Tonight we were up against a struggling economy and the joke of a running mate that is Sarah Palin going up against Uncle Joe Biden. But we still had a small, strong crowd of some of my favorite teams going at it, and one of the tighter, more exciting pub quizzes I’ve had the pleasure to host in some time. That’s right it came down to the wire tonight with pretty much every team being in contention up to the very end. Making things even more interesting, every team scored a perfect score on our anagram handout, meaning the final shakedown truly rested on one, measly little handout: Fruit! Yes, the good ol’ “guess the fruit” handout ended up playing a huge role tonight, throwing teams Go Meat!, Pork Chop Express, and YMBP into the final round on the strength of their staggering ability to identify ripened plant ovaries.

The final round question about Souixsie Souix (I just googled her name and still am not entirely sure I spelled it right) stumped all three finalists, thereby allowing Pork Chop Express to take the cake for a SECOND week in a row… with a score of 8! I secretly love it when the final scores add up to less than my age (47, though I look 43 if I’m a day); makes me think we’re doing something right after all.

But wow, Pork Chop Express! What vitamins are you on? Give me some of that, know what I’m sayin’? ZING! Good job!

Though my favorite moment of the night (besides track #10 of name that tune: “I Will Always Love You”… but I assume that goes without saying. I mean Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston in the same film? Has there ever been a better movie duo in all of history? Maybe, MAYBE Costner and Dennis Hopper in Waterworld… but really Whitney’s sexier, so I gotta go with her. Anyway!) came when Go Meat! guessed “Silence of The Lambs” as the answer to tonight’s audio clue, which was… wait for it now… pause as I laugh again when I think about it… “Funny Girl” starring Barbara Streisand! So, let’s pause again as we assess how many levels on which this is hilarious. Firstly, the clip was a song… it was very clearly a singing clip, as in some sort of musical number. I remind you of their guess: “Silence of The Lambs.” Secondly, Go Meat! GOT the bonus answer!!! They didn’t get the movie right (obviously), but they KNEW it was Barbara Streisand and got three bonus points. So, here’s what, from what I can tell, went through Go Meat!’s mind as they sat at their beer-stained table, struggling with the answer:

“Let’s see… it’s clearly a musical number, and we know it’s Barbara Streisand singing, we got that, so…. let’s see… musical number… Barbara Streisand singing…. OH! I know! I got it! It’s Silence of the Lambs!! The murderous film about cannibalism starring Anthony Hopkins! That’s it! This one’s in the bag!”

And THEN, whoever suggested “Silence of the Lambs” didn’t meet with an entire table of “Dude, are you serious?” but rather, everyone shrugged and kind of nodded and went, “yeah, that’s as good a guess as any.” The whole TEAM went with it.

Oh, the hilarity. Or, at least that’s how I imagine what went down. In reality, Go Meat! was probably joking with that guess because they had absolutely no idea and so just put something ridiculous. At least I hope they were. you guys were, right? Right?

Ciao baby. You have until October 14 to register to vote!

JWS