Ray Romano Shows Off His Uncanny Knowledge of World Capitals

Ray Romano came back to the show with a confession and a request. On a previous appearance, he had bragged about memorizing the capital of every country on Earth. The cast quizzed him. He thought he ran the table.

He did not.

"When I went home I realized, wait a minute, that doesn't sound right," Romano said. "I looked it up. I got one wrong and you didn't call me on it."

He wanted a do-over. He also asked the cast to actually call him on it this time. Chris, the appointed quizmaster, agreed.

The new quiz started in Africa. Senegal. Dakar. Correct. Romano then announced his rules of engagement.

"I'm not claiming I'm smart," he said. "I'm the dumbest man who knows every capital in the world."

The questions got harder. Slovenia. Ljubljana, correctly delivered with a pronunciation Romano admitted he was bluffing his way through. Rich noted that if you give a name like Ljubljana with that kind of confidence, the room either knows you're right or has no way to check.

Oman. Muscat. Correct.

Then Chris went for the kill. Vanuatu. A tiny island nation in the South Pacific.

Romano hesitated.

"Funafuti?" he guessed.

Chris told him the answer was Port Vila. Romano demanded a mulligan on the grounds that knowing what Vanuatu even is should count for something. Chris gave it to him.

Latvia. Riga. Correct.

Bulgaria. Sofia. Correct, and an easy one to recover with.

For the bonus, Chris went looking for an obscure one and tried the Pitcairn Islands. Romano flagged that as a cheap shot. It is a British Overseas Territory, not a country. Tokelau came next. Romano had never heard of it. Chris admitted it might not qualify either.

Romano shared the backstory on why he learned all this in the first place. He had memorized every country during COVID as a self-administered Alzheimer's check. He told his doctor about the test afterward.

"It just means you don't have it now," the doctor told him. "That's all it means."

Chris closed strong. Papua New Guinea.

"Port Moresby," Romano said.

"That's the way to walk it off," Chris said.

The do-over scored cleanly. Romano took the mulligan but earned the recovery.