Recap: Murder, panhandles, and final rounds

As is too often the case, I underestimated you, my quizzlings. I had the moderate fear that at this edition of the BQT, the audio round topic, "Music Is Murder," would hit the red on the bad-taste meter. But you were all over it, like an ambitious prosecutor on a high-profile homicide case. Music clips from ten artists taken down by man's inhumanity to man, and we managed to limit it to three rap songs. DJ GB is very proud.

Plus, the "Movies of 2009: A Closer Look" (extreme close-ups of recent film posters) was more challenging than I anticipated; who knew the iridescent blue musculature of Dr. Manhattan would so quickly fade from popular memory? We also had fun with four-parters on panhandle cities and comic-strip coinages, and—courtesy the Not-So-Secret Secret Clue—some witty criticism of Gilligan's Island ("It’s difficult to believe it was written, directed and filmed by adults…"). Congratulations to Crash Mansion Staff Infection, the most important team out there, for scoring the lone Smart-Ass Point of the night on "1936 was the first year that Time magazine named a woman its Man of the Year. What American socialite received the honor?": J. Edgar Hoover.

But the big story was the first official Three-Way Finale: From now on, the top three finishing teams will each elect a member to come up on stage for a first-to-two, bell-driven final round. We had the expected (the Fantastic Fournicators), the hardy surprising (Strippers for Stephen Hawking), and the underdogs (Incontinental Congress). IC had played many a time, had never won, but they pulled it out in two straight questions, clinching it with "What last name was shared by major characters on the TV shows My So-Called Life and Entourage?" Bravo, sir. We're doing this again, for sure (and just so you know, I had good feedback from the Fournicators themselves, so peace reigns over all).

The standings:
1. Incontinental Congress (finally)
2. Fantastic Fournicators/Strippers for Stephen Hawking (tie)
4. Cash Cab for Cutie
5. Jefferson Davis Starship

Next up: Last of '09's quizzes, December 21, back at Crash. Then we begin '10 with our triumphant return to (Le) Poisson Rouge, January 4 at 7:30. Rock on with your bad self, or with a friend.