Mr. Wrong Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alexander Graham Bell was not Australian.

Alexander Graham Bell, commonly credited with the invention of the telephone, was born in Scotland. He also lived and worked in Canada and the US, but he had no connection to Australia. Other inventors, such as Elisha Gray and Thomas Edison, also had their hands in developing or improving the telephone, but Bell was definitely the first to receive a patent for the modern telephone, in 1876.

Answer: Disney's "Snow White" was the first full length animated motion picture.

1937's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", based on the classic Brothers Grimm tale, was Walt Disney Productions first full-length animated feature film and indeed the first significant successful film of its kind. For this reason, the film has been included on the US National Film Registry since 1989. "Snow White" took several years and a massive budget (for the time) to complete, but was very well received and started Disney's legacy of producing much-loved animated feature films.

"Pinocchio" was also released by Disney in 1940, after the success of "Snow White".

Answer: Sunflowers were featured in Van Gogh's famous painting.

The "Sunflowers" paintings are among Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh's more well-known works. The paintings belong to two series, the Paris "Sunflowers" and the Arles "Sunflowers". All were painted in the late 1880s, starting with the Paris series in 1887.

Answer: The Model T was a Ford car.

Ford's Model T wasn't really the first car they built (a few other Models such as F, N and S came before it), but it was the first that was successfully mass produced and the first that was really affordable to the average middle-class American family. 15 million of them were produced between 1908 and 1927, compared to just a few thousand at most of the predecessor models.

In reference to Henry Ford's famous quote about a customer being able to have his Model T in "any colour as long that he wants so long as it's black", it was actually only after 1914 that the cars became available only in black.

Answer: Bourbon is associated with Kentucky.

Bourbon whiskey was first produced in the 18th century and is associated primarily with the state of Kentucky. It wasn't the state of Kentucky when bourbon was first produced, though. The region was then known as Old Bourbon (named after a French royal family) and it covered area that today is part of Virginia and a lot of Kentucky.

As per many laws worldwide, common convention says that only whiskey produced in the United States may be labelled as 'bourbon'. While it can be made anywhere in the US to meet this criterion, most brands are made in Kentucky. Tourists in the state can visit six different distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

There are also further requirements for carrying the name of bourbon, such as the alcohol proof (80%), using at least 51% corn in the grain mixture (most contain a fair amount more than that), and the aging process (no specific length of time, but must be done in new, charred-oak barrels).

Answer: 'Minestrone' does not translate to 'priest choker'.

Minestrone is indeed an Italian vegetable-based soup, but it does not mean 'priest choker' in English. Strozzapreti is the Italian dish which translates to 'priest choker' in English, but it's not really just one dish; there are regional variations. One dish called strozzapreti is a simple hand-made rounded medium-length pasta noodle.

Another form of strozzapreti is a ricotta-cheese based gnocchi (in contrast to potato-based gnocchi), usually with spinach included. So where does the name come from? There are a few different ideas, no one knows for sure. One popular reasoning behind the name comes from the fact that to make the hand-rolled pasta, you have to pinch or 'choke' the rope of dough into pieces.

Answer: Kevin Bacon was not in "American Beauty".

Kevin Bacon is really an actor, but it was Kevin Spacey who starred in the Best Picture of 1999, "American Beauty". Spacey also won a Best Actor Oscar for the same film (in addition to a previous win for "The Usual Suspects"). As for Mr. Bacon, he has starred in such films as "Mystic River", "Footloose" (the original) and "The River Wild". Throughout his lengthy career, he has received many awards, including SAG awards and Golden Globes.

Answer: The famous Copenhagen statue is a mermaid.

The statue is called the Little Mermaid, based on the classic fairy tale. Completed in 1913, sculptor Edvard Erikson had two models to base his work on: ballerina Ellen Price for the face and his own wife Eline for the body. A major tourist attraction, the Little Mermaid is also unfortunately a major attraction for vandals. Among countless incidents, she lost her head in 1964 and a new one had to be created.

It was cut off again in 1998, but it was returned and reattached.

Answer: Howard Cosell was not the host of "Deal or No Deal".

Canadian comedian/actor Howie Mandel became the host of the American and Canadian versions of "Deal or No Deal", which aired various versions around the world as well. The American series premiered in 2005, followed by a syndicated daytime version in 2008. Mandel has been very open about his mysophobia (germaphobia), the reason behind his refusal to shake hands with anyone. On "Deal or No Deal", he most often opted to 'fist bump' with contestants rather than shake their hands.

Howard Cosell was a sportscaster, known for providing play-by-play on "Monday Night Football". He died in 1995.

Answer: Water is chemical compound, not an element.

Water isn't a chemical element itself, it's a compound composed of two chemical elements in a 2:1 ratio - H2O, of course. This means it contains two atoms of H (hydrogen) and one atom of O (oxygen). While water is a liquid at room temperature, it becomes a gas as it evaporates and a solid (ice) as it freezes.

There are many elements that are gases in their room temperature state, and humans certainly do need water to live.