PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Panel, it is time for you to answer some questions about this week's news. Tom, this week, candy stores across the country are struggling to keep up with a suddenly high demand for what candy?
TOM BODETT: Is it, like, a new, fancy candy that I'd have no idea...
SAGAL: No, it's an old, un-fancy (ph) candy that people are afraid won't be available anymore.
BODETT: Oh, Necco Wafers?
SAGAL: Yes, Necco Wafers.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
BODETT: Oh, god, that was a guess.
FAITH SALIE: Well done.
BODETT: Yes. But it is. It's an old candy that nobody likes.
SAGAL: But...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Well, let me explain. Necco Wafers - they're, of course, flattened out Tums antacids repackaged as candy.
(LAUGHTER)
BODETT: Right.
SALIE: But...
BODETT: And gravel.
SAGAL: Exactly. Well, the company that makes them - which it does by pulverising mouse bones and...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: ...Bonding the resulting dust together with denture cream...
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: With a little food coloring.
SAGAL: ...May be going out of business.
BODETT: Right, because now you've given the secrets away.
SAGAL: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: So the resulting demand is caused sales of Necco Wafers, which are best used as coasters for tiny glasses of Ensure...
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Sales are skyrocketing. The recipe for the wafers has not changed - this is true - since the Civil War when they were devised to help Union soldiers with gangrene suffer more.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: And now, a word from our new sponsor - uh oh.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CANDY SHOP")
50 CENT: (Rapping) Yeah, uh-huh, so seductive. I'll take you to the candy shop.
SAGAL: Coming up, our panelists are thirsty for revenge. It's our Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME from NPR. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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