It's interesting that there are two World Series in the pop culture crosshairs right now.
First off, the World Series of Pop Culture has me and the rest of our office entranced for a couple of weeks. I've played against the Twisted Misters team (the young NYU guys) and they're good, giving my team one heck of a fight at TRASHionals this year. Plus, one of the Andrews clobbered us on Jeremy's audio round, and for that, he gets my respect, even if they are a bit loud and brash. Of course, if this is one of the better teams, you've got to wonder what some of us can do.
The game hasn't changed a whole lot from last year, although replacing Lisa Guerrero with the Cheetara girls is pretty much a push. It's solid for what it is, although if something like this could succeed, I wonder if a TRASH game could exist on TV as well.
As for the other World Series ... of Poker, once again it becomes very strange when a large part of the audience is rooting for the pro against a bunch of amateurs. In this case, it was Scotty Nguyen just missing out on the final table. I still think poker and golf have a lot of similarities in the spectator department, but with the rise of the game these days, the two diverge greatly when it comes to rooting for the underdog.
For instance, an amateur or a young, up-and-coming golfer will often get a lot of crowd support if he's in contention against a bunch of pros (although probably not Tiger Woods) late in a tournament, especially a major. In that case, he's bucking the odds since it's a nobody against a ton of pros.
In the main event, it's a bunch of nobodies against a few pros, so the ones who slip by and make it far will get far more support. Yes, the professionals are the underdogs against the average Joe. How many other competitions can you say that?
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I can't bring myself to watch World Series of Pop Culture in large doses. It feels so inferior to what TRASH does. The question difficulty is way too scattered for my tastes.
JQ - Did you try out for the World Series of Pop Culture?
I can't try out. The show's connection with EW (a fellow Time Inc. magazine) disqualifies me.
Agreed with Tyler. It's like if CBI decided to produce a Trash set. Plus the episodes I've seen have featured exclusively music, TV, and movies. No sports? No "other?" To say nothing of the fact that the inserted "shill for VH1" questions are ridiculous, as though "Flavor of Love" is really on a par with "Survivor" as reality shows worthy of being asked about in such a setting.
I try not to be snobbish about the whole thing. It obviously has some flaws with questions, but I like to think of it as a TV version of bar trivia and not the quizbowl tournaments we play. And remember, our definition of pop culture is wider than the one on the show, so we're jaded that way. (Much like a lot of academic quizbowl people can feel jaded even watching Jeopardy! or Millionaire.)
On the other hand, while the Twisted Misters guys are already quizbowl vets, it would be fun to invite some of the teams in the competition to these other events to see how they shape up. I know TRASH tried to invite last year's WSOPC champs to regionals but things fell through.
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