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Clue(do): Third Best Board Game Ever · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: And guess what. Jerry's here too. And I'll tell you what.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Jerry will be the one who murdered us if we
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: ever turn up dead in a lounge, ballroom, conservatory. And
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: she'll probably have used a lead pipe, because Jerry carries
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: a lead pipe with her at all times.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: That her nickname is miss Scarlett.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she makes us call her Miss Scarlett.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I have to say, this feels like a chuck pick
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: through and through. But it was your pick, so I
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: have to ask right away if you are a cluist.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: I'm not directly, Oh, historically, yes, it's one of my
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: favorite games of all time.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Oh great, me a lot. All right, Well, we're gonna
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: have fun talking about this then, man, I love Clue.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I went on eBay and
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: made a low offer on a complete nineteen seventy two
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: edition of Clue, which is the one I grew up with.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I was like, I guess I had the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: eighty six and I looked. I was like, nope, that's
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: not It went a little further back eighteen seventy two.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I just sort of drooling from nostalgia.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the seventy two. If you're in our age bracket,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the seventy two version is a very very nostalgic sort
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: of like it's just very evocative. It brings out and
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: smells in your brain and like fights your parents are
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: having in the other room, and oh, like cartoons that
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: are on. It's like, it's it's it hits hard. I
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: was very disappointed because I went to find out. I
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: was like, man, who, who are those models?
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: Now?
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Who took that picture?
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Like?
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I was really curious. Yeah, and I found a thing
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: on medium that I didn't It's a it's a spoof, right,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: it has to be.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I was like, oh my god, any leave of it.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: I took that picture.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, once you start reading it, though, I was like,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: wait a minute. I was so disappointed because I I
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: even went to read it, and I don't know, I
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: couldn't find out any information on who those people were
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: or how that went down.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's just such an arcane thing to spoof.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It was called an Oral History of the photo Shoot
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: for the nineteen seventy two cover of Clue.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: How excited were you when you read that title?
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was like, this is some good this is
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: good treasure right here. Yeah, and then I thought, wow,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: Anti leboit's like, shook that picture now. So whoever wrote that,
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: if you're out there, you got us.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Both, yeah, and shame on you.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: So we're talking about Clue the game. If you're in
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the UK and you're like, what is this clue they're
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: talking about, allow us to also call it cluteau. Clue
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: is way better a name for it, but Cluteo is
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: what it's called basically outside of North America.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: And the reason that you would qualify outside of North
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: America is because it's a big hit all over the country.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: It's translated into Spanish, Swiss, well you know those two,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: among other languages.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: I think we should go back in time. It's one
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: of the great games of all time and talk a
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: little bit about the invention of Clue, because it's a
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: pretty good story. There was a guy named Anthony Pratt
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Anthony E. Pratt, not to be confused with the other
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Anthony Pratt.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Why is that name sound familiar?
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know. You may be thinking Chris Pratt. Well,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: I think Anthony Pratt's a politician of some kinds.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Okay, that might be it. No, I know who Chris
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: Pratt is, Well, I don't know.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Anthony E. Pratt was born in Birmingham near Birmingham in
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: nineteen oh three, England that is, and as he was
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: a high school dropout professional piano player, and during World
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: War One when he was but a young teen, the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: story goes that he and his friends would sit around
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: and play what he called a stupid game called murder,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: where guests crept up on each other in corridors and
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: the victim would shriek and fall on the floor. And
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: apparently post high school years was a traveling piano player
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: that would play at these sort of ritzy country hotels
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: where guests in the hotel would put this on at like,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: you know, murder Mystery Night, and it was a thing.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: It's still a thing, Murder Mystery Night, and it's you know,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: it's sort of one of my favorite kinds of books
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: in movies, like the Knives Out kind of thing. And
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: he and his friends were doing this as teenagers.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and apparently he didn't like that, Like you said,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: he didn't like the game murder, but he did like
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: the ones they put on at hotels. He didn't like
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Agatha Christie, which is kind of surprising because if his
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: game can be compared to anybody's books, it's Agatha Christie's
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: for sure. And so that was the Inner War period.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: During World War Two, nineteen forty three found him working
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: as a law clerk. He also worked in a munitions
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: factory as well. And because there are blackouts at night,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: because the UK was getting bombed on the regular, you
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: didn't you couldn't go out. There's nothing to do. People
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and come over. You didn't do anything. You just hung
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: out with your family. And luckily he and his wife
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: had a gaming streak I guess with in common because
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: if you think about it, it's very rare to sit
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: down and come up with a board game, even in
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that situation, like it just takes a certain person. And
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: you put Elva and Anthony Pratt together in blackout conditions
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: in nineteen forty three and they're going to come up
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: with clue.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Originally they called it murder. Still this time with
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: an exclamation point, almost an apostrophe. It was called murder,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and he thought, and they thought rather. I think she
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: designed some of the artwork and stuff in the original
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: rooms and things like that and worked on the gameplay together.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: But he knew that like you can sell board games
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: because he actually had a friend named Jeffrey Bull who
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: sold the game to Waddington's Games of London, so he
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: was like, you know, we can actually sell this thing,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: like we're not just creating a fun game for our family.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And that first initial game had ten characters. One was
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: randomly chosen as the victim, which is a little different
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: than the clue that we know and love, and there
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: were nine weapons. The ones that were different that I
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: think are still kind of fun are a bomb that
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: would just be a fun little game piece, I think
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: like a classic cartoon like round fused bomb, a hypodermic
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: syringe kind of dark, a poison bottle which is pretty
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: obvious for a murder mystery. And then an Irish shiale,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: which is would be really kind of cool to have today.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: If you don't know what that is, it was. It
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: sort of looks like a cane and later you could
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: function it as a cane, but what it really was
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: was early Irish stick fighting. It's a cudgel in you know,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: it's like a cane with a larger ball on the
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: end where your hand would be the business end. Yeah.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: So just like if you look at the Boston Celtic's logo,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: that cane that little Celtic has is in fact a schileela.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's right. Yeah, nice description of that chuck. Where
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: do you go?
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah? I didn't know stick fighting was a thing. I
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: kind of went down a rabbit hole and apparently it
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: was a stick to fight with it first, but then
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: later on it was just like, oh no, this is
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: just my cane. Whack whack, No, gotcha, that kind of thing.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: So something I thought was pretty sweet was that the
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Pratts managed to get a meeting with the people at
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Wattington's thanks to their friend the Bulls, Jeffrey Bull and
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: his wife and the Bulls went with them to that
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: meeting and they all sat down and played this game
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: murder together, and basically on the spot, Waddington's was like,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: we'll take it. In nineteen forty five, they came up
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: with an agreement to produce the game. Anthony Pratt got
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: a patent for it in nineteen forty seven. But again,
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: because the UK was getting bombed on the regular during
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: World War Two and there was a War going on,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: it was kind of difficult to come by some of
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: the material needed, so it kind of got its start
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: and fits and starts really kind of beginning around nineteen
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: forty nine.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they named it Cluto, like you said, spelled like
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: clue with do o at the end. That is Latin
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: for iplay. And there's also a game called Ludo in Britain.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: It's like a par cheesy game. So I guess they
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: thought it had some just name appeal or whatever. I
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: guess would be my guest, because Cluto doesn't make any.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: Sense, not in North America.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: No, right, well, I mean, but was it even a
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: word there?
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: No, it was a made up word.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it didn't make sense then either.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: So that was Waddington's take on it, and Parker Brothers
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: is like, that's lame, Wattington's you're our partner in the UK,
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: but we're gonna name it Clue. And they produced a
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: slightly different version I think, for example, in Cludo. In
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: the original Cludo, mister Green here in the United States
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: was called Reverend Green. There the little differences like that
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: that you would pick up on depending on whether you
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: lived in the United States or Great Britain and then
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I think the actual house that it's modeled on also
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: distinguished the two games. In the UK version, supposedly it
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: was inspired by a mansion in Sussex called Tudor Close
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: and still around. You can see pictures of Tudor Close.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: But one of the things that supports the idea is
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: that in nineteen thirty seven it was renovated to include
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: a billiard's room in a ballroom. And then for the
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: American version, it was supposedly inspired by the house of
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: George Parker, founder of Parker Brothers Games, who had an
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: estate that he bought in New Hampshire in nineteen twenty five,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: and it bore some resemblance to it as well. That
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: house is still around too.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think you and I agree that there
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: is only one clue house, and that is the one
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: on the cover of the nineteen seventy two American Board
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Game edition.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely true, that's the house.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure where it is because medium tricked me.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: I know, still salty about that. So in nineteen fifty three,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Pratt sold his overseas sales rights for five thousand pounds,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: which would be one hundred little over one hundred and
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: sixteen thousand pounds today, good chunk of change, although he
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: would complain and I think has a very good point
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that like, hey, they didn't tell me they were already
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: selling it over there. That's a great point, and that
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: it was super popular, so it probably and it seems
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: like a sort of a lifelong thing with he and
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: his wife Elda, that they never got the money they
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: should have gotten. But it was it was enough money
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: at the time, in one chunk to be able to
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: quit his job and play piano full time. And he
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: was getting those mailbox checks from the domestic UK sales.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was worth about one hundred and sixteen thousand
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: pounds in today's money or one hundred and forty seven
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: thousand US dollars. Not enough to retire on, but he
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: apparently retired on it. And like you said, he was
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: getting those mailbox checks too, but they were set to
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: expire in nineteen sixty one, and supposedly the Independent termed
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: evidence that it might have been extended up to four years,
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: so at the latest he stopped getting checks in nineteen
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: sixty five, and he lived until nineteen ninety four, so
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: he had to make do all over again. It was
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: a fortune a mild fortune that he made and then
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: you know, just kind of lived on and had to
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: go back to work eventually.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like he should have been getting checked till the
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: day he died.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I mean like in Waddington's not informing him
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: that Clue was Gangbusters over there. It's like, yes, if
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: you're a business mind, you could be like, yeah, that's business.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: It's called doing your due diligence. If you're Anthony Pratt
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and it's nineteen fifty three, how are you going to
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: find out what the sales are from Parker Brothers of
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Clue in North America? If you don't even have a
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: clue that you're the American version of Clue is selling
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: like Gangbusters over there, you probably I don't know how
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: you would even find that out.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: No, he was taking advantage of I think so. I
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: think that's might His daughter still lives today. Marcia Davies
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: has been on record saying and interviewed like that. You know,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: it's not like we talked about Cludo much in our house.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: My mom would grouse about it occasionally that they didn't
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: get the money they should have gotten from it.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: It's a what word grouse?
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good word, yeah, double meaning to what.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: That it's a birdend yeah, attitude.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah absolutely. Here is what it says on and there's
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: a little story I'll let you tell afterward. But like
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: you said, he died ninety four and on his grave
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: it says a very dear father. Anthony E. Pratt born
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: ten August nineteen oh three died nine April nineteen ninety four,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: inventor of Cludo, sadly missed. I really wish that she
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: had put, you know, killed by miss Scarlett in the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: conservatory with a lead pipe.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: That would have been awesome, just for fine, for sure.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Apparently he died in such obscurity that Waddington's had no
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: idea that he was dead for three years. And there's
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: no telling if they ever really would have found out
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: had they not been searching for him to celebrate Cludo's
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty one hundred and fifty millionth sale. Yeah,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: and they put out a press release telling the public like, hey,
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: we're looking for this guy. The title of the press
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: release was wanted Colon for murder most Enjoyable. And apparently
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: the person who ran the cemetery that he's buried in
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: knew that he was buried there and got in touch
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: with Waddington's and said, don't waste your time. Man.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: That whole thing just really upsets me.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: It is kind of upsetting. There's nothing really good about
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the Anthony Pratt story.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because like, first of all, they I think misled him,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: and then you know, hey, he's an old man. Let's
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: rub in the fact that we've sold one hundred and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: fifty million of these games, right, sure that he didn't
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: have a piece of so like, let's find him. Yeah,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: and they're like, he's been dead for three years.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Even worse than that, Chuck, I read that they petitioned
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: to exume him, to bring him to the celebration anyway.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Following I've read that medium, I mean, he should be
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: ground in, Like they should have a statue of him
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: at Waddington's.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: For sure, because the reason why not just because we're
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: Clue fans, but because it's According to fun dot Com,
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: among other sources, it's probably the fifth most popular board
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: game of all time, and that includes not just like
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Monopoly and scrabble, We're talking about chess and checkers. It's
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: in the top five with chess and checkers that have
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: been around for thousands of years, so it was like
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: a huge blockbuster game.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna call it the third I don't even
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: that should just be for branded games.
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I agree with you. I totally think that sucker stuff
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: calling chess and check her.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: So I say it's the third most popular game of
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: all time. We did a Monopoly episode. What's the other one? Scrabble? Yeah, yeah,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: we should probably do a Scrabble app at some point. Okay,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: maybe we can get Hodgman to make a rare guest appearance.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah rare, but everyone on Reddit gets mad at every
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: time I say the name Hodgman.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: It's awesome. That must have been a very enlightening experience.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: Huh, short lived, my friends.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: So, Chuck, I say that we take a little break
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: and when we come back, we talk about how to
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: actually play Clue as cobbled together from people who know
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: what they're talking about.
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: Let's do it.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: So my one regret is that I didn't get it
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: together enough because we were on tour to play Clue
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: before this game, before this recording. Because I haven't played
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: it in a long time. Emily and I used to
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: play Monoy Mono Clue. Oh well, and can we quit? Yeah? Okay,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: it's not as fun. Okay, and it's certainly not fun
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to play with Emily because she feels like she has
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a sort of patented foolproof victory route. Oh yeah, she
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: has a methodology that she will not tell me what
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: it is, and she's she beat me every time. So
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: we just quit playing.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: That was like you, me and me with backgammon?
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Who won? You and me? And she has a thing like.
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she was like, it's the strategy of back strategy,
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: not like it's a secret or anything. She's like, I
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: just figured it out, and I still have never figured
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: it out. So we just stopped playing.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: Well, maybe we'll all get together, they can just play
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: each other in games and we'll just sit around and
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: have a cocktail.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: That sounds like a great idea, man, because.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not competitive like that. I am not either.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: It's been so long since I played a board game
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: I don't remember fully, and it seems like I could
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: be competitive. But okay, I think I was competitive at
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: trivial pursuit.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean I love board games. I just never
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: play the much anymore because we don't have a lot
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: of friends who are like, hey, let's have board game night.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: But I'd totally be into it.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, totally for sure.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: All right, So let's talk clue.
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: Eh oh yeah, So in the Classic Clue game, there's
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: so many variations on it that are slightly different. Some
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: have like extra like cards to them, or the names
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: of the characters are a little different. But if you
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: just look at the basic Classic Clue, which that's what
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: we're going to talk.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: About, nineteen seventy.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: Two, seventy two, eighty six, twenty twenty three, even they
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: re updated the classic version. But you're supposed to play
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: with three to six players, and clearly you can play
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: with two. I've seen in places you can play with two.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: But if you look at the instructions, it says three
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: to six players ages eight and up. And if you're
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: seven and a half im precocious, maybe you get a pass,
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: but really you don't want to play with anybody under eight. Typically.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm curious if Ruby would be into this. We'll
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: have to give it a shot.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, fair enough.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so eight and up, what you do is you
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: choose to be the identity of one of six people.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Colonel Mustard, yeah, the Colonel, the Good Colonel, Miss Peacock,
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: Professor Plum, missus White, mister Green, and of course miss
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Scarlett who as a young Baptist boy that seventy two clue.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I looked at her picture quite a bit.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: She's very attractive, for sure. So who were you? Who
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: did you pick? Normally? Was there like one character for
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: you when you're you know.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: I don't remember having a favorite now that I think
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: about it, did you?
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Professor Plumb?
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, that fits.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I just like the name, and the color is pretty too,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: But for some reason, it's it's like cellar door for
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: me kind of yeah, and.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: You were you know, you're a literary sort of type,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: were you back then?
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: No? No, I like to read, but I would not
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: call myself the literary. I didn't become pretentious until much later.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: And like, yeah, like they didn't have Joe the Plumber.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: So right, So there's six murder weapons, right, six suspects,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: six murder weapons in the classic game, the knife, the revolver,
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: the wrench, ouch, the rope, the candlestick, and the lead pipe.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: A lot of head trauma among these, you.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: Know, yeah, four of them are are are whackers.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: Huh exactly? No shell Ailey, But still it gets the
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: point across.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And I guess three of them are technically whackers.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: What the candlestick, the wrench in the lead.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Pipe, Yeah, because the rope is is a choker, revolver
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: is a shooter, and the knife is a stabber. Right,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: so I overshot it by one. Although you could hit
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: somebody with a rope or the butt of a gun.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: Right, Or if you have a candle in the candlestick,
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: you could light them on fire.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Ah, good point, or you could do some creative things
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: that lit bike.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm saying you could use it as a blowgun.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, absolutely, although it's.
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: Bent in the game, so it probably wouldn't work very well. Yeah,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: although you could use it to shoot around a corner.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: So there's also nine rooms on the board, right, and
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: there's the hall, the lounge, the dining room, the kitchen,
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: the ballroom, the conservatory, the library, and the study. And
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: this was where I learned about manor houses and general
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: estates architectural layouts, usually on the first floor.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I didn't know what a conservatory was like. It
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: introduced me to some of these terms even.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the other thing, everybody, if you didn't play
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: the seventy two edition, go look it up. There's there's
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: some for sale, but if you look at the board,
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: it's really beautiful. Like they used textures and colors to
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: signify what room was. What I think for the ballroom
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: it was like parquet flooring.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think this like wallpaper in one I think.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't remember which one that was. The kitchen
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: had like doyley a doily pattern, yeah, and the I
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: think the study had like a red burgundy leather background.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: It was just really neat looking.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. And it was as a kid, your imagination
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: is just running wild with this stuff because it is
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: a game, and that's kind of one of the fun
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: things about it. Yeah, especially as a kid, is a
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: game that has backstory, and it a lot goes on
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: in your imagination. It's not Sorry or Shoots and Ladders, you.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Know, exactly well put And in addition to the fact
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: that it had that potential to create that it was
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: masterfully put together. Like the details of it were really
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: evocative of that kind of thing, So like it really
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: helped it along, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, totally. All right. So the beginning of the game,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: there are three cards that reveal the murder weapon, the
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: murderer and where it took place. You seal those in
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: an envelope, and the whole goal of the game is
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: to figure out who did the murder, with what weapon
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and in what room.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: Yes, and apparently there's about three hundred and twenty four
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: different solutions that it could be, which really doesn't matter
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: because as long as there's more than one or two
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: or three, you're gonna it's gonna be a different game
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: every time. Yeah, So you roll the dice to move
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: along the hallways in between rooms, and then your goal
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: initially is to get into a room, because only when
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: you're in a room can you say that you think
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: the murder happened in that room. You can't do it
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: from the hallway or whatever, right right, and when you're there,
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: when you can make a suggestion. It's kind of like
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: a soft accusation right right where you can say, I
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: think that it's Colonel Mustard in the ballroom, which I'm
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: currently in with the rope. And what happens next is
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: you go from player to player, beginning at the player
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: on your left, and if they have Colonel Mustard or
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: the ballroom or the rope card, because there's a card
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: for each character, each weapon in each room, and everybody's
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: distributed cards that they keep to themselves. If they have
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: one of those cards, they have to show you, and
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: if they have two of those cards, they still only
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: have to show you one. But then your turn is over.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: You've just been your theory has just been disproven. Now
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: you didn't win, but at the same time, you just
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: gained a tremendous amount of information, and the other people playing,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: if they're paying attention, gained a lesser amount, but still
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: some information the game like that you're paying attention like that,
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: it's deduction.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's using process of elimination and deduction and making notes.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: And we'll get into that in a second. One key
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: thing here that I'm not I don't think you said,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: was you bring all that stuff into the room, like
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: you bring that rope and that character into the room.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: So you can also use a little bit of strategy
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: there to pull Colonel Mustard, you know, that player away
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: from where they were into that room.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point. For sure. Some of it's luck, right, sure,
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: I mean you roll the dice and you may or
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: may not get into the room. And if you're not
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: in the room, even if you know who it is.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: You know, let's say you're you're over in the study
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: and you got to get all the way to the
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: kitchen because you know it's the kitchen. You can't make
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: that final accusation and win the game until you're in
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: the kitchen. So dice rolls have something to do with it,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: but really more than anything, like we said, it's mostly
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: up to deduction and paying attention to the information you can.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: Glean, right, And I think I may have missed it
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: if you said it. Did you also say that if
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: no one reveals any card at all, then you can
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: actually like lay it all on the line and make
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: an official accusation.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: No, I didn't say that.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, well that's one of the keys, Like if no
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: one reveals a card, then you know, like, well wait
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: a minute, they don't have those cards, so it's possible
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: that those are the three cards in that envelope.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: If it's early in the game, it's obviously a huge risk.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: You probably want to say that un till later once
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: you've narrowed it down more. But you can I was
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: about to say, throw your cards on the table, but
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: don't do that. But you can say, you know what,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: I'm going I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go for it.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: And you look in that envelope and if that's it,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: that's it. You're one. You've won it, and if not,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: then you're out.
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: That's the regress, Yeah, because now you know who did
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: it with what weapon and in what room. So you're
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: out of the game.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: You go pop the popcorn exactly Now.
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: If you if you make that suggestion, that's your theory
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: of who did it with what and where, and nobody
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: shows you the card. If you don't have any of
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: those cards, then you pretty much know that's you're that
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: you're right because I think all the cards are distributed
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: equally among everybody, right, Yeah, but you would say, well,
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: why would you even say that? If you why would
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: you mention one of the ones that you have in
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: your hand? And this this is where we start to
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: get into like like real deal strategy that you're not
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: going to find in the rule books very much, but
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: work really well for Clue.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we're going to go over there is in
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: one sec. But I did want to add, like one
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: of the genius things of Clue to me is that
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: even even when you're eliminated, it's still fun to sit around.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: It's not. It's not one of those games where you're like, well,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I'm out of here then, because you know, I'm out
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: of the game and watching it is no fun. It's
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: still fun to sit around and drink a cocktail and
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: heckle everyone.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: Else, especially if you're eight.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, I was.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: It's funny you say that because when we were researching this,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: or when I was researching it today, I had that
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: same memory. I was like, I remember, I wouldn't get
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: up from the table, like after I was eliminated. I'd
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: just stay there and watch. It was really entertaining. It
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: was like the pre internet version of Steam.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: I don't know what that is.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: It's where you it's like an internet thing where you
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: watch people playing video games, like you're just watching them
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: play video games.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: Oh really?
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Oh wow, yeah that's people people make a living
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: doing that.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Is that the thing where people play? Oh did you
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: say video games? Yeah? Oh oh yeah, I have heard
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: of that. Ill thought you were saying board games.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: No. No, I'll bet that's too for sure. I'll bet
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: that's out there too, and I'll bet they make a
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: living from it as well.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: All Right, So we promised some uh, some strategies, and
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: these were where did we call these from?
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: They came from the Spruce Crafts stack exchange posts and
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Reddit threads.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: That's a good place to go, probably.
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: For sure, because I mean people share strategy for Clue
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: all over the internet, and if it works, it works.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now here's the deal. I haven't played it so long.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: A lot of these just I didn't fully understand because
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I'm just so out of practice. So I'm going to
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: buy that seventy two game and get back into it
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and revisit these, but I can't tell you about them.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: One of the strategies, and you know it's kind of
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the most obvious one is you're using those suggestions to
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: but to get into that process of elimination and eliminate
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you know, people, rooms and weapons. It's hardest for the
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: rooms because you have to be in that room to
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: get it, so you actually have to roll the dice
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: to get there. But you know, you're if you're trying
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: to eliminate a weapon, like you want that gun out
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: of the game, then suggest it and see if they
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: have it, and then you know you can keep sort
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of harping on that, right, But that may mean that
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you're also trying to throw people off the scent and
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: they might catch on you might actually have that card, right.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, or yeah, if you're watching, if you're playing with
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: somebody and they keep mentioning the revolver whatever every time
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: they make a suggestion, that means either they have the
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: revolver and they're using a process of elimination, or they've
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: already figured out the revolver is the actual murder weapon.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: So if you're being really strategic, you don't want to
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: use that same one. If you know that that something
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: is in that envelope, that sealed envelope is the weapon
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: or the murderer or the room, maybe mix it up
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: a little bit to pay to throw off the people
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: who are really paying attention to you.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So if you make or if anyone
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: makes a suggestion, and you know, like if you suggest
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: something to you me and Emily and I notice that
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: she doesn't, or that nobody shows a card, or if
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: you suggest something period and no one shows you a card,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: then chances are that you've gotten one of the three
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: cards in that envelope in your suggestion.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Right, But that doesn't mean that you necessarily have the
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: answer if you don't have any of those three cards
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: in your hand, because if you have more than one card,
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: Let's say you say Professor Plum with the lead pipe
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: in the conservatory, and I have Professor Plumb and the
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: Conservatory in my hand, I only have to show you
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: Professor Plum or the Conservatory. I don't have to show
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: you both. And so a good strategy is, if I've
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: shown you Professor Plum, I can write down showed Professor
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: Plumb already, And so if somebody guesses Professor Plum and
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: the Conservatory again, I can just show you Professor Plum
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: and I will not be giving the information to anybody
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: that I have the Conservatory as well.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: You know what this episode is what Clue people are
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: going to love it and be angry at us, right,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: non Clue people are just going to hate us.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Why because they're not they're having trouble following what we're saying.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Well, of course, if you've never played Clue, this is
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: getting in the weeds. You know, sure it is, for sure,
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: but we're getting in the weeds such that I'll don't
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: feel confident we're getting it all right, So Clue it's
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: will be like, oh, guys, how could you forget that feeling?
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: Is like an old friend to us by now, Chuck.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: It really it's just the fourth leg of our podcast exactly.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: One thing that they say you can do is, you know,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: if you play against the same people, you know, it's
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: not unlike poker, and that people bluff and they have
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: their own little tricks and things and tells, so just
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: to sort of pay attention and try and read them.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: If you play with your family all the time, let's say.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: For sure, so this is the this is what it
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: all boils down to right here, Chuck. It's it's deduction,
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: it's prospective elimination. I'll bet you can't. So let's say
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: you're holding Miss Scarlet and your friend you already know
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: has the candlestick because you guessed it before and they
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: showed it to you, so you know that they have
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: the candlestick. And then somebody else says that they think
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: it was Miss Scarlet in the dining room with the candlestick,
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: and another player is like, here's a card that disproves it.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: You know that that player has the dining room, right,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: you have Miss Scarlett. Your other friend has the candlestick.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: That fourth player has the dining room because they showed
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: it to player three, and you mark that down, and
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: if you do that enough times, you can figure out
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: what cards are being held by people, and hence, through
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: process of elimination, what cards are likeliest hidden in the
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: envelope as the murderer and the murder weapon and the
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: room the murder took place in.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that's what Emily's doing, and like a variation
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: on that, because she's she's scribbling down stuff, right, I'm
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: not taking nearly enough notes clearly, because that's a big
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: part of the game. Yeah, And when I was reading
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: about all the different note taking and you're gonna need
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: an even bigger notebook than the notepad they give you,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, really, no.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: It's true. There's like the it's a logic problem basically,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: so much so that they train artificial intelligence on it.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: There's a Dutch computer scientist named Hans vun dip March
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: who did a like a Cluto formalization they took. He
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: took Cluto and translated it into AI instructions, and basically
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: what his premise is that it's all changes in information.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: When you interact with other players, your information changes, and
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: so the AI tries to figure out what route it
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: has to take through player to player to player to
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: get to the information it needs to win the game
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: in the fewest moves, which essentially is probably what Emily's doing.
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: So you're married to an artificial intelligence.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: It turns out that, yeah, sure that makes sense, that
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: tracks me.
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: But I mean that's how logical clue actually is. It's
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: this process of deduction where if you if you can
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: track the information that you're getting or that other people
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: are getting, you can win the game every time. Basically.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And was that the thing that Duke University used.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they came up with their own thing, an algorithm
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: to play clue, which anytime you have a logic problem,
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: you can develop an algorithm for it.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, So they basically were turned it into an
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: algorithm for what you were kind of talking about, like
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: a treasure hunt problem. How to get there the quickest,
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: how to get to the answer the quickest. And they said, like,
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: you know, one day they can apply this kind of
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: thing to stuff like robotic mind sweeping even, yeah, which
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: is pretty cool. Go find the mind like quicker.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you're just playing casually with friends casually, or
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: if you're the only one who's not playing casually. Maybe
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: reconsider using some of these harder core in the weeds
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: strategies and just pay attention and use the notepad that
• 34:41
  Speaker 2: it comes with and have fun.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and maybe don't announce before the game that I
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: have a full proof method that I win every time.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and at least don't take a lap around the
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: game table after you win. She's the worst winner, all right,
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: So let's take a break then and we'll come right
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: back everybody. So, like we said, there's a bunch of
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: variations that are just super darling if you played clue
• 35:26
  Speaker 2: and it has a place in your heart. Depending on
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: where you are in the world, there's just different names
• 35:31
  Speaker 2: for different characters. Right. We said that mister Green is
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: called Reverend Green. In the UK, there used to be
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: the victim, remember this, the owner of the house that
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: everybody's at. These are party guests ostensibly, and the murder
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: takes place, and it's the host who's murdered every time.
• 35:49
  Speaker 2: And the host in the US is known as mister
• 35:51
  Speaker 2: body with two d's kind of some gallows humor. In
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: the UK he's known as doctor Black, Right.
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I like that too.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: What about in Switzerland.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: It's funny because some of these I was like, no,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: of course not. It's the classic, is what you want.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: But some of these I liked Hercludo in Switzerland, signor
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Lemon in Spain, like you said, he was Reverend Green,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: but Doctor Olive in France was mister Green, which is okay.
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: Professor Plum is Professor Black. In Brazil, Missus Peacock is
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Baroness von Blau, which I love. In Norway and in Switzerland,
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: I do not like this one. Colonel Mustard is Madame Curry,
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: not Currie. Is that what it's supposed to be? I
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: guess so I thought Currie was c Urie, right it is,
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: But Curry is a color? Is that a play on that?
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: I think?
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So that's how I hated even more.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: All right. There's also been some changes to the materials too.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: If you bought the original version of Clue back in
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: nineteen forty nine, I guess the rope was actually a
• 37:02
  Speaker 2: little tiny piece of rope.
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: I love that, And the lead pipe was made of lead. Amazing.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's authentic stuff. Over the years, though they've they've
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: generally stuck to the same premise, the same characters, and
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: just kind of like it's been like jazz, like they've
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: been riffing on you know, the original form.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like the backstories would change a little bit. And
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: this is the kind of thing where I'm really going
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: to try and resist the urge to poo poo more
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: modernized changes as like you know gen X guy who
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: says the seventy two version is the best. But Colonel
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: Mustard is a soccer star. As of two thousand and eight,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: Jack Mustard Professor Plum was turned into Victor Plum, a
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: video game designer.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: Brilliant video game designer.
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fine, you know, if that helps, you know,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: kids get into it a little more. What I am
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: going to take issue with is adding home is one
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: of the rooms.
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: That's funny because that was the one that made the
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: most sense to me. Oh, I don't know, updating the room.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it makes sense. I just I don't know,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: killed somebody with a candlestick in the home theater, I
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: don't know. Just it feels at odds with the sort
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: of because I still sort of associate it with this
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: sort of English estate kind of thing.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: I see what you mean, for sure, I get that,
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: but I guess they probably have home theaters in the UK.
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: Right, No, of course they do, okay.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: So that was the Discover the Secrets two thousand and
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: eight edition. That was probably, from what I can tell,
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: the biggest makeover of any of the editions. They went
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: so far as to get rid of Missus White and
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: replaced her with her adopted daughter, Doctor Orchid. That didn't
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: last all that long. I guess it lasted a decade
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: or two. But in twenty twenty three they came up
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: with another update and they basically took it back to
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: the beginning. Missus White came back, but now she's Chef White.
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: They combined the UK and the American names for the
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: host and now it's mister Bodden body Black. Colonel Mustard
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: stopped playing soccer and went back to the military. Missus
• 39:18
  Speaker 2: Peacock is now a lawyer, a solicitor, Mister Green's a mayor.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Miss Scarlett's the same, and Professor Plumb is the same.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: And the weapons of the rooms are back to what
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: they were back when we love the game, Chuck, so
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: you can settle down.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I looked up this new one because there
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: are people that have been saying, like, oh, they made
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: them all sexy looking. I don't know about that. I
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: guess they're a little they skew younger than the original
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: cast on that or not the original, but the seventy
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: two version.
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: Yea.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: I believe missus Scarlett and Plumb now are people of color,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: so they've they've got a little more diverse, which is good.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: I think Mayor Green is as well.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: And they're also licensed versions. Whi you know. I had
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: that Star Wars monopoly, which is a lot of fun.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: But apparently there's a Alfred Hitchcock.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Clue that sounds awesome.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: It sounds pretty good where the characters are characters from
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: the movies. Hitchcock movies is kind of fun.
• 40:12
  Speaker 2: One of the rooms is the Bait Motel.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Baits Motel, of course it is. You know.
• 40:17
  Speaker 2: I finally saw Psycho for the first time, just like
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: a month ago. Maybe I was reading about it and
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: I guess I'll watched that documentary about the shower scene,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: which is pretty good documentary. Now it made me realize,
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: like the way that people were talking about the movie,
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: I'm like, that doesn't track with what I know about Psycho.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: Turns out it's a far different movie than what I realized.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: It's really good.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that whole first part of the movie, Like,
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: if you haven't seen it, you probably wouldn't even know
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: it existed because not many people talk about it.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I can imagine like watching that movie before,
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: you know, everyone knew that Norman Bates was the killer. Yeah,
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: and that you know, the protagonist who you think is
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: a protagon gets killed off the big star that it
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: was just totally shocking.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, must have been amazing. Have you seen a lot
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: of Hitchcock stuff.
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is why it's really weird that I hadn't
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: seen Psycho.
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, great movie, Scooby Doo version, the weapons or monsters.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: And then this one's kind of cute, the Golden Girls
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: clue version and instead of murder, it's who ate the
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: last slice cheesecake?
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: That's adorable.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: It's so what do they call it online? Wholesome?
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Wholesome? Right, So there's been a ton of spin offs
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: of the clue ip owned by Hasbro by the way,
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: which who also made our stuff you should know, version
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: of Trivial Pursuit.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they bought out the other companies, right, Parker Brothers
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: and wat Waddington's.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, they dominate. But so there was like a game
• 41:55
  Speaker 2: show in the UK from nineteen ninety to ninety three,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: which was pretty cute. I watching part of an episode.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: There was a book, a series of young adult mystery books.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: There was a nineteen eighties VCR game which is actually
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: really beloved and harder than the board game by far.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: I remember those. Yeah, me too, Not Clue, but just
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: VCR games.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: Supposedly Dwayne Perkins from The Blackening is coming up with
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: an animated series based on Clue.
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: Cool.
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: And we just could not have this episode and not
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: discuss the classic nineteen eighty five movie Clue. It's so good,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: not just as in its own right a good movie,
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: but as an adaptation of something that already existed, it
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: just did it perfectly.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of my favorite comedies of the eighties
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: for sure. It was, you know, now, making something like
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: a movie out of a video game as something that
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: wouldn't surprise you, but nineteen eighty five, it was very unusual.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: It was written and directed, co written by Jonathan Lynn
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: and directed by Jonathan co written with John Landis.
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Lynn also directed My cousin Vinnie in the Whole
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: nine Yards.
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: Oh cute.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: So you know a few other pretty big movies, huh,
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: And it's just it's one of my favorites. The big mistake, then,
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: why it was considered a box office flop, was that
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: studio executives got greedy and they would send one three
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: different prints of Clue to movie theaters with a different
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: ending on each print, with the idea that, hey, people
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: will go and see this movie three times to go
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: and see the three possible endings. And it did not
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: work out that way.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: I know that's crazy because I saw in the theaters
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: and I was enthralled by the idea that there were
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: other endings. I thought that was the coolest thing I'd
• 43:49
  Speaker 2: ever seen in my short nine years on the planet.
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Did you go see other versions in the theater? Do
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: you remember? No?
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: I was just content with knowing there were other versions
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: out there. But when the movie came out on VHS,
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: we rented it like too sweet to watch them all
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: because they very wisely included them all in the ending,
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: which is the same if you watch it on like
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: prim or Netflix or whatever.
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: Now, Yeah, and not only is it great to not
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: have to pay three times to go see it, but
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: it functions really well with the one, two, three endings
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: because you know, they do the ending and they'll say
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: or it could have happened like this, and then they
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: I mean that's when Tim Curry just, yeah, really shines.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I mean he's great through the whole thing as Wadsworth
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: the Butler, but he really really shines when he's It's
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: just a genius comedic performance.
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. So did Madeline con as Missus White
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: when she talks about hating Yvette. Oh God, that was
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: apparently improvised.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Classic.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, if you haven't seen Clue, go see it like tonight.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: It's just such a great movie. And our friends over
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: at Mental Floss, Matthew Jackson wrote something about like little
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: known facts about the movie Clue, and apparently there was
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: a fourth ending originally that they didn't bother shooting Carrie
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Fisher was supposed to be Miss Scarlett God rather than
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: Lesliean Warren exactly. And get this the Telegram the Singing
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: Telegram Girl. That was Jane Weedland from The Go Gos.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's another one too, if you want
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: to hear it, let's hear it. You know who played
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: mister Body. No, it was Lee Ving, who was the
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: singer and guitarist of the hardcore punk band fear No Yes,
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: John Belushi's buddy Wow. So two music connections. I think
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: we should go through the rest of the cast too,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: just because it's short and amazing.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: It is a great cast.
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Christopher Lloyd played Professor Plum. You already mentioned the great
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: Madeline con flames on the side of my face. It's
• 45:50
  Speaker 1: just unbelievable. Also in that scene when he's running, he
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: grabs her. Tim Curry grabs her to run upstairs and
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: explain how she did it in one of the things,
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: and she, I don't think she probably made this up
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: to She just she trips and falls on her face
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: like a third of the way up the stairs, and
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: he keeps going.
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: Great physical comedy. The great Martin mall is Colonel Mustard.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: Michael McKean is mister Green. I mean, I feel like
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: ruining his great last line, but maybe I shouldn't.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't, okay.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: Eileen Brennan who was wonderful Miss Peacock. We already mentioned
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: Jane Whenland and Ving. Colleen camp classic as Yvette, and
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: if you recognized the cook, it was she was a match.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Kelly Nakahara played the cook and she played Lieutenant Yamoto
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: and match.
• 46:42
  Speaker 2: Remember, so the cast is.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Amazing, and if you're interested in a deeper dive, the
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: great and wonderful Casey Wilson was a movie Crush guest
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: and this was her movie.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: Nice, that's a great movie.
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: If you want to know more about Clue the movie,
• 46:58
  Speaker 2: go watch it. Don't read anything else about it, don't
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: listen to anybody else jabron about it. Just go watch
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: it and thank us later. And if you've never played Clue,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: you do a lot worse than starting with the nineteen
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: seventy two edition.
• 47:11
  Speaker 3: Friends.
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, since Chuck agreed with my assessment, that means,
• 47:15
  Speaker 2: of course it's time for listener mail.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch it again soon. I'm now remembering how
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: great Eileen Brennan was.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's wonderful.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: Everyone is so good. All right, here we go. Hi,
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Josh and Chuck had just finished this is a correction of.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: Epic proportions.
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: No, it's just something that we like to correct these,
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: especially just finished listening to the JD. Salinger episode. Fascinating listen,
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: So thanks for diving into this. I'm a big fan
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: of stuff. You should know. This my first time sitting
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: in a correction, But the end of the episode, Joshua
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: purs to an article by a guy named Michiko Kakuchani.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: I thought it was important to note that Michiko Kakuchani
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: is a woman. She's a revered literary critic, writer, and
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Alitzer Prize winner, and I wanted to make this trailblazing
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: woman make sure that she got her due on your show.
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: And that is from Julie Ann at Behar from White Salmon, Washington.
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Thanks a lot, Julian, and I appreciate it. I feel
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: like all the corrections that we're reading lately are mine disproportionately.
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: I'm not filing mine away and like burning them.
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a pretty big flub. I'm sorry about that.
• 48:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you for that correction. That was a good one.
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: If I misspoke in this episode or any other episode
• 48:31
  Speaker 2: that you noticed, let us know about it. Chuckle. Read
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: it for sure on the air. You can send it
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: off via email to Stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
• 48:43
  Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio.
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.