This is Jeopardy!

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Spoiler

"Queen (A Night At the Opera)"

 

[scotchandcigar]

^ Correct. But there's a 2nd album title which elicited the telegram.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Spoiler

A Day At the Races
That one is tricky cause I think of it as a 1977 album but released 1976/12/10.

 

[scotchandcigar]

That's it.

 

[scotchandcigar]

The buzzer whacker lost in final Jeopardy. He was beaten by a bowtied nerd. But the question was interesting. I'm posting it here, to see if people can figure it out.

View attachment 11030

So, as IRBS figured out, the answer is Queen. The albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races are both names of Marx Brothers movies. Thanks for playing!

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

So, as IRBS figured out, the answer is Queen. The albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races are both names of Marx Brothers movies. Thanks for playing!

It took me a lot longer than 30 seconds.

 

[sadchild]

The albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races are both names of Marx Brothers movies

TIL

 

[scotchandcigar]

So last night, the new champ lost to a puzzle-maker, who became obsessed with pigeons during Covid, and attended "Pigeon Fest" in New York. It's hard to surprise Ken Jennings, but this did.

 

[Aaron]

This relates to trivia, so I'll post it in this thread.

At work every month, they get a large birthday cake and everyone (50 people or so) who is around that day gathers and enjoys the cake to celebrate a month's worth of birthdays. Last August to liven things up, they introduced a trivia game. I'm not sure what platform it is, but it is cool. Everyone scans the QR code with their phone and plays along. It's mostly multiple choice, the questions are put together by a co-worker. The questions are usually either pop culture or sports, or they will show a baby picture or something and you have to figure out who around the office that might be. So about half the questions are office related. You play on your phone, but after each question they reveal the answer on the big monitor and also the standings up to that point.

The first game in August, I finished middle of the pack, but I started to notice that if you answer correctly and fast, you might get 80 points, but if you answer correctly and slow, you might get only 10 points. So I went into September's game with a plan. I was going to answer as super fast as I could for each one.

September game. I'm the winner. (Crowd reaction = Yay Aaron, good job)

October game. I'm the winner. (Crowd reaction = oh wow, Aaron wins again)

November game. I'm the winner. (Crowd reaction = booooo, I mean they turned on me in a hurry)

December game, I'm now the villain, Goliath. Everybody is gunning at me.
I didn't win.

In fact I didn't win January or February either. Maybe I lost my touch. Maybe everyone caught up to me. Oh well. I enjoyed my moment in the trivia sun.

I won’t be playing the monthly trivia game at work anymore. They kind of Ken Jennings’d me and put me to work instead haha. Thankfully I won’t have to talk or present but they gave me the website credentials so now I get to put the questions together. I’m okay with it.
I ended up winning 5 of the 11 or so times I played but in peoples minds “Aaron always wins” so it’s good to leave it with that image in their minds.

 

[scotchandcigar]

I won’t be playing the monthly trivia game at work anymore. They kind of Ken Jennings’d me and put me to work instead haha. Thankfully I won’t have to talk or present but they gave me the website credentials so now I get to put the questions together. I’m okay with it.
I ended up winning 5 of the 11 or so times I played but in peoples minds “Aaron always wins” so it’s good to leave it with that image in their minds.

You're like the Kingchuck69 of your office.

 

[Aaron]

Today was the first game where the questions I selected drove the game at work.
Of the 10 questions, 5 were specific to employees in the office with birthdays.
Here are the other 5 questions. A few people said they were tough. I don't really think so, especially since multiple choice.

Question 1 - 26% got right.
Who stars alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
A. Burt Reynolds
B. Clint Eastwood
C. Paul Newman
D. Warren Beatty

Question 2 - 85% got right. (Lots of Disney park fans)
Which of these movies is now the basis for the newly revamped "Splash Mountain" ride at various Disney parks?
A. The Little Mermaid
B. The Princess and the Frog
C. Frozen
D. Moana

Question 3 - 25% got right.
Which of these artists is NOT one of the founders of the Farm Aid benefit concerts, first held on September 22, 1985?
A. Bob Dylan
B. Neil Young
C. John Mellencamp
D. Willie Nelson

Question 4 - 16% got right.
Which Italian city is known as the birthplace of pizza?
A. Rome
B. Milan
C. Florence
D. Naples

Question 5 - 19% got right.
Ultra famous shoe brand Nike was originally called ____________ Sports prior to a name change in 1971.
A. Trophy
B. Blue Ribbon
C. Championship
D. Gold Medal

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

They are tough.

Question 1 - 26% got right. tough for younger people
Who stars alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
C. Paul Newman

Question 2 - 85% got right. (Lots of Disney park fans)
Which of these movies is now the basis for the newly revamped "Splash Mountain" ride at various Disney parks?
A. The Little Mermaid guess

Question 3 - 25% got right.
Which of these artists is NOT one of the founders of the Farm Aid benefit concerts, first held on September 22, 1985?
A. Bob Dylan guess, if not A then Neil Young

Question 4 - 16% got right.
Which Italian city is known as the birthplace of pizza?
no idea

Question 5 - 19% got right.
Ultra famous shoe brand Nike was originally called ____________ Sports prior to a name change in 1971.
no idea

 

[HecticArt]

Today was the first game where the questions I selected drove the game at work.
Of the 10 questions, 5 were specific to employees in the office with birthdays.
Here are the other 5 questions. A few people said they were tough. I don't really think so, especially since multiple choice.

Question 1 - 26% got right.
Who stars alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?

C. Paul Newman


Question 2 - 85% got right. (Lots of Disney park fans)
Which of these movies is now the basis for the newly revamped "Splash Mountain" ride at various Disney parks?

D. Moana - There was a boat in the commercial, and that makes more sense than splashing on frozen water.

Question 3 - 25% got right.
Which of these artists is NOT one of the founders of the Farm Aid benefit concerts, first held on September 22, 1985?
A. Bob Dylan


Question 4 - 16% got right.
Which Italian city is known as the birthplace of pizza?

D. Naples

Question 5 - 19% got right.
Ultra famous shoe brand Nike was originally called ____________ Sports prior to a name change in 1971.

D. Gold Medal - Total WAG.

 

[scotchandcigar]

They are tough.

Agree.

Question 1 - 26% got right. tough for younger people
Who stars alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"?
C. Paul Newman

I would say this, too. But it's an early 70s movie, so even people on this forum like sadchild and Wolf (maybe Koop) probably have no idea.

Question 3 - 25% got right.
Which of these artists is NOT one of the founders of the Farm Aid benefit concerts, first held on September 22, 1985?
A. Bob Dylan guess, if not A then Neil Young

Again, these are 60s/70s artists. I would also guess Dylan, but it's not that obvious.

I'd also guess Naples for the pizza. But this is one of those questions I'm not a fan of in trivia games. Because any of the 4 seem like reasonable answers. So it relies on having come across this as a trivia tidbit. They don't teach this in school. I learned that pizza was brought to Italy from China (or maybe it was spaghetti).

And finally, I was 8 or 9 in 1971, and I have no recollection of any of those shoe brands, or that Nike was rebranded. I know that Nissan used to be Datsun, but that's it.

So I'd say that was a good effort, but you have to avoid questions that you know the answer to, but that the average person wouldn't likely have come across. The trivia games we go to have taught us that.

 

[Aaron]

It’s hard to know what other people know. I wouldn’t have struggled with these. The categories were very basic for these questions - music, movies, food… but lesson learned for next time would be to gear more of the questions to more current events I guess but avoiding anything controversial. It’s a minefield.

 

[sadchild]

I'd be guessing at all 5. Don't know any of them.

 

[scotchandcigar]

It’s hard to know what other people know. I wouldn’t have struggled with these. The categories were very basic for these questions - music, movies, food… but lesson learned for next time would be to gear more of the questions to more current events I guess but avoiding anything controversial. It’s a minefield.

The dozen or so times we went to trivia night at a local pub, we mostly had a seasoned trivia game presenter making the questions. And they were good, although some questions were not within our scope of knowledge. But on the occasion we had a fill-in presenter, it was usually not so good.

Because the average person will take their personal experiences, and turn it into trivia questions; not realizing the pitfalls of doing that. Things that I've seen on the news, or heard in conversation, or come across during my day, that stand out to me, are not things that others have likely experienced.

But obviously, you have to assume that there's material that most people should know. And then it's how you present it. For example, people are likely to know that bourbon mostly comes from Kentucky. But as far as I know, it's not generally established what city in Italy is famous for pizza. And on the Millionaire show, there's no logical way to know what the company that makes peanut-butter cups calls the center. It was a flawed question.

It's hard to make good trivia questions. I think the people who do it on a regular basis might have some site or database they get their questions from. Perhaps you can pre-screen (ha!) your potential questions through us, before you unleash them on your coworkers.

 

[Aaron]

FWIW my questions weren’t much different than from the guy who was writing them before me. I actually didn’t really write those either, just grabbing them from a ton of categories on the crowdpurr website.

The Dean Martin song references Naples and pizza, but I wouldn’t expect many people to get that.
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore… In Napoli, where love is king…

 

[sadchild]

Each morning on my ride into work, the morning show on the FM station I used to have a 5 o'clock feature on (before they switched to classic rock) has their version of Win Fred's Money that they call Dumber Than The Show Trivia. I try to play along every day.

The reason I mention this is: I think the best questions are the ones everyone USED TO KNOW and has forgotten. Like old company slogans for example. Here's a good one (for the 40+ crowd).... Which soft drink had the slogan "Never had it never will" in the 80s. It's one of those questions where my brain goes "I remember this slogan..... crap..... which soft drink was it?!"

 

[Aaron]

Or maybe that’s what they deserve for kicking the “smart guy” out the game and letting him pick the questions!