Panel Question
The mummy's mum no more
BILL KURTIS: Also from back in the before times of February, we challenged our panelists to conjure up a voice from the past - an even more distant past.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
PETER SAGAL: Panelists, this week - this is all - for all of you - this week, British scientists recreated what a 3,000-year-old Egyptian mummy's voice would have sounded like when he was alive. Now, before we play it for you, we're going to ask each of you to replicate the voice of a mummy.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Whoever gets closest to the real thing gets a point. We'll start with Maz - your best mummy.
MAZ JOBRANI: OK. (Imitating mummy) Oy, so good to be here in this pyramid.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Very good. Very good.
JOBRANI: (Unintelligible).
SAGAL: Faith.
FAITH SALIE: (Imitating mummy) Oh, mighty Isis.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: What?
SAGAL: And Josh.
JOSH GONDELMAN: I got a thing on my nose. Could somebody scratch that for me?
(LAUGHTER)
GONDELMAN: I can't lift my hands.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right. Very good. Very good. And now here is the actual sound as recreated of an Egyptian mummy in life.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: (Vocalizing).
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Wait a minute.
SALIE: What?
SAGAL: I know. It was a little hard to take in all at once. Let's hear it again.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: (Vocalizing).
SAGAL: That's it.
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: What?
SAGAL: Who knew they were Jewish?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD GUY")
BILLIE EILISH: (Singing) Make your mama sad type, make your girlfriend mad tight, might seduce your dad type. I'm the bad guy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
COMPUTER-GENERATED VOICE: Eh.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILLIE EILISH'S "BAD GUY")
SAGAL: When we come back, Samantha Bee joins us from her pandemic hideout, and what do you do when things get too tense? You Netflix and Bill. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME from NPR.
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