Bingo Lingo Word Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett. And here to try to stump us once again is our quiz guy, John Chaneski.

Hello, John.

Hello, Grant. Hello, Martha.

Hello, John.

Hello.

Buenos dias. What’s going on over there?

Hello, Topo Gigio.

I don’t know if either of you have ever played any bingo.

No.

Yes. Yes.

Yes, you have?

I have.

I’ve spent my time in church basements, and I’ve also been on several cruises to Bermuda and the Bahamas, and that’s where they do a lot of that stuff.

I play just enough to pick up some bingo slang.

I guess you can call it bingo lingo.

See, while the end game is rather intense, sometimes bingo callers drop little jokes to entertain the crowd and themselves during the beginning and middle parts.

Here’s how it works.

When the ball drops out of the cage, the caller either prefaces or follows the announcement of the number with a little joke that describes the number or letter-number combination.

For example, the doctor says the results are good.

It’s, many guesses?

B9.

B9, right.

That’s right.

Oh, B9.

That’s right.

It sounds like B9.

Okay.

We’re talking puns.

Or the shape of the number might be important.

For example, look, it’s a little snowman.

It’s B8.

B8, that’s right.

Wait, I don’t get that one.

Eight is shaped like two snowballs, one on top of the other, like a snowman.

Oh, okay.

You don’t have to know anything about bingo to figure out most of these.

I’ll call a few numbers and let’s see how many you can get.

I’ll give you hints.

Remember, the numbers go from 1 to 75.

Okay?

All right.

Okay, here we go.

Let’s get the balls rolling.

And here comes the first number.

It’s the vitamin number.

It’s…

B12.

P12 is right.

Good.

How about B12?

Oh, it can’t be B16.

Okay, I get it.

I get it now.

There you go.

Yeah, it’s subtle.

Okay, here comes the next number.

I wish I had the sound of rattling balls.

It just misses something.

Rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle, rattle.

And here’s the next number.

Heinz Varieties.

It’s G…

57.

57.

57, right.

Mark your 57s, everyone.

Do they really say these?

They do.

Over and over.

And more.

Yes, some may say over and over again.

If you’re a 92-year-old woman playing bingo, you get quite a kick out of these.

It’s okay that they get a kick out of this.

Here comes the next number.

It’s a pair of little ducks.

It’s I…

Quack, quack.

They do say quack, quack.

They say quack, quack, a pair of little ducks.

It’s…

22?

I, 22.

Right.

Brent’s looking at me like, what?

Because it looks vaguely like ducks on a pond.

We like ducks.

And if you say a duck in a pond.

Well, ducks in a pond are three players on a base, but never mind.

You fell for that old canard.

A duck in a pond is, that’s nice, Martha, very good.

Thank you.

A duck in a pond is 20.

A duck in a pond is 20?

Oh, is that right?

Yeah.

Oh, man.

I think it’s cute.

Okay.

Here we go with the next ball.

Book him, Dan-o.

It’s Hawaii.

5-0.

5-0, 50.

5-0.

Next number.

You hurt your foot?

That’s okay.

We have a pair of crutches for you.

It’s N…

44?

That’s right.

Bingo!

Bingo!

There we go.

Oh, we’ve got our bingo.

Okay, terrific.

Good game, everyone.

Good game.

All the old ladies are disappointed.

Bonus.

Was that it, Sean?

That’s all for us?

Yeah, I’m going to go to the buffet.

But that’s all I got, guys.

Thank you.

John, thank you so much.

You know, I actually have never played bingo, I don’t think.

Now you have.

I don’t remember playing bingo ever, actually.

Really?

You’d be surprised at how many bingo games are going on right now.

Yeah.

Even as we speak, you could go and find a bingo game.

John, thank you.

This was tremendously fun.

Thank you, Grant.

Thank you, Martha.

Take care, you guys.

All right.

I want to tell you that you can call us right here if you’ve got a question about language.

1-877-929-9673.

Or email us with your questions and comments about language or bingo or whatever.

The address is words@waywordradio.org.