A Decent Pear

Welcome back everyone, this time to a completely new setting. This is not the first quiz I have competed in at the Bristol Pear in Selly Oak (do come along), but I thought I'd get it out of the way first - now that I finally have some time - to get some momentum back on this blog. It's been a little neglected recently, and I can't promise that won't happen again in January, but please remember everybody that I am always thinking of you. Our two outings at the Pear have brought us heavy blows, despite decent scores.. I was particularly gutted to lose this one, as our percentage of questions answered correctly was approximately 92%, which probably makes this quiz a record for our best ever loss (or something like that). Let's get stuck in shall we?

Venue: The Bristol Pear                    Team: Me + The Stand-Up Comedian and the Director
Score: 55/60 - 3rd/11                  Prize(s): None               Joker Round: Christmas #1 Singles

Best Team Name

Not a particularly good haul this week, even with Christmas as an inspiration. See what you think and get voting by commenting or tweeting me @MPRTaylor.

- Spunk Drips Off My Forehead

- Ringo

- You're Not My Real Dad and You Never Will Be

- Driving Home For Quizmas

- Amanda Hug'n'Kiss

All inspired, I'm sure you'll agree. And those were the ones worth mentioning. We were 'Threeskin', which is a name that looks pretty much set to stick. Without further ado then, here are your questions...

Questions

1) Who won this year's BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year?

 These next 3 questions are all either Troy McClure films (from the Simpsons) or real life creations. Can you tell if they are 'Troy or False'?

2) 'The Karate Dog'

3) 'The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel'

4) 'A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell'

5) Music Round: What was the name of X Factor winner Shayne Ward's Christmas UK Number 1 single?

In addition to these, we also got these 3 bonus questions incorrect:

B1) In which year was Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite first performed?

B2) The X Factor final received the lowest TV ratings for a final since its debut series in 2004. How many views did it receive on average?

B3) In which year did Troy McClure last appear in an episode of the Simpsons?

Answers
 

1) Claudia Fragapane
2) Real Film
3) Troy McClure Film
4) Real Film
5) 'That's My Goal'

B1) 1897
B2) 9.1 million
B3) 1998

Post Match Analysis

 

Best Moment: Getting 10/10 on the 'Complete the Joke' round. My answer to 'What's the fastest fish?' didn't fire the blank that was expected ('A motorpike'), and it really set up the last round as the high octane thrill fest it would turn out to be.

Most Embarassing Moment: We did so well there wasn't anything to be embarrassed about this time, but I did manage to guess the correct Spice Girls Christmas Number 1 single played (2 Become 1), without the satisfaction of winning the quiz to compensate. Still, I have a feeling we'll be back... 

 

1) I hadn't watched the ceremony and fatefully assumed that for quizzes all I would need to know was the winner and second placed candidate of the main award. Not so, though the main winner (Lewis Hamilton) did make an appearance. I remembered Fragapane instantly when I heard the name as she had performed well enough at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games to warrant a mention on the news, but had since forgotten about her. I had even forgotten that there was a Young SPOTY award at all.

Fact File: The BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year has been awarded since 2001, when it replaced the Newcomer Award. To qualify, the nominees must be 16 or under on January 1st of the relevant year. Born in Bristol in 1997, Fragapane won the medal on the back of taking four gold medals for artistic gymnastics at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, as well as a silver at the European Championships in Sofia. Her golds were for the Team All-Around, Individual All-Around, Vault and Floor Exercise.
  

 

2) I'm happy to admit that this one had me fooled. I don't suspect that I shall be queuing up to find the DVD release of this movie.

Fact File: Perhaps one of the (many) reasons we hadn't heard of the Karate Dog was because it was an American made for TV film shown on ABC Family in 2004. It has since been released on DVD however (thank goodness). It stars Chevy Chase as Cho Cho, the eponymous dog who tries to bring the murderer of his owner to justice. The film also features Oscar winner Jon Voight.

 

3) Probably should have got this one. It cost us dear.
Fact File: 'The Contrabulous Fabtraption of Professor Horatio Hufnagel' is a pet project of McClure's, for which he is both the lead actor and director. He turned down the opportunity to be the supporting role in McBain IV: Fatal Discharge for the privilege. The film is never shown on the Simpsons, like so much of McClure's other output.

4) I could have sworn that I heard Troy mention this one in a Simpsons episode, but fortunately it appears that this is a genuine creation.
Fact File: 'Nymphoid Barbarian' was released by Troma Entertainment in 1990. There's not much more I can say that can't be illustrated better by this trailer. Go on, you have to see it. Or alternatively, the whole movie in on YouTube if you're that excited.

5) As if I cared what the song was called. (Note to self: Always care what the songs are called.) We went with the title of Steve Brookstein's X Factor winner 'Against All Odds'.
Fact File: 'That's My Goal' became the first X Factor single to achieve a Christmas number 1 in the UK beginning an unbroken sequence lasting until 2009, when Rage Against the Machine beat Joe McElderry's 'The Climb'. That's My Goal stayed at Number 1 for 4 weeks in total, has sold over 1 million copies and is still the fastest ever selling X Factor song. It is also unique for being an original song written for the programme, rather than a cover. You can listen to it here.

6) As a bonus question, this one didn't really matter, though we might have won some beer. However, as we weren't going out after, we weren't too bothered. We got surprisingly close with our guess of 1897.
Fact File: First performed independently of the ballet, the Nutcracker Suite was incorporated as part of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov's ballet later that year, with Tchaikovsky providing the whole of the score. The ballet, premiering at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, was not received particularly well, but the 20 minute suite has endured, and consequently revived interest in the ballet, particularly in the USA.

7) Ironically, this years' X Factor final was one of the few I have ever watched, due to one of my friends having gambled a significant amount of money on the outcome. I'll leave you in suspense as to how he came out of that one...
Fact File: 9.1 million amounted to a still healthy 35% share of the TV audience, but it was beaten by BBC1 rival entertainment show Strictly Come Dancing, which reached 9.6 million. The show saw Ben Haenow beat Fleur East and (you guessed it) secure the 2014 Christmas UK Number 1 slot. The record high for an X Factor final was in 2010, when an estimated 17.2 million saw Matt Cardle take the glory, and some might argue, the inevitable path to obscurity...

8) It was really a case of 'put down whatever year, it doesn't matter,' but this date seems much further back in history than I would have thought. Perhaps this was from growing up on endless repeats of the Simpsons at 6 on BBC 2.
Fact File: One of the show's most popular recurring characters, McClure was based in part on two B-movie actors, Troy Donahue and Doug McClure. First appearing in 1991, McClure was retired out of respect in 1998 when voice artist Phil Hartman (who also played bungling lawyer Lionel Hutz), was shot dead by his wife. Possibly McClure's most notable episode is 'A Fish Called Selma' in 1996, where he engages in a somewhat cynical marriage to Marge Simpson's sister in order to boost his career. 
   

 

 There we go, and sorry again for having been so lazy. I'm in two minds about whether to leave out the fact files in order to upload the 10 or so quizzes I haven't done yet. Would appreciate some feedback on that. Until later everyone, and don't forget to tweet me - @MPRTaylor. 

 

 

 

 

    

The Return of Quiz Fiend: S Club Save the Day

Welcome back for a quiz straight from the 3 week old archive. I hope you're ready for it. I'll bet you didn't expect to see that title, but this is nevertheless true. Our ability to recognise the build-up to the chorus in S Club 7's 'Don't Stop Moving' within a few seconds secured us our second Queen's Arms win in a row by the margin of just one point. I don't know whether to be chuffed or not with that, but I suppose if you were young in the early 2000s then the song is probably imprinted on your brain like some sort of reverberating musical tattoo. To paraphrase my partner in quizzing crime, the Teacher - 'It's a classic. I mean, it's shit, but it's a classic'. But if you could have helped us out with any of these other nuggets, please let me know, either by tweeting me (@MPRTaylor) or by commenting below. Let's get on with this.

Venue: The Queen's Arms                                                         Team: Me + The Teacher
Score: 66/80                                                                               Prize: £20

Best Team Name

It is my great pleasure to announce this week that the winner of last week's Best Name Competition is:

 'Why are there no aspirin in the jungle? Because the parrots ate 'em all'.

I couldn't be happier with this decision, especially because the choice of team names this week was so bad that there is no point running the competition. Hopefully it picks up next time, because it'll be the last Queen's quiz of the year...

 

 

Questions

Identify these two famous faces.

1)                                                                        2)
                                                                  

                                                                           
These next two news questions are a little out of date thanks to my hiatus, but are still serviceable...

3) A couple were recently fined £100 for posting a bad review on TripAdvisor about a hotel in which English seaside resort?

4) Which Australian actor was recently awarded the title of 'Sexiest Man Alive' by People Magazine?

Identify the artists from their songs. As always, click below for a YouTube video, close your eyes and watch out for adverts.

                                 5) Song 1                                             6) Song 2     

7) Which celebrated songwriter wrote the musicals 'Kiss Me Kate' and 'High Society'?

8) Who has been a member of groups Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure?

9) In October 2010, who released the greatest hits compilation 'In and Out of Consciousness'?

These next few general knowledge questions (10-12) contain the words 'pro' or 'con'...

10) In the song 'I Don't Like Mondays' by the Boomtown Rats, what had 'switched to overload'?

11) In golf, what is an alternative name for the 'fringe', which is the slightly longer grass surrounding the green?

12) Which 9-ball pool tournament between Europe and the USA has been compared to the Ryder Cup of pool?

No more pros or cons, but get these next two wrong and you lose 2 points each. You can leave them alone though, if you wish...

13) Which mainline London station was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and opened in 1854?

14) China is the traditional gift for which wedding anniversary?

Tiebreak) Sports Direct was founded in which year?

Answers

1) Audrey Hepburn
2) Willie Rushton
3) Blackpool
4) Chris Hemsworth
5) Marvin Gaye
6) The Commodores
7) Cole Porter
8) Vince Clarke
9) Robbie Williams
10) Silicon chip (inside her head)
11) Apron
12) The Mosconi Cup
13) Paddington
14) 20
TB) 1982

Post Match Analysis

Moment of genius: Guessing that a 1980s show neither of us had seen before (Knight Rider) was a correct answer just from the tagline - 'A shadowy flight into the world of a man who does not exist'.   This even led us down the path to a correct connection between this and other answers (chess pieces), making things a lot easier.
Most embarrassing moment: Correctly answering that certain songs were performed by Rick Astley, S Club 7, the Scissor Sisters and McFly in quick succession on the music round. Where did that burst of inspiration come from?

1) Ms Hepburn is a huge quiz favourite and the Teacher and I both considered her as an option, but for some reason I thought that this photo was of Sophia Loren. I haven't seen a lot of movies from the heydays of either actress, so we didn't waste too much time discussing this one, unfortunately to our cost.
Fact File: Audrey Kathleen (Hepburn-)Ruston was born in Brussels in 1929. Regarded as something of a film icon, she gained significant acclaim for her role as the fictional Princess Anne in the 1953 film Roman Holiday, for which she won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award. She also found fame in her role as flower girl Eliza Doolittle in 1964's My Fair Lady, but she is best known for portraying Holly Golightly in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, in which she notably sang the song 'Moon River'. Towards the end of her life she worked as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She died of cancer in in Switzerland in 1993. She is also one of a select group of individuals to earn an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony), though two of these were awarded after her death.

2) I would never have got Willie Rushton, though the Teacher may have with more time. I don't think I had ever seen a picture of him before. I can't remember what we put, but it was at least a bit better than our first (fairly illogical) guess of Benny Andersson from ABBA...
Fact File: William George Rushton was born in Kensington in 1937. Rushton was one of the founders of satirical magazine Private Eye in 1961, and continued with satire by performing on the ground breaking comedy/current affairs programme 'That Was The Week That Was' from 1962-3. Venturing into film and narrating children's classic stories, Rushton is probably best known for his 22 year long stint on the BBC Radio 4 show 'I'm Sorry, I Haven't a Clue', which he only left upon his death in 1996.

3) This was a bad miss. I had read the news story and insisted that the answer was Whitehaven in Cumbria. ('Why else would I have seen Whitehaven in the news?') It actually turns out that the couple in question are from Whitehaven and were holidaying in the county next door. Oh dear!
Fact File: Tony and Jan Jenkinson were met with this news last month when they took to the holiday review website TripAdvisor and described Blackpool's Broadway hotel as a 'filthy, dirty, rotten, stinking hovel'. The hotel added the £100 to their bill under a 'no bad review policy'. The couple have since been reimbursed, though others who have been previously affected were not so lucky.

4) I don't feel too guilty about not knowing this one. Thinking of famous Australian leading men, the only answer we thought it could be was Hugh Jackman. We didn't even know that Hemsworth was Australian, so he wasn't considered.
Fact File: Chris Hemsworth was born in Melbourne in 1983. An alumnus of the cast of Aussie soap Home and Away, Hemsworth is best known for his role as Thor in the recent series of Marvel superhero films, having played the character 3 times to date. People Magazine was first published in 1974 and first ran the 'Sexiest Man Alive' feature in 1985, the first winner being fellow Australian actor Mel Gibson. Hemsworth succeeds Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine.

5) Both of the songs we got wrong this week we had the potential to get right. This quiz represented our best ever music round, but we managed to get caught out on the cooler songs. In this case, I pushed for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, as I didn't think that it quite sounded like Marvin. The Teacher called this one so my bad.
Fact File: Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr was born in Washington, D.C. in 1939. He is best known for his version of the song 'Heard It Through the Grapevine' in 1969 and the ground breaking albums 'What's Going On' in 1971 and 'Let's Get It On' in 1973. He achieved recognition through a series of duets with Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell. Gaye's unfortunate fate was to be shot dead by his father in 1984 with a gun that Marvin Jr. had given him just months before. 'How Sweet It Is' was written by the famed Holland-Dozier-Holland song writing trio and released by Gaye in 1964. It reached No. 6 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but only managed No. 49 in the UK.

6) The Teacher also called this one in a sense. I thought this was by Bill Withers, but when the Teacher pointed it out things suddenly dawned on me. However, the answer we put down was Lionel Richie, and not the Commodores, which cost us the point.
Fact File: The Commodores were formed in 1968 in Tuskegee, Alabama. Featuring Richie on the lead vocals, the band's best known hit is probably 1978's 'Three Times a Lady' which top the charts in both the UK and the US. 'Easy' was released the year before, reaching No. 9 in the UK, 4 in the the US and topping the Australian chart. The song deals with the breakup of the protagonist's relationship.

7) We should have gone with our initial guess on this one. It might not surprise you to learn that musicals are not a great strength for us.
Fact File: Cole Albert Porter was born in Peru, Indiana in 1891. Pursuing a career in music against the wishes of his family, Porter was unusual in writing his own lyrics as well as musical scores. Despite suffering a disability in 1937, Porter won the first ever Tony Award for Best Musical with Kiss Me Kate in 1949. High Society followed in 1956 as a film starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra. These works are based on William Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' and Philip Barry's 'The Philadelphia Story' respectively. Porter also wrote the songs 'I've Got You Under My Skin', 'I Get a Kick Out of You' and 'Begin the Beguine'. He died in 1964.

8) The most irritating thing about this question was that all I could dredge up was the Yazoo was made up of Alison Moyet and someone, and that Erasure was made up of Andy Bell and someone. Sorry Vince!
Fact File: Vincent John Martin was born in 1960 in South Woodford (then in Essex). He claims that he was inspired to create electronic music after listening to the Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark song 'Electricity'. He was responsible for the Depeche Mode song 'Just Can't Get Enough' during his short tenure with the band before leaving to form Yazoo with Alison Moyet. After clashing with her, they broke up in 1983 and Clarke finally found permanence in Erasure after 1985.

9) Again, this was a missed opportunity. We suggested Take That, and Robbie was on my mind, but the date seemed wrong for both, and we couldn't link it to anything that would back it up.
Fact File: Robert Peter Williams was born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1974. He found fame as the youngest member of Take That from 1990 to 1995, when he became the first member to leave the group. He has had an extremely prolific solo career, with 7 UK No 1 singles, and estimated sales of 77 million records worldwide. He married Ayda Field in 2010, with whom he has two children, Theodora and Charlton. Williams rejoined Take That briefly after their revival, but has since left again. He also had the distinction of having won the most BRIT Awards.

10) The annoying part of this one was that I was humming the first line over and over to no avail. Having to put something down with 'pro' or 'con' in it, we went for 'air conditioning' with no conviction whatsoever.
Fact File: Written by Bob Geldof, 'I Don't Like Mondays' is the second and final UK No. 1 single for the Boomtown Rats. Released in 1979, it refers to a school shooting in California earlier that year. 'I Don't Like Mondays' was the response of the killer, Brenda Ann Spencer when asked why. The 'Silicon chip' line refers directly to this.

11) Nothing I could have done here. I might have heard the term before but then again, I might not.
Fact File: The fringe or 'apron' is the area of the course that separates the green and the rough. Apparently the height of the 'apron' is designed to prevent a golf ball from exiting the green. It is best to use an iron (rather than a putter) to play on this surface - so I am informed...

12) Again, this is the sort of thing that you either know or you don't. Of all the quiz questions that I have ever encountered, this one is probably up there in the 5 hardest to guess correctly. It was the only thing we could do to leave it and move on.
Fact File: The Mosconi Cup is named for American pool legend Willie Mosconi, who won the World Straight Pool Championship 15 times in the 1940s and 50s and it has been contested every year since 1994, the year after Mosconi's death. The USA has won the most tournaments with 11 to Europe's 9, with Europe winning the 2014 cup with 11 games to 5 in Blackpool.

13) It was a good job we didn't put anything down, as I was convinced that this was King's Cross, and Paddington didn't even cross my mind. There are enough famous London stations for me not to have risked it, just in case.
Fact File: London Paddington station is located in the City of Westminster and Brunel originally intended that it would be possible for an individual to buy a single ticket to travel direct from Paddington to New York. The first London underground journey departed from Paddington in 1863, and the fictional Paddington Bear was found there and named for the station. It caters for roughly 35 million journeys per year and the site borders the Grand Union Canal.

14) The Teacher was right with 20 years, but the need for absolute certainty kept us from writing it down. It was probably the right choice for the sake of the last few minutes of tension. On the bonus side, this question means that I have now more or less learnt the list of UK wedding anniversary gifts.
Fact File: China, or porcelain, is the traditional gift for a 20th wedding anniversary in both the UK and the USA. Unlike many quiz facts, china does actually take its name from the country China, which is where it was developed. The earliest china is thought to have been dated back to the Shang Dynasty, but it did not become widely available in the country until approximately the 7th century A.D. It is thought that the prevalence of porcelain contributed to China's shunning of glass making for over 500 years.
 

TB) We were lucky with this, as we were out by 11 years. We were probably remembering the peak of sporting shops in the high street rather than the genesis.
Fact File: Sports Direct International is a sports goods retailer, founded in 1982 in Maidenhead, Berkshire as 'Mike Ashley Sports'. Now headquartered in Shirebrook in Derbyshire, it has been listed on the stock exchange since 2007 and Ashley still retains a majority stake in the company. It's most notable acquisition was probably Dunlop Slazenger, which it has owned since 2004.

That's your lot for now, but hopefully I'll be getting back in the swing of things asap. Until next time everyone!