Gupwalla

During the Tree’s clues, we saw a blank Playbill - with three cents on top. Ana Gasteyer played Polly Peachum in a production of The Threepenny Opera several years ago.

Just throwing this out to chew on: The once wildly popular (and now seasonally popular) video game “World of Warcraft” is about to drop two new playable characters into their world: a tribe of fox-people and a community of steampunk gnomish cyborgs. Paired with the video game clues from the package, that could mean that the Fox costume is a nod to the star’s pastime of playing WoW.* And Robin Williams was a known WoW player. (As is Jamie Lee Curtis, if you want to listen out for future clues). I don’t know if NPH has played WoW specifically, but he does play old fashioned board games. So it is possible that Williams and Harris are part of the star’s gaming passion, not on-screen costars. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive. *We’ve seen that play once already this season. A more malevolent blue ice cream man was released in Fortnite in late summer.

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I enjoyed the clips of the German version I was able to see. The performers were very good, but also local celebs I hadn’t much heard of. Most of the performances were in English - and generally very good, at that. I also loved the Angel, and I think he is a good reference for any US2 Leopard guesses. Angel was a feminine costume, but the singer was male and mostly sang hard metal. He turned out to be a big local comedian - totally straight/male but willing to go with a feminine costume just for the shock and laughs. And a part of me finds that very “2019” as far as evolving gender norms and attitude. Clothes are just clothes, and sometimes a boy just wants to feel pretty and get a little circulation down there. 🙂 I also saw a clip of the Dutch version, specifically a robot that was doing a tremendous job on a Spanish-language song. Supposedly the singer was thought to be female based on an earlier performance, though this song was in a male range, so it’s really causing some confusion. Could be a countertenor, or contra-alto, but in either case that robot has some vocal chords. Sometimes the world seems like a crazy place, and a part of me loves that pop culture decided to appropriate the crazy and have some come-together fun out of it. Thanks, Korea!

Just to nitpick, but we don’t yet know for certain whether any of those are contestants (versus guesses) for this year either! We might think we know, we might even think we are sure, but we might also be just as dumb as whomever we perceive as the dumbest panelist. 🤗

It’s ok to disagree. We can still be friends. 🙂

Jenny is just a bit associational with her thinking sometimes. She tossed out one of Dr. Drew’s cohosts as a guess (but not Drew himself) despite working with them. It’s like she knows the voices belong together but doesn’t always distinguish them. She did the same thing with Rottweiler (and maybe Rabbit) - she thinks it’s part of the 90s/00s boy band crowd but she can’t be more specific. So I think “Jaime Foxx...or someone” could be interpreted as anyone in that whole ILC crowd. She thinks that’s the ballpark but she’s only throwing out the safest player. Even if she’s miles off, I think she’s still closer than the Drag/Pose guesses. This is more likely to be a comedian impersonating Seal, or Seal impersonating an out-of-practice Seal. NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT All the In Living Color references (whether true or not) brought up an old memory - and I sure wouldn’t rule out Rosie Perez as a solid guess for Flamingo. Assume for a moment that “ZooTube” was an obvious distractor; all the other clues fit Perez fairly well. She’s the right body fit, she was primarily known as a dancer and could almost certainly still light up the floor, she used to joke about her excessive makeup, she’s arguably more of a true “triple threat” than Adrienne, her “wizard” was Spike Lee, and she even studied pre-med* for a while. She comes closer than Adrienne to actually quitting her job - which she did on “The View.” One thing I can’t quite pin down is an example of her singing voice, but Robin was picking up some “maturity” so maybe that’s a hint that we should consider someone a little further back. In terms of calendar, Perez wrapped filming on a new “Batman” series movie in April, so she should have been free and in “camera shape” for the summer filming. A showing on TMS could build some buzz towards her first big film role in some time. Not saying it’s definitely her, but I’m keeping her down as a strong possibility. * Specifically, undergraduate studies in biochemistry. I don’t know specifically that she aspired to go into medicine.

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Be careful with confirmation bias - Jamie Foxx was given up by his birth parents and raised by his grandparents; his ILC costar Tommy Davidson was abandoned as an infant. And either of those arguably hits the “Living Color” and “prime time” clues much better, though each also presents some problems. (As does Seal, since neither of those seem to apply to him) I’m pretty sure also that I’ve seen all of those perform as fast food workers in sketches. So a lot depends on whether you think the clues refer to the celebs or their career personas... Leopard in general has one of the most befuddling clue packages on the show so far (which might be a clue that he lasts a while). Just as a random other example - the Improv Comedy Movement is dated to 1963 when the first NY Improv opened. So that might not be the celeb’s birthday, but the birthday of the celeb’s career association (assuming any of the ILC clues are relevant). So, deep rabbit hole indeed. All that said, I’m more inclined to see Seal as Leopard after Round 2. It’s either him or a gifted impersonator doing their best Seal impression. All I know for certain is that Leopard is left handed (which isn’t really a help in this instance.)

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Then again, why wouldn’t he be? High camp is really “in” right now, and “rule of fun” says just do what feels entertaining. Deciding to do TMS in the first place requires crossing so many bridges that I can’t imagine the gender of your furry karaoke avatar would be the one bridge you couldn’t move past. That said, I’m holding to my impression that Leopard is Jim Carrey (who has no compunctions whatsoever) until forced to consider other options.

If you need a really good laugh This evening, search YouTube for “Patti Labelle backup singers” and go with the first hit. You will not be disappointed.

I agree. Those are either really lazy guesses, or the panel comes to the show with some prepared family-friendly names to generate buzz and fill airtime. But seriously, you can’t have Wayne Brady on the show twice and you aren’t guaranteed to get him once. Maybe there are other people who can sing!

Go big or go home: Mahershala Ali for Fox. The 4400, Moonlight, and True Detective all get references in the clue package, and Luke Cage made the banter. I think Doogie and Doubtfire are references to the celeb’s gamer friends (who might or might not be celebs themselves - Williams was known to be a gamer).

McGowan is an excellent guess. Endorsed and seconded.