582: Brakes
| Brakes |
 Title text: It was the funniest 6.5 seconds of my life, although as usual like 80% of it was just Tom and Ray's gasping, hacking laughter. |
Explanation
A driver loses control of his car and plunges over a cliff. As a response, he calls a live radio phone-in show for help with the failed brakes.
Issues
In reality, Car Talk starting Tom and Ray, is not a live show, and the "callers" are called back. See the Car Talk FAQ.
The cited 6.5 seconds is barely long enough for one ring cycle.
News
A custom news entry reads:
- "Brakes" is available as a shirt over at Car Talk's store.
The current site is now at shop.npr.org.
Transcript
- Narrator: Of the potential responses to my brakes' failure, I did not choose the best.
- [A cliff is visible, with a car flying off it.]
- Voice from car: Hello, you're on Car Talk.
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The shirt would have been even better if they would have put the alt-text underneath! -- mwburden 70.91.188.49 20:53, 12 December 2012 (UTC)
Car Talk wasn't a live call-in show! You call them, and they call you back, and it's edited into a show structure! 173.245.54.50 00:48, 23 January 2014 (UTC) True... but the version in the comic has to be a live show for the joke to work, and most listeners, unless they called in, probably didn't realize it wasn't live somewhere.173.245.54.34 03:45, 29 August 2015 (UTC)
The t-shirt link leads to a 404 from NPR's wobsite. -- T 162.158.58.208 22:07, 6 December 2016 (UTC)
The 6.5 seconds could refer to a non-immediate death on impact, solving the conundrum posed by timing of physics and communication in the explanation. -Arkady Darrel 162.158.58.219 03:46, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
