The world of radio comedy has seen better days to be sure. Thoughtful humor with an edge has been replaced by fart jokes laid out by the morning zoo crew with Dr. Party and the Snitch. The world of podcasts is little better with amateur hosts essentially taping the banality of daily chit chat from the comfort of their home. In a world caked in pop culture crap, the humor of Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster is a necessary cleanser.

The duo’s radio comedy on Jersey City station WFMU ranges from a simple series of threats by Pat Sajak’s fake brother Mike to an in-depth conversation with an ABC executive that green-lit Cavemen. Their record label, Stereolaffs, has produced four volumes of material and a reissue of the infamous Rock, Rot and Rule sequence from Scharpling’s The Best Show on WFMU in recent years. The latest release by Stereolaffs is called The Art of the Slap and it compiles eight tracks from 2006.

I must preface this section of the review by saying that some of the material loses its humor if you have never heard The Best Show on WFMU. In order to place jokes into context, you should check out a few archived episodes before delving into the Stereolaffs catalog. The track featuring Philly Boy Roy on the first disk of Slap is hilarious when you know his background including his love of Philadelphia celebrities like Mike Schmitt and Hall and Oates.

I have listened to hours worth of archives from the show and I think the track that best symbolizes the ridiculousness of Scharpling and Wurster’s characters is “Andy from Lake Newbridge.” A person named Andy calls into the show to speak with Tom about a recent U2 concert, the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home and to correct the host about a statement he made last week. As the conversation continues, Tom discovers that Andy lives within Lake Newbridge. In fact, Andy is a carp that is calling from Aquaman’s castle while the comic hero is away. If this sounds strange to you in print, it creates an equal reaction when listening to Jon Wurster voice this aquatic malcontent. The best part about this track is that as hard as I laughed the first time I heard it, I have laughed even harder when listening to it with another person.

This infectious style of comedy comes from a focus on the stupidity of people that think they know everything in the world. The caller in “Postal Slap Fight” cops an attitude with Tom because his uncle is the postmaster general. Corey Harris from the sell-out rock band Mother 13 assigns far too much value to his band in the bonus disc on The Art of the Slap. Horse from Jock Squad represents the worst combination of bravado and nerd rage in “Jock Squad.” Scharpling may tend to overreact at times to amp up the comedy but the duo balances well as interviews progress.

The most entertaining part of this stupidity, however, is the utter certainty that these characters place in their stupid beliefs. Tom Scharpling acts as the perfect moderator in these fake interviews because he reacts strongly enough to draw out angry diatribes from Wurster’s characters. I never tire of Wurster growling at Scharpling that the host would lose in a slap fight and that Tom should have an ambulance waiting if he goes to Ocean City because Andy will gather his shark friends for a rumble. You can put in The Art of the Slap during a party and take a drink every time Wurster calls Scharpling son or calls him a dunce.

The Art of the Slap is a good primer for anyone interested in listening to a few hours of radio frivolity. If you are tired of DJs spouting about sports or goofy news, Scharpling and Wurster will offer a ray of hope. I would suggest that you force friends and family that dislike one track to continue listening because there is enough variety to please most comedy fans.