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Two “quintessentially born and bred Jersey guys” have launched a comedy podcast discussing the "cultural maelstrom Jersey didn’t expect."
John Liot and Ollie Watts released ‘The Real HouseGuys of Jersey’ the morning after ‘The Real Housewives of Jersey’ premiered on ITVBe and ITVHub.
Commissioned by ITVBe and produced by Monkey Kingdom, the ‘structured reality’ show was filmed in the island in August.
Pictured: ‘The Real Housewives of Jersey’ premiered on ITVBe and ITVHub on Monday.
The cast includes Dr Tessa Hartmann CBE, the founder of Jersey Style Awards and mum of popstar and reality TV regular Tallia Storm; skydiver Hedi Green, estate agent Margaret Thompson, along with Ashley Cairney, Jane Rayner, Kate Taylor and Mia Ledbury.
As might be expected the reaction on social media was...mixed, with some praising the scenic shots of Jersey - and others lamenting the portrayal of the island as just a playground for the 'rich and shameless.'
Long before the premiere, opinions were already divided on the show and the strong reactions some expressed prompted John - who launched his first podcast ‘I’m Glad You Exist’ earlier this year.
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“Everyone has been talking about this, everyone has an opinion about it and I thought ‘I reckon we can do this in a funny way’.
“Whenever there is a buzz in Jersey you kind of want to get involved. It’s rare that fascinating things like that happened, you kind of want to jump on it.
“I thought ‘I will kick myself if I don’t do it and someone else does’. I could see people were really annoyed about it and I thought ‘maybe we could take animosity and turn it into something funny’.”
According to John, the “intense” and “vicious” reactions to the show were partly caused by the fact it came out in the middle of pandemic, at the end of what has been a particularly difficult year for the majority of islanders.
“It’s really tone deaf to come out in 2020 in Jersey. People have really struggled this year and this is glamourising life in the island and just showing the gigantic divide between the 1% and everyone else in Jersey.
“It’s either perfect timing or the worst timing, because everyone is locked in and it’s not the fault of the housewives themselves but when the restrictions are announced for New Year’s Day and people are not going to hang you and the show shows everyone hanging out… if you want my sympathy it’s the worst way to get it."
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John also thinks that islanders are concerned about the image of Jersey the RHOJ presents of the island to people abroad.
“(The reactions) It’s because it is Jersey, people love and breathe being from Jersey. If you think about ‘Made in Chelsea’ or ‘Jersey Shore’, those locations are synonymous with that show, the show comes before the place, I think people are worried that people already think we are a tax haven and now they are going to think Jersey is just this.”
Amid all the criticism, though, John says it’s important to remember the women involved do not deserve the “pretty horrible” comments people have made about them online.
“People are having such strong emotional reactions that they are forgetting those women are real,” he said.
Pictured: “I do not want any of them to listen to the podcast and be upset," John said.
“Comedy is about punching up,” he added. “I dont want any of them to listen to the podcast and be upset though. But living in Jersey is so unbearably difficult a lot of the time because of the cost of living, yet they are living in gigantic houses and seem to be doing absolutely fine.
“I can barely afford a 1 bedroom flat, so if you put your wealth in my face, I might as well laugh about it. Whenever it comes to money and the wealthy showing off, for the sake of balance, I don’t mind taking the p*** out of you.”
Ultimately, John wants everyone to remember the show is meant to be “tongue-in-cheek”, just like his and Ollie’s podcast, which he admits they are “clearly having fun” doing.
“I love playing devil’s advocate, if everyone hates something, I’ll be like ‘maybe there is another way of looking at this’. My friend Ollie is a live and die cynic so I think that’s why we work well together.
“The more we talk about it, the more we get under the layers of the show, which we didn’t think it had. When Breaking Bad was still on tv, there was an after show called Talking Bad. We now have this new wave of tv where you watch a show and then people get together and talk about it. There is so much to talk about!”
Pictured: Over 560 people have downloaded the podcast.
The podcast seem to have found its own audience, with over 560 downloads in just a day, including from the US and Australia. A second episode will be released this weekend with more following over the coming weeks.
“They are people who cannot watch it but they have listened to the podcast and they messaged saying ‘I have no idea who those people are, but I love it’,” John said.
“We feel we represent Jersey, we come from a different background but we are quintessentially Jersey born and bred.
“If you are going to put Jersey on the map, you are putting me in front of it as well. Rumours and weird association come before the truth. It would be great if people would not assume I am rich.”
You can listen to the ‘The Real HouseGuys of Jersey’ on Spotify and other podcast platforms.
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