The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2016

Every year, in the run-up to Christmas, the MSE team get the enormous joy, pleasure and cultural delight (indeedy) of facing my annual pub quiz. This long and proud tradition is in its seventh year and I continue to take their groans as encouragement.

Some of the rounds don’t work in print (eg, the round where I asked celebs I bumped into to ask a question and then the teams had to guess the voice; the one-member-a-team press-ups challenge; the Fresh Prince rap battle; the Big Bang Theory-theme contest; the TV themes round…) so this is a pruned-down version.

Let’s see how you do. Feel free to put your answers in the discussion below – NO GOOGLING. I will blog the official answers next week.

Right so now I’ve got my razzle, dazzle jacket on, lets do it. And before I start, a quick thanks to my fellow quizmaster MSE Helen and our referee MSE Catherine for all their help with this.

Round 1: The Martin Round

Quite simply, a round I set based on things that interest me…

1. What is the name of the character who turned into the Incredible Hulk in the 1980s TV series starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno?
2. Is the pound the world’s biggest currency?
   (Ie, so there’s no currency where one of its prime unit, eg, dollars, buys more than a pound.)
3. What is the lowest scoring complete clearance that’s theoretically possible in snooker?
4. What is a Hot Spot not…?
5. In the year of Trump, even though he got 2.5 millon fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton, how many electoral college votes are needed to win the US election? (Within five.)
6. What is Jack Ruby famous, or more accurately, infamous for?
7. What does the ‘S’ on Superman’s outfit signify…?
8. It was reported (not necessarily verified) that only one female competitor in the 1976 Olympics was excused from having to take a gender test – who was it?
9. What is the name for someone who has finished their final university exams, but not yet graduated?
10. Why is minus 40 degrees a special temperature?

Round 2: The ‘Can you ask me about people, TV, movies and stuff?’ Round

1. Who won the most recent completed season of Celebrity Big Brother in August 2016?
2. Disappointingly for us (MSE), one prominent politician in the summer opined that “this country has had enough of experts”. But who said it?
3. Which was Roger Moore’s last Bond film?
4. Name all of Rudolph’s fellow reindeers whose names begin with ‘D’?
5. In The Simpsons, what address do the Simpson family live at? (Half point for street, full point for whole address.)
6. In which country does the mojito cocktail originate?
7. Which 1979 film had a spaceship called Nostromo?
8. Which actor played Robb Stark in Game of Thrones?
9. Hamilton is a very popular Broadway and soon-to-be-West-End show. But, which US banknote will you find him on?
10. If Diana, Princess of Wales, was alive today, how old would she be?

Round 3: The Helen Round

This year MSE Helen was my co-host and so she came up with a round of questions on things she loves too… and frankly if everyone had thought mine difficult…

1. Who is the Eternal President of North Korea, despite having died in 1994?
2. In the first book/series of A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, the Stark kids and Jon Snow each get a direwolf. What are the direwolves’ names?
3. What is an enclave?
4. The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the world’s tallest building. But, in which city is the world’s second tallest (completed) building?
5. What’s the state capital of Montana?
6. What’s the longest continuously running musical in the West End?
7. Which four US presidents are on Mount Rushmore?
8. Of what did Churchill say: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning?”
9. Some legends have held the Man Utd no 7 shirt – including Cantona, Beckham and Ronaldo. Memphis Depay wears it now. But, who had it immediately before him?
10. Who is Minister for Consumers (or the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility, to give this person their full title)?

Round 4: Team GB Gold Medal Winners at Rio 2016

Name the 15 GB individual gold medal winners and the event they won in (tip: two people won gold medals in two individual events). Plus list the nine GB teams who won gold medals and the event name.

Answers next week.

Past year’s quizzes
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2015
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2014
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2013
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2012
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2011… can you beat the team?
The MSE Christmas pub quiz 2010… can you beat the team?