BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ-Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME!, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis, filling in for Carl Kasell. We're playing this week with Mo Rocca, Jessi Klein and Alonzo Bodden. And here again is your host, at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
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SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill says words that rhyme with each other, in our listener limerick challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-Wait-Wait, that's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news.
Jessi, one of the advantages of owning a hybrid car is that you save money, of course, by using less gas. One problem, though, according to legislators in Virginia at least, is what?
JESSI KLEIN: One problem with hybrid cars?
SAGAL: Yeah, that they've worked to correct.
KLEIN: That they're too expansive.
SAGAL: Well, it's sort of a glass half full, glass half empty, or gas tank half full, gas tank half empty problem for the...
KLEIN: The gas tank sometimes is half empty.
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KLEIN: Peter, I don't know the answer.
SAGAL: Does anybody else know the answer?
KLEIN: I'm twisting in the wind here.
MO ROCCA: No. It doesn't require a lot of money to fill the gas tank, so their taxes.
SAGAL: Exactly right. The problem with hybrid cars is they don't buy enough gas.
ROCCA: Right.
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SAGAL: The owners don't pay enough gas taxes.
ROCCA: Oh wait, so I got that point.
SAGAL: You did.
ROCCA: Okay. All right.
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ROCCA: Sorry. Sometimes that gets lost.
SAGAL: All right, being green, fine, if you want to go that way, do that, but it doesn't mean you can shirk your duty to pay taxes on stuff you don't need to buy anymore.
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SAGAL: In an interview with CBS, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell said quote "we have to be practical, if everybody had a hybrid car there would be no gas tax revenue," unquote. In fact, many on the Virginia Senate Finance Committee thought the measure should be expanded to include fines on people who don't own cars, because what kind of lame gas tax dodge is that?
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ROCCA: So do you get a tax break if you power your hybrid with coal or just burn wood like in the gas tank?
SAGAL: Yeah, that would be good, I guess, as long as you pollute and pay gases. No, the idea is that because of this they have imposed $100 hybrid fee on every hybrid car. You have to pay a hundred bucks to the state to make up for the gas taxes.
ROCCA: To punish people.
SAGAL: To punish people, yeah. It's only fair to go after hybrid owners and get that extra money because not only are they saving money on gas, they're also saving money on dates that they never have to go on.
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ROCCA: Are hybrids unsexy?
SAGAL: Well...
ALONZO BODDEN: Yes.
SAGAL: All right, Alonzo is a car guy.
ROCCA: All right, you're taking a stance.
BODDEN: Well, no, I mean women who are real into the green thing, like real greenies would go for you in a Prius, but you don't want that.
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BODDEN: You don't want that.
ROCCA: Is that because they'll eat a lot of roughage and - what is it that they're doing that's not...
BODDEN: No, no, they go for the whole thing. You get the whole package with that. You get fleece and funny shoes.
ROCCA: Right.
BODDEN: It's just...
ROCCA: And quinoa.
BODDEN: Yeah, it's not good.
SAGAL: So you wouldn't...
BODDEN: You can't be a bad ass in a hybrid. It's impossible.
ROCCA: You could put a little...
BODDEN: No.
ROCCA: But you could put like fuzzy dice in your hybrid and that would be cool.
KLEIN: I love Mo, that's your idea of what ladies love.
(LAUGHTER)
KLEIN: Some fuzzy dice in that car.
BODDEN: Wait a minute.
ROCCA: And mud flaps with like the silhouette of sexy ladies.
KLEIN: We love that.
SAGAL: Oh yeah.
BODDEN: You know, NPR was going to do away with CAR TALK but now that we got Mo Rocca.
SAGAL: Exactly.
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BODDEN: I think Mo's ready to take over.
SAGAL: Mo, gender specific product branding is nothing new, but a company in Florida has finally released the first what made exclusively for a man?
ROCCA: Celery for men.
(LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: No, I'm trying to...
SAGAL: It is a food. I'll give you a hint. It's part of male culture, if you get my meaning.
ROCCA: Oh, fig leaves. No, but that's always for men.
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ROCCA: Food that's associated with guys.
SAGAL: Well not usually, but now they're going to try to make it associated with...
ROCCA: So it's like a lady kind of fruit that's now like being made for men.
SAGAL: A lady fruit.
KLEIN: I'm ready to jump in and steal Mo's point at any time.
ROCCA: No, you cannot.
KLEIN: I want to steal my point back.
ROCCA: It's unfair because you know more about lady fruits.
(LAUGHTER)
ROCCA: Wait. So a fruit that you wouldn't associate, well I think that...
SAGAL: I never said it was a fruit.
ROCCA: Okay, all right. Okay, sorry. I was revealing too much. Okay, so is it a food?
SAGAL: Yeah, it's a food.
ROCCA: Okay.
SAGAL: It has to do with culture.
ROCCA: Food that has to do with culture. That sounds odd.
SAGAL: Jessi?
KLEIN: Yogurt.
SAGAL: Thank you.
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SAGAL: You know how it is. You and the guys are having a beer after work when all of the sudden it hits, that yogurt craving.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: But, one quick look at the supermarket confirms that we are living in an oppressive yogurt matriarchy. Pink packaging, fruit flavors.
ROCCA: So is it now Mactivia?
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ROCCA: Mactivia.
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SAGAL: No, we've got good news and it's - ladies and gentlemen we'd like to introduce the new product, Brogurt.
ROCCA: Brogurt. Is that true? Is that what it's being called?
SAGAL: I hope so. The company Powerful Yogurt says their Brogurt is made for the modern man's active lifestyle, which, we assume, means the container is funnel shaped so you can squeeze it directly into your mouth.
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SAGAL: And we can't wait for manly yogurt flavors like "truck."
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SAGAL: And the kind you have to stir up like it says, "Leather on the Bottom."
BODDEN: I'm just thinking of hanging out with the boys, piling into a hybrid and going out look for a yogurt.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
BODDEN: You know something, bring on the sequester; we're done.
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KLEIN: If male yogurt marketing is anywhere near as annoying as female yogurt marketing, you are in for a treat.
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KLEIN: Every female yogurt commercial is basically like women in a wedding dress just petting a kitten and eating yogurt.
SAGAL: But the equivalent of the male would be like some guy eating the yogurt over a sink while reading Maxim, you know.
KLEIN: Eating a new yogurt and peeing into his old yogurt container at the same time.
(LAUGHTER)
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ROCCA: Oh that's what the culture was about.
SAGAL: Yes.
ROCCA: All right, okay.
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SAGAL: Twenty minutes later.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.