Games & Humor

Arts

E3 Conference Showcases New Kind Of Video Game Celebrity

7:13pm June 16, 2016

by Laura Sydell

Millions of video game fans have created a new kind of celebrity — gamers who play live while others watch online. NPR looks at the biggest video game trade conference, known as E3, through the eyes of two of these celebrities.

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Books
Arts

Tig Notaro On Her Terrible Year In 'I'm Just A Person'

6:21pm June 15, 2016

by NPR Staff

Comedian Tig Notaro shot to fame in 2012, talking candidly onstage about having cancer. Now she's in remission, recently married and the author of a new memoir called I'm Just A Person.

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Why did humans start cultivating celery? It's low-calorie and, one might argue, low flavor. We asked some experts at the intersection of botany and anthropology to share their best guesses.

Celery: Why?

3:34pm June 13, 2016

by Natalie Jacewicz

Considering humans' millennia-long struggle with famine, it's surprising anyone spent time or resources cultivating low-calorie celery. But the vegetable's original use had nothing to do with food.

Phil Stanton (from left) Chris Wink and Matt Goldman are the founders of Blue Man Group.

Arts

Not My Job: The Blue Man Group Turns 25

11:28am June 11, 2016

In the early 1990s, Chris Wink and Phil Stanton were two underemployed guys in New York City. So they came up with an idea: They'd shave their heads, paint themselves blue and put on a show.

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Arts

Make It So

10:53am June 03, 2016

This game is an homage to the most inspirational figure of the 24th century: Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise. Each answer is a play off of his famous command, "Make it so."

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Arts

This, That, Or The Other

10:53am June 03, 2016

Today's categories are: Endangered Species, Kung Fu Movies, and politicians' Secret Service Code Names.

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Arts

What's In Your Tiny Desk?

10:53am June 03, 2016

NPR Music host Bob Boilen talks about the Tiny Desk Contest and winner Gaelynn Lea plays two of her songs. Then naturally the two play a game about things you find in a desk.

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Arts

Where In The Mall Is Carmen Sandiego?

10:53am June 03, 2016

In this game, we shrink criminal mastermind Carmen Sandiego's world to the mall and imagine incoming theft reports from ACME CrimeNet. Contestants to identify what store Carmen stole something from.

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Arts

The Rest Of The Tiger

10:53am June 03, 2016

We've rewritten Survivor's classic workout montage song, "Eye of the Tiger," to be about other tiger body parts.

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Arts

The Price Was Right

10:53am June 03, 2016

In this game, we describe a piece of historical merchandise. Contestants each guess how much the item cost to buy or build. Whoever comes closest to the historical price wins.

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