Recap: How did I miss that?

So Strippers for Stephen Hawking was unable to successfully defend their title at this evening's Big Quiz Thing at (Le) Poisson Rouge, but Greg of SFSH pointed out something amazing to me…

I was very proud this weekend when I uncovered the elusive trivia nexus of the two big celebrities to pass on these past few days, Gary Coleman and Dennis Hopper (and I agree with one team's name: "Brittany Murphy's Husband Doesn't Count"). I spent a couple of hours scouring their respective IMDb entries, and I finally came up with this question…

What’s the common description: An actress who worked closely with Gary Coleman, and the nickname of a character in a famous 1955 movie that included Dennis Hopper?

A whole bunch of you knew the correct answer. But Greg told me that in fact, Coleman and Hopper did once appear in a movie together (you haven't seen it). Incredible—I always forget about IMDb's "credited alongside another name" function.

That was the big news at tonight's BQT, from my perspective, but it was fun all around back at (Le) Poisson Rouge. "Sayings of the Silver Screen" was challenging, but fun—Cher smacking Nicolas Cage in the face is always good for a laugh. And yes, the actual Groucho Marx quote is, "One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know." (Though Groucho himself later mangled the quote in repetition.)

And the best Smart-Ass Point of the night was, justifiably, given to the team that crapped out on the audio round, failing to ID John Lennon but saying it was a "talentless fuck." Ah, yes: Stand by your unpopular opinion.

Finally, the Three-Way Finale pitted Incontinental Congress (under the guise of Lincoln Incontinental), against Gerard Depardouche, against seminewcomers the Glassholes. None of the gentlemen knew what Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is, nor the link between a sitcom set in the Chicago ghetto and NYC City Hall in the '20s and '30s. But "Buck" of the Douche claimed victory with a good guess on "In 2009, the top five names for American female babies all ended with what letter?," and then confidently ringing in on "In the 1970s and 1980s, four Super Bowl halftime shows featured appearances by what performance organization?" And that's how it happens.

My camera ran out of juice; this is the iPhone at its least worst

The standings…

1. Gerard Depardouche: First No. 1 placement of 2010.
2. Lincoln Incontinental/The Glassholes
4. Jefferson Davis Starship: Farewell to Mike, moving on to the great trivia city of Cleveland
5. Strippers for Stephen Hawking: No two-peating, but they did know the real Coleman-Hopper connection.

NEXT: We're back at Crash Mansion in two weeks, June 14, with "The World's Ugliest Musicians." Then two weeks later, June 28, we return to Poisson Rouge; keep up with the calendar here. In the meantime, visit Yelp and tell the world how much you loved the BQT tonight. Karma is what makes the world go round, you know.

Gary Coleman, 1968–2010

No, I am not a big fan of Gary Coleman—really, who is? Then again, perhaps I was back in the day, when Diff'rent Strokes was probably my favorite show on TV. But Coleman (not to be confused with former Vice President Bob Russell) was a trivially fascinating character, so I do a feel a tremor of…something, upon hearing about his death today at age 42.

Memories/observations of the G.Col…

— As I say, Diff'rent Strokes was my No. 1 show for some time in my childhood, though I'm having trouble putting my finger on why. Sure, Dana Plato was my kind of girl as an eight-year-old, but it had to have been the antics of Arnold Jackson. Remember when he poured water on his bed to fake a bed-wetting problem and attract attention? Or when he outsmarted the jewel thief who broke into their apartment? Or when he flushed his goldfish down the toilet? (Or was that The Cosby Show?) How about when he traveled to Earth-2 to team up with Ricky on Silver Spoons? Doesn't sound like high comedy, I know, but I got to give it up: Coleman was not only cute, he was a pretty fair actor, for a little kid on a cheesy sitcom. Enjoy this "minisode" in which the little scamp's monkeyshines finally catch up with him, courtesy of his future-murder-suspect older brother:

— I think I fantasized of being buddies with Gary Coleman when I was young. I'd live in a big mansion, and he'd come hang out; we'd eat cereal and read comic books. I can clearly recall when I first heard about the concept of segregation, learning that once, in this country, white kids and black kids couldn't go to school together. My reaction: "You mean I couldn't have been in the same class as Gary Coleman?"

— Due to the success of Strokes, Coleman was cast in a series of TV movies that have some degree of cachet among weirdos like me. The Kid with the Broken Halo is the best remembered (it was spun off into the animated Gary Coleman Show), but I remember loving Jimmy the Kid, in which Coleman plays an unflappable genius who's held for ransom by a bunch of hapless crooks; they use a book called something like How to Commit a Kidnapping, and the twist (spoiler alert) is that Jimmy wrote the book himself and arranged the whole thing because he was bored. (Shit! I saw that movie once about 25 years ago and I wrote all that from memory!)

– In 2003, Coleman was one of the many, many lunatics who ran for governor of California in the state's recall election. Even though he'd already dropped out and endorsed the other Arnold, he came in eighth—just behind Larry Flynt, just ahead of the guy who attracted support only because his name looked like Schwarzenegger. He got 12,690 votes, which sounds like a whole hell of a lot to me, considering how many people like the BQT on Facebook.

– At the time of his death, he'd been living in Utah. Really?

—Finally, this might be the funniest, dumbest thing I've seen in a long time: