Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!/Funny

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • To announce a Not My Job segment based on The World Cup, Carl let off an epic "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLL!!". It had to be heard to be believed. Doubles as a Crowning Moment of Awesome that he could do that. (Here, under "Carl's Special FX")
  • A story about the discovery that mice sang to attract mates included the playing of a mouse song: "Let's Get it On" by Marvin Gaye played in a high pitch.
  • The discussion of Bill Gates' company e-mail titled "Clippy Must Die!" led to a run of jokes about Clippy being "taken out."
  • Sort of an in-show example, the Tony Shalhoub "Not My Job" segment is so funny that they've aired it no less than three times during 2010.
    • Including two consecutive Best-Of shows!
  • An unbelievably funny one in a best-of episode a few months back about how annoying the paperclip from Microsoft Word is and how many people would like to kill him (including, it turns out, Bill Gates). The whole monologue is hilarious but the last line is hysterical:

"'It looks you're digging a grave! Is this a business grave or a personal grave?'"

  • There was also the whole bit on Peepers the Duck accidentally foiling a bank robbery.

Adam Felber: In retrospect, that was the most deeply flawed part of our plan. Next time, NO DUCKS!!

  • And then there's the time George Takei was the Not My Job guest, and ended up in one of the best It Makes Sense in Context moments ever:

Peter Sagal: So, let me get this straight: you're going to "go down flaming" because you "believe men are necessary."

Craig Ferguson: I'm gonna go with the Astors and the three way with the monkey.

  • An older episode began with guest host Adam Felber responding to complaints that they went overboard on the previous week's show making fun of the Republicans:

Adam: You said this was just another example of the media's liberal bias, and that we would never treat the Democrats that badly. [beat] Oh we wouldn't, would we?

    • During the furor over the two British sailors detained in Iran, Peter Sagal said then-President Bush had even gotten on the phone with the Prime Minister and explained “what we would've done if Iran had done such a thing to us. Namely: invade Nepal.”
  • Meghan McCain's appearance on "Not My Job" included this gem involving food at state fairs:

Adam Felber: "Every day was 'Hot Beef Sunday' on the Edwards campaign!"

  • Paula's epic bluff about air turbulence, punctuated with stoner jokes about Keith Richards (who had fallen out of a tree recently).
  • When the Wait Wait staff finds something funny, they tend to repeat it a lot. The Tony Shalhoub interview above is one example; another is Paula Poundstone's debate with/rant at diet guru Michael Pollan about snack cakes.
    • The best part of that one is that Pollan's argument (which was, simply, that we shouldn't eat processed snack foods) caused Paula to exclaim "What the hell's the matter with you?" twice.
  • In a game of "guess the real headline", one of the option was "Strip Search Finds Crack Between Buttocks". They nearly had to stop the show because Faith Salie almost died laughing. As it turns out, it was also the real headline, and she got the points.)
  • For Henry Winkler's go at Not My Job, all the answers turned out to be A. Or as Fonzie would say, Aaay!
  • The one limerick contestant who apparently didn't know what a fork was.
  • During a "Not My Job" segment with Tom Hanks (the "nicest guy in Hollywood"):

Tom Hanks: Can I just say one thing?
Peter Sagal: What?
Tom Hanks: Damn you to hell!