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Allads

OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: 

Our next two contestants will play an especially challenging music-parody game. First up, Kirsten Lenthe - you're calling from Boston, where you're a resident director at Boston College. Welcome.

KIRSTEN LENTHE: Thank you.

EISENBERG: Your opponent is Owen Moorhead. And you're a park ranger calling from Hyde Park, Texas. Welcome.

OWEN MOORHEAD: Oh, thanks for having me.

EISENBERG: So who is watching the park right now?

MOORHEAD: I don't think anybody's watching the park.

EISENBERG: What?

MOORHEAD: (Laughter).

EISENBERG: OK. Remember, Kirsten and Owen, the first of you who wins two of our games is going to move on to our final round at the end of the show. Let's get to your first game. Kirsten, what song did you slow dance to in middle school?

LENTHE: That would be the classic "Tiny Dancer." You couldn't go wrong there.

EISENBERG: (Laughter).

LENTHE: Middle school and high school - got them both.

EISENBERG: Wait a second. I know that it's a classic song. But that was a slow-dance song?

LENTHE: Yeah.

EISENBERG: Wow.

LENTHE: It was a great one.

EISENBERG: Yeah. (Singing) Tiny dancer...

JONATHAN COULTON: It literally says, hold me closer, tiny dancer. So it's got instructions in it right in there.

LENTHE: I know. You can't go wrong.

COULTON: Yeah.

EISENBERG: And would you think, in your mind, as whoever you were dancing with held you closer - would you go, I'm the tiny dancer?

(LAUGHTER)

LENTHE: That was what I was aiming for always.

EISENBERG: Very good. Owen, what song did you slow dance to in middle school?

MOORHEAD: I have to be honest with you. I didn't go to any dances in middle school or high school. I was too shy to invite anybody myself. And nobody invited me. So I just ended up doing other things.

EISENBERG: If you were to slow dance tomorrow, do you have a song in mind?

MOORHEAD: It would have to be "The Dance" by Garth Brooks.

EISENBERG: (Laughter) I didn't see that one coming.

MOORHEAD: (Laughter).

EISENBERG: The classic one in my school was "Stairway To Heaven." That was a classic.

COULTON: Yeah. That's fine until you get to the fast section. And then nobody knows what to do.

EISENBERG: Well, you go apart for a little while. And you just, like, dance really furiously.

COULTON: And then you come...

EISENBERG: And then you come back together.

COULTON: All right. That's nice. That's a nice metaphor.

EISENBERG: (Laughter) Yeah, exactly. For the rockiness of a relationship.

COULTON: That's right. That's how it is in real life.

EISENBERG: Your first game is a music-parody game. And it's also a word game called Allads. That's the word ballads with one letter missing. Jonathan Coulton, take it away.

COULTON: So in this game, I'm going to play a ballad for you. But we have changed the lyrics to reflect what would happen if we removed one letter from the song's title.

So, for example, if I sang the Cyndi Lauper song "Time After Time," but the lyrics were about "Project Runway" after Tim Gunn retires, you would answer time after Tim, dropping one letter from the song "Time After Time."

Puzzle guru Art Chung is standing by if you need any hints. Just buzz in to identify the song title with one letter removed. And the winner will be one step closer to moving onto the final round at the end of the show. Are you ready?

MOORHEAD: I'm ready.

LENTHE: I'm ready as I'm ever going to be.

COULTON: (Laughter) OK. Here we go.

(Singing) Did you ever know that you are my hairpiece, the curly brown locks that my wife digs? I don't look balder than an eagle, for you are...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Owen.

MOORHEAD: It's got to be the wind beneath my wig.

ART CHUNG: That's right. We'll take that. The wind beneath my wigs.

EISENBERG: Nobody wants that.

COULTON: No. No, it's bad. You don't...

MOORHEAD: (Laughter).

COULTON: If the wind is getting under your wig, something terrible is about to happen.

(Singing) Greetings from the other side. We've got sinners who have died, too late to be sorry for everything. They come down to suffer eternal damnation.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Kirsten.

LENTHE: Hell?

COULTON: Hell is correct.

EISENBERG: (Laughter) One of our darker clues...

COULTON: It is...

EISENBERG: ...In the old lighthearted ASK ME ANOTHER.

COULTON: Definitely some darkness to it - I agree.

EISENBERG: (Laughter).

COULTON: Of course, that was from "Hello" from Adele.

EISENBERG: I think this was her first run at "Hello."

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: She's like, you know what? It's too dark. I'm going to lighten it up a little bit. All right. Here we go.

(Singing) Warm, hot - raise my thermostat. I believe that...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Owen.

MOORHEAD: My heat will go on.

COULTON: Yeah, that's right (laughter). OK. Here's another one.

(Singing) You and me - we used to rise together - everywhere together, climbing. I really feel I'm reaching the graph bend. I can't believe this could be a trend. It looks like as though you're on a cliff. And at the top, I don't want you to stop.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Owen.

MOORHEAD: "Don't Peak."

COULTON: That's right - "Don't Peak" from "Don't Speak" by No Doubt. All right, this is your last clue. (Singing) Guess it's true I'm not good at talking loud. But I still need to speak because there's a crowd. These folks never seem to hear word one. You can help if you'll please speak in unison. Won't you...

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Kirsten.

LENTHE: "Say With Me."

COULTON: "Say With Me," you got it - "Stay With Me," of course.

EISENBERG: Yeah, I love that Tom Petty song.

COULTON: (Laughter). Zing. Art Chung, how did our contestants do?

CHUNG: They both did great at a very tough game, but congratulations to Owen. You're one step closer to the final round.