My Favorite Murder is a weekly true crime comedy podcast hosted by American comedians Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Kilgariff is best known for her work on Mr. Show and Ellen. Her stand up routine includes singing and playing guitar to original comedic songs. She is also known for her podcast Do You Need a Ride (DYNAR) with Chris Fairbanks. Hardstark co-hosts the shows Drinks With Alie and Georgia and Slumber Party with Alie and Georgia.
The show was broadcast on the Feral Audio network until September 2017, when it moved to Midroll Media. My Favorite Murder has listeners on every continent, including Antarctica.
Video My Favorite Murder
History
Kilgariff and Hardstark met at a Halloween party in 2014 where Kilgariff was describing a brutal accident she had witnessed: a drunk driver plowing into a crowd of people at SXSW. Hardstark approached Kilgariff with interest and the two talked all night about various murders throughout history. In January 2016, they released their first episode of My Favorite Murder with Feral Audio. In September 2017, the podcast left Feral Audio and signed with Midroll Media. Episodes are available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play Music.
Maps My Favorite Murder
Premise
Kilgariff and Hardstark each select a single murder, true crime story, or survivor story to recount and discuss, occasionally sharing additional "hometown murder" stories submitted by friends and fans. The podcast consists mainly of dialogue between the hosts. Early episodes were thematically based; examples include cannibalism, unsolved murders, or "weird murders." The thematic concept was abandoned early in the series.
Kilgariff and Hardstark have both referred to the podcast as a sort of therapy to deal with their own anxieties about murder. Both hosts strive to emphasize compassion for both the victims and perpetrators of the crimes they discuss, attempting to ensure that their discussion combats common problematic themes in true crime, such as discrimination against the mentally ill, sex workers, and women.
Early episode titles included murder-themed puns and pop culture references, such as "Thirty Let The Bodies Hit The Four," a reference to the Drowning Pool song "Bodies;" "I 28 His Liver With Some Fava Beans and A Nice Chianti," reminiscent of a famous line from The Silence of the Lambs; and "SE7ENteen", a reference to cult-classic Se7en. However, the more recent episode titles consist of jokes based on the conversation within the episode, such as "Steven's Tuxedo" and "Service Poodle".
Format and structure
The podcast is in large part improvisational, with the bulk of it consisting of discussion between the two hosts rather than a detailed recounting of facts. The discussion between the two hosts is not restricted to true crime, and they often spend the first portion of the podcast discussing current events or their personal lives. The hosts frequently misstate or misremember facts and go on to apologize for their errors in the following episode in what they call "Corrections Corner." Both hosts have repeatedly stated that the podcast is meant to be an informal, comedic podcast rather than a strictly informative one.
While full episodes are released weekly on Thursdays, ranging in length from 60-120 minutes, "minisodes" that are dedicated solely to the topic of "hometown murders" are released Mondays and are typically 30-45 minutes long. "Hometown murders" include stories of murders, crimes, survivals, and hauntings submitted by listeners.
Episodes are usually recorded in Hardstark's Los Angeles apartment. In late 2016, the duo began touring with a live version of the show, and these are recorded and aired later as they are edited.
At times, the hosts interact with the show's audio engineer Steven Ray Morris about the topics at hand. He is occasionally referred to as "the voice of Tina Belcher."
The hosts end each episode with their catch phrase, "Stay sexy and don't get murdered." Hardstark then asks her cat, "Elvis, want a cookie?", and Elvis meows into the microphone as the episode ends.
Reactions and response
My Favorite Murder quickly gained a large fan following, including a Facebook group with over 200,000 members as of April 2018, and a Facebook fan page with more than 171,000 followers as of February 2018. My Favorite Murder was swiftly syndicated beyond the original Feral Audio site to such places as Google Play Music and iTunes. Media reaction to the program has been largely positive, with the phenomenon of the podcast's rapid popularity documented in many outside sources such as Buzzfeed, Rollingstone.com, Marieclaire.com, HuffingtonPost.com, and Bustle.com. Articles praise the show for normalizing an interest in true crime amongst listeners who previously considered themselves morbid or odd, discussing the sense of isolation and compartmentalization that often arises in those with outlying but healthy interests. Likewise noted is the predominance of female listeners which is consistent with data showing true crime fans are predominantly female. Fans of the show, who refer to themselves as "Murderinos," frequently create merchandise with quotes from the latest episode, including the show's sign-off catchphrase, "Stay Sexy, Don't Get Murdered" and "You're in a cult; call your dad" (a reference to an early episode regarding Scientology and the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige). Many of the show's profits from donations or direct sale of goods are donated to local police departments to fund examination of the backlog of untested rape kits. In addition to their massive success with their recorded podcast, the hosts have done several live shows internationally that follow the same format of the podcast. Some of their live shows are made available to listeners in place of a new show that week.
As of October 5, 2016 My Favorite Murder was #10 on the overall iTunes podcast charts and #1 in the Comedy category and has around 450,000 downloads per episode.
Elle.com invited Hardstark to write about the JonBenét Ramsey case following The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey to discuss her reaction and share her theories on the case.
On February 21, 2017, The Atlantic published the article titled "How a True-Crime Podcast Became a Mental-Health Support Group" which discusses the "Murderino" community built around taking care of yourself, and how stories of murders have come to help listeners exorcise their fears.
The show has faced some criticism, notably with regard to their treatment of topics relating to marginalized groups (such as sex workers, people of color, and the LGBTQ community) and factual inaccuracies. The hosts are often receptive to corrections for factual inaccuracies and are learning to be more sensitive to marginalized groups, by including a "housekeeping" or "corrections corner" in many of the episodes.
Episodes
Live Shows
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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