Single Word Cinema Stumpers

Transcript

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's welcome our next two contestants, David Nikithser and Zach Szofer.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Now, you're both actors. Zach - do a lot of voice acting work. And your dream is a children's cartoon villain role?

ZACH SZOFER: That's correct.

EISENBERG: Can I get a little sample?

SZOFER: Those infernal Power Rangers have crossed me for the last time (laughter). (Screams).

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: I like it, well done.

SZOFER: Thank you.

EISENBERG: David, you do stage plays, but you are also really into professional wrestling - huge fan?

DAVID NIKITHSER: I am. Don't hold it against me.

EISENBERG: Have you ever thought of what - who you would be as a wrestler?

NIKITHSER: I'd be, like, the Wikipedia Warrior.

(LAUGHTER)

NIKITHSER: I would bore my opponent to death with information. That's my sleeper hold. Information is my sleeper hold.

EISENBERG: (Laughter). All right, so this should be easy as two actors. Can you describe yourself in three alliterative words? David.

NIKITHSER: Tall, talkative and - another reason I'd be a terrible professional wrestler - ticklish.

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah.

NIKITHSER: That'd be it.

EISENBERG: That would be the most adorable wrestling match of all time.

(LAUGHTER)

NIKITHSER: Wouldn't that be great?

EISENBERG: Zach.

SZOFER: Cruel, cunning and calculating Commodore Catastrophe.

EISENBERG: Yeah, all right.

SZOFER: It's been in my head for a long time.

EISENBERG: (Laughter) Finally out, it's finally out.

SZOFER: Now the world knows.

EISENBERG: This game is called Single Word Cinema Stumpers. All the answers are going to be movies with only one word in the title. And our clues will be plot summaries in which all of the words start with the same sound as the one-word title. OK, so don't worry. Puzzle guru Art Chung, please give these fine men an example.

ART CHUNG, BYLINE: So if we said ripped roustabout rumbles with rival in ring, rallies from rags to riches, that would be a plot summary for "Rocky."

EISENBERG: Oh, OK. Yeah, you guys seem fine with this.

(LAUGHTER)

SZOFER: We got it.

EISENBERG: I had this line to read - don't freak out. But you're like yeah, yeah, whatever. All right, bring it on.

(LAUGHTER)

SZOFER: It's all good.

EISENBERG: But there will be hints if you need them, and I can repeat them as well. And the winner will, of course, move on to our Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. Here we go. Cliche chronicle of criminals and crabby, creative crowd carjacking and colliding conveyances in California.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Zach.

SZOFER: "Crash."

EISENBERG: "Crash" is correct.

(APPLAUSE)

SZOFER: I had that ready before you even said it.

EISENBERG: You just knew I was going to say that?

SZOFER: That's the only one-word movie I could think of off of the top of my head.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: So the game for you is going to go quite downhill.

SZOFER: We'll see.

NIKITHSER: Lucky me.

EISENBERG: Brash, brogue speakers brace for brutal battles brought by brow-beating British.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: David.

NIKITHSER: "Braveheart."

EISENBERG: Yeah, "Braveheart." Nice.

(APPLAUSE)

NIKITHSER: Freedom.

(LAUGHTER)

NIKITHSER: That was my audition.

EISENBERG: That was very good.

NIKITHSER: Thanks.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I think that's what Mel Gibson's ex-wife said.

(LAUGHTER)

NIKITHSER: No doubt.

JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: Guess we're not going to book Mel Gibson on the show.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Damsel in divided dystopia discovers she's dangerously different - defies death.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: Zach.

SZOFER: "Divergent."

EISENBERG: "Divergent" is perfect.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Nabobs need nutty natterings on nightly news for nicer Nielsen numbers.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: David.

NIKITHSER: "Network."

EISENBERG: That is correct. Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

NIKITHSER: I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.

EISENBERG: There you go.

NIKITHSER: Movies with great, great, like, big one lines like that.

EISENBERG: Just for you, yeah.

NIKITHSER: Thank you.

EISENBERG: Hapless hipster has heart hacked, heals with help from honey housed in handheld hardware.

SZOFER: "Her."

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: There you go. Zach.

SZOFER: "Her."

(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Droopy-eared Disney darling discovers deftness for derring-do, despite dearth of dialogue.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: David.

NIKITHSER: "Dumbo."

EISENBERG: Yes.

COULTON: Wow.

EISENBERG: This is your last question. Ace agent, acted by Affleck, applies artifice to arrange attainment of Americans apprehended abroad.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

EISENBERG: David.

NIKITHSER: "Argo."

EISENBERG: That is absolutely perfectly correct.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Puzzle guru Art Chung, are you blown away right now?

CHUNG: Honestly, you guys are both the best contestants we've ever had.

(LAUGHTER)

CHUNG: Unfortunately, only one of you can move on and that is David. Congratulations, David.

NIKITHSER: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF SURVIVOR SONG, "EYE OF THE TIGER")

EISENBERG: Coming up, we'll talk to stars of HBO series "Looking," and we'll recite poetry with a guy who's a poet and he knows it, seriously, so stick around. I'm Ophira Eisenberg, and this NPR'S ASK ME ANOTHER.

(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.