Trivia Wars 2 - Revenge of Suit Up!

In the midst of all the wall-to-wall Winter Olympic coverage, I don't know if you happened to catch one of the more inspirational interviews with NBC analyst Bob Costas this past Friday morning, recapping one of the biggest moments that's happened during the course of the games so far.

Just over a month ago, I wrote a column about how my trivia team Suit Up! had never won and how we always lost to our biggest rivals, The No Talent A-- Clowns (or "The Clown Show" as I like to call them). That dubious streak finally ended this past Thursday night and while all the other media outlets were trying to land a few minutes with American heroes like Shani Davis, Lindsey Vonn, and Shaun White, Costas sat down with yours truly to break down our team's first ever victory.

In case you did miss the interview, I was able to get a copy of the transcription and have posted it here:

BOB: Welcome back to NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics. I'm here with Josh Mahler from team Suit Up! who won their first ever game of bar trivia last night. Josh, Suit Up! finally took down The Clown Show, so my first question has to be how does it feel?

ME: Well, Bob, it actually somehow feels better than I had ever imagined. It feels like a giant weight has been lifted off our shoulders and I can finally breathe. Just the greatest.

BOB: This has been a long time coming for Suit Up! Over the past year, you were the only regular team that had not finished in first place so what does it mean for you to finally get over that proverbial hump?

ME: It means a lot. We’ve had a good, friendly rivalry with all of the other teams that usually come out, including The Clown Show, but we all knew something was missing – that we weren’t all equals yet. To finally get this win feels like we’ve been invited to join an exclusive club of champions. We’re no longer on the outside looking in.

BOB: But the win didn’t come without some bumps along the way. Walk us through the night.

ME: In typical Suit Up! fashion, we got a quick start out of the gate. We got every single answer correct in the first round, but missed the two-parter to end the opening round. Also in typical Suit Up! fashion, we all thought the night was beginning to derail when we missed the first FOUR questions of the second round. Everyone chipped in down the stretch and we didn’t answer incorrectly again until the final question… of course.

BOB: The end of the second round and the entire third round were one of the more impressive stretches in Suit Up! trivia history. How did you all put it together?

ME: It was a total team effort. Laura got a Nicole Kidman question right, Heather was all over a Good Will Hunting answer, Christa knew St. Christopher as the patron saint of travelers, Greg and Kevin figured out how many minutes it takes the earth to turn one degree, The Bull and I rolled the dice on Sweden over Russia on an critical Olympic hockey question. I also have to note that we did not miss a single question after my Wife got to the bar after work. She was our good luck charm and turned our luck around.

BOB: Good Will Hunting, huh? So you were able to redeem the Dazed and Confused debacle with another Ben Affleck movie?

ME: Uhh… we still don’t talk about that, Bob.

BOB: Oh, sorry. So after the third round, you looked up at the scoreboard and for only the second time in team history, you were going into the final question in first place. Your team was nursing a slim six points over your dreaded rivals, The Clown Show when the final question comes up on the screen: Name the Top 4 best selling Girl Scout cookies? What was the discussion process like at your table?

ME: All I know about Girl Scout cookies is that I like the coconut one and the mint one, so I knew right off the bat that I wasn’t going to be any help. I just slunk back in my chair and accepted defeat, but the girls instantly huddled around each other and I think Greg and Kendall got involved as well. Everyone pretty much agreed on Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs and the girls thought the final answer was Trefoils and Kendall thought it was Do-si-dos. Since the girls had the majority, we put down Trefoils, turned in our answer sheet, and slowly awaited our fate.

BOB: And the correct answers were?

ME: Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs and… Do-si-dos.

BOB: Oh, no!

ME: Exactly. (Sigh) For the 436th time in team history we had gotten three out of the final four answers right. Fortunately there were no premature celebrations this time; the table just went quiet because we knew there was no way The Clown Show missed it. They had gotten us again.

BOB: Last time, trivia host Moe faked your team out with answer, this time there was a mix-up with the scoreboard?

ME: Yeah, even in our greatest moment there had to be some controversy. The final results were posted on the screen and we were still listed in first place. We were all confused because our score was still the same as it was before the final question. We thought for sure Moe had done that on purpose to tease us AGAIN! He even congratulated us over the microphone, so we called him over for a clarification. He realized that he had posted the wrong screen but the standings were correct! Even though we had missed the right answer, somehow every other team did too – including The Clown Show! We had finally done it. We had finally won!

BOB: And even though your victory was the trivia equivalent of the Rams winning a regular season football game, your team celebrated as if the Bills had won the Super Bowl.

ME: You never know when you’re going to be in that moment again so you have to savor the flavor. As soon as the correct score flashed on the screen, we all went nuts. Moe played Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer, which has become our team theme song and followed it up with We Are the Champions by Queen. I’m sure everyone else in the bar hated us as we sang every word at the top of our lungs, but we didn’t care. Championship hats and t-shirts are being printed as we speak.

BOB: Final question: was this just a one hit wonder or the start of a dynasty?

ME: We obviously want to stay competitive on a weekly basis and prove that this wasn’t a fluke. But we have decided that from now on, whenever we don’t know an answer we’re just going to write “It doesn’t matter, we already won.”