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I've Got Ives In My Pants

The 66th Semi-Annual Williams College Trivia Contest, May, 1999

THE QUESTIONS

SUPER BONI

  1. (12:00) Rock and Roll -- While the on-air music relied on newer, less familiar fare, this Super Bonus was filled with Byrds and Yardbirds and other animals (and Animals) of classic rock. Lyrics, photos, lineups, and pages and pages of death warmed over. Move over, Rover.... and let Jimi take over. Yeah.
  2. (4:00) Famous Last Words -- Ask not for whom this Bonus tolled. It tolled for thee.

HOUR BONI

  1. Hawai'i (questions only) -- Not quite directly between Williamstown and Tonga floats our 50th, and most poi-filled state. But unfamiliarity forced Ives in My Pants to "aloha" everyone's scores.
  2. Audio Bonus (in MP3 format) and Answer Key -- Scheduled before trivia players got too sleepy, this dopey bonus made everyone happy.
  3. Espionage -- Teams who failed to solve this Hour Bonus about secret spy stuff would self-destruct in just sixty minutes.
  4. Candy Bar Cross-Sections -- Mounds of Mounds (and other candy bars), as sliced in half and seen from the side, measured players' nougat recognition skills.
  5. Child's Play -- All the books, TV shows, and singalongs of everybody's blissful childhood, without the part where you had to wear a tutu and eat off the floor from a dog dish. Oh, sorry.... that was just me.
  6. XXX -- Team could score up to ten pulsing points, if they answered questions that got harder, harder, HARDER.
  7. The XXX-Rated Video Bonus -- The reason the camera was invented.
  8. The Technobonus -- This bonus guaranteed through 12-31-99.
(*There was also a "Computer Hour Bonus" around 2 or 3 AM. Filled with mumbo jumbo, it had a tiny note on its last page informing teams that (ahem) the bonus was fake. The first team to spot the warning and call in got two points, and a couple of others could get 1. Eh. Good thing it wasn't a close contest.)

ACTION TRIVIA

  1. (12:30) Come perform "Nietzsche In Love"
  2. (1:30) Show us the job interview for the next president of Williams College.
  3. (2:30) Come perform "The Phantom Menace... Of The Opera!"
  4. (3:30) Come to the station and fail the Turing Test
  5. (4:30) Present to us the platonic ideal of Stanley Kubrick films.
  6. (5:30) Perform "J.A. Confidential"
  7. (6:30) Show us your interpretation of "Beyond the Valley of the Muppets"

SECRET BONUS:

A highly elaborate combination of on-air scripts, paper handouts, computer websites, Simpsons guest stars, and frequent trips back and forth to Baxter.

THE DREADED ULTRA BONUS

FINAL SCORES

ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES