Ask Mr. Biggs!
is a podcast masquerading as a small-town morning radio program. Hosted by Mr. Biggs, a gruff middle-aged large ham, the premise of the show is that listeners can call into the program or send e-mails asking for Mr. Biggs' advice on a wide range of topics, including "automotive repair... affairs of the heart... automotive repair..." in Mr. Biggs' own words. Also along for the ride are Roger, the mild-mannered and often beleaguered co-host, and Mondo, the behind-the-scenes technician who has much less patience for Mr. Biggs' foibles and gaffs, along with occasional tertiary characters.
The "calls" that come into the program are real calls made to actual talk-radio programs; The podcast's producers have integrated them seamlessly into the characters' dialogue, so it seems that the two elements interact with each other. Listeners can also e-mail questions to Mr. Biggs via a link on the show's website. While the contents of the calls and e-mails are often bizarre, the show also has its own weird continuity: The once-a-week radio program acts as a massively inefficient advertising platform for Whizzbangs, the bar / nightclub owned by Mr. Biggs. Frequently touted on the air, Whizzbangs has specials of varying success most Thursday nights, including "Public Domain Karaoke" and the "Make-Your-Own Cocktail Bar", among others. Meanwhile, Roger makes frequent allusions to his love of his pet cats and his participation in the "Koupon Klippers Klub".
Tropes invoked on Ask Mr. Biggs!
- Beat: Used liberally.
- Berserk Button: For Mr. Biggs, it's masturbation, or at least the mention of it on his show.
- Cold Opening: The first episode opens without any sort of fan-fair, as if it's just yet another recording of the show.
- Deadpan Snarker: While Roger is exceedingly accommodating to Mr. Biggs' excesses, Mondo reacts in this way, sometimes sending questionable calls and content on the air just to ruffle Mr. Biggs' feathers.
- Fat Bastard: Mr. Biggs somewhat falls into the lighter side of this trope. He can be appallingly greedy, but generally just bumbles about.
- Genius Ditz: Perhaps Mr. Biggs. He's entirely aware of the technical names for multiple ways to tie one's shoes, or the names of several extinct prehistoric animals. However, he seems to either lump what he knows into an entirely incorrect context or to act out on his knowledge in an embarrassing manner.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Mr. Biggs can shift from jovial to raging in a matter of seconds. The fact that he frequently misinterprets harmless and commonly-known things means that this happens often. For example, when Roger reported that Dolly Parton had once entered into and lost a Dolly Parton lookalike contest, Mr. Biggs thought Roger was implicating "America's Sweetheart" in identity fraud and flew off the handle.
- Iconic Item: Mr. Biggs always seems to wear a polyester two-piece tracksuit.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Roger loves his cats and will enthusiastically talk about them with others who are interested.
- Mood Whiplash: This gradually happens over the course of the Christmas episode. At first it seems that Mr. Biggs is going to serve a complimentary meal to the area's unfortunate in the spirit of the holidays at his bar. Then he slowly lets it slip that he's hosting the event in a parking lot, that a mistletoe-laced alcoholic concoction is going to be served there, that those in attendance are going to be charged for their meal, and finally that other businesses were tricked into donating free tables and supplies for the event.
- This also happens whenever Roger inadvertently says something offensive on the air.
- Nice Guy: Roger. Perhaps because he's so nice, Roger is also incredibly naive, leading to situations where he occasionally and unintentionally says very offensive things on the air.
- Non-Action Guy: Roger is innately unassuming, but Mr. Biggs loves to poke fun at him for his lack of machismo.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Parodied; Such a bleep is often employed on the show, but Mondo's timing of such leaves much to be desired.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Armando is competent at least relative to Mr. Biggs, but has to suffer him nonetheless. Occasionally Roger will misinterpret and confound Mondo, though he's never outright malicious.
- Techno Babble: Frequently invoked by Mr. Biggs when he refers to fictional pieces of equipment. Oddly enough, within the fictional universe in which the show takes place, what Mr. Biggs spouts off seems to be technically correct at least some of the time, as Roger will often concur or elaborate upon what Biggs has said.
- The Problem with Pen Island: Shows up verbatim in one episode.
