meanwhile, Ben has a few choice images for The Emoji Movie and Barry takes on the Scientologists for the second episode in a row.
206 - NEIL DELAMERE - WORLD'S WORST EXPLORER
This week we don our pith helmets, saddle up the camels and strike out into the wilderness in search of fame, fortune, lost cities and days upon days of bewildering, mozzie-bitten, sunstroked infamy.
Joined by comedian Neil Delamere we meet the worst wielders of the map and compass this side of the International Blind Orienteering Championships. The show includes tales of adventuring pimps, post-war mystics, Irish policemen lost in the Outback and L Ron Hubbard. Come get lost with us...
205 - MOXIE LABOUCHE - WORLD'S WORST COINCIDENCE
This week's episode is brimful of rickety oddness as we explore some of the most haphazard, dangerous and eerie coincidences in history. Joined by one-woman encyclopedia of the delightfully arcane, Moxie Labouche (host of the Your Brain On Facts podcast), we talk under aligned planets of curses, assassination attempts, unfortunate deaths and savant entrepreneurs.
204 - WORLD'S WORST COMIC - PAUL SAVAGE
We're perusing the pages of the World's Worst Comic books and strips this week in the company of comedian and illustrator Paul Savage - who took the title of this episode in very good part! He tells us about Larry Flynt's less salubrious side, Ben discovers a passion for primates and Barry is riding bareback with the Rawhide Kid.
203 - COURTNEY TAYLOR - WORLD'S WORST THEATRE
This is your 5 minute call ladies and gentlemen. Whether you're in the stalls or up in the gods, you'll enjoy the spectacle we produce for the next hour. In the company of Patreon supporter and self-confessed theatre nerd Courtney Taylor, we've got tales of ghosts, fires, blood, thieves, motorbikes and absolutely the worst staging of Midsummer Night's Dream.
202 - SAM WATSON - WORLD'S WORST HORSE
It's time for the mane event as Irish international equestrian Sam Watson joins us for a gallop through history in search of the World's Worst Horse. Barry tells us about a horse celebrated for his inadequacy, Sam explores the high-stakes world of over-priced and under-performing nags, and Ben goes off-piste with some horrifying folk traditions and fairground attractions.
201 - CARL DONNELLY - WORLD'S WORST COFFEE
This week's episode is going to gently percolate into your ears over several hours, but only after passing through the digestive system of both Ben and Barry. Joined by one of the finest stand-ups on the British circuit and self-confessed coffee snob Carl Donnelly (as well as fastidious father and son Patreon judging team David and Tyler), we enjoy tales of furious Ottoman emperors, how the CIA enjoy their coffee and the hollow depths of Melbourne hipster coffee culture.
200 - BIRTHDAY SPECIAL! WITH JOHNNY CHIODINI & PAUL DUNCAN MCGARRITY
For we're the jolly worst fellow, and so say all of you! Blimey, 200 episodes of this nonsense, who'd have thought it? And to celebrate this milestone we have brought back two stellar former guests in the shape of Paul Duncan McGarrity and Johnny Chiodini. Not only that, but - rather like the last day of term - we've brought in games to play! Johnny takes on the role of Games Master to guide Ben, Barry and Paul through his role-playing game Glaze of Blory, all about being inept knights and trying to kill each other as often as possible. It's a suitably silly way to see in our 200th episode, celebrating our truly heroic failures as we try to induce toad-licking, lead-poisoning and griffin-mauling. Thanks to all of you for listening, and here's to the next 200.
199 - HANNAH GEORGE - WORLD'S WORST COMPETITION
In this week's episode Ben and Barry are joined by 1/3 of the Drunk Women Solving Crime podcast - writer, comedian and first-class soused sleuth Hannah George. Together the three of them prepare for friendly, not-so friendly and completely unhinged competition.
We find out why Sumo wrestlers like yelling at babies, discover astounding new depths of misogyny from the 1950s and reality TV and get hot under the bathrobe in Finland.
198 - SUKH OJLA - WORLD'S WORST SAUSAGE
This week's show is an absolute banger. Joined by comedian and actor Sukh Ojla we head to darkest corners of the Worst Foot Forward abattoir to uncover the ludicrous history of terrible sausages. On our way we meet Kaiser Wilhelm's vicious dachshunds, the wurst Botox outbreak and how sausages have inspired bets, duels and wars.
197 - MARK COOPER-JONES - WORLD'S WORST COUNTRY
We realise many of our listeners might want to volunteer their own countries for this week's accolade of World's Worst Country, but in the capable company of one half of the Map Men, Mark Cooper-Jones, we think we might be able to outdo you. We bring you to micronations ruled by animals, the very affordable pricing of Liechtenstein and the nation that encompasses all of outer space itself.
196 - MO OMAR - WORLD'S WORST ARTIST
This week we open the doors to the Worst Foot Gallery to uncover the world's worst artist. The collection is full of bodily fluids, fascists, murderers, self-proclaimed unjustified geniuses and one man who took performance art far to far indeed. We're joined by Mo Omar: a man who is stand-up comedy's gain to art school's loss. Enjoy this show whilst scratching your chin and considering the question: is this episode art?
195 - KAT ARNEY - WORLD'S WORST NOBEL LITERATURE
This episode feels like it has been a long time coming, frankly. Nobel Laureates include some of the best of us - and, as we discover today, some of the worst of us too. Science storyteller Kat Arney joins us to help guide us through a ceremony full of failure, with misogynistic self-publicists, war-mongering peace prize winners and the worst category of all: Economics.
194 - SIMON O'ROURKE - WORLD'S WORST TREE
A very merry new year to you all! After the stress of 2020, we thought it was best to get back to nature for our first episode of 2021. Joined by award-winning tree sculptor Simon O’Rourke we strolled through the blood-stained woodland glades of myth, history and surgery to find the world’s worst tree.
THE WORLD'S WORST "BEST OF 2020" EPISODE
Let's be honest folks: The words 'best' and '2020' are unlikely to appear in many sentences together. What a weird 12 months it's been. But hope springs eternal, and we're hoping for better things in the new year. Meanwhile, there were some bright points in 2020 for us at Worst Foot Forward, including our first live show, our first live stream and Ben's second baby! Along the way we were haunted by the ghost of Francis Bacon's frozen chicken, went on a round-the-world cruise with the Flat Earth Society, binge-watched Nollywood movies and adopted two geese called Norbert and Beep-Beep. Thanks to you all for listening, thanks to our many guests, and especially thanks to those who appear on this bumper compilation episode.
193 - THE WORST TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
Merry Crimblemas everyone! To send you into the festive period brimming with good cheer and premium eggnog, we've put together an episode inspired by the The Old Lady Who Swallowed A Christmas. There's an odd bit of catastrophic behaviour, some pirates and a lot of dead birds.