April 30, 2025 • 20 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: actor and musician Josh Radnor! Be sure to check out his new How I Met Your Mother rewatch podcast, "How We Made Your Mother"!
Join host A.J. Jacobs and his guests as they puzzle–and laugh–their way through new spins on old favorites, like anagrams and palindromes, as well as quirky originals such as “Ask AI” and audio rebuses.
Subscribe to The Puzzler podcast wherever you get your podcasts!
"The Puzzler with A.J. Jacobs" is distributed by iHeartPodcasts and is a co-production with Neuhaus Ideas.
Our executive producers are Neely Lohmann and Adam Neuhaus of Neuhaus Ideas, and Lindsay Hoffman of iHeart Podcasts.
The show is produced by Jody Avirgan and Brittani Brown of Roulette Productions.
Our Chief Puzzle Officer is Greg Pliska. Our associate producer is Andrea Schoenberg.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. Our guest
this week is Josh Radner, star of How I Met
Your Mother. Now, you might notice Josh's first name, Josh,
is also a.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Verb to joke to kid.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Well, here at the Puzzler, we noticed that two of
the other How I Met Your Mother co stars also
have names that are verbs, or at least sound like verbs.
They are spelled slightly differently, but they are homophones. So
our question is, can you name these other two co
(00:36):
stars and their verb sound alike first or last names?
The answers and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers,
Welcome back to the Puzzler, the plucky orphan in your
puzzle Dickens novel. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm
(00:59):
here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greig Kliska Greg. Before the break,
we asked about the co stars of How I Met
Your Mother? Which of them have names that sound like verbs?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And he good? Uh? Well, one is the guy with
the hard to identify hair color. Good point, Uh, Neil
Patrick Harris.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's it, and his first name Neil Neil sounds like Neil.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Also, wasn't the narrator on the show, Bob saget like
bobbing for apples.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh interesting, Yeah, good point. That is true. And by
the way, though, we're not done with Neil Patrick Harris
because his last name sounds a little like harass.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well some people pronounce that word Harris.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Right like sort of more British, which is what his character,
Barney Stinson excels AT's he is a harasser.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
What about No, I was gonna say, Kobe smolders. Smoulders
sounds a little bit like smolders, but that doesn't.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Not just a little. I think it works totally. It
is very It's hard to say smolders and smolders smolders.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You just said them differently. They're two different things.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I still count it's smolders and burn Slowly we have.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We want to make a case for Kobe. I want
to make a case for Kobe, my son. Every time
he takes a wadded up thing of paper and tosses
it across the room into the garbage can, says Kobe.
Now he's referencing the great Kobe Bryant, of course, but
it's almost like it's a verb. I'm going to kobe
that into the garbage can all right. I mean if
(02:42):
you can have smolders, smolders, I can have Kobe.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I think yours is a little more of a stretch,
but I will give it to you because I am
very liberal. I will say, Uh, we have another that's
a noun. It's not that we got Jason Siegel. Kind
of sounds like Johnson Livington's.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Not a verb, but it's a noun.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, anyway, enough wordplay. I bring all this up because
we have more wordplay to do with our guest this week,
none other than Josh Radner. He is an actor, filmmaker, musician, podcaster,
and star of the above mentioned How I Met Your Mother.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Welcome Josh, hi ag it's good to be here again.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, I've delighted to have you back and to celebrate
your new podcast what you're doing with How I Met
Your Mother. Co creator Craig Thomas called How We Made
Your Mother, which is very puzzly. We like that kind
of a wordplay. So I am actually also have someone
I do the podcast with and his name is Greg Puliska.
(03:44):
So I am going to turn that's my segue to
turn it out merchant Greg, because he has a puzzle
for you today.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
All right. Actually, I have a question, Josh, which is
have you watched you guys? Are you watching every minute
of every episode as you do the podcast?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, I'm watching. I'm Well. The impetus for the show
is actually I got married a little over a year
ago and my wife had never seen a single episode
of the show. So I thought, well, she really wanted
to watch it, and I thought, well, this is probably
a good time for me to rewatch it because I
haven't seen a lot of those episodes in twenty fifteen years,
(04:22):
and I didn't even watch every episode when they came out.
I had a somewhat conflicted relationship with watching myself at
that time. I'm finding it easier now with some distance.
Oh and I should say, Ajs, just my wife shares
your last name. My wife is a Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I saw that we.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Are probably somewhat related by marriage at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Cousins.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Absolutely. I love that.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, but yeah. So then I reached out to Craig
and I said, if he you know, I'm going to
rewatch the show if he wanted to formalize it and
do something on the record, I think it could be
really fun to talk about the show.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
And I also I'm excited because I know your wife
is is it a psychologist? Is that her clinical psychologist?
So is she going to be weighing in with some
insights on the psychology of these characters.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, we actually have a special section called Questions and
Observations from clinical psychologist and relationship expert who's never seen
the show, who also happens married. Yeah, maybe you can
help me figure it out. But but she, I'd say
every two episodes, she she records a voice note from
(05:35):
her office when she's collected her thoughts after watching the episode,
and and she and and they're really deep searching interesting
questions and observations, so it really takes it a notch
deeper for us.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Is she able to to come up with a diagnosis
for something like Barney? It seems he's.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, we have been talking a bit about Ted's attachment disorder,
his anxious attachment, and Robin's avoidant attachment style, so that
wasn't in vogue when we were doing the show, but
it absolutely lines up with where the totally kind of Psychoay.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Oh, last question about watching it with your wife, I mean,
are you sitting next to her on the couch and
are you able to watch the show or do you
watch her watching the show.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I actually have to watch the show because I need
to discuss it with some you know, authority. So I've
been watching it, but I'm very tuned into what delights her,
you know, I'm very keyed into when she audibly laughs
or comments. But yeah, well it's either on the couch
or sometimes before bed, you know. But but it's been
(06:41):
it's actually been really fun. I mean it's it's one
of those things when you meet someone and you have
a lot of life behind you. You know, we didn't
meet in college, right like, we met later, so there's
this huge chapter of my life that she really I'm
having to fill in the blanks for it, and this
is this is a great shortcut I'll show you know,
I happen to have a lot of it on video.
(07:02):
I could show her that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, it's also cool that, like the thing that you're
super famous for, she was never even a fan of
and doesn't know about. It's not like she fell in
love with you because she's been a fan.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
No, absolutely, I mean, you know, you have to have
a bit of a policy around not dating fans because
the power imbalance is strange, the fantasy and projection that
they might have about you. And it's very hard to
make a first impression a true first impression if someone
is bringing all this foreign knowledge and assumptions about you. So,
(07:36):
my wife happens to be a huge TV fan. She
just for some reason how your mother missed her much
to my parents so great.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I love that. I love that. Well. It's funny, Josh,
you mentioned acronyms a minute ago, because How I Met
Your Mother is one of those shows that's iconic enough
to have an acronym him ym that people refer to
it as. Does that ever get pronounced out loud? Do
people say, oh, yeah, gimm got it?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, and we're calling the podcast very good?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Wim. I love it. Well. That inspired us to make
a puzzle about other shows that have mother or mama
or maybe even father in the name. Shows or other
other things, song shows, movies, things, different titles with that
in the name. And in each case, I'm going to
give you the initials of the title except for the
(08:27):
word mother, which I'll give you, or father, whatever it is.
So for for example, if I wanted to clue your show,
I'd say, h I M y mother and then would
be how.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I make it might be tricky. I have to say,
I'm I'm starting to get nervous. Not to make me nervous,
but I'll.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Give you other clues to the show.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Or I was nervous last episode. I made it for you.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
You'll be okay, Thank you, thank you, Josh. All right,
So your first one is a movie. It's Mama M.
H w g A. Oh, and it's a movie musical
(09:11):
Mama M exclamation point h w g A.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It's Mama Mia. How we got.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's actually a lyric from the song.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I only know it as Mama Mia. I didn't know
about the subtype.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I don't sequel extra it's the.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Same Mama Mia.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Here.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, very good. I was gonna do the original, but
Mama M is just less interesting as an acronym, so
I want to do the sequel. But here we go again.
All right, This one is a movie. It's T Mama
F the T. I know this one, you know it?
All right? Very good?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Throw Mama from the train.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yes, you know that movie?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
AJ all right.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
This next one is a song. Uh mother and c r.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Oh yeah, Paul Simon, mother and wow.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Good you are good? Josh. Yes, Simon and Garfunkle Mother
and Child Reunion, which I think is about an egg
and a chicken, like a meal made a chicken and
egg meal.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Seriously, are you making a joke?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
No? I think whether either it's about that or that
got Mother and Child Reunion got turned into a name
of a dish, right, egg and chicken.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Interesting, that's dark, that's dark.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Oh it's delicious.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But I will say Josh is also a musician, so
he uh so that I hope helps a little with
the music.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Oh, very good, very good. All right. Here's another movie,
Father ot B.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well there's the original Spencer Tracy Catherine Hepburn one, and
then there's the remake with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton,
Father of the Bride.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Exactly, very good, very good. All right. Another song Papa
c y h.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
M yes yea from Yental?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Can you hear me, papa?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Can you hear me? The Barbara streisand hit from Yental?
Just doing great? All right, here we go. There's another movie,
y T Mama t No. And it's a foreign language film.
Oh I know, yeah, I'll give it to you.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
A Quarne film, Mama Tambien.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Eat Mama Tambien with Diego Luna and Gale Garcia, Bernald
terrific Mexican. I look on Wikipedia. It's called a it's
called a coming of age comedy, drama, road movie. I
think that's like four genres.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
That's good for search engines. You're looking for a movie.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
All right, we got a few more. This is a
TV show Father KB.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I guess before my time, but I know it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Father act father knows best before all of our times.
But we all know it. It's one of those things
that's in our consciousness. Another song, Mama skyo to an
album and a song.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Actually yeah, ah, Mama said knock you out?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yes, very good. Ll cool J. It's the song that
opens with don't call it a comeback. I've been here
for years. Great ll cool J song. Another Papa w
A R.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
S Oh is that slang the family Stone?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It's the it's the Temptations. Papa was rolling Stone, rolling Stone. Yeah, yeah,
very good, very good, great tune. All right, your last one?
One more song? I s Mommy k sc.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
A holiday classic. Yes, Mama kissing Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I saw Santa Claus. Exactly well done. Look at that,
brilliantly done Josh.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I thought you were going to do. There's a famous
sitcom I've never seen it, but I think it's famously
bad called m Mother TC. Do you know what I'm
talking about? Mother TC?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
In the sixties Jerry Van Dyke show.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It was a Jerry van something. Yes, my mother the car, My.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Mother, the mother, the car. I also thought of remember
the Carol Lawrence show Mama's Family.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, yeah, that is a good one.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Uh yeah, I had the Daniel day Lewis film. I
T n O T.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Father in the name of it, in the name of the.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Father, right, he's a he's an. He confesses to an
IRA bombing he didn't do, but his and his father
gets thrown in jail as well. I forget, but the
great Daniel day Lewis. Anyway, obviously there are more here
on the list which used. Don't give them all away.
I gotta have some credit available.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Uh love it well, you did, you did brilliantly once again.
By the way, just to go back to puzzles for
one second, I noticed in the pilot of How I
Met Your Mother, there's another puzzle call out where Ted
(15:08):
says that I was just too close to the puzzle
to see the big picture, and I think he was
referring to that he was too close to Robin to
see that she was the one for him. I can't
remember one hundred percent, but I was excited that there
was another, yet another puzzle reference.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I only saw it weeks ago, and I barely remember
it ard at this point, but yeah, I do remember
the line.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I'm not a TV writer, but I know pilots are
notoriously hard to write because you have to introduce all
of these characters. So how do you do that without becoming,
you know, mis expositor and making it really awkward? But
you did it. That That is a brilliant pilot.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, it really is, And even watching it now twenty
years later, I was kind of in awe of the
construction of it and the economy of it. We were
talking about how every joke is both a good, solid
laugh and character revealing at the same time. So it's
just it's very smartly done. The initial episode.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, yeah, it's great. I mean I remember talking to Seinfeld,
writer who said that the painful part of writing these
scripts is you had to cut all the jokes because
you know, you have to get the plot. So it's
nice that your jokes happened to add to the plot
because uh.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
There was also you could talk to Carter and Craig
about this, but there there were There was seven to
ten minutes cut from every single episode. I mean they
always were. So you forget years later, what but in
your initial watch of the cut of the final cut,
you go, oh, that great joke is gone, or that
the whole scene is lifted out, and uh, that's just
(16:58):
something you have to reconcile yourself when you're on a show.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, I mean I also it's nice. It's always nice
when you're able to get something in that's not directly
like you're able to get in something that's a little
bit quirky. I remember, for instance, your show loved the wordplay,
so it's a very puzzly show in that. And you
have a running joke about major. Anytime the word major
(17:23):
comes up, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Well, it's major general Klonel. You know, if you say, oh,
that's a major accomplishment, you say major accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And by the way, Josh just just it for those
who can't say, Josh, just salute it, because he's always
salute when the word major.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Or one of the things we're doing on the podcast
on How We Made Your Mothers, we're reading a lot
of people's, you know, testimonials about why they love the
show and how they discovered the show and what it
means to them. And I got a letter that we
read on air that made us laugh so hard, and
it was a guy told us that his wife was
in labor for thirty hours. They're huge. How I met
your mother for thirty hours and she was at the
(18:04):
end of her she was delivering the baby and the
doctor said, push, you're having a major contraction. And she
turns to her husband and she gives the salute for
major at the moment of birth. We just thought it
was the funniest thing.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
That is a true fan. I love that. Yeah, that's hilarious.
All right, Well, it has been a delight having you
as our guest. Thank you for the show, and thank
you and people check out his He's got great movies
that he directed and wrote and music. Where can people
find your music and your other work music?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Ever music is bought or streamed. I'm also heading out
on tour in a couple of weeks. I'm starting in
Seattle and then Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, La, San Diego, Phoenix,
and then I'm doing a swing through the Midwest. That's
all on Josh radurn dot com slash tour. But I'd
love to see you, you know, hear me sing some puzzles.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Ah, there you go, love it?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Thank you, Josh. Do you have an extra credit for
those of them?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I do have an extra credit. It's another musical one.
It's actually the name of a band and the clue
is FZ and the Mothers of I.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Okay, I think I got it all right. Thank you, Greg,
Thank you, Josh. Thank you listeners. If you like the show,
it would mean a lot to us if you took
thirty seconds and rate of the Puzzler on your favorite
podcast platform, because it really makes a big difference in
people finding us, and we want them to find us,
(19:44):
and we want you to come back tomorrow for more
puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you. Puzzling with.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Hey Puzzlers. Greg Fliska here up from the Puzzle ab
with the extra credit answer from our previous EPO episode.
Josh Radner joined us once more and we did How
I Met Your Mother. Spinoffs shows whose title rhyme with
how I met your mother, or rather rhyme with the
word met in that title, and your extra credit clue
is this this is a show about how I rue
(20:17):
the day that your mother was created, your mama. That
title is how I regret your mother sad way to
end I realized. But we're thrilled to have Josh with us.
We're thrilled to have you with us, and we'll see
you here tomorrow.
Hello puzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle. Our guest
this week is Josh Radner, star of How I Met
Your Mother. Now, you might notice Josh's first name, Josh,
is also a.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Verb to joke to kid.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Well, here at the Puzzler, we noticed that two of
the other How I Met Your Mother co stars also
have names that are verbs, or at least sound like verbs.
They are spelled slightly differently, but they are homophones. So
our question is, can you name these other two co
(00:36):
stars and their verb sound alike first or last names?
The answers and more puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers,
Welcome back to the Puzzler, the plucky orphan in your
puzzle Dickens novel. I'm your host, AJ Jacobs, and I'm
(00:59):
here with Chief Puzzle Officer Greig Kliska Greg. Before the break,
we asked about the co stars of How I Met
Your Mother? Which of them have names that sound like verbs?
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And he good? Uh? Well, one is the guy with
the hard to identify hair color. Good point, Uh, Neil
Patrick Harris.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
That's it, and his first name Neil Neil sounds like Neil.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Also, wasn't the narrator on the show, Bob saget like
bobbing for apples.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh interesting, Yeah, good point. That is true. And by
the way, though, we're not done with Neil Patrick Harris
because his last name sounds a little like harass.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Well some people pronounce that word Harris.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Right like sort of more British, which is what his character,
Barney Stinson excels AT's he is a harasser.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
What about No, I was gonna say, Kobe smolders. Smoulders
sounds a little bit like smolders, but that doesn't.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Not just a little. I think it works totally. It
is very It's hard to say smolders and smolders smolders.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
You just said them differently. They're two different things.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I still count it's smolders and burn Slowly we have.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
We want to make a case for Kobe. I want
to make a case for Kobe, my son. Every time
he takes a wadded up thing of paper and tosses
it across the room into the garbage can, says Kobe.
Now he's referencing the great Kobe Bryant, of course, but
it's almost like it's a verb. I'm going to kobe
that into the garbage can all right. I mean if
(02:42):
you can have smolders, smolders, I can have Kobe.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I think yours is a little more of a stretch,
but I will give it to you because I am
very liberal. I will say, Uh, we have another that's
a noun. It's not that we got Jason Siegel. Kind
of sounds like Johnson Livington's.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Not a verb, but it's a noun.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, anyway, enough wordplay. I bring all this up because
we have more wordplay to do with our guest this week,
none other than Josh Radner. He is an actor, filmmaker, musician, podcaster,
and star of the above mentioned How I Met Your Mother.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Welcome Josh, hi ag it's good to be here again.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, I've delighted to have you back and to celebrate
your new podcast what you're doing with How I Met
Your Mother. Co creator Craig Thomas called How We Made
Your Mother, which is very puzzly. We like that kind
of a wordplay. So I am actually also have someone
I do the podcast with and his name is Greg Puliska.
(03:44):
So I am going to turn that's my segue to
turn it out merchant Greg, because he has a puzzle
for you today.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
All right. Actually, I have a question, Josh, which is
have you watched you guys? Are you watching every minute
of every episode as you do the podcast?
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yeah, I'm watching. I'm Well. The impetus for the show
is actually I got married a little over a year
ago and my wife had never seen a single episode
of the show. So I thought, well, she really wanted
to watch it, and I thought, well, this is probably
a good time for me to rewatch it because I
haven't seen a lot of those episodes in twenty fifteen years,
(04:22):
and I didn't even watch every episode when they came out.
I had a somewhat conflicted relationship with watching myself at
that time. I'm finding it easier now with some distance.
Oh and I should say, Ajs, just my wife shares
your last name. My wife is a Jacobs.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
I saw that we.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Are probably somewhat related by marriage at this point.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
Cousins.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
Absolutely. I love that.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Yeah, but yeah. So then I reached out to Craig
and I said, if he you know, I'm going to
rewatch the show if he wanted to formalize it and
do something on the record, I think it could be
really fun to talk about the show.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
And I also I'm excited because I know your wife
is is it a psychologist? Is that her clinical psychologist?
So is she going to be weighing in with some
insights on the psychology of these characters.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Yes, we actually have a special section called Questions and
Observations from clinical psychologist and relationship expert who's never seen
the show, who also happens married. Yeah, maybe you can
help me figure it out. But but she, I'd say
every two episodes, she she records a voice note from
(05:35):
her office when she's collected her thoughts after watching the episode,
and and she and and they're really deep searching interesting
questions and observations, so it really takes it a notch
deeper for us.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Is she able to to come up with a diagnosis
for something like Barney? It seems he's.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, we have been talking a bit about Ted's attachment disorder,
his anxious attachment, and Robin's avoidant attachment style, so that
wasn't in vogue when we were doing the show, but
it absolutely lines up with where the totally kind of Psychoay.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Oh, last question about watching it with your wife, I mean,
are you sitting next to her on the couch and
are you able to watch the show or do you
watch her watching the show.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I actually have to watch the show because I need
to discuss it with some you know, authority. So I've
been watching it, but I'm very tuned into what delights her,
you know, I'm very keyed into when she audibly laughs
or comments. But yeah, well it's either on the couch
or sometimes before bed, you know. But but it's been
(06:41):
it's actually been really fun. I mean it's it's one
of those things when you meet someone and you have
a lot of life behind you. You know, we didn't
meet in college, right like, we met later, so there's
this huge chapter of my life that she really I'm
having to fill in the blanks for it, and this
is this is a great shortcut I'll show you know,
I happen to have a lot of it on video.
(07:02):
I could show her that.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Yeah, it's also cool that, like the thing that you're
super famous for, she was never even a fan of
and doesn't know about. It's not like she fell in
love with you because she's been a fan.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
No, absolutely, I mean, you know, you have to have
a bit of a policy around not dating fans because
the power imbalance is strange, the fantasy and projection that
they might have about you. And it's very hard to
make a first impression a true first impression if someone
is bringing all this foreign knowledge and assumptions about you. So,
(07:36):
my wife happens to be a huge TV fan. She
just for some reason how your mother missed her much
to my parents so great.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
I love that. I love that. Well. It's funny, Josh,
you mentioned acronyms a minute ago, because How I Met
Your Mother is one of those shows that's iconic enough
to have an acronym him ym that people refer to
it as. Does that ever get pronounced out loud? Do
people say, oh, yeah, gimm got it?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, and we're calling the podcast very good?
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Wim. I love it. Well. That inspired us to make
a puzzle about other shows that have mother or mama
or maybe even father in the name. Shows or other
other things, song shows, movies, things, different titles with that
in the name. And in each case, I'm going to
give you the initials of the title except for the
(08:27):
word mother, which I'll give you, or father, whatever it is.
So for for example, if I wanted to clue your show,
I'd say, h I M y mother and then would
be how.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I make it might be tricky. I have to say,
I'm I'm starting to get nervous. Not to make me nervous,
but I'll.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Give you other clues to the show.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Or I was nervous last episode. I made it for you.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
You'll be okay, Thank you, thank you, Josh. All right,
So your first one is a movie. It's Mama M.
H w g A. Oh, and it's a movie musical
(09:11):
Mama M exclamation point h w g A.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
It's Mama Mia. How we got.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
It's actually a lyric from the song.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
I only know it as Mama Mia. I didn't know
about the subtype.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I don't sequel extra it's the.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Same Mama Mia.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Here.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, very good. I was gonna do the original, but
Mama M is just less interesting as an acronym, so
I want to do the sequel. But here we go again.
All right, This one is a movie. It's T Mama
F the T. I know this one, you know it?
All right? Very good?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Throw Mama from the train.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Yes, you know that movie?
Speaker 3 (10:04):
AJ all right.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
This next one is a song. Uh mother and c r.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Oh yeah, Paul Simon, mother and wow.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Good you are good? Josh. Yes, Simon and Garfunkle Mother
and Child Reunion, which I think is about an egg
and a chicken, like a meal made a chicken and
egg meal.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Seriously, are you making a joke?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
No? I think whether either it's about that or that
got Mother and Child Reunion got turned into a name
of a dish, right, egg and chicken.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Interesting, that's dark, that's dark.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Oh it's delicious.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
But I will say Josh is also a musician, so
he uh so that I hope helps a little with
the music.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Oh, very good, very good. All right. Here's another movie,
Father ot B.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well there's the original Spencer Tracy Catherine Hepburn one, and
then there's the remake with Steve Martin and Diane Keaton,
Father of the Bride.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Exactly, very good, very good. All right. Another song Papa
c y h.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
M yes yea from Yental?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Can you hear me, papa?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Can you hear me? The Barbara streisand hit from Yental?
Just doing great? All right, here we go. There's another movie,
y T Mama t No. And it's a foreign language film.
Oh I know, yeah, I'll give it to you.
Speaker 3 (11:51):
A Quarne film, Mama Tambien.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Eat Mama Tambien with Diego Luna and Gale Garcia, Bernald
terrific Mexican. I look on Wikipedia. It's called a it's
called a coming of age comedy, drama, road movie. I
think that's like four genres.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
That's good for search engines. You're looking for a movie.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
All right, we got a few more. This is a
TV show Father KB.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I guess before my time, but I know it.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
Father act father knows best before all of our times.
But we all know it. It's one of those things
that's in our consciousness. Another song, Mama skyo to an
album and a song.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Actually yeah, ah, Mama said knock you out?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yes, very good. Ll cool J. It's the song that
opens with don't call it a comeback. I've been here
for years. Great ll cool J song. Another Papa w
A R.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
S Oh is that slang the family Stone?
Speaker 2 (13:08):
It's the it's the Temptations. Papa was rolling Stone, rolling Stone. Yeah, yeah,
very good, very good, great tune. All right, your last one?
One more song? I s Mommy k sc.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
A holiday classic. Yes, Mama kissing Santa Claus.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I saw Santa Claus. Exactly well done. Look at that,
brilliantly done Josh.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
I thought you were going to do. There's a famous
sitcom I've never seen it, but I think it's famously
bad called m Mother TC. Do you know what I'm
talking about? Mother TC?
Speaker 2 (13:54):
In the sixties Jerry Van Dyke show.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
It was a Jerry van something. Yes, my mother the car, My.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Mother, the mother, the car. I also thought of remember
the Carol Lawrence show Mama's Family.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Yeah, yeah, that is a good one.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Uh yeah, I had the Daniel day Lewis film. I
T n O T.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Father in the name of it, in the name of the.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Father, right, he's a he's an. He confesses to an
IRA bombing he didn't do, but his and his father
gets thrown in jail as well. I forget, but the
great Daniel day Lewis. Anyway, obviously there are more here
on the list which used. Don't give them all away.
I gotta have some credit available.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Uh love it well, you did, you did brilliantly once again.
By the way, just to go back to puzzles for
one second, I noticed in the pilot of How I
Met Your Mother, there's another puzzle call out where Ted
(15:08):
says that I was just too close to the puzzle
to see the big picture, and I think he was
referring to that he was too close to Robin to
see that she was the one for him. I can't
remember one hundred percent, but I was excited that there
was another, yet another puzzle reference.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
I only saw it weeks ago, and I barely remember
it ard at this point, but yeah, I do remember
the line.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I'm not a TV writer, but I know pilots are
notoriously hard to write because you have to introduce all
of these characters. So how do you do that without becoming,
you know, mis expositor and making it really awkward? But
you did it. That That is a brilliant pilot.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, it really is, And even watching it now twenty
years later, I was kind of in awe of the
construction of it and the economy of it. We were
talking about how every joke is both a good, solid
laugh and character revealing at the same time. So it's
just it's very smartly done. The initial episode.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Yeah, yeah, it's great. I mean I remember talking to Seinfeld,
writer who said that the painful part of writing these
scripts is you had to cut all the jokes because
you know, you have to get the plot. So it's
nice that your jokes happened to add to the plot
because uh.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
There was also you could talk to Carter and Craig
about this, but there there were There was seven to
ten minutes cut from every single episode. I mean they
always were. So you forget years later, what but in
your initial watch of the cut of the final cut,
you go, oh, that great joke is gone, or that
the whole scene is lifted out, and uh, that's just
(16:58):
something you have to reconcile yourself when you're on a show.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, I mean I also it's nice. It's always nice
when you're able to get something in that's not directly
like you're able to get in something that's a little
bit quirky. I remember, for instance, your show loved the wordplay,
so it's a very puzzly show in that. And you
have a running joke about major. Anytime the word major
(17:23):
comes up, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
Well, it's major general Klonel. You know, if you say, oh,
that's a major accomplishment, you say major accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
And by the way, Josh just just it for those
who can't say, Josh, just salute it, because he's always
salute when the word major.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Or one of the things we're doing on the podcast
on How We Made Your Mothers, we're reading a lot
of people's, you know, testimonials about why they love the
show and how they discovered the show and what it
means to them. And I got a letter that we
read on air that made us laugh so hard, and
it was a guy told us that his wife was
in labor for thirty hours. They're huge. How I met
your mother for thirty hours and she was at the
(18:04):
end of her she was delivering the baby and the
doctor said, push, you're having a major contraction. And she
turns to her husband and she gives the salute for
major at the moment of birth. We just thought it
was the funniest thing.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
That is a true fan. I love that. Yeah, that's hilarious.
All right, Well, it has been a delight having you
as our guest. Thank you for the show, and thank
you and people check out his He's got great movies
that he directed and wrote and music. Where can people
find your music and your other work music?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Ever music is bought or streamed. I'm also heading out
on tour in a couple of weeks. I'm starting in
Seattle and then Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, La, San Diego, Phoenix,
and then I'm doing a swing through the Midwest. That's
all on Josh radurn dot com slash tour. But I'd
love to see you, you know, hear me sing some puzzles.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Ah, there you go, love it?
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Thank you, Josh. Do you have an extra credit for
those of them?
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I do have an extra credit. It's another musical one.
It's actually the name of a band and the clue
is FZ and the Mothers of I.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Okay, I think I got it all right. Thank you, Greg,
Thank you, Josh. Thank you listeners. If you like the show,
it would mean a lot to us if you took
thirty seconds and rate of the Puzzler on your favorite
podcast platform, because it really makes a big difference in
people finding us, and we want them to find us,
(19:44):
and we want you to come back tomorrow for more
puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you. Puzzling with.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Hey Puzzlers. Greg Fliska here up from the Puzzle ab
with the extra credit answer from our previous EPO episode.
Josh Radner joined us once more and we did How
I Met Your Mother. Spinoffs shows whose title rhyme with
how I met your mother, or rather rhyme with the
word met in that title, and your extra credit clue
is this this is a show about how I rue
(20:17):
the day that your mother was created, your mama. That
title is how I regret your mother sad way to
end I realized. But we're thrilled to have Josh with us.
We're thrilled to have you with us, and we'll see
you here tomorrow.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com