I thought about putting this in the Pit, but the language is nice and clean. We played bar trivia last night, and were doing well until the final bonus, on which you can bet up to 15 points. We bet the max because our goal is always to get a top score whenever feasible, so we can secure a spot in the Top 10 and get a bye into the final.
Anyway, here’s the text of an email I sent to the league manager about the bonus:
I know sometimes I complain in emails about Last Call questions – but this is a bit different. We played last (Sunday) night’s game. We were doing quite well, right up to the final. It was this:
**Final – MUSIC – Identify the song title the following bands share:
- Maroon 5 and Soul Asylum
- Rehab and O.A.R.
- Radiohead and TLC
- Led Zeppelin and Mariah Carey**
What’s wrong with that? Just one little problem – I’ve played a LOT of trivia in my life, and in my opinion this was as close to a literally unsolvable final as is possible. I would go as far as to say that, without hyperbole, there is a high likelihood that the only person on earth who could have solved this was the question writer. How could that be true?
Here’s how:
The specific issue with the final is Question 2. The answer needed was “This Town”. O.A.R. released this song as a single in 1998. It “reached” Number 119 on the Billboard charts. While the song is knowable, it is far from well known. But it would not be a crazy choice if the Rehab version was more famous.
However, the Rehab song was not released as a single, and never charted. It was on an album which peaked at #90 (!) on the Billboard charts. It is as close to a non-entity song as you can have from a band who had a grand total of ONE song (The Bartender Song) ever chart, and that was at number 64! This is not trivia – this is utter minutiae. I’d be willing to bet my entire salary that if you asked the members of either O.A.R. or Rehab this question, they couldn’t answer it either.
I know the powers that be are OK with it when occasionally there are final questions that are so difficult that no one at the venue gets it right. I understand their thinking - it’s a game, after all. But they also go to great lengths to promote the trivia league, and the league rewards high scores. We traveled about 25 miles each way to play last night – at current gas prices, this means we spent $7 on gas, plus the cost of dinner. Our goal was to get a high score for the league. Had we known that the final could not be answered correctly by us, or anyone else playing anywhere, ever, we wouldn’t have bothered. The deck was stacked against everyone playing for a high score, because it could never be achieved.
To put it in perspective, compare this game to another pastime – the New York Times crossword puzzle. It’s also considered a fun pastime. But what if the Sunday puzzle one day had all the clues, except those on the bottom right corner? Is it just a game? Sure. Would everyone who completed the puzzle up to the end, only to find they had done it all for nothing because it could never be finished, be angry? You bet! That’s exactly how we feel.
Please forward this to whoever’s in charge of the question writing. Thanks.