Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Our Best Pranks | THE GREATEST HITS

Episode Date: July 10, 2026

On the podcast...  (00:00) We surprise Megan Papas with Liam Lawson in studio! (10:10) The team prank boss Matt Anderson with a fake on-air swear...  (15:15) Jono tries to prank Matty & PJ live on-air… and completely melts down as “Gavin” with an iguana (18:40) Megan tests her husband with a fake luxury trip to see if he’d ditch coming home   Join the Itty Bitty Hitty Committee HERE!Instagram:  @THEHITSBREAKFASTFacebook: The Hits Breakfast with Jono, Ben & MeganSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Jono Ben and Megan podcast, thanks to Dilma. Goodness really does taste great. Dilma, making the world a better tea. Megan, four years into making this interview with Liam Larson, her hero. And it was after the show yesterday, and it started off on Zoom. Hey! How are you, mate? Who's there?

I don't know when they're going to start now. There's a silence. Hello? Liam. Liam. Oh, my God. Can you hear us, mate? Hi, Liam.

I can't hear anything. Oh, he can't hear anything. here. Liam. I can't hear you. Liam, we can hear you. We can hear you. I can't hear you.

I can't hear you. Okay. I can't. I can't hear. Oh my God, guys. Wait, has he gone? Has he gone? Oh, we'll try and reconnect.

We'll get Troy to. Okay, shaky start. Are you joking? That's it. Oh, my God. We had him. That's an interview, right? We asked him, can you hear us?

We got one more surprise. That was our worst nightmare. Hold on. Shosh, look. Oh my. He's Liam Lawson. He's here. Oh my God.

In the flesh. Hugging it out. Oh, he's here. What a reveal. She was mortified. A ruthless shutting of the laptop, Liz. No, your acting was good. You were perfect.

I actually turned the volume off. Oh my God. We were probably a little bit hammy over the top. Should we do a take two? Should we do a take two? He was just in the room and then... In the Studio B, so there you go. Hi.

He's here. I'm unprepared. Well, you've got questions you want to ask him, but you're... I do, I do. Hi, Liam. How are you doing? Hi, I'm good. He saw the video, Megan.

He saw the video. I did. So, okay. Do you know the funny thing is he posted the eye emoji. He was having a conversation with their comms team about what emoji to send. We had the exact same conversation. I was, yeah. What does the eye emoji mean?

Well, I thought, well, I mean, I thought it meant like... I don't even know what I can't mean. No one knows what emojis mean. I thought it made sense like I'm interested or something like that. I was like, does it mean I can see you, you creep? Oh,

no, no. We went way too deep on it, bro. To be fair, I literally put no text with one singular emoji, so I probably could have done. It was good.

It was very cryptic, it was nice. Well, welcome, you're here. It's so cool. Thank you. So nice to have you.

Nice to have you in the studio. We want to thank Red Bull as well for hooking this up because you could be anywhere right now. You have a Grand Prix this weekend. You could be in Melbourne organizing that. When do you go? Tonight, yeah, yeah, tonight. So I'm here for the day and then this evening I got a flight to Melbourne. So it's going to be a busy week.

I just told Jono before that the cars are like totally new. He didn't know that. So how you've been testing them? How's it going? How's it feeling? So we get official testing. So we can't test. whatever we want, we can't just go out and basically test these cars all the time.

So we have simulators that are very, very important. The very top secret simulators that we use to prepare for these races and develop the cars. And then we have the official test days, which we've done all of them now. We did them in Bahrain a week ago, a week and a half ago. And we did Barcelona a few weeks ago before that. So, yeah, we've driven the cars, trying to learn them as quickly as we can. They're very different, like way different.

How much more different can they be? A lot. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot different. So they've gone, like, we're 50-50. between hybrid and combustion engine now so the battery is uh it's very hard to manage like we run out of battery like qualifying during the race it's we have to manage it yeah so the drivers we have to do a lot more this year in previous years you pretty much just flat out the system sort of does it for you

um but this year there's a lot more that we have to do to like actively manage it and we're watching our dash and making sure that we're not running out of fuel basically like the stress of driving an tv it is it's honestly you're like your range is it's kind of except it's just your power because when you if you run out of battery 50% of your power's gone your another thing to add to that we haven't got a bathroom for you now isn't it no no no no i've still never gone before um yeah some drivers just go just go i can't i've tried i genuinely have it doesn't work i'd be the same honestly it's every you have it's a very like uh the belt system is very tight in four one so um i get stage fried at 200 k's now yeah it's also um do you watch drive

to survive because that's obviously just dropped Friday for us. Yeah, I haven't. I watched the first, like the first one that I was in a couple of years ago because I thought that was pretty cool when I first came into Formula One. Yeah, I haven't. Obviously, it's been a big year last year, especially. So the last couple of seasons, I haven't actually watched it. It's kind of weird, right, because you see yourself, but you also see people talking about

you and conversations that you haven't heard. I don't think I would be keen to watch that. But yeah, it's, yeah, I think it does a great job at getting the sort of in-depth behind the scenes of Formula One, which obviously you can't see on TV. But, yeah, it's a very high adrenalin, high, you know, intensity sport. And it's basically like having a microphone on you immediately afterwards. You know, you get out of the car and sometimes you do stuff that maybe you wouldn't normally do. And it all gets captured.

And it's good for the sport. It's just for us watching it. We don't, yeah. Do you forget about the microphone sometimes? That's the problem. Yeah. I do all the time. You know, honestly, you're like mid-conversation with somebody and you look up in the boom, I just.

Oh, really? Just over you, yeah, you're just like... Oh, don't worry, it's only on a... I haven't really heard of it. Netflix. I don't think it's going to take off. No, yeah. Too many, yeah.

To be fair, you come across very well in the season, so, like, yeah, we're very proud. I did see, and this might be one of the moments where the boom was over you and you didn't know. You said you got a perm. Oh. Yeah. They put that in? Yeah, I know, I know.

It's why you're wearing a hat today? Yeah, actually. No, I... I did, I did, I did get a perma year ago. I was actually thinking of buzzing my hair. I don't know. I was thinking of us, mate. Become one of us, mate.

And now he said, second, oh, he's like, no, he's not doing it now. I don't know, I just don't think I'd suit it. I don't think I'd have the head to suit it. But, yeah, I did, I did. Have you had it redone? Nah, oh, yeah. You don't need to be, you don't need to be embarrassed. You're so young.

How do you handle this crazy pressure, bro? Like, on the global stage. I don't know. It's just something you're, I mean, we're introduced to it from such a young age, especially with Red Bull. I think I'm almost grateful that I was picked up by Rebel at a young age, and you're put under the spotlight and under the pressure from 16 years old. You have, you know, guys, you have Helmut Marco calling you, putting pressure on you.

If you don't win your next race, you're out of the program, like that kind of pressure at 16, which used to freak me out. And I think you sort of get built for it and you get to Formula One. It's a massive step, but it's almost prepared you for it. So, yeah, it's very hard. it's definitely something that we spend a lot of time working on. I've had like a performance coach since I was very young that's been with me on a mental side and it's, yeah, it's pretty brutal.

Can I ask, you know, like I know it's tough driving F1, but as a dad now, I have to teach my daughter to drive and that's a stressful occasion. I mean, I'm not going 200k an hour. What's advice you can give me to pass on to her? Because I get very anxious. She's a learning driver. Honestly, like I think it's so valuable that, like, you know, you go to Hampton Downs, they have that concrete skidpan,

and it's, like, super slippery. I don't know if you've ever driven on it, but, like, one thing that, like, nobody has is, like, or nobody gets taught is any car control, like having a car that sort of, like, if you're driving, you come out of control, most people don't really know what to do. So, but, like, it can really help, you know, just spending time on, like, a really loose, on a gravel road or something like that. So take it to do burnouts, like here, so I'll go around on the back, burnout.

Burnouts, okay. Yeah, yeah, that's a great. great advice how do you deal with like because in Drive to Survive we see you sitting on the bed first of all in your hotel room was the camera crew

just chilling in your hotel room with you I haven't seen it so where I don't actually remember you're in a hotel and you're on the bed and you're just scrolling on social media looking at comments and what I never do that anyway

AI AI did they AI'd you yeah it must have been early last year maybe or something like that. Yeah, right. And you turned off notifications on social media because I saw a lot of reports saying you deleted it. No, I deleted it, yeah.

Did you? So basically I deleted it, basically. Then I read like a year later. So like last year I re-downloaded it, but basically have everything, like everything racing F1 related is just muted. So it's just stuff like my friends, what I want to see.

So how did you see our video then? That's right. Yeah, I mean, I haven't muted you guys. We will now. Yet, yet. Oh, listen, we're getting the helicopter sign. It's been a pleasure to meet you and have you in here. Megan's dream come through.

I'm such a huge fan. I'm really proud of you. I know that sounds weird, but it's really awesome to have a Kiwi. And I think you represent us so well. And I think, yeah, stay off social media because people are un-hulled. And Kiwi's uprored. They always see with them bringing your Whitakers and all sorts of Kiwi stuff. It's awesome.

Last year, the Whitaker's, I mean, I had so much chocolate. Too much. Never too much. I mean, my team now are big fans of Whitakiss because it's just, I hate so much of it last year. So it's cool. Like I see the flags at a lot of races that I probably wouldn't expect to see them. Looking forward to Melbourne this weekend, seeing some more of them.

So it's been cool, especially being home to see the home support and feel it, honestly. It's pretty cool. Thanks guys. Thank you, mate. Here you go. What a guy. What a guy. I think I'm in love with them too now, Megan.

It was so nice. John O'Bennon and Megan. The podcast. Now our boss Matt Anderson, we love him But he's a highly strung individual, Maddie, isn't he? He's very, very passionate about radio. He's one of those annoying teenagers that just hung around a radio station and just never left.

He loves Ray. And it's great because he's really invested in the station and the show in what we do. So we appreciate that about Matt. But one thing we do know is that the presentation of the on-air product is so important to him. Like he hates when these mics bump, he hates this. Any little mistake. Yeah.

You know, it really gets to it. Anything that you get annoyed about with our show, he has probably told us off for, but we just keep doing it. But that, yeah, okay, the microphone being bumped, it's, you know, I get it, it's a little annoying. But what happens if you go really, really bad

and you're like, have swearing on air? I mean, that's something you don't want. Particularly on the hits, you know, the station we want everyone to be able to listen to. It's a family-friendly operation here, baby. And so we recorded something, and we pretended that it went to wear. Now, this is what we made.

On the hits. Good morning, Saturday. morning, big weekend of sport again, A&Z Premiership, Netball, got Super Rugby, Auckland FC on Sunday, and the Waz tonight, of course, against the Titans. Hey, next. Oh, for a fuck sake. So we pretended. That didn't go to air, but we pretended it went to air on a Saturday morning because he thought

at least chance Matt might not be listening to that very bit. Yeah. And we said, had lots of complaints about it. Well, producer Troy and producer Grace brought Matt in privately. They were recording him, of course, and told them what went to air and how many complaints had happened. How are we today? We've got to front-plot something with you. Yes.

Made a bit of a mistake over the weekend with the over-intros. I'm just going to play the audio of what we did. Yeah, one or Auckland one? It's Auckland. It's contractually obligated radio show. Good morning, Saturday morning, big weekend, it's sport again, A&Z Premiership, Neaple. We've got Super Rugby, Auckland FC on Sunday and the wars tonight, of course, against the Titans. Hey, next.

Oh, for f***es sake. Top of 8 o'clock. Seriously? Yeah. Yeah. They were just quite just, we were all quite distracted. They were just, they were supposed to re-record it and just didn't. And neither of you guys checked it?

No. Have we had any complaints or anything? Yeah, there's a couple of texts over the weekend about it. Played again? on the head morning big weekend and sport again A&Z Premiership Deple

got super rugby Oakland FC on Sunday and the wars tonight of course against the Titans Hey next oh for fuck sake it's so aggressive

it's so aggressive this is frustrating because I know we've had this with Jono how many times have we said you treat all mics as live yeah but what's their take on it

uh they kind of just knew that you were going to be a bit upset about it. It's just shh-h-y, right? Like, we can do better than that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Topper eight, too, like. Yeah, I feel like that's crime time. No, it's crime time kids in cars. Yeah. I know that's what the text was saying. And my kid heard this and asked what that word meant. And yeah.

Just, yeah, okay. Christ, okay, I'll talk to them. Okay, that's, that's reaction. What happens when we bring him in to tell him it's a prank? reveal it next. He's told John a number of times too, John. Mike's for his life, I don't think I've ever heard those words come up. What was with Grace? Yeah. She's like, oh yeah, I feel like

that was prime time. It's really bad. I love it. Have it listen to this. Seriously? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's lots of words. Poor Matt. Now, we could see. We're in the studio at the time. We could see through a window, this conversation going on.

We were pretending we were doing something else. I was secretly recording him from in here. Yeah. And this was our reaction watching Matt. He's looking so good. Look at his face. Don't. Because I'll smile. But I can be smiling because we're talking about other stuff, right?

Look at his face. It's so funny. I don't want to. You think you're being discreet, but you're like... He's really... He's listening to it again. He keeps replaying it. Oh, no.

The look on the poor fellas. Why don't I feel like we actually... He's got fingers on eyes. He's got fingers in his eyes. Now, you know, when you're like, oh, this is really breaking me. Come on. You're all? You're good?

We're not on air, obviously. We're just, yeah. I just heard Sunday morning. Oh, bro, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah. Troy said we've got a couple. I haven't seen them yet,

but he said we've got a couple of complaints as well. A couple of texts. Yeah. I couldn't hold it. I couldn't hold it any longer. You were trying to out. You're okay. I'm hearing like two and a Monday morning.

I know, you're hearing a good morning too. We're so aggressive as well. No. We just was recording it and then I rounded it out with a Hits and I was like... To be fair, that's the most disappointed I've ever seen. You're looking. I was disappointed.

Yeah. I didn't enjoy that at all. No. No, that's it. Yeah. Okay, I'll see you in 28 minutes. John O'Benn and Megan. The podcast.

The Hits. On your Wednesday morning. Thanks hanging out with us. It is a big day, as we said before, we are racing Maddie and PJ from the afternoon show. They've got the South Island. We've got the North Island. The first show to get to Wellington wins $10,000 to give away.

We're about to head up to the very top of the North Island to start our race at 10 o'clock. They'll be making good progress since they started at 6 o'clock. We heard yesterday, though, driving up north. We're listening to Manny and Pigea in the afternoon, and they were putting the call out to get some help today with rides. We initially said it as a joke. We were like, well, why don't we call up and pretend we're ready to give them a ride?

We assigned it to the wrong person, though. John O'O. I stupidly gave the phone to Jono. I panicked. I panicked, guys. So the idea was to say, oh, we'll pay. you up, then obviously no one would pick them up and then it puts them at a disadvantage. That was the theory. Yeah.

Yeah, that was the theory. But yeah, I just, no planning went into it. You got a bit nervous when you're like, I'm going live on the radio. Yeah, you go live on the radio every day. You're live on the radio right now, but you're like, you're nervous, you're made up a name, Gavin, you put on a voice. It was terrible. It was terrible.

And they took you live on the radio too. That's on them. That's their mistake. Okay. Gavin was definitely a pre-record. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, yeah, you talk to producer Sarah and then you got through. We're like, oh, my God, he's going to go live on the radio.

And this is what happened when Jono tried to prank Maddie and PJ. Gavin, how are you, mate? Good day, Patty and me, Jay. How are you? How are you, Gav? Do you like lizards? Yep. Sure. I have a lizard in the car.

What kind of lizard are we talking, Gavin? Yeah, you're miserable. It's an iguana. Okay. Is it caged or uncaged? How many of Patty and Mejo are you in the car too? Is this John? Oh, come on.

This is a hair. This is a hair. This is a hair. We see his voice. Guys, it's just... Johno. Did you hear it? Mani trying to be so kind?

Yeah, we're seeing him with a voice. I... I... I have an ankle bracelet. I didn't have it in me to correct him and say it's actually merely impede. I was like he's got stage fright. I was ready. This is how desperate we are to get out of bluff tomorrow.

I was ready to have the eglom on my lap. You're like, is it crazy? We were like, I would not be accepting a ride from Gavin. Yeah, Gavin. Don't get in the car with Gavin. Oh, guys, get back in your own lane. We've got things to organise, guys. Like, yeah, you guys might have your things teed up.

We don't. We just wasted your time. We wasted your time. We're in tight tire. We're going to win. Oh, whatever. Hang on. Do you guys have your first ride?

Yeah. Don't you worry about your own journey, guys. Gavin, Gavin will be there in the morning to pick us up. Don't you worry. Go away. That was yesterday when we tried to prank Maddie and PJ. They've actually been making some good progress this morning without Gavin's help. They didn't have a given, but they had a hogget.

He's got them far. Actually, a lot further than I thought they would be at this point in the game. Yeah, go. Patty and Me, Jay. I'm getting quite worried about it, but next. John O'Ben and Megan, the podcast. The Hats. Now, my husband comes back today after six weeks.

You may have heard me going on and on about it. He's been on tour for six weeks. Playing Romeo and Juliet. A hugely successful smash hit stage show. And hugely successful with him as well. He kissed him. People on stage, night after night. Thank you, Ben.

Six weeks of relentless smooching. All scripted, all scripted. Yeah, sounds like a horrible time he's had. So in hotel rooms away from the kids. It's been hard, it's been hard for Angie. Yes, so hard. What's he coming home to? Like, what have you got lined up for Andrew when he walks in the...

What do you mean? Like, nothing. Just like, yeah. I imagine you're like, there are you all kids now off you go out the door? Oh, yeah, absolutely. These after school activities. I'm going to go to bed. How many weeks or months of referencing he was away for six weeks

Do you think you can get away with in your household? Like, I still haven't caught up from last time he went on tour. He's been on tour multiple times. He went on tour when our daughter was four weeks old. So I'm in, he's in the red as far as I'm concerned. Was that a smooching tour? No, no, that was a kid's show. Less smooching in that one.

Not so much. But you've got an idea. I don't think this is a great idea, Megan. I think it's funny. So he's yet to come home. He's flying home from Christchurch today. So I thought my agent, we share an agent, I thought maybe they could tempt him with an amazing experience

if he could just stay in Christchurch a little bit longer. So she's going to go, oh, hey, what if we, you know, do this thing, these clients want to take you around a vineyard and a helicopter ride? Luxury accommodation, that sort of thing. You just go to stay a couple more days to put it out on social media. Basically, I wanted to dangle the carrot and see if he bites it. What's the point of this?

What is the point? I want to see if he's feeling the pull of responsibility to come back or whether he will try and wrangle to stay longer. I don't feel good about that. Oh, no. No. It's not a pay thing, but he's getting an amazing experience, right? Yeah, well, he thinks. It's not real.

Okay, not a real thing. He has been out in the trenches sacrificing his lips night after night for your family. Trenches. The trenches. He's been going to rest. He's been doing zip line to it. He's been sleeping all night with no children. So he's already had the lovely luxury.

Exactly. Does he need more of it? Okay, so you've roped in Amanda from, who's your agent and Andrew's agents. She's waiting right now. We're going to connect her through and she's hopefully going to see what... If he sees used to the job, what is he? Is he a terrible husband if he says used to this job? What's the end result?

Yes, absolutely. But that's a great trip. If he's saying yes without consultation, you know, like I've been at home with him. the kids for six weeks. Okay, we're going to go through now to Andrew. Good luck Amanda. Hello. Good morning. How are you? Hi, who's this? It's Amanda. Oh, hi. That's so weird. Hi, I'm good. Good. How are you? Your thing didn't come up as like who, you know what I mean.

Random. Anyway. That's weird. How are you? How's Christchurch treating you? Good. It's all good. Last couple of days, hey. Oh, good. You'll be glad to be getting home. Yeah, I can't complain. But it's all good. Oh, good. Yeah, yeah. Not going to have.

The audience is here are good. But what's up? Oh, good. I just have a bit of a random one for you, and it is because you're down in Christchurch. I have had that agency that looks after Christchurch, NZ, reached out to me, asking if you would be interested in doing, like, this exclusive Christchurch experience in the next few days. Yeah. Be like a day trip to Akarowa, visiting wineries, five-star restaurants and bars.

hotel, massage, all covered. It's contra. But you would come back until like Wednesday or Thursday. Right. Shit. Can you call Megan and ask her? Do you think you'd want to stay?

I'd want to. The only thing is I don't know what we'd do with the kids. I don't know what I'd do, yeah. I mean, I want to do it, obviously. But I don't know if I can get it across the line. I might get shot by someone. You absolutely would get shot. Yeah.

Damn it, if it was paid, I'd be like, all right, let's make it happen, you know. Andrew, Andrew, it's your wife. Have you forgotten what I sound like? Really? Are you joking? Andrew, can I just say for the record this is Megan's idea, None of us thought it was a good idea, including Amanda. Oh my goodness, that is crazy.

Andrew, I felt like we shouldn't have been listening to this. No, it was very tempting. It was very tempting. I feel like I might get shot. But hey, listen, he's right answer. Yeah, it was a pretty good answer, Megan. No, she was like, do you want her? And he was like, I want to stay.

I want it. I want it so bad. No, because in his mind, he was like not paid though, hey. Because he was like, if it's paid, I could probably get it. across the line but Wow, wow, that was hectic. That was hectic, full roller coaster. Wait, so there's no trip?

Andrew, get your ass home. It was entrapment, Andrew. Stephanie entrapment, yeah. The trip is flying back home. Yes, that is the trip. And that's what I was trying to tell Amanda. I was going to get to that point. You were like, oh, I don't know what I do with the kids.

Plus, I miss my beautiful wife so much. I think it was a pretty good answer in the spot, I think. maybe just taking the brocode on this one. Thank you so much Amanda. You're very welcome. And we'll let Andrew hang up and come to terms of what's just happened. That's why her phone number didn't come up because we called from the studio. A lot to get you here to.

I understand. I didn't even, oh, that was crazy, guys. It was crazy. We were not more with it. That was crazy. The timing of this is crazy. I'll see you soon. Will you?

Will he take up that trip? It sounds great. I'll be there, I'll be there. Thanks guys. Hey coming up we go live to New York what is the state of the city after that epic win in the basketball over the weekend and Nicole joins us soon on the hits.