Photo: Courtesy of SickBird Productions

Crimes and Misdemeanors...?

Ceara O ' sullivan和Griff Stark-Ennis在这个热门播客中解决了一些小纠纷 Petty Crimes, one feud at a time.

One morning last summer, 格里夫·斯塔克-埃尼斯14岁时醒来,发现手机屏幕上闪过一条千年一遇的祝贺短信. 他睡眼惺忪地浏览了一下朋友激动的留言,发现了这一点 Time magazine had just named Petty Crimes, 这是斯塔克-恩尼斯和他14岁的朋友塞阿拉·奥沙利文共同主持的播客, as one of the best of 2023. “It was a nice way to wake up,” Stark-Ennis recalled. But the good news didn’t stop there. A couple of weeks later, the New York Times 将《太阳城官网》命名为“今年夏天帮助你真正休息的6个播客之一”.”

该播客诙谐地审视了日常社会越轨行为和失礼行为. 它采用了流行的真实犯罪播客类中典型的戏剧性制作元素, but gives the whole thing a lighthearted twist. O’Sullivan, 这位喜剧演员的喜剧短片已经在TikTok上获得了数十万粉丝, 我想出了一个调查“犯罪”的播客的想法——这将是它的听众对他们生活和关系中无关紧要的轻视的抱怨. The tone would be snarky and fun, like her favorite reality shows, 每集节目结束时,主持人会权衡所提供的信息,并最终决定哪一方对所讨论的“罪行”“有罪”. O’Sullivan and Stark-Ennis, friends from their days at Boston College, fleshed out the idea during long walks in Los Angeles, where they both live. 该播客于2022年3月开播,奥沙利文和斯塔克-恩尼斯共同主持. 

In the year and a half since, 奥沙利文和斯塔克-恩尼斯分析了听众提交的几十部无关紧要的戏剧, and determined who was at fault in each of them. One episode, for instance, 故事围绕一位听众展开,她因为没有让出座位让一个年轻的家庭坐在一起而被其他乘客羞辱. 东道主从所有有关各方的角度审查了局势, as they do in every episode, and decided that everyone was guilty, including the airline for not having assigned seats. “I dabble in true crime, 但我喜欢那种不会让你夜不能寐的轻罪,” O’Sullivan said.

该播客报道的罪行包括分手后对室内植物的监护权之争, 这只狗被允许在奥沙利文大楼的共享屋顶平台上上厕所, 还有单身派对上不公平的睡眠安排. (Why would 一个答应睡上铺的伴娘早早地溜了出来,在一张更好的床上睡着了?)

For those new to Petty Crimes,奥沙利文推荐一集叫做“蓝莓囤积者”的剧集.这首歌的灵感来自于一位听众,她在被一棵蓝莓灌木的主人要求停止采摘蓝莓后写信给她. 当然,这位听众认为,杂货店里虚高的浆果价格让她的行为变得可以接受. 斯塔克-埃尼斯和奥沙利文不同意,转而站在邻居一边. 

听众的意见是讨论的大多数犯罪的原因, 但主持人们已经明白,播客的创意可以来自任何地方. For example, 有一次,有人问斯塔克-埃尼斯对他工作的健身房停车位发生的争执有何看法, 他把这件事带到播客上,让奥沙利文做出最终裁决. (她认定有罪的一方就是最初征求斯塔克-埃尼斯意见的人.)“完美的轻微犯罪是无关紧要的事情,” O’Sullivan explained, “but to the people involved, it matters so much.” Sometimes, though, 没有明确的有罪一方——“情况处于灰色地带,” Stark-Ennis said.

Each episode ends with a segment called “Criminal or Minimal,这是一种闪电回合,主持人快速浏览提交的材料,并决定这些情况是否真的构成冒犯, or whether the injured party should just get over it. (Sending voice memos instead of texts was deemed criminal, 而拒绝朋友在餐厅分享主菜的邀请则被发现是最少的.)

斯塔克-埃尼斯和奥沙利文的关系要追溯到他们在山庄的时候. 正如他所说,在成为奥沙利文的朋友之前,斯塔克-埃尼斯是她的粉丝. 他过去常看她在英国广播公司喜剧剧团“我妈妈的Fleabag”的表演, and they eventually grew close. After graduation, 他们都在波士顿工作了几年,然后决定去好莱坞发展事业. 斯塔克-恩尼斯于2018年1月搬去寻找模特和表演工作, and O’Sullivan followed in 2020. Late last year she was hired as a staff writer on Saturday Night Live. 美国编剧协会的罢工导致该剧停播,但是 Petty Crimes 让奥沙利文和斯塔克-恩尼斯在争论中有了一种创造性的掌控感. 他们在整个夏天都发布了新剧集,并希望最终也能进行现场演出. “谈论你生活中发生的事情和让你抓狂的事情, and having someone else say, that would drive me nuts too—there’s comfort in that,” O’Sullivan said. 

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