Quizmasters Who Don’t Know What They’re Doing
This is an issue for Harry Potter aficionados everywhere. What happens when you’re at a Harry Potter trivia night and the quizmaster is blatantly WRONG??
Last week, I went to a Harry Potter trivia night. Apart from only a sixth of the questions being Harry Potter themed (an entire issue in itself – nasty, scheming, conniving people), of the few questions that we did get, several of the answers were wrong.
“What human ingredient is needed in Polyjuice Potion?”
The answer they gave us received immediate condemnation: “The person you’re turning into’s hair.”
NO. Every Potter aficionado knows that Ron says, “What d’you mean, a bit of whoever we’re changing into? I’m drinking nothing with Crabbe’s toenails in it -“
CLEARLY. NOT. JUST. HAIR.
The horrors didn’t end there. We got a movie question next. I am not as strong on movie trivia, but this question was ridiculous:
“Which composer worked on the Harry Potter movies?”
The answer was “John Williams.”
HOW. COULD. THEY. I may not be the best at naming all the composers off the top of my head, but I know there are four: John Williams, Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat. (Interestingly, Williams probably had to leave because of commitments with Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which meant Doyle was brought on for Goblet of Fire.)
I asked around the MuggleNet staff to see if they’d experienced a Harry Potter quizmaster who didn’t know what they were doing. (From the answers, you can tell the injustice still stings.)
Krix Keall explained her experience:
‘Which centaur did Harry first meet?’ When we asked for clarification on whether it was based on the movie or the book, they said it was the same.
ERGH. As everyone knows, Book!Harry meets Ronan and Bane BEFORE Firenze.
Beth Warsaw said she once went to a trivia event where they asked what year the first book takes place.
They were only accepting 1991 and NOT 1991-1992. So dumb. It was contested by nearly everyone and they wouldn’t budge.
As an Australian, perhaps this mistake would make sense since our school year goes from February to November. But in the Northern Hemisphere?? HOW??
Michael Harle, luckily, has the solution.
The local ones here allow us to come up and contest an answer, as long as we can provide canon proof. Which I do. A lot.
So next time, I’m bringing all seven books as evidence just in case.
Have you ever been to a Harry Potter trivia competition that made your blood boil?
