Answer Me This
! is a weekly comedy podcast by Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann, along with Martin the Soundman, in which they answer questions submitted by the general public. Recorded in Zaltzman's living-room in Crystal Palace, it began in January 2007 and has since become one of the UK's most successful independently-produced podcasts. It has been named Podcast of the Week in the Radio Times, the Times, The Independent and Time Out, as well as receiving plaudits in Q Magazine, the Financial Times, the Sunday Express, the London Paper and Podwatch. The show was nominated for Sony Radio Academy Awards in 2009, 2010, and 2011, in the category "Best Internet Programme"; in 2010, the podcast won the silver award and in 2011, it won the gold award. It was the first non-musical act ever to play the iTunes Live Festival. They now have a book out called, imaginatively, Answer Me This.
The podcast contains examples of:
- Ascended Extra: Martin the Soundman.
- Couch Gag: Each episode begins with a song featuring two questions, different in every episode.
- Deadpan Snarker: Helen. Martin and Olly occasionally fill this role, but less frequently than Helen, who rarely misses and opportunity snark at the pair of them.
- Large Ham: Olly, at times.
- Live Episode: Episode 100
- Novelization: The duo has written a book of answers to questions.
- Jingle: Frequent jingles advertising the podcast between the questions, performed by Martin the Soundman and the Answer Me This! Players. These jingles are parodies of styles or performers; the one imitating The Knife is particularly good.
- Special Guest: Episodes 37; 84; 131; 149; 190 and 206 had Special Guests in the forms of Pappy's Fun Club; Josie Long; Andy Zaltzman; Ian Collins; Jon Ronson and Jackie Mason, respectively. Episode 300 brought back a few, as well as many new special guests, for them to answer the questions.
- Toilet Humor
- Team Mom: Helen often plays this role.
- The Teaser: The First 70 or so episodes had pre-Titles sequences. Some were sketches, while most of the earlier ones were just a pre-titles Intro.
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What Could Have Been: In episode 100 the pair muse on how the podcast would have turned out with it's original intended name: 'Jimmy Krankie's C*nt.'
