Quiz recap: Rafalca at the bachelor/ette party

That, my friends, is Rafalca. The horse owned by First Lady hopeful Ann Romney, an Olympic competitor, and subject of a $77,000 tax write-off. Hooray for America. It was also part of a question in Round 1 of last night's superlative Boston Big Quiz Thing—"In current events, who is Rafalca?"—and a surprisingly challenging question at that (guess y'all don't read as many avowedly liberal political websites as I do). Interesting how many teams guessed it was a character from The Lion King.

But it nonetheless provided fodder for many a Smart-Ass Point, in an evening crawling with great SAPs. Metallica's first album was originally going to be titled Rafalca Up Your Ass. The hot dog was so named when a cartoonist found himself unable to spell the word "Rafalca." And so on.

A full house of 27 teams at Oberon made for a killer show indeed. It was our first event since the official exit of B-Cutie Katie, now ensconced in Chicago, but B-Cutie Jessica made for a fine substitute (trivia factoid: she's my sister). Also, in attendance were not just a bachelor party, and not just a bachelorette party, but the bachelor and bachelorette parties from the same wedding. So we had a little mini competition between the forces of masculine bonding and the forces of feminine bonding. The bachelors scored better in the Smart-Ass Point department, but when the dust settled, it was the bachelorettes who'd come out on top, by a full 4.5 points. So much for stereotypes. (Good luck, Katie and Jeremy!)

 

The view from the stage last night

A few commented that it was an especially challenging evening—hey, them's the breaks—though you folks did extraordinarily well on the video puzzle, "Rebus-O-Rama" (ten perfect scores), and nearly as well on the super-fun audio round, "10 Syllables"…though I was stunned to find that absolutely no one could recall the full official title of this disco classic…

…even the staff team was stumped, despite the fact that the tune plays a featured role in the rollerskating-musical-theatrical-Shakespearean spectacular, The Donkey Show, every Saturday night at Oberon.

Speaking of which, we had what was easily our best prize-sponsor lineup in Boston BQT history last night: Not just The Donkey Show, but our frequent partners at Harvard Square's exotilicious Ohm  Thai restaurant; new friends from the awe-inspiring Harvard Museum of Natural History; the indomitable film edifice the Brattle Theatre; and the Modern Homebrew Emporium (in a gratifying alignment of the stars, a member of the fourth-place team, which won the MHE gift certificate, is indeed a home-brewer). Lest we forget, the BQT's extra-special sponsor throughout the month of July, the dynamic new social trivia app, Trivi.al (available now at the iTunes store). For those moments when the wait till the next BQT is just too much to bear.

And the finale—hoo boy, it was a good one. There was a quick runoff for third place between name-changing regulars Independent Olympic Mathletes and newcomers Bruce Jenner's Original Face, which the Olympic star's birth visage won thanks to familiarity with the geography of the British golf Open. Then BJOF was joined by two of our perennial powerhouses, the Monstrous Humanoids and You Can't Fire Me—I Quip! And miracle of miracles, we had a new winner, when the punim of the Kardashians' not-real dad managed to tell us all what Amazon.com's best-selling item is. Winners at their first appearance—fantastic.

The standings:
1. Bruce Jenner's Original Face
2. You Can't Fire Me—I Quip!
3. The Monstrous Humanoids
4. Independent Olympic Mathletes
5. Piste Off
6. Sherman Hemsley Kicks Ass!!!
7. Stereoface
8. The Little Pig from the Ocean
9. Yokel Ono
10. Sharon Cat Rescue

NEXT: We're back in four weeks, August 27. In the meantime, tell your La-La-Land friends: The Bi Quiz Thing is now monthly in Los Angeles, on the third Sunday, at Busby's East. And plans are coming together: We're bringing our Tenth Anniversary Quiz Show Marathon, which rocked NYC to its cynical core in June, to Boston, most likely in early December. Stay tuned for all of the frankly unbelievable details.






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