Question > Television

What Comedy Central show featured an animation technique called "Squigglevision"?

UPDATE: Answer: Dr. Katz: Professional Therapist

The technique created by Tom Snyder and his company Soup2Nuts was also used on an ABC Saturday morning show called "Squigglevision" (earlier season was called "Science Court"), as well as the Cartoon Network show "Home Movies".

Question > Television

What 1980 TV show featured a Japanese singing duet (who was wildly popular in Japan, but only generated one Top 40 hit in the US)?

UPDATE: Answer: Pink Lady and Jeff. (Often cited as the worst TV show ever.)

Question > Movies

What is the name of the actor who has played a King of Jerusalem, a neo-Nazi skinhead, and a ex-con card shark?

UPDATE: Answer: Edward Norton (in Kingdom of Heaven, American History X, and Rounders, respectively)

Question > Games

What was the base of operations for the Dark Trooper project in the Star Wars Universe?

UPDATE: Answer: The imperial ship Arc Hammer

Another daily trivia site...

Jon Pike of the Beer Pigs trivia team (from the World's Largest Trivia Contest) has his own daily trivia question blog called "In Search of Trivia". Check it out!

Question > Movies

What is the first and last name of the movie character who said: "When I was your age they used to say you could become cops or criminals. What I'm saying to you is this... When you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?"?

EDIT: Answer: Frank Costello in The Departed

Back from hiatus

I took a break from Trivia writing and research for The World's Largest Trivia Contest... and ended up staying away longer than I had hoped. But I'm back now, and will be working this back into our schedule.

Trivia (the contest) was a blast, as usual. Freshly Squeezed (my Trivia team) is a great group of people and we all know how to have fun even while we're striving for the top ten. We placed 15th this year. Last year was our all time high of 13th, and even though we slipped for the first time in 12 years, we're pretty pleased that we stayed closed to where we were last year.

There are over 400 teams that compete in the contest, so top 20 is a good level to reach. Top 10 get a trophy. Top 5 is nearly impossible and are typically held by the same teams with slight ordering changes each year.

The weekend of 54 hours of Trivia is fun, but exhausting. The following days or weeks are filled with conversations and reminiscences and planning for next year. All of that got me distracted from what I was trying to do here. Maybe I should define that better. But really, all you, as a reader, need to know is that I want to entertain people with a similar interest in trivial information.

So now back to Trivia One. Have fun!

Trivia Bee with the Jeopardy King

This sounds like a good time:

The 11th annual Trivia Bee drew a record crowd Friday night, selling enough tickets to fill Bellingham High School’s auditorium.

...

Thirty-one teams of three people each competed at this year’s event, testing their knowledge on topics including sports, history and literature.

And Ken Jennings was there!

I've been reading more an more about other contests and events out there. These charity fundraising events seem like a great time. Feel free to share your experiences, or send me the details so I can post about it here.

Question > Movies

In the movie Fargo, where does Norm Gunderson say his painting will be printed?

UPDATE: Answer: The 3 cent stamp.

Question > Music

What rocker's come-back album in the 90s featured artists such as Tom Petty, Elvis Costello, and Michael Penn as well as the actress Kimmy Robertson?

UPDATE: Answer: Roger McGuinn's "Back from Rio"

Question > Music

What 1960s rocker created a on-stage shtick complete with turban and robe and extended it to carrying his band equipment around in a 1952 Packard Hearse?

UPDATE: Answer: Domingo “Sam” Samudio from Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs

Question > General Trivia

Here's a little bunny trivia to honor the holiday. Name the movie, song, tv show, or play from which the following bunny-related quotes come:

1) "That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on! [...] Look, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!"

2) "I was walking down along the street and I heard this voice saying, 'Good evening, Mr. [...].' Well, I turned around and here was this big six-foot rabbit leaning up against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name."

3) "And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall, tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call."

4) "Kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit!"

5) "Attention! Attention! Ladies and gentlemen, attention! There is a herd of killer rabbits headed this way and we desperately need your help!"

UPDATE: Answer:

1) Tim the Enchanter, Monty Python and the Holy Grail
2) Elwood P. Dowd, Harvey
3) Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit
4) Elmer Fudd, What's Opera Doc?
5) Officer Lopez, Night of the Lepus

Triva. THE Trivia. It's coming!

First article to appear in the lead up to Trivia in two weeks:

For 37 years, the self-proclaimed world's largest trivia contest has attracted thousands of fun-loving players to central Wisconsin. It will again _ thanks to some extra grit from the guru who writes the questions.

It goes into some personal information about Jim Oliva, the main contest writer, that he had alluded to in official communiques. Interesting to us long time players, I'm sure.

Less than two weeks now... it's getting busy here with preparations in full force.

Question > Comics

What costumed hero flew an owl-shaped vehicle named Archie after Archimedes the Owl in Disney's The Sword in the Stone?

UPDATE: Answer: Nite-Owl (version 2) from The Watchmen

Question > Sports

What is the oldest trophy for which North American-based athletes still compete?

UPDATE: Answer: The NHL's Stanley Cup has been awarded since 1892. It started as an award to the top amateur hockey club in Canada, but evolved into the professional championship trophy over time.

Question > Movies

The submarine in Raiders of the Lost Ark was featured in what other 1981 movie?

UPDATE: Answer: The submarine has been built for Das Boot, the WWII submarine drama.

Question > Music

At the age of 14, Paul McCartney played songs for John Lennon as an impromptu audition. McCartney sang the lyrics all the way through, which impressed John Lennon since he could never remember lyrics and often made up his own. McCartney even wrote out the lyrics for two songs, and showed Lennon the chords. As a result of this meeting, Lennon asked McCartney to join his band, The Quarry Men. What were these two songs?

UPDATE: Answer: Be-Bop-A-Lula by Gene Vincent and Twenty Flight Rock by Eddie Cochran

Kids' Jeopardy

Having taken the online qualification test for adults this year, I think that this reporter might be doing something slightly against the rules... This Hagerstown, Maryland reporter writes about her son's attempt at the Jeopardy online qualifying test for 10 to 12 year olds.

When my son heard about the test, he was all for trying to be on the show.
After all, it was just 30 questions, 20 seconds allowed for each - 10 minutes, and you're done.
If all tests were this fast, scores would be golden.
Well, maybe not. There is something to be said for the value of reflection.
My son had two words to describe the test.
Hard. Fast.

She then goes on to list 20 of the 30 questions. I wish I would have had some of these questions when I took the test. I've been accused of storing some useless knowledge, but apparently it's the wrong useless knowledge as I missed the typical qualifying score by about 4 questions, from what I could remember.

These 20 questions, though, are a nice little mix of typical kids-level Jeopardy stuff. Have fun!

Questions > Music

Last week ended up being all about sitcoms. How about a new theme this week? Let's try Rock n' Roll.

What early rock n' roller from St. Louis created a new version of the traditional tune called "Ida Red", renamed it, and had it go to number 5 on the Billboard charts?

UPDATE: Answer: Chuck Berry rewrote the song and called it "Maybellene"

Question > Television

What song played during Ross and Rachel's romantic escapades at the museum?

UPDATE: Answer: "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak

The couple were trying to spend their first intimate evening together, but Ross was called in to help fix an exhibit. He saved the night by taking her to an auditorium/planetarium in the museum, putting on the star show, and Chris Isaak. They ended up waking naked in the prehistoric man exhibit in front of a visiting class of school children.