Wednesday, December 7, 2011 Game Recap & Discussion [SPOILERS]

[jeff6286]

Tony reminded me very much of the Dean from Community, played by Jim Rash: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0711110/ Anyone else notice the resemblance?

The FJ wagers by both trailing players were pretty poor, as neither one left herself enough money to win if Tony had missed. Julia could have bet enough to cover Jennifer's doubled score and still left enough behind to beat Tony assuming he made the standard shutout bet.

I was in panic mode for much of the FJ think time, trying to fathom how my streak of 7 consecutive FJ gets could come to an end on a sports question of all things. After stumbling through famous "Cups" like the Stanley, Davis, and America's Cups, all team sports, I then went to golf, tennis, boxing, horse racing, cycling, all sports that date back to the 1800s. Single-handed eventually got me to consider tennis, and Wimbledon was the obvious answer. I wrote it down before time was up but had very little confidence that it was correct. I paused the dvr to give some more consideration to make sure that I wasn't overlooking another obvious answer, but after reconsidering the clue I became more and more confident that Wimbledon was correct, as the winning male player does receive a large cup as a trophy. It only dawned on me later that single handed was referring to singles tennis, rather than doubles, as opposed to meaning the players could only use one hand. I was previously thinking that the two-handed backhand must have been a 20th century innovation, but if so then why would they have called it the single handed champion?

The Tour de France would have been a funny answer, but I think they had to cancel the single handed event after the first year as all of the cyclists kept falling off the mountains, or getting disqualified for putting their second hand on the handlebars.

[omgwheelhouse]

Tony reminded me very much of the Dean from Community, played by Jim Rash: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0711110/ Anyone else notice?

No, but I don't get the azaria thing either. Good show though.

[dhkendall]

Don't you hate it when one answer jumps in your head immediately, you're pretty sure it's wrong, but it's so damn insistent that it refuses to let you try to think of another answer? This is why I was stuck at arm wrestling (Me: "But there isn't even a well-known arm wrestling championship!" Brain: "Shut up, just put down 'Arm Wrestling Federation Championship' or something and don't you dare try to think of anything else it might be!")

I like the banter during the game lately, it makes it a lot more fun and watchable (and makes the players look more like game show contestants and "happy to be there", than nerdy eggheads). Keep it up, Jeopardy!

[seaborgium]

I got a Will Forte vibe from Tony (which I didn't get when I saw him in person a couple months ago [by the way, I was told he was on a business trip!]).

Gettable sports has capped my FJ get streak at 12. Wimbledon crossed my mind, but "single handed" threw me off the trail. At least I know I would have won that game from Tony's position.

On the Romeo and Juliet clue, I saw "this relative" and it never crossed my mind they were looking for a name (though I knew it was Tybalt). Unfortunately I decided they wouldn't ask if it was a cousin and that therefore it must have been her brother, so no hope of a BMS get of Tybalt for me, and few enough choices for relatives that my response wouldn't be likely to initiate a lemming effect. Although maybe someone would say "cousin" who'd blank out on the BMS.

[alietr]

I knew one place where Tony's name was familiar: http://sites.google.com/site/iqausa/ #101

Quite a few familiar names on there, including one significantly higher who will be on next week ...

[dhkendall]

On the Romeo and Juliet clue, I saw "this relative" and it never crossed my mind they were looking for a name (though I knew it was Tybalt). Unfortunately I decided they wouldn't ask if it was a cousin and that therefore it must have been her brother, so no hope of a BMS get of Tybalt for me, and few enough choices for relatives that my response wouldn't be likely to initiate a lemming effect. Although maybe someone would say "cousin" who'd blank out on the BMS.

I don't know enough about the characters to have done anything but clammed (despite asking for an R&J character name in TD26, this one unfortunately didn't stick with me). However, for some reason, the initial negged response of Mercurito (? can't remember what the initial response was) for some reason made me confident enough to ring in on Tybalt on the rebound - I'm guessing those two characters are as associated together as Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern in another Shakespeare work?

[slam]

Do I recognize Tony from some trivia-related thing? If not, does he remind me of someone? I couldn't shake this feeling that I recognized him the whole show.

As mentioned above, Tony runs a couple of weekly trivia games in NY. One of them happens to be on Wednesday night, so he moved last night's starting time back a half hour so the entire group (enlarged by people like me who Tony let know about the viewing party) watched the show before Tony hosted the Trivia night. The place was going crazy and the shouts of "Tony, Tony, Tony" rocked the place at the end of the show. I was not the only person there who posts on this board (though I'll let them reveal themselves if they so choose).

As in many bar trivia contests, a prize was given to the best team name. Last night's winner was "Frankly Madeira, I don't give a damn", a reference to the DD that Tony missed.

In NYC, there are two types of bar trivia hosts (there are at least 30 weekly bar trivia games held here), the robo-drones who are just reading the clues written for them by some organization and the ones who actually know what they're doing. Not only is Tony clearly one of the latter, but he's the best at it that I've encountered. For example, last night two of his five rounds were tied in to his J! appearance. He did a good Before & After category and for the audio round all the songs had titles that were already in the form of a question (e.g. "Do You Want To Know A Secret?", "Are You Experienced?", "Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf?", etc...).

[Bamaman]

Glad he had a sense of humor about the DD. It was funny he missed that one after talking about his alcohol blog. Can someone who knows him encourage him to drop by here?

Was his blog buddy Sam at the viwing party?

[joepozz]

Count me in with those who said "What is Arm Wrestling?" for FJ. If I recall corectly, the championship tournament is held in Petaluna, CA. They used to cover it on "Wide World of Sports," and Snoopy always seemed to aspire to it, as I recall.

[slam]

Glad he had a sense of humor about the DD. It was funny he missed that one after talking about his alcohol blog. Can someone who knows him encourage him to drop by here?

Was his blog buddy Sam at the viwing party?

Tony certainly did have a good sense of humor about the situation. Yes, his buddy Sam was at the viewing party.

[Serge]

The whole time I was watching I was thinking, "I know him, but from where?" After reading these comments, I realized that he's the host of the Wednesday trivia night I've been to many times. He's definitely a fun host.

FJ was one to reason out for me, too. At first, I was thinking arm-wrestling, but then I got stuck on the date, which for some reason made me think of Wimbledon. Once it was on my mind, I made myself comfortable that the rest of the clue made sense for Wimbledon (singles, the trophy being a giant cup). So I ended up locking that in as my answer with a few seconds to spare. I find the ones that take some time to reason out much more satisfying than the instagets.

Now that I know the champion, I'll be rooting for him for sure. Go Tony!

[alamble]

On the Romeo and Juliet clue, I saw "this relative" and it never crossed my mind they were looking for a name (though I knew it was Tybalt). Unfortunately I decided they wouldn't ask if it was a cousin and that therefore it must have been her brother, so no hope of a BMS get of Tybalt for me, and few enough choices for relatives that my response wouldn't be likely to initiate a lemming effect. Although maybe someone would say "cousin" who'd blank out on the BMS.

I don't know enough about the characters to have done anything but clammed (despite asking for an R&J character name in TD26, this one unfortunately didn't stick with me). However, for some reason, the initial negged response of Mercurito (? can't remember what the initial response was) for some reason made me confident enough to ring in on Tybalt on the rebound - I'm guessing those two characters are as associated together as Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern in another Shakespeare work?

I would argue that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are more closely linked with Hamlet thanks to Tom Stoppard, as opposed to the Bard himself. They are very minor characters in the original play. Mercutio and Tybalt aren't particularly closely linked wrt to Romeo and Juliet, either - Mercutio is an ally of the Montagues, but he's not related to anyone in either family and it's his death that prompts Romeo to go after Tybalt in the first place.

[dmleach]

No one knew the Pullman strike

FWIW, I thought of the Pullman Strike, but dismissed it because I thought that was a strike at the facility where they made the cars, not a strike by the railroad employees. I even said out loud, "It's not the Pullman Strike" before the reveal. If it had been on the top row I'd have guessed, but I wasn't willing to take a $2000 risk on it.

[Volante]

On the Romeo and Juliet clue, I saw "this relative" and it never crossed my mind they were looking for a name (though I knew it was Tybalt). Unfortunately I decided they wouldn't ask if it was a cousin and that therefore it must have been her brother, so no hope of a BMS get of Tybalt for me, and few enough choices for relatives that my response wouldn't be likely to initiate a lemming effect. Although maybe someone would say "cousin" who'd blank out on the BMS.

I don't know enough about the characters to have done anything but clammed (despite asking for an R&J character name in TD26, this one unfortunately didn't stick with me). However, for some reason, the initial negged response of Mercurito (? can't remember what the initial response was) for some reason made me confident enough to ring in on Tybalt on the rebound - I'm guessing those two characters are as associated together as Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern in another Shakespeare work?

Paris was the initial response I believe (pretty certain, because I thought someone might neg with it), Tybalt was no problem for me.

Also picked up Pullman strike and (in another shoutout to Cracked,) viperfish. That's not a mug you forget after seeing it.

Blanked on FJ, 'single-handed' got me thinking of using only one hand, so I ruled out tennis as the racket can be two-handed. Completely forgot 'single handed' can have an alternate meaning. That *may* have helped, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[Suze]

Just caught up with this game today. Great game for Tony. Looking forward to today's show.

I knew right away that FJ had to be a racket sport, so I went with the most famous cup-giving event I could think of.

[Rex Kramer]

Count me in with those who said "What is Arm Wrestling?" for FJ. If I recall corectly, the championship tournament is held in Petaluna, CA. They used to cover it on "Wide World of Sports," and Snoopy always seemed to aspire to it, as I recall.

"Petaluma", but otherwise, this is pretty much what I thought. "I was disqualified . . . I don't have a thumb!"

Rex

[Mark B]

I too was surprised at the no-get on Pullman.

OTOH, I missed the DD on the police strike. Was that a "figure it out" or a "lotsa people know this" for the box it was in?

[Dzul]

For some reason, I immediately disregarded the one-handed bit as a red herring and focused on the "man" distinction. It seemed odd to me that they'd have to specify the cup given to the man who wins. And that sent me to Wimbledon since the ladies' winner get a big plate instead of a cup.

Loving the personalities we've seen on the show recently. Retro gl to Tony.

[Turd Ferguson]

Glad he had a sense of humor about the DD.

Also the "Froday" clue. There seem to have been a number of "good TV" contestants this season, kudos to Maggie and co.

I was floored that J! would ask about Les Iles de la Madeleine (even spotted "Mad"), even moreso when Julia actually got the response. dhkendall, weren't you just saying that there's never a clue about Canada that isn't easy for a Canadian? I think that would qualify! (Looking at the archive, I now see that there was a TOM in the clue, which I assume is how the writers expected most contestants would get it). Precalling the pronunciation "correction" from Alex on that was certainly easy, since he so rarely misses a chance to use his French.

While watching the show, I knew Tony was going to win (from the J! site preview), so when the Champ missed the last clue (on what seemed like a bit of a "guess"), I felt for her, thinking that mistake might have been what cost her. Thankfully, the sole solve FJ! rendered that mistake largely irrelevant, though Tony might've had a much smaller payday betting from 2nd place than with the shutout bed from the lead.

Speaking of the last category, I guess it's the University of Ostrava that offers the course on China and India, but having that name in there was almost a reverse-TOM (one that Julia seemed to go for), especially after Humboldt being named in the Berlin Wall clue. (I don't know if Humboldt=Berlin is something contestants are supposed to know, I only knew that from knowing someone who studied there). It'd have been nice to see the rest of the clues in that category, though I guess that was a consequence of the "banter".

[econgator]

Was that a "figure it out" or a "lotsa people know this" for the box it was in?

I believe the clue mentioned "public safety", so that limited the choices, but still left many. I went the wrong way with "firemen".