Author Topic: Another MG "school riot" (Read 2486 times)

melman1 · « **on:** October 19, 2003, 01:59:40 PM »

This morning Syndie MG (1981) had an incident very reminiscent of the "School Riot." The contestant answered "Ball", and the celebs answered thusly:

Richard Paul: "Fly ball" (ding)
Brett: "ball" (ding)
Charles: "Bowling ball" (ding)
JoAnn Pflug: "football" (bzzzt)

Gene got that "oh no, not again" look and brought Ira Skutch on camera to explain himself:

Ira: Well, you can't match just every kind of ball. This is the "Match Game", you're supposed to say the same things. Right? One ball... if you match "bowling ball", a bowling ball's not a football. We do not generally match generalities and specifics. That's the reason.

Gene: If he [not sure which "he"... probably Charles] said "football", you could have matched that.

Ira: But not bowling ball.

Gene: If she [Pflug?] had said bowling ball, you wouldn't have matched that. [Presumably a continuation of the previous "what if" scenario?]

Ira: That's correct.

Gene: You're all mixed up. Go back to your seat. Thank you, Ira.

(Then, after returning to the game, Gene said "No, he's absolutely correct.")

I still have no idea what Ira's intent was in either case (the School Riot, or this one). The best guess I can make is that one "specific" was allowed to match. But that makes no sense... if the contestant's answer was "ball", and the celeb answers were one football followed by five bowling balls, the contestant only gets one point?

inturnaround · « **Reply #1 on:** October 19, 2003, 02:29:14 PM »

I think it was more of a fly ball still being a generic ball. Had it been fly baseball, it would have been buzzed, but since it was still basically a ball without any specifics, it went through.

But I could be wrong.

Neumms · « **Reply #2 on:** October 19, 2003, 03:21:53 PM »

It's hard to know without knowing what the question was. It also seems that Gene could have asked the contestant to be more specific. (They'd been doing the show long enough by that point to have guessed the issue could come up.)

melman1 · « **Reply #3 on:** October 19, 2003, 06:53:55 PM »

Didn't think the question was relevant but here it is -

Albert said, "It's tough having a sports nut for a father. To punish me when I'm bad, he makes me catch a <blank>.

And FWIW, the last two celebs' answers were clear mismatches. And, the contestant went on to win the game.