A Quizzical Exploration
· searching quizzes · picking noses · yearning, art ·
I strayed into a little question, and found myself meandering in a vast garden.
So today is one longer essay, a very oddly compelling video, and some links.
Hit the buzzer.
A quizzical exploration: A question of questions- care for a quiz?
FridayFind: Wry, crude, amusing, memorable.
With: The Oatmeal’s take on AI and art, Hermes social media goodness, and performative yearning in Gen Z.
🎧 Prefer to listen? Hit play above to hear this week’s dispatch in my dulcet tones.
A Quizzical Exploration.
Curiosity killed a cat once. Or so we are told.
I’ve never been a cat person. But curiosity? That’s another kettle of kitten, to messily mix my metaphors.
It is, certainly, a very natural human trait. One manifestation of curiosity for its own sake, is a quiz. Some sort of competitive quizzing has always appealed, though I must add, such interest has not been accompanied by the highest levels of skill in participation.
I was moved recently to wonder what origins it might have. Does it go way back to cultures & communities long ago? Or is Mastermind pretty much it?
Lakeside Grill
One story I have been more familiar with since childhood was indeed a real (mythical) quiz, and its stakes were high. In that great epic with stories about everything- the Mahabharata- the oldest of the five Pandava brothers finds himself in a spot. Yudhishtira stands by a fresh water lake, parched.
Parched and amazed, for his brothers lie by the water, apparently dead, all having ignored the warnings of the spirit of the lake. The righteous Yudhishtira must now answer all the spirit’s questions- over a hundred, as it turns out. The spirit, we will later find out, is actually Dharma or Yama, the God of Death & Justice/Righteousness. (And also Yudi’s father, but that’s another rabbit hole entirely.)
In this ‘Yaksha Prashna’, as this is called, he fields a barrage of questions around philosophy, morality, living, duty and more. Basically Dharma is his chosen field of specialisation. An ancient ‘Mastermind’?
How is it possible for a man to always have a second companion?
-Steady intelligence serves man as a helpful companion, always.What is fleeter than the wind?
-The mind is fleeter than the wind.
Such questioning was always immersed in the sacred exchange of values and life lessons. The Upanishads are essentially dialogues in inquiry. Such guru-shishya (teacher-student) interactions are common in Hindu mythology.
A Study in Questions.
The most early example of the concept of testing knowledge through structured questioning is likely China’s famous Imperial Examination system. Starting some time in the sixth century, these examinations selected candidates for the state bureaucracy. It was intended to reward merit, not birth— itself a revolutionary concept. In the astonishing 1,300 years or so that it lasted till 1905, candidates faced gruelling multi-day examinations across Chinese classics, philosophy, and literary composition.
But these were exams, not quizzes as we know them.
Medieval Europe relied heavily on ‘catechetical’ methods for education. These meant structured question-answer formats. Alcuin of York, invited by Charlemagne to establish an educational system, employed the method extensively. In his time, ‘to know’ literally meant ‘to know by heart.’ Sample this rapid-fire exchange with Pepin, Charlemagne’s son (the boy is the questioner!)
What is a letter? -The guardian of history.
What is a word? -The betrayer of the mind.
What is life?
-The joy of the blessed, the sorrow of the wretched, the expectation of death
Echoes of the Yaksha Prashna.
These come close, but are still not quite how we think of ‘quiz’. I doubt Pepin checked what the capital of the Maurya empire was. And Yudhishtra was not played an audio clip then asked which apsara’s dance tune it was.
Open Round
In fact, my probing to find ancient roots to quizzing was sketchy, from the start. There is no existing indication of the activity in ancient texts across cultures. The modern idea of quizzing becomes, firstly, an etymological point. The Oxford English Dictionary is our guide here.
The earliest known appearance of the word ‘quiz’ in print is surprisingly recent, and equally inapplicable. It was 1782, and the word meant an ‘odd-looking person’. We do not know why. We are equally unclear why the word then began to refer to ‘peculiar objects’, before finally meaning something akin to a ‘test of knowledge’, by 1867. It was primarily in the academic context; of course, it is still used by teachers to denote tests not quite long enough to be exams.
By the end of World War I, MCQs or multiple choice questions was the preferred method in standardised psychological and intelligence tests. By the 1920s, it was being widely used in educational settings.
Yet, all of these are questioning as a means to a specific, quantifiable end, often institutional- education, expertise, evaluation… bringing your siblings back to life.
What we (I) really take quizzing for, is done for enjoyment or competition.
So we must cycle back to 17th century London. There was John Dunton’s ‘Athenian Gazette’, where readers sent in questions answered by the fictitious Athenian Society (Dunton and his friends). ‘Notes & Queries’, published nearly a 150 years later, was targeted to curious minds, “A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists.”
But really, the pick here has to be across the pond. In 1884, Albert Plympton Southwick published the splendidly named, ‘Quizzism; and Its Key: Quirks and Quibbles from Queer Quarters: A Mélange of Questions in Literature, Science, History, Biography, Mythology, Philology, Geography, Etc., with Their Answers.’
Phew.
This was basically a series of questions and answers, from high culture to the trivial- “quirks and quibbles from queer quarters”.
Here be a mix of wit and pedantry. Legit, technical facts interspersed with whimsical takes.
Who was born in Europe, died in Asia, and was buried in Africa?
-Alexander the Great. (Born in Macedonia, Europe; died in Babylon, Asia; ultimately buried in Alexandria, Africa.)What’s the plural of “mongoose”?
-Mongooses—not mongeese; grammar insists, nonsense protests.What killed many of the Greek philosophers?
-Thinking too hard on empty stomachs.Who are three tobacco-takers?
-The African rock goat — the most loathsome creature on earth; the foul tobacco worm; and the rational creature, man! So says Dr. Caldwell.
Pause.
Lets wait a moment here. You might well be wondering what has brought on this scattered meandering of mine.
A few things have contributed. A couple of years ago, I proposed and conducted a quiz on New Year’s Eve. (Yes, I know quizzing is the wild soul of any party!) It was largely a success. More clearly, I enjoyed it, maybe more than anyone else. It was repeated the following year. Still fun. Long, but fun. A cross-section of age groups made the dynamic fascinating. Not to mention the challenge of trying to set a quiz that could engage ages spanning four decades, give or take.
More recently still, I was reminded for no particular reason, of Mastermind. I searched for it one weekend, and the ensuing family viewing on Youtube was wonderful. Subsequent prods into University Challenge and Sporcle have continued the promise. And I found myself reminiscing on my school quizzing days (Open Quizzes!).
End of detour.
I’ve started, so I’ll finish.
It turns out, there is no grand tradition of quizzing I’ve found, harking back to ancient times. Dialogue, yes. Rigorous oral examination, definitely. Learning by rote, surely. But not delightful competitive quizzing just to… score some points.
Since I began to trace it, I’ll carry it through- briefly.
Or, I should say, “I’ve started, so I’ll finish”. (IYKYK).
And so into the 20th century.
After some stray books through to the 1920s, popular quizzing really took off in the US in the 30s, primarily via radio shows. The hugely formative College Bowl had multiple seasons, then made its way to television, from 1959-70. In parallel, the UK saw a rise in the format across radio and TV. University Challenge was the UK version of College Bowl- it started in 1962, ran through the late eighties, was brought back in the nineties, and you can see fresh seasons today. All India Radio aired Dr. IQ- a localised take on the American show, in 1939.
The pub quiz emerged as a distinctly British phenomenon in the 1970s; despite being great fun and a shared joy, its international spread has only been a scatter.
“Curiosity—there’s a big payoff for curiosity.”
_Ben Gibson, Millionaire winner
I find myself sniffing a little at the very ‘game show-esque’ approaches. Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune and the like seemed more gimmicky, showy even, and all about the pot of gold. Or maybe its just that they never really took off in my childhood.
That quiz landscape, in India, was shaped by the inimitable Sidhhartha Basu, with Quiz Time and then Mastermind India. “I’ve started, so I’ll finish” - I didn’t know who Magnus Magnusson was back then, but his catchphrase was effortlessly and memorably transferred to the Indian version of Mastermind. Then there was the Bournvita School Quiz with Derek O Brien, whose father Neil had conducted the first formal Open quiz in India back in 1967. The later adaptation of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire has, of course, redefined mass quiz shows and prime time entertainment in India.
A mention also to Quite Interesting on ITV in the UK. I have only consumed it in snippets, but the show takes a different stand entirely. It awards points not only for correct answers, but for “interesting” ones, regardless of accuracy, while deducting points for “answers which are not only wrong, but pathetically obvious”. Informative, satisfying, entertaining. Sample this clip about the very odd origins of the James Bond theme.
But a moment or three must be given also to Trivial Pursuit, the card game that took much of the world by storm. In the early eighties, Canadian journalists Chris Haney and Scott Abbott cobbled together some investment dollars and produced a game they’d come up with during a scrabble session. Despite early losses— it cost $75 to make but was sold for $15— the game caught on like wildfire, enough for Time magazine to call it “the biggest phenomenon in game history.”
Trivial Pursuit featured 6,000 questions across six categories: Geography, Entertainment, Sports & Leisure, Science & Nature, Arts & Literature, and History. All questions (and their answers) could be considered inconsequential, but scratched the generalist trivia itch many never knew we had.
“a great repository of middlebrow culture”
In labelling it thus, Bryan Curtis of Slate said, “the game concerns itself with useless information, yes, but useless information of a very specific sort: detritus from the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, which flattered the baby boomer by making his golden years seem vital, even historic.”
Why so jaded, Bryan.
I’ve finished, so I will finish.
Like itself, the quiz world has many rabbit holes I could jump into and must resist. But one fair question remains- why do many of us enjoy watching quizzes, observing them (and sometimes, participating), even when we may not ourselves be great repositories of obscure information?
Do you enjoy watching a quiz? Why do you think?
The basic essence of competition; the ‘almost’ nature of the Q&A process, how close it seems; the delight in knowing some of the answers; the odd likelihood of getting caught up in and rooting for an individual or team you have never known (and likely will not again).
But I see it also in dozens of books scattered in my house. Collections of delightful, often delightfully useless facts, that populate pages often devoured by the offspring. For no obvious purpose, with no narrative arc, nor any tangible reward.
Maybe there lies the seed of an answer. Innate curiosity, the kind we sometimes forget to feed as life caries us along. We come upon it perchance during a quiz, and are taken up briefly, before gently sliding back into our lives.
“exploring the unknown, the half-known and the worth knowing.”
_Siddhartha Basu
But wait- what about the cat?
(I don’t think it died from being inquisitive at all. It was probably just driven to madness by the inordinate amount of focus put on its desire to know more.)
In fact, the proverb “Curiosity killed the cat” evolved from a much older English saying in a 1598 play by Ben Jonson.
“Helter skelter, hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat…”— here ‘care’ meant worry or sorrow.
Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing echoed it a year or so later, “What, courage man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.”
The phrase remained this way for centuries. The 1898 ‘Dictionary of Phrase and Fable’ still listed “care killed the cat,” observing that worry could wear out even a creature with nine lives.
Only by the late 19th century did ‘curiosity’ start to replace ‘care’. It is not apparent why. Known examples come from 1898–1902 newspaper usages and John Bechtel’s book ‘Proverbs: Maxims and Phrases’.
By 1912, a Pennsylvania newspaper printed an expanded, more forgiving version. “Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back”.
A welcome defence of curiosity, then.
A Renaissance caution against sorrow gradually shifted into a Victorian warning against inquisitiveness.
The cat remained the victim.
Curiosity survived.
2. How do you spell Olgabasha?
Do you like radish in your salad ?
What is your take on nose picking in public?
How do you spell Olgabasha?
Answers to such fundamental existential questions, in this weird and odd and off-putting and compelling spot.
I liked that opening. “No radish in the salad”.
Has nothing to do with anything, but lingers long enough to pull me into what is likely going to be a rather odd space.
It gladly leans into the crude, but doesn’t do it crudely, and that’s why it kinda works.
Yuck or Yum? Looking up Olgabasha yet?
Directed by Matias & Mathias · Knucklehead ·
Masala Peanuts
(where I share stories or tidbits I find interesting).
I revisited Matthew Inman, cartoonist and author of Oatmeal & Exploding Kittens fame, after a long while. This time, for his take “Let’s Talk About AI Art”.
“Online, we yearn. Offline, we don’t linger long enough to actually ache.” Fascinating piece on performative yearning in Gen Z, manifested via social media which is essentially the expression of everything. “It’s like being in on the vibe matters more than actually living it.”
I enjoyed stumbling upon Hermes’ Instagram feed, littered with delightful artist collaborations. Enough to talk about it - have a look!
“What I hear, I forget.
What I see, I remember.
What I do, I understand.”
_Xunzi (340 - 245 BC)
Cover image Photo by Minator Yang on Unsplash
Very enjoyable reading. Thanks