Is this a podcast? I hadn't noticed. It's time, folks. It's a topic we've had on the radar for a while and finally we settle down on the sofa to watch the World's Worst Rom-Com. Alongside writer and actress Sadie Clark and our special guest judge Dani Charlton, we debate your Four Weddings, your Loves Actually, your Ten Things and so much more. There are star turns from Rob Reiner's mother, Matthew Goode's bad Irish accent, a magical crab and a herd of orphans.
159 - JOHN-LUKE ROBERTS - WORLD'S WORST JOKE
This week you find us brandishing our rubber chickens, whoopee cushions and banana skins in the company of one of the finest joke writers and most wonderfully absurd performers on the UK circuit: John-Luke Roberts.
We’re on the hunt for the world’s worst joke, whether it’s painful damp squibs or punchlines that could end civilisation as we know it. I say, I say, I say…
158 - DERPS & DRAGONS - WORLD'S WORST SPELL
Roll for initiative! Grab your dice, your pencils, character sheets and assorted costume pieces as we gather around the gaming table for a Dungeons And Dragons-heavy episode all about the World’s Worst Spell. We are joined by Tom, Mason and Andrew, some of the gang from Derps and Dragons who lay out why Harry Potter would be swept aside by any competent D&D player. Ben delves inside Icelandic coin-purses, while Barry has a spell to counteract the greatest evil of all: Donald Trump.
157 - JOE WELLS - WORLD'S WORST REVOLUTIONARY
Man the barricades and try not to fall over the edge as you're doing it. Desperate times call for desperate measures and we've drafted in ace political comedian Joe Wells to help us find the freedom fighters and revolutionaries who we shouldn't be turning to in these turbulent times. Ben brings a classic of the "God talked to me and told me to rain down fire" genre, Barry unleashes centuries of Irish history all over the shop and Joe tells us about a very complicated woman indeed.
THE THIRD FOOT - INDOOR GAMES (BONUS EPISODE)
It's that time of the month again, your extra dose of Worst Foot Forward in our bonus episode paid for by our kind supporters on Patreon. This month, with half of the world locked away from Covid-19 and trying to think of things to do, Barry takes us on a quick tour of the history and trivia behind various indoor games you can play in your own locked-down home! Learn about the soothsaying past of Solitaire, what the French call Blind Man's Buff and wonder at the beautiful trophy awarded at the Hide-And-Seek World Championships.
156 - MIKEY BRETT - WORLD'S WORST PUPPET
There are some strings attached to this week's episode - our first recorded during full-blown lockdown - but we're keeping our spirits up with some helpful hands up our bums. That's what happens when we go looking for the World's Worst Puppet alongside puppeteer on both stage and screen, Mikey Brett. Who just so happens to be Barry's husband. There are excursions to the Muppet Theatre, Sesame Street and prehistoric Chile, as well as ventriloquism on the radio and creepy dolls in Scotland. Enjoy, and we hope you're all staying safe in these mad times.
155C - CORONAVIRUS RETROSPECTIVE
Well now...this has been quite the week, hasn't it. Ben stubbed his toe on a bed frame late on Friday night and it all seems to have got even worse from there.
Like the world and his wife we've been busying reorganising, panicking, bellowing at the heavens and making the odd inappropriate joke about all this coronavirus shenanigans. We aim to be back with a new episode for you next week, but in the meantime, here's some clips from the vault inspired by viruses and self-isolation.
You can hear us talking about an unsung World War 2 hero with Mike Stuchberry, tinfoil hats with Jim Campbell, weird allergies with Katie Pritchard, a British mission to steal tea from China with Laura Lexx and the science of dog farts with Sarah Jones.
155B - BEST OF THE WORST OF THE BEST 9
We're back with more sunshine, history and daftness in a hostful episode where we look back at previous episodes about terrible magic tricks, monarchs, legal defences, burlesque performers and playwrights and pick our favourite examples of each.
It's a real pic'n'mix this week including the many faces of William Shakespeare, blowjobs, the coolest spy of all time, Dom Pedro the Magnanimous and some very unhinged knifeplay.
155 - LUCY-JANE ATKINSON - WORLD'S WORST FASHION SHOW
Strike a pose, this week we are strutting our stuff on the catwalk of catastrophe that is the World's Worst Fashion Show. Theatre director extraordinaire Lucy Jane Atkinson is with us to tell us of the time she found a fashion show up a mountain and to peek at the crotch of Rick Owens' more revealing creations. Ben takes us to the bizarre world of digital fashion and Barry delves into the past to meet Lucille, a trailblazer and trendsetter who was aboard the Titanic.
154 - LIVE SHOW - WORLD'S WORST DINNER PARTY
Here we go! Our first ever live show, recorded on 29th February at the Network Theatre in Waterloo as part of London's VAULT Festival. We were joined by three brilliant guests - Roann McCloskey, Anna Ploszajski and Joel Morris - who returned to the pod for the World's Worst Dinner Party in front of a lovely, lively audience! We sample food from the Futurists Cookbook and, while we chow down, Roann talks to us about the World's Worst Party Trick, Anna proposes a surprising candidate for the World's Worst Ingredient, and Joel brings the Women's Institute and pirates together for the World's Worst After-Dinner Speech. With thanks to VAULT Festival and our producer Andy Goddard.
THE THIRD FOOT - LEAP YEARS (BONUS EPISODE)
This month's extra Patreon episode is inspired by one of our favourite ever discoveries on this show: Sweden and Finland's deployment of February 30th to regulate their calendars. We talk about Alfred Jarry, Pope Joan and get very confused indeed about maths.
153 - DAVID ATHERTON - WORLD'S WORST RESTAURANT
We have food royalty with us this week, the King of Tarts, the Prince of Profiteroles, the Emperor of The World's Most Famous Tent: 2019 Great British Bake-Off champion David Atherton joins Ben and Barry to chat about the World's Worst Restaurant. David shares his own dining disasters, Ben takes us to meet the maitre d' from hell and Barry explores the murky pages of the Michelin Guide. And all three boys decide which celebrity they'd be most likely to eat.
152 - DELEA SHAND - WORLD'S WORST OPERA
Pop on an enormous ballgown, gargle until your vocal folds are primed and ready and prepare to belt out laughs at this week's episode all about the world's worst opera. Joined by an actual real domesticated opera singer - the brilliantly talented Delea Shand - Barry and Ben discover the cultural aberrations of operas that are short, long, Esperanto, Klingon and feature both helicopter blades and Paris Hilton (sadly not at the same time.)
151 - KATY SCHUTTE - WORLD'S WORST SEA CREATURE
Join us 20,000 leagues under the sea this week in Davy Jones's locker, somewhere behind his used socks and half-eaten apples. We are in the company of improviser extraordinaire and lover of all things maritime Katy Schutte and we be sailing in search of ye World's Worst Sea Creature. Along the way we meet some beautiful blob fish, some slimy hagfish and learn exactly Where Be Dragons.
150 - THIS IS YOUR WORST LIFE
150 not out ladies and gentlemen! To celebrate hitting this, frankly ridiculous, milestone Ben and Barry interview each other and find out a few more of their own personal worsts.</p> <p>There's still lots of daft trivia thrown in too, including racehorse mating practices, Viking marriage ceremonies and the reason the Queen Mother became a drunk.
Here's to another 150!
THE THIRD FOOT - DANCING PLAGUES (BONUS EPISODE)
This month's extra Patreon episode is about Dancing Plagues. Ben takes Barry on a waltz through pre-Reformation Europe, around shrines to St Vitus, as well as to dance marathons in Depression Era USA and some rebellious riotous Japanese dances in the 1860s.
149 - VICKI PIPE - WORLD'S WORST TRAIN
Tickets please, and get your feet off the seat while minding the gap and moving down inside the carriage: It's time to hop aboard the World's Worst Train, destination This Podcast. Ben and Barry are joined in the caboose by Vicki Pipe whose All The Stations project has seen her visit all the train stations in the UK and Ireland. She is here to discourse on the rickety old Pacer trains which are basically buses on tracks, while Barry finds some presidential funeral trains and Ben sticks a train on some wheels and then on some more wheels for good measure.
148B - BEST OF THE WORST OF THE BEST 8
Since the third Monday in January is, apparently, statistically the most depressing day of the year, we thought we'd whack a smile on your collective faces with an episode celebrating some of life's little upsides. Going over topics from episodes 36-40 we find the best gadgets, mythical creatures, words, strikers and environmentalists.
Expect to be uplifted, delighted and baffled in equal measure!
148 - DOMINIC NICHOLLS - WORLD'S WORST WEAPON
Boom-bang-a-bang! Worst Foot Forward are waving their deadly weapons around. Ben and Barry are joined by former army man and current defence correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, Dom Nicholls who tries his best to be sergeant-major to their minor misdemeanours. Dom gives us the lowdown on nuclear weaponry, especially the ill-fated hand-held nuclear rocket launcher. Meanwhile, Barry kills a multitude of different animals in the company of Catholic saints and our friends at the Special Operations Executive. And Ben takes the old joke about razorblades and tried to get as many barrels as possible onto a single gun. Take cover!
147 - RAHUL KOHLI - WORLD'S WORST MOB BOSS
We're gonna make you an offer you can't refuse: an hour of sinister and stupid tales about mobsters who often make Bugsy Malone look like Don Corleone. Accompanied by award-winning stand-up comic Rahul Kohli, who mines his own chequered past growing up in Newcastle amongst some haphazard company, we discover why you should never let the mafia put up your Christmas decorations, the Yakuza's charming outreach work and even more evidence for Frank Sinatra being a total shit.