美国国家公共电台 NPR Let's Turn It On

Let's Turn It On

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0008:36repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser 1 to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. OPHIRA EISENBERG, HOST: 

Let's meet our next two contestants 2. First up, Tarik Koc. You are a computer programmer. Supposedly, you ran a language teaching site from a computer in your closet.

TARIK KOC: Yeah, that's true.

EISENBERG: Yeah, that doesn't sound weird 3 at all. Is it the same server Hillary Clinton used for her emails?

KOC: I guess the same idea, yeah.

EISENBERG: Same idea, OK.

(LAUGHTER)

JONATHAN COULTON: Same idea...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: ...In that it was a server.

KOC: Yeah, it was a server in a closet, yeah.

COULTON: Yeah, same kind of thing. Same general idea.

EISENBERG: What was this language teaching site? What do you mean by that?

KOC: Originally, it was flashcards to help me learn Turkish.

EISENBERG: Oh, OK.

KOC: I was trying to learn Turkish.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

KOC: I built it for that. And then I eventually made it for other languages, too. I was just like, well, why don't I just make a website of this and see if people use it other places?

EISENBERG: And did people use it?

KOC: They did, yeah. I could see people in different countries using it.

EISENBERG: Sounds fun.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: Your opponent is Colleen Celsor. Now, you design children's clothing for a kids' clothing subscription 4 startup.

COLLEEN CELSOR: Yes, I do.

EISENBERG: Here's a weird fact about you. You've noted 5 that your body is impervious 6 to the amount of cheese you eat.

(LAUGHTER)

CELSOR: Yeah, (laughter) that's true. I'm pretty gross.

(LAUGHTER)

CELSOR: One day, I ate an entire block of cheese in less than 24 hours. And the next day, I ate an egg and cheese sandwich. And I got a piece of cheese stuck to my shirt. And I had to walk around all day with, like, a badge of cheese shame.

(LAUGHTER)

CELSOR: Yeah, my friends have also caught me, like, on the subway late at night with, like, a block of cheese in my purse.

(LAUGHTER)

CELSOR: I really like cheese.

EISENBERG: I just want to point out these are the things you tell us.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Colleen, what's your go-to subway cheese?

(LAUGHTER)

CELSOR: A sharp cheddar.

EISENBERG: Yeah?

COULTON: A sharp cheddar, yeah. You can't really go wrong with a sharp cheddar.

EISENBERG: Yeah, no.

COULTON: In public? No, always a sharp cheddar.

CELSOR: A hard cheese survives the warm commute 7.

COULTON: You don't want a brie in your purse.

CELSOR: No, that would get funky 8.

EISENBERG: You don't do a brie on a D train? That's not your kind of thing?

COULTON: Oh, a D train? Sure.

EISENBERG: Yeah, a D train.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: All right, remember, Tarik and Colleen, the first of you who wins two of our games will move onto our final round at the end of the show. Let's go to your first game. Tarik, what is something you would like to invent, as an inventor yourself?

KOC: Well, actually, I used to be a patent examiner.

EISENBERG: You have a lot of talent.

(LAUGHTER)

KOC: And I remember we saw a patent for - it was, like, a resurrection burial tomb.

EISENBERG: Yeah?

(LAUGHTER)

KOC: And it was, like, at the South Pole so it would really need cooling and all that. So I think if I could actually invent that thing, that would be a pretty cool thing to invent.

EISENBERG: Just for those of us that might not be familiar with a resurrection burial tomb, what is that exactly?

KOC: Well, according to the illustrations on the application, you know, a lot of skeletons involved and a nuclear reactor 9 and, you know.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: But what does it do?

KOC: I guess it resurrects you if you...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: It sounds like a great idea.

KOC: I thought so too.

EISENBERG: Colleen, what is something you would like to invent?

CELSOR: Mine's not as Halloweeny (ph).

EISENBERG: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

EISENBERG: That's the nicest way to say that.

CELSOR: I think if I could invent packing tape that didn't make the awful packing tape sound.

EISENBERG: Oh, yeah, right. That, like, screeching 10, final - like the kind of thing you would put on your resurrection tomb, right - to make sure it's shut. All right, we have a very sexy musical parody 11 game for you. It's set to the tune 12 of "Let's Get It On." So Jonathan Coulton, get it on.

COULTON: Yeah, I'd love to get it on. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: This game is called Let's Turn It On. I'll be singing about famous people who invented or discovered something. So buzz in to identify the person that I'm singing about. You don't need to name the invention. The winner will be one step closer to moving onto the final round at the end of the show. You ready? OK, here we go. (Singing) I've been really trying, baby. Trying to send you this message for so long. And if you hear dots and dashes, come on, tap my key. Let's turn it on.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Tarik.

KOC: Morse?

COULTON: Samuel Morse, that's correct - inventor of the telegraph.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: (Singing) It's just carbonized cotton. With such light to give, lots of watts 13 there, sugar. Since I made this thing, we can see after dark now.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Tarik?

KOC: Glow in the dark? I don't know.

COULTON: There's no one named glow in the dark that I know of.

(LAUGHTER)

KOC: I know.

COULTON: It's an excellent guess, though. Colleen, do you know the answer?

CELSOR: Night vision man?

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: That's correct, night vision man, inventor of night vision. We were looking for Thomas Edison.

CELSOR: Oh, light bulb, yeah.

COULTON: You jumped a few inventions ahead of what we were looking for. (Singing) There's nothing wrong with me showing you, baby, no, no, how to burn your CDs and keep all your songs in your iTunes queue. Oh, baby.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Colleen.

CELSOR: Steve Jobs?

COULTON: You got it, Steve Jobs.

EISENBERG: Yeah.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: (Singing) I ain't going to write it. I'm just going to press, going to print a Bible - add them, switch them, move my letters, move them all night long. Hey, let's turn it on.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Colleen.

CELSOR: Sie (ph) Gutenburg.

COULTON: (Laughter) Wait; wait; wait; wait.

EISENBERG: Did you just...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: Did you say Steve Guttenberg?

CELSOR: I said Gutenberg.

(LAUGHTER, CHEERING, APPLAUSE)

CELSOR: I said with a German accent.

COULTON: Colleen, you know we're recording 14 this, right? We can easily find out what you said. Yes, Gutenburg is correct...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: ...Johannes Gutenberg.

EISENBERG: No, no, no, his friends called him Steve.

COULTON: Steve - Steve for short.

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: (Singing) You know it's elementary. Come on, Pierre, get the radioactivity out. You want me to explode. Let's turn it on.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

KOC: Curie.

COULTON: Curie - that's right, Marie Curie...

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: ...Discoverer of radium and polonium.

EISENBERG: And then in a weird, dark story - right? - she died because of exposure to radiation...

COULTON: Radiation poisoning.

EISENBERG: ...And sexism.

COULTON: And...

(LAUGHTER)

COULTON: This is your last clue. (Singing) If a boulder 15 blocks you, I can move it. It's going to come down with Nitroglycerin. To give us all good feelings, I'm going to sponsor some prizes, give them out in Stockholm.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

COULTON: Tarik.

KOC: Nobel.

COULTON: Alfred Nobel - that's right, inventor of dynamite 16.

(APPLAUSE)

COULTON: Art Chung, how did our contestants do?

ART CHUNG: It was a close game, but Tarik, you're one step closer to moving on to the final round.

(CHEERING, APPLAUSE)