The Worst Mix Ever: A Hilariously Awful Showdown of Musical Torture
Ever wondered what happens when two music lovers weaponize their taste to torment each other? Welcome to the most hilariously painful mixtape showdown you’ll ever hear.
In a delightful twist of audio masochism, the latest episode of Super Awesome Mix takes listeners on a journey through musical torture as hosts Matt and Sam deliberately curate mixtapes designed to make each other suffer. This "Worst Mix Ever" special episode showcases how personal music taste can become a weapon when wielded by someone who knows your sonic pet peeves.
The concept is brilliantly simple yet diabolically effective: each host creates a six-song mixtape with the explicit goal of earning the lowest possible score from their counterpart. As lifelong music enthusiasts and podcast collaborators, Matt and Sam possess intimate knowledge of each other's musical preferences and aversions, making this challenge particularly potent and entertaining.
The A-side features Matt's deliberately awful selections for Sam, beginning with the universally maligned Nickelback hit "How You Remind Me." Interestingly, this backfires slightly due to Sam's nostalgic connection to the song, earning it a surprisingly high seven out of ten. Matt rebounds with Jan Arden's whiny 90s ballad "Insensitive," which Sam appropriately punishes with a four. The true low point comes when Matt deploys David Ball's twangy country song "Thinking Problem," knowing Sam's aversion to certain country styles – this strategic choice earns a rock-bottom one out of ten.
The mixtape continues its descent with Clarence Carter's notoriously explicit "Strokin'" and the nonsensical "Wrap It Up" by The Fabulous Thunderbirds. However, Matt's piece de resistance proves to be Ray Stevens' "Where Are All the 12-Year-Olds," a recent release that combines an alarming title with backwards-looking social commentary. This final selection earns another one out of ten, cementing Matt's mixtape as genuinely torturous.
When the cassette flips to the B-side, Sam retaliates with his own arsenal of audio atrocities. He leads with Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl," playing on Matt's well-documented hatred of this overplayed classic. The dubstep nightmare "Woo Boost" by Rusko follows, featuring nothing but repetitive electronic sounds and laughably minimal lyrics (literally just "wub wub wub dub dub woo" repeated endlessly). Billie Eilish's depressing whisper-tune "Everybody Dies" and a particularly screamy System of a Down track round out the middle selections.
Sam closes with what proves to be his most effective weapon: "Company" by Disasterpeace from the horror film "It Follows." This dissonant, unnerving piece sounds to Matt like "someone fell asleep on a synth keyboard," earning a definitive one out of ten and nearly causing him to drive off the road when he first listened to it.
In the final tally, Matt's mixtape scores 19 out of a possible 60 points, while Sam's edges slightly ahead in awfulness with 18 points, making him the winner of this delightfully twisted challenge. This experiment in musical antipathy reveals not just the hosts' deep knowledge of each other, but also how music taste is profoundly personal and emotional – whether through nostalgic connections that redeem otherwise terrible songs, or visceral rejections of perfectly well-crafted music that simply doesn't resonate.
The episode brilliantly demonstrates how the music we hate says just as much about us as the music we love, and how shared musical experiences – even intentionally terrible ones – can strengthen bonds through laughter and mutual suffering. As the hosts invite listeners to contribute their own suggestions for songs that would make them cringe, the podcast creates a community around this universal experience of musical taste and distaste.
🎧 Think you’ve heard it all? Brace yourself.
Listen to the “Worst Mix Ever” episode now on the Super Awesome Mix podcast, and follow us to hear every beautifully curated—and sometimes excruciating—playlist we put together.