September 8, 2025 • 20 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: stand-up comedian Chris Duffy!
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, I say we start with a quick puzzle,
and it is this. What do these three phrases have
in common? Are you ready? Here are the three phrases.
One moment, please, the sports team I support is the
best team in the league.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And look up.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay again, these are the three phrases. Are one moment, please,
the sports team I support is the best team in
the league, and look up. I'll give you quick in
It's a good puzzle for the digital age. I hope
you get my point, the answer, and more puzzling goodness
after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast.
(00:50):
The Ethical Lab grown Diamond in your Puzzle, tennis bracelet?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What's a tennis bracelet?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
A tennis bracelet? Thank you for asking? Is popularized by
Chris Evert, the tennis player, and diamond.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh. I don't have one of those.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Neither do I.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I don't have any diamond any of any kind.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Neither do I. But I saw an ad for one. Okay,
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs. That of course is Greg Pliska.
Send him a tennis.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Send me a tennis bracelet, Thank you, Greg.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Before the break, we asked, what do these phrases have
in common. One moment please, the sports team I support
is the best team in the league. And look up.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, and you said good for the digital age, which
made me think you were talking about fingers, but that
it seems.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
To have nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'm also fascinated by the second phrase, which is not
something anyone utters. The smarts team I support is the
best team in the league.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Nobody says that.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Everyone says you mats are the best team.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Or whatever name the team, whereas I would.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Say look up, and I would say one moment please,
So you know.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Now you had it right, digital age. It is something
in the digital age that I pointed out.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I pointed out things you do with your index fingers.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
One one moment please and look up.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I get it now.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And one my sports team is the best team in
the league.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's very unusual for Greg. But I am honored that
I can sometimes challenge.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I'm happy, always challenged, all right, always fun, always fun.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well. I bring this up partly because I enjoy it,
I enjoy digital language, and partly because our guest is
number one in our hearts. That's he's a comedian. He's
an author host of a super popular podcast, How to
Be a Better Human. His name is Chris Duffy. Welcome, Chris.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Hello. You can't see this, but I'm pointing both of
my fingers right back at you.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Oh right, thank you. You are. Don't hold on a second.
We're going right in.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
We are so honored to have you, especially knowing the
circumstances which you told us about right before.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Yeah, I told you that I am. I am fully
sleep deprived right now because I have a two week
old baby at home. My second child was born early,
and I was like, the one thing that I will
not cancel is I will not miss my puzzling. I
will be puzzled. But I'm a warning to you and
to all of the listeners that my brain is so
far below max capacity right now. So it is max capacity,
(03:27):
it's so far below max potential. You will hear that
I will not understand these puzzles if I barely understand language.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
If you fall forward into the microphone, we will forgive
you absolutely.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
That sound of heavy breathing means that I have passed
out on to the keyboard.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, we hope to keep you awake. That's our goal.
That's our goal for the next few minutes. And we
are impressed, even with your handicap, that you're able to
come on our show. Yeah. So your show, as I mentioned,
how to be a better human, wonderful podcast geared towards humans.
That's right, not AI's yet.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Not exclusive, but right now the majority of our listeners
are human.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Exactly majority, right, And it's based on it's produced by Ted,
the Ted Talks folks. And you gave a wonderful Ted
Talk how to Find Laughter Anywhere, which will be the
basis of a book coming out next year.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
That's right, January sixth I have a book coming out
that is about how to laugh more. It's called Humor
Me and how to Find I Can. I should remember
the subtitle, but it's about how laughing?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Do you have a good excuse?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Well?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Your Ted Talk, yes, it's wonderful, the importance of humor
in coping with the dumpster fire, that life can sometimes
be nowadays or always. And your Ted Talk is wonderful
and insightful. And also one of my favorite parts is
when you talk about your year as the CEO of LinkedIn.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
That's right. I impersonated the CEO of LinkedIn on LinkedIn
for one full year, and I actually did it unintentionally.
I was just trying to see if LinkedIn would let
you put any Someone told me that they don't verify
your job titles, and I said, that can't be true,
And to prove that it wasn't true, I said, watch,
and I made myself CEO of LinkedIn. But then when
I did that, not only did it allow me to
(05:18):
do it, it actually sent an email to all of
my contacts saying congratulations Chris, congratulate Chris on his new job.
He's now the CEO of LinkedIn. And that was the
funniest thing that's ever happened to me in my life.
So I just kept it going for as long as
I could keep it going.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, you're very powerful.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And then it turns out you became the owner of
Ted as well.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's right, yes, Oh, that's right. Right.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
It turns out that in our modern society, if you
just declare yourself the owner of a tech company, many
people will believe you to be the owner of that
tech company. It's kind of like a Christopher Columbus type situation,
but instead of continents, you could just deal with digital
entities whatever you want. Yeah, yeah, I can just say
this is mine. I discovered it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You could become a member of Congress on the of
such claims.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Many have become members of Converse on the back of
far lesser claims.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Exactly, it does seem that, yes, if you say it
enough times it becomes true. That is unfortunate. But as
head of TED, I thought that we could give you
a puzzle that's all about Ted talks.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Ooh sounds great.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So it's but it's Ted talks with a twist because
these are not necessarily real Ted talks. They're hypothetical Ted
talks by people named Ted.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Incredible. I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I will give you the title of a Ted talk
by Ted, and you have to tell me which Ted
is giving said Ted talk. Okay, so for instance, I'll
give you in a for instance, if they're a Ted
talk called what I learned from coaching a professional soccer
team when I knew nothing about soccer.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
You would say that, Jay, I'd say, that's got to
be Ted Lasso.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That is a Ted. You have to say it is,
that's a Ted Lasso talk.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
That's a Ted Lasso talk.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh, I see.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Even with the lack of sleep.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
That's a Ted Lasso talk. I'm excited to see. I'm
excited to see what what breadth of Ted you have?
Am I going to be like? And that's a Ted
Kazitsky talk.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
That is so funny you bring that up or disturbing
one of the other.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
That's right, That's what I'm wondering. How where the line
is on good taste?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I did? It is a Ted Bundy and Ted Kazitsky
free Ted talk.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thank you good?
Speaker 5 (07:25):
You know these are the tests that aren't really invited
to the Ted reunion, right, a Ted party. They're like
not every Ted, you guys can't come.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yea, And yeah, I feel like Ted that has a
higher than average percentage of unpleasant people.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
And that little bear that won't stop cursing.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh, don't bring him up yet. He might be he
might make an appearance. All right, So are you ready?
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Yes? I am? I am? I am ready to hear
the other Ted talks.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
How playing a bartender on TV chain my life.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Well, that's a Ted dance and Ted talk.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That's a Ted dance and Ted talk. Thanks for repeating Ted.
That's a Ted Ted Ted.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
That's a Ted dance and Ted talk.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Ted Ted exactly. By the way, sidebar I read on.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Your sidebar is a great joke about cheers. By the way,
thank you for that, Oh good one.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I didn't even Oh man.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Nice sleep deprived or not.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
I won't slide by me.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
What about I read on your website that you once
wrote jokes for Ted Danson.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
That's right. I was writing for National Geographic for like
a short lived late night show on National Geographic, and
he was the celebrity guest host. And he is the
nicest human being like you. You know, people say like,
don't meet your heroes, and Ted Dancing is one of
those people. Where I met him and everyone was like,
not only is he as funny and charming as you
(08:57):
hope he'll be, but he's so nice that this is
this body is my experience with him. We gave him
a script for the read through, and I was the
one who wrote the script, and in the script there
was an obvious TYPEO just a missing word, and he
read it and I said, oh, sorry, there's a missing
word there. I'll fix that in the next draft. And
he said, no, no, let me try and make it work.
And I was like, it's not your performance, it's just
(09:18):
it's just a missing word. That's so nice that you
are willing to try and put it on you. But
truly it is a type of.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Very nice. Oh he's got that makes me so happy.
All right. The next Ted talk is called my pen
name is doctor Seuss, and I am as silly as
a goose.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
The goose is not really clueful.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
No, no, it rhymes.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I got it.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
It's uh. Now, what is doctor Seuss's real name? It
talk ted?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yes, his real name is Ted something something, so you'll
get half credit. I say Ted.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I know it was a Theodore.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
That's Theodore Strussel.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
No, it's so close though. It's got. It ends with
s E L.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Yeah, and it's going to know it as soon as
you say it.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Say it again, but mumble, and we'll give it.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
To that's a doctor. That's uh Ted, that's a Theodore
usual talk.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Theater geisel Gel.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Exactly, Theodore SEUs Geisel, right, Isn't that it's.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
The middle name?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yes, yes, that's his middle name.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh that's very good.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
You know, it's a good. Honestly, he had really good
idea for Brandon, because I do think doctor Geisel is
not nearly as fun as doctor Seuss.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Imagine. Those aren't funny books.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
They're They're useful, but not fun.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I got a couple more rock and roll and rifles,
my life making music and owning the lips.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Oh okay, I know exactly who it is Ted?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Now? What is his name?
Speaker 5 (10:55):
I know I have an image of him. He's eating
a steak right now. It's well done, it's too cooked.
I'm positive he's wearing like a cowboy hat and a
sleeveless vest.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
That's it, exactly, cat scratch fever and his Let.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Me give you a hint, Well, there's that. I believe
there's a casino called the Golden.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Blank Golden Corral.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Maybe that's a bad hint.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
That's a horseshoe.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
How about uh.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
A little chunk of gold is called what oh, Ted nugent?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
There we go, Thank you so much?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Are you sure he's not on the same list as
Ted Bundy.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
And he's on the Bundy scale.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I don't think he's killed anyone, not directly, not directly.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I got a couple more I got. Don't you dare
call me an efing stuffed animal.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Hey, that's a Ted, the little swearing bear.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Talking bear talk. That's his official name.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
How about the movie right?
Speaker 5 (11:57):
The movie right except bitar and the multiplatform ah right
bears a franchise.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I enjoyed the TV show. I have to say, all right,
how about ten delicious insights I learned from hosting Chopped,
the TV show Chopped. Do you know this? He's a
former Puzzler guest. So if you have listened to every
episode of the Puzzler.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Now famously I have listened to every episode of the Puzzler.
So it is how I'm going to get this one. Yeah,
has glasses and he's very stylish. Yep, Ted, Ted, Ted,
what is your last name?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, let's say, what's a good hint? Greg, who's another.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
One of the former hosts of the Tonight Show had
this surname. The author of The Raven had this middle name.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Oh, Ted Allen exactly Allen talk. I actually did not.
I'm not sure that I knew that that was not
gonna come there for me?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I got one more ten secrets to hitting over four
hundred in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Oh Now, even with my even at full sleep, I
am the least sports informed person you will ever meet.
I truly we I have a game that a game
that I play with friends sometimes, which is like, what
is a category thing that other people know and is
just common knowledge? But that literally, with a gun point
into your head, you could not answer. And mine for
me is I do not believe that I could name
(13:30):
five current professional athletes if my life depended on it. Wow,
So this is I truly. I'm just gonna say Ted baseball.
That's a Ted Baseball song.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Sure baseball. Well, the good thing is, yeah, he is
not a current player. I know about as much about
sports as you, but I do know him because he's
like one of the classics. His name was Ted Williams,
Ted Williams.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
But you know what, we're gonna give it to him
for Ted Baseball because he was One of his nicknames
was Teddy ballgame.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
So true, So you got it is a great nickname.
It's really fun.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Uh. Well, that you did wonderfully even with no sleep.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
I don't know that wonderfully is how I would rate
that performance. But it's generous of you to say that we.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Got every single time you got Ted right, We've got it.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Literally being handed them on a platter. Occasionally I still
didn't get them. But I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You talked in your ted talk about humor, and in
your book you write about sort of the science of
humors one of your angles, and I love this one
scientist who says that humor is all about a secret
code and sort of decoding the code, and that seemed
perfect for the puzzler. So tell us how is humor
(14:56):
like a secret code?
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah, this is uh. This is one of my favorite
parts of of the research that I got to do
with this book is to talk to some linguists and
people who study evolution to talk about why across every culture,
in every part of the world, there is a humor
and laughter and jokes. And one of the theories is
this theory encryption theory, which is perfect for the puzzler,
(15:17):
and that is that humor has this really important function
in our society, which is that if I say something
to you and you get it and it's funny, it
means that you and I both understand the same hidden clue,
right Like I have the lock and you have the
key and you turn it and that's funny, And that's
really helpful because it makes us know that we are
kind of in the same in group, and so across cultures,
people can really immediately detect fake laughter. And the theory
(15:41):
is that that is because there was a social advantage
to knowing that this person actually gets it and isn't
just pretending to get it.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Ooh, that's good. So is there an example of a
hidden code that.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Sure, I'll give you. I'll give you two that I
think are fun. One is I think people who listen
to puzzler fans like I am you like wordplay. So
here's one that I actually think is better written down,
but I will tell it to you out loud and
I think you will appreciate it, which is a priest
an e mom and a rabbit walk into a bar
and the rabbit says, I think I might be a typo.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
So that's one where you only get that if you
understand the previous like setup of these, and then you
also understand rabbit in my life, that's the key. And
then the other one, this is a joke I heard
recently that I just love and is kind of very
in the current event mode as well. My in law
(16:37):
Melinda told me this joke, which is a conspiracy theorist
dies and goes to heaven and outside the gates of heaven,
God says, I will answer one question. You can ask
me anything and I'll tell you the truth. And the
conspiracy theorist says, okay, I just want to know who
really killed JFK. And God says it was Lee Harvey
(16:57):
Oswald acting alone, and the conspirac e theorist goes, God,
it really does go.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
All the fantastic. I love that. Let me just say.
You also talk about the oldest jokes, which were I
guess one of them was like the I Got you,
I got you sick joke.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
I'm going to get you is like one of the
most primal, like most basic jokes that even chimpanzees and
other primates they like do they laugh and when you
when they chase each other and try and do that
get you? And anyone who has a kid knows that,
like one of the first ways you can make a
kid laugh is the chasing yep.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I actually did an NPR segment once on the oldest jokes.
It was it was more verbal jokes, and one of
the oldest, according to scholars is I'll tell it to you.
Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Don't have any
liquid in your vowel.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
For your.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Sumerian from about two thousand BC. What the joke is,
What is something that has never occurred since time immemorial?
A young woman did not pass wind in her husband's lap?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Incredible?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
No, I think it's very I think if you translate it,
it's like basically you ever notice that when women get
married they stop holding in their farts? That I believe
is the nugget in.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
The original Sumerian that's rush.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
It really does well.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I will tell you part of the experiment I did
for NPR was I got Jim Gaffigan to go on
stage at a comedy club and tell these jokes from
two thousand PC. And he is so likable that he
sold them. Like people were laughing at these two thousand
year old jokes because it's Jim Gaffikin. If I said them,
(18:52):
they would be like, what uh.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
It is incredible how you can like put you can
really put some sauce on a and if you are
Jim Gaffigan, you can make that joke work no matter
what it's You know what. Some of the other research
that I came across is that most of what people
laugh at in regular day to day conversation, Like if
you just record people talking and note where they laugh.
(19:15):
Most of what they laugh at has nothing to do
with anything even like remotely funny. It's just at a
pause in the conversation. So it's like stop and then
there's something like you're talking with friends. If you just pause,
sometimes people will just laugh at the rhythm of that
type of thing.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Oh that's great, that's great.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I feel like I should laugh right here.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Yeah, well, this was the least funny pause I could
have done. I primed you so much that you didn't
laugh with the pause.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, you made us laugh all throughout this episode, and
luckily we have you back for more. So thank you, Chris,
thank you Greg, Thank you listeners. I've got a quick
extra credit before we go, which is how I became
the main character played by Josh Radner in a long
running CBS sitcom. Oh and that is a former Puzzler guest.
(20:03):
So again, if you have listened to all of the episodes,
you will get that. And of course we'll see here
tomorrow from more puzzling Puzzles that will puzzling and puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Hey, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode, we
had the wonderful Ken Jennings on to play a game
that AJ called Ken Text Clues, where con at the
beginning of a word is replaced by K E N,
so context clues become ken text clues. Here was your
(20:40):
Ken text clue. If Ken ever gets pregnant, which I
know is unlikely, he might experience these and the answer,
of course is Ken tractions instead of contractions. Thanks for
playing with us, and we'll see you here tomorrow.
Hello puzzlers, I say we start with a quick puzzle,
and it is this. What do these three phrases have
in common? Are you ready? Here are the three phrases.
One moment, please, the sports team I support is the
best team in the league.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
And look up.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Okay again, these are the three phrases. Are one moment, please,
the sports team I support is the best team in
the league, and look up. I'll give you quick in
It's a good puzzle for the digital age. I hope
you get my point, the answer, and more puzzling goodness
after the break, Hello puzzlers, Welcome back to the Puzzler Podcast.
(00:50):
The Ethical Lab grown Diamond in your Puzzle, tennis bracelet?
Speaker 2 (00:55):
What's a tennis bracelet?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
A tennis bracelet? Thank you for asking? Is popularized by
Chris Evert, the tennis player, and diamond.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Oh. I don't have one of those.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Neither do I.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
I don't have any diamond any of any kind.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Neither do I. But I saw an ad for one. Okay,
I'm your host, AJ Jacobs. That of course is Greg Pliska.
Send him a tennis.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Send me a tennis bracelet, Thank you, Greg.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Before the break, we asked, what do these phrases have
in common. One moment please, the sports team I support
is the best team in the league. And look up.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, and you said good for the digital age, which
made me think you were talking about fingers, but that
it seems.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
To have nothing to do with it.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
I'm also fascinated by the second phrase, which is not
something anyone utters. The smarts team I support is the
best team in the league.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Nobody says that.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Everyone says you mats are the best team.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Or whatever name the team, whereas I would.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Say look up, and I would say one moment please,
So you know.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Now you had it right, digital age. It is something
in the digital age that I pointed out.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I pointed out things you do with your index fingers.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
One one moment please and look up.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I get it now.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
And one my sports team is the best team in
the league.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
That's very unusual for Greg. But I am honored that
I can sometimes challenge.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
I'm happy, always challenged, all right, always fun, always fun.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Well. I bring this up partly because I enjoy it,
I enjoy digital language, and partly because our guest is
number one in our hearts. That's he's a comedian. He's
an author host of a super popular podcast, How to
Be a Better Human. His name is Chris Duffy. Welcome, Chris.
Speaker 5 (02:46):
Hello. You can't see this, but I'm pointing both of
my fingers right back at you.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Oh right, thank you. You are. Don't hold on a second.
We're going right in.
Speaker 4 (02:56):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
We are so honored to have you, especially knowing the
circumstances which you told us about right before.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Yeah, I told you that I am. I am fully
sleep deprived right now because I have a two week
old baby at home. My second child was born early,
and I was like, the one thing that I will
not cancel is I will not miss my puzzling. I
will be puzzled. But I'm a warning to you and
to all of the listeners that my brain is so
far below max capacity right now. So it is max capacity,
(03:27):
it's so far below max potential. You will hear that
I will not understand these puzzles if I barely understand language.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
If you fall forward into the microphone, we will forgive
you absolutely.
Speaker 5 (03:39):
That sound of heavy breathing means that I have passed
out on to the keyboard.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, we hope to keep you awake. That's our goal.
That's our goal for the next few minutes. And we
are impressed, even with your handicap, that you're able to
come on our show. Yeah. So your show, as I mentioned,
how to be a better human, wonderful podcast geared towards humans.
That's right, not AI's yet.
Speaker 5 (04:05):
Not exclusive, but right now the majority of our listeners
are human.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Exactly majority, right, And it's based on it's produced by Ted,
the Ted Talks folks. And you gave a wonderful Ted
Talk how to Find Laughter Anywhere, which will be the
basis of a book coming out next year.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
That's right, January sixth I have a book coming out
that is about how to laugh more. It's called Humor
Me and how to Find I Can. I should remember
the subtitle, but it's about how laughing?
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Do you have a good excuse?
Speaker 4 (04:36):
Well?
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Your Ted Talk, yes, it's wonderful, the importance of humor
in coping with the dumpster fire, that life can sometimes
be nowadays or always. And your Ted Talk is wonderful
and insightful. And also one of my favorite parts is
when you talk about your year as the CEO of LinkedIn.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
That's right. I impersonated the CEO of LinkedIn on LinkedIn
for one full year, and I actually did it unintentionally.
I was just trying to see if LinkedIn would let
you put any Someone told me that they don't verify
your job titles, and I said, that can't be true,
And to prove that it wasn't true, I said, watch,
and I made myself CEO of LinkedIn. But then when
I did that, not only did it allow me to
(05:18):
do it, it actually sent an email to all of
my contacts saying congratulations Chris, congratulate Chris on his new job.
He's now the CEO of LinkedIn. And that was the
funniest thing that's ever happened to me in my life.
So I just kept it going for as long as
I could keep it going.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Well, you're very powerful.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
And then it turns out you became the owner of
Ted as well.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
That's right, yes, Oh, that's right. Right.
Speaker 5 (05:40):
It turns out that in our modern society, if you
just declare yourself the owner of a tech company, many
people will believe you to be the owner of that
tech company. It's kind of like a Christopher Columbus type situation,
but instead of continents, you could just deal with digital
entities whatever you want. Yeah, yeah, I can just say
this is mine. I discovered it.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
You could become a member of Congress on the of
such claims.
Speaker 5 (06:01):
Many have become members of Converse on the back of
far lesser claims.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
Exactly, it does seem that, yes, if you say it
enough times it becomes true. That is unfortunate. But as
head of TED, I thought that we could give you
a puzzle that's all about Ted talks.
Speaker 5 (06:20):
Ooh sounds great.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So it's but it's Ted talks with a twist because
these are not necessarily real Ted talks. They're hypothetical Ted
talks by people named Ted.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Incredible. I love that.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
I will give you the title of a Ted talk
by Ted, and you have to tell me which Ted
is giving said Ted talk. Okay, so for instance, I'll
give you in a for instance, if they're a Ted
talk called what I learned from coaching a professional soccer
team when I knew nothing about soccer.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
You would say that, Jay, I'd say, that's got to
be Ted Lasso.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
That is a Ted. You have to say it is,
that's a Ted Lasso talk.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
That's a Ted Lasso talk.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Oh, I see.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Even with the lack of sleep.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
That's a Ted Lasso talk. I'm excited to see. I'm
excited to see what what breadth of Ted you have?
Am I going to be like? And that's a Ted
Kazitsky talk.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
That is so funny you bring that up or disturbing
one of the other.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
That's right, That's what I'm wondering. How where the line
is on good taste?
Speaker 1 (07:19):
I did? It is a Ted Bundy and Ted Kazitsky
free Ted talk.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Thank you good?
Speaker 5 (07:25):
You know these are the tests that aren't really invited
to the Ted reunion, right, a Ted party. They're like
not every Ted, you guys can't come.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Yea, And yeah, I feel like Ted that has a
higher than average percentage of unpleasant people.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
And that little bear that won't stop cursing.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh, don't bring him up yet. He might be he
might make an appearance. All right, So are you ready?
Speaker 5 (07:52):
Yes? I am? I am? I am ready to hear
the other Ted talks.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
How playing a bartender on TV chain my life.
Speaker 5 (08:01):
Well, that's a Ted dance and Ted talk.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
That's a Ted dance and Ted talk. Thanks for repeating Ted.
That's a Ted Ted Ted.
Speaker 5 (08:09):
That's a Ted dance and Ted talk.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Ted Ted exactly. By the way, sidebar I read on.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
Your sidebar is a great joke about cheers. By the way,
thank you for that, Oh good one.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I didn't even Oh man.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Nice sleep deprived or not.
Speaker 5 (08:27):
I won't slide by me.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
What about I read on your website that you once
wrote jokes for Ted Danson.
Speaker 5 (08:36):
That's right. I was writing for National Geographic for like
a short lived late night show on National Geographic, and
he was the celebrity guest host. And he is the
nicest human being like you. You know, people say like,
don't meet your heroes, and Ted Dancing is one of
those people. Where I met him and everyone was like,
not only is he as funny and charming as you
(08:57):
hope he'll be, but he's so nice that this is
this body is my experience with him. We gave him
a script for the read through, and I was the
one who wrote the script, and in the script there
was an obvious TYPEO just a missing word, and he
read it and I said, oh, sorry, there's a missing
word there. I'll fix that in the next draft. And
he said, no, no, let me try and make it work.
And I was like, it's not your performance, it's just
(09:18):
it's just a missing word. That's so nice that you
are willing to try and put it on you. But
truly it is a type of.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Very nice. Oh he's got that makes me so happy.
All right. The next Ted talk is called my pen
name is doctor Seuss, and I am as silly as
a goose.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
The goose is not really clueful.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
No, no, it rhymes.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I got it.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
It's uh. Now, what is doctor Seuss's real name? It
talk ted?
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yes, his real name is Ted something something, so you'll
get half credit. I say Ted.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
I know it was a Theodore.
Speaker 5 (09:56):
That's Theodore Strussel.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
No, it's so close though. It's got. It ends with
s E L.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
Yeah, and it's going to know it as soon as
you say it.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Say it again, but mumble, and we'll give it.
Speaker 5 (10:07):
To that's a doctor. That's uh Ted, that's a Theodore
usual talk.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Theater geisel Gel.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
Exactly, Theodore SEUs Geisel, right, Isn't that it's.
Speaker 5 (10:23):
The middle name?
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Yes, yes, that's his middle name.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Oh that's very good.
Speaker 5 (10:28):
You know, it's a good. Honestly, he had really good
idea for Brandon, because I do think doctor Geisel is
not nearly as fun as doctor Seuss.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Imagine. Those aren't funny books.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
They're They're useful, but not fun.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
All right.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
I got a couple more rock and roll and rifles,
my life making music and owning the lips.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Oh okay, I know exactly who it is Ted?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Now? What is his name?
Speaker 5 (10:55):
I know I have an image of him. He's eating
a steak right now. It's well done, it's too cooked.
I'm positive he's wearing like a cowboy hat and a
sleeveless vest.
Speaker 4 (11:06):
That's it, exactly, cat scratch fever and his Let.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Me give you a hint, Well, there's that. I believe
there's a casino called the Golden.
Speaker 5 (11:16):
Blank Golden Corral.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Maybe that's a bad hint.
Speaker 5 (11:20):
That's a horseshoe.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
How about uh.
Speaker 5 (11:24):
A little chunk of gold is called what oh, Ted nugent?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
There we go, Thank you so much?
Speaker 4 (11:31):
Are you sure he's not on the same list as
Ted Bundy.
Speaker 5 (11:34):
And he's on the Bundy scale.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
I don't think he's killed anyone, not directly, not directly.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
All right.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
I got a couple more I got. Don't you dare
call me an efing stuffed animal.
Speaker 5 (11:49):
Hey, that's a Ted, the little swearing bear.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Talking bear talk. That's his official name.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
How about the movie right?
Speaker 5 (11:57):
The movie right except bitar and the multiplatform ah right
bears a franchise.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
I enjoyed the TV show. I have to say, all right,
how about ten delicious insights I learned from hosting Chopped,
the TV show Chopped. Do you know this? He's a
former Puzzler guest. So if you have listened to every
episode of the Puzzler.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Now famously I have listened to every episode of the Puzzler.
So it is how I'm going to get this one. Yeah,
has glasses and he's very stylish. Yep, Ted, Ted, Ted,
what is your last name?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Well, let's say, what's a good hint? Greg, who's another.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
One of the former hosts of the Tonight Show had
this surname. The author of The Raven had this middle name.
Speaker 5 (12:54):
Oh, Ted Allen exactly Allen talk. I actually did not.
I'm not sure that I knew that that was not
gonna come there for me?
Speaker 2 (13:01):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I got one more ten secrets to hitting over four
hundred in Major League Baseball.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Oh Now, even with my even at full sleep, I
am the least sports informed person you will ever meet.
I truly we I have a game that a game
that I play with friends sometimes, which is like, what
is a category thing that other people know and is
just common knowledge? But that literally, with a gun point
into your head, you could not answer. And mine for
me is I do not believe that I could name
(13:30):
five current professional athletes if my life depended on it. Wow,
So this is I truly. I'm just gonna say Ted baseball.
That's a Ted Baseball song.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Sure baseball. Well, the good thing is, yeah, he is
not a current player. I know about as much about
sports as you, but I do know him because he's
like one of the classics. His name was Ted Williams,
Ted Williams.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
But you know what, we're gonna give it to him
for Ted Baseball because he was One of his nicknames
was Teddy ballgame.
Speaker 5 (14:02):
So true, So you got it is a great nickname.
It's really fun.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Uh. Well, that you did wonderfully even with no sleep.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
I don't know that wonderfully is how I would rate
that performance. But it's generous of you to say that we.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
Got every single time you got Ted right, We've got it.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
Literally being handed them on a platter. Occasionally I still
didn't get them. But I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
You talked in your ted talk about humor, and in
your book you write about sort of the science of
humors one of your angles, and I love this one
scientist who says that humor is all about a secret
code and sort of decoding the code, and that seemed
perfect for the puzzler. So tell us how is humor
(14:56):
like a secret code?
Speaker 5 (14:57):
Yeah, this is uh. This is one of my favorite
parts of of the research that I got to do
with this book is to talk to some linguists and
people who study evolution to talk about why across every culture,
in every part of the world, there is a humor
and laughter and jokes. And one of the theories is
this theory encryption theory, which is perfect for the puzzler,
(15:17):
and that is that humor has this really important function
in our society, which is that if I say something
to you and you get it and it's funny, it
means that you and I both understand the same hidden clue,
right Like I have the lock and you have the
key and you turn it and that's funny, And that's
really helpful because it makes us know that we are
kind of in the same in group, and so across cultures,
people can really immediately detect fake laughter. And the theory
(15:41):
is that that is because there was a social advantage
to knowing that this person actually gets it and isn't
just pretending to get it.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Ooh, that's good. So is there an example of a
hidden code that.
Speaker 5 (15:54):
Sure, I'll give you. I'll give you two that I
think are fun. One is I think people who listen
to puzzler fans like I am you like wordplay. So
here's one that I actually think is better written down,
but I will tell it to you out loud and
I think you will appreciate it, which is a priest
an e mom and a rabbit walk into a bar
and the rabbit says, I think I might be a typo.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
Ah.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (16:16):
So that's one where you only get that if you
understand the previous like setup of these, and then you
also understand rabbit in my life, that's the key. And
then the other one, this is a joke I heard
recently that I just love and is kind of very
in the current event mode as well. My in law
(16:37):
Melinda told me this joke, which is a conspiracy theorist
dies and goes to heaven and outside the gates of heaven,
God says, I will answer one question. You can ask
me anything and I'll tell you the truth. And the
conspiracy theorist says, okay, I just want to know who
really killed JFK. And God says it was Lee Harvey
(16:57):
Oswald acting alone, and the conspirac e theorist goes, God,
it really does go.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
All the fantastic. I love that. Let me just say.
You also talk about the oldest jokes, which were I
guess one of them was like the I Got you,
I got you sick joke.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
I'm going to get you is like one of the
most primal, like most basic jokes that even chimpanzees and
other primates they like do they laugh and when you
when they chase each other and try and do that
get you? And anyone who has a kid knows that,
like one of the first ways you can make a
kid laugh is the chasing yep.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
I actually did an NPR segment once on the oldest jokes.
It was it was more verbal jokes, and one of
the oldest, according to scholars is I'll tell it to you.
Are you ready? Are you sitting down? Don't have any
liquid in your vowel.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
For your.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Sumerian from about two thousand BC. What the joke is,
What is something that has never occurred since time immemorial?
A young woman did not pass wind in her husband's lap?
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Incredible?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
No, I think it's very I think if you translate it,
it's like basically you ever notice that when women get
married they stop holding in their farts? That I believe
is the nugget in.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
The original Sumerian that's rush.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
It really does well.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
I will tell you part of the experiment I did
for NPR was I got Jim Gaffigan to go on
stage at a comedy club and tell these jokes from
two thousand PC. And he is so likable that he
sold them. Like people were laughing at these two thousand
year old jokes because it's Jim Gaffikin. If I said them,
(18:52):
they would be like, what uh.
Speaker 5 (18:55):
It is incredible how you can like put you can
really put some sauce on a and if you are
Jim Gaffigan, you can make that joke work no matter
what it's You know what. Some of the other research
that I came across is that most of what people
laugh at in regular day to day conversation, Like if
you just record people talking and note where they laugh.
(19:15):
Most of what they laugh at has nothing to do
with anything even like remotely funny. It's just at a
pause in the conversation. So it's like stop and then
there's something like you're talking with friends. If you just pause,
sometimes people will just laugh at the rhythm of that
type of thing.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
Oh that's great, that's great.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
I feel like I should laugh right here.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Yeah, well, this was the least funny pause I could
have done. I primed you so much that you didn't
laugh with the pause.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Well, you made us laugh all throughout this episode, and
luckily we have you back for more. So thank you, Chris,
thank you Greg, Thank you listeners. I've got a quick
extra credit before we go, which is how I became
the main character played by Josh Radner in a long
running CBS sitcom. Oh and that is a former Puzzler guest.
(20:03):
So again, if you have listened to all of the episodes,
you will get that. And of course we'll see here
tomorrow from more puzzling Puzzles that will puzzling and puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Hey, puzzlers, it's your chief puzzle Officer, Greg Pliska here
with the extra credit answer from our previous episode, we
had the wonderful Ken Jennings on to play a game
that AJ called Ken Text Clues, where con at the
beginning of a word is replaced by K E N,
so context clues become ken text clues. Here was your
(20:40):
Ken text clue. If Ken ever gets pregnant, which I
know is unlikely, he might experience these and the answer,
of course is Ken tractions instead of contractions. Thanks for
playing with us, and we'll see you here tomorrow.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
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
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.