Playing dumb is NO problem

One of the suggestions for capturing great sound bites during interviews is to play stupid. Fortunately my speciality is being, I mean acting, ignorant and uninformed. For some reason this suggestion of ignorance conjures mental scenes suited for not yet made Monty Python movies.
Reporter: "And what do you call this game sir?"
Interviewee: "Baseball, ya dipstick!"
Reporter: "Baseballyadipstick? Well I've never heard of that.
I know, it much funnier in my mind.

During my interview simply saying, "tell me about..." or "talk about..." worked well for getting my interviewee to talk in complete sentences. Obviously this is not the same way I hold a normal conversation in everyday life. It would be odd to say to a friend, "Talk about your cat." In real life - "What's you cat's name?" The former feels unnatural and forced at this point, but it did work well for capturing quality audio.

The last suggestion of this reading is to have a coworker listen to your finished product. If it makes sense to them, then mission accomplished. My question is what happens if it does not make sense. Redo it? What about deadlines? As a journalist, do you mark it as a learning experience and air the piece anyway or do you go to the editor and explain that the piece is not up to snuff? --Alex