Quacky Races Trivia Quiz

Answer: Duck Dastardly

First of all, an explanation of the solution:

The first, fifth and ninth-placed ducks are the three ducks whose names begin with 'duck': Duck Dastardly, Duckbiscuit and Ducky McDuckface. Since the first-placed duck has a two-word name that has fewer letters than the one that finished fifth, it can't be either Duckbiscuit or Ducky McDuckface (which has the most letters - 15) and so the winner of the Quacky Races must have been Duck Dastardly. Fifth place must have gone to Ducky McDuckface, which leaves Duckbiscuit (with 11 letters, 2 fewer than Duck Dastardly) to be ninth. Also, the eighth-placed duck's name has exactly one letter more than the ninth-placed, so has to be the 12-letter Goin' Quackers.

The sixth-placed duck finished directly ahead of one with a punctuation mark (in this case either an apostrophe or an exclamation mark) in its name, so seventh place must have gone to the duck with the only remaining name that meets that criteria - That Ruddy Duck! Alphabetically, the seventh-placed duck's name also directly follows the third-placed one's, so the latter has to be named Sir Francis Drake.

Second place and tenth place went to ducks that have names containing the same number of letters, so must belong to Deduction and Fryer Duck. Since the tenth duck's name comes alphabetically after the fifth's (Ducky McDuckface), it has to be Fryer Duck and it can then be deduced that Deduction finished second.

That just leaves Lame Duck and Lucky Ducky to be allocated to either fourth or sixth place. As the fifth-placed duck shares one word of its name with the duck in sixth, the latter position has to be filled by Lucky Ducky and, finally, Lame Duck can be slotted into fourth place.

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'Wacky Races' was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, which first appeared on TV screens in the 1960s. It featured an ensemble cast of racers, including Penelope Pitstop and the Ant Hill Mob, who have to contend with the various nefarious schemes devised by their fellow competitors, Dick Dastardly and his wheezy dog, Muttley. Since the running joke of the series is that Dick Dastardly's schemes always backfire on him, usually with the result that he ends up in last place, anyone gambling on the outcome of the Quacky Races would have been unlikely to put much money on Duck Dastardly winning the event...

Answer: Deduction

The word 'deduction' can have two meanings - subtracting an amount from a total figure (e.g. the deduction of tax from monthly salary) or the use of logic to infer the solution to a problem. While trying to figure out the relative finishing positions of a bunch of plastic ducks could be described as a 'deducktion', that word doesn't actually exist.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle introduced the "Science of Deduction" to explain the techniques employed by his famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, in the first chapter of his novel 'The Sign of Four'.

Answer: Sir Francis Drake

Sir Francis Drake was a 16th century sailor and explorer who was famously involved in leading the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588. Between 1577 and 1580 he also led the second successful circumnavigation of the world. However, from the Spanish point-of-view, he was a notorious pirate (nicknamed 'El Draque') and he was actively involved in the slave trade during the early part of his sailing career.

Answer: Lame Duck

A lame duck could simply be a duck with a painful leg injury, but the term is more commonly used as an idiom meaning a person who is weak or useless in a particular situation. In politics, especially in the US, the term is used to refer to the loss of influence suffered in the final stages of a term in office when the incumbent has either not sought or has failed to obtain re-election.

The effect can be particularly pronounced when the post has been won by a popular political opponent.

Answer: Ducky McDuckface

In 2016, Britain's Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) launched a public poll to name their new polar research vessel and unwittingly began a peculiar worldwide phenomenon. A joke suggestion to name the ship 'Boaty McBoatface' caught on across the internet and social media and won over a third of the vote.

However, the NERC chose to ignore the will of the general public and instead named their ship after the highly respected naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The name 'Boaty McBoatface' did live on though as it was given to one of the ship's Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs).

Other examples which followed included an Australian racehorse named 'Horsey McHorseface'; the listing of 'Footy McFooty Face' as one of the name options for a potential Major League Soccer team in San Diego; and a Swedish train called, you guessed it, Trainy McTrainface.

Answer: Lucky Ducky

The Lucky Ducky (or the Lucky Duck as its name appears on the badge) is probably one of the most coveted awards available on the FunTrivia site and has also proven to be one of the most elusive - for some people. It is awarded at random, once every 24 hours, to a single player who logged on to the site that day. 'Lucky Ducky' was also the title of a 1948 MGM animated cartoon that featured a newly-hatched duckling outwitting a pair of duck-hunting dogs.

Answer: That Ruddy Duck!

In Britain, if someone shouted "That ruddy duck!" then, since "ruddy" is often used in place of a swear word, you might suspect that they weren't best-pleased with said duck and that it had probably done something to annoy them (perhaps overtaking their duck in a duck-racing competition for example).

However, ruddy ducks are actual members of the Anatidae family, noted for their bright blue beaks. They are native to North America but spread to Europe in the second half of the 20th century, where they can be seen as an invasive pest - or, of course, a "ruddy duck!".

Answer: Goin' Quackers

'Donald Duck: Goin' Quackers' is the American title for a video game that was first released in 2000. (The game's title in Europe was 'Donald Duck: Quack Attack'.) It is a level-based platform game in which players control Donald Duck on a journey to rescue Daisy Duck after she is kidnapped by an evil wolf magician named Merlock (who was also a villain in Disney's 'DuckTales' animated TV series). "Going quackers" can also be a slang term for "going mad", but is mostly used humorously to describe an excitable reaction to an event or occurrence and is a particularly good pun if the event involves ducks in some way.

Answer: Duckbiscuit

Feeding the ducks is a popular past-time for both small children and duck-loving adults, but it is only considered a good idea if you give them suitable food - which doesn't include processed white bread, no matter how much the ducks in question might appear to love it. Bread contains very few of the nutrients that ducks need for a healthy diet and uneaten bread floating in the water can encourage pests and spread disease. Healthier options include seeds, oats and various vegetables.

Don't go looking for duckbiscuits either as you're unlikely to find any. The duck that competed in this edition of the Quacky Races was named after the American racehorse Seabiscuit, who won the 1938 US Horse of the Year Award and was the eponymous hero of the 2003 Academy Award-nominated film 'Seabiscuit'.

Answer: Fryer Duck

The name 'Fryer Duck' is an allusion to the popularity of Chinese dishes such as Peking duck and crispy duck as well as a pun on the name of Friar Tuck, one of Robin Hood's Merry Men. The story of Robin Hood, a character from English folktales who stole from the rich and gave the proceeds to the poor, has been turned into numerous films, TV shows, comics, video games and other media. One of those was a 1958 'Merrie Melodies' short animated film called 'Robin Hood Daffy', in which Daffy Duck played Robin Hood and Porky Pig portrayed Friar Tuck.

At the end of the film, Daffy swapped roles and became the "Friar Duck".