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 two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: Reza and Maz each have three. Paula has two.
MAZ JOBRANI: Wow. Persian power.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: That's not good. Yeah.
JOBRANI: This is how Sharia law gets spread.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right. Paula, you're behind so you're up first.
POUNDSTONE: I'm ready. I'm on it.
SAGAL: The clock will begin when I start your first question. Fill in the blank. Leaders from France and Germany traveled to Kiev this week to broker a peace agreement between Russia and blank.
POUNDSTONE: Ukraine.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After a last-minute interception on the one yard line, the New England Patriots beat blank to win the Super Bowl.
POUNDSTONE: The Seahawks.
SAGAL: Yes, of Seattle.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, the electronics store chain blank finally filed for bankruptcy.
POUNDSTONE: RadioShack.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: John Boehner announced that Pope Francis will make an address to blank when he visits the U.S.
POUNDSTONE: To the Congress.
SAGAL: Indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On a flyer distributed by the AAA, the association listed a specific website as blank.
POUNDSTONE: Specific website as by the AAA?
SAGAL: Yeah.
POUNDSTONE: As helping you get sober.
SAGAL: No. They listed the website they wanted to point people to as www.findoutwhatthewebsite'surlisandputithere.com.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: This week, Google announced it was developing a ride sharing app to challenge the popularity of blamk.
POUNDSTONE: Uber.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Over the Super Bowl weekend, Clint Eastwood's controversial war drama blank broke yet another box office record.
POUNDSTONE: "American Sniper."
SAGAL: Indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The photo of an American tourist happily being embraced in a Venezuela tourism ad turns out to have been...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Taken when the American blanked.
POUNDSTONE: Was kidnapped.
SAGAL: No, when he was finally allowed to leave a Venezuelan prison...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...After being falsely accused of a spy. The ad features a heart-shaped picture of a recently released reporter hugging his family once he returned home with the words we love foreigners printed over it.
POUNDSTONE: Wow.
SAGAL: The guy was puzzled to note this. The slogan replaces the tourism board's original motto Venezuela - come for the collapsed economy, stay because you were falsely imprisoned for espionage.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Paula do on the quiz?
KURTIS: Well, Paula did very well. Six right, 12 more points, 14 gives her lead.
SAGAL: Excellent and well done, Paula.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: All right. We've flipped a coin, and Maz has elected to go next. So, Maz, fill in the blank. This week, health insurance giant Anthem announced that the information of over 80 million customers may have been blanked.
JOBRANI: Hacked.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Engine failure was named as the probable cause for the crash of the TransAsia flight in blank.
JOBRANI: Taiwan.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Fifty-five years after the release of her landmark novel "To Kill A Mockingbird," blank announced she'd be publishing her second book in July.
JOBRANI: Harper Lee.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, the White House announced new regulations on how the blank could handle private data collected from U.S. citizens.
JOBRANI: NSA.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A Wisconsin woman who called police to report her car stolen called back 20 minutes later to report blank.
JOBRANI: She found it.
SAGAL: Yes because it was just covered in snow.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After being arrested for his involvement in a hit-and-run, rap mogul blank was taken to the hospital with chest pains.
JOBRANI: Suge Knight.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Following last year's hacking scandal, Amy Pascal announced she was stepping down as the chairman of blank.
JOBRANI: Sony.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The deputy of a small county in Wyoming says he...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Quit his job of 40 years because the new sheriff blanked.
JOBRANI: Farted.
SAGAL: No.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: I know this one.
SAGAL: Sorry, Paula. It was a question for, Maz. The new sheriff banned him from wearing cowboy hats and boots. The new sheriff of Sublette county has banned western wear in favor of a more uniform look, including black boots and traditional place uniforms. But Deputy Gene Bryson said he hated the change so he quit. The deputy said that he'll miss a lot of things about the job, but mostly cow punching, hanging people for just about anything and shooting a man just to watch him die.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: Times are a changing.
SAGAL: They sure are. Bill, how did Maz Jobrani do on our quiz?
KURTIS: He got seven right for 14 more points, a total of 17 for the lead.
POUNDSTONE: Nice, Maz.
(APPLAUSE)
POUNDSTONE: That was powerful.
SAGAL: How many then does Reza need?
KURTIS: Seven to tie and eight to win.
SAGAL: There you go. Reza, this is for the game. Fill in the blank. One day after their leader announced that they would join the fight against ISIS, blank began performing coordinated air strikes.
REZA ASLAN: Jordan.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, the FCC announced a proposal to begin treating blank as a public utility.
ASLAN: The Internet.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Tuesday, President Obama unveiled the specifics of his proposed $4-billion blank.
ASLAN: Budget.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The owner of a restaurant in Australia says that as a vegetarian, he refuses to blank.
ASLAN: Eat Vegemite. I don't know.
SAGAL: No. Get rid of the roach infestation in his kitchen. Police in Colorado ticketed disgraced former cyclist blank for hitting parked cars and blaming it on his girlfriend.
ASLAN: Armstrong.
SAGAL: Right. Lance Armstrong.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Thanks to a newly installed Plexiglas barrier, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York did not blank the groundhog this year.
ASLAN: Drop him and kill him.
SAGAL: Exactly.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The extramarital affair between two workers...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...At a New Zealand company was exposed when blank.
ASLAN: When they sent emojis to everyone.
SAGAL: No, when one of the dozens of people watching them from a bar across the street live tweeted it.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, geeze.
SAGAL: So the two co-workers decided to meet at their office for a late-night tryst because why not. And they thought, you see, that because they couldn't see out the windows 'cause the lights were on inside, nobody could see them. But happily for the two dozen people sitting at a bar outside, they were wrong. So everybody was, like, filming it and taking pictures. And one person live tweeted it. The couple's romantic encounter quickly went viral, though, hopefully in only one sense of the word.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Reza Aslan do well enough to win?
KURTIS: Well, he did well his first time here. Congratulations. Five right. He got 10 more points and got 13. But that means that Maz is the champion.
(APPLAUSE)
POUNDSTONE: All right.
SAGAL: Well done, Maz.
JOBRANI: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.