Death To Superstition
ill-advised by Bill Nighy
In this episode of 'ill-advised by Bill Nighy,' the host tackles a range of quirky topics including the absurdity of flesh-colored clothing,
Key takeaways
- It's perfectly acceptable to abandon a book that fails to engage, regardless of its reputation or recommendations.
Main topics
- The ethics of abandoning books
- Flesh-colored clothing as a cultural absurdity
Notable quotes
If you saw the color of my flesh, you wouldn't want to make a T-shirt out of it.
Conclusion
Bill Nighy reminds listeners that personal freedom—whether in reading habits,
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:05) Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you are on the planet. This is Bill Nye at Ill-Advised by Bill Nye. And it's season three. Who knew? Can you believe it? And I'm here to answer your questions without actually making things worse. My credentials are that I got nearly everything wrong most of the time in my early life and indeed into my early and late middle age. It took me a while to get the hang of it. So I'm not very good at knowing, particularly knowing what to do, but I'm world class at knowing what not to do. So I could be handy. So try me. And we welcome you back. We have many of our familiar features, including the banned word list, where we will officially ban any word you wish to have banned from the English language or any other language on your behalf. And also our other, we hope, well-loved feature called But You Don't Understand I'm Like With The Band, where we invite you to tell us about bands you had, hopefully embarrassingly named, when you were teenagers, and some of the hopefully embarrassing lyrics that you wrote for your signature tunes. And we've had great fun with that, and people have been very generous, so we hope for some more. In fact, I have one here. Speaker 1 (1:32) This week's contribution comes from Lauren Dold, and it's entitled Banana-Flavored Jelly Tots Grow on Trees by a band called No Comment with a K. Dear Bill Nye, ever since I discovered your I'm with the band feature, I've lived in quiet dread that one of my old school friends would beat me to submitting the utterly humiliating evidence of our teenage musical ambitions. So I've decided to hand us in myself. It's very brave of you. Lauren. Our band was called No Comment, spelt like that with a K. And our signature song was called Banana Flavored Jelly Tots, parenthesis. You know I'm a sucker for parenthesis. Grow on trees, close parenthesis. The chorus went, banana-flavored jelly tots grow on trees. They're so good you'll want to get down and beg on your knees. Banana-flavored jelly tots, yeah, they really hit the spot. Once you start, you just can't stop. Banana-flavored jelly tots and jelly-flavored banana tots grow on trees. Well, it's magnificent, Lauren. I don't know what you're talking about, humiliating. I'm going to say it again with more gravitas. I presume it's a ballad. Banana-flavored jelly tots grow on trees. They're so good, you'll want to get down and beg on your knees. Banana-flavored jelly tots, yes, they really hit the spot. Once you start, you just can't stop. Banana-flavored jelly tots and jelly-flavored banana tots grow on trees. And then Lauren remarks, I wish I could tell you there was some deep metaphor at work. Lauren, I think we've spotted that it's metaphorless. There wasn't. Stranger still, I can't stand anything banana-flavored. Oh, my. With enduring embarrassment, Lauren doled from... an unpronounceable place near Limpopo in South Africa. I'm going to try it. I have no idea how you say it. It's spelled H-O-E-D, hoid, spruit, which is S-P-R-U-I-T. I'm going to Google it live on mic so that you know that I take this stuff seriously. It says... Hoodsprout is pronounced Hoodsproit or Hoodsprout, literally translated from its original Afrikaans roots. The English meaning of the town's name is Hat Creek. So there you go. So from Hat Creek in Limpopo, South Africa, Lauren Dold, thank you. And remember, if you've got any embarrassing lyrics, and we're not here to judge, we're just here to savour them. and to open our hearts to all young lyric writers everywhere. So please don't be shy. Send them in because we can all laugh at you, and that's good for your character. But yeah, so do let us know. We have all our other features as well, but this is becoming more and more popular because everyone seems to have had a band, and they've all got a signature tune. Speaker 1 (5:01) You can email us at contactus at ill-advisedbybillnye.com. Thank you for all of your questions. Let's hear some. Speaker 5 (5:18) Hi, Bill. It's Pip from Melbourne, Australia. I thought of you the other day. I saw someone in a flesh-coloured T-shirt. It was awful, and I'm assuming you'd agree with me. What are your thoughts? Is flesh-coloured clothing ever okay? Thanks. Speaker 1 (5:36) Well, Pip, you have never seen the color of my flesh. But trust me, if you saw the color of my flesh, you wouldn't want to make a T-shirt out of it. I mean, was the person wearing the flesh-colored T-shirt, was he tanned like Australian tanned or she? Obviously not because you wouldn't use. Even the words flesh-colored, they ought to be on. I think we might have to put them on the banned word list actually. Flesh is a word that has always worried me. But no, I think, I mean, why? I don't understand why anyone would do that. And I'm with you. I think it's absolutely appalling. But it's a good way of spotting people you want to build your life around avoiding. So from that point of view, it's convenient because it's a pretty clear signal that they're not in very good shape. Why you wouldn't want to wear navy blue, I have no idea. Because everybody's going to look better in navy. Speaker 4 (6:41) Hi Bill, I'm Igor from Brazil. I wish, if possible, to voice a vital question. At what point is one morally permitted to abandon a disappointing book one has already started, even if it was highly recommended or one had foolishly pinned great hopes on it? Thank you. Speaker 1 (7:01) Hello Igor, and regards to Brazil. I love getting messages from South America. That's a very good question. And it's a thing that people discuss over the years. When I was young, I thought, because I had a kind of... I suppose, a kind of religious attitude toward books and reading, that if I'd started a book, I had to finish it. And that went on for quite a long time in my early life. But since then, I absolutely think it's okay to abandon a book as soon as your mind starts to wander. Because often it's not your... not that there's anyone to blame. There's no blame involved if you don't enjoy a book, obviously. But it's often the writing's fault and that it's not written well enough to keep you there. I now quite happily and cheerfully abandon a book on the third page, the second chapter, you know, halfway through. I don't endure books anymore. And things that are heavily recommended. Books are a very personal thing and people that you would trust in every other area of your life probably, you can't necessarily rely on when it comes to literary taste. And people have the most extraordinary taste and they're also, they're