PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now it's 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 they can - each correct answer now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS: I sure can. Mo has 4. Adam has 5. And Helen has 7 points.
SAGAL: Well done, Helen.
HELEN HONG: Woohoo.
SAGAL: All right, Mo. You're in third place with 4 points. You're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank, Mo. On Monday, Pfizer launched human trials for a potential blank vaccine.
MO ROCCA: Coronavirus.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Sunday, intelligence officials in South Korea said that blank did not have surgery during his disappearance from public view.
ROCCA: Kim Jong Un.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, lawmakers named Mustafa al-Kadhimi as the new prime minister of blank.
ROCCA: Oh, gosh - Iraq?
SAGAL: Yes, very good.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that President Trump was pushing a $500-million plan to paint blank.
ROCCA: To paint - a $500-million plan to paint the town red.
SAGAL: No - to paint his border wall black. This week, Tesla's stock plummeted after blank tweeted, quote, "Tesla's stock price is too high IMO."
ROCCA: Elon Musk.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Thursday, the U.S. reported $3.5 million new blank claims, bringing the seven-week total to 33 million.
ROCCA: Unemployment.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, a man in South Dakota was arrested for driving...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Under the influence after he blanked.
ROCCA: After he drove into a liquor store.
SAGAL: No, after he ran himself over. It was 11:30 in the morning when witnesses saw the man tumble out of the front door of his truck, which was still in drive, and run himself over. Police arrived on the scene and quickly determined the man was intoxicated, in part, because his blood alcohol level was well above the legal limit and, in part, because the first thing the relatively unharmed man asked officers was, did anybody get the license plate number on that truck?
ROCCA: Is that what's known as a self-own?
HONG: (Laughter).
SAGAL: I believe it is. I believe it is, Mo. Bill, how did Mo do on our quiz?
KURTIS: He had 5 points, racking up 10 for a total of 14.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Adam, you're up next. Fill in the blank. On Thursday, the Justice Department announced it was dropping the case against former National Security Adviser blank.
ADAM BURKE: Flynn.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: For the first time in its history, New York City deliberately shut down its blank system on Wednesday.
BURKE: Subway.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, police in Louisiana issued a warning that anyone visiting a local bank's ATM should be on the lookout for blanks.
BURKE: Raccoons that steal your money.
SAGAL: So close - overly aggressive chickens. On Thursday, high-end department store blank filed for bankruptcy.
BURKE: Neiman Marcus.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, Colson Whitehead became the fourth author in history to win two blank prizes for fiction.
BURKE: Pulitzer.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: According to Google searches, a surprising number of people tried to...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Find out what date blank fell on this year.
BURKE: Oh, Christmas?
SAGAL: No, Cinco de Mayo.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Seems a lot of us wonder when exactly Cinco de Mayo was this year - if you're one of those people, it happened on the same day it did last year - on the cinco of Mayo. I mean, how dumb are these people?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Don't they know the great Mexican general Cinco de Mayo's birthday was on the 5 of May?
BURKE: (Laughter).
SAGAL: Bill, how did Adam do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Adam had four right for 8 more points. He now has 13 - oh, so close.
SAGAL: All right then. So how many then does Helen here need to win.
KURTIS: Four - count them - four.
SAGAL: OK, Helen. This is for the game. Fill in the blank. On Monday, U.S.-allied intelligence said it was highly unlikely the coronavirus originated from a lab in blank.
HONG: Wuhan.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After undergoing treatment for a gallbladder infection, Supreme Court justice blank was released from the hospital.
HONG: Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, Secretary of Education blank unveiled new regulations for reporting sexual assault on campus.
HONG: Betsy DeVos.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, Canada announced plans to ban blanks.
HONG: Fighting moose.
SAGAL: Assault weapons. A landlord in Australia says he's having trouble renting one of his fully furnished apartments because the bathroom is blank.
HONG: Nonexistent?
SAGAL: Because the bathroom is in the middle of the kitchen and has clear glass walls - on Tuesday, entertainment giant blank reported that coronavirus had cost the company $1.4 billion.
HONG: Disney.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
KURTIS: On Monday, Don Shula, the winningest coach in the history of the blank, passed away at the age of 90.
HONG: NFL.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, highway patrol in Utah pulled over a car that was...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SAGAL: ...Weaving in and out of traffic and discovered that the driver was blank.
HONG: A fighting moose.
SAGAL: No, they discovered that the driver was a 5-year-old boy who stole his parents car and was headed to California to buy a Lamborghini.
HONG: (Laughter).
SAGAL: Police pulled over the SUV after it was spotted going 30 miles under the speed limit and driving erratically. They assumed the driver was drunk but didn't expect that he'd be drunk from a juice box. Even though the 5-year-old could barely reach the pedals, he still made it over a mile from his house. Police called his parents to come pick him up and charged the adorable, little felon with one count of grand theft aw-to.
(LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: Yeah. He was on Hi-C.
SAGAL: He was.
BURKE: (Laughter).
SAGAL: Bill, did Helen do well enough to win?
KURTIS: Let us all bow before Helen who had five right for 10 more points - a total of 17 and the win.
(APPLAUSE)
ROCCA: She really is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME's murder hornet.
(LAUGHTER) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.