For the last several years, my schedule has put me in my car on Saturday morning, just in time for Car Talk and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me (Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - Wikipedia). This weekend, while listening to the introduction of the panelists (which are not always the same), I realized (to my surprise) that I have a favorite lineup - Paula Poundstone (for the rants), Mo Rocca (for the randomness), and Roy Blount, Jr. Anyone else want to admit having a favorite set of panelists?
I’ll go for PP and Roy Blunt. Mo Rocca’s okay, as is Adam Felber, but I prefer Charlie Pierce.
Roy Blount’s really grown on me. I always really like PJ O’Rourke as well.
Another vote for Paula Poundstone, either Roy Blount Jr or Tom Bodett, and either Adam Felber or Mo Rocca.
That British guy that was on a couple of weeks ago was hilarious - I’d like to hear more of him.
Oh, that’s a toughie.
Mo Rocca, for sure.
Paula Poundstone, too.
It’s hard for me to pick #3. I think I’d go Roy Blount, Jr., but I also like PJ O’Rourke for a bit of balance.
Definitely PP and RBJ. Past those two, it doesn’t really matter.
God, he was hilarious.
The last few weeks were just so terrible with no Paula Poundstone. I like her and Mo Rocca, I think, the best.
I don’t care whose on the panel as long as they meet over the corpses of Kyrie O’Connor and Roxanne Roberts.
Paula, Roy, and Mo are my longtime favorites. Lately I’ve started to appreciate Tom Bodett, and one of the newer guys … either Brian Babylon or Maz Jobrani … maybe both, I can’t really remember. A lot of the other panelists just seem like fillers.
Paula Poundstone, Roy Blount, and then alternate Mo Rocca and P.J. O’Rourke from about a decade ago when he seemed to enjoy doing the show.
No love for Luke Burbank? I’m a big fan of his podcast Too Beautiful To Live.
Heh, yea. I wish the show was a lot quicker to put people out to pasture once they stopped being funny. O’Rourke pretty much makes one joke every show so he can justify his paycheck. And its usually basically the same joke (“Republicans like guns and drugs, hah!”). I do vaguely remember him being funny many years ago, but he seems to pretty much be a warm body to use as the “token conservative” now.
Ditto Kyrie O’Connor and Roxanne Roberts, except so far as I can remember, they were never funny. And they often don’t even bother to put in the one joke every episode.
Roberts and O’Conner also annoy me because even aside from Poundstone, there are some decent female panelists. And as WWDTM seems to have decided they can’t have an all male panel, you’d think we’d see more of the other woman. But instead the need to have one woman on every show means they keep going back to those two.
The best part was that he’d clearly never heard the show before as he was surprised by and then proceded to mock the limerick challenge.
Mo Rocca and Paula Poundstone shouldn’t be on together. They are the two slowest guests as they really like to expand on their answers and I think Peter has a hard time keeping the show on time which decreases the pun rate overall.
If the show has a lot of medical or science questions, I choose Paula.
With lots of pop culture questions, I’ll take Mo.
Lots of politics, I’ll take Maz.
And my other two would be Adam Felber and Alonzo Bolden.
That all being said, I am going to recommend anyone who hasn’t heard it yet to check out NPR’s “Ask Me Another”. It is a great light hearted quiz show with more word and song puzzles than news items. I think it is a great compliment to Wait Wait and I hope they pick it up and more NPR stations put it on the air as it is just finding its rhythm.
Wait Wait just did a show from my neck of the woods (Maine) and I was disappointed that tickets sold out faster than I could lay my hands on one. When the episode aired, I sighed in relief that neither Paula nor Mo had been panelists.
So, Paula and Mo are first tier. Folksy and/or humorous men (Charlie, Roy, Alonzo, etc.) are second tier and almost always entertaining. Female columnists are third tier but tolerable if they have two other upper tier people to balance them. PJ O’Rourke is a no-go for me–I’d rather skip that week’s episode.
The Brit and Bobcat Goldthwaite showed promise.
I’ve heard Paula on other things and thought she stunk but for some reason she really shines in this format.
I always visualize Rosie O’Donnell when I hear PP speaking. Actually they don’t look alike at all.
I guess my favorite line-up would be PP, Mo and Roy Blount but really I like the rotation they have now. Kyrie O’Conner has her moments as do the others.
Agree the Brit showed promise.
Charlie Pierce is my favorite panelist, due to his comic timing. He also appears on “The Stephanie Miller Show” quite frequently. Roy Blount, Jr. and Tom Bodett are also pretty funny.