The Puzzler With A.J. Jacobs

Entertainment Weekly

2 years ago

Transcript

00:00 Hello, Puzzlers! Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the peanut butter topping on your puzzle dog

00:10 treat. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am here with our guest, Ken Jennings, author

00:22 of the most recent book, A Hundred Places to See After You Die. Welcome, Ken.

00:27 It is the most recent book, and nobody wrote a book after it because it was such a category

00:33 kill. People were like, "Why bother?"

00:37 Well this puzzle is not about books. This is about television programs, game shows.

00:42 You have my interest.

00:43 Yeah, well I figured, I don't know, it seemed appropriate for some reason. I couldn't put

00:49 my finger on it. But this puzzle is called Name That Game Show Sound Effect. So we have,

01:00 we're not going to play the Jeopardy! Think song, the Think music.

01:04 Because you don't want to pay Merv Griffin's estate, I guess.

01:08 Exactly. I looked it up. It was, this is a fun fact, if it's true. He originally wrote

01:14 it as a lullaby for his son.

01:16 Yeah, his son Tony. I have met his son and he confirms it was a lullaby that got repurposed.

01:22 And I think Merv ended up making more money on music royalties than on the TV rights because

01:26 every time that gets played at a major league baseball game, on a radio station, on Jeopardy!,

01:32 he gets an eight cent check or something.

01:36 That's amazing. I'm trying to think if I would fall asleep to that. I mean, obviously now

01:41 it's so stressful, there's no way I'd fall asleep to it.

01:45 I'm worried that it's so short, you know, it's only 30 seconds. What exactly was Merv

01:50 Griffin spiking his kids' bedtime milk with if they fell asleep in the time of the Jeopardy!

01:56 Think music?

01:57 All right. So we're going to play you various sound effects from game shows and you are

02:06 going to guess if you get them right, I'm going to do my own homemade ding. And if you

02:12 get them wrong, which I hope you got at least one wrong, so I can do my buzz. So those are

02:17 homemade, but the others were taken from the TV shows with the help of my son, Jasper Jacobs.

02:26 Puzzler intern, Jasper Jacobs.

02:28 Puzzler intern. Unpaid, but beloved. All right, here we go. Name this game show sound effect.

02:40 So I was wondering if I would, you know, I had no idea if I would know these or not.

02:50 Like I was hoping each one would have some Proustian ripple in me. And that took me right

02:56 back to the summer of 2000. That's who wants to be a millionaire.

03:00 There you go.

03:01 Final answer.

03:02 Nicely done. Yeah. And it is the final answer. So it's appropriate. I think it's like when

03:07 they're asking for the final answer.

03:09 The lock in sound.

03:10 All right, well done. And I forget your appearance on that. I knew you did it, but how did it

03:14 go?

03:15 I did pretty well. I got up to 50 or 100K. And then there was a not that hard question

03:24 about Princeton dining clubs. But I'm a West Coast kid. I didn't know the intricacies.

03:30 And my phone a friend guy was Canadian. I had brought him for his pop music chops. And

03:37 the American University system was a mystery to him. So please, I'm begging you people,

03:41 if you're ever on a game show, do not bring a Canadian. They don't think they won't know.

03:46 They won't know our ways.

03:49 Unless it's a Canadian game show.

03:51 Then you then you should absolutely bring.

03:53 All right. Number two, name this game show sound effect.

04:02 That's Family Feud. That's the center podium sound when you buzz in on Family Feud.

04:08 Exactly. Which I watched as a kid with Richard Dawson, who was his whole shtick was sexual

04:16 harassment, it seemed to me.

04:19 I think maybe that's in hindsight. We just remember that he was kissing everyone. But

04:22 I think at the time, maybe there wasn't that much comment, was there? It was a different

04:26 time. It was a different time, AJ.

04:28 Yeah, yeah. No, it was considered like, you know, sort of charming at the time.

04:32 It was like Prima Prima Noctum or whatever. If you were a contestant on on Family Feud,

04:39 you were right. You were signing up for a little Richard Dawson pack.

04:44 It took me a while to get that reference. And but that is a and that is a deep cut and

04:49 a dark one. All right. So number three is a game show sound effect. Name this game show

04:56 sound effect.

05:03 That's terrifying.

05:06 That's what we want.

05:08 That's like the game show of like turning the key to start the missiles launching or

05:13 something. I don't even know. Should I guess or should I just take a should I just take

05:18 a mulligan here?

05:19 No, no, guess that.

05:21 We have to be we need you've not gotten any wrong this entire so I need you to get one

05:26 wrong so I can do a buzz.

05:31 It's got some eight bit feel like it's a vintage game show like it's 70s or 80s. But I have

05:36 no idea what it is. Tic Tac Doe.

05:39 Buzz. It is. It is one that has a weirdly long microphone. And it has been on since

05:46 the 70s.

05:47 It's the match game.

05:48 And it is. No.

05:49 Oh, it's Price is Right?

05:51 Price is Right.

05:52 What game is that?

05:53 Exactly. That is the sound of the big wheel. You know, the big wheel as it's going.

06:00 See without without the chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, chunk, I guess I couldn't isolate it

06:04 in my head. I'm not going to win either showcase.

06:08 Well, I feel I feel much relieved that we at least we got and we might get these next

06:14 two coming up are actually a little challenging. So let me let me play number four.

06:25 Wow, what a sexy game show. What kind of Cinemax game shows are we talking about here?

06:40 It actually does have attractive people on it. So that is including the member or a sort

06:49 of member of the royal family was once on this.

06:53 A sort of member of the royal family?

06:58 The British Royal. I don't know whether it's a game show now.

07:03 This was pre suits. Pre suits. This was Meghan Markle.

07:08 From the era it sounds like I don't know what that is. Weakest Link? No, right? What is

07:14 it?

07:15 It is in that genre. Deal or no deal. When they call the banker and unless I'm mistaken,

07:23 this can be one for Jasper. Meghan Markle was like a suitcase girl. I think they called

07:29 them suitcase woman. That's what I call them.

07:32 I had totally forgotten that. Wow.

07:34 Well, yes, I think she would be happy if I had forgotten.

07:39 Maybe she likes it. You know, like, that's true. If you talk to Paul Abdul about the

07:43 Laker girls or JLo about the Fly Girls, maybe that maybe it's nostalgic for them.

07:48 There you go. All right. Well, this one is a curveball. This one I don't expect you to

07:52 get but I couldn't resist. So all right, a bit of a curveball. Let's hear number five.

07:59 I mean, Glissandi have really gone out of style in game shows. Like you'll notice Jeopardy

08:07 hardly ever has a harpist. So I'm just gonna go with something Golden Age of TV like Queen

08:16 for a Day.

08:17 Oh, great. No, but no. Well, you said an interesting sentence. You said Jeopardy now rarely has

08:27 a Glissandi.

08:28 Is that Art Fleming era Jeopardy?

08:30 That is Art Fleming era Jeopardy.

08:32 Wow.

08:33 That's the revealing of the categories sound on Art Fleming's Jeopardy.

08:38 I mean, the problem is almost none of those old 60s Jeopardy's survived. NBC reused kinescopes

08:45 and you know, taped over them with with the Tonight Show or something. So only like a

08:51 handful of Art Fleming episodes remain. And I guess I've watched one but I missed the

08:57 sound.

08:58 Well, you are in a position to bring back the Glissando. I would feel I had contributed

09:02 something to the world if we can get that back on.

09:04 Yeah, like a live harpist that stage left like instead of throwing to a DJ, there's

09:08 like a harpist. I love it.

09:11 Love that. Well, before we wrap up for all you puzzlers at home, here is your extra credit.

09:19 Can we play number six, please?

09:26 There you go. That is number six. Also a little scary.

09:34 Yeah, they all sound like the Cold War out of context, except for the

09:41 Well, thank you, Ken. You did beautifully. Where can people find more of your content?

09:48 I guess in the bookstore, mostly my new book is 100 places to see after you die. I've had

09:55 a lifelong fascination with the paranormal and death always seemed like the great mystery.

10:01 And this walks us through afterlives ranging from ancient Egypt and Babylonia and Buddhism

10:08 and Judaism all the way up to modern TV shows on streaming that you have forgotten like

10:15 forever and upload. So, you know, nice memories to take with you into the world to come.

10:21 That is right. That is right. You got to be prepared. I loved it. It's a great book. And

10:26 puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast and we'll meet you

10:31 here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

10:41 Hello, puzzlers. This is Greg Pliska up from the Puzzle Lab with the answer to last episode's

10:46 extra credit. We played Omni Omnibus with Ken Jennings in which we played with the title

10:53 of his great podcast, Omnibus, creating new versions of it with words that ended with

11:00 B-U-S. The clue we gave you was podcast about blood clots. That clues the great podcast

11:08 Omni Thrombus because a thrombus is a type of blood clot. Hope you enjoyed and we'll

11:15 see you here next time.

11:21 Thanks for playing along with the team here at the Puzzler. I'm Greg Pliska, your chief

11:26 puzzle officer. Our executive producers are Neely Lohman and Adam Newhouse of Newhouse

11:31 Ideas and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts. The show is produced by Jody Avergan and Brittany

11:38 Brown of Roulette Productions. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg. The Puzzler

11:43 with A.J. Jacobs is a co-production with Newhouse Ideas and is distributed by Post Credits Aha!

11:49 No, sorry, I meant to rearrange the letters. Distributed by iHeart Podcasts. If you want

11:56 to know more about puzzling puzzles, please check out the book The Puzzler by A.J. Jacobs,

12:01 a history of puzzles that the New York Times called "fun and funny." It features an original

12:06 puzzle hunt by yours truly and is available wherever you get your books.

12:11 (upbeat music)

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