We got off to kind of a rough start in a “double header” Sporcle “Stump!” virtual trivia game Tuesday evening. And by that I mean we blew the FIRST QUESTION FOR MAX POINTS!

Yeah…then we proceeded to miss the entire first round of questions. We were in last place – and next to last place at a couple of points during the game, but we managed to move up slightly to fifth place after getting the second final question correct about bands. The first final question about animals was missed by every single team in the game. There was some chatter in the main session about the question having misleading wording that steered some teams in the wrong direction (read on to find out more).

Here were our questions:

Round 1

1) 1990s Music – In the 1990s, what singer released #1 albums titled Music Box, Daydream, and Butterfly? A couple of years ago, a co-worker of mine said that her toddler daughter cried whenever she played songs by this artist. My response – which goes down as both socially awkward and complimentary – was “That’s a smart girl you have there.” So even though I was, well, insulting music she enjoys (guilty), I also paid a compliment to her daughter? Six of one, half dozen of the other? 🙂

2) Recent Movies – The two most recent non-English-language films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture are predominantly in what language? How in the world did we forget about that super depressing film that won a couple of years ago? Miss.

3) Cities – Name one of the two most populous U.S. cities with two consecutive “T”s in their names. Noble effort on both cities, but nope… hint – don’t think about any steel towns!

NERD POINT: Name both.

4) Game Shows – What TV game show has a name derived from the Old French meaning “divided game”? Got this, so I guess we didn’t blow the entire first round!

Mystery 1

Answer the questions about the work of comedian Norm Macdonald, who passed away last week at the age of 61.

M1. What Saturday Night Live sketch did Macdonald regularly introduce with “I’m Norm Macdonald, and now the fake news”?

M2. Norm provided his voice to a number of roles, including Lucky the Dog in what series of films starring Eddie Murphy?

M3. One of Norm’s most revered performances came at the 2008 Comedy Central Roast of what person? His set was notable for being intentionally cheesy, including the line “(redacted) has a beautiful face, like a flower. Yeah, cauliflower.”

M4. One of Norm’s final TV roles is as the voice of Lieutenant Yaphit an amorphous, shapeshifting engineer on what series?

Missed the one about celebrity roasts. God do I hate celebrity roasts!

Round Two

1) Slogans – In 2020, what company began using the slogan “Together Tastes Better?” Thank you FB host clue…

2) Tennis – From 1993-2000, what American spent a total of 286 weeks as the #1 ranked men’s singles tennis player? Nope…

3) Math – What number to the sixth power equals 729? Thankfully Mike came up with this.

4) Disney – Which Disney character has brothers named Harris, Hubert and Hamish?

Mystery 2 – Add ‘Em Up – numbers in the correct responses will add up to 92.

M1. Number of decades in which composer John Williams has received an Academy Award nomination

M2. Number in the name of an extra light beer from Miller that boasts the beer’s calorie count

M3. Number of total playoff games an NBA team needed to win a championship from the 1983-84 season to the 2001-02 season

M4. Number of different exterior colors on a standard Rubik’s Cube

Got all of these.

Final Category – Animals

Among all species of mammals, roughly 60% belong to two orders.

Name those two orders, both of which are larger than Primates, among others.

(Note: Scientific name or common name is acceptable).

We thought the word “larger” meant size, not greater in number. So we were confused by the question (we weren’t the only ones).

Round 3

1) Artists – This was an audio question involving someone talking about that one famous graffiti artist who uses a single name pseudonym.

2) Holidays – Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a holiday that began in Berkeley, California, as a counter-celebration to which U.S. federal holiday?

3) Authors – Andy Dufresne is a character created by what notable author?

4) Pizza – Margherita three main ingredients, one for each color on the Italian flag.

Mystery 3 – Visual

Round 4

1) Insects – Insects of the genus Drosophila are commonly known by what two-word alliterative term? Good guess.

2) Songs -What song by SR-71, which was successfully covered by Bowling for Soup, was released 19 years after the year in its title? No idea.

3) Presidents – Name the two U.S. presidents who were assassinated during their second terms in office.

4) Actors – What is the highest grossing film at the domestic box office starring Will Smith that was released in the 1990s? Amazed I remembered this director’s name…

NERD POINT: Who directed this film?

Mystery 4 –

Among the following list of seven TV channels and networks, choose the four oldest. These networks may have originally debuted under different names. (Answers do not have to be in order)

ABC
ESPN
HBO
PBS
Showtime
TBS
USA

Got all of these.

Final Category – Bands

What band is named for its lead guitar player, although its two biggest hits, released in 1981 and 1982, were written by singer Peter Wolf and/or keyboardist Seth Justman?

I have a lengthy playlist on Spotify featuring a few of this band’s songs. The playlist is called “Douche.” I remember when these songs were popular…my brother blared one of the songs on our outdoor speakers and I could hear it from several houses away!

We’ll be taking tonight off from trivial pursuits. Or will we? Sometimes we don’t know for sure! As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Mariah Carey!