BILL KURTIS, HOST:
From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME!, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We are playing this week with Paula Poundstone, Roxanne Roberts and Adam Felder. And here again is your host at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., Peter Sagal.
(APPLAUSE)
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. Thank you all so much. Right now, of course, it is time for the WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME! Bluff The Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME!
LAUREN GIBSON: Hi, everybody, this is Lauren Gibson and I'm calling from Cleveland, Ohio.
SAGAL: Beautiful Cleveland.
PAULA POUNDSTONE: All right.
SAGAL: Cleveland by the lake. So what do you do there in Cleveland?
GIBSON: I am a defender of the capital market.
SAGAL: A defender of the capital markets.
GIBSON: Yes, indeed. I am an auditor with a Big Four financial services firm.
SAGAL: Oh, that's much less interesting-sounding than a defender of the capital markets.
(LAUGHTER)
ADAM FELBER: Well, that's why she said it that way.
SAGAL: I know. I just - I think you should go with that next time anybody asks. Well, welcome to the show, Lauren. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Lauren's topic?
KURTIS: This sucks slightly less than we thought.
SAGAL: There are things that everybody hates - mosquitoes, taxes, Gwyneth Paltrow. But once in a while, the reviled get redeemed. This week, we read a story about a universally-hated thing actually doing somebody some good. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. All you have to do is pick the one telling the truth. You will win our prize - the voice of the immortal Carl Kasell on your voice mail. Are you ready to play?
GIBSON: Oh, absolutely, born ready.
SAGAL: Born ready she says. Here is your first story. It is from Adam Felber.
FELBER: It appears before us, perfectly round, both beautiful and horrifying and omnipresent, and we literally cannot look away as it drives us utterly mad. No, I'm not rehashing the plot of "The Ring." I am talking about a real-world terror - Kim Kardashian's butt.
(LAUGHTER)
FELBER: But we saw a different side of that butt this week, a heroic side, as she was golfing with her husband, Kanye, in Indian Wells, Calif. Near the 13th green, her caddy, Brian Nova (ph), misjudged a hill, tipping over the golf cart. Miss Kardashian, on the near side, tumbled gently onto the grass. But Nova, on the upward side of the cart, fell headfirst five feet and might have broken his neck had he not landed safely on the supple crash mat of the celebutante's famously generous buttocks.
(LAUGHTER)
FELBER: Embarrassed but relieved, Mr. Nova, previously not a posterior fan, had high praise for the low parts, quote, "I never saw that as an asset before."
(LAUGHTER)
FELBER: But now that this bum's seated back behind the wheel, I fundamentally thank her from the bottom of my heart.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Kim Kardashian's butt saving golf caddy Brian Nova from certain death simply by cushioning his fall. Your next story of something once hated being redeemed comes from Roxanne Roberts.
ROXANNE ROBERTS: Shelley Barcroft (ph) was already in a foul mood when she settled into a middle seat on a redeye from Los Angeles to Boston last week. The gate agent made her check her carry-on because it was one inch too big. The flight was delayed for two hours and since it was a night flight, there was no food or beverage service. And she was squished between two huge guys who promptly fell asleep and started snoring. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, Barcroft started choking on a Werther's caramel drop. With the cabinet lights down, no one noticed she couldn't breathe. It was then, like a miracle from airline hell, that the jerk directly in front of her did what jerks always do - aggressively reclined his seat.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: The sudden jolt slammed the table tray into her rib cage in a one-in-a-million Heimlich-like maneuver.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: And the caramel popped out. Quote, "it was the best terrible flight I've ever had," Barcroft told The Boston Globe. But it was still pretty terrible.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: A woman saved...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: ...From death at the hands of a Werther's candy by a reclining airline seat. Your last story of something that's maybe not as terrible as we thought, at least in this one instance, comes from Paula Poundstone.
POUNDSTONE: Selfie sticks have a bad reputation. Even people who own selfie sticks hate other people using selfie sticks. It may be something in the name. They seem, by nature, selfie-ish. They're banned from many museums, and privately and off the record, curators might admit that it's just a ploy to keep stupid people out.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: For 16-year-old Erynn Johns, vacationing with her family in Nantucket, though, this week a selfie stick became a hero when she and her father took to the water where they were caught in a nearly-lethal riptide. Horrified, Erynn's mother, Jennifer, attempted to save them and also got caught in the riptide. Her father, John (ph), a former Marine, said it was the biggest pickle he'd ever been in. Just when they thought all was lost, John was able to grab the selfie stick, still attached to Erin's wrist with the GoPro, which continued to film, and pull her to relative safety. Fortunately, the lifeguards completed the rescue, and even more fortunately, each of the Johns can show a film of their family almost dying to anyone they can corner with their iPhone.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: One of these things, which normally people dislike, actually helped save a life in the news. Was it, from Adam Felber, Kim Kardashian's butt, which cushioned the fall of a golf caddy? Was it, from Roxanne Roberts, a reclining airline seat, which suddenly Heimliched a woman silently choking to death? Or, from Paula Poundstone, a selfie stick which proved out to be...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: ...The lifeline needed to save a family at peril in the sea. All right, which of those is the real story?
GIBSON: I feel like I would've heard about it if someone fall and landed on Kim Kardashian's butt. So that, in addition to the rampant applause from your audience, is going to have me go for number three, Paula's story.
SAGAL: Oh, I see.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: OK, your choice is Paula's story. Well, to find out the correct answer, we spoke to someone familiar with the truth.
STEPHANIE MCNEAL: The benefits of a selfie stick - we've learned you can get a great picture and you can also be saved from a riptide.
SAGAL: That was Stephanie McNeal. She's a reporter for BuzzFeed, of course, talking about the life-saving selfie stick, which helped save the life of a family in Nantucket. You were right. Your logic was impeccable, Lauren.
GIBSON: Thank you so much.
SAGAL: You were exactly correct. You've earned a point for Paula for telling the truth so convincingly.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: And you've won our prize - Carl Kasell will record the greeting in your voice mail. Well done, Lauren. Thank you so much for playing.
GIBSON: Thank you very much.
SAGAL: Bye-bye.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RESCUE ME")
ARETHA FRANKLIN: (Singing) Rescue me, take me in your arms. Rescue me. I want your tender charms... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.