BILL KURTIS: From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME, the NPR news quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis, and we're playing this week with Helen Hong, Maeve Higgins and Tom Bodett. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you, Bill.
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SAGAL: Thank you so much. In just a minute...
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SAGAL: In just a minute, Elon Musk may be having a baby with Grimes, but Bill's having a baby with rhymes in our Listener...
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SAGAL: ...Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. Right now, panel, some more questions for you from the week's news.
Maeve, a Japanese billionaire has paid for a seat on Elon Musk's proposed rocket ship to the moon. He says he needs one thing before he can go and has announced a worldwide search to get it. What is it?
MAEVE HIGGINS: A companion?
SAGAL: Exactly right. Specifically...
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SAGAL: ...A girlfriend.
HELEN HONG: What?
SAGAL: Yes.
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HONG: What's his number?
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SAGAL: Well, hang on.
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SAGAL: Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa wants to bring his new girlfriend to the moon on Elon Musk's rocket. And if that fever dream appeals to you, apply online.
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SAGAL: Maezawa says he's looking for a woman over 20 who believes in world peace and has a positive attitude. Sure, sounds easy enough. You could do that. But you try to remain positive when your new boyfriend only bought one seat for you both to cram into and your road trip is 238,000 miles long.
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HONG: I love that she has to be over 20.
TOM BODETT: Right.
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BODETT: Well, over 20, positive attitude, believes in world peace - that's like every Miss America Pageant.
SAGAL: I know. That's where he got the idea.
BODETT: But...
HIGGINS: But it's like - it's also so, kind of, hard to spend time with a new person.
SAGAL: Yeah.
HIGGINS: Don't you think?
SAGAL: Oh, absolutely.
HIGGINS: Because you're just, like, trying to hold in farts and everything.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That's not the first thing I thought of.
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HIGGINS: No, like, I'm happy with my personality. It's just the wind.
(LAUGHTER)
BODETT: Right. But yeah. And if you're in a space capsule...
HIGGINS: Yeah.
BODETT: ...For like...
HIGGINS: It'd be so rude...
BODETT: ...Thirty days...
SAGAL: Yeah.
HIGGINS: ...Don't you think?
BODETT: It would be.
HIGGINS: To be like, hey, thank you so much for the billion dollars and for bringing me to the - (vocalizing). Like, it's just...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Yeah. Right.
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: ...So mortifying.
SAGAL: Yeah.
HIGGINS: And you...
SAGAL: And it...
HIGGINS: ...Couldn't be like, I didn't - I don't know who did that.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Yeah.
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HONG: Wait, you can't - it's not like you're alone in the capsule. You're there with...
HIGGINS: A driver.
SAGAL: It's not...
HONG: Yeah.
SAGAL: It's actually - it's like...
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: Yeah.
BODETT: Yeah. You'd assume...
SAGAL: That's true.
BODETT: ...They're taking a driver, right?
(LAUGHTER)
HONG: What are you two doing back there?
(LAUGHTER)
BODETT: You got a space capsule confession...
HONG: Nothing.
BODETT: ...That's going on.
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: But you know the really popular show "90 Day Fiance," when people come to America, and they have 90 days to convince the American marry them?
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HIGGINS: I'm worried that this woman will be left on the moon if she doesn't.
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SAGAL: Wait a minute. Is that a real show?
HONG: Yes.
HIGGINS: Peter, this is one of the...
HONG: Peter, you don't know...
HIGGINS: ...Biggest shows in America.
HONG: ...About "90 Day Fiance?"
SAGAL: I don't.
HONG: Oh, my God. Let's go right now.
SAGAL: They made a television show out of green card fraud?
(LAUGHTER)
HIGGINS: No, not fraud. They're very much in love.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FLY ME TO THE MOON")
FRANK SINATRA: (Singing) Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars. Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.