PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Time to move on to our final game, Lightning Fill In The Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as he or she can. Each correct answer is now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: Maz has two, Roxanne has three and Mo, you got four. That's unusual.
MO ROCCA: How is that possible?
SAGAL: All right, well, this is very easy then. So Maz, you are in third place. You're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. This week, Carly Fiorina became the first female candidate to blank.
MAZ JOBRANI: Drop out.
SAGAL: Of the presidential race.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously approved new sanctions against blank.
JOBRANI: North Korea.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Tuesday, the Supreme Court blocked the EPA's new guidelines aimed at reducing blank.
JOBRANI: Emissions.
SAGAL: Right, carbon emissions.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Police in India arrested a blank who they say is a repeat offender.
JOBRANI: A tiger.
SAGAL: No, a goat.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Crime of...
JOBRANI: That is close. You should give me that.
SAGAL: Not close enough. Goat faces two years in prison. J.K. Rowling announced Wednesday that she will be publishing a new blank book this summer.
JOBRANI: "Harry Potter."
SAGAL: Indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Tuesday, election stewards in New Hampshire faced a new situation when blank...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Showed up to the door of a polling place.
JOBRANI: When blank showed up in New Hampshire to the door of a polling place.
ROCCA: This is cute.
JOBRANI: A child?
SAGAL: No, a 600-pound escaped pig.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: According to witnesses, the pig, who showed up at the polling place early in the morning, said he was really invested in cutting the pork out of politics...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...And also everybody's diets. It's just generally against the concept of pork. Police came to return the pig to the farm it had escaped from but not before it too finished ahead of Marco Rubio in New Hampshire.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Marco Rubio said, don't be mistaken. That pig knows exactly what it was doing. Bill, how did Maz do on our quiz?
KURTIS: He got four right, eight more points. He has a total of 10. He's leading.
SAGAL: All right, probably not for long though...
JOBRANI: No.
SAGAL: ...Because Roxanne is up next. Roxanne, fill in the blank. This week, President Obama presented Congress with the final blank of his presidency.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: Budget.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Tuesday, top U.S. officials testified that blank would likely attempt an attack on the U.S. this year.
ROBERTS: ISIS.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, the last occupiers of a wildlife refuge in blank surrendered to the FBI.
ROBERTS: Oregon.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: In an interview with the Financial Times, former New York City Mayor blank said he was considering a presidential run.
ROBERTS: Michael Bloomberg.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A thief in Illinois accidentally left behind several clear pictures of himself stealing money from a blank.
ROBERTS: These were the Instagram pictures, right?
SAGAL: No, it was actually a photo booth. On Thursday, scientists at the Max Planck Institute confirmed the first concrete evidence of blank waves.
ROBERTS: This is the gravitational ripple waves...
SAGAL: Yes, exactly.
ROBERTS: It sounds like a Ben & Jerry's (laughter)...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: This week, social media site blank revealed it had lost 2 million users over the last three months.
ROBERTS: Twitter.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, on his way to a press conference to talk about the need...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...For austerity in his country, the president at Egypt blanked.
ROBERTS: He drove down a red carpet.
SAGAL: Exactly two-miles long.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Very good.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: President Sisi of Egypt, who helped overthrow former President Mohamed Morsi has made austerity a centerpiece of his rule. So it made sense that people are complaining about the two miles of red carpet he laid out for his motorcade to drive over. Critics are calling it the most needlessly excessive display in his country's history, and that history includes giant pyramids.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Roxanne do on our quiz?
KURTIS: One of her biggest totals. She got seven right, 14 more points, a total of 17.
SAGAL: All right...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: ...This means now that Mr. Mo Rocca needs how many to win?
KURTIS: Seven to win.
SAGAL: Very good. Here we go, Mo. This is for the game. On Thursday, John Kerry announced the world powers have agreed to a cease-fire in blank.
ROCCA: It's a cease-fire if Syria.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, President Obama asked Congress for $1.8 billion to fight the spread of blank.
ROCCA: Zika virus.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: In a new budget released Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder included $195 million for relief of blank.
ROCCA: The water crisis in Flint.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, Morgan Stanley agreed to a $3.2 billion settlement for selling risky blanks.
ROCCA: Risky - it's sort of like a - it's like a bond, subprime-mortgage thing.
SAGAL: Yeah, a mortgage thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A man accused of drunk driving in Wisconsin told police that he only smelled of alcohol because blank.
ROCCA: Because he works in a brewery and he was doused in beer.
SAGAL: No, because he was eating beer-battered fish for dinner. Simon & Schuster revealed Thursday that they had paid blank a $10 million advance to write his autobiography.
ROCCA: Bruce Springsteen.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, NASA questioned reports that a man in India was killed by a blank.
ROCCA: By - it's a meteor or an asteroid or a comet. They're all really the same thing.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: You're right, actually, once it hits the Earth. But it wasn't really a meteorite. On Tuesday...
ROCCA: Just a temperature difference.
SAGAL: ...A Florida man was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...After throwing a blank through a restaurant drive-through window.
ROCCA: Oh, an alligator.
SAGAL: Oh, an alligator, yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Joshua James drove through a Wendy's - a Wendy's, ordered food. And before of paying for it grabbed a 3-foot alligator from his back seat and threw it into the open drive-through window.
JOBRANI: Wow.
SAGAL: James now faces the charge of assault with a deadly weapon - really. But he's in twice as much trouble because his concealed-carry license was for crocodiles.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Mo do well enough to win?
KURTIS: He needed seven to win. He got seven...
SAGAL: Hey.
KURTIS: ...For a total of 18...
SAGAL: Well done, Mo.
KURTIS: ...The champ.
(APPLAUSE)
ROCCA: All right, can I just say something?
SAGAL: You may.
ROCCA: For everyone here, I'm taking all of your [expletive] to Red Lobster...
SAGAL: There you go.
(APPLAUSE)
ROCCA: ...Table for 400.
SAGAL: In just a minute, we're going to ask our panelists to predict what will be the most popular romantic gift this Valentine's Day.
SAGAL: WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME is a production of NPR and WBEZ-Chicago, in association with Urgent Haircut Productions, Doug Berman, benevolent overlord. Phillip Goedicke writes our limericks. Our house manager is Don Hall, assistant house manager is Tyler Greene. Our intern is I don’t think you’re ready for this Isabelly Robertson. Our web guru is Beth Novey. Special thanks to the crew at Chase Bank. B.J. Leiderman composed our theme. Our program is produced by Miles Dornboss with Devyn Waitt. Technical direction Lorna White. Special thanks this week to Gary Yek. Our CFO is Ann Nguyen. Our production coordinator is Robert Neuhaus. Our senior producer is Ian Chillag. And the executive producer of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME is Mr. Mike Won't You Let Me Be Your Wingman Danforth. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.