Bluff The Listener

KORVA COLEMAN, host:

From NPR and WBEZ Chicago, this is WAIT WAIT...DON'T TELL ME!, the NPR news quiz. I'm Korva Coleman, in for Carl Kasell. We're playing this week with Roxanne Roberts, Adam Felber and Maz Jobrani. And here again is you host, at the Chase Bank Auditorium in downtown Chicago, Peter Sagal.

PETER SAGAL, host:

Thank you everybody.

(Soundbite of applause)

SAGAL: Thank you, good to be back from our break. It's time for 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!

Ms. ERIN KENT: Hi, this is Erin Kent from Rockville, Maryland.

SAGAL: Hey, how are things in Rockville?

Ms. KENT: They're great.

SAGAL: What do you do there?

Ms. KENT: I'm a cancer prevention fellow for the National Cancer Institute.

SAGAL: You prevent cancer.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SAGAL: That's great.

Ms. KENT: I do try.

SAGAL: I need to talk to my screener for a second. Can you get me somebody mockable?

(Soundbite of laughter)

SAGAL: Something amusing, please.

Ms. KENT: I assure you, we're plenty mockable.

SAGAL: Okay. Well welcome to our show, Erin. You're going to play the game in which you must try to tell truth from fiction. Korva, what is Erin's topic?

KORVA COLEMAN, host:

Sorry, Peter, I can't. I threw my voice out.

SAGAL: Aha! But fear not, Korva, all you need to do is file a worker's comp claim. This week, we read about a worker's comp claim so remarkable, it restored our faith in the industry of the working man and woman. Our panelists are going to tell you three stories about an unusual workplace injury. Choose that real story, you'll win Carl's voice on your home answering machine. Ready to play?

Ms. KENT: Oh, yes.

SAGAL: Let's hear first from Adam Felber.

Mr. ADAM FELBER (Writer, "Real Time with Bill Maher"): Wen Ju Xing understands the hazards of his workplace. Like a lot of his coworkers, he's had incidents. He has lost the hearing in one ear, is missing parts of two of his fingers and has twice sustained third degree burns on his face and neck. But that's not what he's upset about. Quote, "These are the hazards of working in a fireworks factory," he says. "We all know that. The other situation, however, is unacceptable." The other situation he refers to is that Wen Ju Xing has filed suit for compensatory damages from the Hung Xiao Fireworks Company on the grounds that their food is terrible.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FELBER: Quote, "The burns, the noise, that I understand, but our employer has the obligation to feed us food that does not do to our insides what his product does to our outsides."

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. FELBER: According to Wen's suit, several years of unacceptable fare in the commissary have resulted in horrible acid reflux, loss of appetite, and a fast-developing ulcer. And all the heavy sauces, oy, don't get him started. It's enough to make you not want to work around heavy explosives. Astoundingly, Wen might win. Rural courts in China have twice this year already found against employers for inferior food. Wen says he doesn't want gourmet food at work, just a little less bang for the buck.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SAGAL: A fireworks worker getting upset by the food in the factory. Your next story of an on-the-job owie comes from Maz Jobrani.

Mr. MAZ JOBRANI (Comedian, "Axis of Evil"): Welterweight boxer Ray James, Jr. has filed a worker's comp suit with the Nevada Boxing Commission and Golden Nugget Casino. He claims his opponent, Ramiro Rodriguez Fernandez El Nino El Torres...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Mr. JOBRANI: ...used his freakishly large knuckles to knock out James' gold tooth during a bout in July of 2010. James is famed in boxing for a mouth full of gold teeth, but he says the one he lost, upper right incisor was, quote, "his favorite." James Jr. claims the Nevada Boxing Commission should have measured El Nino El Torres' knuckles before the fight to determine they gave him an unfair advantage over the normally knuckled James Jr. When I saw four lumpy shapes protruding from his glove, I knew something was wrong, said James Jr. When I came in to get a better look, bam.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SAGAL: A boxer upset about the loss of one of his gold teeth.

(Soundbite of applause)

SAGAL: And your last story of a worker's comp claim comes from Roxanne Roberts.

Ms. ROXANNE ROBERTS (Columnist, "Reliable Source"): Ever goof around with colleagues at work? Norman Vegor and Casey Byrd, employees at Iowa's Xenia Rural Water District, loved to kid around and greet each other in unusual ways, like, say, waving a boom of a truck hoe at each other.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Ms. ROBERTS: One day, Vegor's hands were full, so he wiggled his butt at Byrd to say hello. Byrd planned to answer by playfully tapping Vegor with his truck's mirror, but hit him with the truck bed instead. The ensuing worker's comp claim was contested by the company, who said the two men were horsing around and the injury, therefore, not covered.

A trial court agreed, but the Iowa Supreme Court just overturned the decision and sent the case back to the Compensation Board to determine whether the bottom wave can be considered part of Vegor's job. In other words, if the booty bump was legit, or it's no ifs, ands or butts.

(Soundbite of laughter)

SAGAL: All right. A booty wave leads to a...

(Soundbite of applause)

SAGAL: ...worker's comp claim. Let's review your choices. From Adam Felber, a fireworks worker getting upset, not by having his fingers blown off, but by the poor quality of the food in China. From Maz Jobrani, a boxer claiming damages because he lost a tooth. Or, from Roxanne Roberts, a man claiming worker's comp because when he waved his booty, his friend tried to say hello with a truck? Which of these is the real story of a worker's comp claim?

Ms. KENT: These are all pretty tough. I think I'm going to go with Adam's, with the fireworks company.

SAGAL: The fireworks company in China is the story you're choosing?

Ms. KENT: Yeah.

SAGAL: All right, that's your choice. Well, we spoke to a reporter who could fill us in on this remarkable claim.

Mr. JOHN PEMBLE (Reporter, Iowa Public Radio): The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled a worker getting injured on the job while wiggling his butt to say hello might qualify for worker's compensation.

SAGAL: That was, in fact, John Pemble. He's a reporter for Iowa Public Radio, talking about the booty wiggling lawsuit in Iowa. I'm so sorry, Erin, but as you now know, it was in fact Roxanne telling the truth. So I'm sorry you didn't win, but you earned a point for Adam for his remarkable story about the gourmet fireworks worker. Thank you so much for playing.

Ms. KENT: Thank you so much.

SAGAL: Bye-bye.

Ms. KENT: Bye-bye. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.