History Main / UnexpectedlyObscureAnswer

* Played with on the Comedy Central show ''Vs.'' Winning teams would be given two choices for categories, one hilariously obscure, and one hilariously gamed to their advantage. For instance, a team of Grateful Dead fans would be given the choices of "International Grandmasters of Chess" or "Jerry Garcia Songs". Occasionally the teams would spring for the obscure category, for which they did indeed have a question prepared. It also came into play in the show's bonus round: a representative of the winning team spins a wheel to determine the category of a final question; get it right, and the team wins a major prize. One wedge is the "Easy Question" (e.g. "Which is bigger: the Sun or your head?"). The other five are categories like "Incredibly Difficult Tax Code Trivia."

** 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[[hottip:*: And can I have her number?]] ... besides a burglar? And a rawlplug is a piece of hardware used to anchor a screw into a drywall or plaster wall.

** 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? And a rawlplug is a piece of hardware used to anchor a screw into a drywall or plaster wall.

* ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}

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, although that may be more a failure of the researchers and 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 became a RunningGag on the ''Jeopardy!'' forum to mention [[spoiler:Liederkranz]] in some way.

** Opera and ballet categories are usually known for their extreme difficulty, often leading to blank stares for at least the bottom three clues nearly every time. This difficulty is sometimes [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when the writers name the category something like "The Dreaded Opera Category." This is more a case of the whole topic being relatively unknown in the general population than the questions being unreasonable difficult for the category, though.

* Played for laughs in the "Bridge of Death" segment of ''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''. Watch it [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMxWLuOFyZM#t=0m53s here]].
* 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 (actually song lyrics) that are insanely simple.]]

* 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 ("Which great opponent of Cartesian Dualism resists the reduction of psychological phenomena to a physical state and insists there is no point of contact between the the extended and the unextended?") . 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?
** 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 version 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.")
* Played for drama in the episode "Quiz Show" of ''BoyMeetsWorld''. A traditional Quiz Bowl-type game show is revamped in order to [[WeAreStillRelevantDammit appeal to youngsters]] by ditching their acadamia-themed questions for pop culture and "stupid question-stupid answer" type questions — much to Feeny's dismay. Naturally, this made goofballs Cory and Shawn (and the not-so-goofy-but-still-on-the-team Topanga) popular returning champions. When the executives wanted Cory and Shawn out of the game, they brought back the academia to force the team to lose, including one question that Feeny answered in a [=~Chekhov's Lecture~=] earlier in the episode, which the team wasn't able to answer.

* 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?".
* 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 [[IfItBleedsItLeads cynically exploiting the incident for ratings]] (in a control booth bugged by the Joker).

* 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). Then 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 teaching the player what Giffen's Paradox is. [[hottip:**:The theory that as a price rises on a good, demand will rise as well.]]

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

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

* 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.

'''Q:''' "What is [[hottip:answer:Liederkranz]]?"
:::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, although that may be more a failure of the researchers and 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 became a RunningGag on the ''Jeopardy!'' forum to mention that cheese in some way.

::Even if the date leads you to [[spoiler:Wall Street]], and even if you are familiar with ''Variety'''s idiosyncratic phrasings, how would you possibly get the [[spoiler:lays an egg]] part? (As with the above example, this clue smoked the competition in a poll asking for the toughest final clue.)

:::This question was based on a common but erroneous belief that [[spoiler:Robert John Lechmere Guppy]] was a clergyman.

:::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 became a RunningGag on the ''Jeopardy!'' forum to mention [[spoiler:Liederkranz]] in some way.

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

'''Q:''' "What is [[hottip:answer:Liederkranz]]?"\\
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 became a RunningGag on the ''Jeopardy!'' forum to mention [[spoiler:Liederkranz]] in some way.

Even if the date leads you to [[spoiler:Wall Street]], and even if you are familiar with ''Variety'''s idiosyncratic phrasings, how would you possibly get the [[spoiler:lays an egg]] part? (As with the above example, this clue smoked the competition in a poll asking for the toughest final clue.)
*** You could get it because it was a ridiculously famous headline, and [[spoiler:lays an egg]] was a ridiculously common catchphrase of the time.

This question was based on a common but erroneous belief that [[spoiler:Robert John Lechmere Guppy]] was a clergyman.
* ''{{Pyramid}}'' with Donny Osmond: the Winner's Circle BonusRound was sometimes full of this. One example cited was "[[http://gameshow.ipbhost.com/lofiversion/index.php/t1362.html Things on a Cave Wall]]"; the contestant who was receiving the clues said "things in a cave" but that wasn't enough for the judges. Keep in mind that the person giving the clues must give only a list of things that fit the topic given, and must not say any part of the category name.
** Easily the hardest Winner's Circle box ever was "Colors in the Olympic Rings," even if it ''was'' on an Olympics-themed week. Try describing ''that'' in list form.
*** Black, Red, Green, Blue, Yellow. That's not the hard part. The hard part is that those are the ''only'' clues that fit... and of course, the receiving celebrity being GenreSavvy enough (which seldom happened on ''Donnymid'').

* ''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 (e.g. completely off-the-wall phrases like WHAT A KICK), 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).

* 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''. This is a case of an ''unnecessarily ambiguous'' question, rather than a unexpectedly difficult one. The first time a Hobbit is seen to hold the Ring is in the first chapter of the first book of the trilogy: Bilbo, at his long-expected birthday party. But the ''second'' chapter flashes back hundreds of years to another hobbit holding the Ring: 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).

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

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

->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is the capital of Assyria?[[hottip:*: It's Assur. Or Nimrud (Kalhu). Or Ninevah. Which one is correct depends on what time period you're talking about.]]

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

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

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

* 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 is seen to hold the Ring is in the first chapter of the first book of the trilogy: Bilbo, at his long-expected birthday party. [[spoiler:But the ''second'' chapter flashes back hundreds of years to another hobbit holding the Ring: 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).

* 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).

-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' STOP! Whoever approacheth the Bridge of Death must answer me these questions three, ere the other side he see.
-->'''Sir Robin:''' Ask me the questions, Bridgekeeper. I'm not afraid.
-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is your name?
-->'''Sir Robin:''' Sir Robin of Camelot.
-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is your quest?
-->'''Sir Robin:''' To seek the Holy Grail.
-->'''Bridgekeeper:''' What... is the capital of Assyria?*
-->'''Sir Robin:''' ...I don't know that!
-->''(Sir Robin gets flung off the bridge)''
-->-''MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail''

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

* ''TheImpossibleQuiz'' is '''made''' of these. Of course, that's the point.
** Actually, it's NOT made of these. Because their answers are EXPECTED to be obscure.

* 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). Then 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.]]

* This is the MO of the phone-in quizzes that went through a brief amount of popularity amongst the television money-men in the late noughties, as [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZu9Sdj_OjA this]] clip shows — the host isn't even able to ''pronounce'' the big answer.

* 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.'' Or 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.

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

---> "What does this chemical equation: "C6H12O6 + 6O2 --> 6CO2 + 6H2O", represent?"

'''Q:''' "What is [[hottip:answer:Liederkranz?]]"\\

'''Q:''' "What is [[hottip:answer:What is Liederkrantz?]]"\\