Recap: The eternal struggle continues

I'd been hyping the Big Quiz Thing's run at Oberon in Boston—five shows in the past year—as a mighty battle between two indomitable squads of trivia titans: the "Quips" team (variously known as Quips Ahoy, Goodbye Mr. Quips and, last night, Quiptonite), and the INSERT CELEBRITY NAME HERE Kicks Ass (this episode, it was the recently deceased Anne Francis). But looking at the evidence, here's the actual tally from the five total BQT-Oberon events thus far:

Quips: 3
Kicks Ass: 1
A team called Up in Your Grill, which won the first time and I don't think has returned since, and made me feel like a sucker for designing the graphic below to hail their return (though please correct me if I'm wrong about any of this): 1

Interesting. Blank Kicks Ass has made it into the Three-Way Finale each time, sure, but Quips has stayed a step ahead of them the past three times consecutively. The battle rages on, though I'm just grateful that they both keep coming back again and again. Loyalty is the lifeblood of live trivia.

But whether you were fighting for the top slot or not, much fun was had by all last night, as the BQT stormed into 2011. In the video round, we visited the Museum of Painting Mash-Ups…
We had an audio-round session of Questions and Answers (don't want to give anything away, since I plan on unleashing this gimmick upon NYC next week). And lots of Smart-Ass Points: I was a particular fan of this answer to "Ten years ago, what DC Comics supervillain became President of the United States?": George W. Bush.

And then the Three-Way Finale, on the topic of People Who Died 2010: As expected, it was Quiptonite vs. Anne Francis Kicks Ass vs.…Pony No Bueno, a team consisting of staff from the recently minted Time Out Boston. (Intriguingly, we also had a squad last night representing The Weekly Dig, calling itself Captain Bart, and reaching a respectable sixth place. I guess The Improper Bostonian is too chicken.) It was a quick and dirty Three-Way, with Quiptonite taking it with this delightful query: "Complete this awesome joke from Police Squad, starring Leslie Nielsen. The villain says, 'Who are you and how did you get in here?' Lt. Frank Drebin says, “I’m the locksmith…'" Watch for yourself:

Your winners, again…
Thanks to the Oberon staff, playing as Show Us Your Tips, who didn't manage to repeat their impressive third-place showing from November, but they remain the most accomplished of the various staff teams from BQT venues. (I'm not sure this is something they should brag about, though, considering they're supposed to be, you know, working.) But thank you for tipping them kindly regardless. And another extra-special shout-out to our delicious sponsor B.Good, which I like to describe as McDonald's for the non-masochistic.
And thank you for being there. We're coming back ever so soon: Just four weeks from now, Monday, February 7. Tell your friends, tell your enemies: I know you want to keep the BQT as your own little secret and not have the theater crawling with people who might be smarter than you, but we want to do this in Boston more in 2011, and the more people who attend, the easier that'll be to arrange. Grazie.

Leslie Nielsen 1926–2010

I hadn't planned to write much here about Leslie Nielsen, who died on Sunday—if you'd like some especially valuable insight, read what the great Matt Zoller Seitz has written on Salon—but a distracting few minutes on YouTube has forced my hand.

I'm especially fond of Nielsen's work in the great, insane Police Squad.

This show lasted a mere six episodes back in 1982—it was famously canceled because, and I'm paraphrasing here, the viewer had to pay too much attention to get the jokes. Perhaps it was ahead of its time, cursed to exist in a pre-Simpsons, ante–30 Rock world. Regardless, it spawned the Naked Gun film series, whose humor is so mighty as to still make O.J. Simpson likable.

The clip below is worth watching all the way through: It's as clear an example as you can find of why Nielsen had such a wonderful comic touch. No one was better at playing silly straight (no pun intended here…)

Whoever uploaded this clip labeled it the "greatest line in the history of comedy," and they're not too far off:

From the same episode: This clip is such a purely hilarious example of the old comedy technique, "start with the believable, then build to the ridiculous":

There's a lot more for free online, but most of it in large chunks that you're best exploring on your own. Or better yet, pick up the DVD of the complete series, which includes commentary from Robert Wuhl, about how he can barely remember working on the show. I love the '80s.