Wednesday, September 26, 2012 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[alietr]

I knew David was toast when he dissed Johnny. That's gotta count more against your karma than dissing Alex.

[Paucle]

Bummer, Sheri. After ripping up DJ, I thought you were going to pull it out!

FJ had me briefly stumped until I turned it on its tail: I was first picturing the frog as a participant and that got me nowhere then I realized, no, it wasn't playing, it's probably the object. Who would do that, and fit the timeframe? Hunh hunh.. hunhhuhnh hunh.

[jeff6286]

Yes FisherCat, it was nice of them to notice my whole spiel the other day about how they rarely ask about recently built stadiums and arenas, because many of them have frequently-changing corporate sponsors. So what do we get tonight? An entire category about corporate-named arenas, including two that changed names in 2006. I would have been really mad at myself if I had been playing this game and a Daily Double was found late in the round in that category, because I never even considered the meaning of "In the Corporate Arena", figuring it was just going to be a general business/industry category, not literal corporate arenas. I didn't even make the connection until after the second or third clue.

According to the Archive, it was the first time that the Verizon Center, FedEx Forum, or Honda Center were ever mentioned on the show. The Honda Center's former name, the Arrowhead Pond, has 3 hits, one to name its home team, one to name its home state, and one to name the arena given the team. Verizon's former name, the MCI Center, has no hits either, while the Nationwide arena has been mentioned twice, including a 2005 clue nearly identical to tonight's, complete with "on your side" TOM. The United Center dates back to 1994, yet is only mentioned twice in the Archive, with neither clue asking players to name the arena.

Got the Oak Ridge clue from the Final J! in day two of the 1996 TofC finals.

Didn't everybody?

FJ had me briefly stumped until I turned it on its tail: I was first picturing the frog as a participant and that got me nowhere then I realized, no, it wasn't playing, it's probably the object. Who would do that, and fit the timeframe? Hunh hunh.. hunhhuhnh hunh.

But did you still have time after writing down the correct response to add the "Hunh-hunh"? I did, though I wasn't entirely sure on the spelling of that particular utterance.

It's hard to believe that they left the top two clues in the past participles category unrevealed. Based on the difficulty of the bottom three, why turn down free money? Though granted, each player would have only had a 1 in 3 chance at each of the clues.

[zakharov]

I am absolutely stunned that none of them got Beavis and Butthead. I figured at least one of them would pick up on the frog thing, but nope.

[econgator]

It's Butt-head, not Butthead.

[erak]

I should probably be pretty embarrassed that B&BH is going to be the FJ clue that breaks my season-long FJ drought-but I'll take it!

Right there with ya! I was surprised that it was a triple stumper, but then again, I've never heard of Potter's Field before!

[opusthepenguin]

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! Sheri!!!!! Why?!?!??!??!???! I was rooting for you. I loved your interview. I loved your playing style and your personality. I was cheering for you. Why?!!?!??!?!??!?!?!!?

[Woof]

I was pulling hard for you, Case, and thought you were going to get it when you made your run in DJ. Good competition, though, and an FJ that wasn't quite your time period cost you the win, it seemed. I really enjoyed watching you play and I thought you played a good game.

p.s. Got FJ pretty quickly despite never watching the show: '92 + 2 teenagers + animated TV = B + B-H

p.p.s. It'll probably come as no shock that I was muttering "True Daily Double" to myself on that Chemistry DD.

[MarkBarrett]

A lot of you are crediting the 1996 TOC for getting Oak Ridge. I'll go to TOCer John Beck in his debut for getting Manzanar. Before his games aired, using the handle watchandwait, he posted that he won five games. We waited for his/her games and tried to guess the identity. When John pulled out Manzanar and some other toughies it seemed very likely he was the guy.

The clue was: This internment camp for Japanese-Americans near Independence, California is now a national historic site

Alex seemed to like Sheri and she scored points with him for pulling out the Jane Eyre DD. Too bad she can't switch her DD wager with the one for FJ.

The FJ clue had me picturing a friendly game of baseball with a frog willingly participating. Tying it into teenagers gave me nothing. I was left brainstorming animated shows and getting nowhere with Ren & Stimpy, Animaniacs, Phineas & Ferb, and SpongeBob SquarePants. With time near the end I went back to teenagers. An animated show with teenagers? Beavis and Butt-head? Teens + year seemed fine and I wrote it.

Time was up and finally had a different interpretation of playing baseball with a frog. It's at the 1:00 mark. Tastes may vary but I found nothing funny. Animal lovers you've been warned. It was a lucky save for me on the clue since I've probably seen less than two hours total of the show over the 20 years.

[Bunkie]

Ah, Sherri, too bad. It was looking good there for you right up until the end. Nicely done!

As for "being in the right generation", I'm old enough to remember the British marionette shows from ITV (Fireball XL-5, Supercar!, Captain Scarlet, etc.) shown in the US back in the early '60s and I knew it was Beavis and Butt Head (although Ren & Stimpy did cross my mind). But then again, I surprised Erin by knowing the Fairly Oddparents. The secret is having been a parent in the age of Nickelodeon. I wanted to know what my kids were watching and, to be completely honest, I thought a lot of it was really well done.

And there we are, all of my fellow first-weekers have all had their moments. We did have a great time, didn't we?

[TenPoundHammer]

I actually read Farewell to Manzanar in the 3rd grade and hated it. Because it didn't involve eating fried worms, a 30-story school with a quirky teacher, or a boy who sets out to sea in a giant peach.

We also read Number the Stars and The Giver, neither of which I remember fondly either.

[Woof]

Manzanar was an easy get for me since a close family friend, a Prof at SF State, had been interred there in his rebellious youth. There is also a fairly iconic Ansel Adams photo of Manzanar, but maybe that's not as memorable for people who don't know the history.

[Onairb]

Granted, this was wheelhouse for me, so it was insta-get, but c'mon...two relatively young males and neither of them can come up with Beavis & Butthead on that?

The 'Wonder Twins' guess was the "WTFiest" of all "WTFs". Seriously, someone in their age group would have to be Amish and not yet having their Rumspringa not to figure out that clue.

[cinemaniax7]

In my younger days, I was pop culture dynamo when it came to trivia. And yes, I did manage to get Beavis and Butt-head in FJ this evening. But it was just about that time, in 1992, that my taste for pop culture began to seriously wane. And the B&B show was just one of the reasons why. Between Oprah, Ren & Stimpy, Boyz II Men, Soon-Yi, Sinead O'Connor, Joey Buttafuocco, "Baby Got Back," and Right Said Fred, I knew it wouldn't be long before I simply couldn't bear to look anymore. So I've kept up with certain groundbreaking TV shows, but I've never forced myself to sit through an episode of Survivor, Jersey Shore, The Bachelorette, Big Brother, The Kardashians, or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. I actually went four months without hearing "Call Me Maybe." I didn't make it past the first 50 pages of the first Twilight novel (though I did enjoy the Hunger Games trilogy). So pop culture is no longer among my stronger categories. So how do I know all these names?

A subscription to Entertainment Weekly and a whole lot of head-shaking.

[dhkendall]

WIll there be a clue about Andy Williams today?

You Know You're A Boardie When ...

You first learn of Andy Williams' death based on this "post".

So a friend actually spoiled the FJ for me, saying that it was about Beavis and Butthead and that he couldn't believe that everyone missed it (but, then, pretty much all the FJs this year have been TSs, it seems).

I was fairly unhappy, since I figured that I would get a Beavis question but didn't like being spoiled. I say to him, "What was the question about? Did it mention their first episode, 'Frog Baseball'"?

So I am counting that as a correct.

Anyone can come up with the answer given the question. It takes a true genius to come up with the question based on the answer. Well done.

I thought a lot of it was really well done.

Surely you don't mean B&BH? The writing seems to capture the essence of teenage boys very well, and the voicework is commendable, but the art and animation has always turned me off completely. (KotH is a vast improvement).

Butthead & Beavis never occurred to me for Final. Even if someone told me that was the Final Jeopardy answer, I could have sworn they predated the Simpsons (debut late 1989), so I never once considered them.

Precalled "Isle of Man" in the ""Man"ly Places" category. Was somewhat pleasantly surprised to see the first clue in the category, although none of those items listed I'd heard of at all. Guess I travel in the wrong circles.

[TenPoundHammer]

Cinemaniax — maybe I'm onto something by locking myself out of most pop culture.

Last year, I heard a DJ say that Snooki topped a poll for most overexposed celeb, and my response was "who?" I had no idea that "Call Me Maybe" existed until Todd in the Shadows reviewed it, nor of Honey Boo Boo until Linkara name-dropped it. I haven't watched Survivor since the first episode of Borneo back in 2000, nor Spongebob since the first episode back in 1999. Heck, the last Simpsons episode I saw was in a waiting room 4 years ago after I slashed my thumb on a piggy bank that randomly decided to shatter when I put the stopper back in ("Homer to the Max" — I didn't laugh or even crack a smile once). I wasn't aware that Hunger Games was originally a book series. The only Twilight I know is a unicorn. I think I've only played maybe two or three video games in my life that weren't Mario or Pokémon titles.

[jeff6286]

In my younger days, I was pop culture dynamo when it came to trivia. And yes, I did manage to get Beavis and Butt-head in FJ this evening. But it was just about that time, in 1992, that my taste for pop culture began to seriously wane. And the B&B show was just one of the reasons why. Between Oprah, Ren & Stimpy, Boyz II Men, Soon-Yi, Sinead O'Connor, Joey Buttafuocco, "Baby Got Back," and Right Said Fred, I knew it wouldn't be long before I simply couldn't bear to look anymore. So I've kept up with certain groundbreaking TV shows, but I've never forced myself to sit through an episode of Survivor, Jersey Shore, The Bachelorette, Big Brother, The Kardashians, or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. I actually went four months without hearing "Call Me Maybe." I didn't make it past the first 50 pages of the first Twilight novel (though I did enjoy the Hunger Games trilogy). So pop culture is no longer among my stronger categories. So how do I know all these names?

A subscription to Entertainment Weekly and a whole lot of head-shaking.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's wrong with Boyz II Men?

[seaborgium]

I got spoiled on FJ. I was reading Ken Jennings's Twitter this afternoon, saw he had responded to somebody, clicked "view conversation" to put what he said in context, and saw he was responding to someone asking, "Did you get tonight's Final Jeopardy about Beavis and Butt-head?" (Ken has since deleted his response, and I can't find the questioning post.) But I cannot see myself getting this one wrong.

Austin Powers's post about precalling the clue upon spoilage reminds me of the time I was spoiled on "whipping boy" being the correct FJ response, and I was able to come up with the word "proxy" as a potential element in the clue's wording. (Note: My fourth-grade class read The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman. I started fourth grade in September 1992, the same month "Beavis and Butt-head" debuted.)

I would have gotten Manzanar if there had been an "apple orchard" TOM.

[erak]

In my younger days, I was pop culture dynamo when it came to trivia. And yes, I did manage to get Beavis and Butt-head in FJ this evening. But it was just about that time, in 1992, that my taste for pop culture began to seriously wane. And the B&B show was just one of the reasons why. Between Oprah, Ren & Stimpy, Boyz II Men, Soon-Yi, Sinead O'Connor, Joey Buttafuocco, "Baby Got Back," and Right Said Fred, I knew it wouldn't be long before I simply couldn't bear to look anymore. So I've kept up with certain groundbreaking TV shows, but I've never forced myself to sit through an episode of Survivor, Jersey Shore, The Bachelorette, Big Brother, The Kardashians, or Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. I actually went four months without hearing "Call Me Maybe." I didn't make it past the first 50 pages of the first Twilight novel (though I did enjoy the Hunger Games trilogy). So pop culture is no longer among my stronger categories. So how do I know all these names?

A subscription to Entertainment Weekly and a whole lot of head-shaking.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's wrong with Boyz II Men?

Or Ren & Stimpy?!

[earendel]

Apparently I'm the only one who had no clue regarding FJ!. Sorry, case, that you couldn't pull out a victory but it's nice that the string of boardies on the show continues.