Plot
Ralph is a contestant on The $99,000 Answer, a game show similar to the real-life The $64,000 Question, in that you have to answer a continuing series of questions to win the jackpot. Ralph is clearly very nervous as he makes his way in front of the camera, and is only able to mutter out that he wants "Popular Songs" as his category before the show ends.
Ralph now has one week to bone up on as many pieces of music as he possibly can. To help him out, he has Norton come down with a piano to his apartment and play sheet music to Ralph, where Ralph has to guess the name of the tune and give the correct information (such as who wrote the tune and when it was released). The only problem with Norton playing is that he always plays the opening bars to "Swanee River" before he launches into the music (tellingly, Ralph doesn't even know the name of the song, referring to it by the opening bars of the song).
Alice can't stand all the noise that they're making; they're up until past 2:00am playing sheet music. Even Mrs. Manicotti from downstairs gets in the act, singing the first bars of a song ("Come Back to Sorrento," which she sings in Its original Italian) which Ralph calls "Take Me Back to Sorrento." Alice tries to convince Ralph to just be happy with getting past the first few questions and walk away, but Ralph insists that he's going to win it all.
When Ralph next appears on the quiz show, he's full of confidence, predicting that he'll be able to go all the way without having to stop to be asked if he wants to continue. The show host in fact asks Ralph if he discussed this with his wife. Ralph responds, "I have and regardless, I'm going straight to the $99,000 answer." His confidence immediately shatters, though, when the $100 question turns out to be the opening bars of Swanee River, and he's asked who wrote that song. Ralph, completely nervous, doesn't know what to do, and when asked again who wrote that song, mumbles, "Ed Norton?" The host replies that that's not the correct answer (the correct answer is Stephen Foster) and an ashen Ralph is escorted off the stage, but not before desperately trying to reveal his music knowledge by reeling off names of songs based on the words the host uses.
Read more about this topic: The $99,000 Answer
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