Classified as "comedy", Pirate Radio combined live on-air personalities with pre-recorded sketches, commercial parodies, live call-ins, and alternative rock. The title and premise of the show seemed to revolve around the hostile takeover of a commercial radio station. The show was hailed as Saturday Night Live for radio, and often compared with Monty Python's Flying Circus, Mr. Show with Bob and David and The Howard Stern Show. On-air, creators once credited the Radio Free Vestibules and Mystery Science Theater 3000 with creative inspiration. Production values varied from excellent to poor, although it is unknown if obvious "mistakes" were or were not intentional -- meant to simulate an actual illegal broadcast.