My Favorite Murder is a weekly comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff, best known for her work on Mr. Show, and Georgia Hardstark of Drinks With Alie and Georgia, and Slumber Party with Alie & Georgia on the Feral Audio network.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
History
Kilgariff and Hardstark met at a Halloween party in 2015 when Kilgariff was talking about a brutal car accident she had witnessed. Hardstark approached Kilgariff with interest and talked all night about various murders throughout history. In January 2016 they released their first episode of My Favorite Murder with Feral Audio.
Premise
Kilgariff and Hardstark each select a single murder or true crime story to recount and discuss, occasionally sharing additional "hometown murder" stories submitted by friends and fans. The podcast mainly consists of the dialogue between the hosts rather than a detailed recounting of the cases discussed. Early episodes were thematically based, examples including cannibalism, unsolved murders, or "weird murders". The thematic concept was abandoned early on in the series.
Kilgariff and Hardstark have both referred to the podcast as a sort of therapy to deal with their own anxieties about murder. Both hosts express compassion for both the victims and perpetrators of the crimes they discuss, attempting to ensure that their discussion combats common problematic themes in true crime, such as discrimination against the mentally ill, sex workers, and women.
Early episode titles included murder-themed puns and pop culture references, such as "Thirty Let The Bodies Hit The Four," a reference to the Drowning Pool song "Bodies", "I 28 His Liver With Some Fava Beans and A Nice Chianti," reminiscent of a famous line from The Silence of the Lambs, and "SE7ENteen," a reference to cult-classic Se7en. However, their most recent episode titles are jokes based on the conversation within the episode such as "Steven's Tuxedo" and "Service Poodle."
Format and structure
The podcast is in large part improvisational, with the bulk of it consisting of discussion between the two hosts rather than a detailed recounting of facts. The discussion between the two hosts is not restricted to True Crime and the hosts will often spend the first half of the podcast discussing current events or their personal lives. The hosts frequently incorrectly remember facts and apologize for their errors in the following episode in what they call "corrections corner." Both hosts have repeatedly stated that the podcast is meant to be an informal, comedic podcast rather than a nonfiction one.
While full episodes are released weekly on Thursdays, ranging in length from 60-120 minutes, "minisodes" which are dedicated solely to the topic of "hometown murders" are released Mondays and are only 30-45 minutes long. Shows are usually recorded in Hardstark's Los Angeles apartment. In late 2016 the hosts took the show on the road and these live episodes are aired as they are edited. At times, the hosts interact with the show's audio engineer Steven about the topics at hand.
The hosts end each episode with their catch phrase, "Stay sexy and don't get murdered." Hardstark then asks her cat "Elvis, want a cookie?", and Elvis meows into the microphone and the episode ends.
Reactions and response
My Favorite Murder quickly gained a large fan following, including a Facebook group with over 118,000 as of March 2017, and a Facebook fan page with 68,447 likes as of April 2017. My Favorite Murder was swiftly syndicated beyond the original Feral Audio site to such places as Google Play Music and iTunes. Media reaction to the program has been largely positive, with the phenomenon of the podcast's rapid popularity documented in many outside sources such as Buzzfeed, Rollingstone.com, Marieclaire.com, HuffingtonPost.com, and Bustle.com. Articles praise the show for normalizing an interest in true crime amongst listeners who previously considered themselves morbid or odd, discussing the sense of isolation and compartmentalization that often arises in those with outlying but healthy interests. Likewise noted is the predominance of female listeners which is consistent with data showing true crime fans are predominantly female. Fans of the show, who refer to themselves as "Murderinos," frequently create merchandise with quotes from the latest episode, including the show's sign-off catchphrase, "Stay Sexy, Don't Get Murdered" and "You're in a cult; call your dad" (a reference to an early episode regarding Scientology and the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige). Many of the show's profits from donations or direct sale of goods are donated to local police departments to fund examination of the backlog of untested rape kits.
As of October 5, 2016 My Favorite Murder was #10 on the overall iTunes podcast charts and #1 in the Comedy category and has around 450,000 downloads per episode.
Elle.com invited Hardstark to write about the JonBenét Ramsey case following the The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey to discuss her reaction and share her theories on the case.
Episodes
Source of the article : Wikipedia
EmoticonEmoticon