President George W. Bush can barely string a sentence together and seems to just make up words. I know he’s not speaking extemporaneously, so he can’t even read off a teleprompter without screwing it up. I never get the sense that’s he’s actually speaking to us, instead of just being a crappy actor reading a script.
Seconded. I hate the way she uses repeated interjections to constantly interrupt her guest.
And and and and and and her fake stuttering when she’s railroading the conversation. Listen to the guest you’re interviewing, dammit!
That and she’s trying too hard to sound like she’s 16.
She also has an axe to grind about gay rights - a noble sentiment, no doubt, but she brings it up in the weirdest places. For example:
[terrygross]Do you also find yourself avoiding the iPod because of Steve Jobs - the CEO of Apple Computers, makers of the iPod - because of Steve Jobs’ recent off-the-cuff remarks in the press about gays and New York City rental insurance premiums?[/TG]
etc.
I dread working late, because then I’d be driving home during her hour of airtime.
Another vote for Rachel Ray. I thought I was the only one who found her irritating.
Sorry, that wasn’t very clear – I should have written “take” sounds like “tyke.” Like she’s some sort of Eliza Doolittle impersonator or something, making her long A sounds like long I sounds. It’s bleeding annoying, is what it is.
So…It’s just me that can’t stand listening to Rudy Giuliani?
Oh, so ***you’re ***the one who cost him the election!
The worst voice I’ve ever heard is my own, when I hear a recording of it. Of course from my own point of view through my head, it’s a fine voice indeed. That’s why I’m incapable of correcting it.
Famous people: I’d say it’s a tie between Fran Drescher and Joan Cusack.
Nope.
Perhaps a bit of a blast from the past, but Ric Okasek (Ocasek, Okasec, Ocasec???) of the group The Cars always sounded to me like he’d been recorded at 33 1/3 RPM and played back at 28.
Always used to drive me nuts. Coomawwwwn, kwiit draaaaguiiingue wurrrrrrdzzzz aoughtttt! It’szzzz djussstttt gknaughtttt whughttttt aiii gneeeeghdheddddh!
Yeah, but I figured that was just because of what he was saying and who he is.
Two pages and no one has mention Paul Harvey and The Rest of the Story? The way he puts a rising inflection on the end of sentences making them sound like questions is worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.
91 messages and so far no one has mentioned William Shatner?!
Thought he was dead, and beyond pestering me.
Even though Zoe Chase’s reports often have interesting subjects, her grating Valley Girl mannerisms make it ever harder to focus on the content. 
Rachel Ray and Joey Lauren Adams
Wow. A 3- almost 4-yr old zombie.
Another vote for Nancy Grace. And what’s-her-name-Velez-something that follows Nancy Grace. They don’t talk. They bitch.
Denzel Washington. He seems to have a problem with consonants.
Several food show people have been mentioned but none are as annoying as Rick Bayless. Who the hell does he think his audience is? Six year olds? Every time he opens his mouth I just want to bitch slap him.
The voice of Julie Kavner isn’t so bad when it comes out of a cartoon but the woman actually speaks like that in real life! How she made it to adulthood without her parents suffocating her is a miracle.
And the absolute worst of all is Keith Morrison. Creepy, creepy, creepy! He gives me the heebie jeebies just looking at him. And when he speaks. OMG! The guy is a freakin’ zombie!
I quit downloading that podcast because I couldn’t get past the introduction. I couldn’t shake the idea that she was purposely affecting a stereotypical NPR “fresh” voice. “I’m so organic and soft-spoken. I believe my dog is my house partner, not my possession.” I don’t know what she believes, but her tone sounds so artificial that I can’t listen.
Fran Drescher and Sara Silverman.
I feel the same about John.
Suze Orman. Her voice is very bland and annoying. Also, way too condescending.
Lady Gaga’s “speaking voice”. I put speaking voice in quotations, because sometimes she has this WASP overly pronouncing thing to the point of being funny voice and other times she has this Nu Yawk accent. I am pretty sure neither is the way she really talks, but the first one really makes me to pummel her. She has this shit eating “I’m so smart” look when she does it. It also annoys me because it reminds of that decade when Madonna thought she was British.
Michael Jackson. Seriously, I used to think he was the same as Gaga. Using a phony voice that only sounded good to him, but looking at the things that have came out since he died he was probably high as a kite. He also had a way of using babyish words. Every time I hear his speaking voice, I think of the episode of Robot Chicken where the alien imposter keeps say “I’m Michael Jackson”.
Alanis Morissette! I don’t know if this counts, because I know NO idea what her speaking voice is like. The way she sings makes me want to stab babies. Seriously, it’s whiney and she mispronounces a ton of words. It wouldn’t bother me so much if she was some indie singer who I heard on the radio once, she’s pretty famous and I’m sure she has a grammy. I don’t know how anyone listens to her sing and thinks “I want to hear that again!” :eek: