Goodnight Look At That

Each year, Rick Burgess and Bill "Bubba" Bussey cull highlights from their syndicated Rick & Bubba radio show into a two-CD set, and Goodnight Look at That is the 15th such collection. Like other radio programs including Howard Stern's, the show consists not just of the off-the-cuff observations of the two principals, but also of a small group of others, as well as callers. So, for instance, "Scott ‘The Rock' Gurosky Teaches Proper Tackling" finds one of these associates telling an anecdote about football instruction with his son, and "Greg's Wife Call In About Family Gathering" features the wife of Burgess' brother Greg, who is on the show, complaining about his poor domestic habits. Unlike Stern and others, Rick & Bubba eschew "shock jock" attitudes and subject matter; this is clean humor with only the occasional, mildly risqué innuendo, if that, which would earn a rating of PG in the movies. The team does poke humor at Chaz Bono's transsexuality, and they employ stereotyped Oriental accents in "Exploding Chinese Watermelons," but for the most part, they steer clear of anything that might offend. When they find they have, inadvertently, offended people with impaired vision (during a not-included segment on the Black Eyed Peas' performance at the Super Bowl), they air the complaints they received in "Greg Suffers from RT." "RT," by the way, is, in their definition, "Rude Tourette's," or a tendency to blurt out things without thinking. Emphasizing odd news stories and personal foibles, the team is clearly enjoying itself, as some segments nearly capsize with the laughter of the participants. Whether listeners will find all of it equally funny may depend on their identification with Rick & Bubba and their friends. The show is heard largely in the Deep South, and the gang sport heavy accents that may make them difficult to understand for those outside their region. Typically, however, they take that subject on, too, in the closing track, "Rick's Daughter Teaches Uncle Greg How to Speak," in which the 21-year-old drama student calls in and shows off the benefits of her speech class to instruct her father and uncle in the wonders of an "American Standard" accent; they are amazed to be told that "tin" and "ten" are not pronounced the same way.