FAQ
Is Smith and Sniff scripted or planned?
No, not at all. Jonny and Richard sometimes make notes of things they want to talk about, or Jonny messages Richard and says 'when we record the next podcast remember to ask me about a very thin Hillman Imp enthusiast' or something. But that's it. From there on in, it's ad libbed. Except the random trivia at the end, and now Jonny's fake YouTube channels, which Richard notes down in advance so he doesn't have to think of something on the spot.
Lots of other podcasts release video versions of their shows. Why doesn't Smith and Sniff?
Richard in particular is quite militant about podcasts being an audio format and there being nothing wrong with that. He thinks no one wants to see them sitting there in their respective spare rooms for an hour of the same fixed camera shots. Also, they record remotely and there'd be that horrible fraction-of-a-second lag you get over Zoom or whathaveyou which would suck some of the life out of the chat. So that's pretty much why. Because Richard thinks video podcasts are crap and doesn't want to do one.
What's this OTSOT thing about?
OTSOT stands for 'on that side of things', a verbal tic often used by a car electrician of Jonny's acquaintance which has somehow wormed its way into the Smith and Sniff lexicon and refuses to leave. See also, 'and all that', a phrase used endlessly by a VW enthusiast that Jonny used to deal with.
And why is there a picture of Sade on the OTSOT page of this website?
That's another in-joke entirely. In episode 56 a listener sent us a story about finding two copies of the same Sade album in a second-hand Ford Escort, Jonny idly wondered what Sade herself might drive, and from there listeners started telling us. We mentioned her so much that someone left a stinky review for the show saying it had become "the unofficial Sade news podcast", although, in fairness, we were pretty light on information about non-car aspects of her life. Anyway, she drove Mercedes' in the '80s, it seems, and a Mazda RX-8 more recently, in case you were wondering.
Okay, so why the obsession with the band Marillion?
Jonny likes to watch old music videos while he's brushing his teeth for reasons it's probably not worth diving into here. One day he watched one of Marillion performing Kayleigh on Top of the Pops in the '80s and mentioned on the podcast (episode 99) how ridiculous they looked. From there we began to wonder what they drove back in their heyday and in the following weeks listeners began to send us unsolicited information about the Marillion fleet culminating in someone well-connected offering to get us a phone number for Fish from Marillion (even though he's not in Marillion any more and hasn't been for over 30 years). After that Jonny and Richard called a Marillion amnesty and try not to mention them any more. They don't even know any of the band's songs (apart from Kayleigh. Everyone knows Kayleigh).
The pair of you also seem fixated with 1970s after shave, Brut. Why?
No particular reason. Jonny just likes it and once badgered Richard into buying a bottle of it in a supermarket near Chichester.
Why do you often say 'Ford' and 'sport' in a stupid way?
In the UK the Ford Motor Company has long been based around the county of Essex. So Jonny and Richard started adopting an exaggerated Essex accent when saying 'Ford' and it's now got out of hand. 'Sport' somehow got dragged along too. Probably because of the Range Rover Sport, an SUV quite popular amongst the people of Essex. This whole thing might have its roots in Richard's observation that older people from East London, many of whom moved out to Essex, could make 'war' into a four syllable word.
How do you spell the Smith and Sniff pronunciation of 'sport'?
It varies. Something along the lines of 'spowwwaaaaaaaghtaaaaaaaaaaah-uh' but it changes on a daily basis, like the currency markets. 'Ford' is probably spelt 'Fuwwwwwudddah' but, again, it's a moveable feast.
What's the John Peel band thing?
John Peel was a British radio DJ (1939-2004) famed for his love of hyper-obscure bands. And The Fall. To play the John Peel band name game you have to identify odd phrases in every day life that sound like bands Peel would have featured on his late night show. Richard discovered this game on holiday with some mates years ago, starting with the phrase “Alpha male barbecue experience”, but he didn’t invent it. At least, not that he remembers.
What's the story behind going 'Guys, hey, guys, look, guys, listen' etc?
It's just a stupid way of changing the subject in a supercilious manner. We don't know where it came from, although it might be inspired by impressions of Tony Blair and/or a bit of Quentin Willson.
Why have you started making up fake YouTube channels for Jonny at the end of every episode?
Richard got a bit bored of saying largely the same thing at the end of each episode so for his own amusement he made up a fake channel name on the spot in episode 103 and now it's become a thing. People have started sending them in and everything.