BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: From NPR in WBEZ Chicago this is WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME, the NPR News quiz. I'm Bill Kurtis. We're playing this week with Ophira Eisenberg, Brian Babylon and at Adam Felber. And here again is your host at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.
PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Thank you Bill. Thank you so much.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Hey, great to be back with you. We are ready to play the WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME Bluff the Listener game. Call 1-888-WAIT-WAIT to play our game on the air.
Hi, you're on WAIT WAIT ...DON'T TELL ME.
JORDAN REED: Hi, this is Jordan Reed.
SAGAL: Hey, Jordan. Where are you calling from?
REED: I'm calling you from Marietta, Ohio.
SAGAL: I know Marietta, Georgia. Where's Marietta, Ohio?
REED: It's right next to West Virginia, southeast.
SAGAL: Southeast Ohio, OK. And what do you do there?
REED: Well, I actually just got a job here at Marietta College teaching saxophone.
SAGAL: Hey, that's exciting. So you're a sax player?
REED: I'm a saxophone player. Yes sir.
SAGAL: What do you think of Kenny G?
REED: OK, sure.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No, I'm serious.
ADAM FELBER: Well done.
OPHIRA EISENBERG, BYLINE: That was amazing.
SAGAL: No, because, I mean, maybe it's like, oh I play the saxophone. Really, what's your opinion on Kenny G? Maybe it's a cliche but I'm genuinely curious 'cause people seem to like him and yet the same time people seem to hate him.
REED: I think saxophone players Kenny G because most saxophone players don't make a lot of money.
SAGAL: Yes. Well, Jordan, it's great to talk to you. You are going to play our game in which you have to tell truth from fiction. Bill, what is Jordan's topic?
KURTIS: Let's Go Swayze.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The late actor Patrick Swayze continues to touch our lives pretty much every single day. But this week, we read a story about how the lessons of Swayze are being applied in a particular way to a particular group of people. Each of our panelists is going to tell you one of those stories. Guess the true story about the Swayze...
REED: OK.
SAGAL: ...And you will win Carl Kasell's voice on your voicemail. You ready to go?
REED: I'm ready.
SAGAL: First let's hear from Adam Felber.
FELBER: Patrick Swayze may have been childless, but his nurturing personality has inspired Cedar-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, Calif. to create a parenting course based on his role in "Dirty Dancing." The course is called Dirty Diaper Dancing, and it educates expecting parents on how to care for their baby based on the way Patrick Swayze cares for the character Baby as portrayed by Jennifer Grey. Course creator Annie Bodner says that Swayze's character's treatment of Baby has all the hallmarks of the right way to treat actual babies. And by watching, parents can learn to respect baby, protect and defend baby, play and dance with baby, and most of all, make her feel like she's the center of your world by never putting baby in a corner.
(LAUGHTER)
FELBER: Bodner sidesteps the dicey reality that Swayze actually sleeps with Baby in the movie by teaching a unit in co-sleeping. And she says that the main point is that unlike the widely popular soundtrack, no baby should ever have to ask do you love me whether or not they can now dance.
SAGAL: Dirty Diaper Dancing, a childcare course taught to expecting parents based on the film "Dirty Dancing" starring Mr. Patrick Swayze. Your next story of how Swayze still holds Swayze over us all comes from Ophira Eisenberg.
EISENBERG: Recent scandals show that the New York Police Department is in dire need of help. So where do they turn? The answer is obviously Patrick Swayze. According to the New York Post, the New York Police Department has been showing cops a scene from Swayze's 1989 bro cult classic, "Road House" as part of a mandatory three-day retraining course. Now if you're one of the millions that never saw this movie, Swayze plays Dalton, a barroom bouncer who studied philosophy and offers wisdom like pain don't hurt. The clip they use is of Swayze telling a bunch of tough guys to be nice until it's time not to be nice.
(LAUGHTER)
EISENBERG: Mayor Bill de Blasio says the retraining program is going to have a transcendental effect, but perhaps he was confusing "Road House" with "Ghost."
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: "Road House," the bouncer Dalton giving lessons on how to handle tough problems.
FELBER: "Road House."
SAGAL: "Road house."
EISENBERG: "Road House."
SAGAL: Your last story of someone or something following the Swayze way comes from Brian Babylon.
BRIAN BABYLON: Everyone knows China has the richest economy in the world. What this means is that Chinese people are desperate to find stupid ways to spend their money. They're having lobsters flown in from Maine. They're getting their dogs groomed to look like lions and tigers. They're even buying real lions and tigers. It's been dubbed the new Bling Dynasty by a journalist who just discovered what the word bling means. But the most crazy trend is anything related to the 1995 cult classic "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar" starring Patrick Swayze as a drag queen. No one knows really how this trend has taken over, but Chinese billionaires are spending thousands of dollars to replicate Swayze's precise man-dressed-as-a-woman look. Swayze mania has gotten so out of control that Maybelline has created a new line of makeup. It's inspired by him with the tagline, Swayze he's born with it. Swayze it's Maybelline.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: All right. Here are your three stories of how Swayze still has influence. From Adam Felber, the story of how Cedar-Sinai Hospital has based an entire parenting course on his character from "Dirty Dancing." From Ophira Eisenberg, a story of how the NYPD is retraining themselves to treat ne'er-do-wells just like the bouncer Dalton does, played by Patrick Swayze in the movie "Road house." Or from Brian Babylon, how rich Chinese are learning and trying to dress and look just like Patrick Swayze's character - a drag queen from "To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar." Which of these is the real story of Swayze's influence still being felt?
REED: So I think it's number three, China.
SAGAL: You think that people in China are dressing up...
(LAUGHTER)
REED: I think that my sense of hope is outweighing what I think is right.
SAGAL: All right. You hope that's true. Well, we thought that the best way to bring you the real story is simply to play for you now at least the audio of the scene - of a scene from the Patrick Swayze character in question.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ROAD HOUSE")
PATRICK SWAYZE: (As Dalton) Be nice. I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: That of course was the immortal Patrick Swayze as Dalton the bouncer in "Road House." And that is the scene that they are asking members of the New York Police Department to watch to learn how to handle difficult situations. So, two astounding things have happened. The first thing is you picked Brian's story of the rich Chinese people trying to look like his drag queen character from Wong Foo. And the second astounding thing happening is that the NYPD is showing the movie "Road House" to their members to teach them how to be better cops. You didn't win, but you did earn a point for Brian for that very good story.
BABYLON: Thank you very much.
SAGAL: Jordan, thank you so much for playing.
REED: Thank you.
SAGAL: Bye-bye. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.