Keith and The Girl/Archive 1 - Recurring Themes

Recurring Themes

Some frequent topics of the show include:

• Accents: New listeners often are confused by Keith's strange pronunciation of words. This is due to the Pennsylvanian accent that Keith has.
• Keith's upbringing: Keith and company discuss his childhood in a small town, with a religious father. Mention of Chemda's upbringing is much less frequent. Sometimes guests offer their upbringings in comparison.
• New York stories: Happenings, personal and impersonal, in New York City. Includes Keith's early life after arriving from Somerset, working as a waiter.
• Clown Jobs: Appeared often in early episodes of the show, as Keith and Chemda were formerly children's entertainers. Clown job stories are now a rarity on the show.
• Showbiz stories: Aside from Gossip Thursday, the show often discusses podcasting, comedy, music, television and movies, and the state of their respective industries. Industry guests often provide significant contributions.
• Relationships: The relationships of Keith and Chemda, Keith when he first moved to New York, guests, pertinent listeners, and relationships in the news.
• HUAR (Humans United Against Robots): News and discussion of advancing robot technologies and their implications.
• Race, sexuality, and religion: The show has a controversial take on issues such as race, sexuality and religion. This includes the game "guess the race" (beginning with episode No. 2 Introduction to Racism) where Keith reads a news story, often a crime, and invites guests or callers to name the race of the alleged perpetrator. A casual listener could easily take offense to these aspects of the show and a number of listeners have written either to the show directly or on the forums complaining of racism and homophobia. Supporters of the show would point out that much of what is said is an ironic take on stereotypes and parodies simple prejudice (this form of performance can be found in a range of current podcasts such as Fox in the City). The show also features a number of Black guests and regulars such as Patrice, who occasionally defend Keith and Chemda's personal stance on these matters.
• Glitter: Keith and Chemda both hate glitter due to the fact they were constantly asked to use it during their clown jobs, and the fact that they can never remove it when they are finished.
• Shooter McGavin: Refers to the "finger guns" gesture performed by the character of the same name in Happy Gilmore, and any other obnoxious behavior from so-called "hotshots". It has come to be associated with the use of technical jargon and trivialization of important information by these "hotshots" as a way of avoiding scrutiny.
• Computer problems: As the talk show is delivered via the Internet a number of issues, such as saving or uploading audio files, arise. Being such a top-ranking show new podcast producers often email Keith requesting advice regarding podcasting, often obvious questions which information can be found by doing a web search.
• Nerds: Keith often professes his dislike for the 'nerds' that frequent podcasting, tech, and sci-fi conventions. He makes frequent references to them, often using a nerd voice to impersonate them. Recently, Keith started to use what is known as the 'nerd slurp' along with a voice that is a copy of the sound someone makes when they are wearing a retainer. Chemda, Patrice, and the general listening audience are usually disgusted by it.
• PodShow: Keith and Chemda have had issues in the past in dealing with Podshow, and its founder Adam Curry. One of the most downloaded episodes of the show was when Keith and Chemda acquired a podshow contract, and read the private document live on the air. In September 2008, Keith delivered an ultimatum for PodShow (now renamed Mevio) to remove all links to KATG from its site, because he claims that Mevio is using the downloads to KATG to pad their download stats even though KATG is not featured on the site.
• Taste Test: Keith, often along with frequent guest Brother Love, visit various strip clubs and gentlemen's establishments and review them on the air.
• Andy Rooney: Keith enjoys mocking the often nonsensical Andy Rooney of the CBS News program 60 Minutes. Keith enjoys making fun of how Andy has only a limited number of topics that he talks about, how he jumps from topic to topic without any segue whatsoever, and how he complains about not understanding something even though Andy works for one of the biggest news corporations in the world and could easily ask someone and find out.
• Cindy Adams: Keith also enjoys mocking Gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who likes to end her column with her musings about the great city of New York, with the phrase “Only in New York, kids, only in New York.” Oftentimes these musings have nothing to do with New York specifically, they become comical when Keith reads them with, what he assumes is, Cindy Adams raspy, cigarette-ridden voice.
• What Do We Do Now?: From their experiences in dealing with uncooperative customer service calls such as AOL, Chemda devised this phrase to get results in any customer service situation. When it appears that there are no other routes to obtaining your desired results, simply pause, say "What do we do now?", then hold for their response. The idea is to make the customer service representative so uncomfortable in this awkwardness that they will scramble to find some sort of result. Keith, Chemda and the listeners often share their success stories in this phrase. This phrase is featured on the back of the black T-shirt sold at the Keith and The Girl store.
• Serioso: A term coined by Chemda to describe a long-term romantic partner. A serioso relationship is more mature than the adolescent-sounding boyfriend-girlfriend, but not as formal as a fiancé/fiancée relationship. Following that awkwardness that often comes from being over 30 and unmarried, Chemda decided this new term needed to exist as a short way of saying "Someone that I've been dating and/or living with for many years, well into my adulthood. We are not married, however we live our lives as any other couple, both romantically and financially."
• Party! Super Party!: A term first coined by Keith as a joyous cheer to be shouted at any event when you are surrounded with good friends, food or drinks and are genuinely having a great time. It is customary to take a shot of liquor after the cheer to solidify the merriment. Traditionally, the cheer begins with one person shouting "Party!", and all other participants join in to complete the cry. An entire episode of KATG TV was dedicated to the cheer. Merchandise has been made that feature the phrase as well.