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As many of you know, I enjoy pop culture trivia. Immensely. So, of course, I’ve been following this year’s World Series of Pop Culture tournament on VH1. It’s good fun, and like Jeopardy!, I love to play along at home. Who doesn’t love to shout at the TV. St. Elmo’s Fire! The Vapors! Lark Voorhees!

How I would do on a show like WSOPC or Jeopardy? To be honest: I don’t think I’d do really well. These are really intense, high-pressure situations (the likes of which have made me sick in the past), and though I know the answers at home, it’s an entirely different question up on that stage. As one contender said in Monday night’s episode: “They could ask you your name up there, and you’d probably blank.” Too true. It takes serious brass balls to compete in a national TV tournament of any kind, let alone an “intellectual” one.

But while I have nothing but props for most of this year’s contenders, there is one team that I love to hate (and I suspect I’m not alone on this): the Twisted Misters, a group of youngsters from NYU. They’ve advanced to the semifinals of this years tournament and are just two wins away from a quarter-million dollar prize. Crap.

It’s not just their trash talking that gets my goat, it’s the fact that I’ve played (and usually lost to) these guys in some tournaments at Boston University over the last few years. If you’ve watched any of the episodes with the Twisted Misters (tonight, 9PM on VH1), I can confirm: yes, they’re that socially awkward in real life. Just as much trash talking goes on in an untaped BU TRASH (Testing Recall About Strange Happenings) meetup as when the cameras roll for VH1. If anything, it’s a different kind of trash talk in real life: more directed at the writer for coming up with such an easy question (“Honestly, who doesn’t know about the redshirts! God!“) than directed at you for not answering it.

Still stings a bit though.

I will say this though: it’s a really weird feeling to see someone you know (even only casually) on TV, especially for an extended period of time. It’s one thing to be featured in a news clip or the like, but it’s something entirely different to be, in a sense, a recurring character on a TV show as the TMs are. I keep asking myself: were they really this bad when I played them? Do I really know these guys?

Most likely, no, I don’t. A couple of quiz-bowl meets makes for the thinnest of acquaintances. And they certainly don’t know me. I might look familiar, but beyond that, who knows? I’m not a very memorable person, especially on the quiz bowl circuit: I don’t pull answers from thin air more than anyone else, I don’t trash talk, and I don’t blow questions.

Which may be another reason I wouldn’t do well in a TV game show: At the end of the day, I’m closer to trivia mediocrity than amazement. I might be the one holding and showing all the random facts in a cocktail conversation, but against folks like Ken Jennings, or even Nancy Zerg, the woman who famously beat Ken in his 75th episode, I’d probably come up short.

After all, the Twisted Misters are good. And as much as I root against them, there’s a good chance they’ll be holding up that trophy. But not one of them ranks among the top 5 TRASH players I’ve seen, and remember: I’ve only played tournaments here in the Northeast. So even though I’ve beat the Twisted Misters (once, in a fluke game), I’m not holding my breath for an extended shot on one of TVs game shows.

Though I’m certainly enjoying shouting out these answers. Go Go Gadget!

Technorati Tags: Trivia, World Series of Pop Culture