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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio)
- 536 statements
- 103 feature instances
- 63 referencing feature instances
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Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! is a radio quiz show that airs weekly on NPR and based in Chicago. It is hosted by Peter Sagal with veteran newscaster Bill Kurtis as announcer/scorekeeper. Previous to Kurtis, the announcer/scorekeeper was late NPR News anchor Carl Kasell, who stepped down in 2014 and was considered to be the show's scorekeeper emeritus until he passed away from complications of Alzheimer's disease in 2018.The program, which premiered on January 3, 1998, is one of the few successful American attempts at adapting the quintessential British Panel Game format and is based loosely on the BBC's venerable The News Quiz (which also inspired Have I Got News for You). Every week, Peter and Bill are joined by a rotating cast of panelistsnote including Tom Bodett, P.J. O'Rourke, Paula Poundstone, Paul Provenza (director of The Aristocrats), and Mo Rocca (formerly of The Daily Show, currently of CBS Sunday Morning) who play quiz games based on the previous week's news. The topics tend to be silly or focus on the more ridiculous aspects of otherwise serious news stories.The showcase of each episode is "Not My Job", where a celebrity guest has to answer three trivia questions to try and win a prize for a listener. Listeners also get to call in for the chance to win a prize for themselves. For many years, the only prize available was the highly coveted chance to have Carl Kasell record the greeting on their answering machine/voice mail service. In 2017, however, the prize was updated so that winners can choose to have anyone associated with the show record a voice mail greeting. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_1495d0e6 | type |
Non Sequitur | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_1495d0e6 | comment |
Or as just a wry Non Sequitur, as when they were discussing the debut of Inspire, a glossy magazine especially for jihadi terrorists. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_17501df2 | type |
Cool Old Guy | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_17501df2 | comment |
Cool Old Guy: Both scorekeeper emeritus Carl Kasell and current scorekeeper and announcer Bill Kurtis fit this category, and of course, many of the show's guests fit as well. | |
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Title Drop | |
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Title Drop: Unintentionally used in the 1/17/15 show during the "Who's Bill this Time" segment, after a contestant hesitated on an answer. Hilarity Ensued. | |
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The Hyena | |
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The Hyena: Charlie Pierce tends to burst into his iconic laughter whenever he finds a story even slightly funny. For example, when hearing a question about a talking urinal (which wasn't even directed to him), he cracked up first at hearing the question, then again upon hearing that the product was called the "Whizmark Urinal Communicator". | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_1e7c47ab | type |
Stealth Pun | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_1e7c47ab | comment |
Stealth Pun: Henry Winkler (AKA Fonzie from Happy Days) came on to play Not My Job. For all three questions, the correct answer was "Aaaaaaaaaay!". Winkler figured it out on the third question, managing a two-out-of-three victory. | |
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Wrong Genre Savvy | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_20a14df0 | comment |
Wrong Genre Savvy: If Peter Sagal urges you to change your answer, your answer is wrong. Celebrity guests playing "Not My Job" frequently haven't listened to the show and think it's a trap. | |
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Black Comedy | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_222dc873 | comment |
Black Comedy: A literal example of Dead Baby Comedy on the 5/30/14 episode with Alicia Silverstone who just wrote a book on motherhood. Answering questions taken from hints on baby care in a 50's era guide, one answer concerned babies being rubbed with lard in the belief that the lard helps soften the skin. One of the female panelists piped up with "And it also makes the skin extra crispy when the baby is put on the spit." The 9/5/20 "Who's Bill This Time?" episode had all the panelists groan at Peter's quip: | |
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Laugh Track | |
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Laugh Track: For the COVID-19 quarantine episodes, the show began using recorded applause and laughter, along with a host of other sound effects cued by producer Mike Danforth. Peter lampshades the hell out of these and also occasionally cites the source of the recorded sounds. | |
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Some of My Best Friends Are X | |
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Some of My Best Friends Are X: On the 11/16/19 episode, the panel was discussing Disney+'s decision to put Content Warnings on some of the older works they deemed culturally insensitive. Peter had this to say, "That's the legal equivalent of, I'm not racist, really. Seven of my best friends are dwarves." | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_25f0ed12 | type |
Hollywood Tone-Deaf | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_25f0ed12 | comment |
Hollywood Tone-Deaf: Bill Kurtis is occasionally asked to sing on the show. During those instances, he alternates between speaking the lyrics or singing horrendously off key and off rhythm as the panel and audience roar with laughter. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_26d2817c | type |
Russian Reversal | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_26d2817c | comment |
Russian Reversal: Yakov Smirnoff himself called in to give the correct answer in "Bluff the Listener" on the 02/11/17 show, prompting this comment from Peter: | |
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Hurricane of Puns | |
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Hurricane of Puns: During a "Bluff the Listener" challenge, Adam Felber ended his story thus: | |
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Could Say It, But... | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_2a7b0247 | comment |
Could Say It, But...: Played with during the Bernie Parent episode from July 2017. Peter devotes a segment to discussing the complaints they had received for comparing Senator Mitch McConnell to a "chinless owl" the previous week, before listing a number of other insults that they could have used but didn't so, therefore, nobody could complain. | |
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Eskimos Aren't Real | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_2e0c6c38 | comment |
Eskimos Aren't Real: Amy Dickinson isn't convinced that Kyrgyzstan is a real country. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_2eac5753 | type |
Narrative Profanity Filter | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_2eac5753 | comment |
Narrative Profanity Filter A "Not My Job" segment asking skier Mikaela Shiffrin about the Gloucestershire cheese race mentioned how the local authorities once tried to stop the race by telling the 86-year-old woman who makes the cheese every year that she'd be liable for any injuries sustained. Bill censors a comment while quoting an analyst, and Peter makes it clear that wasn't exactly what was said: | |
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Quintessential British Gentleman | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_339b3062 | comment |
Quintessential British Gentleman: A story about a British Airways flight that accidentally announced it was going to crash led to this exchange between the panelists: | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_37499c8 | type |
OnceAnEpisode | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_37499c8 | comment |
Once an Episode: Since early 2016, the first question on Who's Bill This Time? has been about Donald Trump, with frequent lampshade hanging. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_392372f9 | type |
Actor Allusion | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_392372f9 | comment |
Actor Allusion: Often invoked in the Not My Job segment. For Henry Winkler, not only were questions about Ponzi (not Fonzie) schemes, every answer was A, to be pronounced "Ayyyyyyy!" When Motel 6 became a corporate sponsor when he is a panelist Tom Bodett is always asked to finish the ad blurb; Bodett has been the voice of Motel 6's radio and television ads since 1986. Crossed with Black Humor after the 2016 election when someone referred to Maz Jobrani's name on a list and he replied: "Macio Giobranni, it's Italian". He had campaigned to convince Persian-Americans to put their real ethnicity on the 2010 Census. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_3ad96278 | type |
Roadkill for Dinner | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_3ad96278 | comment |
Roadkill for Dinner: In the 22 July 2023 edition of "Not My Job", former NBA player Damien Lillard, famous for "buzzer-beaters", was given the subject "buzzard eaters", i.e. roadkill cuisine. The first question had to do with why an annual roadkill cooking contest held in Texas might knock off points,note gravel in the meat while the second was about a roadkill cook who got special recognition for "Stripped and Shaved Beaver Tail".note he got a spot on MasterChef | |
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Noodle Incident | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_3c0a4666 | comment |
Noodle Incident: Whatever happened between Adam Burke and the flamingoes (a joke improvised by him and Paula Poundstone). According to him, it was "consensual". Tom Poppa explained Peter being out for the week on the 16 July 2022 show with the story that he was recuperating from "what can only be described as a freak pillow fight accident". | |
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Or Are You Just Happy to See Me? | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_3eecf8f | comment |
Or Are You Just Happy to See Me?: In 2006 Adam Felber's knack for guessing the setups in the panel questions he got was a running gag (collected in a Clip Show segment under "Is Adam Felber Psychic?"), in this case leading inevitably to the trope punchline. | |
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Panel Game | |
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Panel Game: A rare American one. | |
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Sound-to-Screen Adaptation | |
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Sound-to-Screen Adaptation: CBS ordered a pilot for a television version. In a nod to the format's British origins, in December 2011 Wait Wait aired a version of the show on BBC America as a Christmas special, with one British panelist (presenter and comedian Nick Hancock) and a British Not My Job guest (Neil Gaiman). The format was altered to eliminate the audience call-in segments since it was being taped in advance, so the panel got more questions and Carl's return-from-commercial intros for Peter were beefed up with jokes. A not-quite-identical audio version ran in the weekly slot on NPR. The show had a special episode beamed out to movie theaters in May 2013 in the same way as the Metropolitan Opera's "cinecasts". | |
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Comedic Sociopathy | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_4a4d6f7c | comment |
Comedic Sociopathy: Tim Kainenote Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016 shared a story about playing a prank on Bob McDonnell, his successor as governor of Virginia. Supposedly, Kaine gave McDonnell and his family a tour of the Executive Mansion before they moved in, and "just so happened" to remind them that the place was rumored to be haunted. Kaine then hid a cell phone with a "bloodcurdling scream" ringtone (gradually getting louder) somewhere in the mansion, and called it at random times for a while after McDonnell took office. | |
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Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure | |
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Popcultural Osmosis Failure: Played straight and then subverted on the April 7, 2012 episode. Roy Blount Jr., asked about the "mother of Blue Ivy", doesn't know the answer and predicts it will be someone whose name he doesn't recognize. When he's told it's Beyoncé, at first he pretends not to know who that is before admitting he does recognize the name. | |
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Technology Marches On | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_4b17763f | comment |
invoked Technology Marches On: The voice on your answering machine prize has become voice on your computer devices. Whenever Peter calls it "Carl Kasell's voice on your answering machine", the trope is occasionally lampshaded. | |
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Early-Installment Weirdness | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_4f4372e9 | comment |
Early-Installment Weirdness: The show started in January 1998 but was relaunched in May of that year with several changes: Peter Sagal took over hosting from Dan Coffey, they introduced the "Not My Job!" segment with guests, and so forth. Some other differences from the early years: For quite some time, scores in the Not My Job round were given nicknames after the first person to achieve that score. For instance, a Stamberg (named after the first guest), meant no points were scored. The round was also much harder to play since the questions had no central context and were instead based on quotes made during the week (closer to the interstitial questions between rounds). For the first few years, the guests were mainly NPR contributors since the show was done in-studio and those were the only people they could get. Their first major guest was John McCain back in 2000... at least two years after the show started. Carl's voice as a prize was more or less a placeholder since they really couldn't afford anything better. By the time they could, the message was such a beloved prize that they kept it that way (and it helped prevent any breaking of NPR's rules about contests). In the earliest shows, the final round was either an "essay" question had each contestant make up a funny story (scored by Carl out of 10 points), or Lightning True-False, before being replaced with the current Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round. | |
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Hurricane of Euphemisms | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_51561f43 | comment |
Hurricane of Euphemisms: Adam Burke is asked what the mayor of Louisville inadvertently tweeted (he was taking a dump), and Adam doesn't really want to specify. | |
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The Eeyore | |
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The Eeyore: Call-in contestants have ranged considerably in personality types, but then there's Tim from Buffalo in the February 11, 2006 broadcast. | |
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Scotireland | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_56549b6d | comment |
Scotireland: During a show around St. Patrick's Day, Peter announces (being radio, we can't see) that Carl is wearing a kilt, noting that it's traditionally worn by the Scottish. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_5fcb3c79 | type |
Golden Snitch | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_5fcb3c79 | comment |
Golden Snitch: There are only seven to nine points available before the speed round; in Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank, each panelist has eight questions worth two points each. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_6056f853 | type |
Homoerotic Subtext | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_6056f853 | comment |
Homoerotic Subtext: Parodied during the 09/05/15 show (mocking Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis) when Peter Sagal said he and Bill Kurtis were going to go down to the county courthouse to get married, and then have the wedding reception at the county jail. (They're both straight in real life.) | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_632f6b5b | type |
Guest Host | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_632f6b5b | comment |
Guest Host: The show has had several, including Tom Hanks (yes, really) on the 1/14/17 episode. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_6f465fea | type |
The Triple | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_6f465fea | comment |
The Triple: Used frequently. Sometimes used as a tactical Take That!, as when describing a hotel in Japan that is renting out rooms for crying women: Or as just a wry Non Sequitur, as when they were discussing the debut of Inspire, a glossy magazine especially for jihadi terrorists. Later in that bit came a more conventional Rule of Three version: | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_701bd8f1 | type |
Auto-Incorrect | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_701bd8f1 | comment |
Auto-Incorrect: The correct answer for a "Bluff the Listener" quiz about prom trends involved the kids at a high school all wearing pastries instead of flowers as a joke after somebody's smartphone autocorrected a text about their date's corsage to "croissant". | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_70376f74 | type |
I Am One of Those, Too | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_70376f74 | comment |
I Am One of Those, Too: Hilariously, Kevin Smith had actually read the random book on which they based his Not My Job quiz. They even let him explain one of the ridiculous stories in it. (The book in question, incidentally, was a strange-science book called Elephants on Acid.) | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7043a964 | type |
Grammar Nazi | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7043a964 | comment |
Grammar Nazi: For years, the intro for Lightning Fill in the Blank included the line "Each of our players now has sixty seconds to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can." At some point in the late Noughties they abruptly abandoned the "singular they" so that the intro now said "...as he or she can," the form in which it remained thereafter. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_70ff1328 | type |
Funny Answering Machine | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_70ff1328 | comment |
Funny Answering Machine: Before October 21, 2017, the prize awarded to most contestants for winning a game was to have Carl Kasell record a greeting for their home answering machine or voice mail. Since then, the contestant can choose any panelist or staff member to do the greeting, including Kasell. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7130202a | type |
Jewish Mother | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7130202a | comment |
Jewish Mother: According to Peter, the Surgeon General is like the nation's Jewish mother. | |
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Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_720e28a4 | comment |
Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Citing a British study, Peter Sagal asks panelist Maz Jobrani what men talk about at a barnote their feelings, their relationships, and their kids: Another one from the 10/03/15 Listener Limerick Challenge: | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_72757e0d | type |
"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_72757e0d | comment |
"Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Peter often embellishes parts of stories for comedy, and the audience and panelists know this, so when an actual story contains details that are particularly bizarre or unbelievable, he will preface it with one of these so everyone knows it's drawn from the real story and not one of his embellishments this time. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_75979171 | type |
The Cuckoolander Was Right | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_75979171 | comment |
The Cuckoolander Was Right: Sometimes, panelists answer correctly without intending to. During the December 24, 2016 broadcast: | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_768fb522 | type |
Side Effects Include... | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_768fb522 | comment |
When former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy played Not My Job, Peter read off some side effects of public radio: | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_77230aa3 | type |
Jenny's Number | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_77230aa3 | comment |
Jenny's Number: Peter Sagal uses this number in a February 2, 2008 episode, saying police who arrested a telephone spammer changed his number to 867-5309 to give him a taste of his own medicine. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7815ba15 | type |
N-Word Privileges | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7815ba15 | comment |
N-Word Privileges: With the N-word in question being "nerd". Peter Sagal claims the right to mock nerds due to (nominally) being one himself. Same thing with making New Jersey jokes. | |
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Gretzky Has the Ball | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_78c9ebbf | comment |
Gretzky Has the Ball: During the 2010 World Cup, panelist Tom Bodett admitted that he knows nothing about soccer, which becomes a problem when his son asks him about the game. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7c0c4bb8 | type |
DeadBabyComedy | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7c0c4bb8 | comment |
A literal example of Dead Baby Comedy on the 5/30/14 episode with Alicia Silverstone who just wrote a book on motherhood. Answering questions taken from hints on baby care in a 50's era guide, one answer concerned babies being rubbed with lard in the belief that the lard helps soften the skin. One of the female panelists piped up with "And it also makes the skin extra crispy when the baby is put on the spit." | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7e499910 | type |
Obligatory Joke | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_7e499910 | comment |
Obligatory Joke: When given an obvious setup Peter is not above providing the expected punchline. During "Who's Bill This Time?" on the October 8, 2016 broadcast, which also counts as Lame Pun Reaction: In 2006 Adam Felber's knack for guessing the setups in the panel questions he got was a running gag (collected in a Clip Show segment under "Is Adam Felber Psychic?"). In this case the obligatory punchline was not omitted either. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8414865 | type |
Aroused by Their Voice | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8414865 | comment |
Aroused by Their Voice: According to Peter Sagal, Bill Kurtis' voice for the NPR audience. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_87b73405 | type |
Signing-Off Catchphrase | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_87b73405 | comment |
Signing-Off Catchphrase: Each show ends with funny predictions from the panel, after which is the regular sign-off from announcer Bill Kurtis followed by host Peter Sagal thanking the panel by name and telling listeners to come back next week. The final sentence is always, "This... is NPR." | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_899cc5c1 | type |
Drinking Game | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_899cc5c1 | comment |
Drinking Game: A variant. According to Peter, the listeners of the show keep a "Maz Jobrani foreign accent scorecard" and mark off accents as he uses them. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8eb3d48f | type |
Revisiting the Roots | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8eb3d48f | comment |
Revisiting the Roots: In March, 2020, due to COVID-19, the show switched from recording in front of a studio audience to Peter and Bill recording from a studio at WBEZ Chicago and the panelists patched in remotely. Peter noted that this was the format the show used originally and joked that no one could understand how they survived those early years. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8fc70212 | type |
Voice Clip Song | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8fc70212 | comment |
Voice Clip Song: One recap episode featured Mo Rocca's various stutters and hesitations mixed together into a raging techno beat. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_8fc70212 | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_91814d2c | type |
Speed Round | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_91814d2c | comment |
Speed Round: "Lightning Fill In The Blank" is a set of quick-fire questions to each panelist. Most of the questions are normal news questions, but the last one for each round is a sillier story which gets elaborated on. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_9182ea54 | type |
Crazy Cat Lady | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_9182ea54 | comment |
Crazy Cat Lady: Paula Poundstone's fourteen cats are a recurring gag when she's a panelist, especially if there's a news trivia question about cats, dogs, and other pets and comfort animals. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_9183d1cb | type |
Pocket Dial | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_9183d1cb | comment |
Pocket Dial: One episode had a report wherein a thief was caught after butt-dialing the police department while talking about his latest escapade. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_9edfdf1f | type |
Studio Audience | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_9edfdf1f | comment |
Studio Audience: The first episodes were simply recorded "in Chicago" or "at Chicago Public Radio" and not in front of an audience. Occasionally they would go on tour and record episodes in front of audiences there. This proved to be so popular that (until the 2020 coronavirus pandemic), all episodes are recorded in front of an audience; the ones in Chicago were recorded at the Chase Bank auditorium downtown until 2022, when the show moved to the Studebaker Theater; Sagal quipped that he looked forward to "living up to the ideal of cutting-edge innovation implied by the name 'Studebaker.'" note Studebaker was an automaker that went out of business in the 1960s; the company constructed the building as a showroom during its original incarnation as a builder of horse-drawn wagons, then converted it into a theater after it moved out. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_a65288e2 | type |
Ascended Extra | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_a65288e2 | comment |
Ascended Extra: Peter Sagal was originally one of the show's regular contestants, before being promoted to host. Neko Case was a popular guest first before becoming a panelist in 2013. Likewise Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings, who was a guest twice and then took a turn as a panelist. Keegan-Michael Key was a panelist on three shows in 2010 and returned as a guest in 2016. Faith Salie is a regular panelist and filled in for Peter as host during a 2018 show, subsequently hosting the 2018 twentieth anniversary "Naked and Ashamed" behind-the-scenes podcasts. | |
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Rule of Three | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_a6cda066 | comment |
Later in that bit came a more conventional Rule of Three version: | |
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Soundtrack Dissonance | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_abad35b4 | comment |
Soundtrack Dissonance: Conversed after that week's episode of The Good Wife had Peter Florrick going down on Alicia while All Things Considered played on a radio in the background. Peter Sagal noted that it was the first time anyone had used NPR as the soundtrack to a steamy love scene. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_acbea71a | type |
Cheap Heat | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_acbea71a | comment |
Cheap Heat: At the shows produced outside of Chicago, the guest is a local and he or she always plays for a local caller; the other call-in contestants are often from the area as well. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_acbea71a | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_ada72d66 | type |
Retroactive Wish | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_ada72d66 | comment |
Retroactive Wish: After Mo Rocca expressed his dislike of homemade sweaters, he was sent loads of them by irate knitters. When he related this story to the panel on a later show, another panelist announced, "You know what I can't stand? Bricks of gold!" | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_aff1ee2e | type |
Small Reference Pools | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_aff1ee2e | comment |
Small Reference Pools: Averted, naturally — this is NPR, after all. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_aff1ee2e | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b01abe4f | type |
Catchphrase | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b01abe4f | comment |
Catchphrase: Peter's use of "Well done" in response to Carl/Bill's announcing the score for a given player is so consistent and so closely associated with him that it's conspicuous by its absence whenever anyone else guest hosts. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b4eff8a8 | type |
Epic Fail | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b4eff8a8 | comment |
Epic Fail: On the November 16, 2019, episode featuring Senator Tim Kaine, Maeve Higgins made history by being the first panelist to get every question wrong in the final round. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b53077b3 | type |
Take That! | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b53077b3 | comment |
Sometimes used as a tactical Take That!, as when describing a hotel in Japan that is renting out rooms for crying women: | |
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The Ace | |
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The Ace: A downplayed example with Roxanne Roberts, but sometimes Peter will (semi-)jokingly claim that the purpose of "Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank" is simply to determine how many points she'll win by. | |
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A Degree in Useless | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b5c47a93 | comment |
A Degree in Useless: Any liberal arts student or graduate who calls in can expect some good-natured ribbing from Peter Segal and any panelists with similar degrees. This is occasionally averted with teachers and other public servants, who receive nothing but respect for their chosen professions. | |
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A Good Name for a Rock Band | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_b9561236 | comment |
A Good Name for a Rock Band: After a story about a lack of good names for new rock bands, Peter Sagal suggests some names based on the week's news, including The Joe Lieberman Experience, Bart Stupak Shakur, Mega-Death Panel, and Joe Biden and the Big Folk-ing Deals. On another occasion, The Fleeting Obscenities. | |
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Berserk Button | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_bc74ef27 | comment |
Berserk Button: Usually parodied. After a caller displayed doubts in a "Bluff-the-Listener" story of an alcoholic recovery/shooting camp, panelist P.J. O'Rourke got angry, saying that, as a Republican, his party is largely made up of drunks with guns. Panelist Paula Poundstone has two: She often displays anger over the idea of swearing and humor being bad, including moments where she became very angry over a Curse Free Week in California, and when a school district banned "Three-Stooge-Like behavior." Paula also has a marked tendency to question the various 'studies' that form the basis of the out-of-segment questions, often triggering a rant about people being paid to do these things. For example, a study from a British psychologist who somehow found that women were more attracted to men who danced like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever. This study was done in 2008, by the way. Her love of ranting about surveys lead to NPR deciding to Spin-Off a weekly Los Angeles-based podcast with a live audience in mid-2017 known as Live from the Poundstone Institute, which revolves completely around comedic riffing of surveys and statistics by Poundstone. Adam Felber joins her as the sidekick (or "Head of Research") for the show. One of Paula's most famous moments on the show was her pretend berserk button response to host Peter Sagal continuing to milk humor out of the Dick Cheney hunting accident. And then there's the time that she lost her temper at Michael Pollan for his disapproval of processed foods. | |
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Cowboy Episode | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_bcfc7495 | comment |
Cowboy Episode: During the 2008 election cycle they had great fun with a panel segment entitled "Wait Wait on the Trail!", the standing intro for which involved normally strait-laced newscaster Carl Kasell performing a cowboy yell (to great hilarity) followed by a different Western song quote or cliche. (Hear one from Jan. 19, 2008 here.) When Korva Coleman stood in as guest announcer and scorekeeper, she got a turn too and approached it with great relish, also to the audience's delight. | |
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Brief Accent Imitation | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_be6f7ae7 | comment |
Brief Accent Imitation: Peter Sagal and the panelists do this a lot, though they all got in the fun in the September 5, 2015 broadcast doing Canadian and German accents. Maz Jobrani is very fond of quoting or imitating people with various accents. According to Peter, NPR has received a lot of less-than-appreciative mail from listeners about that. Patrick Stewart did French!Captain Picard when he appeared on the show in 2014 and remarked that the undeniably goofy result was the real reason Picard didn't have an audible French accent on Star Trek: The Next Generation. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c145f69b | type |
Subverted Trope | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c145f69b | comment |
One of Paula's most famous moments on the show was her pretend berserk button response to host Peter Sagal continuing to milk humor out of the Dick Cheney hunting accident. | |
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Fun with Acronyms | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c25c7890 | comment |
Fun with Acronyms: Unintentionally by Peter Sagal. In the May 21, 2016 show, Peter introduces the first piece of news as "This Week in Trump", and Faith points out that it creates the perfect acronym, "TWIT". | |
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Bestiality Is Depraved | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c3fbac64 | comment |
Whatever happened between Adam Burke and the flamingoes (a joke improvised by him and Paula Poundstone). According to him, it was "consensual". | |
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Couch Gag | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c4d09d24 | comment |
Couch Gag: Since taking over as announcer and scorekeeper, Bill Kurtis uses a different adjective or Pun on his first name when introducing himself. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c75df49a | type |
Shout-Out | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c75df49a | comment |
Shout-Out: One week after their somewhat unflattering portrayal of fans of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magicnote Fox News Channel's Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld segment the same week was actually less mean, if also pretty boring., they brought on a fan and former Wait, Wait intern for a brief interview, and used the show as the basis for that week's "Not My Job" questions... for guest contestant Bill Clinton (who got them all right, but they weren't very hard either). | |
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Spiders Are Scary | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c92bd7ed | comment |
Spiders Are Scary: Peter and the panel spend some time discussing spider-related news in the April 1, 2017 broadcast. | |
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Self-Deprecation | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_c9597a03 | comment |
Self-Deprecation: "Visit our blog which has been called 'sophomoric', 'a threat to NPR's integrity', and 'reason to review our intern hiring process.'" When teenage fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson played Not My Job, she was asked questions about "stuff old people like". One of them was about NPR. The pun with which Peter introduces the Listener Limerick Challenge (e.g. "In just a minute, Carl tells us about his favorite Transformer, Optimus Rhyme.") seems to get lamer every week, causing Peter to at one time crack, "Look, if you got better ones, send 'em in, OK?" Variations of the intro to "Not My Job" along the lines of "Now our game in which Great People do Great Things and then wonder how the heck they ended up on this show...." The "Surgeon General's Warnings" they gave when Vivek Murthy was a guest on the show was Peter has made a number of jabs at Star Trek fans while being one himself, often switching between mockery and self-deprecation in the same segment. | |
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Cloudcuckoolander | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_caa28b82 | comment |
Cloudcuckoolander: Mo Rocca is planted firmly in this territory. Bobcat Goldthwait has been this, especially during the final Lightning Fill-in-the-blank segments where he is usually lucky to get one correct answer. Maeve Higgins seems to digress a lot, and even got **0 correct answers** during a Lightning Fill-in-the-blank round. | |
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Bankruptcy Barrel | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_cadbbc64 | comment |
Bankruptcy Barrel: Referenced during the 2007-08 financial crisis for the title of an irregular panel segment on recession-related news items — combined with another trope. | |
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Lame Pun Reaction | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_cb0743c0 | comment |
During "Who's Bill This Time?" on the October 8, 2016 broadcast, which also counts as Lame Pun Reaction: | |
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My Eyes Are Up Here | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_cd8c578c | comment |
My Eyes Are Up Here: Peter attempted to clue Paula Poundstone to the results of a slightly unnecessary University of Nebraska study concluding that men like to stare at women's breasts by alluding to this phrase. This only confused Paula, who seemed not to know the phrase, though she was quite familiar with the phenomenon itself. (The whole bit is transcribed here.) | |
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Dude, Not Funny! | |
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Dude, Not Funny!: Joked about during the February 28, 2015 show about Hillary Clinton's comments on bipartisan cooperation: When a bit unexpectedly landed on a joke about Abraham Lincoln's assassination, the audience reacted with surprised laughter. The panelist responded, "Too soon?" | |
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Everybody Hates Mathematics | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_d04d14a5 | comment |
Everybody Hates Mathematics: For the "Lightning Fill in the Blank" segment, the third-place panelist leading into the segment goes first, then the second place and the lead. Before the last panelist goes, Peter asks the scorekeeper how many correct answers that panelist needs to get in order to win the game. Since the questions are worth two points in this segment, this involves a bit of math, and awareness of how the standing even or odd scores will affect whether a tally will be a tie or a win. (The formula is usually, "She needs five to tie, and six to win.") Peter sometimes lampshades this as "the math question". Guest scorekeepers can react to it with varying levels of enthusiasm. | |
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ToiletHumor | |
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Toilet Humor: Peter normally really doesn't like poop jokes, but in one bonus clip from December 2016, he couldn't help making one during a discussion about hearing corn grow that went Off the Rails. | |
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The Unpronounceable | |
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The Unpronounceable: In the lightning round on the 14 Jan 2017 show, Tom Hanks (filling in for Peter) made a crack about not saying the name of the Polish foreign minister "because it would blow NPR's annual consonant budget". | |
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Waxing Lyrical | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_d6707631 | comment |
Waxing Lyrical: In "Who's Bill This Time?" on the Oct. 22, 2016, broadcast, Peter asks the caller who won the Nobel Prize in Literature. As he has the question repeated and ponders (or searches the internet for) the answer: Roy Blount occasionally turns the current topic into a poem or a song. In one "Bluff the Listener" segment that jokingly suggested hairdressers had taken a hit after a midterm election that had gone to the Democrats (because they don't go for vertical hairdos), Roy asked if he could add a little song, which turned out to be "Great Big Hair and a Little Bitty Heart". After the applause Peter advised him he did not need to ask permission—he could break out a song whenever he liked. | |
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Are You Sure You Want to Do That? | |
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Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: If someone guesses the incorrect answer for their question, Peter Sagal will urge them to change it. | |
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Spin-Off | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_d9ee7048 | comment |
Her love of ranting about surveys lead to NPR deciding to Spin-Off a weekly Los Angeles-based podcast with a live audience in mid-2017 known as Live from the Poundstone Institute, which revolves completely around comedic riffing of surveys and statistics by Poundstone. Adam Felber joins her as the sidekick (or "Head of Research") for the show. | |
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Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_dbaadec0 | type |
TradeSnark | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_dbaadec0 | comment |
Trade Snark: Did an entire segment on Thomas Kinkade, The Painter of Lightâ„¢ for this Not My Job segment with Scott Simon. | |
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Audience Participation | |
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Audience Participation: The audience is free to collectively help guests and panelists (by yelling the answer, making noise, and so on), though they're not always correct. Peter often comments on their behavior. | |
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Insistent Terminology | |
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Insistent Terminology: Mo Rocca always refers to the Tony Awards as the Antoinette Perry Awards. | |
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Freudian Slip | |
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Freudian Slip: Peter Sagal fell into a real and hilarious example in the March 8, 2014 episode, creating one of the show's greatest unscripted moments: | |
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Creepy Monotone | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_e90a93b2 | comment |
Creepy Monotone: Discussed during a panel segment involving a study purporting that women found men speaking in a monotone to be sexy, leading to a hilarious attempt to invoke this from announcer and scorekeeper Carl Kasell: They also discussed how the inverse of a creepy monotone can be just as off-putting: | |
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Biting-the-Hand Humor | |
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When teenage fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson played Not My Job, she was asked questions about "stuff old people like". One of them was about NPR. | |
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Crossover | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_eb6da8ef | comment |
Crossover: Peter Sagal was the guest for the 5/3/14 episode of fellow public radio show Ask Me Another. That show's host, Ophira Eisenberg, has had a couple of turns as a panelist on Wait Wait as well. | |
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Bringing in the Expert | |
Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me (Radio) / int_ee481121 | comment |
Bringing in the Expert: In lieu of ridiculing a particular news item Peter will sometimes phone up an expert to ridicule it for him. The most famous example is probably the item about Washington Mutual bankers on retreat reportedly performing a banking-themed version of "Baby Got Back" (the first line had "bucks" for "butts", and so on) at the height of anti-banker sentiment over the subprime mortgage crisis. To comment on this, Peter brought in Sir Mix-A-Lot himself (eliciting a surprised gasp from Mo Rocca). Mix got all the best lines. When a study stated that Boston had the sexiest American accent, they called up retired Car Talk host Ray Magliozzi to read various pick-up lines. | |
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Insult Misfire | |
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Insult Misfire: Played for Laughs in the June 6, 2015 broadcast when Peter Sagal assumes one of the panelists is mocking his age: | |
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Homemade Sweater from Hell | |
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Homemade Sweater from Hell: Mo Rocca made a comment about how he disliked homemade sweaters, claiming that homemade sweaters are "always itchy." The following week, host Peter Sagal reported that "the knitting community" was up in arms over the remark, and Mo phoned in a prepared statement apologizing for using the "i-word" and saying that his comments were indefensible even though there was a reason behind them involving his time as an exchange student in Ecuador, limited sleeping arrangements having forced him to bunk with the family's teenage alpaca, Chucho. The knitters' response to Mo's remark culminated in several members from Ravelry.com teaming up and presenting Mo with a sweater they'd made. He accepted the present, put it on, and good-naturedly admitted that his new sweater wasn't itchy at all. Observe. | |
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Running Gag | |
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Running Gag: Paula Poundstone's ire at studies (or "studies") and the ridiculous results they produce. The increasingly lame intros to the Limericks round. In several 2013 shows, "twerking" has become a popular answer to questions in the lightning round when they don't know the answer (partly because of Miley Cyrus' undeserving dominance of the news cycle and partly because it's an Inherently Funny Word). Paula Poundstone's many, many cats (to a lesser extent than other gags) last tallied at 16. With every commercial he does for the NPR Politics Podcast, Peter becomes increasingly convinced that the 2016 US election will drive the Politics hosts insane. So far, he's been proven wrong. | |
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Boring Broadcaster | |
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Boring Broadcaster: The show sometimes makes jokes about this at their network NPR's expense. They once asked teen fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson a question about NPR in a Not My Job game titled "Stuff Old People Like". When former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy played Not My Job, Peter read off some side effects of public radio: | |
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