Oh man, The Mod Squad. Let’s see. I bet there’s a good question about the TV show, and about cops, and about … Giovanni Ribisi’s snake dance. Let’s go!
Pop Quiz Hot Shot!
1) Speaking of mod, outside of computing the modulo operation is possibly somewhat rare. What symbol traditionally represents modulo in mathematics?
2) Speaking of mod, the mod in this case is short for modernist and was a British subculture, predominately of the 50s and 60s. Around 1965, London became synonymous with fashion, music, and pop culture in these years, a period often referred to as what?
3) Speaking of mod, the Mod Cup is a trophy in the Scottish sport of shinty. Shinty is related to Irish hurling, and Welsh bando, but Minnesotans might be more familiar with “ice shinty” a sport played on skates with a small ball on a very large surface of ice. What is this sport officially called?
4) Speaking of mod, video game modding has a long and storied history. One version of Mario for example has been modded to up the difficulty to insane degrees. The name for this hack, is a five letter word starting with “k” which literally means “modification” in Japanese. What is that word?
5) Speaking of mod, this Charlie Chaplin film from 1936 sees The Little Tramp enter the workforce and get sucked up into a masterful set piece of gears and machinery. What’s the film?
Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: Peggy Lipton, of the original Mod Squad, starred in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, which played late night Showtime on August 15, 1993. One of the lead in programs was this:
What is this movie?
Answers
1) It is typically represented by the ‘%’ symbol and means the remainder from a % b. For example, if it is 5 % 2 the answer is 1, 19 % 5 = 4, etc.
2) This was the Swinging Sixties and specifically Swinging London which you would know from the historically accurate Austin Powers. Groovy, baby.
3) That would be bandy. Fun fact, I once looked into learning bandy because it was possible (although in retrospect unlikely) I could have been able to at least go for the U.S. National Team. I ultimately didn’t do it because … well I didn’t want to. But also even if I did make the team the nationals was in Kazakhstan and you had to pay your own way and I was poor.
4) Kaizo. There are now many Kaizo mods around, and I would do yourself a favor and look up some Games Done Quick speedruns of the various kaizo mods. They are completely and utterly mindbending.
5) That’s Modern Times. I haven’t seen the film in years, but it really is masterful set design. It’s worth a watch.
Bonus NYTimes Listing Answer: That would be Man in the Moon. And yeah, not the one you are thinking of. I told you I was going to start doing harder ones.
WHAT?! Not one mention of the snake dance? I could have at least asked about snakes I presume. Was there a “mod snake” or something?
Bad Movie Twins 