BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We are playing this week with Amy Dickinson, Gabe Liedman and Adam Burke. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill. Thanks everybody.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Right now it is time for the WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME Bluff The Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air. Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME.
IAN DOESCHER: Hi this Ian Doescher from Portland, Ore.
SAGAL: Hey, Portland, we were just there, and we already miss it. What do you do there in Portland?
DOESCHER: I'm an author.
SAGAL: You're an author? That's sort of great. What sort of things do you write?
DOESCHER: I've written a series of books called "William Shakespeare's Star Wars."
AMY DICKINSON: Cool.
SAGAL: "William Shakespeare's Star Wars?"
DOESCHER: Yeah.
SAGAL: Did you have to go to Lucasfilm and say I'd like to do this and they had to say yes?
DOESCHER: As far as I know, they liked the idea enough that at least they'll let me do, you know, six of them.
SAGAL: Right, that's good. Well, it's nice to have you with us, Ian. You're going to play our game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Ian's topic?
KURTIS: Follow the leader.
SAGAL: Those who hold our highest offices aren't always able to get things done. But that's because we never had a leader before - like Martin O'Malley. Oh, I'm sorry we wrote this a year ago, and we thought things were going to go differently.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Anyway, this week we read a story of a world leader finally accomplishing something. Our panelists are going to tell you about it. Pick the real one and you win our prize - Carl Kasell's voice on your voicemail. Are you ready to play?
DOESCHER: I am.
SAGAL: First, let's hear from Adam Burke.
ADAM BURKE: Earlier this month, opponents of Tokyo Mayor Shazo Mizuki released a grainy video of him in a hotel room with a young attractive woman, who, it has been confirmed is very much not his wife, which should have ended his reelection campaign. However, as one voter, Natsuro Yakamura, explains, "when you actually watch the video, he doesn't do anything with her. He just lies on the bed the whole time worrying about municipal issues and budget requests."
(LAUGHTER)
BURKE: It turns out that throughout the entirety of the clips 18-minute running time, Mizuki is too preoccupied with grappling with the reins of power to grapple with much else. According to Japanese daily Nikkei Shinbun, Mizuki lays on the bed moaning, "and don't even start about garbage management. And then there's the trains. Why will no one listen to me about the trains?"
It wasn't all doom and gloom, however. As reporter Miike Haruko explains, "at one point, he starts praising all the hard work done by Tokyo's civic-minded citizens and is impressed with how they cleaned up the city." Many prospective voters, however, appear to have taken his motel manifesto to heart. Not only are several newspapers predicting a landslide win for Mizuki, but volunteer groups have claimed a massive influx of new recruits since the tape was released. No word yet on whether the opposing party plans to release a sex tape of their very own.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: A sex tape that actually helps the mayor of Tokyo win reelection because he's so devoted to civic duties. Your next story of a leader inspiring his followers comes from Amy Dickinson.
DICKINSON: Remember that time the president told all the citizens of his country to take all their clothes off, get naked and work themselves into a sweat? Remember that? No? Well, the president of Belarus remembers it 'cause he did it last week.
President Alexander Lukashenko was trying to give an inspiring speech when he used the Russian phrase for develop yourselves, which apparently sounds just like the phrase get undressed in Russian. When Lukashenko said develop yourselves and it sounded like take your clothes off and work yourselves into a sweat, Belarusians took it literally and staged their own bra exit, as it were.
(LAUGHTER)
DICKINSON: They took it off, took it off. They took it all off. Selfies were posted of naked Belarusian people, and they started popping up on social media with a hashtag #nakedatwork. Good-natured naked tech workers posed in conference rooms, laptops strategically covering their business, naked restaurant workers with their hot buttered buns were exposed and somebody even photoshopped a photo of the president himself as a naked car mechanic posing with a tire iron that you simply cannot unsee no matter how hard you try.
(LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: The people of Belarus getting naked 'cause their dear leader told them to - or at least seemed to. Your last story of an elected official proving his worth comes from Gabe Liedman.
GABE LIEDMAN: The U.K.'s surprising Brexit from the EU caused a wave of panic across the global economy this week, and everyone from Scotland's Shrek to Paris is Pepe Le Pew have been in an absolute tizzy about money. Singapore, a financial hub with strong ties to both London and Brussels, was not immune. Where were they to stand now in the face of so much uncertainty? Hoping to alleviate some of that anxiety, Singapore's President Tony Tan had a very simple message for the thousands of workers in the city-state's financial center, quote, "relax."
In retrospect, Tan now notes his message may have been too simple. For days now, every banker, trader, mortgage lender and financial consultant in Singapore has been on vacation.
(LAUGHTER)
LIEDMAN: And reports today indicate that there's no end in sight. Quote, "President Tan had great advice," Michelle Yu you of TatLee Bank said. "I have not had a vacation in - dot, dot, dot - I have never had one, actually."
(LAUGHTER)
LIEDMAN: Her colleague Daniel Si-yang added, quote, "it turns out I love to relax. There's a Ferris wheel downtown here. Did you know that?"
(LAUGHTER)
LIEDMAN: The two have no plans to return to work anytime soon. Quote, "Working sucks."
(LAUGHTER)
LIEDMAN: "This week has been totally amazing, ha, ha, ha." He continued, quote, "I've never said totally before."
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So...
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: One of these stories is the story of a political leader perhaps inadvertently doing some good or having an effect from around the world. Was it from Adam Burke, how a sex tape of the Tokyo mayor inspired people towards civic engagement, from Amy, how the people of Belarus got naked at work because their dear leader told them to, or from Gabe Liedman, how the leader of Singapore just said relax and everybody did? Which of these is the real story of political influence?
DOESCHER: I think I have to go with the Belarus president.
SAGAL: Really? Why so?
SAGAL: Because it's the only one that sounds even possibly feasible.
SAGAL: All right.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: You're going to go for the most feasible out of all of them. So you chose Amy's story. Well, to bring you the real story, please listen to this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ALEXANDER LUKASHENKO: (Through interpreter) But all in our lives, we must get undressed and work till we sweat.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That was a speech by Alexander Lukashenko, president in Belarus, encouraging his workers to strip and sweat. Congratulations Ian, you got it right. You earned a point for Amy. You won our prize - Carl Kasell's voice.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: And you did it all while remaining clothed - or so I presume.
DOESCHER: So you presume.
SAGAL: All right, well, thank you so much for playing, Ian.
DOESCHER: Thank you.
SAGAL: Bye-bye now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET'S JUST GET NAKED")
JOAN OSBORNE: (Singing) Let's just get naked, just for a laugh. Let's just get naked. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.