The Ox Car Goes To

Transcript

JONATHAN COULTON: From NPR and WNYC, live from the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara, Calif., it's NPR's hour of puzzles, word games and trivia, ASK ME ANOTHER. Here's your host, Ophira Eisenberg.

(APPLAUSE)

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Thank you so much, Jonathan. We have such an exciting show for you. Our VIP was a writer and producer on "The Sopranos," and he's the creator of the landmark television series "Mad Men."

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EISENBERG: Which brings me to something I've been meaning to tell you all. My real name is not Ophira Eisenberg.

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EISENBERG: I met Ophira Eisenberg in 2003 when I was waitressing in a comedy club.

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EISENBERG: She died on stage that night, gave up her comedy career and decided to go to med school. But I saw my opportunity for a better life, so I took hers. That's right.

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EISENBERG: Anyway, our VIP is Matthew Weiner.

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EISENBERG: And let's get the games rolling with our first two contestants, Geoff Jensen and Kirsten Finberg.

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EISENBERG: Hello to you both.

KIRSTEN FINBERG: Hi.

EISENBERG: Hi.

GEOFF JENSEN: Hello.

EISENBERG: Hi. Now, this is a strange coincidence that you're both professional bakers.

JENSEN: Yes.

FINBERG: That is true.

EISENBERG: Yeah, all right. Is that just - is that common? Do you know a lot of professional bakers? Do you know each other?

JENSEN: We do now.

FINBERG: No. We just met.

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EISENBERG: Wow. OK.

FINBERG: I'm sorry (laughter). And now we're in love.

EISENBERG: Now, you're in love? Oh.

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EISENBERG: Geoff, you're on board with that?

JENSEN: Yeah. Oh, well, yeah.

EISENBERG: Good, yeah.

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EISENBERG: OK, so here's a question. What movie do you think should have won an Oscar for best picture but was robbed - Geoff?

JENSEN: "The Blues Brothers."

EISENBERG: "The Blues Brothers"?

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EISENBERG: How about you, Kirsten?

FINBERG: I really like "The Imitation Game."

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah. It was definitely nominated.

JENSEN: Yeah.

EISENBERG: OK, well, this game is called And The Ox Car Goes To - yes 'cause you might notice that Ox Car is one letter away from Oscar. And there's a reason for that. The answers in this game will be Academy Award winners for best picture, except we have changed exactly one letter in each title. So we're going to give you clues to the movie and the altered word, and you have to give us the altered title. So for an example, let's go to our house musician, Jonathan Coulton.

COULTON: Hello, Ophira. If we said, this iconic Woody Allen movie tells the story of the woman who invented the suburban shopping center, you would say Annie Mall.

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COULTON: It's one letter off from "Annie Hall," and obviously they named it after her, Annie Mall. That's why they call it a mall.

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EISENBERG: So remember, these are all best picture winners, so a tactic you could use is just to go through all 87 films in your head and just change one letter, and you know, then you'll win. OK, here we go. This Steven Spielberg epic tells the story of a heroic German industrialist and all the fuzz that accumulated in his pockets during World War II.

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EISENBERG: Geoff.

JENSEN: Schindler's Lint.

EISENBERG: Yes, you are correct.

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COULTON: Jodie Foster tracks a serial killer who is obsessed with how quiet all of his lighting fixtures are.

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COULTON: Kirsten.

FINBERG: Silence Of The Lamps.

COULTON: That's correct.

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EISENBERG: An Iraq War bomb expert is sent to Central Asia to build storage boxes in Mongolian tents. Take it away.

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EISENBERG: Puzzle guru Will Hines, do you have a hint for the fine contestants?

WILL HINES, BYLINE: I should, right?

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HINES: That is my job.

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HINES: It's just such a tough one. I...

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EISENBERG: Kirsten.

FINBERG: Is it The Yurt Locker?

EISENBERG: It is The Yurt Locker.

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HINES: Wow.

COULTON: Oh, yeah.

HINES: Wow.

FINBERG: (Laughter).

COULTON: That's a nice pull, Kirsten. That's a very nice pull. John Nash, a brilliant-but-schizophrenic mathematician, contributes to the gorgeous design of a 1960s short, short skirt.

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COULTON: Geoff.

JENSEN: A Beautiful Miniskirt.

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COULTON: You've changed more than one letter in that answer.

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COULTON: I'll give you a chance to just rework it a little bit. Just change...

EISENBERG: Just shorten that.

JENSEN: A Beautiful Hind?

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EISENBERG: Yes. That is the answer we've been looking for for every question.

HINES: You're supposed to change one letter not improve the entire movie.

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EISENBERG: And concept of the game.

COULTON: A Beautiful Mini is what we were looking for.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

JENSEN: Yeah, you said it. That's two letters different.

COULTON: No, Geoff, it's not.

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JENSEN: OK.

EISENBERG: This 1983 Shirley MacLaine tearjerker explores the turbulent relationship between a mother, a daughter and a chemical process that makes hair curly.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

FINBERG: Perms of Endearment?

EISENBERG: Yes, Kirsten.

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EISENBERG: Did you like that movie?

FINBERG: Oh, cried like a baby.

EISENBERG: I know. That one and Bette Midler's Bleaches.

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COULTON: This is your last clue. It's the moving saga of a free man who was forced to grow a beard only cutting it once every 144 months.

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FINBERG: I think...

EISENBERG: Oh, Geoff just...

JENSEN: Twelve Years a Shave.

COULTON: You got it, Geoff. That's right.

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EISENBERG: Puzzle guru Will Hines, who won that game?

HINES: That's a tie, so I think we have to go to a tiebreaker.

EISENBERG: Woah.

COULTON: Woah.

HINES: Hands on your buzzers. This exploration of the racial and social tensions in Los Angeles features the inter-weaving of several different characters' garbage.

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HINES: Kirsten?

FINBERG: Trash.

HINES: That is correct.

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HINES: What a battle. A very close match, but, Kirsten, you're our winner. We'll see you in the final round.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.