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Post by paulpogue on Jul 14, 2009 16:52:00 GMT -8
Hey, gang, welcome to the latest edition of Tough Nerd Trivia, which is equal parts trivia game, chance to learn new things, and an opportunity to show off things we know that we think everyone else doesn't. (My personal illusions along those lines are usually disabused fairly quickly  .) The rules are simple: Ask a question or three that you think might stump your fellow nerd brethren, or just answer the ones that come along. If everyone misses your question, wait a few days and give the actual answer. Participate as much or as little as you wish. Remember, Google is cheating! Here's mine to start: 1. Explain the significance of Waris Hussein to science fiction history. 2. "There is no pain in this dojo ..." Martin Kove, playing Kreese, largely ad-libbed this speech in "The Karate Kid," but he got it from someplace else, a figure very familiar to comic book readers of the 1970s. Who? 3. If a character's address were to be given as "44 Schoolhouse Hill," what might you infer from this information? BONUS! It's one of the most famous lines in comic book history: "I'm not trapped in here with you. You're trapped in here with me." Who delivers this line on-panel, and in what context? |
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Post by Anders on Jul 14, 2009 21:17:16 GMT -8
The only one I have any clue to is the bonus question, and I'm not sure if this is the original but I know Rorschach says this or something very similar in prison. In the movie he does it after pouring cooking oil over a fellow inmate who was about to shank him, and I think it's the same situation in the comic.
Which I could check, of course. Just a moment.
Well, it turns out I was only partially correct. Rorschach's line is "I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me." and he doesn't say it on panel - it's quoted by the psychologist afterwards.
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 15, 2009 1:41:15 GMT -8
Yep! (Bonus points for catching that I quoted it wrong, which was unintentional.) The trick-question element was indeed the fact that Dr. Kovacs is actually the person who says it in the book.
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Post by Anders on Jul 15, 2009 9:27:57 GMT -8
Kovacs isn't the psychologist; that's Rorschach's civilian last name.
The psychologist's name is... Malcolm Long. (No, I wouldn't have known that without checking.)
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 15, 2009 13:50:27 GMT -8
Heh. Did I mention the part where this thread inevitably schools the hell out of me? Thanks for the catch . |
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Post by K-Box on Jul 15, 2009 17:24:09 GMT -8
I'll throw in two that relate directly to a much-discussed fandom here:
"Oh, look! Rocks!" and "Even a sponge has more life than I!"
Guess the fandom for simple points, and identify the contexts for bonus points.
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 15, 2009 17:40:34 GMT -8
Time for hints!
1. Closely related to a well-known Pogue obsession
2. "familiar to comic book readers of the 1970s" should be read closely and literally
3. The least modern-nerd-related
Answers in 24 hours.
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 15, 2009 17:43:11 GMT -8
Ooh! I know! I know!
Well, sort of. I guessed the fandom for sure, and I was pretty sure I knew the context, but when I googled the context for confirmation, I had the wrong character.
Anyway, since I got half of it without Google, I'll answer: Doctor Who.
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Post by jkcarrier on Jul 16, 2009 7:12:57 GMT -8
I'll throw in one:
Which DC hero was once portrayed by Audrey Hepburn?
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Post by Anders on Jul 16, 2009 9:12:58 GMT -8
For Audrey Hepburn I'm going to make a wild guess at Wonder Woman, but only because she's the oldest (as in "createst the longest ago") DC heroine of any stature I know of.
And I've thought up a theme for a few questions, all from comics. Most of these should be pretty easy.
Which named character dies soon after or just before this line?
1) You should see me dance the polka
2) I'm a hero hunter. I hunt heroes. I guess maybe I found one.
3) That the best you can do, you pansies?
4) Whatever's in him rustles as it leaves
5) Give me a Viking funeral
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 16, 2009 9:41:52 GMT -8
I'll throw in one: Which DC hero was once portrayed by Audrey Hepburn? Ooh, that is a HELL of a toughie! Since my "trick-question-sense" is tingling, I'm going to say Maid Marian, in "Robin and Marian," since the adventures of Robin Hood and Maid Marian are in continuity in DC. (Green Arrow time-travelled and met them a few times, I think.) |
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Post by jkcarrier on Jul 16, 2009 15:20:45 GMT -8
Anders: Nope, not Wonder Woman.
1. Mr. Hyde, in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
5. That old viking, who's name I forget, who helped Thor fight Fafnir in Simonson's run?
Paul: You're on the right track, but the character I have in mind was the star of her own DC title.
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Post by paulpogue on Jul 16, 2009 15:46:33 GMT -8
Okay, two days have passed with no answers to mine, so I'm going to pop up the answers: 1. Explain the significance of Waris Hussein to science fiction history. Hussein, a well-known British director, directed several episodes of early "Doctor Who," most notably the premiere, "An Unearthly Child." 2. "There is no pain in this dojo ..." Martin Kove, playing Kreese, largely ad-libbed this speech in "The Karate Kid," but he got it from someplace else, a figure very familiar to comic book readers of the 1970s. Who? Martin Kove was formerly a student of John Keehan, also known as Count Dante, who, it is said, liked to deliver some variation of this speech to his students. If you read comic books in the 1970s, you probably recognize Keehan as this guy:  3. If a character's address were to be given as "44 Schoolhouse Hill," what might you infer from this information? Myself, I would infer satanic or devilish intent, with a hint of ambiguity. As one of the last projects of his life, Mark Twain spent years trying to write what he once called "The Autobiography of Satan," a story of the devil on earth trying to get human beings to understand. The story went through many iterations, and was published after Twain's death as "The Mysterious Stranger," combining a few different versions. In most of the later versions, the devil's name was given as "Number 44." At one point, Twain tried to back-engineer a youthful devil into the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn ouvre. The name of that draft was "Schoolhouse Hill." Incidentally, the story was adapted into Claymation as part of "The Adventures of Mark Twain," in which Satan gives Tom, Huck and Becky a lesson in what it's like to be god. It lifts largely word-for-word from the final chapter of "The Mysterious Stranger," and is one of the greatest bits of nightmare fuel I've ever seen. |
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Post by K-Box on Jul 16, 2009 17:23:55 GMT -8
The Mysterious Stranger
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Post by Anders on Jul 16, 2009 21:14:51 GMT -8
1. Mr. Hyde, in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. 5. That old viking, who's name I forget, who helped Thor fight Fafnir in Simonson's run? 1 is correct. 5 isn't the one I was thinking of. I should have mentioned that neither the one who dies nor the one they are speaking to are vikings. |
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.) 