Celebrating Our 23rd Year!

How We Make Hosted Trivia Fun

Smart-Ass Points

The Big Quiz Thing is always working to make our hosted trivia events fun for a variety of people, not just for those who love trivia. Sometimes it’s a tricky needle to thread–make our material too easy, our trivia geek clients will get bored; make it too hard, our trivia Muggle clients will be turned off. This is one of the many reasons why we’re proud of a longtime Big Quiz Thing trademark element: Credit for wrong but funny answers, a.k.a. Smart-Ass Points.

“If you can’t be smart, be a smart-ass,” our quizmasters declare. At nearly any Big Quiz Thing hosted trivia event, if a team can’t fathom a plausible answer, we invite them to exercise their wit and mark down an amusing response. If it solicits a laugh when our quizmaster shares it with the audience, guess what? They get credit. Because everyone likes to laugh.

(Naturally, the term Smart-Ass isn’t appropriate in all contexts. So when a client demands it, or it’s an all-ages audience, we just say, “If it’s wrong but funny, you get credit.” And yes, we’ve contemplated shifting to Smart-Alec Points, Wise-Guy Points, etc., but nothing ever sounded right.)

Check out some examples (and yeah, a lot of the best SA Point answers are way more NSFW than these):

Q: In 1972, science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick defined what as “that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”?
A: Gonorrhea

Noah Tarnow hosting a Big Quiz Thing event
Peeps marshmallow candy

Q: What four-word Southern-state slogan originated in the 1980s as part of an anti-littering campaign?
A: Pick That S– Up!

Q: The company that makes Peeps is called “Just BLANK.”
A: Diabetes

Q: Tramar Dillard is the real name of what hitmaking rapper, whose stage moniker was inspired by his birth state?
A: Arizona Ice-T

Q: Bob Dylan’s 1966 concert at Royal Albert Hall is famous for what biblical heckle shouted by an audience member?
A: “Play that funky music, white boy” (from Revelations)

Q: In 1997, Mike Tyson controversially bit off a chunk of whose ear?
A: Vincent Van Gogh

Q: What 1991 novel featured a murderer’s analyses of the music of Genesis, Whitney Houston, and Huey Lewis and the News?
A: Mein Kampf

So whether we’re hosting a virtual team building experience or a trivia night fundraiser, you can be sure that credit for wrong but funny answers, a.k.a Smart-Ass Points, will make the hosted trivia event even more enjoyable!

Oh, the fun never ends with the Big Quiz Thing. See you soon, you hilarious geniuses…

painting of Mike Tyson biting off Vincent Van Gogh's Ear

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