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Their job is made that much easier by profound lyrics such as "wiggi wiggi, let's get jiggi" and their fellow pop stars' addictions to chest waxing and haircare products. Regular Triple J listenters will find some of the material familiar, but this duo take the joy of pretty-boy bashing to delightfully new heights.
Adam Spencer is the first to admit he is one of the luckiest guys around. Three years ago he was working towards a Ph.D in pure maths; today he hosts the coveted breakfast shift on Triple J and the ABC's science show Quantum. His rise to the ranks of superstardom (well, superstardom among Triple J listeners anyway) is already etched in media folklore as one of the easiest rises to the top.
Spencer, who describes his age as "primorial (6)", was entered in Triple J's 1996 Raw Energy comedy competition by a friend and went on to win the NSW section and came second nationally. Mikey Robins and Helen Razer took their morning show to the University of Sydney and Spencer was asked to read the weather. "Mikey asked me what I was studying and I told him and then he asked why and I said 'to gain a greater understanding of complex group theory and to impress chicks.'"
"However, the crucial moment came when Helen Razer reaches over and says: 'Ok maths boy, if you're so smart why don't you say something funny or sexy about each of the numbers?' So I did. "Canberra sunny and 21: that's three times seven; Brisbane fine and 19: that's a prime number just near 20. And then there were all those places that were 22 degrees. So, 22: two lots of 11; 22 the number of people in a particularly nasty rugby union match where eight people have been sent off; 22 that's the square root of 484; and, 22: the cube root of 10948 big degrees coming right at you."
Spencer was approached after the show by an ABC staffer who had been impressed by both his improvisational skills and his intriguing voice- the latter the temporary result of a drinking session the night before. A semi-regular gig on the breakfast show followed and Spencer also managed to host four nights of Michael Tunn's Request Fest while "Tunnie" recovered from a bad bout of food poisoning. In 1997, he worked midnight to dawn as well as appearing on Razer's Ladies Lounge. He shared the seat with Razer the following year in the departure lounge and jumped at the chance to host the breakfast show this year after Mikey Robins left to pursue his television career.
So you could say it has been an amazing trip for Spencer...a rollercoaster ride without the downs. To counter the impression that it's all been smooth, Spencer tries to tell a tale of woe about getting up at 4:54 am, but even he admits he doesn't really consider what he does to be a job. "It's incredibly fun and at time, it's really difficult, which is also rewarding when I think about it. it's a bizarre world to be in; I sit around, listen to a few CDs and tell people the time. That's not a job. "I'd like to start it (the Breakfast show) at midday, but I don't think that anyone's going to buy that."
This is Spencer's second year hosting Quantum, a position that he loves despite his lack of science knowledge: "I would fail a year 10 chemistry test if you gave it to me." He says it balances his radio work and he learns a few things too. He's also learning a lot about morning radio. Sticking to a schedule is something that has not come easily, and listeners have let him know about it. "We do the weather at 7:20 am each day. If I do the weather five minutes early, I get people ringing up saying, 'what are you doing? I wake up at 7:20 to hear the weather; you're screwing with my day'."
The fleeting listening habits of breakfast radio (the fact that people only listen in 10-20 minute blocks compared with drive time listeners who listen for hours at a time) are something to which Spencer has had to adapt. "In the afternoon people can listen from 3-6pm and you can develop a whole show through that time, with long-running gags, but you can't do that in the morning. Breakfast radio is a bizarrely intimate medium. People listen to me while they're soaping themselves in the shower. "In drive last year, if we had a guest that was going well we would say to them, 'Hey do you want to stay around for another hour and play a few of your songs?' You can't do that in the morning."
Spencer still prides himself on the disorganised nature of his show: "I'd like to think that I run one of the least-disciplined breakfast shows around...it's community radio on a grand scale." He never did finish that PhD, but Adam Spencer is enjoying the ride.
Adam Spencer's Breakfast Show lures Triple J listeners into wickedly dangerous waters. Such was the case with his infamous April fool's joke that had half the country believing Sydney had been stripped of the right to host the 2000 Olympic Games. When he is not corrupting the minds of the youth of Australia, Spencer hosts the ABC's Quantam science show.
How did you get into comedy?
I was entered into Triple J's Raw Comedy Competition, which I won the NSW round of. Through that I met a few of the people from Triple J and when they came to Sydney Uni to do The Breakfast Show I got up as a student to do the weather. As they were doing the weather Heien said, "OK, rnaths boy, if you're so funny and smart, say some thing sexy about the weather." There were all these places that were 22, so it was "Adelaide, fine & 22, that's 2 lots of 11. Canberra fine and 22 that's the square root of 484... "
I hadn't slept and had gone out the night before and got very pissed, so I had this very sexy, croaky voice. One of the guys from Triple J came up and said, "That's one of the best radio voices I've ever heard." I can remember saying, "I can give you this for about a fortnight and then we'll start running pretty thin."
Describe your comic style.
Very funny. Thought provoking. Visual. And aimed at correcting inequalities and imbalances in society. Throw in a couple of dick jokes, then you get out of there. It is different from what I am doing, which is mainly radio at the moment, in that I'm not sitting down writing all that much stuff that is funny. I am just doing a show that hopefully people are entertained by. I make up 99% of it as we go along. Doing a solo radio show you can't do much scripted stuff. It sounds hopelessly scripted and people see through it instantly. When you're there by yourself you need to be Captain Fantastic spinning black plastic.
Are comedians the rock stars of the '90s?
Get fucked. Don't ask me that fucking shit. You just fuck off!
Can comedians he funny and attractive?
A lot of people are attracted by the thought of laughing and people do like those who can make them laugh. But comedy can make some people remarkably vulnerable, not at all in a sexy and attractive way. Comedy can make others look really smart or warm. It's a very broad church but certainly standing in a room making people laugh does project an image.
If you were Kerry Packer how would you change comedy on television?
I'd use Kerry's divine right to ring up when a show is half way through and say, "Get that shit off air." I can't believe he pulled that on Doug Mulray's Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos and yet he hasn't done it several times on other shows on his network. I thought Naughtiest Home Videos was very funny. There were a couple of different species there that I didn't know even could cross-mate.
Can anyone do the job of a comedian?
No, the average person jumping up on stage and trying to be a comedian would have as much success as me opening the doors under a sink and saying, "Don't worry, I'll sort this out."
Is there a difference between comedy and lite entertainment?
Just watch Hey Hey It's Saturday.
What is the funniest joke you've ever heard?
A guy walks into his house and says to his wife, "I can't believe it, I've won the lottery! This is amazing, I've won the lottery. Pack your bags, I've won the lottery!" And she says, "Great, do you want me to pack them for the mountains or the beach?" He says, "I don't care, just get out of my house."
First, it's being held in his inner-city appartment, complete with his roomate working on his PhD on the lounge-room computer, and - much to the chagrin of Spencer's publicist - he really does go and take a shower before the interview kicks off.
"Sorry about that," a wet-haired and freshly dressed Spencer says as he flops back on the lounge. "Right, fire away."
Spencer, who has his own PhD in pure mathematics, is on a break from Triple J and is busy shooting nine episodes of the ABC's new science program F.A.Q (Frequently Asked Questions) - a show which I describe to him as a cross between 'The Curiosity Show' and 'The Panel'.
"Here's an answer I prepared earlier," Spencer says. "Yeah I guess it is, 'The Curiosity Show' meets 'The Panel' for adults.
"But am I more like Rob Stitch or Deane Hutton?"
It's the type of exchange that punctuates the entire interview. Spencer is a member of that rare group of people who are not only clearly super-intelligent and quick, but also very funny.
The 31-year-old Sydneysider was plucked from a life of academia after being asked to read the weather during a Triple J outside broadcast in 1997.
He has built a large following over the past few years through 'The Departure Lounge' stand-up comedy gigs, regular appearances on Ten's 'Good News Week' and the Triple J breakfast shift, where his ratings increased in the last survey.
Spencer says he relishes the opportunity to host 'Quantum' and the new 'F.A.Q' - which is airing during the Summer - simply because isn't enough science programs on our screens.
"It needs to be done, and I enjoy doing it," Spencer says. "Not that I wouldn't be damn good if I was hosting a game show, don't get me wrong."
"But there's nowhere near enough of it on television. Everyone of my age and older remembers the 'Curiosity Show' becasue we used to watch it and it was a greatt little show.
"Shows like that are important, because they get the grey matter ticking around."
Spencer highlights the overwhelming success of the recent ABC/BBC co-production 'Walking With Dinosaurs' as ample proof Australians want more ofrom their television viewing.
"It was the most watched show in the country when it was on, which is just incredible. People are there if that type of TV is created," he says. Spencer says networks should re-think the programming decisions that are being made on Australian television - especially around the silly season.
"With the networks there's been a willingness to be purely driven by what's seen as the most bulk popular TV shows," he says.
"We don't need any more game shows, we don't nedd more British dramas or American sitcoms.
"I don't understand why at Christmas time we get to watch the shows that weren't good enough to be shown during ratings time.
"It's just really narrow, predictable and at times, quite boring programming going on and hopefully 'F.A.Q' bucks that trend slightly." 'F.A.Q' examines a different topic each week, such as How to Live Forever and Y2 Bother?, interspersing discussion with panel members - such as 1998 young astro-physicist Dr Bryan Gaensler and mathematician Clio Cresswell-with interviews and video clips. Despite his science backround, Spencer says it's his role to ask questions of the panellists that viewers would ask as well.
"It's a time where my ignorance is a strength because I can just lean in and say, 'Look, sorry, you've just metioned something and I don't know what it is'," he says.
As for the future of the show past the initial nine episodes, Spencer says he suspect nothing but phenomenal success.
"I'm expecting we'll get brought by Nine and probably replace 'Sale Of The Century' - actually more an adjunct to Sale," he says. "Each time they go to the gift shop of the Fame Game, instead they'll go to a scientific discussion that we'll be having." We can only hope.
Those who do tune in will tell you that our national youth radio station is a big player in the serious coverage of local and world affairs.
Another strong string to its box is the exploration, explanation and promotion of science.
This success is due in part to the fact that its flagship program is headed by someone who knows how to make science sexy.
On paper, Adam Spencer is a geek. But the one-time world debating champion, author, mathematician and science freak is also a comedian and accomplished radio and television presenter, with ABC's F.A.Q. and Quantum to his name.
Yet Spencer, who hosts the weekday breakfast program, with comedian Wil Anderson, denies he's setting out to make it particularly sexy.
"I try to create an environment where people who are interested in things can admit they are interested in them," he says.
"If I can get some significant mathematical numbers out of reading the weather in the morning and people are interested in that, then that's great.
"The worst thing is when a kid is called a loser for being interested in something.
"If I can get the kid at school who's top of the class in maths to ring in, then that's great."
Spencer says it is young people who find science sexy, rather than any change to the fundamental interest value of science.
"People say science has become sexy all of a sudden," he says. "I say science has always been sexy. It's just that sometimes there has been a failure on the part of the scientists to put some of their ideas out into the community."
Spencer and Anderson's breakfast program involves science within it's news, sport and weather format and includes visits from Dr Karl Kruszelnicki.
Kruszelnicki has degrees in biomedical engineering, physics, mathematics, medicine and surgery and has an ability to explain the science of everyday things.
Spencer says science stars in his show because that is what his audience wants.
"The station reflects the interests of young people. Inquiring, intelligent young minds have been brought up knowing about computer technology and gene-splicing techniques and scientific breakthroughs.
"Young people have questions about these things, life or death questions in some cases, particularly in terms of the environment or nuclear testing."
Spencer gave two mathematics lectures, called Adam 101, as part of this year's Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and played to audiences of about 500 each night.
"After the first show I was in the foyer and there was a dad there having an argument with his 10-year-old son about something in the lecture. The dad had it totally wrong and I had to step in and say, 'Hey, dad, Rodney's got it right'."
Triple J's science coverage is also due in part to its staff.
"There are actually quite a few science boffins at the commercial stations, but because of the constraints they are placed under, they are not allowed to show it."
He won't admit it's a personal crusade, but Spencer has grand plans and high hopes of fostering a wider, keener interest in science.
"There is something special about Australians and the way we talk and think.
"We love having answers about things and arguing about things. It's in the Australian psyche.
"I want to see a day when instead of arguing about footy, people sit around arguing about science."