Last week the Village Voice posted their shocking discovery of The Ira Glass Sex Tape. If you’re not familiar, Glass is the famed voice of This American Life, a Public Radio International (and NPR) audio show in a variety format, featuring nonfiction programming and occasional essays, short memoirs and more. It has included a number of TinyNibbles favorites as guests, among them being David Sedaris and our favorite gin-drinking co-conspirator Mary Roach. It’s a very serious and grown-up bit of programming typically aimed at older people who have a fetish for that sort of thing. And as the ‘tape’ reminds us, NPR *is* a member-supported station.
At any rate, a close look at the video of the Ira Glass Sex Tape audio above and you’ll see that it’s cleverly titled “This American Laugh” – and it’s one of the funniest, smartest and frighteningly spot-on celebrity spoofs I’ve ever heard. Mad props to its mastermind, Julian Joslin. Apparently I wasn’t the only one that felt this way, as the Voice reported Ira Glass’ response to Joslin’s work had him feeling a little unsettled by the accuracy – of the impersonation, at least:
I’ve listened to about three minutes of it. His imitation of my writing and delivery are so dead-on, it was hard to keep listening and I stopped. If I had to articulate why, I think it was because hearing his version of me, made what I do on the air seem kind of dumb. And the impersonation was so good, I couldn’t really pick a fight with it. (…read more, blogs.villagevoice.com)
It got a wee mention on the Tumblr for Fresh Air with Terry Gross. I’d love to see Joslin go on the show – if not, you all know I’ve done the dirty pirate version of NPR (and been on actual NPR), and I’d be delighted to have Joslin on Open Source Sex. I mean, let’s all do what we can to keep public radio sexy, shall we?
Hilarious! Thank you for sharing! Ok, so maybe I’m getting old, but I am still a thirty-something. And I do write about porn. But I also confess to having listened to both Ira Glass (quite a bit). And especially, of course!, Terry Gross (quite a lot). Loved this! Excellent sound and picture matching, this made my night. And especially after a way to long afternoon with a testy willful three-year-old. Thanks!