DE was tasked with setting the questions this week and went for an 8-Bit inspired quiz and, controversially, no nonce round! How would we survive without the Quiz Night staple? Pretty well as it turns out. SDC & EDC were missing this week as were MW & GW, but they said they would be back for next week which is great.
We started a little late so DE was keen to get through as much as possible as quickly as possible and the 8-Bit goodness started immediately with 30 popular music hits given the electronic plinky-plink treatment and fired at us in machine gun fashion!
Before we could say "Calm down, D!" it was the next round of 8-Bit greatness; TV Theme Tunes. I thought this would be a breeze when the round was announced but after working out that the theme to Ally McBeal was the first cab off the rank I started to get twitchy! The round did give Miss L the chance to shout 'FLOWERY TWATS!' when she realised one of the shows was Faulty Towers.
The third 8-Bit round rattled out as DE did one on James Bond themes much to the consternation of some of the players who thought that the quiz master was trying to curry favour with his landlord - I can assure you I had nothing to do with this (thanks DE, that was the Christmas prezzie I really wanted!!!)
This was another round I thought we would walk but it was harder than I thought. Interestingly, one of the answers was 'The Man With The Golden Gun' by Lulu which gave me a chance to regale the mob with the story of how the song was nearly banned because of its lyrics basically confirming Scaramanga only shagged before an assassination attempt to help his aim (Love is required, whenever he's hired/It comes just before the kill) - racy stuff. The gang were absolutely riveted with my anecdote...
In a break from the 8-Bit shenanigans, the next round was pictures of things that had the letter 'z' in them. There were some corking answers jotted down, Miss L's suggestion for 'bulldozer'? J-Z-B asking if I thought DE would notice!!! There was the first mini breakdown of the game in this round when 'snazzy' was announced as the answer to one picture to howls across the screen...snazzy for fuxake!!!
On to the geography round, in one of the questions TC enquired if the largest country in terms of landmass was USSR or USSSSSR as it was called in RH's quiz not so long ago! "Fuck off" came the reply from the other side of Brookside Close!
History was next up and this was the start of what can only be described as DE's Achilles-Tongue! His pronunciation of some places/events was nothing short of amazing, he had us all in unintentional hysterics. 'Ageing-court' instead of Agincourt and 'Thermo-ploppy' instead of Thermopylae were highlights from this round although there were many more to follow throughout the night!
DE asked for the scores at the end of the round and we were all pretty even with the exception of TC who proudly announced "we got 23 out of 24, just got the last one wrong". Now you may imagine he would receive a verbal pat on the back from us as a sign of appreciation for his skill and knowledge, erm not quite. RH said "No wonder you did well in that round, you were around for most of those gigs mate!" - ouch!
In a break between rounds we talked about the meme going around saying that under COVID lockdowns people had become either a hunk, a drunk or a chunk, RH declared that he had become a 'frumpy jump' - riiight! AM was keen to congratulate DE on a great quiz but the host had gone for a drink leaving him talking to animated wallpaper "Gotta say D, oh hang on, I'm talking to a fucking snow scene!!!"
Next up was a mammoth general knowledge quiz, 50 questions that stretched our brains and our bladders! Midway through the round TC declared "I've ran out of ink in my pen!" I chipped in saying that I had "writers cramp", TC helpfully suggested that I "sit on it, it will feel like someone else, it will be ok"...
Time for more fat-tonguedness from the host, 'Sly-there-in' for one of the houses in Harry Potter, and it turns out that the artist who painted the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican was some bloke called 'Mikel-angle-oh'! Cue more laughter from the faces on screen...
It was a long round, longer than usual, long enough for one of the players to disappear off screen and 'drop the kids off at the pool' according to their playing partner. I cannot confirm if this is true or not and I'm too much of a gentleman to reveal who it was that was accused.
Back to the 8-Bit action as DE revealed a picture round showing 'lego' versions of famous movie characters. The mattress tongue was out again; 'Hong Kong Pooey' and 'Lando Car-i-sian' are two that stick out. One of the answers was 'Mary' from There's Something About Mary, cue me and DB cribbing lines from the film, much to our own amusement (if no one else!) "Exceptional my ass...", "First chink in the armour, Ted!"
In another break, AM nipped off screen for what felt like ages, with an eye on the time DE asked "Can we start the quiz, mate?", AM quickly appeared and spouted another surreal, middle-aged line "Hang on, only half of the toaster is working, I've got to flip my crumpet"!
The host threw in another left-field round right near the end; 'Name The Cartoon Dogs'! I didn't know a) there were so many cartoon dogs, and b) I knew so many cartoon dogs! Cracking round, like a quiz pallet cleanser, really enjoyed it.
And before someone on the quiz could say 'It-is-a-fix-if-R-wins-as-there-was-a-James-Bond-round-basically-for-him!', the quiz was over. The results were in and we just shaded it (on account of the James Bond round that was put in just for me!). Joking aside, like I say every week, it isn't about the result, it is about spending a few hours with quality people doing a quality quiz and that is exactly what we did.
Kudos to DE for the 8-Bit theme and for producing the first quiz in almost a year without a nonce round!!! Special mention needs to be made of his amazing inability to read his own questions! I have a note here that just says 'Arise, Sir D of Quizzage' (although if DE reads it out loud it will almost certainly be pronounced as 'Quazzage'!)
It is my turn to host next week, everyone needs to set their faces to stunned as we do 'The Big Fat Quiz Of The Quiz Night Quiz'!!! A quiz about us and everything that has happened from March to December 2020.