i wanna pop pt. 2 (temple of doom)

So the first 2007 episode of The World Series of Pop Culture was on last night. For those of you who don't remember deep into my past, please read here and here and here.

I'm sorry to say that, like many sequels, I felt slightly humiliated afterwards. I had a much harder time with a few of the questions. Of course pop culture contains too broad of a spectrum. Being an expert in pop culture is like being an expert in science. In our society, we have metaphysicists, rocket scientists, chemists, astronomers, psychiatrists, podiatrists, etc; but we don't have too many people with the title "expert in science." Even the greatest pop culture affecianadoes get a perfume commercial curveball thrown at them every once in a while.

I could tell that, however, I'm losing much of my prowess. I may need to pass the torch to the younger people I watched the show with. Maria, Rhett and Dre patiently watched the show with me; faithfully abiding by my rule that they couldn't answer the questions until I first informed them that I had an answer myself. The first two teams in the competition were named "Fat Guys in Little Coats" and "Motherboy." Dre immediately got the Arrested Development reference of Motherboy, which was shamefully lost on the rest of us. Bad sign for me, but I am proud of Dre.

Anyway, the first category in the game was something about 2006 celebrity squabbles. Immediately I knew this was off to a bad start since I'm not much of a subscriber of current celebrity gossip in the world of pop culture. I only missed one question this round. It had to do with one of the Grey's Anatomy stars in the recent feud I constantly hear about, but don't much care for. The answer was T.R. Knight. I don't know who that is. Unfortunately, the "Fat Guys" contestant knew the answer. I proudly answered "Nas" to the question regarding Jay-Z's big beef, while the Motherboy contestant didn't know. I love that old song "If I Ruled the World." Don't you? The following answers both I and the contestants answered correctly:

Rosie O'Donnell
Ryan Seacrest
Lindsay Lohan
Kanye West

Round 2: Scary Movies. A movie synopsis was given and the contestants had to name the movie being described. The contestants and I answered all six questions correctly:

The Ring
Child's Play
Amityville Horror (both Maria and Rhett had confident different guesses, but I pulled this one out of nowhere without ever actually seeing it because the "1979" was one of the clues and I knew Poltergeist was an 80s flick)
The Fly
28 Days Later
Jacob's Ladder

This round then went to the speed round. It required that one contestant had to name a movie nominated for the "Best Animated Film" Academy Award. The next contestant then had to name another one and so on until someone draws a blank or incorrectly answers. This one was sort of harder to gauge because if I were in their shoes I know that kind of pressure would really get to me. I successfully wrote down the following before the round came to an end:

Finding Nemo
Cars
Monsters Inc.
Shrek
The Incredibles
Ice Age

If I actually did get the opportunity to be a part of the show, the speed round would kill me.

Round 3: Jingle All the Way. This round had to do with commercial jingles. I missed TWO on this round. Horrible. Commercials shouldn't have anything to do with this competition anyway. One question had to do with some kind of perfume. The contestant, Rhett and I all guessed "White Diamonds," but the answer was "Anjelie" or something. The other question I missed had to do with Darius Rucker appearing in a Burger King ad. This is what separates me from a professional pop culture guru. I don't care for Darius Rucker or Burger King, so there's no way to know the answer that question. A more professional pop culture expert would still study that which he loathes. Correct answers for this round all around:

Big Red
Mounds
Justin Timberlake (I guess he lent his voice to McDonald's. It was just a guess)
Nair

This round also had a lightning round -- an easier one. The object was to name as many characters from the pilot episode of Lost as possible. I aced this by naming all of these before the contestants:

Jack
Sawyer
Kate
Walt
Michael
Boone
Shannon
Sayid
Locke
Jin
Sun
Charlie
Claire

One contestant said "Hurley" before I had a chance to write him down. Maria also correctly got "Rose." The only one nobody got was I think the name of the U.S. marshall who died a couple of episodes later.

Round 4: something to do with insanity. This round featured lyrics from songs that have a loose connection with mental illness and the contestants were required to name the song. I missed "Maniac" by Michael Sembello. I was and am quite ashamed. For some reason the opening lyrics to the song got me thinking of "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey. The Fat Guy missed that one as well, but the Motherboy contestant answered correctly. Other correct answers from this round:

"Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley
"I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones
"Basketcase" by Green Day

Motherboy won the game in that round, which made me happy. Fat Guys in Little Suits were pretty goobery and had a stupid never-very-funny joke name. Motherboy made pop culturists at least look a little cool.

The episode we watched had one more game, this time between a team called "White Russians" and a team called "Remo Leen Teen Teen." The Remo team, I think, was three siblings. Looking over my notes I realize I actually only missed one question this whole game, but I'm pretty sure Remo Leen Teen Teen didn't even miss one. The question I missed was in the first round which had to do with Quentin Tarantino movies. It had to do with some actor who played somebody in True Romance (which isn't entirely a Tarantino movie). Anway, I guessed Eric Stoltz, but the correct answer was apparently Brad Pitt. Here are the correct answers for this particular first round. Can you come up with the questions? C'mon, let's make it fun. Remember the category is "Quentin Tarantino Movies."

his ear
Royale with cheese
a samurai sword
Black Mamba
Tim Roth (I amazingly pulled this name out of my head despite never actually seeing Reservoir Dogs (but I did read the screenplay))

Round 2: pop hits of the 80s. Here are the correct answers to some of the 80s lyrics mentioned:

"Love is a Battlefield"
"When Doves Cry"
"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"
"Rock the Casbah"

Round 3: physical challenge. An actor and year were given and the contestants had to identify the movie in which the actor had to undergo some kind of crazy physical change to suit their character. Here are the correct movies. See if you can identify the actor or actress in each question that had to shape up, make up or fatten up for each film.

Terminator 2
Frida
American History X
Full Metal Jacket
Best in Show (this particular one involved orthodontic devices)

Remo Leen Teen Teen seems like quite a group to beat. I will be watching them with great interest (and not just because one of them looks like Apache Chief from Superfriends).

I'm sad to not be doing this, but I'm holding out for next year.