There are many recurring comedy sketches or parodies on the program.
Continental Public Radio Shearer often parodies the other programming found on public radio, often as part of a fictional "Continental Public Radio" (CPR). These are populated with such personalities as host Aviva Schlorman, reporter Ira Zipkin, political editor Jonathan Ziziks and others, all voiced by Shearer. Recurring parodies include: • "All in All" "CPR's weekly attempt to bring what's behind the news in front of the news and leave it there" • "Book Bag" (Book review program hosted by Ira Zipkin) • "The Edible Table" (Lampoon of public radio shows such as
The Splendid Table) • "Karzai Talk" (Call-in chat show, a satire of NPR's
Car Talk using the fictional Afghanistan Public Radio starring President
Hamid Karzai and his brother
Ahmed Wali Karzai;) In 2014 Shearer promoted Karzai Talk T-shirts. • "Media Nation" "CPR's weekly look into the world of the media and the media of the world" (host Chris Edwards is clearly intended to mimic
Bob Edwards) • "More Than You Know" "The weekly public radio series that focuses on events and personalities outside your ken", host: Jacob Kitzle • "News from Lake Reverie" (A parody of the "News from Lake Wobegon" segment of
A Prairie Home Companion) • "Up To Here" (Daily news & politics program) "A daily once-over not so lightly on the story at the top, of what's behind, today's news", hosted by Milton Getzler • "What Up, Dog?" "News blogozine for the young and the newsless"; host: Cody Outscoop (Parodies NPR's attempts to reach younger audiences such as
Bryant Park Project)
Presidential or political parodies Among the many presidential and political parodies are: • "Alternative Scenario Playhouse" "Duelling dramatizations from radio's premiere venue of bifurcated possibilities" (Shearer re-enacts two possible versions of events behind the news) • "Clintonsomething" ("Youthful angst and middle-aged power!" — a
thirtysomething parody) Retired at the end of the Clinton administration, reprised as "Clintonsomething: The State Department Years" with the appointment of Hillary Clinton as
Secretary of State • "
Dick Cheney: Confidential" (parody of hard-boiled detective stories) • "
Father Knows Best" (parody of the 1950s television program, with
Barack Obama as the father) • "41 calls 43" (
George H. W. Bush calls
George W. Bush) • "The Gore Room" (
Al Gore and
Al Franken host a liberal talk radio show; dropped after the liberal
Air America radio network, featuring Al Franken, began broadcasting) • "
Nixon in Heaven" • "(Inside) Extra Access Tonight" (lampoon of various entertainment news shows) • "
The O'Reilly Factor" (Parody of the
Fox News Channel program)
Comedy interviews Shearer will interview someone in-studio or via telephone. For the phone interviews, he claims to be opening up the phone for listener calls (even though no phone number was announced) or will reveal that there is an incoming call on "the newsmaker line". These are among the few comedy segments in which voices other than Shearer's are heard. Many are voiced by writer
Tom Leopold, who has worked with Shearer on several other projects. These include: • "Tony Bellalaqua" (a listener in the midwest) • "Lyle Condit" (Congressman
Gary Condit's youngest brother) • "David Feldman" (A high school teacher and friend of
Monica Lewinsky) • "Yvonne Della Femina" (a multiple-sex-change recipient with a storied past) • "
John Walker Lindh" (the so-called "American Taliban") • "
Elvis Presley" (on the issuance of his U.S. postage stamp) • "Ira Rifleman" (a listener who allegedly bought a truck owned by Scott Peterson who was convicted of the
murder of his wife Laci Peterson) • "Tyler Michael Tucker" (an actor from a failed TV program) Other personalities not voiced by Leopold include: • "
David Manning" (the fictitious film reviewer, voiced by a computer voice synthesizer) • "Ralph the Talking Computer" (a computer synthesized voice) • "Barry Saint-Martin" (actor
Alex Lowe) • "Shabshab" (a former
Saddam Hussein lookalike and stereo salesman in Iraq voiced by Shearer) On very rare occasions Shearer has announced a phone number and taken actual listener calls. ==Interview segments==