Wednesday Trivia Keeps the Melody!

Trivia fever was caught by 22 venues this past Wednesday, as Pour House Trivia played host to 202 teams in total!

FIRST ROUND:

The game began with a grand three-parter, followed by questions on Batman villain Two-Face and the Ferrari Enzo supercar. However, the end of the round proved to be a bit tricky:

• Which 1990s film earned an Oscar nomination for John Singleton and featured early screen roles for Ice Cube and Cuba Gooding Jr.?
• For two bonus points: Ice Cube’s character has which nickname in that film?

Most teams correctly named the film, Boyz n the Hood, but only 11.3% of teams provided Ice Cube’s character nickname, Doughboy, which made for the toughest bonus question of the first half. With that, only Sexual Chocolate (Memories) and Let’s Get Quizzical (Rockwell) achieved perfection in the opening round.

SECOND ROUND:

After celebrating Bob Dylan’s 82nd birthday with three covers of his songs, we lateraled over to this question:

• After scoring 37 touchdowns and averaging 239 rushing yards per game, which Oklahoma State running back won the 1988 Heisman Trophy?

About 42% of the field named Barry Sanders for wagering points. The next question referenced the 1990s FOX TV series Party of Five; here, a round-low 17% of teams earned bonus points for knowing the series was based in San Francisco. For the first half’s most difficult wagering question, we popped over to the periodic table:

• Sharing their collective name with a type of incandescent lamp, the elements fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine are in which group on the Periodic Table?

The halogens were identified by 36% of teams. The only perfect team in this round was Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine).

HALFTIME:

There was a hidden theme among the eight films atop Wednesday’s halftime sheet; they were all films loosely adapted from Shakespearean works (such as She’s the Man based on Twelfth Night and The Lion King based on Hamlet). The bottom section asked teams to match the musician to their country of birth. Six teams earned all 20 points at halftime, while the page’s average score was 14.3 points. After that, we reached the halftime intermission with these teams on top:

• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 90
• Whiskey Business (Celtic House): 89
• Quick Pink and the Vine Gang (Belles’): 88
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 88
• Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 88

THIRD ROUND:

Early in the second half, teams encountered Wednesday’s least-successful wagering question:

• As portrayed by Charlton Heston on the big screen, what was the more common name of 11th-century military leader Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar?

El Cid was named by just over 30% of the field. The last question of the round dealt with Space Shuttle names:

• Which two NASA Space Shuttles shared their names with ships captained by explorer James Cook?

This was the hardest bonus chance of the round, as a little more than a quarter of our teams provided both correct answers: the Discovery and Endeavor. However, this was the most successful round overall when it comes to perfect scores; nine teams scored all 36 points.

FOURTH ROUND:

Actor and former Mouseketeer Ryan Gosling was the subject of Wednesday’s 6-4-2; 69 teams named him from the initial clue for all six points! The toughest way to earn bonus points was found at the beginning of the final round:

• Respectively airing on Netflix and NBC, which two television shows were co-created by Tina Fey after 30 Rock?

About 38% of teams submitted one correct answer, but only three teams correctly identified both Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Mr. Mayor for two extra points. Later in the round, we asked a three-part question about islands of the world:

• 1)  This is the largest island (by area) in the Mediterranean Sea.
• 2)  Declared an historic monument by the government of Chile, this island is best known for its large volcanic sculptures.
• 3)  As the largest island entirely within Indonesia, it’s the sixth largest in the world.

Bonus points were earned by 11.3% of teams, each knowing the islands of Sicily, Easter Island, and Sumatra. Other topics in this round included the whiskey contained in a Manhattan cocktail, WWE Hall of Famer Junkyard Dog, and the fictional mongoose Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. A perfect score was out of reach of our teams in this round. We reached the final question with these leading squads:

• Sexual Chocolate (Memories): 166
• Quick Pink and the Vine Gang (Belles’): 164
• Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 162
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 160
• FOUR TEAMS TIED WITH 158 POINTS

FINAL QUESTION (24.26% success rate):

• Introduced in a 1955 prison film, which song regained popularity after appearing in a romantic drama film released 35 years later?

The title of the prison film might have massively helped out, as the film Unchained was the namesake of the Righteous Brothers song Unchained Melody, a track that became popular again with the 1990 film Ghost. Wednesday’s game resulted in a quartet of Perfect 21 teams: Quick Pink and the Vine Gang, Stink Floyd, and Power Vacuum from Belles’, as well as Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape). Those teams and others comprised the top of the final Wednesday leaderboard:

• Quick Pink and the Vine Gang (Belles’): 176
• Stink Floyd (Belles’): 172
• H.R. Puf’n’Stuf (Hops N Shine): 170
• Titanic Was an Inside Job (Hops N Shine): 170
• Power Vacuum (Belles’): 168
• Fresh Off the U-Haul (Mark’s): 165
• Vandelay Industries (Rough Edges): 165
• Adam Sandler’s Third Cousin (Mark’s): 164
• Barn Gurlz (Sully’s): 164
• Carpet Stretchers (T.J. Stone’s): 162
• Not the Doctors You’re Looking For (Grape Escape): 162

WEDNESDAY’S WINNERS:

Belles’ Sports Bar in Frederick, MD: Quick Pink and the Vine Gang  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Tina Turner)

Memories Charcoal House in Mount Airy, MD: Sexual Chocolate  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: World Capital Word Play)

Quinn’s on the Corner in Arlington, VA: Donner Party People  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Diseases Named for Countries)

GearHouse Brewing in Chambersburg, PA: Student Drivers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Dad Jokes)

TGI Fridays in Hagerstown, MD: What the Fork  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: The Number 37)

Idiom Brewing in Frederick, MD: Tokyo Sex Whale  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: WWE Entrance Music (audio))

Axes and O’s in Sterling, VA: The Legend of Taylor Heinicke  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Monarch Butterflies)

Hops N Shine in Alexandria, VA: H.R. Puf’n’Stuf  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV series))

Sully’s Pour House in Herndon, VA: Barn Gurlz  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Chess)

Falling Branch Brewery in Street, MD: Family Affair  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Reggae Music)

T.J. Stone’s in Alexandria, VA: Carpet Stretchers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Tina Turner)

Barstool Sportsbook in Charles Town, WV: Scuby  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Military Acronyms)

Grape Escape in Gaithersburg, MD: Not the Doctors You’re Looking For  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: 10 Things I Hate About You)

Shipgarten in McLean, VA: TCA  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Bodily Functions)

Thick-N-Thin Brewing in Hagerstown, MD: Vandelay Industries  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Norwegian Language)

Rough Edges Brewing in Waynesboro, PA: Vandelay Industries  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Chris Farley)

Rockwell Riverside in Frederick, MD: Let’s Get Quizzical  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Disney Films)

Olney Station in Olney, MD: DC Swampers  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Constitutional Law)

Celtic House in Arlington, VA: Whiskey Business  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: New Wave Music)

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

Augie’s Mussel House in Alexandria, VA: Team Canada  (NEXT WEEK’S FIRST CATEGORY: Canadian Geography)