Answer Me This! - Answer Us Back: something has to go in that hole

Episode Date: April 16, 2026

Hello! Welcome to this month's edition of Answer Us Back, full of your feedback on AMTs old and new. Today: Following AMT416’s discussion of meat fondue, Amanda gives us meat fondue tips amassed from four generations of her family’s festive flesh fondue.  Also apropos of AMT416, Rebekah - and several other people! - notes the existence of a 9/11 musical: Come From Away.  AMT306 inspired Matt from Birmingham to try the chicken kyiv sandwich, which has comforted him during many major life events since.  Chris from New Zealand wants an update on AMT376’s message from the then 38-year-old Olly to his future fortysomething self ie present day Olly. We heard from so many of you about  World Book Day! Katy has a clever way to keep your kid’s costume obligations extremely light.. Joe in Minnesota sees your World Book Day and raises you the Children Pretending To Be Historical Waxworks Day of his own childhood. Neil from Staffordshire is haunted by an AMT jingle from 15+ years ago. If you’ve been haunted by thoughts about AMTs 1-416, exorcise them by sharing them with us for future episodes of Answer Us Back. And as always, send in your questions, in voicenote or written form to [e-mail]. All new AMT417 will be in your podfeed 30 April 2026.  Help keep AMT going by signing up at patreon.com/answermethis, where highest tier gets access to our ENTIRE back catalogue, including the paywalled episodes, the special albums, the Bonus Bits of Crapp on the AMT App (RIP) and all the Retro AMT episodes. AMT is sponsored by: • Saily, flexible eSIM data roaming plans for when you’re abroad. Download SAILY in your app store and use our code amt15 at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase. For further details go to saily.com/amt15. • The London Review of Books, the twice-monthly literary mag full of essays, reviews and more by excellent writers. Get a 6 month print and digital subscription for just £12 at LRB.me/answer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to another edition of Answer Us Back, where we contend with your feedback. Do you answer me, this is new and ancient? That's right. And indeed, Amanda has responded to our fondue chat in AMT416. Surely you remember that one, Helen. That was just last episode. I don't know. As soon as it's on the pod feed, it's gone from my brain. But yes, I suppose. Amanda says, my family has always done meat fondue as our Christmas meal. Interesting. Fun activity, I guess. What day is this boy? It's the day for the tiniest cubes of goose.

Stick them on the end of a spork. Go and buy the biggest bat of boiling oil you can. This has been the tradition from my mother's family for three or four generations at least, she says. Incredible. I've never found anyone else who does this. Very few people are aware of meat fondue as a concept at all. Yeah, why do you think that is? Just because of that Swiss cheese lobby. She does say people assume I'm talking about cheese fondue. I think it's just that if you're explaining what fondue is to someone,

molten cheese is a more fun thing to talk about than just oil. Oil's just a pan, isn't it? It's basically at the end of the day. It's not much different from just a big deep fat fryer. That's right. It's just a small deep fat friar. Yeah, which is less fun to talk about. More scarring, though.

Yeah. Although hot cheese can also cause you some damage. Hot cheese feels like the villain origin story in at least one superhero film. I don't know when or why it started, Amanda says, but I do know my mother didn't like turkey much figures. Okay. So having turkey for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas felt a bit much, so she carried on the tradition to our generation.

Cool. She didn't make us follow the rules she had to when she was growing up, though. Like if your food falls off the fork into the oil, you have to kiss everyone at the table. Well, that's just unacceptable, I would say, forcing people to kiss people against their will. Are you a sort of Christmas party games type person though? No.

Are you surprised? Well, I suppose Christmas, even, you know, people who don't like games will have weird traditions in their own family that surprise you. I don't think I like games generally. And I only realised this about myself relatively recently. I'd rather just have a nice chat. I've realised only recently and only through teaching my children the different basic board games that when it comes to cards and stuff, I usually prefer them when they're giant. Giant pack of cards.

Yeah, so you know you get like the garden version of things. Yeah, like big jenga. Yes, exactly. So we've got giant dominoes, which I've got in place of normal dominoes because I went to the next January sale and the giant dominoes were priced the same as the ordinary dominoes. And I was like, well, that's...

That makes no sense. 10 times the size of domino for the same price. You'd be an idiot to get normal dominoes. Volloman never lets a good bargain go. And now I've played giant dominoes. I don't want to play Dominoes. Domino's looks ridiculous. Pune. Lilliputian. Anyway, Amanda continues.

Nowadays, my partner really likes the traditional British Christmas meal with his family. And we do fondu sometime in the week between Christmas and New Year. Very wise, because it's always difficult to find something to do then, isn't it? But then once you've eaten the British Christmas meal and all the leftovers, are you going to refresh yourself with some oil-boiled meat? Here are some skills that Amanda outlines for those who wish to try meat fondu. Okay, very specific skills set. That's right. It's the kind of granular detail for which we created this strand of

answer me this, because in an ordinary episode, even we would not have time for this. It goes. So my top tips learn over the year, bullet point one. Use peanut oil, or ground nut oil, as you call it in the UK. Broath, she says, whilst healthier, is rubbish for this purpose. Well, it's basically a different food, isn't it, to boil something in broth. It's like if you boil potatoes in broth, they don't become chips. And the same with meat fondue. That's right. You can get the opposite, don't you? Boil a potato in broth. It's all

soft and squidgy, whereas chips, you need burning hot oil. I will say, though, when we go to Sichuan Hot Potomart Martin and I, the potato is an absolute winner because it gets all saturated with the spicy broth. But it's just different to a deep fried thing, is my point. Amanda continues. Don't make the cubes too small, the cubes of meat. Yeah. I wonder if that is because they would become too dry or if they fall off the fork. I would say too crispy, you know. Yeah?

Because when you fry something, you know, if it's too small, it just becomes like a dipping dot, doesn't it? A savory dipping dot. But you also don't want a massive chunk of meat. Do you know what I mean? Like it was a huge... If you put a steak in there,

then it's no longer fondue, is it? It's just weird way of cooking something. It's oily steak. And if you put a large piece of chicken in there, it is mostly raw. Have some sort of scoper or strainer tool to hand? She says. We use hot pot strainer ladles to rescue the things that fall into the oil.

I mean, that is an experience fondue practitioner speaking there. Very sensible. Now, this is something that I am reassured by. She says, have lots of dipping sources available. Yeah. And try different combos of items and sources. And to me, that's the thing that concerned me when we were discussing meat fondue in what now seems like a very preliminary fashion.

Yeah, we were so innocent. We haven't done our reset. Well, I had done meat fondue in the early 90s. but not academically. That's right. It wasn't a deep dive like this. Actually, I mean, it was at school, so it was semi-academically, but it was meant to be the, hey, this is the one fun day of the year, school day.

Yeah. But the thing that concerns me is, if I ever had meat fondue, is that not only does it sound a bit dry, as we've been saying, but also like the lack of spice and marinade on the meat means that it doesn't taste of anything other than oil, I would think. So I think dipping sauce, yes. Okay, that's what gets Oli Mann on board with this, finally. I mean, I went to Ibiza during half term

and it rekindled my love for Alioli in every form. You know how I love mayonnaise. Oh. What could be better than a load of garlic except even more of that? Even more, exactly, yeah. I'm thinking I might start like a sort of trail finders type company

that just does mayonnaise tours of Europe. You know what? I think there's enough mayonnaise pervs to make this going concern, Ollie. I mean, there really is. Because it gets overlooked. It's always just the dipping sauce, you know, rather than the star attraction.

Amanda says, I do chicken and beef as standard, standard, but I also do lots of non-meat things. So this might intrigue you, Helen. Okay. Halumi. Interesting. I mean, Hulumi in any form is pretty good. Bell pepper.

Asparagus. Asparagus at Christmas. Where are we getting that from? Mushrooms, baby corn, green beans. This is where it gets kooky. This year I got some fresh peasant. raviolis and some ready-to-eat-eat-flaple. Intriguing.

Dipping some falafel in hot burning oil. What sickness is this? I think that's how they cook falafel at the places where it doesn't taste dry as. Is that true? Yeah, I think so. I think that's why whenever I make it at home, it's absolutely shit. Because I'm scared to deep-bri. Okay, no, I'm prepared to apologise if that's true.

She says, I reckon you could actually do a cracking vegetarian meal and just leave out the meat altogether if you were so inclined. That's not meat fondue then, though, is it? I mean, that is just... Oil fun. Yeah. It's a B-Y-O-O-O party. I don't know.

I feel like the host should at least provide the oil. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think so to you. Otherwise, it's just a burner. I really appreciate this knowledge transmission from Amanda, though, gathered over a lifetime. And generations before, perhaps.

I hope that there's a big, hardback oil splattered book. in which every year people record their observations and learnings. Totally. I think there's something very valuable about having a favorite recipe that you return to, even if it's obscure and it's just your thing year after year after year. Another recent thing we said on Analyst Me This was we were reflecting on musicals about tragic historical events. And Rebecca has been in touch to say, in Answer Me, this, 416, you discussed the length of time at which it is appropriate to do a musical of a tragedy and that it is too early for a 9-11 musical,

but there already is a musical about the aftermath of 9-11 called Come From Away, which tells the story of Ganda Newfoundland, which effectively doubled in size for the week after 9-11 as planes landed there with roughly 7,000 stranded airline passengers whose planes were grounded after the attacks began. Yes, I haven't seen Come from Away, so it did slip my mind, but even though you correctly identify that it does have 9-11,

as its kind of background, and very directly as well. Like you say, it is about people that are directly affected by 9-11. Crucially, and this is the point that I was making, it's not about the people on the planes that actually hit the buildings, is it? It's not about the Al-Qaeda training camps. Or the people in the buildings, or the people risking people from buildings, all of that. Right. But my point was that it is plausible that within 100 years someone does make a musical about that,

and I wasn't trying to be sort of glib and flippinpin about it. In fact, I am a fan of musicals, as you know. I'm not a big fan of the glib joke. when people appended the word the musical exclamation mark to a serious thing and think that that in itself makes it funny.

Yes. I've seen some really good musicals about some very serious things. We went to see London Road together, didn't we? Fuck me, that was good. That was about the Ipswich serial murders. That was really, really good. Yeah.

And also it was about, like, not about the murders, it was about the people in the neighbourhood being afraid before the circular Steve Wright was caught and after that, just wondering how to rebuild

their community knowing what had happened. on their street. Correct. Martin and I, I think, actually went to see another one. I seem to recall that I might have taken him to see committee. A 2017 verbatim musical at the Domar Warehouse that was about the parliamentary select committee hearing on the collapse of kids' company.

That is extraordinary. It was flawed. But the point is not because it was a musical. At no point you're like, this is too serious a subject for a musical. Musicals can do, I mean, look at opera. They can be about all kinds of things, people eating their babies and shit. True. Made into loud entertainment.

Yeah, anyway, I take your point, Rebecca, yes, but I still think my point stands. That's all I'm saying. Okay, yes. All right, two indirect to musical for Olly Mann to be declared wrong. Correct. Well done. High fives. Matt from Birmingham says, I've only discovered you were back in the last two weeks.

Hey, welcome, tell you friends. And like others, I thought I'd share a personal update as to what's happened in my life since I started listening to you all those years ago. Aw. A lot has changed. Oh. I've been married, had a child, divorced, moved house three times, moved city, changed job. We don't know when Matt started listening. If it was like 2021 just before we finish season one, that's a lot.

That's a lot. 2007, still quite a lot, yeah. But among many comforts I managed to keep with me through all of this was one dish that you introduced me to many years ago. The amazing chicken Kiev toasty. Oh. I have no recollection of this. I'm sure that I talked about making chicken Kyiv sandwiches. I don't think they were toasted.

I think that might be Matt's own innovation. But I stand by them, even though I no longer get to eat one, because you try finding a vegetarian kev that is worth eating. Okay, I'm interested in a couple of things here. One is the sandwich itself. The second is the pronunciation of Kiv. On the keeve thing, since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I have learned, like everyone else, that people in Ukraine like to call Keev-Keev,

and I call Keev-Keev. But I can't get used to calling the chicken Kiev a chicken Keeve. And that's because the mini-Kiev was my favourite Bernard Matthews frozen product as a child. That in an Arctic roll was a slap-up meal. Oh my God, put a Bernard Matthews mini-Kive in a meat fondie, Wally. Maybe that will bring you around. Delicious. oily from without and within.

The sandwich itself, it does seem like the kind of thing that the at times, Lush Helen would indulge in when I knew her when she was in the mid-20s. Hot right brander and a chicken. Cove sandwich. What a life. So explain. Explain again. Well, chicken Cove, of the ready-made supermarket meat things, I'd say one of the best. You know, under three quid, pretty tasty, even when it's a bit gross and wrong. And then you slice it up, making sure that the garlic butter doesn't all drain away, and then put it in a sandwich. It's very simple, really. You can accessorize it with other things if you want, salad, mayonnaise. But it's raw, of course, so you have to

cook it first. No, no, it's cooked, sorry, I should have specified. Having cooked the chicken keve. Having cooked it, but that's where I think his thing makes more sense. You're making something hot, why put it in cold bread? Oh, I like the contrast of hot and cold bread, but also maybe if you've got a leftover one. I think most people with a hot filling put it in a hot outer. Like if I'm making egg mayonnaise, I wait for the egg to cool down from putting it in cold bread. Well, I think that's correct because mayonnaise and heat often don't really collaborate well. Yes, I would agree with that. But, you know, it's really up to you. If you want this to be a hot or cold sandwich. I prefer my sandwich is not hot. That's just me. I appreciate

it's deviant behavior. It's just that when he says it's a toasty, I wonder if he's even got like a toasty maker and he stuck a whole chicken Kiev in a toasty maker. I wouldn't cook a Kiev from scratch in a toaster maker. That would be a bad idea. Don't die on my account. Regardless of the fact that his recipe is obviously not quite the same as yours. He says, I've no idea in which episode it was mentioned by Helen and Martin. We talk about it. Maybe in answer me this 306. But I've eaten an ungodly amount of them since. I've told many people about them and this humble dish is what made me look you up again.

Oh, hilarious. Back to us, Matt. And find with delight that you'd returned when telling my new girlfriend about them. Well, Matt, I hope that this doesn't scuttle your new relationship that she's not horrified by this snack. It's interesting, isn't it, when you associate someone with a recipe that they might not even be aware you associate them with? Like I've got a very basic

Casadilla recipe contributed by Paul McCartney in a magazine feature that I tore out one day. I associate it with Paul McCartney now when I see him on tell you. I'm like, oh yeah, you're Casillas. If you ever meet him in real life, are you going to tell him? Yes, of course. That would be the first thing I'd reach for. It'd probably make a change from people saying, oh, I love to twist and shout.

Yeah, a lot of people don't realize that it's actually what Hey Jude is about. Cassadiers. Yep. Hey, Jude. want some cheese. Take a cold tortilla, make it hot again. Isn't that the metaphor for relationships? So retrospectors, what historical events are we ticking off on this week's run of today in history? On Monday, the surprising history of Post-It Notes.

On Tuesday, I'm Betty Ford and I'm an alcoholic. On Wednesday, you really should have a listen to this. You really should. How nudging people came to infuse British politics. On Thursday, the anniversary of the day, the last moors were kicked out of Spain. And on Friday, how bananas came to be the world's favorite tropical fruit. That's today in history with the retrospectors. 10 minutes each weekday, wherever you get your podcasts. Answer Me This is sponsored by the London Review of Books.

Which is a phenomenal publication with an incredible range of subjects in it. So you'll go from like 3,000 words on Cicero to 3,000 words on Britney Spears. Oh, yeah. And they're both treated seriously. and written by, you know, great writers. Which I think is how we like to do things as well, just vacillating wildly from pop culture to something ancient through something serious or moral.

I agree. I think the variety is reflective of our style. And also unlike us, the LRB has tote bags. Oh, such a good tote bag. I mean, I know I shouldn't say subscribe to the LRB so you get the tote bag, but I mean, I looked like the coolest intellectual on the beach. You are. I'm sure you're the coolest intellectual on any beach, Ollie.

I love a paper magazine and more and more the rarer they get. And in this sort of fast-paced world that we're in now, that kind of lean-back experience I am all here for. And it's simultaneously like luxurious, but also to the point. Yeah. This life can be yours as well because you can get a six-month print and digital subscription to the London Review of Books and a free tote bag for just £12.

That's right. Subscribe now at lrb.b.me slash answer. That's lrb.m.m. forward slash answer. We've had this feedback from Chris from New Zealand, who says, I'm listening to answer me this 376. First aired, 1st of August 2019. And Ollie has this to say to his future self. Oh, blimey. Now I have now reached the age, Helen.

And this is useful for my future self listening back to this when we do a retroed episode in 2029. Close. To know that it was now in 2019, age 38, this age now, I have decided I am going to start keeping the extra spare buttons that come with shirts. Right. I feel like in my 40s will be the time. I'm still about 15 years away from being interested in sports cars or classical music, but I feel like in my 40s I can do some sewing.

Oh, that's interesting. I was, yeah, I can feel the classical music thing coming. I've occasionally not turned off Radio 3 when I've accidentally put it on. My God, so brave. I'd still have to win the lottery to buy a sports car. And if you did, would you want to buy a sports car? Would you just buy something else?

Founcy Castle? It would have to be my third car. I'd have to upgrade both of the cars that we have, the practical ones, into nicer cars. And then would I want a sports car? No, probably not. Would you want to be a three-car household even? Yeah, exactly.

I'd probably rather have my dream JFK style fish tank for the bedroom with lit up jellyfish in it. Did John F. Kennedy have a jellyfish tank in his bedroom? I think there's a scene in Mars attacks where someone's giving a tour of the White House and they refer to it as the JFK suite and it's like this Shag Palace with lit up fish in it. It's 30-odd years since the tragedy of JFK's murder. So that's another answer to the tragedy plus time question about making entertainment out of disasters. Yes, exactly.

Yeah. Tim Burton can do a joke about it after 30 years. Anyway, Chris says, I know it's not 2029, but let's face it, the world might not survive till then. So, Oli, answer me this, do you still have your button jar? And have you sewn a button onto your shirt yet? No. Oh, are you still throwing away shirts when a button pings off? I think what's happened, which I couldn't have accounted for in my 30s would be the case in my 40s. But with child drop off, I'm often at 9 a.m. in places where I wouldn't, like, bother to go in the afternoon.

but I'm right there. So for convenience, I can do things. Like this morning, I went and returned a bottle, like a yoga water bottle that I bought from the range that was broken. I went and returned it at nine in the morning because there's no one there and it took five minutes and I just got a new one. So on the way home from kids drop off, if I've got a broken shirt button, I'd probably take it to like an alteration place and get them to do it. Okay. So I haven't done it myself. I've still never sewn anything, but I have a button jar.

It is the button jar from 2019. Oh. I do still, when I buy shirts, take those spare buttons and put them in the button jar optimistically. Listen to this. Oh, wow. It's right here, my button jar. How much actual sewing do you do, as opposed to percussion? Obviously, percussion is my first passion.

But when I give myself a break from that, I do mend clothes. Well, I let a big pile mount up, and then I mend them every few months. That's great. Yeah, no, just don't have the strength of will or character yet. No, but it's because I hate clothes shopping and I don't buy many new clothes, so I'm kind of doing it to avoid doing something else that I don't like. But I do like sewing. But what I can reveal exclusively to you, Chris from New Zealand,

is that just after that, if it was 2019 when we recorded that episode, obviously little did I know at the time. But COVID was just around the corner. Indeed. And in that two months when we all stayed at home and did virtually nothing, I organized that draw extraordinarily. I mean, it's no longer just a button jar. Whoa.

I got some bespoke belt organization units from John Lewis. Yeah, so each belt is like rolled up. There's ties rolled up in there as well. And you can be asked, like, once you've taken a belt off to roll it up and put it away properly. Turns out I can, yeah. That's enviable, well done. But once you've got the draw in, Sir, Helen, it's life-changing because it's easier to do that than not do it. Something has to go in that hole.

So if it's not the belt, it'll be like rolled up. socks or something, but it's still easier. Something's got to go in that hole. I've even got a little Judaica pouch in there. What's in there? Is it secret? No, it's like some couples or yarmulkas and what else? Maybe cufflinks? Yeah.

And of course my penknife for performing ritual circumcision and chopping off my horns. Yeah, you really should clean that every so often. Our conversation on World Book Day has set the answer-me-this questionnaire inbox a light. Hasn't it just? One of the several correspondence we have had is Katie, who says, I listened to the World Book Day discussion with a smile. My child is now at high school, so those days are gone. But we found an option I thought you might appreciate.

Okay, so this is a dress-up option for when you can't be asked to send your child in with an extravagant homemade costume. Yes. Right. Katie says, Not specifically for World Book Day, we had bought one of those Your Child stars in the story books

where they use your child's name and other details you provide to personalise the book. I had one of those books. It was very exciting. I think it took me years to understand the ruse that you get especially printed. Oh my God, a child called Helen

who has brothers called Richard and Andrew. Astonishing. Katie says, After some back and forth one World Book Day, we realized the child could go as themselves thanks to that book. Look, job done. I see because they're a character in the book, very clever, yeah.

It does feel a little bit like cheating, like we were saying, about the screen to page adaptations feel a little bit on the edge. But Katie says happily the child was very on board with this slightly subversive approach and used it for multiple years. I mean, it's kind of funny, isn't it? But it's funny because not everyone does it. If everyone did it, it would be very tedious. Yes.

Also, where's the escape from the self that I would be craving? Right. Yeah, I mean, I should say at the moment, it's, uh, is it book fair week? Jesus, another one? Yeah, it's constant. It was only World Book Day in March in Britain. I told you, it's constant. But there's a book fair in my, my, one of my children's primary schools anyway.

Okay. And it's less fun. It is less fun than World Book Day. You know, despite everything we said about World Book Day's of pain, it's unfair and it's, it's more fun when all the kids go and dressed up. Like, all the book fair week is is, is pressuring parents. to buy, albeit subsidised books. That's it. There's no fun. You go in a room, there's some books there,

and instead of costing £9, they cost seven. That's it. I'm just picturing a child version of the Frankfurt Book Fair, where all European publishers go to try and buy titles for the next year's list. That would be fun if they had authors turn up and give talks as well, like they do at a proper book festival, but at the Primary School Book Fair. This year, children, we're welcomed by Alan de Boat-on to discuss these significance of sausages in the work of Julia Donaldson. Why don't you pitch a little mini hay or why to your son's school?

Yeah, exactly, yeah. Go on, I dare you. A fun follow-up story, says Joe in Minnesota, semi-related to World Book Day. Uh-huh. From my childhood, here in the United States. That's where they keep Minnesota. While my elementary school never did World Book Day, we did have a very similar costumed event called the Wax Museum.

What? Okay, this already sounds very Eldridge, and I don't even know what it is. I love this. How serial killer are we talking, Joe? Yeah, exactly. You have to fashion a character out of wax, bring it into school. No one asks what the wax is made from. Joe says, during which the nine and ten-year-old students would dress as historic figures

and stand around in an auditorium supposedly like wax figures. Was this just to keep you quiet and still for a day? Each student had a little paper button next to them for visiting parents and older students to press to activate the wax figure. Oh my God, so you're like an automaton. historical character. Who then gave a brief presentation on their historic figure. You know, like wax figures do. What's that thing in Disneyland, the thing of the presidents?

The whole of presidents. All the dead presidents. Yes, that's a better name for it. Well, do they have the live ones in there? I only remember the dead ones being there. I don't remember like Obama being in there. Yeah, you may have noticed that some of the recent presidents would be more controversial to feature in that attraction.

So I think they're taking their time. Suddenly it's taking a very long time to make the white. work, yeah. Anyway, says Joe, as a weird little gay boy with a French fixation at the time. You sound cool, honestly. I remember that I opened my world history book to the glossary and found the first person with French in their one-sentence bio. And that's how I ended up dressed as Voltaire as a 10-year-old in 2000 in Massachusetts.

With a white wig and breeches. Oh, my God. I think dressing up as a figure from history, although obviously has many pitfalls, is a better thing than dressing up as a character for fictional book. One of my children has just done this at another school. They go to two different schools. They've had dress as a historical figure day. And he came as Neil Armstrong.

And it was quite good because he, I mean, we did have inevitably a bill for about 20 quid again, buying a costume of Amazon. But, you know, at least he had to learn some facts about Neil Armstrong. And they were different facts from the person who was dressed as, you know, Boris Yeltson, whoever it was. I guess so I suppose the problem is just how many venerated historical characters were like sex criminals, human traffickers.

Yes, well, you say it's a problem. I think that's a way of introducing some texture about the realities of life. Oh, true, true, yes, but maybe you don't want to, like, fully embody those people. I thought Neil Armstrong was a safe choice. Just got to check. You've got to check everyone.

Anyway, Joe completes his delightfully email with this. I do remember a very tear-filled evening the day before the event when I informed my mother, who'd already gone to great lengths to rent a costume from a shop, Oh, hey, they also need a poster. She was not pleased. Why does it fall to her?

It should be you making the posters. I agree. But we read, she got it done. Well, I hope she got an A. I'm so curious as to whether anyone else at the school, adult or child, understood who Joe had gotten as. Yeah, what was the giveaway if there wasn't the poster? White Wig and Breaches isn't enough. Yeah, it doesn't narrow it down.

No. And I wonder what you'd put on the poster. I don't know that that many people in Massachusetts in 2000 would have known about Voltaire either. so in a way you could kind of put anything and they'd be like, oh yeah, cool. Yeah, invented peanut butter. Exactly. Got killed flying a kite into a pylon.

I think you could probably basically take Jean-Paul Gautier's biog and they'd be like, oh yeah, okay, fine. Yeah, I used to host you were a trash. Yeah, Voltaire. Neil from Stafford says, Olly, I'm hoping you can close an over-decade-long hole in my brain. Sure. Somewhere around episode 130 to 160-ish,

you played a jingle during the show to the show to the tune of the Mozart Horn Concerto number four. The lyrics of the first line were, We're Gilbert and George, we're not Gilbert and Sullivan, we get our penises out more than them. You never played it again, says Neil, which is factually incorrect. I can only assume that you got a cease and desist notice

from Gilbert and George, the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Mozart himself, or all three. Either way, can you share the lyrics so I can sing it again in my head and scratch an over 10, maybe 50, 15-year itch. Neil, you could just go back and find it in an episode. Yeah, let me give you the episodes so you can find it in 75, 84, 91, 101, 114, 141 and 187,

all available at the higher tiers of Answer Me This Patreon. I think we've played it since then as well. I think your log has run out. I think it could well have. It's a flawed spreadsheet. I think I've heard it a couple of times since then, yeah. So our friends, Alex and Tommy, who are performing that jingle. This is one where they basically went off.

wrote that themselves, I think. Did they? Most of our output has rather more colour than three little maids in a school in Japan. Yes, that's a reference to the Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan. That's right. Then how does it go? We like to make artwork from mountains of feces or simply by coating our

bollocks with mud. We sell lots of paintings and sculptural pieces. We'll make you pay millions for urine and blood. Now answer me this. Can we please have the Turner Prize? Answer me this. Shall I do all my flies? No, no, no. Leave it I'm still taking a picture of your cock.

Which is Gilbert and George the artist reference, combined with Gilbert and Sullivan references. I suppose that was, you know, very much what might have been on our minds in October 2008 when we first made this jingle. That's the kind of thing people were worried about in 2008. Gilbert and George being conflated with Gilbert and Sullivan. Well, if you have a question about any of our jingles

from nearly 20 years ago, please do get in touch. Or indeed, if you have feedback or questions about any episode of Answer Me There, ever, then do reach out via the usual contact details for a future edition of Answer Us Back. And also do send your questions. Our next all-new episode of Answer Me List will appear on the last Thursday of the month. Bye!