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Like many of you out there, I've been listening to Chicago Public Radio's Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me for a number of years now. Listening to current events get lambasted with sharpness and wit is a good way to prevent oneself from becoming too pissed off about the state of things in the world. Additionally, the Wait, Wait podcast makes runs, walks, and long drives way more informative and amusing than any of them manages to be on its own. And to some degree, Wait, Wait actually forces me to take an active interest in current events. I wouldn't get the jokes if I didn't take such pains to be well-informed. (Same goes for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.) Of course, the content wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable if the personalities involved didn't know what to do with it.
Often, my enjoyment of the show hinges on which panelists are involved. Certain panelists can bring the funny to even the most humorless special guest. Now, I'm not saying that Michael Pollan was humorless when he came on the show, but it was really the Wait, Wait crew -- Paula Poundstone in particular -- that made his appearance on the show one of my all-time favorites. When I think of my ultimate Wait, Wait panel, Paula Poundstone is always included.
What? Are you telling me you don't have an ultimate Wait, Wait panel? Think about it, you know you do. Mine is made up of Paula Poundstone, Adam Felber, and Roy Blount, Jr. Paula and Adam (it's NPR, so being on a first-name basis in a fawning blog post feels about right) are consistently quick and hysterical with sharp timing. It's fine to make a good joke, but to time it perfectly determines how funny that joke will be. Paula and Adam do it right pretty much every time.
Roy's timing is very different, but it took me a while to realize what exactly the difference is. Roy has this sort of meandering, old-man-on-the-porch quality that allows him to sneak up on a joke. It's only when he gets to the very last word that the full impact of the joke hits you. And then when he does make the joke, Roy almost seems as surprised as everyone else.
When those three are on the same show, I'm in Wait, Wait heaven. However, as long as one of them is on with two others -- Charlie Pierce is a runner-up in my affections because of his awesome laugh and P.J. O'Rourke because of his conservatism -- then I know the show is going to be pretty good. I get bummed if NONE of them are on.
Of course, my ideal panel exists only when Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell are givens for the show as well. Because you know there are those unsettling times when Peter and Carl take well-deserved vacations and Luke Burbank and Korva Colman tag in for them. When that happens, my weekend calm stumbles. It's like having a substitute for your favorite teacher. They know how to do the job and it's not that they do anything wrong, but it's still not right.
On television, you are highly influenced -- for better or for worse -- by the way people look. With radio, all you have to go on are the voices. Not just what they say but how they sound, so it's strangely jarring when my weekend habit pipes unfamiliar voices through my earbuds.
When sound is all you have to go on, it's a no-brainer that you become highly attuned to anything you hear. A few months ago, I realized I had formed very decided opinions about panelists and the sound of their laughs. Some of the panelists, who shall remain nameless, grate on me. Their voices, their timing, and their laughs. However, in other cases, I actually look forward to hearing the panelists laugh.
Before I get into the dual laughs of Mo Rocca, I'll start off by saying that I'm not Mo's biggest fan. He always seems to be playing a character -- the same character he played on The Daily Show and various VH1 shows -- whereas the other panelists are honestly themselves. In playing the character, Mo is so fixated on being funny that the funny comes off forced and is, therefore, not.
I used to get incredibly annoyed when Mo flibbertygibbeted around his answers during the opening panel round or Lightening Fill-in-the-Blank until Peter Sagal once interrupted Mo mid-flibberty and explained to first-time panelist Julia
