By: Dominique Bailey
Unfiltered, sarcastic and equally offensive to all, Bob’s Boneyard will entertain, offend or bore listeners. Available through iTunes, Bob’s Boneyard is a locally run podcast hosted by Bob Fresh, Manny Fresh and ODU alumni Alfredo Torres. Together, this trio will demand one’s attention as they speak freely about an array of topics. Hoping to showcase the academic excellence of Old Dominion University, episode 39, “Back to School Bruh,” was recorded in the Webb Center. Listeners are immediately introduced to the trio’s “hold-nothing-back” style as Bob Fresh begins poking fun at college students, more specifically Old Dominion students. All jokes are fun natured and seemingly harmless, but Bob pushes the envelope. He goes as far to say that college students are just partying on their parents’ dime. He even jokingly suggests that students should skip four years of college and work instead, that way they could be a manager after two years instead of unemployed. Bob Fresh later issues a blog post on BobsBoneyard.com to further explain his views and apologize to any Old Dominion listeners that his jokes may have offended.
Moving away from education, the podcast continues with more uncensored humor and pushes on to more important topics such as sex, personal hygiene and pop culture. As they use quirky jokes and quick jabs at one another to laugh their way through topics, listeners will be given the impression that the trio is just like any other group of friends having a daily conversation. Their closeness does give this podcast charm, but it does not give much direction. The transitions between topics are not the smoothest and “back to school” is not the main focus but more of another topic to touch on briefly. As the podcast comes to a close, listeners will have mixed feelings.
The Bob’s Boneyard trio’s approach is a bit off-putting but their uncensored mouths are not shocking. In an age where free speech is praised, their almost “shock-jock” approach is not extremely originally but it will generate some laughs. If nothing else works for this trio, they are guaranteed to draw in more listeners because it is uncensored and unfiltered. No matter how common it is to be raunchy, people will continue to gravitate towards raunchiness in hopes of being shocked or wowed. Keeping that in mind, the trio does become rather graphic because this is a podcast for adults. They are not catering to a younger age group, nor are they aiming to cater to all adults. More conservative or sensitive listeners may be turned off from the frequent use of graphic language and raunchy humor. Some listeners will not be turned off, but will simply find the trio uninteresting.
Bob’s Boneyard is not exceptionally academic, political or even informative. It is even doubtful that this podcast will change listeners’ lives but it will leave some entertained. Episode 39 gives listeners a general view of Bob’s Boneyard and after listening, the audience will know immediately if this was his or hers first and last time tuning in.
For a better listen, visit http://bobsboneyard.com/site/index.php
Okay review. What I would disagree on is episode 39 is not necessarily a general view of Bob’s Boneyard. I kind of feel that you were a bit offended at the fact they made fun of ODU and it’s students.