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Quiz about Anyone for Tennis
Quiz about Anyone for Tennis

Anyone for Tennis Trivia Quiz


"Anyone for Tennis" was a song written by Eric Clapton and Martin Sharpe, released by Cream in 1968, but the phrase leads to multiple levels of cultural resonance. Let's explore!

A multiple-choice quiz by looney_tunes. Estimated time: 4 mins.
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Author
looney_tunes
Time
4 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
320,574
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
605
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Sweetbob (7/10), Johnmcmanners (10/10), Guest 172 (8/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. The phrase 'anyone for tennis?' is considered to have originated in the play "Misalliance". What was the genre of this play, written in 1909-1910? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. The phrase 'anyone for tennis?' is generally thought to have originated in the play "Misalliance". What Irish playwright (the author of more familiar plays such as "Pygmalion") wrote this play, which opened in 1910? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. What character in the 1910 play "Misalliance" delivered the classic (and often paraphrased) line, 'Anybody on for a game of tennis'? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. In the Monty Python skit "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'", a character in Edwardian dress agrees with the rest of the cast that it is a glorious day, then adds "I say, anyone for tennis?" Which globe-trotting team member delivered this line? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The Monty Python skit "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'" parodies the work of Sam Peckinpah, famous for the use of extreme bloodshed and violence in his films. Which of the following was NOT one of his early films? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The Monty Python skit "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'" parodies the musical "Salad Days", which was the longest-running musical in British history until it was overtaken by a play that opened in 1960. What Lionel Bart musical, based on a Charles Dickens novel, took the longevity title away from "Salad Days"? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. The 1955 musical "Salad Days" takes its title from a line in a play by a (really, really) well-known English playwright. Which one? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. What is the meaning of the phrase 'salad days' as referred to in the title of the musical "Salad Days"? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. What elderly character from "The Simpsons" made a reference to his/her 'salad days'? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. "Anyone For Tennis" is the name of a song by Cream. What Australian band also released a (different) composition with that name as the B side of their debut single "Who Can It Be, Now?"? Hint



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quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The phrase 'anyone for tennis?' is considered to have originated in the play "Misalliance". What was the genre of this play, written in 1909-1910?

Answer: drawing room comedy

"Misalliance", subtitled "A Debate in One Sitting", premiered in 1910. The action takes place during a Sunday afternoon in the conservatory of a large country house owned by Johnny Tarleton. An aircraft crashing through the roof of the conservatory closes the end of the first act, and introduces the pilot and his female passenger, who really set things going. All together, we see eight marriage proposals during the course of the afternoon!
2. The phrase 'anyone for tennis?' is generally thought to have originated in the play "Misalliance". What Irish playwright (the author of more familiar plays such as "Pygmalion") wrote this play, which opened in 1910?

Answer: George Bernard Shaw

"Misalliance" offers typical Shavian irony in its examination of the mating rituals of a group of people spending the weekend at a large country house in Surrey. It contains a number of themes familiar from his earlier works, including socialism, the need for women to escape Victorian constraints, and conventions surrounding marriage. As one of the characters observes, "If marriages were made by putting all the men's names into one sack and the women's names into another, and having them taken out by a blind-folded child like lottery numbers, there would be just as high a percentage of happy marriages as we have now."

Oscar Wilde died in 1900, Samuel Beckett was only 4 years old when the play opened, and Brendan Behan was not even born until 1923.
3. What character in the 1910 play "Misalliance" delivered the classic (and often paraphrased) line, 'Anybody on for a game of tennis'?

Answer: Johnny Tarleton

Johnny Tarleton, the owner of the country house in which the play is set, delivers this line which (with some variants) has come to be used to typify both the genre of drawing room comedy and the upper-class stereotypes so often seen there. Johnny, who made his fortune in the underwear business, and his daughter Hypatia are entertaining for the weekend, with invited guests that include her fiance Bentley Summerhays and his father Lord Summerhays (who also proposes to Hypatia). Uninvited guests include Joey Percival, the pilot whose plane crashes into the conservatory at the end of Act 1; his passenger Lina Szczepanowska, a female circus acrobat who attracts all the men like the proverbial moths to a flame; and Gunner, an unhappy cashier who blames Tarleton for ruining everything by having had an affair with Gunner's mother.
4. In the Monty Python skit "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'", a character in Edwardian dress agrees with the rest of the cast that it is a glorious day, then adds "I say, anyone for tennis?" Which globe-trotting team member delivered this line?

Answer: Michael Palin

Eric Idle, in the character of a BBC film critic, introduced the skit, which was a double-barreled parody of drawing room comedy and ultra-violent films. Young, clearly upper-class, adults are frolicking around a piano in the garden, enjoying themselves in a genteel fashion. Things start to go awry after Michael Palin ("Lionel") delivers his line, then gets hit in the face by the ball - he throws his racquet away in pain, and it embeds itself in a girl's stomach; she faints, ripping off Eric Idle's arm; he, in turn, falls on the piano lid, making it close so as to sever John Cleese's hands; Graham Chapman is then impaled by the piano keyboard. It's all downhill from there. As Eric Idle comments in the closing, "Strong meat from Peckinpah!"

This skit was initially aired immediately after the classic Cheese Shop skit.
5. The Monty Python skit "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'" parodies the work of Sam Peckinpah, famous for the use of extreme bloodshed and violence in his films. Which of the following was NOT one of his early films?

Answer: Salad Days

"The Wild Bunch" (1969) was the film that established Peckinpah as a director. He became known for his explicit portrayal of action and violence, in films which explored the conflict between values and ideals, as well as the ways in which violence in society corrupts all members of that society. "Salad Days" was a 1950s musical, which Peckinpah never filmed. No cucumber sandwiches in his work!
6. The Monty Python skit "Sam Peckinpah's 'Salad Days'" parodies the musical "Salad Days", which was the longest-running musical in British history until it was overtaken by a play that opened in 1960. What Lionel Bart musical, based on a Charles Dickens novel, took the longevity title away from "Salad Days"?

Answer: Oliver!

The original production of "Oliver!" ran for 2618 performances, edging out "Salad Days" at 2283. In 1955, "Salad Days" won an Evening Standards Award for Most Enjoyable Show, although losing out to "The Pajama Game" for Best Musical. Its lighthearted plot revolves around a young couple with a mobile piano which gives everyone who hears its music an irresistible urge to dance. "Oliver!" is, for the most part, set in a social milieu far removed from the 'Tennis, anyone?' crowd - the orphans would have been happy to get a second serving of gruel.
7. The 1955 musical "Salad Days" takes its title from a line in a play by a (really, really) well-known English playwright. Which one?

Answer: William Shakespeare

The title comes from the line 'My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then!', from Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra". It is part of the speech which Cleopatra delivers to end the first act of the play, in response to the receipt of a pearl as a gift from Mark Antony.
8. What is the meaning of the phrase 'salad days' as referred to in the title of the musical "Salad Days"?

Answer: youth and inexperience

The phrase 'salad days' has been used for several hundred years to refer to a time of youthful inexperience when one is full of energy, idealism, innocence and, frequently, indiscretion. The metaphor rests on the link between 'salad' and 'green', a term used to refer to inexperience.

More recently, especially in the USA, the phrase has been used to refer to the time of a person's greatest prowess or success.
9. What elderly character from "The Simpsons" made a reference to his/her 'salad days'?

Answer: Montgomery Burns

In the episode 'Simpson and Delilah', Homer exploits the nuclear power plant's medical scheme to obtain Dimoxinil, a miracle cure for baldness. Of course, it all goes horribly wrong, and things end up as they were by the end of the show. It is after Homer has once again reverted to baldness that he has an interview with Mr. Burns during which Burns reminisces about the days of his youth when he had a head full of blond curls, and the girls flocked around him. Harry Shearer was the voice of Charles Montgomery Burns.
10. "Anyone For Tennis" is the name of a song by Cream. What Australian band also released a (different) composition with that name as the B side of their debut single "Who Can It Be, Now?"?

Answer: Men At Work

These are all great Aussie bands, but Men at Work are the ones who released the instrumental "Anyone For Tennis?" in 1981. "Who Can It Be, Now?" was on their first album, "Business As Usual" (1982), which also included the iconic "Down Under", the song you couldn't escape in the days following Australia II's victory in the America's Cup in 1983.

This could be considered a 'salad days' song, with its references to roaming the world and enigmatic encounters - "She just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich".
Source: Author looney_tunes

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor gtho4 before going online.
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