Qonnoisseur

Quizmasters – Rohan Danait and Aman Shaikh

Mains

Rounds

• IR 1

• Written Round

• IR 2

Infinite Rebound 1

• 17 questions clockwise

• +10/-0 for a direct or passed question

• Onefinite pounce - A team cannot pounce

further once it gets a question wrong on

pounce

• +15/-0 on pounce

• Teams can pounce on their own directs

1

The word for a discussion or conference,

especially one between enemies over terms of a

truce derives from the French verb "to speak".

Beginning in the High Middle Ages with the

expansion of monarchs, it was a meeting held

between kings and their Chief Retainers and

was a part of the many changes in Europe,

especially regarding governments. The Pirates

of the Caribbean series refers to it as being part

of the pirate code. What's the good word?

Answer

Parley

2

X dressed as Y and Y dressed as X. Identify

both.

Answer

David Bowie and Tilda Swinton

3

The name of this song refer to the black U.S.

cavalry regiments, that fought in the Indian

Wars after 1866. The singer likened their fight

to a fight for survival, and recasts it as a

symbol of black resistance. The name

originiates from the fact the African

Americans' hair felt and looked like a

particular animal, or how fiercely they fought.

Others claim it was in reference to how the

troops tirelessly marched. Which song and

artist?

Answer

“Buffalo Soldier” by Bob Marley

4

Connect:

Sangharsh

Kyon Ki

Sarkar

Life in a Metro

Answer

Bollywood films inspired by Oscar for Best

Picture winners

5

This polymath used various pen names in his

lifetime like Alice Addertongue, Anthony

Afterwit, Benevolus, Caelia Shortface, Martha

Careful, Polly Baker and Richard Saunders.

His most famous pen name has not been

included in this list. Who? And what was his

most famous pen name?

Answer

Benjamin Franklin and Silence Dogood

6

Sung Kang is an actor best known for playing Han in the

Fast and Furious franchise. Han's last name is revealed

only in Fast Five, and is set to be a word play on the

name of a cult character from a film trilogy and the

capital of Sung Kang's native country. What is his last

name?

Answer

Han Seoul-Oh (Han Solo)

7

"Directors fear casting this particular actor in a major

production, or do not reveal his character in the trailers

to ensure that the climax of the movie is kept intact." This

statement is actually false and is based on a very

famous urban legend which is reinforced by X's roles in

major film and TV roles. However the urban legend is not

completely true and can be refuted by citing movies such

as Flightplan, National Treasure, Anna Karenina and

theatre productions such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet

and based on interpretation Maid of the West. What

Urban Legend?

Answer

Sean Bean always dies

8

"The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, written

by Studs Terkel, won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for General

Non-Fiction. It is a firsthand account of people involved

before, during and after the war. It inspired author Max

Brooks to write a novel which was in fact a follow up to

one of his earlier works which was a kind of survival

manual. It deals with the fictional potentiality of a ______

attack and contains detailed plans for the average citizen

to survive ______ uprisings of varying intensity and

reach, and describes "cases" of ______ outbreaks in

history. Identify the follow up novel which was later

adapted into a film of the same name.

Answer

World War Z

9

There is a classic Twilight Zone episode,

entitled "The ___ ___ ______ Caper", in

which criminals cryogenically freeze

themselves to hide from a robbery, and wake

up hundred years later. It is named after the

titular character of a short story published in

the early 19th Century. Fill in the blanks.

Answer

Rip Van Winkle

10

1Q84 is a novel published in three volumes

set in a fictionalized 1984. The author spent

four years writing the novel after coming up

with the opening sequence and title. The title

is a play on the native language

pronunciation of the year 1984 and a

reference to George Orwell's Nineteen

Eighty-Four. The letter Q and the number 9

are homophones, which are often used in

wordplay in that language. Which author?

Answer

Haruki Murakami

11

For the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards, this TV

show was nominated in the "Drama Series"

category instead of the "Miniseries" category.

The two lead actors ended up presenting the

Award for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a

Miniseries or Movie" which was given to

Benedict Cumberbatch for Sherlock. Which 2

actors? Which TV show?

Answer

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson

for True Detective

12

During the production of the game Deus Ex,

which was released in 2000, the developers

forgot the add the Twin Towers to the New

York skyline. The discrepancy was explained

in-game as a result of what?

Answer

A terrorist attack

13

The title of this non-fiction book, later adapted

into a film, comes from a phrase once

traditional in American prisons, to designate a

man condemned to death. Prior to the 1960s,

when guards would lead a condemned man

down the prison hallway, prisoners used to

call out this phrase. What phrase?

Answer

Dead Man Walking

14

Identify the book from the excerpt: "X had

been born too late and too mediocre. Some

men are born mediocre, some men achieve

mediocrity and some men have mediocrity

thrust upon them. With X it was all three.

Even among men lacking all distinction he

inevitably stood out as a man lacking more

distinction than all the rest and people who

met him were always impressed by how

unimpressive he was."

Answer

Catch 22

15

Galle is a crater on Mars. It is located on the

eastern rim of the huge impact basin Argyre

Planitia. It is named after the astronomer

Johann Gottfried Galle. The crater was used

as a story location in X after it's similarity to

one of the key motifs in X was noted by one

of the creators. According to him, the

similarity "was almost too good to be true. I

worried that if we put it in, people would

never believe it." Identify X.

Answer

Watchmen

16

In 1974, Uderzo and Goscinny set up their

own animation studio called Studio Idefix.

Idefix was Dogmatix’s French name. The

studio’s logo was a direct imitation of MGM's

in which the lion was replaced by Idefix. And

MGM's motto "Ars Gratia Artis" was replaced

by "Delirant Isti Romani". What does "Delirant

Isti Romani" mean?

Answer

These Romans are Crazy

17

The English name for this drink is Bison Grass

Vodka. It is a dry, herb-flavored vodka that

has a unique flavour of woodruff, vanilla,

coconut, and almond notes. The original

name is the Polish name for bison grass. A

fictional country named after this vodka is

where the events of a film, inspired by the

works of Austrian author Stefan Zweig take

place. Which film?

Answer

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Scores

Written Round

• 6 questions on Pokémon

• Teams have to write down their answers

• Differential scoring –

• +20 if 1/2 teams gets it

• +10 if 3/4 teams get it

• +5 if 5 teams get it

• No points if all teams get it

1

Gengar is a dual-type Ghost/Poison Pokémon

which has a habit of pretending to be a

person's shadow and mimicking the person.

Which English word (actually a loan word

from German) is this Pokémon's name

derived from?

Answer

Doppelganger

2

This Electric-type Pokémon is simply based

on a sheep and its electric aspect comes

from how wool builds up static charges. It is

inspired from a classic science fiction novel

(which was also adapted into a film). Its name

is derived from a nursery rhyme. Which

novel? Which nursery rhyme?

Answer

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Mary Had A Little Lamb

3

This Kicking Pokémon was originally known

as "Sawamura" in Japanese, based on

Japanese kickboxer Tadashi Sawamura. His

English name is derived from the name of X.

On the other hand, the Punching Pokémon

was originally known as "Ebiwara" in

Japanese, based on Japanese former two-

time world flyweight boxing champion

Hiroyuki Ebihara and his English name is

derived from the name of Y. Identify X and Y.

Answer

Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan

4

This is the Psychic Pokémon called Girafarig.

What does its name signify?

Answer

It is palindrome, which reflects the forward and

backward heads

5

Heracross is a Bug-Fighting type pokemon

which is based on a certain species known

for its extraordinary strength and hence

named after X. It also has two alternative

names after another animal AND another

mythological animal, due to one of its

distinctive features. Identify the species and

X.

Answer

Hercules beetle/Rhinoceros beetle/Unicorn

beetle

Hercules

6

Milotic is a Water-type Pokémon named after

one of the most famous ancient Greek

sculptures which depicts the Greek/Roman

goddess of love and beauty, and, like Milotic,

possesses no arms. The arms of the

sculpture were lost following its discovery.

Which sculpture?

Answer

Venus de Milo

Infinite Rebound 2

• 17 questions clockwise

• +10/-0 for a direct or passed question

• Onefinite pounce - A team cannot pounce

further once it gets a question wrong on

pounce

• +15/-0 on pounce

• Teams can pounce on their own directs

18

The author X was posted in Paris as a young

Reuters foreign correspondent in 1962 when Y

had just granted independence to Algeria to end

the eight-year Algerian War, a highly

controversial act that had incurred the wrath of

the ultra-right terrorist group Organisation Armée

Secrète (OAS) which then vowed to assassinate

him. X befriended many of Y's bodyguards and

personally reported from the scene of the failed

August 1962 assassination attempt on the life of

Y. Identify X and Y.

Answer

X: Frederick Forsyth

Y: Charles de Gaulle

19

In the movie Captain America: The Winter

Soldier, what Biblical quotation is inscribed

on the character Nick Fury's tombstone?

Answer

Ezekiel 25:17

20

This character's name was inspired by Kim

Noonien Singh, a pilot who flew in the

Second World War. The creator of this work

of fiction served with Singh and eventually

lost touch with him. He had hoped that the

character's similar name might attract Singh's

attention and renew his old acquaintance.

Which character?

Answer

Khan Noonien Singh

21

Roberto Benigni directed and starred in the 1997 tragicomedy Life Is

Beautiful, which is about an Italian Jewish man who tries to protect

his son's innocence during his internment at a Nazi concentration

camp, by telling him that the Holocaust is an elaborate game and he

must adhere very carefully to the rules to win. The film was attacked

by critics who accused it of presenting the Holocaust without much

suffering, and some who considered that "laughing at everything"

was not appropriate. However, some praised Benigni's artistic

daring and skill to create a sensitive comedy involving the tragedy, a

challenge that X confessed he would not have done with his film Y

had he been aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. Identify X and Y.

Answer

X: Charlie Chaplin

Y: The Great Dictator

22

Kip Thorne is an American theoretical physicist,

known for his contributions in gravitational

physics and astrophysics. A long-time friend and

colleague of Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan,

he was the Feynman Professor of Theoretical

Physics at the California Institute of Technology

(Caltech) until 2009 and one of the world's

leading experts on the astrophysical implications

of Einstein's general theory of relativity. What

new project is he involved in 2014?

Answer

Interstellar (as Exec Producer)

23

When this band released their cassette in Iran,

a leaflet in Persian was enclosed which gave

the explanation of the lyrics of a certain song

as being about a man who has accidentally

killed a man, and sold his soul to the devil,

much like Faust. On the night before his

execution, he calls out for God and with the

help of angels regains his soul. Which song?

Answer

Bohemian Rhapsody

24

The Inklings was a literary group which started

with just authors X and Y meeting on Monday

mornings to talk about writing. It went on the

become an important group associated with

the University of Oxford, England, for nearly

two decades between the early 1930s and

late 1940s. Members were literary

enthusiasts who praised the value of

narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing

of fantasy. Id X and Y.

Answer

CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien

25

The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station is a US

scientific research station. Most personnel leave by the

middle of February, leaving a few dozen who keep the

station functional through the months of Antarctic night.

The winter personnel are isolated between February and

October. As a tradition, every year, the winter personnel

watch two films on the first winter evening. One of them

is a 1982 film based in an Antarctic research station. The

other is a 1980 film in which the characters are isolated

from the outside world for a long period of time. Both

films have now gained a cult following. Identify both.

Answer

The Thing

The Shining

26

For No Good Reason is a documentary about

Ralph Steadman, a cartoonist best known for his

work with author X. It stars the actor Y who pays

a visit to Steadman. Y was a fan and longtime

friend of X, and has acted in two films based on

X's works. Y accompanied X as his road

manager on one of the author's last book tours.

In 2006, he contributed a foreword to a

posthumous biography of X and also narrated a

documentary film based on X's life. Identify the

author and the actor.

Answer

Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Depp

27

Mount Roraima serves as the triple border

point of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana. The

tabletop mountains in this area are

considered some of the oldest geological

formations on Earth, dating back to some two

billion years ago in the Precambrian. The

production team of which movie went to

Mount Roraima and climbed it for inspiration

and ideas for the making of it?

Answer

Up

28

These are three paintings of three rather

famous members of this extremely artistic

family. The third artist (third image) left his

paintings untitled to "leave the meaning of the

painting open to interpretation". Which artistic

family?

Answer

Tagore. The first is Pratima Visarjan by

Gaganendranath Tagore (Sharmila Tagore's

great grandfather). The second is End of A

Journey by Abanindranath Tagore, his

younger brother. The third is by Rabindranath

Tagore, their uncle.

29

Screenshot from the game Plants vs Zombies.

The character in the image was replaced by a

generic disco dancing zombie after the family

of a certain deceased personality raised

objection. Put funda.

Answer

Michael Jackson’s family complained that the

Michael Jackson in Thriller inspired zombie

was objectionable after the pop star's death

and hence was replaced.

30

Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major is a

rather popular piece of classical music. It was

used as a background scores in movies like

Se7en, Battle Royale and The Spy who loved

me. Its most popular arrangement,

specifically the 2nd movement, was done by

August Willhelmj, who titled it what?

Answer

Air on the G string

31

The National Front (NF) is a British far-right political party

for whites only, opposed to non-white immigration, and

committed to a programme of repatriation. While denying

accusations of fascism, it has cultivated links with neo-

Nazi cells at home and abroad, and the British police

and prison services forbid their employees to be

members of the party. The NF was founded in 1967. The

party has never won a seat in Parliament, and its few

council seats have only been obtained through defection

and appointment. The National Front were particularly

strong in the early 1980s, and their paper is called The

Flame. What’s the entertainment connect?

Answer

Norsefire from V for Vendetta

32

X is known as the voice of Y, but at his own

request, was originally uncredited for the release

of the first two films. He said, "When Linda Blair

did the girl in The Exorcist, they hired Mercedes

McCambridge to do the voice of the devil coming

out of her. And there was controversy as to

whether Mercedes should get credit. I was one

who thought no, she was just special effects. So

when it came to Y, I said, no I'm just special

effects. But it became so identified, I said OK, I'll

let them put my name on it." X and Y?

Answer

X: James Earl Jones

Y: Darth Vader

33

Season 1 Episode 8: The Pointy End

Season 2 Episode 9: Blackwater

Season 3 Episode 7: The Bear and the Maiden Fair

Season 4 Episode 2: The Lion and the Rose

What's common to this exhaustive list?

Answer

Writing credits for George R.R. Martin

34

In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, a

hospital nurse who is watching over Dave

Bowman's mother throws down a TIME

magazine to go and check on her. The

magazine cover is supposed to have

photographs of the US and the Russian

presidents. Which 2 people feature on the

magazine?

Answer

Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke