I’m looking for really good trivia questions that can fuel fun-time conversation among friends, say in a bar/pub or over dinner. The kind of question that gets people thinking, guessing and wondering what it can be.
Two favourite examples (answers to be given later if needed):
What is it that only people and armadillos can do?
Who is the only person called Oscar who has won an Oscar?
Guidelines:
The question should have that quirky/intriguing element that provokes curiosity and that ‘What can it possibly be?’ reaction.
I am not looking for ‘lateral thinking’ puzzles (midget in an elevator etc.)
No questions about sport.
Prefer qs that are not too culturally locked (I’m British, so questions that only someone in America could be expected to know aren’t much help to me.)
Extra points for qs where googling doesn’t help much.
If the answers don’t have to be true, or at least verifiable/citable, I could pass along quite a few “my old Pappy told me” sorts of things that have worked just fine in gatherings I have been involved in. Eventually somebody will call “bullshit” and we’ll move on to another equally debatable issue or topic. Truth isn’t a major barrier to fun-time discussions where I come from.
A couple that I came up with - the first one is admittedly England-centric. And the second one fails the Google test, but nevertheless is a delightful piece of trivia. I wish I could make a better-worded question out of it.
What is unusual about the names of English towns such as Penzance, Penrith, Skegness, Torquay, Torbay, Birkenhead, maybe Southend?
True or false - the Jacksons’ song “Blame it on the Boogie” was co-written by Michael Jackson?
Answers later.
USCDiver, yes, that’s the intended answer. I have heard that it’s not strictly true, and that some other critters have been found that can suffer from leprosy. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s close enough to be true to be worth asking. And it’s just such a weird, fun-sounding question to spring on people!
Zeldar… whatever you’ve got, we want to hear it!
Ximenean the first one is good. (And I don’t know the answer.) I know the ‘twist’ to do with the second one, but it’s hard to find the right phrasing that makes it a good ‘what could the answer be?’ question.
Rexnervous… not really the sort of thing I’m looking for! Good for starting arguments, though.
Yeah, it’s more of a “well, bugger me” type of question than a conversation starter. (The answer is that it is kinda true AND false - “Blame it on the Boogie” was co-written by Michael Jackson - Michael George Jackson, better known as Mick, not THE Michael Jackson.)
The answer to the first one is that they are among very few English town names in which the stress is on the final syllable (not counting one syllable names, obviously). Other arguable ones are Solihull and Gravesend, maybe Sheerness and Shoeburyness but I’m not sure how those are pronounced. And that’s about it AFAIK.
I don’t know, maybe that’s the most boring question in the world, but to me it seemed quite surprising.
This one is is very much in dispute. New Jerseyites regularly claim Liberty Island as their turf (not without some justificiation), but it’s not at ALL clear that they’re right.
This is an interesting case for discussion, but you’ wouldn’t want to use this as a question with a clear right-or-wrong answer.
I’d dreaded that. It isn’t easy to explain without a diagram. But I’ll try.
Neptune is much further from the Sun than Mercury is (30 AU as against 0.45 AU) so the distance between the two doesn’t vary much. Draw a circle 30.5 AU radius around Neptune; Mercury will always be inside it.
Every other planet has an orbit which takes it outside that radius for the majority of the time, so for any individual planet it’s true that Mercury is usually closer to Neptune than that planet is.
It follows that in the long run, Mercury is usually the closest planet to Neptune.
Alive At Both Ends - thanks for coming back to clarify. Wow! If that’s really true, it’s an amazing question with an amazing answer! I don’t know enough about the subject to check it, but I know at least two people who are very well-qualified astronomers who will be willing to crunch the numbers for us. Thanks!
