# Trivial Pursuit spreading ignorance again. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 17, 2000, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645 "2000-11-17T20:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645/1 "2000-11-17T20:10:54Z")
I love to play this game, but I’ve come to understand that their fact-checking is sometimes weak. Now their doing it in a national ad campaign. I have in my hand an issue of Games magazine, which I buy because of my intermittant need to solve cryptic crosswords. On the back cover is an ad for Trivial Pursuit. In the ad, they feature the question, “Where are a grasshopper’s ears?” In the corner, they give the answer, “On its abdomen.” I believe this is correct. However, the picture with the advertisment is of a grasshopper wearing a tiny pair of headphones. They are clamped to a place just behind the head, above where the first set of legs join the body. As even the most casual knowledge of insect anatomy tells us, that area of the body where the legs attach is the thorax. The abdomen is the section aft of there. I know, it’s terribly picky of me. But I feel that anyone that professes to be distributing knowledge should be a trifle more careful than you’re average Madison avenue hack. It really bugs me that they are spreading ignorance under the guise of good factual trivia. I feel better now. I’ll probably e-mail the game’s manufacturer later on, just to complete my catharsis. ---
**Author:** ![Suo\_Na](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@Suo\_Na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suo_Na)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645/2 "2000-11-17T20:27:44Z")
Of course, GAMES magazine isn’t innocent of that crime either. They once had a trivia quiz about the winter Olympics where you had to match up the sport to the “fact”. I had a terrible time with the “fact”: “Canada’s official sport”. Since lacrosse wasn’t listed, I figured they wanted hockey. But, no, they decided that curling was Canada’s official sport. How nice of them. That’s not the last time they’ve gotten something wrong about Canada, either. Fact-checking is only as good as the last person to see the product, and if that person’s an idiot… ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645/3 "2000-11-17T20:36:48Z")
Oh, definitely. They have a regular column where they own up to the stupid mistakes they are constantly making. You’ll be happy to know, I suppose, that I just completed a puzzle that had the clue, “Piece of sporting gear common in Canada.” The answer was, “Lacrosse stick.” ---
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645/4 "2000-11-17T20:42:16Z")
Speaking of, has anyone else on the board ever won a _Games_ t-shirt? Or, for that matter, a thousand bucks? (I won my shirt this summer). ---
**Author:** ![SaxFace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@SaxFace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaxFace)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645/5 "2000-11-17T21:14:03Z")
This is totally off the wall, but I met someone last night whose job title is “Researcher for **Who Wants to Be a Millionaire** ”. I thought that was pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![lolagranola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ea5d25/32.png) [@lolagranola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lolagranola)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2000, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trivial-pursuit-spreading-ignorance-again/41645/6 "2000-11-17T21:22:04Z")
Good. Talk to him or her about the “Shot heard around the world” question, ok?