The Mother of All Thursday Trivia Nights!

We came one shy of tying the recently-set all-time Pour House Trivia record for teams this past Thursday, as 246 teams came to display their trivia prowess at one of our 20 locations! Speaking of 20, four venues each eclipsed that number in team turnout: Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD (26 teams), Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA (25), Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA (22), and Crooked Run in Sterling, VA (21).

FIRST ROUND:

Questions regarding the state of Michigan, the nosebleeds suffered by Eleven on Stranger Things, and roles portrayed by certain actors began play on Thursday. However, the final question was the round’s most difficult:

• Subtitled A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888, which historical sports poem begins with the line The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Mudville Nine that day?

While 60% of our teams correctly named Casey at the Bat for wagering points, our mighty field struck out on the bonus part: just three teams (1.2%!) knew either Flynn or Jimmy Blake were on base during the events of the poem. The only team to manage a perfect score in this round was Save the Clock Tower (Michaux); in fact, they were the only team to record a perfect round all night.

SECOND ROUND:

Band names with a BLANK and BLANK format were shown off for the audio question, namely Hall and Oates, Tegan and Sara, and Tones and I. Only 9.3% of Thursday’s teams got all three bands right for bonus credit. A Last Word/First Word question struck later on:

• What four-word nickname would you have if the singer of the current hit Flowers was also the main antagonist in the film Con Air?

Looking for that character’s nickname was the key to getting the right answer, Miley Cyrus the Virus, and 30% of the field did so. Finally, we paid tribute to a bygone broadcast TV network at the end of the round:

• Before dissolving in 2006, which network aired shows such as Malcolm & Eddie, Moesha, and the short-lived Homeboys in Outer Space?

UPN (or the United Paramount Network) was identified by just under a third of our teams, while a round-low 8.5% earned bonus points for knowing the Eddie in Malcolm & Eddie was Eddie Griffin. Perfect scores eluded the field in this round.

HALFTIME:

At halftime, teams had to first give the brand names for the pictured snacks, then name phrases which contain the word double. On average, teams scored 17.5 points; however, 47 teams aced the puzzle page with a perfect 20! One team nudged slightly ahead of the rest at the halftime intermission:

• Educated Friends (Fourscore): 89
• Thick Thirty (Interchange): 88
• Triviasaurus Rex (Olde Mother): 88
• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 88
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 88

THIRD ROUND:

While most of the third round on Thursday passed by with ease, a couple of questions proved to be tough. For instance, this question about a certain inventor cut deep:

• Jacob was the first name of which inventor and entrepreneur who earned the first U.S. Patent for an electric razor?

Jacob Schick was that inventor, named by 11% of our teams. After that, Three Clues about the European country of Switzerland saw a 7.3% bonus success rate, going to those who supplied the correct answer before the third and final clue. The round ended with queries about Honey Bunny and Pumpkin from Pulp Fiction and the origins of the band name Nine Inch Nails. Again, no teams earned a perfect score in the third.

FOURTH ROUND:

Six points went out to 35 teams on the 6-4-2, each able to name the giraffe after a single clue about it being the animal with the highest average blood pressure. A rare weeknight PHT feat occurred at the start of the last round: we asked about Falcon Heene, the Balloon Boy from 2009, and no team knew that the Heene family hoax started to unravel with an infamous appearance on Larry King Live! We moved on to the Bangles appearing on Gilmore Girls and a three-parter on athletes with superhero nicknames, but we ended things  with something tasty:

• The national dish of Indonesia — a popular Asian dish that consists of marinated, skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce — is known by which name?

We eventually supplied a crossword-style clue (it’s a five-letter word beginning with the letter S) for that dish: satay. Wagers were earned by 52% of the field on that question. Because of the 0-fer to start the round, there were no perfect scores to be found here. These teams were ahead of the rest before the final question:

• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 161
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 159
• Great Heathen Army (Brewery Fire): 155
• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 155
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 154 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (39.4% success rate):

• On TV Guide’s list of the 50 Greatest TV Moms of All-Time, the characters ranked at #11 and #12 appeared on the same series. What is that show, which debuted during the 1990s?

Debra and Marie Barone took those honors as characters from Everybody Loves Raymond! As you may have figured out, there were no Perfect 21s recorded in Thursday’s game. Final standings ended with a tightly-grouped set of teams:

• Cat in the Chat (Loudoun Kitchen): 168
• Washington Foreskins (Loudoun Kitchen): 167
• Educated Friends (Fourscore): 166
• I Don’t Know (Aslin): 166
• Andrew’s Only Fans (Olde Mother): 165
• Bams (Aslin): 165
• Barquist Beauties (Belly Love): 164
• What About Dave? (Mark’s): 163
• Witty Title (Solace Outpost): 163
• Painful Burning Sensation (Smoketown): 163

THURSDAY’S WINNERS:

Smoketown Brewing Station in Brunswick, MD: Painful Burning Sensation  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Scotch Whisky)

Fourscore Beer Co. in Gettysburg, PA: Educated Friends  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Mustache Styles)

Michaux Brew in Waynesboro, PA: Save the Clock Tower  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Arnold Schwarzenegger One-Liners)

Champion Billiards in Frederick, MD: Scared Money Don’t Make Money  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Triple 50/50 (Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie?))

Loudoun Kitchen and Bar in Leesburg, VA: Cat in the Chat  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island)

Olde Mother Brewing in Frederick, MD: Andrew’s Only Fans  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Pokemon (generation I))

Belly Love Brewing in Purcellville, VA: Barquist Beauties  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Endocrinology)

Solace Brewing in Sterling, VA: Alley Cats  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Stanley Kubrick Films)

Brewery Fire in Taneytown, MD: Great Heathen Army  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Alice in Chains)

Crooked Run in Sterling, VA: Smarticus  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Simpsons (1990s))

Solace Outpost in Falls Church, VA: Witty Title  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Johannes Brahms)

Interchange Tiki Bar in Williamsport, MD: Shirts and Skins  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Phineas and Ferb (audio))

Bear Brick Oven Pizza in Silver Spring, MD: Suck It Trebek  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Obscure Bible Trivia)

Preston’s Pub in Manassas Park, VA: That’s What She Said  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Varsity Blues)

Aslin Beer Co in Alexandria, VA: I Don’t Know  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Everything Everywhere All at Once)

Kalypso’s Sports Tavern in Reston, VA: Stranger Danger  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 2000s Foreign Terrorist Organizations)

Steinhardt Brewing in Frederick, MD: Deck Chairs on the Titanic  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Tombstone (film))

Mile 20 at the Breeze in Herndon, VA: They’re No Help  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Brown Liquors)

Comus Inn in Dickerson, MD: Doc’s Ballers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Lunar Landings)

Mark’s Pub in Falls Church, VA: What About Dave?  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bill Murray Films)