Title: “Say Your Lines” by M.G.
Prompt: This week’s contest answer is a famous band with four letters in its name.
Answer: OK GO, found by 248 solvers, of which 149 were solo solves

Couple of tough ones so far this month, so we’re going to dial it back to a Week 1 (complete with Week 1 solving options) and then zoom forward with the scheduled Week 4 next week. Write-up coming after I post today’s puz.

Four celebrities seemed to be the theme entries in this asymmetrical, oddly-sized (15×17) grid (with ODDSMAKER as the central across a possibly relevant nudge as well due to length, placement, and suggestiveness). They were:

18-A: [“Forever Your Girl” singer] = PAULA ABDUL
35-A: [“Lead singer on “Dr. Feelgood” and “Kickstart My Heart”] = VINCE NEIL
53-A: [He won Best Actor for 1965’s “Cat Ballou”] = LEE MARVIN
74-A: [94-year-old comedian known for his deadpan delivery] = BOB NEWHART

Now what? Well they’re all people, and my byline suspiciously read “by M.G.”. Just being funny? This is meta-land, where everything must be treated with righteous side-eye! Looking at the initials of these four we get:

P.A.
V.N.
L.M.
B.N.

Hmmm, nothing jumping out there, and taking the odd letters from this (using ODDSMAKER) doesn’t lead to anything. Now what?

Well we haven’t used the title yet: “Say Your Lines.” Lo and behold! Saying aloud the four lines (rows) the theme entries occupy, and then the celebrity entries’ initials, yields some surprising results:

CREW + P.A. = “croupier”
V.N. + KNEES = “Viennese”
L.M. + ENTRY = “elementary”
TRAY + B.N. = “tres bien”

Next step: Find a clue that can satisfy these new entries in addition to their own:

42-A: [Casino employee] = ODDSMAKER, but also “Croupier.” So we indeed needed this entry, but not for any “odd”-ness. Just for the O!
83-A: [Native of a certain European capital] = KYIVAN, but also “Viennese”
16-A: [___ school (K-5 education)] = GRADE, but also “Elementary”
79-A: [“Your terms are acceptable,” in Paris] = OUI, but also “Tres bien”

The first letters of those spell OK GO, found by 248 solvers. They’re known for their wacky one-take videos, like this:

THIS WEEK’S INSTRUCTIONS:

No instructions given here since there are no-instructions solving options available.

Solve well, and be not led astray by words intended to deceive.