Ask Me Another (radio program)


Ask Me Another was an hour-long radio puzzle game show produced by WNYC Studios and National Public Radio. It was hosted by Canadian American comedian Ophira Eisenberg and featured independent rock musician Jonathan Coulton as its "in-house musician" or "one-man house band". Episodes of the show were usually recorded at The [Bell House (New York)|The Bell House] in Brooklyn, New York, but the show also went to various states across the country and recorded one or more episodes from those locations. During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, the show continued taping episodes from the homes of the participants, without a studio audience, but returned to The Bell House for the series finale.
262 full episodes of Ask Me Another aired across 10 seasons, as well as twelve "Favourites" episodes compiling games from prior weeks, and a re-airing of the show's premiere episode with new content in honor of the show's fifth anniversary, though only completely new episodes were officially numbered. "AMA Bonus" clips were frequently uploaded between seasons 2 and 6 featuring clips from recent episode tapings, including excerpts from aired episodes, interview segments and games that didn't make it to air, and musical performances.

Format

The show featured four to five individual games based on puzzle topics, wordplay, and trivia, interspersed with chatter from the show's hosts, as well as a segment featuring an interview and one or more games involving the celebrity guest of the week. Later episodes featured four games played in a two-round tournament format.
Most games were played by two contestants, with the rules of each game explained to the contestants beforehand. Players rung in with the general goal to score the most points in that game. The players played two games and whichever player had the most points accumulated after the second game moved on to the Final Round. In the case of a tie after the second game, a final tie-breaker question would be asked to settle the tie.
In the original format, the winning player would proceed with all other winners to the final game at the end of the show. This last game was a series of trivia questions with answers sharing a common theme, such as answers that all included the name of a musical instrument. This round was played in a spelling bee style: if one contestant did not know the answer, the next one in line could attempt to answer the same question, and if one player got the answer, all who missed it would be eliminated. This was played until either one player remained, or, if the show ran out of questions, the winner would be whoever could ring in first and correctly answer a final tie-breaking question. The prize for winning this round was typically a small bit of memorabilia provided by the week's Very Important Puzzler, but generally of low monetary value.
Other games were played by the show's celebrity guest of the week, originally called the Very Important Puzzler. The Puzzler typically played for a contestant who had registered either via the show's website or through its social media pages. Any celebrity guest who won their specific game would win either an "Ask Me Another" anagram tee-shirt or an "Ask Me Another" Rubik's Cube for him/herself and the contestant.
In its final format, the two contestants who won their games would move on to play a Final Round, where they were each asked eight questions on a common theme. The contestants alternated answering questions. Halfway through, the scores were reviewed. The second half of the round proceeded soccer shoot-out style: after a contestant answered a question correctly or incorrectly, leaving it mathematically impossible for one of the contestants to win the round, the final round would end immediately and the winner would be announced. If the score was tied at the end of the final round, a final tie-breaker question would be asked to settle the tie. The prize awarded to the winner was an "Ask Me Another" Rubik's Cube autographed by that episode's celebrity guest.

Types of games

Though the show's writers designed many kinds of games, there were some commonly recurring types, including:
  • Rhyming games, in which the contestants would be asked to provide answers that rhyme with a catchphrase provided at the beginning of the game.
  • Musical games in which the "in-house musician" sang clues, either based in the words sung or the music itself, and the contestants were asked to determine the meaning of those clues. In most versions of this game, the contestant could earn one point for answering the subject question and an additional bonus point for correctly identifying the song used or the artist who originally performed it.
  • "This, that or the other", a recurring "classic" game in which an item was announced and the contestants were asked to identify under which of three categories the item is properly classed.
  • Mashup games, in which two concepts were invoked by one clue and the contestant would have to correctly supply the mashed-together concepts.
  • Word games, in which letters of a word provided in a clue would be rearranged or altered in order to provide the answer for contestants to supply.
  • "Very Important Puzzler" games, in which either characteristics of the show's guest star were explored or the guest star's own abilities were put to a test. Often, these games were played not by show contestants but by the guest stars themselves.
  • Phone games, in which a contestant was not physically present at the show's recording facilities but played over the telephone. Because it would more difficult for such a contestant to participate against another player or in the final game at the end of the show with several players, these contestants played individually, winning a prize if they responded correctly to a sufficient number of questions. These games were no longer played in later episodes of the series.

    Guests

on the show were originally referred to as "Very Important Puzzlers", and typically participated in two segments on the show. Later episodes dropped the moniker and simply referred to them as "Special Guests". Guest stars included:
The show typically ended with host Eisenberg reading the credits identifying people who worked on the show. Some of the names she read were translated by the show's participating puzzle guru into anagrams. Typically, the puzzle guru would announce at the beginning "Hey, my name anagrams to..." and then announce the anagram. As Eisenberg listed others that worked on the show, the puzzle guru would interject the anagrammed forms of their names as well. Eisenberg then signed off the show by announcing that she was "Her ripe begonias". Occasionally, for comic effect, the puzzle guru would also provide an anagram for the call letters of WNYC.
Some examples of anagrams presented in the show's ending sequence included:
Role on ShowOriginal NameAnagram of Name
HostOphira Eisenberg"Her ripe begonias."
In-House MusicianJonathan Coulton"Thou jolt a cannon."
Puzzle GuruJohn Chaneski"Oh heck, ninjas."
Puzzle GuruArt Chung"Narc thug."
Puzzle GuruWill Hines"Hells, I win."
Puzzle GuruGreg Pliska"Sparkle gig."
Puzzle GuruMary Tobler"Later, my bro."
VenueThe Bell House"Hot heel blues."

Cast

Puzzle gurus

The show's games were created by a staff of puzzle designers. A particular one of the show's puzzle designers, usually referred to as a "puzzle guru", typically appeared on the show along with host Eisenberg and musical sidekick Coulton as a third participant to direct the flow of activity on the show. There were several of these over the length of the show, including:
In later episodes, no "Puzzle Guru" appeared on the show and Eisenberg and Coulton asked all the questions in each game.

Substitute in-house musicians

On shows where Jonathan Coulton was taking a break from recording as the in-house musician, he was replaced by:
On June 21, 2021, the show announced on that its final episode would be taped on September 25, 2021. Reruns aired on affiliate NPR stations until January 28, 2022.