OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST:
Our next contestants are Jo Firestone and Manolo Moreno, hosts of the podcast "Dr. Gameshow." So hey; do you remember when you guys were on stage with us back in January?
JO FIRESTONE: No.
EISENBERG: And it was at the Bell House?
FIRESTONE: No.
EISENBERG: In front of a big crowd?
FIRESTONE: No.
EISENBERG: Yeah.
MANOLO MORENO: Did we start recording? Is this it?
EISENBERG: This is the show.
MORENO: Oh, my bad. I'm sorry. I was like, oh, you're doing this - I thought you were just doing small talk because...
EISENBERG: The show is small talk.
JONATHAN COULTON, BYLINE: Now it makes me feel like you think the show should be better than it is 'cause this is...
MORENO: No. No.
COULTON: This is all we got, man.
EISENBERG: I mean, the last 10 seconds were the peak of the show. Right now we're going through it. We're almost wrapped. We're almost wrapped.
(LAUGHTER)
FIRESTONE: It's OK. He asks me that all the time. Have we started? Is this it?
COULTON: Is this the show? Is this the show?
MORENO: I do miss your audience, though.
EISENBERG: (Laughter) Thanks. Well...
COULTON: They're a lovely audience.
EISENBERG: Well, it's good to see you too, OK? Sorry we couldn't get them.
MORENO: Me and your audience go way back.
(LAUGHTER)
FIRESTONE: Oh, yeah.
EISENBERG: And you - you know, so we obviously are doing this in this format now. And you guys are also continuing "Dr. Gameshow."
FIRESTONE: Yeah. Yeah. We are on this very same format.
EISENBERG: In the same format. And what do you think? Has it brought out the best in you, the best in everyone?
FIRESTONE: Well, the first time we did it, we got Zoombombed (ph).
COULTON: Oh, no.
MORENO: Yeah.
FIRESTONE: Starting with pictures of quesadillas and ending with human quesadillas.
COULTON: Oh, no.
FIRESTONE: And it was really bad. And then after that, we learned about Zoom safety. And now it's been better.
COULTON: Did they really start with pictures of quesadillas?
FIRESTONE: Yeah. I think it was - they looked pretty good. I was like, that's silly and playful. And then it got really silly and really playful.
COULTON: Went dark.
MORENO: That's like troll etiquette to kind of ease you into horror.
FIRESTONE: Yeah. They say, oh, did you get a haircut? And then you say, yeah. And then you say, because it looks horrible.
MORENO: It looks like this.
COULTON: (Laughter).
EISENBERG: All right. You both did so well in our games last time. We made them harder this time.
MORENO: I feel like last time Jo was purposely trying to lose.
FIRESTONE: That's not true. And that's so rude.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: That's - OK. This will be great. So on this first one, you're going to be competing against each other. So you'll take turns. This game is called the Birds and the Bees. And we're going to tell you about some mating habits of the natural world. And you're just going to tell us whether the behaviors we're describing are real or fake. Jo, this first one's for you.
FIRESTONE: Oh, shoot. OK.
EISENBERG: After mating, a female praying mantis will always finish things off by cannibalizing her mate, usually by biting his head off.
FIRESTONE: Oh, I hope so. This is a hopeful true.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: I love a hopeful true. Unfortunately, it is false.
FIRESTONE: No.
EISENBERG: But it is sort of put together because the truth is that she will do this. She will do this but not always.
FIRESTONE: Oh, it's just when she's in the mood.
EISENBERG: Yeah, basically. It's when she's hungry or if he has irritated her.
MORENO: Oh, man.
EISENBERG: All right, Manolo. Here's one for you. True or false - when some species of angler fish are ready to get busy, the male bites the body of the female and becomes a permanent parasite on her body, fusing their tissue and bloodstreams.
MORENO: That's just a metaphor for my last relationship.
(LAUGHTER)
MORENO: No. I'd say false.
COULTON: It is actually true.
MORENO: OK.
FIRESTONE: I got to think about that for a while.
MORENO: Been there.
COULTON: (Laughter).
EISENBERG: All right, Jo. True or false - during mating, the male argonaut octopus self-amputates his best arm of eight and swims away.
MORENO: Was that a euphemism?
COULTON: One of his eight legs is his mating leg.
MORENO: Oh.
FIRESTONE: What? Wow. That's the hose for the octopus's garden, you know. OK. So let's see. I'm going to go ahead and say false.
EISENBERG: It's actually true.
FIRESTONE: No. Shoot. I always say the wrong one.
MORENO: I'm going back through my memory of all the times I shook an octopus's hand.
EISENBERG: Yeah, right?
MORENO: Oh, boy.
COULTON: (Laughter) All right. This the last one. Manolo, is this true or false? The New Mexico whiptail, a female-only species of lizard, has completely done away with males, reproducing asexually.
MORENO: I would say it's true.
COULTON: You are correct. It is absolutely true.
FIRESTONE: Wow. Go, lizards.
EISENBERG: I know.
FIRESTONE: That's like the plot of that comic book "Y: The Last Man" - really good stuff.
(LAUGHTER)
FIRESTONE: "Y: The Last Lizard" (ph).
EISENBERG: Well done. Great game. You both did wonderful.
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