I’ve been hearing recommendations to listen to this podcast for years, so recently I finally gave in to their demands and decided to see what all the fuss was about.
I am by no means a prude, but the title of this podcast immediately rang alarm bells for me. I just couldn’t imagine in what world anybody would willingly end up sharing their own father’s erotic fiction with the general public, (assuming they had eventually recovered from the initial cringe upon discovering that they’d written one in the first place).
Call me old fashioned, but at first I didn’t really fancy listening to the sexual fantasies of someone the same age as my own Dad being narrated directly into my ears. But after a couple of very trusted friends with great taste had both mentioned it within a week of one other to me, I couldn’t help but think I might be missing out on something.
So, when I’d reached the end of my most recent Netflix binge and needed some other light entertainment to keep me occupied, I tuned in to My Dad Wrote A Porno. I hesitantly listened to the trailer at a low volume, fearing that my neighbours might overhear some smutty content which might lead to some embarrassing doorstep run-ins; but by the end of the 2-minute clip I was already hooked.
Thankfully, the presenters of the podcast (Jamie, Alice, and James) seemed to be just as baffled and horrified by some of Jamie’s Dad’s writing as I was, and their jokes and giggles at the expense of the porno’s main character, Belinda, made me laugh along with them almost straight away. For some reason, I had been expecting the podcast to be a conversation between Jamie and his dad, and I think that’s what had been putting me off listening to it. In my head, it was going to be like that awful moment a sex scene comes on the TV while you’re sitting with your parents, only much worse. But to my relief, it was just Jamie and his two friends despairing at his Dad’s choice of words.
From then on, I couldn’t switch the podcast off. I stopped caring about what the neighbours might think and started listening in whenever I possibly could, even on the bus on my way to uni. With my cares thrown to the wind, I began to understand why the podcast has been so popular since its release in 2015. The presenters handle the awkward content perfectly, cringing at the more graphic moments and questioning Jamie’s Dad’s sanity in others. Seriously, how many men can appear out of thin air wearing nothing but a thong before you have to ask where they’ve all come from?
On several occasions, I find myself reacting in the exact same way as Alice (BBC Radio 1’s popular presenter, Alice Levine, BTW). Her female perspective makes the podcast so much more fun to me, as she isn’t afraid to call out the moments where Jamie’s Dad shows a complete misunderstanding of the female body and sexual experience. It’s those ‘what the hell did he just say?’ moments in the porno, and the group’s reactions to them, which are so captivating; rather than the literary offerings of Jamie’s Dad, as the storylines themselves are probably not worth the read.
I’m not that far into the total collection yet, since there is a total of 5 series with at least 13 episodes each, but later in the series there are celebrity guests invited to read along including Daisy Ridley, Dan Levy, George Ezra and Emma Thompson. I’m really excited to see where the story goes, just how much worse the sex scenes can get, and what these celebrity superstars make of the whole thing.
In an unexpected turn of events, I have also started recommending that all my friends listen to My Dad Wrote A Porno, and even listened along to a few episodes with my Mom! I do draw the line on parent/porno podcast combinations there, though, and there is absolutely no way my Dad can ever find out this podcast exists. I don’t want him to get any ideas!
5/5