Episode 395: Big Sincerity

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After a short delay, we’re back! And just in time, too. Because it’s… the time of year… well, you get it. We are, after ten years of doing this dang show, finally covering “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams! And if you prefer the noodley 00s-era indie kinda bullshit we love to cover over the mid-century classics, you’ll love “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by the Polyphonic Spree!

The ranking music in this episode is “When the River Meets the Sea” as performed by John Denver and Robin the Frog.

Schedule change: New episode next week

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Hello Herald Angels! Bad news/good news/more better good news for you.

The bad news is: typically, we would have a new episode going up this Wednesday, October 8th. Instead, we’re going to postpone it to next week, October 15th.

The good news: we did this so that the rest of the 2025 schedule will fall a little more nicely around the winter holidays, with our milestone episode (Episode 400) coming out on Christmas Eve!

The more better good news: while there’s no new episode this week, the long-awaited part two of the 2024 Holiday Music Release Roundup will be out on our Patreon Wednesday instead! Hurrah!!!

Join for $2 (US) a month to listen to that and all our other bonus audio here. And until next week, happy holidays!

Episode 394: One Must Imagine It’s October 3rd

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We may never run out of holiday music, but sometimes we do run low on holidays that are funny to talk about. So in this episode, we’re celebrating (by a loose definition of celebration) two holidays (by a loose definition of holiday) that fall on October 3rd, Mean Girls Day and National Boyfriend Day. First up, unpacking “Rocking Around the Pole” performed by the cast of the Mean Girls musical (Erika Henningsen, Taylor Louderman, Ashley Park and Kate Rockwell), also maybe called The Hot Elves?? Then we must confront the accidental other secret episode theme we’ve created by pairing it with “Santa’s My Boyfriend” performed by Amy Poehler, Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph.

The ranking music in this episode is “Big Boys” by SZA featuring Keke Palmer, Cecily Strong, Ego Nwodim, and Punkie Johnson.

Episode 393: Skanukkah Skatember

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Nah, just kidding, we’re not starting another annual month-long theme. Can you imagine? I mean, sure, yes, we can imagine. But we’ve apparently run out of ska-punk Hanukkah songs already. Until someone proves us wrong on that (email requests to harkpodcast at gmail!!), we’re making do with some ska/punk winter holiday songs that felt appropriate for the approaching Rosh Hashanah. We start off with a listener request for a song of pan-holiday celebration, “Whatever U Celebrate” by Reel Big Fish. Paired with that is a singular tune that somehow both barely qualifies for the list and also fits perfectly: “Hava Nagila (Christmas Arrangement)” by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes.

The ranking music in this episode is “Sell Out” by Reel Big Fish.

Thank you to Jo for requesting “Whatever U Celebrate”!

Episode 392: Our Podcast Got Run Over by Jesus, Who Took the Wheel

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Buckle up everyone, it’s the final AGROBAR episode of 2025, and the guy that they put at the wheel for this one most definitely does not have a license. That’s right, we’re doing two Jesus-adjacent versions of GGROBAR! “Grandma Got Won Over by a Stranger” by ApologetiX might give you whiplash with its mix of goofy parody-of-a-parody sound and its needlessly dark subject matter. And listen all y’all, it’s not sabotage, and it’s not even that bad: it’s just “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” as performed by Family Force 5.

The ranking music in this episode, and all August Got Run Over By a Reindeer (AGROBAR) episodes, is “Everything Sucks” by Reel Big Fish.

Episode 391: Our Podcast Got Run Over by the Grandma Cinematic Universe

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Unforunately, our annual tradition is back! We once again listened to two “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”-related songs, this time exploring Dr. Elmo’s own sequels, “Grandma’s Spending Christmas With the Superstars” and “Grandpa’s Going to Sue the Pants Off of Santa”. We notice some issues, and pitch a ton of punch-ups. You’re welcome!

I feel compelled to include a content note that we talk about (an actual, historical) suicide during the discussion of the first song, from ~17:00-21:40.

The ranking music in this episode, and all August Got Run Over By a Reindeer (AGROBAR) episodes, is “Everything Sucks” by Reel Big Fish.

Episode 390: Birthday Boy’s Abdication of Duty

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It’s Ian’s birthday, and he is over it! He has passed along his birthday-boy-song-picking duties to our backlog of listener requests. At least we got to listen to an “all time weirdo” track in “Happy Holiday/It’s the Holiday Season” performed by Andy Williams, as well as identifying one of our pop culture blindspots in “Wintering” by The 1975.

The ranking music in this episode is “December, forever” by Big Society.

Thank you to Dave for these requests!

Episode 389: Summer School

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Before we can fully embrace the season, Ian and Jam need to turn in some overdue assignments. We finally listened to a few long-languishing requests, and this episode is our essay comparing and contrasting them! “Our Last Christmas” by Thor and “I’m Spending Christmas Alone” by Future Wife both seem like melancholy ruminations on paper, but there’s more to interpret than at first glance. Grab your No. 2 pencils and stare wistfully out of a classroom window with us!

The ranking music in this episode was “Santa Says Relax” by Joe Innis and the Cavalcade.

Thank you to CJ and Charles for these requests, respectively!

Episode 388: Tooth Horror 2 (Teeth is Bones)

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It’s Jam from the present here. I’ve now gotten the tooth removed, so I’mma keep this short. The songs we listened to for this tooth-themed episode were “All I Want For Christmas is My Upper Plate” by Homer and Jethro and “Santa’s False Teeth” by Saint Etienne. Also, it turns out teeth AREN’T bones, but they ARE skeleton. You learn something new every day.

The ranking music is “My Shiny Teeth and Me” by Chip Skylark.

Episode 387: Larry Bird In a Pear Tree

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Flowers are blooming, birds are chirping, and basketballers are basketballing. Listen, Ian knows what NBA event aligns with the release of this episode, but he’s in the other room and I’m on my own here. I’m gonna say the finals? Anyway, we celebrate with two bouncy Christmas tunes: “Christmas Slam Dunk” by Hot Dad and “Baby Wants a Basketball for Christmas” by The Living Sisters. Enjoy the part where we remember a totally different theme we fully planned out for this episode, and enjoy the other-other part where we excavate a specific episode of Doug from the depths of your subconscious, perhaps!

The ranking music in this episode is “Basketball” by Weezer, which is off of their Winter EP but unfortunately is not winter-y enough to qualify for this exercise.