Lightning Fill In The Blank

Transcript

PETER SAGAL, HOST:

Now, it's time to move 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: Peter has five. Mike has two. Jessi has zero.

JESSI KLEIN: All right, I accept that. I accept that.

SAGAL: You get the chance to leap ahead with this first round of fill in the blank. The clock will start when I begin the first question.

KLEIN: Oh, really, I'm going? OK.

SAGAL: You're going now. Here we go.

KLEIN: OK. This isn't going to go well. Go.

SAGAL: Fill in the blank. A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that the NSA's collection of blank records was illegal.

KLEIN: Phone records.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Military officials in Nigeria announced this week that they had freed another 200 women from the terrorist group blank.

KLEIN: Boko Haram.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Wednesday, over 50 blanks touched down across Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska.

KLEIN: Tornados.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, officials in California approved the state's first mandatory rule for blank.

KLEIN: Water conservation.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This past weekend, 20 police officers in Seattle gathered at a basketball court in order to blank.

KLEIN: Play basketball

SAGAL: No. To free a shirtless man who had gotten stuck upside down in one of the hoops.

KLEIN: No duh.

SAGAL: A new report from the IRS found that over 1,500 of their agents willfully blanked over the past 10 years.

KLEIN: Lied on their taxes.

SAGAL: Yes, or avoided filing them.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Dave Coulier, the actor who played Uncle Joey, announced he would be returning for Netflix's reboot of blank.

KLEIN: "Full House."

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: After several newspapers reported that a Christie ally had plead...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...Guilty in the Bridge Gate scandal in New Jersey, blank was forced to take to Twitter to defend herself.

KLEIN: Oh, Kirstie Alley.

SAGAL: Of course Kirstie Alley.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The actress was trending on Twitter this week because people misread Christie ally, that is Chris Christie's ally, as Kirstie Alley.

MIKE BIRBIGLIA: No way.

SAGAL: But unlike the ally of Governor Christie, Kirstie Alley had no role in the Bridge Gate controversy.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Proving once again how hard it is for older, female actors to get parts in statewide corruption scandals.

(LAUGHTER)

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

KURTIS: Nothing for her to cry about it in this one. She got 7 right, 14 more. She's got the lead.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right, Mike. You're up next. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia called for a renewable, five-day cease-fire in the war-torn country of blank.

BIRBIGLIA: Umm.

(LAUGHTER)

BIRBIGLIA: I'm going to go with Canada, but I know it's wrong.

SAGAL: It's Yemen. Yemen. Just hours before the deadline, Israeli really Prime Minister blank struck a deal to form a new coalition government.

BIRBIGLIA: Netanyahu.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: For the first time in 50 years, ferry companies were given permission to offer service between Florida and blank.

BIRBIGLIA: Cuba.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, a man in Kent, England was accused of stealing a cell phone from blank while in blank.

BIRBIGLIA: Ferret, horse.

SAGAL: No.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Stealing a cell phone from his lawyer while in court. This week, Universe Publishing released "Selfish," blanks book of 445 selfies.

BIRBIGLIA: Phil Donahue.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: That vain...

BIRBIGLIA: No-no, it's Kim Kardashian.

SAGAL: It is Kim Kardashian.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Police in Canada charged a 91-year-old woman...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...With disturbing the peace after her neighbors complained about blank.

BIRBIGLIA: Loud "Seinfeld" reruns.

SAGAL: No, her neighbors complained about her creaky rocking chair. She just rocked too hard and all night long, apparently on the porch. Police responded to the call of the loud rocker the way police usually do. But they shot the old lady in the back. Kidding.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Happened in Canada. They just gave her a ticket and laughed about the whole thing. Bill, how did Mike Birbiglia do on our quiz?

KURTIS: He got four right for eight more points, a total of 10, but Jessi still has the lead.

SAGAL: Right. OK, here we go.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right, Peter Grosz. This is for the game. Fill in the blank.

PETER GROSZ: This is so important to me.

SAGAL: Hillary Clinton announced this week that she had agreed to once again testify at a House hearing on the attacks in blank.

GROSZ: I'm going to go with Benghazi.

SAGAL: You're right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Tuesday, President Obama nominated Marine General Joseph Dunford to be the next chairman of the blank.

GROSZ: Joint chiefs of staff.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: According to a report from the Labor Department, the U.S.'s blank claims remain at a 15-year low.

GROSZ: Unemployment.

SAGAL: Yeah, jobless.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Instead of posting a negative Yelp review of a local Subway restaurant, a Chicago man allegedly blanked.

GROSZ: Drove his car into it.

SAGAL: No, he robbed the subway then ran across the street to buy a sandwich at Potbelly's.

(LAUGHTER)

GROSZ: Smart man. Good man.

SAGAL: Last Saturday, Prerace favorite American Pharaoh won the 141st blank.

GROSZ: Kentucky Derby.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: This week, while answering questions from lawmakers in Parliament, the prime minister of Iceland rushed out of the chambers to blank.

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

GROSZ: To move out of Iceland.

SAGAL: No, to get the last piece of free cake in the lobby.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: The prime minister fled in the middle of questioning 'cause he feared a national emergency that they would run out of cake. When criticized, he defended himself saying - and this is true - but it was chocolate Devil's Food Cake with chocolate frosting, whipped cream and braised pears.

KLEIN: That does sound very good.

SAGAL: You can't blame him for leaving or for making the cake his new deputy prime minister.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Bill, did Peter Grosz do well enough to win?

KURTIS: He did really well. He tried hard. He got four right for eight more points. But that means Jessi wins the bassinette. Well done.

GROSZ: Wow.

SAGAL: She came from nothing.

(APPLAUSE)

KLEIN: I feel pretty incredible right now.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: You should. In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelist now that everybody else is running for president, who is going to declare their candidacy and actually surprise us? Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.