Dopers: how do you handle being the ringer on trivia night?

In My Humble Opinion
61

Earlier in the thread, when I took the position that people who are good at trivia should be rewarded for it, even though it’s in a friendly setting, I did allow that the trivial buff might just as easily decline graciously as well as accept perks for his or her talent.

However, since a lot of people have insisted that graciously declining is the only option, and that to do otherwise is rude and absurd, please tell me if these analogies are valid:

If you were as good at golf as you are at trivia, would you decline the favors offered to good golfers? (Friendships with millionaire CEOs, eating on their accounts, trips on their jets, etc)?

If you were a good softball player and your employer/team sponsor truly believed that your team provided good advertising for his business as well as intangible value to employee morale, would this mean anything to you at your annual performance review?

Instead of a friendly game of trivia, what about friendly games of poker? With quarters tossed into the pot to make it interesting? If one of the players lost and welched, of course you wouldn’t break his kneecaps, but would he still be invited to future games? Even if he insisted on raking in his winnings while past debts were ignored?

Why should trivia be not as respected as these other equally essentially useless talents? Because athletes are cool, but trivia is for nerds? Granted, but can the nerd at least respect himself, and play it for all he can just like any athlete would? (Hey, if St. Jude’s wants him to play a benefit match, he’s onboard with that)

62

[QUOTE= Rilchiam]
HSHP, who do you hang out with, that you can even imagine that scenario?
[/QUOTE]

The point is, I can’t even FATHOM anyone even CONTEMPLATING the sort of action you are mulling. Anyone who approached me or mine with such a request would be treated first as a comedian, and then, should we realize the person was actually SERIOUS, with derision. The idea that someone would pull a T.O over trivia is so incomprehensible that there exists no scenario whatsoever for dealing with such a level of douchebaggery.

[QUOTE= Slithy Tove]
If you were as good at golf as you are at trivia, would you decline the favors offered to good golfers? (Friendships with millionaire CEOs, eating on their accounts, trips on their jets, etc)?
[/QUOTE]

Invalid analogy. Golf is a competitive, outing-based, lifestyle sport, and has institutionalized betting in many of its iterations. We’re talking about a bunch of people getting together to yell out inane answers for a couple of bucks. There’s a world of difference.

[QUOTE= Slithy Tove]
If you were a good softball player and your employer/team sponsor truly believed that your team provided good advertising for his business as well as intangible value to employee morale, would this mean anything to you at your annual performance review?
[/QUOTE]

Invalid analogy, until such time as you can provide even a hint that someone actually quantifies or even considers such things. We try to put the best office softball team together because it sucks to lose, not because passersby who might need legal assistance will think of my firm when they see me steal home.

[QUOTE= Slithy Tove]
Instead of a friendly game of trivia, what about friendly games of poker? With quarters tossed into the pot to make it interesting? If one of the players lost and welched, of course you wouldn’t break his kneecaps, but would he still be invited to future games? Even if he insisted on raking in his winnings while past debts were ignored?
[/QUOTE]

This isn’t a loser backing out on his debts, this is a guy with whom you play trivia offering you a compliment (or maybe even a burger). Someone on Rilch’s team said “good job,” and she’s trying to quantify that. Do you share your winnings with a guy who said “nice hand?”

Let me ask YOU a question: If you’re playing poker with me, and bluff me out of a big hand, and I say, “Dang- nice poker face. I want you at the table when I negotiate my next contract,” are you going to show up at my office on Monday and demand a seat at the table?

[QUOTE= Slithy Tove]
Why should trivia be not as respected as these other equally essentially useless talents? Because athletes are cool, but trivia is for nerds? Granted, but can the nerd at least respect himself, and play it for all he can just like any athlete would? (Hey, if St. Jude’s wants him to play a benefit match, he’s onboard with that)
[/QUOTE]

This is not about geek pride or anything like that. And it’s not just nerds that are good at trivia. This is about common rules of social interaction in bars, among meaningless endeavors. Your hypothetical nerd is not “playing for it all.” He’s being a douche about a couple of bucks.

63

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]
We try to put the best office softball team together because it sucks to lose, not because passersby who might need legal assistance will think of my firm when they see me steal home.
[/QUOTE]

I’m thinking your advertising is already taken care of by the word-of-mouth from all the pro-bono work you must do.

64

[QUOTE= Slithy Tove]
I’m thinking your advertising is already taken care of by the word-of-mouth from all the pro-bono work you must do.
[/QUOTE]

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. It LOOKS like an ad hominem, but if it is, it’s not a very good one.

And it’s also a little out of place. You made some analogies, I explained why they are invalid. Are you abandoning the pretense of a poll/discussion and attacking me? Or had you forgotten my question?

[QUOTE= me]
Let me ask YOU a question: If you’re playing poker with me, and bluff me out of a big hand, and I say, “Dang- nice poker face. I want you at the table when I negotiate my next contract,” are you going to show up at my office on Monday and demand a seat at the table?
[/QUOTE]

65

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]
I’m not entirely sure what to make of this. It LOOKS like an ad hominem, but if it is, it’s not a very good one.

And it’s also a little out of place. You made some analogies, I explained why they are invalid. Are you abandoning the pretense of a poll/discussion and attacking me? Or had you forgotten my question?
[/QUOTE]

I apologize (although if I were to launch an ad hom, it might incude the observation that you make an odd advocate for the philosophy of “just let it slide”.) You brough your firm’s softball team in (what’s the Latin for “argument to the team?”) as the absolute example of why all sofball teams are all just for fun, no pressure, no special teatment for ringers. This may be true of your employer, but many others will have had a different experience. (only an idiot would take on an incompetent lawyer who had a killer RBI, but one potato-chip factory worker is as good as another)

I don’t agree with your other invalidations: the poker player is allowed to stay in the game by promising to pay off his losses later, and the trivia teamate promised Rilchiam a burger. If you promise to do something, but then don’t do it, that makes you a cheater. Sure, the stakes can be on a vastly different scale, but how is poker and bar trivia on different levels of accountability?

one guy thwacks a little white ball into a hole, the other can name each of the five horses that Nathan Bedford Forrest had shot out from under him. At one point in history, the ball-twacker was pretty insignificant compared to the champion claymore fighter, but little by little, by today he gets free rides on corporate jets for helping his laird shave a few strokes off his game.

Maybe this process started when the golfer decided to demand respect for his talents. Maybe the trivia experts might start this process themselves.

66

I play golf. I play in a lot of “scramble” tournaments, where there are four man teams. One player (this used to be me) is the “A” player, with a low handicap (1-8), one is the “B” (the current me) with a handicap of 9-15, one is a “C” (16-24) and one is a “D” (25+). All four players hit their tee shots, and the best one is picked, and all four hit from that spot all the way until the ball is in the hole. Everyone contributes, but the A player probably contributes close to 50% of the shots. The winners split the pot.

Golf being a game of etiquette, if an A player tried to claim a larger share of the winnings, they would be ostracized. No doubt about it. If you’re part of a team, all members are equal, regardless of their contribution.

Add me to the list of people who are floored that this thought is even being considered. To bring this up would be a social gaffe of the highest order. You would be talked about behind your back, like the guy who always stiffs the waitstaff or the guy with bad hygiene.

67

I think at this point, this is more important to you all than it is to me. I moved on yesterday; you’re continuing to pound home your point about something I thought about and didn’t do. Look at it this way. You successfully talked me out of something that would have been wrong. Now you can let it go.

Slithy Tove, I appreciate your posts. Here’s your burger. (::slight_smile:

68

[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
I think at this point, this is more important to you all than it is to me. I moved on yesterday; you’re continuing to pound home your point about something I thought about and didn’t do. Look at it this way. You successfully talked me out of something that would have been wrong. Now you can let it go.

Slithy Tove, I appreciate your posts. Here’s your burger. (::slight_smile:
[/QUOTE]

that looks like a pop tart

69

I too am smarter than all my friends and I make them pay me to spend time with them.

…Oh, wait. I would never say that, and no I don’t. :rolleyes:

70

Then it’s a good thing that I never said that either.

71

[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
Then it’s a good thing that I never said that either.
[/QUOTE]
You are so good, you think you are a ringer. You wonder if your teammates should have thrown in to cover your tab. You wonder if you should bring it up.

Nah, you didn’t say that at all. Go ahead and bring it up. You deserve the reaction you will get.

72

I didn’t introduce the term “ringer”; Slithy Tove did. The bit about all the team members contributing instead of the one guy was something I posted off-the-cuff, without weighing every single word of my OP. And this board is full of people who wonder if they should bring up this or that. And I said repeatedly that I was not going to bring it up.

I don’t understand why people responding to this thread are acting as if I insulted them. You act as if you want me to have this discussion, so I can come back and share the details of my humiliation. Is it not enough that I agreed it would be wrong to bring it up? When will you be satisfied?

73

[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
I didn’t introduce the term "ringer
[/QUOTE]

Yes you did, in the thread title.

You asked for opinions and you are getting them. They are strongly worded because people believe that it would not only be a bad idea, but a horrible, horrible idea. One that if acted upon would likely have negative consequences for you.

You were wondering if you should bring it up.

74

I changed the thread title at Slithy Tove’s suggestion, in post 14. I’m surprised you didn’t see that.

Anyway, this should make you all feel better. I just went over to the guy’s place. Asked him if he remembered saying he’d get my burger. He just stared at me for a few seconds, ghastly white, then slammed the door in my face. Then, when I was going back to my place, an angry mob ran after me, and when they caught up with me, they threw tomatoes and eggs, while chanting, “Entitled bitch! Entitled bitch!” Then they took photos with their cameraphones and said they were going to post them on the net. I’m also told that they’re in the process of calling every drinking establishment within a hundred miles. By morning, my photo will be posted everywhere, and I won’t be able to get so much as a diet Coke. I will also have to wear a scarlet E at all times.

Except none of that happened. Good thing I didn’t go over to his place, huh? Good thing I got the message after the first few responses, and stopped wondering if I should bring it up! One would think that after about the twentieth post telling me that it was a horrible, horrible idea, further repetition would be unnecessary. But now you can all lull yourselves to sleep with the fantasy I just posted.

75

That does make me feel better.

76

[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
Except none of that happened. Good thing I didn’t go over to his place, huh? Good thing I got the message after the first few responses, and stopped wondering if I should bring it up!
[/QUOTE]
Damn, that was shaping up to be a great story!

Seriously Rilch, it’s good that you got the message. But you still wondered. That is indicative of something. If someone told me they were wondering if they should pee on my carpet… sure they might think better of it before whipping it out… but I’m probably not going to offer them that 2nd drink anyway.

77

[QUOTE=Rilchiam]

Except none of that happened. Good thing I didn’t go over to his place, huh?
[/QUOTE]

Of course you didn’t. In post 67 you tranferred his debt to me. You’ve all been cogs in my machinations! I hijacked this thread and drove it straight to burgertown :smiley:

78

Hey, Rilch, got a link to those pictures?

::d&r::

79

What if it’s shepherd’s pie? Your pubs have that, right? MMmmmm. Shepherd’s pie. I’ll gladly take your share and the OP’s too, thankyouverymuch.

And I assure you, OP, you would NOT want to see the attendant drawing.

The Doolittle Empire? Or is it the Horsepower Footrest? I always get those confused.