Movie Word Game

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

I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and we’re joined by our quiz guide, John Chaneski.

Hi, John.

Hi, Martha and Grant.

So good to see you again.

How are you?

I have a nice little quiz for you.

You know what? I got it in my head to write a movie for the three of us.

Wow.

Yeah.

Road trip.

Road trip.

Let’s do it.

It’s heavily based on a film I saw with my kids.

I’m not working for scale again.

Well, it’s funny you should mention working for scale.

It’s called Finding Wordy.

It’s about a couple of word experts who journey around the ocean looking for just the right word.

In the process, they, of course, or we, of course, come across anagrams and all sorts of other interesting things.

For example, the movie starts with our protagonists remembering a nine-letter word for a scene that takes place in the past.

That’s a…

Flashback?

Yeah, flashback.

That’s just the first word we found lying around.

Flashback.

Now, you don’t need to have seen the inspiration for this movie.

And I think we should, in the process, make some changes to avoid copyright infringement.

So let’s read the script.

Here we go.

Well, now we open on our home, which is within a sea animal named for a flower.

Now, all I can recall is that its name actually means daughter of the wind.

Anemone.

A sea anemone.

Very good.

Then we call on the assistance of a hard-shelled reptile named Crash.

Yeah, that’s it.

He’s not a tortoise, not a turtle, but a specific kind of turtle that’s semi-aquatic and lives in brackish or swampy water.

It still starts with a T. I can’t remember. What is it?

Terrapin.

Terrapin. That’s it. Now I remember. I remember it said terrapin.

Then we end up sequestered from other travelers and finding a word that comes from the Venetian dialect form of an Italian phrase that means 40 days.

Quarantined.

Yes, quarantine.

Do you know the Italian, by the way?

Sounds like quarantine, sort of.

It’s quarantagioni.

Exactly.

Quarantagioni.

40 days.

During the Black Death, Venice was instrumental in measures to prevent the spread of the plague.

Right.

And then we remember, finally we remember a warning, a warning about a certain flow of water we’re supposed to be wearing.

No, it’s not the undertow.

That’s the other movie.

It’s strong and localized narrow currents that occur at certain locations along the coast.

Not the undertow.

It’s different.

What is it?

Not the riptide?

It is.

It’s technically rip current.

Very good.

Yeah.

Yes.

Now, in the original movie, the protagonist is a blue tang.

But in our movie, let’s see.

Oh, I see.

We get assistance from a big, friendly, fictional creature that’s tang plus another letter rearranged.

A rang-a-tang?

No.

A giant gnat?

No.

What?

The word giant is all I need.

Yes, very good.

Oh, a giant.

Okay.

Yeah, a big, friendly giant.

Well, no, that’s another movie, too.

We can’t go there either.

Okay.

Let’s get back to our script.

It seems we’re getting a little verbose, long-winded, prolix, lengthy, protracted, loquacious, rambling,

Paraphrastic, or…

Did you say garrulous?

Protracted?

Go back to the beginning.

What were we looking for?

We’re looking for a fish.

Oh, Finding Wordy.

Finding Wordy.

Oh, Wordy.

Yes.

Wordy, yes.

Congratulations.

You did it.

You found Wordy.

Martha did it and didn’t know it.

You should see her face.

Just like the famous fish.

A happy ending to our stupid, dumb movie.

Anyway, thank you, guys.

That was great.

I’ll see you at the premiere.

That was the goofiest thing I’ve done in a long time.

I know, I know.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

This is a show about words, language, culture, family, and really bad puns.

Martha loves them.

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