This week's episode is full of glamour and snapping flashbulbs as we walk the tattered red carpet in search of the World's Worst Celebrity. Comedian Sarah Mills is with us to try understand one of the weirdest 90s phenomena, Ben brings us a tale of fraud and fame on New York's social scene, and Barry explains why John Wilkes Booth is famous for all the wrong reasons.
226 - MAT RICARDO - WORLD'S WORST COWBOY
This week Ben and Barry are joined by remarkable cabaret legend Mat Ricardo to head out West to find the most useless cowboys in the wild frontier. As well as various Billies, Buffallos and kids they encounter the practice of bulldogging, the moral conundrum of the Marlboro man and some aluminium factory workers who are very far from home.
225 - SACHA COWARD - WORLD'S WORST MERMAID
We are under the sea this week with folklorist, historian and cryptid-enthusiast Sacha Coward as we try and get an Arial view of the World's Worst Mermaid. Sacha takes us to the depths of the Amazon to sort dolphin fact from dolphin fiction, Ben treads the boards at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival and Barry takes the most litigious statue in Denmark to court.
224 - KRIS BALL - WORLD'S WORST EUROVISION ACT
It's a contest about a contest today as we bring podcaster and Eurovision Song Contest fanatic Kris Ball to help us sort out the World's Worst Eurovision Act. In what may be a baffling experience for anyone not from this continent, we discuss miming playing instruments, Portugal's up-and-down history with the event and the wit and wisdom of Sir Terry Wogan. We also make Worst Foot Forward history as all three of us arrive with exactly the same candidate...
223 - DAN QUIRKE - WORLD'S WORST MOVIE EFFECTS
We're splicing ourselves into a model of a burning building this week as we bring shonky jeopardy into your ears. Joining us to celebrate the worst that Hollywood can deliver is actor, painter and writer Daniel Quirke. We reveal quite how method James Cagney was forced to go, the dreaded 'butthole' cut of Cats and the horror of Jeremy Renner's CGI arms.
222 - GARY HARTLEY - WORLD'S WORST INSECT
We've got ants in our pants, bees in our knees and bugs in our earlugs this week as entomologist - and definitely not etymologist - Gary Hartley talks to us about the World's Worst Insect. Or rather, Gary stubbornly spends much of the show defending some of humankind's tiniest and most annoying nemeses from their traditional criticisms. Meanwhile, Ben has tales of Nazi insects and Barry discovers exactly why praying mantises give such amazing head.
221 - RUNI TALWAR - WORLD'S WORST CRICKETER
Pop on your pads, adjust your box and settle in for an attritional afternoon at the crease as Ben and Barry are joined by Kiwi-Indian comedian Runi Talwar to debate about the world's worst cricketer. The show contains extravagant cheats, conmen, Charles Dickens laughing at legless sailors and a man being set on fire by a cricket ball.
220D - BEST OF THE WORST OF THE BEST 13
One more episode in our mini-hiatus due to Barry's work schedule as the boys get together for a good old natter about episodes 61-65 and pick their World's Best for the topics covered in those shows. We revisit our discussions with Steven Colgyn about Policemen, Tez Ilyas about Centre Backs, Jon Dryden Taylor about Opening Ceremonies, Tulip Sidiq MP about Fashion Accessories and A Gay and a Nongay about Friendship. There's the usual grab-bag of trivia and tall tales with stories of giant scissors, Mr T and two adorable Jewish comedians.
220c - MORE WORLD'S WORST OFFCUTS!
We continue our little hiatus from recording (largely thanks to Barry's eminently-over-employed status) with some more clips from the back catalogue. We have dug out some footage that didn't quite make the edit of 5 episodes from the start of 2020 but we felt were worth hanging onto for a rainy day. They feature guests Vicki Pipe, Katy Schutte, David Atherton, Lucy Jane Atkinson and Mikey Brett, and they look at topics as diverse as The Great Succulent Invasion, sinks full of ice-cream and why directing a play is very much like managing a football team. Normal service should be resumed next week!
220B - WORLD'S WORST OFFCUTS
Holding positions people! Due to Barry's enormously crammed work diary and Ben's inability to source a charismatic, trivia-loving Irish homosexual at short notice, we've had to release a podcast palette cleanser with some of our favourite snippets that didn't make the final cut.
220 - RIK CARRANZA - WORLD'S WORST SCI-FI MOVIE
Pew pew, pew-pew-pew, laser sounds etc! It's time for Worst Foot Forward to go sub-atomic, intergalactic and beyond the realms of possibility with an episode all about the World's Worst Sci-Fi Movie. We are joined by comedian, streamer and sci-fi expert Rik Carranza who directs his phasers to the stunningly bad Battlefield Earth. Barry digs up an animated film that tanked a Hollywood studio while Ben goes to the shores of the Black Sea in search of Wookiees.
219 - JOSHUA SEIGAL - WORLD'S WORST INGREDIENT
Open wide, hold your nose and steady yourself to slop this week's episode down the hatch. Joined by poet Joshua Seigal we uncover the grimmest ingredients in history. Inside the Worst Foot cauldron this week are anchovies, Virgin Boy Eggs, gelatine, fish guts and lots and lots of snakes. With a side of fashionable potatoes.
218 - PAUL DUNCAN MCGARRITY - WORLD'S WORST ARCHAEOLOGIST
This episode belongs in a museum, preferably one of those that comes alive after dark with hilarious consequences. Returning to the show as our second ever three-time guest is actual archaeologist Paul Duncan McGarrity and what better subject to ask him to unearth than the World's Worst Archaeologist. There are tales of cheating on panel shows, dogs going digging and Nazis in search of Atlantis.
217B - BEST OF THE WORST OF THE BEST 12
We're back with another sweet WFF duet as Barry and Ben bring a bit of positivity into your ears. They head back to Eps 56-60 and pick out their favourite examples of the best tea, punishment, day, element and family tradition in history. Superstars this week include a spat between John Ruskin and James Whistler, an alchemical laxative heirloom and an infamous Italian juggler. There is also a lot of righteous and justified hatred of Bryan Ferry.
217 - TOM SCOTT - WORLD'S WORST THEME PARK
Welcome to the house of fun on Worst Foot Forward as this week we take a rollercoaster ride with YouTuber and presenter Tom Scott in the World's Worst Theme Park. Tom expands on the theoretical awfulness of a park that doesn't even exist yet - and probably never will. Meanwhile, Ben spends much of his time with injury-claims lawyers and Barry has been googling 'sex theme parks'. Again.
216 - DANIEL DURNIN - WORLD'S WORST FURNITURE
Pull up a chair, lay yourself a place at our wonky table and prepare to enjoy a stroll through our showroom of terrible furniture alongside our guide, multidisciplinary artist and woodworker Daniel Durnin. To your left you'll see a series of salacious presidential desks and sleazy beds, on your far right there is all sorts of spiky anti-social furniture and then as far as the eye can see is row upon row of misshapen and malformed fixtures and fittings.
215 - ROBIN MORGAN - WORLD'S WORST ENTREPRENEUR
We have done some blue-sky-thinking this week with an eye on disrupting markets and securing investment in our brand new episode: World's Worst Entrepreneur. Comedian Robin Morgan is with us to tell us why the owner of pub chain Wetherspoons named his outlets after a teacher, while Ben goes back to the future in a Delorean and Barry, obviously, talks about a pope.
214 - JONATHAN DRENNAN - WORLD'S WORST SPORTS KIT
We hope that you've remembered your running vest, shorts, socks and spikes, because if not you'll be listening to the whole show in your underwear!
This week Ben and Barry are joined by Northern Irish sports journalist and Aussie Rules casualty Jonathan Drennan to talk about oddest piece of sporting kit and equipment. We find out about deadly Ancient Greek underpants, there whereabouts of Russell Crowe's jockstrap and who was the stickiest NFL player of all time.
213 - TASHA DHANRAJ - WORLD'S WORST PC GAME
We're booting up the Worst Foot Supercomputer this week - aka our guest Tasha Dhanraj - and asking it to find the answer to the great question: What is the World's Worst PC Game? We've got a hard-drive full of all kinds of everything including white supremacists, dust among The Sims and the game that taught you everything you could ever wish to know about cholera.
212 - EMMA GLEESON - WORLD'S WORST MESS
This week's show is a giant Jackson Pollock splodge of a thing as we're joined by decluttering and sustainability expert Emma Gleeson to talk about the world's worst mess. We meet New York's most famous and tragic hoarders, environmentalist drag queens, giant tubs of pudding and a terrifying giant Soviet lake.