PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now onto 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 is now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: Roxanne and Paula each have three. Tom has two.
SAGAL: All right. Tom, you're in third place. You're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. Following an attempted coup last week, the president of blank declared a three-month state of emergency.
TOM BODETT: Turkey.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, the White House asked the Supreme Court to reconsider President Obama's executive action on blank.
BODETT: Immigration.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF , "")
SAGAL: According to a new national poll by Reuters, blank leads the presidential race by 12 points.
BODETT: Hillary Clinton.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, Taylor Swift threatened to sue blank for recording one of their phone calls without her permission.
BODETT: Oh, is that Kim Kardashian or Kanye West?
SAGAL: Yes, Kanye West.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, police in Baltimore ticketed a man who was playing Pokemon Go while driving and blanked.
BODETT: He sideswiped a police car.
SAGAL: That's exactly what he did. And the man said after his arrest said, quote, "that's what I get for playing this stupid game."
BODETT: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: On Thursday, South African prosecutors said they would appeal the sentence for Paralympic star blank.
BODETT: Oh, what's his name? Oh, God darn it. Paturius (ph), Perorious (ph), the - no, that's a sea.
SAGAL: I'm going to give it to you. It's Oscar Pistorius, but close enough...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
BODETT: Pistorius, yeah.
SAGAL: Best known as the creator of "Happy Days" and "Mork & Mindy," as well as other movies, director blank passed away at the age of 81.
BODETT: And I think that Chachi at the RNC is what did him in. It was Garry Marshall.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, authorities in Britain are investigating why hundreds of citizens were trapped for four hours while trying to blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
BODETT: While trying to - while standing in line for cheese pie.
SAGAL: No, while trying to get out of an Ikea parking lot...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...In what will surely be known as the second biggest Britain-exit screw up this month.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: The Ikea lot was built with 1,000 parking spaces, only one exit lane, and if that weren't bad enough, the gate was broken and no one could locate the Allen wrench needed to fix it.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Tom do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Tom did well - seven right, 14 more points, a total of 16 and the lead.
SAGAL: All right, well done Tom.
BODETT: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: We have flipped a coin. Paula has elected to go third. Roxanne, you're up next. Fill in the blank. On Monday, ISIS claimed responsibility for an ax attack on a train in blank.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: Germany.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, anti-doping officials drafted a letter recommending that all athletes from blank be banned from the Olympics.
ROBERTS: Russia.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, French President Francois Hollande urged the U.K. to start blank talks as soon as possible.
ROBERTS: Brexit.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, the U.S. Appeals Court ruled that Texas' blank law was discriminatory.
ROBERTS: Voter ID.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, the Irish High Court denied damages to a man who claimed his life was ruined after he was blanked.
ROBERTS: Banned from a pub.
SAGAL: Punched in the butt. This week, Brazilian officials...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Arrested a group accused of planning a terrorist attack on the blank.
ROBERTS: On the Olympics.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Due to the state's anti-LGBT bill, the NBA announced plans to move the 2017 All-Star Game from blank.
ROBERTS: From North Carolina.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: German police responding to a noise complaint at a woman's 50th birthday party were stymied when party goers blanked.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
ROBERTS: Noise complaint - when they invited him in and got him really, really drunk.
SAGAL: That's a very good guess. But, in fact, what happened was they mistook the policemen for strippers.
(LAUGHER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: This is happening all the time. We reported on a very similar incident just last February. Here, the cops said the attempts to explain to the woman that they were genuine law enforcement officers were, quote, "completely unsuccessful." That's probably because in Germany, instead of the standard wee-oh, wee-oh (ph) noise, you know, cop car sirens just play Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar On Me."
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: They should think about changing that. Bill, how did Roxanne do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Six right, 12 more points, total of 15, but she could not catch Tom.
SAGAL: Well, can Paula...
BODETT: That never happens.
SAGAL: How many will Paula need to run away with this thing like she so much wants to?
KURTIS: Right. Seven to win.
SAGAL: Seven. All right, Paula...
PAULA POUNDSTONE: I do want to run away with it.
SAGAL: Here we go, Paula. This is for the game. At the end of a difficult week, Roger Ailes finally announced his departure as head of blank.
POUNDSTONE: Fox News.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, French lawmakers voted to extend emergency rule in the country for six months in response to the attack in blank.
POUNDSTONE: Nice.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, health officials in Florida said they were investigating the state's first case of blank.
POUNDSTONE: Zika virus.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Following years of complaints, the CEO of a hospital in Canada finally agreed to update the cafeteria's menu after he blanked.
POUNDSTONE: Got food poisoning.
SAGAL: No, after he just actually ate there once.
POUNDSTONE: Oh.
SAGAL: This week...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...An appeals court banned the Navy from using low-frequency blank that might harm whales and dolphins.
POUNDSTONE: What is that called? Radar.
SAGAL: Yeah, close enough - sonar.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, Tesla CEO blank released the company's new master plan.
POUNDSTONE: What's his name? Elon Musk or something.
SAGAL: It is Elon Musk.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Three women on a tubing trip in a river in Michigan ended up stranded far from home after being told blank.
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
POUNDSTONE: After being - oh, on a tubing trip - well, bad directions.
SAGAL: Right.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Sort of - but what they, in fact, were told was that the river went in a circle.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: And if they kept going, they'd just end up back where they started.
(APPLAUSE)
BODETT: Oh, that's hilarious.
POUNDSTONE: OK, well, I believe I got that.
BODETT: I saw one in a water park like that.
SAGAL: Yeah, I know. It's funny, it works there. The three women who had never gone tubing before and will never go tubing again...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Said that someone at the launch site told them, no, if they just went down the river for long enough, they'd circle back around and end up right where they started.
POUNDSTONE: Yeah. Did they hear a banjo playing?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Paula do well enough to win?
KURTIS: She got five right, 10 more points. But that total of 13 means that Tom is our winner.
POUNDSTONE: There you go.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: In just a minute, we are going to ask our panelists is how the Democrats will top the Republicans at their convention next week.
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WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME is a production of NPR and WBEZ Chicago, in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, benevolent overlord. Phillip Goedicke writes our limericks. Our intern is Free Willy and the King. Our web guru is Beth Novey. BJ Leiderman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Robin Linn and Miles Dornboss. Technical direction is from Lorna White. Our CFO is Ann Nguyen. Our production coordinator is Robert Neuhaus. Thanks to the crew at the Wolf Trap National Park for the performing arts.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Our senior producer is Ian Chillag. The executive producer of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME is Mike in absentia Danforth. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.