Last night, I joined a few friends down the local boozer to tackle the weekly pub quiz, and I have to say we did remarkably well considering it was our first attempt. We came second, losing by a mere half point to a team of regulars who were familiar enough with the quizmistress to heckle.
Being in Barnes, I should point out that the winning team didn’t just randomly heckle during the quiz, but saved their jocular ire (joculire?) for a question about Opera, shouting out “RUBBISH!” when asked how many Operas Beethoven had composed (the possible answers being 0, 2 or 4). It turns out that the answer on the paper - four - was different from the actual answer, which was 1 (with four overtures). Pedantry, beer, classical music knowledge combined are a dangerous thing.
There were only a few questions which confounded our fearless foursome. Without recourse to the search engine of your choice, how would you have answered the following:
1. Which character from children’s books lived in Nutwood Cottage?
2. What does a red and yellow striped flag mean on a race track?
3. What sport do the Chicago Red Sox play?
Answers in the comments.
I like quizzes, though. I get a teeny bit competitive when playing Trivial Pursuits, so you can imagine what I’m like at a pub quiz.
A few years ago, at a big extended family gathering in Northumberland one January, we devised a quiz format which involved everyone in attendance being instructed in advance to come prepared with a round of ten questions. This meant that we were about to have a MEGA quiz one night, involving 200 questions covering a range of topics from Socialist history to the price of deisgner handbags. Very fun.
1. Rupert the Bear. Didn’t know this: never read any RtB.
2. Surface problem. I know nothing about racing.
3. None. This was a trick question, and I think quite unfair, actually, especially as we managed to name every other team/sport in Chicago….
Oooh you needed me on your team for that third question.
Chicago White Sox are the Baseball team.
Chicago ‘Black Sox’ is the name given to the infamous CWS team embroiled in a game-fixing scandal.
Boston Red Sox are (my) Baseball team.
No such thing as the Chicago Red Sox. That question would have had me fuming about their idiocy as question setters though.
My worst bit of pub-quiz pedantry was during our local quiz, which chose to be ‘Family Fortunes’ style for the evening. One of the questions was name 3 players in the 2002 England World Cup squad. You got 1 point for every answer that matched the ’survey says’ results. We should have got 3 points, but only got 2 because one of the 3 ’survey says’ answers was ‘Wayne Rooney’. Now, Rooney wasn’t in the 2002 WC squad, but during their survey a significant portion of the idiotic public had given him as an answer, so even though it was wrong, it was listed as a scoring answer.
Jesus, I was fuming, I can tell you.
Hello Meg!
Do I get a prize for being the first pedant to say it’s actually Trivial Pursuit (singular)?
Yes, I know, I’m getting my coat…
I knew the Rupert one!
I think there should be a criminal offence though for pub quizzes with wrong answers in the question paper though - very frustrating when you know you’re right but the quizmaster/mistress won’t accept it! Perhaps they could be sentenced to watching several hours of ITV Play?
Where did Noddy live then?
Rupert the Bear.
Oil on the track.
Baseball - but I think the sox are the wrong colour or it may have only been in the context of Cheers.
Do I get a pint?
We got the red and yellow flag question the other day at pub quiz, the other way around: ‘What flag is used when there’s oil on the track’.
1. Squirrel Nutkin?
2. Airborne Plague detected on track?
3. Uh…the who?