Posted on 02/17/2018 2:39:20 PM PST by nickcarraway
When Oxygen, the television network for women, rebranded itself as a true crime channel last year, it leaned into TV’s time-tested approach: a focus on gruesome and mysterious killings, disproportionately involving white female victims and sensationalized by self-serious narrators. But Oxygen also began experimenting with a new way to cover those crimes. It started a comedy podcast, “Martinis & Murder,” in which the two hosts get tipsy on homicide-themed cocktails, audibly squirm over the gory details, make catty judgments about the suspects’ life choices and use particulars of the crimes as setups for sarcastic jokes.
Here’s a sampling of dialogue from a recent episode, in which the hosts Daryn Carp (the assistant to Bravo’s Andy Cohen) and John Thrasher (a producer at Oxygen) discuss the Zodiac killer:
MR. THRASHER All right, well, let’s get to the third murder — oh my God, there are so many murders to get to here.
MS. CARP Fortunately.
MR. THRASHER Sadly, yeah.
At first blush, this approach to covering murder can seem a little tactless. I mean: People died! But especially for women, humor has emerged as an easy coping mechanism for relentlessly being told by pop culture that they’re probably going to be raped and murdered by a stranger, as ludicrous as that is.
Most of the time, Ms. Carp and Mr. Thrasher are discussing the same crimes that are featured on Oxygen specials; they often quote directly from episodes of shows like “Snapped” (about women who kill) and “Killer Couples” (self-explanatory). But instead of talking like grim-faced, gravel-voiced hosts, they inhabit the voice of a particular kind of viewer at home, one who alternates between being seized by the sensational story and ridiculing it.
“Martinis & Murder” is just one of a new crop of comedy podcasts, largely by
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
wasn’t oxygen founded by oprah?
Sounds like Oxygen isn’t doing well, and desperate for ratings.
Good.
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