Playing fast and loose with the clock

On last Friday's installment of Who's More Catholic?, controversy erupted about halfway through when Lino accused Jared of running a shorter clock than Lou usually does. Since Lou always ran the clock up until Friday's show I never had a reason to question that the time given to write a connection was exactly 30 seconds because the music always ended at the same point. But I knew something wasn't right after the first round when the Mario Brothers music ended just a bit sooner than it usually does.

We here at Lino Watch certainly can't let something like that go unchecked. So I timed the music for each round of Friday's contest, from the beginning of the music to the point where Jared called time:

• Round 1 (helicopter): 38 seconds
  
• Round 2 (blender): 42 seconds
  
• Round 3 (echo): 43 seconds
  
• Round 4 (chopping food): 37 seconds
  
• Round 5 (spray paint): 41 seconds
  
• Round 6 (maracas): 40 seconds
  
• Round 7 (sweeping): 37 seconds

• Average for all rounds: 39.7 seconds
• Range (difference between highest & lowest): 6 seconds
  

So with an average round time of nearly 40 seconds, was Jared cheating Lino and Father Jim? Well, as a comparison I also timed the seven rounds from the prior week's contest (when Lou ran the clock):

• Round 1 (chalkboard): 50 seconds
  
• Round 2 (cowbell): 42 seconds
  
• Round 3 (ice cream truck): 46 seconds
  
• Round 4 (jumping rope): 44 seconds
  
• Round 5 (leaky faucet): 50 seconds
  
• Round 6 (shooting pool): 52 seconds
  
• Round 7 (orchestra): 41 seconds

• Average of all rounds: 46.4 seconds
• Range (difference between highest & lowest): 11 seconds

So to be fair to Jared, he did run the clock shorter than Lou, but ended up timing each round more accurately because it's Lou who really plays fast and loose with the clock. Of course after looking at the stats of the past two games, the word "accurate" hardly describes either one of these guys.

Since honesty seems to be a critical trait to Lino in playing Who's More Catholic?, it would seem necessary to fix this. I have two suggestions:

1. Officially change the round time from 30 to 45 seconds (to be consistent with how the game is really being timed), or
   
2. Enforce the 30 second rule.

I heartily endorse the second option, as it would give both contestants a lot less time to come up with something than they've had. That would be a treat to listen to.