Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me!

It would be entirely in keeping with the mischievous spirit of Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me to refer to it as something like “Washington Week in Rebuke,” but the public-radio series is much more than a predictable news satire or a typical week-that-was review. Its creators and producers have taken a radio genre that peaked in the 1930s and ‘40s—the quiz show exemplified by Dr. IQ and Information, Please—and re-imagined it as a hip but folksy contest-cum-convention for news and current affairs junkies. Each week, host Peter Sagal and judge-scorekeeper Carl Kassell test the current-events knowledge and the wit of a panel of professional funny people as well as listeners who call in and play along. The revolving cadre of regulars includes humorist Roy Blount Jr., writer P.J. O’Rourke and comedian Paula Poundstone, but the show’s reputation for bonhomie and bi-partisan skepticism is now such that unlikely “celebrities,” such as Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, pop up as guests. For offering a droll, light-hearted alternative to both news and the cottage industry of punditry that surrounds it, a Peabody Award goes to Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!