Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! - Wait Wait's Letter from the Editors IV

Episode Date: December 2, 2020

A bonus podcast featuring material from Wait Wait's cutting room floor. This week an exciting new amusement park and a questionable experiment with animals.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Three, two, one. Welcome to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me's Letter from the Editors, where we bring you stuff we recorded for the show, but had to cut. Check, check, check. I got four green dots. Is that going to be good there, Lorna? I have all red. Is that a problem? Ready? Testing, testing. Hey guys, can I get a quick time out because my cat has been really loud.

Testing. Testing. Sorry about that. I don't know if you guys could hear, but my cat was just being so loud. We'll be right back. Welcome to this week's Letter from the Editors. I'm Mike and I'm here with Jennifer. Hello. And we are two of the show's producers or editors and this is the place where we bring you all the stuff we couldn't fit into the regular podcast. We didn't have a show last week. It was Thanksgiving. Mike, how was your Thanksgiving? It was great. Good. And so that is why we are bringing you some

leftovers from weeks gone by. We have more from our panel, Peter Gross, Maeve, and Eugene Cordero. But first up, here's a little treat from Alonzo, Faith, and Adam Burke. Alonzo, a team of scientists are being lauded this week for an experiment where they studied the vocal patterns of alligators after they made the alligator do what? Wow. It's just one of those things. An alligator question puts me in the mind of Florida, which means it could be anything. Anything.

It could be anything on Earth. Feeding them a certain thing? No. Is it feeding them something? No. Close, but no. Can you give me some kind of hint? Sure.

Well, the trick was getting the alligator to suck on the balloon oh they gave them helium yes they gave the alligators helium to breathe the scientists were conducting a study about the vocal residences of alligators which is boring but you know what's not alligators talking with funny voices they're a lot less scary when they're like float up to you going, Hey, come into the water. I'm going to bite you. Do you know how much better that show would have been if it was Alligator and the Chipmunks?

It would have been one episode, and the second episode would have just been Alligator. Are we sure this wasn't just a bet? I bet you can't get that alligator to suck up the helium out of this balloon. Maeve, Disneyland may still be closed. Oh. But amusement park lovers have another choice. Wunderland Kalkar in Germany, a theme park built inside an old what?

Oh, a car factory. No, I'll give you a hint. You'll have so much fun at Wunderland Kalkar, you'll glow. A radium, radium factory. Yes, a nuclear power plant. Chernobyl, more like Chirespil. Wunderland Kalkar theme park is built in 1985, but it never went online due to safety concerns

because when you get on a roller coaster, you want to know it was built somewhere that had to shut down Sunderland Calcar theme park is built in 1985, but it never went online due to safety concerns. Because when you get on a roller coaster, you want to know it was built somewhere that had to shut down because it was not safe. Oh, man. That's a great train of thought. Oh, it's a nuclear power plant. Oh, I won't go. But don't worry. It was never put online.

Okay, I guess I'll go. But because it wasn't safe. Oh, no, maybe I shouldn't go. No, apparently it's great. They offer 40 rides. They have a swing ride inside the old cooling tower, which they've painted to look really bright and fun. It's great. And just like Disneyland, there are fun characters everywhere.

But at Wunderland, the giant mouse with the body of a man just keeps saying, please kill me. Oh, no. It's nice to know that other countries have horrible ideas also. Because this does sound like something where you'd be like, wait a minute, there's a theme park in Alabama inside an old knife factory or something like that. I'm going to tell you, maybe I've been locked inside too long, but I was looking at the website for Wunderland Kalkar and it looked great. All these kids having a good time. And I'm telling you this, with your price of admission, you get as much as much soda ice cream and french fries as you

want true fact but i don't really know the wisdom of giving a child as much soda like i don't know who's the parent here as much soda and as much ice cream and then putting them on a roller coaster towards a nuclear reactor yeah that just seems like a vomitorium like express. Sounds like an origin story for a superhero. We have one last thing for you. So during the pandemic, we've been able to experiment with a lot of different things because we are recording the show via Zoom now,

which means we're not recording the show in front of a large sold out audience. And just like any experiment, most of them don't work. This game is a perfect example. We recorded this early on in the pandemic when human beings were all locked down and the rest of the planet started to notice. Panel, it is time for a new game that we're calling... Animal Crossing.

As you probably know, the global lockdown has given the animals a chance to take the Earth back, so we're going to ask you about the new masters of the planet, but you have to give your answer in the form of the sound the animal makes. Here we go. Paula, the Wall Street Journal reports that with people at overseas call centers working from home, people have been calling customer service lines, and more and more they're hearing what animal, and remember, you have to answer in the form of their sound. Oh, they're working from their home?

Yes. So they're hearing... No, they're hearing... Oh! They're hearing roosters. Well, that's it. Yeah, but you know what? My cat is an impressionist.

All right, Tom. In Thailand, without tourists to feed them, hundreds of monkeys were caught on camera engaging in a massive monkey gang fight. So what does a massive monkey gang fight sound like? Woof, woof. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha! My bad.

Yes, that was a very accurate rendition of a monkey fight. Nagin, this week in San Jose... That was actually done by my cat, just to prove a point. Nagin, this week in San Jose, California, a large herd of a certain animal broke loose and wreaked havoc in a particular suburb. What was the animal, or rather, what was that animal's sound? A herd of an... You were so close.

It was... It was a goat. I can tell you did a sheep though. I just want to say that was my interpretation of a goat. No, that was a sheep. I could tell. Don't goats and sheep

sound essentially the same? I think sheep are more like... And goats are like... They're sort of, and goats are like, they're sort of lower and more... Oh, like my grandmother. Yeah. Paula, officials in China are denying reports that a pair of what animal stomped into a village and got drunk?

What animal? Make sure you do the sound. How about... Pigs. No, it was actually an elephant. I'll try to do an elephant. I can't do an elephant. I'll try to do an elephant. I can't do an elephant. I'll get my cat to do it.

Cat, cat, come here. Come here. Oh, that was pretty good. Here, kitty, kitty, kitty.