A very (very) long time ago, there was a BBC radio show called Paperback Hell. It presented itself as a series of short readings from a collection of books, all parodying a certain style. There was misery porn, "I grew up the poor daughter of a mining leper", political treatise, "Why everyone except me is completely wrong about politics" and finally erotica, "The boobily breasted willy monsters from outer space". It was excellent.
Erotica Verbatim focuses just on the latter category, being Sir Laurent St. Right's presentation of the world's largest private collection of "dirty stories". These include a mix of fanfic, political satire, celebrity lives and the more experimental, such as AI generated works. (Don't worry, not like that - I've listened to enough AI written things to recognise where it's actually got human hands on it.)
This is entirely a comedy, so if you actually want erotica, you will be very disappointed. But if you want a lascivious chuckle, you're in the right place. This tends to generally commenting on pop culture references, with a progressive bent, but bouncing around with that ironic wink to try and take the sting out of anything that might be awkward. One of the most direct examples is episode one, with Shaggy (of Scooby Doo fame), and the rest of the gang, having to stop J. K. Rowling from kidnapping trans women so Shaggy can indulge in his chaser preferences.
It's a spoof of fanfic porn. Sometimes, it's just going to be like that.
While it's presented as Laurent reading, it's a full cast affair with other people performing the dialogue, as well as sound effects etc. Amusingly, perhaps my favourite of these is just the occasional, subtle, tinkle of ice in the glass of whatever Laurent is drinking. It's a bit like the guillotine noise in I am in Eskew, but much more jolly. There's a certain relaxed, Matt Berry-ish feeling to the whole thing that I very much enjoy.
Realistically, I think the presentation is what ties the entire thing together. While the stories are good, the tone is very consistent and always hits the right notes. Perhaps my favourite bit is the consistent running joke of "sexily" added as a painfully late adjective to basically any activity.
Highly recommend it for a spot of fun.
