Hello, bonjour and willkommen to this linguistically laden episode of Worst Foot Forward. Actor and student of languages Rich Watkins brings his talented tongue to bear on the World's Worst Language, with demonstrations of back slang and a very controversial candidate. Barry uncovers the secrets of the Rosetta Stone, and Ben doesn't disappoint long-time listeners with a discussion all about Klingon.
THE THIRD FOOT - CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS (BONUS EPISODE)
As the famous rhyme doesn't go, 'In Twenty Twenty, Van der Velde and McStay / discovered Columbus was really from Norway'. After we were contacted by a Norwegian listener, Petter, with news from the north that there is a local legend in the tiny village of Hyen that Christopher Columbus was actually Norwegian. Not only that, there are TWO monuments in the village, to both the man himself and to 'Columbus's Egg'. Well, that was all we needed to set us off on a winding route in a bonus episode where we discover the mad stories about CC's origins, how exactly to balance an egg, and where on Earth is Atlantis.
177 - OLA THE COMEDIAN - WORLD'S WORST NOLLYWOOD MOMENT
No, there isn't a typo in this episode title and we aren't visiting the glitz and glam world of Hollywood. Instead, alongside the brilliant British-Nigerian comedian Ola, we are immersing ourselves in the brilliant, irrepressible but definitely crazy world of the Nigerian and West African film industry known as Nollywood. Ola tells us tales of snakes inserting themselves into lady-parts, Ben turns his seedy eye to bad CGI and Barry tells us exactly why Blackberry phones are so damn important.
176 - NAOMI PAXTON - WORLD'S WORST SPEECH
Ladies and gentlemen, pray silence for this week's episode of Worst Foot Forward - or ideally, gales of laughter as we expound on the World's Worst Speech. We are joined by Dr Naomi Paxton, performer, feminist, academic, and far too brilliant to contain in one short intro. Naomi is full of wonderful stories about rollerskating suffragettes and backtracking misogynists, while Barry finds a 53 hour sermon and Ben sits through the ramblings of William Henry Harrison, whose inauguration speech was nearly longer than his presidency.
175 - SEB FALK - WORLD'S WORST MAP
We are bang slap in the middle of nowhere, up a creek without a paddle and being urged violently to do a U-Turn where possible as we follow the World's Worst Map. Alongside us is historian Seb Falk who talks us through the weird and wonderful places and things to be found in the Hereford Mappa Mundi. Ben takes us wandering in the Mountains of Kong (spoiler: they don't exist) and Barry finds a map of a square and stationary Earth!
174 - ATHENA KUGBLENU - WORLD'S WORST MONUMENT
This week's episode has been painstakingly carved out of the finest audio marble available, erected on to a plinth only for us to discover that the head is on backwards and the shadow it casts looks indecent.
Joined by comedian, writer and podcaster Athena Kugblenu we discuss monuments as diverse as a giant mouse holding some DNA, the Geordie messiah, some Georgian commandments and an enormous revelation about Croatia.