November 16, 2023 • 10 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us all this week: writer, actor, and comedian Michael Ian Black.
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 Chat GPT” 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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, home of your daily puzzle
thirst trap. I am your host, AJ Jacobs here with
the brilliant comedian and writer Michael ian Black. Welcome Michael,
(00:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Aj.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Great to be here. And this is one of many
appearances I've made on the Puzzler. Each one has built
on the last, and so you've got your work cut
out for you to make this an even more enjoyable
experience than the others.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, don't worry, because we got Chief Puzzle Officer Greg
Pliska with an amazing one. But before we got to
that our main game, I just wanted a quick detour
a puzzle related question. Do you know the answer to
these New York Times crossword puzzle clues? Are you ready?
I'm gonna give you three. They all have the same answer.
(01:02):
Follower of Christ Goldfinger, novelist Fleming, and X Men actor McKellan.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So we're just looking for that three letter word, my
little name, and.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
There you go. That's what I wanted to stress to
you that I feel i'm talking to Crossword Puzzle Royalty
in that you have one of the top it's the
one hundred twenty ninth most common three letter word in
the New York Times crossword puzzle history.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Anytime of owls together, you're gonna be that's going to
find its way into a crossword puzzle.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's a great word. All right. With that, I am
going to turn it over to our chief puzzle Officer,
Greg Pliska, who has a puzzle specially designed for you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Thank you, AJ, and nice to meet you, Michael.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Nice to meet you, Greg.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I actually, AJ, I'd like to know how many times
words ian and the word black have appeared in the
same puzzle.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Interesting, all right, Our associate puzzler Andrea Scholmberg is on
it right now. I see her fingers flying.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So, Michael, this puzzle is called letters Witch. It's a
character I created a few years ago. You've probably never
heard of her, but you've seen her work. She is
the evil crone that turns one phrase into another by
moving one letter.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Oh see, I've seen her work. She is. She is
a crump.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I mean she's commonly seen around the end of the
NFL season in January when she takes that championship game
and turns it into a really great bird of prey. Right,
that's the Super Bowl that becomes the superb Owl. Yes, yes, yeah,
so you've got it. So she just shifts one letter
(02:53):
over in a two word phrase to make a new one.
The way this game works is I'll give you a
clue to the original phrase, and then you uh, yes,
I'll clue both the original phrase and the phrase that
results from the letter shift, and you see if you
can tell me the two of them. Sometimes it's helpful
to write these down, but you know, I'm sure you
(03:16):
can do them in your head as well.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I forgot to say to bring writing equipment, so that's
that's on.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, I mean, I'm holding my laptop in my hands
to maintain this good connection. I don't know if I can,
Well you can.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
You can type them on your laptop. I'm sure you'll
be fine without writing them down. But I say that
for the benefit of our listeners.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
As well, who are not driving right.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Exactly all right, So here's your first one. The director
of Platoon turns into the vocal inflection of the host
of Last Week Tonight.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Okay, so the director of Platoon, Oliver Stone. Yeah, vocal
inflection of John Oliver would be Oliver's tone.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Exactly perfectly done. Okay, see, and you didn't write it
down at all.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I did write it down.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Okay, I heard the keys, I heard the clicking.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
All right, here's your second one. A photo taken by
the police when you're arrested turns into what you say
when your coffee cup is super scalding.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah. Sure, having been arrested before, I do know what
happens in that process. You get photographed and you have
a mug shot, and sometimes they'll say, you know, when
they're trying to get information out of you, Hey, do
you want to cup a coffee or something? Then you
go sure, and then and they give it to you,
and you go, oh, that mug's hot exactly very well.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Then you know, you get extra credit for turning into
into a short narrative. There's the reason why you're the
writer here. That's brilliantly done.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I felt it was like usual unusual suspects or usual
whatever that. Oh yeah, I felt, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's the last scene of usual suspects right there. All right, good,
here's another one for you. A rodent used in scientific
tests turns into a spoiled kid from southern California.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Huh, okay, A rodent used in scientific tests, A.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Single rodent, A single rodent.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Hey, so I'm gonna say, and turns into a spoiled
kid from southern California. I've got the wrong word for
the first one. So it's a So that's a guinea pig.
No it's not.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's not a guinea pig. No, a different kind of rodent.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, it's not a rat.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yes it is. It is a specific The scientists are
doing the tests in a room that's known as a
another three letter word, where you would put rodents and
do tests on them.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
A rat, I would have, I would say something, but
I just looked at the answer by mistake, So uh.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Put him in a raw rat rat?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Which kind of rat is it? It's not a it's
not a farm rat or a lab rat. It's a
lab rat turns into an l A brat very good,
or an l A brat, which is the kind of
sausage you get down at.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I feel like a real meal with that one. My goodness.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well it's a tricky one too, because of the uh
initialism of l A. Maybe I don't know. We'll give
you one more here. A phrase meaning with no exceptions
turns into the place where you put your first cow. Okay,
A phrase that means with no exceptions, and it turns
(07:02):
into the place where you put your first cow. Imagining
you have a lot of cows, but the first one
goes here, and then the second one goes over there,
and the third one goes over there.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I didn't know one segregated cows.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Where do you put cows building? You put them in
a barn, a barn? Uh huh. But the first cow
goes into which barn?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The first barn, yes, which is top?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Which is numbered one?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Barn barn one?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
All right, oh, bar none and barn nine on barn one.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
There you go, yes, with no exceptions. The phrase is
bar none. And then the place where you put your
first cow is barn one. Thank goodness, you just don't
have enough barns, Michael.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
But Michael, you once again you did it. You got
them all help.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
But I'm always happy to ask for a helping hand.
I got it, and uh and thank you Greg, and
thank you Aj.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
That's good life advice. I tell my kids nothing wrong
with getting help, So thank you for that wisdom as well,
and Michael. In addition to solving puzzles, you are also
an author, entertainer, comedian, writer, all sorts of things. Where
can people get more of you?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Well, if you want to read one of my kids books,
of which I have several, there's a whole little series
called the I'm series starts with I'm bored, I'm worried,
I'm sad, I'm sorry, and those are available at any
any retail outlet.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
They are lovely and wise, and I feel all those
emotions on a daily basis, so I can read them
every day. Greg, before we go, do you have an
extra credit for the puzzlers at home?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I do? I do have one for the puzzlers at home.
This is a phrase describing a game you are certain
to lose, and it turns into a soup container that
is identical to another soup container.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Okay, you know what, I'm not even gonna try. I'm
just gonna live with the uncertainty and enjoy it and
revel in it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, we'll provide the answer at the end of another episode.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Exactly. I want the puzzlers at home to work on it.
A very important update Andrea has found. She starts Ian
and Black have never appeared in a New York Times
puzzle together. She followed it with a sad emoji, so
it is sad.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I'm working on that puzzle right now. The two of
them are going to cross in the upper left hand corner.
It's gonna be so good.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast
and I'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here from the Puzzle last with
the extra credit answer from our previous show. We were
playing a game with Michael Ian Black where we had
chat GPT answer some prompts and he tried to guess
which prompt this was. This was your extra credit. This
is the epic tale of the power struggle between several
(10:18):
houses to see who can claim the Iron Deep Friar,
the House of Grimace in the mcflurry Mountains must battle
the House of Filet of Fish, led by seafaring Captain Crook.
I'm sure a lot of you got this one. It's
the plot of Game of Thrones, but every character is
replaced by a McDonaldland character. Very clever chat GPT. We'll
(10:41):
see you with or without AI on the next Puzzler
Podcast
Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, home of your daily puzzle
thirst trap. I am your host, AJ Jacobs here with
the brilliant comedian and writer Michael ian Black. Welcome Michael,
(00:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Aj.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Great to be here. And this is one of many
appearances I've made on the Puzzler. Each one has built
on the last, and so you've got your work cut
out for you to make this an even more enjoyable
experience than the others.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Well, don't worry, because we got Chief Puzzle Officer Greg
Pliska with an amazing one. But before we got to
that our main game, I just wanted a quick detour
a puzzle related question. Do you know the answer to
these New York Times crossword puzzle clues? Are you ready?
I'm gonna give you three. They all have the same answer.
(01:02):
Follower of Christ Goldfinger, novelist Fleming, and X Men actor McKellan.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So we're just looking for that three letter word, my
little name, and.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
There you go. That's what I wanted to stress to
you that I feel i'm talking to Crossword Puzzle Royalty
in that you have one of the top it's the
one hundred twenty ninth most common three letter word in
the New York Times crossword puzzle history.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Anytime of owls together, you're gonna be that's going to
find its way into a crossword puzzle.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's a great word. All right. With that, I am
going to turn it over to our chief puzzle Officer,
Greg Pliska, who has a puzzle specially designed for you.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Thank you, AJ, and nice to meet you, Michael.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Nice to meet you, Greg.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I actually, AJ, I'd like to know how many times
words ian and the word black have appeared in the
same puzzle.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Interesting, all right, Our associate puzzler Andrea Scholmberg is on
it right now. I see her fingers flying.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
So, Michael, this puzzle is called letters Witch. It's a
character I created a few years ago. You've probably never
heard of her, but you've seen her work. She is
the evil crone that turns one phrase into another by
moving one letter.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Oh see, I've seen her work. She is. She is
a crump.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I mean she's commonly seen around the end of the
NFL season in January when she takes that championship game
and turns it into a really great bird of prey. Right,
that's the Super Bowl that becomes the superb Owl. Yes, yes, yeah,
so you've got it. So she just shifts one letter
(02:53):
over in a two word phrase to make a new one.
The way this game works is I'll give you a
clue to the original phrase, and then you uh, yes,
I'll clue both the original phrase and the phrase that
results from the letter shift, and you see if you
can tell me the two of them. Sometimes it's helpful
to write these down, but you know, I'm sure you
(03:16):
can do them in your head as well.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
I forgot to say to bring writing equipment, so that's
that's on.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, I mean, I'm holding my laptop in my hands
to maintain this good connection. I don't know if I can,
Well you can.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
You can type them on your laptop. I'm sure you'll
be fine without writing them down. But I say that
for the benefit of our listeners.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
As well, who are not driving right.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
Exactly all right, So here's your first one. The director
of Platoon turns into the vocal inflection of the host
of Last Week Tonight.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Okay, so the director of Platoon, Oliver Stone. Yeah, vocal
inflection of John Oliver would be Oliver's tone.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Exactly perfectly done. Okay, see, and you didn't write it
down at all.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
I did write it down.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Okay, I heard the keys, I heard the clicking.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
All right, here's your second one. A photo taken by
the police when you're arrested turns into what you say
when your coffee cup is super scalding.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Yeah. Sure, having been arrested before, I do know what
happens in that process. You get photographed and you have
a mug shot, and sometimes they'll say, you know, when
they're trying to get information out of you, Hey, do
you want to cup a coffee or something? Then you
go sure, and then and they give it to you,
and you go, oh, that mug's hot exactly very well.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Then you know, you get extra credit for turning into
into a short narrative. There's the reason why you're the
writer here. That's brilliantly done.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
I felt it was like usual unusual suspects or usual
whatever that. Oh yeah, I felt, yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
It's the last scene of usual suspects right there. All right, good,
here's another one for you. A rodent used in scientific
tests turns into a spoiled kid from southern California.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Huh, okay, A rodent used in scientific tests, A.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
Single rodent, A single rodent.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Hey, so I'm gonna say, and turns into a spoiled
kid from southern California. I've got the wrong word for
the first one. So it's a So that's a guinea pig.
No it's not.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
It's not a guinea pig. No, a different kind of rodent.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yeah, it's not a rat.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yes it is. It is a specific The scientists are
doing the tests in a room that's known as a
another three letter word, where you would put rodents and
do tests on them.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
A rat, I would have, I would say something, but
I just looked at the answer by mistake, So uh.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Put him in a raw rat rat?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Which kind of rat is it? It's not a it's
not a farm rat or a lab rat. It's a
lab rat turns into an l A brat very good,
or an l A brat, which is the kind of
sausage you get down at.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I feel like a real meal with that one. My goodness.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well it's a tricky one too, because of the uh
initialism of l A. Maybe I don't know. We'll give
you one more here. A phrase meaning with no exceptions
turns into the place where you put your first cow. Okay,
A phrase that means with no exceptions, and it turns
(07:02):
into the place where you put your first cow. Imagining
you have a lot of cows, but the first one
goes here, and then the second one goes over there,
and the third one goes over there.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
I didn't know one segregated cows.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Where do you put cows building? You put them in
a barn, a barn? Uh huh. But the first cow
goes into which barn?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The first barn, yes, which is top?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Which is numbered one?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Barn barn one?
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (07:33):
All right, oh, bar none and barn nine on barn one.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
There you go, yes, with no exceptions. The phrase is
bar none. And then the place where you put your
first cow is barn one. Thank goodness, you just don't
have enough barns, Michael.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
But Michael, you once again you did it. You got
them all help.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
But I'm always happy to ask for a helping hand.
I got it, and uh and thank you Greg, and
thank you Aj.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
That's good life advice. I tell my kids nothing wrong
with getting help, So thank you for that wisdom as well,
and Michael. In addition to solving puzzles, you are also
an author, entertainer, comedian, writer, all sorts of things. Where
can people get more of you?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Well, if you want to read one of my kids books,
of which I have several, there's a whole little series
called the I'm series starts with I'm bored, I'm worried,
I'm sad, I'm sorry, and those are available at any
any retail outlet.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
They are lovely and wise, and I feel all those
emotions on a daily basis, so I can read them
every day. Greg, before we go, do you have an
extra credit for the puzzlers at home?
Speaker 2 (08:51):
I do? I do have one for the puzzlers at home.
This is a phrase describing a game you are certain
to lose, and it turns into a soup container that
is identical to another soup container.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Okay, you know what, I'm not even gonna try. I'm
just gonna live with the uncertainty and enjoy it and
revel in it.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, we'll provide the answer at the end of another episode.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Exactly. I want the puzzlers at home to work on it.
A very important update Andrea has found. She starts Ian
and Black have never appeared in a New York Times
puzzle together. She followed it with a sad emoji, so
it is sad.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
I'm working on that puzzle right now. The two of
them are going to cross in the upper left hand corner.
It's gonna be so good.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Puzzlers, please don't forget to subscribe to the Puzzler Podcast
and I'll meet you here tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles
that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Hello puzzlers. Greg Pliska here from the Puzzle last with
the extra credit answer from our previous show. We were
playing a game with Michael Ian Black where we had
chat GPT answer some prompts and he tried to guess
which prompt this was. This was your extra credit. This
is the epic tale of the power struggle between several
(10:18):
houses to see who can claim the Iron Deep Friar,
the House of Grimace in the mcflurry Mountains must battle
the House of Filet of Fish, led by seafaring Captain Crook.
I'm sure a lot of you got this one. It's
the plot of Game of Thrones, but every character is
replaced by a McDonaldland character. Very clever chat GPT. We'll
(10:41):
see you with or without AI on the next Puzzler
Podcast
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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