A Thoroughly Ridiculous Quiz

Answer: Caesar

Would you have had to look up "Nefertiti" to spell it correctly? I did. Now that's ridiculous! And I'm not just referring to my challenged spelling ability. You'd think the MSWORD spellchecker would include "Nefertiti". I mean, it includes the made up word "MSWORD" but not the name of this famous Egyptian woman. Er... I didn't mean "ridiculous" a couple of sentences back. I meant "interesting". After all this is supposed to be "interesting" not "ridiculous" information.

Caesar was the only option whose native tongue was Latin, from which the word ridiculous comes.

Answer: Laugh

Would you believe that the term "poke fun" came from jabbing ridiculous people with swords? Good thing. It didn't. Now, the desire to rid oneself of a ridiculous person can become intense. (But please! Keep taking this quiz anyway!). But in Latin, "ridere" means laugh.

And I would just like to mention that my English teachers would never have permitted me to begin sentences with conjunctions. But Funtrivia does. And I love doing it. I just hope the editor for this quiz isn't an older, traditional English teacher. Really. I do. My thirst for revenge faded long ago.

Answer: They're all ridiculous

Care to guess how many times I've misspelled "ridiculous"? No! Wait! Hold that for question 10. Otherwise I may have to use the Bogart question, and I'm really determined not to. I can never think of that darned tenth question.

Now, I confess that I tried to trip you up on "risible". It's not even in the MSWORD thesaurus, and I thought I might catch you with it. After all, no one I know ever says "risible". Of course, I'm a rural American, and those of you in more civilized areas of the world may hear "risible" in conversation all the time. None of my crowd even says "droll" or "jocose".

Answer: A joke

I promise. For the next question, I'll leave the safety of my dictionary. It'll be scary, I know. But there's always Google. (Would you believe? "Google" is not in MSWORDS spellchecker. Don't you think that's carrying jealousy a bit too far Mr. Gates? I mean, even "Gates" is in the spellchecker.

In fact, even "spellchecker" is...) Right. Where was I? Oh yes. A "ridiculum" could involve a fib or a tall tale or even a lie, but it meant "joke".

Answer: Love's Labours Lost

"Love's Labours Lost" is the Bard's most "ridiculous" play, the word occurring more often here than in any other Shakespeare play. But "thrasonical" is really the more interesting word despite its being off topic. Terrence's comedy "Eunnuchus" featured a boastful fellow named Thraso resulting in braggarts coming to called "thrasonical" (at least by Shakespeare). And then there's the whole matter of the hyphen in well-known. Does or does it not belong? By the way, did you need the hints I dropped? Now, don't be thrasonical!

Answer: None would be missing

Really! I don't think Wikipedia is at all ridiculous. I'm sure I'll be using it before this quiz ends... after a question or two on ridiculous fish. Apparently, "Absolutely Ridiculous English Spelling!" gets even more hits than "Wikipedia, dictionary definitions" or even "ridiculous fish". (I hope you can't wait for the ridiculous fish question. I can't wait to write it.)

Answer: Groucho Marx

I am disappointed to report that "Ridiculous Fish" is a site dealing with technical aspects of computer programming. The logo makes the page worth a visit even for the non-programmer though. But keep your hopes up. Ridiculous spelling is next.

Answer: More than 1000

Sixteen would be reasonable, eighty-three believable, 258 a bit of a stretch, but more than 1000 ways to spell 44 sounds would be utterly ridiculous. So naturally the "Ridiculous Spelling" page for "say-it-in-english.com" points out that writers of English have thus far come up with more than 1100 ways to spell 44 sounds.

Answer: Riddikulus

After I did question 8, I began to feel a bit desperate. I had so wanted to avoid having to stoop to using a Harry Potter based ridiculous question. I came across a Voltaire quote and knew it was meant for question 10 but what about Number 9? This is my 135th quiz, and I swear I have had trouble with the last question at least 134 times! In the end, I told myself, "Self, it's getting late. Your wife's already in bed.

It's late Sunday night and you're working on a ridiculous quiz!" So, as you are already aware, I caved. I wrote the Harry Potter question. Wouldn't it have been ridiculous not to?

Answer: Certainty

It is my hope that this is the most ridiculous quiz I have yet written. After all, I've never used so many exclamation points! But to feel certain would, of course, be ridiculous.