Romesh’s BEST Impressions & Why Shanthi LOVES James Acaster?!

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0:56Romesh Ranganathan:Tron Ares now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13. Welcome back to the Thursday edition of the Romesh Ranga Nathan Show. I'm back in the studio with the Dream Team, but most importantly, I'm here with my mum Shanti. Every Thursday, we sit down, chat about Monday's episode, hear your stories and keep your company on your commute, at the gym or in bed, wherever you get your podcast fix. Before we get going, hit subscribe or follow wherever you listen. Apparently, if you're done, the algorithm buries us and mom takes it personally.

1:38Romesh Ranganathan:Mom, how are you today? After all that, I'm fine. What did you think of that? It's lovely. I like the tune. Thanks. I was just making it up. I know, I know. Could you do a little bit of a, could you introduce the show in the style of like you're introducing me at a boxing match? I'm doing good at that. Mum, the thing about this improv stuff is you have to yes and. You're very blocky, if you don't mind me saying. So just give it a go. How do I say it? Say I'll copy you. You shouldn't copy me. You need to do it yourself. That's a different thing, yeah. Just go like, you know, you're at a boxing match.

2:14Romesh Ranganathan:I'm the boxer. You're introducing me on as your son. Yeah. You want the crowd to be ready to support me in the fight. Okay, go. Just an example of how excited I should be. Like, really excited. Okay, can I just put you in the thing? You're in the ring with a microphone. I'm going to be fighting in a boxing match. You're introducing me to the crowd. Yeah. I'm boxing. So I can say my son. Yes. Yeah. Go for it. Really hype, hype. Let's get ready to rumble, my husband. My husband.

2:55Close, though. Close. Try again, try again. Hi, everybody. Please support my son. He's in the boxing ring. I want all your support. Please, please support him. And I'll be very grateful. Thank you.

3:27With me, Shanti.

3:30Romesh Ranganathan:On Monday, we had my friend and fellow comedian and podcast king, James A. Castor on. Yeah, we gave James some, like, little bells. Whose idea was that? Well, it wasn't mine. Whose idea was it? It was Ben's idea. It was Ben's idea. OK. So, some bells, and why was that that we gave him bells? I can't remember. It was to do with Kettering. Because they have bells in Kettering? Sort of, yeah. Is that what the idea was? I think it was Keta ring that bell. Oh. Oh, God. Is that why we had bells? Because of Keta ring that bell? I think that was the idea. If I'd have known that, I wouldn't have. I thought there was some more greater significance.

4:12Romesh Ranganathan:Anyway, we gave him some bells and he hated it. We tried to get him to do a few tunes and he wasn't really into it, was he? No, he didn't like it. Do you like James Acaster? He's a comedian that you've met on more than one occasion. Do you remember he was on the Ranganation and he started... Look, him. Oh, yes, I know him. Yeah, I said, I'm doing exercise. My boobs are getting big and losing weight. So he found it so funny. Yeah, and then he said, I'm doing some exercise. My dick is getting big. His dick is big, yeah. And then you said, oh, I really like that. Can we get the clip, please? Mum, how do you stay active?

4:47I do Pilates. Unfortunately, I'm losing weight. My boobs are getting bigger. I don't know what to do. What? Women's dream. God, mum.

4:58Romesh Ranganathan:Any more questions, Rob? James, have you been exercising? Yeah, I've been doing Pilates. I've lost a lot of weight and my dick's massive.

5:11You are my kind of man.

5:13Romesh Ranganathan:Mum, you love that, didn't you? I do, I do love it. No, no, no.

5:22Romesh Ranganathan:He also said he'd do a traveling show with you. Oh, yeah. That was the other thing he said. Well done, Will. He said that he would like to do Asian provocateur, but he replaces me, and it's just you and him going around Sri Lanka. That'll be lovely. Would you do it? With a big dick.

5:47going with a little mouse that's the idea

5:59Romesh Ranganathan:Mum you're very enthusiastic now when you're talking about dicks weren't so keen on the boxing intro boxing I don't like and I found it boxing is the noise they make. What noise? I don't find it is true. What noise? I don't like boxing. That's why I couldn't do it. Very few people say I don't like boxing because of the noise they do. What noise are you talking about? How can I explain? What's the noise you're talking about? When does it happen? When they're punching or what? Punching and turning them around. Turning them around? Yeah. That's a different thing altogether. I don't know what you're talking about.

6:37Romesh Ranganathan:I think you might be talking about the circus. Boxing is with boxing gloves and you punch each other. Punch each other, okay. Yeah, what's turning them around? They turn them around and jump on them. Wrestling. Wrestling. Oh, right, yeah, no, that is fake. That is fake. It is fake. Yeah, but boxing's real. We're talking about two different things now. Wrestling is like entertainment, but boxing is entertainment. Boxing's a real... With boxing gloves. Okay. So every time people are saying boxing, you'll be thinking about Hulk Hogan. Okay, interesting. Well, there you go. It's a teachable moment.

7:13It is. I learned a lot. Yeah.

7:15Romesh Ranganathan:Who's your favourite boxer? The one who lives in Brighton? Chris Eubank. Chris Eubank. That's your favourite boxer of all time. He is. He is. I like the way he dresses. I like the way he talks. And you think he's been flipping people over and stuff like that? No, no, no, no. Because that's not what boxing is, Shanci. You're describing wrestling. the intellectual nerve that boxing is a gentleman's sport. You put on the red gloves and you step into the ring and it's a test of who has the greatest resolve. That was my Chris Eubank. What do you think? Fantastic. Very good. You've done it so well. Thank you.

7:55Romesh Ranganathan:Thank you so much. I remember when, like, because obviously, like, Chris Eubank's son, Chris Eubank's son recently lost to Nigel Benson. And he was still dancing. Yeah. But Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn, when we were growing up, that was like, that was crazy, that rivalry. I remember they had like an American boxer. I remember Jonathan Ross was hosting like some pre-match event and they were talking about how they were going to fight and then I remember there was this American boxer. I can't remember what his name was, but he came on the screen. He goes, I don't care who wins. I'll kick you and your mama's ass.

8:26Romesh Ranganathan:And then Chris Eubank went, why is he talking about my mother? What does my mother have to do with this? It's a fight between men of the boxing ring. and he's talking about our mothers. It's really good. Okay, let's hear from some listeners. This week we're answering more of your questions. We love hearing from you. We actually try and help, don't we? We actually are trying to help. And if we can't help, please do still like and subscribe. Okay, the first question is from Rebecca from Australia. Can I just say, we're getting a disproportionate number of messages from Australia. Could we do a live version of this show in Australia, do you think?

9:03Romesh Ranganathan:and we reach that level of popularity i'm up for it yeah yeah yeah will john let's do it yeah and ben you can be here remotely making sure everything's smooth can't you okay shall we hear shall we hear from rebecca of course don't talk about australia okay don't talk about australia what do you mean what is australia your best mate why have you become so defensive about australia I thought you were defending me, but no. No! No, no, okay. No. No, no, who gives a shit about you? Australia, mate. Australia needs defending. Okay. Shall we? Don't you dare talk about Australia! Yeah. Okay, let's hear from Rebecca from Australia, which I love and respect.

9:51Hi, Ramesh and Shanti. I love your podcast and look forward to it every week. Coming from a Sri Lankan background myself, I wanted to get your advice on how to encourage women like my mother and mother-in-law to have their own hobbies and interests outside of just being obsessed with their grandchildren and caretaking responsibilities. I'd love to know your thoughts.

10:18Romesh Ranganathan:Well, I think I can do the advice for both of us if you like. Yeah, please do. Yeah, sure. Listen, darling, thank you for the message. what I would say is the mother deserves respect and you have to hold them above all one day they'll no longer be there you'll be crying so if the mother wants to see the grandkids they're a gift and you must listen whenever the mother or the mother-in-law says I want to see the grandkids you must do it it's a gift don't be rude what do you think? that's fantastic

10:59Romesh Ranganathan:Look, Rebecca, thank you so much for your message. What do you think my advice is going to be? I don't know. I don't know because I thought you will attack me. That's what she does. My mum comes and I want to see the grandchildren. And, yeah, you do say. I ask, I haven't seen the grandchildren. Maybe after nine months or eight months. So I love to see them. They are growing so far. You don't believe that you've seen my kids in the last nine months? The last time I saw when Savani came to your house. That was about nine months ago. Okay. God. I would say that I know that you want your mother and your mother-in-law to do their own thing, but their grandkids are like an amazing thing.

11:54Romesh Ranganathan:you know, grandparents love their grandkids. So I would say if you're having a problem with sorting out the time between those things, I think you should maybe look at structuring your time so that you know that this is going to be grandkids time. And then you can say to them, there's certain time that we want to be doing our own thing. And can you find something else to do? And then if you set up a sort of a structure in advance, and hopefully it'll solve any quiz, I think the you know, the biggest problem is sort of having it unknown when they're going to see Whereas if you go on this date, we're definitely going to see each other.

12:26Romesh Ranganathan:That sort of frees up the time in between for them to go, well, I'm not going to put so much pressure on that because I know I've got this guaranteed block of time with the grandkids at some point in the future. You know, that's my advice. What do you think? That's good. That's good. What would you say your hobbies are? My hobby is making cakes and making mutton roll. Yeah. Cooking. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so now learning new things. That's a new hobby. Yeah. Okay? Okay. Yeah. What sort of hobbies would you recommend that Rebecca's mum and mother-in-law get into? Because those aren't your only hobbies.

13:02Romesh Ranganathan:You're doing Pilates. Pilates. You're doing yoga. Yeah. You're going to the gym. I do. Yeah. So why don't you? I don't know how old their mother and mother-in-law, whether they can go to the gym or do exercises. but I'm glad the mother-in-law and mother getting along well well we don't know they might be coming to business separately but Monster Energy everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra that's the OG it kicked off this whole zero sugar energy drink thing but Ultra is a whole line on now you've got Strawberry Dreams Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava and they all bring the Monster Energy punch so if you've been living in the white can branch out Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe and every single one is zero sugar.

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15:06Romesh Ranganathan:Great advice. And we agree, don't we? That's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your advice was wonderful. Thank you. Respect the mother. Okay. Uh, question two is Phil from Phil. Hi, it's Phil. The Mr. Bean impression was probably the single greatest impression I have ever heard to the extent that my mind is blown that that didn't go viral. So I have two questions. The first one is what else have you got in the locker? Because anyone who can do that, you're bound to have more. and if you don't I think you should attempt some live on the podcast just a list that's given to you and try and do them. The second question is I need more bean I think we all need more bean so aspirationally I'd love an entire podcast done as bean but realistically I don't think it's going to work so recently you gave your mum a weather forecast to do so could you do that or can you do the sand under thing or something has been hmm sounds like he's got a very specific set of skills what um what's i thought he was talking about your being impression he's talking about my being impression what whose impression is he talking about well i think it's both of you yeah because you both did the physicality i think shanti had the physicality and you had the Yeah, but all he says is bit.

16:36Romesh Ranganathan:Does he say anything else? Teddy. Bean. That's it, isn't it? You try, Shanti. Bean. Do Teddy. Teddy. Shall we try some other impressions? Do you want to give us some impressions to have a go at? Arnold Schwarzenegger. Okay. Do you want to go first? No, I don't know how to talk about it. I've only been driving a few hours. It's not a tumour. So, Bessie Salome? Adrian. Will you marry me, Adrian? Paul and Creed is a difficult fight. Yeah. There you go. Any little Christopher walking in your locker? No. This guy wants an impression. I'm going to do one. Oh, that's... Lost it at the end there. Any others?

17:37Back at our... So, um... So, this guy gets in touch... That's not good. Come on, try it. This guy gets in touch and he says he wants us to do, like, bean for the whole... For the whole episode of the podcast.

17:52Romesh Ranganathan:Why is it called a podcast? We don't have a pod. You're not casting anything. It sounds like you're fishing inside a booth. So cute. Any others? Mum, do you want to have a go at one? No. I'm not a bullet. He doesn't do that anymore, does he? He's changed his life, Eddie Murphy, hasn't he? Has he? Yeah. Have you seen the documentary? Well, I don't know if he was putting it on or whatever, but he's changed his life because he got fed up with people impersonating him. Mum, do you remember this? I'm going to do an impression of Eddie Munger, really specific. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then see if you can remember that.

18:32Romesh Ranganathan:Tell me what film it's from. Get the fuck out of here! Do you know what that is? Yes, the police, he was a detective. Yeah, and when does he say that?

18:45When he lied, that guy, the detective, when they got caught, he was lying. What exactly happened?

18:53Romesh Ranganathan:No, you know what I'm thinking of? Do you guys know Bibi Scott? Could you please tell him that Achmel Fahle Achmel Fahle is here to see her and please button his up it's not like a dog to scratch That's great That bit So I watched a thing about that bit of the film and he was that obviously is like a tiny cameo right yeah you know and then he goes to me he goes how much would this go for hundred thousand dollars no i cannot i said it myself you know that so it's just like such a time would you like an espresso i do it with the lemon very nice you should try that bit it's such a tiny bit in the film but everybody remembers that bit right yeah It's incredible.

19:50Romesh Ranganathan:Oh, we've got some examples. Mrs. Doubtfire. Hello. Help us on the way, dear. It's not bad, is it? Yes, it's good, it's good. Gollum. I can't remember how Gollum talks.

20:13Romesh Ranganathan:Gollum. It's more like a... What is that? It's like... I'm not done, how much? I'm about to come back here. I'm so glad to be here. I'm so glad to be here. My mum, she gets angry with me. She gets so angry. She keeps asking to see the grandkids. She says it's been nine months. Do you want to have a try that one, Chan? No. She's very blocky. You're very blocky today. You're not really having a go at anything. Austin Powers. Do you want to have a go at Austin Powers, mum? You know Austin Powers? Austin Powers. This one. That's Dr Evil. Go on, have a look at that. You could do a million dollars. Because I don't know, mum.