A GQ question about Click and Clack reminded me that I’ve been meaning to ask this question for a while:
At the end of each episode of Car Talk, Ray reads of a list of made up credits for punny-named “staff” like their Public Opinion pollster Paul Murky of Murky Research and their Statistician Marge Innovera.
Well, for what feels like several years now, Ray has almost said the name of one staff member from time to time, and then acted like no, he’d really better not say that one. Like if he said, “Our Match Game host, Knead… well, no, maybe not.”
Sometimes he says more of the name than others, and I could almost swear one time he actually said the whole thing, or at least enough of it to convey the joke, but for the life of me I never catch it and it’s frustrating the hell out of me.
Anyone have any ideas, or maybe caught it the time I think he said it?
I’ve got close to 7 years worth of the show archived to MP3, but I really don’t want to go through them all.
Sometimes I think he starts to read a new fake name and decides half way through that it’s not funny or not appropriate and skips to the next. It’s like maybe he hadn’t read them until that moment and was editing on the fly.
Is that what you mean?
Anyway, if the job category is “Match Game host”, then it’s probably meant to reference somewhat bawdy Match Game-style humor. My bet is that the name is “Nita Dick” or something like that, and Ray starts to read it and changes his mind.
Yes, exactly. Except that he seems to start reading the same name from week to week and deciding against it. Like the joke is, “this week, I’m gonna sneak it past 'em.” The job title is the same every time he “chickens out.” I want to make clear that I’m sure he never actually intends to say the name, but I think over the years, he’s let enough slip that smart folks like us should be able to figure out the joke.
Yes, but I’ve looked and I don’t see anything there that looks borderline offensive enough to merit this.
I didn’t say the job title is “Match Game host,” I used that as my example of him stopping partway through the name. Sorry for the confusion.
Well, I’m off to listen to a dozen or so [del]episodes[/del] ending credits and see if I can catch enough of it to provide a better example.
If they ever do a crossover with Wait Wait, they can thank one of Wait Wait’s staff, Less Lethargic. (What is that person’s name anyway, I can’t google something if I don’t know how to spell it!)
I think I’ve found the episode where he says enough of it to get it.
The episode which aired here on 11/5/2011 has the following among the credits:
followed by Tommy laughing, then Ray goes on to Political Consultant Mark Iavelli.
I was pretty sure the title had “anger” in it. Oddly, “Tara Neuwon” is on the above-linked list as Staff Disciplinarian II. Perhaps he copped out because he’d gotten two credits mixed up.
Anyway, I guess as far as I’m concerned this is asked and answered. It just took me digging out my archive discs and sitting down to go through them.
I definitely hear Lester Zajak as another name: I think he pronounces it very carefully so he doesn’t say “Sajak”. This other name comes before Lester I believe and sounds more like “Les Thelargic” (not “Less Lethargic” which is what I always hear it as), and afterward it’s followed by a name that sounds like “Mohammed Mau”.
Not that anyone is still reading this thread, but I just listened to this week’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” and Peter seemed to enunciate Les’s name extra carefully for whatever reason. It’s Les Stalarchic, and he’s an engineer, not an intern as I thought. Also, the Zajak is John Zajak, some sort of liaison at Chase Bank.
