Metaphor alert

I'm going bilingual here, which may not be a good idea. That's the logo for the Bank of Moscow, which is getting bailed out by Russia's central bank. And you thought bailouts only came from Washington.

And you may be asking what the hey the bailout has to do with game shows. Well, as the linked story notes, Bank of Moscow is a main sponsor of Russia's long-running game show, What? Where? When? ABC looked at a version of the show for American consumption, but it seems to have died in development hell.

The story kicks off with a lame reference to the bank's bondholders asking the same questions as the game show. I've seen this before, as I've posted in the faux tweets. Lately, too many items from political, legal and financial pundits have lumbered through such game show comparisons. A presidential debate, a murder trial, a bank bailout, everything seems fair game for the Great Game Show Metaphor.

Writers are trying to sound folksy, I guess. Game shows are such low-rent, aw-shucks programming that writers figure some arcane subject will sound friendlier if they can smuggle in a comparison to Family Feud or Wheel of Fortune. And to tell the truth - no pun intended - maybe the wheel has landed on bankrupt for that bank in Moscow.