JONATHAN COULTON: This is NPR's ASK ME ANOTHER. I'm Jonathan Coulton. Now here's your host, Ophira Eisenberg.
(APPLAUSE)
OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:
Thank you, Jonathan. Before the break, we met our contestants Anna and Liz. Soon they'll play a game about the 1990s.
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EISENBERG: Yeah. Do you remember that iconic "Friends" poster of Rachel and Ross and the gang and they're all drinking milkshakes out of cute straws? Yeah, do you remember straws?
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: What have we done? Anna, what fashion do you love from the '90s?
ANNA FENSKE: So I was born in '96, so I didn't really experience this stuff.
EISENBERG: So like a onesie?
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: I mean, probably you had some baggy clothes. That was hip. Liz, what fashion did you love from the '90s?
LIZ JAZWIECKI: This may have just been me, but I had these, like, woven vests with individual Disney princesses on them...
(LAUGHTER)
JAZWIECKI: ...That I would - like, I would kill to have again today.
COULTON: It was not just you, Liz.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: Your next game is a music parody called 1990s Nostalgia (laughter). Anna, you are going to do great.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: Liz, stay in the lead and you're in the final round. Anna, you need more points or you'll receive a tube of brown lipstick.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: We changed the lyrics to hit songs from the 1990s to make them about things associated with the 1990s. Ring in to tell me what '90s thing I am singing about. And if you're correct, you can earn a bonus point by naming the original song or the artist who made it famous. Here we go.
(Singing, playing guitar) And you sat alone in a boggy marsh. Totally parentless, it sounds pretty harsh. A nuclear transfer from a somatic cell. She's a perfect copy, and she's famous as well.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Liz.
JAZWIECKI: Dolly the sheep.
COULTON: Dolly the sheep. That's right.
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COULTON: First cloned sheep.
EISENBERG: That's right. Although hard to say 'cause if you want to pick an animal where they really look all alike...
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COULTON: It's true. It could've been a lie. They just picked a sheep. Yeah, it's a clone.
EISENBERG: There's a clone.
COULTON: It worked.
EISENBERG: Yeah.
COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the song or the artist?
JAZWIECKI: Couldn't tell you.
COULTON: OK. That was "Lump" by the Presidents of the United States of...
JAZWIECKI: Oh, OK.
COULTON: Sure.
(APPLAUSE)
COULTON: (Singing, playing guitar) I don't want to wait...
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: That's actually the real words to this song.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: I just - that song is just in me, and I can't...
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: They love that song. Everyone has that song in their head all the time.
COULTON: Everyone - it's always stuck in there the whole time.
EISENBERG: Yeah.
COULTON: OK.
(Singing, playing guitar) I don't want to pay for these songs. I'm declaring that it just doesn't count as stealing if it helps me. I'm just going to use peer-to-peer file sharing. This program will download these songs for free.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Anna.
FENSKE: Napster.
COULTON: Napster is the answer.
(APPLAUSE)
COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the original song?
FENSKE: I don't know if I know the title of it.
(Singing) I don't want to wait...
COULTON: Yeah, that's the title.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: That's the other part of the joke is that the words that I sang were the title to the song.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: (Singing, playing guitar) Turn call waiting off. Click and sign on. Listen to the modem wail. (Rapping) Chat rooms - it's fine if I log on, and I'm logging on just fine. (Singing, playing guitar) Hissing screeching noise, 56K. Then it says you've got mail. (Rapping) Signed on, got my line on a splitter. There's a splitter on my line.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Liz.
JAZWIECKI: It's AOL.
COULTON: AOL is the answer. That's right.
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COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the original song or artist?
JAZWIECKI: "Gin And Juice."
COULTON: Yeah, that's right. Snoop Dogg.
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EISENBERG: So glad I hung onto my CompuServe email address.
COULTON: I know.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: Here we go.
(Singing, playing guitar) I don't want to drink wine cooler. That's what I said now. No, thanks. Beer is not my ruler. No foamy head now. I want something clear and malty with a citrus bite now. Looks cool, but the taste is kind of faulty like a burning sprite now.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Anna.
FENSKE: I'm going to take a wild guess and say Zima.
COULTON: Zima is correct.
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COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the song or the artist?
FENSKE: "Two Princes."
COULTON: Yeah, that's right. Spin Doctors.
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COULTON: (Singing, playing guitar) A little bit of Indigo Girls tonight. A little Suzanne Vega sounding right. And now Fiona Apple's on the stage. I know that Tracy Chapman's all the rage. I hear that Luscious Jackson's singing next. Shawn Colvin's also here, don't be perplexed. Forget it if you're here to see a man 'cause this was part of Ms. McLachlan's plan.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Liz.
JAZWIECKI: Lilith Fair.
COULTON: Lilith Fair. That's right.
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COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the song or artist?
JAZWIECKI: "Mambo No. 5."
COULTON: Yeah.
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EISENBERG: I feel like I have every single one of those women's CDs...
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: ...Like, all of them. Yep.
COULTON: Yeah.
(Singing, playing guitar) What does it want? It wants to eat again. I'm caring for a key-chain pet. Is this thing dead? Forgot to feed again. I'm a hostage of a key-chain pet.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Anna.
FENSKE: Tamagotchi.
COULTON: Tamagotchi. That's right.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)
COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the original song or artist?
FENSKE: I cannot.
UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE: Oh.
FENSKE: I know the melody.
EISENBERG: Don't get that upset. Don't get that upset.
(LAUGHTER)
FENSKE: I don't know the name.
COULTON: It was "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba.
FENSKE: Yeah, I don't know the name.
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COULTON: That's all right. This is your last clue. (Singing, playing guitar) Girl, beware on New Year's. They said computers think it's 1900. Software, software, software is why we're all, we're all, we're all going to die.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
COULTON: Anna.
FENSKE: Y2K.
COULTON: Y2K bug. That's right.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: In hindsight, we should have let that run its course.
COULTON: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: It would've been for the best.
(LAUGHTER)
COULTON: For a bonus point, can you name the song or artist?
FENSKE: I don't know the name. Is it called "That Thing?"
COULTON: I'm sorry. That is part of the name of the song. I need the whole name of the song.
FENSKE: I don't know if I can give you the whole name of the song.
COULTON: Anna, you have to do this.
(LAUGHTER)
FENSKE: I don't have it.
COULTON: All right. It was actually "Doo-Wop (That Thing)" by Lauryn Hill.
EISENBERG: It means right now we have a tie. So we have a tie-breaker question.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: All right. Whoever gets this moves to the final round. Here's your question. What robotic bird-like toy pet was released by Hasbro in 1998?
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
EISENBERG: Liz.
JAZWIECKI: Furby.
EISENBERG: That is correct.
(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)
EISENBERG: Well played, both of you. Congratulations, Liz, you are moving to the final round.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
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