Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Best Of The Week: Jono’s Anthem Saga & Megan’s New Personal Assistant… Ben!

Episode Date: September 13, 2025

Missed Jono, Ben and Megan this week? We’ve got you covered.Catch the best moments from the week in one bite-sized episode. Jono’s full South African anthem story arc, why Ben being Megan’s assistant would be the worst, Ben does shots to grow the Hits audience, and we hear a listener’s story about where they were when Princess Diana died... “I was at my own wedding!”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The John O'Ben and Megan podcast, thanks to Dilma. Goodness really does taste great. Dilma, making the world a better tea. All blacks, it was a close one in the end of South Africa, 24-17 and Ardi Savi's 100th game good win on Eden Park, though, for the All-Blacks. And we had a bit of a bet. We had a lot riding on this game. We did, and it wasn't financial.

Some would say even worse than putting the kids' life savings on it. We bet with Mike Pellessa and Aaron, who on five. of him in South Africa. A bit of a friendly wager between both the countries that whoever lost would perform the winning team's anthem. Learn it. Two verses is what we talked about, right? John, I said something about four, but we always, okay,

two versus is what we agreed on. Yeah, so Mike joins us now. It's 10 o'clock in South Africa and for a breakfast radio host. This is very late. So thank you for staying up, Mike. It's good to have you on the show this morning. Hello, John, Ben and Negan. It's good to hear from you, folks.

Congrats on the weekend's win. That was awesome. Wow. Oh, it was a very close game. It was too great. Both teams were awesome and another big game this weekend as well, which could go either way. But we all had a lot riding on it. How do you feel now knowing you have to learn the New Zealand National Anthem in Tareo and also English?

Listen, I feel very honoured, first of all, because I love your country, I love your anthem. And so it's a great honour for me. But considering the orchestration of filming a performance and finding all that, Blacksgear in Johannesburg. There's a deep sense of regret. It's also, I've been getting roasted by everyone on social media. I've put on a couple of videos afterwards. And so the Africans have been calling me a traitor.

Oh. And then the guys from New Zealand have been sort of sending me salt shaker means about being salty. So it's been a wild couple of hours. Oh, wow. Okay. Now, you, you, you've Face-Tined me on your show, half-time during the game. Now, we had a conversation. Do you remember it?

Yeah. I might remember that. I don't know. Does Jono remember it? Saturday night. Not ideal face-timing conditions, Mike, might I say. But now, you're claiming that I've said so. Regardless, win, lose and draw, we're going to perform the anthem anyway. Yeah, so I'm very happy to report that it's not just me having to learn a new language in the performance of the serial verse. I've also been told that despite the one or victory for your side

that you will all be learning our anthem in its entirety. See, this Mike, I'm going to jump in here right now. This is where Megan and I were part of the initial bet and we were fine to learn had the All Blacks lost.

The All Blacks didn't lose. That's like what we shook on. Yeah. We can't, we didn't agree to what old mate has promised to. Yeah, so Jotto said, regardless at half time, what we understand on your show, that you said, regardless of what happens,

we will learn the anthem. No one's got any proof of this. No one's, it's his word, his word versus mine. My friend, you can't expect to get into a course, a radio person, and it not be recorded in some capacity. Oh, have we got the audio? Okay, we've got the audio. Despite your protestations, I've sent your producer audio proof of this conversation,

and it was your doing, it was unprompted. You just volunteered yourself. Okay, let's have a listen to the audio. What I will say, I'll say this on behalf of Ben and Megan, is we will learn the national anthem anyway. We're trying to book in Eden Park to perform the anthem, and we'll do it for you regardless. Hey, we love it.

Hey, have a great day, brother. Nice to see you enjoy the game. Okay, we'll change you. Now, they were so happy about it too. Does it matter? I can't remember that. AI. A.I. Is it a AI.

Stitch up. Mikey, I reckon, he made the promise. Yeah. He can learn it. Yeah, he's got, we can put Eden Park. Or we can put him in the car park at Eden Park. Matt, we'll be somewhere near Eden Park. Later in the week, what do you reckon?

I reckon that you should all be contacted me over the next couple of hours for some Essexposa pronunciation lesson. Well, yeah, John, are you going to have a hotline to Mike all the week. Solo, too. Oh, my God. Solo. Good luck. We'll see it through.

We'll see it through. It's not going to be pretty, Mike, but we'll see it through. Thanks, guys. And well done once more. We're going to get stuck into our version and try to source of all black beer in this part of all. Catch up with you guys later in the week. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast.

The hits. And of course, New Zealand's date today is September 11, and that's the date that we're always, every time you say September 11, you think of that horrific thing that happened many years ago, 2001 when the World Trade Center, well, here, here's the news footage. This is as close as we can get to the base of the World Trade Center. You can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents, and you can see the two towers, a huge explosion now raining debris on. all of us, we better get out of the way.

Just harrowing scenes from the September 11 attacks, of course, you know, will be remembered for years and years. It happened in New Zealand more on the 12th, obviously, but with September 11 in the States. One of those moments of history, just remember where you were, exactly what you were doing. What were you doing on 9-11? I woke up, I was still at high school, I woke up on my day, was like, you need to watch the TV. And I didn't even really understand.

I was like, what is this? How was the plane flown into that? like a movie, didn't it? Yeah. I remember I was just started in radio. It would have been 18, 19, and they made me, I was at the rock, and they made me tie around this giant, A-frame billboard, but the

billboard was, it was like tying around a tiny house. It was too much billboard for the Jeep, and then I got stuck on a hill, and the Jeep didn't have the power to take the so I was just stuck there, but I was listening to this going, geez, I've got problems with these guys, this could be

a lot worse. It puts power in comparison. I remember getting a call from Amanda's dad, who just passed away last week, but he called us in the middle of the night, and he was like, there's been a plane crash. And you're kind of like, why is he calling? Why, this is in the middle of the night? Because he was watching the news. And then we turned on the telly, and it was just, oh, my God.

Whereabouts in America, was he? Well, he was, no, he was just watching at home. Yeah, he just couldn't sleep and was watching the news. Oh, he was like, turn on the news. I was like, this is weird. He's calling us because of a plane crash. And then you realize, well, how, how to the magnitude of what it was. And then the two planes.

And then it was just, you. Yeah. It's funny how you remember exactly what you're doing. Yeah. Can't you remember the bloody Wi-Fi pass when here at work. No, not at all. This is 24 years ago. Yeah. And there's those moments, you know, not just September 11.

People talk about Princess Die. They talk about when Michael Jackson passed. There's so many of those moments in history that you'll remember. And you'll go, I remember there where I heard it. Sam, your phone through early on this one. You remember where you were? For September 11th, yeah, working up by the parents' classic. But the one I was calling up with that was the passing of Steve Irwin.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was fast asleep in my boyfriend's bed at a fresh age of 18. And he gets, we get woken up to a text message from his friend saying that Steve Irwin unfortunately passed away. And my boyfriend at the time just turns into a puddle. And he's just sobbing. Oh. Yeah, so it didn't last long after that. Yeah, I was like, I didn't.

I'm saying, oh, this is weird. Did that give you the ick? Yeah. I'm just poured out his emotions. He was being vulnerable. I know that's sweet, but you don't want to be with him. Your guys can't win. This guy is just like, yeah.

You never want a guy crying after making love, do you, Sam? Oh, no, just, he cried for too long and too hard. You don't know this man. I thought he'd wet the bed or something. You're like, that would be better. He's sad about it, but I'm with you, Sam. Oh, no, guy, I'm with. We can't win.

I've got the egg for you. That's just pouring out his heart. And so he's grieving and you're like, I think it's over. I'm just going to let myself out. Yeah, I'll just leave you to it, mate. Okay, I'll go under the Hats. John O'Benn and Megan, the Podcast. The Hats.

Welcome to the podcast where it's, what, day three of Jono trying to learn the South African anthem. He's got to the end of the week. You'll hear some of the help he gets from some people, frustrated people trying to teach him some things, although one good hack to do with the melody that will come up on the podcast. You're actually reading a text that came through after we spoke about that. It was quite interesting. Do something before you go to sleep?

Yeah, that was. saying that one of the things they find when they were trying to remember something is the last thing about they before they go to sleep is to read it and try and have nothing else no other distractions before they go to sleep read this particular thing try and hold it in their memory then go to sleep and then they reckon that during the night you maybe you retain some of that information they will do it over multiple nights as well just little chunks of something and then you know no distractions no phone no nothing afterwards that's the last thing that's in your brain could work i mean There's different ways of people remembering things.

You've got to guess find the thing that works for you. Oh, they matter, so I was like, chat, GPT, can I happen, do you? Mold will give me 10 different ways I can remember stuff. And I've worked systematically through them. Just sometimes I think, you know, I've reached an age where I'm like, I've learnt. I've learnt. You're maxed out. You're maxed out.

No, but I don't believe that. You can't, you know, because you will pick up. Like I said before, you learn scripts memory. That's just a memory thing. Yeah, you've done it. Yeah. So you can remember. Yeah.

So there is a way you can do it. Maybe it's the other language that's tripping me up. Yeah. It's a reason behind it. And I'm in my head, I'm like, don't make up words. Because you can easily just go, you can make up a sound and try and sell that as a word. I'm like, that's probably in the back of my mind. I'm trying to so hard to not make up noises or sounds.

So it becomes across offensive. You see, well, with everything's on the line at the schools at the moment, eh, with the way things are educated, you know, like with the, you know, because some people go on tests, other people don't, you know. It doesn't just mean that you're, because you can't do a test, you're not going to succeed in life. Not everyone learns the same. Yeah.

And that's been the thing as well, this current system that debating at the moment kind of does give opportunities for people to learn in all various different ways. Because like, I don't know, my brother and lots of people are handy with their hands. Yeah. And really smart at building and creating things. It might not be good at sitting down at the test. No, I couldn't do that, you know? I could not be handy with my hands.

Yeah. No. In fact, I don't know what I'm quite handy at. Still learning that one. But you're right. Those people could probably go off at age 15, start. apprenticing in trades and have a wonderful life

running their own businesses and stuff some systems make them stay there to 18 yeah that's true get three years behind as well as that what's the one thing you always take when you travel we get into that but actually very shortly some really interesting things that people travel with

and something you don't want your daughter to take yeah but maybe I'm like maybe just later you know you say it's not you're all taking one suitcase one bag each so that's on her really yeah yeah true She's got the space, let her fill it how she wants. Although you know whose bag they'll go in if they don't.

Mine, yeah, blue, than mine. How are we going to put my costumes? Are you taking costumes to you? Maybe, maybe not, you know. Have you a knife or tower costume? No, I haven't, no. I've got a Mona Lisa one, so, you know, but the family doesn't know about that.

You know, like, there's a few, there's a few, there's maybe three that the family don't know about, so they'll be in the bag, something. You just stand in a massive, like, media scrum-like thing to get to the front of the Mona Lisa. So you're going to be seen it for ages. No, I won't do it outside. I won't do it like next.

No, because I don't think you take photos. Oh, no, you have to wear the Mona Lisa in front of the Mona Lisa. I've been there and seen the Motor Lisa before. You're not meant to take photos of the Mona Lisa. Yeah, no, you know. Technically you're not. Yeah, we do it. So, yeah, I won't do it there.

I'll do it outside. How many costume hit points have you got through the tour? Three or four, three or four. So you're taking costumes. Yeah, but that's a sensual, Megan. Is it's a sensual? It's for its content. I think the family don't listen.

No, they won't listen to the podcast. be honest so yeah it's fine it's so funny yeah so funny and so you're just going to surprise them like yeah yeah there'll be like man will be like my wife be like oh god what's he doing now like in yeah we went to raritong i came back in the starfish costume she's like oh my god what are you doing yeah i bought that over and then the dog barked to me and that was the video it was really disappointing for the money i spend on it i was like this is not how i saw this going oh god but you get one chance one chance of those things so you're just trying to grab it pack these schedules baby pack their sedules So maybe I'll let it take the egg boots.

Enjoy the podcast. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast. The Hits. And now yesterday you were out without your laptop. Nice for some. They get work laptops to take home. You know, things that wind up about Megan.

Her two loungers. Yeah. Fast past the Gold Coast on the movie world. Yeah. The fact she gets a car park downstairs. The privileges. The privileges. Phone laptop car park, you know.

Excuse me, middle-aged white man. I've got to get up to speed with some privileges. You know, for a while there, we had you under a bloody glass ceiling and everything was just fine. I'm still banging on the glass ceiling. I'm just getting some perks along the way. None of those get mentioned when they talk to us about. Anyway, I get all these things that don't have to pay me.

I'm in the free intern. Anyway, this is your dog legging guys. So Megan's Perks, dog leg. Okay, so she was out of the, they're fixing a laptop. Because they fix it for her, because it's a work laptop. That's what I was going to get to, you know? If Grace has a work laptop, this is on you. What I did enjoy, though, is.

And to be fair to you, Megan, I find that, you know, if you forget your phone or you're without a device, you don't know what to do nowadays. Like, your hands are just... Yeah. Sometimes I'm at the cafe or them out of phone. If I don't have a phone and I'm across the road, I just stare people in the eyes. And you know, like, we have lots of, like, groups and spreadsheets and stuff that we do on the work, like, Wi-Fi. So my phone wasn't able to do all that kind of stuff. So I did feel a bit left out.

You were all looking at your laptops in silence, and I was like, so, guys. Yeah, we're trying to play in the show and stuff. It's a bit lonely over here. And then she started using Ben as a human search engine. She'd be like, Ben, and then do flicking things with their fingers. Google that for me. And then I do it. And then she'd go down and do this with this.

And I was like, well, actually, and I stopped. I was like, why do I keep doing this? Put that into chat, GBT, and tell me this. With the hands? I don't know why I was doing the hands. Can you just do, do, do. My boss coming down and go, just put me in my three o'clock and get my dry cleaning. I'd be like, okay.

Can you just call, yeah, just call the drive. You're like, you've still got your phone bakes. I don't reckon you bring your laptop in any day. Just keep using bed. You kept doing it, so I kept asking you. Well, you're right. It was swimming for me to keep talking. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast.

We've had a bet with a South African radio station where Jono has resulted in Jono learning the South African anthem this week. And we've got Megan's husband, Andrew, who's a great singer. He's done the anthem before. And it was also born in South Africa, joining us right now. Andrew, hello. Hello. Hi, how are you?

Now, how quick is this conversation? I know you like to keep your conversations brief. Yeah, how long have we got? Give me time. Actually, I'll give you a time minute. We've got three and a half minutes, guys. I'm giving a time limit. All right, let's get to it.

Time starts now. Okay, so Jono's made this bit by himself, and you know that we're like, Ben and I don't want to sing the anthem. So Jono's going to sing the South African anthem by himself. Yeah, you've really put your foot in a day. Out of all the countries you could have chosen to mess with, Bro, yeah, this thing's been

busting my chops over the last 24 hours. He's been, how far has you got? He's like, I've got the first line. Honestly, I... But it is tough. I'll give you that. Because I was mine in the lawns, I just had it on loop,

and I've just had it playing on loop in the car. And then I'm like, maybe I can't learn anymore. Maybe I've reached an age where I can't digest any information. I'm like, it's driving me bongers. All I've learned is the first few lines. Have you managed to get the bit where the, you sort of have to do,

like, I don't want to say, like, a click, but it's like in the back of your throat Yeah, no, it does... Yeah, that's... I think that when it gets into kind of the Dutch Afrikaans, you do it a couple of the... Right. Yeah. No, I haven't got to that part.

It's half that you've got flam in your throat, maybe like if you've got the flu or something. I look at it, and you look at it as a mass anthem, it's a mountain. It's too much of a mountain to climb, so you need to break it down into a separate language verses. There's about four or five lines per language. That's an impressive anthem. Now, you are originally from South Africa, Andrew, right?

I am, but you've caught me at an awkward time. I'm as good as a Timo, South African version. A Timo, so you can't really help, John. Because I know you've sung the anthem or anthems at sports games around New Zealand before. Yeah, but not South Africa. See, I'm not silly. I don't mess with that one. I moved from South Africa when I was 11 years old.

So, you know, like it's sitting in the back of my mind, but it would take a better practice to get it back. Godspeed for you, Jonathan. Yeah. Yeah. Listen, I don't put, I really want to give it a genuine attempt. I'll say that. But don't put too much hope on it.

I don't want to offend anyone, that's all. You don't have to be, your heart needs to be in the right place. The heart's in the right place. There's no, there's no question about that. It's just my memory, my short-term memory is not. So how do you, because you've done American, I know you struggled to do the, like, learn the Australian.

And how do you, like, learn someone else's anthem, what's the best way? I think what John is doing is the right thing what you can do especially with the funny pronunciation of thing there's a lot of stuff on YouTube of people breaking stuff down phonetically yeah listen off yeah it's really that's really good advice

because I do go to chat to EPP I was like I need to learn the anthem in four days what can I do it's like try breaking it down phonetically so I've tried that can I give you a taste of what we've got going on so far Andrew I would love to hear it to get your feedback and if you've got any notes

any work-ons, as they say. Okay, here we go. Okay, so what are we thinking? Well, apologies to anyone from South Africa listening right now. His heart was in the right place. Can I just say, apologies to South Africa. And in fact, the continent of Africa, for what you just heard. Andrew, your feedback.

It might help having a visual. Visual was worse, to be honest. He was. He was reading it. He did have the lyrics. Yeah, it was definitely reading it. I'm trying. You're doing well.

Keep it out. You're doing great. No one's sending this to South Africa. Your time this morning. Okay. Oh, Edward the Hits, 4487. I know listening right now there will be people originally from South Africa.

Firstly, apologize. I'm personally apologised. I know, no, no apologies. Because also I'm getting the streaming numbers up on the answer and all the royalties will be going back to South Africa. John O'Bin and Megan. The podcast. The Hits.

Yesterday. Yeah, well, so my wife's father, sadly, passed away on Friday so we've you know had a whole lot of stuff going on with the family as sure anyone would understand going on that same situation was a lot to organize yeah a lot to organize and yesterday evening we went down just the four of us my wife and my two two kids and I just went down to say our last goodbyes at the funeral home as well and you know just to the casket and it was lovely we sort of sat there for a sort of half an hour to an hour and sort of told some stories talked and then you know a lot of tears a lot of conversations and it was you know it was

a really nice way to sort of mark that occasion. And then Amanda's, my wife's brother, had come back from the States. He sort of went and after us and had some time by himself and we sort of said our goodbyes. And after that, we're like, well, no one felt like cooking dinner or anything like that. We're all pretty emotionally drained.

So we decided we'd go out and, you know, grab some dinner. And, you know, the evening had got back on track and we've been having a bit, you know, a few more fun conversations, I guess. And so, you know, there's these sort of loud people around us. You know, they're having a good night on a Wednesday night. Yeah. And suddenly like...

He's saying it that with a time. tone of like on a Wednesday. I'm like, good on them. You used to go out on a Wednesday when you were cooler. But at some stage, at least we wouldn't see anything the whole time we were there, but I just hear your radio guy. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I guess that's at me.

Well, you're hoping there's another radio guy in the restaurant. Yeah, your radio guy look up. They're like, come here. I'm like, alright, I'm coming here. What's happening? What's happening, guys? These three lads at the table, he's like, hey, we've just, one of those systems where you book your order from your phone,

You know, you scan the little QR thing, and it orders the years, like, we've double-tapped. We've got two rounds of shots that we didn't, we weren't going to get two rounds of shots. So guess what? Radio guy. Radio guy, one of these is for you. And I was like, well, that's lovely. But, you know, like, you guys are having a big night on a Wednesday night. My night has been considerably different.

Yeah. And also I've got to get, I was like, well, I've got to get up at four o'clock in the morning. I was like, you know, like, they don't care. They don't care. When you said that. And I was like, yeah, they were like, well, maybe this will be the best decision you'll make it four o'clock in the morning, having this shot with us. I'm like,

guys, there's no part of me to fix it. He's like, come on radio guy. That's going to be a good idea at 4 o'clock in the morning having the shot.

What was the show? I think it was some sort of, I don't know, it was a green sort of looking thing as well. So I wasn't entirely sure, but I was in the end, I was like, and they'll like,

you do the shot, we'll make sure we get up and we listen to you in the morning. I'm like, again, there's no part of me that thinks they're going to be listening right now. Oh, 800 of the hits.

If you were the shot guys. Yeah. Let's do that. And you're up and listening this morning. And I was like, there's no part of me that thinks you're going to listen to right now. But anyway, I'll have this shot with you. And I'll win another one. I'm like, no, I'll go one.

One and then I'm done. On a Wednesday night. He did that for radio. He did that. So radio's credibility. I don't even know probably what station I work for. Any of that. It's a yo radio guy.

Well, it doesn't help they didn't know your name. Yeah. It wasn't like yo Ben from the hits. No, exactly. It was just, maybe they just tune on and are listening to some radio somewhere this morning. So thank you very much for that shot that I didn't need. But hey. What did your wife say when you went back to the table?

Was that necessary? Did you need to engage in that? She knows. Once I get over there and it's, you know, a conversation. I'm a people pleaser. She's like, it's what my dad would have wanted. Exactly. John O'Ben and Megan.

The podcast. The Hits. Now, the warehouse. I got one down the road for my place and I walked in yesterday to pick up some mods and ends. And then halfway through my shopping experience, the manager comes up and says, oh, it's you. this guy and sort of saying it like I'd been spoken about behind my back in store and she said she then said oh you're the table guy and then I remembered a few months earlier and I unashamedly

if there is an option to buy a fully constructed piece of display furniture I will always try and buy that as opposed to buy the box and having to put it together myself I'm with you I'm with you on that one and she's so I did so four months ago I went and picked up this tiny little outdoor glass table and I took it through the counter like holding this big table and they said anything I can help with and I put this on the counter I was just this please it's quite a big table for the counter and it really threw the worker behind the desk was like oh we uh yeah this doesn't have a barcode it doesn't like she's like this is just the display table yeah she's like you want the display table I'm like absolutely no part of me that doesn't want this table sometimes

you even get a discount if it's display table if it's the last thing they're like oh it's a Wait, I'll give you, oh, okay. Anyway, there was a bit of, it sent much ripples of confusion through the warehouse staff when I was doing this, and the manager came over and said, oh, listen, we can't sell you this. But she's like, she kind of pulled me aside and gave me a pep tool. She's like, you can do this.

If I give you this box to this table, I'm pretty sure you can assemble it. I reckon you can do it, like kind of trying to big me up. Yeah. And so then I walked away with the box that I had to assemble myself. And she was right. I could assemble it. I like, I assembled it fine.

It took probably, you know, an hour longer than it needed to. And so then yesterday, she was like, how'd you get along? Assembling the table. How'd you go? I said, it's still standing, baby. So she was very proud of me. Very proud of me. But I feel like the stores as a general rule of fun.

I know IKEA's starting. If you guys have got display. No, in December, big news, it's starting December, right? Yeah, if you've got display furniture, let us buy it. There's people out there. Then someone at the store has to assemble another one, and they don't want to assemble it any more than you do. That's the them problem.

the assembled option, you know, and you know you're paying, just that little bit more. Takes up space. Yeah, but you're like, cool, at the, well, at the back. They're like, would you like that? Well, you're like, 20 bucks more, it's assembled. I'm like, I'm taking, I'm taking assemble it all day. You just stand here, sir, with one of our staff members, and they'll quickly assemble

it for you. Yeah, true, that's the thing. How easy they make it like. I don't mind, yeah, I don't mind. It's like a bloody rescue dog, isn't it, the display model. It's got a few bumps and bruises. It's been used. You don't care, though. You still love it. And actually, she helped me out, because there was no way I was going to be able to fit it in the boot of the car as well.

I hadn't even facted that part in. John O'Bennon and Megan. The podcast. We had a bet after the first game with the radio station in South Africa about if our team lost, we'd have to learn the other country's anthem. Now, our team won, Megan, right? Yeah, so that means we're off the hook, right? My Pellissa and Aaron from 5 FM in South Africa.

They were like, okay, we'll learn the national anthem of Altauroa, both the Tarot and English versions. So they're doing that right now because their team. lost. Yeah, that was the bet. Done. And dusted. Then they caught me at a moment of weakness and a moment of loose lips,

half time on Saturday night. What I will say, I'll say this on behalf of Ben and Megan, is we will learn the national anthem anyway. We're trying to book an Eden Park to perform the anthem, and we'll do it for you regardless. Hey, we love it. Hey, have a great day, brother. So they're so happy.

We just want you to isolate the word anyway. Yeah, I know. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway, but it was already Shooting his mouth off about

earning all four verses earlier in the week So we feel like deep down he wanted to do it So he's doing it now It's tough, it's really hard Yeah, that's why we weren't keen on that So part of me that I thought this was easy Shereen, good morning Good morning

Now you heard, now this is day one Day one of the journey Now don't be too Too critical, but your thoughts You're getting there But you need help. Yeah, well, he definitely needs help. So how can we help him?

Because, yeah, he's trying to read it. He's trying to phonetically break it down. What can he do? That's still the, I would say the, um, the Zula is still the easy part. It's the Afrikaans. That's going to be harder. Like the I, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, I have heard that.

That is worrying me. That's a hurdle. I'm not looking forward to climbing over. You need to clean your throat when you do it Clean your throat I know but I'm still stuck on verse one babe This is three verses away It's coming up

It's a big I like the last one The last one's just in English And also when you start with the African spot I don't know if you If you've heard it on Saturday as well When they start with 80 blow

It's loud and proud Like you need to like Really sing it out of your text I just sing it quite softly, because I mean, yeah, I mean, nothing's going to help him with the singing, the actual tone and pitch. I feel like those are final touches that we're not ready for yet. He's got the confidence to belt it out. Sing along if you know the words, Shireen. You're off, you're off, she's on, she's throwing me off.

No, she used to get rid of. See, she knows all the words. Yeah, she's right. She was doing it this week. Good on you, Shereen. Have a great day. Appreciate you, cool. Thank you, thank you.

See you. Keep the help coming through for Jono. There's a link, a very handy link that's been sent through on YouTube. And someone else saying it sounds like you're reading out a Chinese takeout menu. It sounds like you're singing mad out as well. You're just banking on most of us won't know if you're doing it well or not. We need someone. Yes.

Oh, we did. We did a South African adjudicator. Yes. We get the guys from 5FM back, you know. Yes. to make sure you're doing a proper job of us. I'm just making up worse. We don't, we want to know, Megan.

Yeah, we do. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The Hits. Welcome back to day two of the reverse game, where each of us record into an app, one line from a song, we flip it round and reverse it, and then we try and...

Thank you very much. She did it in a much cooler form. And then we try and repeat it. the reversed version to see how close we can get to the original version. So, do you want to go first today, Ben, or... Ah, there you go, I can't try to think of a song. All right, okay, I'm going to go, uh, okay, here we go. Hit me, baby, one more time.

So I've gone Brittany. Okay, so now it will reverse it on the app. I love that. At the end. No, it's normal, we'll be out of me, m'em, eh. Okay, so now I'm going to give that a go in reverse, okay? Here we go. Nya, I've seen my knee and I meant you.

It's like you gave up. The app gave up to it. It was like, it's not going to work. Here we go. He made me no miss fine. Oh, not bad. It's in the ballpark. It's in the ballpark.

He kind of almost got. On karaoke. What's he singing? No, me, it's fine. I think it's Britney. Okay, there you go, mate. Good luck. Good luck.

I would give that maybe a 60%. What are you going to go? I'll try some jelly roll just because it's coming up this morning. Okay. Okay, so start recording. You ain't nothing but a liar. That's it. Yeah, that's it.

Okay. You ain't nothing but a liar. Okay. Now, see what that sounds like. Jelly roll would be like, is that what I sound like? Reverse. Oh, yeah, a little mithinewy. Oh, that's tough.

Good luck. And I'm going to hear that again. Oh, yeah, little misson-a-wee. So Ben's now got to try and mimic the reverse mode. Oh, she's. No, yeah, you've been there, oh, ye. Okay. There's no way to miss me endless joy.

And then I just play record, do I? Yeah, you want to miss me, uh, yon. No, not even in the ballpark, eh? Not even. Yeah, you want me, miss me, yeah. Not even jelly roll would pick that. No, that's not my song at all. So that was, yeah, no, not even in the ballpark.

Megan, have you got your song, mate? Can I do Taylor Swift, Cruel Summer? Of course you can. I'm thinking maybe like the singing, like if I keep the melody of my help me. Yeah, yeah, good theory. All right, good luck, Megan. Cruel summer. Can I say, too, this is not our peak singing time.

It's early in the morning. Yeah, true. You get any professional singer in here at this time of morning, they're not going to nail it. We haven't done vocal warm-ups. Hey, I think that's doable, though. I reckon you could be good here. Listen, cool summer. Who summer.

That was all summer, but it was good. John O'Ben and Megan. The podcast. Now, Megan, you popped down to your car and you bought something back, which is pink and purple. And it has two foam bits sticking out from the purple bit in the middle. This is my new apparatus that I bought.

I'm pleased my husband's not listening because he's literally like, can you stop buying stupid stuff? Did you get to fed this on an Instagram? No, I didn't actually. But it's partially, oh no, that's a clue. I won't tell you that just yet. But looking at this,

it's got two foam bits and a V shape. Well, put a photo up on Hits Breakfast, on our story. And it's kind of hard to push together. You'd have to work really hard to push. I think it's, they used to sell these on, as seen on TV, I think, is it like a thigh master where it spread your legs open and then you crush your thighs close to you. It's kind of what I was thinking, maybe it would be, along those lines.

You are correct. So, is this helping for the Little Wee Club too? Yes. Strengthening your pelvic floor. So the Little Wee Club did influence me also because I hurt my knee and they, you know, when you have to go to the, like, any kind of physio and they're like, what do you do for a job? And I'm like, well, I do sit on my bum a lot. Move your mouth a lot?

I'm just say you have a sedentary job. So I just, I needed you to know that if I'm squeezing, that I'm doing my thigh master. Please don't do that in front of us. Is this a new thing that every morning you're going to be squeezing your legs and spreading them out and squeezing them in together? I don't know. John I mentioned it yesterday, there's that one in the gym that does the same thing. And if you get eye contact with someone who's doing that, don't look us in the eyes.

I'm definitely going to be looking at you while I'm doing it. I don't want eye contact. Do it now. Do it now. Look at bed and let me just see how. What's wrong with that? Let me see how weird it is. No, what are you wearing me out?

He can't, he can't. Why did you make it weird? No, don't look at me now. You're not on your legs spread open, mate. You're like, and you're like, and out. And out. Don't look at me. Just do it and don't look at me.

Where am I supposed to look? Do you want to have a go? Anywhere about me, all right? Well, we can tell the things I can tell you, tensing as well. You're like, it's great idea. What's wrong with that? It's a great idea. I'm all for it.

I don't want to be, like, no eye contact. You try it and I'll do eye contact. Why can't you do this in the comfort of your own home? Because this is where I'm set at tree. When I'm at home, I'm running around after kids. In the car, on the motorway? Oh, I'll probably do it then too. I'm going to have inner thighs of steel.

As a lover of... I'm going to crush nuts and no... Dusty old. Good, look at it. Oh, yeah. See, eye contact. Yeah, I'm finding it. I'm finding it quite weird.

I was like, and just a grace and very throat. It's good though, it's good for the... Yeah, see? You could crush a can of spaghetti with those legs now. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The heads. Into a huge sporting weekend. Good luck to the Black Ferns,

which would be early sort of Sunday morning, New Zealand time in their quarterfinal of the World Cup. Not getting enough coverage, those girls when they're killing it and it's the quarterfinal against South Africa. So we're really cheering them on this weekend. As we are cheering on the Warriors as well, it's going to be a really tough game Saturday night for them against the Panthers. And then the All-Blacks.

play South Africa again now last week we had quite a lot writing on the game against South Africa didn't we're you Megan Yes in case you've missed it some peeps from a South African Radio Station 5 FM

set a challenge for us if we won the game or if we lost the game we had to do the South African anthem If the box able to pull off a serious win to try and create a performance of our first two verses of our anthem which are in Isis Zulu and Issa

If the All Blacks win, then we would be happy as a team to learn and perform the first two verses which are in Maori. We won. So we were off, we didn't have to learn the South African anthem, we were completely absolved of that bit. Exactly. I watched the

end of that game and I was like, great, we don't have to do the anthem. Then we come to work on Monday and Jono had done like a half, I can only imagine it was a few too many babies on a Saturday night. He did a half-time live cross to South Africa and he shot his mouth off and you love the way he says,

anything, any time, anyway, or something. That's where I think you can tell his hands for us. Have a listen to what he said. What I will say, I'll say this on behalf of Ben and Megan, is we will learn the national anthem anyway. We're trying to book an Eden Park to perform the anthem, and we'll do it for you regardless. Hey, we love it.

Hey, have a great day, brother. Nice to see you, enjoy the game. Okay, we'll chat soon. We'll do it anyway. Anyway, we will do that. And so he came into work on Monday, and he was like, guys, this is what I've said. said, we had the audio, and he was

like, we're all on this together. And we're like, well, no, we're not. You made that second bet. You made that add-on bet without talking to us. So, Jono, you'll have to do it by yourself. So he's had a couple of days to try and learn how to sing the South African anthem. Made up of many languages, yeah, so it's been quite tricky for him to get his head around, and

we had people, lots of people helping out. It's been the cool thing about it. So many people have helped him out on the journey. Even a little tip when it comes to the melody. I can hear you struggling a little bit On the melody there. On the melody. The melody is the least of his worries, surely.

What was this pronunciation one? It's the same melody as the Incy Wincy Spada. Incee Wincy Spider, come up the water spout. Okay, cool, see, Caleli, Africa. That's better. That's better. Okay, so things were starting to progress, weren't they? I mean, he didn't get past the first line in memory.

But anyway, he had it all written out phonetically. And then he was like, but yesterday he was like But when it gets to the English part at the end I've got this nailed And this was him yesterday Before we went down to try his anthem Yeah sounds a call to come together Fav la la la

What tune are you doing? Oh my God That really tickled me So bad Okay so this was That was how he was about an hour before We went Doing it to the tune of

We actually got Eden Park to let us in there so he could do it in the middle of the field to pretty much an empty stadium except for you and me. But next, we're going to have Jono's anthem attempt. He had one shot and one shot only to nail the South African anthem. We'll have his attempt. And what 5FM in South Africa thought of his attempt? That's John O'Ben and Megan.

The podcast. Just before we head to the 8 o'clock news, my wife had something happened the other day. And she was like, was this intended as a compliment. But then afterwards, she was like, was a compliment that my daughter was getting her hair done

first day having conversation about you know like it was just they were bantering they were talking about you know what are your mum do what's your dad do my daughter Sienna was saying that

said my dad's on radio and then she was like oh that's so funny so funny my daughter Sienna's like well well I mean even I would say that well he don't just have to say that

anyway so that was the thing so she didn't need to tell me this part of the story I was like what was necessarily you know the lady gave me a compliment and couldn't let me have it And my daughter was like,

yeah, you know, he's not always like that Sometimes he's a dad And it's not always funny So yeah, I was like, anyway So I got a compliment And it wasn't really a compliment But then my wife went in to grab To give something to my daughter

And the lady said, which is lovely She's like, oh, you're so pretty I would like to look like you when I'm older Oh, oh And it was And my wife was like, oh thank you And then walked out And it was intended as a compliment.

But she was like, the older part was, you know, from the hairdresser was maybe... Yeah. But I mean, like, was the hairdresser? But the lady was 20, probably 20, my daughter was guessing. So, yeah, anyone up post 20. I mean, we're all, you know. Producer Grace, you're here right now. I mean, we're all, you know.

You're all old. Yeah, thanks, Grace. Would you say that, though? I would probably say I'd like to look like you. I shouldn't say when I'm old. I mean, old would have been worse, right? Older. Older, when I'm old.

Yeah, when I'm older. She's obviously older God I have a weird thing It was intended as a compliment Take it as a compliment But you know There's no good way of saying that You look great for your age

Oh that's yeah No that's horrible too Don't say that She doesn't have to say older You can't say you look great for your age No No don't say that pan Because she also doesn't know how old she is

So what if she was like Oh I'm 25 Yeah I thought you were 60 What happens if someone said their age And then you're like Oh you look great for age Yeah that's okay

Okay All right That's okay But yeah You could have just been like You are really beautiful. Oh, no, but we all say that. Full stop.

We all say those things. And she is very beautiful. For an older lady. Ben! Compared to the 20 year old. She is beautiful. I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. And that's why I'm funny and not always funny, according to my family. John O'Ben and Megan. The podcast. It's a big weekend of sport. The Black Ferns. We've got the Warriors. We've got the All Blacks take on Saturday for again.

We made a bet with a South African radio show last week. and in the end it resulted in Jono shooting his mouth off and he had to perform yesterday the South African anthem at Eden Park we managed to take him to Eden Park It was pretty epic We also got a bit of a surprise there as well With the lovely team at Eden Park So imagine Jono walking out onto the field

Ont to the grass And they had put up a big On the big screens a picture of Johno With the South African flag They'd put him in a South African jersey So the scene was set Yeah, and so he had a little PA speaker out there, producer Troy, gave him the introduction, and we were watching on here one attempt to try and nail the South African anthem.

Have a listen. And singing the national anthem of South Africa, please welcome John O'Brien. My apologies to South Africa, the continent of Africa, Charlize Theron and Bill Tong Thank you. Oh, yesu, the course, secalella,

Tina, the Sakuwayo. Moolen, Abanukas, Chabas, so, Ope, dix,

d'en from a ma'amas, South Africa, South Africa, South Africa. As John I would say, he added GST. He did add a bit of GST for 15% of him. So this was our reaction afterwards. the two members in the crowd. There's no cue cards.

How many people do the anthem without... Also, I mean the words were there, but was the pitch. Yeah, the pitch, no. The only pitch was Eden Park. Beautiful pitch? Yeah. Yeah. So he had cue cards, which, you know, he was meant to remember it, but he couldn't get past the first line, really, with his memory. So anyway, he did...

Well, we weren't sure. We weren't sure how he went with the pronunciation. so we have to leave it to Mike at 5 FM in South Africa. Now he has seen the video and he sent us this message. Hello, Mike. Mike. Hey, Johno, it's Mike V, and your performance is world-class, world-class. Eden Park, as the location, is insane.

And your actual anthem performance is outstanding. You had a couple days to pray for this. That is ridiculous to me. I don't know how you learned such a long anthem. We have a very, very long anthem, and you nailed virtually every part of it. So, kudos to you. You will be better than we are. I think you win the challenge as well.

You won the test match and you want the challenge. He's so nice. He's too nice to him. He was too lovely. It wasn't that good. A 4-487 on the text. If you can speak Afrikaans or we're from South Africa and you want to give Jono a bit of live performance appraisal on that one as well.

Yeah, let us know what you thought of it. But we are going to get how Mike and his team did with their New Zealand national anthem on Monday. They're doing the English part, the to-dayo part as well. So yeah, that will be Monday.