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Lightning Fill In The Blank

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

Now on to our final game, Lightning Fill In The Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as he or she can, each correct answer now worth 2 points. Bill, can you give us the scores?

BILL KURTIS: Mo and Amy each have 3. Peter has 2.

SAGAL: All right, so Peter, you are in third place. You're going to start first.

PETER GROSZ: Great.

SAGAL: The clock will start when I begin your first question, fill in the blank. On Wednesday, ISIS took credit for a car bombing at a market in blank.

GROSZ: Iraq?

SAGAL: Yeah, in Baghdad.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, officials in Alberta said that 90 percent of the buildings in Fort McMurray survived the blank that forced the evacuation of the whole city?

GROSZ: The big fire.

SAGAL: Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Wednesday, Ohio's House backed a plan to legalize blank.

GROSZ: Marijuana.

SAGAL: Indeed.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The Social Security Administration released its annual ranking of baby names this week, showing that the names blank and blank are particularly unpopular this year.

GROSZ: This is not fair because I have to do it twice but Donald and Hillary?

SAGAL: You're right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: This week, Google caused a panic when they switched the color of their search results from blue to blank.

GROSZ: Black?

SAGAL: Yeah.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Sunday, 2-to-1 favorite Nyquist won the blank.

GROSZ: Kentucky Derby.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, The New York Times issued a correction...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...That Muslim leader Imam Suhaib Webb's Snapchat handle is imamsuhaibwebb, not blank as previously reported?

GROSZ: Imam - StonerImam69 (ph).

SAGAL: No.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: You're actually close.

GROSZ: It's something like that?

SAGAL: As it turns out, the Snapchat handle for the very well-respected imam was not Pimpin4Paradise786.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: The New York Times said that this error was due to bad information from Secretary of State John Kerry, who, according to the paper, can be reached on Twitter @KetchupSlut420.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did Peter do?

KURTIS: He got seven right...

AMY DICKINSON: Whoa.

KURTIS: ...Fourteen more points.

MO ROCCA: Wow.

KURTIS: ...Total of 16 and the lead.

DICKINSON: What?

(APPLAUSE)

GROSZ: What?

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: We have flipped a coin. Mo has elected to go third. That means Amy, you are up next, fill in the blank. On Monday, North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department over the state's blank law.

DICKINSON: The bathrooms.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Thursday, the Senate in blank voted to launch an impeachment trial against their president.

DICKINSON: Brazil.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, former employees of blank said the site routinely suppressed conservative news.

DICKINSON: Facebook.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After being blocked by a federal judge, Staples abandoned their $6.3 billion merger with blank.

DICKINSON: Office Depot.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Monday, Canadian police blocked off a street after they mistook blank for a potential crime scene.

DICKINSON: A - a party of some kind?

SAGAL: No, a, quote, "unusually intense squirt gun fight."

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: This week, ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft announced they were suspending service in blank.

DICKINSON: Oh, it's Austin.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, Steph Curry became the first NBA player to be unanimously voted blank.

DICKINSON: MVP.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, Sen. Jeff Flake released a report on wasteful government spending...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...Including a million-dollar study involving a scientist trying to get bees to blank.

DICKINSON: Bees to stop stinging.

SAGAL: No, he wanted bees to sting him on his genitals.

DICKINSON: Oh, I know that guy.

SAGAL: You know that guy?

(LAUGHTER)

DICKINSON: Yes, like, a Cornell guy.

SAGAL: Really?

DICKINSON: Ivy leaguers.

SAGAL: Yes.

DICKINSON: Yeah.

ROCCA: Is it like...

GROSZ: I dated a guy who used to ask me to sting his genitals.

DICKINSON: Yeah, yeah.

GROSZ: It sounds familiar.

ROCCA: Is it like a pleasure-pain thing? What is this?

SAGAL: No, I believe he was trying to determine what parts of the body are most sensitive to bee stings. Turns out it's not your private parts.

ROCCA: No.

SAGAL: It's the inside of your nose. And we know that because...

ROCCA: Oh, that would be terrible...

SAGAL: ...Of a government grant, a research grant.

ROCCA: That would be awful.

SAGAL: Sen. Flake criticized dozens of studies, including one to discover whether birds slur their songs while drunk. For the record, we are in favor of this government expense because it provides material for our show.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did Amy do on our quiz?

KURTIS: Six right, 12 more, total of 15 fifteen but one short of Peter.

SAGAL: All right, how many then does Mo need to win?

ROCCA: I can't do this.

KURTIS: Seven to win.

SAGAL: Here we go, Mo, fill in the blank. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that unappropriated funds could not be used to repay insurers, dealing a blow to blank.

ROCCA: Obamacare.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Despite previously coming out against it, on Sunday, Donald Trump said he backed a raise in the blank.

ROCCA: Minimum wage.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, London elected its first-ever blank mayor.

ROCCA: Muslim mayor.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Wednesday, civil unions for same-sex couples were approved by lawmakers in blank.

ROCCA: Italy.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: In order to protect the identities of those involved in an alleged sheep theft on Tuesday, police blurred out blank in official photographs.

ROCCA: They...

(LAUGHTER)

ROCCA: This is about a sheep theft?

SAGAL: Yes.

ROCCA: The sheeps' faces?

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Of course. This week, it was revealed that "Harry Potter" star Emma Watson's name was included in the blank papers.

ROCCA: Oh, in the Panama Papers.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: For the first time in two years, climbers reached the summit of blank.

ROCCA: Mount Everest.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Last weekend in Lisbon, 126...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...Year-old statue of a Portuguese king was destroyed when a man blanked.

ROCCA: Mistook the statue for a long-lost friend and ran and bear-hugged it and tipped it over.

SAGAL: No, when a man knocked it over while trying to take a selfie with it.

GROSZ: Jeez...

ROCCA: Oh, right.

GROSZ: ...Heard about that.

SAGAL: Police say the unidentified man destroyed the statute of King Sebastiao when he climbed on the podium, causing the statute to tip over and shatter on the ground.

DICKINSON: Oh my...

SAGAL: For those...

ROCCA: Portugal.

SAGAL: ...Who don't know, King Sebastiao of Portugal is famous for dying in battle during a crusade in North Africa when the king of Morocco approached him and tried to take a selfie.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, how did Mo do on our quiz? Did he do well enough to win?

KURTIS: He did.

SAGAL: Oh my gosh...

KURTIS: Seventeen points.

(APPLAUSE)

ROCCA: I'm very, very happy.

SAGAL: But it did happen.

GROSZ: Sheep faces come through for Mo Rocca.

SAGAL: I know.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists well, now that Budweiser has been renamed America, we'll ask what will be the next big product to be renamed and why?

WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago, in association with Urgent Haircut Productions - Doug I'll Just Have Another Pizza Berman, benevolent overlord. Philipp Goedicke writes our limericks. Our intern is Peanut Butter and Isabelly Robertson (ph). Our web guru is Beth Novey. B.J. Leiderman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Miles Doornbos. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Thanks this week to the crew at the Providence Performing Arts Center. Our CFO is Ann Nguyen. Our production coordinator is Robert Neuhaus. Our senior producer is Ian Chillag. The executive producer of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME is Mike Happy Birthday Eva Danforth. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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