Show Details: 2018

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! taped two shows while in Seattle, Washington on November 30th and December 1st. The Bluff the Listener, Not My Job and App Store Game segments included on this Best Of show comes from the show that taped on December 1st.

Normally, the chosen bluff and the correct bluff from Bluff the Listener segments re-aired on Best Of shows do not get noted in the Stats Page database. In this case, the Bluff the Listener segment was not aired as part of a regular Wait Wait show, I have noted the chosen and correct bluff information for this show.

Due to technical difficulties with the phone system at the start of the December 1st taping, audience members were selected as the listener contestants for the Who's Bill This Time?, Bluff the Listener and Listener Limerick Challenge segments.

The show had a recording of Robert Siegel, who recently retired from "All Things Considered", saying President Trump's "shithole" quote.

The second option for all three of the "life hack" panel questions were all written for laughs, leaving the first option being the correct one. Peter Sagal goofed by saying "black women's maternity pants" instead of "women's black maternity pants".

Bill Kurtis stated that it was the first time in three years that all three panelists were tied at the start of the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round; but, didn't state how many points they started with. The last time all three panelists were tied going into Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank was on the show that aired on 2016-06-11 in which Bill also didn't state how many points all three panelists had (which was also 3).

Paula Poundstone used the surname "Swamu" in her Bluff the Listener story again.

All three of the options for the third Not My Job question were actually correct.

Another instance in which the correct answers for all three Not My Job questions were "B"

Another instance in which all three panelists starting the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round in a three-way tie

David Duchovny was bleeped when responding to Peter Sagal explaining the correct answer to the first Not My Job question. Peter mispronounced Janeane Garofalo's first name and was corrected by David and Mo Rocca. Janeane was the Not My Job guest on the 2006-07-15 show

During the intro, Bill Kurtis will almost always state the location of that week's show taping, including when they are taping the intro and inter-segment portions of the Best Of shows. For this show, Bill didn't state the location where they recorded the introduction.

The show started with Peter mentioning and playing a segment in which Paula Poundstone made a snarky comment about cross-country skiing. This week's Not My Job guest is Jessie Diggins, who won the first Olympic cross-country skiing gold medal for the United States in 2018 at Pyeongchang.

During the introduction of the Not My Job segment, Peter Sagal said "Pyongyang" instead of "Pyeongchang". All three of the choices for the third Not My Job question were correct.

During the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank segment, Paula Poundstone couldn't think of the name Spotify, but got help from the audience. Roxanne Roberts couldn't completely remember Martin Shkreli's last name but got enough of it correct that Peter accepted it. When Roxanne didn't answer enough questions to win the game, making Luke Burbank the winner, the audience started chanting "Luuuuuuke" with the help of Bill Kurtis.

Peter Sagal kept saying "Alexa" several more times after stating that people get mad at Peter for triggering their Amazon Echo devices by saying "Alexa". Peter then used the name "Echo" instead of "Alexa".

Bill Kurtis accept Tara Clancy's overly specific answer of "running out of Gorgonzola" regarding a question about the Big Cheese Festival running out of cheese.

Until recently, Tom Brady had never eaten a strawberry and Peter Sagal asked Tom how his first strawberry tasted. Tom Brady's answer was bleeped. After Peter had called scoring a goal in football practice, Tom Brady clarified that it's a touchdown in football and a goal in soccer. For the first Not My Job question, Tom Brady initially chose "C" but was urged to change his answer because "C" was a chimpanzee. He changed his answer to "B", which was also not correct. After Peter gave all three choices for the second Not My Job question, the audience started yelling "B", which Tom Brady chose. For the third Not My Job question, Tom Brady asked Mo Rocca for help and Mo's answer was correct.

During the Who's Bill This Time? segment, the topic of the feud between Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall was brought up in which Peter Sagal and Amy Dickinson incorrectly pronounced "Cattrall". Rashawn Scott jumped in and corrected them.

After LeVar Burton gave his first response to the second Not My Job question, Peter nudged LeVar to change his answer; in which, he switched it to "C" and was correct.

After Rashawn named the incorrect planet during the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank segment, Peter said that she only had a 1 in 9 chance of getting it right. Adam Burke later corrected Peter by saying that it would be a 1 in 8 chance, since Pluto is no longer considered a planet.

The Bluff the Listener segment from this Best Of show originally aired on the 2017-01-28 show

John Kasich had help from the audience for the second and third Not My Job questions.

During the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank, Roxanne Roberts almost said "President Voldemort" when trying to say "President Vladimir Putin". Roy Blount, Jr. answered a question about the falling Chinese Space Station with "satellite" and Peter Sagal accepted the answer.

With Carl Kasell passing away this week, Peter Sagal remembered Carl Kasell with a dedicated segment after the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank segment and included a clip of Carl introducing the show from 2010 at the beginning of the show.

Maz Jobrani flexed his Italian accent in telling his Bluff the Listener story.

When Bill Kurtis was asked how Edie Falco did on the Not My Job segment, Bill said that Edie got two correct and then said "It looks like three to me" as Edie's character in The Sopranos would have said it.

Another instance of all three panelists answering six Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank questions correct.

Another instance in which all three of the correct Not My Job answers were "B"

Listeners of Luke Burbank's podcast, "Too Beautiful to Live," should recognize one of the names Luke used in his Bluff the Listener story.

Maz Jobrani answered six Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank questions correctly, but was only given credit for five. After Maz answered the sixth question correct, there was no ding of the bell. The two points that Maz wasn't credited for would have put him in 2nd place with 15 points and Faith Salie in third with 13 points.

The panelist scores and ranking noted reflect those of the ones announced by the official scorekeeper, Bill Kurtis.

While Mayim Bialik was answering the second Not My Job question, she said that she would choose "B again". In the edited version of the show, she had chosen "C" for the first question and "B" for the third question. Not sure if she had first chosen "B" for the first question but it was edited out, if the order of the questions were altered in the edited version, or it was something else.

The last question in the Trump Dump game played during the first panel round was fielded to Roxanne Roberts which she got it wrong. She got a ribbing from Peter Sagal because it was based on an article that she wrote for the Washington Post.

Hari Kondabolu's bluff story was based entirely on the plot of the first Home Alone movie. While Hari was reading his story, Paula Poundstone didn't think it was true and Adam Felber said that he had seen it somewhere before.

The show did not have a Panelist Prediction segment that would normally happen at the very end.

The location in which the Best Of show introduction and inter-segment bits were recorded was not mentioned at the beginning of the show.

For the Bluff the Listener segment, each panelist paired up with a Wait Wait Junior to write and present their bluff story. The bluff story that Mo Rocca worked with his Wait Wait Junior included a person named "Polly Poundsteen" in reference to Paula Poundstone. The two Wait Wait Juniors that paired up with Maz Jobrani were actually his own kids.

To determine who would get the point for the Bluff the Listener segment, the audience was polled to see which one they thought was the correct one by way of applause level.

Keith Hernandez first chose "B" for the second Not My Job question and got ribbed for what that choice was (a kids cereal named "Domina-Trix") and was urged to change it. He changed his answer to "C", which was not correct either. All three choices for the third Not My Job question were actually real excerpts from "Fifty Shades Freed".

Louie Anderson first chose "A" for the second Not My Job question and Peter Sagal nudged Louie to choose another answer while a few people in the audience booed Louie. Louie asked why he was being booed. Louie changed his answer to "B", which was correct.

Roy Blount, Jr. said that one day he will beat Roxanne Roberts on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! Roy actually won over Roxanne on several occasions. The last four occasions were: 2007-02-17, 2007-03-03, 2011-03-05 and 2014-07-19.

Mo Rocca finally figured out why a "half pipe" is called a "half pipe".

David Wise initially chose "B" for the second Not My Job questions and the audience disapproved of the choice and David was given a chance to change his answer to the audience's choice of "C". After all three options were given for the third Not My Job questions, both David and the audience seemed to agree that "A" would be the correct answer; but, both were shocked that "C" was actually the correct one.

Mo Rocca hilariously took a long time to answer the 8th Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank question.

After Fabien Cousteau chose "B" for the third Not My Job question, Peter Sagal and the audience nudged Fabien to reconsider his choice to "C". Fabien changed his answer to "C", which was the correct answer.

Negin Farsad hilariously failed at figuring out what the correct answer was for her panel question during the second panel round.

Each of the panelists' final question for the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank round involved a drunk person and a dog, in some manner.

The last name of the listener contestant for the Who's Bill This Time? was "Trump" and that piqued the interest of Peter Sagal and the panel.

Peter accidentally called Bill Kurtis, "Boo," when he asked Bill who the listener contestant was for the Not My Job segment. After Christine Lagarde initially chose "C" for the third Not My Job question, the audience disapproved of her choice. Paula Poundstone relayed that to Christine Lagarde, who changed her answer to "B".

Mo Rocca suggested the name "nut juice" as a replacement for nut or seed-based milk products, now that the FDA has ruled that they can no longer be called "milk". The suggestion did not really go over that well.

James Comey initially chose "A" for the third Not My Job question; but, Peter Sagal then gave him a big clue of what the correct answer was. James responded with "I meant to say I wouldn't take 'A';" in reference to what President Trump in response to him having "misspoken" about Russia's interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections. Since James only answered one Not My Job question correctly, Peter pulled out another Not My Job question for him to answer; in which, James answered it correctly and won. Since he won with an additional question, an exception has been noted in the database.

After Faith Salie listed the three choices for the first Not My Job question and Jon Batiste started to figure out his answer, the audience started yelling out "C". Jon asked the audience to yell it out again so that he could hear them. The second choice was about a Mo-Bot that edits out all of Mo Rocca's guessing on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

Another instance in which all three of the correct answers for the Not My Job questions were "B".

None of the panelists could quite say the name of the Japanese guesthouse at the Mount Joya's Buddhist temple. The guesthouse's name is "Sekishoin Shukubo".

In the version of the show that was broadcasted, Bobcat Goldthwait only answered six of his Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank questions correct; but, Bill Kurtis stated that Bobcat had answered seven correct. Since only seven of Bobcat's eight Lightning round questions were included in the edited version of the show, either: Bobcat did answer seven correct or Bill had miscounted the number of correct answers. That said, even if Bobcat was only given credit for six correct answers instead of seven, he would still have won the show with 15 points.

As with any other scoring anomaly, the score Bill Kurtis stated on the show is the official score on record.

This show is a repeat of the Best Of show that aired on 2015-07-04; which, in turn is a re-packaged version of the Best Of show from 2014-08-23.

Helen Hong's Bluff the Listener story involved people seeing public radio hosts in person for the first time, including those that came to see Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! and were shocked at how Peter Sagal and the panel looked versus what people's own mental image of them looked like. The listener contestant said that she had recently looked at a picture of Peter Sagal and was shocked. Peter asked her what she thought he looked like.

Aly Raisman asked the audience for help for the first Not My Job question after Peter Sagal listed the three options. The audience shouted out "B" and Aly chose it.

The listener contestant for the Who's Bill This Time? segment answered the third question which was about a company that recently changed the name. The answer that they were going for was "Weight Watchers" but the contestant answered "Dunkin' Donuts". Peter Sagal accepted the answer as Dunkin' Donuts also changed its name.

When Jessi Klein was trying to answer the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank questions, the audience yelled out some of the answers trying to help her.

The Austen Goolsbee Not My Job segment was from the 2018-03-10 show, not from his first Not My Job appearance on the 2011-09-03 show. The Bluff the Listener segment was from the 2018-05-26 show, in which Helen Hong was the guest host.

John Grisham asked Mo Rocca for help on the second Not My Job question and Mo said that wants "C", which John chose. It was not the correct answer. John asked what the listener contestant would win and was shocked/dismissive of the prize. John Grisham did not answer enough questions correctly to win and he said that he would send an autographed copy of his next book to the listener contestant.

Mo answered a number of the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank questions in a soft, dulcet voice. Peter Sagal asked if Mo was okay and Mo said that radio is an intimate medium.

This show is the special 20th anniversary show that was recorded at The Chicago Theatre in downtown Chicago, Illinois and featured a rotating set of panels throughout the show.

For the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank segment, the panelists were split into three teams and had Paula Poundstone, Maz Jobrani and Brian Babylon as team captains. Although each panelist on each team got to answer one question during that segment, the score was aggregated at the team level. Since this is not a standard method for scoring, I have assigned the announced score and ranking to the team captain.

More detail about each panelist's performance on the show will be published at blog.wwdt.me

While reading the second question of the second Panel Round, Peter Sagal said "Australia" instead of "Antarctica". He would later say "Antarctica" while explaining the story.

During the Listener Limerick Challenge, the panel assisted the listener contestant by saying "Shhh!" for the first limerick, meowing for the second, and whistling "Jingle Bells" for the third.

A few audience members shouted out answers while Tara Clancy tried to figure out the answer for her fourth Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank question. Mo Rocca made a sound while Adam Felber was trying to figure out his fourth Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank question.

Included in this Best Of show was a panel round question that was not included in the edited version of the Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! 20th anniversary show from 2018-10-27.

After Peter Sagal listed the three options for the second Not My Job question, the audience started yelling out "B"; which, Candice Bergen took the audience's chose and it was the correct one.

During the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank segment, Paula Poundstone couldn't quite come up with the name "Golden Globe" and circled around the word "Globe". Peter accepted that as the correct answer.

Luke Burbank answered his third Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank question with "that crazy guy down the street" and Peter Sagal accepted it. The proper answer was "social media".

Peter Sagal gave the Beastie Boys a chance to change their answer to the third Not My Job question. The audience and the panelists nudged them to choose "A"; which, was the correct answer.

The gong sound that is used to mark time running out during the Lightning Fill-in-the-Blank segment didn't play in the edited version of the show at the end of Adam Felber's set of questions.

The Holiday Traditions and Not My Job segment with Seth Meyers came from the 2018-12-07 live taping at Carnegie Hall in New York City, New York