BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ-Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME! the NPR News quiz. I'm legendary anchorman Bill Kurtis, filling in for Carl Kasell.
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KURTIS: We're playing this week with Brian Babylon, Kyrie O'Connor, and Mo Rocca. And here again your host, at Powell Hall in St. Louis, Missouri, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
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SAGAL: In just a minute, Bill builds a rhyme machine out of a Delorean. It's 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. Mo, TV producers in Norway are all pursuing a new trend in Norwegian television programming. They now know the only way to make a show there a hit is to make it what?
MO ROCCA: Well, they were the place that had that popular show with the Yule log basically with the fire.
SAGAL: Right. So therefore they've discovered that the new trend in Norwegian television is shows that are really what?
ROCCA: That are long.
SAGAL: And?
KYRIE O'CONNOR: And boring.
SAGAL: Yes.
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SAGAL: Boring is what we're looking for. It's a new thing in Norwegian TV. A few months ago, as Mo said, millions of Norwegians feverishly tuned into a 12-hour TV show featuring wood burning in a fireplace.
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SAGAL: Seriously, we talked about it on this show. But it turns out that show was such a runaway success other shows have followed its lead. For example, a seven-hour broadcast of a train traveling from Oslo to Bergen, a 134-hour broadcast of a ferry boat making its way up the Norwegian coastline. Half the country watched that.
BRIAN BABYLON: That's drugs.
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SAGAL: Yeah. Well, this does answer the question, is the nation of Norway high? Yes.
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BABYLON: Well, you know what, we have a version of that here in the States. It's called C-SPAN.
SAGAL: Exactly.
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SAGAL: Brian, the TV show "Portlandia," as you may know, is a bizarre surreal comedy shows about the hipsters. People like it.
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BABYLON: The hipsters of Portland, Oregon. It's not just for entertainment. It's now being used to do what?
Well, OK. Give me a slight push, hint.
SAGAL: An assist.
BABYLON: An assist, yeah.
SAGAL: They want people to - apparently they want people to follow the example of special agents Armison and Brownstein.
BABYLON: Oh, they have this video to help people make the city better.
SAGAL: No.
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SAGAL: I can tell that Mo wants to answer. Shall I let Mo answer?
BABYLON: Damn.
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SAGAL: Go ahead, Mo.
BABYLON: Yeah.
ROCCA: They're using it to train police officers.
SAGAL: So close.
ROCCA: The police officers are using it for things to make people safe.
SAGAL: They're using it to train FBI agents.
ROCCA: OK.
SAGAL: But I'll give you that, police officers, FBI agents.
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SAGAL: An FBI instructor contacted the "Portlandia" producers and requested to use a clip from the show in his terrorism and espionage class.
BABYLON: Yeah, what case can you get...
SAGAL: Well, we don't know.
BABYLON: Like I've seen pretty much every episode. What criminal is doing anything...
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BABYLON: I don't get it.
O'CONNOR: Well, if you found a criminal with a bird on it...
BABYLON: You're right, you're right.
(LAUGHTER)
BABYLON: Well, you're right.
SAGAL: So we don't know why this guy wants to do this because he didn't explain. Either he's taking a really outside-the-box approach to teaching counterterrorism or he's a substitute teacher and he's doing what all substitutes do and he's just showing the kids a video.
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BABYLON: So, hold on, Peter. Let me get this straight.
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BABYLON: Let me get this straight.
SAGAL: Right.
BABYLON: The sequester didn't stop this one?
SAGAL: No, no, no. This goes on, man.
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SAGAL: Mo, the new Mercedes S Class sedan, that's the ultra luxury model, goes for six figures. It has a feature Rolls Royces and Bentleys just don't have. With the touch of a button inside your Mercedes S Class you can now do what?
ROCCA: You can - oh, my gosh. With the touch of a button you can do something that can't be done in a Rolls Royce or in a Bentley.
SAGAL: Or any other car, frankly.
BABYLON: You can put a bird on it.
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ROCCA: You can do - I'll take my clue now.
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SAGAL: Hey, was that you or my $100,000 car?
ROCCA: Oh, it - what it does is it instantly sucks away flatulence.
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SAGAL: No. You're on the right track.
ROCCA: It immediately takes bad odors and it sprays something nice that neutralizes them.
SAGAL: You're close enough. What it does is you can select the odor you want in your car.
ROCCA: OK.
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SAGAL: There you are. So it's for the person...
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SAGAL: It's for the person who's rich and powerful and yet is frustrated that the very air will not yet bend to his will.
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SAGAL: Get this, Mercedes will provide you in your car an aerosol dispenser with four custom-made scents right for any occasion. There's sports, that's the name of the scent, if you're going to a sporting event or you're purchasing another NFL franchise.
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ROCCA: Well, so - and I'm guessing most just wanted to smell like money.
SAGAL: Yeah.
ROCCA: There must be like a button for that. But that sounds - it's a way also for guys probably to cover their tracks. Like if you're with a mistress or something, then you can press a button to make the car smell like your wife. So that when she gets in...
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BABYLON: Because you know what?
SAGAL: Oh, I see what you mean.
ROCCA: Yeah.
BABYLON: Women know scents. They - that's where Mo - because a woman would know, like who's been in this car just immediately.
SAGAL: Really?
BABYLON: Yes, bloodhound. And they have bloodhound DNA.
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BABYLON: I read that.
ROCCA: And this is precisely why guys should only marry each other.
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(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.