Lightning Fill In The Blank

Transcript

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

Now onto our final game, Lightening 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: Roy and Charlie each have three. Paula has two.

SAGAL: All right. Paula, you are in third place. You're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. This week, rescue workers in Tianjin, China continue to search for survivors following a series of blanks...

PAULA POUNDSTONE: Explosions.

SAGAL: That devastated parts of the city. That's right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After marathon talks on Tuesday, leaders finally reached a billion-euro bailout deal for blank.

POUNDSTONE: Greece.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Monday, retail giant Target announced it was no longer separating its toy aisle by blank.

POUNDSTONE: Gender?

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The favorite to win the BBC's annual baking competition this week was eliminated from the competition after she blanked.

POUNDSTONE: Went into a diabetic coma.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Forgot to turn on the oven.

POUNDSTONE: Oh. Oh.

SAGAL: Geno Smith, the starting quarterback for the New York Jets is expected to miss at least six games after he was blanked in the locker room.

POUNDSTONE: Punched.

SAGAL: In the jaw by his teammate - broke it.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, scientists were able to confirm that the blank only has a few trillion years left in it.

POUNDSTONE: Earth?

SAGAL: No, the entire universe. In response to claims that their claw machine games were rigged, a mall in China began blanking.

POUNDSTONE: Their claw machines were rigged. They began making it give toys to everyone who played.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: No. They began strapping kids to a giant claw and letting them grab the toys themselves.

CHARLIE PIERCE: What a great thing.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Isn't that the most awesome thing?

PIERCE: Yeah, I would go back - if I was a kid, I would go to that mall every day.

SAGAL: So the mall - people were saying, oh, these toy claw machines, they don't work. The Sichuan mall said, fine. They set up a huge pen filled with stuffed animals. They rolled in a crane. They strapped kids into a harness, lowered them in, let them grab the toys. Pictures are available online. They are adorable.

(LAUGHTER)

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

KURTIS: She got four right for eight more points. She now has a total of 10 and she's in the lead.

SAGAL: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: We have flipped a coin, and Roy has elected to go next. Fill in the blank. After violent collisions between police and protesters, the city of blank declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.

ROY BLOUNT JR.: Ferguson.

SAGAL: Right, Missouri.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Wednesday, former President blank announced that he had cancer.

BLOUNT: Jimmy Carter and I'm sorry to say.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: For the first time since the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, blank activated one of its nuclear power plants.

BLOUNT: Japan.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Prosecutors in Sweden announced Thursday they're dropping the long-held charges against WikiLeaks founder blank.

BLOUNT: Oh, Assange.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A British man who drove his car into a lake called police and then blanked.

BLOUNT: Then sank down in a big bubble.

SAGAL: No, he sat back and calmly smoked his pipe.

BLOUNT: Oh, that's right.

SAGAL: They shall always be in England. On Tuesday, for the first time in baseball history, all 15 blank teams won their games.

BLOUNT: Home teams.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: In a mostly negative review for a newly unearthed book by Ayn Rand, The New York Times did praise the novel for being blank.

BLOUNT: Short.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: A fitness club in the U.K. came under fire this week for having its members do push-ups on top of blank.

PIERCE: Oh, God (laughter) I know this.

BLOUNT: Members doing push-ups on top of each other.

SAGAL: No...

PIERCE: Can I? Can I, Peter?

SAGAL: You may, Charlie.

PIERCE: On top of graves.

SAGAL: Yes, that's right. The Daily Fitness gym in South London released a video this week featuring one of their classes finishing up their training session by jogging out to a nearby graveyard to do some push-ups on the tombstones. The gym employee kept them motivated by shouting, keep your energy up, and, look alive - oh, sorry.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: The gym has since apologized, saying - and this is true - if anyone feels we have disrespected the dead, we would like to apologize to the disrespected and to offer them a free membership to the best gym in London.

BLOUNT: Oh, no.

(LAUGHTER)

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

KURTIS: Roy got six right, 12 more points. He's got 15 and the lead.

SAGAL: All right.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: How many, then, does Mr. Charles P. Pierce need to win?

KURTIS: Six to tie, seven to win.

SAGAL: All right. This is for the game, Charlie. Fill in the blank. On Tuesday and Wednesday, officials in blank shocked national markets by devaluing their country's national currency.

PIERCE: China.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Tribal leaders from the Navajo Nation declared Wednesday that they were suing the EPA for contaminating a blank in Colorado.

PIERCE: A river.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, a judge in Mississippi denied bail for a couple accused of trying to join blank.

PIERCE: ISIS.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Monday, Hillary Clinton proposed a $350 billion affordable blank plan.

PIERCE: College tuition.

SAGAL: Yes, indeed.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A semi driver who overturned his truck and spilled cans of beer all over an interstate in Florida blamed the accident on blank.

PIERCE: Being drunk.

SAGAL: No, his adorable puppy that he could not stop staring at.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Let that be a warning to you, dog owners. On Thursday, Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday by insisting that blank owed Cuba millions of dollars.

PIERCE: The United States.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Sunday, pro football Hall of Famer and "Monday Night Football" commentator blank passed away at the age of 84.

PIERCE: Frank Gifford.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Yes, the California State Fair announced this week it would be selling blank for people looking for healthier food options.

PIERCE: Deep-fried kale.

SAGAL: So close - deep-fried SlimFast bars.

PIERCE: Damn.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: After years of offering fairgoers food like deep-fried, bacon-wrapped pickles and the Krispy Kreme doughnut triple-decker cheeseburger, California's state fair announced this week they're finally offering something for health-conscious Californians, a SlimFast bar dipped in pancake batter, deep-fried and drowned in chocolate syrup.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Yum.

SAGAL: Bill, did Charlie do well enough to win?

KURTIS: Listen, we have a tie. Charlie and Roy both have 15.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Wow. Paula, I thought you had it. You did so well.

POUNDSTONE: So there's really only one loser in today's game. Is that correct?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: I like to think we're all winners, in a way.

POUNDSTONE: It's kind of a turn-off to the Donald. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.