Movie Portmanteau Quiz

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. And joining us on the line from New York City is the one and only John Chaneski.

Hi, guys. Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant.

Hi, John.

You have something wonderful for us, I hope.

I do. Last night I was watching this movie called R.I.P.D. I don’t know if you guys know it.

Oh, yeah. The Police of the Dead, basically.

Yeah, yeah. Ryan Gosling and I think it was Jeff Bridges, part of this police force, that’s the P.D. Part, that goes after dead people or demons or something. That’s the R.I.P. Part.

And I enjoyed it, but I like everything except intolerance, so that doesn’t really mean anything.

In any case, I was thinking that the screenwriter must have just gotten the idea from putting R.I.P. and P.D. together, right?

Now, even if that’s not the case, I bet I could come up with a dozen more movies just by making a portmanteau of two initialisms.

And here we go. Here’s the quiz.

All right. So four letters.

Well, not necessarily. There could be more, yeah.

I’ll try to give you lots of clues as to the initialisms.

In this sci-fi movie, an inventor creates the perfect nanny for his toddler, but it consists mostly of a flat panel television.

Now, that would be…

E.T. TV?

That’s not bad.

I thought of a T.L.C.D.

T.L.C.D.

Oh, T.L.C.D., nice.

Right.

And here are some M.O.R.E.

Okay?

All right.

In this feel-good film, a guy in his 60s goes back to get his degree, but his attempt to join the basketball team is met with resistance by the governing body of university sports.

So NCAA is something.

Right.

NCAA, what’s the degree that begins with an A?

Think of someone in his 50s and 60s.

RP.

NCAAARP, nice.

NCAAARP, yes.

Another college film, this rollicking comedy, is about a geek who becomes the most popular student around after inheriting a highly successful computer company.

IBMOC.

Yes, IBMOC.

Very good.

Nice.

IBM and Big Man on Campus.

Very good.

It’s kind of old-fashioned.

I thought I had to explain that.

Do people still say that?

BMOC is Big Man on Campus?

I don’t know.

That seems antiquated to me.

I guess not.

Yeah.

This comedy is about a widely disliked government agency that tries to improve its image by sending out finely engraved invitations when they call you in for a tax audit.

IRSVP.

Yes, IRSVP.

Nice.

Be sure to RSVP that audit.

This documentary is about a cable company that provides channels with great resolution, but only to customers with advanced degrees.

PhD.

PhD TV.

Yes.

Very good.

This documentary tells of the surprising history of antidepressant use in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the Ukraine during the 70s and 80s.

Well, USSR something, but SRO?

Oh, oh, oh.

Martha’s got it.

Serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Yeah.

So USSR-I.

USSR-I is correct.

Yes, very good.

An alternate history of the U.S.

This film tells the inspiring story of how the 36th president of the U.S. resigned to become a pitcher for the Houston Astros.

MLBJ?

Yes, very good. MLBJ.

Major League Baseball, LBJ.

Nicely done.

Those are our initialism combination movies.

By the way, if any movies get made from this, this is a standard disclaimer I put on all of my puzzles.

Any movies get made from any of these, I retain all rights.

So there you go.

I think some of these are going to have trouble getting greenlit.

You think so?

I don’t know.

Maybe Bryan Cranston.

Yeah.

Thanks, John.

We’ll talk to you next week with another great puzzle.

Thanks, guys.

See you then.

Bye-bye.

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