Olympic Innuendo Bingo arrived at exactly the wrong time
Scott woke to messages from friends and listeners all sending the same Olympic clip.
Clare Balding was interviewing swimmer Tom Dean.
Her assessment included the line:
“Your third leg was just phenomenal.”
The pause and Tom’s reaction made it perfect Innuendo Bingo material.
Scott and Chris agreed it would have been the very first clip on the feature if Bingo still existed.
Unfortunately, the game remained suspended because spraying mouthfuls of water at one another was still difficult to justify in a pandemic.
The team had even asked whether Innuendo Bingo could return as a kind of test event.
There had been no approval.
For now, the Clare Balding clip had to remain a tribute to the feature they could not play.
Dating apps had discovered Tokyo without travelling there
The programme then investigated Olympic Tinder.
Premium versions of dating apps allow users to move their search location anywhere in the world.
Scott had never really considered how useful this could be.
People travelling for work could browse before arriving.
Somebody planning a holiday could look ahead.
And during the Olympics, people sitting in Britain could move their virtual pin directly to the Olympic Village in Tokyo.
Scott and Chris wanted to know how many were doing exactly that in the hope of matching an athlete.
Jack had paid to search the Olympic Village
Listener Jack explained how the premium location function worked.
He opened the map, placed himself around Tokyo Bay and began swiping.
He had matched with four people.
Three were from the UK.
None had been confirmed as Olympians.
The experiment had nevertheless shown how easy it was to appear virtually in another country without going anywhere near an airport.
Scott admitted he loved the tracking element of the whole thing.
Delilah found more fake Olympians than real ones
Delilah had tried a similar experiment.
She discovered plenty of users from all over the world who appeared to have had the same idea.
Instead of a village full of Olympic athletes, the apps were filling with people hoping to meet Olympic athletes.
One match claimed to be an Olympian but actually lived in Ohio.
The trend had already produced its own counter-scam.
If enough people searched Tokyo specifically for athletes, pretending to be one became an obvious way to attract attention.
Scott and Chris had been added to the Olympic Village too
Chris then learned somebody had created a profile using his photograph and placed him around the Olympic Village.
The age was only slightly reduced.
The photograph made him look vaguely sporty if somebody was willing to use enough imagination.
Scott remembered discovering a fake Grindr profile where he had been listed as 27.
His main reaction had been gratitude for the flattering age.
Olympic Tinder had now become less about actually dating athletes and more about everybody pretending they were one.
Was the breakfast buffet back?
The programme also investigated another post-COVID mystery.
Hotel breakfast buffets and self-service food stations had disappeared or changed during restrictions.
Were they back?
One listener was heading for a family meal somewhere famous for its central salad cart.
Others reported mixed experiences.
Some buffets remained table-service only.
Some had returned behind screens.
A Toby Carvery-style setup was operating with additional protection.
Scott and Chris realised nobody had ever expected the freedom to stand beside a tray of bread rolls to become something worth checking in advance.
Radio 1 prepared to say goodbye to Annie Mac
The final part of the episode was a celebration of Annie Mac, whose last Radio 1 show was approaching after 17 years.
The transcript repeatedly misrecognises her name as “Emeli Sandé”, but the context is unequivocally Annie: her years at Radio 1, Future Sounds, old Innuendo Bingo clips and stories involving partner Toddla T.
Scott and Chris revisited Radio 1 folklore, including a Big Weekend hotel misunderstanding where a booking for Annie and Toddla T was interpreted as Annie and a toddler, leaving a single bed and a cot in the room.
Another archive story involved an exceptionally chaotic Radio 1 Christmas party at a bowling alley.
Annie’s Innuendo Bingo archive received a final airing
The quiz then used old Annie Mac Innuendo Bingo moments.
One clip described an enormous knitted item she could spoon.
Another conversation with Nick Grimshaw included Annie saying she had “got a facial”.
Scott admitted he had always been unusually respectful when playing Innuendo Bingo with Annie and often supplied her with a poncho while other guests got soaked.
The programme ended the month celebrating one of Radio 1’s defining presenters and one of Scott and Chris’s defining features.
Both were entering a new era.
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