Getting My Nerd On, Part 2 - Simpsons Trivia Night

I think if I had to pick my favourite food it would be pizza. It’s a pretty hard thing to mess up. As long as it’s hot and there’s a good portion of tomato sauce, you’re pretty much set for a good meal. It may not be very healthy for you, but it has at least three of the four basic food groups in there. And it’s readily available too.

If I had to think of a TV equivalent to pizza I would say the Simpsons come pretty close. Like pizza, it’s a pretty hard thing to mess up – even “worst episodes ever” are better than mediocre ones from shows like Family Guy (yeah I said it.) It’s got all the things you want in a comedy – humorous observations, memorable characters, and too many one-liners to mention in one blog post. As far as most series go, it’s not unhealthy for you if you watch it in small doses. In other words, it won’t make you stupid (unlike Family Guy).

So it was with great pleasure that I took part in Simpsons Trivia Night at the Gladstone. This monthly event gives Simpsons aficionados the chance to score prizes by answering trivia questions on “classic” episodes from seasons 1 through 11. Sprinkled in between each trivia round are episodes from the show. This particular night they showed a couple of my personal favourites, including “Little Miss Springfield” and “Kamp Krusty.”

The trivia questions themselves vary in their level of difficulty. There are relatively easy ones that most Simpsons fans will recognize, like “what is the name of the housekeeper in the Mary Poppins parody episode? “ and more obscure ones like “which local Springfield celebrity was deemed worst actor to portray King Lear in 400 years?” (The answer is Krusty).

There’s an automatic appeal to events like this. You get to commune with people who are as passionate about your interests as you are. You also have the perfect conversation-starter; no relying on cheap small talk questions like where you from and what do you do.  Just throw out some quick Simpsons lines and you’ve made a new friend.

There’s also something unappealing about this type of event too. For me, there are only so many times you can toss around Simpsons lines before the charm starts to wear off. Part of the show’s appeal is how little situations and moments that pop up during the day can remind you of a Simpsons’ episode. I’ll admit to losing some of the enjoyment after the tenth reference in a row.

That isn’t to say the night wasn’t fun. Being surrounded by Simpsons geeks (who, by the way, all look exactly the way you’d expect them to look) means you get to cite lines from the show in unison. It’s almost like watching The Room, and you don’t appreciate how much fun something is until you watch it in a group with like-minded people. I got a kick out of all the team names (we were the “Crusty Old Deans.”) My favourite was “the Rand Corporation, in conjunction with the saucer people, under the supervision of the reverse vampires.” And Dashing Fellows writer Mike Radoslav showed the most spirit by making us all Simpsons-related t-shirts. Here’s what mine looked like: