Match Game Episode 2 AKA Living Proof That Bringing Back Old Favorites Is The Smartest Idea

After a great return last week, it was time for the second episode of Match Game! I was looking forward to this, as not only is Match Game my favorite game show, but of the six panelists that were on this episode, five of them were already panelists on the Alec Baldwin version, which told me we were in for a great episode.

Before I get into the episode, I will share with you all who the six panelists were, as well as what they are famous for.

Caroline Rhea - actress and comedian known for starring in Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

Jay Pharoah - actor and comedian known for being on Saturday Night Live.

Ana Gasteyer - actress and comedian known for being on Saturday Night Live and for being on Broadway.

Phoebe Robinson - actress, comedian, podcast host, and New York Times bestselling author.

Randall Park - actor known for starring in Fresh Off the Boat.

Constance Zimmer - actress known for starring in Entourage, UnReal, and House of Cards.

The episode started off funny, as it started with Martin Short saying that hosting the show was a career highlight for him, assuming his career just started today, and then he introduced us to his “emotional support celebrities,” saying that if there was a Mount Rushmore of stars, the six panelists would help to carve it. 

He then went on to introduce the six celebrity panelists, starting with Caroline Rhea, saying that she was also a keynote speaker for motivational audiences, to which she responded by calling him a national treasure, and like most treasures, she was sure he was going to be buried soon. 

He then asked Jay Pharoah to do an impression of Obama hosting Match Game, which he did.

He then introduced Ana Gasteyer as the “Genius of Geniuses,” to which Ana had to clarify that she was not a genius or a bright woman. 

He then went over to Phoebe Robinson, who started calling him “Marty,” which she asked if it was okay to call him, to which he said yes, or she could call him Mr. Short. He then complimented her for her range, as she is a New York Times bestselling author, and starred in a show called I Love Dick.

He then went over to Randall Park, and asked if anyone had seen him as Kim Jong Un in the movie The Interview, and then he said that Kim Jong Un looked like a bouncer in a lesbian bar, before clarifying that these were his own thoughts.

He then went over to Constance Zimmer and gave a warning to any burglar that was planning to rob her home, which was that they shouldn’t look for jewelry because she was wearing it.

He then said “enough of this banter that will be edited down,” and I don’t know if he was telling the truth or not, but if I had to guess, he was not telling the truth.

After that, it was time to meet the two contestants. The first contestant was named Michelle, and she started to say what she does, during which she called him Martin, which caused him to say to call him Mr. Short. She then went on to say that she is a professional development coach, which means that she works with high achieving clients to kind of move them forward in their lives.

The second contestant was named Vijay, and Martin said that he was told that he did background checks for a living, and asked what that meant. Vijay then answered by calling him Mr. Short, and then said that he looks for criminals, and if you’re hiring someone that’s shady, he would find them. 


After that, it was time for the first question for Vijay. The question was “If you love the hospital drama ‘The Pitt,’ then you’ll have no interest in a new reality show called ‘The Knit.’ It’s where seniors in a sewing circle talk about making ___________.” From there, I figured that the answer would be some knitted item like a blanket or a sweater. After the celebrities had locked in their answers, Vijay gave his answer, and nothing could have prepared me for it, as he said “Babies.” Martin Short clearly was not expecting this answer, as he repeated the question with his answer, and then asked him what he thought a sewing circle was, to which Vijay responded that he just wanted a fun answer with the hospital, to which Martin then responded that someone was getting a lot of points. Martin then asked everyone if they should say goodbye to Vijay right then or just go forward with the game.

Martin then said to Caroline that they were looking for the word “Babies,” he didn’t know why, but they were. Caroline then said that she felt bad about her answer until she heard Vijay’s answer, and she showed that she wrote “Quilts.” Martin said that it wasn’t a match, but he had a feeling that it would happen soon, 

Jay Pharoah then revealed that he had also written “Quilts.”
Ana Gasteyer then revealed that she wrote “Crotch Cozies,” which Martin said was a clever answer, but not as clever as “Babies.”

Phoebe Robinson then revealed that she wrote “Scarves.”


Martin then said that he was confident that “Babies” was going to be Randall Park’s answer, to which Randall said that the word for “Babies” in Korean was “Mittens,” which he wrote down. 

Constance Zimmer then revealed that she also wrote down “Mittens.” 


After that, it was time for Michelle’s first question. Before he read the question, he told Michelle there was no way she could do as well as Vijay, but she should try. The question was “Geeky Greg is getting married, so his friends threw him a bachelor party. They hired a stripper, but only so they had another person to play _________ with.” From there, we decided pretty quickly that the correct answer was “Dungeons & Dragons.” Martin then commented on how long Phoebe was taking to write down her answer, saying that she was writing a play, to which Phoebe responded that she was trying to get another bestseller. 


After that, Michelle gave her answer, which was “Dungeons & Dragons.” 


Caroline then revealed that she wrote “Hide & Seek.” 


Jay then revealed that he wrote “Pin the tail on the Ho,” which I have no idea how he came up with, and also how he thought it would even match. 

Ana then revealed that she wrote “Dungeons & Dragons,” giving Michelle one point.

Phoebe then revealed that she also wrote “Dungeons & Dragons, which brought Michelle’s score to two points. 

Randall then revealed that he wrote “Minecraft.” 


Constance then revealed that she wrote “Scrabble.” 


After that, the show came back from commercial, and it was time for Michelle’s second question. The question was “You know the Kool-Aid Man. He crashes through walls and yells ‘Oh, yeah!’ Meet his less refreshing cousin, the Stool-Aid Man. He crashes through bathroom stalls and yells ‘Oh _________.’” From there, we quickly determined that the correct answer was “Crap.” 

Michelle then gave her answer, which was “Crap,” and ended up matching with the remaining four panelists, two of which had censored answers, and Randall actually drew his answer, even going so far as to draw flies buzzing around it. 

From there, it was time for Vijay’s second question. Martin started by saying “No pressure,” before then saying that he had to match all six celebrities just to force a tiebreaker. Martin then reminded Vijay that he matched with no one in Round One, and everyone was still laughing about it, but for this question, he could match with everyone, and he meant everyone in the audience, everyone at home, then saying that there’s not enough people in the world that he couldn’t match with. 

His second question was “There’s no one more Gen Z than Gen Z Zara. She even takes a wellness day to recharge her __________.” Me and my parents quickly knew the correct answer was “Phone.”

After all the celebrities had locked in their answers, it was time for Vijay to give his answer, and I could never have predicted in a million years what he was going to say as his answer, as he first started off by saying “I’m gonna go for it,” which told me he wasn’t going to say “Phone,” and then he said “Her Vibrator.” Me and my parents were shocked that was his answer, as we felt it was one of the easiest ones imaginable, and he still managed to mess it up, much like how he messed up his first question. As he was leaving the stage, the panelists showed that five of them all wrote “Phone,” while Phoebe somehow also went with “Vibrator” as her answer.

After that, it was time for the Super Match, and Michelle had a chance to win $25,000. She then said that if she won that money, the irresponsible thing would say get a cherry red Vespa to just boop and bop all over the city, and the more responsible thing would be to give herself a much needed holiday to a place that has no phones, no Wi-Fi, nothing. In her words, you just walk in, turn yourself into a zombie, and then you exit massaged and rubbed, and Phoebe then weighed in telling her to get a vibrator too, and Martin said that he had heard they are cheaper. They started with an Audience Match, where they polled the Match Game home audience and got their most popular responses to “Tiger ________.” As soon as I saw that, the first thing I thought of was “King,” and then my parents said “Woods.” 

To help her with suggestions, she enlisted the help of three celebrities. She started with Ana, who said “King.” She then chose Phoebe, who said “Beat,” which I initially thought was a terrible answer, as I thought it was an old magazine that went out of publication before she was even born, but then I found out it ceased publication in 2021, so her answer is not too terrible. She then chose Jay, and he said “Prawns,” which is a terrible answer, and I honestly have no idea how he even knows what they are, and he also said that answer with all the confidence in the world. Martin clearly knew this was a bad answer, as when he was telling her she could go with one of their answers or come up with one of her own, he went out of his way to say “Don’t choose ‘Prawns.’” 


Michelle chose to go with “King,” which I feel was a smart decision. The $2,000 third most popular answer was revealed to be “Lily.” The $3,000 second most popular answer was then revealed to be “King,” which meant that Michelle had now won $3,000. The $5,000 most popular answer was then revealed to be “Woods,” to which Constance said that was the answer she had, specifically saying “I had ‘Woods,’” which prompted Martin to say that she should have kept it between her and her husband. 

Now that Michelle had won $3,000, she had the chance to multiply it by five with the Celebrity Head To Head Match, and Martin then asked Phoebe how much money that would result in, and she answered $25,000, to which Martin quickly corrected her by saying that it was $15,000. Phoebe then defended this mistake by saying that she was a writer, and not a mathematician. Michelle then chose to match Ana for the Head To Head Match, and Ana had to write down her answer to “________ Toss.” From there, my parents quickly said “Ring,” and that there was no other answer, before also realizing that “Coin” was another possibility. I figured that Michelle was going to say one of the two answers, but I couldn’t have been more wrong, as her answer was “Light Toss,” which is not something I have ever heard anyone say, and she later explained it by saying that she meant it like lightly tossing something. Ana then revealed that what she had written was “Coin.” This meant that she did not make a match, but she did win $3,000.

After that, it was time for the second game, and the two contestants were brought out. The first contestant was named Monique, who has five children that are all grown up, which Martin was shocked by, as she didn’t look that old, and her oldest kid is in their 30s. The second contestant was named Caden, who works as a garbage man that picks up things like furniture, appliances, and he even said that he sometimes picks up sex toys.

From there, it was time for Caden’s first question. It said “Interesting but true - Ray Charles used to feel a woman’s wrist to determine if she was attractive. But for a short king like myself, I can tell by feeling her __________.” From there, my mom said “Ankle,” which I thought was a good answer, but I didn’t know if anybody would say it. 


After all the celebrities locked in their answers, Caden answered “Ankle,” which surprised me, as I wasn’t sure that anyone was going to actually think that. 


Caroline then revealed her answer to be “Breasts.”


Jay then, while impersonating Ray Charles, revealed his answer to be “Booty.”


Ana then revealed that she also wrote “Breasts.” 


Phoebe then revealed that she wrote “Thicc Thighs,” and yes, that is actually how she wrote it.

Randall then revealed that he wrote “Ankle,” which gave Caden one point.

Constance then revealed that she wrote Feet, which despite her best efforts, was not accepted as a match.

From there, it was time for Monique’s first question, which said “Pennywise the killer clown has a brother named Half-Dollar Dumbass. He sucks at luring children into the sewer. Instead of balloons, he offers kids __________.” From there, my first thought was “Vegetables.” 

After all the celebrities had locked in their answers, Monique gave her answer, which was “Vegetables.” At this point, I am starting to think that me and my parents are starting to think like the contestants and the show after years of watching it.

Caroline then revealed she wrote “Homework” as her answer.

Jay then revealed that he wrote “Money” as his answer.

Ana then said that her answer helped no one except for Half-Dollar Dumbass, and by that, she meant Caroline Rhea, as she also wrote “Homework.”

Phoebe then revealed that she wrote “Salads/Veggies” as her answer, which gave Monique a point.

Randall then revealed that he wrote “A Nice Compliment,” which he could not have thought was going to match anyone. 

Constance then revealed that she wrote “Trash.” 

After that, Martin said that Caden and Monique both had one point, and it was time for a break as he needed some time to Google his symptoms.

After that, it was time for Round 2 and Monique’s second question. The question said “My friend Stacy knows nothing about TV. She thinks The X Files was a show about ___________.” My answer to this question was “Divorce.”

After all the celebrities locked in their answers, Monique gave her answer, which was “Sex,” which is also a good answer, as it could mean x-rated. Caroline, Jay, and Randall all said “Exes,” Constance said “Porn Stars,” and Ana said “Porn,” which was considered a match and brought Monique to two points.

After that, it was time for Caden’s second question, which was “Caroline Rhea has appeared in almost every season of Match Game this century. Is it because of her charm, or is she _________ing the producers?” My initial answers were “Bribing” and “Boinking.”
After all the panelists had locked in their answers, Caden gave his answer, which was “Screwing.” Caroline herself answered “Bribing,” while all the other panelists gave variations on “Screwing,” which gave Caden the win. 

After that, it was time for the Super Match, and Caden had a chance to win $25,000. When asked what he would do with that money, he said that he would buy a Wolverine costume because he is known as that around his yard, and he would hope to wear it on the back of the garbage truck while waving to the kids just to make their day. Martin responded to that by saying that was only $300 of the $25,000, and then asking what he would do with $24,700, to which he responded that he would be able to get some more coffees and food for people downtown.

From there, it was time for the Audience Match, and the Match Game home audience was polled to get their most popular responses to “Mini ________.” The first things that occurred to me were “Cooper” and “Golf.” The first celebrity he asked for a suggestion was Caroline, who said “Van.” He then asked Jay, who said “Cooper.” The last celebrity he asked was Randall, who said “Mart.” The answer that Caden chose to go with was “Van,” and at the same time, my parents were saying that there were too many answers, and it would be a miracle if “Van” was actually up there. The $2,000 answer was then revealed to be “Skirt,” which further supported what they said. The $3,000 answer was then revealed to be “Van,” which got Caden $3,000. The $5,000 answer was then revealed to be “Cooper.” 

Caden now had the chance to multiply his $3,000 by five with the Celebrity Head To Head Match, and in a callback to what happened in the first game, he asked Phoebe for help to say what 3 times 5 was, and she answered 15. 


For the second time this episode, if the contestant, in this case Caden, matched one celebrity exactly, he would win $15,000. The celebrity he chose to match was Jay, who had write down his answer to “___________ Fiction.” Me and my parents all said “Non,” “Science,” and “Pulp.” From there, Jay locked in his answer, and Caden gave his answer, which was “Science,” which was also what Jay wrote, and it ended up giving Caden $15,000. I’m glad that a contestant on this episode won a lot of money.

Overall, this was another amazing episode of Match Game, and I’ll see you all next week with the next episode!