Help me remember a radio story I heard on NPR

February 6, 2014 12:09 PM

There was a story/performance I heard on some (probably NPR) radio show within the last 10 years. It was a man and a woman meeting at a party, and instead of saying things to each other they described what they would say to each other, kind of a meta-conversation.

It went sort of like

He: "Casual greeting"
She: "Disinterested response"
He: "Vague comment"
She: "Even less interested response"

.
.
.

He: "Slightly smutty joke"
She: "Declaration of offense combined with increasing interest"
He: "Statement of contrition"


and so on.

I don't think it was on This American Life or The Moth, but it's in the same neighborhood. I also think it wasn't a published story but something prepared for radio or a sketch comedy show.

posted by benito.strauss to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

I can't pinpoint the episode at the moment, but I know I heard a story fitting that description on Wiretap with Jonathan Goldstein.
posted by ludwig_van at 12:26 PM on February 6, 2014

I'm pretty sure this was on This American Life, as the last act of a show. Tough to search for, though.
posted by mattbucher at 12:37 PM on February 6, 2014

Could you be thinking of act 11 of this episode of TAL?
posted by reren at 12:46 PM on February 6, 2014

Bang! Well done MetaFilter. 37 minutes.

And here's the audio.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:48 PM on February 6, 2014

(By the way, the question came from my sister, who is now very impressed with y'all and is forwarding the heck out of this.)
posted by benito.strauss at 12:58 PM on February 6, 2014

There's also this scene from Schizopolis
posted by ringu0 at 1:23 PM on February 6, 2014

Incidentally, if you're ever in Chicago, the Neo-Futurists, who did this skit, are incredibly fun to see live.
posted by newrambler at 1:43 PM on February 6, 2014