I’ll be heading north this afternoon, north to Berkeley for a live “Wait Wait.” For those of you who are asking - no, there are no more tickets that I can get my paws on. The place is going to be packed, and the doors will have a vacuum seal on them. When it’s over, we’ll all burst out like amusingly large snakes from a can of humorous novelty nuts.
For those of you who are in the area though, could you do me a favor? I’ve never been to Berkeley, but I’d like to think it’s exactly the place it famously was back in the 60’s. I know it’s not, but I’d like to think of it that way. Stereotypes make life easier, y’see.
Anyway, do me a favor - protest my show. Yes, I realize that we’re not very controversial, but it’d do my heart good to show up at the site to see a throng of angry, long-haired, dope-smokin’, free-lovin’ hippes yelling, strumming guitars, angrily weaving baskets, burning supportive undergarments, throwing frisbees, streaking, and eating tasteless but healthy foodstuffs.
Could you do that for me? Make some banners, protesting… something about the show. I dunno. Maybe “Keep Your Satirical News Quiz Off of My Body!” “Wait Wait, Don’t Entertain Me!” or “Hey, Hey, Felber, How Many Babies Did You Eat Today?”
That’d be great. Thanks in advance.
Fanny Roborat
26 comments
Sue
February 16, 2005 at 2:09 pm
1“…a can of humorous novelty nuts.”
If that’s not a description of the “Wait, Wait” experience, I don’t know what is!!!
Travel safely, Adam, and I know our FA family in Northern California will make your every dream come true.
Auros
February 16, 2005 at 3:17 pm
2Waaaaaaah!
tess
February 16, 2005 at 3:39 pm
3AAAAAGGGHHHHH! I’M NOT IN BERKELEY FOR THIS! I COULDN’T GET INTO BERKELEY GRAD SCHOOL FOR THIS! I COULDN’T BE IN THE AREA! NOOOOOO!!!!
Someone will send pics, right?
If you want an idea of what Berkeley was like while I was an undergrad, try to sneak into Cory Hall on the north side of campus and take a whiff of the first floor labs . . . it smells like death!
Other than that, your only vestiges of the old Berkeley are going to be The Cheeseboard collective. Most of the protestors don’t like going out at night because they get tired and want a hot meal.
Joan
February 16, 2005 at 3:46 pm
4Actually, I did complain about something that happened on last week’s show. Maybe a group of radical feminists can gather up there in Bekeley and build a big mountain of you-know-whats and demand greater acceptance of womanhood and all of its accoutrements.
brent
February 16, 2005 at 3:51 pm
5If you want a protest, just come to Northwest Arkansas. I suggest Rogers Arkansas. There’s a bunch of folks up here that are threatened by anything progressive in nature, especially you gay lovin’ entertainment types. Hell, I might protest ya because you decided to go to Rogers instead of Fayetteville, you necon sympathizer.
Bob
February 16, 2005 at 3:51 pm
6How about “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Adam Felber has got to go” - repeated endlessly, of course
Or we could protest the clear way in which Wait Wait discriminates against the hearing impaired by giving “Carl’s voice on your answering machine” as their standard prize. What if I (or my callers) can’t hear? This is blatantly unfair and should be denounced by all members of the Wait Wait audience, whether we are listeners (another loaded word) or not.
Zach Lipton
February 16, 2005 at 3:53 pm
7Hey Adam — I’m a big fan of the show (and by extension, of you of course) and am lucky enough to be going tomorrow night. I’m not sure if I’ll be close enough to the stage to protest (let alone close enough to see), but hey, I can try. A gathering of Bay Area Wait Wait fans has got to be interesting, I’m sure it attracts a unique breed of folks.
Tess: I’ll try to grab some pictures, at least what I can get under the radar.
Looking forward to it,
Zach
Ibid
February 16, 2005 at 4:42 pm
8“Stop Plate Tectonics!”
“Down With Prepositions!”
“Viva Paper Towels!”
“Your Ad Here!”
“Down With Protests!”
“Out of Vietnam now!”
The protesters will be there, Adam, but in a cage several miles from the show.
Corwin Haught
February 16, 2005 at 5:13 pm
9How ’bout I protest MPR and their screwy treatment of WWDTM?
Murray
February 16, 2005 at 5:20 pm
10Bob’s right, how can WWDTM be so culturally insensitive to deaf people, (including myself increasingly). At the end of each tape of Carl’s there should be an additional section where Carl hand signs the message.
If it helps, I can organize a protest with my wife and dog in front of the radio, here in my family room. It ain’t Berkeley but hey.
Tom in Santa Clara
February 16, 2005 at 5:25 pm
11Well, if the show in Pacific Grove was any indication, it was specifically mentioned ‘no cameras please’ right before the recording started. I’m not going to Berkley either, but I will remember fondly chatting with Adam and Carl before the show, meeting the lovely Jeanne, and the awesome show production staff, Emily Ecton, Amanda Gibson, and Mike Danforth. Adam, please say hi to them for me…and I hope that Mike is doing well!
Anyone who is going….remember, preferred Adam potable is Maker’s Mark! Please be prepared to laugh for about two hours!
Murray
February 16, 2005 at 6:38 pm
12If they made a mention of no cameras at the Balmer show I missed it. (Perhaps they initiated the rule because of me, although I used no flash and the digital is silent).
It was easily the most fun I had at any outing last year.
Adam and the rest of the crew are wonderfully gracious.
Mike Z
February 16, 2005 at 9:42 pm
13**Off-topic and inside joke alert**
Uh, oh. The divine creator’s gonna be pissed about this one:
http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050215085009990009
Those scientists just keep pushin’ it.
Harold
February 16, 2005 at 9:43 pm
14Joan, it sounds to me like you’ve got a winner of a protest chant on your site. It would have been great if a vast crowd of people (particularly WWDTM fans who never got a shot at tickets!) could have gathered outside the facility to just chant “Tampon, tampon, TAMPON!” over and over again, to the bewilderment of most.
Mike Z
February 16, 2005 at 9:54 pm
15What do we want?
NPR satirical quiz show panelists who aren’t grossed out by menstruation and who aren’t afraid to talk about people’s desires to be tampons; and, generally, a more healthy attitude toward female reproductive cycles and hygine!!
When do we want it?
Now!!
Mary
February 17, 2005 at 9:08 am
16Mike Z- I feel that Roxanne was correct in her admonition. TMI, Mike! TMI!!!!
Besides, that chant is rather awkward.
Landis
February 17, 2005 at 11:14 am
17Since I couldn’t get tickets, I’ve decided just to go to a nearby bar with a bunch of panographer friends (Triple Rock Brewery on Shattuck) and protest by drinking beer and talking about things other than the week’s news. Perhaps I’ll even drink some Maker’s.
Hope you have a great show and I look forward to hearing it this weekend.
And if you guys (’you guys’ being WWDTM and CalPerfs) ever pull something like this again…… Not mentioning the show to anyone but subscribers of the CalPerfs newsletter until well after tickets are sold out. Next time WWDTM needs a bigger venue. Maybe the Oakland Coliseum or even better: the Cow Palace.
Emmarie
February 17, 2005 at 12:13 pm
18My favorite line from the lobster article:
“It’s debatable whether the debate will ever be resolved.”
Just had to share.
Kelli
February 17, 2005 at 1:58 pm
19Emmari,
I have to share my favorite lobster line:
“No brain, no pain”
Does this mean that neocon beatings are back on the protest schedule as both satisfying and humane?
Allison in Santa Cruz
February 17, 2005 at 3:52 pm
20For those of you who are attending the WWDTM taping in Berkeley, I gots a suggestion for ya. Ask the engineers BEFORE the show if it’s possible to have them send you a taping of the uncut show. You can bet your SUV that the best parts of the taping aren’t gonna make it to the on-air version. I have Emily Ecton investigating whether or not the complete show of the Pacific Grove taping still exists, but she has told me it probably got chopped up and thrown away during the editing.
So if you want a copy of the whole show (and trust me, you will!), let the engineers know before hand and maybe they can save a copy before they start slicing and dicing.
Allison in Santa Cruz
February 17, 2005 at 3:54 pm
21Hey Adam,
Please tell the cast and crew (Peter, Carl, Emily, Amanda, et al) that I said “Hi!” And if they don’t remember me, please lie to me and insist that they did.
Hatold
February 17, 2005 at 8:53 pm
22Wow, I can see it now…”I’ve got a second-generation unedited soundboard recording of the Febrruary 2005 Berkeley show, willing to trade for the episode where Carl Kassle got razzed for his ‘West Vile Nirus’ slip…”
tess
February 17, 2005 at 11:53 pm
23I want it! I want it!
Wait, it’s not real, is it?
Btw, how was the trip into famed disillusioned leftist land?
Harold
February 19, 2005 at 9:29 am
24Wow, I spelled my name wrong, and I spelled February wrong. At least I got Berkeley right.
David
February 19, 2005 at 10:25 am
25I though Hatold was intentional, since it can be seen as old hat inverted, which brings to mind John Negroponte’s wife’s response to questions about death squad activities on Negroponte’s watch in Honduras during one of the many ruthless reassertions of US right of primacy in
Central American affairs as “old hat,” and her question, “Haven’t those people moved on?” I guess she meant, “Haven’t the people murdered on my husband’s watch down there moved on to Heaven, so what’s the big deal?”
Tom M
February 22, 2005 at 8:37 am
26I’m sorry Adam, are you supposed to be famous or something? I thought you were just another blogger with a slightly better defined sense of irony.