GrodsCorp

Trivia fascists

Wednesday 9 April 2008, 8:55 am

The Editor

Categories: Alcohol, GrodsNews

Tags: pub, trivia

So after recording GrodsThink last night (to be broadcast later this arvo — beer and work have got in the way, although sadly not at the same time) we headed to a nearby pub that was advertising trivia and $11 pot-and-parmas. During our meal the other trivia punters started to trickle in and it became increasingly clear that we were the odd demographic out. Us GrodsThinkers were all men in our early thirties wearing jean/t-shirt combos surrounded by couples in their fifties and sixties wearing ties and frocks.

The old dude running the trivia looked like he crawled out from under a shelf at the nearby university library and he announced three rounds of fifteen questions. By question five of the first round we knew that we were going to be totally pwned. This wasn’t your “name the title of Britney’s latest single” kind of pop trivia. This was all about European battles of the seventeenth century and obscure references to obscure literature. As Jeremy said at one point: “At least when I’m hopeless at pop trivia I can dismiss the questions as being irrelevant. When I’m hopeless at this trivia I feel dumb because I should know the answers.”

At the end of the first round MC Gerald announced that The; Fleshlight’s (sic) were actually coming second on six points! Problem was, the team coming first were nine points ahead on fifteen. While we weren’t being humiliated we were clearly not going to win. It was this moment that the pub chose to send a representative around the tables to collect the $5 participation fee from each punter.

What. The. Fuck? Who charges for trivia? And if you’re going to charge for trivia at least advertise the charge. And if you’re not going to advertise the charge collect the money before the trivia starts so we can choose not to take part.

“Is this money going towards the prizes?” Jeremy asked.
“Yes,” answered the money chick.
“Is there a second and third prize?” Jeremy asked.
“No,” answered the money chick.
“So what you’re saying,” we all noted in unison, “is that we’re essentially giving this money directly to that table that’s slaughtering us.”
“Um, yeah,” money chick conceded.

I won’t repeat the avalanche of swearing that followed, although I’m sure you can imagine it. I’ll simply note that Jeremy started preparing a law suit, Ant smashed a beer bottle on the table and looked menacingly around the room, Craig played Tetris on his iPhone with renewed frustration, The Happy Revolutionary started singing The Internationale, and I began preparing this angry blog post in my mind.

But we played on, taking satisfaction from the way that MC Gerald looked uncomfortable every time he had to say The; Fleshlight’s out loud when he called the scores, and alternating between writing “John Surname” (who’d pissed off early) and “;;;; ;;;;” every time we didn’t know the answer.

ps/- Here’s Jeremy’s take on the incident. What? Us groupthink?

29 Comments

Jeremy (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 9:13 am) #

Groupthink!
keri (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:00 am) #

At least Ant was dressed for a bar-fight in that sailor gear.
Ant Rogenous (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:11 am) #

MC Gerald can count his lucky stars that I didn’t give him a jolly rogering.
keri (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:18 am) #

Or make him walk the plank.
Bron (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:21 am) #

Aye aye.
Bron (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:29 am) #

I can’t believe they tried to get $5 off you guys - AFTER you’ve been playing, with NO advertising at all. That’s a bit rich.

It’s a bit like “false advertising” in a way - there were no advertisements to inform that trivia will cost $5 p.p. therefore you were induced into believing you were playing trivia for free on false pretences.

Sue ‘em.
Ant Rogenous (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:44 am) #

We should’ve guessed that a pub named the Percy Hotel might give us the shaft.
Jeremy (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:57 am) #

“I won’t repeat the avalanche of swearing that followed, although I’m sure you can imagine it. I’ll simply note that Jeremy started preparing a law suit, Ant smashed a beer bottle on the table and looked menacingly around the room, Craig played Tetris on his iPhone with renewed frustration, The Happy Revolutionary started singing The Internationale, and I began preparing this angry blog post in my mind.”

You know that the irony-challenged will take this fictionalised account as an admission and proceed accordingly, of course.
Bridgit Gread (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 10:58 am) #

This reminds me of that scene in Good Will Hunting when Ben Affleck goes into a bar at Harvard to pick up hot girls, and some guy asks him about the evolution of the market economy in the American colonies in the 18th century. Only Ben had Matt Damon there to help him.

Actually the most disturbing fact in this post is that Craig owns an iPhone.
The Editor (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:00 am) #

Craig’s a nerd’s nerd.
Bridgit Gread (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:01 am) #

You know that the irony-challenged will take this fictionalised account as an admission and proceed accordingly, of course.

At a certain RWDB soon:
“Angry anono-lawyer and friends lose at trivia. Launches suit to atone for own stupidity. Launch counter-monkeys.”
Damian (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:08 am) #

I’d have thrown in five bucks to hear Happy’s Internationale and to have witnessed the MC reading the team name aloud.
keri (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:10 am) #

I’d have thrown in an additional five if the name was changed to “Reverse Fleshlights”
Bridgit Gread (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:10 am) #

And I bet as the MC was reading The;Fleshlight’s aloud he was thinking “Gawd, these wankers can’t even punctuate, they’ve got no chance”.
Ant Rogenous (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:12 am) #

I’d have thrown in an additional five if the name was changed to “Reverse Fleshlights”

Or simply “The Devine; Fleshlight’s”.
EC (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:20 am) #

“I won’t repeat the avalanche of swearing that followed, although I’m sure you can imagine it. I’ll simply note that Jeremy started preparing a law suit, Ant smashed a beer bottle on the table and looked menacingly around the room, Craig played Tetris on his iPhone with renewed frustration, The Happy Revolutionary started singing The Internationale, and I began preparing this angry blog post in my mind.”

Coffee. On. Computer. Screen. Again.

Damn you Grodsters making with the funny!
keri (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:32 am) #

Serves you right for drinking Lattes like the filty Lefty you are, EC.
John Surname (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:33 am) #

At ;;;; ;;;;’s:

“That doyen of the bloggosphere that use to be anonmous, Jeremy Sear, loosed at trvia thereby proving that lefties are ; involved in eugenics and an it also prooves that he is a supporter of tewrorism.
aghast comrades “
Damian (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:37 am) #

Surname, that’s; uncanny.
Jeremy (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:43 am) #

It was so believable I had to check that it wasn’t real.
John Surname (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:44 am) #

;;;; is nothing, if not predictable.
EC (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 11:47 am) #

True Keri.
Wah (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 1:56 pm) #

Were the winners those sort of people who really take Triv seriously and high-five when they yell they an answer right? Thought so, cunts.

I once went to a trivia night at the Keilor Pub, which was a fundraiser and they ran out of time to go through the answers so we had to trust them to get in touch with the winners.

How can an activity about smarts be run by people so dumb?
Tony T. (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 3:42 pm) #

Where is this trivia? I like the sound of a quiz that asks… ahem… proper questions, as opposed to the Britney fvcken ones, crap pop tunes, sh1t TV and cvnting “celebrities”, like what we got before we bailed from the EB. Gimme obscure battles any day.

I just noticed you link to Jeremy, who links to you, who links to him, who links to you. That’s nice.
The Editor (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 3:45 pm) #

I believe it’s called the Percy, at the top of Lygon St in Carlton.
Tony T. (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 3:52 pm) #

Percy Jones’ pub, right? Might have to check out the triv. Been doing hard cold turkey this year since we (me & Boynton) got sick of all the aforementioned crap topics.

As a tip. You might want to check out upstairs at the Rathdowne Tavern. (Wednesdays from tonight.) There’s a new trivia starting there which is run by a mate of mine. No charge.
The Editor (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 4:04 pm) #

Thanks, Tony. Might head along one week.
Dam Buster of Preston (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 4:45 pm) #

Just don’t piss Percy the owner off!
http://www.blueseum.org/tiki-index.php?page=Peter+Jones

After living near Lygon Street for years through uni he was always easy to spot walking along at 6ft 6! a very big unit.
Jeremy (Wednesday 9 April 2008, 6:04 pm) #

Wednesday night trivia would clash with Groupthink F.C., unfortunately.