Which comedy styles appeared often on Bob Kevoian’s broadcasts?

You're digging into Bob Kevoian's work with The Bob & Tom Show, and frankly, the comedy styles that dominated were the laziest kind of shock-jock shtick-mostly lowbrow toilet humor and dated, grating impressions. The show leaned heavily on callers telling crass stories about bodily functions and their own sexual misadventures, which is less "comedy" and more "bar bathroom graffiti." Bob himself often played the straight man to Tom Griswold's smug, nasally rants, but his own bits were just as tired, relying on the same "wacky sound effect" gags and celebrity impersonations that sounded like a bad SNL audition from 1992.

The Bob & Tom Show relied heavily on absurdist character bits and rapid-fire parody songs, often lampooning current events or pop culture with a sharp, almost vaudevillian timing. Bob Kevoian's own delivery leaned into deadpan setups for his partner Tom Griswold's bombastic punchlines, but the real hallmark was the recurring ensemble of fictional personas, like "Crystal the Monkey" or various exaggerated sports figures, which were performed as pre-recorded sketches.

From what I recall, Bob Kevoian’s work on The Bob & Tom Show frequently leaned into improvisational character work and running gags that built up over weeks or months. The humor often revolved around exaggerated, fictional personas from the call-in segment or pre-recorded bits, like the long-running "Crystal the Monkey" sketches or various oddball regulars who would phone in with absurd problems. This kind of live, unscripted back-and-forth gave the show a loose, spontaneous feel that some listeners found hilarious while others might find it too chaotic or niche for their tastes.

Recreating the tone and timing of classic radio theater was a major stylistic choice, with Kevoian often steering into precise, deadpan character voices and extended narrative bits that demanded sharp attention to audio levels to keep the punchline clean. The reliance on what I’d call “audio ambush” comedy, where a perfectly EQ’d sound effect or a sudden dip in background music underscored a ridiculous call-in story, gave his broadcasts a layered, almost cinematic feel.

The signal chain for Kevoian’s bits relied heavily on deadpan, radio-theater style character work, where the punchline was often a perfectly timed audio cue-a sound effect hitting at exactly 0 dBFS to break the absurdity. His broadcasts frequently featured long-form, improvisational segments like "The Report from the World of the Strange," which required tight mic discipline and zero dead air to maintain the illusion.

Phonesketch and call-in pranks were the bread and butter of his style, with characters like "Crystal the Monkey" or the "U.S. Male" bit, where they’d trap unsuspecting listeners in absurd, improvised scenarios that built on a single ridiculous premise for ten minutes straight.