Garrison Keillor-how do you get your contract renewed? Your radio show is the most BORING piece of crap I’ve ever heard…and, seeing how you are still being funded by the publice (NPR), how likely is it that your trash will ever be self-supporting?
Go back to lake Woebegone and crawl under a rock! Your stupid jokes aren’t funny and you need to get a life!
I agree wholeheartedly, ralph.
But the show must have some appeal, because my mother listens to it every Saturday night, and so does an entire host of her friends.
Perhaps you aren’t the target audience? 
It’s funny to some people. It helps to have grown up in a small town, especially a Midwestern one.
Furthermore, since the Lawrence Welk show went by the wayside, there are too few forums for “traditional” American music. He usually manages to cram some of that into his show. I give him mucho credit for that.
Still, the guy needs to have sinus surgery or something. I frequently feel like punching him when I hear his snuffles.
I used to listen to his show every week. Now I don’t listen to the radio much and although I could probably listen to it on the web I can’t imagine sitting and doing that.
But the guy is funny to me. And he seems to be entirely avoidable.
I’m going to see the show at the Fox Theater in Atlanta on May 24th. I’ll be sure and look for all the unwilling people chained to their seats so I can try and free them (thanks for the tip).
His voice can be annoying, and he should let the singers sing more and shut his pie hole more often. But that said, there are some incredibly funny sketches on that show ,Guy Noir, Private Eye, the ketchup ads. The music is often not to my taste, but is without exception, uh, exceptional. Basically, what I’m saying is that you people are all stupid and wrong and I’m smart and correct.
Or something. And NPR funds come from people who want to donate, so I’m assuming then that lots of folks like the show or they wouldn’t send in their checks.
Uh, nitpick central checking in. A Prairie Home Companion is a PRI show, not an NPR show. I think what you meant to say is “Public radio funds” not NPR funds.
Carry on, your post was brilliant nonetheless.
And that’s the news from the Straight Dope, where the moderators are strong, the posters are good-looking, and even our trolls are above-average.
Maybe it’s just a small town thing altogether - my upbringing was Australia and Scotland, yet I still love PHC.
The Prarie Home Companion annual joke show is hilarious!
You know, some how it’s hard to imagine a big Garrison Keillor pile on.
Personally, listening to that show is like watching paint dry. The only way I could explain it is that it is old people humor, the kind of humor that would make you politely pretend to laugh if it came from an older relative.
APHC is a prime example of how radio was prior to the advent of television; the show is simply amazing when seen live. I’ve never seen one in person but I there was a live show on TV circa 1986. Most of my attention was directed at how the sound effects were made.
Most funding for public radio is from the public and underwriters, not from the US Gov’t. As far as I can tell from the PRI website, there is little or no gov’t funding.
Last time I checked my local NPR affiliate, they only got 8% of their funding from the gov’t.
As to PHC, I don’t listen to it much these days, but I love the show. Garison Keillor is one of the comic geniuses of our time. His politics sometimes intrude on the show (I could care less about Governor Ventura) but love the structure and pacing of the show.
And the Joke Show is not to be missed.
Well, I tend to get bored listening to much of the show, and flip back and forth, but I still love it. Many of the musical guests are not my style, and in fact bore me to tears, but I understand that many people enjoy them and that there are limited places to hear that stuff, so I’m glad to deal with it. And besides, every now and then they have guests that I LOVE.
And I adore Guy Noir, The Ketchup Advisory Board, and of course the News From Lake Wobegon.
LC
Green jello with carrot shavings!!!
Yeah, growing up in a small (1,000 pop.) predominantly Lutheran town gives one a certain perspective on life. (Like growing up in an Italian neighborhood in the Bronx will give one a different perspective.) There are times when I can’t stand that show; other times it’s like a warm blanket of memories streaming from the radio.
I just can’t stand the phlegmy, nasal intakes of breath. I can just imagine those nose hairs flapping in the wind.
I was never a huge fan, but my wife grew up listening to it and I’ve grown into it.
I associate it with listening to the radio while making dinner on Saturday night, or being at the lake house in the summer and having the radio on, or driving home from a trip somewhere, which are all great memories. And I did grow up in small town in the Midwest, only a couple of hours from the Twin Cities, so I can relate to a lot of the humour and self-mockery on the show. I know people just like those on the show, and am familiar enough with the Twin Cities to find humour in his mocking of them.
I’ve actually seen the show live, and I was really impressed - Keillor gives his big monologue with just him on stage, no notes or anything. Up there alone, talking, going off on tangents, probably improving a lot of it, live on the radio worldwide every week. That impressed me a lot. I’m not always into the music but I appreciate it getting a venue. And the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band is tight as hell and extremely talented, as are the sound effects people.
But I can undestand how people don’t like it, just like anything that is popular there are lots of people who can’t comprehend why people enjoy it. It is kind of slow, the jokes aren’t universal, etc. But I still love it.
I do love the Simpsons episode where an obvious rip-off of Garrison Keillor is on the TV:
Man: [quietly] Well, sir, it has been an uneventful week in Badger Falls…where the women are robust, the men are pink-cheeked, and the children are pink-cheeked and robust.
[Audience laughs loudly]
Homer: What the hell’s so funny?
Man: At the Apple Biscuit cafe, where the smiles are free, don’t you know, Sven Inqvist studied the menu, and finally he ordered the same thing he has every day.
[Audience laughs and applauds]
Bart: Maybe it’s the TV.
Homer: Stupid TV. [Hits it] Be more funny!
Hey, if you were 100 years old, living in a trailer, you’d be laughing your ass off.
Sorry for the “me too” but I’m with DTT here, love the skits, and am not too crazy about the music.
Some of his stories of life in Woebegon are hilarious! And yeah, like someone else said, it’s not like he’s all over the place and hard to avoid, he’s only on for about an hour (or is it 2?) on Saturday afternoons.
Also, after the grating, insulting, loud and “righter than thou” voices of most “Shock Jocks” (Tom Leykis for one, though I love and hate his show, MAN does that guy ever sound like a know it all blow hard), compared to those guys I find nothing wrong with Mr. Kiellers’ (sp?) voice at all.