[MitchO]

I like the silly team names. I now have a reason to root for "Team Motherboy" because their reference is from Arrested Development.

I missed one question the entire hour. I need to find me two partners~

 

[MitchO]

For those who missed it, there are 17 or 18 replays over the course of the week, including a 6 hour block of the week's episodes somewhere on the weekend.

 

[MitchO]

Well, to be fair, I didn't remember nine times either. I think the Death Star thing was more of a pressure issue than a knowledge one.

I have found that pop knowledge is as subjective a topic as you can find. What you assume to be common knowledge (or good pop knowledge) may not necessarily be the same to another person. For example, I always assumed that everyone could name the Beatles. I mean, I was born in 1970, my parents didn't even play music in my house growing up, but as far back as I can remember "JohnPaulGeorgeAndRingo" may as well be a word in the dictionary. Yet I find lots of people, people who of the appropriate age, people who are fans of music that directly owe lineage to the Beatles, people who are otherwise reasonably intelligent and seem to know basic world facts, who can't name the Beatles.

On Monday's show, I missed one question (Jacob's Ladder, for the record). On Tuesday's, I only knew two of the AI questions, forgot the number of absences, couldn't tell you Bonnie and Clyde from Bob and Carol and froze on Kathy Bates' name (I'd like to think I would have remembered it in time, though). Knowledge is relative, pop knowledge doubly so.

 

[MitchO]

I noticed that there was a very long pause after the Hill Street answer, even longer than the usual "dramatic tension" one. It was probably a 'judge check' of some sort.

Honestly, the Death Star issue just seemed to be that it wasn't the guy's specialty: when they introduced the teams, they indicated he was the "Madonna fan". I know that when my friend and I discussed getting a 3rd person for the tryouts, we agreed we needed someone who knows different stuff than us (like the American Idol stuff, for example). I'm sure that wasn't his "field of expertise", so he had to pause for what seems to be generic info to others.

 

[MitchO]

Last night's episode is another example of what I mean about specific pop knowledge ... when it got down to 1 on 1, the poor contestants that were left were stuck with "Movies that had Rappers in them" or whatever it was. I'm sure that at least one person on a lot of the teams would probably run that category, but really ... how the hell did that guy pull "Disorderlies" out of his ass? I was amazed that I knew any of them.

I did know "Da Butt", however.

 

[MitchO]

Was it just me, or was last night's Fragilay/Chupacabra the worst matchup of any episode in two seasons? And that's the defending champs. I can understand not remembering the name of the Chamillionaire song (I couldn't, I could name the Weird Al song and the original artist), but LOLA?! And don't get me started on how iconic it is to know all of Rocky's opponents. I haven't even seen V or VI and I knew Tommy Gun and Mason Dixon.

 

[MitchO]

Keep in mind that not everybody on each team is an expert in each category. How many people can name all of Rocky's opponents and the names of the characters on Lost whose actors are named in the opening credits (both of which have been tiebreakers this season)? If the first two rounds are split, then the fourth round is going to involve two players who were forced to be there (whoever lost the third round is down to one; whoever won only has two, one of which was in the third round and so can't be in the fourth).

Actually I knew all six of Rocky's opponents, and was able to name 15 of the 16 characters (I had forgotten "Edward"s last name). However, your point is valid because, for example, I only knew 4 or 5 of the African American Oscar winners (and funnily enough, Sydney Poitier was one of the ones I knew). Even the African American guy at the end said that that was a little unfair, and he'd be in big trouble if he couldn't name them all, lol.

Speaking of the Rocky question, there were some possible answers they left out; at the beginning of Rocky III, they show Rocky defending his title against what turned out to be "hand-picked" challengers, and at the beginning of the first film, didn't they show Rocky losing to a club fighter (who was named when they paid them after the fight)?

He indicated "complete" fights, including exhibitions and street brawls(which is why Hulk "Thunderlips" Hogan and Tommy Gun were on the list, you see the whole fight).

 

[MitchO]

For the record, not only did I not know any of the 2006 music questions, but I've only HEARD of two of the songs.

 

[MitchO]

Funny thing was, I knew the name of "White and Nerdy" from the youtube clip posted here at TCF, but I had no idea the name of the song it parodied.

Ditto.

 

[MitchO]

I'm rooting for Team Motherboy just for the Arrested Development reference. I was torn for a while between them and the Heathers reference (Westerburg High), but now my fanship is clear

 

[MitchO]

My problem with Crash is that I get the two (the good one with everyone and the bad one with James Spader in it) confused in my head all the time, even though I know there were two separate movies.

I don't think I could go as far as they did with Big Chill, but I could definitely name a bunch. I also rattled off 16 of the 20 Bond movies out loud without much trouble (like the guy who won, my father watched them constantly).