January 25, 2004

Curious George : I've been asked to host a quiz night at work. I've had a trawl through the net, starting at the usual place. Was wondering if any Monkeys had idea's for categories etc.
posted by lloyder 20 years ago
  • I'll take Potent Potables for 300, Alex.
  • Obscure early 90's noise/drone bands. Breeds of cow. Drug aliases.
  • The local pub quiz night was pretty boring. There were ten categories such as sport, world events, entertainment, history, etc. At the beginning we'd be given a piece of paper with a map and name the countries, or a bunch of photos of famous people and name their spouses, to do throughout the quiz and hand in for bonus points. At the end of each round the quiz host would also progress through a series of "who am I" type clues. They got easier after each round and the first to guess correctly won beer. Those were quite hard - I think the pub was more willing to part with cash than with free beer.
  • French Rock Bands. Islamic Humor Magazines. Hit Movies Starring Madonna. Straight Boybands.
  • Beatles. Early Computers (i.e. "What does DOS stand for") Orchestral Instruments Puppets History of Food (pizza was invented in ...) Wow, trying to come up with truly random categories has put me in the alpha state . . ommmmmmmmmmm
  • How about commonly misspelled words? Or maybe Simpsons trivia. the IMDb is always a good source of trivia for movie fans. If you're in the 50 states, you'd be surprised how little people know about their state. Some interesting ideas might be culled from the Worst-Case Scenarios website. Good luck! Have fun..
  • Kosher/Not Kosher Susan Anton/Farrah Fawcett STD's of the Stars Kirk/Spock
  • Ex-celebrities: dead or alive? Ex-Soviet Socialist Republics. Roman Catholic saints and martyrs. Pre-European Polynesian culture. Asteroids and comets. Applications of noble gases. Alchemy. Kosher or halal?
  • World capitals Abtruse martial arts (esp. non-East Asian ones) Skeletons, muscles, teeth... Rejects books of the Bible
  • s/rejects/rejected
  • Celebrity pets Objective historical fact or imperialist propaganda? The copulation calls of Old-World primates Name that bacterium Abort, Retry, Fail? Actually, if you have a hankering for a somewhat leftfield round or two, the McSweeney's lists page has some amusing quiz-type things on it; for example, Lesser-known DC Comics Characters or "As Seen on TV" Products? That sort of thing. Of course, you'd have to fact check them. If you can be arsed. I always think it's the simplest ones that work best, though. My personal favourite's always yer basic lyrics round - sheet with twenty lyrics, half a point each for artist and song title. Sorts the men from the boys, that. Without any hint of what the tune or even the rhythm might be, it's a real bugger - you end up correctly identifying Van Halen songs you didn't even know you knew, but somehow "Rows of houses all bearing down on me I can feel their blue hands touching me" remains a mystery...
  • Zen koans, or hats.
  • Celebrities: Dead or Canadian?
  • Thanks for all the ideas. Flashboy, was thinking of doing the lyrics round. Follow on question for you IPOD gurus. Is there a way for me to take a sample of some songs create a playlist of say the 1st ten seconds of a song? I know the music quiz is there, but there's no way of definitely getting the same songs repeated.