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Celebrity Grammograms

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:

Let's bring up our next two fearless contestants. We have Andy Kravis and Sara Manaugh.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Andy, you're a bit of a geek. You parody pop songs with law school related lingo. What's up with that?

ANDY KRAVIS: That's right. I'm in the Columbia Law Review, which sounds just like the Columbia Law Review, the journal, except way better and a lot more fun. We write parody words to popular songs, and they have a law theme. And nobody finds them funny except for law students.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: You are adorable. I'm sure someone else finds them funny. We'll find that person, don't you worry.

KRAVIS: Let me know, please.

EISENBERG: And Sara, you are no stranger to the game world, spelling bee champion many times over.

SARA MANAUGH: Back in the day, yeah.

EISENBERG: Back in the day. And you come from a word game and grammatically fun loving family.

MANAUGH: I'm a geek from way back. And I might be even geekier than Andy because I was so geeky when I was at Columbia that I actually envied the people who could get into Columbia Law Review.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I think we've found home for each other, right here on this stage.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: All right, Will, what are they going to play?

WILL HINES: Contestants, this game is called Celebrity Grammograms. Do you know what a grammarian is?

EISENBERG: Who doesn't?

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: Yeah, common topic of conversation. Grammograms are words that sound like combinations of letters. So, like the pasta ziti sounds like the letter "Z" plus the letter "T." That's a grammogram.

So in this game, Celebrity Grammograms, you must guess a well known person combined with the word made by the sound of that person's initials. So, for example, if I asked you about the folk rocker who wrote "Come to My Window," who won one of television's highest honors, that would be a Melissa Etheridge Emmy, because her initials are M-E.

KRAVIS: All right, no problem. No problem.

HINES: Ring in when you know the answer. Winner of this round will go on to the Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. Here we go. If you cloned the host of "Jeopardy" so that you had four score of him, what would be the result?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

HINES: Andy?

KRAVIS: Alex Trebek eighty.

HINES: That is right.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

HINES: When the folk artist behind "Blowing in the Wind" is giving you a penetrating stare, how could he be described?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

HINES: Sara?

MANAUGH: Bob Dylan beady.

HINES: Yep, Beady Bob Dylan.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

HINES: Good old Beady Bob Dylan.

EISENBERG: Just like a woman.

HINES: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: It's like the Saturday morning cartoon version of Bob Dylan.

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: When this redheaded D-list comedian becomes paranoid about people stealing her standup secrets, what does she turn into?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

HINES: Andy?

KRAVIS: Kathy Griffin cagey.

HINES: That is right.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: A nightmare for her assistant was also an acceptable answer.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: I'll take three laughs.

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: If Richard Nixon's first vice president wrote a composition possibly about his resignation over bribery charges, what would this piece be?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

KRAVIS: It would be a Spiro Agnew essay.

HINES: Yes.

(APPLAUSE)

HINES: When the wild-haired boxing promoter behind "Rumble in the Jungle" and the "Thrilla in Manila" brings about a state of rotting, what is it called?

(LAUGHTER)

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

HINES: Andy?

KRAVIS: That's Don King decay.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

HINES: Well known. He was cursed that if he ever says something not in rhyme, he'll die.

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: That's why that happened. If the lead singer of Matchbox 20 is showing off his creativity in a particularly pretentious way, what does he become?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

KRAVIS: He's Rob Thomas arty.

HINES: Yes, he is.

(APPLAUSE)

HINES: If the director of "Inglourious Basterds" is behaving in an adorably endearing manner...

(LAUGHTER)

HINES: What could he be called?

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

HINES: Andy?

KRAVIS: Quentin Tarantino cutey.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

KRAVIS: He is a little bit adorable; you have to admit.

HINES: He can be adorable. Well that's the end of that round, and our winner for that game is Andy.

(APPLAUSE)

EISENBERG: Congratulations, Andy. Thank you, Sara. Andy, you'll be moving on to our Ask Me One More final round at the end of the show. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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