Introduction
Something a little bit different from me this weekend: neither the regular 100-question quiz, nor the (regrettably) increasingly regular radio silence, but a taster instalment of a whole new quiz series!
As you’ll all know by now, it’s taken me a little while to settle on a publication schedule which will be sustainable long-term, maintaining an appropriate return on the support which all of you subscribers have so generously invested in the project, while also allowing me to continue enjoying the writing process without it becoming a source of stress. I’ve decided that, at least for the time being, the 100-question quizzes which we all know and love are realistically only going to be sustainable on a fortnightly basis, rather than weekly, and I’m therefore going to be switching to a fortnightly schedule henceforth. The next Trivia Masterclass will accordingly be published on Saturday 9 August. However, thinking about this (and particularly thinking about how to thank my paid subscribers for their generosity and patience in the last few weeks of interrupted service) has also inspired me to move forward with something that I’d long been intending to bring in eventually: namely, a short one-topic bonus quiz to fill the gaps between the main events. From now on, these will appear fortnightly in the off weeks from the 100-question quiz, and after today’s they will be available to paid subscribers only. Meanwhile, free subscribers will continue to have access to the main Trivia Masterclass series in perpetuity.
First, a word on the new format. In my 100-question quizzes, apart from rounds 1 and 5, I’ve not been thinking very much about “difficulty” as a criterion when writing the questions: instead, my aim has just been to write questions that are interesting, varied, and reasonably likely to surface in future quizzes. I think this is just an honest reflection of my own personal approach to quiz revision. In an average flashcard-writing session, I generally try to learn as eclectic a range of new facts as possible, rather than zeroing in on a single topic. I also think there’s a lot to be said for learning difficult facts about any and all topics, even topics where you don’t yet feel entirely solid on the easy-to-medium content: both because it’s really fun in a quiz when you’re able to answer a difficult question from outside your normal wheelhouse; and because the very effort of learning a hard fact (especially if it’s a bit quirky and has some inherent interest) forces you to develop some contextual appreciation of the topic as a whole, which then makes the (often rather drier) mid-level content easier to incorporate. However, a consequence of this approach for the Trivia Masterclass quizzes is that the jump in difficulty from Round 1 to Round 2 is often pretty abrupt, and I’m conscious that for many people improving on weaker topics feels more achievable when the difficulty curve is more incremental. I’ve therefore designed a new format which still incorporates some very hard questions, but which allows all players, from novice to expert, to assess where their knowledge level is currently at on a given topic and to take a few small steps toward improving it. I call this format Quiz Everest.
Very simply, every fortnight, I will pick a general knowledge topic (similar to the type of topics I’m using for Round 3 of the Trivia Masterclass quizzes), and ask 25 questions about it, grouped into five levels of difficulty: Base, Camp 1, Camp 2, Camp 3, Summit. The rules of the game are that if you score 4 out of 5 or better on a given level, then you can count that stage as “cleared” and “ascend” to the next one — I’ve made it 4 out of 5 partly to compensate for people having random gaps on topics they’re generally very good at (which literally every quizzer has on literally every topic), and partly because I’m historically not great at estimating difficulty levels and I don’t want to penalise you when I occasionally misjudge a medium-hard question as medium-easy, or an expert question as merely difficult. My hope is that reaching the Summit should be a genuine challenge even for true topic specialists, but more importantly that, whatever your existing familiarity with a given topic, you should be able to get something valuable out of the quiz, through gauging your own present form and discovering some useful new facts to remember for next time. Of course if you do tap out of the ascent early, please do peruse the higher levels nonetheless; as with the Trivia Masterclass, my hope is that every question should be interesting and memorable even if you’re miles away from knowing it.
Right, here goes. I very much hope you enjoy the free taster for the new format, and I’ll see all of you next Saturday with another 100-question Masterclass.
NB: The answers for each level will appear at the end of that level, separated from the questions by an image, so you should mark yourself as you go rather than all at the end — and be careful not to scroll down too far.
Quiz Everest: Rom-Coms
BASE
Set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, in what 1993 rom-com does misanthropic weather forecaster Phil Connors find himself experiencing the same 24 hours innumerable times?
A Julia Roberts-esque movie star, played by Julia Roberts, improbably falls for the owner of an unsuccessful bookshop in what Richard Curtis-written rom-com, named after an area of West London?
[PICTURE] Also the female lead in Sleepless in Seattle, what actor’s performance in When Harry Met Sally … includes a legendary scene, set in New York’s Katz’s Deli, where she demonstrates how to fake an orgasm?
Now a hit stage musical, what rom-com begins with protagonist Elle Woods being dumped by her loathsome wannabe-senator boyfriend on the basis that she isn’t “serious” enough, and resolving to convince him otherwise by studying for Harvard Law School, where she is accepted?
The 1995 film Clueless was very loosely based on what Jane Austen novel? The same novel was adapted for the screen more directly in 2020, with Anya Taylor-Joy playing the title character.
ANSWERS
Groundhog Day
Notting Hill
Meg Ryan
Legally Blonde
Emma
CAMP 1
Originally best known as a singer, who won an Oscar for her lead role, opposite Nicolas Cage, in the 1987 rom-com Moonstruck?
The Edge of Reason in 2004 and Mad About the Boy in 2025 are the subtitles of films in what popular rom-com franchise, based on books by Helen Fielding?
The first film to win the Big 5 Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) was Frank Capra’s 1934 romantic comedy It Happened One Night, with Best Actor going to what Classic Hollywood icon, who also played Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind?
[PICTURE] Steve Carell spontaneously shouted “Kelly Clarkson!” while having his chest waxed for real in a scene from what 2000s rom-com, where Carell plays a sexually inexperienced electronics store employee whose co-workers give him terrible advice on how to attract a girlfriend?
Popularised by film critic Roger Ebert, what short two-word phrase refers to a scene at the start of a romantic comedy where the central couple cross paths for the first time, usually under quirky and/or gently awkward circumstances? An archetypal example is John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity bumping into each other in a department store while trying to buy the same pair of gloves.
ANSWERS
Cher
Bridget Jones (or Bridget Jones’s Diary)
Clark Gable
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Meet cute
CAMP 2
[PICTURE] What actor is possibly still most associated with his 1986 breakthrough role as Molly Ringwald’s “platonic” best friend, Duckie, in the John Hughes classic Pretty in Pink? He had a career resurgence on TV in the 2000s, playing Charlie Sheen’s brother Alan in Two and a Half Men.
The 1956 musical High Society was pretty much a line-for-line remake (plus some excellent songs) of what 1940 rom-com, which starred Cary Grant and James Stewart in the roles later played by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra?
Based on the first year of their own relationship, married couple Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani co-wrote what critically acclaimed 2017 rom-com about an interracial couple whose families meet for the first time after Emily falls seriously ill and is placed in an induced coma?
The lead roles in 2003’s How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days were played by Matthew McConaughey and what other actor who, like McConaughey, became somewhat synonymous with mediocre rom-coms in the 2000s? She also co-starred with Anne Hathaway in 2009’s Bride Wars.
A central scene from the high-school rom-com 10 Things I Hate About You sees Heath Ledger’s character serenading his beloved from the bleachers, accompanied by the school marching band, with a spirited rendition of what 1960s love song, originally recorded by Frankie Valli?
ANSWERS
Jon Cryer
The Philadelphia Story
The Big Sick
Kate Hudson
Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
CAMP 3
Written and directed by rom-com auteur Nancy Meyers, what 2009 film sees Meryl Streep’s protagonist rekindling a relationship with her ex-husband, ten years after their divorce, while simultaneously developing feelings for her architect, played by Steve Martin?
Directed by Andrew Ahn, the recent LGBTQ rom-coms Fire Island and The Wedding Banquet (respectively a loose adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and a remake of a 1993 Taiwanese film by Ang Lee) both feature starring roles by what current Saturday Night Live cast member?
What 2000s teen heart-throb, also known for numerous TV roles on The WB network, played Hilary Duff’s love interest in the 2004 cult classic A Cinderella Story?
A loving homage to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, the 1972 rom-com What’s Up, Doc? was directed by what leading filmmaker of the New Hollywood movement, whose other films include The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon?
[PICTURE] Based on a Young Adult novel of the same name by Jenny Han, and a huge hit on Netflix where it was released in 2018, what teen rom-com follows a shy high-school girl who spends years writing passionate unsent love letters to her several crushes, until one day her little sister finds and mails all of them?
ANSWERS
It’s Complicated
Bowen Yang
Chad Michael Murray
Peter Bogdanovich
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
SUMMIT
Before their daughter Nora became probably the most famous rom-com screenwriter of all time, Phoebe and Henry Ephron co-wrote what 1957 rom-com starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, whose strangely prophetic plot revolves around employees at a reference library whose jobs are threatened by computerisation?
[PICTURE] What 1996 indie rom-com is believed to be the first feature film directed by an openly lesbian African-American woman? Writer-director Cheryl Dunye stars as a video-store clerk beginning a relationship with a white co-worker while simultaneously trying to track down an uncredited supporting actress from a 1930s movie?
Taken from a New York street sign because her real name is unpronounceable in human language, what is the name of the mermaid, played by Daryl Hannah, who begins an unlikely relationship with Tom Hanks’s character in the classic ’80s fantasy rom-com Splash?
What filmmaker is known for writing and directing several charmingly low-key female-led rom-coms including Friends with Money and Enough Said? The latter featured an acclaimed against-type performance by James Gandolfini, who tragically died before its release.
Set in present day despite its plot, title, and general vibe being straight out of the 1950s, in what commercially and critically unsuccessful 2004 rom-com does Kate Bosworth play a small-town girl who wins a charity competition to meet the titular movie star, played by Josh Duhamel?
ANSWERS
Desk Set
The Watermelon Woman
Madison (after Madison Avenue)
Nicole Holofcener
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!
5/4/1/2/0, which feels about right for a topic which is very much not in my wheelhouse. Middle rounds made respectable by knowing The Philadelphia Story and Peter Bogdanovich and by correctly remembering where I went wrong in the name of To All the Boys... in this year's WQC.
Like the new format, and I'm sure it's very sensible to go fortnightly on the 100-questions quizzes. It's still a lot to write!
5,5,3,0,1
Sounds about right, given my mixed performance on learned league’s Rom Com ML