Local Humor

Sagal and the show's writers are tailoring some of the humor to the temporary SF locale. Real estate references, jokes about start-up culture ("so you all have a million dollars of app starter money in your pockets tonight, right?") and the availability of medical marijuana peppered the night, and Sagal is looking forward to getting to explore the city for more material. "It's this really interesting time for the city," Sagal said after the taping. "A lot of the old chakra, hippie stuff is dying out so the jokes from 10 years ago don't work." Addressing both the housing crisis and the overall changes to the city in recent years, Sagal commented that in spite of the current climate "tech billionaires, from what I've seen, have yet to stamp out the real San Francisco." He sure knows how to reassure listeners.

Fun with Foodies

One of Sagal's on-going targets of the night was the Bay Area's foodie culture, so imagine how much fun he and Chef Thomas Keller had playfully sparring. Sagal's main point of contention was the prices at Keller's Michelin-starred restaurants, but Keller was a good sport. The internationally lauded chef even brought signature amuse bouche from his Yountville kitchen for the panel, which silenced any jokes from Sagal only for the moment his mouth was full. Keller won the night when he also produced a bag of In-N-Out Burger when the amuse bouche did not sate the host, showing he was not only prepared to laugh at himself, he was just all around prepared.

Art Linkletter, Anyone?

In one of the night's more surreal running jokes, Roy Blount Jr. tried to make an elaborate quip about Art Linkletter work in the context of...actually, the context got lost because the author's reference was so bizarre and archaic. As Blount struggled to eventually find a way to make the Kids Say the Darndest Things host into some kind of punch-line throughout the evening, it became apparent it was actually the perfect example of NPR humor. Get a grandfatherly writer to make an old-timey reference for a dose of Americana quaintness on the airwaves and everyone laughs in nodding affection. For the record, Linkletter was VERY big in family programming in the '60s, so take that, young people!

Upcoming Local Guests

This week, local drag impresario Peaches Christ will be taking the Not My Job guest spot. If you can still score black market tickets to the show, it'll be a treat to see what she wears for the radio.

And the final NMJ guest will be Amy Tan, so be prepared for some kind of stunt where she will either have to specify parts of the skeleton as an homage to The Bonesetter's Daughter or name that serotonin for a Joy Luck Club rapid-fire round.

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Everything You Missed at the Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! Premiere in San Francisco