Won't Get Fooled Again Trivia Quiz

Answer: court jester

Distinct from circus performing clowns, the court jester was a fixture at court in medieval times and during the renaissance, providing entertainment and comic relief for the rich and powerful. Private noblemen might also employ a jester to keep guests entertained or alleviate the boredom of living before there was any internet.

Other jesters were self-employed wayfarers and troubadours who traveled around seeking audiences wherever they could be found.

Answer: on the hill

"Magical Mystery Tour," with "The Fool On The Hill" on track two, was released at the end of 1967 as an album in the USA and as a double EP in the UK. Paul McCartney wrote the song, and in interviews suggests that it may have been about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, whose philosophy and methods influenced the group as their horizons expanded. Because of his giggling and light manner, many considered him to be a fool, but careful listening to the song suggests McCartney felt otherwise.

Other answers reference other Beatles songs. "Strawberry Fields Forever" is also from "Magical Mystery Tour." "Octopus's Garden" is from the 1969 "Abbey Road" LP and "in the town..." is the opening line from the 1966 single "Yellow Submarine'" which coupled with "Eleanor Rigby" reached number one in the UK and was the biggest selling record of that year.

Answer: The Three Stooges

The Three Stooges were a unique and iconic American TV and movie act who made a lasting impact on the popular entertainment scene in spite of and because of their low-brow comedic style. In the beginning, The Stooges were assistants to Healy during his comedy routine of singing and joke telling.

Their schtick was to act like clueless fools who continually disrupt his act, then get slapped around by him. In this manner, they honed their brand of slapstick physical comedy which proved hugely popular when they escaped Healy and started making their own short films especially the 1930s and 1940s and also into the next two decades.

Although there were personnel changes while Shemp pursued a solo career in movies, then after Curly became ill, the basic trio consisted of Moe Howard, Larry Fine and either Shemp or Curly, who in real life were both brothers of Moe (their birth name was Horwitz).

Answer: all of these

The "ship of fools" is an old and enduring idea, used and reused in western literature, art and culture as an allegory for a group obtaining power and leading in the wrong direction. The concept goes all the way back to ancient Greece and Plato's "Republic," which records a specific dialogue between Socrates and Adeimantus. Socrates describes a wise but increasingly infirm ship captain who is beseiged and deposed by an unruly crew. They take over and produce chaos because no one knows, or can agree on, how to steer the ship. In this case, Plato seems to be warning about the dangers of democracy, but he may have been thinking even more basically about personal direction within one's own mind. The "ship of fools" concept has been used through the ages to skewer the church, government, and many other powerful institutions.

Brant's wildly popular satire caught the public imagination in Germany in the early 16th century. It originates from a pun in the latin word "navis," which means "ship" and also "nave of the church." In this work he criticizes the Church by implying that those guiding it were rudderless fools who had lost their way. It features iconic illustrations by Alfred Durer, and it also inspired the famous Bosch painting of the same name which hangs in The Louvre in Paris.

Porter's novel, which she started in the 1930s, and Kubrick's film based on it, both use the trope to comment on world governments as they blindly and foolishly blunder into another World War.

Answer: dunce cap

Etymologists basically agree that the concept of a dunce as being a dull or stupid person originated with a scholar/philosopher/religious from the middle ages who formulated complex ideas about being and God. This man, a catholic priest named Duns Scotus, evidently believed that wearing cone shaped hats like the ones wizards wore concentrated learning in the brain. I kid you not. He was born in the UK in the mid 13th century, and although he was originally respected, he was later attacked by the humanists as being something of a crackpot, and his cone shaped hat became associated with being stupid and clueless. Still, he was beatified in 1993 by Pope John Paul II, and he undoubtedly influenced many later philosophers such as Descartes and Heidegger.

The idea of putting the dunce cap on poorly performing or misbehaving students goes back at least into the early 19th century, as it is referenced in "The Old Curiosity Shop" by Charles Dickens in 1840. Today, most enlightened educators consider the idea of discipline by humiliation to be ineffective, and such a scenario in a modern American school would undoubtedly bring outrage and probably a lawsuit.

Answer: shame on me

This idiomatic phrase speaks to the feeling in most cultures that anyone who is too gullible or easily fooled has only themselves to blame. If you don't learn from experience and you fall for the same thing again, it's on you. Many myths and fables, for example Aesop's "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," utilize this theme.

Answer: "The Fool's Errand"

In this game, you are the carefree fool who wanders into a dark kingdom and must put things right and also find the treasure. This computer puzzle game was designed for Macintosh machines by Cliff Johnson and was first seen in 1987. It won numerous awards from the industry for playability and creativity.

A highly anticipated sequel called "The Fool and his Money" was released in 2012. The other choices are actual 1980s games, save that "Super Mario" has no "Stump The Queen" version.

Answer: "She's Not All There" -The Zombies

The Zombies first big hit single was "She's Not There," so hopefully you caught the added word. The other three songs are correct song titles from other British Invasion supergroup albums: Stones - "Aftermath" (1966); Who - "Who's Next" (1971); Manfred Mann - "Mighty Garvey!" (1968). "She's Not There," written by Zombies' organist Rod Argent, made it to number twelve in the UK and hit number two on the Billboard US chart in December of 1964.

It features Colin Blunstone's stellar breathless high pitched vocal performance and the obligatory Argent solo, this time on electric piano.

Answer: "Get Smart"

Get Smart was a 1960s American TV show starring Don Adams as the embarrassingly inept agent 86 Maxwell Smart, and co-starring Barbara Feldon as his cohort, agent 99. The "cone of silence" was one of several absurd plot devices in which Smart insisted on secrecy when meeting with the chief, played by Edward Platt.

A mechanized plastic bubble was supposed to descend over the people sharing the information, but somehow it always malfunctioned. Another recurring device was agent 13 having to disguise himself inside a fake tree.

The show was the brainchild of two comedic heavyweights: Mel Brooks, the highly acclaimed creator of comedy movie satires such as "The Producers," "Young Frankenstein," and "Blazing Saddles"; and Buck Henry, twice nominated for Oscars (Screenwriter for "The Graduate" and Director for "Heaven Can Wait").

Answer: iron pyrite

Fool's gold, so named because of its resemblance to the real thing, has often deceived novice treasure hunters and rock collectors. Just such a scenario is brought to vivid life in the classic 1948 movie "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," starring Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt, and Walter Huston. Early in their treasure hunt Bogie and Holt think they've struck it rich, only to be brought back to reality by the older and wiser Huston.

The rock in question is a common iron sulfide mineral usually occurring in crystalline form and containing shiny facets or bits of gold colored material.

The word "pyrite" is from the Greek, meaning "of fire." Quartzite is a metamorphic rock created from sandstone by heat and pressure over many millennia. It can be used like granite for counter tops. Corundum is another very hard, stable mineral, valued as a gemstones in its purest forms. Gem-quality corundum is known as ruby when red and sapphire if blue or any other color. Color variations are due to trace amounts of other elements such as iron, copper, titanium or chromium.