time sink from down under

So I was reading an article about Novak Djokovic, the egocentric Serbian tennis star who wants to play in Australia without a vaccination, and down at the bottom was a YouTube link to a segment of an Australian Mastermind-like quiz show with a contestant who chose Djokovic as his special subject but proves to know very little about him.

The humor of this situation, and the wit of the host as he takes this contestant apart with corrosive slyness but without the kind of abuse an American would be likely to employ, led me to search for more of this show on YouTube. It bears the unfortunately generic (unfortunately because a search brings up a lot of irrelevant 'false drops') name of Hard Quiz, and the host, apparently a well-known figure in Australian media, is named Tom Gleeson.

I found several full episodes online, as well as a number of shorter clips, of which the fullest compilation with the fewest unrelated inclusions starts here.

The wit and cleverness of the thing were very appealing, and I watched as much as I could get. I particularly liked it when the contestants brought their own wit as well as knowledge to the introduction segments, like the Star Wars fan who also raises chickens, and who gives them names such as Hen Solo and Princess Layer. Best of all, because it shares my view precisely, was this exchange:

Host: "So you're not on Facebook."
Contestant: "No, I don't do it. I don't agree with the morals of it."
Host: "What morals do you not agree with?"
Contestant: "The fact that it doesn't have any."

The only problem for me was that most of the special subjects were sports teams or stars, pop bands or stars, or tv shows which, even if I'd heard of them, which I often hadn't (and not always just the Australian ones), I know nothing about. Or something military, which is no good for me either. The show's Wikipedia entry lists all the special topics for the six years it's been around, and some of them, like "Tolkien" or "Beethoven," are precisely in my wheelhouse and I'd love to know how well I'd do, but few of those are online. The recent episodes are all on the show's website, but are only viewable if you're in Australia, and I'm not. The topic that is on YouTube that I'd have done best on is "Robert Kennedy," but that may be unfair, since some of the questions seemed pretty easy for an American but might be considered tougher in another country.

Anyway. Hard Quiz. Just the thing for Jeopardy fans. Check it out if you dare.