PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now onto 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 worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: I can. Helen has two. Luke has two. And Roy has four.
ROY BLOUNT JR: Whoa.
HELEN HONG: What?
SAGAL: Oh, my gosh, Roy.
(APPLAUSE)
KURTIS: Wow.
SAGAL: We flipped a coin, and Helen has chosen to go first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. On Wednesday, former Trump lawyer blank was sentenced to three years in prison.
HONG: Michael Cohen.
SAGAL: Right.
HONG: This week, a wave of...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...Emailed blank threats caused evacuations at buildings across the U.S.
HONG: Bomb threats.
SAGAL: Right. This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...The Senate voted to advance a resolution seeking to end U.S. military support for a Saudi-led war in blank.
HONG: Yemen.
SAGAL: Right. On Tuesday...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...A federal judge ordered adult film star blank to pay Trump's legal fees.
HONG: Stormy Daniels.
SAGAL: Yes. At a professional...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...Soccer match in the - Argentina, a certain goal was saved by blank.
HONG: A dog?
SAGAL: Yes. It got loose, ran on the field. Very good.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
HONG: Yes.
SAGAL: On Monday, search giant blank announced they'd be shutting down their flagging social media network quicker than expected.
HONG: Google?
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A report released on Thursday found that there were more scripted shows being made for blank than traditional TV.
HONG: Netflix.
SAGAL: Streaming services in general, yeah. After announcing...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...It was going to crackdown on images it deems too sexy...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: Tumblr successfully removed several pictures of blank from its websites.
HONG: Nancy Pelosi.
SAGAL: So close.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Joe Biden.
HONG: No.
KURTIS: So close.
(APPLAUSE)
HONG: (Laughter) You mean...
SAGAL: The social media site, which is quite popular for naughty images - they decided they didn't want that anymore. They created an algorithm that was going to search all Tumblrs and remove all the dirty images. And so it flagged, along with all those, several pictures of the vice president. Biden wasn't alone. The program also removed drawings of a puking unicorn and one picture of a raw chicken. Though, in Tumblr's defense, the chicken's breasts were clearly visible.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, I think Helen did pretty good, right...
KURTIS: Big, big win, almost. Seven right, 14 more points, 16 total.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Well done, Helen.
HONG: Yes.
SAGAL: All right, Luke. You're up next. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump's blank committee was under investigation by federal prosecutors.
LUKE BURBANK: Campaign.
SAGAL: No, inaugural committee. This week, a White House official said that Jared Kushner is not under consideration to replace John Kelly as Trump's blank.
BURBANK: Chief of staff.
SAGAL: Still might be...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: We don't know. According to a new survey, more Americans get their news from blank than from newspapers.
BURBANK: That crazy guy down the street.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I'm going to give it to you. The answer is social media.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A man in Canada...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: A man in Canada pulled over for drunk driving accidentally gave police blank when they asked for his license.
BURBANK: A beer.
SAGAL: A hamburger.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: On Thursday, daytime talk show host blank said she was considering ending her show.
BURBANK: Ellen.
SAGAL: Ellen DeGeneres.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Radiohead, Janet Jackson and the Cure were all named as the newest members of the blank.
BURBANK: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
SAGAL: Yes. After...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...City officials wouldn't give him a permit to build a new garage...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...A man in Vermont built blank in its place instead.
BURBANK: A 4,000-pound wood middle finger.
SAGAL: That's exactly right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
HONG: What?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Ted Pelsky (ph) of Vermont had been trying to get permission to build his garage in his property for over 10 years. And after being denied his permits yet again, he carved a 7-foot-tall middle finger statue and put it on a big pole in his yard. He's illuminated it 24 hours a day.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And here's the beauty part. The city can't remove it because it's art.
(LAUGHTER)
HONG: Wow.
SAGAL: Which makes us wonder - why didn't he just make a realistic, full-scale sculpture of a garage?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Luke do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Luke warmed up to get five right, 10 more points, total of 12 but still trails Helen.
SAGAL: So how many does Roy need to win?
KURTIS: Roy needs six to tie, seven to win.
SAGAL: All right. Here we go, Roy. Tall order. Let's see if you can do it. This is for the game.
BLOUNT JR: Yeah.
SAGAL: Fill in the blank. On Thursday, Maria Butina, an alleged spy from blank, pled guilty to conspiracy.
BLOUNT JR: Russia.
SAGAL: Right. On Tuesday...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...China agreed to reduce the blanks on imported U.S. cars.
BLOUNT JR: Tariffs.
SAGAL: Right. This week, the publisher of blank admitted to paying hush money to help aid the Trump campaign.
BLOUNT JR: The National Enquirer.
SAGAL: Right. In a bid...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: ...To end a protest, French President blank repeated his pledge to raise the minimum wage.
BLOUNT JR: What?
SAGAL: French president...
BLOUNT JR: Oh, Macron.
SAGAL: Macron, yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, Time named several journalists, including blank, their People of the Year.
BLOUNT JR: Khashoggi.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
BLOUNT JR: This week, the state government of Utah was...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Completely shut down for a few hours in a, quote, "emergency" when an employee blanked.
BLOUNT JR: Couldn't remember how to spell Utah.
SAGAL: No.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The employee hit Reply All to a party invitation.
BLOUNT JR: Oh, I read that...
SAGAL: A party invite was originally only meant for a small department of 80 people but, thanks to a misclick, wound up being sent to all 25,000 employees of the state of Utah. Things got worse from there, as all these mistakenly added employees kept hitting Reply All to say, please take me off this thread...
HONG: Wow.
SAGAL: ...Leading to other people replying all to say, everybody stop replying all.
(LAUGHTER)
BLOUNT JR: What a mess.
SAGAL: The party organizers have apologized and are filling the next week figuring out how to cut the pan of lemon bars into 25,000 pieces.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, did Roy do well enough to win?
KURTIS: Sort of close - five right, 10 more points, 14. But it means Helen is our champion.
SAGAL: Congratulations.
(APPLAUSE) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.