So, I was a team captain in the Corporate Knowledge Bowl, a fundraiser for the Public Library. The format is like College Bowl only without the buzzers. Instead, the two teams take turns getting first crack at each question. If the first team misses, the second team gets a chance to steal and then the rotation continues. Only the team captains may give the official answers to the questions. My team represents a local bar that sponsors trivia night and is comprised of all stars from the baker’s dozen of regular teams. (note that “all stars” also means “I can get away from my job at lunch hour long enough to compete.”)
On Monday we won our first round in a walk. Today, we played a team sponsored by a major corporation–one of the largest employers in the city. Our second question was about “the foremost African American modern dance choreographer.” I didn’t know the answer, but one of my teammates did. He whispered the answer to me and I repeated it to the judge. “Alvin Hailey” I said. The judge accepted this as correct and we started to move on until this fucking bitch on the other team challenged the answer. The judge didn’t understand what the problem was, so a second judge was called in. Turns out the guy’s name was “Alvin Ailey”, but I had misunderstood the whisper and said “Alvin hAiley”, but apparently I didn’t emphasize the “h” enough for the judge or anyone else except Ms. Shitbag to hear. I was baffled, but my teammate told me it was “Ailey”. Then the second judge asked me to repeat my answer. Now I know there’s no “h” at the beginning so I could have said “Alvin Ailey” the second time, but I didn’t. I responded “I said ‘Alvin hailey’”. So then the judges give the other team a chance to respond, and they pronounce it correctly (despite the fact that their fucking team captain has a stutter!) and are awarded the point. Play continues, and at the end of the 35-minute regulation we are tied. My team then loses in double sudden death overtime on a freakin’ baseball question! The difference in the game was my “h” and the bitch who challenged the question.
I’m a triva bitch–I’ll fight for a point in the pub quiz competition if I think we got it right. But in her shoes I would not have challenged that one. It was clear that we knew the answer, and the judge accepted the answer. I accept that the frog sucker on the other team was within her rights to challenge according to the rules, but it still sucks because WE KNEW THE ANSWER and THEY KNEW WE KNEW IT! I don’t like it when Alex does that on Jeopardy! because it is invariably enfoced unevenly, and I sure as hell don’t like to be on the ass end of it, and I doubly sure as hell don’t like being responsible for knocking the team out of the running for trivia bragging rights of the whole city because I’m a goddamned hick with an accent. Why the hell didn’t I answer without the “h” the second time? No! I had to be honest! i’ll bet bitchy-poo wouldn’t have been honest! So I pit myself, too. I’m a trivia chump who has failed the Jeopardy test twice and let my team down. I suck.
And fuck Alvin Ailey and Alvin Ailey’s dad for having such a stupid, easily misunderstood-in-a-whisper name. What the hell kind of name is that anyway? I am now the sworn enemy of modern dance, unless there is nudity involved and it is occurring on my lap.
I did this as a college bowl captain as well, so I asked about this before Monday’s match and was told the rules do not allow designating another team member to give the answer. And I probably wouldn’t have done it in this situation because I thought dude said “Haley”.
But you didn’t know it. Or if you did know it, you didn’t say it. You said the man’s name is “Hailey” when his name is “Ailey.” You gave the wrong answer, the other team challenged a wrong answer and won the point.
I personally didn’t know the answer, but that’s not the point. It’s a team sport–someone on the team knew the answer, but it was bobbled in the handoff. The judge thought I was close enough for rock and roll, but Miss Snooty Britches made an issue of it. I say again that if the tables were turned I wouldn’t have contested it. She was within her rights to do so, but that doesn’t make it cricket and I sure don’t have to be happy about it.
Ditto on Otto. The fact that Alex Haley is another famous African-American made the H critical in proving you weren’t confusing/combining two different names/people. You were honest about giving the wrong answer.
The Snoopy Happy Dance was a dance that the cartoon character ‘Snoopy’ in the Charley Brown specials would do when he was generally happy about life. It used to annoy the perpetually perterbed character ‘Lucy’.
I’ve got to say I have some sympathy for you, vibrotronica. When I was playing in College Bowl years ago, I rang in to answer “Tagore” (that noted Indian Nobel Prize-winner, of course) to a question about literature. Well, I meant to say “Tagore”…what instead came out of my mouth was a tangled mess that sounded something like “Tang-rory”. The judge said “Yessss…uh, wait, no.” Of course, the other team rang in and answered “Tagore,” getting the question right. We lodged a protest but it was dismissed.
I think what Otto is missing here is the action of the judges in both of our cases. In both cases the judge initially deemed our answers correct, then changed their minds on second thought (or appeal in your case). That’s a clear tip-off to the other team that the answer was “correct” but mispronounced. The judge might as well have said to the other team, “Just say what they said correctly.” In both cases, the judge should have said the answer was wrong, not that it was mispronounced. It was particularly galling in my case, because the other team did not know the answer (the members were looking at each other and shrugging) before my malapropism. Our appeal didn’t center on my mispronunciation, as I freely admitted my answer was wrong and shouldn’t be counted, but that the judge by being indecisive all but handed the answer to the other team.
In both cases the question and points should have been thrown out. When we ran LionBowl we implemented that rule (before, I should add, the above situation occurred) and it worked well.
And, Otto, I know this is the Pit and “everything goes,” but your comment was more than a little flippant. After all, vibro was more than honest in repeating faithfully what s/he said the first time. Given the chance, 90% of the people I played College Bowl wouldn’t have done that, and I can’t say I blame them.
How could I have been so blind? Damn me for thinking that ranting about losing to someone who followed the rules is whiny! Damn Miss Snooty Britches for playing to win within the bounds of the rules! Damn the first judge for allowing her to follow the rules and damn the second judge for enforcing them!
But that’s not what happened in this case. The other team clearly knew that “Ailey” was the correct answer and “Hailey” was not. The other team, in accordance with the rules, challenged an incorrect answer and won the point.
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And, Otto, I know this is the Pit and “everything goes,” but your comment was more than a little flippant. Well damn, I hope it was more than a little flippant!
After I wrote about it, I thought about the two situations a bit more. I’m leaning more towards your view now, Otto, but I still think the question should have been thrown out.
If the judge originally accepted the answer as correct, the appeal should have only applied to the point awarded. Sure, the other team may have known that “Ailey” was the correct answer all along. But they may have been clued in by the judge’s indecisiveness in originally declaring “Alvin Hailey” to be the correct answer. (How many famous people have names similar to “Alvin Hailey”?) The fact that the other team appealed doesn’t necessarily mean they knew “Hailey” was wrong–I played in College Bowl matches where other teams routinely appealed everything if they felt the other team wasn’t 100% sure about their answer. I’m not going to mention any names [sub]cough…UMBC…cough[/sub].
The bottom line for me is that the judge did goof. “Alvin Hailey” was not the right answer, so he shouldn’t have said it was correct in the first place. It was appealed, and correctly so. But then he shouldn’t have compounded the error by allowing the other team a chance to score when it was established that the answer was almost, but not quite, “Alvin Hailey.” You are right, Otto, that the chance that the other team didn’t know the answer was pretty low. I would not make that assumption, but it’s a matter of opinion, I guess.
vibrotronica, I had coffee this afternoon with one of your team’s alternates, the dark-haired gal who runs Tuesday Pub Quiz. She told me this story, and I thought, “Wow, that’s a bummer,” and pretty much forgot about it.
Then I’m sitting here browsing the Pit, and I saw the thread title, and for just one second I thought, “Ohmigod, it’s the GREATEST COINCIDENCE EVER!”
On topic: I absolutely despise rule-whores like the bitch on the other team.
OK, y’all. I’m over it. I wrote the OP in the heat of anger after the defeat. I accept that what she did was in accordance to the rules, but I still say I, personally, wouldn’t have challenged it. I agree with Duke who says that the question should have been thrown out, which it probably would have had I answered without the “h” the second time. It still sucks, but hey, it was only a game.