August 26, 2025 • 20 mins
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Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: stand-up comedian Gary Gulman!
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello buzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle,
or I should say let's start with a quick guessing game,
because this is a thank you. This is a quiz
about phrases and names with the initials GG. As in
(00:46):
guessing game, I'm looking for common phrases or notable people
with the initials GG. I'll give a hint to one
sample phrase and one person. Okay, so the phrase let's
go with a car that gets three miles per gallon
gallon with a G by just for fun, and the.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Person what was the other letter gallon could start with?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's a great The person is an Italian renaissance scientist
who studied gravity. Also a G word gravity not Isaac Newton.
Sort of the Italian Isaac Newton, the Answers and more
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to
(01:37):
the Puzzler Podcast. The Evil Stepmother genre and your Arn
Thompson utter Cross Cultural fairy Tale Index.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm sorry, what I know.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm proud of that.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
It was because I you ever go on Wicked Roulette
where they have ran oh Wikipedia pages, I love it,
and anyway, one of them was the Arn Thompson Utter
Cross Culture Real fairy Tale Index, which is like a
way to classify fairy tale.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I have come across that in a Mystery Hunt puzzle once.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Really, yeah, every database of everything is in a mystery
hu puzzle at some point. But it's sort of like
what's the TV tropes? There's a website that's all.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Tropes that TV and film. This is like the tropes
of fairy tales. It's that's what that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Is, the tropes pre television. Yes, I'm your host, A J. Jacobs.
That of course was cheap puzzle after Greg Kliska and
Greg Before the break, we had a little guessing game
phrases and people with the initials g G. The phrase
the hint I gave for phrase was a car that
gets three miles per gallon, which.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Would be that's a gas guzzler exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And the Italian Renaissance scientists who studied gravity.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
That's Gary Gilmore. No, he was the guy who was
executed by firing squad. No, that is Galileo Galilei.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's it. Now you mentioned another GG, Gary Gilmore. Who else?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Greta Garbo Greta was a classic. I thought of the
movie Gone.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Girl, a good one hadn't thought.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And the Charlie Brown phrase.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Good grief, good grief, wonderful.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Very good guesses in there for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
My other favorite was Gloomy Guss, because I had to
look up who was Gus and why was he? He
was from an old comic strip I believe.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Is a Little Abner character, or maybe predates Little.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Abner, but I felt it was. Yeah, it's in the
sort of the Debbie Downer, negative Nelly, all these poor
people's names who have been usurped for by negative adjectives.
But the whole reason I bring this up is because
our favorite GG of all time is Gary Gollman, who
happens to be our guest this week. He's a brilliant
(03:57):
stand up wonderful specials. Author of the book Misfit Growing
Up Awkward in the Eighties, which I highly recommend. Welcome
back to the Puzzler, Gary.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Oh, it's a it's a pleasure, And what a what
a fun what a fun puzzle we played yesterday? That
was so much fun. Okay, well really clever and personal.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, well this one is. This one's personal too. This
one is personal too. I hope you enjoy it as
much as we discussed yesterday. You're a big fan of words,
and you work some some great homonyms and homophones and
homographs which are all slightly different and I always forget
how but words that sound the same or or are
(04:45):
spelled the same. So, for instance, he had a lovely
riff on Grease, the musical that has outlasted Greece the empire,
so which I thought was very nice. You said, yeah,
you said that the ancient Greeks invented philosophy, drama, and science,
(05:06):
but now Greece is more focused on the salad, the
Greek salad, which is delicious. Oh and by the way,
in that wonderful routine you did we talked about yesterday,
you talked about someone they hired to help out with
the abbreviations, and that was.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
The person who was hired to help abbreviate the states
was called a Initially I pronounced it contractor, but then
I pronounced it contractor.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Exactly because he is a professional contractor. You need one
of those. And I just listened to one this morning
about sprite that you drank sprite as a kid, and
back in our day, which was more homophobic than today, Uh,
that was considered something uh not unmanly to drink sprite.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, yeah, I was considered a soft beverage.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yes, a soft beverage.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
What were the hard beverage?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Like if you were manly you drank Mountain was drinking
Coca cola cola right.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, yeah men do.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Root beer was another manly, manly soft drink.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, I was you talked about your your bully who
you you hated, but you were impressed by his word
knowledge because he called it sprite a fairy drink.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Yeah, what are you enjoying your fairy joes?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
And sprite that is that is cruelty, but also his
uh facility with the midsummer night's dream.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
That is nice to have in a bully Okay, So
this puzzle is all about homonyms, where words that sound
the same often spelled differently, sometimes spelled the same, but
sounds like a repetition. So if I gave the clue
a housekeeper who is high up in the mafia, that
would be a made maid. So that's the format. So
(07:18):
are you ready?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Yes? I love, I love the example.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Oh well, thank you, thank you. Maybe I should have
saved that. But here's we'll start out with yours and
my sixty minutes.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I think I know our hour.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Our hour is correct. Well done, you're off and running.
How about to pilfer a metal made in Pittsburgh. To
pilfer that's one you might have seen in your your thesaurus.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Okay, and you're saying metal with a T, not with.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
A oh yes, thank you, a metal made in Pittsburgh.
It's an iron alloy.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
You would if the if the name of the local
football team is any indication it is it is, then
you would be you would steal.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Steal, that's it, steal steal. Well done. Okay, this one
requires a little acting, which has always hit or miss,
but this animal sounds like the following Nay.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Nay, I'm just always happy when you do animal voices.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I have it initially because of your your ability to
do Imprussians. I thought it was a play on on Clinton.
That sounded a little bit like great point, but I
think I'm going to go with horse horse.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That is so true. That's funny. That's sounds to me
like me doing a bad impression of Conan O'Brien doing Clinton.
Or maybe was it was it Robert Smigel who did Clinton.
One of those two would do a.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Great Robert did on that clutch cargo style.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yes, exactly, Yeah, that was really cool. I love that. Okay,
this one, uh, this blinking thing in my Microsoft word
is driving me bat Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
First, yes, you're on the right track.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Curse cursor, cursed cursor, you got it.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Cursor cursor, a cursor cursor. I was portraying a cursor cursor,
someone who's about curse. Uh, well done, well done.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
That's a tricky one.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
M m hm.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
An angry loser at an auction also a little tricky,
A little tricky because of the he tried to win
something of the auction and he didn't, and this is
how he feels. He is quite.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Anger. He was out bid.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yes, that's the word you heard, I heard the word.
I heard the word. Well, part of the word or
part of the word, yes, yeah, the second part of
out bid is where you want to start with. Right,
So if someone who bids bitter bitter a bitter bitter exactly,
(10:48):
I think it only plays in America though, because like.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
British pronounce the team more bitter bitter bitter exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
How about oh, this is how did that guy get
his money? Well, his dad made a fortune filling up
scuba tanks. So this is someone whose father made a
lot of money which he received. And what goes into
scuba tanks?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Hey, oxygen?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, more general, an air air. He is an air
hair exactly. That is it. And here's my segue, always smooth.
I loved your riff and an old stand up about
Bill Gates.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
That was one of my favorite jokes because it required
a lot of a lot of research and the use
of a calculator.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Right, because he said, like how much is a quarter
for Bill Gates?
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Like yeah, Well, the whole thing was the excitement we
get when we find a twenty in an old coat,
and how much he would have to find in an
old cook to like we did as a percentage of
as a percentage of his money, and it was like,
I think it was twelve million dollars or something. And
(12:21):
then I found out how much that would weigh and
how he would notice when he was putting the coat
away that that had had all that.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Money in it.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
That was man. That was one of my favorite jokes
to perform.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That is great because it takes a lot of research.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Like good yeah, And I was always I love the
band Rush and they used to interview. They would they
would ask Neil Parrett, the drummer, about about drumming in
the in the song Tom Sawyer, which was probably their
most popular song, and he would say it was so
hard to do every single time, and he was so
happy when he finished. He was proud of himself, and
(13:00):
and that that's what I felt about that joke. There
were so many different things that I had to to remember,
and it was it was always fun to tell because
it was it was challenging.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I love that. I'm pretty sure had a Morse code
in one of their songs that they.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Like, the Morse code for opening for the airport in Toronto.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Why wise, Yeah, Oh, okay, very clever. Have you ever
met them? By ever run into them?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
No, No, but I did. I did go see Getty
Lee had a memoir come out called My f and Life,
and I saw him interviewed by Jack Black in Los Angeles,
and it was it was unforgettable.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Have you ever done a riff on airport codes? Because
why Wyse is one of the things. Why is that
even the airport code?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
That's a great question, and I think some I think
one of the other one has has a weird combination
of letters that are not in the that are not
in the city or the or the name of the airport,
so that that is uh, I mean, that would be
really obscure.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Actually, and I'm looking it up right now. It actually
had to do with the Morse code for the train
station that used to be Malten Station. Was Morse code?
Was Wysey? Or that didn't quite answer why Whyse?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
But anyway, that's that's how that evolved. Had to do
with the Morse code.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That could be a follow up documentary to the documentary
about postal codes.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
The airport codes documentary.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
All right, well, I'm going to end with let's do
three more. How's that? Okay, We've got a stroll to
find a Chinese frying pan.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Mike, I love it.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I think I know. Uh, walk for a walk.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Exactly a walk for a walk, or no Ah, walk.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
For a walk, walk walk.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
We don't say the l do we? I don't know.
Maybe some people do, all right. What about if there's
a chef who tells you to chop up your altoids
and tic TACs into little pieces. He might be who.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Uh, he's telling you to mince your mint.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Exactly, mince your mint mints.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
So a great joke I saw the other day from
an old episode of Police Squad, which is the sort
of the prequel to the Naked Guns series, And a
man asked Frank Dreben, the police officer, how he was
able to get into his office. He said, who are
(15:48):
you and how did you get in here? And he said,
and this is not a homonym, but it's an interesting
style of joke or wordplay. So the man said, who
are you and how did you get in here? And
he said, I'm a locksmith and I'm a locksmith.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I do like that. That is the ultimate hominem, the
same gorgeous wordplay joke. Yeah, that all genre. They loved
the puns. The da could gun and airplane. Surely you
must be joking if you don't call me Shirley. It
was definitely.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I'm gonna end with uh oh this one since it
does require some acting. Uh what is happening here? Would
you like some earl gray and cammal? Would you? Well,
you can't have any because I don't have any, but
they would taste good?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Ah it is you would tea?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
You got yes, teas a ts ts a. You want both,
but you can't have either. Uh, well done, Thank you, Gary,
We loved it.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
You are joy. This is so delightful.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Ah well, we love to hear that. Oh last thing
before I let you go, I do love you. Have
another genre of jokes that are words that sound alike
but are not hominyms like the the holiday sauce and
the people call Holliday's sauce holiday sauce. But did that
(17:30):
come from someone realite who actually said, because I feel
there are people who say holiday sauce.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
There are people, I mean, there are so many words
like that, and and sadly, I'm such a snob that
it that it really bummed out when they use the
when they use the wrong word, and it's just uh,
it's really a reflection on my lack of patients and humility.
(17:55):
But it uh yeah, there were people who called it
holiday sauce and it just even if I overhear it,
it makes me cringe. Yes, that's what's where.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Well, yes, all right, so no one ever asked for
holiday sauce. It's Holland days. And don't conjugate us around.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Oh that's a true story from work. When I worked
at Sears. We were we were hanging around at the
cash register gabbing, and the boss said, come on, guys,
don't conjugate around the around the cash register. And one
of my friends, as soon as the guy was out
of earshot, he said, I am you are unundgedible. That
(18:41):
was when I was probably sixteen or seventeen years old,
that that that event happened, and there are certain things
happening like I'll never forget this right.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, well it worked. Thank you again, Gary, Thank you listeners,
Thank you Greg, and oh I have one extra credit
for the folks at home. Every day at three pm,
I enjoy my favorite herb. I call it my blank blank.
Every day at three pm, I enjoy my favorite herb.
(19:14):
I call it my blank blank. So think on that,
and if you have a minute, check out our Instagram
feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original puzzles and
other fun stuff. And of course we'll meet you here
tomorrow from more Puzzling Puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Hi Puzzlers, it's Greg Plisko, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. Gary
Gallman joined us to play a game of postal codes.
Every clue gives you both a state whose postal code
is the initials for some two word phrase clued by
the clue. So your extra credit was this. If there
are not enough people getting vaccinated in Honolulu, you will
(19:57):
never achieve this. And this in this case is herd
immunity in Hi, which is the postal code for Hawaii.
Thanks for playing with us all our friends across the
United States and around the world, and we'll catch you
here next time.
Hello puzzlers. Before we start puzzling today, I wanted to
let you know we are cooking up some big plans
for the puzzler community, and in order to ensure that
it's what you want, we need your input. So we've
put together a short survey, which you can find in
the show notes. It's really quick, just three minutes, but
(00:22):
it will be a huge help in letting us know
what you want so that we can deliver just that.
Thank you, Hello buzzlers. Let's start with a quick puzzle,
or I should say let's start with a quick guessing game,
because this is a thank you. This is a quiz
about phrases and names with the initials GG. As in
(00:46):
guessing game, I'm looking for common phrases or notable people
with the initials GG. I'll give a hint to one
sample phrase and one person. Okay, so the phrase let's
go with a car that gets three miles per gallon
gallon with a G by just for fun, and the.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Person what was the other letter gallon could start with?
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's a great The person is an Italian renaissance scientist
who studied gravity. Also a G word gravity not Isaac Newton.
Sort of the Italian Isaac Newton, the Answers and more
puzzling goodness after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to
(01:37):
the Puzzler Podcast. The Evil Stepmother genre and your Arn
Thompson utter Cross Cultural fairy Tale Index.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm sorry, what I know.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm proud of that.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's a good one.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
It was because I you ever go on Wicked Roulette
where they have ran oh Wikipedia pages, I love it,
and anyway, one of them was the Arn Thompson Utter
Cross Culture Real fairy Tale Index, which is like a
way to classify fairy tale.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
I have come across that in a Mystery Hunt puzzle once.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Really, yeah, every database of everything is in a mystery
hu puzzle at some point. But it's sort of like
what's the TV tropes? There's a website that's all.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Tropes that TV and film. This is like the tropes
of fairy tales. It's that's what that.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Is, the tropes pre television. Yes, I'm your host, A J. Jacobs.
That of course was cheap puzzle after Greg Kliska and
Greg Before the break, we had a little guessing game
phrases and people with the initials g G. The phrase
the hint I gave for phrase was a car that
gets three miles per gallon, which.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Would be that's a gas guzzler exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And the Italian Renaissance scientists who studied gravity.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
That's Gary Gilmore. No, he was the guy who was
executed by firing squad. No, that is Galileo Galilei.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
That's it. Now you mentioned another GG, Gary Gilmore. Who else?
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Greta Garbo Greta was a classic. I thought of the
movie Gone.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Girl, a good one hadn't thought.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
And the Charlie Brown phrase.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Good grief, good grief, wonderful.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Very good guesses in there for sure.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
My other favorite was Gloomy Guss, because I had to
look up who was Gus and why was he? He
was from an old comic strip I believe.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Is a Little Abner character, or maybe predates Little.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Abner, but I felt it was. Yeah, it's in the
sort of the Debbie Downer, negative Nelly, all these poor
people's names who have been usurped for by negative adjectives.
But the whole reason I bring this up is because
our favorite GG of all time is Gary Gollman, who
happens to be our guest this week. He's a brilliant
(03:57):
stand up wonderful specials. Author of the book Misfit Growing
Up Awkward in the Eighties, which I highly recommend. Welcome
back to the Puzzler, Gary.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Oh, it's a it's a pleasure, And what a what
a fun what a fun puzzle we played yesterday? That
was so much fun. Okay, well really clever and personal.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Yeah, well this one is. This one's personal too. This
one is personal too. I hope you enjoy it as
much as we discussed yesterday. You're a big fan of words,
and you work some some great homonyms and homophones and
homographs which are all slightly different and I always forget
how but words that sound the same or or are
(04:45):
spelled the same. So, for instance, he had a lovely
riff on Grease, the musical that has outlasted Greece the empire,
so which I thought was very nice. You said, yeah,
you said that the ancient Greeks invented philosophy, drama, and science,
(05:06):
but now Greece is more focused on the salad, the
Greek salad, which is delicious. Oh and by the way,
in that wonderful routine you did we talked about yesterday,
you talked about someone they hired to help out with
the abbreviations, and that was.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
The person who was hired to help abbreviate the states
was called a Initially I pronounced it contractor, but then
I pronounced it contractor.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Exactly because he is a professional contractor. You need one
of those. And I just listened to one this morning
about sprite that you drank sprite as a kid, and
back in our day, which was more homophobic than today, Uh,
that was considered something uh not unmanly to drink sprite.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Yeah, yeah, I was considered a soft beverage.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yes, a soft beverage.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
What were the hard beverage?
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Like if you were manly you drank Mountain was drinking
Coca cola cola right.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, yeah men do.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (06:22):
Root beer was another manly, manly soft drink.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Well, I was you talked about your your bully who
you you hated, but you were impressed by his word
knowledge because he called it sprite a fairy drink.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Yeah, what are you enjoying your fairy joes?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right?
Speaker 4 (06:43):
And sprite that is that is cruelty, but also his
uh facility with the midsummer night's dream.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
That is nice to have in a bully Okay, So
this puzzle is all about homonyms, where words that sound
the same often spelled differently, sometimes spelled the same, but
sounds like a repetition. So if I gave the clue
a housekeeper who is high up in the mafia, that
would be a made maid. So that's the format. So
(07:18):
are you ready?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Yes? I love, I love the example.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
Oh well, thank you, thank you. Maybe I should have
saved that. But here's we'll start out with yours and
my sixty minutes.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
I think I know our hour.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Our hour is correct. Well done, you're off and running.
How about to pilfer a metal made in Pittsburgh. To
pilfer that's one you might have seen in your your thesaurus.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
Okay, and you're saying metal with a T, not with.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
A oh yes, thank you, a metal made in Pittsburgh.
It's an iron alloy.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
You would if the if the name of the local
football team is any indication it is it is, then
you would be you would steal.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Steal, that's it, steal steal. Well done. Okay, this one
requires a little acting, which has always hit or miss,
but this animal sounds like the following Nay.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Nay, I'm just always happy when you do animal voices.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
I have it initially because of your your ability to
do Imprussians. I thought it was a play on on Clinton.
That sounded a little bit like great point, but I
think I'm going to go with horse horse.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
That is so true. That's funny. That's sounds to me
like me doing a bad impression of Conan O'Brien doing Clinton.
Or maybe was it was it Robert Smigel who did Clinton.
One of those two would do a.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Great Robert did on that clutch cargo style.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Yes, exactly, Yeah, that was really cool. I love that. Okay,
this one, uh, this blinking thing in my Microsoft word
is driving me bat Yes.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
First, yes, you're on the right track.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
Curse cursor, cursed cursor, you got it.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Cursor cursor, a cursor cursor. I was portraying a cursor cursor,
someone who's about curse. Uh, well done, well done.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
That's a tricky one.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
M m hm.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
An angry loser at an auction also a little tricky,
A little tricky because of the he tried to win
something of the auction and he didn't, and this is
how he feels. He is quite.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
Anger. He was out bid.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Yes, that's the word you heard, I heard the word.
I heard the word. Well, part of the word or
part of the word, yes, yeah, the second part of
out bid is where you want to start with. Right,
So if someone who bids bitter bitter a bitter bitter exactly,
(10:48):
I think it only plays in America though, because like.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
British pronounce the team more bitter bitter bitter exactly.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
All right?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
How about oh, this is how did that guy get
his money? Well, his dad made a fortune filling up
scuba tanks. So this is someone whose father made a
lot of money which he received. And what goes into
scuba tanks?
Speaker 4 (11:24):
Hey, oxygen?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Yeah, more general, an air air. He is an air
hair exactly. That is it. And here's my segue, always smooth.
I loved your riff and an old stand up about
Bill Gates.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
That was one of my favorite jokes because it required
a lot of a lot of research and the use
of a calculator.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Right, because he said, like how much is a quarter
for Bill Gates?
Speaker 4 (11:59):
Like yeah, Well, the whole thing was the excitement we
get when we find a twenty in an old coat,
and how much he would have to find in an
old cook to like we did as a percentage of
as a percentage of his money, and it was like,
I think it was twelve million dollars or something. And
(12:21):
then I found out how much that would weigh and
how he would notice when he was putting the coat
away that that had had all that.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Money in it.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
That was man. That was one of my favorite jokes
to perform.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
That is great because it takes a lot of research.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
Like good yeah, And I was always I love the
band Rush and they used to interview. They would they
would ask Neil Parrett, the drummer, about about drumming in
the in the song Tom Sawyer, which was probably their
most popular song, and he would say it was so
hard to do every single time, and he was so
happy when he finished. He was proud of himself, and
(13:00):
and that that's what I felt about that joke. There
were so many different things that I had to to remember,
and it was it was always fun to tell because
it was it was challenging.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
I love that. I'm pretty sure had a Morse code
in one of their songs that they.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Like, the Morse code for opening for the airport in Toronto.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Why wise, Yeah, Oh, okay, very clever. Have you ever
met them? By ever run into them?
Speaker 4 (13:33):
No, No, but I did. I did go see Getty
Lee had a memoir come out called My f and Life,
and I saw him interviewed by Jack Black in Los Angeles,
and it was it was unforgettable.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Have you ever done a riff on airport codes? Because
why Wyse is one of the things. Why is that
even the airport code?
Speaker 4 (13:55):
That's a great question, and I think some I think
one of the other one has has a weird combination
of letters that are not in the that are not
in the city or the or the name of the airport,
so that that is uh, I mean, that would be
really obscure.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Actually, and I'm looking it up right now. It actually
had to do with the Morse code for the train
station that used to be Malten Station. Was Morse code?
Was Wysey? Or that didn't quite answer why Whyse?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
But anyway, that's that's how that evolved. Had to do
with the Morse code.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
That could be a follow up documentary to the documentary
about postal codes.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
The airport codes documentary.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
All right, well, I'm going to end with let's do
three more. How's that? Okay, We've got a stroll to
find a Chinese frying pan.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Mike, I love it.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (14:52):
I think I know. Uh, walk for a walk.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Exactly a walk for a walk, or no Ah, walk.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
For a walk, walk walk.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
We don't say the l do we? I don't know.
Maybe some people do, all right. What about if there's
a chef who tells you to chop up your altoids
and tic TACs into little pieces. He might be who.
Speaker 4 (15:17):
Uh, he's telling you to mince your mint.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Exactly, mince your mint mints.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
So a great joke I saw the other day from
an old episode of Police Squad, which is the sort
of the prequel to the Naked Guns series, And a
man asked Frank Dreben, the police officer, how he was
able to get into his office. He said, who are
(15:48):
you and how did you get in here? And he said,
and this is not a homonym, but it's an interesting
style of joke or wordplay. So the man said, who
are you and how did you get in here? And
he said, I'm a locksmith and I'm a locksmith.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I do like that. That is the ultimate hominem, the
same gorgeous wordplay joke. Yeah, that all genre. They loved
the puns. The da could gun and airplane. Surely you
must be joking if you don't call me Shirley. It
was definitely.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
All right.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
I'm gonna end with uh oh this one since it
does require some acting. Uh what is happening here? Would
you like some earl gray and cammal? Would you? Well,
you can't have any because I don't have any, but
they would taste good?
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Ah it is you would tea?
Speaker 1 (16:55):
You got yes, teas a ts ts a. You want both,
but you can't have either. Uh, well done, Thank you, Gary,
We loved it.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
You are joy. This is so delightful.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Ah well, we love to hear that. Oh last thing
before I let you go, I do love you. Have
another genre of jokes that are words that sound alike
but are not hominyms like the the holiday sauce and
the people call Holliday's sauce holiday sauce. But did that
(17:30):
come from someone realite who actually said, because I feel
there are people who say holiday sauce.
Speaker 4 (17:34):
There are people, I mean, there are so many words
like that, and and sadly, I'm such a snob that
it that it really bummed out when they use the
when they use the wrong word, and it's just uh,
it's really a reflection on my lack of patients and humility.
(17:55):
But it uh yeah, there were people who called it
holiday sauce and it just even if I overhear it,
it makes me cringe. Yes, that's what's where.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Well, yes, all right, so no one ever asked for
holiday sauce. It's Holland days. And don't conjugate us around.
Speaker 4 (18:15):
Oh that's a true story from work. When I worked
at Sears. We were we were hanging around at the
cash register gabbing, and the boss said, come on, guys,
don't conjugate around the around the cash register. And one
of my friends, as soon as the guy was out
of earshot, he said, I am you are unundgedible. That
(18:41):
was when I was probably sixteen or seventeen years old,
that that that event happened, and there are certain things
happening like I'll never forget this right.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Yeah, well it worked. Thank you again, Gary, Thank you listeners,
Thank you Greg, and oh I have one extra credit
for the folks at home. Every day at three pm,
I enjoy my favorite herb. I call it my blank blank.
Every day at three pm, I enjoy my favorite herb.
(19:14):
I call it my blank blank. So think on that,
and if you have a minute, check out our Instagram
feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we post original puzzles and
other fun stuff. And of course we'll meet you here
tomorrow from more Puzzling Puzzles. They will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
Hi Puzzlers, it's Greg Plisko, your chief puzzle officer, here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode. Gary
Gallman joined us to play a game of postal codes.
Every clue gives you both a state whose postal code
is the initials for some two word phrase clued by
the clue. So your extra credit was this. If there
are not enough people getting vaccinated in Honolulu, you will
(19:57):
never achieve this. And this in this case is herd
immunity in Hi, which is the postal code for Hawaii.
Thanks for playing with us all our friends across the
United States and around the world, and we'll catch you
here next time.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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