Scroll to the end for the answers.

We haven’t had four players at a trivia game for quite some time! We picked up an “orphan” (lone trivia player whose team failed to show up) in early July and he was our #4. But four of our own players at a trivia game these days is very unusual! Yes borrowed ones count!

This time we had another couple, Kim and Brent S. join Mike and I. They normally play with the league trivia team Sparty On, but they have occasionally backed us up in our games. Kim and I play music trivia games together when we can. Our opposite tastes in music helps out quite a lot. Like the Paula Abdul song “Opposites Attract?” It’s true in trivia games too!

Our teams even joined forces during the Sporcle Events Globe Games in June, when neither of our teams had enough players.

I’ve joked that our trivia team has had more guest stars than The Love Boat! Or if you prefer a more modern pop culture reference – Friends? Did that show have a lot of guest stars? Honestly I didn’t really watch that show, though I’m aware of its existence and its popularity.

We didn’t win any prizes in this game and finished with 60 league points.

Here were our abbreviated questions:

Round One

Animals – What type of animal is both Paddington and Pooh?

Social Media – What social media company acquired Instagram in 2012?

Advertising – In commercials beginning in 2011, what type of pants does Jake from State Farm wear?

Since Trey Parker and Matt Stone are trending right now, why not share this meme from their 1998 movie BASEketball? It will give a hint to the answer!

Round Two

Worker Safety – What gas were canaries and mice used to help detect in mines? This question is heavily abbreviated. We talked ourselves out of the right answer here, but the good news is that we got to hear the Police song “Canary in a Coalmine” next! After I requested it 🎵🎶

Southern Cooking – What is the main ingredient in hush puppies? No, “grease” is not the correct answer 😂

Logos – How many spokes are in Wal-Mart’s logo?

Round Three

Traveling – What would one carry over a portage in order to continue a journey?

As Seen On TV – What household appliance is the basis for the Flowbee, which was first marketed on an infomercial? For the second time during this game, a scene from a comedy movie came to our minds – this time the movie was High School High, and the scene involved Jon Lovitz’ character using one of these things…inappropriately. Y’all will have to look this up yourselves or just imagine it, because I’m not sharing that here! 😉

Language – What is the official language of Liberia?

Halftime – Identify four of the five countries with the highest number of kilometers of high speed rail.

We got all four correct. Wow – the second time in a week that we ace a halftime round? Almost makes up for all of those times when we got none of the halftime round questions correct, or only one, or if we’re lucky…half of them right. I’m sure we’ll do really awfully the next time we have a halftime or mystery round, rest assured balance will be restored to the universe somehow!

Nice teamwork here between mostly Mike and Brent S.

Halftime Scores – ???, 20 (not a league team, it was a couple of women sitting in a booth near us), Pursuit of O Snappiness, 25; Nope, 24; Keeping up with the Joneses/Spacecats, 25; Ypsi Starlings Rugby, 31/Dead Guys, 31 and Pods (us), 36.

Speaking of restoring order to the universe…the second half would be very rough for us! But [SPOILERS AHEAD], we will get an explorers question correct! I am so shite at explorers questions – I always seem to think it’s Magellan when it should be DeGama or De Soto, and vice versa…

About Magellan… here’s one of my favorite images from Animaniacs:

Explorers – What Italian explorer is credited with naming Venezuela? We went through our very short list of names of explorers that we knew of, and we thankfully picked the one that sounded “the most Italian.” I cannot BELIEVE that we got this right! Take that, Magellan – for always making me think that you’re the correct answer when you’re not (and vice versa)!

Birds – What is the collective noun for a group of owls? Thankfully Mike knew the answer so that we didn’t have to go with my guess of “A Hooting of Owls.”

Innovative Films – What 1973 Michael Crichton-directed film was the first feature film to use CGI with live action? I was torn between a couple of possibilities here, and Mike (the point slips hoarder for our team) was absolutely NOT sold on the movie that I wanted to put down as our answer. Thankfully it was correct! Imagine that movie – a show with everything (like killer robots) AND Yul Brynner! That’s a “One Night in Bangkok” reference that some of you might not get (and that’s totally OK)! But if you do get it, let’s hang out sometime ☺️♟️ 🎵🎶

Round Five

Science – Invented by and named for a physicist in 1929, what is the name for an electrostatic particle accelerator used for physics research? We used our “Answer of the Day” option here to get six points free of charge…when the answer was revealed, we were glad we did this…

1960s Music – In 1966, what patriotic song was #1 on the Hot 100 charts? We were all over the place with our guesses…Creedence, Skynyrd…all sorts of “Freedom Rock” songs, we ultimately incorrectly guessed “God Bless America.” I don’t think any of us had even heard of the correct song. Boy is it rare when we’re too young for an MTL question!

Fashion – Named for slang term, what brand of colorful athletic wear did Dan Marino help popularize? We discussed the correct answer, but nope…it didn’t go on our answer slip, miss.

You know how round six of a MTL game is usually easy? Not on this night! [SPOILERS AHEAD] – a question about a specific SNL skit is gonna sink us! Are you sure you want to continue reading?

Round SIx

SNL – What phrase did David Spade’s character use in the skit for Complete Bastard Airlines? What? This couldn’t be a softball Coneheads, Church Lady, or Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood question? Samurai Delicatessen? Quarry Cereal? Roseanne Rosannadanna? You know…stuff we actually know about SNL?
NOPE! 😂 Sorry for being so whiny (there is no crying in trivia).

Good on you if you know about this skit though!

Speaking of other stuff we didn’t know (only one team would get the next question correct):

Military Bases – Where would one find the Camp Humphreys military base, which is the largest overseas military base in the world? Miss.

Did these two questions just not make the cut for round five or something? 🤔

Math – What does 10 squared equal?

We had a math teacher playing with us on this night – and we get a math question that a smart third grader would know the answer for! Go figure!

Scores heading into the final:

???, 32; Keeping up with the Joneses, 41; Spacecats, 43; Pursuit of O Snappiness, 44; Nope, 46; Dead Guys, 49; Ypsi Starlings Rugby, 53 and Pods (us) 60.

I’m actually shocked that we had the high score of all of the teams on this trivia night. It’s not something that we do very often. I do wonder how the very competitive Tuesday night McShane’s teams would have done on these questions!

Now for the final question:

Category – Streaming Services

What short lived streaming platform was founded in 2018 and nearly a year after its official launch in 2020, was bought by Roku?

We incorrectly guessed Vine. At least two teams knew this.

Game winners: Dead Guys, Pursuit of O Snappiness, Ypsi Starlings Rugby.

We’ll be back for trivia next Thursday at McShane’s. A couple of music quiz games are also on my calendar for next week, including an “away” music trivia game in Flint! A friend of mine from high school is expected to join us! I’m excited!!!

As always, Go Pods, and stay classy, Amerigo Vespucci!

Answers

R1 bear, Facebook, khakis

R2 carbon monoxide, corn meal, 6

R3 boat, vacuum, English

H china, Japan, Germany, Spain, France

R4 Vespucci, parliament, Westworld

R5 vandegraph generator ballad of green berets, zoobas

R6 buh bye, s korea, 100

F quibi