Category: Quiz

Celtic Pride Quiz

My god … well I promise you this. You ain’t learning a thing about the Boston Celtics in this quiz. Let’s go!

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) The Celtics are playing the Utah Jazz in the finals. Everyone knows the Utah Jazz used to be the New Orleans Jazz prior to moving in 1979. The New Orleans Jazz star player at the time is also the all-time leading scorer in Men’s Division I College Basketball. Who was that player?

 2) One of the commercials Lewis Scott performed in was for Oscar Mayer. You know the famous jingle right. My [BLANK] has a first name, it’s O-S-C-A-R. What fills in the blank?

3) At the end of the film they kidnap Deion Sanders, who would have been playing for the Dallas Cowboys at the time (and maybe still the Reds). What college did Deion Sanders go to?

4) Bill Murray claims this film is why he doesn’t accept roles from Judd Apatow. Bill Murray has a possibly apocryphal system whereby he has an answering machine he checks infrequently which is the only way roles can be offered to him. He did accept the role of Garfield though. Who was\ the director of that film?

5) A lot of the people involved were also involved with Saturday Night Live over the years. An SNL movie through and through is Dirty Work starring Norm Macdonald. That film though is (kind of) based on a short story, Vengeance is Mine, Inc, by what author?

Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: You might need a hint for this one: it shares its name with a 2008 film:

What is the film?

Answers

The Mod Squad Quiz

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

Corky Romano Quiz

Oh snap. Can one learn anything from Corky Romano? I can’t imagine it, but I gotta try. Let’s go!

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) In the film Pops Romano is going to be indicted for racketeering. Racketeering means “any criminal scheme or operation with ongoing or recurring profit,” as defined in the 1970 U.S. RICO Act. What does RICO stand for?

2) Corky drives a Miata (now sold as the MX-5) which is constructed by what Japanese car manufacturer?

3) Allegedly the name Corky comes from the nickname for the real-life New Jersey crime boss Gaetano Vastola. Vastola is somewhat notable for being one of the five murder which major mafia boss was charged with under the U.S. RICO Act?

4) C’mon now, you know you are getting a music question. What song is Corky famously singing waaaaay out of tune in the trailer and beginning of the film, and who performed it?

5) The movie Chris Kattan performed in right before this was a 2001 comedy starring Brendan Fraser in which Kattan plays a reanimated organ donor. What is this (very weird) film? 

Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: October 26th, 1999 at 9:30PM a Chris Kattan classic was on tv.

What is that film?

Answers

Saw III Quiz

What’s that? We back jack? That’s right, I have to make a second Saw themed quiz because we also watched Saw III. Let’s go!

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) In the third Saw film there is a whole big thing about how Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) is breaking his own rules since the traps were being set up without a way to survive. Detectives would say this broke his M.O. What does M.O. stand for?

2) The entirety of the film takes place in a meatpacking plant. Now … there is a famous book that exposed the horrid working conditions in Chicago’s meatpacking industry. What is that book, and who wrote it?

3) Saw III apparently use a bathroom set from Scary Movie 4 (a franchise directly spoofing Saw at the time). Simon Rex played George Logan in that series. Who played his brother Tom (mostly in Scary Movie 3, while ripping off Signs)?

4) Apparently, as part of the promotion for Saw III, there was a big blood drive. Blood types (ABO) were discovered by Karl Landsteiner for which he won the 1930 Nobel Prize in Medicine. In addition to the ABO designation there is also +/- which is referred to as what officially?

5) The soundtrack for Saw III features songs by many heavy metal bands including Slayer. Slayer is consider one of the four major bands of “thresh metal”. Name any of the other three.

Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: Crazily the third Chainsaw Massacre film played at 10PM on TMC on April 14, 1992. The lead in to that was this BMT classic:

What is this movie?

Answers

Saw II Quiz

Saw II is mostly plotless, so what fun facts could we possibly glean from it for a quiz? I guess we’ll see.

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) Apparently a scene of an elevator was a reused scene from a 2000 sci-fi film.  It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 2001, losing to Gladiator. And while not a direct adaptation, it is easy to mistake the film as being part of a famous Universal series. What was this film?

2) The soundtrack features a song by Queens of the Stone Age. Their second major Billboard hit was Little Sister heavily featuring the cowbell. So much so that Will Ferrell performed with them when they played the song on SNL. In the More Cowbell sketch featuring Christopher Walken as fictional music producer Bruce Dickinson, what was the band and song being played?

3) Tobin Bell has a crazy career with his breakout role coming in his 60s as Jigsaw in the Saw Franchise. One of his minor roles was as Ted Kaczynski in the TV Movie Unabomber: The True Story. The Unabomber famously took part in Henry Murray’s unethical human psychology experiments as a 17-year-old, and some speculate he further participated in what theoretical CIA led brainwashing program?

4) Billy the Puppet is the little doll that really really wants to play a game. He is considered to be a ventriloquist dummy. What comedian had luminary dummies named “Peanut”, “Walter”, “Jose Jalapeño”, “Bubba J”, and “Achmed the Dead Terrorist”?

5) Saw II features Donnie Wahlberg who, of course, was (is?) a main member of New Kids on the Block. NKotB had three number 1 hit singles (that’s three more than I expected), the last of which shares a name with a TGIF show. What is that hit single?

Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: We talking about Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part II? Oh, we aren’t. Anyways, this was another after midnight treat on April 24, 1991 when TCMPII played at 2:45AM on Showtime:

What is that movie? 

Answers

The Watchers Quiz

Second try at the new Quiz format. Let’s see what we can learn from watching the watchers!

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) In The Watchers, Mina is put in charge of delivering a Queen of Bavaria Parrot through a spooky forest to a zoo near Belfast. What was the capital city of the old Kingdom of Bavaria?

2) M. Night Shyamalan is obviously most notable for his career as a writer-director of such films as The Sixth Sense. But he did have a more normal screenwriting career prior to that hit. In addition to uncredited rewrites on She’s All That, he also wrote the screenplay for a part-animated part-live action 1999 film featuring the voice of Michael J. Fox. What film?

3) Young Hearts Run Free, a sweet 1976 disco single by Candi Stanton is featured in the film. It was also covered by Kym Mazelle for what 1996 film which, while the storyline is classic, featured anachronistic songs like this one?

4) Dakota Fanning was a real deal child actor back in the day. Man on Fire, I Am Sam, The Cat in the Hat, War of the Worlds. The list goes on. In the late 2010s her career slowed somewhat, but she’s back on the scene with an Emmy nomination for Supporting Actress in a Limited Series for what adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel?

5) The bad guys in the film are supposed to be fairies (at least in some ways). One of the more famous instances of fairy lore entering real life was the Cottingley Fairies. A famous author was one of the leading supporters of the hoax, notable mainly for a series of works, in addition to some science fiction (like The Lost World). Who was this author?

Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: We talking about Watchers (1988)? … We aren’t. Well that played on May 17, 1990 at 9:30 on Cinemax. And it was up against this film on HBO?

What is the film?

Answers

Gothika Quiz

I’m going to try something a little different. This is a true blue trivia quiz, but with facts you might want to learn after watching Gothika. Some will be about film, but some will be about just general stuff I gleaned from perusing the Gothika wiki page for a big. Let’s go!

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) On the soundtrack of Gothika the song Behind Blue Eyes is, in actuality, the cover version recorded by Limp Bizkit. Yeah … it hit number 11 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Gross. Who performed the original version of Behind Blue Eyes?

2) Produced by Dark Castle Entertainment (a division of Warner Bros.), Gothika was the fourth feature film produced by the new studio (and only the second co-produced with Sony). The other co-production was also a BMT film starring Tony Shalhoub, Shannon Elizabeth, and Matthew Lillard with a similar gothic vibe. What was that BMT classic?

3) Gothika is somewhat notable as the first major feature film Robert Downey Jr. booked after his second stint in court ordered rehab. So bad was his reputation productions would withhold part of his salary (40% in the case of Gothika) as part of the bonding. RDJ’s first Oscar nomination was for Chaplin, and he recently won for Oppenheimer, but he was also nominated as a Supporting Actor for a 2008 film. Which film?

4) In Gothika, the eeeeeeeeevil murderer that Miranda glimpses in a dream has a tattoo of the Anima Sola on his chest, meaning Lonely Soul. The image depicts a soul in what location? Outlined at the Second Council of Lyon and the Council of Trent, its existence is one of the major disputes between different sects of Christianity.

5) Now you might think Gothika is a sequel to the film Gothic from 1986. It is not. That film is about a visit by Mary Shelley to an estate on Lake Geneva where two major monsters of both literature and film, Frankenstein’s monster and the vampire, were created. Who’s estate was that?

Bonus NYTimes Listing Question: Gothic (1986) played a bunch on TV in the 90s. On October 22, 1993 it didn’t quite go head to head with primetime Showtime, but it did overlap with this listing:

What is this movie?

Answers

Raise Your Voice Quiz

Oh man, so get this. I was at singing camp. Again. Everyone loves my voice. But I was pretty saddo about my dead brother, so I did pack my bags (again) and leave the school (again). Or I planned to, but my suitcase fell off my dresser and bopped me right on the head! So I can’t remember a thing. Do you remember what happened in Raise Your Voice?

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) There is a pretty important event right at the beginning of the film. That’s right, an awesome Three Days Grace concert! Oh … yeah something else did happen. How did HIlary Duff’s brother die?

2) Well, also Duff’s Bad Dad Business Dad is a small business owner and he doesn’t want Duff to go to singing camp. Where does Business Dad want Duff to work instead?

3) Welp, screw you Bad Dad Business Dad, I’m going to singing camp anyways. Where does Bad Dad Business Dad think she’s going?

4) At camp Duff quickly makes four awesome friends. What instruments do all the friends (Jay, Kiwi, Denise, and Sloane) play?

5) In the end, who wins the big scholarship at the end?

Bonus Question: Hmmm, an unlisted number on the cell. Who is it?

Answers

Cursed Quiz

Oh man, so get this. I was driving hope, where I got into a tiny accident where I rolled over sixteen times into a ravine. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was I was then attacked by a werewolf and now I’m losing time every night! And one of those nights I know I watched Cursed. Do you remember what happened in Cursed?

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) Oh shit. Tinsel looks dope. I almost want to go to Tinsel more than I want to go to Club Aqua. What is the theme of Tinsel?

2) And Ellie (Christina Ricci) has a dope job. Where does she work?

3) Welp, everyone is a werewolf. Not they have to find the werewolf that werewolfed them in the first place. But first, can you tell me how many werewolves are featured in the film?

4) They think they know who werewolfed them, but first Ricci has to do a pre-interview for a celebrity for her job. Who is that celebrity?

5) So who actually werewolfed them?

Bonus Question: Hmmmm an unlisted number on the cell. Who is it?

Answers

Collateral Damage Quiz

Oh man, so get this. I was meeting my wife and child in a cafe when BOOM there was a totally big explosion. Lucky for me my wife hates my guts, so they blew me off anyways and is totally safe and sound. Unlucky for me, the blast gave me an absolutely massive concussion, and I can’t remember a thing. Do you remember what happened in Collateral Damage?

Pop Quiz Hot Shot!

1) When Gordon Brewer goes to see his wife and child at a restaurant he meets El Lobo face-to-face. What disguise is El Lobo wearing?

2) Well, now Gordon really needs to get at El Lobo, who has killed his fambly. Where is El Lobo, what country?

3) Once Gordon gets there though he is immediately captured. He talked with Sean Armstrong, a Canadian national who works among the rebels. Gordon convinces Sean to give him a work permit so he can go behind enemy lines acting as a what?

4) Once back in the States Gordon is helping the CIA and FBI to foil the next major attack by El Lobo. Where do they think he is going to attack, and where is he going to attack really?

5) What form does the bomb intended to blow up the target take?

Bonus Question: Just as I’m leaving the showing of Collateral Damage I get a frantic phone call from my agent. What does he want?

Answers