Trivia with an (Official) Exclamation Point!
Our weekend game featured 37 teams across five venues, with two teams showing off their mad trivia skills with runaway victories:
ROUND 1:
On Saturday, we learned that the body of Spanish painter Salvador Dali was recently exhumed in order to obtain tissue for a paternity test. Despite the fact that Dali died nearly 30 years ago, his signature mustache remained virtually 100% intact! Sunday’s opening round offered up this question in the category of Literary Animals:
–> Which animal was used as a croquet mallet in the novel “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”?
The most difficult first round question was asked on Friday night, as only half of our teams knew that the oldest person to sign the Declaration of Independence was 70-year old Benjamin Franklin. The only perfect opening round of the weekend was turned in on Sunday night at Captain Benders, as Fat, Drunk, and Stupid recorded correct answers on every wagering and bonus question of the first stanza.
ROUND 2:
Across the weekend, the audio questions played fairly easily for our teams, with 32% of the field earning bonus points on the music questions. For your Sunday teams, we immediately followed with our most difficult first half question of the weekend:
–> Which CBS personality will not only host this year’s Primetime Emmy Awards, but is also nominated in the category of Outstanding Variety Talk Series?
Despite what amounted to a 50/50 chance at this question, nearly every team went with the incorrect answer of James Corden. Although Corden hosted the Grammy Awards earlier this year, it is actually this late night personality who will host the upcoming Emmy Awards:
Friday’s first half concluded with our teams attempting to remember Elvis Presley’s debut film, which was named for one his #1 hit songs. Only about half of our Friday teams arrived at this correct answer:
The second round featured three perfect scores Boh’s and Hoes (Captain Benders), Shakeweight (Springfield Manor Winery), and Parent Trap (Springfield Manor Winery).
HALFTIME:
Nothing out of the ordinary came about from our halftime pages this weekend. Overall, the average score reached 17.2, with four teams overall recording a perfect score. Here are the top scores from the weekend after the halftime page:
- Off Beats (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 85
- Duchess (Tilted Kilt): 84
- Uncle Jack (Belles’): 84
- Fat, Drunk, and Stupid (Captain Benders): 84
- Shakeweight (Springfield Manor Winery): 84
ROUND 3:
Friday’s third round brought us this query which had our teams thinking about two entirely different bases of knowledge:
–> Any dominoes or dice player will know this palindromic nickname of the protagonist in the Charles Dickens novel “Great Expectations”. What is that nickname?
Only 25% of our teams arrived at the correct answer of Pip (also known as Philip Pirrip), though I am sure that we would have had a higher correct answer rate if we had mentioned that the character from “Great Expectations” is the namesake for this “South Park” character:
Saturday’s third round concluded with a rather difficult question on sports films, as we asked for the three sports which respectively serve as plot devices for the films “Balls of Fury” (2007), “Six Pack” (from 1982), and “Win Win
(from 2011). Your answers?
Across all three nights, no team was able to turn in a perfect scores for the third round this weekend.
ROUND 4:
It seems that our most intriguing question of the weekend was asked in the final round on Friday, with this question on the topic of Oscar-Winning Films:
–> Name any two of the three films to win the Academy Award for Best Picture during the 1990s with a one-word title.
Teams were scrambling for the full three minutes on this question, but two teams earned bonus points by coming up with all three correct answers: “Titanic”, “Unforgiven”, and “Braveheart”. Once again, no team was able to finish the final round with a perfect score. Here are the weekend’s top scores after the fourth round:
- Duchess (Tilted Kilt): 158
- Off Beats (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 149
- Uncle Jack (Belles’): 145
- Fat, Drunk, and Stupid (Captain Benders): 145
- Boh’s and Hoes (Captain Benders): 145
FRIDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (8.3% success rate):
–> In order to increase publicity and tourism, what did the city of Hamilton, Ohio add to its official name on May 28, 1986?
SATURDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (75.0% success rate):
–> During 1967, an estimated two million people died from this illness. However, due to widespread vaccinations, the World Health Organization announced just 12 years later that this infectious disease had been completely eradicated from the Earth. What is this disease?
SUNDAY’S FINAL QUESTION (37.5% success rate):
–> Earning its independence in 1971, which country of about 165 million residents is the most populous nation on Earth that has NEVER won an Olympic medal of any kind?
Your final answers for this weekend were an Exclamation Point, Smallpox, and Bangladesh. Unfortunately, no team was able to record the Perfect 21 by answering every wagering question correctly this weekend. Here are the top ten scores overall:
- Duchess (Tilted Kilt): 158
- Boh’s and Hoes (Captain Benders): 157
- Uncle Jack (Belles’): 155
- Smarty Pants (Belles’): 144
- Off Beats (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 142
- Sanford and Son (Pretzel & Pizza Creations): 141
- Shakeweight (Springfield Manor Winery): 140
- Smartinis (Belles’): 139
- Outwhitters (Belles’): 139
- Fat, Drunk, and Stupid (Captain Benders): 139
THIS WEEKEND’S WINNERS:
Springfield Manor Winery in Thurmont, MD: Shakeweight (NEXT GAME ON AUGUST 25 – First category: Triple 50/50 – Donald Trump or Kim Jong-Un)
Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Uncle Jack (Next week’s first category: Triple 50/50 – Elvis Presley or Elvis Costello)
Pretzel & Pizza Creations in Hagerstown, MD: Off Beats (Next week’s first category: Battle of Gettysburg)
Captain Benders in Sharpsburg, MD: Boh’s and Hoes (Next week’s first category: “Chef” – film)
Tilted Kilt in Frederick, MD: Duchess (Next week’s first category: 1960s Muscle Cars)