What are your favorite date questions?
After being stuck in a dating rut for a long while, I’ve recently started getting back in the game. Everyone knows the standard questions which always seem to be asked when first meeting someone.
I’m curious what quirky/fun/insightful questions you have used or would like to use when on a date with someone new? ie; Do you give your pets bday/christmas presents?
On a side note, I’ve been lurking on the boards for some time now and this is my first post. 
Hi Xenex, welcome to the boards!
I don’t really have an answer since I haven’t needed a first date in years now, but sounds like this is gonna be moved to another forum, whichever the mods think is best.
I’ve been married for quite a while, but when I was dating, one of the questions that charmed me the most was “What was your favorite book when you were a child?”
The young man who asked me that question was, like me, very fond of Through the Looking Glass, and after a long and pleasant conversation, we ended up humping like weasels. Or white rabbits.
Welcome to the SDMB, xenex!
As a special gift for your arrival, I’m gonna move this thread to In My Humble Opinion (IMHO); that’s where our poll-oriented threads live.
And as a special welcom, here’s your first drive-by:
My favorite date question is, “What happened in Sioux Falls, Iowa on August 19, 1865?”
Mine is “Want to have a toothpick fight?”
I like to ask (of dates and new friends) “tell me something about yourself you don’t normally tell strangers”.
“Who’s your favorite author?” (This question can tell you a lot about a person, and provide a great basis for conversation.)
“If you could take a day and do anything you wanted, anything at all, what would you do?” (Ditto: you find out their favorite activities and where their interests lie.)
“Do you have any pets?” (Animal lovers are good folks.)
“What do you like most about your job?” (Tells you about their goals and ambitions.)
Nothing like a no-nonsense vetting question, eh? 
I regret to say I’m at a total loss for smoooov date questions; but anecdotally I can say that the most memorable “first date” interrogative ever put to me was “Have you ever done it on acid?” (This while in the queue at a Film Festival. Boy, did that movie seem to last longer than its running time.)
So is a toothpick fight fencing with toothpicks? Do you use your fingers or your mouth? Last time I was out to lunch the chopstick fight was a big hit.
OK, I’ll bite.
Yes. You use your fingers. I had not considered the mouth possibility.
Hmm, chopsticks. Further testing is needed.
I’d have to disagree on this question. “What’s your favorite…” questions are terrible. You’ll probably get a dead-end “oh I dunno…” type answer. Like when you ask someone “What’s your favorite kind of music.” Then they say “I like to listen to everything.”
If you’re a reader, and you want to find a similar quality in your match, and you want to see what kind of tastes in novels they have, then rephrase your question to:
“Have you read any good books lately?” or
“I just finished reading Such n Such, and I loved it. Have you enjoyed any good stroy lately.”
Or something like that. Then, you can progress into the “Do you have a favorite author” question. Notice it’s not “Who is your favorite…”
I just think wording it like that makes the conversation more comfortable for the person. You dont want to ask a question that he/she doesn’t know the answer to. And a lot of people don’t know what their favorite is. They’ll say “ohh… I like all kinds”. Grrr I hate that response.
Just say “Do you have.” If they feel pationately about certain authors, then they’ll answer “Yes, I love yada yada yada.”
But if they dont have one, then they can just say “No, not really.” And they’ll still feel like they answered your question. Which they did. And you can ask another one. And keep it going.
This is the same with movies. Don’t ask someone what his or her favorite movie is. Ask them if they saw something they liked recently. That will keep the conversation moving. You can progress from there if you want to find out about their taste in moves. Like, if they say they saw X-Men yesterday and loved it, then you can say: “So you like action movies like that?” “Do you normally go for action movies?” Yea? Have you seen any comedies lately? I saw Whatever, and didn’t think it was funny…" Progress like that. Dont just dive right in.
The idea of date conversation isn’t just about finding out the person’s interests and life history. It’s about sharing a conversation. Dont try to learn EVERYTHING at one sitting. Have a comfortable pleasant conversation, and you’ll have more 2nd and 3rd, etc dates. And you can learn a little bit more each time.
Dont pass out a freakin survey over lunch. It’s lame. And a lot of people hate answering those types of questions – they find it difficult to think of their “FAVORITE”, if they like a whole lot.
Your train of thought might be “Oh, if she has many favorites, then I will get her talking all night with that ONE question!!” But that’s almost never the case. You ask someone “What’s your favorite” and they think “ughhhh. ummmmm. Oh, I dunno.”
… lame
Anyway, it’s just all IMO, of course.
I agree with Bear_Nenno: I like to ask questions like “What’s the last book you read?”, “What’s the last movie you saw?”, “What’s the last concert you went to?”, etc. Of course, each of those questions is followed by “What did you think of it?”
I’m one of those people who hates “favorite” questions, because I have pretty broad, eclectic tastes and don’t really have a favorite anything.
I also like FilmGeek’s suggestion of “Tell me something about yourself that you don’t normally tell strangers.” I’ll have to remember that one.
One of us has been whooshed. I guess it might be me, because it never occurred to me that there might be more to it beyond the initial pun.
err…there was was a pun?
would someone mind explaining it?
Are you a cop?
It’s a question about a date, rather than a date question…
That’s interesting, because there aren’t any white rabbits in TTLG. 
I think Bear_Nenno has got the idea. If you actually pay attention to the conversations you have with friends you will notice that you mostly just express opinions without asking questions. Just like on the SDMB - one person expresses an opinion and then unbidden someone else agrees or refutes it.
“I saw Wedding Crashers last night. It was pretty good, Will Ferrel didn’t make me feel sick.”
“I like Ferrell, blah blah blah…”
So starting off as Bear_Nenno suggests by making some declaration before wanting an answer seems to instantly put people at ease.