118 - Word Centipede (w/ Carrie Aizley)

Summary

SmartLess Presents ClueLess: Episode 118 - Word Centipede (w/ Carrie Aizley) Summary

Release Date: January 13, 2025

In Episode 118 of SmartLess Presents ClueLess, host Elliott Kaelin teams up with the ever-charismatic Sean Hayes and special guest Carrie Aizley for a stimulating session of puzzles and wordplay. This episode, titled "Word Centipede," dives deep into the intricate world of language, challenging both the contestants and listeners to think creatively and collaboratively.

Continuing the Puzzle Adventure

The episode opens with Elliott revisiting last episode's cliffhanger puzzle: "What tastes better than it smells?" The trio engages in a lively discussion to unravel this riddle. Carrie initially suggests "mushrooms," steering the conversation towards more literal interpretations. However, Elliott guides them toward a more abstract answer.

Elliott Kaelin [02:28]: "The answer is your tongue. It's much better at tasting than it is at smelling. Your tongue? It can't smell at all. It just tastes."

This revelation not only provides closure to the previous puzzle but also warms up the audience for the main event of the show.

Introducing Word Centipede

Elliott transitions seamlessly into the episode's primary game: Word Centipede. He explains the rules succinctly:

Elliott Kaelin [04:30]: "Sean, who do you have with us? And you're like this centipede in this game, Word Centipede. I'll give you a set of three words and you must tell me what fourth word can you add before or after the others to make three new words."

The game challenges participants to identify a common word that, when paired with each of the given words, forms familiar compound words. For instance, with the words "hop," "cow," and "door," the solution is "bell," forming "bellhop," "cowbell," and "doorbell."

Gameplay Highlights

Round 1:

• Words: Mark, Farm, Home
• Solution: Land
  • "Landmark," "Farmland," and "Homeland."

Keri Aisley [05:56]: "Farmland. That's it."

Round 2:

• Words: Tin, Power, Cave
• Solution: Man
  • "Tin Man," "Powerman," and "Caveman."

Carrie Aizley [06:30]: "Caveman."

Round 3:

• Words: Tie, Cross, Rain
• Solution: Bow
  • "Tie-bow," "Crossbow," and "Rainbow."

Keri Aisley [07:07]: "Rainbow."

Round 4:

• Words: New, Sil, Mega
• Solution: Ton
  • "Tonsil," "Megaton," and "New Ton."

Elliott Kaelin [08:17]: "Tonsil. And megaton. Megaton is a word."

Round 5:

• Words: Band, Side, Way
• Solution: Broad
  • "Broadband," "Broadside," and "Broadway."

Keri Aisley [08:55]: "Broadway."

Throughout these rounds, the dynamic between Elliott, Sean, and Carrie is both entertaining and insightful, showcasing their quick thinking and collaborative spirit.

The Mega Clue Connection

After successfully navigating the word challenges, Elliott presents a Mega Clue puzzle that connects the answers from each round: Farmland, Tin Man, Rainbow, Tonsil, Broadway.

Carrie deciphers the connection succinctly:

Carrie Aisley [09:43]: "Wicked."

This refers to the critically acclaimed musical "Wicked," which ties together elements like the Tin Man from "The Wizard of Oz," rainbows symbolizing the magical elements, and Broadway representing the show's origins.

Cliffhanger Puzzle

As the episode draws to a close, Elliott introduces a new cliffhanger puzzle to engage listeners until the next episode:

"Can you name a color named after an animal, named after a place named after an animal?"

This riddle encourages the audience to delve into linguistic and geographical trivia, promising to reveal the answer in the upcoming episode.

Elliott Kaelin [10:55]: "But to get the official answer, you'll have to wait until next time."

Closing Remarks

Elliott wraps up the episode by expressing gratitude towards Carrie for her participation and acknowledging Sean's good-natured spirit in the face of being "trounced" in the game.

Elliott Kaelin [11:42]: "He took the trouncing very well."

The episode concludes with a light-hearted farewell, reinforcing the camaraderie among the hosts and contestants.

Notable Quotes

• Elliott Kaelin [02:28]: "The answer is your tongue. It's much better at tasting than it is at smelling."
• Carrie Aisley [06:30]: "Caveman."
• Keri Aisley [08:55]: "Broadway."
• Elliott Kaelin [10:55]: "But to get the official answer, you'll have to wait until next time."

Final Thoughts

Episode 118 of SmartLess Presents ClueLess masterfully blends humor, intellect, and collaboration. Through engaging puzzles like Word Centipede and thought-provoking riddles, Elliott Kaelin, Sean Hayes, and Carrie Aisley create an enriching experience for both participants and listeners. Whether you're a puzzle enthusiast or just looking for an entertaining listen, this episode promises both mental stimulation and hearty laughs.

Transcript

[Elliot Kaelin]

Smart.

[Sean Hayes]

Bless me.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Season's greetings. Yeah, I know it's not Christmas time anymore, but there are other seasons. Why don't they ever get to have greetings? This is Clueless.

[Keri Aisley]

Clueless. Clueless. I'm Clueless.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Welcome to Smartless Presents. Clueless, the only puzzle podcast that there is. Please don't fact check me on that. I'm your host, Elliot Kaelin, and you can't see me, but I can see you. Before we investigate the disturbing implications of what I just said, please help me in welcoming the star of the show, the man voted most likely to continue being Sean Hayes. Sean Hayes. Thanks for being here, Sean.

[Keri Aisley]

That's so sweet. I think you're the star of the show, Elliot.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Oh, that's. You know what? Maybe we're like a binary star. Two stars revolving around each other, lighting.

[Keri Aisley]

Up the heavens, waiting to combine into. Isn't that great? So our lovely guest joining me and us today is the lovely Keri Aisley, who is one of my dearest best friends. Her and her husband Kevin are part of our family. Their children are our godkids, and we've known each other for a couple decades now.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

63 years.

[Keri Aisley]

63 years. It's just marvelous to have her with us today. And, Carrie, would you like to say anything at all?

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Thank you for having me. I hope I know things, and I'm really excited.

[Keri Aisley]

That's good. Did you write that down or no, no.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

But I do have a piece of paper.

[Keri Aisley]

Nice.

[Sean Hayes]

Sweet.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Yeah.

[Elliot Kaelin]

This is someone who's prepared. That's wonderful, Sean, Carrie, thank you so much for being with us. And so the cast of characters has been assembled. The game is afoot. The plot thickens. We have to get back to the case of the concluding cliffhanger already in progress. Last episode's cliffhanger puzzle was a riddle that went, like, thusly. What tastes better than it smells? What tastes better than it smells? Now, there's a lot of possible answers to this, but there's one particular answer that is the most riddle licious, most puzzle tastic, the right one, the one that I'm looking for.

[Keri Aisley]

What tastes better than it smells? I mean, it could be, like. It could be a million things like.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Mushrooms, and it's not an obvious one like garlic or onions or.

[Elliot Kaelin]

No, it's more. This is being. This is a riddle. So it's more of a twisty kind of, like, logic, rational one, a trick one. It's a trick question in some ways.

[Keri Aisley]

Yeah. Tastes better than stomach. Yeah. What tastes better?

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Something in poor taste or, like, tastes Better. I don't know a verb when taste is a verb.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Yes.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Buds, taste buds taste butter.

[Elliot Kaelin]

You're getting really close.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Butter. Than it smells. Taste butter. Taste butter.

[Keri Aisley]

Taste butter.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Now you're overthinking it.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Okay.

[Keri Aisley]

I don't know.

[Elliot Kaelin]

All right. But you're so close. The answer is your tongue. It's much better at tasting than it is at smelling. What tastes better than it smells? Your tongue? It can't smell at all. It just tastes.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Got it.

[Keri Aisley]

Your tongue. Oh, gosh. It tastes.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

All right. That's going to open my brain, though, to think that way a little bit.

[Keri Aisley]

Don't go.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Always the straightforward way. You got to think. It's a good warmer on Clueless.

[Keri Aisley]

Yes, Carrie, that's good that you're going to open the brain a little bit just like that.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Like a warm up.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Like there's a lot of hand motions going on which the podcast audience, I think, will have a great time imagining.

[Keri Aisley]

Yeah.

[Elliot Kaelin]

And just visualizing what's happening. The opening up of brains. Listeners at home. Speaking of you, the podcast audience, were you able to sniff out the answer to that cliffhanger? If yes, reward yourself by smelling something. Whatever you want to smell. It's your choice. If you didn't get the answer, you're not licked yet. And that's the end of the wordplay portion of this part of the game because it's time for our main game. And in fact, I was wrong. There's going to be a lot of wordplay in this game. We are playing with words, specifically word centipedes. This game is word centipede.

[Keri Aisley]

Oh, yes.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Centipede.

[Keri Aisley]

I like it.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Yeah. Fun fact, no centipede has ever won a game of word Centipede. Well, it's just not yet.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Yet. Yet.

[Keri Aisley]

Well, he's gonna come on next time.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Yes, we'll play.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Welcome our start of the show, Sean Hayes. Sean, who do you have with us? And you're like this centipede in this game, Word Centipede, I'll give you a set of three words and you must tell me what fourth word can you add before or after the others to make three new words? So, for example, if the three words were hop, cow and door, what word could you add either before or after each of those to make a compound word?

[Keri Aisley]

I was just, I was just thinking of like how I do it is I just pick one word. I'm like hop, Scotch. Scotch. You know, and it's cowbop, stop, hop, door, sock.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Right. Stop, hop. Right.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Ok. So the answer for that one would be Bell hop, cowbellhop and doorbell.

[Keri Aisley]

Cowbell.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Got it. All right, Sean, Carrie, are you ready to play Word Centipede or are you breaking up with me?

[Devin Tory Bryant]

I think so.

[Keri Aisley]

Uh huh.

[Elliot Kaelin]

So let's begin the game. Your first words are. Mark, farm and home.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Mark.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Mark like market. Down. Farm. Like down on the farm. And home like down. Home. The answer is not down. I know you examples. Yeah, that was. That was poor thinking on my part.

[Keri Aisley]

Home.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Trade. Trademark.

[Keri Aisley]

Mark. Depot. Depot.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Home.

[Keri Aisley]

Trade. Home.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Trade. No. Trade. Home. No.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Mark.

[Keri Aisley]

Home. Track.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Landmark. Homeland.

[Keri Aisley]

Oh, yeah. Farmland. That's it.

[Elliot Kaelin]

You got it. You get it, you got it. Exactly. Land is the answer. Landmark. Farmland.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Oh, right.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Very good.

[Keri Aisley]

Carrie's doing really well.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

How about that for the first one?

[Elliot Kaelin]

You did it. Round two, your words are. Tin, power and cave. Tin. The metal. Power. Like power and cave. Like it's dark in here.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

And Tin.

[Keri Aisley]

Tin.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Spoiler.

[Keri Aisley]

Can. Power. Power. Can. Can. Cave. Tin.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Tin. Man. Man. Man.

[Keri Aisley]

Powerman. Man. Power.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Caveman.

[Elliot Kaelin]

No, Carrie. Gr. So good. That's exactly right.

[Keri Aisley]

Yeah, it's man.

[Elliot Kaelin]

That's it. That's it. The answer was man. Tin Man.

[Keri Aisley]

I was so close. I was so close.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Oh, I beat you by a hair, Sean. Just a hair.

[Elliot Kaelin]

You can also. You can work together on this too. We'll work together like Sean is like carried out in the last two. We'll work together on this one.

[Keri Aisley]

Exactly. Exactly.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Round three, your words are Tie, cross and rain.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Rain, like out of the sky.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Exactly.

[Keri Aisley]

Tie. T, I, E. Tie, cross and rain.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Oh, I think I know it.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Bo.

[Keri Aisley]

What? Rainbow. Oh, Karen.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Is that working together or was that not working together?

[Keri Aisley]

I think I know it. And then the answer is working separately.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Round four, your words are. New, Sil. Sil and mega. New, silver. Mega. What word?

[Keri Aisley]

Like windowsill.

[Elliot Kaelin]

It's like windowsill, but it's missing an L. This is really more of a part of a word.

[Keri Aisley]

Oh, sil.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Yes. Just S, I, L. Pen.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Pencil.

[Keri Aisley]

No, that's C I, L by.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

All right.

[Keri Aisley]

Okay. New Sil. And mega. Mega. Clue. Clue. Sil. Sil. Clue.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Silver.

[Keri Aisley]

Silver.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Ver.

[Keri Aisley]

So silky. Silky.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Not for this one.

[Keri Aisley]

No, because ky isn't a word. It's a jelly.

[Elliot Kaelin]

I've made that mistake myself. I've mixed up words and jellies too.

[Keri Aisley]

I have no idea.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Okay, I think I'll give it to you. This is a hard one. This is a very hard one. The answer is Ton. T, O N. Tonsil. Tonsil. And megaton. Megaton. I was going to say megaton, which is not a word, but megaton is A word.

[Keri Aisley]

Oh, I. Almost. Almost there.

[Elliot Kaelin]

That's. You were very close. That's a tough one.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

That's a hard one.

[Elliot Kaelin]

You got very close to it. Finally, the last round of this game. Round 5. Your words are band, side and way. Band, like, you know, music. Band side, like the side of the street. And way, as in a one way street.

[Keri Aisley]

Band aid, band aid, side, aid aid side. Band, band widths, Side, with sideway.

[Elliot Kaelin]

With rubber.

[Keri Aisley]

Band, rubber side, side, rubber.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

B. Band, B side, B way.

[Keri Aisley]

Broadband, broadside, Broadway.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Yes, John, you got it exactly. Broad is the word. Broadband, broadside, and Broadway. Fantastic. That was great, but we're not done yet. I cannot stress the gravity of this situation enough. You may think you're safe, but lurking in the shadows of this puzzle is. Is the man eating mega clue scientific name Megalossus Cluodon. To remind you and to tell you Simon's always.

[Keri Aisley]

I got that. That's good. Mega clue question.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Each round, one of the new words is a clue. And so for round one, the clue is farmland. Round two, the clue is Tin Man. Round three, the clue is rainbow. Round four, it is tonsil. And for round five, it is Broadway. How are these words connected?

[Keri Aisley]

Well, Tin man is the wizard of Oz, but that's not it because.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Wicked.

[Keri Aisley]

Wicked. What's tonsils?

[Elliot Kaelin]

You got it.

[Keri Aisley]

Wicked.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Broadway was the addition. It's wicked. That's right.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

And tonsils. Yeah. Because they sing with their mouths wide open.

[Elliot Kaelin]

I think so.

[Keri Aisley]

Is that what that is?

[Elliot Kaelin]

That's of the megaclue ones. That's the one where I was like, yeah. I think it's just because you can see their tonsils when they're singing to the rap. Progress to the back of the room. Very good, but exactly right. It is wicked. The movie based on the stage play based on the book. Based on the movie based on the book. Yeah. Listeners at home, did you do as well as Sean and Carrie? Actually, no. Don't tell me. I want to keep the mystery alive in our relationship. Besides, it's not yet time for us to part. We've still got this episode's cliffhanger puzzle. The cliffhanger puzzle is a little bit of extra game that we put in a Tupperware for you to take home and pick at until the next episode. This cliffhanger is less of a riddle and more of a test of actual knowledge phrased in a riddle ish way. And it goes thusly. Can you name a color named after an animal, named after a place named.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

After an animal, A color named after.

[Elliot Kaelin]

An animal named after a place named after an animal. Sean. Carrie.

[Keri Aisley]

Yes.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Will this obsess you and cause you to fall into a realm of deceit and betrayal until you get an answer.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Color named after an animal named after a place named after an animal?

[Elliot Kaelin]

Yes. But to get the official answer, you'll have to wait until next time, next week, because next episode, we will tell you the answer to that puzzle. Or you can take the easy way out, invent a time machine, set it for whenever the next Clueless show comes out, and then you'll find the answer that way. But while you're working on that, I would love to thank Carrie for helping us have so much fun today. Thank you so much, Keri Aisley.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Thank you. It was so fun.

[Elliot Kaelin]

Oh, it was wonderful having you here and seeing you just trounce Sean in a collaborative game.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

That's how it usually goes in our friendship.

[Keri Aisley]

Friendship. Just another friendship.

[Devin Tory Bryant]

Just a lot of trouncing.

[Keri Aisley]

Yeah, she's real special.

[Elliot Kaelin]

That's so wonderful. And I'd also like to thank Sean Hayes for himself being so special and also being so good at being trounced. He took the trouncing very well. And I'd like to thank you, the audience, for lending us your ears. Sorry that we are returning them without washing them off first. We just didn't have time. This has been Smartless presents Clueless. I've been your host, Elliot Kaelin saying, come back next episode if you've got the guts. Yeah, yeah.

[Keri Aisley]

Clueless.

[Sean Hayes]

You have been listening to Smartless presents Clueless, a Smartless media production in association with Sirius xm. Your host is Elliot Kaelin, who also writes our scripts. Your constant contestant is Sean Hayes, who does scare easily. Your producer, editor and engineer is Devin Tory Bryant, who is me. I also write all the music and sound effects assistant engineer, Kyle McGraw. Today's puzzles were written by Kevin Lehman and Matthew Broussard. Talent producer is Anne Harris. Associate producer, Matty McCann. Social media producer, Tommy Galgano. Executive producers are Elliot Kaelin, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman. Executive producers for Smartless Media are Richard Corson and Bernie Kamins. Remember to follow, subscribe, rate and review the show. It really helps. That's all for now. We will see you again for more Start less media.