Not Exactly Jay Leno

NPH and his wife took an innocent jaunt for cheesecake this evening that ended with NPH mistaking Pope Benedict for Jack Kavorkian in front of a television camera.

Lots of people in blue button up shirts and a couple of cameramen standing on a Plaza street corner looked like the perfect weeknight diversion. As we walked by, one of the blue shirts asked us if we'd like to answer some questions for a new TV show. NPH could see what was going on, as a short, ruddy white guy with a crop cut showed pictures of political figures in an obvious hope for a display of ignorance. But it looked kinda fun, so we said, "Sure. We'll go on TV and be made a fool of."

Plus, we had 30 minutes to kill before American Idol.

We were given a waiver to sign, giving the show permission to use our image and name. We signed it mindlessly, asking as we did such basic questions as, "So are you guys a locally produced show? Where else has your show been on? When is it starting?" Yeah, the blue shirt said, it's locally produced, and, yeah, it's been on in some other cities, and it starts here in about a month. Then she gave us a flyer with info about when the show airs and on what channel. Then we looked at the flyer.

Then it got interesting.

There in our hand was a flyer with "World Revival Church" and a cheesy picture of the two people standing in front of me interviewing people (cheesy like standing back-to-back cheesy). Inside were details about worship service times and the church's pastoral staff, all of whom were white men with titles like, "Overseer of Uprising Music" and "Associate Pastor of Evangelism and Intercessory Prayer."

The whole thing came into focus pretty clearly after that. What we were dealing with was a conservative church TV production that was seeking to illustrate the average American's ignorance of politics. It was good to know that going in.

Here's what Steve asked your favorite third person-referring blogger:

• What is a liberal? What is a conservative?
• What do the words IRS stand for?
• What does Congress do?

Then he showed us a series of pictures and asked us to identify the people in them. Laura Bush, Harry Reid, Condoleeza Rice ("Should she run for President?"), Tony Snow, and a white-haired man with deep set eyes who we couldn't quite recognize. So we asked, "Is that Jack Kavorkian?"

If they were looking for ignorant Americana, NPH gave them all they could handle.

We nervously looked to the wife, who was desperately mouthing "It's The Pope!" from a few feet away. But the damage was done. We had already been made a pawn of the religious right.

In reality, the wife has repeatedly assured us that we actually smacked ol' Steve down, easily recognizing every other picture. She even said it was sexy. Take that Steve.

And please don't show the video of NPH.

Really. Please.