WWTBAM Bored

George Cooper
Wyandotte County, KS
Power plant supervisor

George comes onstage wearing overalls and a flannel shirt. Meredith asks what was the first thing he did when he got to NYC. George says he got on the bus, found his hotel and checked in. And he's having a good time. The city has a lot of energy.

$100 - Traditionally, mosts members of the U.S. Congress are present at which of these annual events?

A - Super Bowl
B - State of the Union Address
C - Mardi Gras
D - Nancy Pelosi's taco night

$200 - The aptly named chinstrap penguin has a distinct black stripe across its what?

A - foot
B - leg
C - face
D - stomach

$300 - What brand's products often feature the instruction, "Rotate nozzle to 'on' position"?

A - Crest
B - Bounty
C - Brillo
D - Windex

$500 - In 2007, what beloved figure's death prompted the CNN.com headline "Heaven now has a tenor"?

A - Kurt Vonnegut
B - Luciano Pavarotti
C - Ingmar Bergman
D - Lady Bird Johnson

$1K - Twentieth-century scientist charles F. Richter is best known for his work as a what?

A - seismologist
B - astronomer
C - geneticist
D - botanist

George gives a quick snap of his fingers as he answers his question, but aside from that he is very terse.

Commercial break

George has nothing to worry about because he's wearing one sock inside out. His grandmother said that it was a way to help money come his way. He's also wearing the shirt he wore when he got the call to be on BAM. Meredith asks if friends suggested he dress up a little when coming to NYC. George says yes, but he loves his bibs, he's comfortable in them, and his brogans too. Meredith says he's doing a good job so he should keep them on.

$2K - "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds" was a warning routinely heard on what TV series?

A - The Saint
B - Dragnet
C - Mission:Impossible
D - The Mod Squad

George says it's an old series and he's an old guy. There are new movies out and he's seen them, too.

$4K - Culinarily speaking, which of these nursery rhyme characters had the easiest access to mutton?

A - Little Bo Peep
B - Old Mother Hubbard
C - Humpty Dumpty
D - Little Miss Muffet

George knows Little Miss Muffet - she works for him.

George says that this is great. It's not as bad out here as he thought it would be.

$8K - Which of these sentence fragments is pronounced just like the name of a chart-topping '80s rock band?

A - to eternity
B - by degrees
C - on average
D - in excess

George went to Honolulu and took a rock-and-roll dance cruise. The band INXS was on the cruise.

$16K - In 1989, a massive oil spill occurred after the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in what Alaskan body of water?

A - Bristol Bay
B - Norton Sound
C - Cook Inlet
D - Prince William Sound

The girl that George was on the Hawaii cruise had gone to Alaska beforehand and that's how he knows the answer.

Commercial break

After the break the show re-opens with the audience shouting, "George! George! George!" Meredith says George has them eating out of his hand. Meredith asks how he knows so much. George answers that he was kicked out of school the second semester of his senior year. He took the high school equivalency test and then joined the service. Now he goes to the library two or three times a week. The library ladies called him just before he came to wish him good luck. He says he's a little notorious.

$25K - Mentioned in works by Victor Hugo, William Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas and others, Breguet is a brand of what?

A - hat
B - glove
C - watch
D - cigar

George has read a lot of these authors but he doesn't know this for sure. He decides to ask the audience for help.

ATA results:
A - 36%
B - 12%
C - 14%
D - 38%

Meredith says now we know who doesn't go to the library. It's not a good result so George says he's going to call a friend. Meredith asks if it's one of the library ladies. No, George wants to call Billy. George reads the question, using the last names of the authors. Billy interrupts George to say that he can't understand him. Billy finally says "cigar" but he isn't very sure. George doesn't like his chances and doesn't want to leave a lifeline behind so he asks for the 50/50, which leaves A and C. George knows that "beret" is the word for "hat". "This is the toughest thing," George says, then he says "A", but doesn't say "final answer." He decides to walk away. "Thank God who got me here and made me smart, God bless our president and God bless our troops in harm's way," he says as he leaves.

ANSWERS:
$100 - B (State of the Union Address)
$200 - C (face)
$300 - D (Windex)
$500 - B (Luciano Pavarotti)
$1K - A (seismologist)
$2K - C (Mission:Impossible)
$4K - A (Little Bo Peep)
$8K - D (in excess)
$16K - D (Prince William Sound
$25K - C (watch)

$25K - Mentioned in works by Victor Hugo, William Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas and others, Breguet is a brand of what?

A - hat
B - glove
C - watch
D - cigar

That's a real stopper, but easily googleable.

$25K: My initial instinct was cigar, but I would've phoned a friend.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:George Cooper
Wyandotte County, KS
Power plant supervisor

George comes onstage wearing overalls and a flannel shirt. Meredith asks what was the first thing he did when he got to NYC. George says he got on the bus, found his hotel and checked in. And he's having a good time. The city has a lot of energy.

No pun intended, I'm sure.

I thought George was going to turn out to be a farmer - he had a sort of "American Gothic" vibe about him. One thing for sure - he didn't talk very much.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K - Mentioned in works by Victor Hugo, William Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas and others, Breguet is a brand of what?

A - hat
B - glove
C - watch
D - cigar

George has read a lot of these authors but he doesn't know this for sure. He decides to ask the audience for help.

ATA results:
A - 36%
B - 12%
C - 14%
D - 38%

Meredith says now we know who doesn't go to the library. It's not a good result so George says he's going to call a friend. Meredith asks if it's one of the library ladies. No, George wants to call Billy. George reads the question, using the last names of the authors. Billy interrupts George to say that he can't understand him. Billy finally says "cigar" but he isn't very sure. George doesn't like his chances and doesn't want to leave a lifeline behind so he asks for the 50/50, which leaves A and C. George knows that "beret" is the word for "hat". "This is the toughest thing," George says, then he says "A", but doesn't say "final answer." He decides to walk away. "Thank God who got me here and made me smart, God bless our president and God bless our troops in harm's way," he says as he leaves.

George was really going along, then he hit what has to be considered a WWOQ. Given the ATA results and the PAF he did the right thing to walk away, though I'm sure he was disappointed by having to do so. Turns out a Google search puts Breguet watches right at the top of the results.

Had this been my question I'd have done just what he did, but would have had a Google PAF to call.

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K - Mentioned in works by Victor Hugo, William Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas and others, Breguet is a brand of what?

A - hat
B - glove
C - watch
D - cigar

George has read a lot of these authors but he doesn't know this for sure. He decides to ask the audience for help.

ATA results:
A - 36%
B - 12%
C - 14%
D - 38%

Meredith says now we know who doesn't go to the library. It's not a good result so George says he's going to call a friend. Meredith asks if it's one of the library ladies. No, George wants to call Billy. George reads the question, using the last names of the authors. Billy interrupts George to say that he can't understand him. Billy finally says "cigar" but he isn't very sure. George doesn't like his chances and doesn't want to leave a lifeline behind so he asks for the 50/50, which leaves A and C. George knows that "beret" is the word for "hat". "This is the toughest thing," George says, then he says "A", but doesn't say "final answer." He decides to walk away. "Thank God who got me here and made me smart, God bless our president and God bless our troops in harm's way," he says as he leaves.

George was really going along, then he hit what has to be considered a WWOQ. Given the ATA results and the PAF he did the right thing to walk away, though I'm sure he was disappointed by having to do so. Turns out a Google search puts Breguet watches right at the top of the results.

Had this been my question I'd have done just what he did, but would have had a Google PAF to call.

Yeah, that was an easy google, but a nasty WWOQ without that. What kind of context is it for the question writers to mention all those authors without even citing particular works? And was it so memorable that some characters in some unnamed books written by these authors preferred a brand-name watch?

George's library ladies should have told him about google.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$25K - Mentioned in works by Victor Hugo, William Thackeray, Alexandre Dumas and others, Breguet is a brand of what?

A - hat
B - glove
C - watch
D - cigar

George has read a lot of these authors but he doesn't know this for sure. He decides to ask the audience for help.

ATA results:
A - 36%
B - 12%
C - 14%
D - 38%

Meredith says now we know who doesn't go to the library. It's not a good result so George says he's going to call a friend. Meredith asks if it's one of the library ladies. No, George wants to call Billy. George reads the question, using the last names of the authors. Billy interrupts George to say that he can't understand him. Billy finally says "cigar" but he isn't very sure. George doesn't like his chances and doesn't want to leave a lifeline behind so he asks for the 50/50, which leaves A and C. George knows that "beret" is the word for "hat". "This is the toughest thing," George says, then he says "A", but doesn't say "final answer." He decides to walk away. "Thank God who got me here and made me smart, God bless our president and God bless our troops in harm's way," he says as he leaves.

George was really going along, then he hit what has to be considered a WWOQ. Given the ATA results and the PAF he did the right thing to walk away, though I'm sure he was disappointed by having to do so. Turns out a Google search puts Breguet watches right at the top of the results.

Had this been my question I'd have done just what he did, but would have had a Google PAF to call.

Yeah, that was an easy google, but a nasty WWOQ without that. What kind of context is it for the question writers to mention all those authors without even citing particular works? And was it so memorable that some characters in some unnamed books written by these authors preferred a brand-name watch?

George's library ladies should have told him about google.

Maybe he should have called one of them instead of Billy.

Here's an article about George's appearance. Just a basic recap concentrating on the question he walked away on.

http://www2.bonnersprings.com/news/2008 ... ns_16k_tv/

My mind has gone blank. Would someone remind me what WWOQ stands for?

And not that we get many newbies, but weren't we going to set up a sticky message with abbreviations, jargon and other useful items? Or is that in one of the other folders in the forum index?

gsabc wrote:My mind has gone blank. Would someone remind me what WWOQ stands for?

Wicked Weed Out Question - a term orginally used for those phone game questions that were so difficult to answer in the allotted time that one might as well guess randomly. And now, on the show, those that are meant to burn up lifelines and/or stop a contestant from proceeding further.

Yeah, that was an easy google, but a nasty WWOQ without that. What kind of context is it for the question writers to mention all those authors without even citing particular works? And was it so memorable that some characters in some unnamed books written by these authors preferred a brand-name watch

Just reading over this thread, my brain immediately said 'watch.' Took me a few minutes to realize why. I just finished reading Jeffrey Deaver's "Cold Moon" and I'm pretty sure the "Watchmaker" character talks about it - I think he gives Lincoln Rhyme one, in fact.


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