November 29, 2023 • 10 mins
Hello, Puzzlers! Puzzling with us today: comedian, actor, and former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood, Jr.
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):
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Citronella in
your Daily Puzzle insect Repellent. I am your host, A J. Jacobs,
and I'm here with our guest, the amazing Roy Wood
Junior uh, host of the White House Correspondence Dinner, which
(00:28):
was fantastic Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Of the Year.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Also at that Puzzle of the Year from Puzzle Magazine
and also Puzzle Aficionado cover model June nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Ah yeah, I saw that. I thought it was a
little racy as a cover, but it was like put
some clothes on.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
It's Electures edition.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Though everybody trying to get that.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
One thirty years old. I'm a smoking robe holding holding
in Jinga over right. You know what puzzle frustrates me?
I know, I know we're supposed to like hurry up
and play the game for the people. You know what
puzzle I hate to this day because I can't figure
it out is those stupid four x three slide puzzle
(01:14):
where you have to slide it's one open space, oh yeah,
in the cube and the like in a panel and
you have to slide the panels around.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
The fifteen puzzle.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It's called infuriating.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
That is interesting.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I was in an escape room and one of the
things you had to do was solve one of the
fifteens to get the next clue to get the and
I was just like, man, we just we're gonna die.
I'm not gonna solve that.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You'd still be in that room today.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Jo that like once you get into like physical space puzzles,
like once you're into Indiana Jones tune raider, trapdoor, pull
this lever and a lever in another room, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Can I give you a nerdy piece of puzzle trivia
about that?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Because that fifteen puzzle was actually it was like the
Rubik's cube, but one hundred years earlier in the eighteen eighties,
people went nuts, and The New York Times wrote like,
this is a pestilence on our society. And the guy
who invented or he didn't invent it, but he popularized it,
pulled this massive prank because he said he'd give ten
(02:20):
thousand dollars, which was huge at the time, to anyone
who would solve it if it started in a certain position.
But the trick is mathematically there are half of the
starting positions are impossible so he was just messing with
their minds. So that's my little piece of puzzle history
about the So I'm glad you brought it on. Yeah,
(02:41):
that would be even more maddening for you. So, as
I say, this puzzle is written by our chief puzzle Officer,
Greg Pliska, and it's called Chicago Cubes because it's an
homage to your beloved Chicago Cubs. Can I ask one question.
I thought that you were born in New York and
(03:04):
raised in Alabama, So where are the Cubs? What's how
did that happen?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, that's all true. So my father is Chicago native
since he was five years old, and he did a
radio show for quite a while with Ernie Banks, the
legendary Cub shortstop. At a time in Chicago, there was
a lot of racial tension in the sixties and seventies,
and that's just when by the time we got to
Birmingham and I was born, that's just what my dad watched,
(03:31):
and you watch what your dad watches. Also, the Cubs
were really the only thing coming on TV back then
during the day, and I never got the TV at night,
so the Braves were watching. The Atlanta Braves were never
an option because okay, came on seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
That makes a lonch. All right, mystery solved. All right,
now I will fade away and turn it over to Greg.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Hey, Roy, thanks for doing the show with us.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Hello, Greg, I want to do that escape room with you.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Let's just go do escape you can.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Do it alone.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Look, I promise today's puzzle that all these can be solved.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
None of them are impossible.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
We're not doing that kind of trick Cago cubes.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Well, here's the way it works. Every answer is a
word with the letters see you be in it, but
with the long you pronunciation that ooh got cube pronunciation.
So I'll give you a clue to the word and
you give me the answer, but with the cub sound.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Instead of the cube sound.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
So, like, for example, if if we said this colorful puzzle,
which is one of the world's best selling toys, is
as intricate to solve as figuring out the Cubs lineup,
must be accepted as six sides instead of the nine
players on the baseball team, you would say that six
sided squash puzzle cub Rubik's cub exactly. Okay, that's the
(04:55):
cub version of the Rubik's cube.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Okay, gotcha. So we're flipping the denunciation of cube worth exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
It's just to hear you say the word cub as.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Oft take it into something I never said, even.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Though I am a Mets fan here to support you
and your fans.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Here's the first one. This is a partitioned work area
in the cub's front office, a cubical, yes exactly, you
got it, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Not a cubicle.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
That's where they make all those personnel decisions that you
either love or drive you crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Here's the second one. When the Cubs record is underwater,
when they are losing badly, you might use this kind
of suit to go down and save them.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
A scubb a suit scub Like if my head, I'm
having to like first practice the renunciation in my head
and then try and make that make sense to my mouth,
because my mouth, like in that split second, my mouth
is telling my brain that's not a word. Not gonna
(06:10):
say that request denied scuver is not a word.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
That's the whole goal of this puzzle. It's just to
keep everybody's brains kind of on edge.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
All right. Here's another one for you.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
If Picasso did portraits of the Cubs players, they would
be in this artistic style.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Cubbist cubbist exactly. Yeah, okay, Yeah, I like this one.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I love watching your brain work through this.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Instead of how do you say cubist.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Instead of cubist, you gotta say cubbist, all right. Not surprisingly,
this Caribbean country is where the Cubs might find lots
of young talent cubba cubba instead of which.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Is also how three year olds learning how to read
pronounce that country? Fair?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Fair point? Do you have a three year old learning
how to read?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Have a seven year old who used to be three
and he was terrible? Better now he's really good now,
full blown scholar on the reading.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It right right? This sure sponges intelligence.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Oh my god, I don't even know if you're my child.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Turn it around, all right, here's another one for you.
This is a place where you put eggs or metaphorically
minor league prospects to help them grow and hatch incubator
incubator exactly, okay, instead of incubator, the incubator. Yeah, well, broy,
(07:52):
you did excellently with this little puzzle of ours.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
AJ should do the.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Extra credit for everyone at home, please do all right,
this is a female demon that supposedly sucks the life
out of onwitting victims while they sleep, and it might
explain some of the cubs woeful seasons.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
A low blow against the Cubs, but that's a good one.
So think about that at home.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And our World Series didn't happen in twenty sixteen. That
fills recent it did.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
I'm just gonna it's the other woeful seasons I was
referring to.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Come on, it's okay, you can refer to this one.
This one's pretty Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Well line it up next to the Mets and we're
gonna have to fight over who's more woeful? Right now?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Can I just say the Cubs I think is the
cutest name for a major league sports franchise, like because
you've got like Nashville Predators like that one is so disturbing,
and they've got Cubs. It's so nice. So thank you
for Chicago. All right, Well, Roy, you did fantastic. I
(09:03):
think the Cubs would be proud of you, and we
are proud of you. And puzzlers please don't forget to
subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and we'll meet you here
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Hello puzzlers, this is Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer,
here with the answer to last episode's extra credit. We
played Chris Rocks Rocks with the Great Roy Wood Junior.
In this puzzle, each clue is for a famous person
where we used their last name twice. Here was the
(09:46):
clue we gave you. This former SNL player bought a
mummy of an ancient Egyptian king and the answer to that,
of course, is Jay Pharaoh's Pharaoh.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Hope that all made sense. I hope you enjoyed it.
Hello, puzzlers, Welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the Citronella in
your Daily Puzzle insect Repellent. I am your host, A J. Jacobs,
and I'm here with our guest, the amazing Roy Wood
Junior uh, host of the White House Correspondence Dinner, which
(00:28):
was fantastic Puzzler.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Of the Year.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Also at that Puzzle of the Year from Puzzle Magazine
and also Puzzle Aficionado cover model June nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Ah yeah, I saw that. I thought it was a
little racy as a cover, but it was like put
some clothes on.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
It's Electures edition.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Though everybody trying to get that.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
One thirty years old. I'm a smoking robe holding holding
in Jinga over right. You know what puzzle frustrates me?
I know, I know we're supposed to like hurry up
and play the game for the people. You know what
puzzle I hate to this day because I can't figure
it out is those stupid four x three slide puzzle
(01:14):
where you have to slide it's one open space, oh yeah,
in the cube and the like in a panel and
you have to slide the panels around.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
The fifteen puzzle.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It's called infuriating.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
That is interesting.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
I was in an escape room and one of the
things you had to do was solve one of the
fifteens to get the next clue to get the and
I was just like, man, we just we're gonna die.
I'm not gonna solve that.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
You'd still be in that room today.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Jo that like once you get into like physical space puzzles,
like once you're into Indiana Jones tune raider, trapdoor, pull
this lever and a lever in another room, I'm out.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Can I give you a nerdy piece of puzzle trivia
about that?
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Because that fifteen puzzle was actually it was like the
Rubik's cube, but one hundred years earlier in the eighteen eighties,
people went nuts, and The New York Times wrote like,
this is a pestilence on our society. And the guy
who invented or he didn't invent it, but he popularized it,
pulled this massive prank because he said he'd give ten
(02:20):
thousand dollars, which was huge at the time, to anyone
who would solve it if it started in a certain position.
But the trick is mathematically there are half of the
starting positions are impossible so he was just messing with
their minds. So that's my little piece of puzzle history
about the So I'm glad you brought it on. Yeah,
(02:41):
that would be even more maddening for you. So, as
I say, this puzzle is written by our chief puzzle Officer,
Greg Pliska, and it's called Chicago Cubes because it's an
homage to your beloved Chicago Cubs. Can I ask one question.
I thought that you were born in New York and
(03:04):
raised in Alabama, So where are the Cubs? What's how
did that happen?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, that's all true. So my father is Chicago native
since he was five years old, and he did a
radio show for quite a while with Ernie Banks, the
legendary Cub shortstop. At a time in Chicago, there was
a lot of racial tension in the sixties and seventies,
and that's just when by the time we got to
Birmingham and I was born, that's just what my dad watched,
(03:31):
and you watch what your dad watches. Also, the Cubs
were really the only thing coming on TV back then
during the day, and I never got the TV at night,
so the Braves were watching. The Atlanta Braves were never
an option because okay, came on seven o'clock at night.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
That makes a lonch. All right, mystery solved. All right,
now I will fade away and turn it over to Greg.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Hey, Roy, thanks for doing the show with us.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Hello, Greg, I want to do that escape room with you.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Let's just go do escape you can.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Do it alone.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Look, I promise today's puzzle that all these can be solved.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
None of them are impossible.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
We're not doing that kind of trick Cago cubes.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (04:10):
Well, here's the way it works. Every answer is a
word with the letters see you be in it, but
with the long you pronunciation that ooh got cube pronunciation.
So I'll give you a clue to the word and
you give me the answer, but with the cub sound.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Instead of the cube sound.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
So, like, for example, if if we said this colorful puzzle,
which is one of the world's best selling toys, is
as intricate to solve as figuring out the Cubs lineup,
must be accepted as six sides instead of the nine
players on the baseball team, you would say that six
sided squash puzzle cub Rubik's cub exactly. Okay, that's the
(04:55):
cub version of the Rubik's cube.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Okay, gotcha. So we're flipping the denunciation of cube worth exactly.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
It's just to hear you say the word cub as.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Oft take it into something I never said, even.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Though I am a Mets fan here to support you
and your fans.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Here's the first one. This is a partitioned work area
in the cub's front office, a cubical, yes exactly, you
got it, exactly right.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Not a cubicle.
Speaker 4 (05:30):
That's where they make all those personnel decisions that you
either love or drive you crazy.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
All right.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Here's the second one. When the Cubs record is underwater,
when they are losing badly, you might use this kind
of suit to go down and save them.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
A scubb a suit scub Like if my head, I'm
having to like first practice the renunciation in my head
and then try and make that make sense to my mouth,
because my mouth, like in that split second, my mouth
is telling my brain that's not a word. Not gonna
(06:10):
say that request denied scuver is not a word.
Speaker 4 (06:16):
That's the whole goal of this puzzle. It's just to
keep everybody's brains kind of on edge.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
All right. Here's another one for you.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
If Picasso did portraits of the Cubs players, they would
be in this artistic style.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Cubbist cubbist exactly. Yeah, okay, Yeah, I like this one.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
I love watching your brain work through this.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
It's great.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
Instead of how do you say cubist.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Instead of cubist, you gotta say cubbist, all right. Not surprisingly,
this Caribbean country is where the Cubs might find lots
of young talent cubba cubba instead of which.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Is also how three year olds learning how to read
pronounce that country? Fair?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Fair point? Do you have a three year old learning
how to read?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
Have a seven year old who used to be three
and he was terrible? Better now he's really good now,
full blown scholar on the reading.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It right right? This sure sponges intelligence.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Oh my god, I don't even know if you're my child.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Turn it around, all right, here's another one for you.
This is a place where you put eggs or metaphorically
minor league prospects to help them grow and hatch incubator
incubator exactly, okay, instead of incubator, the incubator. Yeah, well, broy,
(07:52):
you did excellently with this little puzzle of ours.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
AJ should do the.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
Extra credit for everyone at home, please do all right,
this is a female demon that supposedly sucks the life
out of onwitting victims while they sleep, and it might
explain some of the cubs woeful seasons.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
A low blow against the Cubs, but that's a good one.
So think about that at home.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And our World Series didn't happen in twenty sixteen. That
fills recent it did.
Speaker 4 (08:26):
I'm just gonna it's the other woeful seasons I was
referring to.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Come on, it's okay, you can refer to this one.
This one's pretty Yeah.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
Well line it up next to the Mets and we're
gonna have to fight over who's more woeful? Right now?
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Can I just say the Cubs I think is the
cutest name for a major league sports franchise, like because
you've got like Nashville Predators like that one is so disturbing,
and they've got Cubs. It's so nice. So thank you
for Chicago. All right, Well, Roy, you did fantastic. I
(09:03):
think the Cubs would be proud of you, and we
are proud of you. And puzzlers please don't forget to
subscribe to the Puzzler podcast and we'll meet you here
tomorrow for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Hello puzzlers, this is Greg Pliska, your chief puzzle officer,
here with the answer to last episode's extra credit. We
played Chris Rocks Rocks with the Great Roy Wood Junior.
In this puzzle, each clue is for a famous person
where we used their last name twice. Here was the
(09:46):
clue we gave you. This former SNL player bought a
mummy of an ancient Egyptian king and the answer to that,
of course, is Jay Pharaoh's Pharaoh.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
Hope that all made sense. I hope you enjoyed it.
Hosts And Creators
Greg Pliska
A.J. Jacobs
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