Each week, quiz obsessives and Only Connect champions
Jamie Karran (@NoDrNo) and Michael Wallace (@statacake) take on the pub quizzes of the world.
Find out every Friday if you could have helped with the questions they got wrong.
Thursday 13 November 2014
The 'Spanish Prisoner' was a 16th century version of the modern-day '419 scam'
Your targets this week:
1+ out of 8: Well done, you beat us! 3+ out of 8: We'd have won with you on our team!
The attendees 1) The statistician 2) The doctor
The ones that got away
Question 5
1) Prior to its rebranding in Austria in 1987, in which country did the drink Red Bull originate? 2) What was the (somewhat uninspiring) working title of the Alien movie franchise? 3) Who guest starred as himself in the 1993 Simpsons episode "Marge vs. the Monorail"? 4) On whose memoirs is the movie The Wolf of Wall Street based? 5) On which movie is this musical (pictured) based? 6) In the Halloween movie franchise Michael Myers' mask was based on a mask of which actor? 7) In marketing terminology, what is 'angel dusting'? 8) In Macbeth what line precedes "Fire burn, and cauldron bubble"?
The answers
1) Thailand 2) Star Beast 3) Leonard Nimoy 4) Jordan Belfort (surname suffices) 5) Catch Me If You Can 6) William Shatner 7) Including a tiny amount of some desirable ingredient in a product (so you can claim the product contains it, even though it's not of any use - you'll have to judge for yourself if you're close enough on this one) 8) Double, double, toil and trouble (you must have this word perfect, I'm afraid)
Our excuses
1) I'm not entirely sure if 'rebranding' is quite the correct word, here, but it was at least 'inspired' by a Thai drink named Krating Daeng. We stuck in Europe with neighbouring Italy, but perhaps should have realized it may have come from somewhere rather further afield. 2) A cool fact, but despite the doctor being a moderate fan of the films not one we'd come across before. Our attempt at an 'uninspiring' name was simply 'Space!', which I still rather like. 3) While we could remember the episode, we could only think of "that Monorail guy who sings the Monorail song about the Monorail" and thought he looked a little bit like Richard Gere. Turns out that chap was played by Phil Hartman (another guest star on the episode) whereas the Nimoy appearance was completely lost to our combined memories. 4) Nominated for five Oscars, I was surprised to be reminded that it didn't actually win any of them. Nevertheless, it's not one we'd seen (no surprise there) and I'll admit I didn't even know it was based on someone's memoirs. 5) Without too much to go on beyond what looked (at a distance) like a pilot's outfit and "maybe a bit 1930s?" we put The Producers (no, I'm not really sure why, either). 6) You may be thinking there was a secret Star Trek theme going on here, given the Nimoy question earlier, but these questions were asked in different rounds by independent setters. Another pretty rad fact, even if a bit impossible to stand a chance of working out. This is a cool link for a depiction of how the transition may have happened. 7) A fun question to toss around, although again difficult to land on the correct answer. We ended up with the use of fake "real person" testimonials as adding some 'angel dust' to a product's marketing campaign. 8) Ugh. We both instinctively thought it was "hubble bubble toil and trouble" and then the 'double double' doubts snuck in. Unfortunately this is one of those questions you have to hope your instincts are right; once you've thought of another possibility you'll be able to convince yourself both are right and wrong within the space of a minute.
How did you do? Would you have beaten us (1 or more correct)? Would you have helped us win (3 or more correct)? Let the world know with the poll below, then read on for my alternative questions (loosely) inspired by this week's Ones That Got Away!
My alternative questions 1) Translating to 'Red Bull' in English, which Formula One racing team does the company own along with Red Bull Racing? 2) SETI is the collective name for a number of projects looking for alien life. Of what four-word phrase is SETI an abbreviation? 3) A 5-element expansion of the classic game Rock-Paper-Scissors (invented by Sam Kass and popularized by the sitcom The Big Bang Theory) adds the Star Trek character Spock and what animal to the original three shapes? The animal loses to rock (by crushing) and scissors (by decapitation) but wins against paper (by eating it) and Spock (by poisoning him). Ouch. 4) What three word phrase describes the 18th century collapse in share price of a British company given a monopoly to trade with South America? 5) In 1925 con artist Victor Lustig successfully 'sold' which famous landmark? 6) Shatner's Star Trek character James T. Kirk shares his middle name with which Roman Emperor? 7) What term describes the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from 'grassroots' support? 8) In basketball a player achieves a 'double-double' if in one game they accumulate a double-digit total in two of five statistical categories. One of these categories is 'points' (so if a player scores 10 or more points in a game they have half of a double-double). Name two of the other four.
The answers
1) (Scuderia) Toro Rosso 2) Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence 3)Lizard 4) South Sea Bubble 5)The Eiffel Tower 6) Tiberius 7)Astroturfing 8) Rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots
How did you do on my alternative questions? Have another poll!
I didn't do well at all on the first questions, though I was (geographically) quite close in guessing Malaysia for the origin of Red Bull, and I also guessed The Producers for the movie picture. Actually, you threw me slightly, by referring to it as a musical, and as I recall, it isn't, in spite of what that picture suggests. I did remember the opening line to the 3 witches spell correctly though, from studying the play for my O levels, some 30 years ago. We performed the play at high school, and actually had a Macbeth with the Scottish accent, unlike King Duncan, who had a more homely, local Norfolk burr.
Malaysia is certainly a far better guess than what we managed. And good work on Macbeth; I always enjoy those things which are unexpectedly well remembered from such a long time ago.
I didn't do well at all on the first questions, though I was (geographically) quite close in guessing Malaysia for the origin of Red Bull, and I also guessed The Producers for the movie picture. Actually, you threw me slightly, by referring to it as a musical, and as I recall, it isn't, in spite of what that picture suggests.
ReplyDeleteI did remember the opening line to the 3 witches spell correctly though, from studying the play for my O levels, some 30 years ago. We performed the play at high school, and actually had a Macbeth with the Scottish accent, unlike King Duncan, who had a more homely, local Norfolk burr.
Malaysia is certainly a far better guess than what we managed. And good work on Macbeth; I always enjoy those things which are unexpectedly well remembered from such a long time ago.
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