BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We are playing this week with Joel Kim Booster, Roxanne Roberts and Paula Poundstone. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill serves up some of his famous key rhyme pie in the Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news.
Roxanne, the state of South Dakota spent half a million dollars in a new anti-drug campaign that they unveiled this week.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Oh, my God.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: Can I say it?
SAGAL: What's the snappy slogan?
POUNDSTONE: I'm on meth.
ROBERTS: No. It's, we're...
SAGAL: You're so close, Paula.
ROBERTS: It's, we're on meth.
SAGAL: (Laughter) You're both almost there. I'm going to give it to Roxanne. But the actual slogan is, meth - we're on it.
POUNDSTONE: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
ROBERTS: Well, I heard the governor say, I'm on meth.
POUNDSTONE: Well, that was just him being honest.
ROBERTS: It's a her...
SAGAL: That wasn't the slogan. That was a confession. Yeah.
JOEL KIM BOOSTER: That was a hot mic.
ROBERTS: ...Her being honest.
SAGAL: Yeah. Not since Nancy Reagan's Just Say Hell Yes campaign has an anti-drug message gone so wrong. Governor Kristi Noem launched the campaign last week. And when she said, meth - we're on it - America said, clearly.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: It was ridiculed across the country except in North Dakota, which quickly launched a sister campaign - meth - don't bogart it.
(LAUGHTER)
BOOSTER: They all look so happy in the posters. That's the problem.
SAGAL: Yes.
BOOSTER: Every time you look at one, you're like, oh, maybe I should try it. I don't know.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
BOOSTER: It has the same cadence as - what was the ads where it was like, buh (ph) - it's what's for dinner?
SAGAL: Beef...
BOOSTER: Beef...
SAGAL: ...Is what you're thinking of.
BOOSTER: ...It's what's for...
SAGAL: Yes.
BOOSTER: Meth - it's what's for dinner, you know?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: And breakfast and lunch.
BOOSTER: Yeah.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Paula, there was a huge debate that broke out amid the impeachment inquiry. It's about a live TV hit with Chris Matthews of MSNBC...
POUNDSTONE: Oh.
SAGAL: ...And Congressman Eric Swalwell. People are still trying to figure out exactly who did what.
POUNDSTONE: Had gas.
SAGAL: Exactly. Right. The scandal is now called Fartgate.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: I think this really speaks to, like, how overwrought we are. We're desperate for something else to turn our attention to.
SAGAL: It is sad and a little pathetic and, of course, a little gross. Let's talk about it at length.
(LAUGHTER)
BOOSTER: I don't know. I kind of loved it. I sort of looked at that, and I was like, this is the most star power I've seen out of Swalwell...
SAGAL: I know. He really held the room.
BOOSTER: ...All season.
SAGAL: Let me - let's - of course, it's better with audio. Here is, if you will, the Zapruder tape of Fartgate.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ERIC SWALWELL: The president used taxpayer dollars to ask the Ukrainians to help him cheat...
(SOUNDBITE OF FLATULENCE)
SWALWELL: ...An election.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: We did not enhance that in any way.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And a lot of people have pointed to that weird pause while Swalwell was speaking. Did he pause because, well, frankly, he momentarily had some other business to attend to?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: What - didn't they claim - I think the cover-up here - it was...
SAGAL: As it were.
ROBERTS: Yes. The cover-up was that a mug had been...
SAGAL: Yes. MSNBC - they actually had to address this. This was a crisis.
ROBERTS: No, they didn't.
SAGAL: They said, no, no, no. Nobody farted. That was merely a mug - a handsome "Hardball" mug - being dragged across a desk. You're like, come on. The only way a mug made that noise is if someone filled it with chili and chugged it right before the interview.
(LAUGHTER)
BOOSTER: That was definitely not a mug. Jet fuel can't melt steel beams.
SAGAL: Exactly.
BOOSTER: Epstein wasn't - didn't commit suicide. It's up there. It's up there with all three of those.
SAGAL: Swalwell has denied it. He said he didn't even hear it. But the problem is that Swalwell...
ROBERTS: That pause.
BOOSTER: Pause.
SAGAL: Like - yeah.
ROBERTS: Pause.
SAGAL: Like, let's hear it again. I want you to hear this.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And if we could slow it down a little bit - go ahead. We're going to hear it again.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SWALWELL: The president used taxpayer dollars to ask the Ukrainians to help him cheat...
(SOUNDBITE OF FLATULENCE)
SWALWELL: ...An election.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Right. So if he - I mean, so, like, why didn't he keep talking?
BOOSTER: Yeah. You got to talk through it. That's the secret.
SAGAL: Yeah, I know.
BOOSTER: You got to talk through it.
POUNDSTONE: You know what? It did sound like a mug being dragged.
SAGAL: Oh, come now.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: It did.
SAGAL: Who got to you, Paula?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?")
BING CROSBY: (Singing) Do you hear what I hear?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) Do you hear what I hear?
CROSBY: (Singing) Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy. Do you hear what I hear?
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) Do you hear what I hear?
CROSBY: (Singing) A song, a song high above the... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.