Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Ben's Dad Calls Him a Nerd | Itty Bitty Bit

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Ben’s dad sparks an emoji mystery after replying to a simple heart react with a nerd face 🤓. Was it a dig or just classic dad behaviour? Join the Itty Bitty Hitty Committee HERE!Instagram:  @THEHITSBREAKFASTFacebook: The Hits Breakfast with Jono, Ben & MeganSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know, like, I guess parents and technology is something that we all, you know, like, have to deal with in our day-to-day life. And it's very easy to slip out of what is the appropriate thing in technology. It moves quite fast. And so I do appreciate. Even for us, it moves fast. Yeah, totally. There's things that, you know, I don't know. I'm definitely not an expert as well.

And, you know, the use of an emoji is something that, you know, I don't know what everyone means. And in this case, my dad might have it 100% correct. I'm getting confused at the moment, too. I feel the lines are being blurred between a thumbs up and a heart. Right. I find I'm hearting things that in the past I would have thumbsed up. And I'm like, does this message deserve a heart? Does my heart actually believe, you know, Ben, oh, I've got to get away at 10 o'clock today.

I hearted that. Oh yeah. And I was like, more of a thumbs up to me in my mind. But I'm saying you're scared of the thumbs up. Yeah. Well, the thumbs up most of the time takes more effort, I think. Isn't it further along? I don't know.

I just heart anything as like an acknowledgement. Oh, knowledge. I've seen it. It's like, cool. My kids always say the thumbs up. up, so it's just dad thing to... Yeah, I've got that in the back of me too. Yeah, so I'm like, yeah.

So this is coming from my dad. He, like, text my sister and I, like, about a week ago and reminded us of someone's birthday and the family, which is nice. Lovely. And I did, I did a heart, just a little heart thing, just to acknowledge that I'd seen the text. And then he replied back with the emoji,

with the nerd glasses and buck teeth. And it's, and I'm like, what is the message there? And I don't know the message. Is that meant to be you? I don't know. Could you wear glasses from time of time? Maybe in my teeth.

I don't think I've got, but I was like, oh yeah, Dad's reply back. Then I looked at a lot. I was like, what does he mean by that? Does he keep wear glasses? Yeah, yeah, sometimes. Yeah, sometimes, yeah, he does, yeah. I feel like a parent would reply with that, like, that's him smiling at you, being like, yeah. I think that's supposed to be him.

That would be my guess. Is that Kevin? But Kevin is there buck teeth? I love it. No, but he's just going to. He's the closest emoji. He's like, yep. Yeah, so it's like, it's a happy-looking emoji with the glasses at the buck teeth.

And I'm like, what does he mean by that? Producer Grace, you're across, you know, things from a different generation. Yeah, you're coming here, Grace. Yeah. Am I, is it just Dan misfiring emoji wanting to send something back? Or is it him, like, is there a hidden meaning behind this? How fast did you reply? Pretty good, pretty quickly.

Yeah, he's calling you a nerd. Oh. And he's like, he's going, nerd. He's bleeding you. Why are you replying so fast? He's like, what, suck. nerd but he's the one that's I reckon that's him being like

okay I see you're applying yeah tell you what you gotta think about he's a school teacher as well we'll try to get my dad on before the end of the show we'd need to solve this mystery well he's not answering the phone at the moment I'm trying to get to the bottom of

something that happened from my dad he sent a message to my sister and I about someone's birthday reminding us about a birthday I hearted it and just said you know to acknowledge that I'd seen it it's a popular form of acknowledgement And then he fired back an emoji, which is great. People fire back emojis, but it was the nerd emoji, right?

With the glasses and like the buck teeth. Yeah. So I thought he was calling himself, you know, like I thought that was him. Representing him, smiling back at you being like, I see your heart. Yeah, maybe, or maybe it's a misfire of emoji and just put an emoji there. Or maybe it's calling me a nerd. I don't know. Who knows?

I'll tell you what, we've spent over an hour trying to track down your dad. I know, it's been tough. Kevin Boyce, and he joins us now. Hello, how are you? Something's wrong with my phone. I have to blame it on no one, but the actual telephone company. And then you're blaming it on people? Oh, no, no.

Big telco? I'm trying to get hold of you, yeah, yes. So maybe that's it. Maybe you've got some phone issues, because there's a question that I wanted to ask you. Yes. Okay, so you sent a lovely message the other day to me and my sister Amelia, just reminding us about a birthday and the family, which was nice. And I hearted it.

I put a little hearts, you know, so I acknowledged I'd seen the message. And then you replied back with an emoji which had a sort of emoji yellow face emoji with the big glasses and the buck teeth. Quite a nerd. The nerds. The nerd emoji. Yeah, okay. People in my vintage I thought emoji was a town in Italy

and then I realized that it was actually something else. When I looked out up, it came back with something with buck teeth. I thought that would be really appropriate for someone like you. And you can get your teeth into a lot of things in the morning. And he's not doing the routine. He didn't even know we were calling and now he's got to

a routine. Yeah, I see where you get it from then. So is the emoji supposed to represent Ben being a nerd? It is, it is. And I don't think we go viral. I really do think that's going viral.

It could go viral. Yeah, okay. Your dad's calling you a nerd. Nerd. You, like, you said the text. I don't know. I'm a nerve. Yeah, but you fired back your response straight away.

Get that off the to-do list. I was like, yeah. I have seen it. Well, otherwise Dan will do the thing. If you haven't said, if you've read a text and haven't acknowledged it, he'll send the same text again. Why do parents do that? That's so passive, aggressive care.

Let's remind you that you probably haven't read it, or it's gone into the hard basket, and it's gone there, and possibly it's not going to be answered. Okay, so now I'm a million, I speak before being in Kiwik. He is representing the parents of New Zealand. So what I did is acknowledge it.

Then I get a nerd emoji back. But anyway, that's fine. That's fine. Well, it's caught it. It's got a reaction to it. That's exactly what I want. Good on you. I think me and Kev will get along.

Yeah, I think so. He's more on top of the tech game than you thought. I think the real winner out of this conversation, emoji is a town in Italy.