Muggle Cast is an online podcast about the Harry Potter series. Started in 2005, the show has since spanned more than 200 episodes and is the most popular Harry Potter podcast online. The show has won numerous awards and is widely known in the podcasting community.
Muggle Cast episodes are usually released every Sunday, with 3-5 hosts on each show. They talk about recent news and anything interesting going on lately. Each week, they have a main discussion where the talk about a certain topic, character or event. They're are also a variety of other segments, such as: Chapter By Chapter, Make The Music Connection, Voicemails, The Sorting Hat and more. The hosts also respond to feedback on the show.
Their website can be found here.
The hosts:
- Andrew Sims, the main host.
- Ben Schoen, one of the original hosts who isn't on much any more.
- Eric Scull, known for going into long spiels.
- Jamie Lawrence, resident Brit.
- Micah Tannenbaum, Muggle Cast news anchorman.
- Laura Thompson, known for being (for a long time) the only female host.
- Mikey B., a film major who is one of the more recent hosts.
- Matt Britton, the new guy.
- Elysa Montfort, she and Laura have interchangable brains.
Previous hosts:
- Kevin Steck, the Geek.
Guest hosts:
- Greg Porter of Xaler Studios.
- The PotterCast trio Melissa Anelli, John Noe and Sue Upton.
- Andy McCray of of HP Fanzone.
- Jess, former MuggleNet staff member.
- Also, others.
Many of the hosts host another podcast called Smart Mouths, which is more "mature" than Muggle Cast and they discuss a more widespread selection of topics, such as general news and politics. While Andrew, Matt, and Elysa head up Imprint, a podcast dedicated to the Twilight Series. The podcast tends to fall a bit on the Twihard side of the uberfan-uberhater spectrum, but still manages to sneak in a few moments of snark (the podcast even managed to score an interview with the rather publicity-shy Stephenie Meyers herself).
- Actually Pretty Funny
- Annoying Younger Sibling - Andrew's siblings Rebecca and Ryan.
- Arch Enemy - PotterCast at first. They've gotten over it now.
- Ambiguously Gay - Matt Britton defines this trope. Though, we're not sure how ambiguous it is anymore. He may have disolved into * Camp Gay , which is still fine.
- April Fools' Day - In 2007, the hosts claimed to have received copies of the seventh book and revealed multiple "spoilers" on air.
- Back To You Dave - "And now Micah Tannenbaum is standing by in the Muggle Cast news center with the past week's top Harry Potter news stories!" "Thanks, Micah!".
- On an episode where nobody could do it right, Micah introed himself.
Micah: And now Micah Tannenbaum is standing by in the Muggle Cast news center with the past week's top Harry Potter news stories. Micah! |
- Beware the Honest Ones - Micah.
- Brief Accent Imitation - Many co-hosts have imitated Jamie's British accent. He has also imitated their American accents.
- British Accents - Jamie.
- Brutal Honesty - Micah.
- But Wait! There's More!
- Butt Monkey - Andrew, when he's not there.
- Call on Me - "Mikey B! Mikey B! Mikey B!"
- Canada, Eh?
- Captain Obvious
- Catch Phrase - "Pickles!", also "It's tough being Ben Schoen" and "Yeah! Yeah! Alright!"
- The Chick - Laura.
- Children Are Innocent - Ryan Sims, Andrew's brother.
- Christmas Episode - One every year. They also do New Year's episodes.
- Clark Kenting - Two Words: Rubeus Hagrid.
- Crowning Moment of Heartwarming - "You can have any of my Horcruxes, Jamie."
- Death by Woman Scorned
- Delayed Reaction
- Did I Just Say That Out Loud?
- Don't Explain the Joke
- Draco in Leather Pants - All the male hosts.
- Fandom Nod - Mentions of Muggle Cast fanfiction.
- Full Name Ultimatum
- Fun with Acronyms SAVegasMONEY (Save Gas Money), an acronym for "Super Awesome Vegas Magical Outing (At) Night (With) Eric (And) You!".
- Gag Words - Pickles!
- Geek - Kevin and Mikey.
- Give a Whole New Meaning
- Gut Feeling - If Andrew were a betting man...
- Hilarious Outtakes
- Hilarity Ensues
- How Did That Get in There?
- I Knew It!
- I Meant to Do That
- I Was Just Joking
- Innocent Innuendo
Laura: You say, "Oh I don't mind" and then it EXPLODES. |
- Instrumental Theme Tune
- Intentionally Awkward Title - "Laura's Pants"
- It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY" - First it was "Rolling not "Rawling" then it was "Hallows not Hollows".
- "Jump Off a Bridge" Rebuttal
- Kent Brockman News - Micah's news segment.
- Lampshade Hanging
- Large Ham - Andrew is often this.
- Last-Second Word Swap - "Bitch" -> "Witch"
- Let's See You Do Better
- Live Episode - Many.
- Episode 16: Right after the Goblet of Fire primere, with guest hosts Emerson Spartz (MuggleNet webmast) and PotterCast trio Melissa, John and Sue.
- Episode 49: Right On Time: A live show done over UStream.
- Episode 81: Live In England: A test show held by Jamie and Andrew.
- Episode 86: Cover Call-Ins: A live call-in show where they discuss the covers.
- Episode 89: In the Middle of the Night: A live call-in show where the discuss the fifth movie.
- Episdoe 98-99: These were both live shows from the Enlightening 2007 convention.
- Episdoe 100: The Big One: A live show in England just before the Deathly Hallows release, with special guest hosts.
- Episode 101: Streaming Spoilers: Done right after they read the book, this show was the hosts' initial thoughts on the final installment of Harry Potter.
- Episodes 102-106: These were live shows held in various book stores throughout the US.
- Episodes 108-113: These episodes were split parts of the 12 hour live show they did over UStream.
- Episode 119: Quack: Another UStream episode.
- Episode 136: Happily Split: Yet again done over UStream, they discussed the movie 7 split announcement for two hours.
- Meganekko - Elysa.
- Missing Episode - 57.
- Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls
- Naive Newcomer - Matt.
Name outtros |
- No, Really, It's Okay
- Once an Episode - Recently, Micah's made a reference to goats almost every episode.
- One-Episode Wonder
- Portmanteau Couple Name - AJ (Andrew/Jamie), JAM (Jamie/Andrew/Matt), Mandrew (Andrew/Matt), amongst others
- Punch Line
- Ruined FOREVER - Their April Fool's 2007 joke, where they got the manuscripts of Deathly Hallows. Some people failed to see the humour in it.
- Rule of Funny
- Rule 34
- Running Gag - Many.
- Screams Like a Little Girl - Matt.
- Snowball Lie
- Sound Effect Bleep - Parodied on Episode 134: What The Bleep?
- Stage Names - After J.K. Rowling mentioned a wizard radio host named Toots in passing on her website, Andrew tried to get his fellow hosts to call him by that name. See Who's Laughing Now? below.
- Special Guest - Rubeus Hagrid. But really, Jim Dale, Mary Grand Pre and Patrick Doyle.
- Talkative Loons
- Too Good For That Bastard
- Took a Level In Badass - Micah at multiple times.
- Top Ten List - Ben's.
- Trademark Favorite Food - Lucky Charms for Jamie and Subway for Ben.
- Unpleasable Fanbase
- Vaudeville Hook - The cowbell serves basically this purpose. If an, "I'm serious!" "No, you're not, if you were you'd be dead," joke goes on too long, it's drowned out with the cowbell.
- Who's Laughing Now? Episode #80: Toots:
Laura: How about from now on we just randomly call you every - like we call you a name of a random radio personality. Like right now, I'll go ahead and call you Rush Limbaugh. How do you like that? |
- In #234, the live show after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was released, the commentators and Evanna Lynch play Dueling Club. As a joke, Andrew says his team's choice is Gandalf before quickly retracting it as a joke. Eric forces Andrew's team to defend him anyway. They lose.