Comma Drama at Wednesday Trivia!

A fantastic night of Pour House Trivia was had by 161 total teams across sixteen locations on Wednesday!

FIRST ROUND:

The first round of play began with questions on the swimming pool game Marco Polo and the science behind the phenomenon of acid rain. The toughest wagering question of the first half reared its ugly head here, on a three-parter about zoological-based names. About three-fifths of the field knew two of the three answers (The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Angry Birds, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) to earn their wagers, while a round-low 19% got all three parts right for bonus points. We ended on a question about the lesser-known brothers of Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, which also proved to be a tricky bonus chance: 23% of teams knew the Yankees retired DiMaggio’s number 5. Sexual Chocolate (Memories), Archived! (GearHouse), and Super Best Friends (Sully’s) got through those bonus questions en route to perfection in the first round.

SECOND ROUND:

Wednesday’s audio question was the most difficult wagering question of the second round, with teams asked to name three songs from their instrumental versions. We played karaoke versions of Toto’s Africa, A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton, and Beautiful by Christina Aguilera; 72 percent of the field knew at least two of those three songs for wagering points. From there, we learned about the mosaic artistic medium and took a trip to Mozambique, where only 10% of teams added bonus points for naming its capital, Maputo. The round came to a close with questions on biblical king Herod and the former ABC drama series Nashville. A different trio decided to go perfect in this round: Stinkfist (Idiom), Kevin and the Zits (Idiom), and Business Drunk (T. J. Stone’s).

HALFTIME:

For halftime in this game, teams had to identify Aesop’s fables by illustration, then name various phrases with T.B. initials. This proved to be a tough go, with an average score of 12.6 and only five perfect 20s. We went to the halftime intermission with these teams on top:

• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 90
• Archived! (GearHouse): 89
• We Like to Come From Behind (Axes and O’s): 89
• Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine): 87
• FIVE TEAMS TIED WITH 86 POINTS

THIRD ROUND:

In the third, we discussed a trio of Republican U.S. presidents of the 1920s, then flew to Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal and went over the meaning behind the title of Stanley Kubrick‘s Full Metal Jacket. The toughest wagering question of the round hit the rink:

• One of the four series currently being contested in the Stanley Cup playoffs features two teams based in which Canadian province?

Those playoff opponents, the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames, are both based in Alberta. That correct answer came to about 55 percent of the field. The round’s final question was a three-parter on the first name Hannibal; while more than 70% knew the name from the three people described, only 17% got all three last names — former veep Hamlin, fictional cannibal Lecter, and comedian Burress — for extra points. Even with that, the third round had eight teams score a perfect 36 points.

FOURTH ROUND:

Fifteen teams knew Shirley Temple enough to guess her after one 6-4-2 clue for all six points! The fourth round on Wednesday was a doozy, bookended by the two most difficult wagering (and bonus) questions in the game. We started with a three-parter on words with double-Fs in the middle; a game-low 36 percent of teams knew at least two of those words — bouffant, graffiti, and scofflaw — from our clues to get their wager, but only 13 teams named all three to get the bonus. The middle of the round brought questions on novel-turned-film-turned-streaming-series The Time Traveler’s Wife, the ad slogan for Manwich, and the Andromeda galaxy. We wrapped things up on the stage:

• A prominent example of Theatre of the Absurd, which stage play features two characters named Vladimir and Estragon endlessly performing the titular act?

Those two characters were Waiting for Godot, which brought wagering points to about two-fifths of the field and bonus points to 13% of teams. It may be of no surprise to learn that there were no perfect scores in the fourth round. With a final question left to answer, these were the top scores:

• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 160
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 159
• We Like to Come From Behind (Axes and O’s): 158
• Blind Squirrels (Memories): 158
• Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine): 157

FINAL QUESTION (26.1% success rate):

• Released in 2017, what is the five-word title of the most recent nominee for the Best Picture Oscar to include a comma in its official title?

Earning Best Actress honors for Frances McDormand and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Sam Rockwell, that film is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Three was certainly the magic number when it comes to Perfect 21 recipients: Sexual Chocolate (Memories), Stinkfist (Idiom), and H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff (Hops N Shine) answered every wagering question correctly in the game. High-score honors went to these teams:

• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 172
• Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine): 167
• H.R. Puff ‘n’ Stuff (Hops N Shine): 166
• Virtual Cigar (Hops N Shine): 164
• Deep Fried Chuckles (Sully’s): 162
• Stinkfist (Idiom): 160
• We Like to Come From Behind (Axes and O’s): 158
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 158
• Pat is Late (Nighthawk): 157
• Oh Wait (Hops N Shine): 155

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Moe’s Peyton Place in Springfield, VA: Ask Alexa  (NO GAME NEXT WEEK – FIRST CATEGORY ON JUNE 8: Medical Terminology)

Valley Sports Grill in Middletown, MD: Billy Mays Fan Club  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Billy Mays)

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Stink Floyd  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Ancient Egypt)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Better Call Saul — season 6)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Archived!  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Middle-Earth Geography)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: Irish Beer Mafia  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2022 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductees)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Stinkfist  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bob Dole)

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: We Like to Come From Behind  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Johnny Depp/Amber Heard Trial)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: Titanic Was an Inside Job  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Missouri)

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Deep Fried Chuckles  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Horror Films)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: The Ladies  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Jonas Brothers)

T. J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: I Don’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Fight Club)

Craftworx Taproom in Gainesville, VA: Zuh Swee  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. Air Force)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Red Team  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Formula One Racing)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Kwanzan Courtiers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: U.S. National Parks)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: Fresh Off the U-Haul  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Information Theory)