Trivia About Trivia Trivia Quiz

Answer: Things of little or no importance

In its modern usage, the word 'trivia' is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

1 - unimportant matters : trivial facts or details
2 - facts (as about people or events) that are not well-known

And the adjective 'trivial' is further defined as:

1 - of little worth or importance
2 - commonplace, ordinary

Answer: Meeting of three roads

The Ancient Romans used the word 'triviae' to refer to the meeting of three roads, or where one road forked into two other roads. The word breaks down into 'tri' (three) and 'viae' (roads). As crossroads were a public place of gathering, the term became synonymous with the concept of the 'commonplace.'

Answer: Grammar, rhetoric, and logic

In the late medieval period, scholarly learning distinguished the liberal arts (based on thinking skills) from the practical arts. There were seven different liberal arts that were divided into two groupings. The 'lower' division (the trivium) - grammar, rhetoric, and logic - were taught first, and were considered the 'basics' that led to the 'higher' division (the quadrivium) - arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

Answer: Information Please

"Information Please" aired on the NBC Radio Network from May 17th, 1938, to April 22nd, 1951, hosted by Clifton Fadiman. The show featured three regular panelists (each with different knowledge specialties) and a fourth, guest panelist (typically a celebrity of some kind).

Listeners could submit questions to be featured on the show, earning $2 if their question was used, and $5 if they were able to stump the panelists. This 'prize' amount increased over time, and additionally the awarding of a set of Encyclopedia Britannica for those whose questions stumped the panel.

Answer: Twenty-One

"Twenty-One" aired on NBC from 1956 to 1958, and was hosted by Jack Barry, who hosted (and produced) many game shows over his career. After the game's first episode (done legitimately, without any manipulation) fared very poorly, the producers began to script the show to maximize tension and popularity.

The sequence of events that led to the first investigation into quiz show rigging came after college professor Charles Van Doren was introduced as a contestant on "Twenty-One" on November 28, 1956, to challenge the reigning 'champion' Herbert Stempel, who had become unpopular with viewers (and the sponsor). After being 'defeated,' Stempel got a federal investigator to look into his allegations of show-tampering, but nothing came of it until other shows also began to be questioned for their integrity. It wasn't until the fall of 1958 that a grand jury was convened to investigate wide-spread game show fixing.

In the aftermath, many quiz shows were canceled, and new regulations were adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1960 to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Answer: What is "Jeopardy!"?

"Jeopardy!" was created by Merv Griffin, with Art Fleming as the first host. The original (daytime) run of the show was from March 30th, 1964 until January 3rd, 1975, with Art Fleming as the host. A brief nighttime syndicated version ran from September to September (1974-5), and then there was a brief hiatus before "The All-New Jeopardy!" aired between October 1978 and March 1979 on weekdays. Art Fleming continued as the host during these shorter renditions.

On September 10th, 1984, the show was revived in daily syndication with Alex Trebek at the hosting helm. He continued in the role until his death in 2021 of pancreatic cancer.

Merv Griffin recounted how he came up with the idea for the show (source: Wikipedia):

"My wife Julann just came up with the idea one day when we were in a plane bringing us back to New York City from Duluth. I was mulling over game show ideas, when she noted that there had not been a successful 'question and answer' game on the air since the quiz show scandals. Why not do a switch, and give the answers to the contestant and let them come up with the question? She fired a couple of answers to me: "5,280"-and the question of course was 'How many feet in a mile?'. Another was '79 Wistful Vista'; that was Fibber and Mollie McGee's address. I loved the idea, went straight to NBC with the idea, and they bought it without even looking at a pilot show."

In the show, three contestants vie to be the first to respond when a clue is presented in one of six categories (with five clues of ascending dollar value). The 'answer' is given, and the contestant must respond in the form of a question.

Answer: Trivial Pursuit

According to the story, friends Chris Haney and Scott Abbott - both working for the newspaper industry in Montreal, Quebec in Canada - found that they were missing pieces of their "Scrabble" game one evening, so they decided to create their own board game.

The gameplay is pretty simple. You move your playing piece around a board with various coloured spaces, correlating to six different categories of trivia. Your playing piece is pie-shaped, allowing for six different wedges (one for each colour-coded category) to be added as you earn them on specific spaces on the board. And, as you might expect, you need to answer trivia questions correctly to earn those wedges (and also earn another roll of the dice).

Over the years, many variants of the game have been produced, but in the original game, the six categories and colours were:

Geography (blue), Entertainment (pink), History (yellow), Arts & Literature (brown), Science & Nature (green), and Sports & Leisure (orange).

Answer: Wheel of Fortune

"Wheel of Fortune" is more of a hangman-type game, where you need to figure out a word or a phrase by guessing letters. As with "Jeopardy!," this show was created by Merv Griffin, debuting in 1975 and hosted by Chuck Woolery until 1981, when Pat Sajak took the reins.

"Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" premiered in the UK in 1998 and ran until 2014, with other versions of the show also running in other countries. The UK original featured host Chris Tarrant, and the game involved one contestant answering multiple-choice questions of increasing value. In addition to one's own store of knowledge, the contestant could also 'ask the audience,' 'phone a friend,' or eliminate half the answers using a '50/50' help. The game ended as soon as you got one wrong, or chose to stop.

"The Weakest Link" premiered in the UK in 2000 with Anne Robinson as the hostess. She would also host the US version that began in 2001. In its original format, nine contestants would answer trivia questions in a timed round, building the prize money in a chain of correct responses. One could 'bank' amounts as they went, but that meant continuing the chain from $0 again (albeit with some money saved). But if someone answered incorrectly, all unbanked money was lost. At the end of each round, the group of contestants would vote out the player deemed 'the weakest link.'

"Cash Cab," another show that became popular in multiple countries, also originated in the UK with John Moody as the presenter. In the game, contestants get to play for money when picked up by the 'Cash Cab' in various UK cities, and get to play until they reach their destination, with questions getting progressively more difficult (and worth more money). Or, if they get three questions wrong along the way, they lose all money won up to that point, and have to immediately leave the cab, regardless of the distance to their destination.

Answer: Wordle

"Wordle" is a word-guessing game that gives you a limited number of guesses (6) to find the 5-letter 'word of the day,' indicating with each guess what letters you have in the correct spot, and which you have in the word in an incorrect spot.

"Psych!" is an interactive game that is similar to the "Balderdash" board game, in that multiple players submit incorrect answers to trivia questions to try and trip up the other players and get them to choose *their* answer over the correct one. The subtitle for the game is "Outwit Your Friends."

"Sporcle" began as a trivia website in 2007 (similar to FunTrivia), and was developed into an app for handheld devices.

"Kahoot" is an app designed as an educational tool, allowing teachers and students to create quizzes in a fun, interactive and competitive format. But it has become more than just an educational tool, entering the realm of fun parlor game.

Answer: January 4th

It was Robert Birch of Pun Corps - the same company that released "Trivial Pursuit" - that proclaimed the first National Trivia Day in the United States on January 4th, 1980. Which, incidentally, happened to be less than a month after "Trivial Pursuit" was invented.

How best to celebrate the date? What better way than by devoting some time on FunTrivia? At the very least, learn a tidbit of trivia and share it with a friend or family member!

Of course, the other dates listed are already claimed in the US holiday calendar:

April 22nd is 'Earth Day.'
June 14th is 'Flag Day.'
November 11th is 'Veterans Day.'