Pub Quiz Ethics and the growth of mobile telephony

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pub quiz ethics:

my girlfriend has just phoned me from *unnamed london pub" during a pub quiz, and asked me some questions that her team is stuck on. i have googled (or allmusic-ed) the answers, and texted them to me. she contacted me on her mobile. neither I, nor she, could have possibly known the answers.

so, how bad is this? who is worst? her for getting me to do it? or me for complying? what i'm really interested in, is the role of mobile phones within pub quizzes. i have been to many where you see people sneak out to phone people, and have been to one where all phones had to be handed in!

so how will the pub quiz react to this threat to the integrity fair play and sportsmanship of the pub quiz?

do you use yr mobile for unethical ends in these situations?

my own feelings: i like looking for answers, so dont finding finding em out. i wouldnt use a phone myself in a pub quiz to phone a friend, but get an illicit thrill when one of my team does so. this of course turns to indignation when i see members of other teams doing likewise. Although i don't object to my friends cheating in this way, it feels...kinda dirty.

Of course, phoning people is not a guarantee of victory. Although phoning someone who is on the interent gives you a damn good chance.

Dion & the Belmonts
Sale of the Century

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I bet I'd have known the Dion question!

I have never been in a pub quiz.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Weren't the Super Furries supposed to be calling an EP "Mobile Phones are Killing the Art of The Pub Quiz"?

Dud, dud, dud, by the way. (Only because me and mr ailsa won £30 last night by knowing stuff).

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

this nation has hit rock bottom

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Because idiots like me can win money at a pub quiz?

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:50 (twenty-two years ago)

not even the pub quiz is sacred...

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 17 November 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

mind you, this trick could have been handy on University Challenge

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:00 (twenty-two years ago)

paxman: hurry up please, i must have an answer
DG: er pioson rox ur all gay?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:11 (twenty-two years ago)

*sigh* there's always next year...

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:20 (twenty-two years ago)

btw obviously this is a really bad thing generally, i just wanted to confess that while it is shamefull, i have been an accomplice to these sort of goings-on....

― ambrose (ambrose), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

yr gonna do time for this, creep

― DG (D_To_The_G), Monday, 17 November 2003 23:42 (twenty-two years ago)

It's cheating. If it were my pub and my pub quiz, you'd both have been disqualified and thrown out on your ears! In fact, banned! I mean, could you ring your friend in the middle of a school exam and ask them the questions? How about your driving test?

I know it's JUST A PUB QUIZ but for fucks sake, if you can't be honest and ethical in places where it doesn't really matter, how are you ever going to be trustworthy in places where it does?

Yo, DG, long time no see, whussup?

― Citizen Kate (kate), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I am ashamed of you Ambrose

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm actually compering the work quiz tomorrow! 200 people are coming. I think I'll have to watch out for mobile phone users.

there are of course other ways of cheating which have been around for a bit longer. The sensible pub quizmaster hides the pub's newspapers before attempting a current affairs round.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Martin: never been to a pub quiz in your life? That's outrageous!

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Christ, even I've been in a pub quiz. We came in second, I won a pint a cider.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:48 (twenty-two years ago)

last Sunday, I went with one other person and we won £42. The previous week the team consisted of me and 4 other ppl and we won £5. I'm not sure what this proves.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i think if anyone wants to play a pub quiz then they should give their mobiles to the person running the quiz, which are then returned to them after their answers are submitted

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

yes yes but what of implants?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:02 (twenty-two years ago)

encouraged for barmaids

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:03 (twenty-two years ago)

come on people you are being totally naive. do you mean to say that you have never seen this happen? is this really news to you? i have seen this phenomenon up and down the country, what surprises me is the relative openness of it now. like people dont even bother to hide the fact that they are cheating.
and, as mark h says, this is just a new face to an old art form. most of the pub quizzess that i have been to, the dreadful 'regulars' are always in cahoots with the person running the quiz, getting clues etc etc.

obviously, the best solution is what stevem said. but what a stink that would cause! there would be nuff moaning about that...

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

new face to old art form, yes - like the smart quizmaster knows not to ask a London Underground question, as ppl just open up the back of their diaries!

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember Jonnie having rather a go at a woman he caught outside a pub (the Village in Walthamstow) with her mobile phone and answer sheet blatantly getting answers. The bloke who ran that quiz was a bit of a fool, but if he gave out clues he'd generally give one to each table, while not strictly good, at leat he spread it around an didn't have favourites. (Cue N to pipe up aboutthe time we was robbed)

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:14 (twenty-two years ago)

He totally hated us, that Spakeish fool.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

questionmasters giving clues should be banned from running quizzes.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Clues are nice.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

MarkH = Pub quiz rockist

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:25 (twenty-two years ago)

not rockist, just interested in fairness. I've known quizzes where the questionmasters give clues to their mates, or the ppl who pester him/her the most to say his/her questions are too difficult. I suppose clues are acceptable if the questionmaster asks a question then says "and I'll give you a clue" to everyone. Any other clue distributing system and the pub is not a level playing field.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

I suppose you have a narrow concept of the right 'answer' too, don't you?

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:30 (twenty-two years ago)

It's just amazing the sort of common acceptance level of JUST PLAIN CHEATING that is being expressed in this thread. Gah. Where are your ethics? Mark H is the only person I have any respect for here.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:31 (twenty-two years ago)

any quiz with too many sportz questions is unfair -- so it's no holds barred as far as i'm concerned.

― enrique (Enrique), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:32 (twenty-two years ago)

what about me? i'm harsh but fair

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:32 (twenty-two years ago)

there are *never* enough sports questions

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd like to see as an experiment a quiz where mobile telephony is legitimised for one question or round, ie a lifeline system like Who wants to be a Millionaire.

but as for confiscating phones and giving them back, what a nightmare! Especially if you have a common phone like mine (one of those blue Nokias with the orange bits down the side). "Hey that's my phone", "No it's not it's mine!" Cue FITE.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

True, Stevem. Surrendering phones is a good idea. I mean, it's not fair because it not only is disadvantageous to those who don't cheat, but it's also TOTALLY UNFAIR TO THOSE WEIRDOES WHO DON'T HAVE MOBILE PHONES, I mean, the technologically disadvantaged.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:34 (twenty-two years ago)

People who use mobile phones in pub quizzes are a) cheating bastards and b) very sad indeed.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

This trick wouldn't have worked on Pete's birthday pub quiz.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I would just like to point out that I have only ever cheated once in a pub quiz and that was when I had just got my new futuristic WAP phone a few years ago and was showing off. And it was some stupid question about a made-up word for a phobia.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

All the quizmasters I've known seem more concerned with teams which exceed the maximium team membership number than with ppl cheating. Which is odd, as more ppl != quiz success necessarily (see my post upthread).

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm going to write to my MP about this

― DG (D_To_The_G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Txt him.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)

mark h it would be easier than you think to tell which phones belong to which people

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 10:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Of course, everyone knows that the real victor of any given pub quiz is the one whose team name makes the most people laugh.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

the answer is for the pub to buy a cone of silence

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

And doesn't involve fucking monkeys.

x-post

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

we were too highbrow with our team names i think matt

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

In what way is "Pope bashes bishop over small boys" too highbrow for anything, Steve?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I was the "answer man" for somebody the other day. I felt special.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:21 (twenty-two years ago)

picture rounds really get to me sometimes. it seems a pub quiz isn't a pub quiz without poor-qulaity photocopying.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

This is why God invented picture-messaging.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

That was God who did that? No shit?

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:48 (twenty-two years ago)

"Who is this?"
"It's your thumb?!"
"Damn - try again"
"Can't see it, try to light it better"
"Again"
"Richard Wilson?"
"NO DUMASS try again"
"I dont know"
"This has cost me the prize-money in picture messages now, asshat"

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn right it was God.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:49 (twenty-two years ago)

THIS is why God invented picture-messaging:

http://bitchcakes.topcities.com/garethfap/phoneconfusion.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I use to go to a music pub quiz in Bournemouth and one guy on our team used to stick a photocopied index from the back of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles down his socks (like shinpads). Near the end he would go for a sit down toilet and check the ones we couldn't get.

We fleeced them for hundreds!

I'm ashamed about it now.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:01 (twenty-two years ago)

we paid our rent for two months that way G, we needed it. The dole was hardly funding our cider and cheese and onion pasty habits.

~(it wasn't me with the sock by the way, it was SV)

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:03 (twenty-two years ago)

"hand over your mobile phones....

take off your socks.....

and now it's time for tonight's £150 Jackpot Rose and Crown Fun Quiz!!!"

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I have disqualified people from the SOAS quiz for using mobiles before. I have disqualified for teams with members who haven't paid. I have disqualified teams who win too much (to my chagrin).

The good quizmaster invents questions which are ungoogleable.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:07 (twenty-two years ago)

His name was Simon Venning. It's time he was quiz outed.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

The better quizmaster invents answers that are ungettable

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Hi googling Simon!

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

It's cheating! What's the point of winning if ya cheated? There's no fun in it - you can't be all smarmy about your superiour knowledge of useless pub quiz facts!

― smee (smee), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Point of winning if you cheat = free ale, surely?

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

chris!

"I am ashamed of you Ambrose"

"we paid our rent for two months that way G, we needed it. The dole was hardly funding our cider and cheese and onion pasty habits.
~(it wasn't me with the sock by the way, it was SV)"

!!!!!!!
so, not only were you party to this practice, but you appear to be happy to justify it! and you try and pin the blame on someone else!
this is precisely what i attempted to convey in my initial post. therefore, i presume your shame at my behavious is really a reflection of your own self-loathing?

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not free, it's cheated..no snatched from the hands of those with bigger branes!

xpost

― smee (smee), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:20 (twenty-two years ago)

When you're drunk all the time on free beer, you kind of forget about self loathing.

I blame the pub quiz bloke for not sussing us out. Maybe he's learned from the experience.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:21 (twenty-two years ago)

It was a long long time ago, before I learned morals.

but Ambrose yes. projected self loathing. I'd never cheat now though I have to say

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Smee: cheated / snatched / stolen totally = free (except when they don't, obv., but they do in this case). Corinthian ideals are k-rub.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:38 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not as if we did it every week. We probably only made about £500 out of them through the cheating socks.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:42 (twenty-two years ago)

"only"

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

and it was holidaymakers we were fleecing in the main wasn't it?

and the "three minutes at the pumps and drink as much as you can" thing we never cheated on but all got a go didn't we?

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, they were mostly northern monkeys come down for a week of posh holiday. We were students. We had to buy Echobelly CD's to listen to during our beer sessions.

Would you rather we went without Echobelly CD's? Who's got the moral high ground now?

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Methinks you doth protest too much...

― smee (smee), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I would like to reiterate that SIMON VENNING was the baddie. Chris and I were merely innocent pawns in his cheating socks masterplan

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I refer you to my last post.

― smee (smee), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I must admit that I nearly wet myself when I first saw him pull half of the guinness book of hit singles from out of his socks.

Ahh the Seagull, happy days, bowling alley in the lower section too.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah. Simon Venning used to have a long pole to knock the skittles down.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Fuck you cheataz.

I was supposed to be joining my flatmate for his work quiz the other day, which involved me ringing him when I got to his office and him letting me in. Of course, we didn't figure on the quizzers all being made to switch their phones off. Hence me sitting in a nearby pub for 45 minutes hoping he'd be allowed out. Then I went home. Sigh.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Our band played ata pub in Annfield Plain the other month, and we took part in thee pub quiz. Thee theme = pop hit rekkids. 3/5 ov our band = club band old timers who played pop hit records in working men's clubs since thee beginning ov thee 1980's. We won. The people at the pub said it wasn't fair and gave the prize to the runners up. The prize = an enormous box ov chocolates. We were v v pissed off, & they shd think themselves lucky we played "shine on you crazy diamond" like we were supposed to in our second set, and not "beautiful as the moon, terrible as an army w/bannerz" & "many are called, few get up" like I wanted to as a revenge strategy. Not only that, but the barman played "greendale" when we were packing up, which = k-sux0r. Gah, fukc pub quizzes.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

bigger brane = cheating btw

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I first saw him pull half of the guinness book of hit singles from out of his socks.

You accompanied him to the sit down toilet? This story gets more and more disgusting.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

No, he first did it at the table we were sat at, until we told him not to be so silly.

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Good job they didn't run out of toilet paper, eh?

"Number one in March 83? Says here 'Shitwoddwoddy'."

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I have remembered a similar quiz cheat shame story. I was on a mini-break with lots of friends in Perrenporth (sp?), Cornwall when we stumbled across the local pub quiz. It was embarrassingly easy and after a while the landlord/quizmaster's daughter sidled over to us, having cottoned onto our brainy London ways, to offer a deal. If we helped her with the spelling round then she would lend us a ripped out soaps cast list page from TV Quick.

Now this sounds like a rubbish deal, but she told us that her dad always used to when setting questions for the forthcoming soaps round. Sure enough, it came in very handy indeed.

The only problem was that we had actually split into two teams, cause there were so many of us. The other half constituted our only serious rival in the scoring, and we had to keep our dirty deal secret from them. This involved trips to the lavatory to both consult and then dispose of the evidence. We owned up or got found out eventually but the thing is even without the soaps help we would have beaten them.

This story is not of sufficient interest to warrant its length.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:57 (twenty-two years ago)

it looked like it was going to be when you got to the "the landlord/quizmaster's daughter sidled over to us" bit, but tailed off after that.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I was wandering around Cornwall on my own once and stumbled across a pub quiz. I fucking won it too. No Simon Venning socks or nuffink.

I was tieing with some Cornish missing links and the last question was "what's pi to six decimal places?"

I fucking knew it to ten!

I am such a sad twat.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

good job too as we're going to the Village tomorrow.

if they are still doing the quiz, I will check

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

"cornish missing links"!????????

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Village is on for tomorrow.

anyone?

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

d'oh! I forgot the football

― chris (chris), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Has the music round been rendered pointless with that service you can get to recognise choons over your mobile?

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 28 November 2003 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

you just have to make it an indie music round (ducks)

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 28 November 2003 13:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i tried Shazam once but it didn't work - maybe the music wasn't loud enough (it was Royksopp for chrissakes)

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 28 November 2003 13:37 (twenty-two years ago)

one day there should be a pub quiz where everybody is given a laptop with net access so success is purely based on people's googling skills.

and one of the rounds can be where you have to find googlewhacks!

― ken c, Friday, 28 November 2003 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

people who use double quotes will win all the prizes!

― MarkH (MarkH), Friday, 28 November 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Tonight there is a pub quiz in the bar of our gym / health club. In the far-off corner of the bar well away from the quiz bloke is an internet area. It's just dawned on me that I've never seen anyone cheat despite this obvious opportunity.

We have won the last two without cheating. (downside of quizzes in health club = health club related prizes. Free sunbed sessions, tennis balls, sports bags, yadda yadda yadda. Though we have got two bottles of champagne and lots of beer as well...)

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 28 November 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Double quotes are obv. banned in googlewhacking.

Whatever happened to the ancient art of ILEWHACKING ?

I hate Dave Gorman.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 28 November 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

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