6 Ways To Cure Your ‘Serial’ Withdrawal
Digital Fellow Lior Zaltzman December 24, 2014
Illustration by Lior Zaltzman
Season one of Serial is over. I don’t know about you, but I shed a tear. My Thursdays just won’t be the same without the sensational “This American Life” spin-off, produced and narrated by Sarah Koenig.
While Serial was a Serious podcast — serious with a capital “S,” because the true crime drama is about a real-life case with real-life implications — it did provide us with some delicious moments of levity. So without further ado, to help ward off your Serial withdrawal, I give you the podcast’s funniest and silliest (little or big) moments:
1. Dana and Julie Visit the Mad Hatter: The last episode of Serial has a lot to it. But luckily we get a last glimpse (of the season) into Dana, Julie and Sarah’s office womance. In an important conversation, in which Dana Chivvis and Julie Snyder find a way to refute one of the most damning pieces of evidence against Adnan, Dana is showing Sarah a picture of the Old Records Department. Sarah notes that it looks like the mad hatter’s archive room.
Sarah: Were you the first humanoid who’d come down in like fifteen years?
Dana: Yeah, they were like: “What news do you bring?”
It was so sweet to get that glimpse into their dynamic. It had absolutely no reason to be there aside from adding their voice and personality to the show. I can’t wait for another season of Serial with these big dorks.
2. Is there a Phone Booth at the Best Buy? The phone booth at the Best Buy has gained a mythical status. Yes, even Best Buy tweeted about the pay phone at Best Buy. Where was the pay phone? Was it inside the Best Buy? Was it outside the Best Buy? Did anything even happen at the Best Buy? Why is Best Buy such a confusing place?
3. “There’s a shrimp sale at the Crab Crib?” In what is arguably the most adorable moment on Serial, an absent-minded Dana Chivvis can’t help but be distracted by a shrimp sale at the Crab Crib. “Sometimes I think Dana isn’t listening to me,” Sarah tells us. It may be Sarah’s Jewish heritage that makes her immune to appetizing sales of non-kosher food items. Or just her fierce journalistic drive. You decide.
4. Christina Guiterrez accuses Jay of “stepping out”: No, not the kind of frolic-some, innocent stepping out Jo Jackson sings of in his 1982 smash hit. The kind of stepping out Christina Guiterrez, Adnan’s defense attorney, accuses Jay of is much more sinister. I have to say I hadn’t heard of that as an expression for cheating…possibly ever. So next time you want to accuse your significant other of cheating, just drawl: “If you were stepping out on me… With any person… Of any name… In any location… That would impact our relationship, would it not?” It’ll make for a great disincentive.
5. The most ridiculous fight about stabbing in radio: Teenage Jay is the most quirky, hilarious person. I mean, according to sources, he has a rat-eating frog. In the episode “The Deal with Jay,” a friend of Jay’s tells a story about the time Jay offered to charity-stab him when he found out he had never been stabbed before. “Yo, I’m not gonna stab you deep but you’ve never been stabbed before, you need to know what it’s like,” is what benevolent Jay said, according to his friend. Ah, friendship.
Mail… Kimp?
6. Mail… Khimp? Surprisingly, the most popular moment of the podcast comes in the beginning. In an introduction of sponsors, different people read out the name of the “Mailchimp,” the e-mail newsletter company. A little girl (I hope, and not a somewhat illiterate grown woman with a baby voice) mistakenly reads it as mail-KIMP. “Mail-KIMP?!” said Serial podcast listeners. “Why, I have never heard anything more grating/adorable/hilarious/perplexing in my life!” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how an internet meme is born.
What are some of your favorite Serial moments?
Bonus: the funniest Serial parodies:
Our Serial Obsession with Serial:
SNL’s Chris Cringle Serial parody this week was amazing. Aidy Bryant’s impression of Christina Guiterrez is hilarious:
Funny Or Die corroborates our most ridiculous conspiracy theory:
A great series of audio parodies from Paul Laudiero:
P.S: Don’t forget to check out Terri Gross’ interview with Sarah Koenig on Fresh Air.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
