''Nob Nation'' is the title of a series of topical comedy pieces broadcast since November 2006 on two national radio stations in Ireland,

RTÉ 2fm RTÉ 2fm, or 2FM as it is more commonly referred to, is an Irish radio station operated by RTÉ. The station specialises in current popular music and chart hits and is the second national radio station in Ireland. History The station commenc ...

and

RTÉ Radio 1 RTÉ Radio 1 () is an Irish national radio station owned and operated by RTÉ and is the direct descendant of Dublin radio station 2RN, which began broadcasting on a regular basis on 1 January 1926. The total budget for the station in 2010 w ...

. The programmes are broadcast Monday through Saturday each week. ''Nob Nation'' is written and produced by

Oliver Callan Oliver Callan (born 27 December 1980) is an Irish vocal and performance satirist and impressionist known as the creator of '' Callan's Kicks'', '' Nob Nation'' and for frequent appearances on '' The Saturday Night Show''. He rose to fame duri ...

. The series features almost 100 characters, including BIFFO, Dame Enda,

Garret FitzGerald Garret Desmond FitzGerald (9 February 192619 May 2011) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, economist, and barrister who served twice as Taoiseach, serving from 1981 to 1982 and 1982 to 1987. He served as Leader of Fine Gael from 1977 to 1987 an ...

, and others based on people from Irish and international public life involved in politics, sport and entertainment. All voice acting is performed by Callan. Two CDs of ''Nob Nation'' sketches have been released, in 2007 and a follow-up in 2008. In 2011, RTÉ paid defamation damages to an 84-year-old gentleman after ''Nob Nation'' inaccurately claimed he was running a brothel.

Background

Originally broadcast on ''The Derek Mooney Show'' on

and subsequently on the ''2fm Breakfast Show'', the sketches were moved to just after the 10:00 news on ''

The Gerry Ryan Show ''The Gerry Ryan Show'' (often referred to as ''The Ryan Show'', ''The G. Ryan Show'' or ''GRS'') was RTÉ 2fm's mid-morning radio show. Presented by Gerry Ryan until hours before his sudden death, it was launched in March 1988 and ran from ni ...

'' on RTÉ 2fm in January 2007. ''Nob Nation'' was then repeated at night on Damien Farrelly's ''The Frequency'' on 2FM. One comedy sketch was selected and was featured on ''Playback on Radio One'' on Saturday mornings and on ''The Saturday Show'' on 2fm on Saturday afternoons. It has also featured on Ireland's most popular radio show, ''

Morning Ireland ''Morning Ireland'' is an Irish breakfast news programme broadcast by RTÉ Radio 1 and is noted as the country's most listened to radio programme. It is broadcast each weekday morning between 7 am and 9 am and alternate items are normal ...

'', on RTÉ Radio 1. ''Nob Nation'' was reported in the '' Sunday Independent'' on 20 January 2008 as being Ireland's most popular

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

of the previous year, with figures showing a total of 736,711 downloads on RTÉ.ie between April and December 2007. ''Nob Nation'' also features prominently on the

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

free podcast chart. Following a number of complaints about Callan's portrayal of

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

Brian Cowen Brian Bernard Cowen (born 10 January 1960) is an Irish former politician who served as Taoiseach and Leader of Fianna Fáil from 2008 to 2011. Cowen served as a TD for the constituency of Laois–Offaly from 1984 to 2011 and served in several ...

"swaying and snorting in booze-filled sing-songs about his difficulties in office", the popularity of the slot has "simply exploded" according to RTÉ, with over 250,000 hits each month and making up almost a third of all downloads from RTÉ.ie. In January 2009, ''Nob Nation'' satirised the RTÉ staff pay cut controversy by suggesting Gerry Ryan would try to get out of taking a pay cut by broadcasting for longer but without charging extra for it and that Pat Kenny would contribute to the economy by doing a nixer for free in the RTÉ canteen – to the dismay of all who preferred their full Irish breakfast to the delicacies favoured by the Kenny palate.

CD releases

The first ''Nob Nation'' CD, containing twenty sketches, was released in Ireland on 2 November 2007. Those parodied on the compilation include politicians

Bertie Ahern Bartholomew Patrick "Bertie" Ahern (born 12 September 1951) is an Irish former Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach from 1997 to 2008, and as Leader of Fianna Fáil from 1994 to 2008. A Teachta Dála (TD) from 1977 to 2011, he served ...

and

Enda Kenny Enda Kenny (born 24 April 1951) is an Irish former Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2011 to 2017, Leader of Fine Gael from 2002 to 2017, Minister for Defence (Ireland), Minister for Defence from May to July 2014 and 2016 to 201 ...

, former

Republic of Ireland national football team The Republic of Ireland Men's national football team () represents the Republic of Ireland in men's international Association football, football. It is governed by the Football Association of Ireland (FAI). The team made their debut at the Ir ...

manager

Steve Staunton Stephen Staunton (born 19 January 1969) is an Irish football manager, scout and former professional footballer. He played as a defender with two separate spells each with Premier League sides Aston Villa and Liverpool. He also played in the F ...

, broadcaster

Gay Byrne Gabriel Mary Byrne (5 August 1934 – 4 November 2019) was an Irish presenter and host of radio and television. His most notable role was as the first host of '' The Late Late Show'' over a 37-year period spanning 1962 until 1999. ''The Late La ...

and newsreaders

Bryan Dobson Bryan David Dobson (born 10 February 1960) is an Irish journalist, now retired, a newscaster and presenter who worked for RTÉ. He presented the '' RTÉ News at One'' on RTÉ Radio One, '' RTÉ News: Six One,'' '' RTÉ News: Nine O'Clock'', mo ...

and

Colm Murray Colm Murray (22 March 1952 – 30 July 2013) was an Irish broadcaster, newsreader, and sports journalist, best remembered for his reports on horse racing. Employed by RTÉ from 1978 until his death in 2013 after a three-year battle with motor ne ...

. The album reached number 5 on the

Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have been compiled by t ...

on 9 November 2007, according to IRMA, the official chart tracking body in Ireland. A second compilation, ''Nob Nation 2: The Recession Album'', was released on 7 November 2008. And a third album "Nob Nation Uncensored" was released in the Irish Daily Mail in November 2009, containing tracks not previously broadcast and a series of sketches that had not been played on RTÉ.

Live performances

''Nob Nation'' has featured on

RTÉ Television RTÉ Television is a department of Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland's public service broadcaster. Its first channel was Telefís Éireann, which began broadcasting on 31 December 1961. Since the 1960s, RTÉ Television has added chan ...

's prime time chat shows ''

Tubridy Tonight ''Tubridy Tonight'' is a talk show hosted by Ryan Tubridy that aired on RTÉ One for five seasons between 2004 and 2009. The programme featured guest interviews (usually three per show), audience participation and live music from both a guest mu ...

'' and '' The Late Late Show''. In December 2007 Callan was introduced by then Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to perform at Fianna Fáil's Cairde Fáil dinner. Callan performed a number of acts at the dinner, including mimicking Ahern himself. In February 2008 Callan also performed a live show at Ógra Fianna Fáil's National Youth Conference. In 2008 a debut Irish live show was commissioned as part of the Bulmers International Comedy Festival. Callan performed his pieces in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

's Olympia Theatre on 6 September 2008.

Defamation case

An 84-year-old guesthouse owner of the Maryland in the city sued RTÉ over a ''Nob Nation'' sketch claiming it claimed he was running a

brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...

County Waterford County Waterford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. ...

. His Senior Counsel warned the jury before the sketch was played to them that they might wince as, he said, it was the "most vulgar type of broadcast imaginable". The court awarded €70,000 damages.

References

External links

Official website

''Nob Nation'' Podcast
{{2fm Cultural depictions of Taoisigh Irish comedy radio shows LGBTQ-related mass media in Ireland RTÉ controversies RTÉ 2fm programmes RTÉ Radio 1 programmes The Gerry Ryan Show