All You Need is a Good Laugh Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bashes

Solution is as follows: basHEs.

The word bash carries with it a tone of violence and can be used to indicate a beating or an assault. It also indicates the delivery of a blow or a series of heavy blows such as a boxer laying into and bashing his opponent. The meaning of bash, however, need not always be about physical violence, it can also be used to denote criticism. A good example may be the criticism of government officials being called "polly bashing". A good bash is another way of indicating a good party.

I can only wonder if our good friend Smacka took lessons from Paul Simonon, the bass player of the band The Clash. Simonon once smashed his bass guitar on the side of the stage. The photograph taken of this event became the iconic cover of the band's 1979 album "London Calling".

Answer: Behead

Solution is as follows: beHEad.

A beheading certainly won't tickle your funny bone, just ask some of King Henry VIII's wives, in particular Catherine Howard and Anne Boleyn. How Henry's other wives must have gotten jumpy whenever he started to talk about cost cutting. However, cost cutting is a phrase they could have easily turned a deaf ear to, focusing instead on any mention of the terms decapitate or decollate, which are synonyms of behead. Also, they should have taken a calming drink should Henry have mentioned the word truncate, which means to cut short by, among other things, topping or cropping, and guillotine. Guillotine is an interesting word as it is generally viewed as a noun i.e. the instrument used to carry out decapitations, but it can also be used as a verb meaning to behead. I suppose it would have been cold comfort to Henry's wives that, whilst there were versions of the guillotine in evidence during their time, they were not popularised until the French Revolution, a couple of hundred years later.

Answer: Chaos

Solution is as follows: cHAos.

You may have gathered from the opening to the question that Rowe was in the process of creating the meaning of chaos - a disorderly mess or a state of utter confusion. You wouldn't be far off the mark if you said "Rowe was running around like a chook (chicken) with its head cut of". (Hmm, I wonder if that should be a lettuce with its head cut off.) Alternately, you could say that she was creating bedlam or pandemonium, she was turning everything topsy-turvy or (dare I say it) on its head.

Chaos is also the term that describes the state of the cosmos before creation began. This is also the line taken in Greek mythology, personifying this period with the god Chaos, the most ancient of the Greek gods. Shush now, don't tell anyone, but my favourite chaos was spelled KAOS, an organisation that is the arch enemy of Agent 86, Maxwell Smart, from the 1965 television comedy series "Get Smart". "This is KAOS. We don't shush here".

Answer: Cohost

Solution is as follows: coHOst.

Above we've described a co-host (the more common way to write this word) as a joint convenor in a party or an event however, it is not uncommon to hear the term co-host used to describe the second presenter of a television or radio programme. In this instance the use of "co" as a prefix has the meaning of joint or auxiliary.

Whilst they may sound very similar, one should distinguish between a partnership, which may involve a legal contract but is generally characterized by mutual co-operation and responsibilities and a co-hosting arrangement. The mutuality of a partnership means that one partner can commit the other partners without their consent whilst the mutuality aspect is not necessarily prevalent in a co-hosting arrangement.

Answer: Hoaxed

Solution is as follows: HOaxed.

A hoax is, primarily, a deception, and it can come in a number of different guises. It can be an elaborate scam such as the one that was portrayed in the 1972 movie "The Sting" or it may be the simple chicanery of an April Fools' Day joke. Then again it may present itself as straight-out fraud such as the Foreign Lottery scams or email phishing cons. One of the most famous hoaxes in history involves the 1912 discovery of what appeared to be human bone fragments, which were dubbed "The Piltdown Man". It took forty years to prove that the remains represented the lower jaw of an orang-utan attached to the skull of a fully developed latter day human male.

Answer: Hawed

Solution is as follows: HAwed.

So Matt decided to take the plunge and get hitched, it's little wonder he developed a small case of the haws. What're haws you say? Haw is the term for sounds that come out of your mouth when you're struggling to find the right words for the occasion. As a consequence you start to express yourself with such classic sounds as "ahem", "umm" and "err". You may even let out a small sigh. Essentially they're the sounds that express hesitation or a pause while your mind is working overtime to find the right words to say. While poor Matty is struggling to say the words "I do", some wag in the audience is observing that Matt has just "hemmed and hawed".

Did you notice that I didn't fall for the three card trick? I said "What're haws" rather than "What's yaws". "Umm, I'll have a pint followed by a whiskey chaser thanks".

Answer: Cheat

Solution is as follows: cHEat.

Oh no! I've been duped again. I've been deceived, taken for a ride, hood-winked, double crossed, beguiled and misled. These are some, and there are numerous other, words or phrases that can be used as alternates for the word cheat. To be cheated means that you have been deceived by some form of trickery or fraud. There's also a chance that you may have been misled by an illusionist or a trick of the light which has meant that you have endured loss of property or character. Alternatively you may have been cheated by someone close to you being unfaithful, such as a friend or lover. Cheating generally possesses a negative connotation; however, there are occasions when it can be a good thing. A classic example is being able to cheat death.

Answer: Clothe

Solution is as follows: clotHE.

If it's true that clothes "maketh" the man then right now Garb probably looks like a clown. To clothe oneself is to dress, outfit, array, attire, fit out, doll up, deck out, robe, rig and (dare I say it) garb oneself. In other words, you get yourself ready. Clothe, and its many variants, are not necessarily limited in their use with humans. For example we can also say "the trees were clothed in their autumn splendour". (Ah yes, the leaves maketh the tree ... that is before they fall off). In another example we could say "the snow dressed the fields with a layer of innocence and purity".

An alternate way to use clothe is to view it as a means of providing concealment, disguise or intrigue. "He was clothed in mystery". Clothe, as a verb, can also be allocated as an investment, such as equipping a scouting party with the tools or the information vital to achieve their mission or providing authority to a leader. A good synonym to use in this instance would be a word such as furnish.

Now if I have any fashion sense I better get out while I'm all dressed up and before I bore the pants off someone.

Answer: Alpha

Solution is as follows: alpHA.

The alpha represents the dominant person or creature within the hierarchy of a group. These are usually the most prominent, the most talented or the most aggressive members of that sector. In social animal groups these are the ones that usually get the preferential access to either food, mates or some other desirable activities.

In English the word alpha is synonymous with the number one or the beginning. This is a reflection of the Greek approach where alpha represents the number one numerically and is also the first letter of their alphabet. In the United Kingdom it is the highest mark that can be achieved in a test or exam though this tends to be similar notion in many other nations where the top result is signified by the letter "A". Finally, in a constellation the alpha is generally reserved for the brightest star, for example Alpha Centauri. Somehow it seems rather appropriate that the word has a mountain (alp) at the start of its name.

Answer: Hostage

Solution is as follows: HOstage.

In episode 15, season 7 of the television series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" the character Andrew Wells, who is being held as a quasi-prisoner by Buffy and her crew, describes himself as a "guestage". Whether this was accidental or very clever work by the writers I am not certain, but it harks back to the Middle English/Old French meanings of the word host, (a) "one who receives and entertains" and (b) "guest", thereby making hostage and guestage synonymous in some sort of etymological sense. A hostage is essentially a captive, one that is held by another person or group of persons as insurance that another party will keep up their end of a bargain. While this quiz has generally taken a light hearted approach to its subject matter I must point out that the taking of hostages is no laughing matter. The Geneva Convention of 1949 strictly forbids it.

It is not only people that can be held hostage. The World's superpowers at one time held each other hostage with their implied threats of Mutually Assured Destruction. Policies that are being pushed through to legislation can also be held up for political means and manipulations.