Test the Nation

Well, my wife won out on the TV watching last night, since no way was I going to argue with a woman 9 months pregnant. We watched a lovely 2 hour piece of television called "Test the Nation". For those readers of an American ilk, it simply is a trivia test, consisting of 60 questions which covered a range of topics, all concerned with the new millennium.

Although, to be fair, they admit that the judges decided arbitrarily that the millennium started January 1^st, 2000. So, geeks, argue amongst yourselves.

Now, I do love a good test of my knowledge. And this show was set up in an interesting way: 6 teams of 36 people each, organized by their one common element. That meant we had the Flight Crew (people having to do with air travel like pilots, Air Force and flight attendants), Backpackers (yes, young people who travel the world by foot), Cab Drivers (but we're including limo drivers, and water taxi drivers), Chefs (bizarrely including Bob Blumer, the Surreal Gourmet), Bloggers (which made my wife turn to me and ask "Honey, why aren't you there?") and finally, and most confusingly, Celebrity Impersonators.

Each team had a celebrity to represent them. And I mean a real celebrity, although mainly by Canadian standards, so some of these won't translate over to an American audience as "celebrities". There was Carlo Rota (24, Boondock Saints, Little Mosque on the Prairie) for the Chefs, Debbie Travis (um, the painting chick from England) for the Backpackers, Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Canada's Top Model) for the Flight Crew, Farley Flex (Canadian Idol judge…yeah, I don't know him either), Lorne Cardinal (Davis from Corner Gas) for the Cabbies, and finally, my personal fave, Samantha Bee from the Daily Show for the Bloggers.

The show, sadly, was incredibly badly hosted by two people you will never have heard of unless you spend a lot of time watching CBC news programs, and listening to CBC radio. I do neither. These hosts were horribly uncharismatic, and made the show incredibly hard to watch. I love how the male host would suck the life out of the competition periodically by popping in to inform the teams who was doing the worst. And he would literally say, "Yes, Cab Drivers, you're in last place. What do you think of that?"

The test itself actually had some difficulty to it. If you want to see it, try here.

Yes, I got into the test, and my wife and I did it as a team. We managed 51 out of 60, which isn't bad. The best celebrity score was Samantha Bee, with 49. I assume her knowledge of politics, popular trends and technology has to be good based on her work on the Daily Show, which keeps her cutting edge. And, without any surprise for me, the Bloggers team came in first with an average score of 50 out of 60 (although the highest scoring individual in the entire thing was this guy, who got an incredible 57 out of 60). I suspected that people who write the most, would have to do the most research, in order not to appear idiotic.

What I enjoyed the most about the show, though, were the little updates about all the people doing the test online along with the show (which we didn't do, seeing as we would rather lounge on the couch to watch). Some interesting facts:

See? I've always suspected that meat made you smarter. After all, you're more likely to eat actual brains than a vegetarian.

Oh, and I totally nailed the pet related question. Thanks, Super Pet.