Clue(do): Third Best Board Game Ever | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and guess what. Jerry's here too and I'll tell you what. Jerry will be the one who murdered us if. we ever turn up dead in a lounge or. Ballroom conservatory and she'll. probably have used a lead pipe because. Jerry carries a lead pipe with her at. all times then her nickname is uh Miss.

Scarlet yeah she makes us call her Miss. Scarlet I have to say this feels like a. Chuck pick through and through but it. was your pick mhm uh so I have to ask. right away if you were a a a. cluest historically oh historically yes. it's one of my favorite games of all. time oh great me play a lot all right. well we're gonna have fun talking about. this then man I love clue as a matter of. fact I went on eBay and uh made a low.

offer on a complete. 1972 um edition of clue which is the one. I grew up with oh yeah I was like I. guess I had the 86 and I looked I was. like nope that's not it went a little. further back 1972 I just started. drooling from Nostalgia yeah it's the 72. if you're in our age bracket the 72. version is a very very nostalgic sort of. like it's just very evocative it brings. out smells in your brain and like fight.

your parents are having in the other. room and like cartoons that are on it's. like it's it's it hits hard uh I was. very disappointed because I went to find. out I was like man who who were those. models now who took that picture like I. was really curious yeah and I found a. thing on medium that I didn't it's a. it's a spoof right it has to be okay. yeah I was like oh my God Annie Le ofit. took that picture yeah once you start. reading it though I was like wait a. minute this I was so disappointed cuz I.

I even went to Reddit and I don't know I. couldn't find out any information on who. those people were or how that went down. I mean it's just such an Arcane thing to. spoof it's it was called an oral history. of the photo shoot for the 1972 cover of. clue how exciting were you when you read. that title yeah I was like this is some. good this is good treasure right here. yeah and then I thought wow Annie Lio. was like chook that picture no so. whoever wrote that if you're out there. you got us both yeah and shame on.

you so um we're talking about clue the. game if you're in the UK and you're like. what is this clue they're talking about. allow us to also call it. cludo clue is way better a name for it. but cludo is what it's called basically. outside of North America yeah and the. reason that you would qualify outside of. North America is because it's a big hit. all over the country it's translated. into Spanish Swiss um well you know. those two among other langu.

languages I think we should go back in. time it's one of the great games of all. time uh and talk a little bit about the. invention of clue because it's pretty. good story uh there was a guy named. Anthony Pratt Anthony e Pratt not to be. confused with the other Anthony Pratt. why does that name sound. familiar uh I don't know you may be. thinking Chris Pratt I think Anthony. Pratt's a politician of some kind okay. that might be it no I know who Chris PR. is oh well I don't know um Anthony Pratt.

was born in uh Birmingham near. Birmingham in 1903 England that is MH uh. and as a he was a high school dropout. professional piano player Y and during. World War I when he was but a young teen. uh The Story Goes that he and his. friends would sit around and play what. he called uh a stupid game called Murder. where guests crept up on each other in. corridors and the victim would shriek. and fall on the floor mhm and apparently. post uh high school years was a.

traveling piano player that would play. at uh these sort of ritzy country hotels. where guests uh and the hotel would put. this on at like you know Murder Mystery. night and it was a thing it's still a. thing murder mystery night and it's you. know it's it's sort of one of my. favorite kinds of books and movies like. The Knives Out kind of thing and he and. his friends were were doing this as. teenagers yeah and apparently he didn't. like that like you said he didn't like. the gay murder but he did like the ones. they put on at hotels um he didn't like.

Agatha Christie which is kind of. surprising because if his game can be. compared to anybody's books it's Agatha. chrisy for sure um and so uh that was. the inw war period during World War II. uh 1943 found him working as a law clerk. he also worked as in a Munitions Factory. as well um and because there were. blackouts at night because um the UK was. getting bombed on the regular um you. didn't you couldn't go out there's. nothing do people didn't come over you.

didn't do anything you just hung out. with your family and luckily he and his. wife um had a a a gaming streak I guess. with with in common because if you think. about it it's very it's very rare to sit. down and come up with a board game even. in that situation like it just takes a. certain person and you put Elva and. Anthony Pratt together in blackout. conditions in 1943 and they're going to. come up with clue yeah originally they. called it murder still this time with an.

a exclamation point almost said. apostrophe it was called Murder and he. thought and they thought rather I think. she designed some of the artwork and. stuff in the original rooms and things. like that and worked on the gameplay. together but he knew that like you can. sell board games because he actually had. a friend named Jeffrey Bull who sold a. game to watton's games of London so he. was like you know we can actually sell. this thing like we're not just creating. a fun game for our family and that first. initial game had 10 characters yeah uh.

one was randomly chosen as the victim. which is a little different than the. clue that we know in love yeah and there. were nine weapons uh the ones that were. different that I think are still kind of. fun are a bomb that would just be a fun. little game piece I think sure like a. classic cartoon like round fused bomb MH. uh a hypodermic syringe kind of dark uh. a poison bottle which is pretty obvious. for a murder mystery and then an Irish.

shalele which is would would be really. kind of cool to have today uh if you. don't know what that is it was it sort. of looks like a cane and later you could. function it as a cane but what it really. was was early Irish stick fighting it's. a cudel and you know it's like a cane. with a a larger ball on the end where. your hand would be yeah the business end. yeah so just like uh if you look up the. Boston Celtics logo that that cane that. that little Celtic has is in fact a. Shala. yeah that's right yeah nice nice.

description of of that Chuck way to go. yeah I didn't know stick fighting was a. thing I kind of went down a rabbit hole. and apparently it was a it was a stick. to fight with it first but then later on. I was just like oh no this is just my. cane whack whack oh gotcha that kind of. thing so um something I thought was. pretty sweet was that um the pratts. managed to get an a meeting with um the. people at waddington's thanks to uh. their friend the Bulls Jeffrey Bull and. his wife. and the Bulls went with them to that.

meeting and they all sat down and played. this game murder together and basically. on the spot Wasington just like we'll. take it um in 1945 they they came up. with an agreement to produce the game um. Anthony Pratt got a patent for it in. 1947 but again because the the UK was. getting bombed on the regular during. World War II um and there was a war. going on it was kind of difficult to. come by some of the materials needed so.

it kind of got it start and fits and. starts really kind of beginning around. 1949 yeah uh they named it cluto like. you said spelled like clue with doo at. the end M um that is Latin for I play. and there's also a game called Ludo uh. in Britain that's like a par cheesy game. so I guess they thought it had some just. name appeal or whatever I guess would be. my guess cuz cludo doesn't make any. sense not in North America Amica.

now yeah right well I mean but was it. even a word. there no it was a madeup word yeah see. it didn't make sense then either so um. that was waddington's take on it and. Parker Brothers is like that's lame. wadington you're our our partner in the. UK but we're going to name it clue and. they produced a slightly different. version I think for example um in cludo. in the original cluto Mr Green here in. the United States was called reverend. green there just little little.

differences like that that you would. pick up on depending on whether you. lived in the United States or or Great. Britain um and then uh I think the the. actual house that it's um modeled on. also um distinguished the two games in. the UK version supposedly it was um. inspired by a mansion in Sussex called. tutor close and still around you can see. pictures of tutor close but one of the. things that supports that idea is that. in 1937. um it was renovated to include a.

billiard's room and a ballroom and then. for the American version um it was. supposedly inspired by the the house of. George Parker founder of Parker Brothers. games who had a um an estate that he. bought in New Hampshire in. 1925 and it bore some resemblance to it. as well that house is still around too. yeah but I think you and I agree that. there is only one clue house and that is. the one on the cover of the 1972. American board game Edition absolutely. true that's the house I'm not sure where.

it is cuz uh medium tricked me I know. still salty about that so in 1953 Pratt. sold his overseas sales rights uh for. 5,000 pounds which would be 100 a little. over 116,000 PBS today good chunk of. change um although uh he would complain. and I think has a very good point that. like hey they didn't tell me they were. already selling it over there it's a. great point and that it was super.

popular so it probably and it seems like. a sort of a lifelong thing with with he. and his wife Elva that they they never. got the money they should have gotten um. but it was it was enough money at the. time in one chunk to be able to quit his. job and play piano full time and he was. getting those mailbox checks from the. domestic UK sales yeah it was worth. about. £16,000 in today's money or 147,000 us. not enough to retire on but he. apparently retired on it it um and like.

you said he was getting those mailbox. checks too but they were set to expire. in. 1961 and supposedly the independent term. up evidence that um it might have been. extended up to four years so at the. latest he stopped getting checks in 1965. and he lived until 1994 so he had to. make do all over again it was a a. fortune a mild fortune that he made and. then you know just kind of lived on and. had to go back to work. eventually yeah like.

he should have been getting checks till. the day he died absolutely and I mean. like in watton's not informing him that. clue was Gang Busters over there it's. like yes if you're businessman you could. be like yeah that's business it's called. doing your due diligence if you're. Anthony Pratt and it's. 1953 how are you going to find out what. the sales are from Parker Brothers of. clue in North America if you don't even. have a clue that your ver the American. version of clue is selling like Gang. Busters over there there you probably I.

don't know how you would even find that. out no he was taken advantage of I think. so yeah I think that's my his daughter. uh still lives today Marsha Davies uh. has been on record saying and. interviewed like that you know it's not. like we talked about cludo much in our. house uh my mom would grous about it. occasionally that they they didn't get. the money they they should have gotten. from it it's a great word what word. grous yeah that's good yeah double. meaning too what that it's a bird and um.

attitude. yeah absolutely um here is what it says. on uh and there's a little story I'll. let you tell afterward but like you said. he died 1994 and on his grave it says a. very dear Father Anthony e Pratt born 10. August 1903 died 9 April 1994 inventure. of cludo sadly missed uh I really wish. that she had put you know killed by Miss.

Scarlet in the conservatory with a lead. pip that would have been awesome just. for fun for sure um apparently he died. in such obscurity that um wadington had. no idea that he was dead for three years. and there's no telling if they ever. really would have found out had they not. been searching for him to uh celebrate. kudo's 150th 150 millionth sale yeah and. they put out a press release telling the. public like hey we're looking for this. guy the title of the press release was.

wanted colon for murder most. enjoyable and apparently the person who. ran the cemetery that he's buried in. knew that he was buried there and got in. touch with wadington and said don't. waste your time man this that whole. thing just really upsets me it is kind. of upsetting there's nothing really good. about the Anthony Pratt story yeah. because like first of all they I think. misled him him and then you know hey.

he's an old man let's rub in the fact. that we've sold 150 million of these. games sure that he didn't have a piece. of so like let's find him and they're. like he's been dead for three years even. worse than that Chuck I read that they. petitioned to Exum him to bring him to. the Celebration anyway no I'm not. following I read that on. medium I mean he should be crowned in. like they should have a statue of him at. at wadington for sure because the reason. why not just cuz clude fans but because.

um it's according to fun.com among other. sources it's probably the fifth most. popular board game of all time and that. includes not just like Monopoly and. Scrabble we're talking about chess and. checkers it's in the top five with chess. and checkers that have been around for. thousands of years so it was like a huge. Blockbuster game yeah I'm going to call. it the third I don't even that should. just be for Branded games I agree with. you I totally agree I think that's.

sucker stuff calling chess and Checker a. board game so I say it's the third most. popular game of all time we did a. Monopoly Episode what's the other one. Scrabble yeah yeah we should probably do. a Scrabble up at some point okay maybe. we get Hodgman to to make a rare guest. appearance yeah rare but everyone on. Reddit gets mad every time I say the. name Hodgman. so that's awesome that must have been a. very enlightening experience huh. shortlived my friend so Chuck I say that. um we take take a little break and when.

we come back we talk about how to. actually play Clue as cobbled together. from people who know what they're. talking about let's do. [Music]. [Music]. it so my one regret ret is that I didn't. get it together enough because we were.

on tour to play. Clue uh before this game uh before this. recording because I haven't played it in. a long time uh Emily and I used to play. monoy Mano clue oh wow and can you we. quit yeah okay it's not as fun okay and. it's certainly not fun to play with. Emily because she feels like she has a a. sort of patented full proof Victory. route oh yeah she has a methodology uh.

that she will not tell me what it is and. I she's she beat me every time so we. just quit playing that was like Yumi and. me with bat gaming who won Yumi and she. has a thing like she's good yeah she was. like I it's the strategy of back not. like it's a secret or anything she's. like I just figured it out and I still. have never figured it out so we just. stopped playing well maybe we'll all get. together they can just play each other. in games and we'll just sit around and. have a cocktail that sounds like a great.

idea man cuz I'm not competitive like. that uh I'm not either it's been so long. since I played a board game I don't. remember fully and it seems like I could. be competitive but I okay I think I was. competitive at Trivial. Pursuit yeah I mean I love board games I. just never play them much anymore. because we don't have a lot of friends. who are like hey let's have board game. night but I'd totally be into it yeah. totally for sure all right so let's talk. clue a oh yeah so um in the classic Clue.

game there's so many variations on it. that are slightly different some have. like extra like cards to them or the. names of the characters are a little. different but if you just look at the. basic classic clue which that's what. we're going to talk about um 1972 72 86. 2023 even they re-updated the classic. version um but you're supposed to play. with three to six players and clearly. you can play with two I've seen places. you can play with too but if you look at.

the instructions it says three to six. players ages eight and up and if you're. seven and a half and precocious maybe. you get a pass but really you don't want. to play with anybody under eight. typically yeah I'm curious if Ruby would. be into this we'll have to give it a. shot okay fair enough uh yeah so eighton. up uh what you do is you uh choose to be. the identity of one of six people. Colonel Mustard yeah. the colonel the good Colonel sure uh.

Miss peacock Professor Plum Mrs White Mr. Green and of course Miss Scarlet Who as. a young baptist boy that 72 clue she she. I I looked at her picture quite a bit. she was very attractive for sure so who. were you who did you pick normally was. there like one character for you when. you were kid you know I don't remember. having a favorite now that I think about. it did you Professor Plum oh okay that. fits I just like the name and the color. is pretty too but for some reason it's.

just it's like cell door for me kind of. yeah and you were you know you're a. literary sort of type were you back. then no no I like to read but I would. not call myself literary I didn't become. pretentious until much later in life. like they didn't have Joe the plumber so. right so um there's six murder weapons. right six suspects six murder weapons uh. in the classic game the knife the. revolver the wrench ouch the Rope the.

Candlestick and the lead pipe lot of um. head trauma among these you know yeah. four of them are are are whackers huh. exactly no chal but still it gets the. point across well I guess three of them. are technically whackers what the. Candlestick the wrench and the lead pipe. yeah because you the Rope is uh is a. choker revolver is a shooter and the. knife is a stabber right so I I overshot. it by one although you could hit. somebody with a rope or the buttt of a.

gun right or if you have a candle in the. Candlestick you could light them on fire. ah good point or you could do some. creative things with that lead pipe too. you what I'm saying yeah you could use. it as a blow gun yeah absolutely. although it's bent in the game so it. probably wouldn't work very well yeah. although you could use it to shoot. around a. corner so there's also nine rooms on the. board right and there's the hall the. lounge the dining room the kitchen the. ballroom the conservatory the library.

and the study and this was where I. learned about manor houses and general. Estates uh architectural layouts usually. on the first floor yeah I didn't know. what a conservatory was like they. introduce me to some of these terms even. yeah and the other thing um Everybody if. you if you didn't play the 72 Edition go. look it up there's there's some for sale. but if you look at the board it's really. beautiful like they used um textures and. colors. to to signify what um what room was what.

I think for the ballroom it was like. paret flooring yeah yeah uh I think this. like wallpaper in one I think yeah I. don't remember which one that was the. kitchen had like doily a doily pattern. yeah um and the I think the study had. like a red burgundy leather background. it was just really neat looking yeah. totally and and it was as a kid your. imagination is just running wild with. this stuff because it is a game and. that's kind of one of the fun things. about it yeah especially as a kid is a.

game that has backstory and it it a lot. um goes on in your imagination it's not. sorry or shoots in ladders you know. exactly well put and in addition to the. fact that it had that potential to. create that it was. masterfully um put together like the. details of it were really evocative of. that kind of thing so like it really. helped it along I guess is what I'm. trying to say yeah totally all right so. the beginning of the game there are.

three cards that reveal the murder. weapon the. murderer and where it took place you. seal those in an envelope and the whole. goal of the game is to figure out who. did the murder with what weapon and in. what room yes apparently there's about. 324 different solutions that it could be. which really doesn't matter because as. long as there's more than one or two or. three um you're going to it's going to. be a different game every time yeah so.

uh you roll the dice to move along the. hallways in between rooms uh and then. your your goal initially is to get into. a room because only when you're in a. room can you say that you think the. murder happened in that room you can't. do it from the hallway or whatever right. right um and when you're there when you. you can make a suggestion it's kind of. like a soft accusation right right where. you can say I think that it's Colonel.

Mustard in the ballroom which I'm. currently in uh with the. rope and what happens next is you go. from player to player beginning at the. player on your left and if they have. Colonel Mustard or the ballroom or the. um uh rope card because there's a card. for each character each weapon in each. room and everybody's distributed cards. that they keep to themselves if they. have one those cards they have to show. you and if they have two of those cards.

they still only have to show you one but. then your turn is over you've just been. your theory is just been disproven now. you didn't win but at the same time you. just gained a tremendous amount of. information and the other people playing. if they're paying attention gained um a. lesser amount but still some information. that's that's the game like that you're. paying attention like that it's. deduction yeah it's it's using process. of elimination in deduction and taking.

notes and we'll get into that in a. second uh one key thing here that I'm. not I don't think you said was uh you. bring all that stuff into the room like. you bring that rope and that character. into the room so you can also use a. little bit of strategy there to pull uh. Colonel Mustard you know that player. away from where they were into that room. yeah that's a great point for sure um. some of it's luck right sure I mean you. roll the dice then you may or may not. get into the room and if you're not in. the room even if you know who it is you.

know let's say you're you're over in the. study and you got to get all the way to. the kitchen because you know it's the. kitchen but you can't you can't make. that final accusation and win the game. until you're in the kitchen so uh dice. rolls have something to do with it but. really more than anything like we said. it's it's mostly up to deduction and. paying attention to the information you. can. glean right and I think I may have. missed it if you said it did you also. say that if no one reveals any card at.

all then you can actually like lay it. all on the line and make an official. accusation no I didn't say that okay. well that's one of the keys like if no. one reveals a card then you know like. well wait a minute they don't have those. cards so it's possible that those are. the three cards in that envelope right. uh if it's early in the game it's. obviously a huge risk you probably want. to save that till later uh once you've. narrowed it down more but you can um I. was about to say throw your cards on the. table but don't do that but you can say.

you know what I'm I'm going to do it I'm. going to go for it and you look in that. envelope and if if that's it that's it. you're won uh You've Won it and if not. then you're out that's the big risk yeah. because now you know who did it with. what weapon and in what room so you're. out of the game you go pop the popcorn. exactly um now if you if you make that. suggestion that's your theory of who did. it with what and where and nobody shows. you the card if if you don't have any of. those cards then you pretty much know.

that's you're that you're right because. I think all the cards are distributed. equally among everybody right yeah um. but you would say well why would you. even say that if you why why would you. mention one of the ones that you have in. your hand and this this is where we. start to get into like like real deal. strategy that you're not going to find. in the rule books very much but work. really well for clue yeah and we're. going to go with theirs in one sec but. did want to add like one of the genius. things of clue to me uh is that even.

even when you're eliminated it's still. fun to sit around it's not it's not one. of those games where you're like well. I'm out of here then because you know. I'm out of the game and watching it is. no fun it's still fun to sit around and. and drink a cocktail and Heckle everyone. else especially if you're eight. yeah but yeah I was it's funny you say. that because when we were researching. this or when I was researching it today. I I had that same memory I was like I. remember I wouldn't get up from the.

table like after I was eliminated I'd. just stay there and watch it was really. entertaining it was like lot fun the the. pre- internet version of. steam I don't know what that is it's. where you it's like an internet thing. where you watch people playing video. games like you're just watching them. play video games oh really yeah oh wow. yeah that's people people make a living. doing that is that the thing where. people play oh did you say video games. yeah oh oh yeah I have heard of that I. thought you were saying board games no. no I'll bet that's for sure I'll bet.

that's out there too and I'll bet they. make a living from it as well all right. so we promised some uh some. strategies and these were where did we. call these from uh they came from the. spruce crafts uhhuh stack exchange posts. and Reddit. threads that's a good place to go. probably for sure because I mean people. share strategy for clue all over the. Internet and if it's it works it works. yeah for um now here's the deal I.

haven't played it so long a lot of these. just I didn't fully understand because. I'm just so out of practice so I'm going. to buy that 72 game and get back into it. and revisit these but uh I can tell you. about them um one of the strategies and. you know it's kind of the most obvious. one is you're using those suggestions to. but to get into that process of. elimination and eliminate you know. people rooms and weapons uh it's hardest. for the rooms because you have to be in. that room to guess it uh so you actually.

have to roll the dice to get there um. but you know you're if you're trying to. eliminate a weapon like you want that. gun out of the game then suggest it and. see if they have it and then um you know. you can keep sort of harping on that. right uh but that may mean that you're. also trying to throw people off the. scent and they might catch on you might. actually have that card right yeah or. yeah if you're watching if you're. playing with somebody and they keep. mentioning the the revolver whatever. every time they make a suggestion um.

that means either they have the revolver. and they're using a process of. elimination or they've already figured. out the revolver is the actual murder. weapon so right you you if you're being. really strategic you don't want to use. that same one if you know that that. something is is in that envelope that. sealed envelope is the weapon or the. murderer or the room maybe mix it up a. little bit to pay to throw off the. people who are really paying attention. to you yeah for sure so if you make or. if anyone makes a suggestion and you.

know like if you suggest uh something to. Yumi and Emily and I notice that she. doesn't or that nobody shows a card yeah. uh or if you suggest something period. and no one shows you a card then chances. are that you've gotten one of the three. cards in that envelope in your. suggestion right but that doesn't mean. that you necessarily have the answer if. if you don't have any of those three. cards in your hand um because if you.

have more than one card let's say you. say Professor Plum with the lead pipe in. the. conservatory and I have Professor Plum. and the conservatory in my hand I only. have to show you Professor Plum or the. conservatory I don't have to show you. both and so a good strategy is if I've. showing you Professor Plum um I can. write down showed Professor Plum already. and so if somebody guesses Professor. plum in the conservatory again I can.

just show you Professor Plum and I will. not be giving the information to anybody. that I have the conservatory as. well you know what this episode is. what clue people are going to love it. and be angry at us right non clue people. are just going to hate us why because. they're not they're having trouble. following what we're saying well of. course if you've never played clue this. is getting in the weeds you know sure it. is for sure. uh and but we're getting in the weed. such that I also don't feel confident.

we're getting it all right so that's. right cluis will be like oh guys how. could you forget that feeling is like an. old friend To Us by now. Chuck really it's it's the the fourth. leg of our podcast. exactly uh one thing that they say you. can do is you know if you play against. the same people you know it's not unlike. poker and that people Bluff and they. have their own little tricks and things. and tells so just to sort of pay. attention and try and read them if if. you play with your family all the time. let's say for sure so this is the this.

is what it all boils down to right here. Chuck it's it's deduction it's process. of elimination I'll bet you. can so let's say you're holding Miss. scarlet and your friend you already know. has the Candlestick because uh you. guessed it before and they showed it to. you so you know that they have the. Candlestick and then somebody else says. um that that they think it was Miss. Scarlet in the dining room with the. candlestick stick and another player is. like here's a card that disproves it you.

know that that player has the dining. room right you have Miss Scarlet your. other friend has the Candlestick that. fourth player has the dining room. because they showed it to player three. and you mark that down and if you do. that enough times you can figure out. what cards are being held by people and. hence through process of elimination. what cards are likel as hidden in the. envelope as the murderer and the murder. weapon and the room the murder took. place in I'm sure that's what Emily's. doing like a variation on that because. she's she's scribbling down stuff right.

I I'm not taking nearly enough notes. clearly because that's a big part of the. game yeah and when I was reading about. all the different note taking and you're. going to need an even bigger notebook. than the notepad they give you I I was. like oh really no it's true there's like. the it's it's a logic problem basically. so much so that they they they train. Artificial Intelligence on it there's a. a Dutch computer scientist named Hans. Von dip March yeah who did a um a like a.

a cluto formalization they took he he. took cluto and translated it into AI. instructions um and basically what his. premise is is that it's all changes in. information when you interact with other. players your information changes and so. the AI tries to figure out what route it. has to take through player to player to. player to get to. um the information it needs to win the. game in the fewest moves which.

essentially is probably what Emily's. doing so you're married to an artificial. intelligence it turns out that yeah sure. that makes sense that tracks but I mean. that's a that's how logical clue. actually is it's it's this process of. deduction where if you if you contract. the information that you're getting or. that other people are getting you can. win the game every time basically yeah. and was that the thing that Duke. University used yeah they came up with. their own thing uh an algorithm to play.

Clue uh which anytime you have a logic. problem you can develop an algorithm for. it right yeah so they basically were. turned it into an algorithm for what you. were kind of talking about like a. treasure hunt problem how to get there. the quickest how to get to the answer. the quickest and they said like you know. one day they can apply this kind of. thing to stuff like robotic mind. sweeping even yeah um which pretty cool. go find the mind like quicker yeah um if. you're just playing casually with.

friends casually or if you're the only. one who's not playing casually maybe um. reconsider using some of these harder. core in the weed strategies and just pay. attention and use the notepad that it. comes with and have. fun yeah and maybe don't announce before. the game that I have a foolproof method. that I win every time yeah and at least. don't take a lap around the game table. after you win she's the worst winner all. right so let's take a break then and. we'll come right back.

[Music]. everybody. [Music]. shock so like we said there's a bunch of. variations that are just super darling. um if you play Clue and yeah it has a. place in your heart depending on where. you are in the world there's just.

different names for different characters. right we said that um Mr Green is called. reverend Green in the UK or used to be. but the victim uh remember this the. owner of the house that everybody's at. these are party guests ostensibly and. the murder takes place and it's the host. who's murdered every time and the host. in the US is known as Mr body with two. DS kind of some Gallows humor in the in. the UK uh he's known as Dr Black right I. like that too what about in Switzerland.

uh it's funny because some of these I. was like no of course not it's the. classic is what you want but some of. these I liked uh her cludo in. Switzerland uh Senor leemon in Spain. nice uh like you said he was Reverend. green but Dr Olive in France was Mr. Green which is okay uh Professor Plum is. Professor black in Brazil okay uh Mrs. peacock is baroness Von Blau which I. love in Norway uh and in Switzerland uh.

I do not like this one uh Colonel. Mustard is Madame. Curry not. curri is that what it's supposed to be I. guess so I thought cury was c r e right. it is but but Curry is a. color uh is that a play on that I think. so that's how I'm it I hate it even more. all right um there's also been some. changes to the materials too if you. bought the original version of clue back. in. 1949 I guess um the Rope was actually a.

little tiny piece of rope I love that. and the lead pipe was made of lead. amazing yeah that's authentic stuff um. over the years though they've they've. generally stuck to the same premise the. same characters and just kind of like. it's been like jazz like they've been. riffing on you know the original form. yeah like the Back stories would change. a little bit um and this is the kind of. thing where I'm really going to try and. resist the urge to to poooo more.

modernized changes I know what you mean. as like you know Gen X guy who says the. 72 version is the best but um Colonel. Mustard is a soccer Star as of 2008 um. Jack mustard uh Professor Plum was. turned into VI Victor Plum a video game. designer brilliant video game designer. yeah that's fine you know if that helps. you know kids get into it a little more. uh what I am going to take issue with is. adding home theater as one of the rooms.

that's funny because that was the one. that made the most sense to me oh I I. don't know updating the room yeah I mean. I it makes sense I just I don't know. killed somebody with a Candlestick in. the home theater no. no just uh it feels at odds with the. sort of because I still sort of. associate it with this sort of English. Estate kind of thing I I see what you. mean for sure I get that but I guess. they probably have home theaters in the. UK right no of course they do okay so um.

that was the Discover the secrets 2008. Edition and that was probably from what. I can tell the biggest makeover of any. of the um the the additions um they they. went so far as to get rid of Mrs White. and replaced her with uh her adopted. daughter Dr. Orchid um that didn't last all that long. I guess it lasted decade or two but in. 2023 they came up with another update.

and they basically took it back to the. beginning Mrs White came back but now. she's Chef white um they combined the UK. and the American uh names for the host. and now it's Mr Boden body black right. Colonel Mustard stopped playing soccer. and went back to the military Mrs. peacock is now a lawyer a solicitor Mr. Green's a mayor Miss Scarlet is the same. and Professor Plum is the same and the. weapons of the room are back to what. they were back when we love the game. Chuck so you can settle down yeah and I.

looked I looked up this new one uh. because there are people that have been. uh saying like oh they made them all. sexy looking um I don't know about that. I guess there are a little they skew. younger than the original uh cast on. that or not the original but the 72. version yeah uh I Believe Miss scarlet. and Plum now are people of color so they. they've you know gotten a little more. diverse which is good I think Mar Green. is as well and there also licensed. versions uh which I've never seen you.

know I had that Star Wars Monopoly which. is a lot of fun but apparently there's a. Alfred Hitchcock clue that sounds. awesome it sounds pretty good where the. characters are are characters from the. movies uh Hitchcock movies kind of fun. one of the rooms is the bait motel Bates. Motel of course it is you know I finally. saw psycho for the first time uh just. like a month ago maybe I was reading. about it and I guess watch that. documentary about the shower scene uhhuh. which is pretty good documentary and I.

it I made me realize like the way that. people were talking about the movie I'm. like that doesn't track with what I know. about psycho turns out it's a far. different movie than what I realized. it's really good yeah I mean that whole. first part of the movie like if you. haven't seen it you probably wouldn't. even know it existed cuz not many people. talk about it yeah and I can imagine. like watching that movie before you know. everyone knew that Norman Bates was the. killer yeah that you know the the. protagonist who you think is the. protagonist gets killed off the big star.

that it was just totally shocking yeah. must have been amazing have you seen a. lot of Hitchcock stuff or yeah which is. why it's really weird that I I hadn't. seen psycho yeah great movie um. scoobydoo version uh the weapons are. monsters and then this one's kind of. cute uh The Golden. Girls uh Clue version instead of murder. it's uh who ate the last Slice of. Cheesecake that's adorable it's so uh. what do they call it online uh wholesome.

wholesome right so there's been a ton of. spin-offs of the clue um IP owned by. Hasbro by the way which who also made. the ver or um stuff you should know. version of triv Trivial Pursuit yeah. they bought out the other companies. right Parker Brothers andt yes they. dominate um but so there there was like. a game show in the UK K from 1990 to 93. which was pretty cute I I was watching.

part of an episode there was a book a. series of young adult mystery books um. there was a 1980s VCR game which is. actually really beloved and harder than. the board game by far I remember those. yeah me too not clue but just VCR games. supposedly Dwayne Perkins from the. blackening is coming up with an animated. series based on clue cool and we just. could not have this episode and not. discuss the classic 1985 movie clue it's.

so good not just as in its own right a. good movie but as an adaptation of. something that already existed it just. did it perfectly yeah it's one of my. favorite uh comedies of the 80s for sure. it was. um you know now it's making something. like a movie out of a video game is. something that wouldn't surprise you but. 1985 it was very unusual mhm uh it was.

written and directed uh co-written by. Jonathan lanon directed by Jonathan L. co-written with John Landis yeah uh. Jonathan ly also directed my cousin. Vinnie and the whole nine yards oh cute. so you know a few other pretty big. movies and it's just it's one of my. favorites the big mistake then why it. was considered a box office flop uh flop. was that studio Executives got greedy. and they would send one uh three. different prints of clue to movie. theaters uh with a different ending on.

each print with the idea that hey people. will go and see this movie three times. to go and see the three possible endings. and it did not work out that way I know. that's crazy because I saw it in the. theaters and I was enthralled by the. idea that there were other endings I. thought that was the coolest thing I'd. ever seen in my short nine years on the. planet did you go see other versions in. the theater do you remember no I was. just content with but knowing there were. other versions out there um but when the. movie came out on VHS we rented it like.

toot sweet to watch them all because. they very wisely included them all in. the ending which is the same uh if you. watch it on like prime or Netflix or. whatever now yeah and it not only is it. great to not have to pay three times to. go see it but it functions really. well with the one two three endings cuz. you know they do the ending and they'll. say or it could have happened like this. and then they I mean that's when Tim. Curry just yeah really shines uh I mean. he's great through the whole thing as.

wodsworth uh the butler but he really. really shines when he's um it's just a. genius comedic performance yeah for sure. so did meline Khan as Mrs White when she. talks about hating a vet oh God that was. apparently improvised classic yeah if. you haven't seen clue go see it like. tonight it's just such a great movie um. and our friends over at menal floss. Matthew Jackson. uh wrote something about like little. known facts about the movie clue and.

apparently there was a fourth ending. originally that they didn't buy shooting. Carrie fiser was supposed to be Miss. Scarlet oh gosh rather than leslieanne. Warren exactly uh and get this the. telegram the singing telegram girl that. was Jane weedland from the. Goos yeah I mean there's another one too. if you want to hear it let's hear it you. know who played Mr body no it was Lee. Ving who was the singer and guitarist of. the uh hardcore punk band fear no yes.

John Belushi's buddy wow so two music. connections I think we should go through. the rest of the cast too just because. it's short and amazing it is a great. cast Christopher Lloyd played Professor. Plum you already mentioned the great. meline Khan uh flames on the side of my. face it's just unbelievable also in that. scene when he's running he grabs her Tim. Curry grabs her to run upstairs and. explain how she did it in one of the. endings and she and I think she probably.

made this up too she just she trips and. falls on her face like a third of the. way up the stairs and he keeps going. yeah great physical comedy um the great. Martin Maul is Colonel Mustard uh. Michael mcken is Mr. Green uh I mean I feel like ruining his. great last line but maybe I shouldn't. yeah don't okay uh Eileen Brennan who is. wonderful uh Miss peacock uh we already. mentioned Jane weedland and Ving uh. Colleen Camp classic as Evette and if.

you recognized um the cook it was uh she. was a MH Kelly uh nakahara played the. cook and she played Lieutenant uh Yamoto. and M I remember her so the cast is. amazing and uh if you're interested in a. deeper dive uh The Great and Wonderful. Casey Wilson was a movie Crush guest and. this was her movie nice that's a great. movie yeah. uh if you want to know more about Clue. the movie go watch it don't read.

anything else about it don't listen to. anybody else jabber on about it just go. watch it and thank us later and if. you've never played. clue you do a lot worse than starting. with the 1972 Edition friends yeah well. since Chuck agreed with my assessment. that means of course it's time for. listener. mail I'm going to watch it again soon. I'm now remembering how great eileene. Brennan was she's. wonderful everyone is so good uh all. right here we go I Josh and Chuck had. just finished uh this is a correction of.

um Epic Proportions no it's just. something that we like to correct these. especially uh just finished listening to. the JD Salinger episode fascinating. listen so thanks uh for diving into this. I'm a big fan of stuff you should know. this is my first time sending in a. correction but at the end of the episode. uh Josh refers to an article by a guy. named uh micho kakutani I thought it was. important to note that micho kakutani is. a woman uh she's a revered literary. critic writer and Pulitzer Prize winner.

and I wanted to make this uh. trailblazing woman make sure that she. got her due on your show and that is. from juliean bear from White Salmon. Washington thanks a lot Julie and I. appreciate it I feel like all the. corrections that we're reading lately. are mine. disproportionately I'm not filing mine. away and like burning them yeah that was. a pretty big flub I'm sorry about that. um thank you you for that correction. that was a good one uh if I misspoke in.

this episode or any other episode that. you noticed let us know about it chuckle. read it for sure on the air you can send. it off via email to stuff podcast. iheartradio.com. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart. Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite. shows.