Quiz Bowl

**Motep** · 12-12-2010, 03:22

Anyone else heard of this? It is much fun, you know.

**gaelic cowboy** · 12-12-2010, 03:38

I take it it's like this programme University Challenge

**Motep** · 12-12-2010, 03:43

Yeah, it is very similar.

However, there is nobody clapping for us, and no snippets of stuff.

These are some very interesting questions, btw. So much more in depth than the high school circuit, that is for sure. Granted, we have some questions that start out sounding like that, but they get lame. It is dissapointing really, for most of the points I score are on tossups that I am simply not proud of.

**A Nerd** · 12-13-2010, 18:47

I used to enjoy watching these in High School. Though I didn't know enough to make the team. There was this one fella, that if noone knew the answer, he would answer with some goofy, often funny reply, getting a laugh from all who were watching. That guy actuallly went on to attend Harvard, he got more right than giving out a silly answer.

**Motep** · 12-13-2010, 23:34

Originally Posted by A Nerd

I used to enjoy watching these in High School. Though I didn't know enough to make the team. There was this one fella, that if noone knew the answer, he would answer with some goofy, often funny reply, getting a laugh from all who were watching. That guy actuallly went on to attend Harvard, he got more right than giving out a silly answer.

Do not trash silly answers, now. Matches have been won by saying "johnson" when in doubt. Bad answer beats no answer. I just wish I had more time to study for this thing so I can actually be good at it.

**gaelic cowboy** · 12-14-2010, 00:27

Originally Posted by A Nerd

I used to enjoy watching these in High School. Though I didn't know enough to make the team. There was this one fella, that if noone knew the answer, he would answer with some goofy, often funny reply, getting a laugh from all who were watching. That guy actuallly went on to attend Harvard, he got more right than giving out a silly answer.

Trotsky", "Lenin", "Karl Marx" or "Che Guevara"

A 1975 first round match featuring a University of Manchester team (including David Aaronovitch) tried to derail the proceedings by answering every question with the name of a revolutionary ("Trotsky", "Lenin", "Karl Marx" or "Che Guevara"). This was in protest of the programme's perceived Oxbridge bias which allows their colleges to enter singly. This was one of the very rare occasions when the normally-unflappable Bamber became somewhat ruffled. By all accounts, there was a good deal of head-scratching at Granada as to whether the programme should be broadcast, but they eventually decided that it should, on the grounds that the students, rather than the programme itself, would look ridiculous and therefore the show's reputation would remain unimpaired - as indeed it did. Manchester was banned from the contest afterwards, and remained so for the rest of the ITV run - which probably goes some way toward explaining why former Manchester University students Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer took such relish in demolishing the show (figuratively and literally) in the classic 1984 Young Ones episode, "Bambi".