MAZ JOBRANI, HOST:
In just a minute, Bill gets lactose exuberant in the Listener Limerick Challenge. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to join us on air. We'll be back in a minute with more of WAIT WAIT... DON'T TELL ME from NPR.
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 Eugene Cordero, Faith Salie and Jessi Klein. And here again is your host, filling in for Peter Sagal, Maz Jobrani.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
JOBRANI: Thanks, Bill. In just a minute, Bill gets his recommended daily allowance of rhyme-boflavin in our Listener Limerick Challenge. If you'd like to play, give us a call at 1-888-WAIT-WAIT. That's 1-888-924-8924. But right now, panel, some more questions for you from this week's news. Faith, the people who bought the Cadbury Advent calendar this year were surprised when what message appeared behind the fourth door?
FAITH SALIE: Fourth door? I need a hint, please.
JOBRANI: Let's just say it did not encourage you to celebrate Christmas by standing 6 feet apart.
SALIE: Kiss me? Come closer? Lick this?
JOBRANI: You're getting very close.
JESSI KLEIN: (Laughter) Lick this.
JOBRANI: What's between standing 6 feet apart and licking or kissing somebody? What else could you do to them that wouldn't be kissing?
SALIE: Oh, go hug somebody.
JOBRANI: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
JOBRANI: This message said give hugs at Christmas.
SALIE: No.
JOBRANI: Apparently, the NFL was writing the messages.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: Looks like...
SALIE: I mean, you can't even hug Santa this Christmas, right?
JOBRANI: You can't hug anybody. It's only air hugs. You can't even shake hands. I've been going around namaste-ing people for nine months.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: Looks like the holiday is finally fighting back in the war on Christmas with its deadly advice to hug people this year. The message does raise the question, though, if these calendars were printed when hugs were OK, just how old is that chocolate?
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: That's right. It's got that little white bloom on it. And you have to wonder, right? We don't know when we will achieve herd immunity and when everybody will be vaccinated. So you have to wonder how companies are planning for next year's Advent calendars, right? Like, hug if you've gotten your second dose, right?
JOBRANI: Or air hug somebody.
SALIE: Or maybe, like, a scratch-and-sniff calendar that's like - can you smell this (laughter)? If so, congrats.
KLEIN: (Laughter).
EUGENE CORDERO: Or they - you know what they'll probably do is they'll just steal from fortune cookie companies. And it'll just say this will be a lucky year.
(LAUGHTER)
JOBRANI: You know, well, that message was - it would be uncomfortable in a normal year, the - hug somebody. But this year's particularly bad timing. But at least it's better than Nestle's Advent calendar, which recommends you go to Sturgis.
SALIE: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BLUE CHRISTMAS")
ELVIS PRESLEY: (Singing) I'll have a blue Christmas without you. I'll be so blue just thinking about you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.