History Main / UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer

* ''Disney Magazine'' included quizzes written by Dave Smith, founder of the Disney Archives, and encouraged readers to submit their written answers. Smith managed to stump everyone in one of his quizzes when he asked for the title of the first Disney movie to receive a ScreenToStageAdaptation performed in New York. The answer: ''{{Disney/Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs}}'', which had a play in Radio City Music Hall 15 years before the Broadway version of ''{{Disney/Beauty And The Beast}}''.

'''Q:''' "What is [[spoiler:liederkranz]]?"\\

'''Q:''' "What is [[spoiler:"Wall Street lays an egg"]]?"\\

'''Q:''' "What is [[spoiler:a guppy]]?\\

* Even the children's game show ''{{Knightmare}}'' could sometimes have really obscure questions you'd hardly expect English schoolchildren to know the answers to, such as the name of the first hobbit to hold the One Ring in ''TheLordOfTheRings''. [[spoiler:This is a case of an unnecessarily ambiguous question, rather than a unexpectedly difficult one. The first time a Hobbit physically holds the The Ring is in the first chapter of the first book of the trilogy: Bilbo, at his birthday party. But the earliest occurrence of a hobbit holding the Ring ''chronologically'' is Déagol, Gollum's brother, hundreds of years before Bilbo got it. That is mentioned in the ''second'' chapter of the first book.]] Combined with the game show's physical challenges, it was no wonder that seeing anyone actually win the game was a rare sight (in fact, not a single team won in the first and third years).

::: The equation was for the combustion of glucose (a key element of said powder). According to those behind the show, "an explosion in a custard factory" is the standard example used when the combustion of glucose is taught at school, (it's also a common example of the effects of Static Electricity) and that's how she knew it.

** On a German call in show, there once was a question of "animals starting with 's'" with a really high price. Of course the answere were obscure as usual, but one caller actually answered one correctly with "Stirnlappenbasilisk" (Plumed Basilisk). Which is why this animal became the mascot of critiques of this kind of show.

** Carried over to "The Lost Gold". However, each question is Pirate-themed, was worth $26,606.06 (minus the six cents), and if no-one gives the right answer, a Skull and Crossbones replaces where the correct answer would be revealed. Before each question of this type, the Set-Up music would play and the Captain would be heard crying over [[spoiler:his curse]]. Schmitty becomes more and more terrfied each and any time he hears it.

** Another Python sketch had a British television host a game show with the the figures of Communism; Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara, and Mao Tung. Marx, Che, and Lenin are shot down with obscure English Premier Football and Jerry Lee Lewis questions (oddly Mao knew the Lewis one).
*** That was on the Live At City Center album. On the show, it was to name the Teddy Johnson and Pearl Carr song which won at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest. ("Sing Little Birdie.")

--> '''The Answer''': [[spoiler:Coulomb's Law]].

** For one team, this final question required them to correctly identify which happened first: Prince Charles and Lady Diana's marriage [[spoiler:29 July, 1981]] or Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's [[spoiler:4 July, 1982]]. They got it wrong, and lost 525,000 pounds.
** Another team got the question "Which of these two US TV comedies ran for the most series?" with choices Friends [[spoiler:10]] and Fraiser [[spoiler:11]].

* In the LooneyTunes short "The Ducksters", Daffy is the host of a radio game show, and Porky is the hapless contestant. Daffy throws quite a few of these at Porky throughout the cartoon, including asking for the maiden name of Cleopatra's aunt, or asking him to name an opera from a ''single note'' ("C-C-Calavera Rusticana?" "Audience?" "''Rigoletto!''"). Porky gets even after winning the $2 million cash prize and he buys the radio station with it. Daffy gets the same treatment Porky did after blowing the question ("What was the latitude and longitude of the Wreck Of The Hesperus?").

* The mini-game "M.P.I.Q." in ''MarioParty 3'' will sometimes ask what the current record time or distance on some other mini-game is. This is hard enough if you're playing on your own cartridge. If you're playing on someone else's? ''Forget it.''
** What's about twice as bad is when it asks you how many times a certain board has been played. '''Nobody''' keeps track of that! It gets even worse as the game is played more and more often, and you have to choose between 35, 36 or 37 times.

* Subverted in the first PajamaSam game, in which one of the questions of an in-game quiz concerns the response of a young French duke when he was presented a question on policy. All four possible answers are variants on "I have no idea," "That's too hard, I'm just a kid," or simply, "Huh?" All four answers are correct (except, of course, the duke said it in French).
** But played straight in the second game, where Sam must [[ItMakesSenseInContext answer an employee questionnaire to gain access to an executive washroom key.]] The questions range from easy to impossible-to-answer-wrong, except for the last one, where Sam is asked a difficult economics question. Once again, all four answers are variants of "I don't know." The secret is to locate [[ItMakesSenseInContext a friendly carrot who has been studying economic theory]], and bring him to the question. He answers the question for you, making the next MacGuffin reachable, and making me still know what Giffen's Paradox is. [[hottip:**:The theory that as a price rises on a good, demand will rise as well.]]

** But played straight in the second game, where Sam must [[ItMakesSenseInContext answer an employee questionnaire to gain access to an executive washroom key.]] The questions range from easy to impossible-to-answer-wrong, except for the last one, where Sam is asked a difficult economics question. Once again, all four answers are variants of "I don't know." The secret is to locate [[ItMakesSenseInContext a friendly carrot who has been studying economic theory]], and bring him to the question. He answers the question for you, making the next MacGuffin reachable, and making me still know what Giffen's Paradox is.**

[=**=] The theory that as a price rises on a good, demand will rise as well.

[=*=] It's Assur. Or Nimrud (Kalhu). Or Ninevah. Which one is correct depends on what time period you're talking about.

* The Final ''[=~Jeopardy!~=]'' clue for [[http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3109 July 23, 2009]]:\\

The day that this episode aired, the ''Jeopardy!'' forums were abuzz with people (including the returning champion on that episode) who pointed out the difficulty of that clue, as none of them had even heard of the cheese, nor was it listed in ''two'' different cheese enyclopedias. [[hottip:*:That may be more a failure of the research material than an indication of the obscurity of the cheese. It has its own page on {{Wikipedia}}, and has since 2006.]] In a poll asking for the hardest Final Jeopardy! from that season, this clue received more than 70 votes for being the hardest, with all the other choices having at the most one or two. Whenever an extremely difficult clue pops up on the game, it is now sort of a RunningGag on the ''Jeopardy!'' forum to mention [[spoiler:Liederkranz]] in some way.

* ''WheelOfFortune'' can sometimes have a sadistic streak in its own BonusRound, where a contestant is given R, S, T, L, N and E plus three more consonants and a vowel to aid in solving a shorter puzzle. The difficulty stems from some incredibly short puzzles (for most of the 1990s, few bonus puzzles were over six letters long, sometimes getting as small as three letters), puzzles with several rarely picked letters (e.g. JURY BOX), answers that are obscure to the category, and/or large numbers of vowels (e.g. OAK BUREAU or IOWANS; no matter which vowel is picked, there's still a lot of empty space to fill).

* Cashword, a special in-game bonus on ''Super {{Password}}'', was meant to be difficult to achieve due to its high stakes, but sometimes it was just ridiculous. Even with five digits on the line and three chances, how would ''you'' convey "backgammon" with just a one-word clue?

---> "What does this chemical equation represent?"

* Collegiate quiz bowl tournaments can be known for this difficulty.

** In fact, a British show actually got fined for being unfair after an instance where "balaclava" and "rawlplug" were listed as items a woman would keep in their purse. What kind of woman would keep a ''balaclava'' in their purse ... besides a burglar?

** For one team, this final question required them to correctly identify which happened first: Prince Charles and Lady Diana's marriage (29 July, 1981) or Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne's (4 July, 1982). They got it wrong, and lost 525,000 pounds.
** Another team got the question "Which of these two US TV comedies ran for the most series?" with choices Friends (10 series) and Fraiser (11 series).

* Parodied in ''[=~Monty Python's Flying Circus~=]'' where John Cleese's game show host asks a housewife (played by Terry Jones) a very obscure question about philosophy. When she protests she has no idea, Cleese nudges her to take a guess, which she does, correctly guessing Henri Bergson (despite never having heard of him). She has more difficulty with the second question, What do penguins eat?

* In the LooneyTunes short "The Ducksters", Daffy is the host of a radio game show, and Porky is the hapless contestant. Daffy throws quite a few of these at Porky throughout the cartoon, including asking for the maiden name of Cleopatra's aunt, or asking him to name an opera from a ''single note'' ("C-C-Calavera Rusticana?" "Audience?" "''Rigoletto!''").

* Played straight with a twist in British quiz ''Pointless''. Given a category, the aim is to name the most obscure member. But even though giving obscure answers is the point, it's still unexpected when it happens. Also, sometimes it's the fact that a given answer ''is'' obscure that's unexpected; sometimes the 100 people surveyed will simply miss an answer that you would expect to be obvious.

** Heck, a British one (ITV play) actually got fined when "balaclava" and "rawlplug" came up as items a woman keeps in their purse. Seriously, what kind of woman would keep a ''balaclava'' in their purse ... besides a burglar?

* Parodied in ''SamAndMax: Situation: Comedy'', where you have to win "Who's Never Going to Be a Millionaire?". The questions are just as ridiculously arcane as you'd expect with a title like that. [[spoiler: To win, you have to switch the question cards with questions that are insanely simple.]]

-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is the capital of Assyria?[[hottip:*:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assur That would be Assur]].]]

[[spoiler: It's Ninevah, by the way.]]

* Even the children's game show ''{{Knightmare}}'' could sometimes have really obscure questions you'd hardly expect English schoolchildren to know the answers to, such as the name of the first hobbit to hold the One Ring in ''TheLordOfTheRings''. [[spoiler:The correct was said to be Bilbo — at his birthday party, though [[TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] points out that technically it was Déagol, Gollum's brother.]] Combined with the game show's physical challenges, it was no wonder that seeing anyone actually win the game was a rare sight (in fact, not a single team won in the first and third years).

** Carried over to "The Lost Gold". However, each question is Pirate-themed, was worth $26,606.06 (minus the six cents), and if no-one gives the right answer, a Skull and Crossbones replaces where the correct answer would be revealed. Before each question of this type, the Set-Up music would play and the Captain would be heard crying over [[spoiler:his curse]]. Schmitty becomes more and more terrfied each time he hears it.

-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is the capital of Assyria[[hottip:*:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assur That would be Assur]].]]?
-->'''Sir Robin:''' ...I don't know that! *flung off the bridge*

-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is the capital of Assyria[[hottip:*:[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assur]].]]?

-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is the capital of Assyria?

* The mini-game "M.P.I.Q." in ''MarioParty 3'' will sometimes ask what the current record time or distance on some other mini-game is. Good luck with this if you're playing on someone else's cartridge or even your own.

** Another Python sketch had a British television host a game show with the the figures of Communism; Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Che Guevara, and Mao Tung. Marx, Che, and Lenin are shot down with obscure English Premier Football and Jerry Lewis questions (oddly Mao knew the Lewis one).

* In version 3 of ''[[YouDontKnowJack You Don't Know Jack]]'' (a series of PC games that play like a game show) there are "impossible questions", worth a ridiculous $20,000 (normal questions go from $1,000 to $6,000), like "Within two years, how much time was there between the invention of the can and the invention of the can opener?" Unlike most of the other multiple-choice questions you have to type in your answer (in this case [[spoiler:48 years]]).

** Carried over to "The Lost Gold". However, each question is Pirate-themed, was worth $26,606.06, and if noone gives the right answer, a Skull and Crossbones replaces where the correct answer would be revealed. Before each question of this type, the Set-Up music would play and the Captain would be heard crying over [[spoiler:his curse]]. Schmitty becomes more and more terrfied each time he hears it.

----

* The mini-game "M.P.I.Q." in ''MarioParty 3'' will sometimes ask what the current record time or distance on some other mini-game is. Good luck with this if you're playing on someone else's cartridge.

* ''WheelOfFortune'' can sometimes have a sadistic streak in its own BonusRound, where a contestant is given R, S, T, L, N and E plus three more consonants and a vowel to aid in solving a shorter puzzle. The difficulty stems from some incredibly short puzzles (for most of the 1990s, few bonus puzzles were over six letters long, sometimes getting as small as three letters), puzzles with several rarely picked letters (e.g. JURY BOX), answers that are obscure to the category, and/or large numbers of vowels (e.g. OAK BUREAU; no matter which vowel is picked, there's still a lot of empty space to fill).

* In one of the stories in "Joker's Asylum", TheJoker takes over a game show and presents the contestants with ridiculously difficult questions. To their surprise and relief, failure to answer correctly results in harmless joke penalties rather than the expected lethal ones -- the ''real'' target of the joke is the show's executives, who are cynically exploiting the incident for ratings (in a control booth bugged by the Joker).