BQT recap: Change is good

Plus, Above, you see the image from question No. 1 in tonight's video round, "Celebrities vs. Monsters." Funny, right? Worth it, even though it's pretty easy to name both the celeb and the monster (or rather, the movie that the monster is from). We have fun at the Big Quiz Thing. Plus, tonight's audio round, "This Song Title Is Unnecessarily Long, Wouldn’t You Say So?," was a challenge for the mind and the carpal tunnel nerve.

These were highlights of an excellent quiz (despite complaints of Macedonia being a boring question topic, or Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand not being up for "reelection" next fall). We witnessed the birth of the Not-So-Secret Secret Clue on this question: "What is probably the most populous bird on earth?" If you read this blog, or followed us on Twitter, or were a fan on Facebook, you knew that there's no way "pigeon" is correct.

Now, as for the big announcement at the end of the show: Next BQT, December 7, we're trying something new. To shake things up at the very end, we're instituting an automatic runoff round at the end of the quiz, i.e., we won't even read the scores of the top three teams, instead inviting them to each nominate one member to come up onstage for a runoff round: First to two correct answers wins. Will this thwart the perpetual domination of the Fantastic Fournicators? Let's see, shall we.

Now tonight's standings. The Fournicators, of course, did not win tonight—they were at half strength, after all, since half their team was off with DJ GB at the Pixies concert. Really? Kim Deal is more entertaining than Quizmaster Noah? Doubtful.

1. Cash Cab for Cutie
2. The Fantastic Two-nicators (as they called themselves)
3. Tattoos for the Elderly
4. Gerard Depardouche
5. Fat Kids Call the Butterball Hotline to Talk Dirty

And we're back on 12/7, then 12/21, then that's it for '09. We begin 2010 on January 4, with our return to (Le) Poisson Rouge. Stay classy.

The first NOT-SO-SECRET SECRET CLUE

All right, here it is, the very first Not-So-Secret Secret Clue, for tonight's quiz—your unfair advantage as thanks for reading this blog (or following us on Twitter or Facebook). At some point during this evening's game—7:30pm at Crash Mansion—I will tell you when to utilize it…

There's a good chance you've eaten it in the past few days.

That's it. Remember it, use it, cherish it. See you tonight.

Introducing…the Not-So-Secret Secret Clue

Yes, Ringo was the real star…

At this Monday's show, we're trying something new. Actually, we're trying it before the show. Starting this week, one question during the competition will be the subject of the Not-So-Secret Secret Clue: The day of the game, I will fire up the Commodore 64 and grace my followers with a "secret" clue (because really, how secret can it be?), a tidbit of info that, when utilized, will nearly guarantee a correct answer for one particular question. During the quiz, I will announce the NSSSC question and tell players it's time to make use of it.

Three places to find this vital information: Right here on the blog, on Facebook (become a fan), and on the Twitter feed (follow us). Fight for us, lie for us, walk the wire for us, die for us.

First clue is this Monday, the next quiz is Monday night. I am tingling with something, and I certainly hope it's excitement.

Death of a quizmaster

I was a little blindsided by the news, just the other day, that Ken Ober has died. Not that I particularly cared about the well-being of Ken Ober—I'm often perturbed about how much people mourn for celebrities with whom they have no personal connection. Rather, what blasted me with a tsunami of nostalgia was the simple memory of Ober's greatest claim to fame, the late-'80s MTV game show Remote Control. Watch below:



Wow. I hadn't seen any of that show in probably 20 years, but nearly every element of it is intensely familiar—that opening sequence occupied a lot of space in my junior-high mind, somewhere in between wondering what breasts felt like and fantasizing I was Batman. Truly, when it premiered in 1987, Remote Control was the clearest reflection of my personal sensibility that I had ever seen on television. It still might be (although for a period in the '90s David Letterman seemed to be running a pipeline from out of my cerebral cortex). I loved games, I loved TV, I loved hanging out in the basement with my idiot friends: I longed to blend all of pop culture into a colorful goulash, and then serve that goulash to a large and appreciative audience.

This seemed to be what Ken Ober was doing, and it looked like so much damn fun. And here I am today, trying to do just that each and every fortnight with The Big Quiz Thing. And, of course, as we advance the concept of an actual BQT TV show, Remote Control becomes a useful reference point: We find ourselves comparing our concept to Win Ben Stein's Money, Jeopardy!, even The Price Is Right. But watching this clip, I am kind of amazed how eerily close it looks to what I imagine the Big Quiz Thing will be on the air. Yes, our format is significantly different, and there will be no Ray-Bans and legwarmers, but the vibe is remarkably close, the offhand atmosphere really familiar. We're looking to create the new geek-friendly game-show party, and Remote Control was unquestionably a pioneer in that field.

So maybe it's very appropriate for me to have an emotional reaction to Ken Ober's death, if he was indeed the 1980s analogue to myself. (And yes, that would make EDP a nouveau Colin Quinn.) Quizmasters are mortal too.

The Third Annual Menorah Horah

Your quizmaster is back on the variety-show tip, in December. Check this out…

Ah, yes, the Schlep Sisters. On the right that's burlesque performer Minnie Tonka, co-originator of the long-ago Big Jewish Quiz Thing, and one of my coperformers at last spring's "You Bet Your Ass: The Rock & Roll Variety Quiz Show." She's asked me to take part in this season's Menorah Horah, as part of an impressive roster. (I meant to go to see Kiki & Herb on Broadway, I swear.)
What will I be doing? A couple of brief guest spots, featuring some Hebraic trivia with audience volunteers. On Friday, December 11, we'll be taking it up to the Two Boots in Bridgeport, one of Connecticut's most trivially intriguing cities: Not only is it CT's most populous town, P.T. Barnum was once the mayor, and the Frisbee was invented there. Then on the 12th, it's to Brooklyn for a gig at Southpaw on Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.

And hey, a promo video!

EDP wins!

As you know, last night, the Big Quiz Thing's resident sidekick, EDP, along with his family (specifically his mother and brother), competed on Food Network Challenge—four families, each cooking their own traditional Thanksgiving feast. Since his parents hail from Egypt (what—you didn't know he's African-American?), the EDP clan made a Middle Eastern–style meal, not your typical Thanksgiving dinner (though turkey was included, which led to the most nail-biting moment, as their deep-fried bird took on an especially blackened tinge). Professional chefs judged the various meals, and awarded 10 grand to the family behind the tastiest.

Of course, EDP won (he bought a new computer), and got to live the childhood fantasy of receiving an oversize novelty check. But more importantly, Eric himself was far and away the most magnetic character on the episode, and accordingly got the most talking-head screen time. He got off some good lines, talked smack about another family's vegetarian Thanksgiving meal, even snarked the judges. His mom and brother were plenty likable too, and now the campaign is on for a spin-off (no joke).

Watch the clever video above, and tune in Wednesday at 8pm for a rebroadcast (schedule here). Once he gets his foot in the door there, EDP and I get sell the Food Network on our pitch for an all-culinary-trivia BQT TV adaptation.

NT's greatest hits vol. 22 (of 34)

Onward!

"Emily Kane" by Art Brut

Last night, I accompanied a few members of BQT team Jefferson Davis Starship to Brooklyn Bowl, an impressive new hybrid bowling alley–music venue–restaurant in Williamsburg (and future site of a Big Quiz Thing event? Worth considering and perhaps pursuing). We were there for the gourmet French-bread pizza, of course, but mainly to see Art Brut in concert. If you're not familiar, Art Brut is a fun and unique British band; they perform lighthearted but guitar-heaving songs about adolescent topics like comic books, hooking up with girls, and—in a brilliant example of self-reference—forming a rock band. Their shtick can get old seven or eight tracks into an album, but they hit a rich vein of old-fashioned rock & roll fun far more often than most modern acts.

I first heard "Emily Kane" in 2005; it was the third single from the band's appropriately titled debut album, Bang Bang Rock & Roll. Frontman Eddie Argos—it's not really accurate to call him a singer—rambles through the story of his teenage girlfriend, named, of course, Emily Kane, with wide-eyed longing ("If memory serves, we're still on a break") and hilarious desperation ("I've not seen her in ten years…nine months…three weeks…four days…six hours…13 minutes…five seconds"). Art Brut's trademark meta-playfulness is in effect: "I hope this song finds you fame/I want schoolkids on buses singing your name."

Argo's offhanded, speak-sing style recalls the Fall, but with less arty pretension, and the whimsical nature of the whole thing puts me in mind of Jonathan Richman, but with a good deal more rock muscle; the band can really play, and they clearly have so much fun with it. But what really gets me about the song is its specificity, and believability: You have absolutely no doubt that there actually was a teenage girlfriend named Emily Kane, that he still pines after her a decade later, and that he fantasizes about how she'll react to the song. (How did she? I can't find an account online; every time I see the band in concert, some version of the tale is told, but Argos's thick accent and the band's characteristic noise haven't let me hear it very well.)

If you like this, take a listen to Art Brut's most recent album, Art Brut vs. Satan (another very indicative title), produced by the great Frank Black. Music is fun, my friends

More of NT's greatest hits: "Born to Run," "Shake Some Action," "Chips Ahoy!," "Radio, Radio," "Could You Be the One?," "Summer in the City," "Teenage Kicks," "Strawberry Fields Forever, " "Tunnel of Love," "I Get Around," "Local Girls," "Don't Let's Start," "Suffragette City," "See-Saw," "My Name Is Jonas," "Mr. Tambourine Man," "Reelin' in the Years," "Objects of My Affection" and "Crimson and Clover," "OK Apartment" and "Just What I Needed"