to think this is a ridiculous pub quiz rule?

[Chocolatebiscuitcollection]

Recent pub quiz.

The question was "Heidi Klum is married to whom?"

Two members of our team knew that she was divorced from Seal quite a long time ago and spent ages trying to think of the name of her new partner, who isn't a household name like Seal was.

When she came to giving out the answers, the host said the answer was Seal. Pub got a bit noisy, people pointed out they are divorced, she looked it up on her phone and said "ooops sorry" ... but then said "you can have a point if you put Seal because that's the answer I was looking for"

When challenged she would not back down!

That's totally wrong isn't it?

@thing47 Lewis Carroll and wouldn't accept they were wrong. It wasn't the only wrong answer of the night but the one that put me off pub quizzes forever.

I'm still angry about a 'what animal is another name for earth pig?'

We put aardvark they wanted groundhog!
Wouldn't budge - readers we lost by 1 point!

Years ago an answer was Miguel Indurain, I got it but barely anyone else did. The quiz master couldn't pronounce it so said anything Spanish sounding could take the point, I was fuming!

Drives me mad.

We stopped going to the local pub quiz altogether because the quiz master was getting his own bloody questions wrong!

Blimey! OP, Boycott this sacrilege! I feel exactly the same as you @BranchGold

I’m a proud enough pedant to do this too! 😂

I was annoyed by one years ago.
The question was ‘who cut off Samson’s hair?’

I said that it was Delilah’s servant. The Quiz Master would only accept Delilah.
If you look at the bible verse it says that she called for her servant who cut off his hair. Delilah ordered it, but she didn’t do it.

Her name is actually IvanA like her mother. Ivanka is a nickname.

Op, I'd be fuming too. The quiz master should have just cancelled that question and apologised for getting it wrong.

Similarly you could be more accepting of the people who have pointed out that it's not a bad rule but bad quiz mastering. Just like your quiz master you don't accept your own mistake

We had similar in a round on musicals. The question was: "Who is the railway cat in the musical Cats?", to which the answer is Skimbleshanks. Quizmaster insisted it was Mr Mistofoles. Even with me singing the bloody song Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat, he flat out refused to accept that he was wrong. Pillock.

@CaptainCallisto i love the image of you angrily singing at the quizmaster to prove the point.

I once did a quiz where the question was what the highest court in England is. It had recently changed from the house of lords to the supreme court. I am a lawyer and knew this. The quizmaster didn't. He didn't let me have a point.

We once had the question, "The Boat Race starts in Putney, where does it finish". The correct answer being Mortlake but the MC gave Henley-on-Thames as the answer. Various people pointed out this was wrong but he wouldn't back down.
They'd be bloody exhausted rowing all that way!

I used to attend a quiz night in the local church hall. Very friendly and relaxed, with the winners usually donating the 'winnings' to the parish funds. The quiz master, while occasionally wrong, was well meaning, so I never challenged him on any of his dodgy questions / answers. Highlights included:

Which world leader was the most photographed in history? (literally impossible to know, the QM said it was Adolf Hitler)

Which US state has the lowest population? (Correct answer - Wyoming, QM answer - Alaska)

What is the name of the comedy in which David Jason reprises his role of 'Granville'? (Correct answer - Still Open All Hours, QM answer - Open All Hours Again).

He also occasionally slipped the answer into the question by accident when somebody asked him to repeat a question. E.g.

QM - 'In which Dickens novel does the character Miss Havisham appear?'

Participant - 'Repeat the question please'

QM - 'In which great expectations does the character...'

Fun times.

Yes. There are some alarmingly thick people about.

I’m with you. I once did a quiz that asked Marilyn Monroe’s BIRTH name. The answer the quiz master had Norma Jeane Baker but her birth name was Norma Jean Mortenson. However, they awarded the point to anyone who just had Norma Jean as the answer.

They were guest hosts and cocked up on some other questions too. They weren’t invited back.

This reminds me of the Dr Spock debacle in The Office 😂

We did a Halloween themed pub quiz once where we ended on 54 points and the next team 50 (we marked their sheet) but because they had worn Halloween themed head bopper things they got a bonus 5 points and won. We were fuming and still feel robbed.

It's making me smile to see so many Mumsnetters still bearing a grudge 30 years later is quite impressive!

To pp who asked, it didn't make a difference to the outcome for us - if it did there would have been some tables turned over, that's for certain.

I'm surprised that so many quiz masters have been so rigid in your experience. Surely it's pretty easy to just discount an entire question, so no one gets any points?

But that would mean the QM admitting they're wrong, which many probably wouldn't dream of doing

God that would annoy me too @jujubees ! Metacarpals are hand bones & carpals are wrist bones. & Phalanges are finger bones. A quick Google confirmed my answers so it's not difficult to research for a quiz.

This has brought back a memory from when I worked in a secure mental health facility.

One of the nurses organised a music quiz for the patients, he brought in a cassette with short bursts of music on it, play them and the patients had to write down what songs they were.

But when it came to the answers he was one out, his answers were always for the next question, so there was zero chance of getting a question right.

Easy mistake to make and easily fixed, but he insisted he was in the right and the entire quiz was ruined.

The patients and the staff were all looking at each other as if to say WTF?

Like many of the staff in there I think he had his own problems, we weren't permitted to were a neck tie yet he insisted on wearing one every day, and every day he would have to be told to take it off.

I'm reminded of a regular PTA quiz we used to go to. One of the questions was who wrote 'It Must Be Love'. The quizmaster who was some sort of semi-professional they'd brought in (I use the term loosely) said the answer was Madness. Several people objected that it was in fact Labi Siffre. The quizmaster refused to back down or at the very least award points to those who had written Labi Siffre. It got quite heated to the point one dad (not my DH) stood up, berated the quizmaster across a stunned room and stormed out in protest muttering darkly.

That was 15 years ago and we are still cross about it. 'Labi Siffre' has become family shorthand for taking a stand on a small but factually correct point.

We had an all female quiz team and were quite successful in our local area. As we were leaving one night when we'd won the quiz a man from another team said "I can never understand why you lot win so many quizzes" When we asked why, he said "Because you haven't got a man on your team - how do you get any correct in the sport round?"

Obviously you need a penis to know about sport.

YANBU - once lost a quiz because the answer on the question sheet said DVD stood for Digital Video Disc rather than Digital Versatile Disc.