NYC quiz recap: Tuesday, Jan 8

Happy birthday, Elvis, BTW. A man who could handle a crowd.

So oh boy, wow, how about that: Our return to Manhattan, our debut at the fantabulous Cutting Room. We sold the place out: You did that, my friends. You. Thank you.

The Cutting Room opened just a few months ago (or reopened; it formerly existed in a different space, in a less swanky incarnation), but we'd been chatting with them for a while now, hoping to bring the BQT to its chichi environs. Goal attained, people. And it was a great show, starting with the supreme comedy pro, Christian Finnegan, who—as they say in the business—killed. His threat to thrash all of you in the quiz proper was, alas, not realized, though considering the size of the crowd, 15th place for him and one teammate was pretty impressive. (Also, they scored one of the night's best Smart-Ass Points: The kids' amusement park in Pennsylvania is Sanduskyland.)

Yeah, it was a big crowd: 39 teams, including a homecoming for a lot of hardcore regulars who couldn't follow us into Brooklyn for much of last year. But thankfully, we had the old band back together: Me, EDP, and the returning DJ GB (she lives only a couple blocks away, after all), so things seemed to go pretty smoothly. Thanks for the big laughs on this new edition of the Bipolar Movie Challenge, and sue me if I couldn't tell the difference between Short Circuit and Short Circuit 2 (now you know: David St. Hubbins was in part two only). But really, I'm not too torn up about that personal deficiency. Also, I was particularly proud of our audio round, "Maraca Musing (a.k.a. Anagram Music)." Yeah, it's fun to laugh at boy bands.

And out of those 39 teams, it had to come down to three: Our two most traditionally dominant squads—the Fantastic Fournicators and Incontinental Congress—and the up-and-comers, Debutante Ballbusters (f.k.a. Taking the Mulligan). Each player took a question, tying it up at one apiece, but then Fournicator Steve busted out his knowledge of which celebrity was arrested while watching something called Nurse Nancy.

Next time, we'll get a photo of the winning team on one of those sweet Cutting Room staircases, Brady-style.

The standings:
1. The Fantastic Fournicators
2. Incontinental Congress: Won tickets to see Spider-Man:Turn Off the Dark, along with passes to the Gotham Comedy Club and some other delightful swag.
3. Debutante Ballbusters: Took home passes to a special production by the Actors Fund, Gotham passes, and other goodies.
4. Strippers for Stephen Hawking/Sugah Titz (tie): They divvied up their own Gotham passes, plus tickets to see the Totally Tubular Time Machine.
6. Oh Noah You Didn't
7. Cash Cab for Cutie
8. Fat Kids Are on Both Sides of Your Family/Revenge of the Hulk Hogan's Heroes (tie)
10. Jews Against Jesus
11. Django Unchained Melody
12. Jefferson Davis Starship
13. Scurrilous Accusations
14. Mud Wrestlers for James Brady: They told me afterward that their name was a play on Strippers for Stephen Hawking. Ha.
15. Les Quizerables

Next: Good God, we got a lot in the works: This Sunday we return to 92YTribeca for the first ever Big Family Quiz Thing (tickets on sale!); February 5 we come back to the Cutting Room for the Big '80s Quiz Thing (with live band karaoke—details and tickets soon); later that month, it's 92YTribeca again for the Big Oscars Quiz Thing. And of course: The BQT on TV is happening! Register your team of three now and make history. Keep up on Facebook and Twitter, keep up…