Saturday, October 14, 2006

In pursuit of trivia

I can't help it: I love trivia! My memory's not detail-oriented enough to make me really good at trivia, but I do OK. Once a year I'm one of 4 suckers who go up against comic book writer Mark Waid (a man with a nearly photographic memory) in a contest of comic trivia from the Silver Age (1956 - 1969), which, year after year draws a respectably-sized audience of entertainment-starved fans at the Chicago Comic Convention. Waid wins every year, sometimes in a romp, sometimes just barely, but he always wins. And that's OK, because it's a ton of fun and I feel like I get a little better at it every year.

Outside of the world of comics, I'm probably middle of the pack (at best) in terms of trivia. But I still enjoy it. My wife likes to give me a movie title and have me guess the year it came out (I usually get it within a year or two) and I can't help but blurt out song titles when I hear a snippet from one I've heard. A friend at work, who may in fact be reading this right now, puts me to shame in general trivia but hasn't yet started to deal with an aging brain, unlike your humble narrator. All of which is just the table setting.

So just for fun, try your hand at the following, if you dare. Most of the questions are for material that's two to three decades old, because anything recent just seems too obvious to me. If I did my job, each question will be tougher than the one before it, per category:

A) Comic Trivia

1) What was Peter Parker's uncle's name?

2) Who is Superman's cousin?

3) Which superhero identity has been held by Jay Garrick, Barry Allen and Wally West?

4) In what title did the Silver Surfer first appear?

5) Who are the five founding members of the Avengers?

6) From what planet does Mon-El, of the Legion of Super-Heroes, hail?

7) Who were the members of the original Sinister Six?

8) What's the name of the mailman who delivers mail to the Fantastic Four?

B) Movie Trivia

1) What movie featured the line "I'll have what she's having?" after a woman faked an orgasm in a restaurant?

2) Who directed Saving Private Ryan?

3) Who played Arnold Schwarzeneggar's fictional wife in Total Recall?

4) In what year did the real-life story in Eight Men Out take place?

5) What author appeared as himself in Annie Hall, providing Woody Allen's character with a memorable bit of validation while standing in line for a movie?

6) Who played Brad and Janet in The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

7) What's the name of the sequel to Chinatown?

8) What Australian movie starred Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce as drag queens?

C) TV Trivia

1) Who's the longtime host of The Price Is Right?

2) Who provides the voice for Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons?

3) Who played Archie Bunker's son-in-law, "Meathead", on All in the Family?

4) Who was the creative force behind The X-Files?

5) Whose murder was at the centre of the first season of Twin Peaks?

6) Which long-running drama was revealed to be the imagings of an autistic child, in its final episode?

7) Who played Dr Jeffrey Geiger on Chicago Hope?

8) In what city did the Mary Tyler Moore Show take place?

I'll post the answers sometime soon (after I've checked each one to make sure I got them right!)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

So exciting! This will provide at least 20 minutes of procrastination!!

A: Comic Trivia (this is going to go so well):
(2) Supergirl
(7) There was probably an acronym for this one... SOMVEK. SOCVEM. VOCKOM. SEMCON. If any of those are right I should get a half point.

B: Movie Trivia
(1) When Harry Met Sally...
(2) Spielberg
(4) 1919
(5) Marshall McLuhan
(8) I can't remember the name but you mentioned it recently!

C: TV Trivia
(1) Bob Barker
(2) Kelsey Grammar
(3) Rob Reiner
(4) Chris Carter
(5) Hmm never watched it but it comes up in pop culture enough that I should know this. A girl!
(6) You mentioned this when we were talked about stupid 'Normal Again'. St. Elsewhere?
(8) Chicago..?

Kimota94 aka Matt aka AgileMan said...

Looks like you got... 10 (or 10 and a half, I guess, since you were really close: SOKVEM) out of 24, which isn't all that shabby! I tried to make the first couple of each category really easy (you didn't know Uncle Ben? Uncle freaking Ben??) but of course it's tough to gauge the difficulty when I'm picking questions that are all easy for me.

The important thing is: did you have fun trying to figure them out?

Tammy said...

Yes I was pretty disappointed I didn't get Uncle Ben! What threw me off was the uncle part. For some reason I was thinking that Ben was his grandpa or something, so I thought this was a more advanced comic knowledge question. I should have realized it wasn't that hard since it was the first one, but I dismissed it quickly.

I also should have gotten: Flash (I knew Barry Allen was the famous one!), and Fantastic Four since I just read an article like yesterday that mentioned Silver Surfer was going to be in the new one. The others I stood no hope on.

And yes I loved it! I share your affinity for trivia. More please!!!

Tammy said...

PS. I'll try and make some questions up myself and post them by 10pm.