Recap: And we learn something

Tonight's spectacular Big Quiz Thing, at the spectacularly meaty Hill Country Live, was especially educational. Here's what we learned…

—"Hey, It's That Guy! (The Character Actor Quiz)" showcased those movie and TV stars you know, but don't know. Well, maybe you do know them, because people scored exceptionally well on this round. Except No. 10: Jenny O'Hara (I described her last name as "You can't get much more stereotypically Irish," which led to some amusingly poorly tasteful guesses). Here's the lady on The $100,000 Pyramid; ignore Dick Clark's sexual harassment:

—I figured the audio round, "Say My (Last) Name," would be on the tricky side, and it was. You not only had to tell me that "Rolling in the Deep" was by Adele, you had to tell me what Adele's last name is. But you learned a lot, didn't you? Incidentally, Prince is not related to these guys:


—You cannot create a quiz show in late February 2012 without making multiple references to Jeremy Lin. "Linsanity x 2" skirted the issue, as we looked at phrases that include two instances of lin. Yes, this is a real thing:
—The animal kingdom is a brutal place. Well, you probably already knew that, but it's always humanizing to be reminded of that, as we were during "Animals at War!" Sorry I was a hard-ass about making you note that it was a honey badger, not a badger, tearing apart that cobra to the strains of the A-Team theme.

—Finally, I myself learned something: Our "earn extra points on Twitter" experiment took flight tonight, with four of the more dedicated squads cashing in their BQT Bucks. And what do you know, three of those four teams found themselves in the Three-Way Finale! And studying the numbers after the fact, I discovered that two of those teams wouldn't have made it otherwise! And two non-pepertual finale teams would have made it in there! Hm. I figured this project might not help mix things up in the finale (the goal is to bring more people to Twitter, and have fun), but I didn't think the results will be so stark. I will continue to consider.

So we learned a lot. Oh, and we had fun. All the way through the extended finale, in which Gerard Depardouche claimed victory for the first time in a while. A-plus, you excessively large team, you:

Yes, that's the wonderful Bex Schwartz at right, joyously returning to the sidekick role. And hey, thanks to Geek Treats, again, for providing the damn tastiest cookies this side of a LARPing convention.

The standings:
1. Gerard Depardouche
2. Cash Cab for Cutie
3. Strippers for Steven Hawking
4. Lin-continental Congress
5. Sugah Titz
6. (Still) Not the Vikings
7. Oh Noah You Didn't
8. Fantastic Fournicators
9. Hulk Hogansanity
10. Fat Kids Kidnapped the Cookie Lady

NEXT: We're back at Le Poisson Rouge in two weeks, March 12. Tell your friends: You know how much we like to pack that place.