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    News with a twist

    NPR's Peter Sagal reveals the magic formula behind the hilarity of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me

    Alex Bentley
    Feb 5, 2013 | 3:00 pm

    In its 43-year existence, National Public Radio has earned a reputation for providing a variety of quality, if somewhat dry, radio programming. But one of its premier institutions, the news quiz Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, challenges that stuffy distinction by giving a rundown of the week's news in a manner that manages to be funny, informative and bawdy all at the same time.

     

    The show usually broadcasts from its home in Chicago, but occasionally it goes on the road, as it will this week when it stops by the Winspear Opera House February 7. This is the show's second visit to Dallas, and Dallas native Erykah Badu joins the program for its "Not My Job" segment. But if you were thinking about getting a ticket, you're too late: The show's been sold out for months.

     

     

      “[A live audience] will boo and hiss and stare at us and throw things at us, and we’ll know we’ve gone too far,” Sagal says.

     
     

    Host Peter Sagal sat down with CultureMap to talk about the show's popularity and how panelists — which this week include Paula Poundstone, Tom Bodett and Kyrie O'Connor — prepare for the show.

     

     CultureMap: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me has been on the air for 15 years now. Why do you think it’s remained so popular?

     

     Peter Sagal: When we started the show, we sort of made an existential choice not to tailor it to what we thought the audience would like. Astoundingly, enough people find what we find funny to be funny. And when we write our show, we’ve always said, “What’s funny? What makes us laugh?” And if something makes us laugh, we’ll broadcast it.

     

     CM: Along those lines, you all can get relatively risqué. Where do you draw the line?

     

     Sagal: One of the things that’s really helped us with that is a live audience. When we were doing the show in a studio with no live audience, we were guessing what people would find objectionable.

     

    Now we do it in front of a live audience, so we know. So they’ll boo and hiss and stare at us and throw things at us, and we’ll know we’ve gone too far and we don’t broadcast it.

     

    But the other advantage we have is if we do something we love that really annoys the audience, and they go, “Boo! Hiss! I can’t believe you did that!" Sometimes we’ll go ahead and broadcast that so the people listening at home will know that we got punished for it, so it’s okay. It’ll go by because we got our just desserts. It’s all right.

     
     

      “Paula Poundstone is by far our most beloved panelist. She’s more beloved than I am, which is kind of annoying,” Sagal says.

     
     

     CM: Whom do you think people would choose as the most popular panelist or panelists?

     

     Sagal: That’s easy. It’s Paula Poundstone. I apologize to all our other panelists, all of whom are amazingly talented and funny and witty, but we just know from listener mail response that Paula is by far our most beloved. She’s more beloved than I am, which is kind of annoying. I can just tell when the panelists are introduced to a live audience, when Paula doesn’t come running out on stage, people go, “Oh, well.”

     

     CM: Are panelists ever given a heads-up on what questions or topics to expect, or are they truly flying by the seat of their pants?

     

     Sagal: No, they never do. We tried once to warn them, and they rebelled. The theory being, “Hey, if you know that we’re going to ask you a question about this, then you will be able to prepare really funny stuff about it.” And they said, “No, we want to be spontaneous.”

     

    I generally think that is one of the appeals of our show and one of the reasons we can stand out in a crowd of people who are making fun of the week’s news. When I ask the panelists a question, they don’t know what the answer is. So their reactions to it — their guesses, their riffing on it — is all real and in the moment.

     

     CM: For your “Not My Job” segment, you draw from a wide range of fields. Is there any rhyme or reason behind whom you choose?

     

     Sagal: There are three factors. First of all, it’s whoever is willing to come on the show. That’s the first circle of the Venn diagram. The second circle is people who I and/or the staff of the show are genuinely interested in and want to talk to. The other circle, which we’re trying to expand, is just people who would be really interesting to hear from in the context of our show.

     

    Maybe one of the best examples of this is a guy named Jack Gantos; it’s one of my very favorite interviews ever. Jack Gantos is a well-known children’s author. He came on the show and told the funniest extended story you could possibly imagine, about being arrested on federal drug charges.

     

    And so all these people who might have known or didn’t know who he was encountered this guy telling this hilariously bizarre story — true story — that they never would have heard otherwise. And I love to do that. I love to expose people who are well known or have a public position in a different way than the public knows.

     
     

      “Gene Simmons sucked up all our horrible interview karma in one disastrous conversation, and we haven’t had to deal with it since,” Sagal says.

     
     

     CM: How many dud guests have you had over the years?

     

     Sagal: We have been very, very fortunate in that we’ve had very, very few dud guests. I don’t know why that is. It might be because in most cases when anybody comes on the show, they’re the kind of person who’s willing to go along with us.

     

    But in terms of really awful interviews, one takes the cake, and that was Gene Simmons. He sucked up all our horrible interview karma in one disastrous conversation, and we haven’t had to deal with it ever since.

     

     CM: For people here in Dallas, do you find your traveling shows to be all that different from the ones you have in Chicago?

     

     Sagal: Back in the day, when we were doing most of our shows in the studio, the road shows were the only live shows we did, so they were huge events. Now it’s less different because we do every show in front of a live audience, but it’s still different, mainly because the venues tend to be larger. Our home theater has around 500-600 people in it when it’s full. We’re playing the Winspear Opera House, which is a couple thousand, so that’s different.

     

    We’re all hams — huge, enormous Virginia hams, especially [announcer and scorekeeper] Carl Kasell. We’ll tend to go out of our way to get audiences to make noises indicating amusement. We’re like dolphins jumping for herring to get laughs, and if there’s a lot of people, we jump higher. I like to think our live shows tend to rise to the occasion.

     

     CM: The show in Dallas is sold out. Does it surprise you that so many people want to see the show live?

     

     Sagal: One of my favorite stories is from when we played the Paramount Theatre in Seattle a couple years ago. It’s one of the big rock venues in town. One of the stagehands came up to one of my producers and said, “Who the hell are you guys?” The line was down the block to get in and he was like, “I’ve never seen it like this!”

     

    And it’s weird. We’re sort of this weird, cult thing. You either know us and like us or you’ve never heard of us. There’s really no awareness of us in the world except for people who listen to us. So when we show up, people come out of the woodwork. What can I tell you? Public radio listeners love the opportunity to get out.

    Carl Kasell (left) and Peter Sagal bring NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me to Winspear Opera House February 7.

    Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
      
    Photo courtesy of AT&T Performing Arts Center
    Carl Kasell (left) and Peter Sagal bring NPR's Wait Wait Don't Tell Me to Winspear Opera House February 7.
    unspecified
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    Movie Review

    Dark comedy Oh, Hi! takes relationship anxiety to the extreme

    Alex Bentley
    Jul 25, 2025 | 1:04 pm
    Logan Lerman and Molly Gordon in Oh, Hi!
    Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
    Logan Lerman and Molly Gordon in Oh, Hi!.

    Movies that depict new or burgeoning relationships tend to focus on the romantic side of things, as the prospect of love is intoxicating whether viewers are in their own relationship or not. Less often depicted is the awkwardness and confusion that can arise when getting to know someone new, something that is done to extreme effect in the new film Oh, Hi!.

    Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman), who’ve been dating for a few months, decide to take a weekend getaway to the country, which for them means a small town called High Falls, New York (a broken welcome sign has Iris mistakenly call it O High Falls). Having rented a farmhouse for the weekend, the new couple get strawberries from a roadside stand, enjoy the charming nature of the countryside, and, of course, have sex.

    The discovery of some S&M gear in the house inspires Iris and Isaac to get a little kinky. But some post-coital talk turns tense when Iris gushes about how happy she is to have a great boyfriend, and Isaac, still chained to the bed, tells Iris that he doesn’t consider them to be exclusive. This revelation breaks Iris to a degree, and instead of unchaining him, she uses his vulnerable position to try to convince him that they should be together.

    Written and directed by Sophie Brooks, the film is initially an interesting twist on the anxiety that can come with new relationships. Typically manifested in things like obsessing over what to wear or when to call/text someone back, Brooks and Gordon (who came up with the story together) instead decide to go all in on a woman acting “crazy” when confronted with information that doesn’t match her reality.

    Iris’ bad decision to keep Isaac chained to bed and obliviousness to the off-the-wall way she is acting are heightened for effect, although the feelings she’s experiencing remain relatable despite her actions. The conversations Iris and Isaac have, as well as the Google deep dives Iris does to try to discover ways to get Isaac to see the error of his ways, are light and funny despite the seriousness of the situation Iris has created.

    Brooks brings more characters into the story by having Iris call her best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) for help, with Max deciding to bring along her boyfriend, Kenny (John Reynolds). Although their presence adds to the humor of the situation, it also distracts from the main point and leads into some territory that gets a bit too broad. If the story had remained just Iris and Isaac, it might have been able to dig a little deeper than it actually does.

    Gordon, who might be best known for playing Claire on The Bear, does a great job of playing all sides of Iris, from sassy to manic. Although what her character does isn’t defensible, Gordon keeps her likable throughout by never going too over the top. Lerman, a rising star in the early 2010s when he played Percy Jackson, settles nicely into a more adult role, and he too never overplays the absurd situation.

    There are no real insights in Oh, Hi!, but it’s a pleasant watch that accomplishes the goal of delivering a completely different type of romantic comedy. Unless viewers have had an experience with someone who acted anywhere close to Iris, they should be able to enjoy the movie thanks to the committed performances of Gordon and Lerman.

    ---

    Oh, Hi! is now playing in theaters.

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